Reckoning Night

Chapter 8

It was like he was trapped within his own body. Sirius was conscious of everything he did, but he could not control it. It was like being under the Imperius Curse, but without that warm fluffy feeling of acceptance. First, Colonel O'Neill yelled something about him needing to be held up immediately, then Remus of all people wanted to follow the advice and tried to grab his arm, but Sirius kept punching him until he let go and dropped to the ground.

Inwardly, Sirius desperately tried to stop his actions, but it was no use. He lunged at Snape once again, got hold of the artefact, ducked a spell, and ran.

As he was dashing through the Forbidden Forest, Sirius concentrated all his will on stopping whoever was controlling him, but it was like pushing against an invisible wall. At some point, he must have hit a weak spot, because he felt for the fraction of a second that his legs were actually slowing down. However, his was promptly met with a sharp stinging pain inside his head which made clear not to try that again.

'Foolish Tau'ri,' said a voice inside his head. 'You cannot defeat me.'

Sirius' worry amplified and was teetering on the edge of panic. What was going on here? What had happened to him? Captain Carter had said something about him being a Goa'uld. He knew he had heard the word before. Wasn't this the alien parasite that had supposedly inhabited Voldemort?

'The Tau'ri are so easy to trick,' commented the voice.

'How long have you been in there?' Sirius asked inside his mind.

'Ever since you met my former host back in London, a memory I have conveniently suppressed so you wouldn't get suspicious. How fortuitous that the host knew about wizards and their great power -- you were the best thing that could have happened to me. If you had been a regular *Muggle*, I probably wouldn't have bothered.'

He heard footfall behind him. Someone was pushing his way through the forest, hard on his trail. Sirius kind of wished his pursuer would catch up with him. Maybe it was one of the Muggles, who knew how to deal with this ... this Goa'uld thing. Or so he hoped.

"Stop right there or I'm going to shoot!"

But the Goa'uld had other ideas. He turned around, pointed his wand in the general direction of whoever was following him, and cast a Reductor Curse. Half of a tree exploded away, but Sirius wasn't sure whether or not he had hit anything else. Apparently the Goa'uld could not only control his physical body, but he also had the knowledge of his spellcasting abilities. And his magic was definitely a lot stronger than it had been before. No wonder that the Goa'uld wanted a wizard as a host.

As an answer to his curse, a shot shattered the air, and a sharp pain flared in Sirius' left leg. This threw his movement off-balance and he stumbled, tried to catch his fall with his hands, and lost his grip on the wand and the artefact in the process. He clutched a hand to his leg and felt something damp. Damnit, that was stinging like hell!

Wait a minute, he had just moved his hand on his own. He looked around, and his head obeyed him. What the heck--

Someone was approaching Sirius, the weapon still trained at him. Sirius was sure he didn't belong to Colonel O'Neill's team, but he was definitely a Muggle. Wasn't he the one who had been hanging around at Hogwarts with the team lately?

"Don't move or I'm going to aim a bit higher," the man warned him. He approached slowly and carefully, always keeping his eyes on Sirius. Sirius had no intention of moving, his leg hurt just too damn much. He kept his hands clutched around the wound, breathing heavily. Voices and more movement could be heard from the distance. The others were coming.

The man stopped, grabbed the artefact that was still lying on the ground, and took a few steps back quickly as if Sirius was a savage beast that was going to jump at him. Something inside him shifted, changed, and his body started moving on its own again.

"This is mine!" he heard himself say, but it was not his voice. It had an odd, echoing double-tone to it and sounded decidedly creepy.

The man didn't listen. He took one more look at Sirius, then in the direction of the noises, and turned to run. Sirius felt his legs starting to move despite the pain, pursuing him, but he didn't get far. Someone shouted, "Stupefy!" and he collapsed to the ground once again. But apparently, their magic was still too weak. He didn't black out completely, but noted with interest that he could move his hands again. That was until a second stunning spell hit him, and he lost consciousness.

