In the morning I sent a patronus message to Minerva asking for a meeting. I knew she was anxious with no word about Alastor. When she replied, I went through the floo to her office immediately. My excuse was to ask for a reference letter and show her my NEWT scores. She wasn't fooled at all. After requesting tea and scones for us she cast an imperturbable charm. The House Elf popped in with the tea things after which I cast a Muffliato charm as well.
"He is alive, Minerva. Bellatrix hit his broom. He still fell a long way. The Dark Lord hid him at Azkaban. I sensed it through my link to Sev."
"You may be able to fool the others, but I have helped your husband for too many years, Thera. I know how Albus tied the bonds. He has been home and you have seen him. Thank you for the information. The Order will simply have to do without Alastor for a while. Is Severus well? I know there was something very havey-cavey about Albus's death. He had been growing weaker all year. He made Severus take an unbreakable vow, didn't he? I know you won't tell me. Tell him I'll stand with him no matter what happens."
"Minerva, you should not know about that. It is our lives on the line. He is working to get Alastor out but we need to find a safe house where he can heal. Spinner's End is out because Viktor and his group are using the house. I don't know how badly Alastor is hurt but I am sending potions for Sev to give him. The plan is to distract Avery and Rowle then switch Alastor for a corpse. Avery and Rowle will have to be Obliviated. Is there somewhere we can take Alastor?"
"Albus had a cottage at the far end of the lake. It is warded to be unplottable. I am secret keeper now. I will give you the passwords for the wards and how to find it. Alastor knows the cottage. It is where he went to heal after he was injured before. Tell him……"
"That you love him, Minerva? I will. I also will tell him he needs to stay close to the school once he is healed. I am sure I am going to have to convince him of certain things. And here are my NEWT scores. You could write the directions to the cottage and transfigure them to read like a reference letter for me. If you want to announce my scores to the Daily Prophet, you have my permission. That should surely get Malfoy senior's y-fronts in a twist. Let me finish my tea and I will get back to Chelsea."
"Thank you, child, I was worried about Alastor. Tell Severus I owe him and that I am worried about him, too."
"Wand oath, Minerva, you cannot reveal anything about Alastor."
"Wand oath, Thera, I promise. Will I see you?"
"I will deliver him to you personally, until then, dasvedanya, Minerva." As I left I cancelled the Muffliato.
Sev was still sleeping when I arrived back in Chelsea. When I fixed breakfast, I woke him. He was still in a very strange mood. I knew he would eventually talk about whatever it was. He took his teacup to the window and stood watching the river traffic for a long time. When he started to talk his voice was very low, as if he was unsure of what he had to say.
"Thera, we must discuss the possibility of a child again. I do not believe it would be advisable until everything is settled. If we both survive, if we avoid Azkaban, we can discuss it again but until then I think it best that we not consider it. Do not mistake this for something it is not. I love you. You are the core of my world. I cannot make do without your love. I want us to be free of this. I want to acknowledge you as my wife. I want us both to be able to walk away from the things I have been forced to do. Can you accept this for the time being?"
"If I must, yes, Sev, but the subject is not closed. I went to the school today. I told Minerva about Moody. She says there is a cottage at the other end of the lake that was Dumbledore's. Moody used it when he was recuperating before. It is warded heavily. She wrote the spells out to access the wards. Then she transfigured the letter to look like a reference letter for me because of my NEWT scores. She took a wand oath not to reveal anything I told her. And she has guessed about Dumbledore's death. I did not confirm or deny anything. She said she will stand by you."
"We have four weeks before school starts. We must devise a plan to retrieve Moody. You need to go to the cottage and make everything ready, take potions, salves, the Muggle bandages you bought whatever you think you might need. I will find an appropriate substitute for Moody's body when the time comes to liberate him. There is an owl at the window; it looks to be from Viktor. He may have heard from Hermione. I will get dressed while you attend to the owl."
The owl was from Viktor. He had heard from Hermione who reported the three of them were safe for now. She warned that they had had a run in with Death Eaters on Tottenham Court Road.
