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THE CARBONATED BUBBLE OF FIZZING LEMONADE filled Remus' ears as he poured himself a glass. His head was aching as though someone had his skull in a vice and kept tightening it.
Remus felt as though he'd had a headache for the last few months, the feeling had become normal to him now but he still found himself rubbing the sides of his temples when he had the chance.
He hoped this meeting would be over soon. They always dragged out and it wasn't as though they were getting any good news, he was beginning to lose hope that this war was ever going to end. Not that he had anything to look forward to once it was over.
Remus had been surprised to see Athena show up, his mind flickered with rage just by looking at her. It was an odd feeling that he couldn't explain but he'd linked it to his own frustrations of being through so much only for his feelings to ebb away. Love was complex, he'd learnt not to question it.
Still, Athena had run away from everything that had happened up til now. Ignoring the signs that he didn't want to be stuck in this revolving fair ground ride of emotions. It had once been a rollercoaster but at the end it felt more like a lazy river that he just wanted to get off.
He sighed loudly almost forgetting that he was in a room full of people. They were all leaning around the counters, eating biscuits while they got the chance. Remus saw Peter sneak a few chocolate chip cookies into the pockets of his denim jacket. Typical Peter.
Remus wondered if he could fake illness and just go home. He'd noticed Athena staring at him every time she got the chance and it made him uncomfortable because he knew exactly what she was thinking. She was hoping that he would change his mind and that made this whole twisted thing harder.
Every time their eyes met the whispers in his mind would start again. He'd assumed this was the bubbling of emotions, getting too much to deal with in silence. This voice had been created to explain how he was feeling and for the most part it had helped him understand.
You don't love her anymore. You stopped loving her in January. You fell out of love. You deserve better. She's insane, she'll drag you down with her. You tried your best but now you should concentrate on yourself.
Remus moved back to his seat and slumped into it. Sirius was already sat drinking straight out of a can of coke covered in a layer of perspiration from being in the fridge.
Sirius was cold with him recently, in fact everyone was. They'd taken Athena's side and for the most part he understood why. He'd been cruel to her when he hadn't meant to be, this he didn't understand. Then again, he'd never been good at containing his anger.
Lily had been the worst and it had hurt more than the others. He wasn't used to her being so passive to him. He wondered if it would ever be normal again, if this goddamn headache (literal and metaphorical) would stop.
"Where's Rena?" Lily asked. Everyone had taken their seats again now. It had only been fifteen minutes of getting drinks and musing about however she definitely wasn't there. Yet again at the mention of her name he felt anger bubble inside of him.
"Mary isn't here either" Peter pointed out. Remus saw him glance at Dumbledore who suddenly seemed to be concerned. Remus never saw the headmaster show many inklings of emotion however this was one of them.
"The front doors locked, we would have seen her go out the back" James mumbled, "and you can't apperate at the moment because of the protective enchantments"
"Well either she climbed out a window or used floo powder" Sirius grunted, "I'm presuming the latter"
"But Mary's gone too" Peter continued, "what if—"
"You're not suggesting that Athena would do something to Mary, are you?" Marlene challenged. Her striking eyes were narrowed and Peter looked suddenly scared.
"You misunderstand" Dumbledore sighed, "we are not suggesting that Athena has done something to Mary, we are suggesting the opposite"
Remus frowned as he looked at the headmaster, he was looking knowingly over his half moon spectacles.
Athena was wrong. She was crazy. She believed that Mary was a death eater. You shouldn't believe her, her mind was broken. She's losing it.
"Sorry what?" Dorcas frowned, "you mean to say that, Mary actually is a death eater?"
"I wasn't sure" Dumbledore began, "at first, like all of you, I believed that Athena's mind had been tricked. This would be a reasonable explanation after what she'd been through and it was also the most plausible explanation"
"Athena was right?" James pressed on, guilt riddling his features. Remus felt a spurt of anger again. They shouldn't feel guilty towards her. She's crazy.
