Resolutions

By Neurotica

Twenty-Seven

Over the next few weeks, Remus was hardly seen out of his office in the Ministry of Magic, much to his wife's irritation. He'd taken it upon himself to attempt locating and contacting the families of the women and the children werewolves taken from the Underground. Unfortunately, those who did have families didn't exactly seem likely to be welcomed by their relations—Remus had gotten a letter from one wizard whose daughter had been bitten at age eight and had been forced by Greyback to live in the Underground for twelve years. One of the kinder sentences he'd written had included the phrase "hope she burns in hell where she belongs."

Thus far, there'd only been two families who'd been pleased to hear from Remus out of the twenty he'd written. One was a wizarding family who'd thought their twelve-year-old son had been lost forever when he'd disappeared from their home five years before. They'd tearfully picked him up from St. Mungo's two days ago, and his mother had written Remus, thanking him for what he'd done. The other was a Muggle family. They would be brought to the Ministry rather than the wizarding hospital to retrieve their five-year-old daughter so they could have their questions answered about what had happened and how to help care for their girl now.

The other werewolves currently living at St. Mungo's had been grateful to get away from the Underground. For the most part, their stories were the same—they'd been bitten in or near their homes by Greyback and taken to the Underground while they were still unconscious by unknown people. All the women had told Remus they would care for the children whose families didn't want them. They were reluctant to trust the Ministry's word about them having homes and jobs if they wanted, but the idea certainly wasn't unwelcome to them. Remus thought once they got used to the idea of being away from the Underground, and Greyback's brainwashing, they would be a lot more open to receiving help from the wizards.

But we'll only know for sure if we can get though the first few months without any major issues...

He glanced at a picture frame on his desk of him and Emmeline on their wedding day.

And the only way I'll live through the next few months is to get home to my wife.

She'd hardly gotten any sleep the night before due to the twins being incredibly active. She and Remus had both given up on sleep after about the third hour of the babies' nonstop kicking and spent the next few hour discussing their future with their sons. They'd even settled on a name for one of the boys—

Remus' entire train of thought was cut off by a loud siren that he'd only heard once before inside the Ministry—the day Arthur had been killed. His heart was racing as he listened to the announcement from the cool female voice. "Attention Ministry of Magic officials, intruders have breached the Ministry security wards and now occupy the following areas: the Atrium, level six—Department of Magical Transportation, level two—Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and level one—the offices of the Minister of Magic. All personnel are to report to a specified level of the Ministry of Magic with your wands drawn..."

"Bloody hell, not again..." Remus muttered, jumping from his chair, grabbing his wand, and running out of his office. Half of his department was already out the door, the rest looking to him for instructions. "Level six, about half of you," he said urgently. "The Aurors and DMLE can take care of themselves. The rest of you, head to the Minister's office."

He dind't wait for any of them to reply—he went the opposite way from where they were going. If Emmeline hadn't been on a leave of absence, he would've gone to her department. As it was, she was (thankfully) safe at Number Twelve, and regardless of what he'd told his department, he was going to the DMLE level—they could take care of themselves, but Remus would go fight whatever there was to fight by Sirius' side. Sirius would do the same for him, after all.

As he burst through the doors of the Auror Headquarters, his mind barely registered the fact that there were about two Death Eaters for every Auror, and that Sirius was fighting three of his own, before Tonks' voice rang out, "Remus! GET DOWN!"

He didn't wait to find out why she was telling him to duck, but slammed himself to the floor in an instant. He felt rather than saw a jet of light he was certain was the Killing Curse rushing over his head. He rolled over onto his back and threw a full Body-Bind at the Death Eater who'd tried to kill him. Scrambling to his feet, he looked around wildly for his best friend—the Head Auror had been pushed against the wall by his Death Eaters, though he was still firing off spells with every bit of energy he had.

"STUPEFY!" Remus shouted at one of the Death Eaters, then threw a tripping jinx at another. Sirius was able to stun the third before limping towards Remus. "All right, Padfoot?" Remus called over the noise of the battle.

"Never better," Sirius replied, trying to catch his breath and wincing. Remus looked down had found his friend's leg had been the victim of a cutting hex. But before he could comment on the injury, Sirius pointed his wand just over Remus' shoulder and shouted, "IMPEDIMENTA!"

Remus spun around and spotted a Death Eater being thrown against a cubicle wall. "EXPELLIARMUS!" he shouted at a Death Eater who'd come up behind Proudfoot while the Auror was picking himself up off the ground after a rather nasty fall.

