black coffee | remus lupin [2]

106. all alone

a/n: this is the end. get ready.

｡･:*:･★,｡･:*:･

CHAOS ERUPTED IN THE LITTLE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Was Claudia alive? Was it possible that Mary's bracelet was showing that she was still somewhere out there?

No, it couldn't be. There had been a funeral. It had been months since Claudia's death had been announced. Why wouldn't she come back home if she was still alive? Or at least give them some sort of sign?

Sirius was sure that Mary's magic wasn't done correctly. She was quite small when she placed that spell on two bracelets she found in Hogsmeade, after all. But he didn't want to say it out loud. It would anger the girl, and it would surely disappoint the hopeful relatives he was surrounded with.

So Sirius played along, trying to sound convinced as they sat and discussed Claudia possibly being alive. They thought through a million explanations to what had happened, but nothing did really make any sense, and they all knew that.

Sirius, however, went from thinking about how unlikely her being alive was to only thinking about one thing.

Remus.

He didn't want to make the boy hopeful, but at the same time everyone needed a bit of hope during dark times. Sirius thought that if anyone was supposed to know about the bracelet glowing, it was supposed to be Remus.

But where the hell was he?

"When was the last time any of you saw Remus?" Sirius asked them, interrupting the conversation he was no longer listening to.

Ella glanced at her parents, "Um...well, the last time we saw him was...when John died. He kind of just disappeared. I tried to get in touch with him, but he doesn't answer. I don't know where he is."

Sirius nodded understanding. He knew exactly where Remus would be, and in what headspace he was in.

And Sirius, being one of Remus' best friends despite not properly conversing with him in months, or maybe even in more time than that, was kind of right. Sort of.

He was right about the fact that Remus was a complete mess. Right about the fact that the boy had been hiding away all alone in the woods in the shack he used to spend his full moons in, and right about the fact that the only other person he was speaking to was his dad, just because he had to. He was right about the fact that the guilt for John's death was eating him alive.

But, when Sirius showed up to the safe house he was sure Remus was at later that night, he only found traces of the boy. Empty food cans, chains for his most recent transformation and some chocolate wrappers. That confirmed that it really was Remus who had stayed there.

But where was he now? Sirius had no idea.

And that was because no one but one person knew.

You see, Remus had been sent out on a mission for the Order of the Phoenix, curtesy of Dumbledore himself. He was out in the woods, in the north of England on the search of a pack of werewolves Dumbledore wanted him to enlist into the Order.