The events in this chapter take place before Taking Control.

In loving memory of James and Lily Potter, you guys are getting the final chapter earlier. Enjoy!

chapter 5

"Next time you can go retrieve something from your insane relatives' vault," Remus grumbled on a rainy afternoon as he dropped his bag onto the table and sat down heavily.

"What happened?" Sirius looked up from the book he was looking into, summoned the first aid kit and knelt down before him.

"She put protective spells on it, or better said, a Gemino and a Flagrante curse were placed on absolutely everything in that vault. Everything bloody multiplied when my shoe touched a coin, it was pure chaos."

"Are you all right?"

"It is mostly my dignity that was shot to hell," Remus sighed dramatically. "I got some burns on my arms and legs and my left leg is killing me."

"Take your trousers off so I can see what's wrong."

Obeying the order, Remus let Sirius tug off his shoes so that he could remove his trousers. "I'm getting old, Pads."

"You're not old, Moony. Just incredibly rusty," Sirius quickly inspected the damage, healing the burns before he slid his hands over Remus' painful leg to feel what was wrong there.

"There's a difference?" Remus groaned as Sirius dug his fingers into his calf, leaning back to give the dark-haired man better access when it turned into an impromptu massage.

"You should take it easy for a few days," Sirius commented once he smoothed out the tense muscles.

"Dumbledore wants me to infiltrate into a new pack."

"When does he want you to leave?" Sirius leaned back, not looking at him as he picked up his trousers so Remus could get dressed again.

"Tonight," Remus leaned back with a sigh once he'd pulled his trousers on again. "I'm not going."

"What? Why not?" Surprised Sirius looked up to him.

"I know how much you hate it when I go undercover like that."

"Because you are better than that. Dumbledore plays on your sense of duty to knowingly send you off into danger uselessly," Sirius spat. "I haven't forgotten what happened fifteen years ago."

Even after all this time, Remus had no trouble remembering the mission Dumbledore had send him off on, to infiltrate a pack of werewolves living deep in the woods of Scotland¹.

He had been there less than a minute before discovering that not only were these werewolves hostile, they were also extremely violent and hated anything to do with anyone outside their pack.

Remus had been completely outnumbered by maniacal werewolves and wouldn't have made it out alive if Sirius hadn't suddenly appeared out of nowhere, driving most of them off in mere moments, killing those who tried to attack them again.

He'd managed to get them to back off enough that he could make an illegal portkey to transport them to safety, saving Remus' life and healing his wounds before giving Dumbledore an earful about sending someone into a known hostile pack.

It turned out that Alice Longbottom had overheard where Remus was heading and Sirius, having heard plenty of rumours about the hostility of the pack, had gone after him immediately.

"I would have died if you hadn't come after me," Remus acknowledged softly.

"Yet you kept going, despite almost getting killed. Despite all that's happened, you kept going so what's different now?" Sirius asked.

"I'm different," Remus wet his lips. "Or rather, you opened my eyes."

"You don't want me to go on these pointless missions, and yes, I am aware they are pointless. And yet, a few weeks ago, I'd have gone without complaint," he held up his hand to stop his friend from speaking up. "But I realised something after you've beat Dumbledore up for placing Harry with the Dursleys."

"What's that?"

" That I'm done with his manipulations. Too long have I let him control my life, let him tell me what to do and following his orders without questioning them. I let that man take James and Lily's son and place him into an abusive household," Remus swallowed.

"I knew the Dursleys weren't good people, but I believed Dumbledore's judgement when he said Harry would be safe there and refrained from checking on him because he told me it would be confusing for the boy to see me."

He clenched his hands in his lap.

"I followed the man's every command because I trusted him; he'd given me the opportunity to go to Hogwarts, despite my condition. He gave me hope that I could be accepted. But that's not true; you and James were the ones who gave me hope. You were the ones who showed me that I had a family, a home in you guys," he shifted in his seat.

"It's true that I felt an obligation to listen to Dumbledore for what he's done for me and allowed him to order me to do things I didn't stand behind completely. I joined the Order because of that, because I wanted to fight for what was right, but mostly because it was Dumbledore who asked," he looked at Sirius, who was staring back at him non-judgemental and he couldn't help the small tug it gave his heart, knowing his friend wasn't judging him for simply following when he should have thought for himself.

