The Most Curious Year Yet

Remus was sat at the kitchen table nursing a cup of tea, it was half past five in the morning, and the sun had risen about fifteen minutes ago.

He was absolutely exhausted, his joints ached, the only thing that made him feel even slightly better was the cup of tea he was sipping away at.

“I’m going to try and get some sleep,” sighed Lyall, getting up to head upstairs.

Even though the Macmillan’s always gave Remus the day off after his transformation, Lyall still had to go into the Ministry because it was a Friday.

There was a slight knock on the door.

There was a loud wind blowing against the cottage and there was rain pelting on the roof.

“Did you hear that?” muttered Remus looking up from his cup of tea.

“Hear what son?” asked Lyall as he headed towards the stairs.

There was a louder knocking.

“That,” said Remus.

Lyall went to go and check the door and found Mad Eye Moody who was completely soaked in the doorway.

“Alistair!” exclaimed Lyall, “what are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you and Remus,” grunted Moody.

“Come in Alistair,” said Lyall standing out of the doorway, “you’re soaked.”

Moody came into the house and Lyall helped him off with his cloak before going to light the fires in the sitting room and the kitchen.

“Remus,” said Moody sitting down opposite Remus at the table.

Remus nodded briefly in acknowledgement.

“Tea?” asked Lyall getting another cup out of the cupboard.

“I wouldn’t say no to something stronger if you’ve got it,” muttered Moody.

“Fair enough,” nodded Lyall going to fetch the bottle of Firewhisky and some glasses.

“Rough night?” asked Lyall placing the bottle and three glasses on the table.

“Hmmm,” grunted Moody before downing a glass of Firewhisky.

“Alistair,” said Lyall, “although it isn’t wonderful to see you, what are you doing here unannounced at a quarter to six in the morning?”

Moody sighed and gulped down another glass of Firewhisky.

“I need to talk to you and Remus about something that’s happened tonight. I also need to talk to Miss Potter.”

“Beth’s asleep,” Remus pointed out, “at least she’s meant to be,” he muttered.

“I’ll go find her,” he sighed heaving himself up from the table and coming back downstairs a minute later with Beth who was looking very tired and had tousled hair, and was wearing a pink dressing gown over her pyjamas

“What’s going on?” she asked drowsily.

“Beth, this is Mad Eye Moody,” Remus explained, “he was in the Order with us.”

Beth looked at Moody nervously, he was a big man who looked like he could hurt her if he wanted to, and that eye of his was just creepy.

“Hello Mr Moody,” muttered Beth.

“Do you want a cup of tea Cariad?” asked Lyall.

“Hmm.”

Lyall passed her a cup of tea and Beth cradled it for warmth.

“Moody is an auror,” explained Remus, “he’s a dark wizard catcher.”

“I think Hope used to say it was like muggle policemen,” said Moody.

Beth nodded in understanding.

“So why are you actually here Alistair?” asked Lyall.

“Well,” sighed Moody, “I told you both twelve years ago that if there were any updates, I’d come and inform you.”

“You’ve come about Sirius?” asked Lyall.

Remus was clutching onto Beth for dear life.

“He’s dead, isn’t he?” whispered Remus as he held Beth close.

Even though Sirius betrayed Lily and James, and killed Peter, Remus always had a place in his heart for Sirius, the only man he had ever loved.

“No Remus, he’s not dead,” said Moody struggling to find the right words, “he’s escaped.”

“What!” shouted Lyall dropping his glass in shock.

“He can’t have,” stammered Remus, “that’s impossible!”

Moody nodded.

“He escaped last night,” said Moody, “the dementors are furious.”

“But how?” stammered Lyall, “why?”

“Well there’s three possibilities,” said Moody, “he wants to finish the job he started twelve years ago. Option one is he wants to kill Elizabeth and kill the last of the Potter’s.”

“Over my dead body!” said Remus clinging onto Beth with his eyes full of rage.

“Option two,” continued Moody, “is that he wants to kill you Remus.”

“What?” stammered Remus.

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” said Moody.

“He already killed Peter,” Lyall pointed out.

“But, he couldn’t,” said Remus slowly.

“I know you two meant a lot to each other Remus, but he’s a madman,” said Moody, “if he felt you were in his way to getting to Elizabeth, he probably would kill you without a second thought.”

