You're The Only One

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Chapter Five
In which people leave
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Siri stifled a yawn and blinked blurry eyed at the figure moving around a few paces from him. He pushed himself up, blowing a strand of hair from his face, then cleared his throat. Chase jumped and nearly pitched over.

"Very graceful Chase."

"You scared the hell out of me." The blond hissed at him, eyes flashing. Siri shrugged and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He and Chase had been put into a room with the youngest of the Weasley boys. Who, if the light snoring was any indication, was still very much asleep. Siri was willing to chalk it up to lack of 'super human' senses.

To Siri's ears Chase's movements had sounded like the other boy was stomping around right next to his head, but to Ron…well, Chase may have been relatively silent.

"What're you doing?"

"I told you earlier, I have to host this party." Chase frowned at him then flopped onto the end of his bed. A pair of black boots were in his hands. He bent and began to put them on. Platinum strands of hair slipped from their tie and brushed against Chase's face.

Siri swallowed, trying to force himself to be calm.

"You're going without me?"

"Yes." Chase didn't sound the least bit sorry. It was more like he was telling the time then telling Siri he was going to go spend the night entertaining vampires by himself.

"No."

Chase sat up with a sigh, before shooting him a look that was laced with contempt. "Look, this is no place for little puppies. Another time, when it's just my den, okay?"

"No." Siri let the sting of being called a baby slide off. (Puppy indeed…) "You can't really think I'm just going to let you run off and deal with these people alone. You've said it yourself: They only put up with you because they have to."

"Siri-"

"I'm coming. …or else I'll have to wake my father up." Chase's eyes widened in surprise. Siri bit his bottom lip. It was a forbidden act to tell an adult when one of your friends was up to something, but that didn't mean Siri wouldn't do it. He'd just feel really bad about it later on.

"Siri." Chase was almost, but not quite pouting, and Siri's heart did a fantastic job of skipping a beat or two. His father would have thrown a fit if he knew just how much he cared about the vampire. Remus seemed violently against the idea of him with Chase in a more than friendly manner, but Siri wasn't entirely sure what he could do about it.

Something in Chase just…effected him.

"Your father already knows I'm going."

Siri was struck silent. His father was letting Chase go on his own? With no one to watch over him and keep him safe and… He sat down on his bed heavily and with a sigh Chase sat on his own, head tilted off to the side. He couldn't believe this.

Something niggled at the back of his mind and he tried to shove it away so he could think of a way to force Chase to let him go alone. But it wouldn't go away. He frowned, trying to figure it out. Something in the room seemed out of place.

Other than the fact that his best friend was ditching him. He still couldn't believe it! How could his dad just let him

Oh.

The snoring had ceased. Judging by the way Chase was stretched on his bed, eyes almost glowing in the darkness, with a bored expression on his face he hadn't notice.

Figured. Super-human senses be damned, Chase was oblivious. If he didn't see it in one of those flashes of his it didn't exist. He watched the mound that was the other teen, eyes narrowing as he concentrated. He could hear a heartbeat, fast and pounding. The breathing was slightly uneven. Ron was nervous.

Sharing a room with a vampire would do that to a person. Well, when they were awake at least and Ron was most definitely awake.

Siri walked over to the redhead and leaned over him.

"You realize it's really rude to sneak up on people like that, right?" Ron's voice rasped from somewhere…that wasn't the bed. There was a click and then the light was on, shining bright and harsh to his sensitive eyes.

He let out a low whine while shielding his eyes. He heard Chase hiss, the squeak of bedsprings, and the light was off. He turned to see Chase seemingly towering over Ron, fangs bared. The redhead was cowering.

Funny, since Chase was more than a few centimeter's short of reaching Ron's shoulders. And yet very scary and intimidating and not just a little bit arousing.

But Siri was a pervert. A terrible, horrible, and unrepentant pervert.

"Don't do that. Creatures of the night here."

"Sorry." Ron squeaked.

Chase drew back and giggled. "No problem. C'mon puppy, I've gotta go."

"Stop calling me that." Chase graced him with a wide and very annoying smirk that said, in no uncertain terms, that he had no plans to stop. "Chase, you can't really be considering this."

"Sure I can." Chase shook his head. "I've got to go. Familial duty and all of that stuff." Then he scowled and muttered something under his breath that even Siri wasn't able to catch. Whatever it was it was pretty obvious he was annoyed about it.

"You can't just…leave." Ron added.

"Look I'm leaving. But," The blond's expression softened slightly. "I appreciate the concern Ron."

Siri had to admit he didn't share the vampire's sentiment. He was, in fact, pretty sure he didn't like Ron. In the least. It had something to do with the way Chase had been watching him earlier. He couldn't put it into words exactly but something about how Chase regarded Ron made Siri want to snatch the redhead's face off.

"You can't go Chase." Siri said, putting his arms over his chest. He half-hoped the stance would be…convincing and make Chase agree with him. Realistically he knew there was no way in hell that was going to happen, because that wasn't how his friend worked.

But a bloke could hope.

Chase tilted his head off to the side. "And why ever not?"