Sev had come back into the room as I was reading. I handed him the note. He remarked that they must have used the name of the Dark Lord. He told me the name had been rigged as a taboo. Anyone foolish enough to use it could be immediately traced and captured. He wrote back to Viktor to warn his friends not to use the name. He gave Viktor the passwords to the tunnel to Hogsmeade and warned him to keep it secret. He was summoned later in the day to receive the Dark Lord's plans for the coming school year curriculum at Hogwarts. When he returned he was exhausted.
"He has changed the entire system! I hope the parents of the Muggle-born students do not send their children back. If they are sent to school they will be considered fair game for the Carrows to torture and even kill. The half-bloods may fare no better. Send to Minerva; tell her to tell the Heads of House to contact the parents. They must be warned. If the trio comes back…… it does not bear thinking what will happen. Thera, you needs must go now to the cottage. We must move Moody soon. Bellatrix is planning on using him as her entertainment. I prevailed on the Dark Lord to hold off for a period of weeks to see if I can restore him to a healthy enough state so that he will not die the first time she Crucios him. She is still screaming at me that I am a traitor because I thwart her at every turn. The Dark Lord is becoming tired of her histrionics. He wants me to come up with new teaching methods by next week. I am becoming increasingly tired of the immaturity of the Death Eaters as a whole. Third year Hufflepuffs have more sense and restraint. By Merlin's Golden Blade, I am so very tired of this!"
He was drinking heavily now, I knew he was under horrible strain. I sent an owl to Minerva and took what supplies I would need to the cottage. Her directions were quaint. 'At the other end of the lake aim for the second cove to the right and straight on till you see a clearing with a broken Celtic cross. The cabin sits 20 meters beyond the cairn at the foot of the cross.'
It was clean and small but comfortable enough for an injured man to recuperate there. I stocked the potions, supplies, and food for a month or so. On my return to Chelsea, I stopped at the Simply Food to pick up dinner. I selected tubs of the chicken with sweet corn and the salmon with cucumber and a loaf of the oat bread to make sandwiches with and few of the sweets in small containers as well as the still drinks of the Sicilian Lemon with Mexican Lime and Orange varieties. As I was walking back to the flat I sensed I was being followed again.
I ducked into a flower shop and bought two sprays of flowers to see who was following me.
It was Lupin. He knew I had seen him so he waited outside the flower shop.
"Is it that I am too obvious when I am following you, Thera? Or is it that you have watched your back for so long that you have developed an instinct to sense when you are being followed? Sorry, by the way, Dora and I didn't get to come to dinner that night. We had a bloody great row over her having to work so much. How is Severus? I know you have seen him. We had pretty much the same type of bonding, so I understand a lot more now. I also know that Dumbledore had been using Severus to keep track of Malfoy the younger. I know the sort of curses that cause the kind of damage Dumbledore suffered to his hand. That is extremely Dark magic and would have been a death sentence unless a very skilled healer was called in immediately. But a healer wasn't called, were they? He called in his tame potions master. And said potions master told him what exactly? That he had a year at most? That he was dying by degrees? You were there. He does nothing without you there by his side. Did he tell you he injured George Weasley? Oh, I know it was not done intentionally; he was aiming for the idiot Death Eater who was chasing us. Did he say what had been done with Moody's body? We went back but couldn't find it."
"Here, these flowers are for you to take to Dora. Yes, Lupin, my father taught me to always watch my back. I do know what it is to have bloody, whacking, great rows with your spouse. Now that you know how the bonding works are you saying you understand more about certain things?"
"I fucking know that Dumbledore was the most single-minded git in the world. He used all of us, everyone in the Order, for his own purposes. He wasn't that different than bloody, fucking Riddle. He knew Riddle would assign young Malfoy the task of killing him as punishment for his father. The diary that Harry destroyed second year was a Horcrux. So was whatever injured Dumbledore's hand. If Dumbledore knew he was dying and that Riddle would assign Draco to kill him he would have taken steps to forestall that. Who better to take over the task than his tame potions master? He never gave Severus easy jobs. It was always Severus who got the short end of the stick, poor bastard. At least he has some happiness in his life with you. You sure as hell aren't saying much."
