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Author Notes:

So I missed my deadline by two days. Over ten years of writing. I think that's pretty good. Prepare for madness, and enjoy!

Almost four hours into the last day of July, in a room at Hogwarts lit only by a low-burning fire, the newest Heir of Gryffindor deigned to make her first bodily appearance, her head crowned with an abundance of damp hair and her eyes screwed shut against the indignity of birth. Cradled in Aletha Black's strong hands, Nadia Abigail Lupin drew her first breath, but before she could release it in an infant's usual wailing complaint, a golden nimbus of flame appeared around her, gently cleaning away the various fluids which coated her, and her blue eyes opened curiously, as though wondering what this warm, soft touch against her skin could be.

"Warn me the next time you're going to do something like that," said Aletha, exhaling a breath of her own. "I nearly dropped her."

"Sorry." Remus's apology was absentminded, as his eyes were fixed on his daughter. "She's beautiful. And she does have your hair," he said to Danger. "It's already starting to curl."

"Poor child." Danger opened her own eyes gingerly, blinking away the sandy deposits that had collected during her labor. "Remind me why I wanted to do this again?"

Aletha only laughed and laid Nadia on her mother's belly, Remus leaning in to gaze down at his child. Beside them, Sirius tapped his wand against the camera in his other hand, enchanting it for a smokeless flash, then snapped a picture of the stunned joy on the Lupins' faces as their daughter blinked up at them for the first time.

"My hair, but your eyes," Danger murmured, watching tiny hands curl and uncurl as Nadia tested her abilities in this strange new environment. "And don't tell me all babies have blue eyes. All babies don't have blue eyes like that."

"As long as she doesn't have someone else's eyes, we're doing well." Remus stroked his fingers along one chubby leg and lifted them to his face, inhaling his daughter's scent, enshrining it in his mind. "Hello, little darling," he said softly, returning his hand to Nadia's vicinity and stroking her right palm, so that her small fingers tightened constrictively around his larger one. "Welcome home."

At the foot of the bed, Aletha scooted back, motioning for Sirius to take over the cleaning-up as she kept her attention on Remus.


"Is Moony all right?" Sirius asked his wife nearly an hour later, as the Warriors of the Pride took their turns cuddling and cooing to Nadia, who absorbed the attention with the grave courtesy of one who considered it no less than her due. "You keep looking at him funny."

"He's not ill, or hurt." Aletha frowned, catching one side of her lower lip between her teeth. "The trouble is that I can't be sure precisely what he is. But the entire time Danger was in labor, there have been these odd little flares through his magic. A longer one when he saw Nadia for the first time, and a much longer one while he was learning her scent. Every time he touches her, holds her, even looks at her, something happens."

"Need a comparison?" Sirius gazed fixedly at the far wall for a few seconds, then turned to look at the Pride, locating Meghan without difficulty. His little girl held her brother in her arms, guiding his baby hand to stroke gently against Nadia's. As ever, Sirius felt the tiny hitch of pride and pleasure and fear in his chest at the knowledge that these beautiful creatures had come partly from him, at the bittersweet memories of Meghan's baby years and the hope for everything that lay ahead, for her and Marcus both…

"That's certainly part of it." Aletha kissed his cheek. "But there's another component in what's happening to Remus. I'll keep an eye on him." She glanced back at little Nadia, then beckoned Luna to her side, and they began to converse in murmurs. Sirius shrugged and drifted towards Fox, who was sitting on a windowsill, watching Hermione laughingly disentangle Nadia's grasping fingers from her hair.

"Doing all right, kid?" he asked, leaning against the wall.

"Some days better than others." Fox sighed. "And the 'others' feel like they're winning, even when they're really not. Just when I think I might have it under control, I might be able to go back out in the world and do some of the things I used to like, there'll be one really, really bad day and down it all comes crashing again."

"Know the feeling." Sirius grinned at the first startled, then rueful and understanding look Fox gave him. "Forgot about that, did you?"

"I don't know how, but yes." Fox thumped his head lightly against the stonework of the window frame. "You've been there. You even had it worse, because you never got a break, day or night. I had my nights with Luna, and our little masquerading intervals to poke at people who needed it."

"But I never had to go through with the things I'd been accused of, either," Sirius cut in. "You did. So let's not play 'who had it worse', all right? We both had a pretty rotten time, it shouldn't have happened to either of us, but it did. Now it's over, and we survived it. Bruised up and scarred, yeah, we're all of that, but you know what? So's the rest of the world. They just don't always show it as much."

"Yeah." Fox sighed, brushing a finger across his cheek. "But sometimes scars hurt. Sometimes they hurt a whole lot, and it doesn't feel like anything will ever help."

"Been there, too." Sirius shrugged. "I used to go beat on my typewriter, or borrow one of the Bludgers from the Quidditch set to smack it around some, or do something that needed to be done just so I didn't feel so bloody useless. Don't know if any of that would help you, or if maybe your music would. It's different for everyone, and there are days when the only thing you can do is ride it out." A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. "A couple times Danger managed to pull me out of a mood by telling the most amazingly awful Death Eater jokes."

