The Beginning of the End

The old grandfather clock in the Potter's study chimed 2 am as sixteen year old James Potter slept warmly nestled in his bed. He was having a spectacular dream about Lily Evans, the brightest and prettiest girl in his year. She was doing the most curiously amazing things with him in this particular dream.

"Oh, Lily, don't do that," James muttered into his pillow. "On second thought, don't stop doing that."

He smiled into his pillow as she moaned his name. He got slightly concerned when her voice began to deepen, and even more worried when it began to sound terribly familiar.

"James! You great big prat!" Lily said suddenly confusing James. "Wake up!"

Somewhere in James's sleep clouded mind, he realized it wasn't Lily at all who had spoken the words. He sat bolt upright and made to grab for his wand and glasses. This only caused him to jab the butt of his wand on his forehead and point his glasses in front of him. When he got slightly more oriented, he crossed his room to his desk on which a small square mirror was blinking red.

He picked it up and grinned at his best-friend. "Good Evening, Padfoot. Lovely to see -"

"I ran away from home," Sirius interrupted.

"You -"

"Can I stay at your house?"

"What did - "

"Can I Floo over now?"

"You ran away?!"

"Yea, listen, I can't stay here long. I just needed to use the fireplace. Can I come?"

"Yea! Floo to the fireplace in my room so that you won't make a racket."

Sirius grinned. "Excellent."

Then his face was gone and James stared at his own reflection.

Sirius arrived in the fireplace a few minutes later and wouldn't answer any of James questions. He claimed to be too tired to talk and promised he would tell James everything in the morning.

James lay on his side and watched Sirius's figure in the dark.

"You'll stay here all summer?"

"Yea," Sirius grunted shortly.

"How'd your parents react?"

"Horribly."

"They didn't try to stop you?"

"No."

James frowned slightly at his friend in the dark and decided to drop his interrogation. He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. Having Sirius here all summer would be the best. He'd be able to create more mischief than ever, go visit their friend Remus Lupin for the full moon and maybe even invent new and better merchandise.

He didn't let his thoughts linger here for long and instead returned to his thoughts of Lily Evans as he succumbed to sleep.

Sleep didn't come easily to Remus these days. Many nights he lay staring at the ceiling, thinking. He would entertain himself by concentrating on the slowly brightening ceiling and imagining that his thoughts could be projected to the ceiling like those muggle movies. And on the occasion that he did manage to get sleep, he would have gruesome dreams. These were normal for a werewolf but Remus couldn't bear them. He'd see himself eating, feasting on human flesh. Sometimes the prey in the dream would horribly resemble his loved ones: his dad, his mum, Sirius, James, Lily…..Tonks….

Remus turned and lay on his side facing the slumbering girl next to him. Her hair was dark and in the pale light from the window it shined purple. Her breathing was barely detectable. Remus brought his hands up to her face and stroked her cheek. She mumbled something and the corner of her mouth twitched to a smirk. Remus smiled in the dark.

He didn't think he could love again especially since all the people he had loved in the past had a curious tendency to end up dead. He drew his hand away from Tonk's face as though the touch might burn her. She didn't notice anything but simply stirred and brought her legs up into a fetal position.

Remus heard footsteps pass his door and heard them go down the creaky stairs of Grimmauld Place. It was just before dawn and Remus reminded himself that Molly Weasley usually woke up early to start on breakfast. He also remembered that since it was Harry's seventeenth birthday tomorrow, Remus had volunteered to go fetch him, Ron, and Hermione(the latter two had gone to Privet Drive a few days after they got home). Ready to do something other than stay in bed, he quietly got out from under the covers and drew them snugly around Tonk's face. He ran a comb through his hair, put on his robe and made to go downstairs.

"We can't go downstairs," Remus whispered holding out his hand to stop his two friends from descending the stairs.

"Why the hell not?" Sirius asked with a distinguishable edge to his voice.

"After last night, I'm starving!" James interjected.

"Because, my parents don't know you two are here," Remus explained. "I'll just go down and explain it to them and get some breakfast on the way up. You two can amuse yourselves for a bit but be quiet. I don't want them to think we have burglars in the house." He made to climb down but paused and looked back up. "And don't hide any of my stuff."

