Bulgaria
Bulgaria was the humid place I’d remembered, the rain was lashing down and I was starting to feel sticky. I rode my broom from the Bulgarian border straight to the Thestral Sanctuary where Aleksander was waiting for me.
He looked bigger than when I’d last seen him, more muscular, more scarred and a lot more tired. He smiled his cheery and infectious smile, that was now surrounded by a very full beard, and I couldn’t help but laugh and wrap my arms around his six foot build.
‘Aleksander, you’ve gotten bigger.’ I just about remembered my Bulgarian, but it was rough at best.
‘And you are just as beautiful as the day you left us.’ He laughed and gently took my broom, bringing me further into the now much more built up Sanctuary.
‘You’ve made some improvements.’ I said, looked around at some of the cabins that weren’t there last time, there was also a new herding paddock and a couple of other buildings I didn’t quite recognise on sight.
‘Kasha and the pack have expanded the Sanctuary borders so that we can look after more than just Thestrals,’ he explained as we approached a very familiar looking cabin. Aleksander held the door for me and I swallowed hard when stepping into the place I’d stayed in for several months during my last trip. ‘You’d be very impressed by the work she has done.’
Aleksander threw me a towel and gestured to the empty rack hanging near the fire for my soaking wet coat, he began making some tea whilst drying his own thick black hair. There was something a little heavier about him, like he’d had a rough few years and it only occurred to me at that moment that I hadn’t written or returned nearly enough times.
‘I should have come back sooner,’ I sighed. ‘See how everyone was getting on.’
Aleksander let out a hearty laugh. ‘There was no need, Angie.’ He shook his head. ‘We’ve been doing fine without you and honestly, it’s no surprise you haven’t been able to come back with what I’ve heard of your adventures.’ There was a cheeky twinkle in his soft blue eyes. ‘The yetis in Tibet haven’t come down from the mountain again, Japan is in a natural state of peace as far as the people are concerned and it seems Remus has finally done the decent thing.’
I couldn’t help my smile at the mention of Remus. ‘It certainly has been a long few years.’ I nodded and sat down at the wooden table I used to plan my adventures from, adjusting my two watches that sat next to each other on my arm. I didn't anticipate needing my moon watch, but you could never be too careful and it was a good reminder of my promise to Remus to stay safe. ‘What about Kasha? You and her?’
Another hearty laugh. ‘No, I’m afraid not. We decided it was best we stick to a more professional relationship whilst we rebuild.’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’
‘Don’t be.’ Aleksander said, sliding over a mug of tea and finally sitting down with me. ‘It’s what’s best for everyone.’ I watched his tired eyes scan me briefly. ‘You should let Remus know you’ve arrived safely, he’ll be worried.’
‘It’s fine, he knows where I am, he knows I’m safe.’ I told him and for a moment Aleksander just watched me, before letting his face set into another infectious smile.
‘You’ve changed Angie Lockwood,’ he said, almost shaking his head. ‘You are not the same person you were when we were last together… I wonder if it is for the better.’
‘What do you mean?’ I frowned.
‘You’re not the only one who has seen things they’d rather not.’ Aleksander sat uncomfortably. ‘I’ve seen men and women with that same look, the one that says they will stop at nothing to get what they think they deserve. I’ve seen good people die because of that look in the eyes of others… I promised to help you and we all owe you a debt for what you did here, but I ask you for one thing and one thing only.’ Aleksander leaned forward and stared me straight in the eyes. ‘Do not ask for more than you yourself are willing to give.’
‘Aleksander, I wouldn’t-‘
‘We can all feel a war is coming, Angie.’ Aleksander interrupted and it was suddenly clear just how exhausted he really was. ‘But you are not a war general and we are not your soldiers.’
‘I never said you were.’
‘No? So why do I feel like you’re about to ask me to fight?’
‘You can say no.’
Aleksander stood up and rounded the table to the other side of the room. What had happened here?
‘I don’t want to fight anymore.’ I could hear the shake in his voice and slowing stood up from my seat. For a while, the only sound that could be heard was the crackling of the fire and Aleksander’s steady breathing.
I didn’t know what to say, but eventually I didn’t need to say anything. Aleksander went to bed without saying another word. I stayed up a little longer, I wrote to Remus to let him know I’d arrived safely and told him about Italy and Aleksander, I didn’t realistically expect a reply. I wandered around the cabin for a few moments, looking at various things to try and figure out what had happened to Aleksander, he was never so low the last time I was there.
