Is It Over Now?

Ravenclaw's diadem:

Horcrux hunting, that was what James had called what they planned to do. It was something of a childish name for a series of actions that all but sought to kill them all.

Remus thought that it was perfect in a way.

It was dark when what was left of the Marauders snuck onto their old school grounds, the wards letting them walk right through in their animal forms. James and Sirius had been surprised at first when their friend had turned into a fox and not a wolf, but then they remembered that it was his Patronus form as well, and found it more fitting as they thought of it longer. 

Foxes were cunning and tricksters, Remus was both of these things.

The three slipped back into their human forms once within the castles, knowing that a deer, a giant dog, and a colorful fox were quite the easiest things to hide, but the three had years of hiding within the castle in their human forms.

Remus couldn't help but wonder if they were always meant to do something like this.

The wolf silently handed the Filibuster fireworks in his pocket to Sirius as they approached an office that the three of them knew all too well. They knew that they would need a distraction should Filch come at the wrong time, and they couldn't expect Dumbledore to bail them out if they are caught.

The old man had told them the location of the Room of Requirement and how to get into it, but the rest was up to the three of them as the Headmaster wanted to keep his hands clean should they be discovered.

Bastard.

"Alohomora," James whispered as he waved his wand at the lock on the caretaker's office.

Nothing happened.

"Dumbledore must have had the magic on the locks changed when the war started," Sirius logically guessed as he looked at the unmoving lock.

"It would make sense given that Filch is a squib," James agreed. "Not even the castle would be completely safe for the old jerk. Does not change the fact that we can't really get in now without breaking the locks."

Remus sighed and rolled his eyes. "Move over," the man said as he pushed past the pair and knelt before the lock when they complied.

The wolf pulled out two thin picks and inserted them into the lock, feeling for the soft push and pull of it all. The act took the man a bit longer than it would have when he was younger, but soon enough the lock was coming undone with a soft click.

Remus pushed himself to his feet before turning to the other two Marauders and smirking at the surprise that he found there as he twisted the handle and the door opened with ease.

"After you."

They had a map to retrieve and then a Horcrux to find.

—-

Hufflepuff's Cup:

Pandora held her head high as she walked into the Wizarding bank, a black cat trailing at her feet. She knew that the goblins could tell what the other was, Regulus could too as he shifted back as soon as they were far enough into the bank. The deception wasn't for the goblins after all, but those outside that might recognize the man for who he is if given a good enough look.

"We're here to access the Black and Lestrange vaults," the witch said sweetly, holding her wand out for the creatures behind the high desk to see as Regulus did the same. 

The goblins took them with sharp smiles and led the pair to the carts once they had been verified. 

The woman sighed as they took off and nodded at the other wizard as they each flicked their wands at the goblins, knocking them out on one of them harder turns. Creatures like them were vain, but could be so easily bought if given the right motivation, one could never truly trust them.

They couldn't trust them to give up something as valuable as this either from the vaults, especially once they knew that the artifact was real. Even if they did, they couldn't hope for the goblins to not sell them out in the end as the fair folk couldn't lie, only mislead. 

"Meet at the Thieves' Downfall once you've gone through your vaults," Dora said as she slid out from beneath the safety belt and climbed atop the moving cart, jumping from it as her fault came into view down below. The woman smiled freely as she jumped from the cart and shifted on the way down. 

Regulus knew that the recklessness that the former Ravenclaw now held could be blamed on the Gryffindor that they had taken in so many years ago now. He thought that maybe he should be concerned with just how much they had all come to change once Remus had come into their lives, but as the cart came to a screeching stop and Regulus felt adrenaline rushing through his veins once more, he wouldn't change anything at all. Not when he was finally coining something good.

Not when he finally felt free.

—-

Tom Riddle's Diary:

Barty was thankful for the existence of silencing spells as he walked through a large home that he had only been in a few times for political meetings that his father had dragged him to on the days that he was feeling fatherly and wanted to teach him some skills that would help if he were to join the Ministry of Magic. 

Not often enough, to say the least.

Barty fought the urge to hold his breath as he walked through the dark halls of Malfoy Manor, Potter's invisibility cloak shielding him as much as anything could as the man snooped through the library of the almost empty home, the house elfs within it staying out of sight and out of the way. 

Not interfering in the least.

A few detection spells later, Barty found a locked drawer with more wards than anything else within the library, but even the wards couldn't hide the signature of dark magic coming from within it that leaked out with the influence of detection spells. 

Barty grinned, he always did like a challenge.

—-

The Ring:

When Evan was told to go to the home of one of the oldest pureblood families within the Wizarding world - the one that reached back to Salazar Slytherin himself - he hadn't been expecting to find a shack in the woods. 

The man sighed as he stepped into the all but collapsed building, weary of the rotting floorboards that he was treading across and almost wishing that he could cast detection spells as bird because then he wouldn't have to worry about his weight.

It didn't take him long to find the object regardless, even he could feel the combined dark magic coming from the ring in the floorboards and the wards that had been crafted around it to keep the heirloom safe should it fall into unsavory hands. 

Didn't protect the thing from a simple levitation charm though. 

Evan figured that Remus could find out how to strip the wards on his own as he dropped the object into a special containment box so that he'd never have to touch it.

He knew that this was going to be a sight to see regardless of what happened after bringing the Horcrux home.

—-

The group arrived one by one as the night wore on. Lily greeted them each with tea and food waiting and they smiled at the woman in turn, greeting little Harry even as the boy had yet to be born. The witch knew that the boy would be supported no matter what, even if not by the people that she had originally thought would be by his side.

Remus and Regulus went to one another first when they saw the other, holding onto one another as their lips pressed together. 

"Oh," James said dumbly as the pair parted and stayed close to one another. The man glanced around the room and looked at everyone else, gauging their regions only to find them all looking at him. "Did everyone else but me know?" 

Lily laughed into her hand as her husband's exasperation. 

"Great," the man bemoaned once realizing that he was right. "I'm happy for you, by the way," he said as he looked at the pair.

You deserve to be happy, his eyes whisper and Remus nods in thanks, not that the other's opinion really meant much to him now.

"Let's get this over with, yeah?" Remus asks as his cheeks flame red from the attention of the room, Regulus not looking much better. 

Each group moved and placed their prizes down onto the coffee table and watched as flames sprung from the wolf's hand, creatures dancing through them as they licked at the cursed objects. The Horcruxes wailed as they died, dark smoke rising from within them.

The pieces were gone.

—-

Remus's group and those that were left of the Order stood within a secluded clearing only a few days later, far from both the muggle and magical world as they could be but with the woods nearby for cover should it come to that. They knew that it likely would.

Remus looked at the faces of those that he had come to see as family as he held onto his lover's hand as if daring the fates to take any of them away from him.

He knew that he would be testing them today.

"Voldermort."