FicWad

The Fellowship of the Fox
by Ryuuohjin



//////////////AN //////////////


Disclaimer - I do not on any way own Harry Potter or any of it's world or characters.
They all fully belong to J.K. Rowling and her affiliates.

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Chapter 16 - K-9 Problems


Marcus Flint had been a Death Eater in Voldemort's service since his third year of Hogwarts. First by reporting any bit of information he came across and later as asoldier in his master's army. He hadn't joined out of concern for the muggle encroach on wizarding culture, what did he care about some old customs. No, Marcus had joined because he loved the sense of power it gave him. Where else could a man rape, murder, and loot, without fear of punishment? What other profession gave such a sense of power?

The Dark Lord had granted Marcus a great honour, an honour that Marcus had been waiting for for years. The honour of leading a small group of Death Eaters in a raid against enemies of the pure, granted they were only muggles but Marcus never had been too picky when it came to his victims.

Marcus and his team arrived in a quaint little town on the Irish sea with murder in their hearts, that murder quickly changed to terror. As several of them were suddenly overcame with an primal and irrational fear, and had started wildly attack their surroundings, as of fight some invisible foe only they could see. While others had just dropped wands and ran away screaming, as fast as their legs could carry them, as if they were chased by some horrific monster. A few collapsed to the ground, curling up intofetal position, shutting their eyes and covering their ears, as if they were trying to shut out the world around them.

Only hours after they'd triumphantly embarked on their raid, the battered and traumatized remains of Marcus' once mighty team of Death Eaters limped into their master's hiding place to report their failure.

"What has happened?" Voldemort growled.

"I don't know, master," Marcus said nervously, his eyes that never stopped sweeping around the room in fright. "We apprated near a muggle neighbourhood as we were ordered. But when we were walked into the neighbourhood, that was when some began screaming and running. I don't know what started it, but moments later blind panic struck me as well! Something... something that moves with insane speed was following us! Something terrifying.... Something horrendous... that we neither see nor hear or smell, only feel! It was like as if it was always at corner of our eyes. And no matter how quickly we turned our heads we couldn't even catch glimpse of it! But we could feel it watch us constantly, with an malicious presence that just oozed of evil, darkness and ill intent."

The more he talked, the more haunted his face became, he even started shaking.

"It was horrible..." Marcus continued his voice now frantic with palpable fear. "As people started snap and tried attack it throwing curses all around them, while some just broke or ran away. And then.. then....."

Marcus sunk to the floor and curled up into aball, hugging his knees to his chest as as he started descend into incoherent babble. He could just barely see the top half of his face, his skin tinged blue and his eyes speaking of untold horror.

Voldemort looked around at few that returned with Marcus, all them watched the shadows warily as if they expected a monster to jump out an attack them at any moment. Voldemort tried legilimency on several of them, but too no avail, they were to frightened for him get anything useful or coherent. All he knew that his men had encountered something, something that had scared several full grown wizards and witches enough to cause permanent trauma and severe paranoia. And he didn't have a clue of what it was.

The dark lord was not happy, and when he was not happy, no one around him was happy.


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Another person who also was not happy were Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. He was currently reclined back in his comfortable office chair sucking on a lemon drop. Although he seemed to be relaxing, he actually was contemplating the recent events that had transpired at Grimmuald Place 12. Closing his eyes, as he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying clear his mind. He felt the weight of his many years and silently asked himself how things could have come to this. He simply had to get this in order in his mind. Severus was simply to important to the war effort to be locked away for any extended period. He had to get control of this, who what might happen otherwise.

When had found that the children had accused Severus Snape of illegally using legilimency on a minor, and reported him the DMLE, Albus had been anything but pleased. When he then had tried to dissuade children from this most foolish venture, had he had been abruptly shoot down. They had been quite adamant about taking the matter to court, and Amelia had refused listen to him as well. When he had tried to explain to her that this was just an minor misunderstanding, best left in his hands to be taken care of. He had also tried to assure her that whatever crimes Severus may have accidentally committed, could be justified by his attempt to bring Harry Potter back home to the rest of us. Amelia had just laughed at the his explanations and told him that Severus' trial would be held just before Sirius'.