"All right, I'll bite." Fox rearranged himself more comfortably on the windowsill. "How awful is most amazingly awful?"

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"You know."

"You know who?"

"Yes! Avada Kedavra!"

Fox groaned aloud. "I should have known better than to fall for that," he chanted, shutting his eyes and leaning his head against the stonework again. "I of all people should have known…"


"How are you feeling?" Aletha asked, helping Danger get her arms into the sleeves of a clean nightgown behind a folding screen.

"Like I just had a baby, thank you very much." Danger laughed a little, then winced, laying a hand against her stomach. "Oof. Shouldn't do that for a while yet."

"May I?" Aletha laid her own hand atop Danger's, and the soreness in the overstrained muscles eased. "There, that should feel better." She embraced her friend gently. "I'm so happy for you," she murmured. "You've wanted this so long, and now here she is."

"I have, and she's beautiful." Danger leaned her head against Aletha's shoulder. "But the cubs, our original four, don't you think they'll be a little jealous? Feel like they're not good enough for me somehow, because I did want a child of my own blood and Remus's so much?"

"Maybe if you'd ever said or done or even hinted anything about their being 'not good enough', as you put it, to them, it might be a problem." Aletha held Danger gently at arm's length and looked into her face. "But we've lived together all these years about as closely as two human beings can live, and I am telling you, Danger, you haven't. Not ever. Instead you've loved those cubs with every beat of your heart, even when they were driving you mad. Yes, they've always known you wished that you and Remus could have a born child, but that was in addition to them. Not supplanting them. And if it had never happened, well, there are things in all our lives that we want, but that just don't happen." She smiled. "But this one has."

"It certainly has, and it's wonderful." Danger sighed deeply. "However. As much as I love them all, I would love it even more if they would go away for a while. We need sleep."

"As you command, my lady." Aletha curtsied, making Danger giggle again, and they emerged from their temporary seclusion to find Remus back in custody of his daughter and the Pride already congregating near the door. Hugs and kisses were exchanged, well-wishes and blessings passed around, until finally Sirius, the last to leave, tossed a salute in the Lupins' direction and shut the door firmly behind himself.

Well, said Danger silently, accepting the sleeping Nadia from Remus and scooting over in the bed to make room for him. That was…I don't know that there are words for it. Except a cross between "WOW" and "Oh God NOW what do I do?"

Now, we sleep. Remus removed his shoes, swung his legs onto the bed, and drew his wand, reshaping mattress and pillows subtly until the three of them lay in a cushioned, cup-shaped depression. Its sides were angled perfectly to support the adults' backs while allowing the infant to lie on her mother's chest without fear of falling, though Remus whisked a quick Safety Charm over the two just to be certain. As long as she'll let us, anyway. That part I didn't forget.

We do have the house-elves to help us, if need be. But I find I'm a very selfish mother. Danger lowered her lips to the top of Nadia's head. I want us to keep her all to ourselves, just for a little while.

That makes two of us. Remus turned onto his side, contemplating his own private miracle. Have I told you lately how beautiful you are?

If I'd ever been uncertain as to whether or not you were besotted with me, that comment would remove all doubt. Danger laughed silently. No woman is beautiful two hours after giving birth.

Except the woman with whom one happens to be in love. Remus flicked his fingers at the windows, which obediently let the curtains fall across them, and reduced the flames in the fireplace to glowing embers with a wave of his hand. But we won't argue that anymore. Instead I'll do this. He leaned over and kissed Nadia gently on the side of the head. And this. The second kiss, bestowed upon Danger's lips, took a bit more time to complete to the satisfaction of both parties. And then…

A soft blanket of warmth surrounded the bed, and Danger sighed in contentment, closing her eyes and consciously calming her mind. There were still fears and worries to be dealt with, she acknowledged, but they could wait. Everything could wait.

We have each other, and we have our Nadia. Remus let both the name and its meaning reverberate through the link. And for tonight, that's enough.

Around them, the castle hummed lullaby, coaxing the parents to follow where their child had led.


In the corridor, Aletha laid her hand on the wall, trying to get a read on the currents swirling through Hogwarts's magic. Her talk with Luna had answered a few of her questions at the same time it had raised others.

And it's just a little over a week until full moon…

"Back me up if I recommend we stay here for a few days?" she said quietly. "Danger would argue with just me, or with just you, but the two of us together she's more likely to listen to."

"You know I will, but why?" Sirius had his head cocked to one side. "I'm not sensitive the way you are, but even I can hear there's something going on. That part of it?"

"It could be." Aletha took her hand away. "And if it's what I think it might be, Remus will need all the magic the castle can possibly give him…"


After a day and a night of trading off sleep and baby duties with Danger, Remus had no trouble spotting the manipulation tactics Sirius and Aletha were bringing to bear, but found himself more in sympathy with them than otherwise. He'd drawn off some of Danger's pain during the most difficult parts of her labor, and knew from that just how exhausted and sore she must be.

