Resolutions

By Neurotica

Thirty

Even during a war, there was still time found to celebrate. Two days after Christmas, the celebration was for Fleur Delacour and Bill Weasley. The morning of the wedding, Molly spent the majority of her time running around like a madwoman, trying to make certain everything was running perfectly. The witches of Number Twelve spent hours dressing, doing their hair and make-up, and acting giddy—even Fleur was caught genuinely smiling more than once. The wizards were much calmer, sleeping in a bit later, and took refuge in the kitchen to keep from getting caught up in the witches' insanity two levels up.

Sirius, Remus, and Harry stood against the kitchen counter in their dress robes, drinking tea and watching Bill pace nervously but happily around, muttering under his breath.

"Was I like this before my wedding?" Remus asked his family quietly.

Sirius and Harry snorted. "Worse," Sirius said, taking a sip of his drink. "I was about to put a calming charm over you before you gave yourself a bloody heart attack."

"You weren't much better," Harry told his sniggering godfather. "You were sweating so badly before you and Naomi got married that you were leaving puddles behind when you walked."

Sirius made a face at him. "Just wait till your wedding, kid. You'll be a nervous wreck, too."

Across the room, Charlie—Bill's natural choice for best man—glanced at his watch. "Alright, gents, time to go. Our car should be waiting out front."

Bill left the room first, smiling shakily as he passed Remus, Sirius, and Harry. "You'll be fine," Remus assured him soothingly.

"Just don't trip," Sirius added.

Remus slapped him in the back of the head. "That's a good way to make him nervous, Padfoot." Sirius shrugged. "But if I remember correctly, you have a knack for making grooms even more nervous than they already are, don't you? James was in the same state of mind as I was when you finished with him."

"What can I say?" Sirius said, grinning. "I was born a Marauder."

The ceremony for Bill and Fleur's wedding was beautiful—if you ignored all the very pink decorations. The happy couple spoke their vows in both French and English, and enjoyed a sweet kiss at the end before the attendees cheered the newlyweds out of the wedding hall and into the side room where the reception would be held.

Compared to the other weddings Remus had attended, this one was tranquil—granted, every wedding he'd been to, Sirius had been at and had caused something to either explode or act in a way it wasn't supposed to (case and point, the silverware at Lily and James' wedding jumping up and dancing when one grabbed a piece to begin their meal. The majority of Lily's Muggle relatives had to have their memories modified afterwards; Lily had not been happy.)

But in a strange turn of events, Sirius was actually behaving today. He was spending his time mingling with the other guests, specifically Fleur's family.

"Since when does Sirius know French?" Harry asked Remus, watching his godfather chat happily with a tall thin man that looked to be Fleur's father.

"He's been practically fluent in it since he was a kid," Naomi answered, bouncing Mira on her knee. "The Blacks are of French descent, and Mrs. Black took pride in her children knowing the language. Basically, it made them look better than the common English-speaking prats they associated with, and as good as the other perfect pureblood families."

Remus nodded. "But Sirius usually used it to curse his cousins or anyone who made him angry. I'm surprised he remembers anything other than the curses."

"Didn't I hear him once arguing with his mother's portrait in French?" Emmeline asked.

Remus grinned. "Yes," he said. "And if he would have said what he had in English, you would have Scourgified his mouth. He used to try and get away with cursing at the Potters' house by doing it in French; I'm almost positive Mr. Potter understood exactly what he was saying."

"He did," Naomi said certainly. "But he was impressed that Sirius had such an extensive vocabulary that he let it slide."

Harry chuckled. "I should have had him teach me some of that extensive vocabulary."

"If he had, he never would have survived this long," Remus said matter-of-factly. "Now, my dear Harry, why are you over here with us old geezers instead of dancing with your fiancée?"

Emmeline and Naomi stared at him. "Who are you calling an old geezer, Lupin?" Naomi asked incredulously. "You're the oldest at the table... And none of us have even hit forty."

"They're in denial that they're old," Remus whispered loudly, earning slaps from both witches in his head and back. "Ow. I'm going to shut up now before I end up like Sirius with my feet stuck in my mouth."

"And we're magic, so we can make that a literal statement," Emmeline said sweetly.

"So violent," Remus said, shaking his head. "Why do I attract such violent, vindictive women?"

