Author's note: Thank you so much all of you for the kind reviews! I wish I could thank each and every one of you personally, but I'm so busy with trying to write this fanfic! Lol. THANK YOU!
So yes, the ball is finally rolling, and the suspense heightens…unless you've read the Harry Potter series and you know what the hell is going to happen.
Chapter Twenty two- Anxiety
"Hey…HEY!"
Remus woke with a start, looking about frantically.
Michel was standing over him, glaring furiously at Remus, "What the hell are you doing?"
"I fell asleep."
"That's my sodding blanket you're using to fall asleep with!"
Remus eyed the filthy, ratted blanket he had unconsciously used to keep himself warm with as he slept. As he stared at it- a white maggot crawled over one of the lumps in the blanket and fell off to the side. He suppressed a shudder and handed it back to Michel who snatched it from him as if were made of gold.
"Don't take my stuff again old man."
"Fair enough."
Michel wrapped himself up in the blanket and flopped down beside an old busted grate. Remus noticed the young man had gotten thinner than usual and his mop of untidy hair was filthy.
"What're ya looking at?" he asked angrily as he caught Remus staring at him from across the pathetic fire.
"I'm trying to make out what your tattoo is of."
He looked thrown back by the question. "Which one?"
"The one on your neck."
"Oh! My black widow?" he asked proudly. "Yeah- its tough looking, 'innit?"
Remus nodded, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "It is."
"Hurt like a bitch when they did it though- they had to shave some of my hair cuz it goes around in the back- see?" he said, twisting his head so Remus could get a better view. "And then they did it right over that scar-"
"How did you get that?"
"In a fight." Michel said smugly. "Bastard came at me with a broken bottle and just missed my head."
"You don't say."
"Yeah…" Michel said nodding his head. "We beat 'em though."
"Mm." Remus said, poking the weak fire back to life with a piece of wire used as a poker.
"Bet you've never been in a fight before, old man."
"I have actually." Remus said coolly. "And by the way, I'm thirty eight."
"Wha'?"
"I'm thirty eight."
"No fuckin way!"
Remus felt a ghost of a smile appear on his face. "It's true. My birthday was a few days ago."
"You're shitting me!"
"No, I'm not. How old did you think I am?"
"I dunno. Christ- you look like hell for thirty eight…"
"Thank you." Remus said dryly.
"You've got like grey hair already-"
"Yes, I'm well aware of it. How old are you?"
"Nineteen."
Remus nodded. This kid is way too young to be messed up in all this…
"So when were you in a fight?" Michel asked him curiously.
"Once at school- with some of my old…friends and another group of people." He decided to leave out the information he had been in several nasty fights when serving the first and second Order of the Phoenix.
"What did you use?"
"Wands…but soon it fell into fists."
"Any knifes? Guns?" Michel asked eagerly.
Remus shook his head.
"Hell." Michel snorted. "You guys are all boring."
"Wizards you mean?"
"Hell yeah. None of you do anything except wave those pieces of wood around-"
"Those pieces of wood can cause quite a bit of damage though spells."
"I think its bullshit, guns work way better."
Remus sighed but said nothing to contradict the young man. He had a lot to do. He stood up, "I'm going to find Fenrir and see what's going on."
"Good luck with that." Michel yawned as he rolled over to prepare to get some rest.
Remus frowned. "Why do you say that?"
"Because he's gone."
"Gone?" Remus asked- his heart thumping furiously. "Gone where?"
"To stake out where he's going to be for tomorrow night- I heard him talking to Randolph, he's gonna try to attack that Montgomery boy afterall."
His heart which had just been pounding frantically seconds ago, suddenly stopped. "What?"
"Yeah. Fenrir's going through with it."
"Why?"
"Why?" Michel laughed. "Because the Dark Lord is pissed- the boys mother still doesn't want to cooperate with them and so he's got Fenrir to go take a bite outta the little brat."
Remus's mouth was paper dry…
Michel lay down on his blanket, a grin still on his pale, sickly features. "All I can say is that that kid better beware of the big bad wolf."
It was singularly the worst situation Remus Lupin had ever found himself in.
He still had no wand on him. What was the point of being an undercover spy if you couldn't even get messages out to the people you were spying for?' The pack within a few short hours of the new arrival had been watching him more closely and suspiciously than they had when he first arrived-
He didn't have Wolfsbane for the upcoming full moon, and how he could possibly stop Fenrir himself, he had no idea.
Options Remus! Think of your options…
He had to send out an alert to the Order or the Ministry now, that much was obvious. But how was another matter entirely.