-----

"I'm wondering if I've been talking to the Goa'uld all this time, or if it was the real Sirius until this evening," Remus mused. He was crouching next to his friend, brushing away the long strands of black hair that had been hiding the scar on his neck where the parasite had entered his body.

Sam looked down at Sirius. Thankfully, he was still unconscious. The combined force of the stunning spells seemed to last longer than their zat shots would have, but they had placed a chain around his leg just in case he did wake up and decided to cause trouble. She remembered clearly how she hadn't even been aware of Jolinar until Cassandra had accidentally discovered her. "It's hard to say. It takes a while until a Goa'uld has full control over a host body, and since he wanted to lie low anyway, his best bet would have been to not take control at all, so that his host wouldn't become suspicious. I just wish I had met him earlier -- I could have sensed the Goa'uld."

Neville placed his hand on Sirius' leg wound, his forehead screwed up in concentration.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

Remus, who was standing behind her, answered instead of Neville. "Somehow, he seems to have acquired amazing healing powers, besides the wandless magic he got from your little journey. He can heal with the touch of his hand but it takes an enormous amount of energy from him."

Daniel, who was watching them, gently removed Neville's hand. "That wound is already half healed. There is no need to exhaust yourself over this. I just hope the bullet isn't still in there."

"He is right," Remus added. "You should be in the hospital wing, Neville. You need to rest."

He made a small pause. Sam felt rather than saw him hovering anxiously behind her.

"Can't we take Sirius to the hospital wing, too?"

Sam shook her head. "This is not a good idea. Goa'uld are exceptionally strong. Just look what he has done to you." She cast a meaningful glance at the colourful bruises Remus was sporting right next to his right eye, his jaw, and probably a few other places she couldn't see. She had to admit wizards were right up there with Goa'uld when it came to self-healing and resilience.

"We could conjure some restrains so he doesn't get away."

Sam gently directed Remus towards the heavy oak door of the dungeon chamber. "That is not advisable. We have made bad experiences with this type of thing. I told you they are strong, and you have to keep in mind that your magic still is very weak. There is no guarantee that he will not get away."

They all stepped out into the corridor. "Yes, it is still weak," Remus grumbled. "And your Agent Devlin has chosen to run off with the one thing that could bring it back to normal."

To everyone's surprise, Neville piped up. "This device you are talking about -- it is not what you think it is."

Colonel O'Neill looked at him sharply, and Teal'c raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" O'Neill asked.

Sam shut the door to the dungeon. If Neville knew something about the artefact, there was no need for the Goa'uld to hear it, too, unconscious or not.

Neville said, "I saw the device earlier, when Snape brought it. I could find a clear memory of it in my mind."

"So, what is it?" O'Neill asked, clearly impatient.

"It was a device to record holographic pictures with. It is so small because it was designed to be portable. It must be dysfunctional, or else it would have recorded something already, and my memory indicates it looks different when it's working."

Remus sounded incredulous. "You mean we've been hunting after this thing all for nothing?"

O'Neill was already thinking about different things. "These guys at Area 51 won't be very happy to be delivered an alien device that doesn't even work." He didn't sound like he was particularly sorry about that.

Daniel was pressing his palm against his forehead and screwed up his face in frustration. "This is all my fault. I mixed up 'portal' and 'portable' in the translation. I should have known. I should have paid more attention."

"Daniel, you said you weren't sure about it when you translated it. Those were writings of an alien race, after all. You aren't to blame," Sam said.

Daniel just shook his head. "But on hindsight, it looks so obvious."

"If that device was harmless, and broken on top of that, what *did* cause the imbalance of magic?" Remus asked.

"That, I do not know," Neville said.

"Should we not concentrate on removing the parasite from Sirius Black?" Teal'c reminded them.

"Definitely," Remus said. "But how *do* we get it out?"

