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The Twists of Fate	By : MJurjevic Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 5613 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Fandom Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
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A dim, dark seemingly infinite space with candlelit sconces filled the void in a blurred haze. Whispers… Screaming… Hushed whisperings… Raucous laughter…

"Enough!" commanded a cold voice.

Nagini's eyes snapped open as an 'Enervate!' command echoed in her ears. Her body snapped, fully conscious.

A wild cackle rang out, piercing her ears.

"Get up!"

Focusing her eyes as best she could, Nagini felt a force roll her over. Attempting to push herself upwards on her side, she clutched the nearest solid form her hands met and pushed against it. But as she jerked to sit up, she cried out in pain, collapsing. A bloody body, beaten to a pulp, broke her spastic fall; landing on top of Remus’ unconscious form, she screamed in agony as a searing pain burned through her right side and realised, My ribs…Something’s cracked! She could not move through the agony but lay shaking uncontrollably.

Through her trembling and blurred vision, Nagini looked around as best she could; one eye was half-closed, swollen and burning. I can’t see… She shook violently, but forced herself to peer through a haze of pain, dully registering where they were.

Surrounding them in dim lighting were masked, cloaked figures. The odour of something putrid and rotting stung her nostrils, and her throat began to tighten. She lay whimpering from the pain, in between gagging on the stench. Suddenly, she heard a voice that caused an uncontrollable shiver to strike every nerve in her being.

"Let me finish the filthy beast off, my Lord!"

Through half-closed lids, she saw Bellatrix, her chest heaving and wand ready, panting in eager anticipation for permission to use the killing curse. She slowly knelt in front of a tall, gaunt figure with a face of formidable cruelty. " My Lord? "

"No." The distorted mask-like features of the Dark Lord gazed pensively at Nagini and then Remus’ form.

"I am a merciful lord," Voldemort announced and then leered. "No, let the werewolf be taken and placed in front of Hogwarts as a warning to the old man… A message for Dumbledore: those who are unworthy must know their place or suffer the consequences thereafter.

"We will have a pure New World Order. Hogwarts will soon be what its original founder foresaw as the true purpose and existence for our kind. No Muggle blood shall defile us furthermore.”

Nagini watched as Voldemort placed his foot on one side of Remus’ bloody unconscious face and shoved it, flipping it to the other side. "Nor any beast. "

"Regulus, you and… Severus… shall do this little errand for me. I believe Bella has played with her catch enough for the evening…."

Two masked dark forms came near, hovering over and around Nagini, and as they scooped Lupin’s body up under their arms, another distinct voice was heard saying, "My Lord, they’ll have to take him beyond the wards here… If I lower them, we could be infiltrated… Aurors have been spotted about." Nagini closed her eyes as the recognition of Lucius Malfoy sunk in. We must be in his Manor… or Uncle’s… but… She was too disorientated to think clearly further.

As they dragged Remus’ body from underneath her, Nagini’s head hit the floor and spurts of purple and black spots filled her vision, a darkness threatening to overtake her, but her heart thumped wildly as she watched Remus’ body being dragged off, as if he were lifeless, further and further away.

"And what about her, my Lord?" rasped a menacing voice she knew all too well: Rodolphus Lestrange.

There was no answer. But then Nagini screamed as someone grabbed the front of her soiled robes and pulled her up.

Rodolphus’ spit hit her face, and she whimpered in pain as she was thrown back down on the hard stone floor.

Another figure with long blond hair grabbed her by the hair and around the waist, ignoring her cries of anguish from the further pressure to her injured ribcage. He hoisted her up, propped and pressed her against his chest. "The Dark Lord wants your undivided attention, girl."

"She has the gift you say, Rodolphus?" enquired the calm, cool voice of the Dark Lord. "The gift of Second Sight?"

"My brother said she had it… but Rolph was known to exaggerate about many a thing, my Lord… He was wrong about her filthy mother, wasn’t he?"

Her holder’s grip loosened a tad as sardonic laughter and jeers rumbled around the cavernous dark space. Delirious, through the pain, Nagini struggled against the wizard holding her and heard herself whimpering, "Don’t—don’t—"

"Don’t, what? Portentia Belby was a crazy, traitorous bitch!" shrieked Bellatrix.

