Remus grips the arms of his chair, breathing in and out. In. Out. In. Out. Over, and over again.
Remus can feel his eyes glowing. A quietly weeping Molly Weasley is sitting in front of the fireplace. Arthur is staring out the window, hand on his wife's shoulder. Tears are dripping down his face.
Remus isn't crying. It's taking all he has not to rip someone's face off- possibly his own. Minerva is looking pale, and drawn.
Hell, it's taking all he has not to get up from his seat, find wherever it is Albus is searching, and begin to tear Hogwarts down, one brick at a time- if only to recover the- to-
No. Albus has it handled- he has to, because Remus doesn't think he can move without bursting into tears, and that's not an option.
Remus didn't cry when he'd been told about James. He didn't cry when he'd been told about Lily. He didn't cry when he'd heard about Sirius, and Peter.
He won't cry now.
If he allows for an emotion, it will feed Moony. This is how it's always been. How it will always be.
It's very, very rare for a werewolf to transform outside of a full moon.
It is not impossible.
Remus doesn't know how long it's been since he'd received the floo call from Minerva and came through to her office. Minutes, hours, years. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters. Not anymore. His fingers curl into the fabric of his chair and he hears a ripping sound.
Remus closes his eyes and lets out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. In. Out. In-
The door flies open and Remus shoots his head up, heart leaping despite himself.
Albus strides through the door, Fawkes perched on his shoulder. Remus doesn't bother taking the time to parse what Albus's expression is, because he's too busy trying to look behind the man.
Remus feels like he's breaking into a million pieces. There's no one else there.
Wait.
Remus stands up abruptly, shaking. Yes there is.
Harry is suddenly in his arms, invisibility cloak falling off of him.
Tom is there as well, pulling the cloak all the way off and folding it up. Ginny is rushing into her parents' arms, who clutch at her as they all sob. In the meanwhile, Minerva stands up from her desk and gestures for Albus to sit down- which he does, a tired smile on his face.
"Harry, Harry," Remus says, gathering the boy up and rocking him back and forth. "Harry, you're okay, you're okay."
"I'm okay!" Harry agrees, pulling himself back. He's grinning crookedly.
Remus stares at him for a moment, trying to convince himself that Harry really is alright. He breathes in, then out- it's much easier now.
"Where's Merlin?" Remus asks, feeling another spike of worry rocket through him, riling Moony up even more.
Harry's smile falls briefly (and with it Remus's heart falls as well). "I'm- I'm not sure. Tom said she was okay, but-"
"She came to find me to tell me that you had been taken," Tom agrees, nodding. "I thought you'd prefer for her to stay safe, so I… stunned her. She's currently sleeping behind the suit of armor closest to the bathroom. I should have thought to grab her as we left, but then Dumbledore was there and- I'm sorry, I forgot."
Harry lets out a long sigh. "That's okay," he says. "Thank you- you were right, I wouldn't have wanted her down there."
Well, that doesn't explain anything at all.
"I am sorry to interrupt," Albus cuts in.
Yeah, right.
Remus turns to look at him, eyebrow raised. His eyes must still be amber, because the man visibly pales. He thinks he hears a stifled snort from behind him- possibly from Tom.
Remus is, in all honesty, electing to mostly ignore Tom for now- Harry seems to think that Tom helped them, but Remus isn't so sure. He wants answers, but he can't demand them in the way he'd like to, because Tom is likely just a scared child. A decidedly mature one (thanks to trauma, likely), but a child nonetheless. And, to give him credit where credit is due, Harry is safe, so at the very least Tom didn't hurt things. Probably.
Despite his obvious trepidation, Albus forges on: "we do need an explanation as to what has happened."
"Don't you know?" Minerva asks, looking confused. Remus feels similarly. After all, Albus is the one who returned them to safety- isn't he?
Albus shakes his head. "I'd just made it to Myrtle's bathroom before running into the children."
Remus looks down at Harry, who looks at Tom, who looks a bit smug. Oh. Well. Maybe Tom did help them, then.
"What we need," Molly says frostily, "is to get Poppy in here. These children are covered in blood!"
"It's mostly the basilisk's," Harry says dismissively, and Remus's heart stops.
Tom, on the other hand, definitely snorts this time.
Remus feels the abrupt need to sit down, so he does. His hand tightens on Harry's arm.
"Minerva, if you would- my Patronus is otherwise occupied, at the moment-" Albus begins.
