It Happened One Night

CHAPTER 21: Uninvited Visitors







WARNING: Violence







Hermione had showered and finished off a cup of tea before climbing into their bed and clutching Remus’s pillow tight. She hated knowing he was just below her, pacing back and forth no doubt. She had heard the soft howl that indicated the transformation was complete and it never failed to make her want to cry.

It took awhile, but she finally fell asleep, her dreams filled with images of home and family







Her back was to the bedroom door when she heard it open slowly. She had no real idea of what time it was or how long she had been asleep so she assumed that Remus was back to normal and was coming to bed.





“You doing alright, sweetheart? Do you need tending to before you come to bed?” She asked sleepily as she rolled over. It wasn’t her husband standing at their bedside when she looked up. “Ron, what in the hell are you doing here and how did you get into my house?”





Ron stared at her through eyes glazed with alcohol and anger. She was wearing a pair of pink pajamas and was sitting against the headboard clutching a pillow to her chest.





“I came to talk some sense into you. I have been studying your wards, they are very familiar to me as you may recall, easy to unravel.” He said, his smile reflecting evilly in the moonlight coming through the window.







“Get out, Ron. Now.” Hermione said, grabbing her wand from beneath her pillow.





“No need, Mooney is locked up tight for the night; it’s just you and me.” He said, reaching out and grabbing a handful of her hair to drag her from the bed. Hermione was in shock that Ron was resorting to violence, so much so that she dropped her wand as he pulled her to the floor and dragged her through the house and into the living room. “I can’t talk to you while you are sitting in the bed you share with him.” He tossed her by her hair into the living room and stood over her as she rubbed her head.





“Ron, don’t do this.” Hermione said, backing up slowly until she hit the backside of the sofa.





“I didn’t do this, you did. You just couldn’t be like the other wives and girlfriends could you? Always have to be different, always have to be so damned smart and independent.”





“You have known me all my life, Ron. You knew who I was, why would that change?” She felt trapped but knew she needed to keep him talking. The longer he talked the more time she had to find a way out.





“Oh, you changed for him. You shag him once and stroll into breakfast looking like a walking wet dream. You couldn’t have made even half that effort for me? I would have been happy with that.” Ron snarled, pacing the room. Hermione could smell the alcohol on him and she wondered if it had completely rotted his brain or if there was any of the old Ron still in there somewhere.







“I’m sorry if you believe I didn’t want to please you, Ron. I didn’t change for Remus, he made me feel beautiful so I wanted to look beautiful.” She was sliding inch by inch along the back of the couch.





“Oh, you look beautiful alright. I never dreamed you could look like that. Especially in that black dress……even the Malfoy’s were drooling over you. You know you look good if they are willing to admire a mudblood.” He said.





Hermione cringed at his use of the term that had once caused him to have a curse backfire in defense of her.





“I wasn’t there for people to admire. The only opinion I care about is Remus’s.” She said.





“Oh yes, Lupin. I still can’t believe you married a werewolf. I mean really, he’s an animal for fuck sake! Yet you…..you just flaunt yourself in front of him, teasing, smiling, always kissing and touching him…..it’s disgusting.” He spat, his face ruddy with his fury.





“That’s how people in love act, Ronald.” Hermione said, almost to the edge of the sofa. If she could get around it and to the fireplace she could get to Harry’s.





“I was in love with you and I know you loved me, but you weren’t hanging all over me like some sort of bitch in heat!” He said, pointing his wand at her. “But then maybe you only play the bitch for the wolf, is that it?”





“You have a problem, Ron. My personal relationship with Remus is none of your business.” She said, pressing back as far as she could as the end of his wand came closer to her face.





“My only problem is you. We belong together, we always have and you need to remember that.” His whole demeanor changed in an instant. He went from raging fury to an eerie, calm, detachment that made her more frightened than his anger.





“Ron, please, I’m married. I love Remus and I won’t leave him for any reason.” Hermione said, desperate for the chance to get around the sofa and into the hearth.





“You don’t really love him. He’s just someone there to fill the void, but you don’t have to settle for him now, we can be together, I know now that you can be everything I need you to be.” He said stalking her slowly.





“I do love him and I am not settling for anything. Ron, I can’t be what you need and you can’t be what I need.” She said, cursing the sofa preventing her from getting away from him.





“Now see that is where you are wrong and I am just going to have to make you see that. Stand up.” He grabbed her by her arm and yanked her to her feet. He tried to kiss her but she turned her head away and brought her hands up to shove at his chest.