And within a week, I'm going to have my own source of "exhausted and sore", so staying at Hogwarts, where the house-elves are only too happy to handle the basic chores for us, makes perfect sense until we've both had a chance to recover. At least it didn't happen the other way around. If Nadia had waited another two weeks, things would have been very hard on everyone.

But his little girl's timing was as perfect as the rest of her, if Remus did say so himself, and Danger allowed herself to be convinced without much of a fight. The Pack would stay at Hogwarts until after the full moon, which thrilled the house-elves and gave the humans leisure of a kind which had been something of a rarity for them in their adult lives.

"It seems so crazy to me now," said Danger one warm, golden afternoon as she and Remus walked near the edge of the lake, Nadia drowsing in the sling Danger wore across her chest. "The way we dived into raising children, when looking back, we were barely more than children ourselves. And that one of them, and later two of them, were famous children, who had to be kept hidden and safe…"

"I think it was rather like accidental magic." Remus reached across to stroke Nadia's soft hair, releasing a drift of her sweet baby scent, which thrilled him even as it calmed certain parts of him which grew ever more restless with the waxing of the moon. "We didn't know that we shouldn't be able to do it, so we went ahead and did it anyway."

"That, or desperation. There just wasn't anybody else." Danger lowered her own hand into the sling, allowing Nadia's fingers to curl around it. "And look at us now. We've won a war, those children we shouldn't have been old enough to raise are off setting up lives of their own, and you've got quite an impressive list of titles waiting for you when the first of September comes." She chuckled as Remus felt himself flush. "Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Head of Gryffindor House, and Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts. And all before you're forty!"

"I wonder sometimes what Minerva was thinking." Restless, Remus scooped up a rock from the ground and let it heat in his palm, then skipped it across the lake, little trails of steam rising from every place it struck. "We got away with it this past year simply because everyone was so dazed from the end of the war, and awed at the reemergence of Heirs of the Founders, that they didn't have a chance to realize who else I was. But now they've had that chance, and when the back-to-school letters start going out under my name…" He shrugged. "I only hope it doesn't wreck everything we fought so hard to win."

"Pessimist." Danger pounded a fist lightly against his shoulder. "The parents may balk a bit, but the kids who've had you in class will bring them around. Or not, in which case we may have children running away from home to come to school." She frowned. "Which seems distinctly unnatural, but what else is new with us."

"Oh, really?" Remus wound his hand into Danger's hair. "And here I was thinking what we had was one of the most natural things in the world. Human beings are meant to care for one another. To stand by one another."

"Ah, but you're not just a human being." Danger leaned into the caress. "You're also a werewolf, and one of the pillars of your curse is that you should be outcast from the ranks of humanity forever." With a regretful sigh, she reached around and disentangled his fingers. "So, off you go. Shoo shoo. Into the Forest, to tease the centaurs and plague the life out of Sangre and start going on all fours even when it's not the full moon…"

"I could always move in with the wise wolves," Remus returned, entering into the spirit of the game. "They'd probably accept me, after I'd proved myself as not being a threat. I might start spending more time as Moony, though do you know, I've never experimented with going straight from Animagus form to wolf? That might be something to explore—maybe it would hurt less, since the basic shape is so much closer…" Laughing, he shook his head. "But you don't get rid of me that easily, love, not now. Maybe years ago, when we were still so unsure of ourselves, never mind one another, but now we're in this for the long flight." He sighed, his good mood dying away. "Assuming I keep on surviving full moons. They're getting worse, you know."

"Yes, I do." Danger met his eyes levelly. "And I also know that things always get worse just before they get better. So we're not giving up just yet."

"Agreed," Remus said aloud, and shielded his thoughts carefully in the back of his mind.

Sometimes things get worse before they get better.

And sometimes they just go on getting worse.

I'll have to make sure Letha's still looking into ways to break that symbiosis bond between us…


The day before the full moon came around at last, and Remus found himself disinclined to do much of anything, as it had been in the years before Danger entered his life. An impromptu den day was declared, with Sirius and Aletha coming by to sit and talk and try to top one another's reminiscences of times gone by, while Marcus and Nadia alternately napped and kicked companionably at one another on the soft, fleecy rug in front of the fireplace. It was such a bizarrely normal day that Remus occasionally had to resist the urge to pinch himself.

If it is a dream, I think I'd rather not wake up.

There are so many worse places I could be.

Back in that closet I used to use for full moons before any of this began comes to mind…

As the sun began to sink in the west, he frowned as a happy surge of magic from Hogwarts made itself known. "What is the Pride doing here?" he asked. "They know we can't have a den the way we usually would. It's too risky, with the Wolfsbane not working right for me."

"What makes you think they want to have a den with you anyway?" Sirius retorted. "You're old."

"Not as old as you," Remus shot back. "And my question remains."

"They're going to have a den of their own, down in the Heart of Hogwarts," said Aletha, giving one of her best quelling looks to Sirius as she scooped up Marcus, who was beginning to fuss. "They didn't tell me why, and I didn't ask, but I suspect it has something to do with Ginny and Luna and Meghan coming back to school next month, and the rest of them starting jobs or settling into den-keeping. They'll be apart, in a way they haven't been for quite a while, so it seems only fitting they take a little time to get their feet firmly planted on who they are now, before that starts to change."

