You didn't think I'd make you suffer through a cliffhanger for two days, did you?
chapter eighteen - full moon
We were all out of the shack, sitting under the immobilized Whomping Willow.
Sirius and Harry had turned back to us, my husband smiling widely as I raised an eyebrow to him. His entire expression was so easily readable; he was happy.
I made eye contact with Harry as he started to come towards me.
"Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't Aubrey tell me?"
"I wanted to, of course, but... Albus forbade it. There are a lot of things that you don't particularly know yet. One day you will, but it isn't my place to tell you. I do hope that you know that I wish, more than anything, that we could take you in. No matter how much Sirius and I want you to be apart of our family, to live with us, you can't."
"Why not? Sirius just said -"
"I am sorry, Harry. Albus would never allow it, even if Petunia wanted nothing more than to hand you over to us, she can't. Our door is always open to you, but not for permanent residence. I wish I could have extended that to you much sooner, but... As I said, you must stay at Privet Drive."
Harry frowned as he looked to Aubrey, "You made her promise to tell me, didn't you?"
"I made everyone promise. Hermione and Ron have known... forever. I thought you would have found out by looking at the Daily Prophet. They ran far too many articles about how I lost James, far too many about how my husband betrayed us," I looked to Sirius again as he approached. I smiled weakly, "It's been a nightmare, the entire world believing that I married a monster. I've always known that Peter was their Secret-Keeper. It was my idea."
"Why?"
"Sirius was my Secret-Keeper. Voldemort wanted me dead long before you were even born. I knew that if Sirius was both of our Secret-Keepers, he would never be allowed out. Not even into our backyard. He would never see James, and I couldn't do that."
"Why weren't you the Secret-Keeper for my parents?"
"That's a story for anoth-"
"Mum!"
I looked to Esme who was staring into the sky. Her voice was laced with a panicked fear, and once I looked to the sky, I knew why.
Not a single thought crossed my mind before I had my arms tightly wrapped around Remus, who was shaking. We had been through this before, but never in front of the girls.
Never without wolfsbane.
"GO! Sirius, you have to take them to the castle, NOW!"
"I'm not leaving you!"
"I have twelve years of experience with this over you, take them now!"
Harry shouted my name, but it was too late. Peter had lunged forward, grabbed my wand from my pocket, and transformed back into a rat. He ran down the hill, and Harry went to go after him.
"No, you need to go back to the castle, Harry! It's not safe."
Remus looked down at me and frowned as Harry went back to his friends and Sirius. I made eye contact with him, and he furrowed his eyebrows deeply.
How long had it been since he had changed without wolfsbane?
Even I couldn't remember.
I could feel Remus' joints cracking, and he held back any noises as he watched me. I knew what he was going to do moments before he shoved me away from him, full force. It was the first time that Remus had ever been anything but gentle with me, but I understood why.
Moments after I hit the ground he shifted into a wolf. Without wolfsbane, he was much different. I had never really seen him like this, but I hated that I had to see it now. Without wolfsbane, Remus was far different. His wolf stood bipedal, he was nearly hairless, and he appeared so gaunt and hollow that I wondered if he was starved.
He looked down at me and even though he was no longer Remus Lupin, he looked away.
But by looking away, he looked at my family.
I would rather die than let Remus hurt the girls or Harry. He could never live with himself.
Stumbling to my feet, I grabbed my wand from the ground and immediately tossed it to Sirius as I started shifting myself. Once I was on all fours, I turned back to Sirius to make sure he was getting the children out of here but was partially unsurprised to see that he, too, was on all fours. My wand was in Esme's hand as all five of them were pushed behind Severus, who had just woken up, likely with a nasty headache.
I wanted to bite Sirius's tail off for not taking the children back to the castle when he had the chance, but I knew why. I understood why.
Sirius was larger than I was, and Remus was still twice his size. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't protect them from Remus on my own. No matter how much I wanted to, I knew that I couldn't control his actions. Protecting me was likely all he wanted to do.
But trusting Severus?
That was uncharacteristic, and maybe not the best choice.
He'd likely throw Harry into a werewolf to protect himself. Severus was as much of a coward as Peter, and that is saying a lot.
"Mum!"
I turned back, for just a moment, when Aubrey cried out. I knew she was terrified, but I had to make sure that Remus couldn't get to the castle. Ensuring that Remus hurt nobody was the only thing I could think of, and the only way that I could do that was this.