"I gave Mr Pettigrew the mission of looking over her, obviously he and Miss MacDonald were quite close however he was willing to take the mission anyway"
"While you lot were in Paris she kept disappearing" Peter nodded, "I couldn't be sure but... it seemed as though she could be a death eater"
"But you let her in order meetings" Marlene scoffed, "she knows everything that's been going on... if you had a suspicion she was a death eater you should have done something to prevent that"
"But if I was wrong?" Dumbledore raised his eyebrows,
"It would be better to slightly offend Mary in comparison to her gaining information. If she's a death eater then Voldemort knows where the cup is... he knows where the locket is"
"It was a chance I was willing to take"
"And allowing us to think that Athena was crazy?" Sirius snapped, "was that just a chance you were willing to take?"
"Mr Black, I did nothing to influence your views over Athena you came to those conclusions yourself"
Sirius fell quiet but anger was evident in his face as he slumped into his seat.
"All this time, Athena's been right and we didn't believe her" Lily whispered,
"We called her crazy" Dorcas nodded, "oh god I feel awful"
"Will you all stop talking about Athena like she's some kind of hero!" Remus snapped, "she's still crazy"
"What do you mean she's still crazy?" Scoffed James, "have you even been listening?"
"What's got in to you recently" Lily frowned, "you're ignoring the obvious, why are you so determined to ignore the truth?"
"Rena. Is. Crazy" Remus spelled out, "are you all blind?"
"Us?" Sirius barked with laughter, "mate you're cracked"
"Remus this isn't like you" Lily murmured, "surely now you can see that Rena was right all along"
Rena thinks she's smarter than everyone else but in reality she doesn't know anything. She was wrong. She's crazy. You know her better than anyone, you know she's wrong.
"Athena doesn't know a thing" Remus continued, "she just thinks she does, she thinks she's so smart, so clever, she thinks she's better than everyone else just because she was in Ravenclaw!"
Remus had clattered to his feet now, observing his friends with a new found anger. Similar to the one that he channeled towards Athena.
"Oh fuck you Remus" Sirius jumped up and began to square up to him, "Athena deserves the fucking world"
"Mr Lupin" Dumbledore spoke calmly which didn't match the mood that the room had been dumped into. Everyone turned to him slowly, Sirius still with his fist clenched.
"Yeah?"
"Take off your ring"
Remus frowned as he looked down to the thick golden band on his finger. He hadn't even realised he was still wearing it until now, the metal felt heavy, uncomfortable. Now he stared at it, questions popped into his mind. Why hadn't he taken it off after he'd ended it with Athena.
He took the ring off and laid it on the table while everyone watched in baited breath.
"Well that was dramatic" Remus drawled sarcastically wondering what Dumbledore had expected to happen.
That's when it hit him. Remus felt his heart burn, his headache vanished and the whispering words evaporated. His mind didn't feel like his own, it felt like someone had been driving his own body while he took a sit back. However he hadn't noticed this, how hadn't he noticed that he hadn't been in control? He felt weak, stupid and suddenly exhausted.
"What's happening to me?" Remus asked, staring at his own hands as though he was expecting to see someone else's. His memory had blurred gaps. He could recall what had happened but they felt foreign to him as though he'd stolen them from a pensive.
"I think you've been cursed" Dumbledore muttered in confusion as he summoned the ring towards him. Remus ran his hands over his face, feeling a new surge of emotions that had been suppressed this entire time.
"Mate?" James asked, "how do you feel about Rena?"
"Rena?" He whispered. Falling into his seat as the pieces of the puzzle finally added up. Questions he had been wanting to ask had finally been answered. Who had he been?
"Yes Rena" James nodded,
"Fuck" he cursed, forgetting that the entire order was sitting around the table, "I told her I didn't love her... why did I do that?"
"Someone's been tampering with your mind" Dumbledore answered, he was running his wand over the ring and Remus watched as small clouds of purple rose from it.
