- Text Size +
What’s True


Sirius was trembling within. He could smell his father on the ground, mingled with that of Veigler, and Greyback and a fourth man whose scent he did not recognize. They were greatly outnumbered - by powerful followers of the Dark Lord. The trees seemed darker at the realization that Orion Black was among them, lurking before Sirius. He recalled when he’d overheard Neremai talking to Veigler back in the start of term. The Hunter comes with his dog - Professor Zosma had called the constellation his father was named after The Hunter. They’d assumed it was Greyback that was the Hunter once they’d discovered his involvement with Veigler, and that Veigler was Greyback’s omega… assumed that was what The Hunter and his Dog referred to, but now… now Sirius somehow knew deep inside of himself that The Hunter was his father and Greyback the dog.

Sirius was just about to change back to human so that he could tell Remus what he had figured out, so they could reevaluate their plans… but then --

There was a scream that shivered through the night and Sirius looked up, his ears raising and the hackles on the back of his neck standing up. He looked back at Remus, who’d come to a stop a couple steps behind him, looking around through the trees. “What was that?” Remus hissed, eyes wide.

Sirius breathed deeply.

He could smell blood in the air.

Remus asked, “Was it Professor Veigler? Sirius, we have to hurry... What do we do?”

A new scent suddenly caught the wind, drifting into Sirius’s nose. He tensed. It was a smell like broom polish and musk and... a smell like the kitchens, like oregano… Peter and James. The panic that swelled up in Sirius was unlike any that had ever run through his veins before. He ran - bolting through the trees. “WAIT!” Remus shouted after him, but there was no slowing Sirius. He ran, recklessly at full tilt, breaking through brush that ripped and tore at his fur and skin. He leaped over fallen trees, moving through the dark, a shadow, chasing a scent he knew all too well…




“Aren’t you just adorable?” Greyback said, “And soooo brave.” He turned to Professor Veigler, who was cowering in the crook of the roots of a great big tree. “It looks like yours was a job well done after all.”

James kept his wand as steady as he could with his trembling hand, tears stinging his eyes, threatening to fall. The lump rising up in his throat was thick and hard to breathe around but he knew he had to keep his wit about him. If for nothing else, for the mere fact that he had made a promise to Peter that nothing would hurt him - that he, James, would die before he let it. So he stood between his friend and the gnarly, sneering man before him.

Greyback grinned sinisterly, and he walked around the boys along the edge of the clearing, always half in shadow. James inched along, always keeping himself between Greyback and Peter, who laid in the snow, whimpering. James glared at Greyback, his lips curling up from the stench of the blood of the dead centaur. Greyback cackled and snapped, his teeth clicking loudly as he laughed.

Rudolphus stared on, grinning at the fear in James Potter’s eyes.

Orion said, “That’s the Potter boy, Greyback.”

“I know who it is,” Greyback hissed.

Rudolphus sang, “Charlus Potter will never let us lay a finger on his boy.” He clapped his hands, dancing foot to foot, “The Resistance might as well be ours. He’ll bow to the Dark Lord the moment he hears we have his son!”

Greyback grinned. “Daddy’s gonna have to get the Dark Mark if he ever wants to see you again, and your little puppy dog ain’t here to save you this time, Potter.”

Orion had stared off into the woods. “Greyback -- something’s coming this way. Let’s go. We’ve got what we’ve come for.”

“Right. Let’s go.” Greyback lunged forward suddenly, grabbing hold on James’s arm. He swept down to grab onto Peter, but with a squeak… -- Peter had disappeared.

“What the hell?” Greyback stammered as his fist closed on empty air. He looked about in confusion. “Where did he go?”

“Greyback --” Orion said, his voice more persistent than ever.

Greyback let out a low growl. “Damn!” he shouted and he glared at James, “Your fat little friend is lucky. You -- not so much.” And he quickly turned, disapparating on the spot with James clutched tight in his fist.

With a series of cracks - Orion, and Rudolphus, who grabbed hold on Veigler just incase Ned had any ideas of not following his master, all disapparated as well.

Moments after they’d disappeared, Snuffles came to the crest of the hill, rushing into the clearing - the scent he’d been following - mixed with blood - thick in the air. The clearing was empty, though… save for the dead centaur. Snuffles stood there, staring at the way the blood stained the snow around the centaur’s body - far too wide a pool to have any life remaining within him. He laid his ears flat with fear and respect to the dead.

