A/N: Your reviews are absolute love. :) Tayler – Oh good! I'm glad you like Regulus. He was kind of the reason I started writing this, because I just love his character. I hate it when people make him all snotty and evil. But he's not really a good guy either is he? Oh, but, anyways, I'm so glad that you like it and that you were my first reviewer! –snogs senseless- You know, we ought to write an R/S together one of these days. DQOP – Oh, thank you so much! And thanks for commenting of the perspectives, you made me feel a lot better about that. :) KatanaKira – I certainly hope it will be! Thanks for the review, sugar. Captain Oz - Ooh, silver chains. Ouch. I think Remus is suffering enough already! LOL. Thanks for always being such a lovely commenter on my fics. JennyTheSpam – Thanks, hun! Yeah, someone was commenting on one of my other stories (not one I have posted on this site) that there wasn't enough of the plot right at the beginning – that I would just slowly work my way up to it as I introduced the characters and the relationships. So this time I was just like, what the hell! And decided to open with Remus in chains. LOL. I'm glad it worked. KawaiiMegami86 – Aw, I hate to disappoint, sugar, but there are definitely going to be some broken hearts in this fic. :( I mean, there has to be – we all know how it ends. But there will be moments of fluff between our puppies, I promise! I didn't rate this fic 'M' for nothing. ;) BC – Oh, I know, not the happiest fic in the world, is it? But like I said, it'll have its moments of fluff. Thanks for the review. Gianna – LOL! –joins in the breakdancing- Okay, I'm starting to get strange looks now… Katrina – LOL. I'll take that as a compliment.
Disclaimer: JKR own 'em. I just mess with 'em.
Warning: SLASH! Well, I mean, not technically yet, since Remus is kind of locked up in a death eater prison at the moment. But we'll get there eventually.
Rating: T – for some violence, language, and heavy drinking.
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Chapter Two: Torture
"Okay, Scrimgeour and Savage, I want you to follow up on the Dearborn disappearance." Mad-eye Moody commanded, pacing the front of the meeting room. His good eye paused on each person as he named them, while his magical eye kept spinning in all directions. Constant Vigilance! As Moody himself would often shout. "Williamson, I want you to take Shacklebolt with you when you check out the –"
"What about Remus?" Sirius demanded from the back of the room, cutting off his superior in the middle of his sentence. "Williamson and Savage were heading up the search! They've had him for three weeks now – we need to double our efforts, not pull people off the case!"
"In case you've forgotten, we're fighting a war, Black." Moody growled in response. "Lupin is not the only person who's missing. I don't like it any more than you, but I can't have the whole department working a single case!"
"You don't even care!" Sirius accused hotly, rising from his chair in his anger. He fixed Moody with a bitter sneer. "Don't worry, I get it. What's one less werewolf in the world, right?"
He was up against the back wall before he knew what hit him. Moody walked towards him slowly, his wand pointed squarely at Sirius's chest.
"I don't have time for your personal issues right now, Black." He told him softly, taking care to make sure he heard every word. "I know that this case means something to you so I'm going to let you keep working it. But that is the best I can do."
After taking a moment to make sure his words had sunk in, he lowered his wand, letting Sirius slide gently to the ground. Abruptly, Moody turned away from Sirius and back to the others.
"Alright, you lot get to work." He barked. "Black and I have a conversation to finish."
The others filed out dutifully, leaving Moody and Sirius alone in the room. Sirius was still on the floor, so Moody offered him a hand up. Sirius ignored it, pulling himself up.
"I'm going to tell you something, son," he said, as he pulled back the offered hand, "and it's not because I'm trying to be cruel, but because it's something you've got to understand."
He looked Sirius in the eye, pausing for emphasis.
"You are going to lose friends." He said in as gentle a voice as Moody could ever manage. "We all are. That's what war is. I know that it's hard but you're going to have to find a way to deal with it and keep going."
"You don't understand." Sirius muttered.
Moody laughed bitterly.
"I don't understand?" He asked, incredulously. "You think I haven't lost friends in this business?"
"It's different." Sirius insisted, though of course he chose not to elaborate.
Moony snorted.
"Well, I suppose everyone likes to think their problems are unique." He said, his voice losing its soft edge. "But let me tell you something right now, Black. There are a lot of people who have already lost ones they care about to this war. What makes your grief so special? Get it together."
Instead of responding, Sirius pushed past Moody and stormed out of the office. It didn't matter to him that Moody was right, the only thing that mattered was that Remus was still missing and no one was out there looking for him.
He grabbed the case files on his way out. He planned to head out to the pub and look them over again. He spent a lot of time at the pub these days. He didn't like being back at the flat without Remus. It was too empty.
He glanced down at the files in his hands as he left the building and walked out into the cool night air. There had to be something in them that they were missing. There had to be.
