***Canon Divergence Disclaimer (maybe?): I may have totally made up some stuff about Voldemort recruiting followers in other countries, but I also feel like I have read about it somewhere and I just forgot. But COME ON, it doesn't look like Karkaroff or Dolohov went to Hogwarts, so they had to come from SOMEWHERE, and those are very Slavic surnames.

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Ch. 11 - The Meeting

After leaving St. Mungo's, Sirius accompanied Remus back to his house to help clean up the place. He had been there for Remus for many years, but never more so than in the last few days. In the midst of his low spirits, Remus was deeply grateful for Sirius.

Remus stepped out of the fireplace, shucked off the coat dampened with sweat, then braved the debris in the living room to deposit the coat in the entryway closet where he also retrieved a t-shirt. The fabric of the shirt stuck to his body as soon as he put it on. "You'd th-think it was July," he stuttered out. Stupid chills.

"I can get this," Sirius offered. "You should lie down."

"I'll m-manage. It'll be fa-faster with the two of us."

"Remus."

"Let's just get it over with, then we can buh-both have a rest."

Sirius sighed defeatedly then walked to the kitchen to fetch him a glass of water. "Have that, at least. It'd be a shame for dehydration to be the thing that gets you in the end."

"Now that would just be pathetic," Remus quipped, accepting the glass.

A task that might have taken a muggle several hours or even days to complete took them only ten minutes with magic. A few mending charms later, every splinter, bit of upholstery, and crack in the wall had returned to how it looked before the transformation. Thank heavens, since the boys were in dire need of some sleep after the night they'd had. Sirius settled in on the no-longer-mutilated couch while Remus lumbered upstairs to his bedroom. As soon as his head hit the pillow, his stomach acid was no longer subdued by gravity and he had to stumble to the bathroom to vomit once more. Only water and bile came out, as his stomach was completely empty, but he had neither the appetite nor the desire to remedy this. Feebly, he rose from his knees, rinsed out his mouth, and went back to bed shivering. If only he'd laid off the booze and taken the damn Wolfsbane in time, he wouldn't be quite so symptomatic right now. Come to think of it, if he'd laid off the booze and taken the Wolfsbane in time, a great many things might have been different.

His head had cleared a bit since he left the hospital ward, and Remus began to wrestle with the facts - that Emmeline was better off without him. He'd said it only minutes ago, but now he had to come to terms with it. This thought didn't sting as much as it might have if he hadn't always known this. I mean, everyone was better off without him really, despite what his friends said. And yet, somehow, he felt an itch that would not let up: a selfish, unrelenting something that rendered him unable to stomach the idea of letting Emmeline drift off and away. After the horrors of last night, he'd never even gotten the chance to tell her what he had set out to tell her in the first place, and he wasn't sure if he would ever get a chance now. Maybe she genuinely loved Tiberius; after all, she still wore his ring. This was probably for the best, since his carelessness had landed her in the hospital this morning, and it could have been so much worse. "Suppose I'd bitten her?" That thought got the itch to subside a bit. Remus knew well that he was a hazardous person to be with, but maybe it was time he accepted that it would be in everyone's best interest for him to remain a bachelor. Someone told him once that a werewolf could only truly be in love with the moon.

But he didn't want the moon.

He wanted Emmeline.

His exhaustion overtook his many thoughts and he drifted off to sleep.

...

There was an Order meeting scheduled for that evening. They had not had a collective meeting with nearly all the members present in quite some time, as Voldemort and his allies had been eerily quiet for the last few months. It was suspected that they had moved East, and there was fear that they were recruiting heavily in Central Europe and Russia.

The animagus and the werewolf woke up a bit late and had to stuff some stale sausage rolls in their coat pockets to eat along the way to the Potters'. Lily and James were still on their honeymoon, but they had offered Dumbledore their cottage as a meeting place. When Remus and Sirius tapped on the door, it opened for them, but just a crack.

"What's my favorite flavor of Bertie Botts?" a husky Scottish brogue inquired from the opening.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Come off it Alastor, how are we supposed to know the answer to that?" He was feeling slightly better than before, but only slightly, and didn't have the patience for overly-pedantic interrogation questions.

"How am I supposed to know you're not Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange?"

Sirius scrunched his face in thought "...Marmalade?"

The door swung open.

"How did you know that?"

Sirius shrugged. "I pay attention."

"News to me."

"You didn't happen to bring any, did you?" Alastor Moody asked, only half-joking.

"What, Bertie Botts? Sorry, we didn't think to take a detour to the sweet shop on our way," Sirius countered, tossing him a sausage roll as he passed.

"The tardiness might've led one to believe otherwise." Alastor took a large, less-than-polite bite, then followed them in.

Everyone but the absent Lily and James was crammed into the front room, with a few people spilling over into the dining room. Present at the meeting were the Longbottoms, Peter, Sturgis Podmore, Elphias Doge, Mundungus Fletcher, Dorcas Meadows, Dedalus Diggle, Edgar Bones, and Benjy Fenwick. Rubeus Hagrid had stuffed himself into a chair in the corner to keep his head from hitting the ceiling, and Albus Dumbledore was standing at the head of the room near the fireplace.

Once Remus and Sirius joined the throng, Marlene weaved through the crowded room to give her beau a tight hug and a big kiss. "What on earth happened to you last night? When I rounded the corner you'd disappeared and the phone was off the hook."

