“Remus, come on!” Mrs. Weasley grabbed his hand and Apparated up to Sirius’ room. They hurried through the cluttered floor, slid into the closet, and quietly latched the door shut.
Four loud cracks were heard through the thin paneling.
Their breath intake quickened.
“We know you’re here,” a Death Eater hissed, his smoldering breath penetrated the air.
“I’m he””
Molly quickly covered Remus’ mouth and motioned for him to stay quiet.
The closet door slid open viciously; a Death Eater’s piercing gaze tore through them.
“I would have expected more from you. I guess they have less of an imagination when they get older...”
He noticed that Mrs. Weasley and Remus were closer than normal, but although she really was protecting him, the Death Eater thought different.
“Ah, is he your new toy? Already making new”friends”so soon after Arthur’s death? It’s a shame how love struck you witches are these days, ” the Death Eater mocked . He grappled his hand around Mrs. Weasley’s wrist, and dragged her out of the closet.
“You will watch this,” he growled, staring into Remus’ ominous eyes. He threw Molly onto the ground with a loud thud. She was surrounded by the other Death Eaters and she looked over at Remus, a saddened expression grew on her face as Remus sat there, bewildered and confused.
“M-Molly?” Remus asked, craning his neck forward, vaguely remembering her name. He brought his hand forward but was stopped by an invisible barrier that glowed red when touched.
“M-Molly, w-what’s happening?” He began to get teary-eyed.
“Remus, p-please, do-don’t wa”” Breathing became a problem for her as she had been hurled to the floor only moments before. However, her sentence had finished all too soon. She was still alive, but the Death Eater had cut her off by a vicious curse.
“Crucio!” Molly began violently struggling for her life on the floor.
She screamed. Although she was a great witch, she was helpless. Her life was in the Death Eater’s hands which were closing up, ending her life ever so slowly.
“Molly!” Remus finally understood what was happening. He finally understood the circumstances. “STOP THIS! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW YOU BEASTS!”
The Death Eater turned its scaly head toward Remus. “Beasts?! Who’s the one who turns into a werewolf every full moon?!”
“W-Werewolf. I turn into a murderous creature? But I would never kill anyone!” A silent tear flowed down his face. “I would never kill anyone....” His voice faded away.
“Aww. So terribly sad, isn’t it? Well, suck it up! I mean come on! One spell to her and you’ve had enough already? Well, aren’t you tough?” Mrs. Weasley was motionless on the floor. The spell ceased.
“Dicarious!” A red line cut up Mrs. Weasley’s leg, sending her into sudden shock and pain.
“NO!” Remus shouted, banging his fists against the invisible barrier. “STO-P DOING TH-IS!” He tried to say it clearly, but with all the information and abusive torture he had just soaked in, it came out as more of a dry cry.
The line continued cutting up Mrs. Weasley’s leg until it stopped at her torso. It felt like several knives were stabbing her repeatedly. It was the worst feeling you could imagine.
“Dicarious!”” A second line, slightly larger than the previous, began to inch its way up the opposite leg.
“R-REMUS! HELP ME!” Mrs. Weasley screamed out. She tried to not think about the pain that she was enduring, but her life had to end someday and that day could be today.
“ST-OP T-HIS!” Remus pulled out his wand and began saying random spells, some of them real, some of them not even heard of, and some of them unclear from his tears.
“There’s no way you can get out of there, not without us removing it.” The Death Eater pulled Molly up from the ground, dangling her from her feet. He threw his fist across her face. Several more blows to the face shortly followed.
Remus turned away. He couldn’t watch this abuse any more and the worse part for him was that he couldn’t do anything about it.
***
Every footstep he took echoed in the hallways; although, not very loud, it sounded different to Harry. It sounded like several pieces of glass were crunching beneath his feet, making him even more cautious with every step he took.
“Hello?” A Prefect’s voice sounded through the hall. “Is someone there?”
Harry backed up into the shadows of the walls. Without his invisibility cloak, he could easily be noticed in the dim room.
Footsteps started off toward him.
Harry slid his back down the wall, crouching down on the ground. He held his breath as the Prefect was standing directly in front of him.
“Lumos” The Prefect’s wand lit up and he pointed it directly at Harry. “Sneaking around at night, are we? Well, I’ll have to take you to Dumbledore for this one.”
The Prefect reached his hand out and a sudden wave of energy filled the room.
Harry whipped his wand out of his pocket. “Stupefy!”
Nothing happened.
“My wand, it doesn’t work!” He looked directly into the eyes of the Prefect, who wasn’t moving. Harry sidestepped around him and watched as he made no visible movement. His torso was twisted mildly and his left forearm extended toward the wall. Harry tapped him on the shoulder and there was no reply. Still the same position.
“Bloody hell... Time stopped!” Harry was wide-eyed. Confusion was the only expression shown on his face. “But, I didn’t do anything, how could time have just...stopped?!”
He shooed off the question and began to run back to his Common Room before the time stopping spell had worn off. He turned a corner and stopped in his tracks. There was a second Prefect. Although he was also as still as ice cubes, they were gripping the top of Ron’s shirt and pulling him along.
“He came to help?” Harry questioned. He disregarded the fact at what Ron had done earlier, but he had now understood that he was actually coming to help him. Harry grabbed onto the Prefects hand and tilted their wrist upward.