There was something in his tone that made it very clear to Siri that he was about to enter dangerous territory. He sounded too sweet to be for real. Chase may have been an easy-going person, but he was by no means 'sweet'. It wasn't in the genetics.

"You can't…you…" He didn't want to say it out loud. He knew the minute he so much as thought that Chase wouldn't be able to take care of himself he was in for hell. But that was it, in a nutshell. He was afraid that if no one was around to protect him that he'd be hurt.

He was a half-breed among powerful vampires and if that wasn't enough of a reason than the fact he could pretty much fall comatose at any moment had to be a good one. And yet it was pretty obvious that Chase wasn't concerned with it.

And he should be. Siri was tempted to throw him until the closet until the morning, except that there was something making weird sounds inside of it. And Chase was a vampire, so when he got out there was a chance Siri would get his arse kicked.

There was nothing so humiliating as being whipped by a midget.

"I what? Can't take care of myself?" Chase's tone had an edge of mocking to it. "What is it? Poor Chasey can't protect himself and might get hurt? I might break a nail? Be yelled at by one of the other vampires? You think I'm weak."

"I don't-"

"But you do." Chase shrugged as if to say he didn't care. "We're not fighting. I'm leaving. You're going back to sleep. So are you." He pointed at Ron. "I'll see you in a few days."

And he was gone. The door shut with a soft click after him and Siri was left sitting on his bed, staring after him. Ron was standing exactly where he'd been before a bewildered expression on his face. Siri sighed and flopped back.

He heard Ron shuffling about and eventually getting back into his bed.

"If it makes you feel any better I get left behind a lot too."

He considered the idea of Ron being left behind when Harry Potter ran off on his adventures. Pursed his lips for a moment as he let the idea roll around in his head.

Reached a conclusion very quickly.

"Shut up."

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Remus sighed and looked around. He was in the front office of Head of the European Werewolf Council. It was a very…distinguished looking office. Hardwood furniture, carefully painted cream walls and carpet, photos of former Heads. Unlike the pictures he was used to there stayed perfectly still and stared forward with cold distant eyes.

Speaking of cold, Remus was in it pretty deep. Sirius was giving him something that closely resembled the cold shoulder and Siri had thrown a tantrum of sorts when he'd told the teen he had to run 'errands' for Dumbledore. It seemed the teen was still smarting over being left behind by Chase and had seen fit to take it out on him.

Logically Remus knew that Siri was just being the spoiled brat that he was deep inside but he couldn't help but wince at the thought of the teen claiming to hate him.

Remus looked over at the man sitting a few meters from him. His fingers were flying over a typewriter and his eyes were completely trained on a sheet of paper on his desk. Remus assumed he was the secretary for Master Richard Pitt.

Master Pitt was, of course, the man that he was there to see. Remus didn't know a lot about the Council since he hadn't even known they'd existed until after Siri had been born. The idea of a place that kept tags on werewolves and their families, being sure that they were comfortable and in no danger had seemed fantastic then.

He'd always assumed that werewolves were solitary creatures who wandered the world, bemoaning their damnation and hiding from society. As it turned out it was only Half-Blood Werewolves who did the whole self-pity thing. Then again, it was also only Half-Bloods who were 'cursed' as it were. Only they changed at the moon in the most painful way possible and only they couldn't shift at will. Siri was more of a 'real' werewolf than he was.

Not that Remus was typical for a Half-Blood.

Half-Bloods usually wandered around for years, alone and cut off from everyone they had once known, until they eventually went mad from the loneliness. Werewolves weren't meant to be alone. Like wolves they were pack creatures, desperately needing companionship and a family. Cutting themselves off the way they did guaranteed madness.

And it was, ironically enough, that madness that made the Werewolf Council shun them. Remus thought it a pretty interesting cycle. Werewolf goes mad from being alone, because werewolf is mad the Council rejects them, werewolf continues to go mad.

And, in that madness, finds and bits another person. It was explained by scholars as occurring in the last stages of life. So needy for another in their lives they'd spread the 'poison'. Naturally the person they bite would reject them and eventually the werewolf simply faded from existence.

Most bitten werewolves didn't live past forty and were completely mad by their mid-thirties.

But not him. It could be chalked up to the fact he was from a Wizarding family, as opposed to being a Muggle with no concept of werewolves or councils. But he had a feeling it had more to do with the fact that he'd never really been alone.

Sure his parents and siblings were miserable useless people, but they hadn't abandoned him or turned him over to the Ministry after he'd been bitten. His parents had siphoned their entire fortune into trying to cure them (As they were oh so fond of pointing out on the rare occasion he spoke to them.) and his siblings had never alienated him or blamed him for it. (It was, after all, more fun to mock him for the stuff he could control.)

And in Hogwarts he'd had his friends, the most fiercely loyal people he'd ever encountered. At the time anyway. Then it'd been him and Sirius, and then he'd had Siri.

There may have been times he felt alone, but he'd never actually been alone. And he was willing to acknowledge that something inside of him accepted certain people and that they were the most important things in his life.

And those that he didn't accept were regarded with suspicion and wariness, because they weren't…accepted. Part of the family he'd made for himself.