"Well, it's not going to be easy." Sam explained how a symbiote could leave a host's body, but in the case of the Goa'uld, the host usually died unless the symbiote specifically tried to leave him alive, which would be a risk to both host and symbiote. "Surgically removing it will most likely fail, we've had some bad experience with this."

"Neville, can't you help him with that ancient magic of yours?" Remus asked.

"Not with magic alone, sorry." He frowned, then his eyes went wide. "But--" He paused briefly. "You were right when you said I should be in the hospital wing. I believe there is someone else I can help!"

Without further explanation, he dashed off in the direction of the stairs.

-----

Hermione and Ron were sitting at each side of Harry's bed, waiting. His bed was closed off by a curtain from the rest of the hospital wing, which was now occupied by more patients due to the fight this night. They were all sleeping by now, or at least close to it. Ron was suppressing yawns, and Hermione felt the late hour and exhaustion creeping up on her, too.

Hermione had half-hoped, half-feared that Harry's current state was linked in some way to Voldemort -- and that his worst enemy dying would mean either the spell being broken and Harry waking up, or him dying along with the Dark Lord. Neither had happened so far, and they were starting to wonder whether he would *ever* wake up again.

Lost in her thoughts, Hermione nearly jumped when the doors to the hospital wing burst open and someone practically stormed in. Only on second glance did she realize it was Neville. She had never seen him so energetic before.

"I've got it!" he exclaimed, all but bouncing towards them.

"What?" asked Ron, staring at their friend dumbly.

"I've got it," Neville repeated and stopped at the foot of the bed. "The knowledge of freeing Harry from the curse. It's all in here and I never realized it." He pointed at his head. "So much raw power. So much I haven't even tapped into!"

Hermione stopped his torrent of words. All of a sudden, she was not tired anymore. "Wait a minute. Did you just say you can make Harry wake up?"

Neville stared at her as if she was pointing out the obvious. "Yes!"

Ron jumped to his feet, gesturing with his arms wildly. "Then what are you waiting for?"

"Quiet, I need to concentrate."

They both watched as Neville closed his eyes and stretched his hands in Harry's direction without leaving his place. He didn't speak, just his brows furrowed slightly. Hermione hoped he wouldn't accidentally call another lightning bolt, but had to remind herself that this was not clumsy first-year Neville anymore. Here was someone who had on short notice accepted the burden that had been destined for Harry all along, who had walked off with a bunch of strangers into the unknown, who had knowledge of the powerful wandless magic and who had last but not least rid the world of Lord Voldemort while he was at it.

Nothing happened. Hermione glanced at Ron, who shrugged. She watched Neville, who hadn't moved. She looked back at Harry. Was this not going to work after all?

Then she noticed something. Harry's breathing patterns were changing. His eyes moved behind the closed lids. Hermione glanced at Ron in excitement, who looked back at her. He had noticed it, too.

Harry frowned, then stirred. His eyes cracked open, and immediately squeezed shut again. Hermione got the hint and quickly cast a spell to dim the light on the huge chandeliers lining the ceiling.

Neville was smiling broadly. "I did it!"

Hermione felt she had to say it, even though it seemed unnecessary. "Thank you, Neville."

"This ancient magic thing is very exhausting." Neville sat down heavily on Harry's bed, holding his head as if feeling dizzy.

"Neville, are you all right?" Harry's voice as almost a hoarse whisper, but his eyes were open now and fixed on his friend with worry.

"Yes, don't worry about me, it's just temporary."

"What day is it? How long was I out?"

While Harry gratefully emptied a glass of water that Hermione had handed him, Ron launched into a brief explanation of what had happened since the werewolf incident. Hermione noticed he deliberately failed to mention Sirius' fate, probably so Harry wouldn't get upset.

"So you were the *Chosen One*, Neville." Harry looked at his friend, who shrugged. "And the power to 'vanquish the Dark Lord' was the ancient magic."