Several booming cracks shot through the room. Harry looked around, wondering if anything was happening or if the time spell was wearing off. But it was none of those. He realized that it was actually the Prefect. His wrist was cracking profoundly, almost as if Harry were moving the bones of a corpse.
He grabbed Ron and stood in front of him. “Merlin, I hope my wand works.” He placed the tip of his wand on Ron’s temple. “Firsoteda!” A faint brown ” almost burn-like ” mark appeared. Shortly following, orange bursts of light flowed through his body which faded away at his ankles. The brown patch faded away and a heavy breath intake from Ron shortly followed.
“What the bloody hell happened?!” Ron gasped out, evening his breathing.
“Long story, short time to explain.” Harry grabbed Ron by the shirt and pulled him along before he was able to start running on his own.
After a while of chaotically running through the castle to their Common Room, a second sudden energy flew through the room.
“What was that?” Ron stuttered out.
“Ron, just get into the Common Room, I’ll explain there.”
Footsteps were heard walking toward them.
“Ron, run!”
They both frantically ran up the last staircase and up to their portrait.
“Pas””
“Solifare!” The portrait swung open before even finishing off the one word she said numerous times every day. The portrait closed quickly behind them and they both walked inside, breathing heavily.
“Harry, Ron, what’s taken so long!” Hermione exclaimed running over to them.
“Harry...Harry, did you hear that?” Ron inquired.
“Hear what? The sound of a desperate girl, longing for her boyfriend to return?” Harry replied, laughing while doing so.
Ron coughed and said quietly under his breath, “I’m not her boyfriend.”
“Harry, Ron, why have you gotten so rude lately!” Hermione baffled.
“Us?! Hermione, what about you! You didn’t even care about Harry at all, and you were totally trying to get me to, well, snog you!” Ron replied.
“Oh, Ron, like I would ever want to snog you! You’re just a lazy arse who sits around all day!” Hermione’s face crumpled up.
“HERMIONE!” Harry shouted. “What has gotten into you?!”
“Nothing you’d be interested in.” She coughed out, strutting back toward her chair. She heavily sat down on the chair and crossed one leg over the other.
“Yes, we would be interested in it!” Ron paced forward and stopped near where Hermione was sitting.
“Well, Berfulema, or shall I say, myself, is still here!” An eerie laughter filled the room.
“But, but I thought that when that Matnadorian saw you, it killed Berfulema, well, you, and not Hermione!”
“Ghosts can’t die twice! What are you, a first year?!”
Ron raised his hand slightly, “Well, I ” I might be considered one....”
Harry turned his head to Ron. “You aren’t that dumb.”
“Hey!”
“Well, you kind of said it yourself!”
“I would have thought you would have backed me up! Wait, hold on a second. You kissed me earlier! A ” A GUY KISSED ME?! Oh bloody hell. AND BEFORE! YOU’VE BEEN A GUY ALL THIS TIME?!” Ron retorted.
“You two really are idiots,” Berfulema bellowed.
He held his palms out and shot a stringy substance at the two. It threw them on the walls, vibrating the room.
“Life’s a cruel temptation that people, like I, will follow.”
***
“Well, no use for this barrier any more,” a Death Eater spat. “She’s almost dead anyway.”
The barrier seemed to melt away as Remus clutched it with his hands. He ran out, tears were racking his face. He fell onto his knees and placed his head at Molly’s side.
“What in Merlin’s name happened?!” Remus asked, dumbfounded. His memory was regaining very, very slowly but shakily.
“We tortured her, beat her! She’s almost dead!” The Death Eater kicked Molly’s foot viciously, a singe of pain erupted up her leg.
“STOP IT! DON’T TOUCH HER!” Remus shouted. “PLEASE JUST DO SOMETHING! DO ANYTHING WITH ME; JUST BRING HER BACK, PLEASE!”
“Well, there has been something the Dark Lord has wanted us to do, but we were going to do it later, once we had some more things ” cleared up...but we could do it now. Drink this.” The Death Eater held out a small flask which held a dark orange liquid inside.
“Will it bring Molly back to life?”
“Of course!” With Remus’ memory, he really would have believed anything at the moment.
He drained the flask and dropped it onto the floor.
“What is this?!” Remus asked, clasping his throat.
“You will find out all in due time....” The Death Eater strode off to the dark corner of the room, watching Remus’ movement.
His back hunched over, an enlarged spine tearing up his shirt. His fingernails turned into black arrows, sharp as daggers. An overly loud yell was sent hurling through the house. The flask had obviously been a potion for having the subject, in this case Remus, turn into a werewolf.
A vicious growl streamed through the room. The transformed Remus pounced forward, yellow eyes taunting the night with their glowing desires. The Death Eater barely missed the vicious monster.
“Why did you even turn him into a werewolf? Why didn’t you just do as you were told!” A second Death Eater asked.
“This way is more entertaining for us.” He smiled and aimed his wand in the direction of the werewolf.
“Avada Kedavra!” A stream of green light erupted from the Death Eaters wand, hitting Remus square in the chest.
A shrill howl was heard right before the creature fell to the floor, cold and tormented.
“R-Remus?” Molly called out weakly.
“REMUS!” A loathing cry entered the room.
The lifeless creature was lying on the floor, sprawled out with his hair in clumps.
The world already seemed less bright without him. Less bright without the last Marauder.