AN: slight references to chapter 24 in the edited version of A Year To Be Remembered.
On the night that it all went down, Remus and Tonks had taken the luxury of watching Muggle soap operas on the television they had gotten for Christmas. Granted, they only had a few channels but no one seemed to mind and it was rather peaceful to watch events play out in full picture rather than on the wireless.
It wasn't until Remus switched over to the Muggle's BBC news though that the sense of peace vanished.
"Breaking News: a number of creatures have been seen roaming the streets throughout Britain causing panic in the countryside. So far, two deaths have been reported. The victims appear to have been mauled to death as if by rabid animals but witnesses claim the creatures are humanoid in structure. Do we have a cult group on our hands or is this the work of something else?"
Remus and Tonks glanced questioningly at each other before going back to the television as the station went on to interview witnesses.
"They're zombies!" a hysterical teenager shouted to the camera. "They're crawling, walking and floating about in packs. Some are missing limbs, others are see through and it's just damn freaky! They don't say a word to you like they're just waiting to eat us alive and then! Then they just disappear! They were attacking this poor guy on the side of the road one minute and then I blinked and they were all gone. The whole hoard of them just disappeared into thin air!"
CRACK
"Let me guess," Tonks said, already moving to grab her wand and cloak as Ronald Weasley took the liberty of apparating right into the family's living room.
"Zombies?"
Ron's eyes were huge as he nodded quickly.
"We need you Tonks. Harry's out of commission tonight from that botched attack and the whole Ministry's going completely mental. It's no wonder the Muggles got wind of this. Reports are coming in all over Britain!"
"Merlin, news travels fast now a days," Remus muttered, eyes still glued to the television screen.
"News of sudden emergences of strange and dangerous creatures have not been uncommon in the past few years," the reporter went on. "Sightings of flying creatures, sudden weather changes and suspicious deaths have been circulating for years. The most recent disturbance being an enormous wolf suddenly appearing in a town on the outskirts of London."
Remus winced.
"Are all these events related? Is this the works of a terrorist group? Is this the beginning of biological warfare? Will the government send assistance?" The reporter fired off every question as if life depended on it and everyone in the Lupin's living room felt a sense of panicked urgency course through them.
"Remus!" a shout was heard as the fireplace in the dining room sprang to life.
"Oh Merlin," Remus said, bolting out of his seat to see Headmistress McGonagall's head in his fireplace.
"There's an emergency Remus! We need all the staff on hand!"
"They're in Hogwarts too?!" Tonks shouted as she ran upstairs to get changed.
Remus threw on his cloak as well.
"This cannot be happening," Ron muttered, echoing Remus's thoughts as he crashed into his wife on the landing.
"I'll be at the Ministry."
"I'm going to Hogwarts."
"Stay safe."
"You too!"
A quick kiss and Tonks disaparated with Ron in tow and Remus hurled himself into the Floo.
"Zombies?" he asked breathlessly as he emerged in the Headmistress's office.
McGonagal gave a sigh. "According to the students it would appear that yes. Zombies would be an accurate term to describe them. We're working on barricading the entrances. All students are being relocated to the Great Hall. A handful of them are still outside."
"I'll retrieve them," Lupin said with a nod as he rushed out of the room.
He promptly crashed into one Severus Snape as soon as he turned the corner. They didn't even bother with the usual snide remarks.
"Coming?" Remus asked instead.
Snape nodded.
"Lead the way then. I still can't believe this is happening."
The two men took off at a run, sprinting out onto the grounds where indeed the battle of the century seemed to be taking place. The students and teachers were obviously winning though as each spell blasted more and more of the zombies back towards the darkness of the Forest. Still, this didn't seem to deter any of the creatures. They just got back up and resumed their stumbling movements towards the castle.
Lupin and Snape had their wands drawn but still paused for a breath after their run from the top floor of Hogwarts. Remus had a hand on his chest and grumbled. He didn't really consider himself unfit. For fifty years old actually he thought he was doing well. Just, as a teacher, physical exercise wasn't really part of his job description and he'd long ruled himself out as a sprinter in the first place.
"Slowing down Lupin," Snape said with a noticeable huff and Remus grinned.
"I got shot in the chest this summer. What's your excuse?"
Snape remained silent and Lupin gave another puff of laughter.
"Damn we're getting old."
Snape straightened, raising his wand and blasting a row of zombies back another step.
"I suppose this is the time most people say 'you're only as old as you feel'," he muttered.