"Cheers!" Proudfoot called to him before turning back to the battle.

Wandfire was flying in all directions and it was difficult to tell who was firing what spell. He and Sirius stood back-to-back as they fought four Death Eaters, neither of them pausing for even a second of breath. Remus hardly hesitated when he was hit in his bad knee with a punching jinx, but cried out and turned furiously to the offending wizard with his own cutting hex to the shoulder.

"Nice one, Moony!" Sirius called appreciatively over his shoulder, taking down two of his opponents with banishing spells—he threw them against the wall, knocking them unconscious. He turned back to Remus. "Oh no you don't!"
he shouted. Remus turned in the direction Sirius had his wand pointed, and saw that one of the younger Aurors was about to be ambushed by five Death Eaters at once. With a wave of his wand, Sirius picked up a piece of fallen cubicle wall and slammed it into the Death Eaters. Remus only had a moment to appreciate Sirius' innovation before a bright blue light filled Auror Headquarters and every single Death Eater disappeared.

"What the..." Sirius said, staring around. "Where'd they go?"

It took Remus a moment to calm himself from the battle, but when he did, he came to a disturbing conclusion. "Voldemort's here..." he breathed, looking wide-eyed at Sirius. His best friend was looking back at him as though there was nothing he wanted more than to have heard Remus wrong. "Don't you remember the Triwizard Tournament? Voldemort made all the Death Eaters disappear halfway through the attack, right after he and Harry finished their duel."

Sirius blanched. "Good lord... The Minister..." He turned to his Aurors and half of the DMLE office. "Everyone not injured get up to the Minister's office. NOW!" he bellowed when the Aurors only stared at him. They all snapped out of their confusion and followed Sirius and Remus through the corridors. They dind't waste time with the lifts, instead taking the stairs two or three at a time until they reached the Atrium. They sprinted their way past all the other Ministry personnel who were checking each other over for injuries and burst through the tall oak doors that hid Minister Bones' office. Remus could have fainted with relief when he spotted the Minister sitting up against the wall with a few of her advisors surrounding her.

"Ah, the calvary finally arrives," she said, attempting to smile. She was a little battered and bruised, and seemed to have a broken arm judging by how she cradled it, but otherwise looked fine.

"Are you all right, Minister?" Sirius asked, also visibly relieved she hadn't been too hurt.

"Just fine, Black," Bones replied. "Were any of them captured?"

Sirius shook his head. "No, ma'am," he said. "Remus and I think Voldemort—" a shudder ran around the room, "—was here and that he transported all the Death Eaters away, just like he did at the Triwizard."

Bones cursed almost as well as Sirius, making the Auror have to struggle to keep a straight face. She sighed. "That's what I was afraid of," she said heavily. "He was here, then. Did anybody see him?"

Remus' brow furrowed and he frowned. "He... dind't come after you, Minister?"

She shook her head. "No," she replied. "Should he have?"

"I just thought..." Remus turned to Sirius. "Why else would he come to the Ministry in the middle of the day?"

Regardless of the fact that he was in the middle of a Charms lesson, and regardless of the fact the classroom was exceptionally loud that day, Harry had fallen asleep on his books. It'd taken him a few moments to make sense of the dream or vision or whatever it was he was seeing, but after a minute or so of colorful chaos he could clearly see the familiar form of Lord Voldemort walking down a set of corridors. Harry followed him silently until they reached what looked to be towering bookshelves with yellowish glowing orbs of all sizes filling them. He barely stifled a gasp when he realized Voldemort had led him to the Hall of Prophecies in the Department of Mysteries.

Harry tried to assure himself that what the Dark Lord undoubtedly sought had been destroyed two years ago by Harry himself, and he nearly had himself fully convinced when Voldemort stepped in front of one particular shelf. The orb Voldemort reached out a pale, bony hand for didn't look at all like the others—it was a bright goldish color and was void of dust—Harry would have guessed his prophecy had just been very recently made. A white label was affixed to it:

SPT to APWBD

Dark Lord

and Harry Potter

Harry's heart raced as Voldemort's fingers closed around it and pulled it from the shelf. The Dark Lord turned to face Harry, a look of evil triumph on his face. "Finally, Harry Potter," he said wickedly, "the key to your destruction..."

Hermione jumped with a yelp as Harry let out a strangled yell and jolted awake. His face was empty of all its color and his lightning-bolt scar, bright white at the moment, stood out more than usual.

"Harry, what's the matter?" Ron asked worriedly as Harry fought to catch his breath.

"Dumbledore..." Harry breathed. "I have to see Dumbledore..."

