"Moon Boy. Moon Boy, wake up."
Remus blinked his eyes open blearily. He was lying on one of the beanbags that were scattered over the main room of Room of Requirement. At some point in the night, one of them had let go of the other's hand while they slept. Helia was standing over him now, offering her hand to help him up. He took it, and groaned in pain. The thought behind staying in the Room of Requirement was nice, the reality involved a crick in his neck, an aching back, and shots of his pain through his shoulder and side, where he had been hit with the curses.
"Morning." He greeted, his voice creaky from lack of use.
"Hey, Moon Boy." Helia said. Remus looked up, something in her eyes told him that she was laughing at him.
"What?"
"It's the last day." Helia watched understanding slowly dawn on his face, followed by a mounting panic, "And I'm betting you haven't packed your bags yet."
Remus stared at her for a moment, "Shit." He ran a hand through his hair, alternating between shooting apologetic looks at Helia and glancing at the door.
"Well, Moon Boy," she was definitely laughing at him now, "What are you waiting around for?" She gestured to the door with an exaggerated bow that barely concealed her grin, "Speed of a wolf!"
"I hate you." Remus muttered, feeling his cheeks warm as he did indeed have to run out of the room, still in his pyjamas, and charge down the halls until he made it to Gryffindor Tower.
James and Sirius were waiting for him in the common room, Peter bumbling around by the fire, presumably rectifying some mistake that James had made in it's construction.
"We were wondering where you disappeared to last night," James grinned, looking the opposite of concerned.
"You know, with Blacksmith." Sirius wiggled his eyebrows.
Remus was starting to regret waking up this morning at all. He would have stayed at Hogwarts all holidays, if only to avoid the evil gleam that all of his friend's eyes had seemed to be been blessed with that day.
"It's not like that." He groaned as they followed him mercilessly up to the dormitory. He couldn't count the amounts of times he'd had to say those same four words over the last eleven months.
"Sure it's not." James answered flippantly. He and Sirius each latched themselves to opposite sides of the door frame, neither offering to help as Remus flew around, stuffing things into his trunk with no regard for folding or whether the item in question actually belonged to him.
He pulled on a pair of jeans and a faded grey hoodie, deciding that his Batman pyjama top would be well camouflaged beneath his jacket.
"You know Prongs," he heard Sirius say as Remus hopped about, pulling a shoe on, "I've been thinking a lot recently,"
"Careful there. Your head might explode." Remus muttered vengefully.
The boys ignored him.
"What is it, Padfoot?" James said, fake excitement building in his voice.
"Now that our Moony is all grown up, with a girlfriend and everything-"
"I don't have a girlfriend!" Remus interrupted hurriedly, going red in the face. Again, Sirius and James payed him no heed, pretending that he wasn't even in the room.
"-It's only right that we should respect boundaries, and give the lovebirds some space." Sirius finished.
"I absolutely agree, Padfoot." James added solemnly.
Remus paused in his frantic packing, glancing backwards and forwards between James and Sirius with a disbelieving and distrusting expression on his face.
"It's only right." Sirius stated.
"Only fair." James confirmed.
"The least we can do really."
"We owe it to them."
"Happiness and space to work through their feelings."
"And to have a thousand children, all named after us regardless of gender."
"Cut to the chase guys," Remus sighed, returning to his packing.
"So that is why-" James held bent one arm behind his back and thrust his finger into the air.
"-we solemnly swear to leave Helia Blacksmith alone-"
"-as soon as we can figure out where she disappears to at night."
Remus grinned at them over the potions ingredients that he was currently throwing across the room, only some of them landing in his trunk. "I was wondering what the catch was."
"No catch." James raised his hands, palm up in a sign of his innocence, "Just give us a little tip off and you and the scary one will be left in peace for all eternity."
"Not a chance." Remus didn't look up, choking on a laugh.
"Why?" Sirius pouted.
"Because I am way more scared of Helia than I am of you." Remus grinned, and even as he said the words, he knew they weren't true.
"Yo, James!"
A red haired girl leaned into the dormitory. Instantly, all of James's attention switched and focused onto Lilly Evans. Even the way he stood, with not a single part of his body angled way from her, was like a compass pointing north. And all his eyes could see were stars.
The change happened so suddenly that even Sirius exchanged a glance with Remus. They had both assumed that James's crush on Lilly was just that: A crush. But now they were both wondering if all that blustering, flirting and casual annoying had been a cover for this, much more real, emotion.
"Hey, Lils." James grinned, more something than Remus had ever seen it.
"Someone's waiting for you outside the portrait. She said to tell you to bring the cloak and not to be thick."
What did Helia want with James?
It took Remus a moment to realise that, without even thinking, he had known that Lilly was talking about Helia. The thought filled him with a kind of warm, fuzzy feeling.
James sighed, and scooped the cloak off his bed, traipsing down the stairs with a kind of moodiness that was too loud to be real. Lilly grinned at Remus.
"Good to see you're okay." She smiled. Remus returned it, "Maybe one day you'll trust me enough to tell me what was wrong."