It seemed to him like Amelia was just as eager to get Severus to court as the children was. But if matter went court, it would inevitable slip that Harry had run away from home, along with Severus position as a spy, and many other things, that were just too sensitive, for just anyone to know. And with the press there, it would become a catastrophe of unknown proportions. This had to be stopped. While he knew what Severus may have done was both legally and ethically wrong, but some sacrifices had to be made for greater good. And what was little loss of privacy, compared to the loss of a mans life.


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Remus Lupin, werewolf, Marauder and member of the Order of the Phoenix was currently talking to a werewolf pack. He had been doing this for several weeks now and had yet managed to get some of the packs to stay neutral in the fight. He had yet been able to convince anyone that following Voldemort wouldn't accomplish anything. Many of the Werewolves knew all too well that the Dark Lord considered everyone but Purebloods beneath him and thought of them as disposable. But still they also didn't want to anger him by joining Dumbledore, and the Ministry they thought were no better the the Dark Lord.

The pack he was now talking to was no different. It was a quite sizeable pack with about thirty to forty werewolves of different age and background. This was the third time he was meeting with them and he had a bad feeling about this group. They were very outspoken against the Ministry and Dumbledore as neither of them had done anything to help werewolves. As a matter of fact, the Ministry had a long history of persecution and discrimination against werewolves. Many of the Purebloods saw them as vile beasts that should be terminated or at least contained. This had led to various laws and regulations that made life for werewolves very hard and unpleasant.

"Please reconsider." Remus pleaded. "You-Know-Who will not make things better for us. He just wants to use us to reach his goals and then he'll dispose of us."

"So you say." The leader of the packed growled. "But unlike you, the Dark Lord has been very generous towards us. He's provided us with food, shelter and women. What have you given us? A weak promise that things will turn out fine. The way we see it, the Dark Lord has done more for us in the past few days than Dumbledore ever did."

"Don't you see he's trying to cloud you judgement?" Remus said. "He gives you what you want now but soon he'll just send you to battle to die."

"Do not presume us to be weak." The leader roared. "We will not die fighting some fancy wizard with a wand."

"You don't understand…." Remus tried once more.

"We understand all too well." Another werewolf yelled. "Easy for you to talk when you're personal friends with Dumbledore. But for those who have to live of scraps and are homeless nothing comes easy. You have no idea what it's like to be a true werewolf. You're a disgrace."

Remus took a step back as he realized things weren't going his way. While so far, no meetings had turned violent it was always a possibility. He saw several members of the pack tense and he knew he was in trouble. He raised his hands, trying to calm them down and turned to the leader.

"I understand, I will not bother you any longer." Remus said before taking a few steps back.

"Not so fast." The leader said. "I'm sure the Dark Lord will pay a handsome price if we delivered you to him. I'm sure you have plenty of information that he wants so you're not going anywhere."

"Don't do this." Remus pleaded. "I'm leaving and will not bother you or your pack again. Just let me leave."

"I don't think so." The leader chuckled. "Grab him."

Several of them ran towards Remus who had turned around and started running towards the exit. It was no use however as three of them had already took place at the door. He took out his wand and stunned one of them but one of the others kicked the wand out of his hand. Before he could do anything he was slammed into the ground by another werewolf. Remus groaned in pain from having a grown man land on his back and hitting the ground face down. He felt the air being pushed out of his lungs and his head was spinning. Still, he realized he was in major trouble. If they manage to capture him, only torture and death at the hands of You-Know-Who awaited him.

Suddenly the weight on his back disappeared as he heard several people yell out in surprise and pain. He turned on his back and saw a House-Elf standing in front of him. It was dressed in what looked like black ninja outfit, that covered all but its large eyes and ears.

The elf was soon joined by what looked little girl dressed in a similar outfit, with amask covering her face. After a short nod to the elf, the girl brandished what looked like a pair of chain-sickles out seemingly no where, and exploded into sudden, violent motion. Her sickles sliced through werewolf after werewolf, the finely forged blades cutting through flesh and bone like paper. One of the beasts leapt at her from behind, and sickles transformed, as she put an armour-piercing round right through the middle of its forehead and then leapt back, picking off another four beasts as they scrambled and regrouped for another try at their sudden appearing enemies.

"Bad wolfies." the elf said snapping his fingers and the werewolves closet to them were flung across the room. "Mistress Wolfie needs to come with Dobby." And with that the elf and Remus vanished from the room with a small'pop'.


