36: By Invitation Only
There was a moment of absolute silence.
The Potions Master regarded the little gathering with lip curled and eyes glinting, his face twisted into his trademark sneer as he drank in the horrified expressions on the four faces of his students. Slowly, pointedly, he raised an eyebrow.
Still he said nothing. The children happily followed his lead.
The silence deepened horrendously.
But something was wrong.
Remus stared for a moment at the form of his colleague, eyes drifting suspiciously along the slightly off-kilter lines of his face and the rather oddly styled dark robes he was clothed in, robes in fact that rather resembled....
Of course.
He dropped his gaze to fix upon a pair of slender ankles poking out from beneath the too short hem of the outfit.
Purple socks dotted with crescent moons and silver stars peeked back.
Remus folded his arms and smiled dryly. “Very funny Tonks,” he said mildly. “But if you’re going to make a habit of impersonating staid and serious men, I really think you need a change of hosiery. And not wearing what are clearly your Auror robes might be a good idea too.”
A cheeky smile that looked bizarrely unnaturally for the dour Potions Master creased Snape’s sallow features.
“Spoilsport,” came the shockingly feminine voice that issued from the Head of Slytherin’s lips. A moment later Snape’s pallid complexion had melted away into the emerald green hair and heart shaped face of the grinning metamorphmagus, who folded her arms as she plonked herself down beside four hyperventilating teenagers. “But in all honesty, how could you possibly have expected me to resist?”
Remus gave her a slightly reproachful look. “Well, under the circumstances, Tonks, that was in slightly bad taste. Haven’t we had enough impersonators in this castle for one week?”
“All right, all right,” Tonks dismissed the criticism with an airy wave of her hand. “Honestly, did you forget to switch on your sense of humour this morning?”
“I sent it on sabbatical.” Remus leaned back easily against the headboard. “It badly needed a break. But I think it’s them you need to convince.”
He nodded his head in the direction of his visitors. Although Hermione’s mouth was now twitching at the corners, both Ron and Harry were glaring at the new arrival, and Neville seemed to be struggling to get his breath back.
“Oh, that reminds me!” Tonks turned on the teenagers with a grin. “I saw Professor Dumbledore before I came in. He told me to tell you four not to be late for your next lesson. And the bell was just going when I came in.”
Hermione leapt to her feet in a rush, her face filled with horror at the prospect of anything less than punctuality.
“We have to go!” she exclaimed, dragging a disgruntled looking Ron upright also “ Harry and Neville managed to regain their footing unaided. “It was lovely to see you, Professor Lupin. I hope you’ll be well enough to teach again soon!”
Remus smiled back at his students with sincere pleasure. “I do too. I’ve been spending far too much time in the Hospital Wing this term.”
“Yeah, well, with that feral git locked up, it shouldn’t be such a problem any more.” Ron grinned as he gathered his bag and moved out in pursuit of Hermione. “See you later, Professor.”
“I… I am glad you’re okay,” Neville ventured with a smile. “I do hope you feel better soon.”
Remus met Neville’s uncertain gaze firmly. “Thank you, Neville,” he said, encasing the words with more than simple gratefulness over a platitude about his health. The boy’s smile spread a little over his plump cheeks as he turned to follow his classmates. From the tones of voice and decisive gestures, Ron and Hermione appeared to be bickering about her earlier blow to Ron’s head.
Harry however, still lingered, gathering up the petition carefully as he regarded his teacher thoughtfully.
“Are you really okay?” he asked suddenly. “I mean, you were insisting you were fine in that lesson last week right up until the point you fell over.”
Remus flushed slightly at the reminder as Tonks chuckled nearby. “I ache,” he admittedly candidly. “The cuts on my stomach are very sore and I keep falling asleep at the drop of a hat. But Madame Pomfrey has things well in hand, don’t worry. I’ll be fine in a few days.” At Harry’s slightly sceptical raised eyebrow, Remus frowned. “Honestly,” he insisted. “If I don’t strain myself, I’ll probably be back at work by next week.”
