The Lone One

The Lone One

Chapter 1: The Two Wolves

There is an old Indian story. Once, a long time ago, when the white man took over their lands, a little Indian boy sat at the feet of his grandfather. Usually, his grandfather would tell him stories of the old days, when the land belonged to no one and they could hunt and fish at will. But that night, the boy's grandfather seemed dismal.

"Grandfather," said the boy, "what is wrong? Why aren't you telling me stories of the old days?" His grandfather looked at the boy for a moment, then took his pipe out of his mouth and spoke.

"In my heart," he said, "I feel as though there were two wolves fighting. One wolf represents love and forgiveness, the other fear and hatred."

"And which one will win, Grandfather?" asked the boy.

"Only time will tell," he had answered, a far away look in his eyes as he dreamed of times past.

~*~*~

Remus Lupin thought of this old story as he gazed at the ruins of the castle Arann. It had been little more than six months after the deaths of his friends, and he had yet to heal. He felt like the grandfather in the story, except for one difference: he knew which wolf would win.

He had come to the Irish town of Arann, so named after the ruinous castle that was there, just the day before. This castle was the perfect place to stay for awhile, at least until the next full moon, when he would yet again travel to another place. For that was his life now, always on the move. After he heard of the deaths of the Potters and Peter, he had packed up and left, not even bothering to go to their funerals. He didn't think he could have handled it.

Remus had nowhere to turn, nowhere to go. He didn't have any other friends, or at least that's what he thought, and no family to speak of. He knew that Dumbledore would gladly have tried to help him, but he given so much help to Remus before that he couldn't possibly think of asking for more.

He didn't know why he moved around so often now. It seemed he was trying to find something, or rather, running away from something. He had no joy in his life now, the only thing he found relief in was finding somewhere suitable to spend the lonely nights. Castle Arann was the best place he had come across.

Only a little more than a hundred people lived in Arann, and so scattered about were they that it wasn't even really a town. The place was in the wilderness, hidden from the eyes of others. Remus had seen children playing in the street when he had come, he knew that they would probably never leave this place for their entire life.

The town seemed to be of completely mixed blood. They were all either squibs or their magic had never been brought out of them, so that they were only capable of doing very simple spells. If things had been like they used to be, then Remus would have felt sorry for them, but now he didn't care a thing in the world for any other person. All he saw were a bunch of ignorant people who didn't know a thing about the world around them.

And for the most part, it was true. It was their ignorance that made Castle Arann such a suitable place. They were terrified of the old castle.

The entire surrounding wilderness was thick with vampires and other types of Dark Creatures. Being so terrible at magic, the town was often ravaged by them, either killing people or turning them into things like themselves. The town lived in fear, yet the people were too stupid (as Remus thought) to leave the place.

When he had arrived at Arann, he went to local pub, which was really more of a hole in the ground, and asked casually, as if just curious, about the castle. The people there were so excited with having him there, as visitors were few and far between, and all began talking at once. They told him of the local legend, about how Arann was, during the Middle Ages, one of the most important cities in Ireland, but they were taken over by vampires, who ruled over them cruelly and brought many to their castle to torture. Although they were eventually overthrown, they still believed that one day the vampires would come back to live in that very same castle.

Throughout their entire story, Remus had tried not to yawn, and had an extremely hard time pretending to be interested. He had heard such stories before, they were only there because of the peoples' fear of the Dark Creatures in the woods. The legend had probably been started long ago by anxious mothers telling their children stories so that they wouldn't go playing where they shouldn't.

Remus didn't understand why they all just sat there and told ghost stories while their children were attacked at night. If they would just pay attention to what was real... but oh well. At least he had a place to stay that night.

Remus shivered and pulled his thin cloak around his shoulders as the icy wind and rain swirled around him. The castle was a lot bigger than he thought it was when he'd seen it from far away. Its staring dismal windows seemed to mock him. At this point, he could almost see why the towns' people were scared of the place.

As he came to the wooden door, he saw that it was much too large for him to open. He wondered if at one time trolls had been used to open and shut the doors. The great hinges were probably rusted shut, anyway.

It was easy to find a way in through a broken window. The castle, in it's time, was probably never a war fort, rather, just an impressive place for a noble to stay.

He coughed as dust went down his throat. He smiled grimly as he thought about how that dust probably hadn't for a thousand years.

Yes, this castle was once a splendid place. He rubbed some grime off one of the windows and found stained glass. What at first glance looked like a giant rag was actually an intricately colored rug. The entire first floor was one room, the Great Room. He tested his weight on the spiral staircase, it seemed solid enough.

He puffed his way up three more flights of staircases. He was in excellent shape, but the stairs were steep. On each landing there were doors, probably leading into kitchens and other bedrooms. He would explore them later; he wanted to see what was at the top.

A large open area greeted him. There was a sort of balcony all the way around. He looked out over the countryside. It really was a beautiful place. He could see a tiny cottage. It was a little too close to the castle for Remus's comfort, he didn't really know why, but he didn't want anyone to know he was staying there. They might mistake him for a vampire or something. Not that the truth wasn't scary enough.

He backed quickly away from sight of the cottage and turned around to look at the other rooms. Sure enough, the first door he opened was a bedroom, but what was inside made Remus tense up as he grabbed his wand. The entire place seemed good as new. Everything seemed polished and untouched by mildew. Even the bedspread looked as if someone had just come in and made it.