"Did she believe me?" Remus asked, "everything feels fuzzy, it feels as though I haven't really been here... but I also have, does that make sense?"
"No it doesn't" Sirius mused, "but she did believe you... actually we all did"
"We should have realised" Lily mumbled, "oh gosh we've been so stupid... first not realising that Athena was telling the truth and now we didn't even notice you were being cursed"
"I punched you" James muttered, "sorry Moony"
"That's the least of my worries right now Prongs" Remus replied. Guilt was rushing through him like a tidal wave. The worst part was that disbelieving Athena and thinking she was crazy had been his own mind, no one else's.
"It was Mary wasn't it?" Marlene asked, "Mary's been cursing him?"
"I thought curses had to be performed regularly?" James asked, "that's why we ruled out the idea that he was being cursed"
"They do have to be performed regularly unless of course they are placed on an object such as this" Dumbledore nodded, "Miss MacDonald has been smart about her actions"
"She's been controlling me" Remus snapped, "when I find her I'll kill her, where is she? Where's Rena?"
"Yes where is Rena?" Sirius turned to Dumbledore, "she could be in trouble, we have to find her!"
"That we do" Dumbledore nodded, "this ring proves all my suspicions... Mary MacDonald is a death eater"
"Fucking bitch" Dorcas jumped up, "I'll kill her!"
"You'll have to get in line" Remus muttered, "Rena could be anywhere... it's happening all over again! They've taken her, again!"
"We don't know that they've taken her" Lily pointed out, "maybe Rena just followed Mary somewhere... we know how much she wanted to prove that Mary was a death eater"
"If we'd just listened!" Remus snapped, hitting his fist against the table and knocking over Sirius' coke can.
"Athena's in trouble" Lily muttered, "where could she be?",
"She could be dead" Sirius muttered and Remus felt like punching him just for suggesting it.
"Don't the death eaters need her alive, because of the prophecy?" Alice asked.
"Last I heard Dacre claimed that if they couldn't hear the end of the war no one could and he stabbed her" Marlene pointed out, "we have no idea of knowing what the death eaters are planning but they now know what we are thanks to snakey MacDonald"
"Come on!" Remus snapped, "there must be some way of knowing where she is!"
"Hang on" Lily interrupted, "you said that the ring was connected to Mary, she cursed it"
"Yes I've been hearing her voice in my mind" Remus nodded, "I didn't notice until now but it was her words plaguing what I knew"
"Well then if the ring connects Remus to Mary in some way, maybe if he puts it back on he'll be able to figure out where she is"
Dumbledore pondered the idea for a moment before he nodded,
"That could work" the purple clouds fell back into the signet ring as it hovered towards Remus, "are you ok putting it back on?"
"If there's a chance it'll help is find Rena then of course I will" Remus nodded. He took the ring in his hand and shoved it back onto his finger. Red flashed in his eyes, the aches in his body returned worse than ever now he had been free of them for a short time. At first the curse had gradually built up to trick him however now it was pouring into him all at once.
Whispers returned but this time he was ready, he recognised that it wasn't his voice calling words to him but Mary's. She was angrier than ever now and he did his best to suppress this to his mind so that he wouldn't feel it too. He needed to see where she was, he knew that whatever was happening wasn't good but he could also feel her sense of pride.
Where are you? Remus asked in his own mind. He felt the prick of burning behind his eyes which he had snapped shut. His skin prickled and then he heard a voice "So long Rena, I've really enjoyed this little chat of ours, see you never"
His eyes flashed with sudden fury to see raging dancing flames of burnt orange in a dimly lit attack. There she was, tied to a chair and putting up no fight. She seemed impressed at Mary's plan which felt odd. She smirked and it was the last thing that he saw before his eyes opened. He ripped off the ring and heard it clatter on the wooden table as he looked up.
"Where is she?" Lily asked first,
"She's at Rosemary cottage" he replied, "she's in the attic... Mary's set the place on fire" he realised the irony of this statement that some people in this room wouldn't understand.
