Moonlight

Chapter Twenty-Four

Rescue Mission



"Ted! Pay attention!"

"What?" Ted looked up just in time to swing his bat at the oncoming bludger and send it hurtling in the opposite direction. He glanced over at Rodger, his fellow beater, and Rodger shrugged.

The Gryffindor team's captain, as well as one of its chasers, Morgan Wood, zipped over to Ted on her broom, calling for a timeout. "Ted, what is going on here?" she demanded of him. "You've had your head in the clouds all practice!"

When Ted had told Harry the name of his Quidditch captain, Harry had recognized it as the name of the daughter of Harry's own former captain from school, Oliver Wood.

Like father, like daughter, Ted supposed.

But to Morgan he said, "I'm sorry, Morgan, I really am. Won't happen again, I promise. If anything, Rodger'll keep me in line." He yawned hugely.

"Alright, well it better not happen again," said Morgan. "We've got one more practice tomorrow before the match on Saturday. And do try to get some sleep. I think that's what's wrong with you more than anything today."

"Will do, cap'n," said Ted with a wave as Morgan flew off to call the time back in. He looked over at Rodger, and Rodger raised his eyebrows at him, as if to say, "Didn't I tell you, you needed to put those journals away and go to sleep?"

The truth was that it wasn't just the lack of sleep that was keeping Ted from focusing completely on the game. He was also thinking of his mother. Of course, she was always with him on the Quidditch field--she herself had been a beater, although, since she'd been in Hufflepuff house, she'd obviously played for Hufflepuff, not Gryffindor. But she'd been the beater, all the same, just as her son now played beater for Gryffindor's team. Today however he was thinking of her especially, as well as of his father. He was thinking about what he'd read last night. He'd always wondered how it was the two of them had come to really meet for the first time, and it was as the wedding of his godfather's parents, James and Lily Potter.

His father had been nineteen. His mother had been seven.

In retrospect, Ted was starting to see Rodger's point about the huge age difference between them. It really was kind of weird, maybe even wrong. His father was much too old for his mother.

And then they had me.

He did his best not to let this bother him throughout the rest of practice. Then, after he got back, and finished his homework and studying, he washed up, got into his pajamas, and began writing down all that he had learned from the journals in a huge letter to Harry, and at the same time, formulated a plan to get Harry alone on Saturday after the match so he could slip it to him. He also had a few private questions for his godfather that he really wanted answered.

As he was summarizing everything, it took him about an hour to get up to where he was now in the journals. Then he set the letter aside with the intention of later putting in the stuff he would be reading about tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Obviously, Sirius and Aurelia had both been tipsy. Remus and Edwina had been tipsy. But unlike Remus and Edwina, Sirius and Aurelia already had hidden feelings for each other. Still, under the influence of alcohol, both were a little more willing to go all the way in Sirius' room on the night of the wedding.

Since then though, things changed around the Doge mansion. Remus and his friends all moved out for one thing. Remus returned to his home at the Lupin cottage. Peter was now renting out a cottage of his own, but it was much closer to people and civilization--close to London in fact--than Remus' was. About six months after James and Lily's wedding, him and Maggie finally broke up after three months of squabbling through rising problems between them. Sirius meanwhile had acquired a flat right in London, though in a completely different borough than where his family home, 12 Grimmauld Place, was located. Then him and Aurelia were put together on a couple of missions, and in between, courted as best as anyone could in a wizarding world wrought with war. Four months after James and Lily's wedding, Aurelia moved into his flat and the two of them started living together. As for James and Lily, they bought a little house in the hidden wizarding village of Godric's Hollow, and when they moved in there, obviously Abra, James' cat, moved in with them.

That was about a month after their wedding.

Then in November of that year, when the time at the next Order meeting came to make announcements concerning personal matters, James spoke up. He took Lily's hand in his and they shared a smile between each other for a moment, before James looked at them all and said, "It would seem that Lily and I are going to be having a baby."

The room filled with cries of joy, and the loudest one came from Alice Longbottom, who was clutching her husband Frank's hand. And then Frank proceeded to provide the explanation: "What a coincidence! That's what Alice and I wanted to tell you all as well! We're having a baby too!"

More cries of joy flowered around Remus, who preferred to express his own joy with a silent grin. He watched as Lily and Alice hugged each other, and he knew why most of the women in the room were so overly happy for Alice: she and Frank had been trying to conceive since they'd married--and they'd been married before James and Lily had even gotten engaged--and had had no luck with it so far. In the meantime they'd been trying for adoption, and then, by some miracle almost, they somehow managed to finally successfully conceive.

