Chapter Five: Exeunt

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters

Lupin picked up his wand from where it had fallen and aimed a curse at Dolohov's head. He reached the blackened corridor that hid the Room of Requirement, hoping that the passageway to Aberforth's bar would still be open. If he could just lose Dolohov, find Dora, and then they could get out…

"Impedimenta!" Dolohov cried, and Lupin was lifted off his feet and came crashing into the wall behind him. Picking himself up, struggling for breath, Lupin managed a counter-attack. "Levicorpus!" Dolohov dodged the attack and screamed out another.

"Crucio!"

"Protego!" yelled an invisible voice from behind him. The Unforgivable curse bounced off the shield, smashing the wall behind Dolohov's head.

Dolohov pointed in the direction of the voice and yelled, "Homenum revelio!"

Tonks's shaking form appeared, her wand hand already raised, "Stupefy!"

"Avada kedavra!" The curse hit the floor about a metre from her foot, taking a large chunk out of the floorboards. Tonks ran to meet her husband, "Remus, I'm so glad-"

"You shouldn't have come, Dora." Remus whispered, though he knew in his heart he was glad that she was there.

Dolohov laughed, "Ah, what a happy little family reunion we have here," he said in a sneering voice, "Well, I've got something that will make it even better…"

Both Lupin and Tonks had their wands ready to utter counter-curses and protective shields, and then everything went black.

"What is that?" muttered Tonks.

"Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, I think, Weasley product." Lupin responded.

Tonks sighed disapprovingly, sounding almost motherly, "If I ever get my hands on those two again-"

There was a series of loud cracks and, although they could not see, Lupin and Tonks knew they were surrounded.

"This disapparition barriers must have been broken-" murmured Tonks.

"Which means we can get out of here." finished Lupin.

"Expelliarmus!" cried an anonymous member of the circle surrounding them. Tonks's wand flew out of her hand. "I-I can't-"

"I'll take you with me!" he yelled. No sooner had he said this, than their captors started a rally of jinxes.

"Crucio!" Lupin fell down, gasping in pain, his wand clattering out of his hand. Tonks picked up her husband's wand, and, pointing it at his torturer, cried, "Diffindo!"

There was a cry of pain and an awful splattering sound, and Lupin sat up, breathless. Tonks handed him back his wand, and they stood up together. Lupin's hands were shaking so hard that Tonks could hardly keep hold of them. Squeezing them tight, she said, "Remember, Destination," they chanted them together, "Determination, Deliber-" Tonks fell limply into her husband's arms. No! Remus's mind screamed. He checked frantically for a pulse. Yes, still there, just stunned. He steadied himself. Remember, Destination, Determination, Deliber-

"Avada kedavra!" Lupin instinctively jerked away from the spell, but nonetheless, it hit its target. Tonks's body jerked, and then became still and lifeless.

"No, no!" Lupin scrambled for a pulse once again, but the beats were becoming slower, feebler. He knelt down beside his wife, tears wiping the dust off her face.

He needs you more than he needs me! Would you rather he be an orphan than fatherless?! Those words meant nothing to him now.

"Avada kedavra!" The oncoming curse felt less like a death sentence and more like mercy as Remus Lupin fell soundlessly, lifelessly next to the body of his wife.

The Death Eaters left and the darkness lifted so that, to the eye of a casual onlooker, the two looked just as if they were sleeping…