Moonlight

Chapter Twenty

The Cave and the Golden Retriever



The next day, Remus was on his feet. When he stepped out of the shower that morning, he looked in the foggy mirror to find something his friends had refrained from mentioning: the silver had left more pale scars on his face, all of them parallel to each other, as well as to the pale one that Dolohov's half-spell had given him months earlier. There were also a few long pale scars on his arms, legs, across his torso--all of them from the silver.

He heaved a sigh, dried himself off, and wrapped himself up in his father's old bathrobe (James and Sirius had managed to find time to stop by his house and bring him some clothes).

In the bedroom he pulled on underwear, shirt, sweater, and trousers, and was just pulling on his socks when he received a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said without bothering to wonder who it could be. He assumed it was his friends, or a couple of them, or one of them at the very least.

He was quite mistaken, however, because the two men who came into the room were none other than the Prewitt brothers, Gideon and Fabian.

Gideon wore spectacles, with a waistcoat and dress trousers with matching brown robes, and his long hair was smoothed back and clubbed with a silk ribbon. Fabian wore black robes over a black t-shirt and black jeans with black boots: his shoulder-length, wild hair was tied back in a ponytail, and on the outer rim of his left nostril he wore a gold nose ring.

"Good morning, Remus!" said Gideon brightly. "Wonderful to see you up and about!"

"Yeah, that was a nasty beating you took from them rotten Death Eaters," said Fabian. "But you showed 'em what's what!" He extracted an enchanted yo-yo--like the one Peter had given Remus for his seventeenth birthday--from inside the pocket of his robes and began playing Around-the-Quidditch-Field with it as he leaned back against the door with his free hand stuck casually in the pocket of his jeans.

Remus laughed. "Not really. My mates saved me, and I wouldn't have ended up in that mess if I hadn't been so reckless."

"Hey, I don't blame you for it though," said Gideon, sitting down on the bed beside Remus. "If I found out my brother Fabian here had been kidnapped, I'd have jumped right on trying to get him back."

"And I'd do the same for Giddy if it were the other way around without a moment's hesitation," Fabian grinned, making his yo-yo split into five different yo-yos.

"That's righ--Hey! I told you not to call me Giddy!" Gideon reproached.

"Oh, you just don't like that nickname because that's what your ex-girlfriend always called you," Fabian teased, reforming the five yo-yos back into one.

"I'm warning you...." Gideon pointed a threatening finger at his little brother.

"Besides, what I heard down the grapevine," said Fabian, ignoring his older brother, "was that you were yelling at your mates to leave you."

"Well, yes," said Remus as if it had been the most logical thing in the world. "They could've been killed trying to help me."

"So that shows you would have rather died than watch your mates die, right?"

"Well...yes...."

"And that is exactly why you're performance in that scenario deserves so much good merit," said Fabian. He gave Remus a wink.

"Besides, you got yourself into that mess for a just reason," Gideon added. "In my and Fabby's opinion, anyway." He smirked at Fabian.

Fabian's jaw dropped, and he stopped his yo-yo dead in mid-air. "Don't--call--me--Fabby!" he shouted.

"Then don't you call me Giddy." Gideon raised his eyebrows.

Fabian raised his hands up in the air, palms facing away from him. "Alright, alright. Truce, then."

"Truce," said Gideon with a grin, getting to his feet.

Fabian grinned as well as they both spit into their palms and then slapped and rubbed them together. Remus guessed this was some sort of truce ritual particular only to them, and dated back, most likely, from their childhood.

"EMERGENCY!" shouted the voice of Mad-Eye Moody from somewhere else in the great mansion, his voice carrying somewhat muffledly through the walls. "ALL THOSE FIT FOR ACTION REPORT TO THE DRAWING ROOM AT ONCE!"

Remus pulled on his shoes and the first pair of robes his hand grabbed, which he noticed were in desperate need of either repair or replacement, as they had been so badly torn from one of his previous battles with Death Eaters. Then he swiped his wand off the bedside table (James had managed to win it back for him, and then he'd had to formally return it to him, so that the wand would continue to be loyal to Remus and not assume that James had won it for himself--but such were the complexities of wand lore.). Finally, he set his usual Auto-Thought-Recording Spell on his journal (which James and Sirius had also brought at his request, and they swore to him up and down that they hadn't read a word of it, and he believed them (they'd also brought him all of his paperwork concerning his mission for locating the werewolves in Britain)).

Gideon and Fabian waited for him, and the three of them went down the hall and downstairs to the drawing room, where James, Lily, Sirius, Peter, Edgar Bones, Hagrid and Mad-Eye were also gathering.

Mad-Eye was pacing up and down, apart from the others, looking incredibly anxious about something.

