Chapter 15: Titus' Last Gift

November woke late the next day, well after the lower half of the house had filled with concerned Order members.

"Hello, beautiful," Remus murmured as her eyes focused on him.

She gave him a small smile at the greeting. "Hello." She stretched, her shoulder aching, and it reminded her quickly of all that had happened. "How long have I slept?"

"It's nearly three in the afternoon."

"Merlin…That long?"

He nodded and she pushed herself into a sitting position. November was surprised to look up and see tears in his eyes.

"I'm so glad you're …"

November grabbed him in a tight hug and fought back her own tears. She had cried enough and she would have to move on quickly. She knew with dead certainty that to Lucius, he and Helena were not through.

"Why was Sirius even there?" November asked, sitting back. To her that had been as weird as Lucius popping by.

"He wanted to apologize for being an asshole. Those are his words, by the way."

"What a well-timed conscience he has," she replied, tracing patterns in the back of Remus's hands.

Silence settled on the couple. Remus had received the gory details from Sirius and he knew better than to ever ask what had happened before Sirius arrived. But something was eating at him and the full moon was too close to just let it go. When November looked back up, she could read what he was about to ask on his face. "Please don't, Remus."

"I have to know, November." His fists balled up and his eyes took on a glare that only she inspired in him. "I would have killed him, even without the moon being close. Sirius would have killed him. You would have killed him not so long ago. Why did you stop us?"

She gave him a loud and frustrated sigh.

"I would tear his throat out with my teeth to protect you and suddenly we are to be noble about Lucius Malfoy?"

"If it means not MURDERING HIM, yes, we will! And don't you dare start thinking I'm falling for him!" She yanked down her shirt to show the bruise on her shoulder. Remus winced and kept his mouth shut as hard as it was; of course he worried about that. But now she had evidence in the favor of her words. "And what for? To end up in Azkaban? You cannot just kill Lucius Malfoy and walk away!"

Remus looked defeated, but had one last argument. "The last time I heard this, the man who could prove Sirius' innocence escaped, never to be brought to justice."

"You don't know that. Who knows what will come of either of them."

Remus sighed, his fists clenching and unclenching, and November made room in their bed for him. He curled up beside her, wrapping his arms around her with her head dropping onto his chest. He felt bad that she was comforting him, but she had strength he lacked when it came to all of this.

Remus looked down at November. "Will you be…?"

November stared out into space and he did not press her. It just seemed so surreal every time she thought about it. It was hard to believe, for many reasons.

At that moment the door burst open, revealing Severus Snape with Sirius Black close on his heels.

"Today is really not the day to – " Sirius was shouting.

"Piss off," Snape spat back. "She needs to hear this and I need to leave."

Remus was positively bristling, but November's arms kept steady pressure on him, holding him close to her.

"Lucius, obviously, is laid up for the time being." Snape shot a significant glance at Sirius.

"I'd beat his head in with a club given the chance, what of it?" Sirius retorted.

"I am about to go to him and renounce any connection we have with one another." Shouts of anger greeted this statement from the two men, but Snape ignored them and addressed only November. "I am sure you understand the need for this." There was a pause and slowly he took her hand in his own. "I surely do not lament his current state."

Her hand dropped back onto the comforter and Snape was out of the room as quickly as he had come. Sirius let him go, shouting abuses at him until he was out of sight.

November simply stared at her hand. She had made physical contact with Snape twice before in her life, but this was different; this was his explanation.

"Can you believe that GIT?" raged Remus, sitting up beside her on the bed.

"Yes."

November rolled her eyes, tired of being stared at like that. "You two really notice nothing, don't you? He's scared."

Remus actually jerked his head a bit and Sirius shook his head wildly.

"He's Snape. He doesn't get scared."

"No. He doesn't show he's scared. Not the same. If Lucius decides this is his fault for hooking us up, or if the Death Eaters get wind of anything suspicious, there would be no hesitation in eliminating him completely." She looked at them both significantly. "It's the only sane thing for him to do."

"And you assume all this because…?"

"His hand." They looked at her not following. "It was shaking so hard he could barely grasp mine. He wanted me to know…"

Silence reigned in the room and finally Remus cleared his throat. "It would appear that… we have misjudged him."