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Remus gasped as he opened his eyes and saw that he was in a totally different place. He knew that the elf and that girl had just saved him from a terrible fate but he didn't understand why or how it had happened. He picked up his wand and turned to the elf, but it had already disappeared. He was nervous. Not just nervous, but very nervous. Someone had just saved him from certain doom. While he was thankful for it, he didn't know how or even why they had done it, and that made him nervous. He continued to ponder this, along trying to figure where he was, as cautiously with his wand drawn scanned his surroundings.

The room that he found himself in was awe inspiring: two stories tall, one whole side windows, and absolutely stuffed with stacks of bookcases. The furniture was all plush and firm, meant obviously for comfort and durability. In a corner of the room stood the vanishing cabinet Rhy had procured from Borgins & Burkes, not that Remus recognized it for what it was. All in all, the room appeared homey and welcoming. One thing he did notice though, was that there didn't seemed to be any doors or any other obvious entrances to the room, expect for the windows.

The only area left open, except where he was standing, was a small, comfortable looking reading area before a yawning fireplace, made of tasteful stone of white marble with black, bronze and crystal veins with protruding shelves on either side that arced out from the sides as if waiting for a wider clientèle and a marble bowl and lid on one side holding floo powder. Overall, it was an artful, tasteful and elegant design.

The floor was of curious crystal that looked just like marble and that he felt was somehow a part of the manor's defence structure since he could feel it monitoring him from where his feet touched. What he didn't know was that this was the arrival room for all inbound magical travel. It had been created so you couldn't apparate, floo, or portkey in and do something and then go back out of the same spot.

When they built the Manor the Potter's of the time been had quite paranoid, and built it this way as a defence against anyone trying to do just that. One had to go to an another room at opposite side of the Manor to apparate, floo or portkey out.

Rhy and her friends had made some permanent engravings into into floor, walls and ceiling of the room. They'd put the runes where they would be nominally out of sight - unless you specifically went looking for them - as each was no more than about an inch in height.

The runes would block all listening charms and any other charm based on similar magic. They'd also render the voice of a person muffled outside of the room, but not within; similar to that of a temporary silencing ward. The confundus charm and similar charms were also blocked; even if they're rune-based. There were also a to counter the effects of the Imperius curse, if someone were walking into the room under the control of such. You could apparate in but not out of the room, the same was true for portkeys. And finally, a defensive ward that'd block anyone standing outside of the room from immediately attacking you with hexes and curses.

It also worked in reverse, blocking anyone inside the room from attacking you with hexes and curses. It was Luna and Hermione who first this created rune set, a short time after Voldemort finally had been defeated. They been thoroughly tested during those times, they'd proven to even be able to neutralize the rest of the unforgivables. But by design they only worked within small enclosed spaces, therefore they couldn't be used with the wards.

Surmounted by a mantel that was crowded with what were obviously precious objects and resting just below a huge carved blazon. Which consisted of a red background in the shape of a shield, with a argent diagonal shape from the shield bearers top right to bottom left bend, crenellations embattled shield bearers, and a gold griffon rampant facing the shield bearers. Remus immediately recognized the blazon, it was the coat of arms for Potter family.

He fervently search his mind, passing through half forgotten memories, while cataloguing everything around him in an attempt to distinguish where he was. He now knew was on a Potter property, the coat of arms confirmed that, but which one? He knew had been here before, but he had a hard time remembering it.


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Back with the werewolves, Dobby was helping his mistress deal with the more aggressive ones. The werewolves had pulled back, their initial savage assault beaten. Already several had fallen to the girl and her elf.

But a few, frantic, minutes later, it was over. They had both killed several more in those frantic minutes of terror and slavering jaws. Only a few of them were left, and it mostly those who were either too old or too young to fight.


Realizing the their numbers were disintegrating by the second, and caught without escape by the elf still covering the doors and windows, the werewolves by and large gave up on victory. There are some things that not even the magically toughened constitution of a lycanthrope can handle. The blades that the girl handled was clearly one of them, and let's not talk about bullets fired that was from them. The elf that was accompanying the girl were no joke either, and was just as fearsome.

Rhy knew they had to neutralize the werewolf population. And now was a good moment as any, to start the effort to keep the werewolves away from Voldemort, she thought as she scanned the room, her weapons drawn and ready, just in case if any of the werewolves would mount another attack.

