The Last Marauder

Epilogue

Three weeks had passed since the eventful night of Harry's capture.

Professor Dumbledore had come back only hours after Snape had sent off the owl and after he had talked with Fudge, McGonagall and Snape for a long time he had bid Harry into his office the next morning.

Harry had told him once again what exactly he had done that night, feeling more than guilty that he had gone so far as to use an Unforgivable Curse on a fellow human being. Harry had been horrified by the prospect of meeting his headmaster. What would Dumbledore think of him now?

But when he had entered the headmaster's office, the old wizard had greeted him with his friendly, ever-sparkling eyes. Though the events of the last weeks had left their marks in his face as well, he didn't seem to have lost his ability to be cheerful. Harry had sat down in a chair in front of Dumbledore's desk and had looked him in the eyes. Then the question had just slipped out of his mouth, the question he had posed himself over and over again since he had woken this morning.

"Professor, will I be sent to Azkaban?"

Dumbledore had watched him with an unreadable expression.

"Why do you think you should be sent to Azkaban?"

"Because I cast two of the Unforgivable Curses. I mean, that's the punishment for casting them - being sent to Azkaban."

Dumbledore had nodded.

"Yes Harry, it is."

Harry's stomach had clenched. So he would be sent to the wizarding prison, he would spend the rest of his life there. And considering the fact that he didn't have Sirius' animagus abilities, the rest of his life would be very short. Dumbledore's voice then had interrupted his chain of thoughts.

"However, I have talked to the Ministry this morning, right after I returned here. And believe me, nobody wants to send you to Azkaban. After all, you have banned Voldemort once more."

Meeting Harry's puzzled look, he had smiled and continued.

"Harry, after the first set of attacks nearly two weeks ago, the Ministry has permitted the Aurors to use the Unforgivables. None of them will be sent to Azkaban for it, so why should you be? I know, you are not an Auror, but you were in a situation when you were confronted with Voldemort himself. What you did was merely trying to save Sirius' and your life. Nobody can accuse you of caring for the people you love and taking every possible mean to save their lives."

Harry had sighed.

"But I cast Cruciatus on a fellow human being."

Dumbledore had nodded.

"Because it was the only thing you could do that moment."

"Professor, I don't know how I should feel about it. I mean, I'm not better than the Death Eaters after I've done this."

But Dumbledore had only shaken his head.

"Don't Harry. Don't think like that. You did what no one else of us was able to do. I am not somebody who lives after the dictum that the end justifies the means but what you did made Voldemort vanish again, even if only for short. And I know for sure that you didn't use that curse with the same purpose that a Death Eater would have done."

"But I wanted to kill Wormtail."

Dumbledore had nodded.

"Yes, but you took the curse off him before you did, so he will recover. You would not have put him under that curse if there had been a possibility to attack Voldemort himself. And you didn't cast the Killing Curse on a fellow human being, you cast it at a dark creature in order to protect what you thought was worth protecting. To protect those you love. We are all fighting Voldemort now Harry, we all are. This is a war and unfortunately, in any war we have to take means we don't want to take. And if any of us, be it Professor Snape, Sirius or even me would have been given the chance, none of us would have done differently than you have. It's just that none of us could have done what you did. It was your place to do it, and I'm proud that you have done it. Once more, you have proven courage where many grown wizards would have faltered. Sirius has told me what happened in the yard. Not many people have the courage to openly oppose Voldemort, Sirius himself has admitted that - what did he say? - 'this thing scared the living daylight out of him'. But you did not falter, you protected and defended your ideals and the people you love. We are all very proud of you, Harry.

But I need you to understand that despite all your efforts, I fear that Voldemort is not dead. We don't know where he is, but I don't even think that he is off as bad as he was fifteen years ago.

Voldemort has grown very powerful over the last year. I'm afraid that Avada Kedavra might not be enough to kill him. He has probably apparated away the moment he realized what was going on and so far the Ministry has no clue about his whereabouts."

Harry had merely nodded, he had guessed that much already.

"The Death Eaters?"

"Some have been captured, some have escaped. Lucius Malfoy has been arrested however, and we're very faithful that he will have some useful information for us. He will surely do anything to bargain himself from being brought to Azkaban."

The moment Dumbledore had mentioned Lucius Malfoy, another question had surfaced in Harry's mind.

"Professor, you know what happened at Malfoy Manor? I mean, that Draco helped us escape?"

"Yes Harry, Sirius has told me that young Mr. Malfoy might have saved all your lives last night. I have spoken with him myself this morning."

"Did he...I mean, do you know why he did it? I simply cannot find an explanation for what he did."

For long moments Dumbledore had watched Harry, deeply lost in thoughts. Just when Harry thought that he would not answer the question, the headmaster had sighed.

"I don't think that it is my story to tell, Harry. Nevertheless, I am convinced that Draco himself will never tell you, but I think you have a right to know. However, what I tell you now will remain a secret. Remus and Sirius know it as well, but you can't tell anybody else, not even Ron and Hermione."

He had looked at Harry and Harry had nodded.

"During the summer holidays, Draco was initiated into the ranks Voldemort."

Harry's eyes had widened in shock.

"You mean - he became a Death Eater? He got the Dark Mark?"

Dumbledore had nodded.

"Yes, Draco became a Death Eater, and as far as he told me, that was what he wanted. Maybe not so soon, but Lucius had pressed it. It is a tradition of the Death Eaters that the newly initiated participate in all the following activities. That means Draco participated both in the raid in Diagon Alley before the start of term and in the raid at the Ministry. He left school for that night by floo and nobody noticed.

Draco Malfoy has been risen by his father to become a mirror of his thoughts and I always thought that Lucius had been very successful with this. And somehow he was. Draco really believes in what his father taught him. He believes in the superiority of pureblood wizards, he believes that muggle-born witches and wizards should not be educated in magic schools and he believes that we would be better off if we kept amongst ourselves.

