The Last Marauder

Worst news possible

Sirius woke up surprisingly early the next morning. Normally Sirius liked to sleep long, but last night's sleep had not been like resting at all. He felt rather restless, as if there was something urgent he had wanted to do but had forgotten to carry out.

At six thirty he decided that he would not find sleep anymore, took a shower, dressed and went downstairs to prepare breakfast.

Much to his surprise, Harry was already awake and rummaged the fridge for possible breakfast ingredients. The kitchen smelled of coffee.

"Morning Harry." Sirius yawned and sat down. "Already up?"

"Morning Sirius. Couldn't sleep anymore. I dreamt that Snape cursed me with a serious illness and made me drink Malfoy's healing potion. Found no sleep after that anymore. Do you want waffles?"

Sirius laughed. "No need to ask me that, waffles are always welcome. How are you doing today...ooops, shouldn't have asked that, should I?"

Harry smiled. "I'm doing fine, thanks. Let's agree that you're allowed to ask once a day. That's okay for me."

"Fine. Truly a Gryffindor's decision." Sirius poured himself some coffee while Harry prepared the waffles.

At that moment, an owl flew through the window and dropped a rolled copy of the Daily Prophet onto the table in front of Sirius.

Sirius had just wanted to lift the cup of coffee onto his lips and now reached for the five Knuts that lay on the board next to him with the other hand. He paid the owl, which flew off immediately.

Sirius unrolled the paper.

Harry heard the cup fall onto the floor and the hot coffee splashed against the legs of his jeans. He turned around.

"Sirius, watch..."

Harry didn't finish that sentence.

His godfather sat at the kitchen table and stared at the front page of the Daily Prophet. His face had turned white like the tablecloth, his jaw had dropped and the hand that had held the cup trembled like mad.

"Sirius, what's wrong?"

Harry stepped beside Sirius and looked over his shoulder. The picture of a burned down house with the Dark Mark shining over it in the sky covered half of the front page.

"That's Remus' house..." Sirius voice broke. He jumped up from his chair and nearly knocked Harry off his feet.

"Sorry Harry, I need to speak to Dumbledore immediately." He ran off towards the living room, heading for the fireplace.

Harry sat down on Sirius' chair and started reading the article.

Dark Mark over cottage of Hogwarts Professor

by Angelica Miller

Today in the early morning hours, the inhabitants of a small wizarding town near Ivy Hatch reported a burning house to the local authorities. The reports also spoke of the Dark Mark floating over the house.

Ministry Aurors who arrived at the scene found those reports confirmed. The cottage, belonging to Remus J. Lupin, a Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had been burned to the grounds.

The Ministry did not give any statements concerning the whereabouts of Remus Lupin, but one of the Aurors who had been present at the scene confirmed the rumours that the burned remains of a human body had been found in the garden shelter.

Lupin, known to be a werewolf since early childhood, was known to lock himself in precisely this garden shelter when transforming to keep himself from harming people, and yesterday happened to be full moon.

It can therefore be more than only guessed that the intruders, supposedly Death Eaters for the Dark Mark is known to be the sign of You-Know-Who, burned down the shelter with Lupin in it while Lupin was in his werewolf state. Werewolves are known to transform back into human form when they die, therefore the human remains in the garden shelter could very well belong to Remus Lupin despite the fact that he should have been in his canine form that night.

The question why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named could have an interest in getting Remus Lupin out of the way can easily be answered by Lupin's close connection with Albus Dumbledore, presently headmaster at Hogwarts, and Sirius Black who has been imprisoned in Azkaban for twelve years though being innocent as his spectacular trial revealed not long ago.

Black is known to be godfather and future guardian to Harry Potter, and probably this connection to The Boy Who Lived, next to his constant work against the Dark Side alongside Dumbledore and the Ministry, has been a reason for this mortal attack on Remus Lupin.

The Ministry has scheduled a statement concerning this incident for this afternoon, 3.oo p.m. in which we hope to hear more explanations on the incident.

Though Harry had not had any breakfast yet he felt as if he was going to throw up any second. Remus was dead. That couldn't be true, could it? Sirius had been with him only hours before this had happened. They had been fighting over something.

'Oh my god. Remus is dead and the last thing he and Sirius have done was fighting. That will be too much for him, why can't he just have a break? A normal life? Why has it always to be Sirius?'

Lupin was all that was left from his time at school and Harry knew how close the two were.

He rose from his chair. He had to look after Sirius, and maybe Dumbledore knew more.

