Chapter 5
Remus took in a big breath before realizing what exactly had just happened. James wasn’t dead, no, he was actually living in a huge house in some random muggle town with two other people he didn’t know.
“What are you doing here!?” James said quickly and panicked, like he wanted Remus out of there and Remus was having none of that.
“Pardon but how about a, ‘hey how are you? Sorry I disappeared for two years and am now living in fucking Ireland!” Remus snapped back and James immediately felt guilty and Remus would be a liar if he said he didn’t feel a little bad for snapping at him so quickly but how else was he supposed to react? It felt like a small bomb had just gone off and he was in after shock.
James looked around before pulling Remus inside. The inside of the house was a little bit of a mess. There was a sofa and a loveseat in front of a fireplace. The living room connected to the kitchen and both rooms had several plants and photos hung up on the walls. Remus didn’t get a good look at any of them on account of them being too far away. There was also a hall that was too dark for Remus to properly see where it led to. James sat down on the loveseat and Remus sat semi across from him on the couch.
Neither of them said anything about the situation. How could either of them say anything about what had just unfolded in a few seconds so they didn’t talk about it.
“How's mum and dad?” James asks eventually.
“They’re good, they miss you.” Remus answered. He didn’t know how to feel, what to think, everything was a jumble of confusion.
“We all miss you James.” It was a fact. They had all been terrible when he first left, especially Sirius. They would have liked letters, or even a proper goodbye.
“I’m sorry I left so suddenly, I just needed to go.” He just barely said the final words.
“Yeah because of the mission Dumbledore gave you, but you could’ve-” Remus cut himself off when he saw the look on James face change for a split second. He had been confused for a millisecond, it had been when he mentioned Dumbledore.
“What was that look?” Remus asked and it surprised James a little.
“What look?”
“You were confused when I mentioned the mission Dumbledore sent you on, the one you’ve been on for the past two years.” James was stunned for a second, which wasn’t helping his case.
“I wasn’t expecting you to know about it, I thought it had been kept top secret. I was just a little surprised to find out that you knew about it.” The words tumbled out of his mouth quickly. Remus took a look at James' hand that was resting on his knee. The thumb was twitching slightly.
“What are you doing in Ireland James?” Remus grabbed his wand tighter. He wanted to trust James but something about this was off. James disappeared two years ago without a word and Remus finds him in Ireland in a muggle town, living in a house that’s much too nice to have been bought on a whim.
“You need to leave.” James said, getting up from his chair and moving towards the door.
“James, what's going on?” Remus got up as well so he could continue to face James.
“You need to leave and not come back.”
“Tell me what's going on!” James didn’t get to say anything because the door opened up and two people walked inside. One fit the description of Raven and the other one looked familiar but also someone he had never seen before. Neither of them wasted any time and dropped the items they were holding and shot two spells at Remus while James was yelling for them to stop. Soon enough Remus was without a wand and binded to the couch.
“Guys, he’s not dangerous!” James was yelling but the blonde one who might be the person he was looking for still had their wand pointed at him while the familiar one was talking with James.
“Who is he?” The man asked and he seemed to be simultaneously angry and concerned.
“It’s Remus. Y’know like Moony, Remus.” That made the concern go away and now he was just angry. Though very little of that anger seemed to actually be directed at James and was instead directed towards him.
“What is he doing here!?”
“I don’t know, he just showed up.” Which was true, from James perspective Remus had just appeared. The man turned around and stared at Remus for a little while which gave Remus the chance to get a proper look at him. He had black hair that curled around his ears and hung in front of his grey eyes.
“I’m going to obliviate him.” He started to pull out his wand, although the words were said calmly it made James freak out.
“Reg you can’t do that.” James stepped in front of him blocking his aim to Remus. Even though James was protecting him Remus had found out who the man was and why he was familiar, it was because Remus was dating his fucking older brother.
“Reg?” Remus shouted and it grabbed James' attention.
“Shit.” James muttered but Remus barely even heard the word.
“Why are you in fucking Ireland with Sirius little brother!?” Remus yelled and James turned his full attention to Remus.
“It’s hard to explain.”
“Well it must be a pretty good explanation because why the fuck is Sirius dead brother and Raven Crux with you?” Remus isn’t sure what he said but now the three of them are looking like he had just confessed to a murder.
“How do you know that name?” The person he had thought was Raven Crux asked. Now he wasn’t too confident in his guess that it had been her.
“Dumbledore must have sent him here.” Regulus muttered.
“No, she said he hasn’t clued onto us yet, it could have been Amelia.” The blonde said.
“Either way Dumbledore probably knows about the horcruxes now.”