James’ son did not look hugely convinced “ Remus wondered just how dreadful he must look to inspire so little confidence in his health “ but he nodded quietly all the same and awkwardly shuffled his papery burden.
“I’d better get going,” he said with a smile. “Lessons to go to, signatures to gather…”
Remus’ brow crinkled slightly. “Harry, I told you I’m staying. I don’t need any more convincing.”
Harry grinned suddenly. “We didn’t just do this to convince you to stay. We did it so that we can show it to anyone who’s stupid enough to believe that Skeeter woman and nicely suck the wind out of their sails.” The grin was tinged suddenly with wickedness. “You should have seen Hermione the day that article came out. I’m not sure some of the things she threatened to do to the lovely Rita are anatomically possible.”
Remus shared the grin. “I’m afraid she’ll have to get in line. My father has first dibs and he promised I could watch.”
Tonks leaned forward, her smile evil. “Can I come too? I’ll pay if I have to!”
Harry laughed. “We could sell tickets!”
Tonks’ eyes lit up. “I’ll bring bunting and provide the band!”
“That sounds like a plan.” Remus absently brushed his hair out of his face with his fingers. “I’ll tell you what “ you find a venue and I’ll talk to my dad. I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to participate.”
“I’ll talk to Professor McGonagall about hiring the Quidditch pitch.” Harry moved out past the end of the bed, his green eyes glinting with humour. “I’m sure she’ll agree it’s in a good cause. But I have to go now, or we’ll be selling tickets to the Ron and Hermione grudge match.” Indeed, distant bickering, gradually swelling in volume, was drifting from the corridor where Harry’s friends were presumably waiting for him. He smiled at the last of his father’s true friends for a moment. “Bye Professor Lupin.”
Remus nodded. “Bye Harry.”
With a final grin, the young man turned and hurried down the length of the Hospital Wing. A moment later, he vanished through the door and was gone.
Stretching slightly, Tonks lifted herself from her seat on the bed and dropped into the chair vacated by Harry. “I really like that plan, you know,” she commented with a beatific grin. “We could sell little chocolate Skeeters especially for the occasion that wriggle like chocolate frogs when you bite their heads off.” She made a gnashing gesture with her teeth and yanked her head sideways to mimic the required action. “Skeeter-baiting. It should be a sport. Fun for all the family.”
Remus quietly rolled his eyes. “Are you done?” he asked dryly.
Tonks waggled her eyebrows. “Not nearly. My well of ideas on such matters is bottomless.”
“I wasn’t lying when I said you scare me.”
“I’d have been heartbroken if you were.” Tonks leaned back in her chair with a sigh. “But I didn’t come here to plot violent death for idiot journalists or even for the pleasure of your banter, lovely company though you are. I have news on the Dawlish front.”
Remus felt a knot of ice curl across his chest as his stomach sank. “Oh?”
Tonks’ reassuring smile melted the ice in a moment. “You’re in the clear,” she said cheerfully. “When Dawlish arrived at the holding cells this morning, he discovered that some careless soul had left poor Bernhardt Oldstaff gagged and bound on the floor outside reception with his Dark Mark exposed and a bottle of Veritaserum sitting next to him. Can’t think how that might have happened.” She gazed innocently at the ceiling. “After all, it’s not like I went round to his house last night doing my best Bellatrix Lestrange impression with a big, muscular and thoroughly well hooded Kingsley to keep me company. Not at all.” She winked. “Oldstaff was quite happy to admit that he had been Kane’s connection to You-Know-Who and that Kane refused the Mark. He also confessed that Kane had been sent after Harry. Even with this morning’s lovely piece of venom by our darling Rita, Dawlish has been forced to drop his vendetta against you. You’ll be invited in for a quiet interview with Kingsley some time in the next week or two, but interrogation is off the agenda. You’re off the hook, mate.”