"Don’t—" Madly, Nagini twisted around in her captor’s arms and pushed wildly, whimpering anew as her ribcage burned. The pain caused her to jerk spasmodically and jab at the masked wizard; she jolted in pain so much that her fingers pressed wildly around and upwards, clumsily pushing under the mask and against his face. On contact, her head suddenly lolled back, and she uttered in an altered voice, "She carries the child… the child… she waits alone and forlorn; she waits and waits for you…."

The blond wizard froze, except for his tight grip sadistically squeezing her.

"Is this true, Lucius?" Voldemort asked, visibly displeased.

The tall, eerie figure of the Dark Lord towered over her; his red eyes boring into her was all she knew before blacking out.

******************************************************

"We found you, unconscious and trounced, on the Hogwarts lawn." Dumbledore sat stoically beside Lupin’s bed in the hospital wing of Hogwarts, peering neutrally at the young wizard.

"There we go, Remus, one more dose." Madam Pomfrey forced Remus to swallow a generous dosage of blood-red liquid.

Lupin coughed and sputtered on the rancid potion. When he regained his breath, he pleaded, "Headmaster, please."

"I believe this," Albus held up a plump parcel, "is yours."

It was the packaged sweets from Honeydukes.

"It belongs to you?"

Remus gazed at the innocent package, speechless.

"The barman of the Hog’s Head informed me that this had been left in a booth. That Nagini and you were there." Dumbledore paused. "Together."

Remus shook his head affirmatively.

"There was a bit of a commotion between you and a few of the other… patrons."

Remus huffed and then bit his inner cheeks, his eyes smarted.

"Headmaster, please. Nagini…" He couldn’t breathe. "Is she… Is she alive?"

Dumbledore peered over his half-moon glasses, his face grim with suppressed anger. "Alive? Yes, so I am told."

Remus’ breathing hitched; he was overcome with emotion.

"I must see her, sir. I must speak with her—"

"That, alas, is impossible, Remus."

Confused, he pleaded, "But, Headmaster, you just said she was alive and…" Remus faltered, seeing a stern, cold look on Dumbledore’s face. "She’s here, isn’t she?" He scanned the empty ward in desperate expectation.

"No. No, she is not."

"Then, where? St Mungo’s?"

"That is not known at present. Most likely, from what I understand, with her family."

"Her family? The Lestranges – that’s ridiculous!"

Albus’ eyebrows rose in speculation, and he gazed somberly at the youth.

"I have it on good account that she is being well cared for. At present, the family wishes her whereabouts to remain undisclosed. They wish, above all, discretion. Considering what has allegedly transpired."

Remus shook in frustration. "Alledgedly transpired? We were attacked!"

"And before the attack?"

"Before?"

"Yes, Remus, what transpired before the attack?"

The young wizard became glum and taciturn.

After several seconds, he muttered, "I don’t know. Nothing."

The Headmaster tilted his head slightly backward, assessing the young wizard.

Under the Headmaster’s all-seeing gaze, Lupin offered, "We were, um, walking back, on the other side of the Shrieking Shack—"

"A very serious charge has been pressed against you, Remus."

Remus froze. "Charge? What—"

"A govenor of the school has been here, speaking on behalf of the Lestrange family: Lucius Malfoy."

Remus raised an eyebrow.

"They have charged that you have… assaulted Miss Lestrange."

Remus froze. He couldn’t understand what the Headmaster was saying. "Assaulted?"

"Violated her, to be more specific."

As Dumbledore’s meaning sunk in, Remus felt a wave of nausea roll over him. He felt an involuntary spasm ignite. He lunged over to the side of the bed and vomited up the little content he’d had inside.

"Poppy!" called Albus, and the matron appeared as if already expecting this. She waved Remus clean and then the floor before Accio’ing a potion-filled phial.

"Drink this. Drink this like a good lad."

"No! No," protested the sandy-haired wizard. Remus wanted all of his wits to denounce the preposterous outrageous accusation; he wouldn’t be sedated. Not now.

