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Disclaimers, etc, part one.
Chapter Nine
The Graveyard: Part Two

Remus made no noise as he stalked into the lengthening grass. Following him, Harry and Ron made every effort to be just as quiet. When Remus froze, they did too, still metres behind him. In one movement, Remus pulled his wand from his robe and cast a spell into the grass. There was a burst of light, and when Harry blinked away the glare, Wormtail was cowering at Remus feet.

Harry and Ron immediately stepped close enough to hear him, and the others were approaching as well, cautiously. Snape was staying back with Buffy, watching the edges. Hermione was far on the other side of Ron, creeping forward to get behind Wormtail.

"Please, Remus, please. Don't kill me, Moony," Wormtail was mumbling, over and over again.

Remus's voice was cold and resolute when he asked, "Why are you here, Peter?"

Wormtail wrung his hands and didn't look above Remus's shoes. Harry crept forward, not liking the sly gleam in Wormtail's eyes. Ron took a hesitant step forward to stand beside Harry.

"I wasn't going to do anything, Moony, please. I just had to watch. I just have to watch. 'Don't hurt anyone, just watch.'"

"And then tell Voldemort what we were doing, I presume?"

"You don't understand," Wormtail wailed. "I don't want to hurt Harry, I never wanted to hurt Harry. But He was too strong, and He knows so much. I have to."

"Have to what? abandon your friends. Betray their trust in you. I warned you once what would happen. Sirius spent a year back in his parents' house, because you wouldn't admit to what you'd done. Did you think you I would let you go again?"

Harry could feel the anger in Remus, and the rage he was directing at Wormtail, even from three paces back. But he could also see the shift in Wormtail's eyes. Remus was focussed so much on his hatred for his one time friend, that didn't see what happened next. In a blink Wormtail was gone, a rat again. He appeared, human, behind Hermione, grabbing her neck with his silver hand, his wand trained on Remus.

Harry did not have a chance to shout a warning, Hermione did not have a chance to reach for her wand, and Ron did not think before he sent a stunning spell at Wormtail. Hermione rolled away and was back on her feet, wand in her hand, with an ease that surprised even her. Wormtail looked slightly ridiculous sprawled on the ground with his battered robes and strange hand. Buffy came up beside Harry, obviously wary about Peter. Remus had no such hesitation. He had his wand trained at Wormtail's chest and walked up and kicked Wormtail hard in the side.

Wormtail's body did not move. Harry had the sudden fearful thought that Ron had killed him. Remus's appreciative nod to Ron did not seem to contradict that theory. But Remus steadied his wand and said 'enerverate', in a very cold voice. Wormtail jerked awake and immediately began crying again.

"Shut up," Remus said in the same flat tone of voice.

"What can you tell us?" Remus asked. "We want to kill Voldemort; how can you help us?"

Wormtail shook his head and wrung his hands. Harry couldn't tell whether he had nothing to say, or simply didn't want to say anything. He looked around for Snape, who would be able to intimidate their prisoner. Snape was standing way back in the shadows, out of Wormtail's sight. Giles, too, had stepped away. Buffy was simply watching Remus, a strange mixture of sympathy and regret on her face. Harry shook off that question of had happened in Buffy's past, and forced himself to focus on Wormtail.

Wormtail had begun whimpering. Slowly under Remus's intense, silent watchfulness, he began to actually speak again. He told them how he had been sent here; how he had been instructed to guard the mansion; how he wasn't supposed to and had never wanted ever to hurt anyone; how he had never meant it; how he was tied to You-Know-Who now and couldn't escape; how You-Know-Who hurt him even from Ceredigion; how they couldn't think it was really his fault.

Harry's fist clenched white around his wand, and he forced himself not to aim it at Wormtail before they got any information out of him. Wormtail was cowering closer and closer against the ground, and his words became less and coherent as he began to mutter to himself, eyes flickering like a cornered animal.

"You-Know-Who is far too powerful, he was becoming too powerful. I was never strong enough, you know how it was Remus, and no one trusted anyone else, Sirius should never have trusted me, and if he'd told you-James and Lily, they were stupid to think that they could survive like that."

