Fear Itself Part II

"Regulus? What are you doing here?" Sirius asked, wand still raised.

Regulus looked around nervously, twitching at the slightest noise.

Sirius stared at his brother, wand still raised ready to strike if this was a trap. But it didn't seem to be, all his attention had been on his brother for the past several seconds. If he was in a trap they would have attacked by now. But, Sirius did still have the spell cast on him, Regulus was the only death eater who could see him.

"Well?" Regulus asked suddenly in a small quivering voice, startling Sitius. "Are you going to kill me, or just stare?"

"Why are you here?"

"I ran." Regulus breathed. "I left him, a fugitive now. Not only does the Ministry want me dead for siding with the Dark Lord but now the Dark Lord wants me dead for leaving him. I have no where to go."

"How do I know you're not a spy, and that you're not trying to manipulate me?" He asking raising his wand higher, his auror training kicking in, as if he would kill him if the wrong answer was given.

Regulus scoffed. "Please Sirius, don't insult the Dark Lord, if this were an ambush you'd be dead by now and you know that."

"Accio Regulus wand." Sirius said pointing his wand to the place he knew where he kept his wand. But nothing happened.

"I don't have a wand." The younger of the two Black's explained. "I lost it when I ran... so you know then I'm no threat, I'm not here to kill you... or anyone for that matter."

"Then why are you here?"

"I ran." Regulus repeated. "I told you, I have no where to go."

Sirius swallowed a lump in his throat, the next thing he did could either be the smartest or the stupidest thing he has ever done in his life. "You could... come with me." He said hesitantly.

Regulus shook his head and looked down, shuffling back slightly.

"Regulus, please, come with me." Sirius pleaded to his distraught brother. "We can protect you from Voldemort."

Regulus lightly cringed at the name.

Sirius advanced on him, trying not to seem threatening, but he was always had a stronger build and was taller then his little brother. It was hard. "If you come with me we can put you in hiding, we can get you a secret keeper and he'll never get to you. I promise." He held out his hand to him. "Take my hand, I know you're scare of him, but I can help."

Regulus seemed to have gained a new confidence for he stood up straight and gave his elder brother a disapproving look. "Scared? Scared of the ma... of the monster I once called my lord? Who isn't? You must be, yet you fight him. I applaud you Sirius, you saw what a monster he was from the beginning, but now I'm wanted more by the Dark Lord then you. I am scared of him, but I'm going to get him, one way or another I will take the Dark Lord down with me."

"With you?" Sirius asked. "You're not going to die Regulus, I know, you made bad choices, but you were a child, you didn't know any better."

"I knew what I was doing, you rebelled when you were a child, before Hogwarts even you rebelled. I was weak, they took me and warped my mind the second I was born, you were always the strong one Sirius."

"Well then now it's the time for you to be the strong one. Join us, fight against him."

Regulus seemed to laugh at this, almost as if he were insane. "Join you? Join The Order of the Phoenix, the ones who I have fought in combat. No, I don't think so."

"Combat? You... You're still in Hogwarts..." Sirius said disbelievingly.

"The Dark Lord doesn't care; he'll throw children into battle if it means he's that much closer to winning. Besides, I'm not anymore, I left Hogwarts, it wasn't safe enough. I'm not going to put the rest of the students in danger because one made a stupid decision and joined the Dark Lord. I'll do this on my own."

"You're only sixteen."

"I'm seventeen!" Regulus explained, he then smirked, an old memory flooding into his mind. "Remember when we were children, those marvelous few months when it seemed I was only a year younger then you, until your birthday?"

"I remember." Sirius nodded.

"It just passed, didn't it? Not long ago. You're nineteen now?"

Sirius nodded. "Oldest Marauder of all."

"Yes, I remember, you and you're friends, The Marauders." Regulus smiled slightly but it quickly went back to a pain filled frown. "I wish I had a childhood like that, but all my free time was spent groveling to a false lord. Sirius, I'm not the best little brother I know, I gave you grief I'm the reason father... it's my fault he... That you ran away... well, I'm sorry."

