Disclaimer - It's not mine. Never was.

A/N- Finally!!! I got this thing back to where it was before it got kicked off of ff.net. Anyhow, here is the next chapter for you guys. Thanks for being so patient with me. Later.

Chapter 38

The rest of the month passed rather smoothly for the group. After arriving back at Hogwarts the next day, Sable felt like she had been put under house arrest. Everywhere she went, there was always someone with her, be it Remus, Lily or James. The biggest relief came when she had finally managed to get her parent's personal belongings back to the hospital, and the whole lot of them had allowed her some alone time with her still unconscious parents.

After that, things seemed to get to normal, minus the fact that Sable was worried sick about her mom and dad. More than one time, Remus had caught her wandering aimlessly through the castle halls after giving her ever present company the slip. During these times, Remus would only follow her, never interrupting her for anything. Just like everyone else, he wanted her to get better, and in order for her to do that, she needed some time to herself to digest everything that had happened. So, he would only follow her on the times he caught her wandering around, just to make sure that she would be okay.

The only time he ever showed himself was if she started crying. And that had only happened twice, once up in the Northern Tower, and once down by the lake, both in the dead of night. The first night, she had slipped out of her room, and went up to the North Tower. Remus, who had been returning from a prank, had seen her pass in the hallway, but he had not seen her due to him wearing James' invisibility cloak. He had taken off after her, following her until she got to the top of the tower. Sable had said nothing, only conjured up a blanket and sat down to stare at the stars above her. Remus had thought she had fallen asleep when he picked up the soft trembling in her breaths and the slight shaking of her shoulders from the crying. Remus, not wanting her to think she was alone, had pulled the cloak off and sat down next to her, never saying a word. Sable had said nothing, but cried like a child into his shoulder, looking for reassurances that everything was going to work itself out. They had not spoken a word the whole time, seemingly able to communicate their feelings without words. The same thing had happened down by the lake a few days later. And both times, Remus had taken her back to her room and stayed with her until she had fallen asleep. He knew that until her parents woke up, her most solid form of support would come from her friends, and he was willing to do what he could to help her, knowing she would do the same for him if he was ever in her position.

Most people steered clear of her after Dumbledore had announced that there had been an attack on her parents. Of course, since there were not many students left at Hogwarts for the holidays, she was left alone with the Marauders, and the ever present Arabella Figg who had demanded that Sirius and the others let her into the Gryffindor Common Room in order to spend some time with the depressed girl. Arabella and Lily always seemed to know what Sable was thinking, and it amazed Remus that they could calm her down and get her to feeling better when even he couldn't. Sirius had only shrugged and nodded towards them.

"It's some freaky girl thing." he said. "I still haven't figured it out yet. But it works, so don't complain."

Sable had also spoken with Dumbledore to a great extent after they had returned from Godric's Hollow, and he had allowed her to visit her parents at St. Mungo's as she felt the need to, as long as there was a teacher accompanying her. Luckily, she never had a problem finding a teacher willing to help her, seeing as Treble and McGonagall were more than willing to help out when asked. Remus also always made sure he was with her during the trips, seeing as how he'd had a hand in everything. Most of the time, Sirius, James, and Lily were with them as well. Even Arabella had been a pillar of support for the girl during the final long weeks of December. But Remus still felt guilty for the attack on her parents, especially her mother. He knew he was responsible for most of the damage to her mother, and he seriously regretted his part in the whole mess. But had he not acted when he did, he knew that both he and Sable would have been killed or captured. The rest of the Marauders seemed to understand this, and tried to lighten the mood around both of them whenever possible.

The only reprieve came from the crazy antics of Sirius and James when they got into one of their wacky moods, or when Sirius and Arabella got into one of their spats about something insignificant, that they could not remember what they were fighting for to begin with by the time the argument was over. The girls had even drug her out to Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley to do some Christmas shopping while they were out one day, but not even that seemed to help her. Remus had done everything he could to help her feel better. But no matter what he done, he knew that she would never fully recover until her parents were well and awake.