Now as the meeting broke up, Remus could hear with his slightly-better-than-normal hearing that Lily and Alice were now making plans on how they were going to keep each other company staying safely at home while everyone else went off fighting--after all, now that they were pregnant, they wouldn't just be on maternity leave from their jobs at the Ministry, but from Order work as well.

Unfortunately the happiness that this prospect of new life had brought did not last long. In the very first week of December that year, Lily received word that there had been an "accident" at her parents' house in Kent, and that the house had gone up in flames, whereupon Mr. and Mrs. Evans had both perished. Lily was completely broken up about it, and it was all Remus could do to merely comfort Lily with his words like Sirius, Aurelia, Peter, and Maggie did (him and Maggie were still an item at the time). He longed to take her into his arms, to stroke her hair, but that was for James to do. He was her husband, not Remus.

She was even further distressed at the funeral, where apparently her sister had been there to shout all sorts of nasty things about wizards and how just because Lily was a witch in their family, it was somehow her fault their parents had died. James was pushed to the limit too, trying to soothe her, while at the same time stressing himself about the fact that her distressing could have negative effects on their growing baby, now a little less than two months along.

And as if that wasn't enough, two days before Christmas, James learned that his own parents and the rest of his family had been murdered while they had all been gathering at the Potters' for the holidays. When he found out, he and Lily were supposed to be going over to join them in the celebration the very next morning, on the morning of Christmas Eve. So, on Christmas Day they spent the day alone in their Godric's Hollow home, mourning. On the day after, they held the funeral, where Remus, Sirius, Aurelia, Peter, and Maggie were all in attendance. Afterward, James and Lily both confided in Remus (though separately) because they both knew that he knew how it felt to lose one's family. Remus was easily able to talk with James, but Lily he thought would be harder, when he found out that she too wished to speak with him alone. He was surprised however to find that he could forget about his feelings for her and talk to her just as a friend. It wasn't until he watched her leave to go with James that his feelings for her resurfaced.

New Year's was an equally gloomy affair, and so the months drifted by from then. Remus kept himself occupied with his Order work, and with his training job with the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry. Even though his work for the Order drifted away from werewolves due to the fact that they all seemed to simply be shrinking away into the wilderness of Britain, or even going abroad, and apparently not banding together and not joining forces with Voldemort, Remus continued his search for his little brother, and when they could, his friends helped him out. It was during that time that Peter and Maggie broke up, and Peter was quite bitter about it during the aftermath. The news of more and more tortures, killings, and kidnappings seemed to worsen his mood, and he began visiting his mother more and more frequently in between missions in order to make sure she was still okay.

Then on a beautiful, sunny, Saturday morning in May, Remus was up in his father's old study in his home at the Lupin cottage, doing some work for his Ministry job, and as he was penning the report, poring over the parchment, he heard a loud knock upon his front door. This alarmed him at once, because he wasn't expecting anyone, and these days it certainly didn't always mean that pleasant company had arrived. He set down his quill and picked up his wand, and descended the stairs to the front door.

He cleared his throat and said, "Declare yourself, please." (Even if it was an enemy come to kill him, he couldn't help but show good manners. It was simply his way.)

"It is I, Lily Violet Potter, nee Evans, married to James Aldous Potter. We live in Godric's Hollow, I'm about seven months pregnant with our first baby--"

Remus lifted the wards on the door, wrenched it open and pulled Lily inside before she could get another word out. Once she was in he shut the door behind him and put the wards back up. "Damn right you're seven months pregnant!"

But Lily stuck out her chin like she were his wayward and fearlessly rebellious teenage daughter, as she stood there in a set of witch's maternity robes, her hands resting protectively over her belly, which had grown considerably since November.

Remus took a step towards her and grabbed her gently by the shoulders. "What are you doing here?" he demanded, looking her square in the eye. "It's dangerous for you, especially now that it's so obvious you're carrying a child! You're supposed to be staying at home where it's safe! What in God's name are you doing going outside unprotected?"

"Remus, I understand perfectly what risk I'm taking," said Lily, meeting his gaze unflinchingly.

"Do you now?" Remus released her and took a step back, turning away from her. He folded his arms. "Where's James? Does he know you're out here? That you came out here alone?"

"No," Lily replied.

Remus rounded on her. "Lily! How can you be so irresponsible?"

"Remus, this is an emergency, dammit! I had to come! I didn't know where else to turn!" She drew a sharp intake of breath, and bent slightly while she swayed a little on the spot. Softening completely, Remus caught her arm and led her into the sitting room, where he helped her onto the couch. "Thank you," she muttered.

