Lockwood Part 4

The two young boys with curled blonde hair, no older than ten, were fighting beside the river, Remus managed to get the advantage and threw his hand towards where a small dagger lay beneath a tree, it immediately came to him. He pointed it at Romulus and winked.

‘I win.’ He panted and helped his brother up.

‘We should get back, mother will be wondering where we are.’ Romulus wiped the dirt from his grubby clothes. Neither of them looked like they came from a wealthy family, I had read somewhere that they descended from kings, but these looked like two boys from a poor home.

‘One more round.’ Remus whined, and Romulus laughed, debating it in his head for a moment.

‘Alright, but you can be the one to get shouted at this time.’ They both laughed and circled each other liked trained warriors and not like children.

The more I watched them as children, the more I could see just how powerful they were, skilled in combat and intelligent beyond any normal ten year old. I wondered what exactly led to their downfall, nothing in their early years indicated any sort of resentment, nothing resembled anything other than love for each other. Much like myself and Darren.

The brothers were approaching thirteen, the age they were considered men. They fought each other every day in training, they knew each other so well and eventually got to the point where they would stop out of exhaustion, not because there was a clear winner and it put a fear in me that I had never known.

They worked on a farm and did chores for the farmer there, their mother nowhere to be found, only ever talked about. Why couldn’t I see her? My first time in the Pensieve was the closest I had come to seeing her. I was sure the black figure was her, I was almost certain, I kept thinking about it and tried so hard to picture her again, but it was no use, I just couldn’t get a clear image in my mind.

Romulus and Remus worked together on the farm, helping each other and laughing all day at a joke or something that happened. They were well liked within the Alban Hills and everyone thought very highly of their abilities, they even excelled in the magical community as well. When they spoke of their lessons with their mother, it was clear that they were very gifted and had a tough time keeping themselves in check, much the same as I had when I was first at Hogwarts.

The more I watched them working, the more similarities I could see between myself and the brothers and I couldn’t help but wonder if my life really was predetermined.

‘This is unacceptable!’ One of the soldiers had been sent to the farm to ask why the usual crop was lacking, though he didn’t seem to do much asking. The brothers had just turned fifteen and were watching from the stable. Romulus was especially unhappy about it all.

‘We should be out there with him.’ Romulus said quietly.

‘He’ll be okay. The soldier will leave soon.’ Remus held his brother in place. I thought it strange that Remus, being the more eager to play fight, was less inclined to encourage real conflict.

‘Faustulus, I will not ask again, give us the rest of your crop or you will be punished!’ The soldier shouted.

‘I-I-I’m sorry, I-I don’t have a-anything else to-to give.’ Faustulus the farmer was cowering on the floor and the brothers were suddenly more alert. The soldier didn’t hesitate, he kicked Faustulus hard in the chest and Romulus was the first out of the stable with Remus close behind.

Romulus sprinted and pushed the soldier off of his feet while Remus stood, hesitating for a moment. It wasn’t long before the brothers were kicking the soldier hard wherever they could find a body part.

‘Stop.’ Faustulus coughed. ‘My boys, stop.’

Remus was the first to stop, he pushed his brother off of the soldier to make him stop and they looked down at what they had done. A woman rushed out of the house and knelt down to see the farmer, presumably this was his wife, but it wasn’t their mother.

The soldier was barely breathing. ‘We should finish him.’ Romulus growled, he sounded more like a wolf when angry.

‘No.’ Remus cut in. ‘It wouldn’t be right… we should send him back to the king, make him see that his soldiers aren’t welcome here. Make him see what will happen if they send anymore soldiers to the Alban Hills.’

‘My boys.’ Faustulus coughed again, he was in a lot of pain and his wife could only do so much to help him. It was clear that the older man did not want them to do anything they would regret, but they were growing bigger and stronger with each day that passed and I wondered how much longer it would be before they strayed further away from what was right.

The brothers tied the soldier to his horse, blood dripping down the mane and led him to the edge of the Alban Hills. They began shouting to villages nearby, they’d had enough of the King’s reign over their land, they no longer wished to be imprisoned by him and would do everything they could to protect the Hills.

