A Different Kind of Magic--UNDERGOING EDIT

Please don't kill me for this chapter. I promise it will be resolved eventually.


Chapter 31- Moonlit Madness


“Remus, let me go!” Hermione struggled against him, kicking backwards, trying to bite his arm.

“Don’t you talk to me unless you plan on telling me where my son is!”

“I don’t know, Remus! I promise you, I had nothing to do with it!”

“Lies. He’s Confunded you, hasn’t he? HASN’T HE! You’re under the Imperious! The greasy git couldn’t WAIT to get his filthy hands on a beautiful young girl. I could just see the itch in his eyes. He couldn’t wait to violate you. But that wasn’t good enough for him, now’s he’s gone and taken my helpless little boy.” Professor Lupin roughly shoved Hermione onto the dingy mattress at his feet.

A far-away look came over him and he swayed in place. “Did you know, when Nymphadora was young, she fell in love with a man not unlike Snape. Older, dashing, I suppose she thought; someone to sweep her off her feet.” His eyes flashed fire as his werewolf-like snarl roared from his throat. He pulled in close to Hermione, making her recoil. “Vile, he was; used her. It took me forever to get her to trust me. I tried to warn her from his type but she didn’t listen. You bloody women never listen!“

He brandished his wand, tracing it around her throat. “You’re just like she was, Hermione, young, sweet, delectable. You’ve allowed yourself to be taken, defiled, and used by that filth for his own means. That makes you are no better than him! If I cannot punish him for my pain, at least I have the next best thing, don’t I! Oh, Merlin, don’t make me hurt you Hermione. I- I, oh God Teddy!”

Remus was losing it. He was so beside himself that he cycled between rage and grief, blame and hate, remorse and doubt. It was like seeing multiple versions of the same man flash through his eyes in a matter of seconds. He pulled back from her and paced the floor as his hands yanked crazily at his own hair and clothing in disjointed movements. She noted Professor Lupin was muttering to himself. Parts of it were intelligible, but some of it she could understand. Easing back onto the dirty mattress, Hermione leaned against the flimsy wall and took a deep breath. She did as little as possible, trying desperately not to call attention to herself.

“You’re crazy if you think Snape will fall for that Prongs. You’re going to get us all in trouble!”

Hermione kept her head straight as she let her eyes dart around the room while he paced his eyes unfocused, but glancing sharply at her each time he turned back in her direction. There was nothing she could use for a weapon, save for the wand he held in his hand. He had taken hers and shoved it somewhere inside his trousers. The young woman licked her lips, her hands tensed into fists as she wondered if she could get his wand from him and turn the tables.

“Good god! Pettigrew, why? Oh my God, no!” His voice lowered to a ramble once more.

Hermione dismissed the idea of leaping for his wand. She knew the Professor had lightening quick reflexes and was far faster and more powerful than her at dueling. He was understandably overtaken with grief. It was two nights before the full moon as well, Hermione realized. It might have something to do with his unstable behavior coupled with tragedy.

Just as quickly as the rambling started, it subsided and he stalked back over to her again, his eyes shining, even in the dark, dingy shack that stunk to high heaven. He kneeled down next to her and traced the tip of his wand under her chin, grinning with a most feral look on his face.

“Wanna dance?”

“What?” The question took her off guard. What was he on about now?

Remus yanked her up off the mattress with one hand, his wand pressed between them the entire time. His other hand wrapped itself around her and crushed her to his chest.

Hermione closed her eyes tight when he brought his nose close to her hair and sniffed deeply.

“Ahhh…. You smell wonderful! Why, if I were twenty years younger…… Lah, dah dah dah dee…..” And he began pulling her around the dingy room, ignoring her stumbling and tripping over the uneven floorboards and his long strides turning every which way. He kept on with some obscure, old-fashioned dance tune as he hummed and sang nonsensically in turns, his face pressed against hers like a lovers.

“Oh my lovely Dora. I never did get to dance that one last time with you in the kitchen. How I’ve missed you!”

Great, now he thinks I’m his dead wife? She was getting dizzy now and his grip tighter and tighter. The breath was slowly being crushed from her chest and when she gasped and fell into his grasp after tripping hard on the edge of the mattress, they both lost their balance and fell against the door of the shack.