He sat down beside her. "Better?"

Lily nodded. "Physically, yes."

"What's...that supposed to mean?" Remus inquired uneasily.

"James has gone missing," said Lily. She pursed her lips, and swallowed hard.

Remus felt a chill plunge like a bucketful of ice to the bottom of his stomach. He took Lily's hand in both of his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He couldn't help it, he did it before he could stop himself. Luckily it was just what Lily needed to go on talking.

"James has gone missing, along with Sirius, Aurelia, and Peter."

Remus suddenly found it rather difficult to breathe. "W-What?" he said hoarsely. "All--All of them? All four of them are missing?"

Lily nodded. "Alastor alerted me just this morning," she explained. "He said they weren't there to meet him at the rendez-vous point at midnight on the day before. He and Hagrid and Rhiannon and Frank and Emmeline all went around wherever they were supposed to be, and searched. No trace of them anywhere."

"Where's the rest of the search party?"

"There isn't one yet. I asked Alastor, and he said it might be hopeless to get one organized. There aren't enough members of the Order, much less enough who are in a fit position to go on a missing persons search. And those who are fit have all of these other catastrophes going on to deal with! There's been kidnappings and killings and tortures and destruction everywhere! The whole Order's in chaos, so to speak."

Remus was forestalled in speaking by another knock at his door. He met Lily's eyes, which were trying very bravely to hide the anxiety hanging in them like clouds. Then he released her hand and rose to go to the door. The security check revealed that it was Mad-Eye Moody, and the real one, to be sure. Remus admitted him quickly.

"Remus," he growled when Remus had shut and locked the door and replaced the wards, "I've got quite a lot of terrible news--"

"I know about it already," said Remus grimly.

"What?"

"Lily beat you to it."

"Lily? You mean she's here?"

"You came to tell me she was missing too, did you?" Remus couldn't help his wan and desolate smile.

"Where is she?" Mad-Eye demanded.

"I'm in the sitting room, Alastor!" Lily called from the other room. "I'm perfectly fine!"

"Don't think that just because you're pregnant I'm not going to give you a piece of my mind about constant vigilance!" Mad-Eye barked. He lumbered into the sitting room, and Remus followed. He stood by and watched as Mad-Eye gave Lily a great big lecture on the extreme dangerousness of what she had done leaving the safety of her home, alone, unprotected, and while she was with child to boot. Fortunately for Lily, she was able to sit through this and take this all quite calmly. Once Mad-Eye had worn himself out with his lecturing, he asked Remus if he might have a cup of tea. Remus asked Lily if she wanted anything, but she shook her head, saying she wasn't hungry.

Over tea, Mad-Eye informed them how the chaos in the Order was such that a search party for James, Sirius, Aurelia, and Peter might never get formed.

"I myself have got my hands tied as it is," he growled. "I wasn't even supposed to go traipsing after you, Lily, but when I got back to your house and found you'd gone, I couldn't have lived with myself if I didn't try and find you. But now I'm half an hour late meeting with Vance and Jernigan, and if I don't get there they're going to get the idea that I've gone missing too. But we've taken this to Dumbledore, Lily, and he's working on trying to get some people together. He's asked me to ask you Remus--"

"Of course I'll help look for them," Remus said at once.

"I should've known." If Mad-Eye had smiled then, Remus and Lily couldn't tell because he had his mouth hidden in his tea cup again. "Well," he said, gulping the last of it and smacking his scarred lips, "Unfortunately you're the only Order member we've been able to get a hold of who's fit enough to go searching for 'em."

"What do you mean?"

"It's like everyone else's suddenly gotten scattered about and nobody knows where exactly anybody else is, really."

"Then I'm not going to wait around." Remus rose from his chair. "Mad-Eye, alert the Order if you can, but I'm off."

"Remus--" Lily began.

"Lily, promise me you'll stay here while I'm gone, alright?" He framed her face in both his hands. "Promise me."

"Alright," said Lily. "But Remus--please be careful."

Remus gave her a brave smile before turning away and going to the door, grabbing his cloak and wand.

"Remus!" Mad-Eye shouted after him. "You can't just--!"

But Remus was already out the door.

~

Remus used his wolf instincts on this hunt, and this hunt went on deep into the night. He was close though. He hadn't stopped to eat or rest since he left, but spent every moment of the day searching, investigating, sniffing things out. All of that work led him here--an abandoned graveyard all the way up in Scotland. He was hidden behind a dead black tree just outside of it. The place was thick with mist.

