AN: CW: extreme language (more so than typical)
"Thank you so much for coming with me Arthur. I really appreciate it. I just wanna apologize. It's a bit of a wreck down there in the basement. I wasn't able to clean up after my last transformation." Remus warned.
Arthur nodded. " it's all right. Im made of tough stuff I promise." Arthur smiled, as they walked across the front yard of Mad Eyes house.
the full moon was only a few days away now, but Remus' potion had been helping drastically.
Remus walked through the door of Mad Eyes house cautiously.
But, Arthur was stuck outside his foot just beyond the threshold of the door. " why can't I get in?" Arthur asked confused.
"Hmmm. That may be my doing. It was a protective charm to keep others out on the full moon. Only I can enter."
"We will have to take some of the protective charms down to make changes anyway." Remus continued, waving his wand.
Arthur had agreed to accompany him to Mad Eye's house that day to help him repair the stairs to the basement as well as making the house more safe and secure.
"I secured some titanium and I made a barred door for the basement too." Remus pointed towards the door he'd brought several days before.
"Well, let's get to work." Arthur said, clasping his hands together.
Remus and Arthur took off their coats and left them upstairs in the sitting room. they had started a fire in the main fireplace and it was beginning to heat the house.
Arthur went pale when he saw the basement though.
"Oh. Remus." You did this?" He asked, looking slightly horrified.
The stairs were still halfway across the room, completely detached from the wall, they had to jump down into the basement to access it.
Remus felt slightly abashed. His blood was still all over.
"Not on purpose." Remus joked.
But Arthur still looked sickly.
"It's OK if this makes you uncomfortable Arthur." Remus gave him the permission to feel what he knew he likely was in that moment.
Arthur shook his head. "No, it's not that. It's just hard to imagine." He explained..
"I really do appreciate you helping me. I nearly died last month here. I don't want to risk that again."
Arthur nodded. "I'm ready whenever you are." He tried to sound gritty.
It took them well over two hours to attach the new door to the basement as well as fix the stairs. The new stairs now had a metal railing and a sturdy base, one that werewolf would unlikely to loosen or damage.
They also put a few spells on the stairs to make them magically enhanced to be sturdier and stronger.
"Well, I think we might be all set. Thank you, Arthur." Remus thanked him.
"Oh no problem, Molly said dinner would be ready when we got back most likely." Arthur smiled.
"Sounds amazing, I could use some a good dinner." Remus chuckled as he put his wind away in his pant pocket.
Suddenly, though there was a small noise upstairs that vaguely sounded like the front door being pushed open.
Arthur had noticed this noise as well and immediately his head turned towards the sound.
Both of the men looked at each other at the same time, confusion etched on both their faces. No one should've been there with them.
Then distinctly audible footsteps could be heard above them, it sounded as if several people were walking through the house.
Both of their stomachs dropped.
Then a horrible sensation washed over Remus. It made his skin crawl.
Remus' jaw dropped open, the hair on the back of his neck sticking up. At least one of the people upstairs was a werewolf. He could tell.
"I thought there were protective charms on the house?" Arthur whispered..
Remus waved him down. Signaling he needed to be quiet. Cursing himself for removing the charms now.
Arthur looked freaked out at this.
"Is that you down there, Lupin?" He heard familiar voice of Fenrir Grayback ask him, calling through the house.
There was no way out now. Remus closed his eyes briefly.
'Fuck.' Remus Thought. They were trapped.
"Look, what i found in this jacket." Another unfamiliar voice said.
He heard Fenrir chuckling.
and Remus knew that they had found the photo of the baby. He held his breath in horror.
Suddenly they could hear footsteps getting closer and closer.
He put his hand out to Arthur trying to signal for him to stay out of the way and Remus walked towards the stairs.
The last time he'd been up close near Grayback he'd almost lost his arm.
"Fenrir?" Remus called, trying to throw him off, from the bottom of the newly fixed staircase. He needed to buy them
time. "Is that you?" He asked nicely.
He heard footsteps closing in, and the werewolf chucking again.
"This is such a cute, adorable little boy." Fenrir sneered in a dreadful tone, as he emerged at the top of the stairs holding the photo of Remus' son.
Remus barely moved. His heart was pounding in his chest the longer the monster at the top of the stairs held
his son's photo.
"This your little guy, Lupin?" He asked, smiling a nasty smile.
"He looks like you a little actually." Fenrir goaded him.
Remus' blood ran frigid at this comment.
"What do you want, Grayback?" Already done entertaining him. The comments about his son were his breaking point.
"Oh, now now. Not really in the position to be making demands, are ya? Now,
I want to talk about this." He gestured to the picture, waving it between his disgusting filthy finger nails.
As the light from the basement hit the aged werewolf's face, Remus could tell he looked much different than the last times he'd seen him. He now had a pockmark visage of waxy looking scarred skin that spread across his face.
Remus couldn't help but feel a small pang of satisfaction. At least the outside match the inside now.
Remus considered stunning him, but knew it was too risky with others upstairs too.