"They like the fur and preference for rare meat?" Harry suggested. "I'm going to go now," he added at Remus' glare. "See you."

Remus shook his head and sipped his glass of champagne. "Are you up to dancing, my love?" he asked Emmeline.

She smiled. "I am," she said. "Are you asking?"

"I am."

Naomi rolled her eyes. "So go dance before you make everyone sick with the sweetness."

Remus smirked. "Just because your husband is busy chatting up the French, that doesn't mean you have to be hostile to your friends."

"Sod off," Naomi responded. "Mira and I are having a grand old time, aren't we, sweetie?"

Mira responded with her toothless grin.

Remus stood and helped Emmeline up. "You do know there's a playpen in the corner for the small children, don't you?"

Naomi nodded. "I don't think she's ready to play with the older babies just yet, though. I'm still paranoid that she'll get hurt when one of Harry's friends holds her."

"You don't have to worry about that," Emmeline said. "Harry's friends are very careful with her, and I'm pretty sure I saw one of the other mothers keeping an eye on the babies in the playpen. Besides, Mira needs to learn to be social with other children—this is the perfect time."

"Maybe in a bit, then," Naomi said, still uncomfortable with the idea. "You two go dance."

Remus winked at her and led Emmeline to the dance floor. Dancing with a woman that was seven months pregnant with twins didn't turn out to be the easiest thing in the world. They'd chosen a slow song by Celestina Warbeck, even though Remus was quite certain his wife despised the singer.

"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked his wife concernedly halfway through the song. "We can sit if you'd like..."

She rolled her eyes at him just as she always did when he became overly concerned with her health. "I'm fine, dear, really," she said, moving as close to him as she could with her protruding belly. "Besides, we haven't danced in ages, and I've missed this."

He nodded. "I don't want you to hurt yourself, Emmeline. I'm not even sure you should have come to the wedding."

She sighed. "Remus, calm down. You don't like it when I coddle you on the full moon, and this is no different."

"It is different. You're pregnant with our children. What hurts you hurts them. And I don't want any of you hurt."

"We're fine," she assured him, kissing him softly. "Now shut up and dance."

Naomi smiled as she watched the Lupins dance. They really did make a good couple—it had taken her months after she'd first heard they were together to admit that, but it was true. She still loved Remus with all her heart, but it was more of a sisterly love than anything else. And Emmeline had quickly become one of her best friends. The last female friends she had were Lily and Julia, and really, after Lily and James died, she'd lost all her friends until Sirius decided to forgive her.

Speaking of Sirius, he was now dancing with Fleur's little sister Gabrielle on the other side of the room. "And one day, Mira, Daddy will dance with you like that," Naomi said as her daughter looked around the room interestedly—or as interestedly as a four-month-old could look at anything. "First we have to teach you to walk. Or even crawl... We've got a lot to work on, sweetie." Naomi glanced behind her at the refreshment table. "But until then, Mummy's going to get some punch." She placed Mira in the baby chair beside the table. "And you're probably hungry too, aren't you? How do pureed bananas sound?"

Mira responded again by grinning as her mother tickled her stomach.

Naomi stood and turned to the table, grabbing a plastic cup, filling it with punch. There was a platter of finger sandwiches, so she took a few of those as well. When she turned back to the table, she dropped everything in her hands. Mira wasn't in her chair.

"Mira?" Naomi said, trying not to panic. She got to her hands and knees, ignoring the fact that she was wearing a dress and checked under the table. She looked all around the room—if someone had grabbed her daughter, they couldn't have gotten too far.

Don't be stupid! She thought. Everyone in this bloody room is a witch or wizard—they could have Disapparated or Disillusioned or wearing an Invisibility Cloak...

"Oh god," she groaned, tears filling her eyes. "Please god don't let her be gone."

Trying not to run so she wouldn't cause too much of a panic, she quickly made her way over to Sirius, pulling him away from his dance partner rougher than she'd meant. "Where is she?" she demanded.

Sirius looked at her in both fear and worry. "Naomi, what's wrong?"

"Mira, she's gone... I turned my back for fifteen seconds at most, and when I turned back, she was gone!"

More fear and panic crossed Sirius' face for a flash of a second. "Okay, calm down. She can't have gone far... She doesn't know how to walk... Maybe Remus or Emmeline or Harry or one of his friends... Molly... Anybody, they could have picked her up."