Remus briefly wonders what that means, but decides he has other things to worry about right now.
A pale-faced Minerva summons a Patronus with a flick of her wand. "Poppy, we need you in my office. We have some students that need… need a checkup. As soon as you can, please."
The silver cat bounds off, and Albus summons an additional three chairs.
"Basilisk, Mister Potter?" Albus asks, eyes glittering.
Remus would also very much like to know what Harry meant by that- although, knowing Harry, he probably just meant that he found and likely killed a basilisk.
Remus is going to raise James from the dead and then kill him again. No- scratch that, Harry definitely got whatever this is from Lily.
"So," Harry starts, then pauses. "Er. Wait. If someone were to hypothetically kill a man in self-defense, would it be… are there laws against that?"
Albus raises a bushy eyebrow, then looks over at where Tom is now sitting. Tom returns the look with an indignant glare.
Remus feels Moony perk up. It's looking more and more like Tom wasn't the culprit at all- and as much as Remus is disinclined to trust Tom, he does have Harry's face. That's pretty much all Moony needed before resolutely claiming him as part of the pack.
Although, if Tom actually killed someone in defense of Harry (and Ginny and himself), Remus thinks that Moony may have very possibly gotten it right, this time.
"I think," Albus says slowly, "that we can… adjust the story for the aurors, if need be."
Harry nods, satisfied, and then launches into his story:
Apparently, Lockhart had lured Harry into his office by saying that Merlin was hurt. When Harry had arrived, he'd seen that Merlin was trapped in a cage of green fire and that if Harry wanted Merlin to live, he needed to do exactly as Lockhart says. Lockhart had Harry give him his wand and satchel, and then told him that they were going to go to the Chamber- but first, Harry would need to write a message on the wall, telling the world that they had died.
Unfortunately, at this point Ginny burst in, and Lockhart decided to take her too- as collateral, Harry says.
Both him and Ginny shiver, and Molly looks murderous. Remus is sure he doesn't look much different. Lockhart is lucky he's already dead- or at least, Remus assumes he is. He'd better be, anyways.
At that point, Lockhart had walked them down to the Chamber, tied them up, and started preparing a ritual of some kind. He'd started it, only to fall and wake up a different man.
"He was already dead at that point," Tom jumps in. "No more than a puppet- possessed by Voldemort."
Molly, Arthur, Ginny, and Minerva all flinch. Remus flinches too, despite himself- although he's not sure how Tom could possibly know that Lockhart was dead with such surety, not unless he recognized the ritual.
That, or he's trying to convince himself, so that he doesn't have to grapple with the fact that he killed a man.
Dumbledore narrows his eyes. "The wraith?"
Harry shrugs. "Yeah, probably. I don't know for sure- by that point, I was running from the basilisk."
"Basilisk," Albus repeats. "And you're sure, Mister Potter?"
Harry blinks, then turns to face Remus. "Are basilisks that rare?"
Remus doesn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he mostly just stares. 'Are basilisks that rare' indeed.
Albus ends up answering Harry: "Basilisks are so rare that they were thought to be myths. According to the legends, they kill with a single glance, their venom is a guaranteed death-sentence, they're immortal, and their hides are impossible to penetrate."
Remus knew all that already, but to hear it said out loud- Remus's heart lodges itself in his throat once more and he reaches out to pat Harry's arm again- he needs to make sure Harry is actually here, and safe.
"There is a reason none of us thought of a basilisk, even after all the petrifications, and knowing the monster was a snake," Minerva agrees.
"Oh," Harry says. "Maybe it wasn't a basilisk then."
Remus doesn't even bother to try to hope that this is the case.
"Why do you say that, Mister Potter?" Albus asks.
Tom lets out a laugh. Remus could be imagining it, but he thinks it might sound strained.
"Because," Tom says as everyone shifts their attention to the older boy. "Harry here managed to stab it to death, only to get an armful of fang- which he's obviously survived. But rest assured, Harry. That was a basilisk. You are just an impossibility."
The words 'armful of fang' echo in Remus's head. Not for the first time (not by a long shot) he wishes Sirius hadn't done what he'd done.
But this time it's because Remus wants someone else to be able to be afraid for Harry like he is. Remus doesn't want to keep doing it alone.
"I didn't actually pierce its hide," Harry points out, oblivious to Remus's rapidly encroaching panic-attack. "And Fawkes is the only reason I survived the bite- he cried on me, remember?"
