"No cause is lost as long as there is still a fool willing to fight for it."
Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End
Hermione was running. She was running from the Death Eaters. It had been six months since she was alone, six months since Ron died. Six months of hiding, of loneliness, of despair. She spoke alone, unable to stand the silence. Six months of searching too. On the Jewels of Time.
It was because of this research that the chase had begun. The third in two months. She had found refuge in the Square Grimmauld, the house of her deceased friend. She returned there a few months after Harry's death and discovered that he had made her the secret guardian of the place and that he had secret keeper the house to her.
However, she had to go out to feed herself, and to do her research, of course. The Black's library was very complete when it came to dark magic, and she had learned this branch of magic from the books it contained, thinking it might be useful in front of the mangemorts, but there were no books on the jewels of time. To her dismay. That's how she was spotted, present in a small Muggle village near London, on the wrong day.
She had been running for a long time and was getting tired, but she didn't have to stop. Some days she felt like giving up, she didn't hide it from herself. But if she was going to give up, it would be alone. Not because of the Death Eaters. Suddenly she had an idea. In front of her, two trees were stuck together and formed a small hiding place. She turned into her animagus.
"Look for her! She couldn't have gone far. If we find her, we will rise in the dark lord's estimation. The world will be ours. No more survivors."
The Death Eaters were looking everywhere for Hermione, which made her laugh. Their eyes were fixed on the ground. But if they had looked up, they would have seen a beautiful phoenix in the sky, with a bag of pearls in its beak.
Hermione returned to Grimmauld Square, tired and disappointed. She still hadn't found any information about the Jewels of Time and her exits were more and more complicated, the mangemorts were present every time, as if they could follow her track. She started to eat and the solution she had been looking for months appeared to her. If Draco knew about the jewels of time, he must have read about them in a book, it was obvious. The only way to find information about the Jewels of Time was to go to Malfoy Manor. The lair of the Death Eaters. Voldemort's lair.
Hermione planned her escapade very carefully. She didn't want to miss a single detail. She had found a map of the manor in the house, the Blacks and Malfoy's were very close. She knew it was very risky. But she no longer had a choice. She would rather die trying to resist than sit around and do nothing. Her life was no longer worth much, she was alone. She couldn't possibly spend the rest of her life cooped up in this damn house. It was decided. Hermione would leave on the twenty-fifth of December for Malfoy Manor. It would stop her from thinking about that special Christmas Eve she had spent with Harry two years ago, at the grave of her almost brother's parents. No, she shouldn't have been thinking about Harry. The closer the day got, the more anxious Hermione became. The night before her expedition, she didn't sleep and revised her plans.
At dawn, she left Grimmauld Square. She arrived at a Muggle station and took a train to Wiltshire. She could no longer use wizarding transport, as anyone who transplants, uses cheminette powder or a portolan was immediately spotted by the Ministry and the Death Eaters would arrive.
When she arrived at the station, she had to walk the rest of the way, the Muggle car was not discreet enough for her expedition. After almost two hours of walking, she saw Malfoy Manor in the distance. She was not at all comfortable. She was reliving her torture, her rapes, Ron's screams, the discovery of his corpse. She decided to hide under her invisibility cloak -thank you Harry- and slowly approached the Manor. She escaped several Death Eater patrols and arrived at the back of the house. The hardest part was yet to come.
An hour of trying later, she finally managed to get into the mansion after countering many spells. She snuck into a room and put on the cloak. She quietly climbed the stairs, trying not to crack the steps, and consulted her map, looking for the library. She finally arrived at the library and pulled out her wand.
"Accio book on the jewels of time"
Nothing happened, and Hermione thought she had been a fool to think it would work. So she started to look for the book by hand, which would take her a long time, the library was twice as big as the one at Hogwarts. After more than half an hour of searching, she still hadn't found anything. Yet she had searched the different sections, with the different letters. Even in the Latin books on runes and black magic. Suddenly something tapped on the door, it opened and a book flew at Hermione. It had a brown cover, the binding was very old and damaged, and the title was written in fine golden letters.
The Jewels of Time
"By Morgana, finally, after months of searching, I found it."
She barely had time to rejoice when she heard footsteps. She quickly put the book away in her beaded bag and tried to hide. But it was too late.
"Well, well, well, well. Miss Mudblood. The master will be so happy to see you. He won't even need the plan, you came to him. And this time my traitor son won't be there to save you."
Lucius Malfoy, a fallen mangemort who was doing everything he could to raise his master's esteem, cast a spell on her and bonds were formed around her.
"There's no use resisting mudblood. The more you struggle, the tighter the bonds will become. But what are you doing in my library? Do you miss the books of mudblood?"
Hermione didn't answer. She knew it was useless. She realized, however, that Voldemort wasn't there as Malfoy Sr. was leading her into the dungeons.
"Oh Lucius, who did you catch there?"
"Don't touch Bella, she's Potter's mudblood." "Oh. but give her to me, I'm going to have fun with her. I've already left her plenty of little memories."
"No, I'm going to put her in the dungeons, you know very well that it's the master who must give the first blow."
With that, he took Hermione to the place she now knew well. He untied her and locked her up. Hermione noticed that a figure was sitting at the back of the dungeon. It looked familiar so without much hope, she approached to see if she knew this person. She was shocked. His face was dotted with scars, he looked older. Yet it was impossible, the person she was seeing had perished during the Great Battle. She had seen him dead, she had helped move his corpse, that was a certainty.
