Innocence Lost and Found

The training he had had during and just after his years at Hogwarts allowed Remus to become aware of the disaster before it occurred. He had hoped that his fear that this ‘field trip’ was some sort of trap created by a Death Eater spy in the Ministry had been unfounded, the result of a prematurely aged man's paranoia. Never in his life had he been so disappointed to be proven right.

‘GET DOWN!’ he yelled at his students, students who had, if Minerva was to be believed, demanded straight out that he be the one to accompany them today. Even as he sprang into action, he worried in a fear-wracked part of his mind that he would not be able to fulfill his unspoken promise to keep them safe.

‘GET DOWN!’ he repeated. ‘HARRY! GET DOWN!’

Oh, God, not Harry.

He crouched against the wall of the nearest building, trying to count bodies.

Not any of them, but not Harry.

Four. Five. Six. The smoke was thick, and in addition there was a distinct scent of dragon in the air. Seven.

Not James' son.

He had covered his face and ducked in time, and the blast had neither knocked him off his feet nor impeded his ability to move or observe.

Not the Boy Who Lived.

Ron's and Hermione's bodies were closest to him. They were both semiconscious and did not seem to be badly hurt.

Not now, after all he had been through. Not now, not when Sirius was all but free.

He prodded Ron and Hermione, ordered them to move back until they touched the wall.

Harry?

There he was, at last. He was sitting up already; it seemed that he had been neither snatched nor hurt.

He'll hurt plenty when he starts blaming himself for this.

Harry obeyed his command to back up as if through a haze, but then spoke. ‘Parvati? Where's Parvati?’

‘I'll find her. Stay with Ron and Hermione. NOW!’ His voice was sharpened by fear and necessity. Had Parvati been the reason he'd counted seven and not eight?

Neville was whimpering. His arm was twisted in a way that no arm should ever be twisted, but he could walk, and he did. He was much tougher than he looked. Seamus? Seamus. ‘Dean, can you pick him up?’

‘Yes, Sir.’ He sounded as if her were sitting in class. Was he in shock or did he just have a good head in a crisis? Did it matter?

‘Let Lavender hold on to you.’ Her eyes were so bloodied that she might not see again; she surely could not see now. ‘Go with them, Lavender. Get against the wall. Stay with the others. Get any kind of shelter you can.’

The dust was not hanging in the air as thickly as it had been at first, and he could see the pathetic figures now, though he was cautiously moving further away from them. Ron had taken some of Seamus' weight off of Dean, and Hermione had her arm around Lavender. Harry and Neville had their arms around each other as well, though whether because Neville was in great pain or because Harry couldn't see Remus did not know.

He suspected that the street itself had been blown up, not a nearby building, and it wouldn't do to harm himself on the debris while he was meant to be taking care of eight fifteen-year-olds.

Was this what it looked like when Peter blew up that street? Could Peter have done this, too?

Yes, the street was gone. He reached the edge of the nearest crater, keeping his body low, entirely expecting to see the bloodied, broken, rag-doll-limp body of Parvati Patil as he looked down.

He saw nothing.

Thank you.

‘PARVATI? PARVATI, CAN YOU HEAR ME?’ There was no answer. ‘PARVATI!’

‘Professor?’ She had managed to find a tone of voice halfway between a shout and a moan. Remus' head snapped in the direction of the cry, and to his horror he saw that the girl had been forced into a sort of cage that had been magicked so that it would allow her neither to stand up nor to sit down. Instead, she remained in a crouching position, looking unhurt but sincerely frightened. The cage itself was floating in midair, about a meter above where the surface of the road had been moments before.

‘HOLD ON! I'LL GET TO YOU! DON'T PANIC!’

I have to get to her. Not just because she's an innocent child caught in the crossfire. Not just because she's my responsibility. Not just because Harry's life might as well be over if one more person dies because she was standing next to him. Not just because she has parents and friends and a twin sister who would miss her desperately if something happens. All of those reasons. More reasons.

He recalled Pansy Parkinson's threat. He would have to repeat that to Dumbledore-- after he got everyone out of this godforsaken village alive.