"You've really grown, you know that." Sirius said, his wand no longer even raised, he was holding it loosely in his hand at his side.

Regulus nodded and then looked around, once again very jumpy and alert. "I shouldn't linger, I have things I have to do."

"What things? Where do you have to go? Why can't you let me be a big brother and protect you?" Sirius said getting slightly outraged.

"I have to go." Regulus said as he began to walk away.

Sirius ran in front of him and placed his hands on his shoulders. "What are you afraid of him doing?"

"I can't stay in one place, I'm connected to him!" Regulus ripped up his sleeve exposing the dark mark. "He'll find me if I stay here too long. I've only been here because he once resided here, he wouldn't come back to quickly. The Dark Lord is smart Sirius, much smarter then you think he is. Be careful, would you?"

"W – Wait!" Sirius cried as Regulus tore himself away from Sirius's grip. "Regulus! Come back here!" He roared.

"Sorry, bro." Regulus smiled genuinely one last time. "Can't do that, I can't risk it."

"REGULUS!" Sirius roared once more before his younger brother apparated with a pop.

Sirius stared off at the spot where he disappeared into for several minutes until he sighed and lowered his head. He bought his hand up and rubbed the back of his neck before turning around to go continue his search for his missing partner, Caradoc Dearborn. He could worry over his little brother later, but now he had other things he had to worry baout.

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Sturgis struggled under the vines that quickly covered his feet and crawled up his legs. He tried to lift his feet to run away but the more he lifted his legs the more they grabbed at him and tried to pull him down. "Heather... Heather help, what do we do?"

She trembled as she tried to stand still and the devil's snare crawled slowly up her legs. "What..." She said calmly and with a far out sound in her voice, as if she was trying to mentally be as far away as possible. "Divination can't help you?" She asked in a mocking tone.

"No! Heather, it can't! Help!" He cried.

"Just stand still." She said closing her eyes, being the top Care of magical Creatures student she was outside with the gamekeeper and her professor after class often, and in doing so came by Professor Sprout quite a lot by the greenhouses. She became quite a good student in Herbolgy by doing this.

"But... Heather, it's crawling up my bloody legs!"

"More like your torso now."

"Heather help me!"

"Just stand still." She said more forcefully. "They'll leave you alone."

"I'm trying, I can't help it if the feeling of being squeezed to death doesn't sound to appetizing to me!"

"But they'll leave you alone if you stand still, see, look at me. They're not crawling up my legs at all now are they?" She asked opening her eyes and shooting a look towards the slightly older wizard.

"But they're not leaving either." He moaned as they began to constrict his legs more.

Heather looked down and indeed they weren't. They still moved over her shoes, they just didn't travel any further up. "Now why aren't they leaving?" She asked herself quietly.

She head a choking sound to her left and looked over to see a vine wrap around the neck of her friend. "Heather..." He forced out. "Please... do something."

It seemed he had stopped moving, but that was probably not by his own accord. The devil's snare knew where he was, it could feel his heartbeat. There was no escaping it now. Heather looked down, she had begun to fidget, they were crawling up her legs now.

"Dammit..." She breathed as she took out her wand. There was no attack she could use. An attack may blast away one at her feet, but the attack and movement would only cause more to come, and quicker. If she attacked, then they would both be dead before they had a chance to scream.

She looked over to Sturgis, he had been forced to the ground now. They were going up around his neck and she could see him struggle to breath, he was smart, he wasn't wasting his breath and energy on calling to her for help. He knew she was doing all she could to try and think of a way to get them out of this.

"Professor Sprout..." She spoke aloud letting him know she was indeed thinking. "After class I stayed... I was waiting for Hagrid, he promised to bring me a creature, a new one something Grubby-Plank couldn't teach in class..." She looked toward Sturgis, she could tell he knew that she was stalling time while she tried to think. "Sprout... she said something... something about devil's snare..."