"That makes sense." Remus nodded, and levered himself upright. "I'd ask them to pop up here and say hello, but I don't think we have the time. So if you happen to see them…" He kissed his fingertips and puffed air across them in Aletha's direction. "From me, to them, with love, and maybe we can get together for breakfast tomorrow, if they think they can put up with my morning-after temperament."

"I'll pass that along." Aletha crossed the room to give Remus a one-armed hug, then held Marcus up to have his nose booped. Her own nose wrinkled at the aroma drifting from her son's lower half, and she turned and handed him to Sirius. "Service, please," she requested. "And check on yours, would you, Danger? Since they seem to be doing everything else together."

"Phew." Danger coughed as she lifted Nadia from the rug. "You weren't kidding."

"Come on, kiddos." Sirius swung Marcus gently in his arms. "Two tables, no waiting!"

Remus waited until Danger's back foot had cleared the doorframe before asking Hogwarts to keep whatever was said in this room from passing beyond its walls, then locking down the bond between himself and Danger. "Give it to me straight, Letha," he said quietly. "How much of a chance do I have of making it as far as breakfast time?"

Aletha's lips compressed, but her eyes stayed steady. "As things currently stand, fifty-fifty. At best."

"That's what I thought." Remus sank back onto the sofa. "I should have known it couldn't be this easy."

"Do me one favor?" Aletha sat down beside him. "Don't give up on yourself yet. Or on me. The potion I put together for you this month has a few new refinements in it, and they might help turn the trick. And…" She paused, as though trying to choose the proper words to get her point across. "There have been changes in you, physical changes, since Nadia was born," she said at last. "I haven't been able to pinpoint exactly what they are, but I do know your curse doesn't like them, not in the least."

"So it's mustering up all its strength to hit me as hard as possible tonight?" Remus closed his eyes, thinking of the ravening fury he had been able to sense behind the ever-thinning shield the Wolfsbane afforded him during his last few full moon nights. "Wonderful. But that doesn't really change anything, does it?" His options shone gold behind his eyelids, as if written there in letters of fire. "I can either fight it, or I can give in. But if I give in, the chances of my surviving are far less than that fifty-fifty you gave me. And worse than that." Opening his eyes, he gazed at the wall, seeing instead a vaulted room at Malfoy Manor, where a high, cold voice spoke impossible words of truth. "Live or die, if I surrender to the curse, Voldemort wins after all."

"And if you fight?" Aletha prompted quietly after several seconds of silence.

"If I fight, I have that fifty-fifty chance. At best. The bond between us won't hold through another shock like my dying again, especially not when it's blocked off the way we've had to do on full moons lately. It'll break, and that means I truly will die." To his own surprise, Remus found himself smiling, small but true. "But I could think of worse fates than heading off to a beautiful castle to mastermind all your lives from afar for the next fifty years or so. I'd rather be here living it with you, but if watching is all I can get, watching it shall be." He held out his hand, and Aletha took it. "Just do me one favor in return. Take care of them, whatever happens tonight."

"You have my word." Aletha leaned over to embrace him. "And you, take care of yourself. Remember we're all thinking of you, even if we can't be with you in the too, too solid flesh."

"No melting or resolving into a dew, now." Remus lifted the silence charm from the room just in time as Sirius came back in, making faces at Marcus, on his left arm, and Nadia, on his right, while Danger peeked at both of them over his shoulders. "That stuff takes hours to get out of the carpets, and the house-elves would never forgive us…"

When the silliness was finished, Sirius and Aletha took their leave, Sirius turning back long enough to pound a fist lightly against his chest, Marauder sign for 'stay strong'. Remus nodded, then turned to Danger. "Shall we?" he asked, and she held out her hand silently. Together, they walked through the suite, to the small room near the outside balcony which had been carefully strengthened to resist the depredations of a werewolf.

"I love you, Remus Lupin," Danger said quietly, her eyes on his. "Whatever happens, I won't regret that. I won't regret the time we've had together. The friends we've helped, the children we've raised, this child we've made. Together." She held Nadia against her heart, the little girl's bright blue eyes gazing solemnly at her father. "I want more of all of that. More of you. More time, more friends, more children, with you. But if I can't have what I want, if this is the end for us, then I swear to you that I will do my best to go on living, and to make the most of my life without you." She smiled suddenly. "Although I won't swear to be happy about it."

With a laugh, Remus drew his wife into his arms, feeling their daughter nestle close to both of them. "I love you, Danger of my life," he murmured. "Whether I live or I die tonight, I will never stop loving you. And I will see you again." His own scent, rich with woodsmoke and pepper, hers, of flowers and baking bread, and Nadia's, the milky unformedness of the infant with a hint of sweet smoke and spices to speak of what she might become, mingled in the air around them until he felt all but drunk on its power.

"In your name," he said a trifle unsteadily, laying his hand on Nadia's head, "and in hers, I fight."