He stopped short. There was a Ministry alert box in the area. Alert boxes were precautions taking during wizarding wars- hardly used the rest of the time but in dark times they were activated and put into full use.
As a matter of fact, Ministry alert boxes were quite common in London during the Muggle WWII with the Battle of-
Stop it Remus! You're not a student in 'History of magic' again!
The concept enough was simple, a witch or wizard would send a written tip off or information concerning an upcoming emergency into the box which would transport the message anonymously to the Ministry alert staff. It was a much cleaner system to use than owls, especially in the crowded city of London.
He knew there was an alert box relatively nearby, but it would he impossible to get there without drawing suspicion-
And besides, he didn't even have a scrap piece of paper on him.
He stuck his hands into his trouser pockets.
And to think just about a year ago this was my best outfit. He thought wryly.
Suddenly something rough brushed against his hand. He frowned as his hand closed around the worn foreign object.
He pulled it out and stared at it in stunned disbelief.
Perhaps there was still hope.
His mind began to formulate a plan.
He needed to get to that alert box now, and for that he needed-
"Michel!" Remus hissed. "Are you sure this is a good idea going out like this?"
"Relax old man." replied the the tattooed boy at his side. "Consider this a late birthday present."
Remus had managed to get out of the Underground with Michel Jacques's help. Upon Remus's return and him casually mentioning the want of a strong drink, Michel jumped at the chance. Remus felt a twinge of guilt that he was only feeding fire to the young man's growing addiction for alcohol, but Remus had played his hand perfectly until within a few short minutes Michel was all but dragging him out of the Underground.
But Remus was still keeping up a good show of acting nervous. As he looked about for the alert box, a thought suddenly struck him-
"Michel?"
"Yeah?"
"How did you find the Pack?"
The boys head whipped around as he shot Remus a cold, suspicious glare. "Why do you care?"
"Just wondering. I just realized I never actually asked you."
Michel made a sour face as if he had just swallowed a lemon and then apparently after a moment of thinking said,
"It's none of your business old man."
"But you were bit by Randolph you said, so how on earth did you find the Pack?"
Michel stared coldly at Remus for a moment before finally saying in an unusually quiet voice, "Bronagh."
Remus stumbled in his shock but caught himself just in time. "What?"
"Bronagh, that werewolf that Fenrir killed awhile back. She found me by accident and told me where to go."
Oh Bronagh…
"Yeah." Michel said quietly, talking more to himself than Remus. "She was alright."
"She was a good woman." Remus said firmly.
Michel stopped dead in his tracks and wheeled on him, "You better not let Fenrir hear you talk any of that shit or he'll do you in too."
"I know."
"Still though…" Michel said thoughtfully and then shook his head as if shaking off his thoughts, "Come'on then- let's go."
"I thought we were going to a pub." Remus frowned as he saw Michel zip up his grimy coat to his chin and start fishing around in his pockets for something.
"Yeah, we are- but we gotta get the money first don't we?"
Oh sweet Merlin, no- not again.
Michel had just pulled out the black ski mask Remus had seen more times than he would have liked.
"Michel please-" But before he could properly start an argument, something caught his eye.
An old fashioned, busted post box with chipped paint stood there at the corner of the road, looking oddly forlorn from its relatively deserted spot.
"-and so that's why you and me didn't head over to Mayfair because we-"
"Right." Remus said quickly, cutting off Michel's argument. "Listen, I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, do you think we could just wait here for a moment and…and, get a quick breath of fresh air?"
Michel let out a loud incredulous snort. "Don't think you can fool me old man!" he sneered jabbing a finger in Remus's chest. "I know the truth about you!"
"What?" Remus asked nervously.
Michel nodded smugly. "That's right."
"Michel listen-"
"-but since today's your birthday or whatever I'll let you off the hook. I know you don't like robbing banks, I've known it all along."
There was a short pause.
"Really?" Remus said, just barely managing to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "How on earth did you know?"
"I pieced it together like that." said the young man. "But for today I'll do the job on my own and you wait here for a minute, alright? We'll have to run as soon as I get out though."
"Right of course."
"Back in a minute." Michel said, before darting across the busy street to get to the bank on the other side.
Perhaps he ought to have cared more that Michel was about to rob a bank, but the opportunity this situation had presented was worth whatever small bought of trouble that would quickly follow. Remus watched Michel head inside the bank before running over to the Post box-
It had to be it, it just had to be-
And sure enough, right underneath the ordinary mail slot was the blessed tiny print-
'All mail from here goes directly to M.O.M. 62442 Section 34'
Suddenly, loud blaring alarms went off from across the street. Many late-night shoppers and others stopped dead in their tracks to look over at the bank.