I recognised the cave, it was just south of the Palatine Hill, I’d heard the locals talk about it, they called it Lupercal.

The brothers, at the age of fifteen were jogging towards it, the same as they did every morning. They were fitter than ever, strong as well, they had the backing of both the muggle and magical community since ridding the Hills of the King’s soldiers, but there seemed to be a growing state of unrest surrounding this situation.

They ventured deeper into the cave and suddenly I was looking at a new place entirely. The cave must have been an apparation site for wizards. This place was brighter, filled with more life and simply magical. It was still somewhere south of Palatine Hill, but it was unclear where exactly the site had taken us to. I could see a market where strange creatures in jars were being sold and the trader selling, offered one to the brothers, seemingly for free.

It was obvious that just as the muggles loved the brothers, the magical community loved them just as much. They were natural leaders and had the presence to back up their leadership skills, I had a good feeling that they were being taught very advanced magic by their mother. She had to have been a witch and very likely, an animagus. Muggles often attributed their mythology to natural occurrences in the magical community. It only made sense.

The brothers headed off towards a house at the end of the street, it was a small cottage that looked slightly run down, surely not their mother’s home?

I was suddenly inside the cottage and it looked as if it had been robbed recently, the brothers were looking through a few broken possessions, they were looking for something, possibly the very thing that had been stolen.

‘She said it would be in a wooden box.’ Remus said, Romulus looked at him and sighed, searching on top of a few cabinets, being careful not to touch anything he didn’t recognise. Romulus left and went into another room.

Remus bent down to see something that had caught his interest. It was a set of wooden coins that were left scattered over the floor, he picked a few of them up and inspected them. They just looked like family tokens, nothing of great importance, but he still felt the need to pocket five or six of them.

‘Remus?’ Romulus called from the other. ‘I think I’ve got it.’

Remus wandered into the next room which appeared to be a bedroom. There was a wooden box sitting inside a much larger wooden chest. The smaller box had symbols all over it, much like the symbols I’d found on the statue back in the Alban Hills, I tried to get a closer look, but some of it was blurred, like the memory had been altered in some way.

‘Are you sure?’ Remus asked. Romulus was on one knee staring at the box, he nodded slowly without taking his eyes away from the box. ‘Okay, I’ll do it. Once it’s safe, take the box to mother, then come back for me.’ Remus took out his small dagger and placed it to the skin on his forearm.

‘No, let me do it. I’ll do this one.’ Romulus held the dagger and stopped him, he looked scared, like he knew what was about to happen.

‘Romulus, you’re faster than me, you’ll get there quicker.’ Remus moved his brother’s hand off of the dagger and moved him to the corner of the room. ‘Just don’t forget to come back for me.’

‘I won’t.’ Romulus looked as if he was about to cry and I felt a panic surge through me.

Remus stood over the box and placed the dagger back to his forearm, he began muttering something to himself and slowly dragged the knife across to allow blood to drip out and onto the box. It took a moment, but eventually a bright light began pouring out from each of the symbols, it turned into something much darker and suddenly Remus was on the floor shaking and the room became a blur, it was dizzying and I could see flashes of what Remus could see, inferi, dementors, boggarts, horcrux, anything and everything dark came out of that box and the faded image of Romulus quickly rushing to the box, picking it up and running was the last thing I saw before Remus became entirely possessed by the darkness.

They were seventeen and both looked like the exhaustion of keeping the Hills safe had caught up to them. Remus was watching something across the market in the muggle settlement, while Romulus was dealing with one of the merchants, all the sound was slightly dull, like trying to hear through water.

I followed Remus’s eyeline and found that he was watching a woman sitting beside another merchant, she had long blonde hair tied up, piercing blue eyes that were almost grey and a face that depicted everything that was innocent and youthful. The young woman looked to be around fourteen but had the air of someone much wiser. It was suddenly painfully obvious that this was the woman that Remus would come to marry. But for the moment, he was simply captivated by her, unable to focus on anything else.