Maybe I could have left it to Sirius. Maybe I could have turned back and escorted my girls back to the castle. Maybe I should have, but before I could decide to, Remus lunged for them.
I reacted faster than Sirius did, throwing the entirety of my body weight into Remus' chest. He stumbled back as I landed back on my feet. He went for them again, and this time, I jumped at him and bit his arm. Once I landed on my feet, Remus turned to me and growled.
The next few events happened too quickly for me to process. Remus charged at me, but Sirius jumped at him. Once Remus' attention was on Sirius, and not me or the children, Sirius ran down the hill just a bit, Remus following closely.
I ran after them, and I couldn't stop Harry when he followed.
They scuffled for a long moment before Remus threw Sirius away from him and into a rock, my husband whimpering as he tried to crawl away. I went to lunge at Remus to protect Sirius, but Harry threw a rock at the back of Remus' head before I got too far.
When Remus turned to Harry and went to approach him, I tried to jump between them, but Remus swung his arm into me. I tumbled downhill, towards the forest, as Remus got closer to Harry. Before I could even think of going back up, there was a loud howling. It was coming from behind me, and Remus looked in the same direction that I did.
I heard distinctively familiar voices, and my head began spinning. Remus started towards the howling, and I turned on my heels and ran into the forest, towards where I heard the voices.
Surely enough, I came into a small clearing and found the versions Harry and Hermione that had freed Buckbeak, though the Hippogriff wasn't in sight. Harry looked down as me and I knew that even as a wolf-dog, the confusion was clear.
"Time-turner," Hermione whispered. She motioned for me to follow them as they turned, "He's coming!"
So I followed them as they went to hide. I kept a short distance between us, keeping an eye out to ensure that Remus wasn't too close to them. They started to go around a tree when I noticed that he was on the other side. By the time they came face to face with him, I had made it to them.
I stood between them and Remus and growled lowly to my friend. I hoped, beyond hope, that he wouldn't try to hurt them. Or to hurt me.
Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Remus went to swipe at me, but I managed to jump out of the way. He went to do it again, and I ducked out of the path of his claws.
When I did that, he immediately went to swipe at Harry and Hermione, and before I could react, there was a loud caw. From behind Harry and Hermione, Buckbeak started flapping his wings at Remus, loudly cawing at him.
Even as a werewolf, Remus knew better than to face a Hippogriff, and turned to run off.
I looked at Harry, who frowned deeply. He nodded once before I ran after Remus. I had to make sure he wasn't going towards Hogsmeade.
What a monumental mistake that was.
He did go towards Hogsmeade, and I followed closely after him. When he got to close, I ran up to him and tightly gripped his ankle in my teeth. He growled lowly as his hand collided with my side. I couldn't refrain from whimpering, but once Remus turned to me, I darted away.
I ran as quickly as I could, away from Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, deeper into the Forbidden Forest. I hoped to run him until the moon went down, but it was difficult when he was faster than I was.
Once I felt that I was far enough away, I slid to a stop by a large tree with a hole in the trunk. It was likely a foxes den, but there was no fox in sight, so I slipped into it as quickly and quietly as I could. It didn't go very deep, but it was enough to keep me out of Remus' sight.
I just hoped he couldn't smell the blood pooling in my fur.
And again, I was wrong.
Before long, Remus' snout was level with the hole, snarling at me.
I couldn't stop myself from whimpering lowly, the fear impossibly intense. My heart was thudding in my chest far faster than it ever should, and my head was spinning.
I knew that if I didn't get out of that den, Remus would either kill me, or he would severely injure me, possibly even bite me.
The last thing I needed was a werewolf bite. Even if it didn't turn me into a werewolf because I was in my animagus, the infection that would come along with the bite would likely kill me.
So I tried to slip between his legs, barely succeeding as I went running off. But he grabbed onto my tail before I could get away.
I yelped loudly as he pulled me back to him, the only thing going through my mind was my imminent death. Once he could, he wrapped his hand-paws around my torso and threw me into a tree. I could feel the ribs break as I slammed into the tree and fell to the ground with a thud.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get back to my feet. The pain radiating through my body was far too intense to fight through.
Without magic, I felt helpless.
Remus snarled as he approached, and all I could do was close my eyes as he wrapped his hand-paws around me and threw me into another tree.
The intense pain that shot through me was too much to bear, and perhaps to spare me from any more pain, or to spare me from being conscious as my best friend killed me, everything went black.
There was nothing in that blackness, no pain, no thoughts.
No peace either, just pure black.
Or maybe I will :)