Dead man
"I never thought I'd see you again," Lupin said at last.
"And I never thought you'd still be so lanky."
A ghost of a smile crossed Lupin's face before fading just as quickly.
"But... how?" he asked quietly. "I attended your memorial."
Ben tilted his head.
"Was it any good?"
Lupin stared at him for a moment.
"...What?"
"The memorial."
A quiet breath escaped Lupin's nose.
"It's not exactly the sort of thing one reviews afterwards."
"That's a shame." Ben leaned back in his chair. "Did anyone at least say anything nice?"
"I see death hasn't improved your sense of humour."
"But it has done tremendous work for my unwanted correspondence."
Lupin frowned.
"I'm afraid I don't follow."
"I don't receive owls asking me to join the Gobstones Appreciation Society anymore."
A reluctant smile tugged at the corner of Lupin's mouth before he shook his head.
"You know I have questions."
"I'd be shocked if you didn't," Ben replied. Before Lupin could ask the first of what was clearly a very long list, he held up a hand. "Though I can't promise satisfying answers."
"I'll take what I can get," Lupin said with a straight face.
Ben waved a hand, and two steaming cups of tea appeared on the desk. He'd learned that little trick from Dobby, sparing poor Tom another arduous climb up the stairs.
Lupin's eyebrows rose ever so slightly before he reached for one of the cups.
"It's not every day one gets to have tea with a dead man." He said with a pause. "On that subject... how exactly am I having tea with a dead man?"
Ben had been expecting that question for months. If not Lupin, it would have been someone else.
And the problem wasn't answering it, but answering it truthfully.
Arthur Brown really had died in Hadleigh, Suffolk.
He was only eighteen, barely out of Hogwarts, armed with a wand, an Auror trainee's badge, and just enough training to think he could protect someone.
They'd sent him to defend a Muggle family with Stinging Hexes and Stunning Charms against Death Eaters armed with the Unforgivable Curses.
Only a Gryffindor could look at those odds and think, 'Yeah, I've got this.'
Ben couldn't really fault the courage, cause he certainly wasn't that brave. But he could certainly fault the strategy.
Trying to stop Death Eaters from blowing up Muggle houses? Admirable.
Trying to stop them by standing inside the house they were blowing up? Less so.
Personally, Ben would've started blowing up the Death Eaters' houses instead. Fight fire with fiendfyre.
Still, he respected the poor sod that was his uncle.
Which was precisely why he'd spent the better part of a year inventing a respectable explanation for how Arthur Brown had supposedly survived.
Merlin help me, for I'm about to write fanfiction in real life.
Ben looked back at Lupin and gave a small shrug.
"...Yeah. About that, I don't actually know."
Lupin frowned.
"You don't know?"
"The last thing I remember is being incredibly stupid and trying to shield an exploding curse cast by seven Death Eaters."
A faint, tired smile crossed Lupin's face.
"Yeah, you always were stupid." He shook his head. "How did you survive? The place was in ruins."
"I don't know." Ben shrugged. "My best guess is my magic did something out of desperation. Maybe I Apparated. Maybe something else happened. Whatever it was, I was unconscious before I got wherever I ended up."
"And where was that?"
"A small Muggle hospital." Ben leaned back in his chair. "Whoever found me had no idea who I was, and for a while neither did I."
"You lost your memory?"
Ben nodded. "It came back in pieces. By the time I remembered enough to ask what year it was, the war was over, and Arthur Brown had already been buried."
Lupin sat quietly for several seconds, turning the story over in his mind before finally asking the one question Ben had been expecting all along.
"You could've come back."
"I know."
"Why didn't you?"
Ben didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked down into his teacup, watching the ripples on the surface slowly settle.
"At first, I kept telling myself I'd do it tomorrow. Then next week. Then next month."
He gave a small shake of his head.
"The longer I waited, the harder it became... because not everyone got the luxury of choosing."
Lupin remained silent, sensing there was more.
"Remember John Bell?"
He nodded.
"You two were inseparable at Hogwarts."
"Yeah," Ben said with a faint smile. "Just two idiots doing stupid things together. Trust that stubborn git to see what happened to me and still run headfirst into the next burning house."
The smile slowly faded from his face.
"Fourteen days after Hadleigh, he went and got himself blown up saving another Muggle family. Only difference was..." He looked down into his teacup and gave it a small turn in his hands. "...he didn't wake up."
For a few moments, neither of them spoke.
"Surely you understand, Remus," Ben said quietly. "You've lost friends too. James. Lily."
Lupin lowered his eyes.
Ben let out a weary breath.
"How is it fair that the best of us are gone while we're the ones left to live this cursed life?"
"It isn't." Lupin sighed, rubbing a hand across his face. "But war is never fair, is it? And it wasn't your fault. There wasn't anything you could've done."
"Oh, I know exactly how insignificant I am." Ben let out a humourless laugh. "I had thirteen years to learn that while I watched the Ministry give their killers a clean chit. Watching Malfoy and his lot stroll free, one after another claiming they'd been Imperiused while the Ministry thanked them for their cooperation."
"Arthur..."
"Arthur Brown died in Hadleigh, Remus."
Ben turned the squid mask over in his hands for a moment before slipping it back over his face. The irony wasn't lost on him. Arthur Brown was already a mask, and now he was putting another one on top of it.
"What came back was just his shell," he said quietly. "A façade wearing Arthur Brown's face. I won't waste what's left of him pretending everything's fine. And this time, I won't be so helpless."
Lupin watched him in silence, genuine concern slowly creeping onto his face.
"This time?" he asked carefully. "Arthur... the war's over. It's been over for thirteen years. You-Know-Who is gone."
"So everyone keeps saying."
"Arthur, you have to move on. We all do. It doesn't do anyone any good to stay trapped in the past."
"I'm not trapped in the past, Remus." Ben met his eyes through the carved eyeholes of the mask. "I'm preparing for the future."
Lupin frowned.
"What future?"
"The one where Voldemort comes back."
The colour drained ever so slightly from Lupin's face.
"...Arthur."
"I'm not crazy, Remus." Ben leaned forward, resting his forearms on the desk. "You may think I've spent the last decade hiding, but I've spent it following his trail."
"What trail?"
Ben met his gaze. "He was in the forests of Albania. I saw him. Little more than a ghost... but he wasn't dead."
Lupin stared at him for a long moment before letting out a quiet sigh.
To be Continued...