In the Present
A HariPo fanfic
by mew-tsubaki
Note: I haven't finished To the Future and already I'm starting its second companion story. AGH! However, J.K. Rowling's characters are in good hands by now, so I hope everyone enjoys this Rena story. But to reach the present, one must glance at the past, where our story begins… READ & REVIEW!!!
-------------------------------- ^-^3
The Third Harvest (& the Fourteenth Wax)
Another blood-curdling howl pierced the night.
As a werewolf, Remus sniffed the ground and took off running. A sudden and urgent bloodlust overtook him, and he also itched to be further from humans. He was a beast now, and he wanted to be with his kind.
While he sped through the forest, he heard many sounds. Snapping twigs, bird twitters, hooves pounding the ground –they all surrounded him. He went deeper into the forest, hidden by the massive trees. He reared up on his back feet when he heard a dull, repeating thump on the forest floor, and he entered a clearing just as a dog did.
He towered over the canine. Despite the obvious difference in size and strength, the dog still bared his teeth and growled. Remus howled in response, and locked his eyes on the dog.
The black dog viciously barked, and Remus understood what he was saying. Get it together, Remus! Tonks needs you now!!
Remus was not entirely gone yet, and something told him that the speaker, the dog, was Sirius in Animagus form. T-Tonks? he asked with a low whine. But his eyes grew a richer gold and his pupils blackened more as the werewolf vied for more control. A low, guttural noise came from the back of his throat. You, dog, are meat! He bared his fangs to encourage fear.
Pull your head out of your ass! Sirius said with a few barks. Remus, I don't give a damn that you aren't in love with Tonks, but you better get to your wife's fucking bedside before my teeth sink into your jugular!!
The words didn't get through. They were only partially understood, but it didn't matter. Remus lunged at the dog with his claws outstretched. It jumped out of the way with a small whimper, and then struck Remus on the arm. Remus merely shook him off.
The dog landed on his feet. He took action again, and ran behind the beast and was on the defensive as his best mate came at him with a fury of swipes.
Remus tripped over a felled tree then, and the dog bit the werewolf's left ear. Pain seared through him, causing Remus to shriek. He shook his head vigorously, and the dog was flung into a nearby bush. Remus went after him, but the dog escaped between the beast's huge legs.
Gee, Rem. If that's close to what it looks like in real life, I can see why Tonksy would want you all to herself.
The werewolf deeply inhaled and released a rumbling howl. Instinct told him that his pack might come and help him, but then he tried to remember if he had a pack –anyone, not just family, but anyone who would come and help him. Something told him that there was nothing for him.
His anger at that he directed toward the dog. He reached for him, and the dog backed up until he was back against a tree. The dog jumped onto Remus's hand then and ran along his arm, head-butting him once at his shoulder. The dog hopped down, and Remus wobbled backwards, clutching his head.
The dog said something, but Remus couldn't focus on it. He kept teetering until he finally fell to the clearing floor on his back. He panted until his breathing slowed, and his grunts and moans sounded weaker and weaker. Something crunched, and silence followed.
The silence was welcomed, and then something approached Remus. He heard sounds, but he focused on his breathing, which only jaggedly rumbled ever few moments. He turned his head away, and the thing made another noise.
Suddenly, Remus snapped his head back and saw not a dog, but a human. He leaped up, bellowed, and grabbed the human's front, chucking him into the tree from earlier. The human cried and fell to the dirt with a thud. Remus waited until it got on its knees, and then Remus hit the human's left cheek. A sickening crack broke through the night.
Even after that, it still insisted on making noise. In response, Remus thrust his palm into the human's chin. The human's head snapped backwards and he himself flew backwards in an arch, landing in a bush of thorns.
When it didn't move, Remus retraced his steps and went back to the entrance of the forest. Nighttime did not eclipse him any more; things were starting to lighten. He rested, not wanting to deal with anything else right then.
So of course when the human reappeared, Remus ran into him. He hit its arm, but it faced him. Remus glowered at it and snarled. The human grabbed a stick and was going to make more noise if Remus hadn't caught that hand and squeezed it until the human dropped the twig.