Relief flooded through Remus in a torrent of warmth. Considering how badly his morning had started, the unexpected show of support from his pupils and now the revelation that the Ministry would not be pursuing charges against him had given it a definite upturn. In spite of Rita Skeeter’s best efforts, he really wasn’t having such a bad day.
He flashed Tonks a genuine smile of gratitude. “Thank you so much, you and Kingsley both. You really didn’t have to go to that kind of trouble for me.”
The Auror shrugged easily. “No problem, mate. If nothing else, it’s one more Death Eater off the streets and that’s always worth doing. Making Dawlish eat his prejudiced, ill-chosen suspicions was merely a bonus.”
Remus laughed. “Well thank you all the same,” he said graciously. “It’s much appreciated and…”
His voice tailed off as he became aware of two limping figures, moving side by side and speaking urgently between themselves as they made their way up the length of the Hospital Wing towards him. Their conversation had an eerily familiar ring.
“So we cast the Impervious charm on the material and then I hold the brim of the hat.” Rey’s voice had an analytical quality that rang profound alarm bells in Remus’ subconscious. “You can beat him into the hat with your wooden leg until he’s just a pair of feet sticking out.”
Alastor Moody’s grin was vicious. “Aye. Then we take him back to your place and offer him up to whichever of your menagerie takes your fancy. Have you got any Red Caps in?”
Remus hurriedly intervened before the discussion grew any more graphic. “Dad, Alastor, please, please, enough. I’ve had far too many people in here espousing their violent tendencies for one day.”
The dual looks of innocence of the faces of the grizzled Auror and the silver-haired Exterminator frightened Remus more than any frothing berserker ever could.
“Who else has been plotting violence?” Rey enquired curiously after a moment.
“Me and Harry,” Tonks piped in as she rose and offered her seat to the older man before plonking herself back down on the bed beside Moody. “We were making plans for Rita Skeeter.”
Settling back into his chair, Rey looked up sharply. “She’s mine,” he exclaimed with feeling, gesturing in the air with his cane. “I’ve marked her and everything. I have bagsies.”
“We don’t dispute that.” The evil grin was back. “We were just planning to sell tickets to the event and do a bit of merchandising.”
“Do you think you can accommodate a double header?”
Once more Remus stepped in before the situation grew out of hand. “Dad, what’s going on?” he asked wearily. “Who else are you planning to put on the bill and why?”
Rey’s expression darkened grimly, abruptly serious as he exchanged a look with Moody. “Alastor has discovered who Miss Skeeter’s reliable source is,” he said darkly, his voice shimmering with bitterness and anger. “Do you remember me telling you about Jasper Castleton?”
A memory lingered, a vague flash of a face and his father’s voice filled with much the same emotions as now as he described the night that had changed his son’s life forever. “Wasn’t he the gentleman who offered to put me down for you on the night I was bitten?” he asked softly.
Tonks’ soft gasp reminded him that he would have to be careful about how much detail to go in to regarding that night “ not everyone present was privy to its secrets.
Moody’s face was filled with disdain. “That’s him. He works in Magical Law Enforcement now, a desk job, nice and safe. Well, he’s our leak. He slipped the bloody Skeeter woman a copy of Kane’s case file, which of course was filled with details about his attack on you; including that picture they plastered all over the front page. Recognised that straight off, of course “ Hell’s teeth, I took that shot myself on the condition that it never see the light of day beyond the case notes. So I knew that the leak had to be in the Ministry and when I spoke to Shacklebolt first thing, he told me that the only person apart from Dawlish and himself who’d been near that information was Castleton. He checked the file out yesterday, saying he was supposed to be working on the case for Madam Bones so Shacklebolt had a word with her about it. Of course she knew nothing about any case and found out that one of his colleagues had seen Castleton in the Leaky Cauldron with Skeeter the day before so that’s his career up the spout and deservedly so. But Rey and I thought we’d make a contingency plan of punishment. Madam Bones isn’t known for going easy but all the same…”
“I get the idea.” Remus sighed wearily. He shot an uncertain glance at Tonks. “Do you know if he mentioned…” He left the sentence hanging pointedly but it was clear that both men had taken his meaning. Moody shook his head.
