The Pet

The Pet


Chapter Six


It all belongs to Rowling, except what you don’t recognize.

The hand mirror on top of Remus’ bureau was talking--

“Hello, Remus? Are you there?”

Having just left Hermione downstairs, he now was confronted by the other woman in his life. He picked up the mirror and sat down on his bed.

“Tonks, are you sure this mirror is a secure line? I’m surprised you should be so careless as to use it.”

“Remus?” Hermione was calling from downstairs, “Are you speaking to someone?”

“You didn’t mind using it when we were involved. Who is that?” asked Tonks. Remus quickly put the mirror under his pillow, muffling Tonks saying, “Oi?”

“Just a minute, Hermione.” He closed the door and put a damping spell on it. Sighing, he brought out the mirror.

“Tonks, is there a reason for your call?”

“Who was that in the background?”

“No one. Look I think we should terminate this connection.”

“Harry defeated Voldemort!”

“What?”

“It’s all over--you can come out of hiding. We all can. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Tonks waited for Remus’ answer. Instead the glass shattered. Tonks was left with more questions than answers.

Remus collapsed on the bed. Over, it was all over. And he should be happy, shouldn’t he? Life would be going back to normal now. Him heading back to a world where there were no signs “Werewolves need not apply”, because they didn’t need a sign. It went without saying that he wasn’t welcome, anywhere. It was useless. Even the Order wouldn’t need him anymore. He’d be completely alone now. And his little island home without Hermione was no more than a cage.

He didn’t hear her knock, and didn’t notice her enter his bedroom.

Hermione sat on the bed next to him and noted the broken mirror on the floor. Taking his hand, she asked him, “Is everything all right? You look very pale.” She took his pulse, wondering if he’d had a relapse.

“It’s over now. The war is over. Everything lost.” His voice was barely over a whisper as he stared at the wall in complete despair.

Hermione took him in her arms and placed her body down behind him. “Remus, I’m sorry.” She saw how devastated he was and knew there could only be one reason. Harry had failed. “I’ll be staying here of course. You shouldn’t worry. We’ll be safe here together.” She brought herself over him. Her soft lips kissed his cheek, tasting the salt of his tears. She lowered her mouth to his and kissed him again.

His breath came in gasps as he attempted to master his feelings. Unfortunately, at that moment, his mind chose to turn off.

He returned the kiss, and the one kiss became many, as they lay on the bed. He wasn’t thinking straight, only knew that Hermione was his world and he was lost without her. But she wasn’t gone yet, they still had this little time to be with each other. Lying there, he lost himself in her.

He felt her hands pulling up on his robe. He kissed her fervently and helped her get his robe up over his head.

He wore Muggle type underwear, faded and worn and Hermione smiled a little to see him so vulnerable. The hair on his chest was a chestnut brown, no grey there. She hadn’t been able to appreciate him when he’d been ill. Couldn’t enjoy the feel of him engorged and pressed again her when he’d been trying to force her to his will. But now…

She pulled off her robe and was quivering with excitement that she was finally to give up her virginity to the man she’d been thinking of for weeks. Naked except for his Muggle underwear, she pressed her body against his. Her small hand reached down and caressed him through the thinning cotton, and then reaching under, grasped his cock. It felt so very hot and so silken. He groaned at her touch and pressed his mouth against her neck, nipping her and making her moan in return.

His hands nimbly undid her bra and pulled it aside, revealing her beautifully shaped breasts. He moved his mouth downward to one breast. He flicked at the nipple with his tongue before pulling it into his mouth. Hermione gave a small cry of commingled shock and joy. She was already wet and ready for him, but the feel of his mouth sent a flood of moisture between her legs. She tried to pull him onto her to get him to quench the desire pulsing within her.

He released her breast and moved his mouth downward, kissing her gently rounded stomach. He inhaled the scent of her arousal and tore her underwear away. His nose rubbed into her public hair as he continued to enjoy her scent and warmth. His fingers pulled her open for his mouth and he tongued her moist center.