The werewolf tightened his grip, ignoring the measly punch the human threw at his nose. Actually, that was such a weak attempt at survival that Remus nearly smiled. He lifted the human off the ground without effort. It gasped and choked as Remus squeezed its neck tighter, and it even tried kicking him, but of course the human was no match for him.
"Re-Remus!" it rasped. It still wanted to make noise?! "Get a hold of yourself! … What would Luna think, hmm?" It looked at him, and Remus stared back. One of those sounds… It was familiar, and was a pleasing sound to his ears, just like the moonlight was a pleasant feeling on his skin… "Do you think she'd appreciate you leaving your wife? In a time of need?! I know you at least love Nymphadora like a friend! Doesn't that count for anything?!"
Remus's grip slackened, he was confused –that pleasant sound was lost in all the other noise coming from this human. He tightened his fingers, and the human coughed. He brought his fingers closer and closer together, the human turning the color of blood and blinking its eyes several times. Its eyelids were beginning to droop…
Out of nowhere, pain hit Remus again. He yowled, and the human fell to the ground, released from the werewolf's grip. Remus fell on his back, his head connecting with a rock. He blacked out as sunlight erupted the medium blue of the sky.
----------------------------------------------------------- ^-^3
Remus awoke with the most excruciating headache, like he had been front row at a techno concert. His head throbbed as he sat up, and an over-robe was tossed at him. He turned and saw Sirius, beaten, bruised, broken, and bloody.
"So you're not going to try and finish the job, are you?" his best mate asked as Remus hastily pulled the warm robe over himself.
"I- ah- What?" He furrowed his brow and squinted at Sirius in the bright morning light.
"Never mind. We've got to get to St. Mungo's. We'll hit the school first so you can grab a sweater and some pants and shoes, but then we have to hightail it outside of the school's no-Apparation zone. It'll be the fastest way to the hospital." Sirius started up a quick pace, and Remus followed.
Dread filled him. "Wait, Sirius! What's –Who's at St. Mungo's?!" The blood drained from his face as he realized the answered before Sirius said it.
"It's Tonks." Sirius glanced back at him, but Remus was looking at the ground.
So, this was it. He knew it had to be. Why else would Tonks be at the hospital? Why else would Sirius speak with such urgency in his tone? Why should Remus have ever hoped that nothing bad would happen with her pregnancy?
Silence came between the two Marauders as the returned to the castle. Remus quickly grabbed his clothes and changed in his office, and then he rejoined Sirius. They sped to Hogsmead, where Remus was the first to Apparate, and Sirius was right behind him. The next thing they knew, the smell of potions and the stench of multi-species death filled their noses.
Remus ignored it and went to the front desk. "I'm Nymphadora Lupin's husband," he said to the goblin clerk. "Where's my wife?" The word wife had been a little hard to say, but Remus tossed aside all of the tangled web he was caught in; he only cared about her well-being right now.
The goblin waved his wand and sorted some papers. A file floated in front of the goblin's hooked nose. "Ah, yes," the clerk chirped. "Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks. She's in the Maternity Emergency Ward. Here," he continued, flicking his wand and passing a note to Remus; it dangled in front of his face, waiting for him and Sirius to follow. "Follow this note into the elevator. You and it are going to the same place. Good day."
The halls were congested, and Remus and Sirius could only walk after the note at a normal pace. They got on the elevator and had the first chance to catch their breaths, but Remus's anxiety didn't lessen one bit. His heart practically dropped into his stomach, not knowing what was going on.
After what seemed like an eternity, the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Remus and Sirius stepped out and didn't bother with that level's front desk. Charlie was waiting for them.
"We've been waiting all night long," Charlie stated as he led them to the others. "Where have you been?"
"Being a werewolf wasn't a choice, Charlie," Remus simply told him. No heat, no sadness. He said it with simple indifference. Remus just wanted this night –this nightmare –to be over.
They approached a narrow hallway, with a few chairs occupying both sides of it. Molly, Arthur, and Minerva were standing a few meters away from some room, and Ginny was sitting uncomfortably in one of the chairs. The three adults rushed Remus.
"She's in good hands," Minerva told him. "They're doing their best to take care of her."
