Disclaimer: See prologue

"What happened to the baby?"

Sirius shook his head. "I didn't even know she was pregnant until I got out of Azkaban."

Lupin addressed the carpet. "It was part of her Death Eater work. I did things that night that I'm not proud of."

Harry frowned. "What-what did you do?" Mild mannered, accepting, and mischievous all his life, Lupin didn't seem the sort to turn on his own friends or kill another human being. Harry tried to soothe himself with logical thought, but it didn't seem to be having any positive effects.

"I shared information with the enemy, I once again removed my spine, and I saved the life of a known Death Eater in front of Voldemort himself. I was an idiot. The very worst kind."

November 1978

It was freezing. Since joining Dumbledore's Order, he had had nothing useful or interesting to do, and Lupin resented the fact that his Auror friends were off achieving daring successes while he sat in a poky little wooden hut on a freezing late November night, unable to do anything except sit in the darkness and wait.

He shivered and froze, feeling hot breath on the back of his neck.

"Lumos."

His wand lit up her face, rosy and radiant with pregnancy. Her chocolate coloured curls tumbled attractively - not as wild as Bellatrix's - reaching her waist and her eyes lit up at the sight of him.

"Remus!"

He tried to ignore her Death Eater robes. "Anna."

"I'm so glad it's you. I thought maybe…never mind. At least we can keep each other company."

She smiled, but Lupin's face remained stony and unreadable.

"What are you doing here?"

Anna settled herself on the wooden chair provided beside the window, charmed by Lupin so that no-one could see inside and catch him peering at them going about their suspicious business.

"The Dark Lord thinks that a Mr. Aleksandrov might be working for you. My boyfriend sent me here to watch for him so I couldn't get into trouble. So is he?"

Lupin laughed bitterly. "I'm here to find out if he's one of you."

Anna frowned. "What's he doing then? He's snooping round us all the time. Avery spent the day following him the other week and they had a fifteen minute conversation about Beadle the Bard."

Lupin shook his head. "He sounds like something of an eccentric."

"Does he live here?" asked Anna, peering into the gloom. "It's so cold and lonely."

Lupin shrugged. "Maybe that's how he likes it."

"Maybe." Anna sighed. "When do you clock off then?"

"When he turns up and I get information out of him."

"We might be here a while then."

Lupin stared out into the raging storm. "We may indeed."

"Do you take this thing everywhere?" Anna held his camera up and inspected it.

"Pretty much."

"Smile!"

She held it toward them and pressed the shutter.

CLICK!

The Polaroid slid out and Lupin began to blow gently on it. Slowly, the image emerged. A happy Anna smiled and waved, and Lupin's chest did nothing but stand there.

"Don't ever become a photographer."

Silence fell in the dark little hut, but it was warm and companionable. They shuffled closer to one another, sharing body-heat.

"I'm glad it was you Dumbledore sent."

Lupin smiled wryly. "I'm glad it was you Voldemort sent."

Anna grinned. "Can you imagine if it was James and Snape?"

Lupin winced. "Only too clearly." He sighed irritably. "Annie, we're not still school children. We're adults and we're fucking around with the fate of our world."

Anna clicked her tongue. "Oh, for Christ's sake. Remus, will you take something seriously for once?" She laughed lightly, but grasped his hand, suddenly somber. "I know. I'm scared sometimes."

"You and me both."

Anna sniffed. "You're not scared of anything. I've never seen you scared in my life."

Lupin narrowed his eyes. "All right, Anna, let me ask you something. If you had a monster inside you that you had no control over, would you be terrified of it?"

She massaged his palm with her thumb. "You're not the only one with an unsavory little secret, Remus. I'm a sodding Death Eater. Don't talk to me about a monster I can't control. Unlike you, I live with mine every minute of every day, not just once or twice a month, and I never know when she's going to come out to play. She could come out right now and kill you where you stand."

Lupin pulled out his wand. "I'd like to see her try."

Anna laughed. "She couldn't do it to you. She knows she'd lose."

