Thanks for everyone, who read the first chapter, and thank you for your review NymphaTonksLupin, I really appreciate it. :)
I'm trying not to upload chapters shorter than this, I hope it's long enough. :D
Warning: Violence and strong language
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the characters.
Tonks woke up on the ground. She fluttered her eyes open and tried to get up on her elbows, but an awful throbbing on the back of her head stopped her and she lied back down. She put her hand on the back of her head, and felt that her hair was sticky with blood. It was already congealed and blood was glueing her hair to her scalp. When the worst throbbing was over, she tried to get up again. When she managed to sit up, she started to look around. She wasn't in Hogsmeade anymore, that was clear. She noticed to her utter surprise and displeasure that she was laid on the floor in some kind of room made of logs. The room had one small window, and it was very dusty and in the corner sat very worn, old couch. In the middle of the room was a pelt, probably from some kind of deer. Whoever lived there, probably didn't spend much time cleaning. On the whole, the room was filthy and it had weird, rusty odor in it.
Tonks was determined to get out of this creepy room, and started frantically looking for her wand. She checked all of her pockets, to no avail. She stood up from the ground an started to wipe dust from her auror robes. There wasn't much furniture in the room, so it shouldn't be hard to find it. She walked over to the couch and kneeled down to look under it and found only dirt. When she started to get up to continue her search, she heard a voice behind her.
"You won't find your wand here", said gruff voice.
She turned to look who was talking to her, and almost shrieked in horror.
Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf. Of course she knew him, pictures of him were scattered around the Auror Department. He's been accused of torturing, killing.. And raping. At the last one she shivered. What was she going to do? She was in the same room with a killer, had no idea where she was and she didn't have her wand.
Perfect.
She started to examine him, hoping that she could just nick her wand from him.
When he noticed her scrutinizing him with her eyes, he let out an evil laugh.
"I don't have your wand, you dropped it in the forest when you fell and hit your head on the rock", he told her and chuckled maliciously.
She sighed, defeated.
"What do you want from me?" she asked him in a small voice.
"Oh, nothing much. I'm just going to use you to reward one of my men", he said and smiled snidely. Tonks felt like she might throw up.
"Take off those disgusting robes", he ordered, but she just stared at him.
Greyback approached her, placed his dirty, yellow-nailed hand on her throat and pinned her to wall. He looked at her pointedly.
"Take it off", and she did as she was told. Under her auror robes she had tight-fitting, green T-shirt and ripped jeans.
Greyback took his hand from her throat and grabbed her arm, shoving her to the door. Tonks was frightened, she had no idea what to do or how to escape. When she was this worried, she probably couldn't even morph her appearance properly, so she concentrated on keeping her morph from going back to her natural self. She didn't want to show any weakness and wanted to keep her ability as a secret.
He dragged her out of the cottage to the forest. It was already night, and it was completely dark under the thick trees. She couldn't see five feet in front of her and she tripped over rocks and roots of trees.
When they had walked in silence about five minutes, Greyback stopped. In front of them were huge rocks, splattered around and supported against a cliff, making caves. There was also a campfire, and around it were scruffy-looking men. Tonks didn't see their faces very well, but they all had scars all over their faces and their clothes were unclean and tattered, they were clearly werewolves. They all looked up when they spotted Greyback, then their eyes fell on Tonks and some of them smiled gleefully.
"Good evening, gentlemen", Greyback said to get everyone's attention.
"Our most recent mission to the village was very successful, so, I thought you would enjoy a little award", he said and shoved Tonks forward, so they all could see her well. She heard a content blabbering from the group, as some of the men were planning how to share her and heard whistles here and there. She tried her best not to listen.
"Not so fast", Greyback said to silence them, "This one here is a special one. She is a very rare shape-shifter, and she can turn into anything you want to."
Oh, he knew.
That knowledge put excited grins on few faces, but some of them were sceptical.
"She can demonstrate", he told them, and one of them shouted "make yourself blond!"