"If they had, why wouldn't they have stuck around to let me know they were taking her?" Naomi asked. She was beginning to shake fearfully.

Sirius gulped. "Right," he said. "Go find Remus and Emmeline, tell them what's going on. I'm going to make an announcement..." Naomi looked at him helplessly. "It'll be all right," he assured her quietly, pulling her close for a quick hug. "She's got to be around here somewhere... Let's not overreact just yet. Okay?"

Jerkily, Naomi nodded. "Okay," she whispered. With what she assumed was supposed to be an encouraging smile, Sirius made a beeline to the front of the reception hall where bride and groom table was.

Remus and Emmeline found Naomi first, both smiling happily. The smiles disappeared when they laid eyes on their friend's face. "Naomi? Are you all right?" Remus asked.

She shook her head. "I can't find Mira," she said. Just saying the words made her feel like the world's worst mother. How could she have left her baby alone, even if it was just for a few seconds?

"Can I have everyone's attention?" The music cut off abruptly and Sirius' voice rang across the room. "I'm sorry to interrupt the party, but my daughter seems to have gone missing. She's four-months-old, has black hair, and her name is Mira. If you all could, please look around for her..."

Remus muttered something under his breath; Naomi looked at him oddly. "Anti-Disapparation jinx," he said calmly. "And no one is going out that door if they have a baby with them until said baby is identified as not being Mira. We're going to find her, Naomi."

"What happened?" Harry demanded, pushing through the crowd to get to his family.

"Harry, I need you to go to the door. Keep an eye out for anyone who doesn't look like they belong here," Remus said in his authoritative tone. "And if you do find someone, do not let them leave, no matter what it takes. Understand?"

Harry nodded and went to do as told.

The next hour or so was nothing more than a blur for Naomi. Every room in the building was searched. Every table was turned over. Sirius even used one of Mira's blankets to perform a tracking charm that would detect if she was within ten miles. Nothing turned up even one clue that she was near. It was like everything else that seemed to happen in the wizarding world these days; Mira was just gone.

Without even knowing it, Naomi burst into tears, and before she could get herself under control, she was a crying, wailing mess. A pair of strong arms pulled her out of her chair and she suddenly felt the warm chest of her husband against her face, doing everything in his power to comfort her.

"I'm so sorry," she cried, her voice muffled in his robes. "This is all my fault. I'm so sorry, Sirius!"

"Shh," he murmured in her hair. "It's not your fault. These things happen, baby, and we're not immune to any of it."

"He's just trying to get back at me," she heard herself say, ignoring what he'd said. "He took her to get back at me."

If Sirius hadn't understood the full meaning of this statement, he did a damn good job at hiding it. "He doesn't have her, Naomi. We're going to find her..."

After what seemed like another hour, but was probably only a few minutes, Sirius asked Remus to take her back to Grimmauld to lie down. Molly said she would get Emmeline back safely. Sirius was going to the Ministry to get some more help in the search for their daughter. "Please find her," Naomi begged him before she and Remus left. "She's only a baby, Sirius, she can't survive on her own."

Sirius breathed in sharply and Naomi was sure he'd swiped at his eyes. "I'll find her," he promised, nodding to Remus. Next thing she knew, Naomi was being Portkeyed back to Number Twelve.

The moment Naomi and Remus disappeared, Sirius fell to the nearest solid object to him—the floor—unable to support his weak legs any longer. His baby girl, his daughter, his little princess was missing, and there wasn't any clue to where she could have gone. Everyone at the wedding had cooperated in trying to find signs that someone who wasn't supposed to have been there had been and that they'd taken Mira. He dealt with missing persons cases all the time, some involving young children, but the only time he'd had to handle something so personal was when Harry had disappeared.

Naomi had said "he'd taken Mira to get back at her." The only "he" Sirius could think of that would want to get back at Naomi was Voldemort, or maybe Lucius Malfoy—but Malfoy was in Azkaban. Sirius didn't want to think about what would happen to his daughter if Voldemort had her...

"Sirius," said a voice at his shoulder. He used all his strength to look up at Tonks. "We should get to the Ministry, get the other Aurors involved. Charlie is coming with us..."

The Head Auror nodded numbly. It took him a few seconds to realize someone was helping him stand and recognized the person as his godson. "You should head home," he said hoarsely to the boy.