A closer inspection made Remus relax a bit, though he didn't put down his wand. A layer of dust covered everything. There had to have been some extremely strong charms put in here one time to keep everything intact as it was. He wondered if any of the other rooms were this way. It was too bad it was so soon after the full moon, he wanted to explore them now, but was much too tired. He would have to do it in the morning.

Remus hated going to sleep these days. There was always so much pain and horror in his dreams. Before, when he was in school, he'd have horrible dreams about the night he was bitten. But as he got older and became closer to his friends, those dreams had eventually only come every once in awhile. They still came, however. Nowadays he had dreams every night. And not just about being bitten, either.

Remus hid his wand under his pillow, a curious habit he'd always had. Better safe than sorry. That's what he'd said to James so long ago, when they were first years and he'd asked. But he didn't want to think about James, not now... He closed his eyes.

~*~*~

Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape sat in the teachers' conference room. They seemed to be talking about something important to Snape. The door to the room opened a little and Hagrid stuck his large shaggy head in.

"Sorry 'bout botherin' you, but young Remus Lupin's here an"-

Suddenly Remus burst through the door. He had an almost manic glint in his eyes that none of them had ever seen before.

He rushed up to them and stood quivering. "Is it true?" he asked, as if he was restraining himself from rushing around the table. "Is Voldemort really dead?" McGonagall and Dumbledore exchanged grim glances.

"Yes," said McGonagall, not looking at Remus. He didn't seem to notice, though.

"Yes!" he cried. "Finally, we're free!" Unable to contain himself he began pacing excitedly around the room.

"You wouldn't believe how I found out. Some drunk told me. He told me some strange things, like that Lily and James were dead. As if Lily and James could die!" He laughed a hollow, high-pitched laugh that made McGonagall flinch.

"He's gone mental," said Snape sourly, but looking uncomfortable.

"Remus, maybe you'd better sit down," said Dumbledore.

"Why? Am I in trouble?" He laughed again, but didn't sit down.

"Remus," said Dumbledore gently, "The Potters are dead. And so is Peter. Voldemort came to Godric's Hollow last night."

"Yeah, sure," said Remus. "I'll bet this is just another of the guys' jokes. What are they doing, hiding under the table or something?"

Professor McGonagall was breathing hard, she seemed to be trying not to cry. "Remus," she said, stepping forward and trying to put a hand on his shoulder while he promptly jerked away, "it's true. They're dead. Sirius betrayed them. He betrayed us all."

"No," said Remus, this time his voice was almost pleading. "No, no, no. They can't die... they can't..."

Hagrid came in and stood behind him awkwardly. Tears were streaming out of his black beetle eyes.

"Everythin's gonna be alrigh,' he said. "The Ministry's gonna catch Black soon, an' Harry's gone off ter live with his aunt an' uncle..."

Remus slumped, holding his head in his hands. "No," he muttered, "no."

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, "Would you please escort Mr. Lupin to Madame Pomfrey? She might be able to give him something to-"

"NO!" shouted Remus, who was on his feet again. There were tears streaming out of his gray-green eyes, and his hands were balled into fists.

"They can't die! We made a vow! We made a vow to never leave each other, to never betray each other...Oh, God!" Remus stumbled blindly. Everyone around him was a swirl of color. He couldn't understand anything they were saying. All he heard as he collapsed was a voice in his mind saying 'No,'...

~*~*~

Remus woke much later than expected. The sun shone through the stained glass, illuminating everything as he walked through the corridors. He suspected to find add-on rooms when he came to the rooms he wanted to look through. The castle was looked much too large on the outside to be so small on the inside.

However, when he came to one of the rooms, he found no door leading to anywhere. In fact, the only thing in the room was a large wardrobe.

He gave a thin-lip smile as he thought back to a book he once read as a child, all about a magical wardrobe. It had been written by a Muggle author... what was his name? C.S. Lewis, wasn't it?

Suddenly, he felt a draft coming from the other side of the room. But how could that be? The door was behind him, not in front of him. On a hunch, he crossed the room to where the wardrobe stood, and using his strength shoved it aside, something a regular man couldn't have done. There, behind the wardrobe, was a wrought-iron door.

He painstakingly opened it. It was extremely heavy, even for him. A dank stone staircase lead the way downward. He paused. Did he really want to know what was down there? He hated being alone in dark places. Whenever he was, his wolf instincts awoke, and he felt less than human.

Finally, curiosity got the better of him and he slowly walked down the stairs, painfully aware of how his hearing and sight came more sharply into focus. When he came to a landing and a door, he thought he had reached the end, but when he opened the door, it just revealed another flight leading downward.

Down, down he went. I must be under the castle by now, he thought. Finally, he came to another door, just as heavy as the first. Inscribed upon it was a strange language that he'd never seen before. He slowly opened the door.

It took all of his willpower to keep from screaming. It was a torture chamber. Or at least it had been. Hundreds of skeletons hung from the walls or lay on stretching devices. Some were twisted into grotesque shapes, with all kinds of metal instruments sticking out of them. And there were children. They seemed to have had the worst of it, most were in a large cage with spikes on the inside.

Remus ran all the way back up the stairs and then out of the castle. Later he would look back and think that it was stupid, that those people had been dead for a thousand years, but at that time all he could think as he ran blindly was, They were right. The townspeople were right.