The real problem was Sable, herself. It seemed the closer it came to Christmas, the more she wanted to be with her parents. Even Christmas morning, when Remus met her in her room that was next to Lily's, she looked down trodden and thoroughly depressed. However, as the day progressed, things slowly began to look up. After eating breakfast that morning, the entire group, including Arabella, had congregated in the Head's common room to open and exchange presents.

Sable's gift had been wonderful. Clothes from Lily. Candy and pranks from Sirius. A leather journal and quill set from Bella. A new set of Potion books from Amanda. Gift certificates to Gladrags and Flourish and Blotts form James and Peter. She had even gotten a little charm bracelet with Snitches, Bludgers, two Beater's bats, and a Quaffle on it from little Thomas and some of the other little kids. Her gift from Remus though, had taken her breath away.

The jewelry box he had been working on had been absolutely beautiful. The outside of the box was a pale ivory color, with the lunar phases carved onto the sides of it. When she opened the lid, there was a dark blue velvet-like material along the bottom and sides. In the center, being held up by a charm was a single yellow rose about the size of a lollipop, and behind it, the place where he put the picture of them.. The little flower slowly rotated on it's tip as the music played from the inside the box. It really was a beautiful box, and Remus knew she had loved it, but her expression once she opened the box and found the picture inside of it had made his day, and gave him hope that the old Sable would soon be back with him.

The picture was that of Remus and Sable sitting under the willow tree by the lake. Remus had charmed it to resemble a holographic type picture that would morph into a scene of two wolves sitting on a hill, the full moon behind time, and shadows cast all around the ground from the over spill of moonlight. To each side of the full moon, a picture of each of them hung in the holographic clouds, Remus on the left, and Sable on the right.

Sable had almost cried when Remus explained that the box and the picture was the reason he had been running off the last few weeks of school. When they had finished exchanging gifts, Sable had excused herself and went to dress for her trip to St. Mungo's. Remus had went with her that day, spending an hour or so at the hospital before returning to school.

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As the days rolled by, Sable once again began brewing the Wolf's Bane Potion, this time down in the dungeons under the watchful eye of Professor Treble and one of the Marauders. The Slytherin Potion's Master knew of Sable's success with the potion and decided to send another sample of it for verification to the Ministry, hoping they would approve it and allow it to be mass produced as an aide to lycanthropic people everywhere. Along with the sample, he sent a copy of the manuscripts, notes, and journal she had kept during the experimentation process. Sable had told him that Dumbledore had already sent the information one time, but they had never received word of an answer from the Ministry. Treble had only shrugged and said that they would try it again.

Now that she was working on her potions again, her demeanor changed a little. She was not as depressed all the time, and she actually seemed to have more energy during the day. Of course, when she was not at the hospital with her parents, or with the other Marauders, Lily, or Arabella, she was down in the dungeons working with Treble. None of her friends particularly like that arrangement due to the fact that Snape and Flint were still at school during the break, especially Remus. His only consolation was that Treble stayed near the girl anytime she descended into the dungeons without someone with her. Sure, they all suspected that Slytherin housed some Death Eaters other than Avery, but Remus knew that Dumbledore would not allow a teacher to harm the students, so Treble had his full trust as far as Sable was concerned.

Snape, on the other hand, was angrier than he had ever been. The night of the attack, he and Lucius had been in charge of capturing the girl and bringing her to Voldemort. They had failed, and paid for it miserably. They had lost the parents, as well, which had only incised Voldemort all the more. The evil wizard had held them both, as well as flint, under the Cruicatus until they thought they would die of the immense pain. Snape and flint had arrived back to the Slytherin Common room that night, after the meeting, half dead and black and blue from the reprimand they had endured. Snape had no doubt in his mind that had Voldemort had more spies stationed within Hogwarts' walls, he and Flint would be dead by now. Voldemort had been just that angry with them.

