Marauders - Always - Part One

Last Words

Remus lay in bed that night, staring blankly ahead, absently running his fingers through Sirius's hair, like he was stroking a dog, although Sirius remained in human form, his head resting in the crook of Remus's shoulder and chest, mouth hanging open ever so slightly.

He couldn't stop thinking about Carl and his family, about the things Carl had said about Ned Veigler. And about that funny exchange at the end of their short, private conversation.

"Fenrir Greyback was not Ned Viegler's Alpha." Remus had said, "Professor Viegler had no alpha. He was a lone wolf, as am I."

"Is that what you think?"

Remus's mind prickled over the words. What did it mean? What was Carl leading to that never got said?

It was going to drive him mad.

He glanced at Sirius and carefully slipped out from under him, sliding a pillow in to take his place. Sirius's limbs flailed out in a big X across the mattress. Remus took his wand from the night stand and opened the drawer, removing the parchment marked with Ned Viegler's writing.

He'd never had the nerve to open it.

He pulled on his jumpers and a pair of trousers and snuck out of the room. He was getting good at this. This time, he cast a silencing charm to keep Spencer from waking, and he slipped out onto the stairs.

It was cold out, a dampness lingering from the rain the night before, a fog that loomed in the streets, thick and smelling of the Thames. Remus shivered, but sat on the top step anyway, the pale moon bright, full moon just a week away. He held the parchment on his knees a moment, then took a deep breath and ran his thumb up to the seal, poised to break it. This was as far as he'd gone before - he'd been too afraid to hear the last words from Ned. But now, it seemed important to know what his brother had wanted him to know as a parting message.

He had long wondered how Ned Veigler had known he would die in order to have written such a missive and give it to Mr. Scamander in the first place. After all, there had been no reason - from the outside, at least - that Ned would have ever thought such a thing likely. He had been safe at his own castle, at Fallengunder, with the promise of the Wolfsbane potion from Dumbledore... He had often wondered how Greyback had been able to get near enough to cast the impirus, how Ned had fallen onto the trouble that had led to the fall of Fallengunder and the battle there... But suddenly Remus realized that there had been a catalyst to it. Carl had been there to see it.

The seal broke easier than Remus expected.

His heart stopped for a moment as he stared at the broken seal; this was it. This was the last words he would ever have from Ned Veigler. Tears burned his eyes and a lump grew heavily in his throat.

Remus wondered for a moment if he ought to go inside and wake Sirius up, or else go to the Potters for Lily - but he knew waking either of them would likely result in a long bout of vertigo and nausea for either of them, and he didn't want to make either of them suffer that. He could do this alone.

Besides that, part of him did want to keep it for himself, to keep the words private. They had been written and sealed, intended only for his own eyes, and he could keep them that way if he wanted to, for as long as he wished. Forever, even.

He took a steadying breath and, exceedingly carefully, he unfurled the parchment and with shaking hands he slid his finger along, reading:

Remus, my brother -

This alone made the tears breech the rim of his lower eyelid and silent droplets rolled over his cheeks, catching in the pink scar and rolling across his face diagonally along the jagged line.