It was quiet. Too quiet.

BANG!

A jet of red light sprang out of the darkness. Remus ducked, and it hit the branch of the dead tree, which broke off. Remus dived out of the way as it came crashing down over his head. He rolled until he hit something hard, cool, and solid. He opened his eyes to find himself behind a large gravestone.

Then he heard indistinct shouts. They were barked out--like orders. Orders to troops.

Remus crawled from headstone to headstone, slowly and carefully, so as to make as little noise as possible.

"Incarcerous!"

Remus dived out of the way just in time for the ropes that shot out of the end of his attacker's wand to bind the headstone he'd been hiding behind instead of him. He sprang to his feet, whirled around, and cried, "Stupefy!"

The masked Death Eater preparing to hurl a hex at him dropped like a stone, completely unconscious. Remus slid behind another gravestone and whispered, "Homenum revelio." A shiver went through him. He was completely surrounded in the graveyard, and a little ways off, he could faintly detect the presence of people huddled inside a nearby abandoned church.

Well, where there's a cemetery, there's usually a little church nearby....

Now he had to think of something. He couldn't just sit here crouched behind a tombstone and let them come at him. No doubt his presence was further revealed to the others when he'd Stupefied that one Death Eater--which meant not only more of them would be coming, but more swiftly too.

Cautiously, he poked his head around the headstone behind which he was currently hiding. He could just make out the faint shadowy outline of a crumbling old chapel in the distance, though with the darkness and the mist it was hard to tell.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end with a high wind behind him--

Protego! Remus cried in his head, flicking his wand. The ropes of the non-verbally casted Incarcerous Spell coming at him from behind from out of the mist were deflected by the shield that went up in front of him. He scrambled to his feet. He pointed at a line of headstones going in the direction of the chapel's silhouette. Glisseo! The tombstones fell one after the other like Muggle dominos, creating a smooth, tiled slide. Lubrico! A transparent film covered the slide of stone, adding slipperiness to its smoothness.

WOOSH! WOOSH!

Protego! Remus flicked his wand again and jumped down the slide he'd created with the gravestones. He zoomed across them on his backside, the wind whipping through his hair. As he went down he aimed curses at anything that moved, and anything coming at him he put up a Shield Charm. When he came to the bottom he flew off the end of it and went soaring through the air. He landed with an "Oomph!" as he smacked hard into the dirt, the force of which sent him somersaulting and getting tossed about down a grassy slope until he slammed into another hard, cool, and solid surface that was also very rough-hewn and scratched at his face. He raised himself onto his hands and knees, despite the pain throbbing through him, the bruises all over his body, and maybe even possible fractures, and the blood trickling from the cut in his lip. He climbed onto his feet, using the stone wall he appeared to have rolled into. He staggered, and up ahead he heard shouts, and saw Death Eaters emerging over the crest of the hill. He ran along the wall, dodging and deflecting curses and hexes and jinxes with great agility despite his exhaustion. He swung around the corner where he found a door. He looked up and realized that the wall was an outside wall of the little church.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end again.

He leapt back just as a Blasting Spell hit the corner of the church, sending dust and debris flying. He used the cloud it formed briefly as cover while he tried to force the door open. No luck. He pointed his wand at the lock. "Alohamora!"

BANG!

A force punched Remus hard in the gut, sent him flying backward until he hit the ground. Now he was well out in the open for the Death Eaters.

Ropes flew at him from seven different directions. Three of them he deflected with a Shield Charm, but the other two caught him around his arms and legs. Diffindo! A few of them severed and broke away. He whirled around and aimed spells at his attackers who had their wands raised to aim spells at him. Stupefy! Stupefy! Protego! Stupefy! Stupefy! The first wave of Death Eaters that had him bound by ropes from their wands dropped accordingly. Seeing another surge of them heading his way, he pointed his wand at the ropes. "Reducto!" He was blasted backward, this time towards the church. He hit the ground at a roll and jumped to his feet. He knew now that the church was obviously protected by anti-intrusion spells.

He ran around to the complete opposite side of the church, the Death Eaters' cries seconds behind him as they came racing down the slope from the graveyard after him. He faced the church, his mind racing, but couldn't think of any way to gain entry. Hearing the Death Eaters' approaching a mere breath away, he flattened his back up against the church wall and cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself, so that he blended right into the wall, like a chameleon.