“NO! Ron, stop, I don’t feel like that for you anymore, I don’t love you anymore!” She cried as she struggled against him.





“You lie!” He slapped her, hard across her cheek and pinned her arms at her side. “He has you brainwashed into believing that he is the one for you, but it’s not true.”





“Ron, stop and think of what you are doing, this isn’t you, you don’t want to hurt me I know you don’t!” She changed tactics, hoping to appeal to the side of him that once loved her and wanted to protect her.





“I don’t want to hurt you; I just want you to see the truth.” He said, his eyes looked so vacant, yet desperate at the same time.





“Ron you need help…..please let me help you.” She begged.





“You can help me by leaving him, come back to me……love me like you used to.” He said, squeezing her arms tight enough that he would leave marks.





“I can’t do that, Ron, I love him.” She said, crying softly.





“What does he give you that I can’t?” Ron shook her hard enough that her head snapped back and her teeth rattled. “Is it sex? I saw the two of you through the window you know, on the couch.”





Hermione felt violated in that moment as if he had raped her. The fact that he had been spying on an intimate moment with she and her husband made her physically ill.





“You had no right….how did you get close enough to see inside without him knowing it?” She asked. Remus could smell a rabbit a half mile away; if Ron was close enough to watch them Remus would have known it.





“I learned a spell to cloak myself from Weres.” He said, smiling triumphantly. “You sure have learned a few things from the old guy, I have to give him credit for that.”





If her arms had been free she would have slapped him, so instead she spat in his face.



“Do not ever, ever talk to me that way again Ronald. You have crossed the line too many times. I can forgive you for the past but I will never forget or forgive you for this.” She said through angry tears.





“I don’t want your forgiveness, I didn’t ask for it. Maybe I should sample all of the new tricks you have learned….” His hand slid up her arm and over her shoulder where he slipped his fingers into the v-neckline of her pajama top and tore, exposing her shoulder and breast. “Though I am leery about shagging a whore who would lay with a filthy animal….”







“Please, Ron, don’t……” Hermione sobbed, struggling even more in his grasp. It was then that she heard the plaintive howl coming from the back of the house.







********* ******** ********** ********** ********* *********





Remus had been pacing for hours in his wolf form, listening to the soft click of his nails against the concrete floor. He stopped suddenly, a scent unfamiliar and out of place floating on the air. A mixture of alcohol, fear, desperation and anger that could only belong to one person, Ron.





The wolf began to circle in agitation, his mind conscious with lucid, controllable thoughts while his body was imprisoned by the instincts and drives of the animal. He heard the soft cry and could smell the fear of his mate. A thump, then a dragging told him that she was in trouble, in danger yet there was nothing he could do, not trapped as he was in the cellar.





He saw the key ring lying on the table where he had left it when he removed his clothes. No help there, without opposable thumbs there was no way he could open the locks. He continued to pace, looking around for a way out as his mate’s scent grew more and more polluted with fear.





He focused on the small, narrow windows that had been blacked out and decided that he had no choice but to try. Luckily in his wolf form he was as long and narrowly built as in his human form. He leapt up onto a table and focused on the window. He heard the sharp crack of a slap and felt her pain. He dove forward through the glass, the sharp edges scraping into his muzzle and sides as he went through the window. He gained purchase with his front paws and clawed his way across the ground as he pulled the rest of his body out.





He was on his feet swiftly and made his way around the back of the house. The back door was all windows on the upper half and would be his easiest way into the house. He caught sight of the moon and howled just before he slammed his body into the door and forced it open, splintering the frame. He loped through the kitchen and into the living room to see Ron holding Hermione pressed into the back of the sofa, her shirt torn and her breast exposed.





He didn’t even spare a thought for his actions; he leapt at Ron, shoving him away from Hermione and onto the floor. Ron pulled his wand but Remus grabbed it in his mouth and flung it across the floor towards Hermione. He growled, his teeth bared, slobbering as he stalked the man on the floor until he was crouching over him. Ron tried to shove him away but the wolf swiped his face with his claws, leaving a mark that would scar for life.





“I didn’t hurt her…..” The wizard reeked of fear as he stammered and tried to move away. The wolf wanted blood, revenge and to assert his dominance. His growl deepened and his jaws opened, fully intending to rip out the man\'s throat when he heard her.





“Remus, don’t! Please don’t kill him, don’t bite him I beg you.” Hermione pleaded, holding Ron’s wand in her hand. “Please, sweetheart, if you harm him they will take you away and I can’t live without you.” She approached slowly from the side, making sure that he had plenty of time to recognize who she was and that she was no threat.







