Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me. All rights go to JK Rowling/Warner Bros. I do not profit in any way.

The News

Remus read the news in the Daily Prophet.

It wasn't surprising, really, that no-one had bothered to come and tell him. No-one had roused Remus from his sleep to inform him that his life had just been torn apart. No-one was there to comfort him as he read the sentences printed in black and white over and over again, somehow hoping that none of it was real, that this was all a terrible nightmare; that he'd wake up, and everything would be okay again.

But it wasn't okay. It wasn't okay, and he didn't know how anything would ever be okay again.

Remus stared at the front page for another few seconds; his hands shaking, his breathing shallow. He let out a strangled sob as he dropped the paper on the table and started tearing at it with his nails like a madman.

Again and again, he couldn't stop. If he were to stop, the keenly physical pain in his chest would redouble and consume him. He had to keep tearing.

There were tears flowing freely down Remus's cheeks as he stopped, and when he saw what he'd done to the paper, he closed his eyes, his whole body contorting in a violent sob as he lay his head in the mess.

For the front page of the Daily Prophet sported a photo of the five of them, long ago, in happier days. Remus had been cropped out.

And the caption read: Three murders, One Murderer.