Remus bit his lip and shook his head in disbelief. Yes, Sirius had betrayed Lily and James, but he and Beth had always been the most important people in Sirius’ life, he couldn’t kill them, could he?

“That just leaves option three,” said Moody.

“Sirius might be trying to resurrect his master.”

“You think he’s trying to bring back Voldemort?” asked Beth.

“Yes, I do,” nodded Moody.

“The most plausible explanation though is that he is trying to do all three.”

“So, you think that Sirius has got out of Azkaban to kill Beth, kill Remus and resurrect Lord Voldemort?”

“This isn’t the world’s most terrible prank is it?” asked Lyall.

Moody shook his head.

“Lyall, I wouldn’t joke about something like that.”

“Good to know,” muttered Lyall.

“Now, I’m sorry but I have to go,” said Moody, “the Ministry is going to be chaos today, the Prophet’s going to have a field day.”

“I’ll be in in a few hours,” sighed Lyall.

Moody got up from the table and left and headed out of the house.

“Remus,” said Lyall, “I know you’ve had a shock, but what you really need right now is some breakfast, and then some sleep.”

Remus still had his mouth open in shock and was still holding onto Beth as if his life depended on it.

“It’s meant to be impenetrable,” muttered Remus.

“I know,” sighed Lyall, “the only thing we can do is to up the security around the house. We’ll redo the wards tonight ok?”

“Hmmm,” muttered Remus.

Lyall got up from the table to make the breakfast.

He started to fry some sausages and boil some eggs whilst Beth helped by cutting the bread for the toast.

“Good morning Master’s Lyall and Remus, good morning Mistress Beth,” said Dobby coming into the room.

“But why are yous making breakfast?” stammered Dobby, “that is Dobby’s job!”

“We’ve been up for a while Dobby,” said Lyall, “and I’m trying to distract myself from the fact that a mass murderer is on the loose.”

“Is that why Master Remus is staring vacantly into space?”

“Yes, Dobby it is,” sighed Lyall as he served up the breakfast.

Beth only picked at her breakfast, and Remus completely ignored his.

“I’ve got to get a move on,” sighed Lyall, “I’ll see you both tonight.”

“Bye Grandpa!” said Beth giving him a hug.

“Uncle Remus,” said Beth biting her lip slightly, “are you alright?”

Remus continued to stare into space.

“Is this about Uncle Sirius?”

Remus nodded.

“It’s difficult to explain,” muttered Remus.

“Well it’s a good thing we’ve got all day then,” said Beth as they went through to the sitting room.

The both sat down on the sofa near the fire and Beth snuggled up next to Remus.

“Ok sweetheart,” sighed Remus, “there’s some feelings I’ve been trying to hold back for twelve years.”

“I hate Sirius, he’s the reason that all my friends are gone, he betrayed you and your parents and then killed Peter.”

“I know that,” nodded Beth.

“But still underneath all that, I can’t help but still having feelings for him. He’s the only man that I’ve ever loved.”

“Even though I know I should hate him every ounce of my body, there is still a part of me that cares for him, he was my partner for six years, that’s a long time.”

“I understand that,” nodded Beth.

“Just imagine, that you leave school and Susan was to betray you all. She betrays Hermione and Ron to Voldemort, kills Ernie herself and then leaves you alone to pick up the pieces. You hate her more than anything in the world, but you still can’t help but love her.”

“Sus would never do that,” said Beth shaking her head.

“I know sweetheart, I was just being hypothetical, but that is the situation I’m going through.”

“I know,” nodded Beth.

“Thanks for talking to me about it,” said Remus putting an arm around her, “I don’t know if I could have talked to Dad about this, he might not have understood.”

“You need to get some sleep Remus,” said Beth getting up after a while, “you’re still tired from your transformation.”

Beth noticed that Remus was already asleep.

She smiled slightly as she found a blanket and tucked him on the sofa.

She headed back up to her room and found an empty exercise book and an old photo album.

She flicked through the album until she reached a photo of four young boys at school in their uniforms. The four young Gryffindors had only met a few days before and were all beaming.

Remus was smiling shyly still slightly confused by the fact that he now had friends, James was laughing raucously as Peter told a joke, and Sirius’ eyes were full of mischievous glee.

She used the photograph as a reference as she started to sketch a drawing of the four young boys.

It was strange to think that the young boy with the mischievous glint in his eye that was reminiscent of Fred and George could be a mass murderer, but there was no other plausible explanation for her parents and Peter being dead.