"Hide! What a wonderful idea, Moony. A marvelous mind you have!" James grinned and followed a snickering Sirius to Remus's room.

Remus sighed and grinned jumping down the last few steps. When he got to the kitchen, he noticed his dad at the table, his face was buried in The Daily Prophet.

"Morning, Dad," Remus greeted.

"Good morning, Remus," his dad mumbled from behind the paper.

Remus went to the sink to wash his hands. Dirt and blood slipped of his hands, mixed with water, and went down the drain. He raised his wet hands and wiped his face. The water stung on his cuts as he passed his hand over them.

It had been the full moon the night before and his dad had forgotten to set up the basement for his transformation. His parents had gone to a dinner party early last evening. But, fortunately, his friends had showed up shortly before sunset and escorted him to the forest nearby. It had been quite a fun evening but he bore the usual scars from the experience. Sighing, Remus looked out the window and his eyes widened.

A great big dog was bounding around the yard and it looked like a stag had thrown a Frisbee for the dog to catch. Remus's eyes darted to his father and was enthralled to find that his father was sitting with his back to the window. When Remus looked back out the window, the dog was chasing his tail and the stag was out of sight.

Suddenly a pair of antlers appeared at the window and tapped at it. Remus's father looked up from his paper at the window but the antlers were gone. His eyes moved slowly to Remus who tried to quickly turn away and get some bread but it was too late; his dad had seen Remus's face.

"Remus! Last night…the full moon…I didn't prepare the basement for you…"

Remus turned around. "It's alright. I went to the forest…and I had two of my friends for company."

"Two friends? But - you mean-?"

"Yes. My animagi friends from school. James and Sirius. They're actually in the backyard right now."

His father put down the paper, walked to the patio door, and gasped, his hand moving to his chest. Remus looked through the window again and found that the stag was galloping behind the dog who was running very fast away from him. His father turned and looked at him inquisitively and Remus couldn't help the smile that appeared on his lips.

"They're - erm- quite normal usually."

Remus went to the patio door, opened it, and called out to his friends who stopped their game immediately and came bounding for the door. They transformed once they were clear of the neighbor's house and entered. Each of them nodded to Remus's dad.

"Mr. Lupin," James said holding out his hand for Remus's father who shook it hesitantly. "I'm James Potter. We've met at Kings Cross once, do you remember?"

"Yes, of course."

"And I'm Sirius Black, Mr. Lupin, nice to meet you."

"Yes. Yes," Remus's dad said and shook Sirius's hand also. He clapped his hand together looking at James and Sirius. "Well, Remus has told me all about you of course. What you did - what you're doing for him - I can't express how much it means to us."

Remus felt his face grow warm and made to toast the bread, turning his back to his friends and father.

"Ah, it's no problem, Mr. Lupin," Remus heard James say.

"Please, call me John."

"Yes, John," Sirius spoke this time. "Frankly we enjoy our little endeavors much more than Remus does."

"I'm sure," his dad said.

Remus grinned at his toast and heard his dad chuckle and clap someone on the back. Remus concentrated on making enough pieces of toast and then occupied himself with finding marmalade and honey.

"You're out of honey," said Ron Weasley sitting in the Muggle kitchen of the Dursleys scraping the bottom of the honey jar. "Best ask your aunt to buy some…"

"Oh, honestly, Ron," Hermione said. She waved her wand at the jar and it was filled to the brim with honey.

"Oh yea. We're of age. I forgot."

Harry grinned at his two best friends. It had been a nice shock for Uncle Vernon when the two of them showed up on his porch a few days after the Hogwarts Express pulled into Platform nine and three quarters. Harry had explained that they were only staying until his birthday at which time he and his friends would leave Privet Drive, perhaps forever.

Ron and Hermione had made attempts to talk to the Dursleys and gain their friendship and trust but the Dursleys clearly did not want friendship. In fact, they went out of their way to avoid Ron and Hermione as best as they could. Harry had to take left overs from dinner up to his room for the two of his friends and pick times when the Dursleys were out to have them come downstairs.

It was tea time in the evening before Harry's seventeenth birthday and the three of them sat at the round table of the Dursley kitchen. Ron was eating one of Aunt Marge's famous tea cakes while Hermione scanned the The Daily Prophet. Harry sat opposite both of them sipping his tea and thinking about his upcoming birthday.