& & &
Remus screamed, trying to draw himself as close in as he possibly could. The only coherent thought that was left in his mind was, Oh God, make it stop!
Then, just when he thought he was about to pass out from the pain, it finally did stop. He heard the sound of sobbing filling the small room and it took him a moment to realize it was coming from himself. The death eater above him laughed mercilessly.
"It doesn't have to be like this." He reminded him, lowering his wand as if to emphasize his point. "The Dark Lord is the future. Join with him."
Remus remained silent, still clutching his knees tight to his chest.
"Do you think anyone cares what happens to you, werewolf?" The death eater sneered. "They treat you like an animal. Something to be put down when it becomes unmanageable."
Remus tried to block out the words, but a very small part of him couldn't help listening. After all, what the man was saying wasn't exactly untrue.
"The Dark Lord can give you the life you deserve," he continued, sensing that he'd finally gotten his captive's attention, "he can give you the freedom you long for."
"Empty promises." Remus mumbled, but his voice wavered slightly.
The man eyed him shrewdly.
"Perhaps," he allowed, "but could it really get any worse for you? The Ministry dictates your entire life! Where you go, what you do… even who you can love. Tell me, what exactly have they done for you that makes you think you owe them your allegiance?"
Remus was again silent. He had never doubted that he was on the right side of this fight and even now, deep down, he knew that he wasn't. But listening to the death eater's speech, a single fact became startlingly clear to him – whoever won this war, he would still lose. He would always lose.
And when he looked back up at hooded figure towering above him, he found he had no answer to give.
& & &
Sirius reread the file for the hundredth time, a collection of empty bottles strewn about the bar in front of him.
He glanced up from his work just long enough to gesture at the bartender for another drink. After a moment, he looked up again, realizing no new drink had come.
"Sorry. I'm cutting you off, mate." The bartender told him gruffly.
Sirius started slightly. He'd never been refused service before.
"I asked for another drink." He said coldly.
"And I said you ain't getting one." The man returned, crossing his arms over his chest.
Sirius stood up quickly, knocking the barstool over in the process.
"I want another drink!"
By this time, the other bar patrons had started to pay attention and the bartender was beginning to look a bit nervous. Obviously he wasn't looking to duel with a drunk auror.
"I think you've had enough, Siri." A voice came suddenly, interrupting the heavy silence.
Sirius spun around to find himself face to face with James. His best friend always had a knack of showing up when he was most needed. Or most unwanted, in this case.
James stepped around him and gathered the files up off of the bar. He took Sirius's shoulder gently and steered him towards the door. To everyone's surprise, Sirius let him.
Once they had stepped outside, however, Sirius jerked out of James's grasp.
"I don't need you to baby-sit me, Prongs." He muttered, grabbing Remus's files out of James's hands.
"Could've fooled me." James replied.
Sirius stumbled slightly as he tried to walk down the street in search of another bar. James sighed, moving to steady him.
"Come on, Sirius," he said, his voice softer now, "you're killing yourself like this. This isn't what he would want. You know that."
"No, I don't know!" Sirius spat bitterly, pushing James away once again. "He's not here, is he? So we can't ask him what he would want."
"Oh, don't give me that shit!" James exclaimed, looking at his friend with disgust. "I've been putting up with a lot from you lately Sirius, but it's time for you to pull yourself together! This – you going out drinking every night – it's not helping anything! And it's sure as hell not helping Remus."
James barely had time to register Sirius's fist coming at his face before he was sprawled out on the ground, nursing a very possibly broken nose.
He got to his feet slowly, wincing as he brought a hand to his already bruising face. He thought about healing it, but he decided to wait until he could concentrate properly. He didn't fancy accidentally disappearing his nose altogether.
"You don't care about what I'm going through!" Sirius was saying. "Just admit it. You were never okay with Remus and I being a couple."
"You know that's not true!" James yelled back, equally furious. "And even if it were, do you really think I would be that spiteful? I want to find Remus as much as anyone! He's one of my best mates, for God's sake! Of course I care."
Sirius continued to glare at James for a moment, but then all at once he slumped against the wall of a nearby building, burying his head in his hands.
"What am I supposed to do, James?" He asked softly, looking up at his friend imploringly. "I have to do something. I have to find him."
"And we will." James responded, his voice carrying a sense of certainty that he didn't actually possess.
He reached out his hand to Sirius, palm up.
"Give me the keys to your motorbike."
"I need them." Sirius whined, not moving to retrieve the desired object.
"No, what you need is to apparate home and get some sleep." James replied, still holding out his hand for the keys.
With a heavy sigh, Sirius fished them out of the pocket of his robes and handed them over.