"I hope people don't demand from me to fix the imbalanced magic now. Because I have no idea what could have caused that," Neville said.

Harry still looked a bit drowsy. "But if what you say is right and it had nothing to do with the Ancients' device, why did it start at the same time Voldemort got the thing?"

"It didn't," Hermione jumped in. When she noticed the invisible question mark forming over Harry's head, she realized that Harry didn't know what they had found out in the library. "It actually started much earlier. Judging from the recent development, I'd say it works exponentially. It started gradually and just happened to become really noticeable at the same time the artefact appeared."

"For how long has this gone on, then?"

"For several centuries, at least. There's probably a high number of unreported cases, too, since most wizards would have put a failure down to not properly mastering a complex spell."

"And the ancient magic is not affected by this?"

"No. But light and Dark magic are both derived from the ancient magic ... there must be some sort of connection! Maybe something happened a long time ago that set this off. Just what?"

-----

"Couldn't we try to bribe him with something?" Daniel suggested.

"We could," Jack said. "But maybe the opposite will work just as well."

They were standing inside the cell again. Sirius hadn't moved. "Can you wake him up?" Jack asked Remus.

Remus nodded, and pointed his wand at his friend. "*Enervate!*"

Sirius stirred and opened his eyes. Silently, he studied the humans standing around him, keeping their distance. He rose to his feet, obviously not wanting to look up to them. His eyes flashed angrily. "Let me go, filthy Tau'ri, or you will face the wrath of your god." His voice resonated with the odd dual-toned sound of a Goa'uld.

"Oh, cut the crap." There was a clear tone of impatience in Jack's voice. "You are not in a position to make demands. In fact, you will leave this body right now or you die." Jack was suddenly holding his gun in his hand, pointing it straight at Sirius. Daniel noticed how Remus beside him tensed, and made a calming gesture to prevent him from stepping in. Daniel trusted Jack knew what he was doing.

The Goa'uld looked from Jack to Remus and back. "No, you won't. Because if you do, Remus will kill you as well."

To everyone's surprise, Remus replied, "I don't want my friend to live imprisoned in his own body. Either he will live as himself, and himself only, or not at all." His voice sounded strained, but determined.

The slightest hint of uncertainty flickered over Sirius' features. His eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. "Let me go through the Chapa'ai and I will consider it."

"That's not how it works," Jack said. "You leave this host, and when we are sure he stays alive, we might consider letting you go."

"This is not acceptable." Sirius crossed his arms to emphasize his point.

"If we offer you the weapon of the Ancients in exchange for Sirius' life, would that be acceptable?"

There was a moment of silence as everyone assimilated Jack's new plan of attack. Daniel grasped it quickly and played along.

"Jack, you can't do this! Just think what it could do in the wrong hands!"

"You don't have permission for this, sir," Sam added helpfully.

"A most unwise decision," Teal'c said in his most convincing neutral tone.

Sirius frowned, thinking. "You know I cannot survive without a host. You will have to provide a new one. You also have to keep in mind I can cure diseases--" he looked at Remus "--such as lycanthropy."

"One life in exchange for another, huh? No way."

"Then you will not ever get your friend back." The Goa'uld looked purposefully at Remus.

Remus looked back. "I -- I'll do it."

Everyone turned to look at him.

"What?" Jack all but exclaimed.

"I already told Sirius, I'm not going through another full moon being a risk to others, one way or another. I will do whatever I think is necessary, and if I can save Sirius in the process, so much the better."

"Wait a minute, you are not actually believing him, are you?" Jack gestured wildly at the Goa'uld, who just stood and watched with a smug expression.

"It doesn't matter if he is telling the truth or not. It's a risk I'm willing to take. What matters is that Sirius is going to be himself again."

Sirius gasped, staggered backwards, and leaned against the wall, holding his head as if in pain. He looked at the group warily, his eyes flickering from one person to the next until they rested on Remus. He had his regular voice back.

