A/N I has a slight warning for you, my wonderful beautiful saucy reader! This chapter get's a bit dark toward the end. (There is bloody war on after all!) So beware, Lord Voldy's on the rise.

The Lupins were in their kitchen, after departing quite suddenly from the party. Remus sat at one end of the kitchen table, his parents stood at the other.

"So..." said his dad uncomfortably, arms folded, shoulders hunched. His Mum looked up at his and rolled her eyes

"...so" replied Remus, with an awkward smile

"Look, Remus... we're your parents"
"Ten out of ten Sherlock" he smirked

"Don't be mean Remus" said his mum

"Sorry"

"Carry on John"

"Right, we're your parents. When you start a... a... relationship, you should tell us"

"Okay. To be fair, you didn't exactly react well to finding out I was gay. I assumed you wouldn't want to hear"

"I... I have to want to hear Rem, I'm your father"

"Okay, well... I have a boyfriend"

"Tell us about him" said his mum excitedly, her eyes brightening up

"His name is Sirius Black. But I suppose you already knew that, considering we were friends for two years.... uh... he's a Black, he hates his parents because they're all crazy about the pure blood thing... he's much clever than he lets on, he like to play pranks and jokes... er he's brave, he's noble, he's ridiculously loyal... a lot like James really. Probably why they get on so well. We got together properly like, seven weeks, or so, ago, when he was... er looking after me after me... after the full moon"

"Do you think it's serious?" asked his mum, eye's alight with glee and curiosity

"He loves me, I love him. So... yes"

"That's wonderful. Isn't it wonderful John?" his dad looked vaguely terrified, a little confused and mostly, something not as strong as disgusted but something near it.

"Yep, wonderful.... just fucking wonderful"

"Can I go now?"

"No, we need to have a chat about sex" said his mum earnestly

"Jesus christ" said Remus and his dad in unison, both begining to blush

"You know not to rush into anything, don't you?"

"Yes mum"

"And you know to stay safe"

"Yes mum"

"And by that I mean using condoms" his mumsounded serious, but Remus detected an evil glint in her eye. His Dad, looked on the verge of explosion

"YES! Rhea okay! Thank you! He knows!"

"Can I go now?"

"Yes go, please for the love of God go" said his dad desperately shooing him out

"G'night sweet heart"

"Night mum, night dad" said Remus quickly. Flying out of the room like it was on fire.

*

"Has Remus gone?" asked Sirius as he staggered over to James

"Yeah, his parents kind of made him-"

"AWW NO!"

"Yeah... Sorry, he's gone... have you had something else to drink?" said James, backing away, Sirius was standing just that little bit too close to him

"YES! You know James, Prongs, Jamesy, Jimmy Boy... I know me and Rem are in love... I love him so much James. I really do"

"Right..."

"I love you too" Sirius, threw his arms around James's neck "Not like the way I love Rem, but you're like a brother to me"

"Great, love you too Sirius... you can let go now"

"You are my best friend" Sirius's grip tightened

"Thanks, you're my best friend too"

"I love you! I love Remus! I even love Peter! Stupid, fat, arse kisser that he is, I love him"

"That's... good for you Sirius... if you could just let go of me... now"

"Jutst enjoy the moment James, feel the love!"

Sirius woke up the next morning with his head in the Potter's toilet. His nose was blocked and running, his brain felt like it was going to burst out of his head, his chest and throat burnt with every breath. He whimpered and ran his tongue across the roof of his mouth, it was dry and all he tasted was vomit.

"Fuck me" he groaned, pulling his head up from the toilet bowl, he flinched at the sunlight "Aah... fuck... bright" He peeled himself from the Potter's bathroom floor and dragged his feet downstairs, Mrs Potter must've been up for a while, as the living room was already clean, he continued to scrape his feet alomg the floor till he reached the kitchen, where the Potter's were sat picturesquely round their kitchen table, Mr. Potter was reading the paper, James was eating eggs and Mrs. Potter was hacking at her slightly over cooked bacon.