Instantly, Hermione was on her feet as she made a blind grab for Remus’ wand. She cried out when he grabbed her wrist and twisted it with fury. They were eye to eye then, his wand tip under her throat and her wrist bent at an angle that would break it if he didn’t let up on the pressure.

“Oh no you don’t, sweetheart. I’ve got other plans for you. Now be a good girl and go sit on the bed!” With one fluid movement he was on his feet, guiding her painfully back to the filthy mattress where he forced her back down.

“I will make you spill all of your secrets, Little Miss Perfect.” His eyes narrowed, his much longer hair fallen from its queue as he actually sneered at her. “How could you let Snivellus touch you? The most vile, disgusting Slytherin to walk the Earth, and you lay willingly in his bed. No Imperious for you, eh Princess?” His gaze flicked from her face, raking down her body and lingering at her breasts and thighs before returning to her face. “I’m willing to bet you were a tasty little thing. Tell me, did you scream when he fucked you for the first time? Were you coming when you agreed to help him with his twisted little plan?” His voice had grown to a muted roar and died again. Then he looked deep in thought momentarily, the change instant and profound.

He was scaring her. This wasn’t Remus…. This was…was …. Well hell she didn’t know what this was! Why was he acting like this? Oh Remus!

Lupin waggled a finger in front of her nose. “You’ve been a naughty little girl, helping renegade Death Eaters and covering up for the Ministry. Oh, you had the rest of them fooled, but you don’t fool me. I know all about your little conspiracy with Snivellous. When he couldn’t finish the job years ago he decided what better time than to get to me through you!”

“Professor Lupin, look. I have nothing to hide from you. I am even willing to take Veritaserum if it will give you peace of mind.”

This seemed to enrage him even more and he shouted in her face, spittle flying from his lips. “Oh, yes, you’d like it if I were to leave you alone and give you a chance to escape! You are not as crafty as you think, Granger. I’m not leaving you alone for one minute. We are not leaving until you tell me where my son has been taken!”

Hermione swallowed hard. He was truly mad with grief. She tried to remain calm, choosing her words carefully. “I cannot tell you that which I do not know, Professor.”

“LIAR!!!!” He raised the tip of his wand and painfully stuck its point into the side of her throat.

Hermione shut her eyes tight. There was nothing more she could say to convince him.

“I’m so sorry I have to do this, Hermione. It’s the only way.”

The rickety door to the broken-down shack burst into a thousand pieces, sending splinters flying through the air and lodging into Lupin’s and Hermione’s skin. It felt like stepping on a bee hive and being stung by all of them at one time.
Professor Lupin yelled but hung on to his wand. Looking over his shoulder, he was too late to stop Rabastan’s shout of “Expelliarmus!”

Lupin’s wand clattered against the opposite wall. He reached into his trousers for Hermione’s wand, losing his grip as Rabastan advanced on him rapidly. Hermione shouted “Accio wand!” She sighed when it slapped into her grasp. In tandem, she held it up against one of the men she loved most in life as a dear, dear friend. It tore at her heart to see him act this way, and even as he snarled at Rabastan and her in turns, she forgave him for his behavior.

“Come, Miss Granger, you must leave this place now. Make your way back to Hagrid’s. We are not far from there. I have unfinished business here with Professor Lupin.”

She slowly backed away from Remus, her wand still trained in his direction. He looked wildly between the two in desperation, his normal senses seeming to have returned with the intrusion on his insanity.

“How did you find me? No one knows of this place!”

“I know a hell of a lot more than people give me credit for my esteemed colleague. It seems you’ve made an error in judgment. It shall cost you.”

“I am only trying to secure the return of my son!”

“Yes, but you are going about it the wrong way. Miss Granger is innocent.”

“She is not! How could she be when she’s been in the company of that animal?!”

“Goodness, Remus, those in glass houses must not throw stones.”

“Fuck off Rabastan! You will all regret trusting her and that evil, greasy snake!”

“That will be quite enough. Say goodnight. Incarcerous!”

A shaken Hermione bounded from the dilapidated shack at a dead run for Hagrid’s. When she was a few hundred feet away and realized she had no clue which direction to go, she simply Apparated to the Hogwarts Apparition point and loped over to the hut.

Full night had fallen. She pounded on the door and was relieved to fall into the surprised, but very happy arms of the half-giant.