"And hardly for the first time."


Molly had finally succeeded in pushing the men out and had drawn a bath for November with healing herbs and salves in it. By the time November reappeared, her bruising was down and she seemed lighter, if ever so slightly.

Remus would not leave her and, combined with the full moon three days away, looked like he would bite the first person who tried to separate them.

The meeting went by without participation from November. She needed to be there if they were going to discuss her future but no one would have asked her to relive the events. Snape's announcement raised the ire in everyone except for Lupin, Sirius, and Dumbledore. None of them gave an explanation but all maintained there was a good reason. The shock of hearing Sirius excuse Severus put a stop to most of the insults.

It was decided that the whole thing with Lucius needed to be broken off as soon as possible, not to any great surprise. November knew better but stayed silent; she could not just break up with him and walk away unscathed. But she was ready to walk away, even if it meant she had to do it scathed.

As everyone was leaving, November had retreated into the greenhouse. She knew she should write Lucius and create some reason for them to stop seeing one another, but she just couldn't deal with it today. She threw a charm around the house to block Lucius's owl. She would decide when and if he ever spoke to her again.

The sound of wings drew her attention and a gorgeous Scops owl landed in front of her. Not Lucius's owl (a moonfaced Spectacled owl). It shrieked at her insistently and she took the letter it carried, afraid to draw more attention.

Opening it carefully she read: I see you have discovered the more 'charming' side of my ex-husband. Leave now. – Narcissa Black

Sirius popped his head around the corner in time to see the owl take flight and November crumpled up the letter, hiding it behind her.

"I don't suppose you would tell me what that was if I asked?"

"Your cousin is signing her maiden name now."

It took him a minute but he caught on quickly. "Oh. A warning?"

"A little late in coming but I suppose she doesn't mind that. Don't tell Remus, please."

"November, I can't –"

"I'm not asking you to lie but you know he will never ask if he doesn't know. It's three days off of the full moon and I don't think he can handle much more."

Sirius was clearly torn but she was right. Remus's jealousy always flared about now and this had made it a thousand times worse. "Fine," he agreed reluctantly. "I'll get out of here before he notices."

With a wave of her wand, November watched the letter crumble into dust.


It was the night after the full moon and November was glad that she could go back to her usual role. She had told dangerous lies and had been burned but she had to move on or she would scream.

This moon had been worse than usual. She was not sure if it was all of the anger Remus had undoubtedly stuffed away or something else entirely, but he had woken in terrible physical condition.

November brushed his hair out of his face and Remus looked up from his book, smiling at her. His back had serious lacerations and he had been camped out on his stomach the entire day, waiting for them to heal up a bit. November never wanted to intervene until the body had taken at least some of the natural course; as with anything too much magic could backfire.

"How's it?"

"Itchy." He rested his head on the pillow he had propped up under himself to read and shut his book absently.

"But that's good. Here…" November pulled back the cotton she had criss-crossed his back with and he hissed in air through his teeth. "Sorry…" she worked at dabbing salve onto her fingertips and rubbing it through the gashes on his back. She had no idea how he had gashes in his own back but she didn't ask; he had never asked about 'the night' and she did not ask about the full moon.

"I'll just put my hand here for a sec…" she murmured, propping her hand next to his face and leaning over to reach the other side of his back.

Remus rested his head against her hand. Then everything went black.

Panic seized him as Remus realized he could hear and not see. He could not move either. He began to yell for November to help him when he realized he was not hearing November's voice. The voice he heard was that of the Dark Lord.

He stifled his yell and lay still, as if there were any alternative. Someone began to appear in his field of vision. Long, blonde hair…Lucius Malfoy. Sickening rage swarmed through Remus but he still could not move.

"What do you mean you do not know what happened?" Voldermort's voice was tense and angry.

"My Lord, my communications have been blocked. I have not heard from nor seen her since that night."

"Curse your stupidity, Malfoy!" There was a flash of light and Malfoy collapsed to the ground, shaking. His face was still lightly bruised and he touched his ribs as he stood again. "You have lost a woman who knows far too much and all because you wanted sex!"

"My Lord, I have looked over my memories of that night and I have –"

"Silence!"