“I kept that out of the file. And he obviously valued his life enough not to mention it without proof to back himself up.”
The old Auror noted Tonks’ curious glance and caught her eye firmly. “Don’t ask, lass,” he said softly. “Do us all a favour, all right?”
Although her eyes were bursting with curiosity, Tonks nodded her agreement. Remus sealed her silence with a grateful smile. The Auror smiled back briefly before turning to Alastor.
“So, Mad-Eye,” she said conversationally. “I thought you were going to Kane’s hearing for the verdict today.”
Remus felt himself tense; out of the corner of his eye, he saw that his father’s shoulders were equally rigid. Moody’s electric blue eye rolled.
“I was,” he replied softly. “But it’s over now.”
Tonks stared. “Already? But that’s only a couple of hours! Blimey, I thought they’d need more time than that to make their minds up. They usually dither like a pack of old women.”
Moody shrugged casually, although his jaw was tense. “Didn’t take ‘em long. They brought in Oldstaff just to confirm the Death Eater connection and then declared Kane guilty. With so much rock-solid proof gathered against him over the years, the verdict was never in doubt. It was just the sentence that took them an hour or so to debate.”
“What did they decide?” As Remus spoke, it seemed to him as though his voice belonged to someone else.
Alastor regarded him solemnly. “The Dementor’s Kiss,” he said softly. “They’ve condemned him to the Kiss. First time they’ve ever sentenced for a werewolf to lose his soul, let alone a feral.”
Tonks snorted. “Are they sure he’s got one?”
Moody’s wild eye shifted in her direction, but he gave no outward response to her words. “It’ll be a closed execution,” he added grimly. “Too many gawpers otherwise. Invitation only.”
“Invitation?” There was an odd note to his father’s tone “ absently, Remus reached and reassuringly touched his hand. “What kind of people do they invite? What kind of people would want to be invited?”
Moody sighed. “For someone like Kane? They’ll be a few politicians trying to make themselves look good. Aurors involved in the case. A couple of Press maybe.” He hesitated slightly. “And the families of any victims. So you two can probably expect an owl in the near future.”
Remus could tell instantly from the look on his father’s face that Reynard Lupin would not be accepting any invitations. A combination of his lingering guilt over Abel Isaacs and his disdain for punishment as a public spectacle would certainly keep him at home.
But Moody’s gaze was not directed at his old friend. He was staring uncertainly at Remus.
“There’s something more,” he said softly. He cleared his throat gruffly as his mismatched eyes lifted to find Remus’ face. “Lad, I doubt you’ll want to hear this, but they’ll probably be contacting you about it anyway so I’d rather it came from me. When a prisoner is condemned to the Kiss, they are offered the chance to ask one person down to see them before it happens.” He braced his shoulders ominously as he paused. Remus felt a cold, horrible suspicion take hold in his stomach.
A moment later, the old Auror met his eyes and his worst fear was confirmed.
“Remus, I’m sorry. But Abraham Kane has asked for you.”
“What?” Rey’s shocked exclamation made a fine accompaniment to the explosion of stunned astonishment running rampant through his son’s mind. “He can’t be serious!”
Moody looked distinctly uncomfortable. “He’s serious. Made the request officially as soon as the hearing was over. The bloody feral tossed off some snide remark about wanting to apologise.”
“Finish what he started, more like it!” Tonks declared hotly. “He must know that any conversations will be monitored. He probably wants to attempt the frame-up job he didn’t manage before by trying to imply Remus was in on it!”