He watched with a pounding heart as all of the Death Eaters rushed out from around the other side of the church and past him without giving him a single backward glance. He watched until he saw every last one of them (even the ones he'd felled with Stunners) disappear over the crest of the shallow hill up ahead, before turning to the stone church wall. He left the Disillusionment Charm on himself for the moment, just in case. He pressed his to ear to the wall, but he could not hear anything from within. So he tapped it with his wand and whispered, "Dico secreto."

A glowing orange circle appeared on the wall, and Remus spoke into it. "Prongs...? Padfoot...? Worm--?"

"Moony! My God, is that really you?" It was James, yet his voice was so hoarse that for a split-second Remus didn't recognize it.

"Er...yeah, it's--it's me. You sound...terrible. Are you--Are you in a bad way?"

"I think I've just got a couple ribs broken...hurts like hell..." said James, sounding as though he were practically forcing the words out through gritted teeth against the pain of his unattended injuries. "They took our wands see...so...no chance of us...trying to fix 'em up...with Episkey.... Padfoot's got a broken wrist...and a blow to the head but--Wossat...? Oh...right--Padfoot says, 'Wotcher, Moony'...."

Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius' use of London-speak, but he was smiling. At least he's alive.

But what about Peter and Aurelia?

"Prongs, how're Wormtail and...erm...Goldie?" he asked, "Goldie" of course being a nickname for Aurelia, for her having the ability to turn into a golden retriever. "Are they alright?"

"Ah...Goldie's in a really bad way mate...Padfoot's got her...she got banged up...something awful...."

"And Wormtail?"

"Well...actually...Wormtail's not...here...."

"He's not? What d'you mean he's not there?"

"When we got captured--" James sucked his breath in sharply, as though he'd upset his broken ribs so as to send a sharp shooting pain through him "--Dammit.... Anyway, when we got...captured...we woke up...wandless...here...and...Wormtail wasn't...anywhere...."

Remus' heart plummeted like a meteor towards Earth. If he hadn't come when he had, they--James, Sirius, and Aurelia at least--mightn't still be alive. But on the other hand...if he'd have waited for the Order to organize itself so that it wouldn't just be him alone out here trying to rescue them, he'd have had plenty of backup, maybe...and now they might all die because he couldn't save them....

"Moony...? You still there...?"

"Oh...yeah, I'm still here, mate. I'm still here."

"How's Clovia?" Clovia was the nickname they'd recently coined for Lily, referring to the cloven hoofs of her doe patronus. He spoke the words softly, drowsily, and Remus imagined James leaning his head back against the stone on the other side of the church wall, closing his eyes. When Remus did not answer him right away, this alarmed him. "Moony? You there?"

"Yeah I--She's alright."

"Really?"

"Really. I mean she's really worried about you, but she's not crying over you. She's keeping it together. And she's safe. She and the baby are both safe." I hope.

"Thank God...."

"Listen," said Remus with urgency, "I haven't got much time, the Death Eaters'll be back any minute--do you know which one took your wands?"

"Snivellus," James' voice hissed. There was no arguing with the conviction in his tone.

"Where is he?"

"He's guarding us with...Crabbe--oh yeah...Padfoot's brother's...dead...."

Regulus? Regulus Black was dead?

"How?"

"Dunno.... Padfoot figures he must've got...cold feet...and you don't just...join Voldemort...and then decide to...get cold feet without...paying the price...."

"You've got that in one. Okay, listen, I'm going to get you all out of here, alive. I promise."

James chuckled, though weakly and barely so as not to upset his broken ribs any more than he had to. "Don't go making...promises you can't...keep, Moony...."

"Don't worry about me, just worry about yourself. I've got to go now. Hang in there, okay?"

"Okay...."

Remus bit his lip. He did not like how faint James' voice was getting. With a heavy sigh, he tapped his wand on the glowing orange circle on the stone church wall and whispered, "Finite." The circle disappeared.

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled in warning. Remus went completely still, and watched as two Death Eaters walked together back over the shallow slope towards the church. By their voices, Remus recognized them as Bellatrix Lestrange and Antonin Dolohov. It was all he could do not to growl the Killing Curse and hurl it at Antonin--the wizard who had murdered his parents.

"I'll bet they didn't even really see anything," Bellatrix was saying.

"They're new...they get excited about a rabbit stepping on a twig, for Salazar's sake," Antonin muttered in reply.

Still relatively invisible thanks to the Disillusionment Charm on him, Remus pointed his wand at the two Death Eaters. Stupefy! Stupefy! The Stunners both hit their targets squarely in the chests. With looks of surprise Bellatrix and Antonin dropped, unconscious.