The Dark Lord appeared in Remus's line of vision and turned towards him. "We are being watched!" His face slowly swiveled until he was looking directly at Remus Lupin.

In panic, Remus closed his eyes.

"Sirius! Sirius, help!" The first sounds that reached his ears on waking were November screaming her head off. Then Sirius pounding up the stairs and he felt his friend roll him onto his back. He wanted to tell them he was fine but he felt temporarily stunned.

"He's breathing, 'Vember. What happened?"

"I only was fixing up his back and then he went rigid and he wouldn't answer me. I tried to do something but my arm…then he just collapsed in on himself and I could move again."

"What's on your arm?"

"Nothing! Only my ring!"

Remus found he could move again and began to cough loudly, realizing he had been holding his breath for far too long. November could only squeeze his hand tightly as Sirius tried to pound him on uninjured parts of his back.

"I thought I killed you," November whispered.

"Not yet," he replied hoarsely. "It's your ring, November! It's what they've been looking for: the seeing eye."

November blanched. "Remus…"

"Use Legilimency. Look at my memory! I promise you that's what it is!"

"Remus, I couldn't…"

"I could," barked Sirius, grabbing her hand. There was a blast of white light and his memory unraveled for them. When it had finished they both stood there, stunned. November pulled at her hand quickly, trying to get the ring off. She yanked it free and dropped it on a side table, staring at it.

"All this time…" murmured Sirius.

"Titus gave it to you, did he not?" Remus asked her. She nodded, still looking at the ring. "And shortly after he was killed?"

Again she nodded. "And we knew the Death Eaters were looking for a ring but…I never thought…"

"That you'd been wearing it for years…" Sirius finished. "I'll be damned. Didn't you test it?"

"Of course I did! Way back when I moved here! But nothing came up."

"We need to get Dumbledore."

November sighed and sat heavily on the floor.

"What's wrong?" Remus was by her side quickly and she gave him a pathetic smile.

"All I do is call emergency meetings. This will stop someday, right?"

Remus fought the urge to violently verbally abuse Lucius and nodded, kissing her on the forehead.

"You two stay. I'll call up the 'vitals'," Sirius said with a small smile. "Merlin knows you could both use a break."


The ring sat in front of Dumbledore, quietly shinning in the firelight.

"So it has been here, with us, all this time. And you only had to hold it to your eye," he mused, picking it up and twirling it lightly. His blue eyes locked with November's brown ones. "Will you mind? This is an object of sentiment for you."

November shook her head, tearing up a little. "No. It's just good to have closure. Now we know why…why he was killed. Why I was killed."

"I am not sure how much use this will be to us now that the Dark Lord has felt its presence, but as long as his defenses are down this could prove vital to us." Albus rose and Moody, Arthur, and Kingsly followed suit. "It will have to be dismantled and Alastor will find a safe place for it within Hogwarts. There are places Miss Umbridge is still very much in ignorance about within that castle." A faint smile flickered across his lips.

With a polite farewell, Kingsly and Albus disappeared one at a time through the fireplace. The ring went with them.

The familiar clomping reached her and she turned to see Mad-Eye smiling at her. "Good job, girl." Then he too was gone.

November and Arthur looked at each other a moment before Arthur wrapped her up in a hug.

"He would be so proud. So very proud." When they stepped back, November could not help but smile.

Arthur left, the last one to go, and November leaned heavily against a counter. It was over; a section of her life that had brought her to the Black Home and that had long been a mystery was now finished.

Remus appeared in the door, looking tired but better. November had taught Sirius her stitches spell months ago and Sirius had spent the meeting stitching up Remus's back. The werewolf was nearly floored, literally and figuratively, when November flung herself into his arms.

"November…?"

"It's done. We can move forward, Remus. Maybe something good is finally going to happen to us!"

He held her tightly, absently running his fingers through her hair. "I certainly hope so."


So I know that Dumbledore would be out of Hogwarts (assuming you've been following where we are in the OOoP timeline) and I tried to do something with that, but it was just as weird as the chapter before last and I trashed it.

So, no he's not at Hogwarts but I figure they surely knew how to contact him during that time.

Thanks for the reviews all!