Finally Home by Weasley Mom
A/N: All of the characters contained herein are the property of Ms. Rowling.
For clarification, all of the italicized portions of dialogue are thought. Basically, I needed a way for the characters to communicate in their animal forms, so I decided to flex my authorly powers and allow them to communicate telepathically. It was never mentioned by Sirius or Remus before because the kids didn't need to know. Enjoy!
"Miss me, Potty?" he asked smirking evilly.
"Not particularly, Ferret," Harry said, giving up the struggle to control his rage and allowing the green flames to flare to life around him. He was dimly aware of the aurors and Order members who were present fixing their wands on Malfoy, and of Bill, Charlie, and the twins restraining Ron, who was frantically trying to get to Hermione. Harry kept his concentration on Ginny, who was struggling to break free of her captor.
"Let me go, you silver-eyed snake," Ginny growled.
"I don't think so, Weaselette. I have a message to deliver, and I'd rather do it uninterrupted. Your tasty little self insures my security. The advantage of my side, you know. I'm surrounded by aurors and not one of them will dare touch me for fear of hitting you or the mudblood," Malfoy grinned malisciously. Harry noticed several aurors and Order members very cautiously and quietly inching their way around behind the Slytherin.
"Playing errand boy, Malfoy?" Harry sneered, doing his best to keep the blonde boy distracted. "Haven't you ever heard? They kill the mesenger. Your master must not think very much of you." The grin was temporarily wiped off of Draco's face.
"I volunteered, Potter. I wanted to see the look on your face when you heard the Dark Lord's message," he snarled. His eyes flickered then, and Harry realized he had seen those attempting to ease their way around behind him. Malfoy tightened his grip on Ginny, causing her to hiss in pain.
"I suggest you call them off, scar-head. If I go down, it won't be alone," Malfoy said.
"Back off," Harry ordered, his gaze flicking in a silent plea to Kingsley and Lupin. He saw the Order members freeze and Kingsley ordering the aurors back. "Deliver your message, Malfoy, and get out of here."
"Awwww... and I was so enjoying our little reunion too, but if you insist. The Dark Lord wishes me to convey his distress that he was unable to deliver the Christmas gift that he had so carefully devised for you. He thought perhaps you might enjoy a token of his affection for Valentine's Day instead. I know it's a little bit early, but..." Malfoy shrugged. Quick as the snake he was, he removed his wand from Ginny and pointed it at one of the nearby storefronts shouting, "Inflamare Malifico!"
The store burst into flames and a series of small explosions rocked other shops on the street as they too began to blaze. It was what Harry had been waiting for. Flicking his wrist, he used his wandless magic to pull Ginny from Malfoy's grip. In the same instant, Ron, taking advantage of the distraction caused by the fire, transformed into his lion. He launched himself at Malfoy with a tremendous roar, knocking him to the ground with a massive paw upside the head. Snarling, he turned to launch a second attack at the boy. Unfortunately, Malfoy had, by this time, gotten his wits back and managed to scramble out of the way. Harry noticed with grim satisfaction the long claw marks which now marred Draco's cheek. Malfoy put one hand to his face, feeling the blood there. His eyes filled with icy rage. He raised his wand with deadly intent, pointing it at the lion.
"Avada..." Malfoy began.
"Expelliarmus!" Hermione cried, albeit weakly, sending Malfoy's wand flying.
"Stay out of this, mudblood," Draco snarled at her.
"Accio Wand!" Ginny shouted. Malfoy's wand flew into her outstretched hand, as Tonks, Lupin, and the Weasley boys ran towards them.
"This isn't over," Draco hissed as he took a small object from a pocket of his robes and murmured something Harry couldn't hear. There was a bright flash of light and Malfoy was gone. Ron, still in his lion form walked over to Hermione, nuzzling her.
"Talk about beauty and the beast," George murmured.
"How the hell did you learn to do that Ronniekins?" Fred said.
"He should just be thankful that Bill is quick with the obliviate spell otherwise we'd have a problem. Not even Sirius was irresponsible enough to transform in front of a whole squad of aurors." Lupin said, glaring at Ron.
"Still... it is pretty wicked," Charlie grinned. "Our little brother is an animagus."