There was a pain filled grunt from the direction of Sturgis, Heather looked and gasped at the sight, his lips were turning blue and his eyes were wide.

"Um... she... she had some, for her next class, we'd be learning it soon... But she said it would obey a jinx, to stay even at the slightest of movement so it wouldn't leave..." The realization dawned upon her, the devil's snare had been jinxed. That's why it didn't leave when she had stopped moving.

"There was a rhyme, she told me, just because it popped into her head, it wasn't entirely true but she said there's truth to all old rhymes. It was... it was, um, devil's snare, devil's snare..." She tried to think tried to remember back to her first year. "Devil's snare, devil's snare, its deadly fun... but..."

There was a snap and Sturgis's mouth opened wide in a silent scream. The devil's snare had broken a bone.

Oh God!" Heather cried, realizing she might not be able to save them in time, or at all, the devil's snare was around her hips now, and she could feel the pressure.

"It's deadly fun... but... but it'll... rhymes with fun... rhymes with fun..." She muttered trying to think of the word.

She took one more glance at Sturgis who looked on the brink of death.

"Deadly fun... but it'll sulk in the sun! That's it fire!" She screamed with joy and raised her wand the movement causing the devils snare to crawl up her body faster, but she didn't care. "Incendio!" She cried and fire erupted from her wand making the devil's snare scurry away in seconds.

She looked down to see Sturgis still on the ground to the left of her. Taking a sharp intake of breath and moaned and leaned down next to him. His arms were pinned tightly against his chest, one of them was at an odd angle. "Oh no..." Heather moaned as she saw his stillness. "Sturgis? C'mon Sturgis wake up. C'mon you dumb ass, wake up." She cried as she shook him.

But then a thought hit her like a ton of bricks. She was a witch.

Raising her wand she placed it on him and sighed, calming her nerves so she could perform the charm correctly. She wondered if this would still work, for it wasn't a stunner spell that had knocked Sturgis out. "Rennervate." She said as a light appeared at the end of her wand. She held her breath waiting for it too work, and sure enough in seconds his eyes were open.

"Heather?" He asked.

"That's right, told you I knew how to do it."

He smirked at her. "No... you di – ahh!" he broke off as he moved his arm ever so slightly.

"It's your arm, right?" She asked and he nodded painfully. "I knew it, well I can't mend bones, we'll have to wait for Remus, or maybe Andy or Sirius, or I'm sure Laura could. But I can't mend them. But I can bind them, so just bare with this, this is going to hurt." She said before casting a small charm. A bandage wrapped around his injured arm and he winced.

"My rib..."

"Huh?" Heather said raising her eyebrows.

"My rib, it hurts, I think it's broken too."

"I only heard one snap." Heather said baffled.

Sturgis, through his pain, glared at her. "Well then one decided to be quiet, because it's broken." He grimaced at her and then shut his eyes in pain.

"Okay, okay, I'll send a message to Dumbledore or whatever via patronus." She said and conjured one, it was a dog, a German Shepherd by the looks of it. "Go," she said to it. "Go find someone, anyone from the Order and tell them we need help, bring them here." She commanded of it.

It ran off leaving a silvery white trail behind it.

She looked back down at Sturgis. "Now, all we have to do is wait."

"With you?" He asked. "Oh Merlin... kill me now."

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Dorcas Meadows and Andy ran through the halls with theirs hands gripped together. They had lost each other once before and by luck found one another, they weren't about to go through that again. And it was likely that they could, the two girls were being chased by nothing really. But when they opened a door boggarts jumped out at them both. This was the third time they had been ambushed, the first two times it had seen Dorcas first. They weren't even going to let the boggarts see them this time, or let them see what they feared most. They just ran without looking for a thing.

Finally they stopped in the middle of a hallway and kneeled down. Both breathing hard and trying to catch their breath. "God damn things are everywhere." Andy said as she leaned back against the wall.