"Em and I just had a bit of bad business with last night's lunar phase if you catch my drift," Sirius explained in a hushed voice.

Marlene did in fact catch his drift. "You should have let me come with you."

"No, he did the right thing by having you stay home," Remus assured her.

"And Em?"

"She got a bit scratched up but she'll be okay." Sirius thought it best to remain vague, for Remus' sake.

"...Did you two ever get a chance to...speak?" she asked, thinking back to her conversation with Emmeline the night before.

Remus shook his head. "Not exactly." He meant to elaborate, but lost his train of thought when he noticed the Prewett brothers standing near Dumbledore.

"Now that this is all of us," Albus Dumbledore began, quieting the other conversations in the room. "I think it would be wise to cast the protective spells. Alice and Benjy, if you would be so kind…" The two members he mentioned shuffled out of the room and went outside to do as he said.

"We've asked Gideon and Fabian to debrief us all on their findings while undercover in Romania," announced Alastor. "Gentlemen." He motioned for them to commence.

Gideon spoke first. "Voldemort has gained an alarming amount of followers in the East who are very sympathetic to his pureblood rhetoric."

"Possibly the most disturbing development is that, like Hogwarts over the last couple of years, he's been able to disseminate his ideals into Koldovstoretz," said Fabian.

"The Russian Wizarding School?" Elphias inquired.

"Yes. The local wizarding authority was somewhat successful in quelling the spread of his influence, but it was too late for some of their more dark-magic-inclined students."

"What about Durmstrang? Have they gone that far North?" asked Edgar.

"As far as we can tell, no." Gideon answered. "We've advised Albus to send their headmaster a warning, though."

"...Where's Caradoc?" Frank asked.

It wasn't until Frank had said anything that Remus noticed Caradoc Dearborn was absent. The two brothers looked at each other, the room waiting.
"Dearborn went missing just before we left," Fabian reported somberly. "We have reason to believe...he's…" He cleared his throat. "...no longer with us."

The room went silent. The absence of sound made everyone aware of the pitter-patter of rain beginning outside.

"May he rest in peace, and may he not die in vain," said Albus.

Dedalus waited until everyone had time to think a silent prayer before speaking up again. "What is our plan? Surely Voldemort's headed back West."

"We think so, yes." said Fabian. "After Caradoc, we had to get out before we could find out when."

"Which means we'll all need to take extra precautions in the days ahead," said Albus. "Do not allow yourselves to let your guard down just because the past months have been calm. Be watchful."

"The Ministry and the Muggle Prime Minister have been given this information as well, and they're going to be watching for spikes in violence in the Muggle population," Fabian added.

Other similarly grim matters were discussed, such as a rise in numbers of disappearances, the latest attempts to infiltrate and undermine the Ministry, and updates from the auror department. When plans and strategies had been laid out ad nauseum, Dumbledore decided they'd had enough hypotheticals for one evening.

"I would like for us all to meet back here in two weeks' time. Watch for my owl," Albus instructed. "I have a feeling things will become difficult very soon. For now, the meeting is concluded."

Albus and Alastor disapparated (as they had much work to do), but many other members lingered for a while to catch up and/or share their growing anxieties. Marlene made her way over to Gideon. "We're glad you two are home safe."

"Thank you McKinnon, very kind of you to say so. I'll tell you one thing, I never want to so much as smell the Polyjuice Potion ever again for as long as I live."

"I don't blame you. How are your sister and Arthur?"

"They're splendid! Although, their twin toddlers are giving them the go-around. You'd think they would have seen everything by kid number four and five, but apparently not. I'll tell Molly you asked for her."

"Please do!"

Peter cut a path to Remus and Sirius. "Why do I get the sense I've missed out on something?" he asked, as he had noticed them nodding off during the discussion.

"Moony," was all Sirius needed to say without disclosing the full details of their night. Remus shifted his weight awkwardly.

"Oh. Point taken."

"When are James and Lily coming home?" Remus asked, changing the subject.

Peter scratched his head. "Seven or eight days, I think. They gave me the number of their hotel, but I don't speak French and I wouldn't want to...you know...disturb them."

A suggestive smirk spread across Sirius' face. "Really?" he purred, oozing sarcasm. "Why ever not?"

Peter looked tortured. "Stop, Pad."

"What could they possibly be up to? I thought people just played chess and ate pudding on their honeymoon."

"Listen," said Remus, too sad and exhausted to tolerate any sort of humor. "I hate to slip out, but I think I'm a bit too tired to greet everybody just now. I'm going to head home."

"You going to be alright?"

Remus smiled warmly at Sirius. "You have done more than enough for me in the past 48 hours. I think it's time for me to release you back to Marlene."

Sirius scoffed. "She's not my bloody owner."

"...Pad, what is that?" asked Peter, completely straight-faced and pointing to Sirius' neck.

Sirius' brow furrowed. "What's what?"

"I could've sworn I saw a collar."

"Sod off, Wormtail."

Remus smiled weakly. Before he turned to leave, Sirius caught his arm.

"We're always here for you, mate. Let us know if you need anything, or if you want to talk..."

"I will," he lied. "Don't let me forget, I owe you brandy."

"Don't worry about it."

Remus felt compelled to hug him again, tighter this time. "...Thanks for everything, Pad. Really. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Me neither. I shudder at the thought."