"An unregistered animagus. Do you have any idea how much trouble he will get into if he is caught?" Bill demanded. "Not to mention what Mum will say."
"She won't say anything, because no one is going to tell her," Ginny said forcefully. "I have too much dirt on all of you. This stays secret."
"Can we debate this later? The whole bloody town is ablaze, in case you haven't noticed. We need to help. And where the hell is Dumbledore?" Harry growled.
"Harry's right. This can wait. Ron, go with Hermione back to the castle and get her to Madame Pomfrey." Lupin said. Hermione, though very pale, straightened determinedly.
"I'll be fine," she said. The lion standing next her snarled and Harry was certain that if Ron were in human form an argument would be starting.
"Miss Granger, as your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher I must insist," Tonks said, knowing Hermione would not refuse when put in those terms. Lupin then handed Hermione a spoon from a pocket in his robes.
"This will take you straight to the castle gates. The headmaster gave it to me in case one of you needed immediate help. Now go,"he said. Hermione took the spoon in one hand, while Ron very carefully took the other end in his mouth. They quickly disappeared and Harry and the others rushed to join the efforts to save Hogsmede.
It was an exhausted Harry and Ginny who returned to the castle that night through the Shrieking Shack with Remus and Tonks. All four were covered in smoke and soot. Harry's eyes and throat burned and Ginny's eyes were nearly as red as her hair. Remus ushered them all to the headmasters office. Professor Dumbledore was waiting for them, his eyes unusually grave.
"The fires are out then?" he asked as they entered. Remus nodded tiredly.
"Yes, headmaster. The town is in ruins, though. Honeydukes is gone, as is Scrivenshafts and Madame Pudifoot's. The Three Broomsticks survived the worst of it. The mediwitches from St. Mungo's are using it as a staging area to shift the most seriously injured to the hospital," Remus said.
"How did he do that? I mean, Malfoy has never been that powerful. He set half the town ablaze with one spell," Harry asked, his voice coming out a harsh croak.
"I suspect he just triggered a spell set up by the other deatheaters, Harry. I understand he had a message for you?" Dumbledore said. Harry nodded.
"Apparently this was in retaliation for Voldemort's failure to attack the Hogwarts express at Christmas. He said it was another gift to me," he said grimly, thinking of the total destruction he had witnessed today.
"Harry, this wasn't your fault," Ginny said, taking his hand. She sounded nearly as bad as he did. Harry smiled sadly at her. He really wanted to believe that.
"I know it has been an horific day for all of you, but try to remember, you did manage to save most of the students who were in Hogsmede. This day would have been so much worse if you were not there, Harry, especially as I had no choice but to stay here and insure the castle's wards held in case they had switched the focus of their attack," Dumbledore said. Harry's head snapped up at Dumbledore's words.
"Most?" he said, fear on his face. Dumbledore nodded sadly.
"Colin Creevey died as a result of the injuries he received and Parvarti Patil has gone missing. I shall be making an announcement to the school tomorrow," he said, his blues eyes dead.
"No," Ginny said shaking her head as tears streamed down her face. Colin was one of her best friends, and now he was gone. Harry did his best to comfort her, his own mind a whirl of memories of Colin. The boy had grown from an annoying groupie in Harry's second year to someone he trusted with the thing most precious to him in the world, Ginny. Harry would miss him. He would also add his name to the ever growing list of people he needed to avenge.
There was a very somber mood in the Great Hall for breakfast the next morning, particularly at the Gryffindor table. The room was draped in black as it had been when Cedric had died. When most of the students were seated, Dumbledore rose and looked sadly around the hall.
"I'm sure that you all are aware of the attack by a group of Lord Voldemort's followers in Hogsmede yesterday afternoon. While, thanks to the bravery of some of our sixth and seventh year students, most of those present were able to make it back to the castle unharmed, one of our number has lost their life in the battle. Let us raise our glasses in rememberance of Colin Creevey." There was silence in the hall as everyone raised their goblets. Harry looked down the table at Dennis Creevey who had his glass held high in memory of his brother. His face was a mask of misery, streaked with tears.