"Someone had to of put them here, there's now way this many boggarts are just in this house by coincidence. And ya know what? I'd bet my bottom dollar the rest have run into just as many, and these are not normal boggarts. It's like a boggart times ten." Dorcas said.

"They must have known we'd be here then, the Death eaters must've left us these boggarts to make us go away. But why? I mean it's not like there's anythin' in this house that can kill us, just scare us."

"You don't know that." The other girl replied. "We haven't been in nearly all the rooms. There could be other things hidden."

Andy nodded. "Other things hidden, maybe there's somethin' here that they dun want us to find."

"But what could it be." Dorcas wondered out loud. "I mean what could be so important that he would go to this extent to hide it from us?"

"I don't know." She shook her head.

"Whatever it is, I think we should go find Mad-Eye or Dumbledore." Dorcas said looking down and the floor and then back up at Andy. "We need to regroup, we can't do this split up into such small teams."

"Ya read my mind." Andy smirked and the two stood up again. They walked down the hall for several seconds before they heard quick footsteps ahead of them. They exchanged looks and took their wands out, ready to attack.

The steps just got louder and louder and the girls found themselves taking more and more steps backward. But finally a figure found its way around the corner, they raised their wands to attack but stopped themselves when they realized just who this figure was and sighed.

"Peter!" They exclaimed.

"What're ya doin' here?" Andy asked as she ran up to him. "Where's Remus?" She asked the second she realized he was not with him.

"He ran away." Peter said through labored breathing and he leaned down and put his hands on his knees.

"Why?" Dorcas asked.

Peter looked up at her from his position. "He... he transformed, or partially... anyway. The boggart... it became the full moon when he saw it... and he... he began transforming. I tried to..." He looked at Dorcas for a split second, she didn't know he was an animagus. "I tried to help him." He looked at Andy hoping she would get his meaning. "I tried to help, but I couldn't, something was stopping me."

"S... so... he's in his transformed state?" Dorcas asked looking around nervously.

"Oh God." Andy breathed as she looked around as well.

"Well I'm not sure he is, last I saw him he was halfway and he sort of stopped." Peter said as he stood up straighter, now catching his breath more.

"It does take a while to transform... but if he just stopped..." Andy trailed off, not quite sure what to make of this. "We have to find him." Andy concluded.

"But what if he did transform?" Dorcas asked as she saw Andy begin to walk off.

She shrugged in response. "Then I guess I have a werewolf on my hands."

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Laura walked through the dark halls her wand ready to attack any boggart that jumped out at her. She had run into several, lucky for her she was either able to run to hide before it took to much of a hold on her and her partner Edgar Bones. She was lucky he was there, he was a stronger wizard then she was witch.

They had linked their arms as to not get separated in this madness, it was a good thing he was a lefty and she was a righty. They each clutched their wands like a life line.

"Look at that." Edgar said as a light appeared from around the hallway. "It's either a lumous charm or –"

"A patronus." Laura finished as they saw the German Shepherd patronus run around the corner. "Looks like Heather's." She said as she kneeled down next to the patronus as it settled on the ground.

"Of course, who else has a dog patronus."

"Sirius." Laura answered looking up at him.

Edgar furrowed his brow and thought about it for a moment. "Well... not a Shepherd at least. So it's Heather's." He changed the subject back to the patronus. "So, why's it here?"

Laura looked at the patronus and her eyes widened, realizing its true purpose. "It's not a normal patronus, it's a messenger spell!" She cried and she looked up at Edgar for a moment. She stared at it and listened to the message it had to send. "Oh my God!" She said and raised her hands to her mouth. "Sturgis is injured! We have to go find them."

The dog patronus leaped into the air and turned around. Upon seeing that it would not disintegrate Laura and Edgar proceeded to follow the patronus to find the exact location of their injured and lost friends.

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Sirius walked around the house, Dearborn was still lost. He wasn't sure if he would ever find him. Despite the fact he was against the rights of any creature that wasn't fully human, he was still fighting Voldemort. And that gave him some credit... just some.