Thankfully for Remus, she didn't wait for an answer, turning and flouncing out of the dormitory. Sirius gave Remus a raised-eyebrows, that-was-close kind of look. Remus just shook his head, grinning as he threw an old pair of trousers into his trunk.
.................................
Helia waited until everyone was on the train and she had bribed Jade into taking her trunk on for her with the promise of Skittles before she wrapped the cloak around her shoulders. She boarded silently, praying that she would encounter no one on the journey down the narrow corridors. Something must have been smiling down on her that day, as she found the Slytherin compartment without issue.
The door was cracked open slightly, allowing her to hear the voices drifting through it if she pressed herself close enough.
"... Damn mudbloods." Someone growled, "I will never wash this out. Father is going to be furious."
There was an answering snicker. "He wont be once he finds out what you did to her."
"Insignificant." Helia could hear the smirk in the boy's words, "What do you think, Flint? You've been quiet recently. Any problem we need to sort out?"
"Nothing." The boy's voice was humourless, contrasting the dark laughter emanating from his companions.
Helia felt a jolt at the sound of it. She had been ready, so ready to bust through that door and curse them all to living hell, for what Martin had done to Remus, for threatening her, for...
For warning her?
It didn't seem possible, not with all the history between them, but something about that empty tone of voice, so at odds with the fire she had seen in his eyes not too long before told Helia that maybe she had been quick to judge, maybe Martin Flint had some strains of hope left for him.
She turned and walked numbly back down the corridor, forgetting entirely that the cloak was still over her head.
"I don't care if Helia hears!"
Well that was certainly a way to get her attention.
Jade's voice was coming from the compartment on her left. Helia frowned as she paused to listen.
"Something's up with you, and Helia would be just as pissed as me that you won't tell us why." Jade went on relentlessly, "I swear if you're making yourself throw up, I-"
"No!" Lin's voice was horrified, "No, I'm not. I wouldn't."
"Black says you're not talking to him either." Jade said, "Like you just went cold, and he doesn't know why. He's going slowly insane."
"It's just like with you and Bella." Lin rushed to say. Helia rolled her eyes; the girl really was a horrible lier. "I just... Didn't want that relationship anymore."
"Ha." Jade had never sounded so unimpressed, "As if you expect me to believe that. Give me some credit, Linbo."
"Here," Lin held out her hand, palm up, "Have the credit. Take all my credits. Will you leave me alone now?"
Helia looked at Lin, really looked at her- took in the way she sat, slightly hunched over, and the way she wasn't meeting Jade's eyes, and the finger faint traces of illness in her eyes- and it clicked. She knew Lin's secret. Oh shit. We are not ready for this.
But Lin had kept all those things she had noticed about Helia a secret for this long, and Helia owed it to her to do the same.
She tiptoed away from the cabin as quietly as she could, and pulled off the cloak.
"Hel Bel!"
Was this the corridor of coincidences today?
Helia didn't have to fake a smile as she turned to see Remus Lupin jogging towards her. He had changed out of those Batman pyjamas that had her hiding a grin last night and was wearing a creased pair of jeans and a hoodie so big on him that his fingers only just curled around the edges of the sleeves. He looked so Remus Lupin that Helia felt dizzy from the sight of it.
She leaned casually against the door of an empty compartment to try and disguise the sudden rush of feelings. "Hey, Moon Boy."
Remus had that nervous smile on as he got closer, the one that Helia couldn't help but grin at. "Want to ride with me?" Remus gestured to the empty carriage, "We've got some stuff to talk about."
Helia grinned and opened the door, flopping onto the cushioned seats. Remus entered more demurely, sliding the door shut after him and taking a seat opposite Helia as he wiped his hands on his jeans.
"You first." Helia declared, "Tell me what happened."
Remus shrugged, "Nothing you don't know really. I broke out of the Shrieking Shack, and I was running through the Forest. It was just one of them- the Snatchers- I don't think the others knew he was out at all. And the curse hit me on the side. He was talking though, something about needing me to be alive... Or..." His voice caught, and Helia fought the urge to reach across and take his hand, fearing that the Corridor of Coincidences would yield someone who would use it against them.
"Or what?"
Remus looked up, meeting her blue eyes with his own honest ones. "Or the," he coughed, "'fire-bitch girl' wouldn't look for revenge."
"They wanted me to find them." Helia had already known as much.
"Why?" Remus had the comfort to ask.
"Greyback doesn't like leaving his victims..." she paused, a knot of revulsion in her throat, "Okay."
Remus must have seen the hours of research in the library in her eyes, the long nights with words blurring together, names and dates, lists longer than they had any right to be.
"How many people has he hunted down?" Remus forced a laugh.
"Somewhere near the hundred mark." Helia faked flippancy, though they could both see through it to the robotic hatred beneath.
"How many got away?"
"Well," Helia inhaled deeply, "Currently, I'd say it was me and you and... And us."
Remus stared.
"So I guess it's my turn." Helia didn't look at him, "I took the bait. I found them, they weren't even trying to be subtle. A small fight, nothing really, and then the Sphinxes showed up."
