Lupin's cub (Remus Lupin's Unknown daughter)

Dyrim

Sirius stumbled, almost numbly, through the front door of the Lupin cottage. The silence that seemed to soak into the very bones of the old structure struck him as odd. It was strange that the loss of someone who had been unable to speak could fill her absence with such a wrong sort of silence. Even without a voice Nuntis had always managed to bring her teasing and laughter into a room, always felt rather than heard. It was that feeling he realized he was missing now, the pervading joy and sense of fun the woman had carried despite all she'd been through.

He was just moving to suggest a hot chocolate or something, anything for Caelen's sake, when a silvery canine patronus flew into the room. For a moment Sirius's only thought was that of Remus. Perhaps he'd lost both Remus and Nuntis in one night. But no, he knew that patonus, Remus wouldn't be sending his own patronus to notify them of his death. So wrapped up in his worries and mental reassurances was the man that it didn't occur to him until too late that perhaps the information the creature had been sent to relay might not be appropriate for his young charge.

Remus' tired and haunted voice came through the large snout, "there was an attack at Hogwarts. Snape betrayed us, he was a spy. He killed Dumbledore. Look after Caelen, I'll be home as soon as things settle here."

"No," the girl's voice murmured quietly, drawing the man out of his own furious musings. "No, he wouldn't. Professor Snape wouldn't kill Dumbledore, he wouldn't."

"Puppy," Sirius began gently, reaching towards hi goddaughter.

"He wouldn't!" She shouted before running and pounding up the stairs to her room.

Caelen's door closed with a nearly inaudible click. The girl slid slowly down her wall landing heavily on her bum. She couldn't cry, not yet, too much had gone wrong too quickly, overwhelming the young child. She stared unseeingly across the room as the events of the day, both the ones she'd been present for and those relayed to her, fought to suffocate her.

"No, they're wrong! Professor Snape wouldn't have killed Dumbledore, he wouldn't!!" She found herself arguing between who she believed the potions master to be and the things she'd heard. For a moment she considered discussing her confusion with Nuts only for the other blow of the evening to consume her thoughts. "I can never talk to Nuts again.." It was this thought that seemed to burst whatever dam had previously held the emotions of the day in check.

Caelen nearly choked as the first sob bubbled up from her chest and left her lips. Once released there was no stopping them. The child curled as close to herself as she could as her sorrow wracked her small frame mercilessly. Tears rolled unchecked down her, still dirty, face and she shook with her heaving, heartbroken, gasps.

She hardly registered the arms that wrapped around her. Barely noticing as she shifted, burying her face into a broad shoulder, her hands clenching of their own accord to the tattered shirt. "Shhh baby, I know, I know," a deep voice, choked by its own loss, whispered above her head. "I'm so so sorry puppy, if there was anything I could've done."

Caelen sobbed all the harder clinging to who she now knew to be her godfather. She could have just as easily lost him tonight. Or her father, he'd apparently been at Hogwarts. "How close had he been when Dumbledore was struck? Had he seen it himself? Would Snape have killed my daddy?"

Her growing fear and desperation must've shown, Sirius' arms tightened around her. "Shh I'm here I've got you, I'm not going anywhere."

"Had she spoken aloud?"

"Your daddy's fine, he'll be back as soon as things are wrapped up there. You and I are safe and alive."

"Thanks to Nuts!" The girl choked between sobs.