A/N: Remus' death in the last chapter was unexpected...I will justify it in this, and subsequent chapters...the style of the story is one I'm trying to emulate, however poorly, from an author I highly respect for her ability...lorien829...
Chapter XXV: Denial
Ron had arrived with Madam Pomfrey in tow shortly after Remus had passed. She bustled past everyone in a hurry, and when she collapsed next to him to see what she could do to save him, it was already too late - the only grim task left to do was to confirm his death.
The news were just as shocking to the occupants of Grimmauld Place, as they were to the reader. The suddenness of what had happened meant nobody quite realized what Remus' passing meant. Tonks had come rushing at the news, disbelieving and pleading it was not true. Why had death claimed him so abruptly?
That question weighed heavily, and not just on her mind. Hermione seemingly wanted to say something, but the words became lost on the way to her mouth. Ron was staring disbelievingly at Remus' still body, trying to fathom the fact that their long-time ally and friend was no longer among them.
It was in the middle of a war as well - his demise would pose an incredible difficulty to penetrating Bellatrix Lestrange's circle; he had been the one closest to gaining a close ally within it. Without him, it was not certain whether Avery and Nott were dead or alive, and derived from that uncertainty, there was also a lack of a direction in which to focus their efforts.
The heaviest consequence of his death, however, was an expectant Tonks. Some months ago she had found out she was going to be a mother, and the news had made Remus smile genuinely for the first time in a long while. It sustained him throughout their campaign, but did not prevent him from retreating back into his melancholy state over the passage of that time. He grew more distant and irritable, more stressed and withdrawn, until he revealed, briefly, to Harry, what had been happening to him in the hours before his passing. Tonks had not been able to talk, or connect to him either - she knew he loved her deeply, but the mystery gnawing at him, and his refusal to find solace with her, hurt her very much; the final blow was his death, and judging from the grim look on her face, Hermione thought that considerations of suicide were not absent from her mind.
She stood up, and moved over to sit beside Tonks on the couch. Harry followed his wife with his eyes, but was aware that neither she, nor anyone else, could provide enough support or strength for Tonks. He placed his face in his hands and sighed deeply - through his fingers, he glimpsed Hermione cradling Tonks in an almost motherly embrace. What of her and him then, he wondered - starting a family with Hermione had long been a desire of his, but for the sake of them both, and their unborn child, he reserved that plan for safer times. He did not want his son, or daughter, to endure what Remus' child would face when it came into the world, along with his suffering mother.
Draco's expression for once was not smug or arrogant. Even if he checked his emotions most of the time, Remus' death still seemed to impact him thoroughly. Malfoy did not profess any outward affection towards the werewolf, but still respected him very much - his devotion, honesty and care in putting the interests of the people he loved ahead of his own. Ginny had grasped his hand tightly, and her eyes were closed, as tears rolled down her cheeks; Remus was especially close to the Weasley family, and she felt it quite deep.
Mrs. Weasley was in no better spirits when she rushed, whimpering and crying, in the living room. Arthur was on her heels - he was not dissolved in tears, but his jaw was set and his expression stony. Harry retreated to allow the Weasley couple to take his place and look at Remus for one last time...
Ron nudged Draco, who looked up questioningly, almost with insult, as if to say, `Leave me alone!', but still rose without a word, and the two of them made their way over to Harry.
"Mate," Ron said quietly to attract his attention, and Harry turned to him. "A word?"
"Now?" Harry's tone was more defeated than Ron's.
"Now." His best friend replied definitively. "There will be time to mourn later."
Harry shook his head, and as if a sudden thought struck him, a grim and cold smile stretched his lips slightly. "I'm coming."
So, the trio walked out the door, and nobody even took notice to see them do that. Once in the hallway, Ron faced the other two, and while his expression was one of sorrow, Harry could still see the determination burning in his eyes.
"Remus is gone," he began. "We need to figure out what we're going to do from now on."
"Well, for starters, let's give him a proper burial," Draco rebutted him somewhat harshly.
"That goes without question, Malfoy," Ron answered without looking at him. "It's afterward I'm concerned with. The Order might lose its motivation to fight, and we don't really have a direction of what to do or where to go."
"Lupin was the only one close enough to those two goons my father was with," Malfoy said regrettably. "I suppose I could try to infiltrate Lestrange's circle...become a Severus Snape in a way."
"Lestrange would rip you to pieces, if she saw you, Malfoy," Ron pointed out. "She's particularly hateful of the Malfoy clan, or whatever's left of it."
