Red~A George Weasley Love Story

Chapter 30- The Last Lupin

CHAPTER THIRTY: THE LAST LUPIN

 May 2, 1998

The wind howled through the trees and whipped my hair every which way.  The moon shone high and bright in the night sky.  The stars glittering like diamonds in the folds of dark velvet.  This was a beautiful night.

Far too beautiful to be tainted with the blood of young witches and wizards.  The protection charms shimmered around Hogwarts as the first of the troops advanced.  I was alone among the wizards most feared.  Escaped prisoners and the general evil of the populace, all of them purebloods. 

All except me.  Naturally. 

I listened as cloaks rattled around me and the wind brushed past the dark army.

"CHARMS DOWN!  ADVANCE!" I heard one of the men yell.  I was shoved suddenly forward along with all of the quickly advancing wizards. War cries echoed around me as they stepped onto the Hogwarts campus.  Defense spells shot from the winding towers above, taking out a Death Eater here and there, but overall, they were barely making a dent.

The Death Eaters repulsed me.  How could anyone so blindly follow a tyrant such as Voldemort?  I exhaled heavily and gripped the handle of my wand in acquiescence.  My heart galloped exponentially in my chest until I could hear my blood roaring behind my ears.  I followed the rest of the Death Eaters as they attacked.  The charms around the school had fallen and we advanced in towards the campus.  My boots pounded against the ground, sending dirt out behind me as I ran arduously.  The ardent killers around me ran fervently, droll grins plastered across their grimy faces.  Guilt gripped my heart like a cold hand as I sent out spells and curses in any direction I could.  

All around me bursts of green light took down the students I had once called friends.  The bodies of Ravenclaws, and Slytherins, and Hufflepuffs... and Gryffindors, strewn all around me....

I fought back tears and I battled, turning on Death Eaters when I got the chance.  I had become well versed in the art of dissimulation. 

"Avada Kedavra!" With a burst of green light from my own wand, a Death Eater fell dead to the ground.  I couldn't have picked a worse time to cast a killing curse at one of my own ranks... 

Another voice sounded behind me, and before I had time to react, I felt a wet ripping along my side. Hot liquid seeping across my shirt as the laceration bled out.  I fell to my knees, face blanched as I cradled the wound. 

Then I discerned it.  The two faces of the last people I had expected to see came running towards me. 

Remus and Tonks!

I could feel a smile tug at my lips, when suddenly the same voice screamed again... and with a burst of green light... they both fell dead to the ground, mere centimeters apart.

"NO!" I shrieked.  I grimaced in pain at the wound in my side and hot tears came bubbling down my face.

"No!  Oh, God no!" I rolled forward, applying pressure to stop the bleeding.  The scarlet liquid ebbed away from me and pooled out onto the stone ground.  I looked forward, my vision blurred with tears and I saw them, hand in hand as they had been when they ran towards me.  My family was dead. Remus was dead.  Tonks was dead.  And right in that moment: I was the last Lupin.

The last Lupin.

I had waited so many years to come home to a family, waited and waited and now they were gone! Murdered before my eyes in the last and first moments I saw them.  Dead.

Dead.  Dead.  The word echoed in my mind like a cruciatus curse.

"No, please no..." I sobbed, my cries becoming more strangled as blood continued to saturate my black robe.

 This is the end. I thought. It all ends here.

I composed myself and looked away from the bodies.  I tore away the length of my skirt and tied it around my wound.  I gripped the handle of my wand once more,  hand crusted with my own blood, a new found determination in my eyes.  I was running on borrowed time now.  I sprinted off, ignoring the pain and shooting off killing curses at every Death Eater I passed.

Dark clouds swirled over head and shadowed everything.  Spells blasted apart the castle and rubble and bodies lay everywhere.  All I could hear was my own breath, my eyes only seeing the Death Eaters whom I targeted.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" 

 I cast one last spell and was bown back into the rubble.  I lay upon the stones, slowly getting to my feet, hearing nothing but the roaring rush of blood in my head.  Breathing heavily, I steadied myself against the remains of a wall.  With all my remaining strength I shifted into my animagus form.  Then walked off amongst the rubble of the school I had once called home.