But what bothered Snape the most of all was the feeling of guilt he had concerning his part in the failed kidnapping That night, when they had been ordered to bring the girl to Voldemort, he had not disagreed. But when he had knocked Lupin unconscious, and Sable had held the wolf to her in such a comforting manner……

When he had seen the spark of anger and betrayal in her eyes when Malfoy had said that they had an informant who had told them her ever move……

The flames of anger and dawning of reason when they told her the set up in the clearing with Remus and Sedera had been staged, and she figured out how they had pulled it off with Polyjuice Potion…

The frightening fear of his own impending death as he watched her change into her own wolf form, brimstone flaring in here eyes from her anger…

It was right then, at that specific second, that Snape realized exactly how deep her passion for life ran. It was in that moment that he had felt ashamed for trying to capture and break such a wild and beautiful creature. He realized going after Lupin and Sable's parents had probably sealed his fate as a dead man, and Sable would be the executioner if she ever found out. And it was then that he realized he admired the beautiful girl for her grit and courage to stand up and fight for her life, and the lives of the ones she loved.

That instant was when he blinding loyalty to Voldemort began to fade and waiver.

Now, anytime he would come within hexing range of Lily, Sable, Arabella, or any of the Marauders, he made it a point to get the Hell away from them. Dumbledore's announcement the morning after the attack had been tempered with a warning not to wander into the forest. Snape knew that the only people who knew what had truly happened that night were Black, Potter, Lupin, Sable, Lily, Lucius, the Dark Lord, and himself. He even doubted that Dumbledore had elaborated when telling the rest of the teaching staff. The warning had made the other, lower level students steer clear of the ill tempered girl ever since.

Things were not looking up for the overly confused Death Eater. Guilt was something he'd never had to deal with before. Up until this point, he had partook in Death Eater massacres and not blinked an eye. He had killed mothers and the children without blinking, watched as his fellow Death Eaters tortured Muggles before killing the slowly and painfully, and none of it had had this kind of effect on him. But now, things were starting to complicate themselves, and he did not like it one bit.

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The New Year was welcomed in by the remaining Hogwarts students with parties, food, and an all around feeling of good cheer, even if it was somewhat subdued. Even Sable had managed to loosen up a bit. However, that might have been partly die to the new she had received from Dr. Pence on New Year's Eve morning.

After being in a complete stasis for nearly three weeks, Sable's parents were starting to recover. The psycho-altering drug that they had been forced to ingest at the hands of the death Eaters had been cleaned out by their bodies, and now the blood was returning to it's normal state. Although they were still unconscious, the medi-witches were happy to report that they were beginning to move around an little more, and respond to different stimuli. The best part was that none of them could find any sign of permanent damage.

When Sable had gotten the message through owl post, she had cried in happiness. After tracking down McGonagall, Sable and her friends had went straight to St. Mungo's to see them. Now that the de-toxication stages were complete, both adults had been moved into the same room. Upon entering the sterile room, it was clear to everyone that the two Aurors would make a full recovery.

Their skin was starting to warm up, and the paleness was going away. But what tipped it all was when Sable was talking to them, and they saw Carol Robbins' hand move towards her daughter. Sable had broken down into tears of happiness then, and Remus had held her until they subsided. Remus was more than happy that there was going to be no permanent damage from the wounds he had inflicted on Carol Robbins. After an hour or so, the group made it back to Hogwart's to ring in the New Year. Now that Sable was back on track, everyone felt better, especially Remus.

Now, the Saturday before classes started back, Sable was down in the dungeons, finishing a batch of Wolfsbane Potion for Remus for the upcoming full moon. Things had been quiet up until then, and her mind had been settle don her parent's recover, as well as the upcoming school time. Her mind was going through its monthly hiatus as the full moon closed in on them. The full moon was this coming Wednesday, and Sable was wishing that it was already over with. Wednesday would make one month that her parents had been in the hospital, completely oblivious to the world around them.

Her mood swings were starting, and her nerves were frazzled. Remus seemed to be the only one who could calm her down, and he was not with her at the moment. Pushing her hair to the side, Sable ladled out he doses of potion and capped them off to put in Professor Treble's storage cabinet.

She had found an alternative to adding her own blood into the potion, and had discussed the consequences with her Potion's instructor before attempting it. According to one of the books she had received from Amanda for Christmas, instead of adding blood to a potion, it was possible to substitute and number of other ingredients into a potion, yet get the same result, as well as cut down on the brewing time dramatically. Sable had already made enough of the potion to hold Remus for a while, but she decided to try the new way and see if it would work out as well. Apparently it had, seeing as how the potion had reacted as expected, and not blown up in her face. She was almost finished cleaning her mess up when the dungeon's heavy door opened up to allow someone to enter.