"Kyle?" Remus fought to overcome the tone of disbelief that tinged his voice.
"They were in the Sphinx's territory." Helia explained, "Also, Kyle owed me a favour." She didn't elaborate, "I got hit with a stunner, so I don't remember most of it, but I remember waking up, and... And most of them were dead." She swallowed tightly. She could practically hear Remus trying to not imagine the scene in that barn. She didn't blame him.
"And Kyle gave you a lift back?"
"Yeah."
Remus knew what happened next: Helia had gone up to the roof of the Astronomy Tower and stood in the edge and looked down and swayed in the slight breeze, the way stalks of wheat do before they're cut down.
Helia needed to explain. Even as she stumbled over her words, and refused the look at him in the eye, and fiddled compulsively with the sleeves of her cloak. She needed to explain.
"Ever since I was eleven, I've known that Greyback was going to try and end what he started." She wouldn't look up, wouldn't see the pity in his eyes, "I've known it would end. I chose when. I chose the day I would be the same age as my brother was. I organised it, I planned it, and then he didn't show up. So when you didn't come back that morning, I knew what was happening, and I was ready. I was ready to die. I never imagined walking out alive. Not once in six years. I didn't know what to do when I did. It was like..." She frowned, "It was like standing in the edge of something, all that time. Just one step from falling. And suddenly you're a mile away from the cliff. I needed to stand in the edge one last time. I needed to say goodbye to the drop and walk away on my own. I needed to make the choice."
"You wouldn't have jumped." Remus said slowly.
Helia looked up, and locked her eyes with his, and there was concern there, but it didn't feel oppressive, like she'd imagined. It felt comforting, another reason to hold on to what her brother had given up for her.
"I wouldn't have jumped." She confirmed. Everything about Remus relaxed with that one sentence. Helia really regretted what she had to tell him next. "Greyback's not dead."
Remus stopped breathing for a moment. "What?"
"I don't know how, or why, but he did not die at the barn."
Helia had expected him to pale, or freeze up again, what she had not expected was the resolve that formed in those familiar brown eyes.
"He won't get us. He won't ever get us." Remus reached over and took her hand, and it was if that simple gesture gave Helia some of his strength. "We will be the ones that got away."
................
Remus left ten minutes before the train pulled into King's Cross station. He didn't look back as he exited. He did, however, pause in the hallway to lean his head against the wall of the train. Helia, Helia, Helia. Her name rang in his head, unattached to any specific sentence or meaning. What could he say, what could he think that would possibly make anything better?
She had killed people, a lot of people, and she had lead people to their deaths. But he could see the remorse in her eyes, see how she would feel the weight of those lives on her shoulders for all her time left on this planet. He didn't want to unpack how he felt yet, not while Helia was still figuring out her own emotions. He would worry about him later.
Now...
Now was a time to rebuilt, to start putting together what was broken, to make the time count. And it would. Every second would mean something. Every moment would count for the eternity that it would live on for in their memories. There would be darkness, and they would hide in it. There would be light, and they would use it to illuminate the path in front of them. They would make it through together. No more secrets. No more walls. No nothing and no anybody standing in between a future that they could make with their secret smiles.
Remus only just made it back to the Marauder's compartment before students started piling out of the train doors and onto the platform. He grabbed his trunk and wheeled it behind him, saying his goodbyes to Linette Bell, to Lilly Evans and Jade Wood and Marlene McKinnon and James Potter and Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. He astonished himself with how many goodbyes he had to say compared to last year.
And he was almost ready to leave, to find his dad and apparate home, but there was one goodbye he hadn't said. His eyes scanned over the crowds of students, searching for any trace of those brilliant blue eyes. He cursed Helia's lack of height.
"Hey, Moon Boy."
Remus spun around with maybe too much enthusiasm. Helia was standing behind him, forever and always where he least expected. Her hands were hanging loosely at her side. The Spot sat at her feet. She looked so effortless in the mass of teenagers heaving trunks behind them.
"So... um," Helia was smiling lightly, "Guess who Dumbledore decided to give some Order work to?"
Remus felt himself stand straighter. "You?"
Helia rolled her eyes, "No, dumbass, Lucius Malfoy. Of course me."
"Cool." He would question it later, he told himself. Not now. Not when he wouldn't see her for six weeks.
"Anyway, I got put on werewolf watch, which is apparently a thing." Helia said, "So, I'm going to need some professional incite in the holidays, if that's okay with you?"
"Sure." Remus couldn't help the grin that split his face. "I mean, I'm pretty sure our owl still flies to your house out of instinct, after Christmas."
"I was thinking," Helia took a step closer, "In-person meetings would be more informative, right?"
"Right. Yeah. Absolutely. I'll... Uh... Text me?" Remus stumbled out.
Helia nodded, still smiling. "See you soon, Moon Boy."
Remus turned away, and was just preparing himself to leave, when he was called back.
"Hey, Moon Boy?"
Helia crossed to him in two long strides, and reached up to pull him down. And then she was kissing him.
And it was everything he remembered.
And so much more.
..............................
A/N
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