"What's going on?" Remus asked his friends.

"Dunno," said Sirius. "We just heard Mad-Eye here shouting for us and we came."

"Is that it?" Mad-Eye barked, surveying Remus, Sirius, James, Lily, Peter, Edgar, Hagrid, Gideon, and Fabian. "Just the nine of you?"

"It would appear so, sir," said Gideon, looking around at the others. "I believe everyone else--Elphias and Albus included--is off on assignment."

"What's the emergency, sir?" asked James.

"I just received a distress signal," Mad-Eye explained in his usual growl, "from a witch and a young girl whom I'm assuming is her daughter. They're being trapped inside of a complex network of a seaside cave by a band of Death Eaters. Quickly now, we're losing time."

He led them to the door, informing them that they would be performing a mass Side-Along Apparition.

They stepped outside onto the front lawn of the mansion, into the bright, mid-morning sunlight. They all grasped some part of Mad-Eye, and then followed him promptly into the squeezing darkness. Remus recognized this as the same method of Apparition as he'd used when he Apparated to Mickey. He'd used Mickey's scent as a guide to where Mickey himself was, even though he'd never been to where Mickey was waiting for him. He figured that Mad-Eye, similarly, was now using the distress signal from the witch and her daughter as a guide to Apparate them all to the cave where the Death Eaters had them trapped.

They emerged from the squeezing darkness to a breezy place thick with the smell and taste of salt. Remus barely had time to take in the massive rock formations which the seas pounded upon tirelessly, before the shouts of Death Eaters were heard: "Oh damn! It's the bloody Order again!"

Remus launched himself into the battle with a burst of pure adrenaline. There had to be at least twice as many Death Eaters as were of the Order members. But Remus shot curse after jinx after hex at them regardless.

Next thing he knew the bottom was dropping out of his stomach, he was falling down, and he hit the hard, craggy rocks flat on his front. He groaned in pain from the sharp edges of rocks that dug into his arms, legs, chest, and stomach, and the stinging, angry scrapes that had leapt up viciously on his chin and hands. The next thing he realized was that a Death Eater was standing over him, laughing, and that below, the thrashing sea awaited him, and with one wrong move he'd surely slip and fall into its drowning, body-breaking depths.

The Death Eater raised his wand as he continued to cackle.

But Remus was faster, given his lupine reflexes. "IMPEDIMENTA!" he shouted before the Death Eater could, and the Death Eater gave a yell of surprise as he was thrown backwards and landed hard on his back against a wall of solid, jagged rock. He crumpled, broken and still.

"KILL THEM!" shrieked another one of the Death Eaters, though Remus couldn't see him from his current position clinging to the rocks. "KILL THEM ALL!"

Remus started to climb up the rocks, struggling with all his might not to slip and fall, the heat from the sun bearing down upon him, causing sweat to bead and pour down along his skin--down his arms and legs and face--hoping to the heavens he would reach the others in time to help them before something happened--

"No way!" shouted a voice that Remus recognized as Gideon Prewitt's. "You're not getting to that woman and her child no how!"

"Take that, and that, and that!" shouted his brother Fabian.

"I need some help here with these two!" the Death Eater with whom the brothers were dueling shouted desperately.

Remus reached the top and slid himself over it, panting from his efforts. He looked up and jumped to his feet, pushing aside his pain and exhaustion to attack every Death Eater in his path.

Then everything in his mind became terribly jumbled. He thought he heard someone scream, "LILY!" and he whirled around, his heart thudding savagely in his chest, but felt a hex coming towards him from behind--thanks to his wolfish awareness--and jumped aside of it just in time.

He did not hit the ground however. He continued falling...felt gravity's pull...felt that drop-out-of- the-bottom-of-the-stomach sensation again, falling...falling over the edge...down, down, down into a great dark pit below his feet. The darkness swallowed him, and then deep, icy, water swallowed him in its painfully stabbing jaws. As his body stopped and slowed into suspension underneath the black liquid, he thrashed about, unable to figure out which way was up and which way was down.

He felt someone--or something--grab his arm and yank him hard. Air hit his face and rushed into his lungs. Remus coughed out the water, sputtered and gasped, landed hard on toothed little stones. Grunted in pain. Ached all over. Soaked through with heavy water. Shivering from head to toe.

"You alright, mate?" asked the soft voice of James.

Remus' heart leapt with relief. He opened his eyes and looked up to see James' obscured face peering down as he crouched over him. He chuckled weakly. "I'm brilliant." He struggled to his feet, and James climbed to his own feet, catching Remus' arm as he did so. "Thanks," Remus muttered. "And...thanks for pulling me out of there."