He found Sirius in an armchair in front of the fireplace, his head buried in his hands. When he heard Harry enter the living room, he raised his head.

"Sirius, have you reached Dumbledore?"

Sirius shook his head. "He was not in his office. I'm sure he'll contact me as soon as he finds the time, but I can't stand sitting here and wait. I need to know what happened to Remus."

"You have not read that article, have you?"

Sirius shook his head. "No. Normally, whenever the Dark Mark is seen somewhere it says just some rubbish about Voldemort's rise to power, that something has to be done against it and that the Ministry is incompetent in fighting them." His eyes suddenly widened.

"What does that article say?"

Harry crouched down beside Sirius' chair.

"Sirius, it says that the Death Eaters burned down the house as well as the cottage. And that they found...they..." Harry breathed heavily and decided to tell it as quickly as possible. "They found the burned remains of a body in the garden shelter. They think it's been Lupin, transforming back to human shape when he died. I'm so sorry Sirius."

"No! No, that can't be true. He's not dead, he can't be dead. We're talking about Remus here, he would not die like that! He wouldn't dare!"

His jaw started shaking and he ran his hands across his face and through his hair as if trying to find something to hold on to.

Harry bent over and carefully embraced his godfather.

"Maybe Dumbledore knows more. There's still the chance that the Prophet's wrong and that the body in the shelter was not Lupin's. Don't give up hope."

Sirius just shook his head and tried to wipe away a tear from his eye.

"It was full moon, and Remus always locked himself in the garden shelter when he transformed. You know him Harry, you know how careful he is. He is so scared of hurting another human being. Who else could that body belong to? Hardly anybody ever comes out to visit him, and if they do they usually don't lock themselves in the garden shelter."

Sirius now could not hold back the tears anymore.

"Sirius, maybe the Prophet was just spreading rumours. Maybe there has been no body inside that cottage at all. You know what the Prophet's like, they'd do anything to sell their paper."

Harry let go of Sirius and looked at his godfather from some distance. "You don't believe that it could have been anybody else, do you?"

Sirius shook his head. "No, I don't see any possibility how it could have been somebody else. Remus would have contacted me after this, he would have let us know that he's okay."

"Sirius, are you there?"

Dumbledore's head appeared in the fireplace.

"Yes Dumbledore, I'm here. What has happened to Remus? Is it true what the Daily Prophet reports?"

Dumbledore sighed.

"I had hoped you would get to know in a different way. But yes, it is true. Remus' house was burned down as well as the garden shelter. And there were the burned remains of a human body inside of that shelter, I really don't want to know who felt like sharing that piece of information with the Daily Prophet.

Sirius, are you sure that Remus always locked himself in there at full moon?"

Sirius nodded. "On the rare occasions during the last two years when I was with him on full moon we ran free, but as far as I know he never did that when he was alone. You know how scared he was that he could bite somebody."

Dumbledore sighed again.

"Then I think there is no reason to believe that it has not been Remus in the shelter. Or did he expect somebody that night?"

Sirius shook his head. "I was with him until about eight in the evening. We...we had a fight and he threw me out. I don't know about any other appointment he made for that evening and I don't think he has made one. It was full moon, who should have visited him? It would have been too dangerous."

"Sirius, I'm so sorry. If there is anything I can do for you..."

"Don't Dumbledore. Don't say you're sorry. I can't stand that. There's nothing you can do, I have to cope with it on my own. Just keep me informed if the Ministry has any suspicion on the culprits. If I can lay my hands on them..."

"Sirius, no acts of self-justice please. That won't bring Remus back but could cost you Harry."

Sirius slowly nodded and Dumbledore vanished. The moment he had gone, Sirius broke down completely. He started sobbing heavily, burying his head in his hands.

Harry didn't know what to do. He had never seen anybody in such a situation and found it hard to say something.

Instead of talking, he pulled Sirius towards himself again and stroke his godfather's back.

"Shhh, it's okay Sirius. It's okay."

"Nothing is okay. Nothing! Especially not the way Remus and I were when we split up. It was like cancelling the friendship. I've said awful things to him Harry, and I won't ever have a chance to tell him I'm sorry. And I've already been sorry when I returned here. If I had only listened to your advice and gone back to the cottage! I could have saved him."

"No Sirius, you couldn't. I can't imagine those Death Eaters appear alone or in pairs. They would have outnumbered the two of you and killed you as well. Don't start accusing yourself for it, it's not been your fault."