"Phoenix tears are amazing, yes," Albus says as he strokes Fawkes fondly, "but they would not be able to heal a basilisk bite."
"Oh," Harry says again. "Well, I did help, I guess."
"Help?" Molly asks, voice quavering.
"I mean, yeah," Harry says as he turns to look at the woman. "The tears burnt the venom out from one end, and I burnt it out from the other."
Remus wonders numbly how resistant Tom, Harry, and Merlin would be to the idea of a life in America. He's heard good things about Vermont.
"I see," Albus says finally. "I think we've gotten ahead of ourselves. Let's go back- what happened after Gilderoy was possessed?"
Harry starts telling his side of the story again: Apparently, the basilisk had been summoned and chased Harry all throughout the pipe system- fortunately, by this point, Fawkes had shown up and gouged the basilisk's eyes out.
As Harry tells this part, Remus notices that his easy attitude (which Remus had figured was due to the fact that the events just haven't hit him quite yet) becomes significantly strained. Remus isn't surprised- Harry thinks of snakes as people, and he's incredibly empathetic. Even if this particular snake wanted to harm him, seeing it in pain couldn't have been easy.
None of this is easy. Remus lets out a little sigh- when the events do hit Harry, they're going to hit hard. Remus is not looking forward to that.
Harry found himself back in the Chamber just in time to see Ginny pull a sword out of the Sorting Hat. She tossed it to Harry then got out of the way again. Harry managed to save Tom from the basilisk by stabbing it through the top of its mouth, which is when he was 'bitten'.
(Remus notes that Tom seems to go a bit stiff as Harry tells this part. He can't blame him: Remus goes stiff too.)
Then things got a little fuzzy for Harry. He'd managed to hold the venom off for a little while (which is an impossible feat in and of itself), but was only able to clear it out all the way when Fawkes had cried on him.
"Why was Fawkes there?" Arthur suddenly asks. "How did he know to come?"
Albus smiles fondly at the bird, who preens smugly. "Occasionally, when a student is in dire need of Hogwarts' protection, she will send her guardians to defend them. Hence, the phoenix and the Sorting Hat.
"Congratulations, Miss Weasley," he adds, turning to face Ginny. "You are one of the very few who have been able to pull the sword of Gryffindor from the hat. One needs to be a true Gryffindor at heart to manage that."
Ginny flushes bright red. "It's not like I did much more than that," she mutters. "The hat literally dropped into my lap."
"Incorrect," Tom cuts in. "You also did this."
With that, he places two halves of what seems to have been a crown of some sort onto Minerva's desk.
Remus narrows his eyes and leans closer, then feels his heart sink all the way into his shoes. He looks up at Minerva, who looks as horrified as he feels.
"Is that… that can't be what I think it is?" Remus croaks, even though he already knows the answer.
"A pain in my ass?" Tom mutters.
Minerva looks a little bit like she wants to deduct points for language, but holds it in.
"That, my boy," Albus says grimly, staring at the two pieces. "Is Ravenclaw's Lost Diadem."
Tom stands up from his chair. "If you will excuse me. I will be right back."
And Albus just watches the boy leave, with an indecipherable look on his face.
The door swings shut behind Tom, and Remus makes a very abrupt decision.
He wants to stay here with Harry, and never let him out of his sight ever again. But Tom is a sixteen year old boy who's just been through a terrifying experience which, by the sound of it, they all just barely survived. And Tom put himself into the situation, in order to save someone he (assuming he's telling the truth) sees as a little brother.
Jesus Christ, Tom watched Harry get bit by a basilisk in order to save Tom's life.
And, apparently, Albus is just going to let him go.
Remus stands up, then turns to Harry. "I'm going to make sure he's okay. Stay here, keep explaining what happened."
Harry looks like he wants to protest, but then he seems to think better of it. Instead he nods once, a determined expression setting in on his face.
Then Remus turns to Minerva. "Please, please keep him safe. Send me a patronus message if I need to come back for any reason."
She nods, a grim look on her face. Remus appreciates it- he knows that the likelihood of Harry getting into life-threatening danger while sitting in an office with four adult wixen (one of which is one of the most powerful wizards of the last century) is slim at best, but he isn't about to risk leaving Harry alone without someone there watching out for him specifically.
"Remus, I'm sure-" Albus starts.
"Tom shouldn't be alone right now," Remus says. "Surely even you can see that."
"I don't know if he'll appreciate-" Albus tries.
"I don't care," Remus says, then turns and leaves.