"No problem," said James, handing Remus his wand, which he'd obviously managed to salvage along with Remus. He looked up. "We'd better get back up there."

Remus looked up too, and saw a great big hole in the ceiling, through which sunlight was coming. He couldn't see the battle up there, but he could hear it. Up ahead, he perceived the mouth of a cave, blazing white, and letting in the water that flooded it--the water into which Remus had fallen--and realized that he'd fallen through a hole in the ceiling of the cave's anteroom--

BOOM!

"Get down!" James yelled.

He and Remus both leapt behind a nearby boulder, dropped to the ground, covered their heads with their hands.

The world around Remus shook violently, and there were the sounds of heavy things splash-crashing headlong into the pool of water behind them. Lots of the water sprayed them both, and Remus, despite the fact that his eyes were closed, could sense the light in the cave fading rapidly....

Even after the crashing and shaking and jarring had ceased, the air still vibrated with the power of the quake. Remus brought his head up slowly and opened his eyes, to see that the cave was now almost entirely pitch-black. He looked over his shoulder and made out a great pile of giant rocks that had fallen through the hole in the anteroom ceiling. So many of them had fallen through that not only was the main entrance to the cave blocked, but the large hole in ceiling as well. Only a few pencil-thin beams of light managed to get through now.

Remus nudged James, who brought his own head up and looked up to survey the aftermath of what had happened.

Remus felt him gasp in horror.

"LILY!" he cried, his voice resonating emptily in the yawning cavern. He leapt to his feet. He ran to the pile of rocks and began trying to scramble up them.

Remus sensed the precariousness of doing that...any one of those larger rocks could fall and hit James on the head...killing him instantly. He leapt to his own feet. "James, stop! Stop!" he shouted, grabbed James by the arm, and tried pulling him away from the massive wall of piled up boulders. "You'll get yourself killed! Any one of those rocks could fall on you and kill you!"

"But she needs me!" James yelled fiercely, putting up a struggle against Remus' hold. "I saw her fall up there, and I tried to get to her but some Death Eater shot something at me and I had to jump out of the way, and that's how I managed to fall in here! She's still in trouble up there and I've--got to--!"

"We're in trouble too, if you haven't noticed!" Remus dragged James off of the rock wall. "Now how're you supposed to help Lily up there if you end up getting killed by a falling rock down here? Eh?"

At this valid point, James stopped struggling, but he yanked his arm out of Remus' grasp in an almost resentful way. What he didn't know was that Remus wanted nothing more than to follow James' lead. The pit of his stomach roiled with fear for Lily's life. "We'll just have to Apparate out of here, then," he told James.

"Yeah, good idea," said James resignedly.

"Help...! Please...help us...! Somebody...! Anybody...!" cried an echoing, far-off voice behind them.

James glanced alarmedly at Remus. "D'you hear that?"

Remus nodded. He held up his wand and muttered, "Lumos."

James did the same, and their two lit wand tips illuminated a small portion of the enormous cave structure around them, causing the stalactites and stalagmites nearby to blaze almost white.

"You can Apparate out, if you want, and find Lily," said Remus. "I'll go on ahead."

James looked from the depths of the cave, to where the hole in the anteroom ceiling used to be. Remus could tell he was torn, his face twisting in anguish. Then he shook his head, and with resolution and a deep shuddering breath he said, "You'll need a hand, I think."

Remus inclined his head in silent gratitude, and they both turned towards the depths of the cave and trooped into it side by side, stepping over large rocks in their way, following the sound.

They heard another cry from the same voice--a young woman's--and this time, it was louder, which meant they had to be getting closer. "No...! Get away...! Please...! Leave us alone...!"

Remus' heart contracted painfully. The woman sounded like she was sobbing. He felt the same contraction again as he heard a small child's voice cry, "Mummy...! Mummy...!"

They reached a point where the tunnels split off.

"Sounds like it's coming from the left one," said James. "What do you think?"

"I agree," said Remus.

"Well, I'll trust your judgment," James joked half-heartedly. "You do, after all, have far better hearing than I do."

"At a cost," Remus added, raising his eyebrows seriously at his friend.

"Good point," said James, managing a fond smile.

At this gesture, Remus couldn't help but smile fondly in return.

The tunnel split off again, and from within the new tunnel, they heard the woman shriek, "NO!"

Remus and James turned into it and ran, their wand tips lighting the way.

"Crucio!" cackled a cruel voice.

There came the shrills of the girl, while the woman--her mother--screamed at them to stop, begging them to kill her instead.

At last Remus and James' wand tips lit up the end of the tunnel to reveal two large black figures--Death Eaters--where one of them was holding the flailing woman back, while the other was torturing the little girl, who thrashed helplessly on the floor of the cave against the Cruciatus Curse.

