Remus Lupin awoke from his dream, and his eyes snapped open. He glanced at his watch. It was one o'clock in the morning. No sooner had he wondered what had awakened him than somewhere off in the distance, Remus heard a voice. A faint voice, true, but nevertheless present. He shuddered. Something about the voice was eerily familiar. Though he knew it was unwise, he had an irresistible urge to find its source. Without knowing why, he followed its weirdly enchanting rhythm. He scarcely knew where he was going until he felt the onslaught of January wind that could only mean that he had left the castle and was now on the grounds. As he drew nearer to the voice's sound, he understood what the words it was speaking meant. "Come to the light, Remus," it whispered.
"That's strange," he thought. "There is no light…" However, in a few paces, he could see that there was. It came from the Shrieking Shack. His eyes fixed firmly on his goal, Remus approached the Whomping Willow. Much to his surprise, the one knot near the spiteful tree's base had already immobilized the tree, forcing it to abandon its usual goal of attacking any creature that dared come within reach. Remus, failing to pay this the attention it deserved, slid into the passage that led to the Shrieking Shack.
After what seemed like ages, he reached the exit. Just as he was about to hoist himself out of the tunnel, someone else did it for him "Hello, Lupin," said a familiarly cold voice. Remus looked up, and found himself staring into the stone-grey eyes of Professor Brachiatory. "Er...hello," Remus said, trying to pull away from Brachiatory's unshakable grip. "Fancy meeting you here. Could you let me go?"
"Physically? Of course," Brachiatory said, smiling evilly as he released his grip on Remus's wrist.
"That was just a little too sinister-sounding," Remus said, trying to make his way out. Brachiatory blocked the exit with his body. "Okay, so I'm not leaving," Remus muttered. "But what do you mean, you'll let me go physically? As opposed to what?"
"That's what you're here to find out, Lupin," Brachiatory snapped, looking thoroughly pleased with his nasty little voice tricks.
"Well, then—I suppose there's no point in putting it off any longer." Remus suddenly noticed that Brachiatory's hand was clutching his wand tightly, holding it in a pose that implied that he was prepared to attack at any moment. The fact that Remus's own wand was still in the dormitory did nothing to calm him. "You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Remus asked suspiciously.
"No, Lupin, not yet," Brachiatory said, looking irritated. "Carry on interrupting me like this, however, and I may change my mind. Now, I will not kill you here, not now. However, as stated before, I may change my mind. The longer your friends have to live, the shorter you have to live."
"Er—what? I'm sorry, I don't speak villain dialect," Remus apologized, though rather bitterly.
Brachiatory sighed. "What I meant was I want you to join forces with me. Don't be afraid. I will not harm you, provided your friends are dead in a timely, neat manner. If they are not, your own existence is jeopardized."
Remus stared at him in disbelief. "What? Are you mad? Do you really think I'd do something like that to my friends? I'm not helping you!"
Brachiatory's face twisted menacingly. "So you have chosen the path of pain, suffering, and force. So be it."
A bright red light flashed from Brachiatory's wand. Before Remus knew what was happening, he had been hit with a very powerful Cruciatus curse. As he bit his lip, Remus knew that this was no ordinary wizard with a fondness for torture. This was a purely evil professor, bent on killing Remus and his friends. Remus knew perfectly well what his role would be. He would be used as a tool, simply a murder weapon to be used at Brachiatory's discretion. Remus himself would have no control over his mind or body. And when he was no longer needed, he, too, would be killed. "That isn't going to change my mind," Remus said, as Brachiatory sent another Cruciatus curse his way. "I still won't let you do it." He knew that, logically, there was no way of escaping, but there was always the very slim chance that Brachiatory would get tired and wander away.
Brachiatory looked at Remus piercingly. "You know perfectly well that I will do it, regardless of whether or not you let me. There are ways, Lupin, of making you obey." Brachiatory sent another stream of curses flying at Remus's head. The red light flashed from the wand, inducing the now-familiar pain. Though writhing on the ground in agony had never been considered by Remus as very much fun, this was a situation wherein Remus found it necessary.
"I don't suppose you'll cooperate now, will you?" he heard Brachiatory saying from what seemed like very far off.
"I don't want to." Brachiatory pinned Remus to the ground with one hand and thrust his wand into Remus's face with the other. "I suppose I don't have much choice, though," Remus added hastily.
"You suppose correctly, Lupin," Brachiatory hissed, smiling maliciously.
Remus thought a moment. "Well," he asked slowly, "will you kill me if I refuse?"
"Yes."
"And my friends?"
"Yes again."
"How soon?"
"Very."
Remus pondered his chances for a moment. It didn't seem like he and his friends had much chance of surviving either way. On the other hand, Remus was fairly certain that they would stay alive longer if he agreed to Brachiatory's offer. "I—I guess I'll let you," he said defeatedly.
Brachiatory grinned evilly and patted Remus on the head condescendingly. "Excellent, Lupin," he whispered. "I knew you'd learn to see sense." Brachiatory raised his wand. "Imperio!" he hissed.
Remus felt a shiver run down his back. His mind felt wonderfully numb. Somewhere, Brachiatory's faint voice was telling him to go back to his dormitory and get some sleep. Remus sighed sadly, and walked slowly out of the Whomping Willow.
He hardly knew what he was doing. He knew only that he had been hit with the Imperius Curse, a spell that was extremely difficult to break. For a moment he stood in the Whomping Willow, struggling against its power…but he couldn't do it. His head spun, perhaps literally. Remus wasn't entirely sure.
Remus walked almost robot-like back to the boys' dormitory. As he was not paying attention to where he was going, he crashed right into the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Well!" the Fat Lady exclaimed indignantly, brushing off her pink dress.
"Sorry," Remus muttered, though he was really not sorry and would be only too glad to crash into her again. He had never particularly liked the Fat Lady.
The Fat Lady rolled her eyes. "Password?"
"Pixie bite," Remus said automatically. He stepped inside the common room and began to ascend the staircase. He was so detached that he didn't notice the person sitting in the common room until she whispered his name.
"Remus?" hissed Ember Maric, Remus's girlfriend.
Remus turned. "Yeah?"
"What are you doing out of bed?" she inquired.
Remus looked away. "Nothing. Good night, Ember," he said tersely, and walked up the stairs. Just before he shut the door, he heard Ember sigh sadly. Oddly, he found that he didn't particularly care.