He crossed over to Bellatrix, knelt beside her, and peeled back one of her eyelids. He took a deep breath, about to try a spell he'd had no practical experience with whatsoever, but at least knew its theory. Staring straight into Bellatrix's blank eye, right into her pupil, he pointed his wand and muttered, "Legilimens."

He felt as though he were being sucked right into her pupil, but he kept his surprise in check and remained focused. He found himself flicking through memories like a rapid-fire slideshow on a projector. He didn't stop until he located a memory of Bellatrix at the door to the church right behind him, answering the security question Crabbe had asked her from inside, and then her asking him a question in return. Retrieving the information he needed, he pulled out of Bellatrix's mind, and fell back onto the ground, his own mind reeling at what he'd just managed to accomplish.

Gathering his wits, he leaned over Bellatrix again, pointed his wand at her throat, and muttered, "Vocem geminio." Flickers of golden light streamed right out of Bellatrix's throat through the skin, and gathered into a ball the size of a large Gobstone on the tip of Remus' wand. When the ball had filled out completely, he lifted his wand tip to his lips and stuck the glowing sphere of pale gold light in his mouth. He swallowed it, and for a moment felt a surge of warmth inside his own throat.

Then he cleared his throat quietly and rose to his feet. He crossed back over to the door of the church and whispered into the keyhole, "Crabbe!" only it was not the sound of his voice that came out of his mouth, but the sound of Bellatrix's instead.

A moment later, he heard the gravelly, deep voice of Crabbe grumble, "Wot is it, Bellatrix?"

"Idiot!" Remus hissed, his use of Bellatrix's voice made all the more convincing. "How do you know for sure that it is I? Ask the question!"

"Oh, er, right, right.... Er...the last thing the Dark Lord said to the pair of us?"

"'Do not fail me in this. Seize as many as you can. They will talk. They care too much.'"

"Right. Now your turn."

"What is the Dark Lord's greatest secret?"

"No one knows. The Dark Lord reveals nothing, except to those who are worthy."

"Correct."

"Good. I'll let you in then."

A faint voice from within said something to Crabbe. Remus vaguely recognized it as Severus'.

"It's alright, it's her, I checked, Snape!" Crabbe snapped.

Severus replied with something that sounded like, "Very well, then." Meanwhile, Remus performed the counter-spell that removed the copy of Bellatrix's voice from his throat so that he got his own voice back.

The moment Crabbe unlocked and removed the wards from the door, and then opened it, Remus pointed his wand. Stupefy!

Crabbe dropped just as Bellatrix and Antonin had.

"What the--!" cried Severus.

Remus dashed into the sanctuary.

But Severus managed to detect the way Remus moved under the Disillusionment Charm, and he threw the counter-spell at Remus, hitting him full in the face with it.

Remus felt the watery sensation on the back of his neck as the Disillusionment Charm lifted. He saw Severus' wand pointed at him, and he backed up against the wall beside a tall and lit floor candelabra.

Severus flicked his wand.

Remus flicked his wand faster. Protego! Having deflected the spell, he dived out of the way.

Severus snarled and brought his wand arm back to aim something far more powerful and damaging.

Protego! Remus flicked his wand again and dived behind the pews.

Severus leapt over the back of them and stood in the seat of the row, towering over Remus. But Remus, who was just as apt at non-verbal spells and wandless magic as Severus was, was ready.

Deprimo!

The ancient wood of the pew seat beneath Severus' feet bent downward with a CRACK and Severus was thrown off balance. Remus meanwhile rolled underneath the next pew and out of Severus' sight.

"Damn you!" Severus cried. "How can you do that? You've never even done Legilimency!"

Shows what you know, Remus thought acidly. If you'd ever done Legilimency you'd known I just did it a moment ago.

His neck hairs stood on end. He rolled under the next pew and felt pain scrape his face and arms and legs as he was hit with bits of debris from the pew behind him which Severus had just blown to smithereens. His face thick with dust, he coughed and out from underneath the pew he hurled, Avis! Oppugno!

Severus was beset by a horde of birds. Unsteady from Remus' Deprimo on the pew he'd been standing on, he now toppled over completely and hit the floor with a great cry of pain that echoed through the walls of the little church.

Remus sprinted to his feet and scanned the sanctuary. On the other side, he saw that a large barred cage had been erected along the wall, and inside the cage he could make out huddled figures, and two faces that peered out blearily at him from behind the bars.

James' pale face broke into a wide smile. "Remus! It is you!" he croaked.

"Thank God!" Sirius' voice was just as harshly hoarse as James'. "Oh! Remus! On your right--I mean left!"

Severus had risen to his feet. He raised his wand.