Without even having to communicate with each other first, they both chose a Death Eater--Remus the one torturing the little girl, James the one holding the woman--and both of them threw an, "Immobulis!" at their chosen Death Eater.

The Death Eaters froze as Remus and James reached them. But the woman continued to wail, and struggle against her captor's immobilized arms, while the little girl had collapsed in a motionless heap.

At Remus and James' arrival, the witch turned to look at them, her long dark hair framing her face, and her bright blue eyes wide and swimming with tears. Those eyes reached Remus' heart with a twinge.

"Who are you?" she yelled. "What do you want?"

"It's alright, we're here to help," Remus assured her in a gentle voice, a voice he'd often used whenever Ramirus had been crying. For a moment, thinking of Ramirus caused his heart another spasm of pain, but he quickly pushed it aside and focused on the task at hand. "Let me get you of here." As he pried the shocked Death Eater's frozen arms off of the twice-as-shocked woman, he felt James split off, presumably to tend to the child.

"What's your name?" Remus asked as he pulled the young witch out of the Death Eater's grasp and into his arms.

"Gail Raines," the woman replied weakly through her tears. "Let me see my baby."

"She's alive," said James, who knelt beside the little girl. She looked to be a smaller version of Gail Raines, from what Remus could tell.

Remus released Gail at her command.

James got to his feet and stepped aside, allowing room.

Gail dropped to her knees beside the little girl and took her up in her arms.

"Mummy..." the girl moaned into Gail's shoulder.

Gail wept into her child's hair.

"Let's get out of here," said James. "The spell will wear off these two--" He gestured to the two Death Eaters "--soon enough."

Before they left, Remus tied the two Death Eaters up so that when the spell did wear off, they still wouldn't be able to go anywhere without any help from their fellow Death Eaters.

They trekked back out of the dead-end tunnel, Gail walking close to them with her daughter in her arms.

"One of us can carry her, if she's getting too heavy for you," James offered.

Gail said nothing, but passed the little girl into James' arms.

"Everything's going to be alright, we promise," said Remus.

"No it's not..." Gail said miserably, and she began to cry feebly. "They attacked us at home...my husband's Muggle-born...they wanted us all dead because of that...and he told me take Corinna and run...and I did and they trapped me here.... But they wouldn't have come without killing my Dawson first...." Her crying grew into keening, and Remus automatically put his free arm around her shoulders, and whispered soothing words into her ear as they trudged through the dark cave. Her entire body racked with sobs as she buried her face in the front of Remus' robes.

Remus pulled out his handkerchief from his breast pocket and proceeded to dry Gail's tears with it.

Then Gail took it herself, mumbled, "Thank you," and continued dabbing at her eyes.

When they reached the anteroom of the cave, they saw that the cave-in had been cleared out, and light poured into it once more, as well as the fresh salty breezes.

Remus saw the large silhouette of none other than Hagrid clearing out the very last boulder, tossing it far out of the cave and into the seas beyond with amazing power and strength.

There was a group of people gathered at the edge of the pool of water, and one of them caught sight of Remus, James, and Gail approaching with little Corinna in James' arms, and cried out, "Gail! Corinna! My God!"

Gail's eyes went wide, and she staggered away from Remus, exclaiming, "Dawson? Dawson!" She stumbled into the arms of a young man, the face of whom Remus could make out because of his ability to see quite well in the dark, more so than the average person, anyway. He had blond hair, and his tear-filled eyes were gray, as he buried them in Gail's hair. James handed Corinna off to them, who awoke and cried, "Daddy!" as he held both her and her mother tight.

Then someone else broke away from the gathering group of people watching this happy reunion, but even in the semi-darkness, Remus could tell who it was.

Lily.

She was alright.

She was alive.

She was calling James' name, and running into James' arms...James who held her close and stroked her hair...the way Remus longed to do....

Remus swallowed his despair the way he used to swallow that disgusting medicine he'd had to take after every full moon while he'd attended Hogwarts, and turned away from the sight of them. Blindly he joined the crowd of surviving Order members. So consumed was he by his own ruminations that he was caught by surprise as an arm grabbed him roughly by the shoulders and pulled him into an embrace.

And then he managed a wistful smile. "Oh...hey there, Padfoot."

He felt Sirius laugh. "God, Moony...you call us crazy sometimes...."

"Remus!" squeaked Peter. "Sirius!"

Remus and Sirius pulled away from each other to see Peter hurrying towards them.

"You're alright!" Peter gasped with relief, throwing his arms around them both, even though he only managed to reach them around their chests, because their shoulders were too high for him.

Remus and Sirius both returned the embrace.