Thunder rolled, and the ground shook again. No, no, not thunder-- the dragon. How in the world had the Death Eaters brought a dragon into the village without the Ministry noticing? He knew their purpose almost instantly, though; the dragon was a distraction. Remus had pulled enough pranks in his childhood to know a distraction when he saw one. If the terrified students, faculty members, visitors, Ministry employees kept their eyes on the dragon, they might not notice who had conjured the Dark Mark or mouthed the curse that had caused the street to implode upon itself.

The dragon was half-flying, half-scrambling through the street, driven mad by the shrieks of terror and the sharp bits of debris. A man in a black, hooded cloak stepped before it, encouraging it to stay put with jets of flame that soared from his wand in a steady stream. The dragon raged angrily, sending out his own spurts of flame in response.

Not knowing for sure if or when he would have another chance, Remus began to charge straight toward the dragon. If he had to, he would throw a curse at its weak eyes and hope for the best, but its handler seemed to be receiving the brunt of its attention just now. A dragon could be further confused if one passed extremely close to it. Remus could, conceivably, run right underneath the massive body . . .

. . . And roll safely out the other side. ‘PARVATI?’

‘Here.’ Her voice had grown much weaker since he had last heard it. When he had thrown a disarming curse and a leg-locking curse at her guardian (another black-hooded wizard) in quick succession, he magically unlocked the cage.

Parvati fell forward out of her prison and would have hit the ground face-first had Remus not been able to catch her. She gave a low moan as the last of consciousness left her; Remus could feel her blood soaking through his robes. She was coated all over in blood and sweat. Bruises and hex marks adorned every inch of exposed skin. Handfuls of her beautiful hair had been pulled out.

All of this Remus was able to take in at a glance before cradling his sometime student in his arms and bolting across the street once more.

The dragon had moved slightly, and this time Remus was able to dash behind it, skipping across the narrow section of road that was not filled by a crater, carefully avoiding the dragon's thrashing tail.

‘Professor Lupin!’ Ron's sharp cry directed Remus to an open doorway, and he hurtled through it. Ron slammed the door behind him and sealed it with the simple locking spells that he knew. Remus added a few more without putting Parvati down. ‘Is she . . .’ Ron was obviously afraid to ask the obvious question.

‘She is alive, yes.’ Remus placed Parvati on a table that stood against the wall of the corridor they had entered. ‘Any idea where we are?’ he asked Ron as he attempted to assess Parvati's situation further.

‘We're inside the back entrance of a restaurant. We can't get through the security door into the restaurant itself. I reckon we're pretty safe, because that door we came through is really hard to see unless you know it's there, which I did because this is where Dad takes me to lunch when I visit him at his office.’

‘Good. How is everyone?-- just Ron answer me,’ he added as he saw that several of the other students had gathered around Parvati.

‘Hermione and Dean and Harry and I are fine, except whatever that first explosion kicked up scratched Harry's glasses so badly that he can't look through them. Neville's arm is broken, between the shoulder and the elbow. It's twisted and it's starting to swell. Lavender got cut all around her face, and she got loads of blood in her eyes. Hermione's trying to get it out, but we don't have any water and she's hurting a lot. Seamus came around but he hit his head really hard. He tried to talk but he didn't make any sense.’

‘I want you and Hermione and Dean to stay over here. Everyone else get back and stay as hidden as they can. Don't try any healing spells. Harry shouldn't cast spells he can't see and the others are in too much pain to focus properly.’

‘Hey, you heard him!’ Ron snapped at his classmates. ‘Come on, Hermione.’

Hermione pulled herself away from Lavender. She gasped upon getting her first clear view of Parvati. ‘Is she dying?’ she asked after staring long enough to perceive the feeble rise and fall of Parvati's chest.

‘It's touch and go,’ Remus told her honestly. ‘I don't entirely know what I'm doing, but I need the three of you to keep your heads and we'll do our best to save her.’

Hermione, Ron, and Dean nodded solemnly if nervously.

‘Right, then. Hermione, can you do a perfect Demian Spell? It's the prelude to most--’

‘Cross-species swaps. Yes.’

‘Good. Point your wand a bit to the left of her heart and do it over and over. It's primitive but it helps keep her blood level up.’ Hermione set to her task instantly, repeating the spell in a low, urgent monotone. ‘Dean, clean as much of her blood as you can off her face and arms and legs. If you get to a cut that's shallow enough to seal, do it. Ron, splint any broken bones that you can, and stay on that side so you can keep an eye on the door. We can't be sure that none of our friends out there know about that entrance.’ Ron and Dean began to work methodically as well.