"I ... Moony, I'm so sorry ... I didn't mean to injure you..." He screwed up his face as if merely looking at his friend ailed him. He probably saw the mistrust still lingering in the SG-1 team's faces, though, since he didn't try to step forward.

"I know it wasn't you," Remus said. "I'm fine, it's nothing."

"You don't look fine."

"I will be. It's *you* we are worried about."

"Careful, Remus, you don't know if it's just the Goa'uld acting," Jack warned when Remus looked like he wanted to approach Sirius.

"Don't do this, Remus," Sirius suddenly said. "I can't read the Goa'uld's mind so I don't know whether he can really heal you, but I don't think this is a good idea."

"It's my first and most likely only chance ever to rid myself of this ... this *disease*, and I'm going to take it. We will figure out later what to do with the Goa'uld."

"This can't be the whole story. He must have some ulterior motives with this--"

Sirius broke off abruptly, gasped, and clutched his head again. The Goa'uld was battling for control.

Jack took Remus' arm and steered him towards the door. "Your friend is right, you should be careful about your decisions. Why don't you step outside with us for a minute." It was more of a demand than a request, but Remus complied. They all left the room, locking the Goa'uld inside, to be able to speak without being overheard. Immediately, Remus launched into protest.

"He practically offered Sirius' life in exchange for mine. We have to do something, and if you don't want to, I will." Despite the grave situation, he managed to sound almost like a pouting child.

"Of course we will, but we have to find another way," Daniel said.

"To be honest, I doubt that a Goa'uld is capable of healing such a disease like yours at all," Sam added.

"But didn't you say a Goa'uld has healing powers way beyond yours? Has a Goa'uld ever healed something you couldn't?"

Sam grimaced and Daniel was sure she was reminded of her father. "Yes. But we don't know anything about the nature of your ... what do you call it, lycanthropy? Heck, I didn't even know it existed in our world for real until two days ago. It might be a fully or at least partially magical illness that the Goa'uld has no influence on, and no chance of healing."

Daniel said, "For all we know, he might even use it to his advantage to get even more power than he has with magic and Goa'uld strength combined."

"And then you won't be a monster once a month, but every day of the month," Jack finished drily.

That seemed to sober Remus up a little. "But ... but then what do we do?" He looked utterly lost and hopeless. "We ... *I* have to do something. I can't and don't want to just sit and twiddle thumbs as you seem to suggest. You have no idea how I feel right now!" He all but shouted now.

"I lost my wife to the Goa'uld," Daniel said, and was surprised how calm and matter-of-fact he sounded.

"And a few good friends." Jack said, and Daniel saw a cloud passing over Jack's face. "We have a pretty good idea, believe me," he said drily.

Remus turned away and took a deep breath and said, now calmer, "Sorry. That was probably a stupid thing to say." He paused and turned back to face the group. "But if I have a chance of getting the Goa'uld out of my friend, I'll do it, even at the cost of my own mind, body, soul, whatever it is that the Goa'uld takes. Unless you can offer me an alternative."

Yeah, an alternative would be nice, Daniel thought. Picturing the wriggly snake-like creature alone let a shiver run down his spine, in spite of their experiences with the Tok'ra. And the Tok'ra symbiotes didn't even burrow through the neck.

Maybe, just maybe, there was an alternative.

It all depended on Remus.

"How quick are your reflexes?"

-----

Hermione was talking nonstop. Ron was just listening, Neville was offering helpful suggestions, and Harry was trying hard not to doze off. Hermione was running through countless scenarios, and then dismissing one after another. Ron was wondering if it wouldn't be better to just let Harry sleep and discuss elsewhere. Madam Pomfrey would throw a tantrum if she saw them like this. She didn't even know Harry was awake yet.

As if on cue, the matron chose that moment to enter from the other side of the hospital wing. They could hear her even though they couldn't see her yet through the closed curtains.

"Merlin!" she exclaimed, rushing over to the small group and into Harry's area. "Harry is awake?"