There was a few letters scattered over tables and the sentences I could pick out seemed as if there had been a new rift created between the Sanctuary and the Bulgarian minister. The word Valentine continued to pop up and I realised that it must have been a person, but I couldn’t figure out what he had to do with the park or the ministry.
The map of the park looked different to last time as well, the borders had been stretched and it looked as though various sites had been established between the Sanctuary and the old Ranger's site that Kasha occupied. They had been rebuilding from the ground up and it looked to be a successful endeavour for the most part, though some areas looked different to others and I couldn’t find a key to work out what each of them were.
I debated using my skill to look directly into Aleksander’s mind, before immediately feel a wave of guilt wash over me. That power was not mine to use so radically and certainly not without his permission. Why did I need to remind myself of that fact so often?
Angelina,
I can’t offer any words of encouragement that you would find useful. I’m glad you are okay and that Benji was not injured or hurt in finding the coins for you, but please remember my words before you left, it sounds as though Aleksander is in pain and is getting tired, so please think about what it is you are asking of him, he is your friend.
The mission was relatively successful, but we will still need to send regular patrols into the Department, it’s too risky not to. I’ll be on the night patrol routinely over the next few weeks, it’s about the only useful thing I feel I’ve been able to do. Everyone is safe and no news of any new disappearances which can only be a good thing.
Any idea of when you’ll be coming home?
Stay safe for me. The world is becoming a dangerous place.
Yours
Remus
I closed my book and looked down at my moon watch the next morning. The full moon would be up in a few days and I still didn’t know what the protocol was for the Sanctuary. Aleksander hadn’t yet emerged from his room and I was starting to worry that our conversation from the night before was harder than he was letting on.
I wandered outside to see the wet Sanctuary being tidied up by some familiar faces. Elena was the feisty trainer who took nothing from the Thestrals she trained and was about as tired as Aleksander.
‘It hasn’t been easy,’ she said, dispensing with a pile of wood that had come from a damaged roof, I did my best to help her repair it. ‘The minister has been putting more and more pressure on us to reduce the freedom of the pack, but Aleksander will not back down.’
‘Why does he want to reduce the freedom?’ I frowned and watched Elena tie her jet black hair up into a loose bun. ‘Surely there hasn’t been any accidents severe enough?’
‘There hasn’t been a single werewolf attack since you left us.’ Elena stated. ‘Werewolves have come from all over the world to find a peaceful existence here, they take Wolfsbane, they help to train the creatures and find a place they feel they belong. We cannot take that from them and minister is trying to do just that. The question of why now still remains.’
I thought for a while and continued to help repair the damage to the fallen roof.
‘Who is Valentine?’ I asked and Elena just frowned and shook her head.
‘I don’t know. I’ve never heard that name.’ She said.
I looked back towards the cabin where Aleksander was probably still sleeping and wondered a little more about the letters and who this Valentine was.
‘Has anything unusual been happening? Anything that has put you on edge?’ The roof was just about fixed and Elena was finishing up the exterior.
‘Just the night attacks.’ She shook her head again.
‘Night attacks?’
‘There is a group who regularly come to disrupt Sanctuary, they don’t take anything for the most part, nothing important anyway,’ Elena hopped down from the ladder. ‘They just tend to cause trouble in minor ways. When they’re feeling especially bold, they set fire to the fencing around the paddocks and scare the creatures into scattering around the park, knowing it’ll take us days to bring them all back safely.’
‘How often do they attack?’
‘It’s actually been a while since the last time, maybe three or four weeks.’ She sighed.
I turned back to the cabin to see Aleksander emerging, still looking tired, but somewhat apologetic. I wandered over to him.
‘I’m sorry about last night, Angie.’ He said, closing the door behind him. ‘It’s just been hard over the last few weeks.’
‘Who’s Valentine?’ I asked, getting straight to the point.
Aleksander’s eyes widened and a fury I’d never seen before flashed behind them. I could see him debating whether to answer or not, before nodding his head in the direction of the open field behind the cabin, the same one that led to the hill I’d fallen down the day Remus arrived in the park.
We walked for a good ten minutes up the hill before Aleksander spoke again.
