Chapter 45

She was numb.

The pain had subsided but the blood poured out of her and her eyes were drooping closed. Lyall thought he would be able to save her, he had a glimmer of hope in his eyes, and a Hope Lupin slamming the door so hard as she fell into the room with her oldest just behind her.

"No, Bea, no, no, no!" he screamed. His knees were weak and she was dazed but he fell onto the bed and clutched her so tightly that for a second she thought that the wound might close up and she would be okay, but she wasn't okay.

She was so far from okay that her body was growing frailer and weaker by the second.

"Come on, Bea, just keep your eyes open, yeah?" his voice was shaky and hoarse and the tears were instant and for a second she laughed whilst he kissed his head and he tapped her face and slapped her cheek but she didn't feel any of it, she was so small.

"I-I love you so much, Remus. You are the best broth-" she coughed on the blood rising in her throat, tears stinging the sensitive area of her cheeks and an ache in her heart at her brother's face, "the best...brother...the best friend I ever had."

"You are not dying on me, Phoebe Lupin, I won't let you - I won't let you die!" Remus shouted sternly, though the pain and ache in his voice was enough for her to know that he wasn't angry, he was just scared - no, he was terrified - Petrified! He never ever thought he would have to go through this situation.

"Save her!" he screeched, eyes on his father who was comforting Hope, but they knew that the one person who had to talk to her within her last minutes of consciousness was their son who was there for her when the two standing over them weren't, "YOU OWE HER THAT! CAST A SPELL - DO...DO A CHARM!"

"Sh-She has lost too much blood, Remus," Lyall spoke in a hushed whisper because anything above it was too painful, "ther- there is nothing I can do."

That sent another sob out of Hope's mouth and she fell to her knees in front of her daughter, caressing her cheek and holding her hand tightly in hopes that she would be able to allow her last moments to be good ones surrounded by the people she loved.

But even her mother knew that the people she loved most in this world weren't her and her husband, but her closest friends at school...and of course, Remus.

"Tell - te...tell Violet I love her," Bea choked out, her hand aching as she stroked Remus' cheek and a cough escaping with splutters of blood, "I'm - I'm not mad at her. P-please, tell her that. T-tell Sirius too, that I-I love him, and Peter, and Lily too.

Tell Bertie that I-I will always be his best friend, he will- will always h-have me to talk to," she leaned her head on Remus' chest. In her dying moments, she had no care for pain, she couldn't let this stop her from making sure all she loved knew she loved them.

She didn't want to die, she never wanted to leave behind those that she loved and she wanted to live her life to the fullest. She wanted to travel the world with James and wed him on the beach in a foreign land. She wanted to have a family with him where they could play Quidditch in the garden filled with exotic planets and wonderfully coloured flowers that she could tend to every day.

She wanted to be successful in life, she wanted to make her mark and be the girl that had so many loved ones. She wanted to be a mother and a wife and be the best person she could be.

She wanted to make her mark in the world, but instead, Fenrir made his mark on her.

"Ple-please," she sobbed, "please tell James...tell him I'm so in love with him."

"I will Bea, I promise," Remus was sobbing, holding her head and kissing her forehead, still whispering his protests of goodbye, "I love...I love you so much, Bea."

She forced a smile, showing blood stained teeth and rosy cheeks of pain, "I..i love you too, Remus."

She was so close, she was on the brink of death and the sadness and fear crept into her mind. She was so scared, terrified to lose her breath but it was happening, it was falling over her and she didn't know how to cope with it.

Her eyes were wide and frantic and she would lose and regain her breath as though nothing was happening but she was terrified and completely aware that she wouldn't live to see the sun again.

Her eyes drooped with every moment passing and she was ready to go. Her last breath was looming close and her hands clutched tightly to her brother and her mother and her father watched on the sidelines.

And she was there, the light was there too and she was travelling away from her family.

But it was only for a moment.

It was a split-second moment of leaving her body until a blinding light erupted through the Lupin household and all through the young girl's bedroom travelled vines and thorns and twisted twigs from a small plant plot engraved 'Bumble Bea' in which the plant that Professor Sprout gave her nestled.

The vines wrapped around her in a sudden sort of franticness, blinding light ignored by only Bea was shielded by the hands of each Lupin who had the smallest glimmer of hope. They didn't know what was happening, neither the three Lupins conscious or the late-night stroller stopping in shock.