Remus glanced away, unable to watch the expression on Wormtail's face. In that moment Wormtail leapt forward and wrapped his hands around Remus's throat. Hermione shouted too late for a warning, and Buffy swore. Remus dropped his wand to drag at Wormtail's wrists, to no avail. Remus's face twisted in pain, and Harry realised in horror that Wormtail's hand really was silver. An angry welt burnt into Remus's neck and Remus began to fight desperately, for his own life now.

Harry finally raised his wand. But before he managed to cast a spell that might be useful to Remus in the vicious fight, there was a sickening sound, and Harry's mind blanked for a moment. When he focused again on the scene in front of him, Wormtail was lying on the ground and Buffy was kneeling beside him.

"He's dead," Remus said.

Remus bent to retrieve his wand from his feet. Harry looked from the welt on Remus's neck, to Wormtail and back to Remus's hands, and he felt sick. Remus squatted on the ground, staring at his hands and looking as a sick as Harry felt. Buffy checked Wormtail's body with professional disinterest, and Giles stepped forward and leant to talk to Remus.

"He was your friend."

"Once upon a time."

"It doesn't matter how long ago you stopped being friends. When you- when you have to.... It's the history that matters."

Harry looked away from the anguish on both their faces. There was nothing in the dreary cemetery that could distract his mind. Snape was standing, unmoving, four paces behind Buffy. His dark cloak blended ominously with the shadows of the trees.

Harry attention was suddenly caught was the flash of Ron's hair of the corner of his eye. Harry turned to call for his friend, but stopped to watch as Ron reached out a hand to pat Hermione on the shoulder. Hermione flung her arms around Ron, and Ron automatically wrapped his arms around her. He looked startled and when he caught Harry's eye, Harry grinned at him.

Ron glanced back down at the top of Hermione's head, obviously unsure how to deal with the sudden intimacy. Harry walked past the quite group around Wormtail's body and under Snape's watchful glare to stand not quite next to Ron. Ron slowly pulled away from Hermione and bent to press a kiss to her hair. Hermione looked up, her eyes dry and wide. Ron pressed a kiss to her cheek before he pulled back to include Harry in a half circle. Hermione didn't move her arm from around Ron's waist, though, and she was blushing.

"Harry," she said, blushing darker.

Harry smiled briefly in reply. Ron took an awkward step backwards, pulling out of Hermione's embrace. Harry glared at Ron, trying to make his point without saying anything. Ron's brow furrowed in confusion. Harry wondered if strangling Ron would him out of his misery, but decided that in Hermione's interest, he stop at punching Ron on the arm and gesturing at Hermione. Hermione looked torn between trying not to laugh and trying not to throttle him herself.

"I, ah," Ron started. Harry nodded encouragingly.

"Hermione, I just wanted to say, I, ah, I care about you."

Hermione broke into a grin. "I care about you to, Ron," she said.

Harry cheered silently, glad that the saga was now over.

"No, I mean, I really care about you."

Harry closed his eyes against the frustration.

"I really care about you, too, Ron," Hermione told him, obviously suppressing laughter. "I mean, really."

She reached out to grip his wrist. Ron looked down at her hand, then back up at her face.

"Oh," he said.

Harry turned away, grinning madly to himself. Ron learnt down and pressed a brief kiss to Hermione's lips.

"Very good, Ron," she said.

"You're mad," Ron said. "Stark raving mad."

"Yes," Hermione agreed happily.

Harry turned back to them. "Ready to go?" he asked.

"Yes," Snape's voice cut through the pleasant interlude. "I hate to interrupt this episode of the Days of Your Lives, but we are leaving now."

Snape ushered the three of them back towards the main group. Buffy and Giles had buried Wormtail in Tom Riddle Snr's grave. Buffy was patting down the earth, while Giles stood at the foot and spoke quietly in Latin. Remus was sitting on the ground, his hands around his knees.