"Remus?"
May 4, 1998, Hogwarts
A man woke up feeling like he hadn't slept in ten years. He wondered where he was. The smell was foul. He tried to get up but he was very weak. He turned his head to the left and sat up. There were hundreds of dead bodies. He turned his head to the right and felt as if his heart had stopped. His wife was there. She was dead. He felt his tears roll down his cheeks. He sat up straight and it all came back to him. Harry. The Death Eaters. The battle. He didn't know what day or what time it was. However, he was sure of one thing, they had lost, the light had lost. Otherwise all the dead bodies would not have been left lying around like garbage.
He stood up and walked through the rows of dead. The entire order of the phoenix had fallen. Those who had died at the end of the battle had been piled on top of each other by the Death Eaters. It was obvious, there had been no care taken when they did it. He wavered when he saw Professor McGonagall's remains, his eyes open, a pained expression distorting his face. He noticed, however, that there were no corpses of the Golden Trio, as they were called. He then had the hope that perhaps all was not finished.
He soon found out when he left the castle and saw a corpse in the middle of the courtyard. The closer he got, the more reality caught up with him. The body was lying in the grass, so that he could see its face. James' face. His features were relaxed as if he knew he was going to die. His eyes were open. Lily's eyes. And so Remus Lupin collapsed on the body of the person he considered his nephew, the son of his best friend, the godson of his other best friend.
August 1998
Remus was running. He was running from the Death Eaters. Three months since he left Hogwarts, more bruised than ever. Three months since he left his wife's dead body behind. Three months since he discovered his son's lifeless body after a Death Eater attack. Three months of loneliness.
This was Remus' fifth death. First he died in November 1981, when he discovered the death of Lily and James. Then he died again in June 1996, along with Sirius. That was really the end of the marauders for him. He died once more at the side of his wife's dead body, then again when he saw Harry dead, and then again when he found his little Teddy dead. Remus was fed up. Why was everyone dying around him? Why was he surviving? He thought he didn't deserve to have friends because of his fur problem as James said. He thought he was a monster so that's why he wasn't dead. That's also why he didn't do it to himself. Because he didn't think he deserved it. Monsters didn't deserve death, they deserved suffering. The proof was that death did not take him with it, it gave him back his life every time, like a gift, but it was not that, it was a burden too heavy for Remus to bear. He didn't want to survive anymore. His life had stopped for too long.
Once again, Remus escaped the Death Eaters. That was the one advantage of being a werewolf: speed.
January 1999
This was the third time Remus had escaped the Death Eaters since the beginning of the year. He changed his residence every month, but they always found him.
March 1999
Remus got up naked and exhausted. It was the worst full moon of his life. And yet there had already been some very hard ones. He got dressed slowly, every bit of skin that the cloth touched felt like a burn. Remus had been biting himself all night. And he was almost out of essence of dittany. He would soon be unable to heal his wounds.
May 3, 1999
Remus was not doing well at all. All his old memories were coming back and it was anything but pleasant. Yesterday, it had been a year since the Battle. A year since Dora had died, since Harry had died. Every day he kept telling himself that it was his fault, that he should have protected James' son more. But he couldn't even protect his own son, so what could he have done?
On this sad day, Remus tried to go down the side road to get some spirits. He came across a newspaper, The Wizard's Gazette, and laughed without joy. Was this rag still writing? He stopped suddenly. He thought that the witch on the poster had been dead for a year.
RONALD WEASLEY DEAD AT LAST! HERMIONE GRANGER STILL PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE DANGEROUS MUDBLOOD
He was sad to hear of Ron's death. But he wasn't really surprised that these two were the last resistants. They continue to fight for their beliefs, and for Harry of course. Remus left with the firm intention of finding the last survivor. This was a complex task, since - as the rag had so aptly put it - she was enemy number one.
October 1999
Remus was desperate, he had been searching for Hermione for almost six months without stopping. He had found nothing. Not even a tiny little clue. He felt like giving up. This was too much for him. Lost in his thoughts, he didn't hear the door open or the footsteps approaching.
"But who do we have here? A lone wolf. The master will be happy to see that he has one more beast to kill."
Remus was led away by Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, and a third whose name he did not know, surely a new recruit. He woke up on a cold, wet floor. And the torture began.
December 25, 1999
Remus had completely lost track of time. He didn't know how long he had been there. It could have been two days, two months, or even two years. The full moons in the dungeon were unbearable, even more so than in the forest. Everything was worse in the dungeon.
He was going to see Hermione again. But not for the right reasons. Voldemort was going to spread the word that he was alive, so that Hermione would come and rescue him and get caught. He was going to be used as bait. Someone entered the dungeon and the door closed. Remus was now used to these comings and goings. His back was to the door. He did not want to see this face, which would surely die tomorrow.
Despite his thoughts, the stranger approached. He had long hair, Remus realized that it was a woman, a young woman. He might have been sorry for her upcoming death, but for now nothing worried him except for Hermione's fate. The young woman took his face in her hands. Her chocolate eyes locked with Remus'. They stood there for a long time, staring into each other's eyes. She was the first to speak.
"Remus?"