Glancing over her shoulder, she froze when she saw Snape enter the room. He had not spoken to her all break, and she wanted it to stay like that. Unfortunately, her lucky streaks never were rumored to be long.

"Robbins." Snape said as acknowledgement to her presence.

"Snape." She answered, inclining her head towards the young man. The Slytherin student was shocked at the cold reception from her. 'I better be glad she isn't ready to hex me into the next afterlife!' he thought bitterly. 'Especially considering my part in her parent's current state!' Sable continued to clean up her mess hurriedly, and was about to leave when Snape stopped her.

"How are your parents?" he blurted out before he could stop himself. Sable had been expecting a number of things when he had come into the laboratory, but him inquiring about her parents had not been on that list. She nodded her head and sat down in a nearby desk.

"Things are looking up, actually." she answered truthfully. "The doctor says that their bodies have cleaned themselves out form the junk those scum-bag Death Eaters forced down their throats."

"What was in their bodies? Do you know?" he queried, acting completely innocent of the fact that he was the one who had brewed the mind altering potion to begin with.

"The doctor never told me." she lied easily. "All I know is if I ever find out who done that to them, I'll kill them with my bare hands."

"You would forfeit your life to Azkaban just to avenge your parents?" he asked. "They are not dead. Why would you do that?"

"I have my reasons for doing thing, Severus." she answered truthfully, looking him straight in the eyes. "As I am sure you do." Snape said nothing to the girl, only nodded and backed away, watching her pick up her pack and head to the door.

"I see." he stated coolly. "Good day then, Sable."

"Good day to you as well, Severus." Sable said, walking out off the door and up the hallway towards Gryffindor Tower.

Back in the lab, Snape shook his head and turned back to his intended work.

"I am a fool." he muttered quietly. "She'd kill me in a heartbeat if she knew what I've done." The rest of the day, Snape worked on his holiday homework, and tried to steer clear of any and all Gryffindors. 'School starts back soon, and I do not want to be bothered with useless homework, seeing as Voldemort plans our next stop in this ridiculous game of cat and mouse with Robbins and her family.'

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Sunday morning, Sable woke up to find someone lying next to her in the big bed. Without even thing, she burrowed down into the covers and tried to go back to sleep, knowing that her bed mate was no one other than her own boyfriend. The rest of the students would be back today, and she did not feel like dealing with them just yet. Unfortunately, it seemed that Remus had other plans entirely. Right about the second she was going to fall back into dream land, she felt something cold latched onto her side.

"Damn it, Remus!" she said sleepily. "Let me sleep!" She heard a soft chuckle and felt the warmth of her blanket leave her.

"Time to get up, love." he said with a happy grin. "It's nine o'clock." Sable stuck her head under her pillow and groaned. Remus was in one of his playful, teasing moods, quite odd considering the full moon was only two days away.

"I don't care if it's blood well noon!" she said angrily. "How'd you get in here, anyway? I just changed the password to avoid situations like this."

"You can thank James for that." Remus laughed.

"Damn you, James Prongs Potter!" she cursed, not moving from her spot on the bed. Remus grinned, knowing Sable was never a morning person.

"Come on, love." he coaxed, pulling the pillow off of her head. "Its only a few hours before everyone gets back, and those little munchkins keep you busy." Sable looked up at him and yawned.

"Oh, alright, Remus." she said, sitting up on her bed. "What do you have planned, since you obviously are not going to let me sleep in this morning."

"Well, James and the others are waiting down at the Pitch for us."

"You woke me up to go play Quidditch?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Umm…Uh…Yeah?" he answered meekly, waiting for her reaction. Sable rolled her eyes and stretched.

"Okay. Give me ten minutes and I'll be in the Common Room." Remus grinned and turned to leave, shutting the door behind him.

The Hogwart's Express would be back sometime after lunch, and Remus had planned to keep her busy up until the very last minute because he knew the minute that Thomas and his friends came back, they would attach themselves to Sable and not let go.