Remus looked nervous, like he was thinking about something to say, something to offer in terms of conversation, but nothing came to him. So he simply watched her, he watched her every movement as she organised her family’s stand, he watched her carefully as she handled the wicker baskets that she sold and how she always smiled at every customer.

He suddenly had an idea, without really taking his gaze away from her, Remus grabbed a few coins from Romulus as he was dealing with the merchant.

‘What are you doing?’ Romulus complained, but Remus didn’t answer, he just took the coins and made his way close to the wicker basket stand.

Remus took a moment, pretending to look at something else, waiting for the young woman to finish with the customer she was with before making a move over to her.

‘Hello.’ She said, brightly. Her smile stretched all the way to her eyes, she looked a little tired, but it didn’t take anything away from how beautiful she was. Remus couldn’t quite find the words. ‘Is there something you’re looking for?’

Remus smiled awkwardly, still not quite knowing what to say to her. ‘You sell baskets.’ It was neither a statement or a sure sentence and he immediately regretted every word.

‘Yes.’ She laughed, she was clearly enjoying the awkward man in front of her. ‘Are you interested?’

‘Yes I am.’ Remus let out a nervous breath, knowing he had answered a little quickly and feeling like it was impossible to find a happy medium between awkward and silent and awkward and rushed.

‘I think I recognise you,’ the young woman frowned slightly. ‘I think I’ve seen you at the market before. What’s your name?’

‘Remus.’ That was an easy one and he was making it painfully clear that he was relieved by that. ‘Yours?’ His mouth was dry, he kept swallowing and taking subtle deep breaths to calm himself.

‘Dora.’ She said, her face scrunching up slightly. ‘I hate it.’

‘I love it.’ Remus blurted again. Dora didn’t seem to mind though, she could see that Remus liked her and he was doing a bad job at playing it cool. ‘Erm… do you… work here all the time? I mean, if I come back… you’ll be here?’

Dora bit her red lip and gently brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. ‘I’ll be here.’ She said from under her lashes.

‘She’s a muggle!’ Romulus shouted. It was a week after Remus had met Dora, he had told both his mother and Romulus that he was in love with her, neither took it well. ‘She’ll never understand what we are!’

‘She isn’t like the others, I would never risk my family on anyone else.’ Remus pleaded, they had stopped working in the stables while they argued and had startled a couple of the horses. ‘Romulus, please, I’m in love with her.’

‘Mother said we cannot risk ourselves for anything,’ Romulus wasn’t backing down. ‘No one will accept us. You need to end this as soon as possible, I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is.’

Remus didn’t say anything, but his demeanour suggested that he had no intention of doing any such thing.

‘I don’t understand.’ Dora was crying, she maybe only a year older, but Remus looked far more aged than he had the last time. He was barely eighteen and looked closer to thirty, much more like the brother I had encountered in the white room.

‘I’m sorry I lied to you.’ Remus tried to keep her clam, he thought that by bringing her to the side of the river, the most peaceful place he knew, she might have taken things a little easier. ‘But I felt like I owed you the truth, I can’t possibly hope to have a life with you if you do not understand what I am and what I am is not the same as you.’

‘But, magic isn’t real,’ Dora wasn’t handling it the way he had hoped. ‘These things don’t exist.’

Remus sighed and tried to find a way of proving himself. He quickly picked up a small stone and held it in the palm of his hand. ‘Here, watch the stone.’ He said and Dora frowned, but watched it anyway. Remus slowly allowed the stone to levitate up off his hand, it rotated carefully in mid air and Dora held her hand to her mouth.

‘It’s true.’ She whispered, her hand was at her mouth.

‘I can obviously do other things, not just raise stones.’

‘You’re a God?’

It was times like this that I remembered I was watching a different era in history, one where the people believed in things like Gods and monsters, it was just a part of everyday life. Remus sighed and let the stone drop back into his hand.

‘No,’ he said, gently. ‘But my mother is very powerful, she’s… well she’s not quite like me, she’s something else entirely. She can see things that others can’t and some of those things are bad, she sends my brother and I to stop those things.’