"Spread the word, I'm Nine-tails, leader of the Fellowship of the Fox," Rhy then said with as much command and authority she could muster. "I'm here to bring you and warning and a ultimatum. If you join Voldemort and his Death Eaters all that awaits you is pain and death, either by our hand or by theirs take your pick. We won't ask any of you to join us, but if you get in our way will destroy you. And from this moment forward let it be know that the werewolf by the name of Remus Lupin is under our protection, and anyone who attacks him will be terminated with extreme prejudice. So as long you don't threaten us or anyone under our protection, as well as staying out of our way, we will have no further problems."

She then said as if in afterthought with a glare, "Wilfully spreading the disease and creating more werewolf will be counted as standing in our way. Anyone found doing that will killed on the spot, this will be your first and final warning, so beware."

Rhy then turned and disappeared with a loud crack, shortly followed by a pop from Dobby, as they both disappeared. Leaving a scene of carnage behind them.


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Remus was seated and deep in thought when a girl slipped into the room."Who's there?" he exclaims as he jumped on his feet in an instant, pulling the wand from inside his dressing gown. But he somehow managed to trip over his own feet crashing to the floor breaking his wand in the process.

He heard someone chuckle softly as a his eyes caught hold of a child standing in front of him, chasing about the last of a vanilla milkshake with her straw.

"Hewwo! Whatcha doin'?" The the girl says casually, still chasing about the last of her milkshake. "Awe you aww wight?"

"Who are you?" He asked with a touch of hostility, as struggled to his feet, and scanning the room. Trying to determine whether girl was alone, and figuring out where she had come from.

"Jumpy, awen't you," the girl giggled, discarding her drink cup. "I thought that aww the yeaws of warw wouwd have twained you to be mowe awawe of youw suwwoundings," the girl said as she looked over the startled werewolf. " 'Owwy awout youw wand, I wiww you get a new one, I pwomise."

"You seem know to who I'm, but you still haven't told me who you are?"

The girl gave him impish smile with as an mischievous glint appeared in her eyes.

"Why is Why, Why Wasp," the girl said smirking, puffing out her chest proudly and placed her hands on her hips. "I'm the bestest giwl undew the age of ten, you wiww evew meet."

"So your name is Rhy Rasp," Remus said with a small smile playing across his features as he patted her head.

The girl nodded happily in affirmation.

"I heawd you wan into some bad wolfies. You'uwe you awe aww wight?"

"I'm all right, no need to worry. I had my fair share of tussles," Remus said trying to reassure the girl, as he could see genuine worry for him in her mismatched eyes.

"Like the mushwoom?" Rhy asked tilting her head innocently, a look of confusion on her face.

"Those are truffles," Remus replied.

"Like the spwout?" she asked still confused.

"Those are brussels," he replied .

Remus looked at the girl in front of him. He was rather confused, he was sure he had never met her before, though he did get a familiar feeling from the girl. Her eyes seemed to be filled with curiosity, and maybe even a hint of amusement but he wasn't sure. An air of innocence surrounded her, that he for some thought didn't suited her.

She looked to be no older than perhaps six, probably even less. Though as he continued to watch her, he found a strange sensation of recognition. For some reason he just knew that he knew her, yet he had not interacted with any child near her age in the past couple of years. So, what was it that he found familiar? Trying to puzzle out that mystery, he started to study her more closely.

She was a short with a wide-eyed child-like expression adorning her cherub face. Her hair with pigtails long enough to touch her calves, and was gathered above the base of the neck, into a pair of huge pigtails, that seemed to be much larger than possible, at least not without loads of hair gel or a bit of magic. Enormous pink hair bobbles decorated the top and end of each her pigtails. Her hairstyle seemed to enhance her already childish looks.

'The hair size of both those tails combined must be at least the size of that girl's head', Remus silently thought to himself, as he studied the little girl.

The girl wore a big white hoodie-like dress with purple striped cuffs, lining, and apurple hood. The outfit had pale, ice blue and light lilac accents. As well as a zipper section, two big round pockets, a big zipper with an R on it, and strings resembling a plug. Around her neck she wore asimple white choker. He could see a pair black biker shorts peek through under the hem of the hoodie. Her lilac shoes have blue and white accents and were also worn with blue and white striped stockings.

He instantly knew that he had never seen this girl before, yet at the same time he also knew that he did know her and it was from not that long ago.