Remus used his wand to sear away what was left of Parvati's robes and clothing.

Undressing an exceptionally beautiful fifteen-year-old girl was the absolute last thing in the world that he wanted to do.

Watching an exceptionally beautiful fifteen-year-old girl get undressed seemed to be the absolute last thing in the world that the two fifteen-year-old boys standing by his side wanted to do.

The spells Remus was able to use on her battered torso were strong, but broad, and while Parvati seemed to become more comfortable, she did not regain consciousness.

‘PROFESSOR!’ Ron jumped forward and threw his body against the hidden, locked door, but he was too late. A masked figure was forcing his way inside their sanctuary.

‘DEAN, PICK HER UP! GET HER BACK! TRY TO SHIELD HER!’ Dean obeyed promptly just as Ron was knocked backwards into the wall. He managed to raise his wand, though, and cry:

‘Expeliarmus!’ as the Death Eater entered the room. Remus stunned him before he could turn, quickly, but not quickly enough. His prone form propped the door open so that two of his friends could follow him. Remus found himself pulled into a two-on-one duel. His magic was drained from trying to help Parvati, and while one of his opponents was nothing special, the other was quite good. Remus was aware that Ron was still behind him, waiting for an opening that might allow him to enter the fray, but Ron had never been taught to duel properly so far as Remus knew.

Doing his best not to let on that his magic was reaching its exhaustion point, Remus stepped outside. He maneuvered his opponents in a circle, and stepped back inside.

Ron slammed the door.

Remus had never been so glad to see that one of his students had been paying attention in his life.

Their locking charms had been broken before, so they added new ones, as many as Ron and Hermione knew and all that Remus could remember. ‘We might have to try to break into that restaurant,’ he said wearily when a sudden jerking caught his eye. Parvati was twitching oddly, wrapped in Dean's robe and lying in his arms.

‘I don't know-- I don't think she's breathing,’ said the previously level-headed Dean quite desperately.

Remus was feeling rather desperate himself. Parvati must not die! Not now! He tried a quick succession of spells with no luck. As a last resort, he drew her from Dean's lap into his own, then placed her before himself and began to breathe for her, the way Muggles did. This technique was not known to work very well when magical methods had failed, but this was not the time to ignore the possibility of a miracle.

Then Parvati took a shallow, choking breath on her own. Then she half-coughed and seemed to find a steady if labored rhythm of breathing. Then her eyelids fluttered, although her dark eyes were still rolled back in her head. ‘Parvati? Parvati, can you hear me?’ She seemed to respond, and when she next opened her eyes, she looked at Remus with a mixture of sheer terror and sheer confusion. Remus, though, was forced to tear his eyes from his patient's and leap back to his feet when the un-openable door that led to the restaurant flung itself open and a figure dressed in black entered, wand at the ready.

Remus had already stepped forward warily when Ron suddenly shouted ‘STOP! IT'S OKAY!’

‘Ron?’ asked the newly arrived wizard eagerly.

‘Perce, it's us, my class, that's all.’

Now Remus could see Percy's rather distinctive Weasley hair, and could recognize his voice as he asked if his youngest brother was all right.

‘I'm fine. Parvati isn't. Seamus isn't. Neville and Lavender kind of aren't.’

‘Percy, do you have any idea what's going on out there?’ inquired Remus, attempting to make his voice professorial rather than commanding.

‘Professor Lupin? Not exactly, but it's safe for you to come into the restaurant. We can do the emergency medical Apparations from there. The streets are almost clear now. The aurors and the hit wizards had good response time, and the group that did this started running.’ He shoved the door open. ‘Is it okay for me to pick Seamus up?’

‘We think so. It's his head,’ answered Ron. Percy pulled the semiconscious sandy-haired boy into his arms and led the way. He was followed by a ragtag collection of Gryffindors whom he could hardly bring himself to believe were fifth years already.

‘Take him,’ Percy said to a middle-aged witch in medical robes as soon as he had entered the room.

‘Is it desperate?’ she asked. ‘We have wounded coming in from all over.’

Percy looked to his brother. ‘He hasn't totally regained consciousness since the first explosion.’

‘Has he been treated at all?’