She just stood there and refused. "You do like you've been told to do", Greyback snarled and kicked her. She fell gracelessly to the ground and heard someone laughing. She got scratches on her knees and elbows and obeyed. She grew her hair long and turned it to blond, and immediately heard satisfied growls. She shut her eyes and tried to stop tears from falling, praying for some kind of a miracle to save her.
Remus
Remus was sitting with other werewolves by the campfire, listening to them while they talked about their latest mission, where they had attacked a muggle house and burned it down. He didn't know what Greyback had done to the muggles, but he wasn't sure he really wanted to know… Greyback had been very pleased when he had spotted Remus to be one of the men who set the house on fire. He was obviously gaining their trust. They had been very sceptical of him first, because he had been living with wizards all of his age, but accompanying them on their missions and just pretending to do something important seemed to be working fine so far.
Remus watched the blazing fire blindly, without really seeing anything. He was tired of this underground mission, and just wanted to go back to Grimmauld Place and talk to Sirius again.
His thoughts were interrupted when Greyback came to view, and he had company, a young woman. He couldn't see who she was, because she stood behind Greyback.
"Good evening, gentlemen", Greyback started.
"Our most recent mission to the village was very successful, so, I thought you would enjoy a little award", he said and pushed a young woman forward, so everybody could see. She was very beautiful, she had spiky pink hair and she wore a green T-shirt and ripped jeans. Her beautiful face was distorted with fear and horror. She looked familiar and reminded him of someone, but he couldn't quite place who. Men around him started talking, and he heard two men on his right discussing how to share her fairly, and someone whistled.
"Not so fast", Greyback said and talking stopped, "This one here is a special one. She is a very rare shape-shifter, and she can turn into anything you want to."
That explained her hair.
"She can demonstrate", Greyback said when he noticed some of them look doubtful, and one man shouted "make yourself blond!"
She didn't move nor make any effort to obey the demand, "You do like you've been told to do", Greyback kicked her and she fell to the ground, while a few laughed at her. It took all Remus had to not blow his cover, but he restrained himself and didn't even help her get up, when she stayed on the ground.
Greyback kicked her side, probably expecting her to scream, but she stayed quiet, "Get up!", he shouted and she stood up cautiously.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, but she is a special prize and she isn't for all of you, just for one man", he watched their faces drop.
"Lupin, this one's for you. I liked what you did back there, I think you've proven your loyalty. Enjoy", and then he kicked her again to make her move forward and this time she didn't fall. Remus nodded at Greyback, stood up, and approached her. To keep his façade believable, he put his arms around her waist and turned her around her back against his chest. He started to nibble her neck in a possessive manner and she shivered, probably disgusted. Remus took hold of her waist, and leaded her away from others. She followed him, not even trying to get away.
They walked in silence to Remus' tent, which was placed skillfully between three big rocks, so you wouldn't see it if you didn't know where it was. It looked small, but it had been charmed to be a lot bigger in the inside. Remus opened a zipper, held the tent's door to the side and gestured a young woman in. She hesitated at first, but went in anyway. He went in right behind her, closed the zipper an turned to look at her. She was in the corner of the tent, curled into a ball. Remus casted an Imperturbable charm around the tent and sat down. He waited for her to say something, and when she didn't, he thought what to say to a young woman who has been kidnapped by a werewolf and was now in the tent with one.
When the silence became overwhelming, he finally broke it, "What's your name?"
She was silent for a moment and then she sniffled, "Why do you need my name? You're going to hurt me anyway", her shoulders began shaking uncontrollably, but she didn't cry.
He was a little taken aback by that. She was probably going to start sobbing soon, and if she did, he had no idea what to do. He was never good with women. Especially if he had to comfort them.
"I'm not going to hurt you", he said and to his relief her shaking subsided slightly. She looked up at him, disbelievingly.
"You're not going to hurt me?" she repeated slowly.
"No."
"Then why did you… do what you did back there?"
"Oh, I'm sorry about that. They're doubting my loyalty to them, so I had to… You know, keep my cover", he said and smiled. He was afraid that he had said too much, but he was just so relieved, that the woman didn't start crying.
"I'm Lupin, by the way", he introduced himself and stretched out his hand for her. She hesitated for a while, but shook it anyway.