Remus did laugh then, a full and proper one as he too raised his wand.
"Yeah. But who ever said we were most people?"
And granted, with the reassurance that the students could handle the threat without major risk, he'd been feeling pretty thrilled to get to play into some action. Remus was a Marauder after all.
Lucy Heartfilia on the other side of Hogwarts was not having such a thrilling time.
She'd been expecting retaliation from a certain metamorphagus and was fully prepared to trap the boy and ship him off to her Master to be dealt with. However, upon realizing that Teddy's friends were much more than she expected, she found her plan slowly crumbling to pieces.
While Vic was always seen flying around here and there on the Hogwarts grounds, Roy rarely used his phoenix powers in public. Heartfilia knew he was adept at magic but she hadn't considered the quiet Slytherin to be much of a threat other than simply being calmer and more analytic than the other two.
So, when the she found herself encased in a circle of enchanted flames she couldn't help but feel that perhaps she had underestimated the boy.
She shot a spell out and the flames easily gobbled them up. Roy was on the other side of the circle but he was too busy thinking up a plan to stop the approaching zombie hoard than to spend time gloating.
He couldn't keep the flames up forever and Heartfilia would no doubt find a way to get out of his trap within the next few...
"Great," Roy muttered to himself as Heartfilia indeed managed to levitate herself out of the ring of fire.
She shot a few hexes at him but Roy was faster, ducking out of the way so that the zombies behind him got the brunt of the spells instead.
"Boy, do you think you can defeat me?" the enraged professor said, landing almost gracefully in front of him.
Roy didn't answer, instead backing up several steps while shooting off balls of fire from his hands.
"Aguamenti!"
Water couldn't hurt Roy's phoenix flames but the force of the spell was able to knock back the attacks so that they missed Heartfilia completely.
"Incendio!" the witch shouted as a burst of flames leaped out of the end of her wand.
"What in Merlin's name are you?" Heartfilia hissed as she watched Roy nullify her attack with his own flames.
Roy smirked.
"Just a boy who likes to play with fire."
As heat and flames assaulted Heartfilia once again she gave an enraged shout, casting off more spells that Roy easily evaded or countered.
"Really this is going to get us nowhere," Roy muttered, backing up more while conjuring up more fire to stall the zombies around them. The zombies seemed to have no qualms in diving straight into the fire. Many were left smoking and charred until they were forced to retreat or risk disintegrating into ash. Still, they were annoying and the fire seemed to be drawing more and more towards Roy's location, not something the boy was pleased about. He had enough attention as it was without a whole pack of the living dead surrounding him.
He blasted off more fire in Heartfilia's general direction.
"Raise your wand and duel me like a proper wizard," Heartfilia shouted in retaliation.
"I'm not much for wands," Roy replied, "And honestly I have no intention of being a proper wizard."
Roy dodged an incoming spell.
"But tell you what. You tell me where that Master of yours is and I'll leave you alone."
Heartfilia looked furious. The little brat was humoring her. Her of all people!
"Now listen here you little-"
"No. You listen," Roy said coldly, "I can easily incinerate you in a few minutes and you know it. So cut the crap. Your little precious is literally destroying the world here for what? So he can be head of some family that's so old they've lost their magical roots?"
"Master Clair is the rightful heir to the Leonelli family," Hearfilia hissed, shooting several spells at the boy in quick succession, "The family may have lost their magic generations ago but you do not need magic to do business."
"I guess that's something we both agree on," Roy replied with a shrug as his fire easily ate up the incoming spells. He personally was no fan of performing magic. It had branded him the moment he was born with prophecies and expectations that he had no desire to fulfill. It had taken memories from him that would probably mock him forever and even right now, it was responsible for all this crazy with zombies, spirits and enraged professors. Because some kid wanted to be the Master of Death for his birthday. Because some kid wanted magic and power so bad he was willing to kill for it.
And Roy couldn't allow himself to feel comfortable with that.
"But Clair doesn't think that way does he?" he finally replied.
Heartfilia paused with a mix of confusion and rage on her face. The blasted brat. He was just a boy. No child should talk about her Master as if he knew him!
But Roy wasn't just an average boy. He'd seen Clair, heard Teddy's stories of him and done his own research. By now he'd managed to paint a fairly predictable picture of their opponent and he was dying to share.
"Clair thinks magic is what's going to get him to the top. He's willing to risk everything: Hogwarts, Britain and even you. Just so he can get his hands on some of that power. He must have some serious daddy issues if he thinks this is what it's going to take to impress him."
