Note: Thank you all for your many and nice reviews! A few people doubted that Harry would just let Remus and Snape go to Azkaban, and while they're right on that, the situation is a little more difficult! First of all, Harry is without Dumbledore or any powerful ally at the moment. Fudge is panicked in more than one way, and people like Moody and Shacklebolt believe that the two are guilty. Then Harry has always distrusted Snape, and now Remus has killed a number of Muggles together with Snape (by accident, but Harry doesn't know that.) And also, as Remus suspects, Harry's feelings towards them aren't entirely natural at the moment ...
5 Regulus Black
Now that he had a plan, Remus felt much better. He knew from experience with the marauders that a good plan is the strongest weapon but also the most dangerous weakness – if plan is too tightly set and too inflexible. So he didn’t spend much time on the details. He would wait a few days from now, because the closer he got to the full moon, the better. He wouldn’t risk waiting until the very last moment, in case the plan went wrong.
“Are you a good swimmer?” That was important : Snape didn’t look like someone who enjoyed swimming, or any kind of water or physical exercise. He was reasonably fit for someone who works as a spy, but mostly relied on magic. Remus himself would have been horrible at any kind of sport if he hadn’t been a werewolf.
“I can swim. Probably faster than any kind of mutt.”
“It’s not actually very far, but extremely cold, I’ve been told. I’m not sure whether we should flee in the morning or in the evening, though. Darkness would be an advantage, but it’s even colder in the night.”
“If we had a wand – and without one it will hardly work - the cold is not a problem. You can do a warming charm, or can’t you?”
Remus grinned. “I think I remember them. I spent some time in Romania, during the winter.”
“Hunting vampires? How original.”
“No, I couldn’t afford such a holiday. It was a job, a rich French gentleman who was badly afraid of being bitten by a vampire but wanted some kind of investigation down there – it had to do with a family treasure. In the end the treasure proved to be nothing but a necklace with a fake ruby and he was extremely displeased with the whole matter. But at least he had already paid my expenses. Have you ever been to Romania?”
“The Lestrages have a rotten little castle up in Transylvania. It was one of the most frequented Death Eater meeting points.” Remus face darkened visibly at the mention of the Lestranges.
“Oh, so you know them well.”
“You can kill her,” Snape answered casually, but with a kind of sadistic gleam in his black eyes. “She is the only person who is even more annoying than her cousin and the whole Potter family together. And by the way, you are also invited to kill Pettigrew.”
“How smartly you figured out my list of people to take revenge on, Severus,” Lupin answered sweetly. His expression matched Snape’s in deadliness. “How is Peter doing, by the way?”
Finally they had found a topic to warm themselves on. They both hated those two people with a vicious passion. Snape despised Peter Pettigrew simply because he had been a marauder, but recently this hate had increased beyond imagination because every time he met Voldemort’s disgusting servant he found him even less agreeable. Peter Pettigrew was simply the single most pathetic and repellent person he ever had known. Bellatrix Lestrange had always been a little annoying in her own way, but had become a complete lunatic after the years in Azkaban. She was the most unnerving Death Eater with her constant manic ranting and babbling and baby-talking, like a mad, overgrown gothic doll, sickly-sweet and foul and also extremely dangerous : she never hid her suspicions about him.
“He has become the Dark Lord’s shadow. It shows how low He has sunk, keeping a person like Pettigrew around him. The old Dark Lord would have killed him the instant He had his full power back.”
“Why hasn’t he, then?” Snape frowned at the question.
“I haven’t concerned myself with such trivial things, Lupin.”
“Is it really trivial if Voldemort has changed in such a striking way? Or maybe Peter is still somehow important. Dumbledore warned me and Sirius to try and kill him as long as he is still close to Voldemort.”
“Peter Pettigrew has to pay off a wizard debt to Potter, that’s why Dumbledore wants him to stay alive.”
“Ah.” Realisation dawned on Remus’ face. “So that’s the reason.” He blinked at the simple beauty of it all. That merciful actions should be rewarded to Harry in such a direct way ... and also, the repetitive nature of the debt. After all, Peter hadn’t been the first to become indebted to a Potter in the Shrieking Shack. Maybe, there still was some hope. Maybe there weren’t only the forces of evil working in the background.
“A life can only be paid with a life,” Snape added grimly. “He can hurt and endanger Potter, but he can never kill him – and in the End he will die to help him, if not save him.”
The rest of the day and the following night went by in the same routine as before, making it the fourth day. Twenty-one minus four, that made seventeen. And on the seventeenth night, the moon would rise and their fate would be decided by where they were at the time.
They already started to change. Snape looked greasier than ever, but Remus probably wasn’t any better. Both were growing a stubble. Remus’ hair was growing a lot faster, it always did. Thankfully it was hard to smell themselves with all the foulness around them, but still, Remus had come accustomed to Snape’s smell in the same way he had known others before – intimately, shamelessly.