When Remus hadn't moved for at least an hour… Alright perhaps that was stretching the truth alittle bit. In reality it was only about 30 seconds, but the awkward silence that had fallen between the two, was making Rhy fidget alittle as Remus had fixed her with a penetrating gaze, as if he tried to dissemble her, and never seemed to relent, which unnerved her alittle.

It was a few seconds later that the silence started to become to much for the girl, and she cleared her throat somewhat awkwardly.

"My famiwy makes custom wands, and as an apowogy for bweaking your wand we can make a new one fow you fow fwee," the girl said nervously, her eyes softening over the period of a few seconds. At least it appeared as such to Remus. He could have sworn the girl's irises were... he wasn't sure how to classify what he thought he saw. It was like the irises were the most definable part of her. The werewolf could swear the outside ring of the irises glowed unnaturally.

Still not saying anything, Remus just nodded still very confused as to who this child were. And how she knew him, he couldn't remember meeting ever meeting her. But from her introduction and with the way she behaved around him, it was clear she familiar with him. Another thing he thought was strange was that his enhanced sense of smell couldn't pick up anything but an overpowering scent of lilies coming from the girl. He wondered what it was that he saw lurking behind the innocence in her eyes.

Then a thought suddenly struck him, it was far-fetched but worth a try. To test the idea he just thought of, he fired of a silent Finite wandlessly at the girl. The ability to wandlessly cast spells had little to do with magical maturity or power, rather was mostly about a mental discipline and state of mind that was independent of own age. He never been good at it, few ever were, since it required lots of hard work and strict mental discipline, not many bothered with it beyond basic summoning charms.

As his spell hit girl he could see the air momentarily shimmer and flicker, along with the scent of lilies slightly fade for the fraction of a second. But that was all he needed as confirmation. The girl was hiding under something.


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After Rhy had returned from the werewolves lair, she had taken a quick shower and changed her clothes. She then grabbed a milkshake (because she the fight had gotten her thirsty) before entering in the room where Remus waiting. She found him sitting deep in thought in front of the fireplace. An sudden thought struck her as she drew closer to him. As she watched him jump, she discreetly and silently hit him tripping hex, breaking his wand in the process. After short conversation, in which she had decided to dumb down her speech a bit. In an attempt to make herself look more childish and innocent. She didn't know if it had worked or not, she had never been much of an actor, at least not according to her friends.

But when Remus fired of the Finte charm at her, Rhy thought she must have failed. While most most curses, jinxes, hexes and charms didn't thanks to the runes set in the room, there were expectations. It was mostly the spells they had considered harmless, when they rune set had first been created. Spells like Lumos, Nox, Tempus, the colour changing charm, and the Finite were amongst these.

"Why you attack me?" Rhy asked in a completely over-the-top quavering voice, she then let her head drop a little before bringing it up, her eyes were large and watering slightly with her lower lip jutted out and quivering, as she sniffled and gave him her best puppy-dog eyes.

However she was a little miffed when Remus just stared her down quite evenly. Rhy pouted again but it seemed to have no effect against the werewolf.

"You can drop the act, your puppy dog eyes don’t work on me," Remus said with a stern gaze that seemed to harden a bit, making her gulp and loose her immediate train of thought.

"Ummm..." the girl temporized, "What awe tawking about?" she chirped with all the innocence and sweetness she could muster.

"I have seen better, now answer my question. Who are you?" Remus replied with a deadpanned tone, and an raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the somehow too-innocent look in the girl's face; getting the feeling that the girl not nearly as innocent the she tried to portray herself as.

"...."

You're not much of an actor," Remus said in a tone . "You look way too innocent to not be up to something. I'm a Marauder, I would know."

"........."

"The jig is up, so can you drop that innocent façade now," Remus said with a glare.

"Hmm..." Rhy said thoughtfully as she took on a contemplative stance, scratching her head slightly as she hummed in thought. "Well, it was worth ashot."

"Now back to my question," Remus urged with his arms crossed and with a look on his face that demanded she answer him."Who are you?"

"Ohh... I think Ialready told you, I'm Rhy Rasp," Rhy relied with a cheeky grin. It unnerved him slightly as it was the exact same grin James and Sirius had, when they were being devious about something.

Remus'eyes narrowed. "Then let me rephrase the question," he said slowly. "Who is Rhy Rasp?"

"Already poking at the core, are we? I think it's still a bit early for spoilers..." The grin became sly and wider in response, along with a mischievous glint could now be seen her eyes. He just glared in return meaning it wasn't a good enough answer.