He could try and find him by sending a message with his patronus charm, but there was no guarantee that he would get it, or that if he did find it they could still find one another. Besides, he was a strong wizard, as much as Sirius hated to say, he was capable of handling himself. He was sure he was fine. And if he wasn't... then they would have to deal with it.

He moaned, this was starting to get boring, just walking through these seemingly endless hallways. Sirius took a look around and decided to make it a little bit more interesting. Smirking he slid his wand in his pocket and in a flash he was down on all fours and in the shape of a giant black dog.

He jogged through the hallways every now and then leaving a drop of slobber in his wake. Only once did he feel the need to stop, and that was because he had to scratch himself behind the ears. James had often said he should make his change into a dog permanent, he said Sirius looked much better as a dog. However there was only one drawback in Sirius's opinion. The fleas. They were everywhere, no matter now much he scratched or jumped in the water they were still there.

As he resumed walked through the halls he found he couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary, nothing aside from the normal smell of a house and Order members. No one strange was in this house. But, thee was one sent, he picked up, it was weird. Putting his nose to the floor Sirius sniffed around to try and find the source of the sent, it took him some time and some back tracking but he was able to follow it to a room a few floors up.

When he arrived at the room he jumped on in his back legs and pushed the door open with his front paws. The second he walked in he took a step back and scrunched his nose up. The room reeked, the one sent he could place as a snake, he remembered in the Slytherin dorms one of the boys had one. He had pranked their room plenty of times, so he remembered the sent. But the other one... it was so strange.

Sniffing around he found a pile of old papers in the corner. He nudged it with his nose and the stack fell over. It was a bunch of old news papers and parchment that held various dates. Sirius transformed into his human form and picked up the papers. He cast a spell on them to reduce them in size before sliding them into his coat pocket.

He slid the wand back into his pocket and transformed back into a dog. As he left the room he jogged down the hall, continuing his search for Dearborn, or anyone for that matter. But, he didn't have to go far. There was an all too familiar sent, if you looked at the dog, you could have sworn he smiled.

But that smile quickly faded with another few good sniffs, something was off about the sent. Sirius bolted off in the direction of the smell, it was so familiar, but too familiar in this form. He began running around the house in hopes of finding the right trail and finding the friend of who it belonged to.

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Lily had gotten separated from Frank long ago, he told her to run when they were attacked by devil's snare, she wasn't quite in the room yet so she was able to get away. She prayed he managed to escape as well. She sent out a patronus to find help, but she wasn't sure it made it.

She walked down the hallway, breathing hard, she had just faced the strongest boggart she had ever encountered. It wasn't normal. She reached her hands up and pulled her slightly curly red hair back and out of her face, she then conjured a hair tie and held it back. She regretted not having done this when they first entered the house. If you could call this place a house, it was massive.

She sighed as she turned another corner, but as she turned she saw someone and gasped. She clapped her hand over her mouth and pined herself back against the wall praying whoever it was didn't see her. But then she looked back and saw that this stranger was familiar. It was Remus, on the floor leaning against the wall with his legs pulled up against his chest and face hidden in his knees.

"Remus?" She asked in her soft voice. He must have known she was coming because he didn't flinch or move in the slightest bit when she spoke.

"Go away, Lily." He said in a pain filled voice with a slight lisp in his words.

"Moony?" She said with some humor. Over the years she had become accustomed to calling them by their nicknames from time to time, just never with James.

"Go away." He repeated, his voice breaking.

Her smile faded and she moved closer. "Remus, are you okay?" She asked ignoring his pleads for her to leave. As she moved closer Remus seemed to flinch away and in his movement she saw the now fur covered claw that replaced his hand. She gasped and jogged the rest of the way and knelt down to him. "My God Remus, what happened to you?"

She brushed some hair out of his face with her hand and he moved his head ever so slightly so he could see her. And upon seeing her, it meant she could see him. When she moved the tawny hair out of the way she saw a golden bloodshot eye surrounded in black.