He stopped growling and looked up at her, whimpering softly as she reached out and stroked the top of his head.



“Just leave him….please; he isn’t worth losing the life we have together.” Hermione said, sighing in relief as the wolf began to back away slowly. When he was clear, Ron snatched his wand from Hermione and pointed it at the wolf.





“Avada….” He didn’t get to finish the spell because Hermione shoved him hard into the wall. He bounced off and his head hit the table, rendering him unconscious. She rushed to the hearth as quickly as she could manage and sent an emergency call to Harry before she made her way to the wolf. She sank to the floor, leaning against the wall and staring at him. He was bleeding and when he changed back she knew there would be cuts and scrapes on his face, chest and sides.





“Are you okay?” She asked, hoping he was still in possession of his thoughts. The wolf lowered his head and nudged her gently with his nose before laying his body over her lap, his eyes locked on the still form of Ron. He intended to protect her, just in case the wizard awoke.





“Hermione, what’s wrong?” Harry said breathlessly as he stepped through the hearth and into the living room of her house. He stopped and backed up slowly when he saw the werewolf draped over her lap.





“Its alright, he took his potion, he knows who you are….”She said, stroking her hand over the back of his neck. Harry looked over and saw Ron laying on the floor, his face bleeding and a large goose egg on the side of his head. Harry looked back to Hermione and noticed her torn clothing and he felt nauseous.





“Mione….did Ron….are you alright, did he hurt you? Did he rape you?” He asked, wishing with everything in him that he didn’t have to.





“He didn’t get that far, but I think he might have, Harry, if Remus hadn’t managed to escape the cellar.” Harry saw the side of her face already beginning to bruise from where he hit her.





“What happened, Mione? I need to know so I know how to proceed.” He said, crouching down beside her and Remus, still a little nervous at being so close to a werewolf.





“He managed to get in after Remus went to the cellar…..he has had so much to drink Harry, cant you smell it? He dragged me from my bed by my hair and started going on and on about us being together…..when I said no, he began getting rough, he hit me; he hurt my arms and tried to kiss me. He had been watching us Harry…..” She didn’t need to tell him the details on that end, he understood perfectly. “He brought it up and that was when he ripped my shirt. Remus got inside and pushed him off of me, I was able to call him off but when I did Ron tried to Avada him Harry, so I shoved him and he hit his head.”







“I can’t ignore this, Mione. I have to take him in for this.” Harry said, reaching out to put his hand on her shoulder. Remus growled softly as Ron began to stir.





“He needs help, Harry, not Azkaban.” Hermione said, still stroking the wolf slowly.





“I agree, but you will have to come in and testify. He broke in here, assaulted you and attempted to kill another wizard…..I can’t let it go.” Harry said, looking over at Ron sadly.







“Then call for another auror, Harry. You shouldn’t be the one who has to arrest your best mate and brother in law.” Hermione said softly. Harry nodded and went to the hearth to call the ministry. Within moments three additional aurors filled her house, taking her statement from across the room as they were too terrified to come near her with a werewolf on her lap, however tame he appeared at that moment.





She watched them take Ron into custody. He seemed confused as the effects of the whiskey wore off and looked around. He seemed truly horrified when he saw the condition she was in and realized it was he who had caused it.





“Please, Harry, just get him out of my house.” She whispered. Harry hurried the other aurors out and turned back to his friend.





“Will you be alright with him, or should we try to get him back into the cellar?” Harry asked as he stared at the creature still draped over her lap whimpering softly.





“No, I’ll be fine, it’s almost sunup and he will change back soon…..will you hand me the throw on the back of the sofa……his clothes are in the cellar.” Harry handed her the blanket and she covered the wolf with it.





“I am so sorry, Mione. I never thought he would go this far.”





“Neither did I, Harry. We have to get him some help.” Hermione said, reaching up to kiss Harry’s cheek.





“We will. I’m going to go; I need to tell Ginny what has happened. I fixed the back door and reset the protection wards. Call me if you need me.” Harry stood and looked down at the wolf who was staring at him. He could see Remus in those eyes. “I’ll be back in the morning to take you to court. Remus should be prepared to go as well.” With a wave goodbye Harry vanished into the hearth and went back to his home.





Hermione sat there for the rest of the night on the floor with her wolf draped over her lap, petting him gently until she fell asleep. When she woke she was curled up in Remus’s arms beneath the throw on the sofa.