The entire classroom was eerily silent as all the students paused in their practicing of glamour charms to see what was going on at the Gryffindor table. Flitwick hopped off his stack of pillows and quickly walked over to the. "Harry, what is it?" he squeaked.

"Have to go," Harry was muttering over and over, stuffing his books haphazardly into his schoolbag, and tossing it over his shoulder. Before anyone could stop him Harry was out of the room, not bothering to close the door behind him.

"What d'you think that was all about?" Ron asked in a quiet, nervous voice as whispers broke out amongst the students.

Hermione shook her head slowly, still staring at the open door Harry had just disappeared through. "I don't know," she replied, not just a bit fearfully. "Whatever it was, I highly doubt it was anything good to warrant that sort of reaction..."

Less than an hour after the attack at the Ministry, Remus had Flooed to Hogwarts to fill Dumbledore in on what had happened. He'd just gotten to the part of the story where the Death Eaters disappeared from Auror Headquarters when the Headmaster's office door was thrown open and Harry stumbled through, falling to his knees in obvious pain.

Remus dropped his empty teacup to the floor an crossed the room in four long strides. "Harry," he said urgently, dropping to his knees beside Harry and lifting the boy's head to see his face scrunched up and his eyes closed tightly. "Harry, what's wrong?"

"He knows," Harry panted, opening his eyes a touch to look at Remus. "He found it... He stole it and now he knows..."

"Remus, bring him to the sofa, please," Dumbledore said, standing from his own chair. Remus helped Harry stand, still limping from his knee being reinjured from the battle, and led his boy to the sofa, sitting down beside him. Dumbledore knelt before them, staring into Harry's eyes. "Harry," he said very calmly, "did you have a vision?"

Wincing and grabbing his forehead, Harry nodded. "It was Voldemort," he said weakly. "He was in the Ministry, the Hall of Prophecies. The prophecy that was made about him and me... it was there... And he got it..."

Remus looked at Dumbledore in alarm. "That's impossible," he whispered mechanically. "That prophecy was destroyed. We all watched it smash against the dungeon wall... Right, Albus?"

Dumbledore sighed heavily and stood, going back to his desk, looking quite grave. "I was afraid this might happen," he said quietly, almost to himself. Remus' heart momentarily stopped beating. "A prophecy that remains unfilled at the time of its destruction has the power to regenerate itself to its original form. It can take years or decades, or merely months, but it has been known to happen."

The air in the room was growing thin and Remus was sure he was about to suffocate. "That's what he was at the Ministry... He knew the prophecy had been regenerated..."

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes," he said simply. "And this could explain why Minister Bones was discovered in the Department of Mysteries while she was under the Imperius Curse. She may have been trying to find out if the prophecy had been replaced yet."

"Good lord," Remus breathed, his arm going around Harry's shoulders. "He'll know exactly what it says—he'll be after Harry."

"He's always been after me," Harry said dully, leaning his head on Remus' shoulder in an attempt to comfort both of them. "This doesn't really change anything, does it? All it's going to tell him is that once I'm dead, there's no one to stop him."

"That's more than we ever wanted him to know," Remus whispered, staring blankly at the floor. "Much more."

The room was silent for long minutes and strangely enough, the only thought going through Remus' mind was how he would break this news to Sirius. They'd thought they'd gotten past the constant worrying of whether Voldemort would get his fingers around the prophecy when it was smashed. The late nights the wizards had spent discussing what could happen were too numerous to count... The worries that it was protected enough was almost overwhelming... All Remus and Sirius could do was to be certain Harry was well-protected until the time came that he'd have to face Voldemort.

There was a knock at the door—Dumbledore called for his visitor to enter. To Remus' slight surprise, it was Naomi and she looked just as worried as Remus felt. "Filius said Harry had some sort of fit in class. Have either of you..." She trailed off when she spotted the source of her concern. "Oh, hello, Harry," she said lamely. Harry offered a limp wave.

"Please sit, Naomi," Dumbledore said, gesturing to the empty chair across from his desk. "You may be able to shed some light on our latest dilemma."

Naomi nodded and glanced over at Remus as she took her seat. "You all right?" she asked him. "You look like you've been in a battle."

Remus managed a small, dry smile. "I have," he said hoarsely. Naomi's eyebrows shot up. "There was an attack at the Ministry. Sirius is fine," he added hastily at the look on her face. "He's helping with cleanup..." He quickly ran through the story he'd just told Dumbledore, and at the end, the adults looked to Harry for him to fill them in on his dream. "So now we know Voldemort has no fear of ambushing the Ministry, even when it's full of wizards, and even worse, he now has the prophecy."