"Then take this, as our favor." Danger summoned a flame and burned through one of the loops on the soft red blanket in which Nadia was swaddled, the blanket she had made with her own hands through the long winter nights of her pregnancy, then unraveled a length of yarn three times that of her hand, snapped it off, and tied it around Remus's arm. "Now, go."

Remus kissed her once more, then turned and stepped into the strong room, feeling the protections snap down around him as Danger carefully closed the door. Kneeling down in the center of the bare wooden floor, he let his eyes drift shut, his thoughts roving where they would, plucking out memories of happiness and laughter from the sixteen years and more he had spent with his friends, his family, his Pack.

In the back of his mind, he felt Danger sealing off the bond between them with as much care as she had closed the door of the strong room, and began to do the same for himself. No part of the pain, the fury, the hatred which battered at him from the curse of the werewolf could be allowed to bleed over to her…

Allowed? hissed a harsh, snarling voice from another place altogether. You think your puny potions and magics give you power to defy me? It is time, little boy, that you learned your proper place!

An instant of choking darkness—

Then light, brilliant, blinding.

Remus gasped for air, coughing and gagging as he got half a mouthful of salt water instead. Forcing back his elementary panic, clearing his throat, regaining his breath, took all his concentration for several seconds, during which his eyes had time to adjust.

He was nowhere he had ever seen before, his back against a low-lying spur of rock sticking out of the sea, waves crashing against its other side behind him, showering him with spray, then rebounding from the nearby shore to lap at his feet. Silver chains bound him hand and foot, holding him in place, helpless to stop what he could now see with pitiless clarity on the cliff-ringed beach before him.

A wolf larger than any he had ever seen before, her fur moonshot with age but her movements as sleek and sinuous as though she were still in her prime, stalked slowly, relentlessly, towards the woman whose back was pressed against the rocks at the beach's other end. Remus needed no sight of her bushy brown hair, nor the bundle wrapped in a frayed red blanket she held in her arms, to know who stood before him, and in what peril of their lives they now lay.

You will watch, little boy, as I take what is mine, the voice rasped inside his head, as the wolf turned to give him a glare sharp with triumphant hate. What should have been mine more than sixteen years ago, and what never should have existed at all. Where will all your brave words be then, when you wake in the morning light to find their bodies broken and bleeding at your feet, their throats bearing the marks of your fangs? For it is not your life I seek to destroy, nor has it ever been. It is your heart, that it be rent as mine was rent, to see one for whom I loved and sacrificed turn upon another and destroy him!

The wolf threw her head back and howled—

And an answering snarl came from the end of the beach, as wolf-Danger bared her fangs in warning, her tan-furred body crouched for battle between the attacker and the tiny, whimpering cub who lay now on the sand. Over the silver wolf's head, her eyes met Remus's, and one desperate instant of contact arrowed between them.

The story—four, and three—

Then her jaws were snapping at the other she-wolf's shoulder, and Remus tore his gaze away and forced himself to think. "The story," he mumbled, barely aware that he was speaking aloud until the sound of his voice came to his ears over the clatter and snarls of battle. "Four, and three. But four and three of what? And which story?"

Seeking inspiration, he looked up into the sky. The light which had seemed so blinding moments before, he could see now, was cast by an impossibly large full moon, beside which the red disc of Mars blinked balefully at him.

Mars. The father of Romulus and Remus, by the priestess Rhea Silvia. Who cursed her living son to be a beast in body and in mind as he was in soul, for surely only a beast would kill his brother for no better reason than a foolish child's prank—

With a rush, Remus's mind cleared, and he tightened his left hand around the chain which held his arm to the rock. "Tell me," he demanded, turning his head to avoid another rush of spray. "Tell me what you are!"

I am the first pillar of Rhea Silvia's curse, came the answer, whispered in the language Remus had come to know from watching Danger and Padfoot and Wolf play together, and joining their play in his own semi-lupine shape. That you shall take on the shape of a wolf from the rising of the full moon until its setting, for every full moon from your infection until your life's ending.

"Yes." Remus blinked salt from his eyes and looked down at his left leg. "And you? Which one are you?"

I am the second pillar of Rhea Silvia's curse, the answer came, this time in a voice which reminded Remus strongly of Fenrir Greyback. That while you are transformed, you shall be the beast you appear, in your mind as well as in your body, savage, cruel, and merciless.

"Fair enough." Forcing himself to ignore Danger's yelp of pain from the beach beyond, Remus turned his head to the other side. "What about you?" he demanded of the chain holding his right arm.

I am the third pillar of Rhea Silvia's curse, the chain responded, in tones which could easily have been mistaken for those of Lucius Malfoy. That you shall be, by reason of this curse and the madness it brings upon you, eternally exiled from the family of humankind, an abomination to adults and a tale of terror to children.

"Right." Remus allowed himself a brief, savage grin before looking down at the final chain, wrapped around his right leg. "And you would be the last pillar, yes? The 'mercy' Rhea Silvia showed those to she cursed?"

I am, whispered a voice startlingly like that of Lord Voldemort. And what could be more merciful than to ensure that those who must suffer and die in such a horrible way will not perpetuate their misery into another generation? Children would be as much a terror to you as you are to them…

"Let me get back to you on that." Remus braced himself against another shower of spray, then spat seawater and returned his attention to the chain binding his right arm. "You," he said with all the authority he had learned in his sixteen years, "are a lie."