"I listened to him when he told me you were the traitor, listened to what others told me and believed their judgement above my own. I knew you, Sirius. I knew you better than anyone and even if for some absurd reason you were with Voldemort, you would never let harm come to James, or Lily for that matter. I should have come to see you, demand answers but I didn't, because Dumbledore told me you were guilty and I simply believed his word."

"Moony..."

"No, please...I need to say this, Sirius," Remus slid down from his chair to kneel on the ground beside Sirius, taking his hand in his own.

"Dumbledore doesn't own me and my loyalty is not with him, it lies with you. I will not let others come between us anymore, and I will not betray your trust, ever again. I will not go on an useless mission when you need me."

"Rem, you don't owe me anything and I would never ask you to not do anything just because I don't like the idea," Sirius swallowed.

"I know," Remus smiled, squeezing his hand. "I am not going, not because you personally don't want me to go, but because you need me. We are on our own mission and can't waste either the time or the manpower on useless missions like guarding a Prophecy. What the two of us are doing right now has more effect in this war than anything Dumbledore wants us to do."

"Technically we are just checking former Horcruxes to assure ourselves they are truly gone," Sirius smiled faintly.

"Meaning that we've already destroyed them. Dumbledore has had years to deal with them. Even if he had been uncertain after Voldemort's first defeat, he'd have known after Harry destroyed the diary. Yet he didn't do anything and there is no excuse why he didn't. If we could figure them out as easily as we did, then he should have known, too."

"It's out of his hands now, Riddle is mortal so once we've checked the ring we can take the fight to him."

"Aren't you forgetting the diadem?" Remus frowned.

"Harry retrieved it from the Room of Requirement this morning and send it over with Dobby shortly after you left," Sirius rose to his feet to retrieve a box from the side table, retrieving the bag from the table on the way back.

Taking a deep breath, Remus watched as Sirius tested Hufflepuff's cup to ensure the Horcrux truly was destroyed, breathing out relieved as Sirius nodded.

"I already tested the diadem and removed the curses Riddle had placed on it," he held out the box for Remus to glance into. "Helena asked me to destroy it."

"She what?" Remus looked up sharply. "When did you speak to her?"

"The night Riddle was resurrected. She is the source who told me about the diadem being sought by Riddle and told me he'd defiled it with dark magic. She said she knew I was trying to remove the dark magic and asked me to destroy it so it could never be used for personal gain again."

"How did she know?" Remus was amazed to learn the normally elusive ghost had sought Sirius out for such a request.

"I asked Peeves to keep an eye out to what Riddle could have used and after swearing her to silence, he spoke to her about our quest. So she decided to come forward, remembering I'd always kept my word," Sirius shrugged. "Quite frankly I had expected her to turn me in when she arrived in the hospital wing, but she didn't seem to care that I was among the students."

"Is there any permanent resident of that castle who ever believed in your guilt?" Remus correctly deduced why she hadn't cared about his presence or alerted anyone in authority.

Sirius only gave him a small smile before lifting the diadem from its resting place.

"You want to destroy an heirloom from one of the founders?" Remus took the piece of jewellery from Sirius and looked at it.

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," he read as he turned it around in his hands, knowing it was the real thing. "I'm holding the lost diadem of Ravenclaw, sought by people for hundreds of years and my best friend wants to destroy it."

"About sums it up nicely," Sirius smiled, holding out the box so that Remus could return it.

"When are you going to destroy it?"

"Tonight. I've asked Dobby to pick me up during Hogwarts dinner and arranged to meet with Helena in the Room of Requirement so that she can witness the destruction."

"That way she'll know it is indeed destroyed and can witnesses it," Remus smiled. "You want me to join you?"

"Nah, I should be back in less than an hour."

"I'll just start our dinner while you are gone then. So, we indeed just need to check the ring. When did you want to do that?"

"Early tomorrow morning. I'm not expecting any Order members, but Dobby's agreed to come over and keep an eye out if someone should unexpectedly arrive just in case. He'll come get us if someone enters, telling them I'm asleep with a hangover while you weren't feeling well and stayed in bed."

"And Kreacher won't give us away?"