"How bad is it?" Remus inquired. A scream shook all of them to their bones, and he felt his blood turn to ice. That voice was Dora's…
Molly forced a smile. "She's still going through this miscarriage. It began last night."
Beside him, Sirius gaped. "She's still-?! How can that be possible?!"
"It's the lycanthropy," Remus offered. "I'm surprised she's even made it through her first term."
Minerva nodded. "Lycanthropy is only transmitted through scratches and bites. I don't think I've ever heard of a child born a werewolf."
Remus rolled his shoulders in his anxiety; he wished he had never gotten Tonks pregnant to begin with. With what it was doing to her… He sat down a seat over from Ginny. "The lycan blood isn't an allele or any other part of a chromosome. It's essentially a virus that attaches itself to the person's existing chromosomes. Their DNA is…mutated in a way." He hated that he understood his condition so well. "This mutation curses them with the need to change form in the full moon's light. The radiation from the sun's UV rays during the day is too much, and the moon's reflected light during its other stages isn't enough to cause a reaction, but the amount of radiation from the full moon's reflection of the sun's light is the correct amount to irritate the virus into action. We become wolves simply because that was the other part of the virus's gift; we were handed a bit of wolf DNA alongside the virus."
Ginny, Charlie, Sirius, Molly, and Arthur stared at him. Their eyes were wide, their mouths perfect O's. He understood how they felt. This kind of magic attacked in such a scientific way, it as scary.
Minerva pursed her lips. "The fetus is still developing even by the end of the first term, but it's obviously closer to what a newborn looks like than earlier in the term, and the fetus has already developed its major organs. In a sense, this young child might have begun to change if it truly received Remus's lycanthropy-infected genes and was developed enough."
Considering that Tonks' made it to the third trimester… If the child is as Minerva says, then it might be tearing Dora apart, the brunette wizard thought to himself. That idea scared the shit out of him.
"No wonder she's screaming," Ginny murmured, and then gulped.
There was another screech, and then the hall was filled with the average hubbub of a hospital. Remus looked at the doorway to what the others had told him and Sirius was Tonks's room. "I thought I was hard of hearing when she told me she was pregnant," Mooney said with a sad smile, one that also reached his eyes.
A doctor emerged from the room, and everyone was on their feet. Remus stepped forward. "You're Mrs. Lupin's husband, I presume?"
Remus nodded. "Is she all right?"
"See for yourself." The doctor led him away from the rest of the gang and into Tonks's room. The quiet was just as terrifying as the screaming.
Tonks had the room to herself. Ted and Andromeda were there, and they stopped whispering when Remus entered. Ted nodded to him, and Andromeda tried to force a tight smile, but she pursed her lips in the end. They backed off and went outside so Remus could talk with Tonks.
Her hair was dark brown, almost black. Remus approached her, and he wondered if she were asleep. Her eyes fluttered open, and he grabbed her hand. "Re…mus…"
"I'm right here, Dora, I'm right here," he answered quietly. The next thing he knew, tears were screwing up his vision and wetting his cheeks. She looked so weak…
Tonks timidly smiled. "Hi."
"Hi, Dora."
She blinked a few times, and then she was better able to open her eyes. "I'm sorry, Remus. I should've told you about it…"
He furrowed his brow. "What do you have to be sorry about? It's my fault, I was so drowned in work, I…" He knew he was the stupid one; he should've been by her side more often.
"Remus, all those letters… Even during the holidays… I never mentioned to you about the pain I was having."
"Wh-What pain?" he asked.
"The pain whenever there was a full moon," she sobbed. She blinked back her own tears. "I only told my parents about it a few times, but it happened every full moon."
"Dora, Dora, shh," he murmured, wrapping his arms around her. "I'm just glad you're okay…"
She stopped rocking in his arms, and then she gripped his sweater after an odd beat. "Remus… I- I know."
"Know what, Dora?"
Tonks rested her chin on his shoulder. Her parents were silently talking, but she still whispered it into his ear. "I know I forced this on you."