I am the truth! the chain protested. Werewolves are forever outcasts, to all but their own kind—

"Does this look outcast to you?" Remus summoned all his memories of Hogwarts, of the foolish pranks and silly jokes he had shared with James and Sirius and Peter, of their defense of his strange absences from class and his sickly appearance afterwards, of the endless hours of study the three other Marauders had put into their Animagus transformations, all of it for him. "They were my friends. My brothers."

Brothers who betrayed you, perhaps, the chain snapped back, retaliating with images of the Potters' shattered cottage, Peter and Sirius's confrontation in the street, the devastation which had followed. They thought the worst of you, that you could be a traitor and a spy, for no reason other than what you are.

"Because they're human, and humans make mistakes. I've forgiven them for that, and we've moved on. And they're not the only ones who love me, who refuse to turn away from me because of something I can't help." Remus allowed himself one fleeting glance towards Danger, her fur now streaked with red but still holding her own against her larger attacker. "I have a wife, and a sister to go with my brother, and together we have children. Cubs, we call them, to make a joke out of this curse. Nothing is as terrible when you can laugh at it." He forced the smile back onto his face. "And I can laugh at you. An outcast? An exile? That couldn't be further from the truth. No, my friend. You…" He clenched his fist and summoned all his strength. "…are a lie."

With a wrench and a half-strangled yell, he tore the chain free from its anchor points in the rock, flinging it from himself like a snake and watching it sink into the sea beneath his feet.

"And as for you." Remus turned his attention to the chain digging into his left leg. "I haven't lost my mind on a full moon in years, except for the time I was a fool and called the wolf. And still, my Danger called me back again, and no true harm was done."

What do you think this is, if not madness? the chain countered. And do you really think your puny potions, or your reliance on a woman, mean you've defeated me? It's cheating, that's all it is, letting someone else do the fighting for you!

"Oh, because you fight so fair." Remus shifted his weight, digging his heels into the rock behind him. "Pitting metal against flesh, when you look like this, or a centuries-old curse against the strength of one mind when you don't. The potion just puts things back on a level playing field, that's all, and Danger's power did the same. To let me choose for myself which side I'll take. The human, who can think about what happens to him and decide how best to respond, or the beast, which simply reacts to what's going on around it, destroying anything which looks like easy prey. And tonight, live or die, I choose to be human."

He reached over and wrapped his now-free hand around the chain, pulling steadily at it, straining with all his might. His fingers tore and bled, his leg screamed with pain, but he refused to let go, and just as he had no more left to give, the rock shattered and the chain slid free. For one panicked instant, Remus thought it would catch on his foot and drag him down into the water below, but he managed just in time to kick it off, and it slithered after its brother, its howls of defeat mingling strangely in his ears with the ongoing duet of snarling on the shore.

And where will you turn next? whispered the chain binding his other leg. My remaining friend you cannot deny, for you do transform at the full moon. And as for me… It laughed, soft, cold, deliberate. You have a child, yes. And you, or the curse which binds you through us, will shortly end her brief existence, and that of the woman who bore her. Will you still claim victory over us when you awaken with the taste of their blood in your mouth, and their last cries for mercy ringing hopelessly in your ears?

"What makes you so sure that's going to happen?" Remus returned his attention to the battle and saw, with a rush of relief and gratitude, that Danger was still holding her own, though he could tell she was starting to weaken. "She's fighting here, yes, but in the real world she's nowhere near me…"

Fool, the chain sneered. Fool and blind. She lies just outside the room where you are imprisoned, with your child in her arms, for both of their minds were snatched into this dream along with yours! And even should those walls contain you safely as the wolf, to die in dreams is to die in truth, and your woman grows weaker by the minute. It laughed once more, a sound of ultimate satisfaction. And when she is dead, that tiny, helpless creature beyond will spill its blood into the sand as well, and my victory will be complete, for you will be left with nothing…

"You're wrong." Remus closed his eyes again as a wave of purest human fury rose inside him. "You were wrong before, you're wrong now, and you will always be wrong. Danger promised me that she would fight to go on living without me—do you think I would dishonor her by refusing to do the same? Even if she dies tonight, even if she and Nadia die, I will not meekly lie down and accept that as the end of my life as well! They will never be truly gone from me, nor I from them, not while we still love, and that you can never take away from me!"

The chain began to speak again, but Remus was in no mood to listen. With a snarl of his own, he closed his fingers around it, hooked his foot into it, and heaved with all his might. An almost human scream burst forth as it gave up its clutch on the rock and slid down his leg, pooling around his ankle, jerking his entire weight against his one remaining anchor point—

The fourth chain snapped off short, plunging Remus into the ocean below. He caught half a breath as he fell, before the weight around his ankle tightened viciously, to the point of pain, dragging him into the depths of the sea.

You were doomed from the moment you were bitten, the chain crooned to him as he sank. No matter your struggles, you will die. Why fight it any longer?