And as they themselves became less civilised, their behaviour changed, too. Reserves were dropped. They sat less stiffly, talked less cautiously. They probably would have become able to sleep comfortably in each others presence, if it had been possible to sleep comfortably at Azkaban. It was a little like taming a wild, mistrustful little animal, they weren’t quite in the petting-and-purring stage yet, but had left the hiding-in-the-corner-and-hissing stage. Remus doubted very much that it would ever come to petting and purring, but maybe they could get used to living peacefully next to each other.
On the evening of the fourth day, Remus felt a cold coming up to him. His strained health was always a problem, now more so than ever. His eyes were burning and his throat raw. During the night, he started to sniffle and sneeze, and in the morning it was clear that he was a little feverish.
“You’re looking bad,” Snape observed over their morning gruel. “More so than usual.”
“Cold,” Remus rasped. He wasn’t hungry. Huddling in the blankets, he shivered. He watched Snape eating, his spoon moving from the plate to his mouth, and his eyes felt hot and dull. The cold crept over them and into his clothes, biting at his skin. He sneezed once more. His eyes wandered to the blanket that Snape had folded and put away.
“May I have your blanket?” he asked after minute. Snape put down his spoon and looked up at him. It was a strange look out of dark eyes, and Remus felt helpless. But, damn, he was cold. It was normal to ask for the blanket, even if it belonged to Snape. But Snape only looked at the folded blanket and then back at him. He put the plate on the ground with deliberate slowness.
“Girl,” he growled and tossed him the blanket. And Remus felt ridiculously grateful where he should have felt insulted and wrapped it around himself with a dizzy smile on his face.
But about noon, something unusual happened. The mute aide came back, something he never did until the evening, when he brought their food, and with him came another man. It was a lean man wrapped in expensive honey and ginger-brown coloured robes and a leather cloak, with a short mane of dark brown and grey-streaked hair and a slight limp. He had blue eyes which would gleam golden in the right light, and then look feral and sly. He wasn’t very tall, just like Sirius had been, but his presence made up for it. It was Regulus Black.
Snape, who had been standing by the wall, froze. Remus wanted to get up, to face their enemy standing, but didn’t feel up to it. Regulus limped up to their cell, gazing coolly at them. Then he imperiously waved his hand at the aide.
“I’d like to talk to them, alone.” The man nodded and shuffled away. Regulus took in their cell with a disdainful smile. It was a miracle to Remus how the man could ever appear charming to anyone, but obviously he had deceived not only Harry and his friends, but also Dumbledore. Yet, how was that possible?
“Nice room. And nicer even in this lovely company, I guess,” he drawled. Like Sirius, he had a low voice, but you’d rather expect a purr than a bark from him.
“I see you’ve come to gloat at us –“ Severus began, but was cut off by the younger Black.
“But you, Remus, look a little off. Is it the food, maybe? Or the climate? I’m sure your hosts will do everything to accommodate you. Given that your stay will be rather short, and all that.” He smiled, showing too many sharp teeth. Then he took out his wand.
“I don’t like to see you that way, though. I’d rather be assured that you’ll be healthy and strong, you know what I mean? Strong enough to kill.” He made a flick and stab motion and muttered a healing spell at Remus. But his eyes were focused on Snape, and he still smiled.
“And you, Severus, should eat properly. You ought to provide a tasteful meal, it’ll be his first kill, won’t it, Remus?”
“How did you do it?” The potions master hissed angrily. “How did you overpower Dumbledore?” Regulus blinked lazily, showing his teeth again. Remus, who felt the cold vanish and his head get clearer, forced himself to remain silent. Let him talk, the fraud, he thought. Maybe he’ll say something that will reveal him, maybe he’ll become careless in his triumph.
“I must say, you’re not making much sense, Severus.” Regulus snapped his fingers at them and turned to leave. Remus was almost sure now that magic was involved. Regulus hadn’t just charmed their friends with his good looks and sweet talk. He had done something else, something sly and sinister, to deceive them. Maybe they all were under his spell! But how powerful a spell must that be, if it wasn’t even noticed by Dumbledore? But then again, hadn’t Dumbledore also been deceived by Quirrel and Barty Crouch Jr. ... Dumbledore wasn’t infallible, and Harry was loyal, but still so very young.
“Have a nice time. And, ah, good appetite!” With that the false Black limped down the corridor, chuckling in the distance. Snape made a strange, crunching sound with his teeth. Then the suddenly whipped around, a wild look in his eyes.
“Your plan,” he snapped, “will succeed, because I swear, I will find that man and rip his ugly head off and drink his blood and it will be a damn tasteful meal!” For a second he shocked Remus by stalking over to the wall and hitting it with his fist only feet away from Remus’ head. He quickly got up and brought some distance between them. Luckily, his cold was completely gone.
“Calm down, Snape. Escape now, revenge later. And I’ve also got something to say in the head ripping affair. You’ll leave me my half of him, and I might just break my habit of not doing harm to humans.”
And so, Regulus Black got added to their common list of people to hunt down and kill in most imaginative ways.