Harry looked at her groggily, eliminating the need for an answer.

"Why didn't you call me?"

Without waiting for an answer, she shooed them aside to examine Harry. When Ron, Hermione and Neville just stood and looked, she said, "You should go now. Give the poor boy some rest!"

"But--" Hermione started to protest.

"You can visit him later when he has slept." She took a critical look at their bleary-eyed faces and added, "In fact, you should get some sleep right now, too. You haven't had any and it's almost morning! Go to your dorms or I will give you a detention right now!"

The students exchanged looks. After all that had happened this night, she wanted to scare them with a detention? The thought was almost laughable.

Madam Pomfrey tried to cast a spell on Harry, which was either supposed to do or to diagnose something, but nothing happened. She tried again without success.

"Madam Pomfrey," Hermione started again. "This is exactly what we were talking is about. It's really important. We were trying to figure out what caused the decline of the light magic. Your healing spells are affected, too, as you can see."

For the first time, Madam Pomfrey really looked at them. She studied Hermione thoughtfully. "I thought no one knows why it's happening."

"We already know it started many centuries ago. The odd thing is, the ancient magic, from which light and Dark magic both come, still works flawlessly, if one can master it." Hermione shot a glance at Neville. "Something must have happened that caused the two derivative branches of magic to grow apart slowly. If we figure out what it was, maybe we can reverse it."

"Maybe nothing did happen," Madam Pomfrey pondered. Hermione looked at her.

"What?"

"Maybe it happened on its own in a natural course of things."

Hermione stared at her. "Maybe you are right." She looked at her friends excitedly. "Maybe an artificial division between light and Dark magic has simply corrupted the two branches over time, because magic just isn't meant to be divided at all. If only I knew more about the nature of magic!"

Ron wanted to point out that she was probably the one person in the whole school who knew most about the subject anyway, but she turned on her heel and dashed through the curtains towards the big double doors.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ron called after her, immediately being shushed by an annoyed looking Madam Pomfrey.

"Library," they heard her muffled voice from the corridor.

"Now that was an enlightenment," Neville observed not without humour. "I wonder if she is right yet again. It makes sense. I reckon we should talk to Dumbledore about this, tell him what we know."

Ron glanced at Harry to see his reaction, but his friend had his eyes closed once again. His chest rose and fell slowly.

He looked peaceful.

-----

Remus entered the dungeon cell soundlessly, like a burglar trying to remain unseen. He looked back to make sure Snape was still behind him, and he cast another glance at the corridor behind him just to ensure he was convincing enough. Sirius was sitting on the floor now, his arms around his knees, watching Remus with a very self-satisfied expression. Remus closed the door behind him gently, careful to do so as quietly as possible.

"They tried to talk me out of it," Remus said to the Goa'uld. "But I will take the chance, even if they don't want me to."

"A wise decision," said the Goa'uld in his bizarre metallic voice.

"However," Remus continued, "the deal is only on if Sirius stays alive afterwards. Snape has been instructed to kill me immediately if Sirius is dead." He gestured at Snape, who was leaning almost casually against the wall as far from Sirius as possible, his arms crossed and his wand in his hand. His face bore no trace of emotion except for the usual distaste he showed whenever he was around Sirius. "That means you will also die if you don't leave my friend alive."

"I understand," said the Goa'uld.

"And if you look into Sirius' mind, which you have undoubtedly done, you will know that Snape will not hesitate to do so."

"I see you are very determined about this," said the Goa'uld. Apparently the arrangement was fine with him. He seemed to be convinced of Remus' motives.

Remus walked over to Sirius and sat down next to him, unsure what to do.

"I need the back of your neck exposed," Sirius said. Remus shifted to turn his back on his friend, not feeling entirely comfortable. He needed to see what was going on! "Don't move."

