NOTE

WARNINGS: References to cannibalism and death.

76. Lair

After the vision I was unwilling to sleep again, and Severus chose not to force me. He wasn't my nursemaid, after all. Neither did he insist that I stay in the cottage any longer. He gave me his arm, and we apparated to the place where Ginny and George and Arthur were searching.

The night was long and freezing cold, and the snow had gotten worse since we and Bill had been in the forest. But the adrenaline rushing through my veins made me feel immune to the numbing temperature.

I couldn't erase the image of the long, lean skeleton from my mind. I feared with my whole being that it was Remus's. They had used him for the polyjuice potion, and then killed him. Eaten him.

"You're not thinking rationally," Severus told me, when the night seemed at its deepest and most hopeless. His tone was harsh and I could feel him skating around on the surface of my thoughts. "He'll be used for more than a meal."

I didn't even look at him. "Get out of my head."

We found the place just after dawn, when the light was faint and blue and cold. It was utterly unguarded by wards of any kind, and was plainly visible–though probably wouldn't have been to the muggle eye. The cave where the skeleton had lain between Greyback and Magnus was completely barren, as it had been left at the end of my vision, and there was no sign of anything unusual anywhere around.

We knew better.

Every nerve in my body aflame, I ran over the frozen snowy ground towards the cave of captives. It lay between two trees, nothing concealing or covering the entrance but a wooden trapdoor. My hand itched for my wand but Severus still had it, and I pulled the door open by the thick metal ring with all my strength.

The stench hit me like a wave. Thick and pungent, a stench of human bodies and despair. I couldn't help but cover my mouth as I descended, but descend I did, and quickly, like a fire.

Severus was right behind me, and the shadowy, moaning bodies were illuminated by his lumos. The captives looked like clay, like the creatures when they'd been newly formed, and were covered in grime. Pale eyes squinted at the light, and mouths cracked open to let out thin voices as the prisoners recognised hope.

Saved!

Arthur's voice filled the small earthen space. "Were any of you bitten?"

A woman with a hoarse voice answered. "No. They came. Took the ones they'd changed. Left us here to rot."

My eyes scanned the faces urgently, as I remembered the vision I had had of this place. The number of captives was depleted by roughly three quarters. The muggle man I'd met in the Edinburgh bookshop was gone. Which meant that Magnus had changed him months ago. The two boys, Gavin and Brian, had been taken–though they were not werewolves. Bait. Both Favre and his friend were gone.

Arthur spoke again. "Do any of you know of another captive, held separately from you?"

"No," the woman croaked.

Arthur's mind had been one step ahead of mine, but the moment I was reminded of Remus, my whole body was filled with hot adrenaline. My heartbeat pulsed throbbingly, forcing my chaotic magic through my veins at lightning speed. I turned and struggled past the others up the narrow wooden steps, and broke out into the cold dawn.

"REMUS!" I shouted, as I raced over the hard cold ground. "REMUS!"

I left moments of silence, of emptiness, listening with my whole body for an answer. But I heard nothing. The woods were silent and cold.

I found the second cave a minute later. Another small trapdoor, hidden between the roots at the foot of a tree, much like the entrance to the passageway beneath the whomping willow. The door flew apart into splinters the moment I saw it, and I took no time to process this loss of control before descending into the dark, freezing hole.

I turned around and around inside the tiny space. My hands groped at the walls, convinced that he was somehow here, somehow hidden. "Remus," I sobbed.

But the cave was empty.

An awful sound came out of me. A sound of terror and mourning. I was convinced, now. The skeleton… the bones… they were his.

No.

No, no, no.

I climbed back up from the cave, my body shaking uncontrollably. Severus was just stepping out of the other trapdoor, and I broke when I saw him, gasping under the weight of a mounting panic attack and collapsing to my knees.

"He's gone. He's gone."

Severus looked down at me with deep scorn in his eyes, hidden behind a frigid black numbness. I lacked the capacity to care. "Surely they took him too."

"No…"

I barely heard his voice through the defeated humming of my heart. "We'll summon the bones."