Lupin frowned. "You can't know that."

"You don't love her, Remus. You wouldn't hold back."

Lupin shook his head slowly. His voice was soft and weak. "I love you every waking moment."

"And I love you. I know I never acted like it, but I always have. I was always just so afraid of losing you. And my fear eventually did lose you." She allowed their lips to meet briefly. "But the other me…it's not that she doesn't love you, Remus. She doesn't love anybody. Only their blood."

Lupin laughed bitterly. "We have that in common."

Anna smiled sadly. "Can you imagine what the child will be like?"

"Not at all," Lupin admitted. "I wish you two every happiness. I shouldn't have kissed you. I'm sorry."

Anna frowned. "Don't be ridiculous. Why are you being like this?"

"Because every time we meet, this happens."

"Doesn't that tell you something?"

A flash of orange light exploded around them, temporarily blinding them both as they ran for the little door they were supposed to have been watching.

CRASH!

Lupin kept running, feeling the heat of the flames lick at his skin, too used to heavy scarring to feel little more than a tingling sensation and a vague twinge of pain. He gulped fresh air and reveled in the crisp and bitter night wind.

"Anna?"

He met the dark eyes, twinkling with malice. "No, I'm afraid not."

"Holy mother of Christ."

Voldemort smirked and watched the flames engulf the little wooden hut, idly.

"Anna!"

"Oh, is she still in there? Pity. She was a pretty little thing, wasn't she? Had her uses too. She looked up one of your friends for me. It happens to be the reason I'm here."

Lupin gasped for breath and taking a particularly deep one as he turned on his heel and rushed through the fire. He reached the relative safety of the middle of the hut where the heat was less intense.

"Anna? What the fuck?"

Anna whimpered and continued to sniffle.

"Give me your hand."

She reached and offered him a hand slippery with blood. "I killed it. I killed it."

Lupin hissed in frustration and reached down to pick her up. Her robes were soaked with blood and she clutched at her stomach, groaning and weeping, even as she was laid upon the damp grass outside.

Lupin knelt beside her. "What happened?"

"I fell on it."

"Why did you do that?"

Lupin turned. "You wouldn't understand."

"What's your name, spy?"

Lupin continued to soothe Anna who was white with fear. "Shh," he whispered. "It's all right. You're both going to be all right."

"I know why you're here."

Lupin continued to ignore him.

"Mr. Aleksandrov has been unfortunately detained. Is that what Dumbledore wants you to find out?"

"I don't care."

"Dare you defy me?"

Lupin stood. "I'm not afraid of you. There's nothing you can do to me. You can't hurt me more than I do myself, and killing me would be doing me a serious favour, trust me."

Voldemort flicked his wand at Anna. "Crucio."

Anna screamed, bloodcurdling and ear piercing.

"She's in enough fucking pain!"

Voldemort removed the curse. "You can tell Dumbledore that Aleksandrov is dead and then if I were you, I would avoid meeting me again. If I didn't want a message delivered, I'd kill you for sheer insolence."

1995

"I'm not going to tell you the rest. It wasn't pretty and there are some things that I don't want to remember."

Harry gawped. "So…the baby?"

"Hugely injured by her fall. She was bleeding very heavily. Voldemort's curse finished it off." Lupin shuddered. "I'm sorry. There aren't many things I will keep from you, Harry, but that's one of them."

Sirius shook his head. "When we found out you'd pulled out a Death Eater, we thought you were the spy. Why didn't you explain?"

"Don't think I don't know that."

"Don't beat yourself up about it."

Would Voldemort have betrayed Peter as his informant, Harry wondered. It sounded as though he had a narrow escape. Though for that alone, he privately thought Lupin deserved to beat himself up about it, but said nothing having found a new respect for his former professor. He glanced down at the photograph, wondering how long it would be until Anna smiled again. It was eerie to watch her grinning and waving up at him. "How did she die?"

Lupin took a deep breath. "She lived through it. She was killed in February 1981."

"But how did she die?"

"Honourably."

And that was all he would say on the matter.