‘Not really. We were concentrating on Parva--’ Ron's voice broke off in mid-syllable as he saw Parvati in broad daylight. She was still wrapped in Dean's robe, and she looked worse than he could have imagined. The witch looked rather shaken, too.

‘Of course, we'll take them both.’ Seamus and Parvati vanished instantly. Percy had already turned his attention to Neville, and had splinted the broken arm. The odd brightness left Neville's eyes almost instantly as he thanked Percy. Someone had rushed Lavender off to clean her cuts and her eyes properly.

‘Are the rest of you lot actually okay?’ Percy asked, his eyes focused mostly on his younger brother.

‘We're fine, Percy,’ Hermione answered. He seemed willing to believe her.

‘Sir? Are you okay?’

Remus laughed, not a real laugh, but a strange sound that grew out of Percy's oddly formal manner after a long period of desperately barked commands and warnings. ‘Yes. Do you have time to tell us what you know about what happened?’

‘Oh, I definitely should tell you what I know.’

‘Well?’

‘I got a very strange call through the fire in my office a few hours ago. It was from Sirius Black. Dad told me about that trial you had last night, obviously, and he said that he had been spending time with Ron and his friends already.’ Percy paused to glare at Ron. ‘So when he said that he stumbled into a Death Eater plot to destroy the village so they could get to some of the students on a trip here-- particularly Harry-- I believed him. I tried to contact the school, but the students were gone and there wasn't anyone around to talk to because they sent so many escorts. No one at the Ministry would look into things until the explosion actually happened, so it just went down to finding my brother, who I knew would be right where Harry was.’ His voice softened slightly from its lecturing tone. ‘I hoped you'd think to get in here, Ron. It's about the safest place you lot could have gone.’ Then he turned back to his former professor. ‘Sirius Black said he'd try to come here himself but he couldn't leave right away because of Death Eater anti-Apparation spells. He was lucky to find a fire.’

Remus privately thought that it was more likely sheer determination than luck, but he did not say so to Percy. Percy soon enough left to help with the damage control, after hugging Ron (to Ron's great embarrassment).

It was not long before Lavender and Neville were Apparated away as well, and Remus was told to take his four remaining students back to Hogsmeade on the Knight Bus. The uninjured students and professors from the other years and houses joined them, and the ride was crowded and subdued. Remus learned that all in all, six Dark Marks had been conjured in the sky above the village; at least ten separate explosions had destroyed the roads leading in to and out of the village; and, yes, a dragon had been transported in, apparently by portkey.

The attacks that came closest to groups of students had been the one he had survived and another that had nearly taken the lives of several Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff fifth years. Not a single student had lost his or her life, as of yet; and more interestingly, not a single Slytherin had been at all hurt. Even the group that had been walking close enough to Remus' class to jeer at them had escaped unscathed.

HEY, PARVATI! YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO STAND SO CLOSE TO POTTER! THEY MIGHT GET YOU WHEN THEY COME FOR HIM! IT'S SAFER WITH US!

Typical teenaged taunting? Or something else?

When Remus had at last delivered his remaining charges to their common room, he found that he had been summoned to Professor McGonagall's office. He was met not only by Minerva but by Sirius.

‘All right, Moony? Harry's really all right?’

‘Yes and yes.’ He turned to Minerva and said sourly ‘And the last time I checked, all of your students were still alive.’

She sighed deeply. ‘Who are we worried about?’

‘Principally Parvati Patil and Seamus Finnigan.’

‘We have the same information, then. Sit down, you look exhausted.’ Remus sat. ‘There have been calls back and forth from the Ministry all day. In fact, Albus has left to join them, for an indefinite period of time.’

‘Indefinite?’ asked Remus worriedly. ‘But the spells protecting the castle--’

‘Are now in my control. That's why the two of you are here. Albus believes that this is the best option, even if it is a temporary fix. I simply cannot handle the duties of professor, head of house, headmistress, and keeper of the spells simultaneously. In addition, today's dark activity has sent Cynthia Ryan out on active duty. We knew that was a risk we were taking when we hired an active auror. She left as soon as she returned the seventh years to their dormitory. Therefore, Remus, you are temporary professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts and temporary head of Gryffindor House whether you want it that way or not. Neither you nor we have a choice.’

Remus sank farther back in his chair. It was dangerous for him to be around school children, especially when his last expedition with them had ended with only half of his students walking under their own power. Still, he loved teaching, and he had no choice. He nearly missed the end of Minerva's speech.