"But I guess I can tell you... I'm the most amazing and extraordinary girl, you will ever get pleasure to meet," Rhy said smugly with her hands on her hips, as she puffed out her chest, and her grin never leaving her face.

"No intention of answering, huh?" Remus said with deadpanned look.

Her grin grew wider again, the glint in her eyes had now become sparkles.

"Oh well, let's drop that for now."

"So that's it, you have just given up," she said with a pout. "No more poking or probing trying to figuring out who I'm."

"It's not likely you would tell me now, is there," he said dryly unaffected by girl pout. "Therefore I will give it up for now."

"Awwww.... You're no fun," Rhy said petulant pout.

As Remus put that subject matter aside for later, he remarked on how she seemed to be oddly smart for someone of her age, and she kind of reminded him alittle of his friends, James Potter and Sirius Black. "So why are am I here, I doubt it was just for some small talk. And where is here?" He asked after awhile of reminiscing and silent contemplating.

"Your right, I almost forgot, how clumsy of me," Rhy replied, while smacking her hand onto her forehead."While I enjoyed the small talk, I was asked to fetch you because dinner is ready is ready. So follow me and I will lead you to the dinning room."

Rhy turned and walked to a large tapestry, portraying some kind of ancient battle, that hang on the far side of the wall. She pushed it aside revealing an small alcove with the Potter embossed in the wall. Remus saw the girl put her hand on the crest and push, grinding noise was heard as the crest sunk into the wall. A click was then heard, and the bricks around the one she had touched quivered—they wriggled—in the middle, asmall hole appeared—it grew wider and wider—a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, the half-giant Keeper of the grounds and keys at Hogwarts. Without further ado, Rhy stepped through the archway, and waited for Remus on the other side. Remus just eyed the obviously amused girl in confusion before he proceeded to follow her.


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After having been led into a corridor which had smooth-stone decorative tile flooring and wood-paneled walls that were coloured a tan or light beige. As Remus looked through the various rooms they passed, he found that this seemed to be the same pattern, at least for those he saw. He was then led into a beautiful light, airy dinning hall, with walls covered with light marble and beautiful, warmly blond wood floors.

There he was introduced to girl's older twin sister, Ena and Kerry. They looked to be around mid-teens, 14 maybe fifth-teen, but Kerry seemed to be more outgoing of the two of them, while Ena seemed more reserved. Both of this was clearly shown in how they looked, acted and dressed. Ena wore a light-pink dress with ared ribbon on both sleeves, a large red ribbon behind her waist with white stripes and a necklace featuring a Caduceus-like centrepiece

While Kerry's attire consisted of a short exotic olive top, that showed of her the dark skin of her hardbodied midriff. A pair of brown chaps that end at her calves with pair dark green pants beneath, encapsulated her legs. An overlong belt, was twice-wrapped waist, while plain dark brown flat adorned her feet. She also wore a pair of white half-gloves.

But the conversation was cut short as the elves started serve the food. It was a surf-and-turf affair, with fresh peach cobbler and home-made ice cream to desert. As they ate, conversations and small talk started flow, where Remus and sister learned a little about each other. While twins learned a little more about Remus personally, since all they about him was what Rhy and the others had told them, or they had shown from memories their memories.

Remus learn that the Rasps were orphans, that the twins were Rhy's guardians. He also learned they just recently open a shop in Diagon Alley called Fox Den. But what had surprised him the most was to learn that the twins were emancipated minor that already had their O.W.Ls, which meant they basically grown-ups in the magical world.

But each time he asked where he was, why he was here, or how they even knew he was in danger. The subject was changed and his questions were side stepped, with the promise that would talk about that tomorrow. And that today was just getting to know each other better, along with rest and relaxation.


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The next day elsewhere, in the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix to be exact things weren't going that smoothly. Ever since Friday, when order had tried interrogate the children and Snape's legilimency and his consequential trial, had left everyone on edge. While the grown-ups had gotten it confirmed that the children knew something about the missing Potter, but children were now on guard against all of them. Making the atmosphere at Grimmuald Place 12 tense and somewhat strained.