“How do you know about those?” Remus said without thinking. He doesn’t know what's happened to him, he usually wouldn’t have spoken without thinking first. He needs to spend some time with Lily.
“Shit.” James muttered again and looked at the blonde.
“Could you untie him and give him his wand back. I’m afraid we need to discuss some things.” They listened to James and now James was sitting in the loveseat again while Regulus stood beside him and maybe Raven sat beside him.
Nothing was said for a little while and Regulus was glaring at him like he was daring Remus to do something, say something.
“Remus, did you come here looking for Raven Crux?” Remus nodded and that seemed to have been the only answer they didn’t want. No one said anything for a bit and Remus was itching to grab his wand and run out of there with James.
“We should obliviate him.” Regulus eventually said and like last time James was very against it.
“Reg.” James gave him a look that Remus had never seen him do before.
“Well what are you suggesting we do?” Regulus asked with a sharpness in his voice. James gave him another look and Regulus seemed to know what he was thinking.
“No.” Regulus said sharply.
“He could help-” James tried but Regulus did not seem to care for what he had to say, or maybe he already knew what James would say.
“He’d snitch on us to Dumbledore.” Remus nearly smiled. He was glad to know there was another person that didn’t like Dumbledore all that much.
James and Regulus looked at each other in a way that made something go off in Remus’s head. He wasn’t sure what he was seeing but whatever it was there were layers to it. Many many layers.
“We could have him make a pact.” Raven eventually said. James looked at them and then to Remus silently asking if he was willing to do it.
“I don’t know what's going on here and I’m not going to do anything until someone explains.” Remus said and James turned to look at Regulus. He didn’t seem to love the idea but one look from James and he faltered.
“We are hunting horcruxes.” James said simply. Remus didn’t know what to expect from his explanation but he was willing to listen to it.
“Raven Crux is a fake name that they use to make sure no one can trace them back to their real identity.”
“So, what’s their real name then?” Remus said, looking at the person sitting beside him. There was a weird feel to them, their magic was different to what Remus was used to.
“It’s Pandora Lovegood.” They said and held out a hand for Remus to shake. They spoke rather calmly but everything else about them was the equivalent of a dozen firecrackers going off while in a glass shop.
“And Dumbledore doesn’t know you're doing this.” Remus looks directly at James awaiting his answer specifically. He shook his head and gave him a simple no. Remus didn’t know how to take that. Remus had been able to deal with it thinking that James had left to help the order, but now he knows that’s not what happened. So what did happen?
“You want me to help you with this?” James nodded. He had no reason to believe James to be lying but why would he have left what pushed him to leave?
“If you make this pact I swear I’ll explain everything.” James was pleading a little bit. Remus had barely heard anything good about Regulus and he didn’t have a clue who Pandora was but Sirius trusted James with his life and he still trusts James with his life even though he doesn’t know where he is. Remus trusts Sirius.
“How does the pact work?” James explained it and Remus was not excited to find out it was a blood pact. Pandora had apparently taken one and when Remus had asked about James and Regulus they had said they didn’t need one, which was odd.
Regulus explained to him in better detail that the pact would link blood so that your body would stop you from breaking the set of rules that came with the pact. The rules of the pact Remus also didn’t like, though they all made sense. Share the information that you know, don’t back out from it, don’t tell anyone.
Remus couldn’t tell Sirius that his best friend and little brother were alive, but if they could succeed with this then that would help end the war, then James and Regulus could come back. So Remus agreed on the condition that he made the pact with James.
James drew on Remus’s hand leaving behind a cut that took the shape of three circles inside each other with lines crossing through it. They locked hands and James pulled out his wand.
“Locus inter.”
The blood started to crawl around their arms. From what Remus had read it looked a lot like an unbreakable vow except with blood. For a moment his entire body went cold just for a few seconds. It seeped into his bones and settled there before switching to a normal warmth. He didn’t have a full second of feeling normal again before he got a splitting headache. An actual splitting headache, if Remus didn’t know any better he would think someone took an axe to his head.
“Looks like it worked.” Pandora said with a soft smile and she got up because she didn’t seem to care anymore. James pulled Remus to his feet and the entire world spun. Ah, fuck he felt sick.
“I believe you have some more explaining to do?” Remus said and James nodded.
“How about we go outside to talk?” James walked away from the front door and Remus could only assume that it led to the backyard he had seen earlier.
They walked down a long hallway that was decorated with framed photos, a few of them were moving but most of them weren’t.
James took another turn and they both ended up outside. The sun was shining and the wind was nice but there was still an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He wasn’t used to this. This wasn’t how James was supposed to make people feel, he was supposed to make people feel safe. Not wary.