Heartfilia was staring at him as if completely lost for words. Her eyes wide and horrified as Roy continued on, "Because when you've got it all in the Muggle world you latch on to the impossible-"
Roy would have continued if Heartfilia hadn't taken that moment to turn her back and sprint in the opposite direction.
"What the-" Roy said in mid lecture as he whipped around. Heartfilia hadn't been looking at him in fear after all.
He was expecting the zombies to be on him and had conjured up a wall of protective flame before he'd even turned his head. But then he noticed that the zombies were also retreating. They slunk off in a giant pack, crawling and pounding the ground with uneven steps as if they'd just given up on Roy and were going home.
"Did Heartfilia call them off?" Roy thought to himself as he forced his flames to settle.
But as soon as the heat from his flames vanished it was suddenly replaced by a bitter, unnatural cold.
Roy shivered, tensing his muscles in his uneasiness on whether he should fight or flee. He conjured up a ball of flame in his hand, holding it up to get more light in the silent night but no matter how much he squinted at shadows, he didn't see anything.
In confusion, he dropped the fire and decided it best to follow Heartfilia and head back to the Hogwart's main entrance where no doubt everyone would be defending. He'd just turned around when he heard it: A rattling whisper of air that physically chilled Roy to his core. The noise was getting closer and indeed it seemed that the dark night sky was actually getting darker, as if a giant black cloud was covering up what little moon that was shining that night.
Roy watched in wide eyed shock when the cloud descended over Hogwarts, expanding as it went until finally, Roy could actually make out individual creatures in the air. Dark, twisted, cloaked creatures that Roy had seen only once before, last year in the Hogsmeade graveyard.
"Bloody hell," Roy said as he looked on at the dementor cloud slowly drifting in from the direction of Hogsmeade. There were more than Roy had faced last year. No doubt all the loose souls and spirits drifting in and out of the most magical hot spot in Britain was enough for other dementors from all over to gather.
One of them stood out from the cloud and from Roy's position on the ground, he could see it leaving, racing up towards the castle and leading the rest of the pack towards his direction.
In a panic, Roy sparked a circle of flames around him and went into a crouched position. His right hand found his beloved Rubik's cube around his neck and clutched at it. His cube had been enchanted with almost every spell known to man and was powered by love from the woman now erased from Roy's memory. Still, he had faith in it to protect him. It had protected him from dementors, magical beasts, killing curses and just about everything already after all.
And yet again the Cube didn't disappoint. The dementors flew past Roy like a hive of bees. They missed his ring of fire by mere centimeters and Roy felt their chill and wisps of their cloaks on the top of his head. Depression lingered behind but Roy didn't lose the precious hope that fueled him and by the time the last dementor passed over his head, Roy determinedly stood up and ran off in the opposite direction towards the Great Hall entrance.
In the meantime, Lupin and Snape were busy helping the remaining students back into the school. The zombies were not decreasing in numbers no matter what spells were thrown at them and the teachers had agreed it would be easier to barricade themselves in Hogwarts and wait it out.
Remus had just cleared the path for the last batch of students before he felt the chilling sensation of dementors creep up through the grounds.
"I really need to bump the Patronus charm up a few years in the curriculum," Remus muttered as a scream from the students alerted the rest of the teachers to the looming threat above them.
Remus watched in awe as the pack of dementors descended on the zombies, sucking out their free ranging souls with surprising speed. A soul normally had strong connections with its body and would take several minutes for a Dementor to suck out but these zombies were simply spirits that had invaded the world of their living and rediscovered their bodies.
Without the soul keeping their bodies grounded, the flicker of life within each meat suit quickly corroded away, reduced to dust and bones as they had been before their revival.
"We need to get inside," Snape muttered as the dementors effortlessly worked their way up the pack and towards them, "The dementors can handle the zombies but the hoard isn't going to be able to sustain so many."
"They'll be craving more soon," Lupin finished.
"Come on you two!" Professor Bobo shouted out from the castle. It seemed that the last of the students had made their way safely back to the castle and the doors were getting ready to close.
Snape and Lupin took off at a run back inside.
"Professor Lupin! Professor Snape!"
Both professors skidded to a halt with equal feelings of dread. Lupin whipped his head around to find a small shadow making his way towards them. As the shadow got nearer, the lights from within Hogwarts illuminated his face better so that they could make out the boy's dark hair and Slytherin robes.
