Remus Lupin felt the steam from his teacup warming his mustache, but his attention was directed elsewhere. His eyes fell on the squirming infant babbling happily in a crib beside the dining room table where he sat. His brow wrinkled, though the corners of his mouth were turned up wryly. “Why is his hair turquoise?” he asked the flame-haired witch sitting across from him. “Is that some sort of family trait, or something?”
“Just be glad he takes after his mother, not his father,” she replied. “We’re a colorful lot.”
“Yes,” he said seriously, meeting her glance. “Thank heaven for that.” Tonks understood. His relief that the child seemed to share none of the werewolf’s curse had effectively defused the tension that had hung over her pregnancy. The brightly-hued hair of a born Metamorphmagus was a welcome tradeoff. He hastily changed the subject. “Where’s your mother?”
“Off running an errand, don’t know where. Kind of nice to have some time alone, though, right?”
He smiled at her, his heart warming. But before he could reply, a flash of bright light blinded them both. The silvery image of a cat trotted toward them. Its mouth opened and a Scottish-tinged voice came forth. “Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters are on their way to Hogwarts. All defenders available are needed immediately. Harry Potter is here”this could be a turning point in the war.”
Lupin stared at Minerva McGonagall’s Patronus, his teacup hitting the table with a thump. “Apparate to the Hog’s Head Inn, Hogsmeade,” the Patronus continued. “ You will find a passageway to the school there. Please hurry.” With a pop, it disappeared.
Both Lupin and Tonks sprang to their feet, their startled eyes communicating the same thought. The time had come. Lupin strode around the table and spoke quickly, placing his hands firmly on Tonks’ shoulders. “You will have to stay here. We can’t leave Teddy alone. I must go quickly.”
“Remus, I have to fight!” she protested. “I’ll find Mum! She can look after him. . .”
“There is no time.” He smiled at the fire in her eyes. “A child needs his mother.”
“He needs both his parents.” Now he could hear the fear in her voice. Lupin leaned forward, just touching her lips with his, gently, lovingly. She shuddered. “I’ll be back,” he whispered. Turning to the crib, he reached toward the child, who clamped a tiny fist around one of his long fingers, babbling contentedly. Lupin felt as if the fist were squeezing his heart.
He turned back to his wife. He felt a sudden rush of gratitude toward Andromeda, whose absence assured that Tonks would not be put at risk. Facing the battle will be easier that way, he thought. “I’ll send word as soon as there is anything to report.” Her lips pressed together tightly and he knew she was trying to hide her tears. With a curt nod, he closed his eyes, flicked his wand, and was gone.
* * *
Lupin stood in the Great Hall and perused the clutch of eager, impossibly young wizards looking up at him. His heart sank at the cold dose of reality that swept over him. They might be technically of age, but were hardly more than children. He focused on keeping his voice steady and summoned back the professor within. “All right. Have any of you ever dueled, not just for fun, but in a real fight?”
One boy raised his hand. Right, Lupin thought, suppressing a wave of panic. He knew these young men and women, had taught each of them during his brief tenure on the school’s faculty. They were good blokes, anxious to please, but he knew they had no real understanding of what it was like to face death. “Remember this,” he shouted over the general din in the room. “You will be fighting for your lives. There won’t be time to think, only act. Keep your wands at the ready, and stun everything. And remember, Avada Kedavra cannot be blocked. Be ready to duck.”
They nodded, eyes huge. An idea suddenly came to him. “Come closer,” he said. He tapped the nearest one on the head with his wand, and the boy’s form suddenly seemed to fade, not disappearing, but taking on the exact appearance of the scene behind him. “It’s a Disillusionment Charm,” Lupin explained, tapping the next one as the others gaped. “It’ll make it harder for the Death Eaters to see you. Wizard camouflage, if you will.”
“Cool!” shouted someone, and the others crowded closer.
“Take care,” Lupin added nervously, an unsettling thought crossing his mind, “that you don’t blast each other. Look for the people in the black cloaks. Best leave your school robes behind so you don’t get confused.” A few black robes immediately dropped to the floor, losing their transparency as they parted contact with their owners.
Finishing the task, he turned to look at the oddly transparent group before him. Ready or not, it’s time, he thought. “We’ve received information that several waves of Death Eaters are moving toward the gates as we speak. We are to deploy on the lawn to face them and repel them before they can reach the castle. Follow me.”
Lupin walked forward through the Great Hall, the young wizards trailing eerily behind him as the others in the room watched. A few pumped their fists in the air and shouted encouragement. We can use all the help we can get, he thought grimly. That and some luck. He wondered if he would ever see Tonks and Teddy again.
* * *
Lupin and his troop of defenders crouched in the tall grass on the lawn, peering through the darkness toward the gates in the distance. There was nothing to see but blackness. He heard heavy breathing behind him and knew he wasn’t the only one whose nerves were on fire.
Then there was something. It looked like a black tide, a smoky, ominous wave of black-robed figures flowing relentlessly across the green Hogwarts lawn toward the handful of determined but underequipped students.
Lupin glanced nervously at the wide-eyed young wizards clustered around him. “Form a wedge!” he shouted as the smoky wave neared. “I’m on point.” He fought to keep the hopelessness out of his voice. How many of them would die? He couldn’t bear to think of it.
“Stupefy!” he howled. A laser-bright red beam shot from his wand into the midst of the mob, and from behind him, a dozen more blazed forward. He saw a half-dozen of the figures drop motionless to the ground. Then a flurry of red and green beams came toward him and the others, even as the black wave trampled its fallen companions and surged forward. He shouted, “Protego!,” but as he did, he was aware of two boys slumping to the ground on either side of him. He wasn’t sure who they were, and realized he didn’t want to know.
Suddenly a lithe figure with magenta hair hurtled up beside him, wand blazing as she yelled, “Wotcher, Remus!” His heart leaped into his throat. Her spell work was dazzling, beams of light fanning across his field of vision and stopping the wave of Death Eaters temporarily. “You thought you’d do this without me, yeah? Fat chance!”
Before he could form a reply, a green beam zipped past his left ear and he caught a whiff of his own singed hair. The mob was moving again. He jabbed his wand toward the nearest black form and yelled, ”Petrificus totalus!” The man dropped like a stone.
“Good one!” Tonks was grinning, in her element. She looked back over her shoulder at him and the trembling boys. Lupin shot another red beam over her head, just in time to flatten an attacker whose wand was pointed at her temple. She responded with a new volley of her own. Heartened by her example, the students launched more stunning spells into the darkness.
“Where’s Teddy?” he bellowed over the din. “You’re supposed to be with him!”
“With me Mum. Looks like you need me more right now.” She sent another attacker flying with a well-placed stunning spell. Then her smiling face was aglow with a brilliant green aura that seemed to turn the darkness to day. Lupin’s heart stopped beating. She sagged like a rag doll to the mossy earth, eyes still wide.
His howl split the night like the roar of a beast. He dived to the ground where she fell, but even as he scooped her into his trembling arms, he knew she was gone. The laughter had left her eyes, the life, too. Lupin’s wand hand stabbed forward as if driven by an unseen Imperius Curse and fired a ferocious beam of green that felled the nearest attacker, then another, and another. He could barely see them fall through the haze of his streaming eyes. He croaked, “Avada Kedavra!” again and again,unable to stop. She felt icy cold against the arm that still clutched her to his chest.
Lupin never saw the blaze of green that enveloped them both. Then they were still. Their embrace belied the tumult that raged around them. For them, there was peace.