Moody shook his head. “Shacklebolt already volunteered for escort and eavesdropping duty if the lad accepts the offer; we can’t risk Kane spilling anything he’s been told about the Order to a stranger. So if it comes to it, at least the listener will be kindly inclined.” He tapped his wooden leg absently against the floor in a staccato rhythm. “I don’t know what he’s playing at,” he confessed honestly. “I only know that I’m pretty bloody sure he’s not sorry.”
Remus could feel his head spinning as conflicting emotions played havoc in his mind. Why would Kane want to see him, ask to see him so emphatically? True, a part of him had wanted a chance like this, had secretly longed for some manner of human resolution outside of the wolfish battle of the last full moon, but this? He had expected any meeting would be on his own terms, planned and arranged when he was ready, if he was ever ready at all. But to have the matter forced on him by Kane himself…
He was up to something. He had to be.
But was that a good enough reason to refuse?
If he said no, people like Dawlish would wonder; what was the werewolf avoiding? What was he trying to hide? What didn’t he want to be heard? And if he said yes, he would open himself up to whatever accusations Kane cared to hurl for the benefit of their unseen audience. If Kane did try to incriminate him, Kingsley or not, there would have to be an investigation. And if their family connection were to be uncovered, if Castleton spoke out regarding his feral history…
It was a no win situation. Which was probably what Kane had planned all along. A little chaos to remember him by.
Wondering was not the same as accusing. People wondered about him already. It was not the same as being offered some kind of twisted proof from the mouth of a feral lunatic.
He would do better not to go.
But then, it would never be settled. The fight would be the last moment of their tortuous shared history.
It didn’t seem enough. It didn’t seem like closure.
But was closure worth the risk?
He realised abruptly that Moody, Tonks and his father were all staring at his silence with obvious concern. He swallowed hard.
“Is this visit compulsory?” he asked softly. “Or am I allowed to decline?”
“It’s up to you,” Moody reassured him quickly. “You’re free to say no if you want to. It’d probably be for the best if you did.”
Remus nodded absently. “I need to think about it.”
Reynard bit his lip, clearly not happy that he had even seen fit to consider the matter, his protective streak in regards to his only son clearly gleaming in his eyes. But Remus could see a hint of conflict too. His father wanted this matter closed as much as he did, through his son if not through himself. But he did not seem to believe the risk was worth the conclusion. Tonks and Moody were both watching him with the quiet tolerance of those who believed that a friend had gone out of his mind.
“Well that’s up to you,” Moody said with studied indifference as he hauled himself upright awkwardly. “I’d best be off. Nice seeing you, Rey. It’s been too long.”
Reynard nodded with a sincere smile. “Thank you Alastor. For everything.”
The old Auror gave a gruff smile. “No need to thank me,” he muttered as he turned and clomped away. “All in a day’s work.”
With a flash of a smile and a shrug, Tonks rose also. “I’d best be on my way too,” she said cheerfully. “Work and all.” She met Remus’ eyes and prodded him on the forehead with her fingertip. “You I will see on Tuesday in Hogsmeade. No excuses.”
“If you insist,” Remus smiled back. “The Three Broomsticks, 6pm.”
Tonks wrinkled her nose. “Good boy. See you soon!”
With a final grin, she turned and hurried away down the Hospital Wing, a bedpan and two potion bottles tumbling in her wake. Swerving away at the last moment, she managed to avoid the cabinet, but her wave of triumph was rather marred as she tumbled backwards over an empty bed and crashed to the ground. Smiling rather ruefully she picked herself up and, with a slightly more subdued salute, she vanished after Alastor.
There was a moment of silence. Rey looked at Remus. Remus looked at Rey.
“Dad,” Remus ventured softly but his father’s squeeze of his hand cut him off.
“It’s up to you Remus,” he said gently. “Whatever you decide is fine by me.”
Remus nodded silently.
Neither man spoke for some time.