"Roy?!" Lupin shouted, setting off after him. Behind him he saw Snape giving Professor Bobo and the others the signal to close the doors. They'd find some other way of getting out of here.
Roy was being chased after by a pack of zombies who were in turn being chased by Dementors and every time the younger boy turned around a feeling of wild panic surged him forward. It took ages to get from one end of the Hogwarts grounds to the other on foot but fear was a strong motivator and on any normal occasion, Roy would be congratulating himself for his athleticism.
Still, he was slowing down, breathing coming out in panicked gasps as his feet crushed the grass in stumbling steps. He didn't have enough energy left to generate any more flames and while the Cube would protect his soul from Dementors, it wouldn't be able to keep him from being eaten or crushed to death by the pack behind him.
"Professor Lupin!" he shouted again and he saw with great relief as Teddy's father came running after him with Snape in tow.
Roy picked up speed. He saw the professors raise their wands, feet planted firmly, shoulders relaxed as their wands began drawing small circles in the air. They were in perfect sync without even meaning to be. Just two war veterans standing side by side, building up the strength of their magic until...
"EXPECTO PATRONUM"
As a doe and wolf cub erupted from their caster's wands, Roy felt compelled to duck out of the way, raising his hands over his head as the animals streaked past him.
The dementors gave a shriek, shying away from the light and the zombies seemed equally stunned. Roy took this moment to give a final sprint until he was safely behind Lupin and Snape.
"Roy are you alright? Where's Ted?" Remus asked, reaching for the boy and bending down to eye level as Roy tried to catch his breath.
Snape watched the Patronuses make work of the dementors and fired off several more spells to hold off the zombies.
"Teddy and Vic...They're trying... To find... Clair," Roy panted in between breaths.
It took Remus a full minute before he remembered who Clair was. Roy could see the confusion on his face.
"Clair. The kid that wants to be the Master of Death. He and Heartfilia are behind all this," Roy paused again to suck in more air, "Heartfilia and Clair's other minions must have found the Resurrection Stone in the Forest. That's why all this crazy stuff is happening. The spirits and souls of the dead from all over Britain are rising again!"
Remus and Snape shared equally alarmed glances before Snape went to work casting a Protego spell around them to hold off anything approaching for the time being.
"Do you know where they are now?" Lupin asked, returning his attention to Roy who shook his head.
"Ted and Vic are probably off searching for Clair. I don't know where though. I stayed behind to take on Professor Heartfilia but she ran off somewhere when the Dementors showed up. She might have gone after Teddy. She thinks he has the Elder Wand."
"Does he have the Elder Wand?" Remus asked. What in Merlin's name had his son been doing?
"No..." Roy said, frowning before digging for something in his pocket.
"I do."
Lupin and Snape gapped at the boy as he withdrew the piece of polished wood from his inner clock pocket.
"Teddy said it'd be better if I held on to it. Since I'll be staying at Hogwarts and can actually use it."
Lupin and Snape stared some more causing Roy to fidget a bit before continuing his explanation.
"The Dolohovs are decedents of Antioch Peverell, the original holder of the Wand. We think that should be enough to unlock the Wand's new master since it hasn't been used in over a decade. Even if it doesn't unlock, it'll still behave like a regular wand but it has a Threstal hair core."
"Ted's not compatible. His wand has a dragon core," Remus said with a thoughtful frown and Roy nodded, "And Vic's more compatible with phoenix cores." He then took out his own wand and showed it to the professors, "But mine's Threstal," he continued with a shrug, "so we figured I was the best fit anyways."
The rattling of a Dementor's scream stopped any further questioning. The dementors seemed to have finished up the remaining zombies and were regrouping. No doubt they were still hungry and had pinpointed their targets to the three remaining souls on the grounds.
By now the Patronuses had fizzled out as well and would have to be recast and Remus muttered something about boys always getting into trouble before focusing his attention back to the situation on hand. Other questions would have to wait.
"Let me help," Roy interrupted, pocketing his own wand and grasping the Elder Wand firmly in his hand.
Remus looked back down at the boy. "A Patronus is an immensely complicated spell," he cautioned, "regardless if you have the Elder Wand or not, it takes months of practice to cast one."
Roy just looked at him.
Remus sighed. Harry Potter had conjured a Patronus when he was thirteen and he had to admit Roy had a more natural talent for magic than Harry had. The Slytherin seemed to have an uncanny ability to remember everything, down to the minute details of wand movement and posture which made him easily excel in almost all forms of magic. A simple flick of the wrist and a muttered incantation was all Roy needed to see to be able to duplicate it.