"I've ordered Kreacher to remain in his bed and not to have any form of communication with anyone until I come out of my bedroom again. He is not to give anyone any sort of information about my whereabouts outside confirming Dobby's story."

"That should cover it nicely," Remus followed Sirius into the kitchen, watching him make tea for them.

Xxxxxxx

Remus shifted his weight as he crouched behind a bush not too far from the Gaunt's last known residence, the one near the graveyard where Voldemort had been resurrected.

The place gave Remus the creeps, so he was relieved to see the familiar shaggy form of Padfoot appear through the rotting fence, carrying what looked like a golden box in his mouth.

"And?"

"It looks like several traps are laid out," Sirius said once he'd transformed back and had dropped the box.

"Will they be a problem?" Remus asked, rising to his feet as Sirius made no attempt to conceal their presence.

"Not anymore. The moron set them all up for human presences so I could bypass them completely as Padfoot. He hid it beneath the floorboard; I didn't even have to dig to be able to pull it out as they were far into a state of rotting. I'm not sure about the ring itself though; I could smell a dark curse on it but didn't recognise it."

"You already got the ring?" Remus looked at the golden box surprised. "Why wouldn't he take into account Animagi?"

"Probably because he set the protections up before considering there might be illegal ones running around?" Sirius shrugged as he picked up the box. "Let's move away from here so we don't accidentally set off any protections so close to the house and alert Voldemort to what we're doing."

Nodding Remus followed him as they walked into the woods near the rotting shack and stopped in a small clearing.

"What do you think we can expect?" Remus asked as Sirius placed the box onto the ground between them and used a large branch to open it, revealing it to be empty except for the crudely made golden ring with a large black stone set in it.

"Is that..." Sirius blinked surprised and Remus could only stare at the engraving in the black stone as he immediately recognised it as the sign of the Deathly Hallows.

"He used the Resurrection Stone as a Horcrux?" Sirius asked in disbelief, kneeling down beside it to poke it with the branch, sliding it into the ring to lift it up so he wouldn't have to touch it.

But the moment he did, the tip of the branch immediately blackened and Sirius dropped it before it could spread.

"Definitely cursed," he acknowledged as he reached for his wand.

"Can you undo the curse placed upon it?"

"No problem now that I've seen what is it. I don't remember the name, but it is a curse that's, ironically, invented by Herpo the Foul. It has a similar effect as the bite from a Bothrops asper. I remember that much because the spell is in one of the books we researched from and the picture was horrifying," Sirius shuddered.

"So you don't remember the curse, but you do remember the counter-curse?"Amused Remus looked up from the box to see his best friend shrug.

"Seemed more important to know," Sirius was quick to murmur the incantation before he picked up a new branch to test if the curse was truly broken.

Seeing that it was, he cast a couple other spells to ensure there were no other curses placed on it before separating the stone from the ring with magic.

Remus caught it as it came loose and placed it in Sirius' open hand, both of them staring at it as the ring lay forgotten on the ground.

"I have to admit that I did not see this coming," he swallowed thickly.

"No," Sirius' voice was tight as he stared at the stone as if in trance.

"Do you..."uncertain, Remus reached out to slip his hand into Sirius' free one, needing the anchor as he too seemed unable to look away from the stone.

"It wouldn't be them," Sirius exhaled shakily. "It wouldn't be him, not really."

"Wouldn't it be?" Remus asked breathlessly, a dull throbbing behind his eyes trying to make itself known but he ignored it.

"You remember the story, don't you?" Sirius whispered, his voice trembling.

"She was unhappy because she no longer belonged in his world," now that Sirius had reminded him, Remus indeed remembered the complete story and his heart clenched.

If he had the screaming desire to turn that stone, despite knowing the story, then it must be close to irresistible to the man beside him and from the tight hold Sirius had on his hand, he knew his best friend was well aware of it, too.

"Do you think he's happy?" Sirius' voice was small as he asked the almost childish question, a whirlpool of emotions racing through his bright eyes.

"I like to believe so," Remus was aware that the voice answering his best friend was hardly his own and he cleared his throat to try and remove the stranger from his vocal cords.

Grey eyes, filled with unshed tears, glanced at him for a long moment before they turned to the stone, his thumb sliding over it and Remus wondered what the younger man was thinking when Sirius suddenly tossed the stone into the air.