‘And Sirius, as much as the idea frightens me and as much as the parents may protest, you may temporarily, temporarily, have to teach Transfiguration.’

‘What?’ barked Sirius, obviously shocked. ‘I can't. I don't know how--’

‘I understand, but we do not want the students to have any more free time than is necessary. I'll consider anything you actually manage to teach them a bonus.’

‘But--’

‘Mr. Black, I don't care. Take Mr. Lupin upstairs. It's obvious he almost completely drained his magic while taking heroic measures saving Miss Patil's life. Yes, Remus, I've spoken to the doctors at the hospital and neither Miss Brown nor Mr. Longbottom has stopped singing your praises. I'll speak to you later. Goodbye.’

Thus summarily dismissed, Remus and Sirius adjourned to their bedrooms.

‘I wouldn't have expected you to call Percy Weasley of all people,’ Remus commented as they neared their doors.

‘Because he had a fixation on Barty Crouch?’ Remus nodded. ‘I assumed he was intelligent enough to get over it. I tried to get to his father first, but he wasn't around, so Percy seemed like a safe gamble, even if Ron has made some interesting comments about him to me. Did it do any good?’

‘The more interesting aspects of Percy's personality don't show up when he's in a crisis situation. He's very good at keeping his head and staying in control. Really deserved to be Head Boy. It's just that when things that aren't terribly important are going on, he tends to react as if they were terribly important, which tends to grate on his brothers from what I can tell. Apparently he tried to warn the school and the Ministry, but the school was already taking all the precautions it could and the Ministry wanted to stick its head in the sand. Ron was the one who found our hiding place, and Percy knows how Ron thinks, so he found us and gave us a hand as things were settling down.’

Sirius growled. ‘Things shouldn't have had to settle down. I knew what was happening but I was trapped in their anti-Apparation fields until the mess had already started. I couldn't get through all those barriers to the Ministry buildings in no time flat, so I came here to see what I could do.’ He shuddered. ‘It was awful. You're sure Harry's all right?’

‘Physically, he's fine. He just ruined his glasses.’

‘Glasses can be replaced. Did he wreck them while he was trying to act heroic?’

‘No, it was the first explosion that got them. He couldn't see well enough to play hero this time.’

‘So no hundred points for Gryffindor.’

‘I can't believe you're thinking about that!’

Sirius smiled. ‘Well, priorities.’ Remus began to relax, too, in the face of Sirius' smile. With the students locked in their dormitories and the hospital wing, he and Sirius could hardly do anything more for Harry or anyone else that day.

‘You really can't put points on what they did today,’ he said slowly. ‘Ron was just amazing. He found that hidden door, got everyone inside, kept track of who was hurt where, disarmed a Death Eater, and I can't even tell you what else. Steady the whole way through. So was Dean. Hermione did Demian Spells on Parvati, might have made the difference between life and death. How do you hand out house points for something like that?’

‘Easily. One hundred for you, one hundred for you, none for the Slytherins because they didn't get attacked-- is that true?’

‘As near as I can tell.’

‘We ought to rid ourselves of the whole house.’

‘You ought to be a little more impartial, professor.’

Sirius rolled his eyes. ‘I'll worry about that later. Do you have any idea what happened, specifically? How Parvati wound up most of the way along to dead?’

‘We were alongside the street when it exploded, or rather alongside one of the streets that exploded. The students toward the front of the group were further from the blast-- Ron, Hermione, and Harry weren't touched. Dean wasn't, either, I think he was walking on the inside and Neville on the outside so Neville's arm caught a shard of something that didn't hit Dean. Lavender and Seamus were trailing behind. I don't know what hit him on the head, but it may have been the same thing that ripped up her face. But Parvati was up next to Harry. I don't think the initial explosion got to her; she looked fine when I first saw her across the street, after the Death Eaters grabbed her. Whatever happened to her, the Death Eaters did before I got there.’

‘You said she was next to Harry. Is that--’

‘I don't know.’

‘It was in the Daily Prophet that they went to last year's Yule Ball together.’

‘And on top of that, they had their heads together, talking, the whole walk to the offices. But that's not the interesting thing.’ Remus repeated Pansy Parkinson's threat.

Things, Remus and Sirius agreed as they entered their separate rooms, were not looking up.