"Good." James said, pocketing the keys. "Now I'll hold on to these for you and then first thing tomorrow morning, after you've gotten some sleep and sobered up, I'll bring the bike back to your place and we'll go over the case files together. Maybe having a fresh eye will help."
"I'm not allowed to show case files to civilians." Sirius muttered, determined to find something wrong with James's plan.
James snorted.
"Since when do you care about rules, Padfoot?" He asked, eyebrow raised. He shook his head slightly. "Go home. Get some sleep. I'll be over first thing."
Sirius knew that James was right, but he still didn't like the thought of going back to his empty flat. He thought for a moment of asking James if he could crash at his place, but at the last moment, he changed his mind.
Instead, he glanced at the growing bruise on James's face.
"Sorry about the nose." He offered.
"It'll heal." James responded lightly, but Sirius didn't hear him. He had already disappeared with a small 'pop'.
& & &
"I didn't think you'd last this long." Regulus commented upon entering the make-shift cell. It was the first time he had seen Remus since their previous conversation.
"Neither did I." Remus admitted, pulling himself up to a sitting position, careful to avoid putting any pressure on his broken leg.
"You must be a better actor than I thought." Regulus returned, attempting to hold his casual tone. "They still seem to think they will be able to break you."
"What makes you so sure that they won't?" Remus asked sharply. He fixed Regulus with a probing stare, but Regulus met his gaze full on. Remus was the first to look away.
"I am a dark creature, after all." He reminded the other boy sarcastically. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to trust a werewolf?"
Remus almost thought he saw a half-smile grace Regulus's features as he listened to the ironic comment about his mother, but it was gone too quickly for him to be sure.
"I know my brother, and they would never be able to turn him." Regulus said after a moment, keeping his voice so low that Remus had to strain to hear him. It took Remus a second to realize that he had returned to the original question.
"So if you and he are…" He paused, blushing slightly. "If he trusts you the way I think he does, then they won't be able to turn you either, werewolf or not. Sirius is never wrong about people."
Remus sat back in silence at this proclamation. It sounded like something that might have come out of his own mouth. Yet, it came from Regulus, the hooded figure of betrayal that stood before him. He thought of Sirius, probably at Auror headquarters this very moment, trying to track the death eater's movements. How had two brothers ended up taking such opposite paths in life?
"Why are you here, Regulus?" The question escaped from his lips before he even registered that he was speaking. He watched the younger Black's face visibly sag with the weight of the question, and he suddenly wondered why he hadn't asked it until now.
"I didn't think it would be like this." Regulus answered faintly, moving his gaze to the window.
"What did you think it would be?" Remus shot back, not able to keep a bit of anger from creeping into his voice.
"I don't know!" Regulus exclaimed, running an agitated hand through his hair in almost perfect imitation of his brother. "I thought that it would make me important, I guess. That I would belong to something… bigger. That I would have people actually care about me."
"Sirius cares." Remus whispered.
"Sirius left!" Regulus spat, spinning back around to face Remus finally. "He just took off and left me in that God-forsaken house…"
He stopped suddenly, biting back the rest of his outburst.
"None of it matters now anyway, just like you said." He continued after taking a breath to calm himself. "What's done is done. You chose your side and I chose mine. Yet, here we are, both trapped."
Remus opened his mouth to argue that their situations weren't the same, but then he closed it, realizing he knew that they were. They were all trapped in this war really, in one way or another.
"I need you to do something for me." He said softly, after several minutes had passed in silence.
"I can't help you." Regulus told him, glancing up sharply at the question. "You know there's nothing I can do."
"There is one thing." Remus insisted.
Regulus cocked a eyebrow.
"What?"
"I need to get a message to Sirius." Remus answered.
Regulus sighed deeply. He opened his mouth to refuse, but Remus cut him off.
"Please." He begged. "I'm not asking you to do it for me, I'm asking you to do it for your brother. He needs closure. I have to say goodbye."
Regulus closed his eyes, bringing his fingers to his temple as if he were having a severe headache. He thought of his brother the last time they had spoken, over a year ago. Sirius had invited him to come live with he and Remus, just like he had every year since he had moved out of their parents' house. I should have just said yes, he thought ruefully.
After what seemed like an eternity, he finally opened his eyes and looked back down at the broken young man lying chained to the floor in front of him – the person who meant more to his brother than anyone else in the world. There were other things to consider, though. Things that had already been set in motion. Things that were more important than one single man. Even if that man was his brother.
He took a deep breath.
"What do you want me to tell him?" He heard himself ask.
He just hoped to God that he wouldn't regret it.
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And there's chapter two! Oh, and I just found out that it is a statistical fact that reviewers have been found to live 38.23034 times longer than non-reviewers. Coincidence?
Next chapter… the Black brothers meet for the last time and Sirius refuses to say goodbye to Remus.