We're all doomed to die from the moment we're born, no matter what we are or are not cursed with. Remus wrapped the shortened arm chain around his wrist, tucking it out of his way, and curled himself into a ball around his right leg. The only questions are 'when' and 'how' and 'why'. But a man who has children, whether by blood or by love or by teaching and inspiration—some part of that man will never die. And for my 'when', I choose—he seized the chain and yanked it free of his leg as new strength rushed into him—not bloody well right now!

With a scream, the chain plummeted beyond recall, as Remus stroked desperately upwards. His lungs screamed for air, the one remaining chain around his arm felt heavier than lead, but he dared not stop—

His face broke the surface, and he coughed out the last of his old breath and gasped in a new in the same moment he stripped the water from his face with his hands to see what there was to be seen.

A weight heavier than any chain slipped from his heart as he saw Danger still crouched protectively over the brown-furred cub which was Nadia. One of Danger's front paws was held above the sand at an awkward angle, her fur looked almost more red than tan, but her teeth dripped red as well and her defiant, warning growl rang out unchanged. The silver wolf, her own coat marked in a few places, seemed nonplussed by such a fierce opponent.

"And now for something completely different," Remus said under his breath, sucking in another huge gulp of air and diving under the surface to swim towards the shore. Do you still do what you have always done? he asked the chain which remained around his arm.

I do, came the answer, dryly humorous. Did you expect I would have changed?

Never hurts to check. Coming up behind the silver she-wolf, Remus found the sand under his feet and waded ashore as quietly as he could manage. All right, go ahead with it, then…

The transformation, though more painful than an Animagus, hurt far less than Remus had come to expect from his full moon nights, and the result was everything he could have hoped for. As the silver wolf lunged forward, her fangs aimed for Danger's throat, he let loose a snarl of his own and bounded across the rocks, interposing his body between attacker and attacked. Mine, he informed the she-wolf in terms more direct than any human words could be, shoving her away with all the strength of his moonlight madness. My mate. My cub. Not prey for you!

The silver wolf stumbled backwards, whining in shock. Remus couldn't blame her. Where she'd expected an easy kill, against another female worn down by a running battle and a cub too small to fight back, now she was faced with a new and unexpected opponent. His grey fur might be matted down with seawater, a broken-off chain might dangle from one of his front paws, but four-pawed and defiant he stood before his mate and their cub, growling his warning to her in no uncertain terms.

Mine, he repeated, in case she'd missed the first iteration, and feinted a little rush towards her. Go away, and I will not fight.

You—you cannot be here. The she-wolf pawed at her face, as though doubting her senses. You cannot—be—HERE! Her howl would have been a scream of disbelieving fury in a human, and she charged at him with her teeth bared and snapping. Remus dodged her first lunge and used his weight once more, hitting her squarely in the chest and knocking her off to the side, then slashed at her with the sharp, retractile claws werewolves shared with cats rather than dogs. She yelped and scuttled back, her whole body quivering with indignant shock and anger.

Glancing behind him, Remus risked opening a channel he'd been careful to this point to hold shut. Are you all right?

Sore, but I'll live, Danger answered promptly. Nadia wasn't even touched. Do you know who she is?

Assuming you're right, which you usually are, yes. Remus crouched, eyeing the she-wolf, who was pacing back and forth out of his range, breathing in short, sharp pants. Be ready. I still may not win this…

Win or lose, we're with you. Danger's head rested for a moment against his shoulder. But I think she's almost out of tricks. If you can get her to change back—

Change back, Remus repeated thoughtfully. I wonder…

Danger snorted once as she caught the edge of his idea. Risky, but it might just work. I'm game if you are.

On three. Remus sank onto his haunches, preparing himself for a quick spring. One, two, three.

The return journey to human form, like the trip there, hurt more than traversing the distance between Moony the lion and Remus the human being, but far less than any full-moon morning he could recall when Danger's power had not been in play. Remus rose onto his own two feet only a few moments after he'd willed it so, steadying a bruised, bleeding Danger through the same process, though her wounds, he noticed in some surprise, were already starting to scab over. In her uninjured arm she held Nadia, still a wolf cub, but starting to squirm uneasily at the strange scents around her—

Kiss her, Danger said, holding their daughter out to Remus, then grasping her injured wrist and straightening it with a little hiss of pain. It's how I got her to change the first time.

Remus laid his lips against the soft baby fur, and with a wriggle Nadia shifted her shape back to that of his human child. He was about to chuckle at the ease with which she accomplished the all but impossible, when another strangled whine brought his head up, and for a moment he could only stare.

A noble-featured woman, her gray hair falling in tangles over her robed shoulders, stood a few feet away with her hand against her mouth, gazing at him in mingled horror and hope. "Remus," she breathed. "But…you died."

Light more blinding than that of the moon burst over Remus, and he nodded once. "Yes," he said simply. "I did. But now I'm alive."

"Your brother." The woman shook her head, her breath coming faster and faster. "He betrayed you."