"Headmaster, you can’t believe this! I would never… never…"

"Remus, I must hear your side of the events, which have been brought to my attention. Have a bit of the Calming Draught; it’ll help you sort through things."

Resolutely refusing, he adamantly insisted, "No. I don’t need—where’s Nagini?" He demanded irrationally, "I must see her, talk to her; she’d never say this! Who—"

"Mr Malfoy has, speaking on behalf of the family."

"But Nagini? What has she said?"

"I too wish to hear it from her own lips, but that, alas, is not possible at this time. The Lestrange family will not allow her to be available for any questioning. She is unavailable."

"Why? How?"

"Mr Malfoy has informed me that she is indisposed at present, recovering from the traumatic event. The Lestrange family wishes that this matter be dealt with discreetly—"

"Dealt with?" Remus glared at the Headmaster.

"They wish for your removal from Hogwarts immediately. For you to be turned over to the Ministry and listed in the Dangerous and Magical Beasts Department, if not sentenced to Azkaban, or worse…."

Remus’ entire world was crashing around him and he tried to hold onto one concrete fact in it. "But Nagini, sir… She’s—there’s something wrong–they are lying! We were attacked; both of us were attacked… It’s Rodolphus! Her family have done this—I know it, sir! We’ve got to help Nagini; they’ve done who knows what to her—"

"The proof, Remus?"

"Proof?" He was shocked and livid all. He spluttered, "What proof have they got against me?" He lashed out, "It’s their word against mine! Only Nagini can help tell the truth."

"Mr Malfoy alluded that there is her ripped and stained skirt, knickers; her body was found near the Shrieking Shack, left for dead… so they claim—"

Remus shoved the image of Nagini harmed in any way aside for the moment; he knew he’d be no good to her, to himself, to them if he couldn’t keep things together in his mind. Must keep control! "You found me, quite trounced, on the lawn of Hogwarts. Did I do this to myself? They are lying; he’s lying: Malfoy—he’s one of them, sir!"

"Who?"

Feeling nothing to lose, in his raw anger, Remus clarified, "One of Voldemort’s followers: Malfoy, Lestrange, Black, McNair—they’re calling themselves Death Eaters, sir, they’re—"

"Yes, Remus, I know what they’re calling themselves." Dumbledore’s face was etched with pain. "They’ve been impressed by Tom Riddle’s power and promises. But again, I ask: the proof?"

Huffing in outrage, Remus blanched in anger and clutched the mattress, speechless.

"All is not lost. You have a witness, someone who will swear that all was not how they claim it to be."

"Sir, you know I would never attack anyone—not when the moon is wan—" Remus broke and began to weep in bitter broken riffs.

"Remus, I wish you to remain calm… The barman of the Hog’s Head will testify that the young lady who entered with you, the young lady who disarmed Regulus Black and who ran for safety, although her appearance had differed greatly from when she had entered, was indeed the one and same person: Nagini Lestrange." Dumbledore peered knowingly at the embarrassed youth. “Polyjuice is suspected to explain her having red hair and masked features when first seen.

"It is clear that there was some mischief at hand," the old wizard sighed heavily, "some mischief has indeed been done, but whether this mischief was mutually consensual is what is to be determined.

"The word of the barman is in your favour, Remus. He will testify, swear if need be, if charges are pressed against you, that Nagini was, for all intents and purposes, most consensually with you. And to his knowledge… stayed with you the entire night in his establishment of her own free will.

"There are the strongest spells detecting the moving about and whereabouts within the pub and inn continually; anyone leaving their room, whether under a Disillusionment Charm, attempted undetectable spells or such, are still detected… and recorded to memory. It is a Ministry-approved and enforced secret protection measure." Dumbledore gave Lupin an all-knowing look and reminded him, "The Aurors find this information quite helpful when needed for investigations of various sorts. Clandestine reconnaissance cooperation is always welcomed, naturally. Whether from a barman of the Hog’s Head or… anyone else…."

"Moody…," Remus uttered quietly. As a tear rolled down his wretched face, the werewolf whispered, "Auror Moody… Contact him, Headmaster. I’m ready. I’ll do whatever he wants me to."

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- 6
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- 8
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The Twists of Fate