Remus broke through the trees a few moments later, breathless, and stumbled to a stop behind Sirius as he stood up, having just transformed back into a boy. Remus looked at the centaur and his stomach churned, seeing the chunks of flesh missing from his haunches and his throat. “Oh Merlin,” he whispered. “Oh MERLIN.

Sirius looked to him, terrified, “They’ve got Peter and James.”

What?” Remus said, thickly, “How?”

“I dunno!” Sirius said, “But I can smell Peter and James. They were here… and… and my father’s working with Greyback. He’s here.”

“Your father?”

“Yes, and I reckon he is the Hunter,” Sirius said thickly. “The Hunter in the prophecy.”

Remus shook his head, “But -- but where are they?”

“I dunno,” Sirius said quietly. He turned about in the clearing, looking around. Flashes of fears filled his mind… the boggart in Veigler’s class turning into James’s dead body haunted him. He could almost see it in the snow, the image so vivid in his mind’s eye. “I dunno!” Panic rose up in him, shaking his voice.

Remus stared at the dead centaur, tears burning his eyes. “Sirius,” he sobbed, “What do we do?”

Sirius looked at Remus, “I dunno what to do, mate. Not anymore than you do.” He turned and the fear in his eyes was so evident that Remus’s knees gave out and he landed in the snow. Sirius rushed over and put his arm about him, “Rey… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but -- I dunno what to do!”




Rudolphus laughed as he shoved James into the back of the cave, roughly so that the corner of James’s forehead bled. Rudolphus grinned at him, laughing, and twirling his wands in his hand like a baton, watching him closely. Orion sat, leaning against a rock, sharpening a blade he’d pulled from his boot. He looked over at James, grinning at him in a nasty way. James could see the resemblance between Orion and Sirius, though, for they had the same features, except that Sirius’s were a bit softer than his father’s, and altogether gentler. The similarities still made chills run through James - this was what Sirius could have been destined to become, had he inherited his parents’ beliefs. It made him sick to think of it… for Sirius would never, ever leer at James as Orion was doing now.

It had been hours since they’d apparated into the mouth of the cave. He’d spent some time securing James with a magical binding that he’d used his wand to tie tight around James’s wrists and ankles before leaving him in the charge of Rudolphus Lestrange and Orion Black. Greyback himself had disapparated to Number 12 Grimmauld Place to update the Dark Lord.

James wondered where Peter had gone and how. None of them knew how to disapparate, of course, they were far too young for that. Yet one moment Peter had been there - about to be carried away with Greyback the same as James had been - and the next he’d disappeared. He could be anywhere… James hoped that, wherever he was, he was safe.

Because James sure as hell wasn’t.

The first stretches of morning’s light were reaching over the far eastern horizon. Greyback ducked into the cave, and it was clear from the look on his face that he was pleased about something. He spat a mouthful of aconite to the floor and grabbed another fistful of it from the pouch in his pocket, chewing it obnoxiously loudly. “The Dark Lord is pleased,” he announced as he swept into the cave. “He has sent out the word to the Resistance.” He looked at James, eyes twinkling with amusement. “We’ll see if your dear old Daddy takes the bait.”

James looked up at the horrible form of the werewolf. “You’re mad if you think Dumbledore won’t save me.”

Greyback laughed, “You’re mad if you think one wizard can take all of us on at once!”

“He’s Dumbledore,” said James, “Of course he can! Dumbledore will hex all of you! He’ll save us and he’ll make you lot suffer for kidnapping us and killing that centaur!”

Orion smirked and looked up at Greyback.

Greyback bared his teeth, “Shut up, Potter,” he said thickly. “Else I’ll make you my mid-morning snack.”

“It makes you angry because you know that it’s true!”

“No. It isn’t. Do you want to know what’s true?” Greyback hissed. “What’s true is Voldemort’s going to get what he wants. Right now, your precious, blasted Dumbledore is getting the message that we have you and that the Dark Lord will not take no for an answer from your family. They betray the Resistance, bow to the Dark Lord and receive the Mark or they watch you suffer and, when I’m finished playing with you, die.”

James’s jaw was set squarely, fighting to keep the fear from his face.

