Elemental Force

CHAPTER 15:
Rites of Passage

It\'s real life; it\'s all true
You know how I\'ll miss you
In quiet moments I\'ll come undone
~Neil Finn



The sounds of voices buzzed in his ear like a mosquito. The lightly sleeping Remus wanted to swat it away from him, but one thing brought him to immediate wakefulness. He heard one of the men, obviously a servant of some sort as opposed to the thugs and other miscreants in the place, mention \"the girl.\" He knew for certain that meant Ginny.

\"She still has a fever, sir,\" the man said at the end of the hallway near Lupin\'s cell. \"It hasn\'t gone down at all since the day after she was bitten.\"

\"Robert,\" Moss said with a deliberate display of patience, \"it is of no importance to me if she\'s sick. I can still have my fun with her anyway.\"

So that\'s his name, Remus thought in passing as he scrambled closer to the door so he could hear better. Becoming a werewolf had actually enhanced his hearing, but he still had very human emotional reactions. He just didn\'t want to take any chances of missing any vital information.

\"Yes, sir, that\'s true, but…\"

Jonathan looked at his finely gloved hands, and then quickly snapped his eyes up to look at his butler. \"But what? What has you so bothered that you feel like interrupting a lovely day such as this?\"

\"Just to point out to you the fact that should be obvious by now. Sir,\" he amended to mask his urgency. \"That girl was bitten by a werewolf, and she may become one herself if she doesn\'t die. Her body has gone into a high fever trying to fight off the effects of the bite.\"

\"I know that,\" Jonathan said in a tone that really meant, \"You\'re an idiot.\"

\"Humans can have fevers for many days, but no human can have a fever this high or for this long without being dead! I have no idea what she is, but she should be dead by now, Jonathan. If she\'s not a werewolf, we\'ve got something much more dangerous on our hands that you might not be able to control.\"

He shook his head in peeved annoyance. \"She\'s just a forgettable little student who was easily taken by my men. She hasn\'t been missed. Besides the striking hair, there is nothing remarkable about her.\"

\"Sir, you have taken my advice before, and I want you to seriously consider it now,\" Robert pleaded.

\"You are trying my patience, man,\" he said with eyes narrowed.

\"Be that as it may, I think you should advance the work on your full moonlight spell. If you get it working, we won\'t have to wait the three weeks until the next full moon to discover what she is. It\'s better to be prepared,\" he concluded.

Jonathan arched on of his eyebrows in consideration. \"Yes, the full moonlight spell would be very good to test right now. I have a known werewolf in my care, maybe two,\" he said with a show of fingers to include Ginny.

\"And you will know whether she is one of them or not, though I don\'t think she is,\" he said as he looked away.

\"Because of her fever?\" he mocked back.

\"Yes, exactly. She should not be alive right now. No human being can live like that. If you were being prudent, you would be worrying as well.\"

\"She could be a Heliopath,\" Moss quipped, \"except we only read about those in the Quibbler.\"

Robert looked at his shoes and shook his head. \"No, sir. Heliopaths cast fire with wands. They don\'t have it burning inside them.\"

\"You worry too much,\" he said as he started to walk down the hallway. \"One of the first rules of nature is that all fires eventually go out. Everything has an end, Robert.\"

\"Yes, sir,\" the butler answered with a derisive eye roll behind his boss\'s back.

\"But I like your idea of using the full moonlight spell. We\'ll begin testing it on our friend, Mr. Werewolf, very soon,\" Jonathan said as he stood in front of Lupin\'s cell.

Remus had backed away from the door so it would not seem like he was listening. He huddled inconspicuously in hopes that his captor would walk on by to some other distraction.

\"Hello,\" Jonathan said to Remus with interest. \"Cover me,\" he shot over his shoulder to Robert, who immediately took out his wand.

Jonathan entered the werewolf\'s cell and crouched down before him. He studied Remus with an innocent look on his face and reached his gloved hand to the other man\'s cheek. Lupin looked back impassively and didn\'t allow himself to flinch.