"Why are you so angry, Remus? What is wrong? Are you still fighting with Dora? I imagine she is very upset about Moody."
"She told me today that she is pregnant. I don't have a job. There's a war on and she is pregnant. I am worried out my mind about her and I know there is more going on with Severus than anyone will tell me. Damn right I am mad. Wait a minute, why do you want to know if Dora is upset about Moody? Is there something Severus knows?"
"I need a wand oath from you Remus, before I say another word." I stopped dead in the street and stared at him.
His eyes narrowed to slits before he dragged me to a bench. He threw himself down like a schoolboy would, all elbows and knees akimbo, then he glared at me. "Get your wand out, Thera. I, Remus John Lupin, do hereby make a wand oath to Thera Leonidas Snape that I will not reveal anything she tells me in confidence. I f I reveal any word of what she tells me my wand will break voluntarily. I so swear it."
The tips of our wands touched and sparks flew. Remus simply looked at me expectantly.
"He survived, Remus. There is a plan to rescue him. I will hide him and heal him. You do not need to know how, when or where. You will know when it is accomplished. Congratulations on the baby by the way."
"When are you two going to produce one? Or is that a forbidden question? I did not realise that he was seriously in love with you until that day at St. Mungo's. He went insanely jealous when I only touched your arm. He apologised but I saw the only sign I have ever seen that he is very vulnerable where you are concerned. You are his weak spot, Thera. Do not put yourself in jeopardy. It will distract him and that could be fatal. Has the madman asked to see you yet?"
"I was presented to him. He is under the impression I am a bluestocking, spoiled and very clingy. He dismissed me as negligible, which was what we intended. Bellatrix, however, is another matter. I understand she tried to kill Dora. I can tell Dora a thing or two about dealing with her."
"Dora said Bellatrix is coming apart at the seams, literally getting more barking every day. Let me know if you need our help. And keep him out of Harry's path."
"Acknowledged, Remus, keep you and yours safe also. Blessings on you, friend. I will be sending the Wolfsbane the day before the full moon."
"Tell him you want a child, Thera. I could see the longing in your eyes when we talked about Dora. Maybe it will give him a reason to survive. Take care. What is it that Viktor says to you? Oh right, Dasvedanya."
"And to you, Dasvedanya, Remus. " I picked up my packages and made my way home. I found an owl waiting for me from St. Mungo's. Mother was making progress and her prognosis was very good. I sent the note off to Viktor as I waited for Sev.
Suddenly I felt Sev chuckling in my mind. His voice came to me through the link clearly.
"Oh, love, I never gave Lupin credit for being that perceptive. He is right on all counts. Get you home, love. I need you."
He was not home when I arrived but was telling me he would be with me soon.
He arrived to tell me to pack so that we could go to Petersburg for a few days. He simply swept me up in a frenzy of preparation until we were in Petersburg only two hours later.
Ptitsa was elated to see us. I told her that my mother had been found and would be returning sometime soon. She vowed to take good care of Madame Karkaroff. She unpacked our things then went off to begin dinner preparations. I wandered out to the gardens. I saw that at some point Viktor and Sev had arranged for a black marble crypt for my father. It had been carved with his likeness and dates of his birth and death. There was even room for mother when the time came. That way they would be together forever more. And just beyond the crypt I saw that there were three small headstones. Viktor and Sev had marked the graves of my brothers. There were already flowers growing on the graves. He had done so much for me. I knelt in the grass and touched the three stones. Tears started from my eyes.
"I did not do this to make you cry, Thera. It was simply to bring your family back together in one spot. Please don't cry, my darling."
He raised me to my feet and held me close. I felt the beating of his heart under my cheek.
"I am not sad, Sev, just very touched that you would do this for me. Thank you."
"They are my family now too. I want you to be able to send your mother here when she is released and know she will find it peaceful. Besides, I wanted to honour a friend and my wife's father. How better than to reunite them the only way open to me. Come in the house now, we need to talk."