‘Gregori Valentine.’ He sighed and brought his wand out to dry a rock for him to sit on. ‘He’s been leading the charge on some attacks on the Sanctuary… I think he’s working directly for the minister, but I have no proof.’
‘Elena told me about the attacks, but she doesn’t know who Valentine is.’ I could feel a frustration building, I hated secrets, I hated keeping them and I hated them being kept from me.
‘I chose to keep this information between myself and Kasha,’ Aleksander reasoned. ‘She agreed that keeping it quiet is best for everyone.’
‘Aleksander, the trainers are exhausted,’ I told him. ‘This place is falling apart slowly and I can see that the fear of the next attack is starting to wear the creatures down as well. I can’t imagine what it is doing to the pack, but keeping it quiet is not going to help anyone and it won’t stop the attacks.’
‘What am I supposed to do then?’ Aleksander hissed and suddenly stood up to me. ‘Tell me what other options do I have?’ I could see his bloodshot eyes no longer flashing with anger, but full blown rage staring down at me. ‘People are dying and this is the only safe place for anyone to be, I cannot be the person who takes away their courage.’
I stared at Aleksander for just a moment before taking a breath. ‘You’re right, we’re not war generals Aleksander, but I would fight if you asked me to and I would not question it.’ Aleksander’s frown deepened.
‘Why?’
‘Because you’re my friend.’ I told him simply. ‘You are my friend, and this is your home, this is your family, that makes it my family and my home. I haven’t changed as much as you think. I will still fight for the pack if you need me to… without question.’
Aleksander stayed silent for a moment. He just watched me, forming his words and trying to work out how to react.
Finally, he swallowed and closed his eyes. ‘I’m so tired, Angie.’
‘I know.’
Aleksander wrapped his arms around me and sobbed. I did my best to hold him close to me, providing any comfort I could.
‘You are not alone,’ I whispered next to his ear. ‘I promise, no matter how it feels, you and I are never truly alone.’
He soon calmed down and I promised I would do what I could to help repair the Sanctuary from the storm. Aleksander needed to rest and Elena needed to be informed of what was really going on. She stayed with him for the rest of the day and they both got the rest they sorely needed.
I had a feeling I would need to stay longer than I intended.
Remus was both disappointed to hear that Angelina would be staying in the Park longer, and proud that she had managed to calm Aleksander down, telling her friend that he wasn’t alone. But the growing feeling of fear of what she had asked of Benji and Remus’s own difficulties in staying focused on his nightly patrolling, had him wondering what decisions she was making and if it would lead to her coming home or not.
Remus was doing his best to keep Sirius occupied whilst he couldn’t leave Grimmauld Place, but he was still working at the shop, still trying to patrol on Dumbledore’s request and still trying to keep the peace as far as the Order was concerned.
The Potters, Weasleys and Lockwoods seemed to be walking on thin ice around each other, with the Lockwoods seemingly drifting further and further into the background of the Order meetings. In fact, George and Anna rarely said anything anymore, it felt as though they were simply waiting for something to happen and it was making people nervous.
Once again, they were thrust into a situation where they were waiting for Angelina to return home for them to feel okay again. Remus did everything he could to stay focussed on the little things, the house, the garden, the lake, the forest and looking after Ruben who was progressively looking worse as the winter frost came in. Remus had taken to keeping the old owl inside on the harsher nights when Rilee was delivering letters, but he was fearing the worst.
He hated that Umbridge carried such power over Hogwarts and that Harry was miserable because of it, but he hated even more that Erin had written to him fearing for her place within Hogwarts. Remus urged her to keep her head down, focus on her studies and not to get involved with anything that would draw attention to herself. He promised that there would be a place for her after she left school, if no where else she could quite easily take his job at the shop, continue to have a supply of Wolfsbane and people who would look after her best interests, though Remus had a growing fear that Erin’s secret would be found out and she would not complete her final year at Hogwarts.
Erin was supposed to be the example, she was supposed to be the one who made it through school so that any other young werewolf could see that it was possible to live a normal life. Remus was worried enough to talk to McGonagall at the next Order meeting about Erin’s concerns, he didn’t expect her to go bowling up to Erin, but she did promise she would do everything she could to get Erin through the next few months. Erin would finish school, she would be the example to others.
