***Canon Divergence Disclaimer (maybe?): I may have totally made up some stuff about Voldemort recruiting followers in other countries he'd visited on his travels, but I also feel like I have read about it somewhere and I just forgot. But COME ON, it doesn't look like Karkaroff or Dolohov went to Hogwarts, so they had to come from SOMEWHERE, and those are very Slavic surnames.

From the playlist:

Half a Man - Dean Lewis

We Will Rock You - Queen

Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones

Ch. 11 - The Meeting

Sirius accompanied Remus back to his house to help him clean up and make sure he didn't keel over. He had been there for Remus for many years, but never more so than in the last few days. Even though he'd sort of just snapped at him, Remus was more aware than he had ever been that he was deeply grateful for Sirius.

He stepped out of the fireplace, shucked off the coat dampened with sweat, then braved the debris in the living room to deposit the coat in the entryway closet. He retrieved a t-shirt he found crumpled on a shelf, but the fabric of the shirt stuck to his skin as soon as he put it on. "You'd thi-think it was J-July," he stammered. Stupid chills. For once, his body had listened to him and held out long enough to see Emmeline; but it was about to come crashing down.

"…I'm really sorry for what happened," Sirius said penitently, feeling partially responsible.

Remus looked back at him, a bit surprised. Apologies were not something Sirius parted with often. He let out a stuttering sigh, shaking his head. "It is-sn't your f-fault. You w-would've had t-t-to b-b-ind her hand-ds and f-feet t-to k-keep her here." Remus knew well that Emmeline was stubborn as shit, and that it had been his own hand, not Sirius's, that injured her.

He could see that Sirius was holding back what he really wanted to say, probably because Remus looked so ill. "I can get this," he offered. "You should lie down."

"I'll m-manage. It'll be fa-faster with the two of us."

"Moony."

"Let's ji-just get it over with, then we can b-both have a rest."

Sirius didn't push him.

A task that might have taken a muggle several days to complete took them only minutes with magic. A few mending charms later, every splinter, bit of upholstery, and crack in the wall was restored to how it had looked before the transformation.

Sirius settled in on the no-longer-mutilated couch for some much needed rest while Remus dragged himself upstairs to his bedroom.

As soon as his head hit the pillow, the nausea was no longer subdued by gravity, and he had to stumble to the bathroom to vomit once more. Only bile came out, as his stomach was completely empty, but he had neither the appetite nor the desire to remedy this. Feebly, he rose from his knees, rinsed out his mouth, took a few sips of water from the faucet, and went back to bed shivering. If only he'd laid off the booze and taken the damn Wolfsbane in time, he wouldn't be quite so symptomatic right now.

Come to think of it, if he'd laid off the booze and taken the Wolfsbane in time, a great many things might have been different.

His head had cleared a bit since he left the hospital ward, and Remus began to wrestle with the facts - that Emmeline was better off without him. He'd said it only minutes ago, but now he had to come to terms with it. This thought didn't sting as much as it might have if he hadn't always known this. I mean, everyone was better off without him really, despite what his friends said. And yet, somehow, he felt an itch that would not let up: a selfish, unrelenting something that rendered him unable to stomach the idea of letting Emmeline drift off and away. After the horrors of last night, he'd never even gotten the chance to tell her what he had set out to tell her in the first place, and he wasn't sure if he would ever get a chance now. Maybe she genuinely loved Tiberius; after all, she still wore his ring. It was probably for the best. Remus knew that he was a hazardous person to be around, but maybe it was time he accepted that it would be in everyone's best interest for him to remain a bachelor.

Someone told him once that a werewolf could only truly love the moon.

He'd always hated that phrase.

His exhaustion overtook his many thoughts and he drifted off to sleep.

...

There was an Order of the Phoenix meeting scheduled for that evening. They had not had a collective meeting with nearly all the members present in quite some time, as Voldemort and his allies had been eerily quiet for the last few months. It was suspected that his forces had moved East, and there was fear that they were recruiting heavily in Eastern Europe and Russia again.

The animagus and the werewolf woke up a bit late and had to stuff some stale sausage rolls in their coat pockets to eat along the way to the Potters'. Lily and James were still on their honeymoon, but they had offered Dumbledore their cottage as a meeting place. When Remus and Sirius tapped on the door, it opened for them, but just a crack.

"What's my favorite flavor of Bertie Botts?" a husky Scottish brogue inquired from the opening.