I followed him inside where we sat in the library with glasses of elf-made wine at our fingertips.
"The plan to rescue Moody is in place. I need you to be here at this house when it is implemented. I will bring him here first. When he is stabilised we can take him to the cottage. But you need to stay here for at least another ten days or so until the rescue has been accomplished. I had Viktor move my things here to this house from Spinner's End. When this is all over and the side of light has won, I will destroy the house at Spinner's End. I have kept the house because it reinforced who I was, what I was, but now it is merely a bad memory. Anything that offends you in the jumble of things in the guest house may be disposed of with my heartfelt approval. You are in charge of what we do with our lives in the future. Is this acceptable, Thera Anastasia Igorovna?"
"If it is your wish, my husband, then I will do as you ask. I know you spent time here when I was a small baby. Was there a time when you were happy here? I want to show you the small reading room off the master suite. It would be a suitable library for you or even a potions lab."
"That is the room Igor used as his Dark Magic repository, isn't it? Where he kept the Dark Magic tomes and items so you children would not find them?"
"Yes, before he left for the Triwizard Tournament he locked much of the things in that room away in the vaults under the house. They are still there, Sev. Why do you ask?"
"There may be information on research he had been doing years ago, Thera, things that might help Potter and the others. We must go through that collection. "
"I will go through the things, Sev. Even before I tackle the things from Spinner's End. That should keep me reasonably busy for the next fortnight. Do you want the room off the bedroom for your own use?"
"No, we may find a use for it later. It would probably be the best place to put Moody while he is here. That way you can keep tabs on him."
"Very well, I will also start refurbishing the suite of rooms at the far end of the house. They were my grandmother's rooms at one time. They should make for a comfortable suite for Mother when she is able to come home. The view from those rooms is of the gardens and the graves. "
"Thera, there is still something I need to discuss with you but as yet I cannot bring myself to utter the words. It is what was bothering me so much that even Viktor became concerned. I will try to work through it enough to talk to you about it soon. Bear with me on this, please."
"I will not pry, Sev. Whenever you feel comfortable enough to discuss it, I will hear you out. Just do not allow it to eat at you. What do you think of Lupin's news?"
"Which news, the fact that he has realised that Albus was a master manipulator or that Dora is pregnant?"
"Either, both, whatever, he has amazed me. By the way, the notes that go back to your seventh year on the Wolfsbane Potion; was it Lupin you were concerned about?" You had scratched the initials RJL next to the formula."
"Yes, Remus John Lupin was the only one of the Marauders whom it was possible to like. Black had tried to send me down the corridor to the Shrieking Shack once when Lupin was transformed. He thought it a great joke that I could have died. James Potter stopped me from going. I owed him a life debt for that which did not sit well with me. I tried to repay that debt when Harry was a first year. I actually liked Lupin. He has a particularly wicked sense of humour and when he considers you a friend he will stand by you no matter what. He is painfully honest, brilliant beyond belief, and steadfast on his loyalties. He is the one who actually did most of the work on Harry's map, the one that tells the reader who is in the castle and where they are. That was Lupin's work though James and Sirius took credit for it. He has always been very mild mannered and seems to be weak but he has an inner strength of character that would surprise you. I hope the two of them live to see their child grow to adulthood."
"Don't you have anything to say about the rest of what he said?"
"That you are my vulnerability, no, I am not going to comment on that. That we should have a child, no not on that either. I will, however, thank him for his perception that Albus never did give me the easy jobs. Drink your wine, Thera. I can stay for only this evening. I must be in England in the morning. There are plots afoot to start rounding up the Muggle-born witches and wizards. And your old friend Umbridge is in charge of that. I am going to try to dig up enough background on her to discredit her authority."
"Take care, love. I do not think she has forgotten that you defied her about the Veritaserum. She, like most petty, vindictive people, will have a long memory. I will wait for you to send me word of Alastor. I have enough to keep me busy for several days."