Remus stopped moving, as well. He had been right. This had been a last-ditch attempt at claiming him, claiming his love. But she knew she had failed miserably. "You…"
She cut him off. "Don't worry about me anymore, Remus. I should've listened to you from the beginning. You were right; we're not meant to be together." She looked at him with glassy eyes before raising her shoulders a bit in a gesture similar to a shrug. "Frankly, I don't have a high enough threshold for pain, physical and emotional, to be with you." She pulled away from him, adding under her breath, "Maybe she does."
His heart skipped a beat. What had she said?
Tonks looked at him. "I know," she said in a low voice, one that was fairly even. "Maybe she can pass nine months of horror."
"Dora, I'm-"
"I lost the fetuses."
"F-Fetuses…?" he echoed.
She looked away from him now, nodding. "I had been right about that one thing."
Remus fell into the chair behind him. It had actually been twins. Twins. It had. Actually been twins. Actually. Been twins.
Andromeda and Ted reentered and stepped up to their daughter's bedside. "Nymphadora…," Andromeda prodded.
Tonks looked back at Remus. "I really can't handle any more of this. I'm done with it, and I'm done with you." She inhaled. "I want a divorce."
If forgetting his potion had been the laser at his back and the miscarriage the knife in his heart, this was the knife being twisted in the wound. He was expecting it, really, with what she was just saying about him not having to worry about her anymore and her not being able to handle the pain. But all this in one night?
"We'll take care of the documentation this weekend," Ted supplied when it was clear Tonks didn't want to say anything else. "I'm sorry we had to meet under these circumstances, Remus."
Remus numbly nodded. "Yes…" Somehow he forced himself up out of the chair. "Well, the others will want to see that you're okay. Molly and Arthur are here, as well as Minerva. Charlie brought Ginny, and Sirius is here, too. I'll go let them know you're okay." As he walked to the door, he glanced back at Tonks. He saw that there wasn't any semblance of care for him left in her eyes.
And that was the knife being wrenched from his back for him to bleed to death.
----------------------------------------------------------- ^-^3
"Twins," he heard Charlie and Ginny say in unison, and he stopped. Did they already know? He assured himself that that couldn't be, because he had been the first to see Tonks, after her parents. His legs felt like stone as he met up with the others.
"How is she?" Charlie asked.
Remus forced a small, sad smile. "She survived. The fetuses…"
"Wait," Sirius cut in. "It was twins?"
He nodded. "They didn't survive. As Minerva suspected, they had started to transform. It almost tore Dora apart." He squinted to keep from crying again. Remus inhaled and leaned on Minerva's shoulder when she offered it. He didn't say anything else.
In time and turn, the others visited with Tonks when she was ready. Sirius didn't, and Remus supposed that it was to avoid any questioning about Remus and Luna. He left the hall, and Remus followed.
A tray flew over Sirius's head, and he caught it and plucked the biscuit before releasing the meal. He stopped and turned around to be face-to-face with Remus.
"We've got to stop meeting like this, Remus," he said in a flat tone.
Remus tilted his head slightly. "Only when the tragedies stop piling up," he replied with his sad smile from earlier.
Sirius waited before asking, "So what happened in there?"
"She is fine. I'm grateful for that, because I at least care for her." Remus clenched his jaw gloomily; he did care for her, like a friend, but… "She doesn't even care for me anymore. Not with all she's suffered for me." And he knew it to be true.
The Animagus' eyes widened a bit. "You aren't assuming any of this, are you?"
Remus nodded. "Nymphadora has had enough. She wants a divorce." He met Sirius's eyes. "So much for everything working out for the best…"
"Rem, you know that's not what I meant when I said that."
The werewolf held up his hand. "You don't have to assure me. I know, Sirius. I know." The sad part was that he sincerely meant that. He did know.
----------------------------------------------------------- ^-^3
Okay, a Remus chapter, but I had to get this out of the way. Like I warned, it was heavy. Violence, angst, hardship… Where's the love? Is this really a tsubaki story? I confuse myself sometimes…
Please review, because things are going to really change in the next two to three chapters, and I don't know how quick I'll update with no reviews, sad to say.
Don't leave me in the dark, peoples.
Your dedicated author,
-mew-tsubaki
P.S –Two more chapters dedicated to: ashleyahh and TranslucentDarkness.