\"We were going to meet under different circumstances today. It was to be the usual beating, torture and mayhem. I like doing that, you know,\" he said with a wide smile showing perfectly white teeth. \"But you\'re in luck. I\'ll let you rest because I have a very special spell to use with you. We\'ll be seeing you very soon.\"

Jonathan stood up and tousled the werewolf\'s hair as if he were playing with a young child or worse, a puppy. Remus thought that ironic when he was about ten years older than the man in front of him. Then the man stood up and walked out of the cell to do whatever nefarious plans he had on his agenda for the day.

\"Robert,\" Remus coughed out before the butler could leave.

The short hairs on his neck stood up, and he faced the werewolf with extreme caution.

\"What day is it?\" Lupin asked with a tired expression on his face.

Still looking dumbstruck that he had initiated conversation, he quickly said \"Thursday\" before scurrying out of the cell.

After a few minutes had passed when Remus felt himself to be safely alone, he tried to think his way to Ginny. He nudged at the edge of her consciousness, but she wasn\'t responding. He knew she was there, but she was probably deep in a fevered sleep, the state she\'d been in for days. She fell into it almost immediately after telling him that he had bitten her. She had moments of wakefulness, but they were rare. It was almost as if Ginny had shut herself down into a coma state.

Even though he could share his thoughts with her, it was a very lonely place in his mind as he pondered what he needed to do to help free them. Not much had changed in the activity of the days so far, and time was starting to blur. The babble between Jonathan and Robert was one of the few concrete pieces of information he\'d gotten about Ginny\'s state since she was basically unable to share anything with him right now.

So Moss had a full moonlight spell. Remus had never heard of it, but making guesses from the conversation he overheard, he knew what it was likely to do. He, too, had a vested interest in learning the full extent his bite had on Ginny.

\"I\'ll take care of you,\" he spoke out loud softly. That promise assumed the condition of them being free from this place. Whether or not that happened, he was responsible for the bite he gave her, and he would not leave her to bear it alone.

His thoughts momentarily left Ginny. Though nothing was certain in this place, he assumed that Jonathan would not quickly return after having made his threat. Remus closed his eyes and rested while he could.

~*~

The long robes swept the floor of the darkened room making a slight scratching sound, and the feet walked lightly in procession. Other than those noises and the sounds of fire consuming candlewicks, it was deathly still in the room where the witches and wizards had gathered. One by one as they passed their leader they touched the ends of their long tapers to his, lighting their individual candles. Then they found their places, forming a circle with him at the northern most point.

Albus Dumbledore looked out at the members of the Order of the Phoenix gathered solemnly before him in remembrance of their fallen comrade, Remus Lupin. He had chosen not to include the trio of Gryffindors in an effort to protect them. While they might have wished for and needed closure, it was safer for them to wait within Hogwarts and its protected walls.

The members of the Order stood with grim expressions on their faces, made even more solemn by the shadows cast from flickering candle light. Dumbledore looked to the assembled members. They had lost too many people to the war so that honor and remembrance ceremonies were short and to the heart of the matter. He began to speak.

\"We have come to honor Remus Lupin, our fallen friend. The candles we hold represent his life. The flame burns for a finite time and then is extinguished, but while it burns, the world is a brighter place. Our lives have been touched by the flame that was Remus\'s life. If we remember, then he will never truly be gone from us.\"

At this point there was silence again in the circle of the Order. Dumbledore waved his wand, and a small pyre appeared in the midst of the mourners. At the top of the wood was not the body of the dead werewolf but the clothing and broken wand that had been found with his remains.

A witch to the left of Dumbledore stepped from the circle toward the pyre and knelt on one knee. In her hand she had an herb that she sprinkled on the remains.

\"Mint for virtue,\" she said softly. \"You were a good man, Remus Lupin. Strong.\"

She bowed her head making any personal goodbyes before standing to her feet. \"We are the Order of the Phoenix. When one of us falls, another will rise.\"

The witch blew out the flame of her candle and blindly stepped backwards to her place in the circle.