"You're up" said Mr Potter brightly

"I can't remember anything... why do I feel awful?"

"Well" began James with a smirk "When you got here, you were pissed, you're hung over"

"Now you mention it, I do vaguely remember down a two hundred year old botle of elf made wine before I left the house" Sirius's head was still punding, but memories were coming back, fuzzily and broken

"You had half a bottle of fire whisky on you as well You crashed into a tree after flying outside in the snow for two hours"

"You broke your arm, and I think you've gotten a nasty cold and and a cough" said Mrs. Potter

"That explains why I feel like shit"

"Language!" laughed Mr. Potter "hmm, the England team sighned a new player"

"Who?" asked James eagerly

"I've turned the page now!... I'm not turning back... erm, Young Irish lad, plays beater for the Torrnado's... Cunnigham I think"

"Caelan Cunnigham" snarled Sirius

"mmhmm, that's his name"

"Bastard! Complete utter bastard he is! I can't believe a prick like that could have such good luck!" said Sirius angrily. James's parents gave him a concerned look

"Oh... he was at Hogwarts with us, he's not a nice person"

"He's a bastard that's what he is!"

"Yes Sirius, we know" said James smirking at him

"What's with the smirky look you've had on your face since I got here?"

"Merlin Sirius! Don't you remember anything that happned last night" he giggled

"No... what did I do?" all three of the Potter's were laughing now "What? Don't tease me when I feel this crappy"

"Well, everyone found out about you and Remus" sniggered James

"Oh... we told people?"

"You didn't need to tell us, you started sucking his face in the middle of our living room"

"I didn't"

"You did, you were so drunk, you forgot what Remus's dad was some sort of freaky giant and started on him for being embarrassed." Sirius's jaw dropped.

"Wow... did I turn into like a complete stupid arse hole or something?"

"You did a bit... Marianne Ball, your stalker, was here and you made her cry"

"I'd want to apologise... but, if I do, she'd start following me again"

"No, I don't image she would. She was present for the kissing incident" Sniggered Mr. Potter

"I'll never live this down, will I?" The Potter's exchanged a glance and a smirk and answered unanimously

"No"

"You got so much worse after Remus left as well" added James

"I did?" James opened his mouth "NO! I don't want to know! Stop it, shut up!"

*

Sirius – How are you. I know the answer'll be hung over, so pointless question really. Hope you don't have too bad a cold for going back to school – love Remus x

Remus- How did you guess. I never thought a headache could last almost two days, but, there you go. Don't think I've ever vomited as much in my entire life. Cold is pretty bad, can't breath through nose and breathing through mouth makes me cough and hurts my chest. I feel like shit. My oneconsolation being that we'll be back at Hogwarts tomorow. I do hate coming home for Christmas. In fact, I hate coming home, period – Sirius x

Sirius – Aww, Poor baby. I'm smirking in your general direction, get well soon – Remus x

Remus – Don't be mean, on a scale of oneto ten, how much of a twat did I act at the New Years party? – Sirius x

Sirius – You were at about a seven when I left – Remus x

*

"Remus!" called James from across platform nine and three quarters. Sirius was just behind him, carrying their brooms while James had the trunks

"Hiya" Said Remus brightly "You came together?"

"Yeah, Sirius stayed at mine for the last few days of the holidays. We just popped round his this morning to pick up his things" said James

"Mother was not happy" said Sirius darkly "Not happy at all"

"Shit... she didn't hurt you did she?"

"No, she just shouted. Stuff like that she tends to take out on Reg" Sirius swallowed "Anyway, shall we get on the train? We'll be out of compartments soon. Don't want to share" he mumbled, hurrying onto the Hogwarts Express. James and Remus exchanged a worried glance and hurried behind Sirius.

"This one's empty" Sirius continued to mutter, he shoved the brooms into the overhead compartments

"Oi! Watch it!" snapped James "Be gentle with that!"