“Oh, dear Merlin.” Hermione had no idea of how she would cope with the intensity of the feelings coursing through her. However, she wanted something much larger than his tongue inside of her. The pulsation of her womb was sending her to new heights of hungry need. She pressed his head to her and tried to find release. “Oh, please,” she cried, feeling that at any moment she’d go mad.

He sucked and licked, eating her until she was writhing. His senses soared with the rapture of the taste and smell of her. His cock, its tip wet with pre-cum, drummed an angry pulse leading up to his heart. He wanted to savor every bit of her but his other need caught him and forced him up and over her. He kissed her on the mouth, letting her taste her own arousal.

Her fingers reached down between her legs and found him there just outside her entrance. She wondered how she’d accommodate his size. She hadn’t noticed how large he was before. She pushed the tip to her and then lifted up her hips, trying to impale herself on him.

He thrust into her, not gently or tenderly, but with the full force of his driving need. His mouth over hers swallowed her screams, as her maidenhead was ripped apart. Only semi-sheathed in her, he stopped. Until that point, he had been mindless, had given over to his animal self. Her muffled screams brought some small part of his human mind back.

“I’ve hurt you,” he husked, his throat constricted with his hunger for her.

“It’s supposed to,” Hermione gave over to a sob. It had felt like a red-hot poker had been shoved inside of her, and yet still she ached for release.

He started to pull out, but Hermione’s hips again thrust up against him. She wrapped her legs around him.

“Hermione?”

“Don’t stop.” The new position opened her to him and the pain receded, leaving her only with her need for completion.

Eyes half closed, he shifted his weight onto his elbows so as to not hurt her as he sent his full length down into her. She was still very tight, yet with the wet and hot sensations his mind turned off again as he let animal part take over. He pushed into her, withdrawing to his tip and then sending it back forcing himself deeper and deeper into her with each thrust until his balls smacked against her flesh.

“Remus, Oh sweet Merlin,” Hermione cried out as she felt the first contraction of her release. She clung to him, grasping his back as he arched above her.

He felt the pressure around his cock and sped up. He continued to thrust even as her tightening started to hurt. He cried out, unable to hold on any longer and he spilled his seed into her.

Hermione trembled with her climax but felt as if she had dropped into a deep well of contentment even as her body was wracked with aftershocks.

“I love you,” she whispered as she fell asleep.

Panting and covered with sweat, Remus rolled to the side of her and drew her into his arms. He kissed her tenderly on the forehead and also fell asleep.

&&&

Tonks should have known what to do. She was an Auror after all. But she didn’t want to arrest her ex-lover and she didn’t know how to trace him without contacting Kingsley Shacklebolt her immediate supervisor to get hold of some of the Ministry’s tracing potion. If she contacted him, well, it would all be out of her control.

Her mind leapt to a very unlikely partner—Severus Snape. Although he claimed to have no friendship with her, she knew better. He’d do this for her. Yes, he detested Remus, but she felt her she could handle Snape.

She Apparated to Hogwarts to find him.

Snape stood up from where he had been cleaning out a nest of glumbumbles from the corner of his lab. He needed to find a new terrarium for them, the old one having broken. He faced Tonks still holding the furred insects in his dragon hide covered hands.

“Back so soon?” he sneered, denying to himself that he had indeed just been thinking of her.

“Severus, I need your help. But I have to trust you to keep mum about it.”

“What is this about?” Snape placed the glumbumbles in a bowl and placed a book over it. He removed the gloves.

“I need your word first.”

“I offer no such thing,” his heart beat a little faster as he approached her. “What mischief have you gotten yourself into, you little monkey?”

Tonks blushed and looked at the floor. She felt warm in spite of the dungeons natural chill, “Promise.”

“Do you think I trust you? Do you trust me?” He stood very close to her now.

Her eyes lifted to his. “I think I know where Hermione is.”

“Someplace where she feels safe and happy, according to the last time I checked through divination.” He frowned, “Well, where is she?”