The only exception to this were the twins, as they were just confused, with even less of an idea of what was going on then any of the grown-ups. That was why now they sat on their beds in the they shared room, early on Sunday morning trying to figure out what was going on. Ron and Ginny had changed somehow, they didn't when nor could put their finger on how they had changed. But their gut told them that their younger siblings different somehow, and it annoyed them that they actually point out what was different with them.

They thought Hermione had also changed somehow, but as they didn't know her as well their younger siblings did, they less sure as it was it less noticeable, but nonetheless she changed too somehow. The more they thought about it the more the they had noticed it, at first they had nothing about it, but as things started pile up they could longer ignore it.

They were mostly little things, like how sometimes when Ginny looked at then filled with eyes full sadness, or how she and Ron sometimes seemed know things before they happened. Or that they had mostly kept to themselves ever since they moved to HQ.

Another thing was that had mystified them was how good they suddenly had been become with magic. They didn't buy the excuse that learned it while at Hermione's. The occlumency for example, sure may have they learned the basics, but there was no way they mastered to the degree to shut an expert out in a week. And Snape was an expert at legilimency no doubt it, from what had learned he over a decade of experience with it. And that was just the tip of the iceberg, from time to time they had witnessed Ron perform wandless magic, when thought no one looked. Which they knew was very hard, as they had already tried.


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While twins were trying to figure what was up with their younger siblings, the occupants at Potter manor had just finished their breakfast, when Rhy was given the latest update on the Longbottom couples condition.

The cases of Frank and Alice Longbottom really boggled their minds, Rhy thought went through she went the report she just received. The Cruciatus Curse should killed the Longbottoms long before they minds caved in. The human heart couldn't handle all the stress that curse caused under continuous prolonged exposure, it would give in sooner then the mind would.

That's why one of their many theories were that there were some kind of foul play involved. That was other of the reasons why they had to move the Longbottoms, and snatch their medical files. The first week was check for any irregularities or anything that didn't match with their medical files. They did this by having the house-elves running their owns checks and scans of the couple, while cross referring them with the medical records they had stolen from St. Mungos. As nothing obvious had been found, and their MRI ( Magical Resonance Imaging test – What the test does is create a diagnostic image of aperson's magical energy. Quite useful for seeing if any central nervous system damage has impacted their ability to use magic. )showed nothing wrong, they were now proceeding to phase two of their treatment.

And that was foul play involving potion, drugs or some other kind of medication. They created a potions for this in the future, of which they put two vials under stasis. This potion was more powerful and enhanced version of the the flushing draught, and would any foul play with the medication. As this had been their culmination of combing modern chemistry, with potions, and including a touch of alchemy, they had once tried to sell it but that hadn't gone well.

As it looked horrible, simmering between being velvety black to a vivid, poisonous-looking blue. Even when completed it hissed and sent diamond sparks in all directions. Unfortunately it also stank something horrific and tasted even worse. Not mention it quite expensive, as it was quite complex to brew, with many hard obtain ingredients and took several months to complete. Another thing was that while ordinary flushing draught were over in a couple of minutes, this one took hours to run through your system.

Add to that that it had short shelf life, and left you weak, depleted, nauseous and ill for several hours after taking it, you have a really hard product to sell. It made it even harder to sell when they found out that people weak hearts or lungs, or just generally weak constitution was not recommend to use it, as it seemed gravely worsen their condition. For the same reasons pregnant women were also dissuaded from using it. The same was for anyone suffering from any kind of asthma. But worst of it all was that if one was awake while potion were in effect, it would hurt like hell. Some of their tester had said that is was like drinking lava. One testers had actually ruptured his throat screaming as had tested draught. They had later found out that as long as you were asleep, you wouldn't feel athing.

But otherwise it was far superior to any flushing draught that existed. Beside that it would expel any and all foreign substances from the body, along with any and all toxins, slag and waste products. And open all pores, empty both the stomach and blabber, while scrapping the bowels clean. While also cleansing the blood, purging the vessels of anything that would stop or hinder the blood flow. It also would rejuvenate the liver and kidneys, while at same lower your blood pressure.

It would also bolster the body's latent healing abilities, heighten metabolism and break foreign chemicals. They found out it would even purify the lungs, they found this out when they had heavy chain smoker testing the potion. After a while he began coughing up all the tar that accumulated in his lungs over the years. The chemicals would then take care of any potential infections that had gone unnoticed.

But their biggest surprise when they found out it that released help stress or tensions that had built up in the body. Not many had been willing buy the draught, much to their dismay, even through it was so good for you. The cons must have outweighed pros they thought, but was not much they could do about that, maybe they should try to sell it again someday.