"Sorry Mum" sneered Sirius. They got settled and Remus unfurled the Daily Prophet he'd bought that morning for the train

"Did you hear about Cunnigham getting sighned for the England team" said James with a roll of his eyes

"I did" said Remus reciprocating the eye roll. Soon, the boys spotted the familiar podgey sihouette of Peter through the glass on the compartment door

"In here Wormtail!" called James

"Hullo" said Peter sadly, plonking himself down next to James after putting his trunk away. James soon began his obligatory ramble about his futile love for Evans, while Sirius and Peter reassured him. Remus, was too absorbed in the prophet to speak to them, till he noticed a particularly disturbing on the prophets first page

"Have any of you three read the prophet this morning?" asked Remus

"No, is this the Roth murders?" asked James

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"My dad had to go after the bastards that did it. Couldn't catch them" said James grimly

"I didn't hear anything about this" said Sirius indignantly

"Because you were like, dead with your cold yesterday"

"I didn't hear about it either" said Peter "What does the article say"

Remus cleared his throat and read aloud

" "Manhunt begins for Roth Murder – One Muggle and Six Wizards were found dead in their in house Gloucester city centre yesterday evening. The bodies were that of the Roth family. Muggle Liason officer Jaques Roth, 44, appeared to have died dueling in order to protect his muggle wife Patricia, 39, who was murdered quickly after her husbands defeat. Their five children" Remus faltered"Oh christ "their five children were also killed. Their oldest son Mathieu, 16, like his father, died dueling. Protecting his two youngest sisters, Georgette, 9 and Claudia, 4" Remus felt an uneasy lump rise in his throat "Jesus Christ... "Eldest daughter Annabell, 15" Remus's reading tailed off. Annabell Roth was in his DADA tutoring group.

"What's the matter Moony?" asked Sirius, who was looking pale and uneasy

"I tutored Annabell in DADA... we're... we were friends... I saw that it was the Roth family... I didn't think it would be her... " A horrible sickly feeling rose in Remus

"Merlin's beard Moony" said James shaking his head. Remus cleared his throat and carried on reading

" "Eldest daughter, Annabell, 15, died protecting her infant brother, Rufus, aged just six months." They've got to be fucking joking" said Remus gravely before he soldiered on with the article "At the scene of her death one Bartholomew Avery was found stunned"" Remus laughed, a few tears now spilling down his face

"What is it Rem?" said Sirius concernedly

"I spent months working on stunning spells with her" Remus smiled "Obviously it wasn't enough to save her" He wiped his face and continued the article " erm... found stunned. Unfortunately, the spell didn't last long enough, and he escaped before he could be aprehended by top auror Charlus Potter and recently qualified Kingsley Shaklebot..."" Remus remembered meeting Kingsley Shaklebot at the party "... calm before the storm" Remus mumbled to himself "... it is suspected that muliple dark wizards would have been at the scene, but none were found. As Avery fled the scene, he cast an unidentifiable charm, producing the image of a green skull with a snake putrouding from it's mouth. The Aurors later discovered a note pinned to Rufus Roth, which read:"" Remus read ahead, almost gagging "erm... this is... fuck... which read:

Mud Bloods and Blood traitors beware. The purest of our race are tired of living in secret, tired of hiding like rats from the inferior muggles, tired of men like Jaques Roth dirtying our blood line with their filthy muggle lovers, tired of disgusting mud blood children like this being educated amongst ourselves. This war has been brewing since the turn of this decade, no longer will we act under the wire.

The Dark Lord shall rise.

Great and terrible like a tidal wave, to wash away the filth that so brazanly dirtys our blood. This once great race has become weak and pathetic, purification is the only way.