‘Like the soldiers?’

Remus slowly nodded. ‘Dora, promise me you’ll keep this to yourself, not even my brother can find out that you know. I’m risking everything just by seeing you.’

It took her a moment, those big blue eyes scanning his face and trying to figure out everything that she had seen and heard. ‘I won’t tell anyone, I promise.’

The whole village was being surrounded, the farmers were equipped with only their pitchforks and rakes, nothing that would stop a steel blade. The soldiers had chosen the dead of night to begin their attack and the brothers were prepared for that, they made quick work of the initial scouting parties and only let one scout make it back to the enemy. It was a vicious attack and the scout could barely speak once the brothers were done with him.

Dora was safely inside one of the houses and had kept her promise to behave as if she was no longer with Remus. Romulus wasn’t convinced and made that known any chance he got, it was the first time that the brothers had truly clashed and it was over the love of a woman, it was abundantly clear that Romulus thought Dora was beautiful as well, but as he kept saying, he wasn’t stupid enough to involve himself with her.

‘So love is stupid, is it?’ Remus whispered as they edged closer to where the bulk of the soldiers were getting ready to attack beyond the treeline.

‘Only if it is a distraction, like right now.’ Romulus hissed back and Remus kept quiet as they began taking out a few of the bulkier soldiers, they were essentially thinning the herd.

They were older now, possibly approaching twenty, they had caused so much hassle to the king that this was the final stand they would make before going directly to him and ending his reign over their lands.

The brothers had killed close to sixty of the biggest soldiers they could find in the most brutal way possible, tearing at their limbs, breaking bones and ensuring the bodies were left mutilated so that wolves would eventually find them and get rid of the evidence. The vicious nature of their attacks didn’t seem to faze them at all and in fact they continued their conversation whilst destroying the soldier’s bodies.

Eventually they got back to the village, overhearing one of the commanders saying that they would begin their attack within the hour. They sprinted back to the farms and alerted the villagers, happy to see that they set the traps and built the defences while the brothers were away, they didn’t have a numbers advantage but they had the home turf which was better.

Romulus subtly re-enforced some of the defences with magic without the farmers noticing while Remus went over the plan again.

‘I can’t guarantee that everyone will survive,’ he stood high on the stacks of hay and tried to encourage the farmers to be brave, it wasn’t just the muggles he was encouraging, but a few distinct figures from the magical population as well. ‘But I can guarantee that we will be remembered regardless, our children will know that we fought with bravery, we protected our home with everything we have and we would not surrender so easily. These men fight for money, we fight for freedom!’ The crowd cheered, but it was plain to see that they were terrified. ‘Do not surrender to these cowards, be brave and you will succeed!’

The villagers had found a new bravery as they all rushed to their fighting positions within the small buildings. Romulus and Remus looked to the treeline where it was obvious that the Roman soldiers were advancing and quickly, they hid behind the hay stacks closest to the narrow entrance to the village and waited for the signal to attack.

The battle was brutal and it was bloody, the brothers never hesitating in killing anyone, they barely even gave the soldiers a second glance before tearing their bodies apart. By morning it was clear that the village had suffered greatly, the bodies of farmers, wizards and even a few children lay along the pathways and the farmers mourned for their losses. Romulus checked the bodies of the soldiers that they hadn’t torn apart for valuables and Remus kept looking over to where Dora was tending to a few of the injured. She never once looked at him, she was so much better at pretending than he was.

‘Mother will be pleased that we have the Hills.’ Romulus said, distracting Remus’s attention, they were both covered head to toe in blood, dirt and sweat, not all of it from their own bodies.

‘She still isn’t strong enough to come out though, she needs more time.’ Remus stood and faced his brother, they were so strong, bulky and not to be messed with, physical specimens and smart enough to back up their strength.

‘I know,’ Romulus nodded. ‘But we’re moving in the right direction at least, we’ve killed enough soldiers that she will at least be able to wander around the caves easily enough.’

Remus gave a half smile and it seemed as if the weight of death was heavier than he first thought.