In a wave of pain, a scream erupted from Bea Lupin's mouth and Remus who was previously thrown to the floor stood in order to get to her but a barrier shielded him from her and he couldn't see through the light erupting around the vines and flowers and magic.

Hope let out a strangled cry and Remus stumbled backwards onto the door and they couldn't do anything but watch. It was as though they were face to face with an operation of sorts, something they couldn't quite wrap their head around but still managed to watch in fascination, and pain and fear all wrapped into one.

Bea had died, she was dead.

No.

She was unconscious.

But in the dead silence, a silence so eerie you could hear a pin drop, there was a gasp.

A gasp of breath sucking in as much as she could get until the little Bea was writhing in pain reaching out for something to grab and without thinking of himself, or if he would get hurt by the blinding light, Remus stepped forward.

The light of the magic had dulled but the vines wrapped around her still, and Remus held onto her so tightly with a sob and the fresh hot tears trickling down his face. He cupped her cheek and wiped her own tears and wiped the blood and held her into him. Her head was flush against him and she was struggling to breathe but she was.

Her chest was falling and rising and she was there and alive and breathing.

She was breathing.

Remus resembled a puppy in the stare he gave his parents and not a moment later had Lyall apparated out of his home, and Remus wondered why for just a moment until he arrived back with Professor Dumbledore and a healer that would be able to help them.

Bea was dazed and out of it, she didn't know what was happening but she knew that she could breathe, but the vines were getting tighter and tighter and she wondered why it was as though they had helped her and now they were hurting her.

But she was in so much pain, to begin with that she wasn't sure, she didn't know how to cope and so she lay lifeless in Remus' arms.

"What happened?" Dumbledore's voice was familiar as it travelled through Bea's ears and it reminded her of her friends, of Violet and James and she couldn't die no matter the pain that was placed over her. The vines had given her a second chance to live her life and she wasn't taking it lightly no matter how much she wished not to feel the pain placed over her.

"Fenrir Greyback," Lyall spat. His eyes had narrowed and Remus was ready to shout at his father, scream at him like he should've done so long ago and make sure he knew that it was his fault that he was a monster, that it was all his fault that Bea was so close to death.

But Bea stopped her, she pulled on Remus' arm and brought him down close to her, and she whispered to him no, it was so small and faint and barely audible had Remus not listened but he was listening and he looked down at her and he would be lying if the sound of her voice wasn't a tune he was so happy to hear.

Remus didn't argue with her, he wasn't about to, and he never would again. And in the moment with her lying there he realised that he had been protecting her from all the wrong things.

The last person Bea wanted to make sure had her love was the boy he shielded her from for so long and yet she needed him in her dying moment to know that she was in love with him. He knew how distraught Violet would be, he knew that there was the highest chance of Bea dying and that if it were to happen that Violet would never forgive herself for not talking to her when she had the chance.

But she did have the chance now, she had plenty of chances because Remus Lupin had set himself a vow he would never allow himself to break. He was going to rise above the monster inside of him because he would never do anything so vicious and cruel as what the vile monster did to Bea.

He would keep her life as the closest thing to him because she deserved it, she deserved to live. She deserved to live through and rise above what happened to her.

She was strong, she was so strong.

She was allowed a second chance because she was a survivor and she would rise above what happened to her because she could. She wouldn't let it stop her from living her life because the life she had was precious and for a moment it was short, very short, slim too, and she never wanted to die but she was ready to.

And now she lay clutched in Remus' arms with her mother's hand back in hers and her breathing coming back and a healer frantically tending to her and she was barely there, she was dazed and almost unconscious but she was there.

There was something in her, a love, and luck and a tiny animal and she deserved the second chance.

The vines from her plant had travelled out at the soul leaving her body, alerted that the tender of the garden in her room was on the brink of leaving this world and with the magic inside of the humming plant able to do miraculous things, they spiralled and grew in all of the seconds and navigated their way to the girl who needed them in her begging last moments.

"I told you," Remus whispered to her, holding her tight and the tears aching along with the pounding in his head, and she lifted her eyes to him, blank dark eyes on her brother, "I told you I wouldn't let you die."

And in her aching moments, as the life returned to her, she forced the smallest smile.

She was Phoebe Lupin.

And she was alive.