His spirits were high at the thought of leaving Privet Drive and never having Uncle Vernon's purpling face in his or Aunt Marge's annoyance about his appearance and behavior. Most of all, he wouldn't miss Dudley who had taken a liking to rap music and insisted on on blasting it especially loudly late at night. The lot of them had gone to Pier Polkiss's house for tea, leaving the house available for Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"I wonder how we're going to do our Apparition Tests," Ron said taking a gulp of tea to wash down the half a cake he'd stuffed into his mouth.

"Yeah," said Harry thinking about this for the first time in a couple of months. "We'll probably have to go to the Ministry." After he said this, Harry remembered Scrimgeour's request and grimaced. "Or maybe they hold the test outside the Ministry."

Hermione opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a sharp tapping on the kitchen window. The three of them instinctively reached for their wands before turning around. They didn't need it because in a second, Harry leapt to the back door to let Tonks and Lupin in.

He noticed that both of them looked a great deal better than the last time he'd seen them. Tonks's hair was long and a dark color, almost purple in the light and Lupin looked a lot younger although he beared the markings of his werewolf transformations. Harry wondered if the difference in Lupin's appearence had anything to do with Tonks.

"Wotcher, Harry!" Tonks said winking at him.

"Hi," said Harry, and almost immediately asked, "Are we leaving?"

"No," Tonks said grinning. "Since you expressed how much you love it here in the last few letters, we thought it best to let you stay."

Harry made a face and she laughed.

"Yes, Harry, you're leaving," said Lupin. "I really think we should leave today since this house is only protected until tomorrow."

"The Dursleys have gone to tea at one of their friends."

"Oh good. We were quite afraid we'd have to explain ourselves to the Muggles." said Tonks looking inside the oven.

"I suppose you'll just have to leave a note," said Remus.

"I don't think they'd mind much if I just up and disappeared. Especially if I never come back."

Lupin smiled. "You should go pack."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione bounded up the stairs and collected all their belongings into their trunks. Ron and Hermione had only brought clothes and such that they needed for a fortnight. Harry however combed his room and collected everything he owned into his trunk. This wasn't difficult since everything he owned had traveled with him to and from Hogwarts each year in his trunk. Hermione casted a spell to their trunks so that they were light to carry to the point where they felt almost empty.

They heaved their trunks downstairs to where Lupin and Tonks were examining the television in the living room with their arms around each other.

"So it's a bit like our portraits then?" Tonks said.

"Yea, but it's not that common," Lupin answered. "Usually, a family only has one in the house."

"This family seems to have two. I saw a small one in the kitchen."

"They have four actually. Two are upstairs," interrupted Harry. He watched with amusement as Lupin broke away from Tonks and looked slightly embarrassed. Tonks, on the other hand, looked defiant. Harry grinned at Lupin. "Not too old, poor, and dangerous then?"

"Oh, yes, he is," Tonks said smiling at Remus. "You know me, I like the old dangerous men." She screwed up her face and her purple hair changed to short gray hair and her face had sagging skin and wrinkles.

Harry, Ron and Hermione laughed but Remus looked back at Tonks with a serious expression.

"Why so serious, Remus?" Tonks tapped her wand on Remus's nose and he turned into a wizened man with more gray hair than usual.

Ron doubled over with laughter and Remus waved his wand at himself and Tonks and they were both back to normal. He then cleared his throat and smiled. "We'd best get going, then."

"How are we getting there?"

"Portkey." Tonks pulled out a broken flower pot. "It should activate in five minutes."

Harry felt his stomach drop as if he we using the portkey already. He hated this mode of transportation the most and was hoping for another trip by broom. Then he remembered that Ron and Hermione did not have one and Tonks and Lupin hadn't brought one either. He made for the kitchen and wrote the Dursleys a little note of farewell and thanks for the years of letting him live there. He knew that Uncle Vernon would simply throw it into the rubbish but he felt the need to write something to them.

He went back to the living room where the four others were holding the pot, waiting for him. He reached out gingerly and grabbed the rim of the pot. A minute or two later he felt the familiar hook behind his navel and he was swirling in the darkness with his two best friends beside him.