"We have to go then" James jumped up quickly, "hurry!"
Remus darted into the living room first and tumbled into the fireplace.
"Rosemary cottage!" He yelled, the last thing he saw were the concerned faces of his friends before he fell.
He wished that it would go faster. Usually he hated the speed but now it was essential. He could lose her if he didn't move fast enough. In her mind she had already lost him.
Remus' feet collided with the new grate and he found it weird to be standing in the living room he remembered from his youth. He'd spent many days here with Rena, the memories stung now.
He could smell burning almost immediately and worried that the fire had spread, what if he was too late? The flames weren't even the issue, the smoke would kill her off first. She'd die alone with the knowledge that Remus hadn't loved her anymore.
Remus was running now, hearing clattering behind him which meant someone else had arrived. He didn't turn to see who it was, he just kept on running. The amount of stairs were a curse. The flames had spread onto the attic stairs blocking the entrance.
Sirius was behind him in a second and pointed his wand at the flames. Remus wished that he could have acted so fast without question. The flames curled into an opening which the two boys dived through.
James and Lily weren't far behind and another clatter from the stairs suggested that Marlene and Dorcas would be here too. As Remus barged through the door he slipped on Athena's wand which he snatched up.
"Holy shit" Sirius muttered. Remus looked up and realised what he had been shocked about. Athena was asleep, probably passed out from the smoke. However she was glowing, a shining silver light had formed around her which the flames were bouncing off.
Her hair was flowing around her as though she were underwater and the chair she was sat on hovering above the ground eerily.
Remus looked at her wand that he was holding and back at Athena,
"How is she doing that?" James asked.
Lily and James were working on expelling the flames as the group began to cough from the fumes of the heavy smoke.
Remus moved towards Athena and felt a surge of power hit him, she was repelling him from getting any closer.
He reached out his hand and his skin prickled like ice.
"RENA!" He yelled through the loud ringing in his ears. Her eyes snapped open, they were a plain milky white. She looked like some kind of ethereal demon analysing her pray.
"Rena you can stop now, you're safe!" Remus called. Athena closed her eyes again and the bright lights disappeared. Her body crumpled out of the ropes that had snapped but Remus caught her before she hit the floor.
"What the hell was that?" Marlene asked as she darted over. Marlene was good with healing, she ran her wand over Athena's sleeping state as though assessing the damage. As she pointed her wand at Athena's chest, the blonde muttered some words. A cloud of smoke expelled itself from Athena's mouth and dispersed around the room.
"She didn't have her wand" Remus muttered, holding Athena tight to him.
"Whatever she did, it saved her" Marlene continued. Athena had been burned at some point, maybe that had kickstarted this unexplained power. Her blouse was singed and the side of her left hand was slightly blistered.
"She'll be ok won't she?" Sirius asked in concern, looming over the two of them.
"Yes the damage is minimal" Marlene nodded, "she's lucky to be alive"
"It seems that's always the case" James pointed out, "the cruciartus curse didn't drive her crazy like we thought it did"
"It seems Rena's more powerful than we thought" Dorcas shrugged, "wasn't that part of her prophecy"
"Yeah" Remus nodded, "something about showing power never seen before... but I thought that was to do with her intuition or something"
"It seems it's more than that" Sirius muttered. Athena was asleep now, Remus wondered if she had been aware of what she was doing.
"We should get her home" Lily suggested, "she's been through a lot recently"
"Thanks to me" Remus muttered, "I broke her heart"
"That was Mary not you" James pointed out, "you were cursed"
"It'll be ok" Lily smiled.
Remus nodded as they began to ebb out of the room. He lowered his head and kissed her forehead gently longing for her to be ok.
"I promise, everything will be fine" Remus whispered, "I promise I love you"
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A/n
Words - 3185
Published - 10th March 2021
It's Remus' birthday today
happy birthday Remus :)
Act four is done!
Ahh I can't believe it