He could see the shock and pain that washed over her face and he buried his face deeper into his knees. "Go away, Lily... please." He moaned again.

She shook her head. "No, I'm not going to, you obviously need help, so I'm here to give it to you. Now, tell me what happened." She said making herself more comfortable on the floor and placing her arm around his shoulders in a comforting way.

"The boggart... it became the full moon, I don't know what happened." He said looking up at her with one tear filled eye. "I started changing, I don't know what's going on."

"Look at me." She said putting her hands on her shoulders. "Let me see your face."

He kept his head down and refused. But with slight pressure she pushed his upward. With his now enhanced strength he could have easily fought her off, but something in the back of his mind let her push him up.

She didn't wince, or flinch, or do anything really when his half transformed face was revealed. She didn't stare at the long fangs that peeked past his lips and caused the lisp that he now spoke with, or the yellow eyes, or the fur that lined his jaw line... not even the blackened nose.

She gave a small reassuring smile and cupped his wolfish face with her hand. "Not that bad." She said with humor hinting her voice.

Remus avoided her gave blinked out a few tears.

"Aw, now don't cry. You'll change back. I know you will."

He shook his head. "But what if I don't? I don't know why I changed in the first place. What if there was a curse or something and now I'm stuck like this? Letting everyone know the monster I really am?"

She shook her head. "No, you're not a monster, you're just a boy who happen to have something terrible happen to them. It didn't change who you are, if you weren't a werewolf, you'd still be a Marauder, you'd still be Remus Lupin. Now Remus, I recall us telling you this more the once. When is it going to sink in? Or will we have to tell you whenever you're reminded of your lycanthropy?"

"No... it's just Peter... his boggart, it was a werewolf. I mean... is he scared of me? All we've been through, he's still scared of me."

"I'm sure that's not it, did you give him a chance to explain?"

"He said he was only scared when he couldn't become the rat." Remus said like a child confessing to a lie they had told earlier. "But all the same, he was scared of the werewolf... he didn't get to say much more because then... this happened." He said and looked down at the claws that replaced his hands.

"When we meet up with Peter later I'm sure he'll be so happy you're alright. I'm sure he's worried about you."

Remus didn't respond.

"Are you going to help me look for the others? This place creeps me out a bit. I kinda wanna leave." She said brushing some hair out of her face that fell from her ponytail.

He looked unsure and then nodded his head.

She smiled at him and stood, taking his hand and helping him up being mindful of the sharp claws. "Come on, let's go. We can find Sirius and James and Peter and Heather and Laura..." she raised an eyebrow. "And Andy, I'm sure she'd find this kinky."

Remus laughed, although it came out more of a hoarse dry laugh them a good hearted one. "Probably would." He said quietly.

As it turned out they only had to walk a few steps before a black dog ran around the corner. In one fluid motion the dog changed into a tall boy in his late teens with a worried look. "Oh I knew somthing was wrong! I could smell it." He said and walked over to Remus and embraced him. "I couldn't tell you how worried about you I was when I smelled you like this." He pulled away and looked at Remus, he took his half transformed face in and nodded. "We'll get you outta this, mate. No worries, I promise you that."

Remus smiled slightly though the teeth and as the trio walked down and hall he couldn't help but keep the smile on, maybe it would all be okay.

Lisa: MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (If you do in fact celebrate Christmas but if you don't happy/merry whatever holiday you celebrate!)

Heather: That covers it all I think.

Lisa: I think it does. Now a few notes about this chapter, I know that in the first movie Hermione made the devil's snare go away with sunlight. This is incorrect, according to the book it's fire that makes the devil's snare go away.

Heather: Lisa be a smart person...

Lisa: I is be... Also for that last boost Remus self esteem and make him feel better thing it was supposed to be Sirius, but I think we've been down that path with Sirius. So I shoved Lily in there. Besides I happen to be watching Prisoner of Azkaban and we were at the bridge scene that may have had something to do with it. Well bye guys! I'll be back! Before New Year's maybe since I'm off from school.