Lunar: A Marauders novel

Chapter 53

Remus carried Dysis up to her apartment and picked his way across to the door that he knew led to her bedroom.

She was light in his arms, but at the same time he couldn't really feel it. He couldn't really feel anything. He seemed to be coated in a layer of ice, and that ice was blocking any emotions from clouding his mind.

Dysis's bed was messy and the curtains were drawn, as if she had been sleeping before all this. It would explain why she hadn't heard them.

Remus lowered her down onto the bed gently and looked down at her. Her face was still a sickly ashy color under the blood. Her lips were parted and her teeth were stained red with blood, as was her chin and neck. Her tank top was soaked with it and the hole in her chest was still bubbling.

Remus gently pulled her into a sitting position and fed her arms out of the tank top and took it off. Her bra was also soaked with blood, but he left that on and pulled the covers up over her quickly.

He slipped out of the dark room silently, his body numb and cold, as if he'd been out in the snow for hours.

His friends were standing in the middle of the destroyed room, looking around with dazed, confused eyes. Peter was staring at the bloody pipe dropped on the blood-sodden floor, his face whiter than the ghosts in Hogwarts.

Sirius's head snapped up when he closed the door, his blue eyes bright with worry. "Is she alright?" he asked, taking a step forward. Glass crunched under his foot and he glanced down, then bent to pick something up.

The frame was destroyed, but the picture was still intact as Sirius gently brushed the glass off of it. His face twisted and he looked away from the picture quickly, blinking furiously.

Remus reached out and took the picture from him, glancing down at it.

It was of three people, one with purple hair, one with a big silver beard and Dysis right in the middle. She had her arms wrapped around the two and their heads were pressed close together. They all had huge, toothy grins, and Dysis looked happier than Remus had ever seen her. Her eyes were crinkled at the side and she looked like she was laughing, while the two men grinned on either side of her.

Remus's heart dropped and his knees went weak. He slowly handed the picture back to Sirius and made his way over to the island, which was the only thing still intact. He leaned against it, pressing his eyes into the palms of his hands.

Exhaustion tugged at him, but he pushed it away. Even though he was tired, he doubted he would be able to sleep. Not with the things he'd just seen still imprinted into his mind's eye. He doubted he'd ever be able to unsee it.

He felt his friends gather around him and he looked up with a deep breath.

"Was it....do you know if it was that Pack?" James asked in a quiet voice, as if he were afraid they were still around.

"I don't see who else it could be," Remus sighed, looking around the apartment. Almost every single piece of furniture was shattered, and the couch had been flipped and torn. The curtains were shredded and the cabinets behind James looked as if someone had been thrown at them.

The walls were splattered with blood, and there were pools of it around the place. Not all of it was Dysis's, he realized with a sick jolt. Of course she would have been able to do some damage—she was Dysis.

"What do we do now?" Peter asked, his voice weak and shaking.

"We clean up," Sirius said and straightened, pulling his wand from his pocket. He was the only one of them who could do magic outside of school, so Remus merely watched numbly as he raised his wand.