"'Course we're alright," said Sirius gruffly.

"Good to see you're all in one piece as well," said Remus. And then he noticed nearby on the ground that two bodies had been laid out side by side.

Remus' heart stopped as he recognized them to be the bodies of Gideon and Fabian Prewitt. He pulled away from Sirius and Peter and walked towards them. "No...." He felt Sirius and Peter moan beside him, as they too recognized the bodies.

"'Fraid so, lads," growled Mad-Eye somberly, whom Remus realized had been standing near the brothers' bodies, as if keeping a vigil over them. "Took five Death Eaters to kill 'em though. They fought like heroes, they did...."

But I was just talking to them... Remus thought bleakly, sinking to his knees beside them, gazing bewilderedly at their staring, lifeless eyes...so glassy...their pupils glazed with the opaque ghostliness of death....

They'd never laugh and joke with each other or anyone else ever again....

Fabian would never again tease Gideon by calling him Giddy....

Gideon would never again tell Fabian off for calling him Giddy....

Not an hour ago...I was just talking to them...they were okay only an hour ago...not even an hour...thirty minutes maybe....

He saw that Gideon's glasses were askew, and he fixed them unnecessarily.

He noticed the lump in the pocket of Fabian's robes that was his yo-yo: he'd probably left headquarters fully expecting to be able to whip that out once they'd returned and continue playing around with it....

They're just picking us off...one by one by one....

~

Throughout Lily's years at Hogwarts, she had--in an effort to find someone that could be a far better big sister than her actual one--been a member of a junior wizarding "big brother, big sister" correspondence program. Lily's "big sister" had been given to her during her first year at Hogwarts, and that "big sister" was a Hufflepuff sixth year girl by the name of Aurelia Vega.

"She's this big tall girl with golden blonde hair," little first-year Lily had said in describing her to little first-year Remus when she'd told him about her while working as partners in herbology.

But then there had been lots of tall blondes in Hufflepuff. What had mattered most to Remus however was that Lily was happily having big sister-little sister talks with an older girl who was willing to act like a big sister. Remus had almost suggested Sirius becoming a "big brother" in the program, to fill in the empty space left by his actual little brother, Regulus, with whom Sirius was disgusted to call his kin in the first place. But then realized before suggesting it that Sirius had already found that replacement (if not in terms of a younger brother) in James. Then he might have considered Remus as a sort of older brother who was lax in disciplining him and James, and Peter a younger brother who trailed after him and James and Remus, being the littlest (though not as a pun in terms of his being the shortest).

According to Lily, after Aurelia had left Hogwarts, she'd undergone Auror training at the Ministry as a protégée of Mad-Eye Moody, and then had spent about a year after receiving her badge and official merits on a huge, super-secret mission abroad.

"And just now, just now, she's finished with it!" Lily threw her hands up into the air as she told Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter about it while they were sharing a cup of tea together in the kitchen of Order Headquarters, the mansion of Elphias Doge.

It was a Friday afternoon, and they had just returned from their last workweek day at the Ministry, and were quite ready for the weekend. Although they had plenty of Order work to do, so in reality, this spot of tea was about the only real break they were getting. That and sleeping and eating of course.

Lily laughed as she went on. "Anyway, she's coming to visit me here, and I'm really excited. I only saw her about once, when we were formally introduced. The rest was through owl correspondence, although during that time, when we received each other's letters, we'd wave to the other from the different tables in the Great Hall. I missed that when she graduated."

"She coming tomorrow?" asked James.

"She is, actually, at around two o'clock, right after you get back from your patrol with this lot." She jerked her head in the general direction of Remus, Sirius, and Peter. But she did it with a grin.

"She single?" Sirius asked, stretching out in his chair a bit.

"Sirius...." Remus, James, and Peter rolled their eyes.

Lily peered over her cup of tea at him with half-closed, half-opened eyes. "As far as I know.... Not planning anything puckish, are we, Sirius?"

"Lily, it's Sirius," James pointed out.

"I was just making conversation," Sirius protested.

"Whatever you say, Padfoot," said James, bringing his tea to his lips for another sip. "Whatever you say...."

~

The following day, Remus, James, and Peter headed out on their brooms, Sirius on his motorcycle, and flew, with visual and audio cloaking spells galore on them and what they flew on, to the village still currently under threat of Death Eater invasion. Unseen and unheard by the Muggle villagers, they flew round and round the village, keeping a keen eye out for even the slightest sign of danger.

They kept constantly vigilant, as per the motto of Mad-Eye Moody, but despite how much they kept their eyes peeled, no danger was detected, and at 2:00 pm they switched off with the next group of four: Emmeline Vance, Rhiannon Jernigan, Rubeus Hagrid, and Sturgis Podmore. When they arrived back at Elphias' mansion and Sirius had wheeled his motorcycle behind the bushes, they went inside.