But Harry shook his head. "I'm helping," he said. "You need all the people who know Mira that you can get."

Sirius couldn't even muster the energy to argue; instead he heard himself agreeing to Harry helping out. "You will follow any instructions I give you. There will be no arguing. Understand?"

"Yeah, of course," Harry said. "I just want to help find her."

"Yeah," Sirius said, his voice catching. "We're going to Side-Along Apparate to the Ministry since you don't have clearance to get in. Take my arm."

Sirius was slightly surprised that he got both himself and Harry to the Ministry without a major splinching issue. Right when they arrived, and he had a look around Auror Headquarters, Sirius had the urge to yell at all his Aurors to stop their laughing and joking and doing everything else they were doing, and start working on finding his daughter. He hadn't even noticed that Harry had let go of his arm, or that his godson was now talking off to the side with someone.

"Sirius?"

The Head Auror had to force himself to turn to his best friend.

"What can I do?" Remus asked. Sirius could see in the werewolf's eyes what he himself felt—utter pain.

Sirius finally had to admit the truth. "I don't know." The words hardly came out as anything more than a strangled whisper. "I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Normally, I could do something like this with my eyes closed, but..." He shrugged helplessly.

"Let me help out with that," growled a voice from behind Sirius. He turned to find Mad-Eye limping towards him with Tonks not far behind, still in the dress she'd worn to the wedding. "First of all, you're going to calm down before you fall over of a heart attack. Next, I'm sending you home. You're too close with this, and emotions can only make it worse."

"What?" Sirius yelled incredulously. "I'm not going to sit at home while god-only-knows-what is happening to my four-month-old daughter! I wouldn't sit back if it was Harry who'd been taken from me, and I'm sure as hell not going to do it now!"

"Black, I outrank you," the DMLE head said. "You need to go home. Your wife probably needs you about now, and it's not doing her any good with you here." It wasn't often that Mad-Eye actually showed sympathy for Sirius, but the Head Auror could see it in his supervisor's normal eye that there was a fair amount for him today. But even that wasn't going to get Sirius to go home. Not yet.

"What's your next order?" he asked evenly.

Mad-Eye gave Sirius the normal glare for a minute. "Next, start looking for your kid."

It was midnight before the fireplace in Number Twelve's kitchen lit up. Emmeline and Molly were sitting at the kitchen table with tea in their hands, and Remus decided this wasn't the time to start nagging his wife about being out of bed. In fact, it was the worst time. To say the very least, the search for Mira wasn't going well. Tracking spells Remus had never seen anywhere but in books had been performed. Sirius had every available Auror out, and Mad-Eye had given him every member of the DMLE that he could spare. Dumbledore had shown up with charmed maps he'd been working on for the Order. He explained that he'd expanded on the spells Sirius and Remus had used to make the maps for the Order and the map of Hogwarts stronger and undeterred by Unplottable and Fidelius charms.

The Headmaster was rather perplexed that it hadn't worked, but told Remus privately he wasn't convinced that Lord Voldemort had Mira. However, he really didn't have much of a theory about who could have successfully taken the girl from behind her mother's back without anybody in the room seeing.

Sirius wasted no time waiting for the flames to die out before heading up the stairs, presumably to find his wife. Molly and Emmeline looked expectantly to Remus and Harry, but could clearly see on the wizards' faces what had taken place that day, so Remus didn't do more than shake his head.

"How can Dumbledore not know where to look for her?" Harry asked in wonder after Remus had recapped the day for the witches. "He found me."

"But that was more luck than anything, really," Remus said quietly. "If Lucius hadn't contacted Snape, we never would have known where to find you. And before you ask, Em, we've already asked Snape; so far, he knows nothing about whether or not a Death Eater took Mira." Remus glanced up at the ceiling. "How's Naomi?"

Emmeline sighed. "Do you really have to ask? She hasn't been out of her room once today, and when Molly and I went up to take her a tray for dinner, she was standing at the window, crying."

"I've been worried she may do something to herself," Molly said worriedly. "She blames herself for this..."

"Naomi will be all right," Remus said with as much certainty as he could muster. "She's not exactly a weakling, but she's also just suffered something I could never handle."

"It was bad enough when Ron was taken, but at least Ron could have defended himself," Molly said. "Mira's only a baby."