Before Remus even had time
to consider his actions, he'd attempted to go up the stairs.
Swiftly, Fenrir swung the caged door at the top of cellar closed and locked it.
"You say you want to talk, but lock us in?" Remus demanded an answer.
"Ha. It wouldn't be a game if you weren't trapped down there. Then it just be two old friends catching up, and well Ah, you and I aren't friends, Lupin."
"No we are not." Remus growled. "And we're not playing whatever macabre game you've cooked up either.
"Oh you will, because I say so.
So, let's chat." He sneered chuckling, glaring down at Remus.
"You've gotten yourself into quite the predicament. You a dad? Some shit, people like us aren't meant for." He said.
"That's not true!"
Remus turned. Arthur had gotten upset and yelled, and walked over in anger to the bottom of the stairs.
"Remus is nothing like you. He will be an amazing father. So, you speak for yourself." Arthur said, proudly, standing irate at the foot of the stairs.
Remus could tell he meant it. He felt a brief appreciation for Arthur in that moment. He would need to thank him later.
"But look where he is, he's here with you instead of at home with his pregnant wife. Being a slave to the ministry and their fucking rules and regulations no doubt."
Remus slumped down into the stairs, defeated.
"Where is that tiny little tight assed wife of yours, anyhow. I bet she's cute pregnant. That your thing, Lupin?."
Remus blood boiled in his chest madly.
"Think she'd let me have her too?" The werewolf goaded him, trying hard to get a reaction.
Remus gritted his teeth hard, resolutely not looking at the old evil werewolf.
But Arthur looked entirely appalled.
"Oh, that that is repulsive, how dare you say that about a pregnant woman." Arthur gasped, eyes wide.
The werewolf ignored Arthurs attempt to shame him.
"You know. She fucked my face up. Back at the school." He growled.
'Fuck' Remus thought, closing his eyes and horror. 'That was what happened to his face.'
"Maybe i should do the same to you, see how she likes it." Grayback snarled
"Ugh, have you not done enough already?" Arthur pleaded with him, angry and indignant.
"I'll decide what's enough." Grayback told him, icily.
'Great' Remus thought. They were going to have to play along.
"And, you should be grateful, you should." Fenrir sneered at Arthur.
"You're lucky more of your kids haven't met me. I'd certainly like to meet that sweet sweet sexy little girl you have, alone sometime." He goaded Arthur now.
Arthur shook, and turned ghostly white. He gasped in shock that he'd such a vile thing about a child.
Remus prepared to stop Arthur from attacking Grayback but Arthur's anger seemed fair beyond words or actions at that moment.
The comments about Ginny clearly had a big effect on him. He practically shook.
The werewolf droned on. Clearly unphased by his previous comments.
"Now. Where were we? Oh right." Grayback waved the photo of his son around again.
"We were talking about this little guy." Grayback goaded him evilly.
Remus gritted his teeth as he clenched them. Trying to control his anger.
"say what you want to say!" Remus snapped at him, Turing around to look at him.
"Ha, not so fast. Take it slow." Grayback said, clearly amused. Fiddling with the photo as he did.
"Either of you smoke?" Grayback asked both of them, pulling a yellowed cigarette out of his dingy and tattered shirt pocket. He roughly stuffed the photo of Remus' son back into the same disgusting shirt pocket.
Remus and Arthur glared at him saying nothing.
"Hmm, no? Just me then?" He asked, putting the cigarette into the corner of his mouth, lighting it with the tip of his wand.
The werewolf took a long drag from the unfiltered tip. The vile smell instantly hit Remus' nostrils and turned his stomach.
"You know, i actually just started smoking recently. I guess I have a fascination with fire now." He said, smirking.
"Ever since that fucking little cunt screwed up my face."
Remus sighed heavily, trying not to get upset. He turned away again, not wanting to look at Grayback while he talked about his wife.
"Well, consider it karma. How many faces have you scarred?" Arthur taunted him, boldly. Anger seething through him. He had found his voice.
Anger and rage was so evident on his face. Remus gave him a pleasing look.
"Ha, you're that gingers father, right? You look just like him, I can tell." Grayback sneered. Grayback clearly already knew this and was getting off on Arthur's reaction.
Grayback just laughed, like he was enjoying his own inside joke.
Arthur looked pale and disgusted, but he didn't speak. He appeared one again to be beyond speech at that moment.
Grayback took another long drag off his cigarette.
"You think this is funny?" Remus asked him, turning around to look the werewolf right in his face.
"You know what I think is funny? I think it's funny you think you get to live a normal life. You don't." Grayback told him, glaring down at him.
"Well, I guess it's good you don't really get a say, then." Remus mused darkly.
Grayback's lip twitched a little and His lips twisted into a cruel smile.
In one hand he held his cigarette between long dirty finger nails, with his other hand he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the the photo of Remus' son.
Grayback surveyed the picture carefully.
"You know, your kid is kinda cute, Lupin." Grayback said, appraising the photo.