Mudbloods and blood traitors prepare yourselves, for the dark lord has no mercy. There will be more just like this. More families, more children, more babies. All in the name of the Dark lord's noble and necessacry work

The minister has commented, telling people not to panic. Saying that their is no chance a war will break out, and that this un-named group is no threat and will be taken into custody before another murder occours."" Remus set the paper down

"My dad reckons that's bollocks" said James, all the colour had also drained from his face. "he said that for the last few years, there've been some really dodgey looking muggle murders and muggle born murders. This group of wizards, whoever they are, are tired of their "purification" being passed off as random hate crimes and muggle baitings, so they're making a big deal of it. Merlin knows who this dark lord is, but my dad thinks he's about twenty times worse than Grindelwald"

"This is the first we've heard of him though" said Sirius, in denial

"No matter how evil Grindelwald got, he never killed little kids... he never killed fucking babies" spat Remus, his fist's clenched. He just wished he taught Annabell something a little more powerful, he knew there was no way a fifteen year old girl could protect herself from a fully qualified wizard, probably using dark magic, but Remus couldn't shake this feeling of guilt he had

"You alright mate?" asked James sadly

"yeah I'm alright" he said, through clenched teeth, tears begining to burn his eyes again.

"Come here" said Sirius, pulling him into a weak hug and then an equally weak, if well meaning, kiss

"What the fuck?" called Peter jumping up from his seat

"Oh yeah... Remus and Sirius are going out with each other" said James lazily, eyes buring as he eyed up the paper

"What? When did... what?" said Peter, looking like this was more distubing than the murder of seven people

"Oh for fucks sake Peter, this had been going on for a few months, sit down and shut up! There are more important things to think about right now!" Snarled Sirius. Peter looked guilty and slid down into his chair

Hardly a word was spoken for the entire train journey. The entire train seemed eerily quiet, even the usually cheerful, trolly witch hardly said a word when she came with her notciably full sweet trolly. It seemed Peter was the only person on the train capable of eating. Even when they arrived back at the castle, the students were gravely silent. At dinner only the Slytherin table rose above a quiet murmur. Mathieu Roth's Hufflepuff gilfriend had become hysterical and had to be escorted out of the hall by Proffessor Sprout, and Flitwick, both Mathieu and Annabell had been in his house, had also left soon after her in a flood of tears. It was at that point that Dumbledore cleared their plates and rose up from the staff table.

"Quiet, students please" there was little need to call for silence, as most sad mumbled conversations had ground to a halt when Mathieu's girlfriend had been lead out the hall to calm down "Welcome back, as we enter 1975, as much as I would've liked to welcome you back on a positive note. Unfortunately the murder's of students Mathieu and Annabell Roth and their family, marks the begining of very dark times ahead. The Minister and the Daily Prophet have assured us that a war is not coming. But I am afraid this war has been under way for almost four years. A dark wizard, a Dark Lord supposedly, is hell bent on the purification of the wizarding race. He has a small collection of devoted followers and will soon try to raise an army. I beg of you all to be on your guard and to stay united. No matter what the Daily Prophet or the Minister says, we are at war."

*

As the note found pinned to Rufus Roth had promised; there were more murders.

The next after the Roths were the Fords, who were a mostly muggle family of two parents, two grandparents and three young girls. Only the eldest daughter was a witch and was in her first year at Hogwarts.

The next to die were, the Prewetts. It was only the elderly Mr and Mrs Prewett who had died, the attack had been planned for a newly preganant Molly and Arthur Weasley and their two little boys, who had been planning on visiting the Prewetts that weekend, but were unable to come when little Charlie got himself bitten by a garden gnome. Fabian and Gideon Prewett publically swore revenge on the people who killed their parents and threatened their sister. The Weasley's went into hiding.

After the Prewetts came the Trouts, who were not all murdered. Patrick and Dahlia, the adults, a pair of aurors who had arrested many wizzard over the years for muggle baiting, were murdered but their children, eight year old twins Elliot and Alexi were tortured. Elliot was killed after an hour or so, but Alexi was tortured for what might have been hours, and driven to insanity. When he was discovered by the body of his brother, shaking, covered in burns, cuts, bruises and showing signs of repetative use of the cruciatus curse, as soon as the auror touched him he had a seizure and for the rest of his life, he repeated the same five minutes of converstaion. This was recoreded and released in the Daily Prophet:

he drops his voice down low and swings his head to the right "Bella my love, the dark lord will be pleased"