Snape stood over him, crossing his arms. "Get up, Lupin, we have to leave."

Remus looked up at him blandly.

"We don't know where to go," Buffy said. "We never got any information out of Wormtail in the end."

"Yes, we did," Remus said. He pushed himself to his feet, looking years older than Harry had ever seen him. "I know where we have to go."

Hermione opened her month to ask, but Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her back. From the haunted look on Remus's face, Harry almost wished they hadn't learnt anything after all.

Remus led the way out through the silent gravestones. No one said anything until they were once again outside. The night air on the road that leads to the village reminded Harry of the pleasantness that had assaulted him earlier in the evening. Remus struck out ahead, Harry followed, silent, just a couple of paces behind him. Behind them, the others were starting to talk again. Hermione was whispering excitedly to Ron, punctuated but the occasional quickly stifled laugh. Snape was murmuring things to Buffy, who was asking question of Giles. Harry tuned them all out, worrying about the tension in Remus's shoulders.

They walked passed the village and out into an open area of land. Dumbledore had created a Portkey to take them all back from the cemetery to Hogwarts. They gathered quickly around the long piece of rope. It was charmed to activate every fifteen minutes until dawn. Remus checked his watch.

"We have about a minute," he announced.

Everyone bent to pick up the rope, and they stood awkwardly as the time ticked down to the uncomfortable tug. Harry closed his eyes against the swirling vortex, in the hope that this time he would feel less nauseous. He opened his eyes again in the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk. he looked as though he had been waiting for them, but he was wearing a blue dressing gown over orange and purple pyjamas, accompanied by a yellow nightcap and matching slippers. Harry wondered if the stripes were supposed to pulse like that, and looked away, before his eyes were permanently damaged.

One of the silver implements on Dumbledore's shelf was spurting pale green smoke, and Harry concentrated on that instead. Buffy seemed equally startled by Dumbledore's wardrobe.

"I so have to take him shopping, one day," she said.

Snape snorted. "I'd actually pay to see that," he said.

Harry could hear the smirk in Buffy's voice when she asked, "How much?"

"It was a successful mission, then? Dumbledore asked.

"Wormtail's dead," Remus said, overriding Giles's simple, "yes."

"Ah, I see," Dumbledore said. "Please tell me how."

"I broke his neck," Remus said, in the same flat voice.

He rubbed his neck where the burns were already beginning to fade. The office was crowded with seven people in, and it was more crowded when Dumbledore rang for a House-Elf to bring to ice for Remus's neck and some form of food and warm drink for everyone. They all tried to find a place to sit in the now-crowded office. Harry managed to claim the seat beside Remus. Hermione and Ron squashed into a large armchair beside him, and Buffy ended up perched on the arm of Snape's chair, earning her concerned glances from Hermione.

When everyone at last had the heated beverage of their choice and a biscuit, Giles told Dumbledore everything that had happened at the cemetery. Remus interrupted to tell them how he had sensed Wormtail and trailed him, but Giles related the rest. Harry was impressed by his dry recitation.

Buffy was making mocking faces that Giles couldn't see, and Harry had to bite his lip to keep from chuckling. The dark expression on Remus's face helped him.

Finally they reached the end of the account. Dumbledore looked very grave.

"I see," he said. "So you achieved the stated mission, but were unable to use Wormtail's unfortunate presence to our advantage."

"That's right," Giles said.

"No," Remus said, sharply. Everyone turned to look at him and he swallowed. "He told us where Voldemort is. 'He can reach my mind even from Ceredigion,' he said."

Harry didn't think that Dumbledore could look more grave, but his face fell at Remus's news. Hermione shifted in her seat, causing Ron yelp.

"But that's a whole county in Wales," she said. "And we were already sure that he was relatively close."

Dumbledore smiled sadly. "But Voldemort has a distinct flare for the dramatic, Miss Granger. I assure you, if he is in the Desert of Wales, we know exactly where he is."

"So where?" Harry demanded.

It was Remus who answered, very quietly, but clearly heard. "Godric's Hollow."