"Lily!" James called as he and Remus and Peter stowed their brooms in the broom cupboard.

"In the kitchen, love!" Lily's voice called.

The four friends went into the kitchen where they found Lily preparing tea.

"I suppose your mate Aurelia has not yet arrived?" said James.

"No, she's a bit a late," Lily said, taking a large plate out of the cupboard. "But then, so am I. I meant to have tea ready for us by two, and it's already ten after and I've only just put the kettle on. I was getting so caught up in that research on the Department of Mystery's new development--" She paused and glanced at Remus.

Remus and she knew what she was talking about : the Death Room, still currently under construction.

"Yes?" Sirius prodded.

"Well, I can't very well go into it, can I?" said Lily, waving her wand and summoning a tin of cookies into her hands. "Unspeakables-in-training can only speak as much as full Unspeakables can." She opened the tin and began arranging the cookies inside on the plate.

"Which means she's said more than enough already," said Peter grimly. "You know, it bothers me how hush-hush they are. They're supposed to be working on these mysteries in an attempt to discover their answers. Presumably they'd share them with the general public once they've found them out?" He looked hopefully at Remus and Lily.

Remus and Lily locked eyes again and shook their heads.

"We're not at liberty to say, Peter," said Remus calmly.

"I thought you might say that," Peter grumbled.

"Then why ask the question?"

"It was worth a try, wasn't it?"

"I suppose it was."

"Sirius, would you be so kind as to take this plate of biscuits out and set it on the tea table in the drawing room?" Lily asked Sirius, holding out the plate now piled with assorted cookies that had been dipped in assorted forms of chocolate.

"I think I can do that," said Sirius with a grin, taking the plate from her.

As Sirius left the kitchen, Remus asked Lily, "Will there be enough biscuits for everyone?"

"Don't worry, Remus," Lily chuckled as she began dressing the tea tray, scooping fresh sugar cubes into the sugar bowl from the box of them kept in the pantry. "You may have some to satisfy that chocolate craving of yours."

"At least until he craves chocolate again," James teased. "Is it true you've taken to keeping a private stash?"

Remus felt the color rise in his face. "Just a small one," he admitted sheepishly.

He had always quite liked chocolate, and when he'd happened one afternoon a few weeks ago to come across a catalog for Honeydukes, he decided to leaf through it, and ended up ordering a month's supply of mini-chocolate bars from them, which he was already a quarter of the way through by now, and currently kept it stashed in with his clothes. It had been one of the most spontaneous purchases he'd ever made, and quite an expensive one at that. But he could easily afford it with his current salary, which had also provided with many new sets of high quality robes and other articles of clothing. As for how much he'd been eating of it, he never simply locked himself in his room in the mansion and ate a handful of them. Every so often he'd simply go in and take one from the stash, unwrap it, and nibble and suckle on it. Run the tip of his tongue over it. Savor it.

Afterwards his mood would always be much improved.

"It'd be good to have on hand for dementors, anyway," said Remus when he considered this, remembering his sixth-year defense against the dark arts education at Hogwarts.

"None of us have met any dementors yet," said James. "And besides, they're partly on the Ministry's side now."

"Voldemort is offering them so much more in terms of sustenance," Remus argued, ignoring Peter's habitual flinch. "If you'll recall from what we learned in school, despite their mindlessness, even dementors have a preference for food."

"Really?" asked Peter. "W-What do they prefer?"

"They find the happiness of the innocent far more deliciously enjoyable to feast upon," Remus explained, "than they do the happiness of the dark and corrupt. There is even a rumor that Voldemort is not affected by them at all."

"Well, he feels nothing at all," James pointed out. "Any 'joy' he gets comes from the despair and pain of others, a lot like the dementors themselves. And as for the dementor's kiss, well...I think Voldemort has no soul for them to suck out of him."

"Or a lack of one," said Lily, answering the whistle of the kettle, whose water was boiling within.

"Good point," said Remus, "because if he didn't have one at all, he'd just sit there like an empty shell."

"That's nice to think about..." James mused.

Peter seemed to be turning a bit white from this conversation, which would explain his option to refrain from taking part in it other than as a listener.

"So he'd have to have less than a whole human soul for a soul, wouldn't he?" said Lily, pouring hot water from the kettle into the tea pot.

"Probably," said James.

"But enough of one not to make him an empty shell," said Remus.

"So...where's the rest of it gone...d'you s'pose?" Peter inquired very quietly.

For some reason, all four of them were chilled into uncertain silence by the question, and could only exchange uncertain glances with each other.