To her left was a short middle-aged wizard who approached the pyre. \"Edelweiss for courage,\" he said as he sprinkled his flower over the pyre. After a personal pause, he stood and repeated the words the witch had said. \"We are the Order of the Phoenix. When one of us falls, another will rise.\"

The procession around the circle continued in like manner, each stepping forth from the circle and bringing a sacred herb or flower to sprinkle on the fire. Though the words spoke that they would rise like a phoenix, the candles representing Lupin\'s life were each blown out as the Order members said their own good-bye.

When finally it was Dumbledore\'s turn, he spoke again the one phrase that all of them had said, that they always said when they acknowledged the loss of one of their own.

\"We are the Order of the Phoenix. When one of us falls, another will rise.\"

At the blowing out of his candle, the room was put into complete darkness. No one moved as the old wizard stepped back to his place at the top of the circle. Then as leader he withdrew his wand from his robes and uttered one last incantation.

\"Incendio!\"

The pyre immediately burst into multi-colored flames as each of the herbs was burned. The faces stared emotionlessly at it until everything was consumed. At the completion of the burning, the circle broke into a line, unwinding like a coil that has been released with the assembled witches and wizards following Dumbledore out of the room.

It took Albus several blinks to adjust his eyes to the light in the room. Though he had just been watching a blaze, this wasn\'t the same. For a few moments, the others left him alone with his thoughts, but then they began to speak to each other.

\"Are you sure he\'s gone?\" the witch known as Hestia Jones asked a wizard standing near her. Other similar sounds of disbelief had been heard from others participating in the memorial.

Glancing casually around the room, Dumbledore could see Moody standing with Tonks, who looked positively demure for this occasion with brown hair and hazel eyes. Shacklebolt was conversing with one of the other Unspeakables that he had managed to bring into the Order. He also noted that Arabella Figg was speaking civilly to Mundungus Fletcher on this occasion.

Unlike the others, Arthur Weasley stood alone, willing the Hogwarts Headmaster to see him. When the man\'s eyes lighted on him from behind the half-moon glasses, it was all the red haired wizard needed for encouragement. He strode toward the other man with clear purpose.

\"Albus, do you have any news on Ginny?\" Arthur asked with a desperate look in his eyes.

The question surprised him, so the older wizard began to make apologies and speak the normal words of placation. He thought better of it as he knew that now was not the time for lies and false hopes. Dumbledore stopped and began to tell Arthur what they knew, or more accurately what they did not know.

Quickly, Alastor Moody and Nymphadora Tonks came to speak for him, though less gracefully than Dumbledore would have hoped.

\"Arthur, we\'re so sorry about Ginny,\" Tonks said as she wiped her tear-stained face with a handkerchief.

\"But what are you doing to find her?\" he demanded. \"It\'s been three weeks and my daughter is still gone!\"

A few fresh tears came to her eyes as she sputtered excuses. \"We\'re still watching and listening.\"

\"That\'s it?\" he said angrily.

Moody placed his hand lightly at the small of Tonks\'s back in silent support, and then he spoke with unflinching directness to Ginny\'s father. \"We don\'t know where she is, Arthur. The only one of us who really felt that he had a lead on her location and was certain that we could find her was Remus. He felt connected to the child for some reason.\"

\"And he died trying to find her,\" Arthur said as he crossed his arms tightly in front of his chest.

\"That\'s right, and any hopes of being able to find your daughter died with him,\" Moody without subterfuge.

\"No,\" Weasley said, shaking his head. \"I can\'t believe that. I can\'t allow myself to believe that! I will not let this war tear my family apart.\"

\"It\'s what war does,\" Dumbledore said in reflection of thoughts that had been in the minds of many of the Order.