“So how did you find this place?” James asked, he was sitting on the end of the steps and picking at the grass. Remus was happy to know James was still partly the same, he couldn’t stay still.
“I was told to find out what horcruxes are and someone told me about a Raven Crux. She said they lived here so I came here to talk to them.” James took a moment to understand what Remus said and after he did, it was Remus' turn to ask a question.
“What have you been doing here?” James had to think about it for a moment.
“Pandora showed up about seven months ago, they had found out Regulus was here and they needed help with getting a second horcrux.”
“What’s a horcrux?” Remus interrupted him. He had come here to find out what exactly a horcrux was and no one had explained it to him yet so he needed to know what it was before he heard the rest of the story.
“Regulus or Pandora will be better at explaining this but a horcrux is something that makes you immortal and Voldemort has a few of them.” Remus' heart nearly stopped, Voldemort was immortal. Fuck, that was a lot worse than he thought.
“He has multiple and you already have one?” Remus asks and James nods with a slight smile.
“We have two. Pandora got here and they got Regulus to help them get the second one.”
“We have both here now, that’s why they jumped to attack you. Regulus has been worried about death eaters showing up.” James adds.
Remus nods and lets out a shaky breath. It’s relieving that he knows that he’s not going to be starting at zero again.
“You should get Regulus or Pandora to explain the horcruxes to you better.” James says and it falls quiet again.
“Why did you leave James? You left in the middle of the night and told us a lie to cover up why you left.” James had a prideful shame on his face.
“I needed to protect someone.” He said. Remus wanted to ask him about what he meant but before he could Pandora walked out onto the steps looking for James.
“Are you done with your conversation yet?” They ask, James laughs and says yes which Remus did not appreciate in the slightest he had many more questions to ask.
“Lovely, Regulus needs some help with things but was too stubborn to ask.” James smirks. James gets to his feet and goes for the door but pauses to say something to Pandora.
“Could you explain the horcruxes to Remus properly?” They nod and take the place James had been sitting a moment ago while he disappears into the house.
“So you need me to explain horcruxes to you?” Her tone changed slightly. It wasn’t the same warm slightly bubbly voice she had used with James, not that this voice was overly cold like Regulus's.
Pandora begins to explain and a few times Remus thinks about just leaving and forgetting any of this has happened. How else is he supposed to feel when the enemy is immortal and gains that immortality by killing the innocent. Of course Remus wasn’t too surprised, to be immortal you have to lose a part of your humanity but the fact that they were barely even fighting a man anymore. Voldemort didn’t have much of a soul left to him.
“How did you get the horcruxes? How did you find out about them in the first place?”
“I got the first horcrux without Regulus, but I found out about the second one because of Kreacher, he let it slip that Regulus was still alive.”
“Kreacher?” Pandora rolled their eyes.
“The Black family house elf.” They say. Remus has a weird memory of Sirius yelling about a house elf in their fourth year. According to Sirius the elf was a prat.
“So what are we doing from here?” Remus sees Pandora hold down a laugh.
“You are going to go back home and wait for instructions.” Remus wanted to laugh but they were being serious.
“You’re kidding? How are you even going to get the information to me?” Pandora smiles and gets to their feet.
“We have our ways.” They leave him to sit on the stairs alone. Remus' head hurts. It’s a lot to take in considering it’s only been an hour and a half. He stays outside a bit longer, long enough that it makes breathing feel easy again until he gets up to go inside with the rest.
The second he steps in the house he can hear talking from the living room. Pandora is sitting on the love seat while Regulus is on the couch. So far it’s the calmest Remus has ever seen him, including Hogwarts. Though he did not see Regulus in Hogwarts often. James stood behind the sofa and had his arms lazily wrapped around Regulus and his chin rested on the younger one's head.
James was glowing. He was glowing like how he had when he was dating Lily, but more. He could outshine the goddamn sun and Regulus looked like he was living for it. Every single ray of sun that touched him Regulus would adore it with care and a smile that only picked up at the corners of his lips but was still somehow one of the happiest smiles Remus had ever seen in his life.
Remus wanted to say something because he was confident in what he knew. There was no doubt in his mind that he could be wrong, but he stayed quiet. James had left to protect someone, and if Remus had to disappear to save Sirius he would do it without a second thought, hell he would probably let himself be torn apart if it meant Sirius wouldn’t get hurt. People would think he was insane for that but compared to James Potter it was nothing because he actually did it.
James eventually noticed him and smiled, Remus smiled back. How could he not? James was alive. Sirius would know that his best friend wasn’t dead and nor was his brother. It felt like the war might actually have an end. Remus just had to make sure they could see the end of it.