"In addition to Mr. Creevey, Parvarti Patil has gone missing. Every effort is being made to find her and we hope that she will soon be back amongst us. Let us all keep them both in our thoughts and honor them by continuing to live our lives as I know they would like us to," Dumbledore said. Harry looked towards the Ravenclaw table where Padma Patil was quietly sobbing into her hands as her housemates tried to comfort her. He also saw Seamus with his arm around Lavender Brown awkwardly patting her on the back. Harry turned away, unable to watch and wondering how many more of these scenes he would have to endure before the final battle between himself and Voldemort.
Over the next few weeks, life at Hogwarts slowly went back to normal. While it was not unusual to see a student crying in the hallways, laughter was gradually returning to the castle. Harry and Ginny had shared a quiet Valentine's Day together. She had been thrilled with the bracelet he had given her, and they had shared the chocolate frogs under the tree near the lake. Ginny's gift to Harry had been bittersweet. It was a picture of the two of them taken on the first Hogsmede visit of the school year. They were near the fountain at the center of town and Ginny was laughing up at Harry. Ginny had had tears in her eyes as she told Harry that Colin had taken the picture. She'd had it framed at Scrivenschaft's the day of the attack on Hogsmede.
As February wound to a close, the full moon approached. It would be the first full moon that King, Boots, Webfoot, and Prongs would be able to spend with Moony. The last one had fallen in the middle of the week and Remus had refused to allow them to join him. He insisted that being awake for their classes was more important and had informed them, in no uncertain terms, that they would only be accompanying him on full moons which happened to fall on a weekend. So it was, shortly after dinner, the four Marauders found themselves under Harry's invisibility cloak sneaking to the whomping willow to meet their fifth member. Under the cover of the cloak, Ginny silently transformed into Boots and darted out and under the tree's branches, pressing the knot which stilled it. They hurriedly slipped into the tunnel and quickly made their way to the shrieking shack.
"Come on, Ginny. The moon will be up any time. We can't be late," Ron said over his shoulder to his sister.
"We'd be there already if you hadn't had thirds of desert, Ron," Hermione said.
"I'm a growing boy, Hermione. Besides, I'll need my energy for tonight, and Harry had thirds too," he retorted.
"Yes, but Harry didn't have thirds of everything else too," Hermione snapped. Things escalated from there, as they always did where Ron and Hermione were concerned. Harry and Ginny exchanged a look, rolling their eyes.
"Oh look, we're there," Harry said, interrupting them with some relief. He reached out carefully opening the tunnel entrance. The four climbed up into the shrieking shack carefully looking around.
"Moony?" Harry called. Tonks' bright pink head poked out of the kitchen, smiling. She was carrying a small overnight bag and wore an expressin of exaggerated innocence on her face. Remus followed in her wake, looking exhausted. He flopped, tiredly, down on the couch.
"Wotcher you four! Nice of you to come visit Remus before his transformation. I was just getting ready to head to the castle for the night. He doesn't like me to stay here on full moons, just in case. Oh, almost forgot my book," she said, brandishing a very familiar book. She bent down and very thoroughly kissed Remus, then walked towards the tunnel, giving them all a wink as she passed.
"Oh and love, be careful tonight," she said by way of parting, closing the tunnel behind her.
"What was that about?" Harry said with a puzzled frown.
"Tonks is an auror, Prongs. The less she knows, or more precisely, the more she pretends not to know, the better," Remus said with a tired smile.
"Was that the book she had?" Hermione asked. Remus nodded.
"My copy. She's decided that if you four can do it, she can too. She was actually rather miffed to discover that neither Sirius nor I had shared it with her before," Remus grinned briefly, then cringed as a spasm of pain shook him.
"How much longer, Moony?" Harry asked in concern. Moony pulled a vial from his robes and downed it before answering.
"Not long. A few minutes at most. You'd better transform," he panted, as his eyes began to take on a distinctly yellow hue. They quickly obeyed and a stag, lion, cat, and otter appeared where they had been standing. Moments later, a pale shaft of moonlight shone through one of the windows, and Remus stiffened as his transformation began in earnest.
They watched in horror as the bones of the quiet, unassuming man they had all come to love stretched painfully. They saw his skin darken and hair begin to spring forth on his face and hands. Remus screamed as his face elongated and his teeth sharpened. His scream finally changed into a mournful howl as the transformation became complete. A wolf stood panting where the professor had once been.