Remus spied a half broken pen on the ground and seized it like it was gold. He hastily pulled what he had found earlier in his pocket and began to write-
Several cars had pulled over now to see what was going on.
Remus threw the tip off into the mail slot and turned around just in time to see the bank doors fly open and Michel Jacques in a ski mask come racing towards him.
"Shit man! They had the good kind of alarms in there!" Michel cried as they sprinted down the sidepath together, Remus right on the young man's heels.
They were quickly reaching the end of the street's long sidepath- before Remus could shout a suggestion of where they could go however, Michel had reached the end of the curb and leaped onto the back of a tourist bus that was slowly turning the corner.
Remus without thinking jumped as well and only through sheer luck managed to catch a hold of the back of the bus as it began to pick up speed.
Michel let out a loud whoop of obvious excitement and for a moment, as the wind whipped by them and the city's night lights cast wild colors and shadows on their faces- Remus was reminded suddenly of his dead friend who had been just as reckless and wild as the young man at his side.
Something was wrong.
Tonks stared out the office windows where despite it being mid-afternoon, a steady grey drizzle was falling. Something was terribly wrong. She just knew it even though she couldn't properly explain it.
No one had heard anything lately from Remus. Since he had returned to the pack, he had kept them updated with messages on what was going on, but most recently there had been no news from him at all. Every one of those messages he had sent the Order had been a breath of relief for her, because she knew that even though things might be bad he was still alive at least.
And now there was nothing. No one in the Order had heard from him at all.
It frightened her.
She bit her lip nervously and then checked the time for the hundredth time that afternoon- she had to head up to Hogsmeade soon for her shift.
She stood up and pulled on her traveling cloak, thinking hard. Funny things were going on. Last weeks incident at that muggle convenience store for instance- store windows shattered, parts of the place burned and several muggles injured- it could have easily been dismissed as muggle vandalism….
If it weren't for the memory charms the Ministry had to perform on two terrified muggles and the obvious graffiti on the walls that suggested something otherwise.
Some of the Law Enforcement division officers were convinced the attack wasn't actually from Death Eaters at all but something more far more crude and savage-
A pack of werewolves.
The attack had been bothering her immensely the past few days and she wished there was someone to talk to about her suspicions and fears that concerned Remus-
She paused as a sudden thought came to mind. Perhaps there was someone she could talk to.
Tonks pulled her things together and walked down the hall ready to head over to Hogsmeade for her patrol that afternoon, all the while planning out a small detour…
Tonks fumed as she walked briskly down the deserted hallway of Hogwarts. He was gone. Dumbledore wasn't around, apparently off on one of his random trips again…it had been an utterly pointless trip on her part but even if the Headmaster had been there what on earth would she have said to him?
'Hullo Headmaster, I'm worried about Remus, I'm afraid he's going to be or already has been hurt, do you know anything?'
She sounded like Molly Weasley- she really needed to get a grip on herself-
"OUCH!"
Up ahead was half of Harry Potter- slowly materializing as he hopped about unsteadily clutching his foot as his invisibility cloak slipped off of him.
"Harry?" she asked loudly and watched as he spun around in surprise and fell over onto the floor.
"What're you doing here?" he asked, scrambling up quickly to his feet.
Tonks decided to be honest. "I came to see Dumbeldore."
"His office isn't here." Harry said, looking at her closely. "Its round the other side of the castle, behind the gargoyle-"
"I know." said Tonks. "He's not there. Apparently he's gone away again."
"Has he?" said Harry as he gingerly placed his hurt foot on the floor. "Hey- you don't know where he goes, I suppose?"
"No." said Tonks.Although I wish I did- I'd love to give him a piece of my mind for sending Remus on this bloody stupid mission- she forced away the thought. She was going mad.
"What did you want to see him about?"
"Nothing in particular," Tonks lied as she picked absentmindly at the sleeve of her robe. "I just thought he might know what's going on…I've heard rumors…people getting hurt…"
"Yeah, I know, it's all been in the papers," said Harry. "That little kid trying to kill his-"
"The Prophet's often behind the times," said Tonks. That particular incident that Harry was talking about had happened quite awhile ago. The Prophet had been slowly and carefully releasing information that the Ministry gave them which altogether wasn't much. The Prophet felt it was better to keep those things quiet so that people wouldn't be more panicked than usual. A sudden thought came to mind- perhaps Harry… "You haven't had any letters from anyone in the Order recently?" she asked him.
