Chapter 14: Remus Lupin

Silently, Sirius reached around to his pack and pulled out his knife, motioning for Harry to do the same. Once he'd done so, Sirius began creeping carefully forward, knife out and ready to strike. Harry trailed behind him nervously, afraid that they might be about to find themselves in a fight to the death.

As they approached a corner, they saw the flickering of someone's shadow against the stone walls. Whoever it was didn't seem to be aware that someone was approaching; from the movement of the shadow, it seemed he or she was eating something.

Sirius turned to Harry and wordlessly held up three fingers. Then he pointed to his knife and made a slicing motion across his throat. Harry nodded, to indicate that he understood. Nodding back, Sirius angled himself, positioning himself against the wall so that his approach wouldn't be visible in the shadows. Then he held his free hand out, with three fingers up and slowly counted down.

When his last finger dropped, Sirius lunged around the corner, screaming in a wild voice that had Harry absolutely terrified. Afraid to look for real, Harry watched the shadows as Sirius grabbed the tribute from behind and trapped her – Harry surmised it was a her from the swishing of long hair – so that she couldn't move. Harry heard a scream as Sirius brought the knife down, and at that, Harry really did have to look away, even from the shadow depiction of the scene, as the girl's scream was cut off and she gurgled gutturally for a few moments before going completely silent. In the distance, a canon blasted.

"Harry?" Sirius voice came then from around the corner. "Harry, where are you?"

"I'm back here," Harry choked out, his heart beating twice as fast as normal in his chest. Someone was dead – someone had just been killed, and Harry had witnessed it.

Somehow, this was even worse than the bloodbath at the Cornucopia. It was even worse than when the Careers had ambushed Dobby and Hedwig in the tower. Both of those times, Harry was running, his focus having to be saving himself. This time was different. Harry had been in no danger, since Sirius was his ally. Instead, he'd stood by, knowing the tribute was going do die and having the power to stop it, but doing nothing. He may as well have been the one holding the knife.

"One down, twelve to go," Sirius said, emerging from around the corner, wiping the bloody blade of the knife on his shirt. "She didn't have any weapons on her, and it looks like she'd just finished the last of her food."

Harry grimaced, realizing that Sirius had searched the girl after she'd died. He hated it, but it was necessary in a place like this.

"Who was she?" Harry asked. As much as he hated finding out, he needed to keep track of the dead tributes in his head, at least so that he would know who was still out there.

"The girl from three," Sirius replied. "I think her name started with a 'B'."

Harry shrugged, unsure of the girl's name himself. He vowed that if he ever got out of the arena, he would find out though. Somehow, it felt wrong to have been a part of someone's murder and not even know their name.

"Not many girls left," Harry commented. "Just Lily, the two Careers, and the girl from eight, Tonks."

"Unless the canon earlier was one of them," Sirius muttered.

"Right," Harry replied.

"Come on, let's get back," Sirius suggested, sensing that Harry was uncomfortable standing around. "This has been enough adventure for one day."

Relief flooded through Harry at the thought of returning to the trophy room. The idea of spending the rest of the evening in the well-hidden room was more than tempting after the events of the day. It was like a safe haven; Harry couldn't imagine anyone ever finding them there. It almost felt like as long as they stayed inside the trophy room, nothing could harm them.

"What was that?" Harry cried suddenly, jumping in fright. He'd heard a sound, but it had been a peculiar sound – almost like someone was… crying?

"Someone's in that room," Sirius said, pointing to a door that Harry presumed led to some sort of classroom, as most rooms on this floor seemed to have done. "You want in this time, or do you want to wait in the hall?" Sirius asked, lowering his voice as he crept closer to the door.

Harry hesitated. He certainly didn't want to be a part of what Sirius had in mind, but he also couldn't bear the thought of standing around while yet another tribute was killed.

"I'll do this one alone," Harry declared. Maybe the room would have a back exit or something he could encourage whoever was inside to go through and claim that he had run away.

"Good man!" Sirius applauded Harry, thinking that Harry was finally getting used to being in the Games.

Sirius patted Harry on the back for good luck and even handed Harry his own knife. "It's for luck," he claimed, "since it already killed that other girl."

"Thanks," Harry said, taking the knife gingerly. He held it out, away from his body, almost as if getting too close would somehow contaminate him, make him more responsible for the girl's murder than he already was. It was silly, but the knife felt tainted somehow.

He crept into the room as quietly as he could and discovered that the tribute inside the classroom was indeed crying. He had his back turned, so Harry approached cautiously, knowing that if he startled the boy in any way, it could cause him to scream or even to attack.

