ellid (ellid) wrote in lupin_snape, @ 2007-10-10 22:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | fic: pg, resurrection fest |
Resurrection Fest: Rise to the Newness of Life
Title: Rise to the Newness of Life
Pairing: Snape/Lupin (implied), past Lupin/Tonks
Rating: PG
Note: this was written for the lupin_snape Resurrection Fest. There is a very mild crossover with another fandom. Otherwise it is DH-compatible.
Summary: Remus Lupin left explicit instructions that he wished his funeral to take place during a full moon. Could this mean more than it seems?
Remus had left explicit instructions for his funeral, down to the service (Book of Common Prayer, Burial I), the readings, and the date (the night of the next full moon). Andromeda had challenged this on the grounds that he should be buried at the same time as his wife, and placed in an adjoining grave, but Minerva had pointed out that the will was valid, and as executrix she had a duty to do as Remus suggested.
And so what was left of the Order gathered in the tiny church in Langley as the moon rose and silver light streamed across the plain wood coffin. It barely seemed possibly that the still, silent figure was the gentle professor, and Harry found himself clinging to Ginny's hand as the priest read through the service. It was so final, burying Remus, and -
"Grant that all who have been baptized into Christ's death and resurrection may die to sin and rise to newness of life - "
Ginny's nails dug into his palm. "Harry? Did he - "
" - and that through the grave and gate of death we may pass with him to our joyful resurrection - "
Harry went rigid. Had one of the long pale hands twitched?
"Amen - " The priest stopped. There was a huge, sobbing gasp from the coffin. "What is going on?"
The coffin rocked slightly, and there was another great, pained sound. Harry was on his feet before it toppled, Ron and Hermione at his heels. He flicked his wand at the coffin, which opened, and watched as the blanket charmed to preserve a corpse without embalming rose and folded itself before the status of St. Francis in the choir.
Remus rolled to the side and sat up with a convulsive jerk. "What - where - "
"Professor Lupin!" cried Hermione. "How - "
The congregation was in an uproar. The priest shouted vainly for quiet as the "dead" man let three teenagers lift him out of the coffin and help him to the first row of pews. He was dazed and shaking, and his eyes were wild, but it was obvious that he was very much alive.
"Here, drink this - " Harry conjured a glass of water and held it to his lips. Remus shuddered and complied. "You were - "
"Dead, but now he's back." Luna Lovegood had drifted up the aisle, hand in hand with Neville Longbottom. She gave Harry her usual dreamy smile. "Didn't you know that silver is the only way to kill a werewolf permanently? All he needed was a little moonlight, and he's good as new!"
Hermione stared at her friend, and Harry could almost see her mentally paging through a grimoire to confirm Luna's words. "But - avada kedavra - "
"She's right, Hermione." Luna was the only one who didn't jump when Remus spoke. The husky voice was rougher than ever. "Why else would I want to be buried under the full moon?
"But - "
"Where's Dora? Did she - " His eyes narrowed at their silence. "And Severus? Did he - "
"I'm sorry, Professor," said Harry. "Neither of them made it. Mrs. Tonks buried Tonks - Mrs. Lupin - "
"She never used my name, Harry. It's perfectly fine."
" - right away, and we never found Professor Snape's body."
"I see." Remus finished the water and smiled up at a weeping Minerva McGonagall. "We'll talk later, Harry - Minerva? Thank you, you did exactly as I requested - "
*********
Remus finished praying, rose, and held out his arms for his son. Andromeda had grudgingly agreed to bring Teddy on this visit to Dora's grave, and now she shook her head as she handed over baby and nappy bag. "I'd be happy to look after for him until you're back, Remus. He's so young!"
"That's exactly why I need to take him, Andromeda. If I don't spend some time with him now, he'll forget me completely." Remus had deliberately worn a robe that laced up the front. He undid the lacing enough that the infant could feel a bit of skin while his mother-in-law fastened a wide fabric sling about him. He'd need his hands free for part of this, and Teddy was too young for a back-carrier.
