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This chapter is rated PG-13 for language.

Chapter 13

Oh Merlin, please no. This can't be possible. It's just a horrid coincidence, Remus thought frantically as he Apparated at the front gates of Hogwarts. The second his feet touched down he took off at a run toward the Headmasters office, trying to keep his mounting fury in check. It's not possible, he told himself again.

He came to a skidding halt at the gargoyle that was guarding the entrance, spoke the password, took the stairs three at a time until he was finally at his destination.

But when he got there he hesitated. Do I really want to know? Ignorance is bliss as they say. It would ruin Ariana and I, he thought as he weighed the options. It's not right to not tell her. That would be absolutely deceitful. But I'd lose her if I told her.

You're getting ahead of yourself, Lupin. You don't even know for sure yet. Ask Dumbledore, he told himself. Remus threw his shoulders back and swallowed determinedly as he raised his hand to knock.

When Dumbledore answered, Remus stood there waiting for his heart to stop pounding and his blood to quit roaring in his ears.

"Remus? What is it? You look ghastly." Albus said with concern as he led Lupin to a chair and poured a cup of hot tea for him.

Lupin sat there not answering, too afraid to ask the question that might ruin his life.

Dumbledore sat patiently waiting, watching Remus wrestle with himself until he could finally take it no more. "Has something happened Professor?"

Remus' eyes snapped to Albus' as the pressure finally got to him.

"You're damn right something has happened." He shouted angrily.

Dumbledore was surprised momentarily by the outburst from his normally calm professor. "What?"

"I've been lied to for seventeen years dammit!" Remus yelled in a voice filled with rage. " I was told the man lived, Albus!"

"Yes." He said, understanding now. "Sirius seemed to think that was best and I was inclined to agree with him. Look how much the thought taunted you when you believed he was alive. We were protecting you." Dumbledore said kindly.

Remus recoiled slightly at the mention of his dead friends name but pressed on.

"Fuck what Sirius thought! Do you know who that man was?" He demanded, a little worried about taking such a tone with the Headmaster but beyond the point of caring.

"Of course I did. I can see you do too. Why do you think I tried so hard to get Ariana's relatives to let her attend Hogwarts? If I'd known what they were going to do to the poor girl I would have taken her anyway." Dumbledore said with regret and a hint of dejection.

Remus sank down into the chair as exhaustion overtook him and guilt clawed at his gut. He ran am embittered hand over his eyes, wishing this was a abhorrent dream.

"Albus, this is going to ruin everything." He said after several minutes of quiet.

"Things happen for a reason, Remus. It was no accident that Ariana was at the Shrieking Shack that night. It was fate." Dumbledore said ironically.

"Sure. So she could get revenge." He shot back.

"Don't be ridiculous." Albus admonished.

"How do you tell someone that you're the reason their life was awful for seventeen years? That every awful thing that was done to her was because of me? How do you tell the woman that you're in love with that you're the reason she has no father, that you murdered him?" Remus said with excruciating pain.

A sharp intake of breath at the door caused both Remus and Albus to turn and look. Remus felt the air whoosh from his lungs as his eyes fell on Ariana. Tears were streaming down her ivory cheeks and she was trembling violently as she stared at him in shock.

After several moments of tense silence she gave a shuddering gasp and ran from the room.

"Ariana?" Remus called out desperately as his world came crashing down on him.

He left without another word to Dumbledore and made his way outside, walking slowly until he came to the edge of the forest. Sinking to his knees, Remus let out a howl of suffering that seemed to put all of his frustrations and pain into it. Her plaintively battered look and tears taunting his thoughts, mutilating his life further. He'd never get her expression at of his mind. I've destroyed the best thing that ever happened to me.

Short but revealing.....The twists just keep on coming.

Don't hate me. Please :)