He waved his wand, and the earth opened up in five places. Five piles of bones hovered through the air, and landed before me on the snowy ground.

I was lost in tears as Severus casted a spell to reveal the name that belonged to each broken skeleton, one by one. The names appeared in unfurling blue letters.

Norman McKinley.

Elisabeth Fletcher. A small pile. A child.

Paxton Armstrong-Andrews.

A ray of raw magic escaped my body, and the little skull of Elisabeth Fletcher burst into flames.

"Control yourself," Severus hissed.

He continued, casting the spell on the fourth heap of bones.

Helen Unger.

My heart stopped as he prepared to identify the last one. Both of us were holding our breath.

The letters unfurled.

Matthias Favre.

I felt evil for it. But relief filled my body.

So it had been Favre's skeleton in the dream.

Remus wasn't dead.

Not yet.

A swarm of emotions wreaked havoc on my insides, and to keep them from spilling out in the form of another magical outburst, I began to sob.

I was barely conscious of my surroundings.

At some point my body gave way completely and I curled into the foetal position on the ground; not caring that it was freezing; not caring that I looked like a child; not caring that I had lost all control over myself.

I was completely incapacitated by stress and pain and exhaustion.

Eventually the tears stopped and I was left hoarse and numb. I opened my eyes.

Poppy was there. So were Luna and Neville.

Luna came to me and knelt down on the ground. Touched my hair like a mother. Her eyes were remarkably clear and blue, and her face wore a soft smile, without pity. Under different circumstances, I might have believed I was dead.

"I can help you stand," she said.

I took Luna's hands and she pulled me up from my knees, letting me lean against her body. I never stopped trembling, but I managed to steady myself enough to walk.

The others were standing beside the first trapdoor. It was open, to reassure the captives which were still being held inside the cave. Poppy looked at me as Luna and I approached, and seemed to see that I hadn't properly taken care of myself since yesterday. She didn't reprimand me, not even with her glance. There were more important matters to be dealt with.

"We should take them to the Ministry," Arthur said. "Something in their memories might be useful."

"That is true," Poppy answered, "but they're in need of urgent medical care. They must go to St. Mungo's at once. Afterward we can take them to the Ministry before the muggles are obliviated. But first, to hospital."

Arthur nodded his head, but his eyebrows were furrowed. "How will we manage to get them all there? We can't apparate."

"In fact, we can," Poppy said. "They've just made it possible. One only needs a password, and the approval of–"

The discussion was interrupted by the arrival of a patronus. A tiny blue ball of light untangled itself into a large stag, and Severus momentarily stiffened. It was facing him, and he was clearly its intended recipient.

Harry's voice streamed from it. "Tell me where you are. I need to apparate to you immediately."

Severus gave the stag our location, and it disappeared.

Moments later Harry appeared in the snowy clearing, his hair its usual mess, his wand and the Marauder's Map held tightly in his hands.

He approached Severus, and handed him the map, not saying a word. His green eyes were intense and watchful as Severus looked down at the frayed parchment. There was no change in his posture as he took in whatever it was he saw there.

"What is it?" Arthur asked.

Severus did not respond. He merely handed the map over to Arthur; and Poppy, George, Neville and Ginny gathered around him to look as well.

Not a word was spoken, but many eyes glanced at me. Luna gently squeezed my elbow.

"What is it?" I said, my feet bolted into the ground, my heart fluttering madly.

Arthur looked at me firmly. "You must promise to be sensible. Not to run off on your own. To listen to me, and to Severus, and not put yourself at risk."

"I promise."

Arthur glanced at Severus, and then handed the map over to me. My eyes scanned it, only halfway absorbing the information.

Around the headmaster's office darted a dot labelled Fenrir Greyback, whose erratic movements made me think he was slashing the portraits.

Two other names, unfamiliar to me, alternately stood and paced in the castle entryway.

Luna saw it first. She drew in a breath that sounded full of dismay, and then pointed at a small pair of footprints in the dungeons, perfectly still.

The ink that spelled out the name seemed to be growing slightly fainter every moment.

Remus Lupin.

NOTE

Wilma is not going to keep her promise.