Prongs tentatively stepped forward, lowering his antlered head. The wolf regarded him with an intelligent amber gaze before sniffing him, as if trying to commit his scent to memory. He then moved on to the rest doing the same thing. Satisfied at last, he padded over to the kitchen door nuzzling it open with his nose and slipping through it. The others followed the wolf through the kitchen and out the back door, which had conveniently been left ajar.
Moony stepped out into the cool, fog-shrouded darkeness. Lifting his muzzle into the air, he sniffed once more before cautiously leading them out into the night. He carefully skirted the edge of Hogsmede where the ruins from the attack stood reaching skeletal fingers toward the sky. At last they reached the edges of the Forbidden Forest where he stopped, casting a pointed look at Boots and Webfoot.
The otter chittered at the lion, who lowered himself to the ground. She scrambled on, wrapping her paws in his mane, chittering at him once more, as though warning him that there would be hell to pay if he let her fall off. Boots, meanwhile, finished unconcernedly licking the dew off her paws before leaping lightly onto Prongs back and digging her claws in slightly. The wolf inclined his head gravely and took off at a run into the forest. Prongs and King followed, racing through the night.
Harry felt the muscles in his legs bunch powerfully as he ran through the moonlit forest in Moony's wake. It was a feeling of freedom he'd never felt before, even on his Firebolt, and he reveled in it. His heightened animal senses picked up everything. He could hear mice scurrying in the underbrush and smell the scent of Ginny perched on his back. He found himself wishing he could've shared a run like this with his dad or Sirius.
"Wonderful isn't it?" he heard a voice to his left say. He nearly threw Ginny to the ground as he skidded to a hault at the sight of the almost translucent stag which stood to his left.
"Dad?" he thought in wonder, realizing the voice had spoken inside his mind. The other stag almost regally inclined his antlered head. Boots mewed softly, and the stag gently nuzzled her in acknowledgement. "How?"
"Animal senses are much keener than human ones. We also might've broken a few rules to get here. Honestly, if we weren't already dead your Mum would probably kill us," Harry could almost see the arrogant grin on the other stag's face.
"We? Sirius is here too?" Harry's question was answered almost immediately by the sight of Moony racing back to him with the translucent form of Padfoot at his side and King in their wake.
"Great night for a run, isn't it kiddo? I always loved nights like this," Padfoot projected, winking at Harry and giving him his familiar canine grin.
"How did you do this?" Harry couldn't help but ask again.
"By violating pretty much every law of the outer planes," Sirius grinned. "We had to be here for your first run though, besides we wanted to congratulate Moony on his engagement, or at least James did. I wanted to talk him out of it."
"Won't you get into serious trouble for that?"Hermione's voice interjected.
"Only if we're caught, and we're never caught, Webs," Sirus thought cheerfully.
"Webs?" Ron's voice snorted.
"Shut it, your majesty," Hermione thought.
"Merlin, now I have to listen to them argue in my head too. I was enjoying the peace and quiet," Ginny sighed.
"Just tune them out. That's what I've always done with Padfoot," James told her innocently.
"See how unloved I am?"Padfoot mournfully proclaimed, his canine eyes sparkiling with mischief
"So where to tonight then, Moony?" James asked, ignoring Sirius' puppy dog eyes.
"I was thinking the hill," Moony projected.
"Perfect. Last one there is a hook-nosed, greasy haired Slytherin," Sirius said. Turning Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs bounded off into the fog as their successors followed.
One more chappie down, and I was even nice and left you without a cliffie. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks as always go out to Danielle, my moderator, my son Will, my beta, and all of you for your wonderful reviews. Thank you! We're getting down to the end of the story here folks, only a few more chapters to go. I am however, working on a couple of other stories which I will start posting when this one is finished. One is a Marauders fic told from Sirius' point of view. The other is the story of Remus and Tonks' romance from the beginning to the wedding. They are both sort of companion pieces to this one as they will reflect events which I have mentioned in this story.
Next chapter... quidditch, a DA meeting, and a clue about what happened to Parvarti.