Andromeda adjusted the sling to cradle her grandson's head. "Please be careful. I couldn't - couldn't bear - "
"You won't lose us." Remus leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. She had nearly cracked at losing Ted, and he was glad he had not seen her reaction to the news that her only child was gone. "I have to know what happened to Severus. He was the one who told me that moonlight would resurrect me if I died during the battle. After what happened to Harry, I couldn't bear the thought of Teddy growing up completely alone."
"I know." She brushed tears from her face. "I - I just wish I'd been able to stop Dora. I told her her reflexes would be off, but she wouldn't - "
Remus held her close for until she'd cried herself out. He'd shed his own tears in the sacristy at St. Francis' once he realized that Dora was gone, and unlike Remus, wouldn't be coming back. She'd loved him devotedly, and he'd left burial instructions that ensured that their son wouldn't be yet another orphaned wizarding baby. He owed her that much.
"It wasn't your fault, Andromeda. Blame Bellatrix. She'd the one who cast the spell." Remus stepped back and shouldered the nappy bag. "I'll write when I have news. Be well."
He disapparated before she could speak. Teddy wailed at the squeezing sensation, then calmed as Remus murmured his name and stroked his impossibly soft head. "It's all right, son. As soon as we find your dad's friend, we'll go home and you'll be safe in your cot again. That's a boy, hush - "
********
The place to start was Severus' home.
Remus waited for Teddy to calm after the transition from the humid graveyard to the cooler air of Yorkshire, then walked up to the door of the shabby little row house. "Wolfsbane," he murmured, and waited for the door to swing open.
The house was a bit stuffy, but nowhere near as bad as he'd expected for a place that had been shut up for most of a year. He transfigured an ancient settee into a cot for his son, made sure Teddy was comfortable, and began checking the spines of the seemingly endless shelves of books. Harry had told him about Nagini's attack, and how the only trace of Severus left in the Shack had been a pool of half-clotted blood. Harry had sworn that Severus was dead, from the blood or the venom or both.
Remus did not agree.
A man clever enough to think of a way to resurrect me would surely have thought of a way to save himself. I don't care what Harry thinks.
Poisons, blood curses, suspended animation, Draught of the Living Dead…Remus read until his eyes hurt and Teddy had gone through a bottle and two nappies. There was nothing to indicate that Severus might have taken a bezoar, or built up immunity to that damned snake, or been anything but utterly shocked when Voldemort sicced his familiar on him. He yawned and rubbed at his temples. What was he forgetting?
Teddy had fallen asleep in his cot, his hair a soft dark brown in sleep. Remus knelt beside him and gently stroked his cheek. The resemblance to Dora was obvious, especially with the morphing powers, but he could see himself in the slightly cleft chin and the arch of the brows. "I was a fool not to want you," he said. "You're a miracle. I'm so glad I'm here to watch you grow up - sorry, James, but this is better than a heroic death. Dulce et decorum est - what rot. I can't believe you talked to Harry like that, he's only seventeen."
What appeared to be a gas light hissed on as a clock tolled six. Remus chuckled. Leave it to Severus to live in a house straight out of a penny dreadful! Not that it was a surprise, the man dressed like a character from Edgar Allan Poe…
Poe. Remus stood up fast enough that his head spun. How many times had he seen Severus reading Tales of Mystery and Imagination on breaks? How many times had he discussed the stories with the only other half-blood on the staff? And how many times had Severus told him there was more to Poe than met the eye?
"'The Purloined Letter.' Has to be. You hid the clue in plain sight, didn’t you? Didn't you?" Remus barely remembered to check the rolltop desk for curses before opening it and starting to read through the neatly wrapped bundle of letters and bills.
Slug & Jiggers…Madam Malkin's…Hogwarts pay stubs…an invitation from the Malfoys…three folded recipes from a Muggle newspaper…
"There! I knew it!" Teddy woke with a thin, tearing cry as Remus waved the parchment over his head. He scooped the baby up and kissed him in apology. "Hold on, son, we're almost there!"
*******
He materialized in an alley near a council estate. Remus waited until a blonde woman chasing her equally blonde daughter had passed, then stepped out into a central courtyard. The air smelled of ozone and car exhaust and trash: London, somewhere on the outskirts. It seemed impossible that a pureblood witch could stand it here, but the evidence had been unmistakable.
