The clearing exploded into chaos the moment Cassius's blue spell shot toward Bellatrix.
As she shrieked with manic delight and leapt aside, wands ignited across the battlefield.
Spells cracked like gunfire.
Magic rippled through the ground.
The night itself seemed to recoil from the violence.
And on the left flank—
Severus Snape and Remus Lupin met the Carrow Twins head-on.
Alecto struck first.
"CRUCIO!"
Red lightning tore across the clearing with a feral hiss.
Remus threw himself aside, rolling over roots and moss.
Before he could regain footing, Amycus snarled:
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Green light ripped toward Remus like a thrown spear—
"PROTEGO MAXIMA!" Snape roared.
The emerald bolt deflected against Snape's hastily raised shield, sparks erupting like dying stars.
Remus gasped, "You saved—!"
"Do keep up, Lupin," Snape snapped. "I refuse to carry this duel by myself."
He flicked his wand.
"IGNIS SERPENTIS!"
A whip-thin serpent made of black fire snapped forward at Alecto's throat.
Alecto shrieked, stumbling back—but Amycus stepped in, slashing the flame-serpent apart with a burst of purple energy.
They returned fire instantly.
Twin bolts shot forward—
"BOMBARDA!"
"CONFRINGO!"
Explosions tore the forest floor, dirt and bark erupting in violent sprays.
Snape shoved Remus behind a boulder. "They're coordinated."
Remus wiped blood from a shallow cut on his cheek. "So are we."
Snape gave him a poisonous look. "I am coordinated. You are simply along."
Remus grinned despite himself.
"Let's fix that, then."
Alecto circled left, wand twitching with eagerness.
Amycus circled right, spitting curses through broken teeth.
"Wolfy wolfy wolfy…" Alecto taunted. "Thought you were cured. But I can smell the beast on you."
Remus's jaw tightened.
Amycus's grin widened. "We'll carve it out of you."
Snape stepped forward before Remus could respond.
"I will carve out your tongue first."
"TRY IT!"
The twins unleashed a murderous barrage.
"SECTUM!"
"REDUCTO!"
"CRU—"
Snape's wand blurred—one of the fastest shield sequences Remus had ever seen.
"VIRIDIS SCUTUM.REFLECTO.ASTRAE DEFLECTO."
A mesh of shimmering green runes materialized, deflecting the spells in cascading arcs of sparks.
Amycus barked, "He's hiding behind his little shields!"
Snape smiled without warmth.
"Hardly."
He snapped his wand horizontally.
A blast of invisible force struck Amycus square in the chest, hurling him into a tree with bone-cracking force.
Remus lunged forward immediately—
But Alecto was already moving.
"DOLOR VENTRIS!" she snarled.
A sickly yellow curse sped toward Remus's stomach—slow enough to dodge, fast enough to maim.
He dodged left—
Right into Amycus, who had recovered and was already slashing downward, wand glowing with lethal emerald.
"AVADA—"
"REMUS!" Snape roared.
Snape didn't think—he moved.
"IMPULSOR!"
The force spell smashed into Remus's side, throwing him clear milliseconds before the Killing Curse sliced through the space his torso had occupied.
Remus hit the ground hard, coughing—but alive.
"Saved you again," Snape snapped.
Remus spat out dirt. "You blasted me like a rag doll!"
"You're welcome."
Alecto saw her opening.
While Snape's attention was on Remus—
She struck.
"CRUCIO!"
The curse was perfect.
Silent.
Precise.
A clear shot directly into Snape's exposed back.
Before Remus could shout a warning—
A blur of brown and silver slammed into Snape from the side, knocking him to the ground.
The Cruciatus missed both by inches.
Snape's head snapped toward Remus, shock briefly visible.
"You—"
Remus grinned with a painful wince. "Even."
Snape scowled. "…Fair."
The brief truce solidified.
And they rose together.
"Go all out."
Snape's voice dropped to a tone Remus had only heard once—during a skirmish in the first war.
"Lupin… we go all out. Now."
Remus nodded.
"Gladly."
Alecto growled. "All out? Oh, we'll show you ALL OUT—"
"SECTUMSEMPRA!" Snape thundered.
It wasn't a curse.
It was a detonation.
A wave of slicing dark magic ripped through the air, bending it like distorted glass.
Alecto screamed, arms raised desperately as spectral blades tore across her shield.
Her protective barrier shattered with an audible crack—one of the blades grazing her arm and sending blood spraying into the dirt.
Amycus howled, "YOU BASTARD!"
Snape's face was carved ice.
"You have no idea."
He raised his wand again—
But Remus suddenly grabbed Snape's sleeve. "On my mark."
Snape stiffened. "Lupin—"
"Trust me."
The Carrows charged forward, frothing with rage.
"NOW!" Remus shouted.
Remus dropped to all fours.
Snape's eyes widened in shock.
His bones didn't snap.
His skin didn't tear.
His face didn't contort.
This was not a werewolf transformation.
This was Lycanthropy.
Clean.
Controlled.
Perfected.
His muscles bulged beneath his clothes.
His eyes flared brilliant gold.
Claws ripped through his fingertips.
His aura expanded—wild, ancient, primal.
The ground vibrated with the force of it.
Alecto stumbled. "W–What—?!"
Amycus hissed. "He's supposed to be CUR—"
His voice cut off as Remus launched.
Not leapt—launched.
He crossed ten meters in a single bound, slamming into Amycus with the weight of a charging centaur.
Bones cracked.
Amycus screamed.
Remus tore the wand from his grip and hurled it into the darkness.
Alecto shrieked, raising her wand—
Snape whispered, "Levicorpus."
Alecto shot upward by her ankle, flipping wildly, wand falling from her hand.
Remus barreled into her mid-air body like a cannonball, sending her crashing into the ground where she rolled, dazed and gasping.
But the Carrows were not weaklings.
Amycus, bloodied but conscious, reached into his sleeve.
Remus smelled it before he saw it.
Steel.
A cursed dagger.
"DIE, YOU—"
He swung—
But Snape's wand twitched.
"FULMEN NOX."
A bolt of black lightning struck Amycus in the wrist, shattering bone and sending the dagger spinning away.
Amycus collapsed with a howl.
Alecto, shaking violently, crawled toward her wand—
Remus pounced, pinning her with a clawed hand on her chest.
His fangs hovered inches from her face.
"Don't," he growled—voice half-human, half-beast.
She froze.
Snape approached, wand aimed steadily.
Both Carrows were beaten.
Bleeding.
Disarmed.
Barely conscious.
Remus's golden eyes flicked to Snape.
"Let me do it." Snape answered having already had his own fill of death in his lifetime what would be a little more stain on his soul, at least this time for a proper cause.
"No." Lupin snarled. "This... i need to do myself."
"Fine. Just dont waste all night dithering you fool." Snape responded giving his wand a quarter twist ending the life of the poor fool he once considered a comrade while behind him Lupins claws like steel knives tore through the remaining carrow piece by piece until he had been completly evisterated leaving nothing much left than bloody pulp watering the earth.