Sirius had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "Come off it, Moody. How are we supposed to know the answer to that?"

"How am I supposed to know you're not Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange?"

Remus scrunched his face in thought. "...Marmalade?"

The door swung open.

Sirius turned to him, impressed. "How did you know that?"

Remus shrugged. "I pay attention."

"...You remembered his sweets preferences, but forgot my fucking birthday-?"

"Don't."

"You didn't happen to bring any, did you?" Alastor Moody asked, only half-joking.

"What, Bertie Botts? Sorry, we didn't think to take a detour to the sweet shop on our way," Sirius countered, tossing him a sausage roll as he passed on his way inside.

"The tardiness might've led one to believe otherwise." Alastor took a large, less-than-polite bite, then followed them in.

Most of the members of the Order were crammed into the front room, with a few people spilling over into the dining room. Among those in attendance were: the Longbottoms, Peter, Sturgis Podmore, Elphias Doge, Mundungus Fletcher, Dorcas Meadows, Dedalus Diggle, Edgar Bones, and Benjy Fenwick. Rubeus Hagrid had stuffed himself into a chair in the corner to keep his head from hitting the ceiling, and Albus Dumbledore was standing at the head of the room near the fireplace.

"Now that this is all of us," Dumbledore began, "I think it would be wise to cast the protective spells. Alice and Benjy, if you would be so kind…" The two members he mentioned shuffled out of the room and went out front to do as he said.

Once Remus and Sirius joined the throng, Marlene weaved through the crowd to her beau, pulling them both back into the kitchen.

"What on earth happened to you last night? When I came back, you were gone."

"I left a note."

"...Writing 'Moony' on a napkin is not a note."

"Em and I just had a bit of bad business with last night's lunar phase if you catch my drift," Sirius explained in a hushed voice.

Marlene did in fact catch his drift, but looked alarmed. "Oh Merlin, I-...I sent her to your house…" she confessed, turning to Remus.

"What?"

"Marley…" Sirius chastised her, his posture collapsing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think to check the day." Now that Remus had the potion and Sirius wasn't going over for shifts with him anymore, she had no need to be so mindful of the full moon.

"Hang on, why did you send her over?" Remus questioned. In the whirlwind of the last twenty-four hours, it had not occurred to him to wonder why Emmeline might've gone to his house in the first place.

Assuming that Emmeline hadn't accomplished her task, she remained purposely vague. "She just needed to talk to you," Marlene summarized. "She okay?"

"She got a little scratched up, but she's fine," Sirius said, saving Remus from having to explain.

Marlene looked at Remus ruefully. "How are you?"

"Fine." was all he could offer her in return.

She knew better than to push further than that. "I stayed on at hers to keep McLaggen out of the way. When she didn't come home, I thought she might've…you know…slept over…"

If only, Remus wished, before mentally reprimanding himself.

Sirius ogled at her, both appalled and fascinated. "You volunteered to be a diversion? For McLaggen?"

"Are you okay?" Remus asked.

"Other than thoroughly annoyed, yes. He huffed and puffed a bit, then sort of just pretended I wasn't there. Wanker."

"-Wanker, indeed-"

"-Absolute wanker."

"I told him Em was probably staying over on Sirius's couch - which also didn't go over well, but I didn't give him the chance to say much about it before I disapparated."

"You're a saint for keeping him at bay," Sirius remarked.

"And you're a heartbreaker for staying out all night making me miss you," she jabbed his arm, eliciting a smirk from Sirius.

"We should get back to the meeting," Remus suggested, feeling one of those pangs in his chest again.

They made their way back into the front room, but Marlene remained next to Remus. "...So you two never got the chance to...speak?"

Remus shook his head. "Not exactly." He meant to elaborate, but lost his train of thought when he noticed the Prewett brothers standing near Dumbledore.

"Let us begin," said Albus, quieting the other conversations in the room.

"We've asked Gideon and Fabian to debrief us all on their findings while undercover in The Soviet Union," announced Alastor. "Gentlemen." He motioned for them to commence.

Gideon spoke first. "With the help of his original recruits from the area, Voldemort has gained an alarming amount of followers in the East."

"Possibly the most disturbing development is that, like Hogwarts over the last couple of years, he's been able to disseminate his rhetoric into Koldovstoretz," said Fabian.

"The Russian Wizarding School?" Dorcas inquired.

"Yes. The local wizarding authority was somewhat successful in quelling the spread of his influence, but it was too late for some of their more dark-magic-inclined students."