She'd gone back to her maiden name, or so the "E. PRINCE" on the front door would indicate. Remus took a deep breath and knocked.
The door opened a crack. Remus had an impression of black hair that needed a wash, and equally black eyes. "If you're from that church, sod off. Not - "
"Not from a church." Remus stuck his foot in the door. There was a faint vworp vwrorp sound from the courtyard, and the sound of raised voices, two female, one male. "Please, Mrs. - Madam - "
"Miss Prince - my God." The door shut long enough for her undo a chain bolt, then opened all the way. "Get inside before someone odd happens - don't laugh, you wouldn't believe the goings-on in this place."
The flat was plainly furnished with what looked like innocuous pseudo-occult trappings: Tibetan prayer flags, incense, a poster of Aleister Crowley, several packs of Tarot cards. Remus had to concentrate to sense the genuine magic from the kitchen implements.
Eileen Prince threw her head and glared up at him. "What do you want? If you're here about my son, he's dead. Sod off, whoever you are."
"That may work with the Ministry, but I know better." Remus pulled out the letter he'd found in Severus' desk and handed it to her. "My name is Remus Lupin. He said that if anything happened to him, I should come to you."
Teddy sneezed as a plume of sandalwood incense floated past him. Remus automatically cast a clean-air shield about his son. "I’m alive because of him, you see. If he did manage to cheat death, I must know." His voice dropped. "I - I need to see him. We were - friends once, and - "
"Oh. You're that one." Eileen held out her hand toward a sofa covered with a sun-moon-and-stars Indian throw. She waited for him to sit before taking her own place on a cracked vinyl pouf. "You realize he had his reasons for leaving? The way that old bastard manipulated him made my blood boil, and then you ran off with that girl and got her up the duff - it was the last straw. He'd thought he could count on you, at least, to believe in him."
"I know." Remus could not look her in her eye. How could he explain the bargain he'd struck with Dora?
I know you don't love me, but please. Just one year. One little year to love you, and then if you want to leave, I won't stand in your way.
Even with a baby?
Even with a baby.
"I did my best to explain, and I think he understood, at least a little." Remus looked down at himself with a faint smile. Their last meeting had been tense, to say the least, but Severus had finally shoved the funeral instructions into his hands before he'd disapparated back to the school. "He told me that moonlight would revive me. He was right. My wife didn't make it, but I did. My son won't grow up an orphan thanks to him and I - "
Eileen help up a slender hand. "Say no more. I believe you." It was surprisingly soft and unmarred by what must have been a hard life. She summoned a bottle from the kitchen and handed it to Remus, then scribbled a few lines on the back of a PAST DUE electric bill.
"Here. Go to this address, recite this, and then sprinkle the potion on what appears." She sighed. "Then bring him back. I'd like to see what he looks like when he's happy."
Remus leaned forward to grasp her hand. "Thank you, Miss Prince. You have my word."
"I'll hold you to that." The odd throbbing noise in the courtyard had faded. Eileen rose and checked to see that the space was clear, then nodded. "It's safe now, at least for a while You'd best go."
"Right." Remus readjusted the sling about Teddy and did as he was told. "I owe - "
"If you make my son happy, you owe me nothing." Her eyes misted over for a second or two. "Now go!"
"I'll be back," said Remus. And I won't be alone, he thought as he disapparated without a sound.
******
The graveyard was deserted as Remus materialized. He waited for his son to calm, then carefully transfigured a bush into a cot and placed Teddy in it for safekeeping. He kissed the baby gently on the brow, cast a protective spell that would alert him if something happened, then stepped away.
"I'll be back in a few minutes. Then we can all go home." He would not, could not allow himself to think about what might happen if the spell went wrong.
No orphans. No matter what happens, I will live. Harry's too young to raise him and Andromeda's too upset. What the hell was I thinking, asking a seventeen year old to be his godfather?
He turned to the battered mausoleum and raised his wand. Was it his imagination, or did the growth of weeds look a bit too fresh to be undisturbed since the last burial? The gate across the entrance yielded easily to a simple alohomora, almost too easily for a tomb that had not been opened in decades. And since when did a space sealed for thirty years have such sweet air?