Remus felt his heart rate quicken. He glanced sideways at Snape, but got no sign from him, either. What if this did go wrong, after all? Taking a slow breath, he forced himself to calm down. If he panicked, he couldn't concentrate, which was essential right now.

A small sound behind him. Was it skin tearing? Blood welling? The parasite creeping out? His imagination was running wild. At the same moment, he noticed Snape's eyes growing wider when he saw what Remus didn't.

Now. It had to be now.

Remus twisted around swiftly to clamp his hands on the grey, snake-like creature that had emerged from the wound in Sirius' neck. Its bizarre mouth looked like four huge claws and its four red eyes were sparkling angrily. There were smears of blood on its body.

The enormous strength of the creature when it tried to break from his grip took Remus so much by surprise that he nearly let go. He tightened his grip with both hands and held the snake as far away from himself as possible. Still, it didn't give up trying and seemed to be drawn to Remus -- his neck, probably -- as if by a strong invisible force. The original plan had been to simply break the creature's spine and be done with it, but he had trouble just holding on to it.

With all the force he could muster, Remus hurled the Goa'uld into the corner at the other end of the room. It didn't seem to be affected by this -- it reared like a snake preparing to strike and glared at him angrily. But before it could slither back towards him, Snape shouted, "*Incendio!*" and the snake burst into flames. With a mixture of horror and fascination, Remus watched as the creature was rapidly consumed by the flames and left nothing behind but a pile of ash. Almost like Voldemort, Remus thought. The air was starting to fill with the acrid smell of burned flesh.

"Thank you, Severus," he said.

"You're welcome," Snape replied, none of the usual scathing tone in his voice. "But I think Black needs your attention now."

Oh crap. While he was busy battling the Goa'uld, Remus hadn't had the time to check on his friend's condition. If he was still alive at all. Dread was gripping him forcefully, twisting his insides. Sirius had slumped to the floor like a kicked puppy, his neck covered with blood. *Was* he still alive? There was only a trickle of blood coming from the neck wound, which could be a good or a bad sign.

Frantically, Remus searched for a pulse. There. There it was. Sirius was alive!

"Stop this, you're choking me," he suddenly heard his friend's hoarse whisper. Relieved, Remus started searching in his robes for something to press on the wound. He turned around to tell Snape to go and get Madam Pomfrey, but Snape had already disappeared. Daniel peeked through the open door. "How did it go?" And a moment later, "What's that smell?"

"Goa'uld dead, Sirius alive," Remus replied and turned back to his friend. His hands and the sleeves of his robes were already smudged with blood. "I hope Severus had the sense to get some help."

"Here, take this." Sam had crouched down next to him and handed him a handkerchief, which he took gratefully and pressed it on the neck wound. Sirius winced.

"Does it hurt?" Remus asked with concern, and realized immediately how stupid that question was.

"What do you think? Having a freaking hole in your neck tends hurt just a tiny little bit."

Stupid question, stupid answer. Yet, there was no sarcasm or accusation in his voice.

Sam said, "You were incredibly lucky there, you know. This could have gone wrong in so many ways."

Remus realized she was talking to him. "Now I will never find out if my lycanthropy could have been healed. It was my only chance at a decent life after this."

Sirius suddenly reached out and grasped Remus' hand that was still holding the handkerchief in place. His grip was weak but determined. "Moony, don't."

"What?"

"Don't do anything stupid."

Remus swallowed. "Sirius, I--"

He twisted his head to look at Remus, even though the movement must have been painful. "Remember when I told you I should have been there for you? I thought the Wolfsbane Potion would solve all problems, but it didn't. I promise you Padfoot will be there each full moon to make sure something like this never happens again. Never, do you understand? Never again. And you promise me you won't do anything stupid. All right?"

Remus swallowed again. He felt how a smile was forcing its way to his lips. "I'll ... I'll think about it."

"Oh, and Remus..." He let go of Remus' hand and gestured towards the chain still fastened to his ankle. "Get that thing off my leg."

-----