“With Lupin. But the mirrors we used are broken. I need to be able to trace him. I know with the Tracker potion applied to my mirror we can be transported to him.”

“Lupin! Kidnapping a Hogwarts student and best friend of Harry Potter!” he smiled. “It will be Azkaban for him. He’s gone too far this time.”

Tonks grabbed his arms, “No. None of that. Why do you think I went to you and not the Ministry for the potion? Come on, Severus. Help me find him and then we’ll decide what to do.”

Tonks’ nearness was affecting him. He knew that this was his chance for revenge against the werewolf--revenge against a creature that he given him nightmares for years. But to go against Tonks? Was it worth it? She was so close him that he could smell the shampoo and soap that she used. In only the few hours they had been separated he’d already started to miss her. He felt his resolve give way. “Tonks. What if he’s hurt her?”

“You said yourself, in every divination cast, she’s happy.” She massaged the bicep beneath his clothing.

“With him.” Snape sighed. Tonks was trying to manipulate him by touching him, and it was working, but only to a point, “Of course, he’s taking advantage of her. She’s young and silly.”

“Oh, no. Hermione hasn’t got a silly bone in her body.”

“Put her near a house elf and you’ll see she’s no better than she ought to be.”

Tonks licked her lips, “Well, can we locate him?”

“Are you sure you want to? You seem so inclined to protect him.” Snape wrenched out of her hold and she let her arms drop.

“I think he deserves to be heard out before being sent to Azkaban, and we both know how the Ministry can sometimes mix things up, especially with a person they feel unsure or scared of. I think you have some personal experience of that, Severus?”

“How dare you—“

“I dare. Going to my fellow Aurors is out of the question! You are my only chance of giving Remus a fair shake on this. So will you help me—“

“Yes. Blast you.” Snape was quite certain now that she still loved the monster. One only had to look at the lengths she was prepared to go to keep her lover safe, even if he’d been involved with another female. “This will take a little doing, everything is at sixes and sevens here. Come back in an half hour and I should have a tracer potion set up that will take us to the mirror’s twin.”

“Do you better! Why don’t I help you?” There was a loud crash as her robes sleeve knocked over the bowl of glumbumbles. The bowl shattered on the stone floor and the bugs let out a happy buzz as they made off for the bookcases to hide in. “Oh, I can do a reparo spell for that bowl!”

“Out! One half hour!!!”

Tonks grinned. She’d made him crazy back when she’d been his student as well.

&&&

“Do you hear something?” Hermione groggily lifted her face from Remus’ chest.

The door burst open and a gloating Snape accompanied by Tonks came in.

“What is the meaning of this?” Remus stood up, too angry to care about covering himself.

“Caught red handed this time, Lupin. So how many years will they give you for kidnapping and rape?” He had his wand pointed at the Lycanthrope, much as he had done years earlier in the Shrieking Shack.

“Severus! You don’t need to threaten him with your wand, he’s quite clearly unarmed,” Tonks had her own wand out, unsure whether she was going to have to face down Snape after all.

Hermione grabbed the bedding from off the floor. Having covered her body, she found her courage and her tongue, “I was neither kidnapped nor raped.”

“Shut up, stupid girl!” said Snape, still smiling.

“Hermione, come over here,” Tonks said quietly. “You can tell me what happened.”

“I’m not going anywhere. You are the intruders and you should leave.”

“The war’s over, love,” said Tonks softly. “It’s safe to go back home. Remus here didn’t tell a soul about you. We’ve all been worried sick.”

Hermione shot Remus a look of incredulity. He hadn’t told anyone that she was there? Why? And if the war was over, why was it safe to go back, unless…unless she’d made a totally wrong assumption about the wars outcome. She sank down on the bed.

“You didn’t tell her did you? Because you knew she’d leave you.” Snape was chuckling. “You pathetic bastard.”

Remus stared at the ground. Snape’s words stung because of their core of truth. He’d known she’d leave him and he had taken advantage of her.