"Expulsio."

Remus' heart gave a painful tug as the spell hit the stone head on and it exploded into a rain of powder before them.

He became aware tears were running down his cheeks when Sirius pulled him into a hug.

"It wouldn't be them. They are gone and some stupid stone isn't going to bring them back," Sirius' voice murmured in his ear and he dipped his head so that he could bury his face into his best friend's shoulder, gripping Sirius tightly in return.

They stood there for a long time, neither speaking or willing to break the embrace as they grieved together for the family they'd lost.

Eventually it was Remus who pulled back. "You just destroyed a Deathly Hallow."

"It deserved it," Sirius gave him a half smile. "And technically you destroyed one too."

"What?" confused Remus watched as Sirius destroyed the ring, too.

"You destroyed the Elder Wand."

"When did I do that?" stepping back to Sirius' side, Remus made quick work of destroying the box the ring had been in.

"Remember when we hexed the hell out of Dumbledore and you broke his wand in multiple pieces when he raised it at me?"

"That wasn't..."

"It was," the half smile spread into a full one, lifting the sadness in those warm grey eyes a little at Remus' no doubt dumbfound expression and Remus couldn't help but return it, letting it spread until he was grinning.

"We destroyed two Deathly Hallows."

"Yeah well, they had it coming to them. Shouldn't have let their paths cross with two Marauders."

"All those who've been hunting them down will forever curse us if they should find out. Hundreds of people have been searching for them and we come across two of them by chance."

"Harry's got the third one so technically the two of us have seen them all," Sirius winked.

"And destroyed them. Just how many precious heirlooms have we destroyed on this mission?"

"Only two. Helena decided to keep the diadem intact, remember?"

"I remember," Remus smiled. He'd been extremely happy when Sirius returned from Hogwarts the previous evening to announce Helena Ravenclaw had changed her mind.

Sirius had told him that once Voldemort was defeated, she would like him to ensure the priceless relic would get a proper place where it could be seen, but not abused and he'd do the same with Hufflepuff's cup.

Until that time, both items were safely and securely locked up in Grimmauld Place where no one would be able to find them.

"Doesn't change the fact that in less than two months, we've managed to find three priceless heirlooms of the founders and the two legendary Hallows. All of whom have been sought for many years."

"I suppose we could always become trackers of lost stuff if everything else fails."

They shared a glance before they were suddenly both laughing with new tears falling down.

"We're a fine broken mess, aren't we?" Sirius chuckled as he brushed away his tears.

"We are. But you know what?" Remus reached for his hand again. "At least we are a broken mess together."

Sirius smiled as he entwined their fingers. "Or we simply fill each other's cracks. Do you remember what James always said?"

"He's the brains, you're the executor, I'm the muscle and..." Remus trailed off as the smile left his face.

"And Peter's the one who distracts. Wormtail was the one who betrayed us and the Peter we knew died."

Remus let Sirius' words sink in for a moment.

"I know it probably sounds weird, but I kind of like that thought," he admitted, squeezing Sirius' hand. "That it wasn't all a lie but that our friend just died when the traitor rose."

"It's something Harry said when I asked why he only referred to him as Wormtail. I liked the thought too."

"He's a pretty smart kid when he wants to be."

"When those friends of his don't hold him down," Suddenly Sirius smiled at him. "Harry's kind of the glue, holding the broken pieces we are intact, isn't he?"

"And together we're whole," Remus returned the smile.

"Broken when we're apart, but complete when we're together. I like that," Sirius mused and Remus hummed as they walked back out of the forest.

"You know, we finished our quest today. That was the last one we had to check."

"Mission accomplished," Sirius grinned before his smile changed into the warm one that always made Remus want to stop time so he see it on his friend's face forever.

"Let's return to Grimmauld Place, I'm sure Harry will be waiting anxiously for you to write to him."

"We can play a board game in celebration once I've send Harry a message," Sirius suggested before frowning. "It will be pretty boring now that we've completed our task."

"Siri, when you are involved, nothing is ever boring," Remus laughed as Sirius stuck out his tongue at him and he tightened his hold on his best friend so that Sirius could Apparate them back to Grimmauld Place.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

¹ the events mentioned here take place in A Dangerous Mission.