"Lumos." Remus waited for his eyes to adjust before reading the names: Trajan. Flavius. Hadrian. Claudius. Julian. Septimus -
Septimus. The coffin was the only one free of dust, the only one with hinges that had been recently oiled. Remus forced down the urge to shout with triumph. This has to be it, it had to be -
He spoke a word, and the lid slowly creaked open. The corpse inside was wrapped in a yellowed shroud that clearly had not been touched in decades, and he nearly wept in frustration until he remembered Eileen's instructions. "Mobilicorpus," he whispered, and began to hope again when the body rose to reveal a coffin bottom of wood so raw it was still gold.
His heart slammed against his ribs, and he had to steady his wand with both hands before he could incant the spell that would dissolve the wood. Another body, this one so familiar he could have wept, came into sight, blood still staining the neck and clotting the heavy black hair.
Remus nearly broke at that. Harry had told him about the snake bite, but actually seeing the hideous wound, the sheer volume of gore - how could anyone have survived this? Even the finest apothecary in Britain?
He dug Eileen's note out of his pocket and read the charm once, twice, three times. The blood was gone, the wound had started to close -
The words from his own burial service came unbidden to mind. Remus shuddered at the quasi-blasphemy of what he was about to do, breathed a prayer for forgiveness, and spoke.
"Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and giving life to those in the tomb." He opened the bottle and poured the contents over the body. "Life to those in the tomb!"
For one dreadful moment he thought it hadn't worked. Then there was a faint cough from the casket, and Severus, trembling and moaning as if in the grip of a nightmare, clawed at the sides and began to pull himself upright, inch by painful inch.
Remus stared. The dark eyes locked on his, huge and pleading. "Remus? Is - "
"I'm here," he said, and knelt to scoop Severus out of the dust and the dark. "You're alive, it worked - "
"Get - get me out of here." Severus clung to him as he levitated Septimus Prince back into his coffin and sealed the lid once more. "Please - so cold - "
"You lost so much blood. Here." Remus half-carried him into the twilight, summoned his canteen, and waited for Severus to drink every drop. "Don't try to talk yet. There's plenty of time."
Severus leaned against him. "Time. I thought I'd run out when - is it gone? Is he gone?"
"Yes and yes. Not everyone in the Order made it, but Voldemort is gone." Remus helped Severus to a bench the Prewetts had provided for their mourners. A wail from the cot made him smile. "Here, meet one of the survivors. He'd be an orphan if you hadn't found that ritual."
Severus pushed a dusty lock of hair from his eyes as Remus, Teddy cradled securely in his arms, settled down next to him. "Your son? Does this mean - "
Remus shook his head. "She didn't make it. Neither did Fred Weasley, or that poor Creevey boy. Minerva said we lost about fifty people, not to mention the damage to the castle. Kingsley is the acting Minister now."
"You - you revived me but not her? Remus - "
"It was too late for me to save her, love. But you - I knew better. That speech you made, about stoppering death - I couldn’t believe you didn't have a plan." He remembered what Harry had done for him and summoned a vacuum flask of hot tea. "Here, drink this. You're shaking."
"You were right." Severus raised his hand and flexed it as if he couldn’t quite believe that it still worked. "For both of us." He cautiously sipped the tea.
They stared at each other for a moment, then Severus set down the flask and leaned forward over Teddy to touch Remus' face. "What we said - Remus - "
"I meant every word." Remus sighed at the caress. "She was my friend, and she loved me so much I couldn’t deny her what he wanted. But you - being alive meant nothing if you were gone."
"You have a child to raise." Severus stared down at Teddy, then very carefully touched a plump little hand. Teddy burbled and clenched his fist about the long, almost delicate index finger.
"I can't raise him alone. Not for long." Remus gazed down at his son, then up again at the one he'd truly loved. "But I have the feeling your mum would help. She said she wanted to see what you looked like when you were happy."
"I'm not sure I know what I look like when I'm happy." Severus almost hesitantly kissed Remus on the cheek, then the lips. "We're mad, to think that this will work."
"We won't know unless we find out." Remus returned the kiss, with interest, then drew Severus to his feet and tightened the sling about teddy. He concentrated on the door that read E. PRINCE, then disapparated.
The bushes sprang back to cover the entrance to the tomb.