Hermione looked up at Remus and then at Snape’s triumphant visage. Fury welled up in her, “No, you have it all wrong. And this time you’ll listen, you, you--greasy git!”

“Hermione!” Tonks stared at her.

“Well, let the idiot girl babble on,” Snape nodded. “And then off to Azkaban.”

“You’re the idiot. If you’d listened to us years ago, instead of your stupid need to revenge yourself, Wormtail would have been caught and there would have been no return of Voldemort and no war. Sirius would be alive and,” Hermione felt a tear trickle down her burning face. “Well, not this time. This time you will listen.”

Wrapping herself in a toga of sheets, she stood next to the silent Remus. Her mind flickered over the lies she’d need to cover the situation.

“He was merely doing as I requested. If he’d told anyone where I was… they would have made me leave. I would have been shuttled around from safe place to safe place, knowing that at any time the Death Eaters could have broken our magics and found us. I felt safe here, and happy. I love him. He did tell me about the war ending and I would have gone back--eventually. I just wanted more time alone with him.”

“How utterly nauseating. Well, you can repeat that to the Ministry.” Snape’s eyes glittered with pleasure. “Come along Lupin, put on some clothes, man, you are an embarrassment.” Snape, focusing on Remus, paid no heed to the girl as she picked up her clothes.

“No!” Hermione grabbed her wand from the pocket of her robe and pointed it at Snape.

“Hermione,” Tonks already had her wand pointed at the girl, “don’t prove Severus right about your maturity. Steady on.”

“Tonks, look I’ll go with you both, no trouble, but leave Remus here. He’s done nothing but good. I’m of age you know. There is nothing to stop me from saying hello to everyone and then heading straight back here.”

Remus was stunned but still managed to speak, “Hermione, it is best if you go along with them. Show everyone that you are fine and that I haven’t hurt you.”

“No longer the virgin though, are we?” Snape’s mood was spiraling downward. He knew that Tonks was on their side, though he couldn’t understand why. Furthermore, the blood on the sheets and smeared on Remus’ groin told the story of why Hermione might not wish to return. This was obviously not the rescue he’d hoped it would be.

Tonks hit him on the shoulder. “Mind out of the gutter, Sev.”

Snape’s frown grew deeper. “I’m heading directly to Prof. Dumbledore. He is inspecting the damage at Hogwarts before leaving on a trip this evening. I expect the two of you to be at Hogwarts as soon as our little tart has gotten her clothes on.”

He Apparated.

The tension in the room disappeared with him. Suddenly there was air to breath again.

“Remus—“ Hermione touched his arm.

He grabbed his robe, “I’m sorry to have put you into such an embarrassing position.” He practically ran out the door.

“He hasn’t changed a bit.” Tonks sighed and sat in the armchair by the window, “Made a mess of things, have I?”

Hermione continued dressing, “Quite.”

“But Merlin only knows when he’d have come clean—“

“I told you—“

“Yes, I heard that. Well, come along then. Do you have much to bring with you or did you mean it when you said you’d be returning here?”

Hermione suddenly felt quite bereft. It wasn’t just leaving Remus. She’d accepted this as her new home. She wanted more walks by the ocean with him and picnics on the bluffs. But there was so much waiting for her. “I don’t know. I guess it might take some time. I need to talk to my parents and see when they are coming back from Australia. And I would like to catch up with Harry, Ginny, Ron and—“ A terrible thought struck that maybe Remus had kept other news from her. “Oh dear, is everyone all right?”

“Yes, Harry and all the Weasleys. Sure we lost a few here and there, but we stayed calm and followed the plan. Unlike some.”

Hermione swallowed heavily. She didn’t know what to make of Remus lying to her. Well, not really lies, more like sins of omission. And she’d expected him to stand up to Snape, instead of just standing there and taking it from him.

“I’ll just get Crookshanks. Remus and I will sort this out later.” She looked around the room, unsure how to feel, how to act. Sweet Merlin, and Snape had seen her in the altogether! And she’d called him a greasy git to his face!

She took another deep breath and went to get her belongings.