"Weasley, you have a point," Draco scratched his head. "But that should remain our foremost priority."
"It is," Harry interceded quietly, making the other two shiver with the coldness of his voice. "I'll tell you what we need to do."
He paused for a second. "What, Harry?" Ron prompted him anxiously.
Harry looked strangely ominous in the fading daylight. "Kill me, and then bring both Remus and I back."
Ron's eyes widened. "Are you crazy! None of us knows how to work the spell - and without you, we're as good as dead!"
"Not at all, my friend," Harry returned in the same deadpan tone, but there seemed to be a light in his eyes now. "I know one reason that can convince Remus to come back."
"Then, pray, enlighten us, Potter?" Draco challenged him.
Harry glanced at him indifferently, before looking straight ahead at the wall. "Tonks."
"Tonks?" Draco repeated uncertainly.
"Didn't you see her?" Harry pressed him, his voice rising slightly. "She's expecting her first child, and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of her trying to kill herself to be with him - aside from the fact that their kid would be killed in the process."
"How can you be sure she'd kill herself?" Ron asked him.
"I'm not," Harry admitted, "but given the intensity with which she loved Remus, and still does, it's a very reasonable possibility she could harm herself."
"That's understandable," Malfoy nodded.
"Hmm," Harry looked down, shaking his head.
"So," Ron took up the word, "what you're proposing is to die, so you can go knock some sense into Remus on the other side, and then we're supposed to bring the two of you's back."
"That about sums it up, yes," Harry affirmed.
"And who do you propose will carry out the burden of resurrecting you?" Ron was still sceptical at the plan.
Harry looked stumped for a moment, but then he remembered. "Ginny."
"Ginny? If this is dangerous, I don't want her risking her life," Draco suddenly became defensive of his significant other.
"It's not life-threatening. The only aspect I'm worried about is that she might overexert herself," Harry told him thoughtfully. "I think it's a good idea if she teaches you, Draco, and then both of you can focus your efforts on bringing me and Remus back."
Malfoy blinked uncertainly, and fixed Harry with his grey eyes. "And if you fail?"
"Not an option, Draci," Harry told him heavily. "I have to succeed. Remus is the type that will tend to his responsibilities, once he regains a clear head. Although, I don't know what it was that killed him."
"Maybe Madam Pomfrey can find the cause?" Ron offered.
"I don't think it was anything physically wrong with him," Harry hypothesized, "I have a suspicion it may have been a curse."
"You can't curse anyone without a wand, and he hasn't been out since that night we met with Avery and Nott," Draco traced the path of events. "Maybe it was something he touched?"
"In this house, hardly," Harry shook his head. "Some years ago, we removed all trace of curses and spells from it, save for the Fidelius Charm. He might've come across it outside somewhere."
"There are plenty of delayed curses," Ron pointed out worryingly. "Some that can be fielded remotely. The cases I've seen in the Auror department are quite disturbing."
"How does a remote curse penetrate the Fidelius charm?" Harry was puzzled.
"It can't," Ron explained, "but ask Hermione anyway."
"How was he behaving when you walked in?" Draco asked after a minute's silent contemplation.
"Strange," Harry replied, as he recalled the morning's events. "He was really worried at first, and then he suddenly became quite calm, and started talking about accepting death - apparently Sirius and my parents were calling him to come to them."
"And then he died?"
"He died," Harry sighed, "and I still can't explain to myself why. It might have been some kind of mind-altering fatal curse..."
"Are there even such curses?" Ron asked him. "Not sure I've heard of such an animal."
"Cruciatus Curse can be fatal to the mind, although not physically," Harry told him, as the situation of Neville's parents appeared in his mind's eye.
"Perhaps there was a poison involved?" Draco offered. "One of our lot could be a traitor."
Both Harry and Ron turned to him incredulously. "Not a chance," they said in unison.
"Poison might have been involved, though," Ron added immediately after. "A slow-acting one, possibly."
"How on earth could Remus have been poisoned? That requires to physically ingest it, and I know for a fact that the food we have here is free of any kind of poison," Harry admonished him.
"What about the Imperius Curse?" Draco offered another idea. "Not willingly, but one of us is controlled from a distance to sabotage Remus."
"So what you're suggesting is that one of the Order poisoned Remus, another person was controlling him from the outside, and that's how he died?" Ron was incredulous.