Then James cleared his throat and said, "Well...maybe he does have a whole soul, and it's just twisted."

"YAAAAAAH!" yelled Sirius' voice from the drawing room.

Instinctively Remus, James, Lily, and Peter had all grabbed their wands, and hurried out to the drawing room.

"Sirius!" James exclaimed as they rushed in. "What--?"

A large golden retriever had Sirius pinned flat on his back to the floor, its forepaws bearing down on his shoulders as it stared closed-mouthed and fixedly into Sirius' eyes, its long, feathery tail wagging to and fro.

Then Lily burst out laughing, and lowered her wand.

The golden retriever and Sirius both looked at her as Remus, James, and Peter lowered their own wands, though more slowly, in case Lily was mistaken in her obvious belief that there was no real emergency.

"Don't laugh!" Sirius exclaimed indignantly. "It attacked me!"

The golden retriever snapped its eyes back on Sirius, and made an odd low whimpering grumble in its throat.

Sirius looked it in the face again, as if he were unable to keep himself from doing it when he sensed it gazing at him.

"Where'd it come from?" asked James.

"Out of the fireplace," Sirius said without breaking its eye-to-eye stare with the mysterious dog.

"A dog that can travel by Floo?" Peter queried.

"I'm sorry, Sirius, I can't help it," Lily said, her laughter subsiding somewhat, though she clutched her side as she'd laughed quite heartily, and had to sit down in an armchair by the tea table. "Aurelia, come on, let the man up, for crying out loud.... Ha-ha-ha...!"

As much as Remus loved to bask in the sound of Lily's wonderful laughter, he couldn't help but half-ignore it as he watched the golden retriever step off of Sirius and then, still not breaking eye-contact with him, transformed into a slender young witch in Auror's robes with smooth, wavy, golden blonde hair that tumbled and cascaded about her shoulders and tapered down to the middle of her back. She was giving Sirius a wide, waggish smile that fully displayed her dazzling white teeth as she continued to meet his grey eyes with her golden ones.

"Siiiiiiirius, eh?" said Aurelia Vega in a silky voice. "Not Sirius Blaaaaaack?"

"The very same, actually," Lily chuckled when Sirius could only gape in reply.

Aurelia turned when she spoke and joyously cried, "Lily, darling!"

"Aurelia!" Lily leapt to her feet and the two women embraced like life-long sisters.

Sirius still lay dumbstruck on the floor.

James laughed, shaking his head and went over and helped Sirius to his feet.

"But she--she was--she jumped..." Sirius stammered.

"Aurelia, this is James Potter, my fiancé," said Lily, coming over to introduce Aurelia to James. "James, this is Aurelia Vega."

"A pleasure, Aurelia," said James.

"Same here, James," said Aurelia.

"And you've already met Sirius Black, of course," said Lily.

Sirius smiled shakily in response to Aurelia's polite grin and nod.

"He's going to be best man at our wedding," she told Aurelia.

"Is he now?" Aurelia glanced over her shoulder at Sirius, who suddenly acted as if he were interested in the leaves of a nearby houseplant next to the window.

"And this is their and my good friend, Remus Lupin," said Lily.

"Pleased to meet you, Aurelia," said Remus pleasantly.

"Ditto, Remus," said Aurelia. "So, you're the werewolf, eh?" Her smile was playful, and Remus couldn't help but warm to it.

"Yes, that is true," he replied.

"Well, you just prove my point," said Aurelia. "If people wouldn't be so prejudiced, then other werewolves like you would turn out just as kind as you are. I mean Lily's told me lots about what a caring person you are...."

Remus tried very hard not to blush and thankfully managed to succeed.

"And this is our other good friend, Peter Pettigrew," said Lily.

"Nice to meet you, Aurelia," squeaked Peter.

"Nice to meet you too, Pete," said Aurelia. "Hope I didn't scare you lot too much with my little joke there. Sometimes, I just really enjoy turning into a dog, and because I can, after all, why not...?"

When they'd sat down to tea, Remus couldn't help but notice that Sirius wasn't touching his cup. He did however keep looking at Aurelia, except when she looked in his direction, and then he looked at something else.

"So, Lily didn't tell us that you were an Animagus, Aurelia," said James, stirring sugar into his tea.

Aurelia bit into a chocolate biscuit and swallowed. "Yes, well...I'd thought she had." She eyed Lily beside her.

Lily gave a guilty smile. "It sort of slipped my mind when I was telling them you were coming to visit, and...well, I didn't talk about you much with them before that...."