\"Ask your Molly,\" Moody pointed out. \"She knows well about losing family to war.\"

\"I will not let this happen,\" Arthur said in disgusted denial. \"I can not give up hope. I have a daughter out there, and someone needs to find her!\"

By this time, most of the mourners who had gathered were concentrating on the Weasley patriarch. Dumbledore was forced to make a show of cruelty.

\"Do you think you are the only one who has lost someone in this war?\"

\"No,\" Arthur replied, again sounding offended to the core, \"but none of them have been my daughter.\"

He walked away from the group and Apparated home with heavy heart weighted down by no news of his daughter\'s whereabouts.

~*~

Remus.

The werewolf stirred from sleep. He had been beaten by the minions again instead of the moonlight spell that Jonathan had promised, but he knew that spell would come to him soon enough. He tried to rest and recover from his wounds only to hear his name bring him back to wakeful consciousness.

Maybe he wasn\'t hearing his name. No one else here knew it except for Ginny, and she was fighting battles of sickness. He could have dreamed of his name, or she could have. It was one of the side effects of the telepathy or her sickness, or perhaps even both. He \"heard\" Ginny\'s dreams.

All dreams were strange. It was the dreams of sick people that were worse. If he was not a werewolf with the beast as part of him, he might not have known how to sublimate the effects of the dreams that leaked into him. Some things, however, stayed in his memory, such as fleeting images of the ghost of Tom Riddle.

//Remus.//

And there she was. He sighed to himself in relief. It had been her after all who woke him up, not some unnamed phantom.

//I\'m here, Ginny,// he began with the awe of their communication still fresh in him. //Do you still have a fever?//

//A small one,// she replied weakly, //but I think it\'s starting to go away. Was it like this for you?//

The question of whether or not she was a werewolf hung in the air again as it had so many times in the week since she\'d been bitten. It was the first time, however, that she\'d asked about it.

It took a while for Remus to answer, but when he did, he mentioned one of the things that almost no one knew about him. //My brother and I were both very sick, Ginny, but not like you. Not that I remember, anyway.//

//You have a brother?// she asked in awe.

As a professor, Lupin had not talked much about himself, and she had not been privileged to learn much more of him by way of her family\'s involvement with the Order. They tried too much to protect her, and now everything she learned about Remus however small was fascinating and new.

//Had,// he stated. //He was also bitten, but he did not survive.//

//I\'m sorry.// Ginny paused and then asked a loaded question. //When did he die?//

//It was shortly after our first full moon. He just couldn\'t take it.//

//So, I might still die then,// she commented.

//We all die eventually,// he answered her with his usual sense of the morbid, //but some of us go sooner than others. If you\'re worried about becoming a werewolf, Ginny, it\'s okay. I can take it.//

//But I might not be,//she thought back in a very quiet mental voice. //I like you, Remus, but I don\'t want to be a werewolf.//

With a sigh he opened his eyes and lightly banged his head against the wall of his cell. He knew what her feelings were before she stated them, and it wasn\'t because of their new found mind link. It was human to have a fear of the unknown, and Ginny was very human.

//There is no cure, so if you are, it can\'t be helped. There is something you should know, though. Robert seems to think you aren\'t a werewolf. We\'ll find out soon enough,// he finished, not adding the qualifier \"if we live through this.\"

In her own cell, Ginny rested her head on her am while she wiped away a stray tear with her free hand.

//But what about your friends? Did they have a hard time accepting you as a werewolf?// she asked in hopes that he would tell her something comforting. Of course Harry, Ron and Hermione accepted Lupin as a werewolf; they hadn\'t known him as anything else. For Ginny, the situation would be very different.

//No,// he replied with a smile of memory, //they thought it was one of the best things that could have ever happened. It was also the reason they became Animagi. We were always out for a good prank, you know.//

//No, I don\'t,// Ginny thought with consternation. //Since when does Professor Lupin play pranks?//

//Since I was actually a boy once with friends. Do you think I sprang to life fully grown from my father\'s forehead? Let me tell you something, Ginny. My friends and I made Fred and George look like perfect angels.//

She laughed because she couldn\'t help it. The thought was absurd. If he really knew Fred and George, he should be prepared to take that back because it was hard to imagine anything worse.