"No one from the Order writes to me anymore, not since Sirius-"
To her utter horror and embarrassment she felt her eyes fill quickly with hot, itchy tears that she had no power over. What was wrong with him? What was going on?
She was suddenly aware that Harry was saying something to her, looking awkward.
"What?" Tonks asked. The tears were welling up faster than before. She'd be damned before she started crying in front of the boy. Quickly she made up a hasty departure- "Well…I'll see you around, Harry…"
She turned abruptly and headed quickly down the corridor, leaving behind an obviously confused and bewildered Harry.
She didn't wipe the tears away until she had turned the corner and was convinced no one would see her.
Returning to work, Tonks felt more morose than before. With no Dumbledore to speak to and no reprieve from the monotonous paperwork she had to file, work was going to be more of a pain than usual. And just to add to the icing on the cake, she was utterly exhausted. Putting in all the extra hours for the office and then the added work of the Order was starting to catch up to her. But it wasn't just the late hours that were making her so tired- trying to get to sleep at night was proving problematic- it took her hours to fall asleep and then only to wake up repeatedly in the middle of the night after having, heart racing nightmares about Remus being hurt or killed.
She walked back in the office doors and walked wearily back to her cubicle, as she rounded the corner however, she stopped short.
Two ministry wizards were sitting there in her cubicle waiting for her-
"Nymphadora Tonks?"
"Yes?"
They both stood up. "We need you to come with us."
Her heart picked up pace. "Who are you?" she asked looking from one to the other.
"Ministry alert staff."
That much was obvious from their robes but Tonks still didn't move.
"You obviously don't trust us."
"Polyjuice potion can work wonders." She replied coolly.
The two men exchanged desperate looks.
"Look," said one of them calmly. "You're obviously a very capable and rightly suspicious auror, but we're just here to take you down the hall."
"What for?"
"A tip off that concerns you."
For a moment, Tonks was completely thrown. "Me?"
"It would be best if you came with us now so we could disclose the information to you in private."
Tonks, finally convinced- followed them out of her cubicle and out of the auror office. Only a few of the other aurors spared them questioning glance, but went back to their work after they had passed.
They headed down the hall, Tonks gripping her wand under her robes as they went. Finally they reached a small door which Tonks knew led to a private discussion room.
One of the men opened the door for her and after a nervous glance about it- Tonks stepped inside. The door shut gently behind her.
Tonks looked about the dimly lit room, completely non-pulsed. Sitting at one end of a small wooden table was a burly wizard and standing next to him a tall, sallow-faced wizard clutching a dark briefcase.
"Nymphadora Tonks." stated the burly wizard.
Tonks swallowed nervously. "Yes?"
"Please sit down, we need an explanation."
Tonks sat down in the empty seat opposite the two wizards and looked at their stern, grave faces- "I'm sorry, of what?"
"Our office receives many panicked tip-offs a day. Many of them are false and many of them take time to translate and interpret but we are forced to consider each one carefully. Recently we received a written message that was sent to us via a Ministry alert box near Mayfair."
Tonks nodded, utterly confused as to what this had to do with her.
The sallow faced wizard opened his briefcase and pulled out a large folder which he opened and began searching through...
"We received this note here and after reading the subject matter and carefully analyzing it we were obviously obliged to get in touch with you." The burly wizard said with a nod to the other one.
The sallow faced wizard pulled a small, battered, lime-green card from the folder and handed it across the table to Tonks who took it from him wide-eyed.
Upon seeing it- she was struck by two things.
One, the small, dingy card read on the front 'To: Tonks, Get well soon' and looked as if had been torn off from something. She recognized the handwriting. Her friend, Aldwin Idle had sent a small vase of tulips to her in Saint Mungo's back when she was hurt in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. The only reason she knew this was because when she was joking around with him one day about not receiving a get well card from him when she was in the hospital, he was utterly perplexed, telling her he had indeed sent some tulips and a small card with it, (although he did admit he forgot to sign his name). Tonks has always assumed he had just forgot and lied to her since she never found the flowers...
The missing lime green card from Aldwin's vanished 'get well' bouquet seemed to have been found.
But secondly, and more importantly, as she flipped open the card and saw the familiar and slightly frantic scrawl that made up the body of the note, she felt her heart stop short and the blood in her veins momentarily freeze-
It was Remus Lupin's handwriting…
Author's note: I'm working on the next chapter as you read this. Thanks again for all the appreciation. :D