Remus remained impassive. Trying hard to control the rage building inside of him.
"Too bad, really." Grayback said, grimacing.
Remus watched in abject horror as Grayback took his lit cigarette and pressed it into his son's precious face.
Remus grabbed the banister to try to steady himself.
"You're never gonna meet him." Grayback taunted him.
Something in Remus broke at these words and he lost it.
He was pretty sure that Arthur had attempted to stop him, but he wrenched himself out of his grasp and hurdled himself up the stairs so he was directly in front of the bars. He gripped the bars hard.
"You don't talk about my son! You don't know anything about him!" Remus yelled at him.
"Here, Lupin." He said, sticking the burned photo into the shirt pocket on his shirt instead. " Take what's left of your boy." Grayback laughed, disregarding Remus' previous statement.
"I'm bored of you now." Grayback said uninterested, walking away.
Remus practically fell onto the stairs in defeat.
He pulled out his son's destroyed photo.
His lip trembled as he looked at it. He stumbled back downstairs and plopped himself in a corner.
He tried to steady himself. He didn't want to get emotional in front of Arthur.
"Reparo." He muttered, but nothing happened to the photograph.
Remus wiped a tear from his eye, not wanting Arthur to see.
"Hey. One day soon you won't need a photograph anymore. I'm sorry he did that." Arthur told him.
Remus looked up at him and nodded. It was true. He'd meet his son in about 19 weeks or so, give or take a little,as long as they escaped the basement.
Both of them sighed.
suddenly, an orb flew down the stairs. It spoke in Tonk's' voice.
"Remus, Molly and I are kinda getting a little worried...Will you be back soon? Molly made stew." Dora spoke to him.
he closed his eyes, he couldn't respond without the death eaters upstairs noticing, and he was sure they had done something to prevent them from casting spells.
Arthur shook his head, trying to wave his wand.
"ugh." Remus groaned, this was going to be a long long night.
After hours Remus and Arthur had grown weary of entertaining Grayback and his cronies.
Molly and Tonks had both sent them messages that they couldn't respond to and Remus found his anxiety increasing by the minute.
"You know. I meant what I said earlier. You'll be an amazing father. You'll be a natural." Arthur promised him, as they sat on the floor.
His heart felt light for just a few seconds at this omission.
"Thank you so much Arthur. That means a lot coming from someone with 7 children." Remus admitted.
Arthur gave him a knowing smile.
"I can tell that you're a little nervous. Only the good ones are nervous. The best try to pretend they aren't." He whispered.
Remus blinked. "Yes, I'm very nervous. I want to be a good father. It wasn't exactly something I ever really truly envisioned for myself until extremely recently." He admitted.
He hadn't told anyone that but Tonks. It felt good to say it to another father.
"You'll do great, just watch and see." Arthur assured him.
"Thank you so much, Arthur."
And at that moment, we misunderstood that the man sitting across from him, even though he was 10 years, his senior. Was his friend.
" Arthur?" Remus asked.
Arthur looked at him.
" Will you do me a favor? if anything ever happens to me, please make sure my son knows me. Tell him about me.." Remus wasn't sure what had come over in that moment or why he had said it, but he felt much better after he had.
Arthur went to respond to him, but, just then, Grayback was back.
But Arthur noted at him solemnly. And he knew he was agreeing.
"Why hasn't your wife come to look for you yet Lupin?" Grayback sneered. "I'd like to chat with her too. But, she doesn't seem too worried about you."
Remus grimaced. "You think my wife is some dumb little housewife or something?" He snapped angrily at Grayback. "She'd never come here. So, if that's what you're waiting for you're going to be waiting a very long time."
"Hmmm." The aged werewolf crooned down at them. " honestly this is become quite boring."
" I think it's about time to make this a little more interesting." The werewolf said ominously as he wandered off.
Remus could hear him stomping through the house, his footsteps on the old hardwoods creaking as he walked.
Remus' breathing increased suddenly, unsure of what Grayback would do.
Suddenly, another silvery white wolf shot down the stairs speaking in Tonks hurt and confused
voice.
"Well, you've not responded to our prior messages so we're sending someone to look in on you both.. I hope you're okay. I love you." Tonks' patronous said, she sounded extremely nervous.
He sighed, perhaps someone would come help them.
But, simultaneously something happened that made Remus' his heart drop into his stomach.
There was a smell. It was kerosene. The smell burnt his nostrils.
Arthur clearly had noticed this as well and turned to look at him in horror.
Remus' heart sped up and terror shot through him. Never in his life had he ever feared for his life more than at that moment. If he died he'd never meet his son.
He needed to escape. They both needed to escape..
Arthur gave him a devastating look. He knew they weren't going to get out.
"We have to do something." Arthur told him solemnly..
Remus nodded.
Remus took out his wand, about to reply to his wife, they needed help of any kind. He was desperate.but then he remembered he couldn't perform any spells.
And, He needed her to live. For his son to live. He took a deep breath. attempting to steadied himself.
He closed his eyes. He was about to die.
They were both about to die.