‘Right under Umbridge’s nose.’ Sirius half laughed. ‘It’ll be something special if you pull it off.’
‘If?’ Remus frowned, sipping the wine he had leftover from dinner. People were still coming in and out of Grimmauld Place, dropping off messages or heading off to complete one task or another.
‘Come on mate, Umbridge isn’t stupid.’ Sirius leaned forward and frowned. ‘I want the kid to graduate, I want Angie to come home and save the world, I want Harry to remain safe for the rest of the year and I want Peter to pay for what he did to us, but the world doesn’t work like that and you know it. One of those things might happen, but it’s a bit much to ask for it all.’
‘You used to be so optimistic.’
‘I did,’ Sirius chuckled. ‘And then my best friend betrayed me, I got sent to Azkaban and a war started. Optimism would be a very naive move at this point.’
Remus sighed, finishing the rest of his wine. ‘Perhaps you’re right. But I will continue to maintain the faith that you are wrong.’
‘Each to his own.’ Sirius shrugged and both men chuckled.
It was a hard few months and they’d learned from past mistakes that there was no time for dishonesty or for keeping things to yourself, of course, it ended up with conversations where the two men had been brutally honest with each other.
‘So,’ Sirius poured a little more wine in Remus’s glass and he honestly didn’t mind, it was an empty house he would be returning to anyway, a few more hours wouldn’t do any harm. ‘Where has your wife run off to now?’
‘Bulgaria.’ Remus sighed as Sirius topped up his own glass.
‘I thought I heard something about Italy with Benji?’ Sirius frowned.
‘Yes, they went there looking for your funnily enough.’ Remus raised his eyebrow as Sirius let out a bark-like laugh.
‘Any luck?’ He asked.
‘Do you know, I think they were getting close before you escaped the country and fled west.’ Remus grinned, seeing the funny side. ‘Once you catch up with Bellatrix, you will let us know Voldemort’s plans, won’t you?’
‘Of course!’ Sirius cheered. ‘After all, the werewolves are rallying behind Voldemort these days anyway, what’s so wrong about sharing a little information between allies?’
Remus couldn’t help his laugh at Sirius’s dramatics. It was only when Molly and Tonks wandered in and glared at the both of them that the gravity of the situation fell upon them both.
It was true that the werewolves were being driven out of their hiding places by Greyback and his gang of Death Eaters, they were being told that they could lead better lives under Voldemort. It was getting scary and no one looked to be getting out unscathed. The minister was continuing to ignore the signs and there was very little Dumbledore could do, he was being stretched far too thin and there was no one who could help him fight on both fronts. McGonagall could only do so much at the school, Snape was looking sketchier every day and Arthur Weasley hardly had the pull required to change the minister’s mind.
‘I hate to say it,’ Sirius said, quietly as the two women continued their conversation on their way out of the kitchen. ‘But Angie might well be the missing piece we need to put an end to this before it starts.’
‘I can’t ask her to do that.’
‘Do you really think she needs to be asked?’
‘Angelina has her own problems to be dealing with right now.’
‘Bigger than Voldemort?!’
‘Yes.’ Remus hissed, he held his temples for a moment. ‘Yes.’
‘You mean the prophecy, don’t you? Lockwood’s prophecy.’
Remus said nothing for a moment. ‘She has gone back to a place she thinks will be useful in determining how to rid both her and Darren of the curse they share. Sirius that family has suffered for three thousand years, Angelina is the closest any of them have gotten to truly ending it… I’m afraid to say that Voldemort will not stop her from ending that suffering.’
Sirius sighed and leaned back for a moment, thinking hard on his next words. ‘You know, when I first met Angie, all I saw was a frightened young woman searching for her brother with the last of her strength… all she could talk about was you. Said she knew I was innocent, but couldn’t explain how, she could just see it. She was half dead when she told me that.’ Remus just looked at his old friend. ‘I think, before this is over, we will learn a lot more about Angie Lockwood’s limits and the lengths she will go to. I just hope there are enough of us left to see that day for what it is.’
Remus didn’t know what else to say. In a way, he wanted to throw Sirius out into the street for talking about his wife in such a way, but in another way, he knew he was right. The pressure of three thousand years was enough to drive anyone to the edges and Angelina was never one for giving up when the days looked bleakest, no matter what the odds of survival were.