"It's not entirely what I'm suggesting," Malfoy explained himself, "All I'm saying is that there's a possibility of a traitor among us, or that person is controlled by an external influence. The Fidelius charm can stop most forms of magic from penetrating it, but the Imperius curse isn't one of them."
Was it only needless paranoia that troubled them? Did they really need to be as suspicious as they were?
"Fine then, who do you think is a possible suspect?" Harry challenged him. He was still quite sceptical.
"Ginny," Draco answered without hesitation. "Wasn't she possessed once while she was still at Hogwarts?"
"Yeah, but that was a one-time case," Ron objected, "and she hasn't been possessed or controlled since then."
"Look, if we stand here and speculate, we're just wasting time," Harry's impatience finally surfaced. "We don't know anything, there is no evidence, and anything we come up with will be wrong. I say we just keep an eye out for erratic behaviour, and until then, focus on bringing Remus back."
"There you are," a voice suddenly came from behind Harry, and it made him jump slightly - it was Hermione.
"Hey," he turned around, "what's going on?"
"I've got some news," Hermione bit her lip, "and it's not good."
"Did something happen?" Ron pressed her. "Is Luna hurt?" he became alarmed.
"No, no, she's fine," Hermione waved a hand. "It's what Madam Pomfrey said after she looked over Remus."
"And?" three voices said at once.
"The cause of death is not physical. There's nothing wrong with his body."
"Are you sure?" Draco asked.
"Positive," Hermione shook her head in affirmation, "I heard it from her lips."
"Did you ask her if it was a curse?" Harry tried another tack.
"I did, and she didn't completely rule it out, although there is no magical residue left over," Hermione told him thoughtfully. "Or perhaps her detecting charm wasn't strong enough to find it."
"You're thinking it might have been magic that killed him?" Hermione inquired, "Because I'm not sure Avada Kedavra can be dealt indirectly."
"We were just discussing this," Harry explained, "a remote curse as a possibility. Maybe someone imperiused Remus, or cursed another within the order to poison or curse him."
"Can that be possible?" Hermione turned wide-eyed at the suggestion. "Do you have any idea who it might be?"
"No," Malfoy interjected, a little forcefully. "Only speculation for now."
"Malfoy, here, is the architect of the idea," Harry whispered to her in an undertone.
She only nodded, and Harry knew she was already mulling this new opportunity of finding the cause of Remus' demise. However, he thought it much more urgent to go and convince him to return, and do that sooner than later.
"Mate," Ron startled Harry out of his thoughts, "we have another issue to address."
"What?"
"Who's going to run the government, if you're dead, and all of us are going to be supervising your return with Remus?"
Admittedly, the thought hadn't crossed Harry's mind. "Ron, we've been detached from government way too long. Hermione needs to reassert her position as Minister of Magic, because we don't know what's brewing underneath, and you and I both know we can't fight Lestrange without the resources the Ministry offers."
"That's a good point - any important intelligence we gather will be through the Auror Department," the redhead said slowly. "I should check up on affairs there."
"Hang on a moment," Harry rejoined. "If the Aurors are among our best resources, then why haven't we done something before to keep tabs on what's going on?"
"Life can be that way sometimes, Harry," Ron answered, "and as you might know, it's us who have the closest access to Lestrange's circle."
"Technically, we're still not in it," Harry pointed out.
"Fine," Ron conceded, "then we have the best chance of infiltrating it. I don't think any of my Aurors have the connections or skill to negotiate their way in without paying with their lives."
"The only negotiation will be done by Remus," Harry said, "even I could be killed if I tried, since I'm her biggest enemy, and she views you all as my minions."
"Do you think Lestrange might bring Voldemort back, if she managed to find the spell?" Hermione asked from the shadows.
"I think it may be her ultimate goal," Malfoy offered his viewpoint. "Bringing back Voldemort would easily unleash another devastating war."
"Well, at least the spell is safe for now," Harry reassured the group. "The immediate priority, methinks, is to arrange the deputies to take over for a while...some of us'll have to do double duty in that regard."
"Let's figure this out tomorrow, then," Ron interjected rashly, "and keep this intent private for now."
The reason for his hastiness soon became clear - there was a general commotion in the next room.
"Fine then," Harry agreed and Draco and Hermione nodded. "Tomorrow it is."
With that, the negotiations came to a conclusion, and they walked back in the living room, hoping their designs would come through to fruition...
A/N Next chapter...we find out who gets to do what, and work to bring Remus back gets underway...
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