A few hours later, the train did arrive, and Sable could see the station form her position on the Pitch. They had been playing Quidditch all morning, and now James had to go got Lily and leave to retrieve the students. Sirius and Bella took off not long afterwards, leaving Remus and Sable to clean up. They picked up the Quidditch set and put it backing to the shed, along with the school brooms that they had been flying on.

"What do you want to do now?" Sable asked as she dusted off her hands.

"Don't care." Remus answered, walking up behind her and hugging her. "As long as the munchkins don't come steal you away from me." Sable smiled and leaned back onto Remus, taking comfort in his presence.

"You do realize we were both munchkins at one point in time, don't you?" she asked.

"Umm-hmm." he said. "But we were never that annoying."

"Remus! They're just children!" she scolded.

"Sorry, love." he said, a crazy smile on his face. "So what do you want to do? How about a walk in the forest?"

"Are you serious?" Sable asked, eyeing her boyfriend with a frown on her face.

"No, I'm Remus." he said, smiling at her.

"Hardy har-har." Sable muttered. "You know what I meant."

"I know." Remus said. "So, you want to go?"

"Remus, I hate that forest." she whined, eyeing the forest line skeptically.

"We won't go any further than the tree line." he said placatingly. "Besides, didn't you say you wanted to practice the transformation? We could do that without being interrupted."

"Yeah, but do we have to go into the forest?" she asked again.

"It's either that, or back into the castle. And I don't know about you, but I'm sick of looking at stone walls." he said.

"Alright, let's go." she said reluctantly. Remus grinned and they took off towards the forest.

Surprisingly enough, Sable managed tow switch back to her lupine form with only a little bit of concentration after they had gotten to the tree line. Remus, knowing that the transformation really did hurt like Hell, watched as she switched from one form to another, holding up rather well against the pain. The rest of the evening, until right before dark fell, the two teems rambled around the edge of the forest, talking and generally enjoying each other's company. By the time dusk came, Sable and Remus were at the steps of Hogwarts, preparing for the initial rush of the younger student's to Sable's side.

"They're going to attack you the moment they see you." Remus teased her as they walked in.

"You make them sound like a rabid pack of animals, Remus." she said, watching as the doors opened and some of the children spotted her.

"Well, they act like it sometimes." Remus mumbled as the younger student's came to welcome Sable back. After speaking with the students, and making it up the stairs, Remus only grinned and gave her an I-told-you-so-look.

"Just wait until we get into the common room." he said.

As soon as Sable stepped back into Gryffindor Tower that night, she was surrounded by Thomas and his friends. Remus let out a threatening growl as the students pushed him out of the way, but Sable nudged him and winked, silently telling him that she would meet up with him later. As the evening wore on, Sable was brought up to date on everything that had happened during the younger children's vacations. And she told them what had happened at Hogwarts, and what had happened to her parents. The children were shocked that something could happened to their friend's parents, and especially so close to Hogwarts. Sable just nodded and told them to stick together and make sure not to wander around alone, especially outside.

When she finally got to her room that night, Remus was waiting for her.

"I told you that you would get mobbed." he teased.

"Remus, I'll have you know, that if it was not for the fact that you already have a girlfriend, you would have just as many little girls hanging around you as I do little boys." she said saucily. "so I really don't want to hear it."

"I told you it would happen." he said, grinning at her.

"You are seriously starting to overdue this, Moony." she said. "I'm their tutor. Of course they would want to talk to me."

"You're also the reason half of those little runts have finally noticed that girls exist on this plane." she said.

"Well, I'm glad that I could teach them one of life's important lessons." she said with a grin. "Girls really aren't as bad as most people like to think."

"Hmm. I'll agree to that one." he said, hugging her tightly to show that he was only kidding.

"Time to get some sleep, don't you think?" she asked. Remus nodded and the couple fell into bed, getting as close as possible. The lunar changes were soon, and their overwhelming need to be near each other made them want to be closer than normal, which was absolutely fine with them. They went to sleep, hoping that the new term would be better than the last, and wishing that the full moon would hurry up and be over with.

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A/N- Okay everyone, I know it has been a MAJORLY long time since I've put up a new chapter. But, now that my Inuyasha story is completely finished, I plan on finishing this one before I even THINK about starting another one.

So, now that I've got another chapter to do type up for you all, I'll leave you to go.

Later,

A.A.