He pulled me into his arms to kiss me thoroughly before we called Ptitsa to serve dinner. He said he would bring the small portrait of Dumbledore from the flat so I could contact the portraits in the school. There was nothing to give us any warning but when the sun finally went down that night the Northern Lights began to move across the sky in the most intricate patterns.
I jokingly said to Sev that it was Ognenniy Zney, the fire dragon. He replied that it was a portent. He said it was Na fir chlis, a warning of turbulent times coming. We did not realise then how truly prophetic the lights really were.
He returned to London the next morning. Within four days he had replaced Moody with a corpse of similar build and infirmities. He brought Alastor to me directly. I had fixed the room off the master bedroom into an invalid's room. Moody had a broken hip and a few other minor injuries. I kept him asleep for the first few days after giving him the Skele Gro. Sev had Obliviated Rowle and Avery after he had removed Moody. The Dark Lord was furious. I had been diligently going through my father's papers in the basement vaults but found nothing that might help Potter. I did however find a journal he had written in during his few years in Azkaban. He documented Bellatrix's ravings and the boasts of the other Death Eaters. I kept the journal out for Sev; perhaps he could decipher something from it. The jumble in the guest house was mostly books and laboratory equipment. I moved it to the underground vault area where there was already an unused laboratory.
When Moody finally woke up, I was glad Sev had brought the small portrait of Dumbledore. The two entertained each other for hours. But Moody, being Moody, began to ask questions. He was pestering Dumbledore about Sev, about that night on the Astronomy Tower.
Dumbledore was sidestepping the questions by commenting about Moody's possible reconciliation with Minerva. When Moody refused to answer they reached a stalemate situation. I had sent a note to Minerva thanking her for the recommendation letter, our code for Moody's rescue. She sent back a transfigured note for Moody. He was healing but belligerent. I was fast losing patience with him. He kept sniping at me about Sev. He wanted answers to his questions, answers I was not about to give him. I did however update him on the latest developments.
"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour was killed. Sev is going back to Hogwarts as Headmaster. Harry, Ron and Hermione are not returning to school. The NEW Ministry has instituted a program that is now hunting Muggleborns. They are considered criminals who stole magic from purebloods. Parents have been warned not to send their children back to school until this is over. Are you with us or against us?"
"Well, that is certainly plain speaking, Missy. I take it that I have your husband to thank for my freedom?"
"That is correct. I have heard from Remus and Dora. They are expecting a child sometime in the spring. The Death Eaters think you are dead. A transfigured corpse was left in your stead. As soon as you are well enough I will take you to the cottage where you recuperated before. That way you are close enough to Hogwarts to assist if needed. We will need to disguise you if you plan on staying at the school."
"Lupin should have worked out what went on by now, the boy isn't stupid. He was the brightest of the four, the Marauders. It is a shame he was targeted by Greyback. "
"I have been working on that. We are very close to a potion to nullify his transformations. Oh, Alastor, this whole thing is so very wrong. You nearly died and my husband is being hunted like an animal. I want it over."
"We all do, girl. Did we lose anyone when Harry was moved?"
"George Weasley lost an ear because my husband missed his shot at Amycus Carrow, other than that everyone made it back just fine."
"Well, at least now Molly can tell them apart. Is your cousin still guarding the school?"
"Viktor is running a relocation service for the nonce. He and his band are getting the Muggleborns out of the country. Your dear Dolores Umbridge is leading the hunt and torture of whatever Muggleborns the Ministry can find."
"Woman always was a mean, vicious bitch. Tell your husband to steer clear of her. I wouldn't trust her above half. I will behave myself so I can get to the cottage and you can get yourself to the school. I ken that is where you want to be now. You get a look when you speak of him. 'Tis the same look my Min used to have when she spoke about me. I am going to protect her and the younglings at the school. I guess we'll be colleagues then. So, yes I am on your side. Now go away and let me rest."
I began the preparations for the move to the school. Moody was healing faster than I had thought so I could speed up my plans. The day before school was due to begin I took him to the cottage and then made my way to the school.