"Well, if whoever took her gives her their finger, she does have a hell of a grip," Harry muttered, smiling weakly. "She might be able to break something. She is the daughter of Sirius and Naomi, after all."

Remus cracked a small smile and looked at his watch. "You lot should get some rest. Especially you," he added to his wife. "I'm going to see if I can find anything that may help us."

"Don't forget to hide the Ogden's in case Sirius decides it's a good idea to drink his misery away," Harry advised.

"Already done," Molly said. "Emmeline and I took care of that first thing."

"Very wise," Remus said. "A drunken Sirius is the very last thing we need to deal with right now."

At some time nearing three in the morning (probably later; he wasn't sure), Sirius got up from bed and walked out of the room onto the dark landing. There was a light on in the library but he went in the opposite direction, knowing it was probably Remus doing some sort of research. Not that Sirius believed research would find his daughter...

No, the only thing that would get Mira back to her parents was for someone to actually go out and look for her. Naomi was convinced Voldemort was trying to get back at her for betraying him. Sirius was starting to believe it too. And there was one way to find out for sure if Mira was somewhere near Voldemort.

Sirius hardly thought about the dangers before he made his decision—probably one of the dumbest decisions he'd ever made in his life. But if it would save his daughter, he had to do it. He walked down the stairs without really seeing what he was doing. His hand was on the handle of the front door when he realized he wasn't getting away without explaining what he was doing to someone. But why did it have to be Remus?

"What are you doing, Sirius?"

The Head Auror stiffened and turned slowly towards his best friend. "I'm going to find my daughter," he said matter-of-factly. "No one else seems concerned that a four-month-old girl is out there alone. We don't know if she's being fed or changed. She's probably scared out of her mind. What if it was one of your sons out there? Would you still be up in the bloody library reading books that you know aren't going to do a damn thing in finding them?"

Remus' face was blank as usual when he was thinking hard about something. "Where are you going?"

He hesitated for a moment before answering the question. "Albania."

"I thought as much," Remus said with a sigh. "Is there any chance that I could talk you out of it?"

"No."

"Sirius," Remus said cautiously. "We don't even know that Voldemort has Mira. What if you get out there and someone realizes you're there? They will kill you without a second thought."

"Probably," Sirius replied thoughtfully. "But if she is out there, I'm willing to take that risk. I'm not going to stand around like we had to with Harry. God only knows what's going to happen to her if we don't find her."

"Be careful," Remus said quietly. "Don't rush into there without having some sort of plan. You're no good to Mira or Naomi if you're dead. And if you're not back tomorrow night, we are coming after you."

"Fair enough," Sirius said. "Take care of Naomi for me?"

"Of course."

"Okay. See you later then."

"See you."

And with that, Sirius opened the door and stepped out into the cold night. With a few glances around the neighborhood, he transformed into Padfoot, thought about the Albanian forest, the area on the map that was blank. Seconds later he was in the middle of darkness, relieved Padfoot had thick fur. He kept as low to the ground as he could, but realized that even though it was pitch black there, if someone tried, they could pick out the black dog in the white snow very easily. He walked for what seemed like hours until he finally found what he assumed he was looking for.

There was no Fidelius Charm over the place, which threw a lot of theories of the Order out the window. And it was obvious that this was Voldemort's hideout. The jagged black rock castle gave off the feeling comparable to how Azkaban felt. Sirius hated it already.

And Mira might be in there...

That thought took away all his fear. Padfoot took a deep breath and began to walk forward to the entrance, wondering how long it would take for Voldemort to realize he was there. But that didn't matter. Nothing but the safety of his daughter mattered right now.

God, I hope this isn't a mistake...

The Marauder in him took over like a switch inside him had turned on. This was nothing more than a prank at Hogwarts. The only difference as the possible penalty for being caught wasn't a week of detention but torture and then death.

Okay, so I won't get caught. That's not too hard. Harry got through there with no problem...

Before he knew it he was right at the entrance.

Here goes nothing...

Sirius and Remus weren't the only ones in Number Twelve wide-awake that night. Harry stood at his window, watching his godfather Apparate away. Where the older wizard was going, Harry had no idea. He could have been going back to the Ministry to see what was going on with the search for Mira. He could have just decided he needed to get away for a while. Or he could have gone out on his own to search for the little girl. That was the most probable, Harry thought.