"He did." Remus let his mind drift to Peter, to Sirius and James, to the terrible anger and loss he'd felt at the ways in which they'd hurt him, and to the conclusion he'd finally, reluctantly, reached. "But I've forgiven him for it. And I wish you could do the same, Mother. Your curse may have been merited in the beginning, but since then it's caused a great deal of harm, to a great many innocent people."

"Even to you." Rhea Silvia, princess of Alba Longa and beloved of the god Mars, sank to her knees on the rocky shore. "My own son, whom I sought to avenge. But what can I do? No magic can turn back time and undo the harm which has been done…"

"But what magic can lay, magic can take away," said Danger, stepping up beside Remus. "And every curse can be broken, or turned." She smiled, stroking Nadia's hair. "Even this one."

"Yes." Rhea Silvia stared hungrily at the little girl, and Remus moved a few steps closer, kneeling down so that she could see more clearly. "Yes. A child is hope, a child is joy. And I wanted those I cursed cut off from such things forever. But you, my son, my wonderful son, you defied even death itself to save the ones you love." She exhaled slowly, and reached out to lay her hand on Remus, on the place where the chain was wrapped around his arm. "And so, this night, my curse is turned, for you, my Remus, and for all those who can do what you have done. Those who defy their loneliness and outcasting by every sort of love, who accept what help they need to fight their wild and bloodthirsty natures, and who dare to believe in the future enough to do their part towards its building."

"Because when three pillars of your curse are broken," Danger murmured, "the fourth can no longer hold."

"Precisely, daughter." Rhea Silvia smiled, as the chain glowed silver where it touched Remus's skin, as it grew what would have been, for anyone else, uncomfortably warm. "For them, as for my son, the curse shall be turned so far as to become in its way a blessing, that in time good may come where evil has flourished…"

Remus was about to ask what this might mean when darkness overwhelmed him once more.

When he could see again, he lay on his side in the dimness of the strong room at Hogwarts, furred and four-legged—

But human. Thinking like a human. Not a trace of wolf-mind, not anywhere. He eased himself upright, unsurprised to find his body sore and aching, his limbs trembling at every joint. And the door, oh, thanks be to whoever was watching, the door hasn't budged, it's not even cracked—

The latch rattled once, and hinges creaked, allowing a sliver of firelight to fall onto the floor.

"Come outside, love," said Danger, her voice not quite steady as she peered into the room, Nadia blinking drowsily in her sling. "It's a beautiful night."

After giving her a very old-fashioned look, Remus did as he was asked, pacing out into the main room of their quarters.

"I want to try something." Danger had her hand on the thick drapes which covered the door leading out onto the balcony. "I think I know what she meant by a blessing. But if you're not ready, or you think it'd be a bad idea…"

You'll nag me into it anyway, so let's give it a go, Remus couldn't help finishing.

"I beg your pardon!" Danger glared at him. "I do not nag!"

Remus blinked in surprise. You heard me?

You were loud. Danger started to cross her arms, scowled momentarily at the baby in the way, and planted her hands on her hips instead. And as I was saying, I think I know what's going on here. If you don't mind?

As you command, my lady. Remus padded towards her, wondering at the vast sense of amusement in the back of her mind.

"All right." Danger waved him a little ways to one side, then grasped the drapery again. "And…now."

With a whisk of her arm, she threw the curtains wide.

The light of the full moon shone down from the night sky above, and picked out glints of silver under the fur of Remus's front left leg. He stared at it, feeling again the warmth he'd felt when the broken chain wrapped around his arm in the dream—

Or was it a dream after all?

Slowly, he rose onto his hind legs, feeling the transformation begin. Pain rippled through his torso, ran up and down his arms and legs, squeezed tightly inside his head, but pain, as he knew all too well, could be borne.

Especially when it ends where this will.

For the first time in thirty-five years, Remus John Lupin stood human in the full moon's brilliant light.


On a broad stone terrace under a bright full moon, they danced.

She was all in white, with lilies-of-the-valley in her hair. He wore black and red, with a tiny sweetheart rose in his buttonhole. The child cradled sleeping between them was dressed in gold, her hair crowned with a circlet of flowers. They had eyes only for each other.

In the shadows, an unseen figure raised his glass, toasting them.

"And they all lived happily ever after," murmured Alexander Slytherin. "The beginning…"

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Author Notes:

Seemed appropriate, since that was one of my biggest inspirations for writing the DV. In the fairy tales, the prince and princess get married, "and they all lived happily ever after, the end". Marriage, to me, seemed more appropriate to a beginning than an ending, and I wanted to know just what exactly was involved in that happily ever after. (And if that bit looks naggingly familiar, try Chapter 13 of Dealing with Danger…)

I hope, O readers, that you have been satisfied by the answer I have given over these last ten years. The final chapter, epilogue, whatever you want to call it, should be posted on Halloween. I hope you find that as appropriate as I do, and I will say all the things I have to say there, not here. For right now, I think the most important thing I can say is thank you. For all the feedback, positive, negative, or neutral. For all the joy, the sorrow, the hate and the love. For everything you've ever given me, thank you. (Even if some of it I wanted to give back immediately, with interest.)

For the very last time in the main Dangerverse, I'll see you soon!