Remus ducked.

A floor candelabra fell over and caught the hem of a hanging drapery nearby, setting it instantly aflame. Other candelabras fell over too, one after the other, setting the ancient wood of the pews aflame too. The flames spread quickly, and soon the sanctuary was filled with smoke and fire that surrounded Remus and Severus.

Severus aimed his wand again with a great snarl.

Remus dived, but felt the leg of his trousers rip, and stinging pain and the cool thick trickle of oozing blood. He staggered with the shock of having his leg sliced at and hit the ground. His wand flew from his hand, and he heard the clatter of it as it rolled away from him--

Severus stood over him again, a wicked smile curving his lips. He raised his wand as though he were bringing down a sword's blade on Remus' neck--

Remus reached out to where he last saw his wand before it disappeared in a haze of smoke--

Accio wand!

His wand flew to his hand just as the same stinging pain sliced with exquisite agony along the side of his neck. Fresh, thick blood oozed there too. Remus gave a strangled cry, eyes streaming, and clapped his hand to the long slit in his neck.

Expelliarmus!

Severus' wand flew out of his hand just as he was about to deliver Remus a far more instantly fatal blow.

Stupefy! Accio wands!

As Severus had prepared to summon his own wand back wandlessly, as Remus had done, Remus managed to hurl a Stunner at him, and then Summon James', Sirius', and Aurelia's wands off of him as Severus fell back and slumped into the pew, which was by now halfway incinerated.

With preternatural agility Remus leapt over the flames. His feet flew, carrying him to where James, Sirius, and Aurelia were being held captive that he half ran into the bars. He felt slightly sick and dizzy from the amount of blood he was losing from the slit in his neck, and he could feel it practically covering his entire hand.

James and Sirius did not fail to notice.

"Remus!" James gasped, clutching his side where his broken ribs had to be.

"Your neck!" Sirius exclaimed, an ugly gash in the side of his forehead, his hair soaked and hardened with a coating of dried blood.

"I'm fine!" Remus gasped, noting how Sirius was holding a limp, bloodied and bruised Aurelia in his arms, though he held her rather awkwardly because of his broken wrist.

They were all drenched in sweat now from the heat of the fire, and there were great SNAPS behind them as wood cracked with the flames consuming it.

BANG!

A support beam from the roof had just fallen and hit the floor.

CRACK!

"REMUS!"

Remus staggered out of the way just as the support beam above him crashed to the floor, completely ablaze on one side of it.

"Get back, Sirius!" James yelled, scooting back, and helping Sirius to do the same with the lifeless Aurelia in his arms, trying to avoid getting touched by the rising flames on the felled support beam.

Thinking fast, Remus Conjured a shoe. Sticking his wand handle in his teeth, he picked it up from the ground in his free hand and brought it as close to the cage as he could. He set it on the floor, took his wand out of his mouth, and pointed it at the piece of footwear. "Portus," he muttered breathlessly. "Here quick..." he added to the others. "Try and touch it...it'll go off in a minute...."

"Remus, this is crazy--!" James started.

"Just try!" Remus gasped. He reached out and touched the shoe's tongue.

James and Sirius crawled over awkwardly and touched a part of the shoe too.

"What about Aurelia?" Sirius asked, his voice cracking.

Remus cursed aloud. "Try to get it her to just pinch it!"

"Aurelia...? Darling, c'mon, wake up...just a moment...just a moment I promise...."

Remus looked away, hearing tears in Sirius' voice as he tried to coax her awake.

"That's it...that's it...."

Aurelia was moaning.

"Now just...reach over...and touch the shoe...."

Aurelia mumbled something that probably only Sirius could make out. But then Remus dared to look and saw Aurelia feebly reach out and pinch the edge of the shoe with her trembling fingers. Not a moment after she'd done that, Remus felt the jerk of something like a hook tug at him from behind his navel, and the burning church all around them whirled away in a vortex of swirling color.

~

"OUCH!"

"Well, Remus, if you would hold still...."

"I know, Lily, I know. I'm sorry."

The Portkey had transported them back to the front lawn of the Lupin cottage, where Lily had been up waiting with two Order members Mad-Eye had left with her: Emmeline Vance and Rhiannon Jernigan. They were able to mend James' broken ribs and Sirius' broken wrist in a trice, and Rhiannon attended to the gash on Sirius' head while Emmeline (who had some great extensive knowledge of healing on short notice) tended to the many wounds that Aurelia had received. Now Aurelia was resting on Remus' parents' bed in Remus' parents' bedroom (both of which Remus now used as his own), and Sirius of course was sitting with her, while Emmeline brewed a potion for her in Remus' kitchen.