"Expecto Patronum!" Roy said, impatient with Remus's stalled decision.
Nothing happened.
Roy frowned at his wand. He'd never failed in duplicating a spell he'd seen before. He was sure he'd categorized everything perfectly when Snape and Lupin had conjured up their Patronuses.
"A Patronus can't be analyzed and duplicated Roy. Each one is different," Remus said and Roy shot him a glare.
"Then teach me," he demanded as Snape shot out a patronus of his own behind them. The dementors backed off for a bit as the doe glided past them, flying up and regrouping. The stalled a bit but Snape wouldn't be able to keep up the Patronus forever. Once it dissolved the dementors would be back for them.
"Don't give me the complicated stuff just tell me what to do. Step by step," Roy said hurriedly, eyeing the ominous pack of dementors above them.
"Right. Defence Against Dementors For Dummies it is," Remus agreed, raising his wand and Roy quickly copied his stance so that there were two wands now pointed at the cloud of Dementors
"Now think of the happiest moment. The happier the memory the more powerful the charm."
Roy turned to Lupin with a frown.
"Think of Teddy and Vic and your friends," Remus said helpfully, "Think of the fun you had at the Summer Fair and the adventures you had in your first year. Think of when you first met Teddy or when you and Vic got your Hogwarts letters. The thrill of a successful plan. The excitement and the laughs."
Roy closed his eyes, letting the memories trigger themselves in his mind.
Remus kept talking in light tones as he too remembered his Hogwarts days, when his world consisted of nothing but a stag, a dog and even a rat. The success of a good prank. The laughs and the scheming. The accomplishments and adventures. And above all, the feeling of being loved and accepted.
And then he thought of Dora and their marriage and Teddy's birth as he'd always done and suddenly conjuring a Patronus seemed like the easiest thing in the world.
Roy was busy in his own thoughts. Christmas at the Lupins, Teddy, Vic, Hogwarts and everything from last year all built up in his head until his eyes finally snapped open.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
Both man and boy shouted at the same time, filled by determination and hope.
As expected, Remus's wolf shot out of his wand in no time at all and streaked towards the pack of dementors, leading the way past Snape's doe.
Roy on the other hand needed a bit more effort. Remus turned to look at the silvery mass of light that was circling Roy's wand in astonishment.
Roy was breathing much too quickly, eyes wide in amazement and delight as the swirls danced around the tip of the Elder Wand.
"Come on. I can do this," Roy thought to himself with a strange sort of glee, "We're going to defeat Clair and then I'm going to get to play football with Ted and wrestle with Vic and watch the stars and play my music. We'll go back to the Fair and ride the Ferris Wheel and spend Christmases together. There's so much out there to be explored and I want to see it all."
And with that last thought, Roy redirected his attention back to the dementor pack and the whispers of light took shape and solidified; first with wings that stretched out, then paired with a head and a feathery tail. Both professors watched in stunned amazement as the small boy before them directed his wand higher into the sky. They watched as the tail shook and the wings expanded out, flapping once to give the form enough clearance to make the rest of the body emerge from the tip of the wand.
Finally, the magestic pheonix rose up into the sky in a dazzling display of white light. Roy couldn't help a little smile as it soared higher to follow the doe and wolf in forcing back the dementors. It's wings were beautiful, every feather was in exactly the right place as it glided silently towards the other patronuses.
The professors actually had to shield their eyes from the light. Funny how the Elder Wand, the embodiment of Death, could create something so pure and elegant.
With three patronuses, the dementors screeched and hissed before the majority disappeared, fleeing back to their old hideouts in wizard graveyards and old alleyways. The few that lingered behind were eventually singled out and chased after by the three giant animals.
The three wizards below could only watch in amazement and pride as their spiritual animals did their work.
Eventually, all the dementors were gone, the zombies had retreated or their souls had been sucked out and there were only three left on the deserted Hogwarts grounds.
Roy felt a hand pat him on the shoulder, he looked up to a grin from his Defense teacher. Even Snape behind him was watching him with a small, pride filled smirk before he managed to collect himself in front of his student. The mask of neutrality slipping back into place.
"As a Gryffindor, it pains me to say this," Lupin began with a grin as the boy looked up at him, "But I think that deserves a good fifty points to Slytherin."
And Roy, in a rare display of true happiness, grinned back.
He supposed magic had some good uses after all. Even if, deep down, he'd always known that.