He throws his voice high, and swings his head left "I know, teaches the flithy mud blood scum not to breed, doesn't it, crucio!"

voice low, head right "Dirty little mudblood bitch"

voice high, head left "Naughty language! Roddy, want to have a go on this one?"

his voice changes to his own "No, please, not again please"

voice low, head right "You'd rather we hurt your brother?"

his own voice again "No! Please just leave us alone... I'll give you all my toys"

voice high, head left "You hear that Roddy? The mudblood is barganing"

voice low, head right "I do hear Bella, I do! I'd rather hear him beg. Little mudblood?"

his own voice "Yes sir?"

voice low head right "I want you to beg to Bella"

his own voice, full of panic "Please don't hurt us Bella!"

voice low, head right "CRUCIO! How dare you speak to my wife like that Mudblood! You call her, Mrs. Lestrange... BEG FOR MERCY"

his own voice, him now crying uncontrolably "Please Mrs. Lestrange, don't hurt us! Please Mrs Lestrange! Please! Please!"

voice low head right "Will that do, Bella? Are you going to hurt him hurt him?"

voice high, head left "No"

his own voice changes to a sigh of relief and tears of joy "Thank you Mrs Lestrange, thank you"

voice high, head left "That is. No, I wouldn't if it were up to me. But Lord Voldemort would be greatly displeased... tell you what. I'm going to crucio you-"

his own voice, now an ear splitting horrific wail "NO! Not again! PLEASE MRS LESTRANGE!"

voice high, head left "let me finish silly mudblood! I'm going to crucio you, and if you can be a good little boy and not scream, I'll let your brother live. If you do scream, he dies. Fair?"

His own voice, completely uncontrolled, a horrific tantrumus scream "FAIR- YES – FAIR – PLEASE"

Voice high, head left "CRUCIO"

His own voice, a blood curdling shreik and a faint whimper of "no, please" lost among tears and gurgled among saliva

Voice low, head right "Oh dear. Someone's been a bad boy for screaming, and now his brother dies"

His own voice, simply a burbled wail

Voice low, head right "AVADA KEDAVRA"

His own voice still a weak distraught gurgle "El-" broken by a hiccup "-iot?"

Voice high, head left "He's dead now little Mudblood. This is what happens when your parents offend Lord Voldemort. He would like an apology"

His own voice, small strength rising through the feeble cry "No."

Voice high, head left completely outraged and disgusted, a scream "HOW DARE YOU REFUSE THE WILL OF LORD VOLDEMORT! CRUCIO! CRUCIO! CRUCIO!"

A sick gurgling choking sound, the boy convulses and seizes. And this starts all over again.

"Bella my love, the Dark Lord will be pleased"...

After that, evil had a name. Lord Voldemort. Aurors also had another pair of targets to ad on top of Avery, the Lestranges.

The next attack was aimed at the Khans, a pureblood family with one squib son, Taral, and a normal witch daughter, Anjali. The entire family was murdered, apart from the squib son was tortured to insanity like Alexi Trout. Taral would only scream the words "Death Eaters" and like Alexi, he was prone to violent seizures and died not too long after his family's murder.

The next attack came as suddenly as the last. The Peck family, another mixed marriage, suffered at the hands of Voldemort. The muggle father, Steven, was found hunched over his pregnant wife, Cecille, who had been heavily pregnant, she was clawing for her wand. There house was completely destroyed and their young children were crushed. It was then that the Daily prophet reported this "Lord" Voldemort had enlisted giants. The note they left pressed in the rigid cold hand of Cecille read:

Careful little Aurors, we forgot to collect our giant – Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It took three weeks to capture said giant, Voldemort had let him loose on the Fens and marshes by where the Pecks had lived.

With the disturbing message "Half Breeds Beware" etched in blood across a country house in Northumberland, came the murder of vampire Ivan Alucard and his witch wife Jennifer, their one daughter, Keesa, was missing, presumed dead.

With that seventh attack in four months, the ministry finnally anounced that they were indeed, at war.