But Sirius didn't listen he just continued crying into Harry's shoulder.

[Later that afternoon]

"Sirius, please talk about it! I cannot stand this anymore!"

Harry looked at his godfather who had spent the last five hours since noon sitting on the sofa and staring at the wall. Harry didn't know whether this was an improvement for Sirius had tried to damage every breakable piece of furniture in the house before that. But at least he had been crying then, he had screamed and yelled, he had shown that he was still alive.

Harry sighed and put down a cup on the table in front of Sirius.

"Drink that. Please!"

"What's that?"

"Tea."

Sirius shook his head. "Pour some whiskey into it, then I'll drink it."

"No I won't pour anything in it. I won't let you get drunk, that wouldn't help. Do me a favour and drink it, please."

Sirius nodded hesitantly and slowly lifted the cup into his hand. But his hands were shaking so much that he had to put it down on the table again.

"Sirius please. What have you and Lupin been fighting about?"

Sirius just shook his head.

"It would only make you feel worse about it, believe me."

"Make me feel worse?"

Harry grabbed the copy of the Daily Prophet that lay beside the sofa and started quoting:

"The question why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named could have an interest in getting Remus Lupin out of the way can easily be answered by Lupin's close connection with Albus Dumbledore, presently headmaster at Hogwarts, and Sirius Black who has been imprisoned in Azkaban for twelve years though being innocent as his spectacular trial revealed not long ago.

Black is known to be godfather and future guardian to Harry Potter, and probably this connection to The Boy Who Lived, next to his constant work against the Dark Side alongside Dumbledore and the Ministry, has been a reason for this mortal attack on Remus Lupin."

"They already blame it on me, so what could you tell me that would make me feel even worse?"

He put an arm around Sirius and this time his godfather let him do so. He had refused to be touched since he had started staring at the wall in the living room.

"He...we...well, when I was at Remus' place I told him that I didn't want to continue working for the Ministry because I wanted to stay close to Hogwarts. He said that I was acting unreasonably and that I dodge my responsibilities and never think about the consequences of my actions. He was angry that I didn't tell Dumbledore about my plans to take you away from Privet Drive and that he got involved into that toad-incident because he went after me to prevent me from doing something really stupid.

Then he said that I was too emotional, and I just flipped out. I remembered everything I had to suffer because of my emotions while I was in Azkaban, and merely thinking about it made me go nuts again.

I pushed Remus back against the wall and yelled at him. I shouted that he didn't know what I've been through and that he couldn't judge what is going on inside me. I...I said that he could only say something like that because it was so easy for him during that time. I said that he was resting on the thought that it was all my fault and could dodge all the pain with his hatred for me without ever making up his own mind.

He hit me for that. I've never seen him like that before, and believe me, we've had many fights before. He shouted that I was not in the position to judge what he had been through and told me to leave. He said that he didn't want to see me again if that was what I really meant and I left.

I didn't want to,...I mean,...I already was sorry but...I was so angry and thought...I never imagined that he would not...that I would never...see him alive again. I would have done differently if I had only known..."

"Sirius, I don't know what to say. But nobody could have guessed what would happen. You cannot dodge every fight because you fear that the other one might be dying before you can make it up. I'm sure Remus knew that you didn't mean it."

Sirius shook his head and wiped away the tears from his face.

"No. I have never talked about my time in Azkaban, he never knew what I've been through. I should have told him, then we wouldn't have had this fight. It's all so unfair. I thought that I could lead a normal life now that my innocence is proven.

I thought that I could eventually settle down and take care of you, just like I promised your parents. But no, first thing that happens after that is that one of my friends dies. No, my best friend. The only friend left."

Harry pulled Sirius' head towards his chest where his godfather started crying into Harry's shirt.

"You know Harry, you shouldn't be doing this." Sirius said after a while. "After all, I'm the adult here. I should be the one to listen to your problems, I should be there to comfort you and not the other way around."

"Well, but obviously you are the one who has a reason to be comforted, I don't. Really Sirius, stop thinking that much. Just stop thinking."

He stroked his godfather's back.

"I wish I could. But I can't. Not yet. Not soon." And he started crying again.

Okay, I can already see you flaming me for letting Remus die, please forgive me.

But another thought struck me while re-reading it. Can a werewolf really die like that? I didn't even consider it while I wrote the chapter. Let's just assume that even if the fire and the smoke would not have killed the werewolf it would have most certainly killed the human after Remus changed back. That's why I decided to change it and set the attack in the early morning hours just before posting this one.