“What’s true, James Potter,” hissed Greyback, “Is that I’ll very much enjoy sinking my teeth into your scrawny little neck and chewing through the muscle and flesh… and when I finish with you, if your family ain’t bowed to the Dark Lord yet, I’ll enjoy going to your home and biting into that pretty little mother of yours - a tasty treat, she’ll be - and, if your damned father is still an idiot enough to try to fight the Dark Lord -- I’ll bite him, too. But I won’t kill him. No. No, him I’d bite and let him transform. Let him feel the burn of the moon in his veins and he cracking of his bones as he changes to a wolf. Let him serve the pack… I’ll be needing a new omega soon anyway, you know,” he whispered the last part very close to James’s face for Greyback had slunk closer, leaning against the narrow walls of the cave, his palms splayed across the rock as he hovered right over James, his face inches from James’s face. He smelled of the blood that covered his face and chest. James wanted to flinch away, but he forced himself to stare up at Greyback, and though his eyes were filled with tears and the man before him was blurry, he didn’t look away.

It was possibly the bravest James had been in all of his life.

Greyback laughed and turned away, sloping off. “Your parents have until sundown, boy,” he announced, laughing as he returned to the mouth of the cave, standing there, taking a deep breath. “When the moon rises… you’re mine.”




Sirius had gone in so many circles ‘round the clearing, searching for any sign of Greyback or his father or James or Peter or Veigler or any of the scents they’d followed all the way to the clearing. He ran until Snuffles legs ached.

Remus had found a spot a few feet into the woods, where they didn’t have to look at the sad sight of the dead centaur, laying in the snow. He hugged his legs, face pressed into his knees. He was coughing loudly when Sirius returned from another fruitless search through the trees as Snuffles. When he’d transformed, Sirius put his arm ‘round him. “Rey… c’mon, we’re gonna figure it out,” Sirius promised. “We have to.”

“What if they die, Sirius? It’ll be my fault.”

“It won’t be,” Sirius said, “They aren’t going to die. We’re going to find them.”

“Greyback doesn’t play games,” Remus coughed.

“They’re with Veigler.”

“Veigler’s Greyback’s omega. If Greyback commands Veigler to kill them, he’ll have to do it. You heard him in class, an alpha can make an omega even kill himself if he wanted to.” Remus buried his face again, coughing all the harder.

Sirius didn’t like the way Remus was coughing. It was thick and deep, and the boy shivered and his cheeks were turning red. Sirius quickly changed into Snuffles once again and wrapped himself around Remus, trying to give off as much of his body heat as he could. He didn’t know what to do. He needed to get Remus back to the castle or at least to the Shrieking Shack - he was clearly getting ill and if he stayed out in the snow and the cold much longer he might catch pneumonia. But each time over the hours they’d spent in the woods that Sirius had suggested they go back to the castle, Remus had flat out refused. “No. We stay until we figure out where they went. We find James and Peter, however long it takes.”

So Sirius turned back into Snuffles and went for another run, looping around in the trees, smelling, smelling - searching for some sign - any sign - of where they’d gone.

“We’re outside of the grounds of Hogwarts,” Remus shivered at one point, looking up at Sirius with a frightened expression. “What if they’ve disapparated?”

“That’s what I’ve been thinking,” Sirius admitted.

Remus began coughing quite violently then.

Nervous, Sirius looked up at the sky, trying to get a feel for what time it was. “Rey… there’s nothing here. There’s no way we’re going to find them staying here. The smartest thing we could possibly do is to go back to the castle. Perhaps Dumbledore’s returned and we can tell him what’s happening… and we can get you to Madam Pomfrey.”

“There isn’t time to go to Pomfrey,” said Remus, shaking his head, “The moon’s going to be up before we get back to the castle and I’ll be transforming.” The dark circles under his eyes seemed all the more prominent. Then his breath caught and he buried his face into his arm and knees again.

Sirius stood up, pulling at Remus as he did, “Then we’ll go to the Shrieking Shack, at least. We’ve got to get you out of the cold.” Sirius hastened to take his cloaks off his shoulders and wrap it around Remus, who stood up shakily. The air was biting and Sirius sorely missed his cloak, but Remus needed it far more than he did, and so he clutched his mate closer, arm around him to keep him from shivering so hard he’d topple over, and they began the walk back down the crest of the hill.

Neither of them had noticed the trembling, twitching rat that hid in a small hole in the roots of the tree… not even when he had run over and stowed himself away in the pocket of Remus’s cloak.