"What about Durmstrang? Have they gone that far North?" asked Elphias.

"As far as we can tell, no." Gideon answered. "We've advised Albus to send their headmaster a warning, though."

"...Where's Caradoc?" Benjy asked.

It wasn't until Benjy had said something that Remus noticed Caradoc Dearborn was absent. The two brothers looked at each other, the room waiting.
"Dearborn went missing just before we left," Fabian reported somberly. "We have reason to believe...he's…" He cleared his throat. "...no longer with us."

The room went silent. The absence of sound made everyone aware of the pitter-patter of rain beginning outside.

"May he rest in peace, and may he not die in vain," said Albus.

Sturgis waited until everyone had time to think a silent prayer before speaking up again. "What is our plan? Surely, Voldemort's headed back West."

"We think so, yes." said Fabian. "After Caradoc, we had to get out before we could find out when."

"Meaning we will all need to take extra precautions in the days ahead," said Albus. "Do not let your guard down just because the past months have been calm. Be watchful."

"Alastor's made sure the Ministry and the Muggle Prime Minister have been given this information as well, and they're going to be monitoring for spikes in violence in the Muggle population again," Fabian added.

Other similarly grim matters were discussed: disappearances, the latest attempts to infiltrate and undermine the Ministry, and updates from the Auror Department as well as the Wizengamot. People volunteered for upcoming night patrols, which were picking up again. Sirius and Marlene took on several, but Remus decided to sit this round out. When plans and strategies had been laid out ad nauseum, Dumbledore decided they'd had enough hypotheticals for one evening.

"I would like for us all to meet back here in two weeks' time. Watch for my owl," Albus instructed. "I have a feeling things will become difficult very soon. For now, the meeting is concluded."

Albus and Alastor disapparated, but many other members lingered for a while to catch up or share their growing anxieties. Marlene made her way over to Gideon - the McKinnons and the Prewetts were family friends. "We're glad you two are home safe."

"Thank you Marlene, very kind of you to say so. I'll tell you one thing, I never want to so much as smell Polyjuice ever again for as long as I live."

"I don't blame you; it's never been described to me as anything less than foul. How are your sister and Arthur?"

"They're good. Although, their twin toddlers are giving them the go-around. You'd think they would have seen everything by kid number four and five, but apparently not. I'll tell Molly you asked for her."

"Please do."

Peter cut a path to Remus and Sirius. "Why do I get the sense I've missed out on something?" he asked, as he had noticed them nodding off against the wall during the discussion.

"Furry little problem," was all Sirius needed to say without disclosing the full details of their night. Remus shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Oh. Point taken. I thought it was better."

"Slight complication. Nothing to fuss about," Sirius saved him from having to explain again.

"When are Prongs and Lily coming home?" Remus asked, changing the subject.

Peter scratched his head. "Seven or eight days, I think. They gave me the number of the hotel just in case, but I don't speak French and I wouldn't want to...you know...disturb them."

A suggestive smirk spread across Sirius's face. "Really?" he purred, oozing sarcasm. "Pourquoi pas?"

Peter looked tortured. "Stop, Pad."

"What could they possibly be up to? I thought people just played chess and ate pudding on their honeymoon."

"Listen," said Remus, too depressed to tolerate humor. "I hate to slip out, but I think I'm a bit too tired to greet everybody just now. I'm going to head home."

"You going to be alright?"

Remus smiled warmly at Sirius. "You have done more than enough for me in the past 48 hours. I think it's time for me to release you back to Marlene."

Sirius scoffed. "She's not my bloody owner."

"...Pad, what is that?" asked Peter, completely straight-faced pointing to Sirius's neck.

Sirius's brow furrowed. "What's what?"

"I could've sworn I saw a collar."

"Sod off, Wormtail," he said through his teeth.

Okay, that was funny. Remus chuckled weakly. "Nice, Pete."

Before he turned to leave, Sirius caught his shoulder. "We're always here for you, mate. Let us know if you need anything..."

"I will," he lied. "Don't let me forget, I owe you a new brandy, as well as a proper birthday present."

"Don't worry about it…" He weighed his next words carefully. "...And, for what it's worth, I think you should write to her. Just to get that last thing off your chest."

Remus pretended to consider it, then felt compelled to hug him again, tighter this time. "...Thanks for everything, Padfoot. Really. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Me neither. I shudder at the thought."