Ginny thought more about what he told her, and that meant questions. She knew from Harry, though, that his father had been a stag, and that was the reason for his Patronus. James had become an Animagus to help his friend Remus. She might eventually need to enlist her own friends\' help if her fear was confirmed.

//So… How did you all learn to become Animagi?// she prompted in hopes that he would tell her something she could use. //Where did it begin?//

~*~

Hogwarts, Marauders\' 2nd Year, Spring

Remus was out on the Quidditch pitch watching James and the rest of the Gryffindor house team practice. Sirius ran to him in excitement, clutching a book under his arm.

\"Well, hello, Mr. Moony!\" he said with a big grin.

\"Moony?\" Remus answered back in dismay. He hadn\'t heard that nickname before, but once the boys had learned that he was a werewolf, he should have realized they would think of something.

\"Yeah. What else would you have me call you? Mr. Werewolf-sitting-in-the-grass?\"

He gave his friend an offensive hand gesture and said, \"\'Remus\' is fine.\"

\"Anyway,\" Sirius said grandly while finding a place for him beside Remus, \"I was talking to some third years. Do you know that McGonagall is a registered Animagus?\"

He had remembered talk of it. It seemed like an interesting thing to be able to change shapes at will. As he was already partial to changing shapes once a month, he never much considered anything beyond that.

\"Sure. She\'s a cat,\" Remus said. Then he joked about his own shape, \"I could eat her!\"

\"What if we learn to become Animagi?\" he asked with a sparkle of excitement in his eye.

\"I already change, you know,\" Remus clarified.

\"Not you, you prat! Me, James and Peter. We could learn to change with you,\" Sirius said with a triumphant smile.

\"What? Why?\" he stammered back.

\"I just thought that if we could change into animals ourselves, we could go with you during the full moon. You know that\'s an adventure waiting to happen!\" Sirius had already been dreaming about the adventures they would be having, so he imagined it clearly.

\"That\'s pretty advanced magic,\" Remus said softly as he thought about it.

Sirius shrugged nonchalantly. \"It\'s not impossible, or else it wouldn\'t be there for the doing. So what do you think?\" he asked, turning back to his friend with an excited expression on his face.

\"Do you mean it? Have you told James?\"

Again the boy\'s smile lit his face. \"Yes, I mean it, and no, I told you first.\"

Employing the joke that would soon become over-used, Remus said, \"Sirius, I have never known you to be serious about anything, but maybe...\"

\"Well, there\'s a first time for everything. Now look at this,\" he said as he moved closer to Remus so he could see the book.

As the two boys were sitting there with their heads huddled together, Lily Evans came over to them. \"What are you two up to now?\"

\"Nothing!\" Sirius said immediately, then he accused, \"You have a suspicious mind!\"

\"I\'d expect reading out of Remus, but not you, Sirius,\" she said pointedly.

Remus countered her with, \"Why are you here, Lily? We all know you don\'t like Quidditch. Finally taking a look at Potter?\"

\"No!\" she said with a measure of disgust before turning on her heel to walk away.

\"Pretty girl,\" Remus said after her retreating figure.

Sirius grunted. \"And James wants to make her his. He thinks they are meant to be.\"

\"Sure, like that happens in real life,\" the young werewolf replied.

\"Eh, sometimes you just know the person you want to spend the rest of your life with,\" Sirius joked with high melodrama, batting his eyelashes at Remus.

Laughing, Lupin told Black to \"Sod off!\" and he punched him in the arm.

Together the two Gryffindors then studied the Transfiguration text in hopes to unlocking the key to becoming Animagi.

~*~*~*~

The Neil Finn lyric used in this chapter is from \"Lullaby Requiem,\" performed by Neil on the album One All.