And he didn't mean family in just Sirius and Siri. He meant Chase and Snape, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and McGonagall and Albus. The people he'd put his life on the line for.

But that was a theory.

The point was that, save the occasional breakdown, he'd escaped insanity and probably would live past forty. Though sometimes he wondered. Hence the fear of getting older. The powerful wizards could live well past a hundred but him…what if forty was really it? If that was the case he wouldn't even see his son graduate.

"Mr. Lupin."

He jumped, startled by the voice. He turned to see Master Pitt standing in the doorway of his now open office, a kind smile on his face. Pitt was an older man (how old Remus wasn't even going to try to guess) with bright blue eyes and salt-and-pepper hair. He had wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, Remus imagine from smiling, and he seemed like the grandfatherly sort you couldn't help but want to talk to.

Kind of like Albus only without the air of crackling power. Dumbledore was kind but he was by no means benign and he never gave the appearance that he was. At least not to Remus.

"Master Pitt. Thanks for agreeing to see me."

"My pleasure." The smile widened as he stood aside to let Remus in. He shut the door and took a seat at his desk. "I know quite a bit about you."

"Really?" Remus couldn't hide his surprise. "I didn't think you kept up on…my kind."

"Half-bloods." The man's smile seemed to falter. "Yes, I'm afraid my predecessor, Master Scotts, was less than kind to those he didn't think worthy of the Council's aid or time."

Remus didn't say anything. Really, what could, he say? It wasn't like the Wizarding world or the Ministry was a hell of a lot better. While Half-bloods and Muggle-Borns were allowed it was a rare occasion that they got far in the Ministry or became important figures. As long as 'Pure Blood schools' and 'Pure Blood Clubs' existed they probably never would.

Remus had never had a chance in hell to be much of anything. A half-blood werewolf.

"However my daughter recently married a half-blood. Quite the impressive lad if I may say so myself, though I could be biased." Pitt seemed genuinely pleased and proud, blue eyes lighting up as he spoke.

Remus wondered if he'd ever be talking about Siri like that. Not that he wasn't proud of his son, he just had the strange feeling that whoever Siri ended up bringing home was going to…well, be insane. That was just the way the Wolfling's taste seemed to run.

"From a Wizarding family of course. As I'm sure you know Half-Bloods from open-minded Wizarding families tend to fare better than those from Human families or close minded families." Pitt sighed. "I've been thinking of starting a new Division, Half-Blood Affairs. To try and…stop what goes on. It seems to me that if the Council reaches out to Half-Bloods, of all families, that we can save them from the madness."

That was probably the most sane idea Remus had ever heard from a person in a position of power. This did mean he was going to have to rethink his 'all politicians are idiots' belief though. The idea that someone was actually willing to consider change struck him as…amazing.

"That sounds wonderful."

The man nodded then leaned back in his seat. "I understand you have a young pup. Sirius? Named after his father."

"Yes." Remus wanted to ask how he knew all of that but thought it rather…unwise.

"In a Wizarding school?" Remus nodded. "Well, when he's done you should consider one of the Wiccan Universities. Train him in his natural magic. Shifting is an ability that has to be carefully controlled you understand. And, perhaps, extended upon with time. Perhaps training him to resist the pull of the moon and better retain his mind when he shifts."

"I was thinking of Atlantis. A wizard is…causing problems and I'd thought of sending Siri to another realm to keep him out of trouble."

The man smiled wryly. "Well I'd imagine a realm that can only be accessed through an underground volcano is going to very effective in that goal." Remus actually blushed. "Nothing to be ashamed of my boy. You aren't the only one thinking of such things, many packs are thinking of leaving for safer places. This Voldemort, and the war he means to start, worries many."

"It should. Last time he was around things were bad and I think he means to do more damage now than he did before." Safe to say this time around he was really angry and probably insane. That whole having his body destroyed by an infant had to put a guy on edge.

"That's why you're here. You represent Albus Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore wants to know where the Werewolf Packs will stand in this. We're hoping for neutrality, but wouldn't turn down aid." And Remus didn't want to consider them siding with the Dark Lord. If he managed to gather magical creatures to his side they didn't stand much of a chance.

"Last time we remained neutral and the fights spilled into the communities of Packs. Some were lost. I would choose to side with any who are opposed to Voldemort." Remus could hardly believe that. It seemed that he owed Albus an apology because this wasn't a completely lost cause. "However-"

Damn it.

"I cannot make a choice for the Packs. The Alphas must vote at the next Council meeting and what gets the majority opinion is what we will do."

Fair enough. "When is the next meeting?"

"Three years." Pitt smiled a touch ruefully at Remus' horrified look. "Things don't change often I'm afraid, so we only meet every five years."

"That's going to be a problem. Can't you call an…emergency meeting."

"I suppose. It'll take time and resources to track down all of the packs. I don't really have either to spare but perhaps-"

"I could do it. Tracking them down. …With help."

Pitt blinked slowly, as if he hadn't expected that. Then he offered a half-smile. "I think we can work something out Mr. Lupin."