"Well, thanks for keeping it a secret," said Aurelia with an impish smile. "Made the surprise all the more enjoyable." She cast a glance at Sirius, who fixed his eyes immediately on a flower in the pattern on the tea cozy. Remus watched her stare at him a moment as if somewhat disappointed that he kept avoiding her gaze, and then went on chatting. "Anyway, unlike some I'm a registered Animagus...." She glanced around jocundly at James, Sirius, and Peter.

All three of them--even Sirius--looked up at her in slight astonishment.

Remus smiled into his tea.

"Yes, Lily told me about that," said Aurelia. "But don't worry, I won't go blabbing about how James can illegally become a black forest stag, and Peter can illegally become a brown rat, and Sirius can illegally become a shaggy black dog...." She threw Sirius another glance and this time Sirius did not look away.

Remus and the others observed them staring at each other as if frozen, and Remus thought he felt an odd pulse in the air. Clearing his throat, he broke the tension and said, "Er...Lily did tell us you were planning on joining the Order, correct?"

Aurelia blinked, shook her head, and looked at Remus. "Oh, er, yes. That's correct."

"Just make sure you forewarn them about your being an Animagus, like we did," said Sirius, his voice quiet yet gruff, and surprisingly calm and steady. "And thankfully, like you, they wouldn't dream of ratting us out either." Remus noticed that he still trembled some, but he was smiling at Aurelia in a way that seemed both innocent and dark, and still gazing intently at her with his grey eyes in a way that seemed both gentle and fierce.

"Don't you worry about that, Sirius," said Aurelia in a rather tantalizing tone. "I'll be sure they all know. Wouldn't want me to pin some other handsome young bloke flat to the ground, now would we?"

Sirius stiffened. "No, I don't think that'd go over very well, now would it?" There was a disturbing, icy bite to his voice that Aurelia blinked at, as if taken aback.

Remus and the others were very taken aback as well. Not a moment before he was finally talking with her, and agreeably too. Now he sounded unreasonably irked with her.

"There's no need to get all nettled, you know," Aurelia snapped, bristling visibly from Sirius' cold and affronting tone. "I was only having a bit of fun. I assume you have heard of fun before?"

"Of course I have!" Sirius barked. "What, do you think I was born yesterday in a dustbin?"

Aurelia snorted. "You're about as thick as someone who was."

"Aurelia..." Lily said warningly.

"No, I'm not going to stand for this sort of childish nonsense." Aurelia's golden eyes flashed dangerously, and she folded her arms and glowered at Sirius. "This is all because he's pissed off I jumped him like that. He's obviously not one for surprises."

"I dunno about that, but I'm definitely not one for being talked about in the third person while I'm physically present in the room!" Sirius lashed out, rising to his feet.

"Sirius, sit down..." James urged. He grabbed Sirius by the wrist, but Sirius yanked it out of his grasp, his eyes still fixed on Aurelia, roiling with a great stony grey thunderstorm.

"Quit your yelling!" Aurelia flared.

"I'm not yelling!" yelled Sirius.

"Well it sure sounds like you are!"

"Well maybe you should get your hearing checked!"

"Or maybe you should check that temper of yours!"

Sirius snarled, turned on his heel, and stormed out of the room into the kitchen. Then they heard his muffled stomping on the linoleum, followed by the slam of the back door.

Remus could see from the other end of the table where he'd been sitting beside Sirius that Aurelia was still seething, her jaw set and her face white, her golden eyes blazing after Sirius.

"Aurelia, I'm so sorry," said Lily sincerely. "I--I--I...." Clearly she was shocked at Sirius' outburst.

"I'd better talk to him," said James, getting to his feet. "It was lovely to meet you, Aurelia. Honestly, I've never seen him act like that...not around a woman, anyway...." He left the room, following Sirius' path through the kitchen and out the back door.

Aurelia took a deep breath and calmed herself a little more. "It's alright, Lily," she said patting her hand and smiling reassuringly at her. "I'm sure I just caught him a bad mood. He's actually quite an impressive young man...." And then a sultry smile passed over her face as she glanced once more in the direction in which Sirius had exited. "I think I'll be going, actually." She started getting to her feet. She bid everyone goodbye, saying she'd see them all at the next Order meeting. Then she gave Lily one last hug before disappearing in a whirl of green flames in the fireplace.

After she'd left, James came into the room looking insulted. "Where'd Aurelia go?" he asked, looking about.

"She had to leave, unfortunately," said Lily, raising her wand and beginning to clear up the tea things.

"How did it go with Sirius?" asked Remus, finishing his own cup of tea before letting Lily take it with everything else.

"Wouldn't talk to me," James grunted, flopping down in the wing-backed chair. "He's out there brooding like a moody adolescent." And then he smiled slowly. "But I think he rather fancies Aurelia."