Another of their theories was they suffered from an extreme form of post-traumatic stress or Battle-weariness. To protect themselves, the Longbottoms withdrew from their bodies, and now they can't connect to them again. But only way to confirm that would be through use of legilimancy. Therefore had decided to check for any kind of foul play first. Even if this worked the Longbottoms would still need physical therapy for a while, but for all intents and proposes they would be more healthy then ever.


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While Rhy was pondered about what to do with the Longbottoms, elsewhere, in the halls of the Voldemort's new lair Draco was considering his future prospects and after a bit of consideration, he concluded they were pretty bleak. He also had come to a rather shocking conclusion, that it was possible that the Dark Lord could be defeated.

It was a thought that rocked the very foundations of his belief structure, from his earliest days he had always believed that the Dark Lord would win and that the world would be made a better place as aresult.

Shoulders dropping he realized that the Dark Lord had been defeated once and could be defeated again and he wondered to himself at what he should do to prepare for that possible situation, how he could insure the survival of what was left of the Malfoy name and fortune. Rubbing his eyes Draco searched his memory to find a way that he could weather out a possible defeat, with as little damage as possible to himself, preferably none. It was the curse that the Dark Lord had put on him that Draco viewed as the largest problem.

As long that remained he doomed to suffer the same fate as the Dark Lord. But only he thing know about it was the effect, and that it was ancient blood magic, used to bind rebellious slaves to their master. Since he didn't even know the name of the curse nor did he have time or the resources to look it up, he quite firmly stuck, and that thought gave him no comfort.


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He really couldn't shake feeling, Remus thought as walked through what he now was certain was Potter Manor. While her sister really were strangers to him, he felt that he knew Rhy from somewhere. And that feeling just became stronger as the day passed, but no matter how he had searched through his memories, he couldn't find out where. It now after lunch, and with these thing on on mind that he had went to find the Rasps, to get the answers he been promised yesterday.

He stopped abruptly, and his eyes shot open, as his nose suddenly caught a whips of some familiar scents, Frank and Alice Longbottom. With his curiosity piqued and his nose in the air Remus tried follow the scent of the missing couple, and after many twist and turn he found himself in front of a pair of French doors with decorative frosted glass, making it so he can't see what's inside. After a moment of hesitation he opens the door and steps in.

The room was… plain, for lack of a better word, at least in comparison to the other rooms he had seen in the manor. It was rather spacious, allowing for about 10 people to be inside of it at once without it getting uncomfortable. The walls were a light beige colour and looked like they had the texture of smoothed down sandstone. The room was sparsely furnished, a queen sized bed, large enough that two people could sleep comfortably on it without touching, there was anightstand, a dresser, and a small closet. Other than that, it was bare of anything that Remus had come expect to see.

While their scents told him who the persons laying in the bed were, but he wanted to be certain. So he headed in the direction of the bed when an house elf pop in and stopped him.

"Sorry sir, but Ican't let sir pass," the house elf said looking very determinedly at Remus. "Mistress told us to protect and care for couple, so protect and care for couple we will."

Remus not wanting to create a fuss backed off a bit, and asked how the couple were doing. The elf politely told him since he was not on the allowed list it it would be in his best interest if leaved now. While the elf words and tone of voice were very polite and in no way threatening, he recognized a threat when he saw one, and this one clearly said leave now or we will make you.


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Meanwhile, back at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore sat in his office feeling a mixture of both anger and satisfaction. He hadn't been able to stop Severus trial nor change the date, or make it a closed trial, but he had managed to secure several promises of leniency. So that Severus would only need to pay some minor fines, instead of spending time in Azkaban.

As he rested his head on his knuckles he glared down, thinly veiled annoyance and slight hatred clear on his features, at the greatest enemy of the day. The most hated battle to ever come into existence. A never ending enemy which insured that he had little time to enjoy life's little pleasures.

Paperwork.

Briefly considering dumping it all on his deputy, Minerva McGonagall. He sighed as he took the top piece of paper off the rather large pile, grudgingly picked up his pen, and got back to work. A flash of green from the fireplace caught his attention, and he looked over to find none other than the Minister's face floating in the flames.

"Cornelius," he greeted warmly. "For what do I owe the honour of avisit?"


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TBC

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