But I think those two raids he participated in made him see what I talked about earlier on. That the end does not justify the means. From what he told me, he was disgusted by what he saw. And since the attack on the Ministry he fought his own battle, he was searching for a way to keep himself from becoming a torturer or, even worse, murderer without throwing all his beliefs over board. And he started seeing his own father more critically.

You might say that he was walking on a very thin line, and when Sirius threatened his life in his father's office and all he received from Lucius was scolding for being unarmed, it triggered his reaction. I think he was less helping Sirius than he was opposing his father."

Harry had nodded.

"What will happen to him now?"

"He has been questioned by the Ministry, and from what I know he has been cooperative. He is still underage, he was under the influence of his father, he didn't kill anybody an in the end he helped freeing The Boy Who Lived", Dumbledore smiled when Harry made a face at these words he hated so much, "so I don't think that he will have to face a trial. The Ministry might watch him a little closer now, but that should be all. And I think that with Professor Snape being the head of his house, he has somebody in loco parentis who knows what he's dealing with."

Then Dumbledore had smiled at Harry.

"But that should not be bothering you now.

I still cannot gather exactly how, but Remus is still alive and Merlin, I'm glad that it has turned out to be like this. You have to look after them now Harry, your godfather has a tendency to over-estimate his strength. Why don't you go down into the infirmary and tell him to sleep a little?"

He had smiled at Harry. "And if there is anything you need to talk about and don't want to bother Sirius or Remus with, just tell me. Anytime."

Harry had nodded and left, feeling as if the weight of the world finally had been taken from his shoulders.

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

This all had been three weeks ago now. In the meantime, the Ministry had found out the identity of the body that had been found in Remus' garden shelter. It had been a homeless muggle who had fallen into the hands of Lucius Malfoy. It had been Voldemort's plan to capture Remus, pretend his death and, at a given time, lure Harry and Sirius into the hands of the Dark Lord with his hostage.

The tombstone with Remus' name on the muggle's grave had been removed and he had been given a proper funeral ceremony.

This morning, Harry and Sirius had returned home with Remus. One of the few fortunate aspects of being a werewolf was that his body healed a lot quicker, so he had recovered quite well in the three weeks under Madam Pomfrey's care, but he was still weak. Also, Harry had heard him wake up at night several times, screaming as the reminders of his imprisonment haunted his dreams. He was far from being able to live on his own again yet. Besides, Remus' cottage was far beyond repair and Harry knew that Sirius thought about talking him into moving to his house completely.

Dumbledore had allowed Harry to go home for at least two weeks and Harry knew that he wanted him to digest everything in a familiar surrounding as well as to have an eye on Sirius.

Harry sat at the kitchen table and looked over into the living room. What he saw there made him smile.

Remus slept on the sofa, a blanket spread across his body. Sirius sat next to him, Remus' head on a pillow in his lap. Sirius too had fallen asleep and his head had fallen onto his chest.

Sirius had not left Remus' side for more than three or four hours during the past weeks and even now he had refused to bring him into his bedroom.

Harry knew that if he had done so, he would have checked on him every ten minutes. Sirius still could hardly believe that all this was real, that his friend really was alive and his biggest fear was waking up and realizing that it had all been a dream. So he stayed with Remus as much as possible, sat by his side and talked to him, watched him sleep or slept himself in uncomfortable infirmary chairs.

Harry knew hardly anything about what had happened to Remus during his imprisonment at Malfoy Manor and judging after what he had seen he didn't really want to know. They would tell him when they thought it was right, Harry could wait. Sirius and Remus still had a lot in their past they needed to talk about that was more important now.

Harry smiled again and put his teacup into the sink. Then he went over into the living room and sat down in an armchair beside the two men on the sofa.

He had to stifle a harsh laugh when he thought about what a strange combination of people lived in this household.

The Boy Who Lived, the boy who had never known his parents but had had a mortal enemy ever since he was born. The boy who was still haunted by nightmares about his encounters with Voldemort, the boy who was still laden with guilt for the death of an innocent classmate.

Sirius Black, who had spent twelve years in hell for a crime he had not committed, who had spent two more years on the run from the Ministry. Sirius Black who was still convinced deep down inside that the death of his best friend somehow had been his fault.

Remus Lupin the werewolf who had been neglected by so many people through his life and despite all this had become one of the most loving and caring people Harry knew. The man who had thought for twelve years that three of his friends had died by the hand of his fourth friend, the man who had believed that his only remaining friend had betrayed him for such a long time. And the man who had lately been kidnapped and tortured because the people close to him were a threat to Voldemort.

Nearly every night one of the three inhabitants of Black Cottage woke up because his past had caught up with him in his nightmares. But nevertheless, Harry saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

It would take time, but they'd get over it, Harry knew for sure. Both Sirius and Remus had seen tough times before and together they would get through this as well.

The thought that those two exhausted men on the sofa were his family made Harry feel all warm inside. It felt right.

He closed his eyes.

When Remus was doing better he would ask Sirius to take him to Godric's Hollow and to his parents' graves. He needed to say goodbye. He felt ready for this, now that he knew that he was living with people who really cared for him, who would stand beside him whatever happened.

He was ready to leave his past behind, though of course there were some memories which he would always carry around with him. Good memories, like the little he remembered about his parents.

But he would leave all the anger, fear and hatred of his time as an unloved burden at the Dursleys behind and would look into the future.

Voldemort was still out there and Harry felt that this would not have been the last time he had threatened his life and the lives of those he cared for.

But looking once more onto the sleeping forms of Remus and Sirius, Harry knew that together they somehow would get through it.

~~~ THE END ~~~