"Well," Naomi said pensively after a few moment of thinking, "it really doesn't change much—"

"That's what Harry said," Remus muttered.

"Voldemort's had an idea of what the second half of the prophecy said, even though he never heard it all. I think his main concern, though, once the prophecy was smashed, was to get rid of Dumbledore—he's convinced himself that once Dumbledore is gone, nothing will stand in his way."

Remus sighed. "And now he knows better," he said heavily. "Though, I must say, having Albus on our side isn't exactly a disappointment. On the bright side, there is only one Horcrux left—the snake. Once she's gone, we'll have a decent shot at taking Voldemort down for good."

"Who's we?" Harry said quietly. Remus looked at him. "The prophecy says I have to do it—"

"Ah," Dumbledore interrupted. "That is where you are wrong, my dear boy. The prophecy says you have the power to defeat Lord Voldemort. My memory is not what it once was, but I do not recall anything in the prophecy stating you cannot have help in your quest. In fact, I would consider you a bit of a lunatic if you were to take on Lord Voldemort on your own."

Harry actually chuckled a little.

"And Sirius and I have told you for years you wouldn't be alone in this, Harry," Remus said to the boy quietly. "We will be with you every step of the way, to the very end."

"As will I," Naomi said determinedly. "And I can almost guarantee Emmeline isn't going to just sit around and watch if she can help it."

"Do not ever forget, Harry," Dumbledore said, gazing at him over his half-moon spectacles, "you will never be alone. I can think of three Gryffindors who would be none too pleased if they were told to stay behind when you were finally forced to face Voldemort."

Even if Harry didn't feel better, Remus did. Though he'd always known it to be true, he was relieved to hear someone else Harry was far from alone. "Well, now all we have to do is tell Sirius," he said. "Any volunteers?"

"Oh come now, Moony," Naomi said, grinning in spite of everything. "You've got no fear facing dozens of sleeping werewolves or having a Death Eater try to kill you, but one Auror has you shaking in your fur?"

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Yes, especially since this particular Auror has a habit of punching the nearest object to him when he hears bad news."

"IS THIS A BLOODY JOKE?"

Remus had decided to wait until the weekend to tell Sirius what Harry had seen in his vision—the main reason being that Naomi could get away from Hogwarts and back to Number Twelve to do what she could to help Remus keep his best friend from going ballistic. So far, it wasn't going too well.

"Whatever happened to the days when something was broken and didn't come back?" Sirius demanded loudly, pacing angrily around the kitchen. "And how do we know this wasn't just something Voldemort planted in Harry's head to get everyone all riled up? It wouldn't be the first time, would it? You told me about that vision he had when Lucius got a hold of me back in August..."

Remus glanced at Emmeline and Naomi. "Sirius, I think, and Dumbledore agrees, that this was a real vision."

"Yes, well, I'd rather not think my godson is in even more danger today than he was a week ago—"

"My god, Sirius, open your eyes!" Remus shouted, jumping out of his chair, suddenly quite angry. "Harry has been in danger before he was even born! That's not going to go away just because you refuse to believe what's right in front of your eyes!"

Sirius was momentarily shocked out his pacing by Remus' outburst. He was over it quickly. "So just because Dumbledore says it's true, you're going to believe it?" the Auror asked harshly. "Not everything Dumbledore says should be taken as gospel, Remus! Do you not remember when Harry was kidnapped by Wormtail and the oh-so-wise Headmaster suggested we should just bloody wait? Do you remember what happened while we waited around? And we still haven't gotten an explanation on that!"

Remus clenched his jaw in anger. Naomi and Emmeline exchanged nervous glances. "We all make mistakes, Sirius," he said, doing his best to keep his voice even. "I could spend two days pointing out yours." Sirius clenched his fists to the point that his knuckles turned white. "Are you going to hit me, Sirius? Will that make you feel better? Go right ahead, hit me, but I can guarantee it will change absolutely nothing. Dumbledore wasn't the only one who said Harry's vision was real—Harry himself said so. Now unless you're calling your godson a liar..." Remus took another deep breath before speaking again. "Think about it, Sirius... We both know damn well Voldemort was in the Ministry. He could've been there to kill the Minister, but he wasn't. This is the only other alternative that makes sense, even if you don't fully understand it.