There was a soft knock on Harry's bedroom door. "Come in," he called, turning around.

Remus entered, looking as tired as everyone looked today. "You're still awake," he said.

Harry nodded. "Can't sleep. Where'd Sirius go?"

Rolling his eyes, the werewolf said, "How come you seem to know everything that goes on around here?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "If I knew everything that went on around here, would I be asking where Sirius went?"

"Right," Remus said. "Look, I know you want to be involved in finding Mira, but where Sirius is going... There need not be any interference—it could mean life or death. Death being the more probable of the two," he said under his breath.

Both of Harry's eyebrows shot up. "He didn't go to Voldemort's hideout, did he?"

Remus looked at the boy in exasperation. "How do you figure these things out?"

"Why do you keep answering my questions with questions?"

"Because it's easier than telling you the truth."

Harry gave him a look.

"I understand you are of age now, and in a few months you will be eligible to join the Order of the Phoenix, if there is still need for the Order—I hope there won't be a need for one—but until then, please just leave everything to us. Yes, Sirius went to Voldemort's hideout. Yes, he went alone. Yes, he's convinced Mira is there. Yes, I think he's a complete and utter moron for doing what he's doing. And no, you are not going after him, so don't even think about it."

"I wasn't," Harry said unconvincingly, crossing his fingers behind his back. "Where do you think Mira is?"

Remus narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but answered the question. "Honestly, Harry, I have absolutely no idea. As horrible as it is to even think, Mira may be dead by now."

Harry winced at the thought, feeling his heart constrict painfully. "Why would someone kidnap her?" he said mostly to himself. "If it wasn't Death Eaters, but someone at the wedding... Maybe they did it for ransom. Sirius makes a good bit of gold. Plus he's got the Black family fortune."

"That's true," Remus said, nodding thoughtfully. "But if she was taken for a ransom, we would have been contacted already."

"Unless whoever took her can't reach us because of the Fidelius Charm around the house."

"But I can't think of anyone at the wedding who would do something like that," Remus said. "No outside person could have come in; there were charms over the place that recognized those who were invited versus those who weren't."

"They could have been hiding out somewhere before the wedding started, before the charm was placed," Harry said. "Maybe under an Invisibility Cloak or Disillusionment Charm."

Remus sighed. "I don't know, Harry. Anything is possible right now. It's just a matter of narrowing the possibilities to the one that really occurred. Get some sleep. In the morning, we're back to work."

Harry nodded. "G'night."

"Night." Remus turned to the door. "Sleep well, Harry."

"You too."

Once Remus was out of the room, Harry turned to his bed. He had no intention of going to sleep. He probably couldn't even if he tried. Now there wasn't only Mira to worry about, but Sirius too. Harry loved his godfather, but Remus was right: Sirius was a complete and utter moron for going to Albania without any backup.

Chewing on his lip, Harry locked his hands behind his head and started pacing. There had to be something he could do to help. Remus was right again about Mira being anywhere. And if the person or persons who took her had ill intentions towards her, she could die if she wasn't found. The kid could definitely cry when she wanted to. It wasn't often that she wailed and screamed, but when she did, it became annoying quickly. And if one didn't know how to calm her down, one could get aggravated and do whatever it took to shut her up.

Why am I thinking about that? Mira isn't going to die. She's going to be found perfectly fine. And eventually, she'll forget that any of this happened.

Harry only had vague memories of his own kidnapping. Luckily, as he grew older, most of what happened to him eleven years ago faded to the back of his mind.

Everything turned out fine then, and it will all turn out fine now.

Harry's hands fell to his side. I wish I actually believed that.

"Go. to. bed." Remus' muffled voice floated through the door as the wizard passed by Harry's door.

"All right," Harry said, slightly annoyed that his surrogate godfather could know he was still up and about.

It would help if I'd turned out the bloody light.

With a sigh, Harry walked over to the light switch and flicked it off. After changing into his pajamas, he crawled into bed, locking his hands behind his head again, thinking. After a few hours of staring at the ceiling, he'd made a decision. Remus wouldn't like it, but it was the only choice right now. Something had to be done, and since no one else was taking the initiative, Harry would have to do it himself.

Remus is going to kill me, he thought, throwing his blankets to his feet. But I'll deal with that when the time comes...