Meanwhile, Lily attended to the bleeding slices in Remus' leg and neck in the sitting room while James stood by, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. "I don't blame you, mate," he said to Remus with an impish grin, "that extra-strength essence of dittany just burns your skin. Horrible stuff. Nasty."

Remus might have nudged him playfully with his elbow had he been in a position to do so. Unfortunately he was rooted to where he sat on his sofa, while Lily, perched beside him, pressed a cloth over the wound in his neck, which now smoked acid green, an even brighter green than normal essence of dittany. So instead he settled for a smile and one raised eyebrow. Then he drew them together as he shut his eyes tight, wincing against the terribly stinging sensation of acid on his flesh, even though there wasn't really any at all.

Snivellus...you and your.... Argh! Bloody Sectumsempra...literally....

"Almost over, I promise," said Lily, sounding as though she were about to laugh.

They were all trying to lighten the heavy mood of intense relief.

But James knew that something very serious needed to be said. As Lily told Remus to hold the cloth there to his neck with his hand, she recapped the extra-strength essence of dittany and James came over, sat on the other side of her on the sofa and slipped and arm around her, pressing his lips to her temple. Lily gripped his arm as though she never wanted to let go and leaned back into him. They both looked at Remus.

"Thank you, Remus," said James hoarsely, "you saved our lives."

Remus blinked and averted his gaze. When he heard Lily say, "Yes, thank you," and felt her lean over as best as she could with her pregnant belly in front of her and brush her lips against his forehead, he raised his eyes to meet hers.

"Thank you, Remus," she said, "for all our lives."

As she spoke, Remus watched as she exchanged a look with James, and then all three of them seemed to watch together as she placed her other hand protectively over her grandly rounded abdomen.

Then a tiny "Oh!" from Lily brought them out of their reverie. She smiled widely at James.

James smiled widely too. "Is it kicking again? Is the baby kicking again?"

Lily nodded fervently, too overwhelmed with happiness, it seemed, to be able to speak. As James' hand rested with Lily's on her stomach to feel their baby moving inside, Remus observed them despondently, thinking back to when in this same room, his own mother had called him over excitedly to come feel his unborn brother Ramirus kicking inside her.

A knock at Remus' door awakened his senses. He looked at his friends' startled faces and said, "I'll answer that."

"You keep that cloth on your neck now it's not ready to come off yet," Lily told him as he rose to his feet.

Remus waved his free hand to indicate that he had heard her as he left the room and went to the front hall. Pulling out his wand, he said, "Declare yourself, please."

"It's me, Peter Pettigrew," squeaked the voice of the arrival outside on Remus' doorstep, "friend of James Aldous Potter and Lily Violet Potter, nee Evans, as well as Sirius Black, his girlfriend Aurelia Vega, and werewolf Remus Lupin. James and Lily are expecting a baby, and Lily's seven months along in pregnancy. I used to go out with Maggie Dobbins, but now she's my ex and.... Remus, c'mon, it's dark out here!"

Remus threw the door open and pulled Peter inside, still using his other hand to hold the cloth to his neck wound. After he slammed the door behind him, he said, "Peter! Where in Merlin's name have you been?"

Peter opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted.

"Peter?" came James' voice from the sitting room. The wizard himself came out into the front hall at once. "Peter! You're okay!" and Remus watched as James threw his arms around Peter, practically crushing him to death with the hug he was giving him.

"James...can't breathe..." Peter gasped.

"Oh, so sorry." James released him and stepped back to give him breathing room. "So what happened to you?"

"I dunno," said Peter, slightly shaken, "when they captured us, I woke up inside the Malfoy Manor--"

"My God...."

"They wanted answers! They tortured me! Look!" He ripped back his sleeve to show angry red welts running up and down the flesh.

Remus and James gasped.

"Where did those come from?" Remus breathed.

"Some kind of hex they were using," Peter said, pulling his sleeve back down. "It produces a whip of boiling water and they lash you with it--"

Like when Antonin was using a whip of pure silver on me....

"Peter?" Lily poked her head out from the sitting room. She spotted Peter and hurried towards him. "Oh, Peter, darling!" She planted a kiss on his forehead and smoothed his bangs as though he were her nephew rather than a friend.

Peter gently pushed her away and asked where Sirius and Aurelia were. After they told him they were in Remus' bedroom, where Aurelia was resting and Sirius was sitting with her, they watched as Peter moved into the back of the house and trudged up the stairs to go and see them.