"In all honesty, I still don't understand why it is that Voldemort chose Harry. It could have just as easily been Neville Longbottom—he could have been the Boy-Who-Lived. Frank and Alice could have died that Halloween night, instead of spending years in St. Mungo's until they were murdered anyway. Lily and James could still be alive. You never would have gone to Azkaban. Naomi and I would have been married with four children. I never would have had Emmeline in my life the way I currently do. You and I never would have had the chance to raise Harry and know him as well as we do. None of this has ever made sense to me. But that doesn't matter. Whether or not it makes sense is not the issue here. The more time we spend trying to make sense of it, the less time we'll have preparing for what will happen."

Sirius stared at his best friend for long minutes, his fists slowly beginning to relax. "Have I told you lately how much I hate your lectures?"

Remus smirked a little. "Not lately, no," he said.

The other wizard sighed heavily. "Well, you're right, of course—it's one of the things I loathe about you," he said resignedly. He looked over Remus' shoulders to his wife and Emmeline, who was holding Mira up on the table while the baby gurgled and babbled incoherently. "We'll get through this. Right?"

Remus nodded slowly and thoughtfully. "We always do, don't we?"

Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione sat in the seventh year boys' dormitory on that same Saturday afternoon having almost the same conversation that Sirius and Remus had just finished. The only difference was the stony silence and slightly pale faces of Harry's three best friends. Harry had told them years ago that a prophecy about himself and Voldemort existed, and he'd even told them the first half—the part that Voldemort had known since before Harry was born; that Harry had the power to vanquish the Dark Lord. What currently had his friends concerned, and rightly so, was the second half—the half about either Harry or Voldemort having to be destroyed so the other could survive. And then Harry told them that Voldemort now knew the prophecy in its entirety.

Their reactions had been rather predictable: Ginny had increased the grip she had on his hand, silently telling him she would be with him no matter what; Ron, though slightly green, had his jaw clenched determinedly; Hermione, after a moment of stunned silence, had burst out that she'd once read something about prophecies regenerating, then spent several minutes exclaiming over how she'd always thought the second half of the prophecy might be something like this.

All in all, Harry thought his revelation had gone over well. "So," he said very hoarsely, his voice breaking the others from their silence.

"You-Know-Who has the prophecy?" Ron asked. "You're sure?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, pretty sure. Minister Bones made the Department of Mysteries admit that the prophecy had been regenerated, recreated, whatever you want to call it. They even went and checked the shelf it was supposed to be on, but..." He shrugged. "It wasn't there. Remus said they were pretty shocked about that."

Ginny stared at him. "How can you be so calm about this?"

"What am I supposed to do, Gin?" Harry asked her. "Do you want me to let this run my life? I've been dealing with the idea of Voldemort—" only a small shudder ran around the room, "—getting hold of this prophecy since I was nine. And now that it's happened, it only means I'll probably have to face him sooner than I'd wanted."

"I don't want you to let it run your life," Ginny replied. "I'm just a little surprised you're not more worried about this."

"Sirius and Remus do enough worrying so I don't have to," Harry said, grinning a little. After a few moments of silence, he turned to Ron. "You ready to show the girls your little... achievement?"

Hermione and Ginny looked at the redheaded boy as well. "What—you really expect me to try and outdo the Boy-Who-Lived?" Ron asked with his own grin. "You're sure Dean, Seamus, and Neville are gone for a while?"

Harry nodded, double-checking the Marauders' Map. "Neville is down with Professor Sprout in greenhouse for, and Dean and Seamus are busy flirting with Lavender and Parvati."

"Well, just to be sure..." Ron stood, pointing his wand at the door. "Colloportus."

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "If I didn't know any better, dear big brother, I'd say you've been reading your Charms book."

"Shut it," Ron growled playfully. He glanced at Harry and stepped out into the middle of the dorm room. While the girls looked on curiously, Ron shut his eyes tightly and began muttering something under his breath. Moments later, he began to shrink rapidly, his hair grew longer, his mouth lengthened, and he grew a long, busy tail. The only things that remained were the blue of his eyes and the red of his hair—or rather fur.

Hermione gasped. "You did it," she breathed, getting up from the bed and going to kneel in front of her boyfriend's Animagus form—he barely reached her knees. "You actually did it..."

Ron rolled his eyes, silently passing a message to Harry that said, Always the tone of surprise from this one...

Harry chuckled as Ginny went to stand beside Hermione. Ginny got on her knees on Ron's left and ran a hand down the smooth fur on her brother's back. "Mum's going to kill you. You do know that, don't you?" she said very matter-of-factly.

Ron opened his mouth and let his tongue hang out—a gesture Harry had come to associate with Remus in his wolf form when he laughed.