"Hey," Harry said gently once he was close enough. The boy jumped, and Harry put the knife down on a nearby desk and held his hands up, indicating that he wasn't attacking. "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," the boy said, wiping his eyes and looking up for the first time. He was completely covered in mud and dirt. He even had twigs sticking out of his hair. Surprisingly though, Harry recognized him.

"Remus?" he asked.

"Harry?" Remus responded.

"Yeah, it's me," Harry replied. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Remus responded. "It's just the Games, you know?"

"Chocolate not worth it anymore?" Harry asked, recalling a brief conversation – the only conversation really – that he'd had with the boy before the Games.

Remus shook his head sadly.

"You want to talk about it?" Harry offered. "Sometimes it helps to talk things through."

"It's my district mate," Remus replied. "She died. We ran out into the forest, figuring most tributes would head for the castle and we could avoid them for a while, but then some beasts attacked – mutations most likely, I couldn't identify them. I got away, but she wasn't so lucky."

"My district mate died in the bloodbath at the Cornucopia," Harry said. "The girl from two, Bellatrix? She just ran a knife through her right in front of me. It's not like I even talked to her back home, or even liked her really. But she was familiar, you know?"

"I didn't really know Tonks that well back in eight," Remus said. "I knew of her, I'd seen her around town and stuff, but we never talked. We got to know each other pretty well over the past few days though. We became close. I think I might've been falling for her. But I guess what does that matter now, right?"

Harry remained silent. What could he say to Remus? Nothing he could say would cheer him up, nothing would bring Tonks back. It was the Games, Harry decided. The Games ruined lives. Not just the lives of the tributes, but the lives of everyone who's ever known them, who's ever loved them.

"Do you want some allies?" Harry asked after a few moments of silence.

"You'd want me as an ally?" Remus asked, astonished.

"Sure," Harry replied.

"Harry, what's taking so long?" Sirius' voice called out from the hall. "It's so quiet in there, what are you even – " he paused as he walked in the door to find Harry and Remus sitting on the floor, Sirius' knife lying forgotten on a nearby desk. "What are you doing?" he asked, sounding exasperated.

"We've got a new ally!" Harry declared.

"We have enough allies," Sirius insisted. "We were good once we'd added you, but then you and James had to drag Peter back and Lily had to get all protective, so now we're five. Six is way too many people to be in one team."

"If you and Lily both get to pick new members, then so do I," Harry declared obstinately. "And I want Remus to join us."

Sirius closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Fine," he declared finally. "But if this all goes up in smoke, it's going to be your fault."

Harry gladly accepted that responsibility and after a quick round of introductions, the three boys headed back down to the trophy room to meet up with the others.

"Alright, how are we going to break up the watches?" James asked once everyone had finished dinner. "Three watches of two people, or six watches of one?"

"Two watches of three," Sirius said immediately. "With this many of us, I'm sorry everyone, but I don't trust any of you alone at this point. Plus, if we're attacked, it'll be better to have at least two people fully awake."

"I'm with Sirius," Harry agreed. "Not that I don't trust everyone here, but we're better protected with two people on watch."

"Me and Lily will take the first watch," James volunteered.

"Um, sorry to butt in, but I don't know if I'm all that comfortable with that," Remus spoke up.

"Why not?" James demanded.

"Well, you're from the same district for one, and more than that you're married. And Lily's pregnant, so you both are clearly intending that Lily be the winner," Remus said. "The way I see it, it would be really easy for the two of you to just kill us all while we're sleeping and run off. You'd be four people closer to winning, and Lily would still have a bodyguard."

"We wouldn't betray you all like that!" Lily exclaimed.

"Remus has a point," Sirius declared. "No same-district watch partners."

"Well then I'll take first watch with Peter," Lily decided. Ever since the former Career had joined their group, Lily had become quite attached, almost in a motherly sort of way. She'd spent the whole afternoon seeing to his wounds, making sure that they were as clean as she could get them and patched up where needed.

"Fine," Sirius agreed. "I'll take the second watch then."

"I'll take third watch if that's alright," Harry spoke up. "I had second watch last night and I'd rather get a bit of a longer sleep tonight."

"I'll take second watch with Sirius," James claimed his spot.

"I guess I'm with you then, Harry," Remus said, sending Harry a smile.

Returning it, Harry began arranging himself in as comfortable a position for sleep.

"Alright, well goodnight boys," Lily said as she moved closed to the entrance, ready to guard it with Peter.

"Goodnight love," James responded, giving her a peck on the lips. "See you in a few hours."