"Tonks", she told him and tried to smile.
Remus moved himself so he was now sitting opposite her and watched her intently, "So, who are you? And what are you doing here?"
Tonks looked back at him, doubtfully. "I'm not running around and shouting my full name for strangers, thank you. You didn't tell me your full name either. And you really thought I came here willingly? I'm in the middle of a forest with a group of malicious werewolves and I have no idea where the fuck my wand is", she was now seething. Well, it didn't take long for her temper to come back.
He cringed. "Fair enough. Am I that bad?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment, "No, you're not. I just don't know yet whether to trust you or not."
"I don't expect you to trust me and you don't have to. However, the situation right now is this, you don't know where you are or who you are with and you don't have your wand. Unlike many others here, I still have my wand with me, but I can't give it to you just yet, because I need it myself. Normally when Greyback rewards one of his men, the women are tortured to death or killed on the full moon", he said and waited, expecting Tonks to understand what he had just said.
Tonks turned pale. "Oh. So, you're going to kill me, just like that?"
"I'm not, you silly. If I was going to kill you, I'd have done it already. I'm trying to help you."
She looked surprised, "Help me? But why? Don't get me wrong, of course I'm grateful, but I'm just curious."
Remus ran his hand through his greying hair, "It's… complicated. I don't even know why I'm telling you this, but I don't want to hurt anyone. I think Greyback knows it and he brought you here to… kind of test it."
"He said that you've already proven your loyalty, how?"
Remus squirmed under her inquiring look, "I kind of helped them to burn down one house."
Tonks seemed very upset when he told her this.
"They would have burned it anyway", he quickly muttered under his breath.
She still didn't look convinced, so he let it drop.
"If you despise so much what they're doing, what the hell are you doing here?"
He rubbed his temples, "I'm not telling you. Damn it, I've already said too much, let's just concentrate on how to get you out of here."
12 Grimmauld Place
Sirius was sitting in the attic of 12 Grimmauld Place with Buckbeak, feeding the hippogriff with rats. He was bored to death here and he was Siriusly planning an escape from this horrible house.
He chucked the last rat to Buckbeak and got up from the floor. When he made his way to the door, the hippogriff nudged his shoulder, asking for more rats.
"I don't have anything for you, you ate them all", he told the animal and patted it's feathery neck. Then he opened the door and left the room. As he walked slowly downstairs, he pondered where Remus was, and how many weeks he would be on his mission. Sirius was very lonely without him there, and no one except Tonks visited him besides the Order meetings.
When he came to the kitchen, he opened the cupboard and took a bottle of firewhiskey. He sipped it in silence, thinking where the hell that darned house elf of his was. Not that he had something important to tell him, he just wanted to kick something.
When he came to the conclusion that Kreacher wasn't in the kitchen, he started to climb up the stairs. When he reached the hallway, the front door burst open and Kingsley entered, panting. It was raining outside, he was drenched and it seemed that he had been running. Something was wrong. Sirius rushed to his side, Kreacher forgotten, his expression full of worry.
"Kingsley? What happened? What's wrong?" Sirius started throwing him questions, anxious to know what was going on.
"Sirius… Alert the Order… Emergency", Kingsley gasped, trying to catch his breath.
"Emer-! Goddamnit Kingsley, what is it?" Sirius urged and sent his patronus to everyone in the Order before Kingsley got to utter his answer.
Kingsley had finally caught his breath and started to explain, "It's Tonks. I was supposed to patrol in Hogsmeade after her, but when I came to replace her, I couldn't find her! I searched the whole village, to no avail. I found her wand, though. And.. Blood", when he saw Sirius' face pale significantly, he hastily added, "But I'm not sure the blood is hers", but that didn't have any effect on him, he was already panicking.
"Have you informed Dromeda?" Sirius asked him.
"Who?" Kingsley asked, confused.
"Her mother, of course! No one has explained my innocence for her and if I'm sending a patronus for her telling her that her only daughter is missing, it would be downright suspicious, don't you think?"
"I think it would be better to wait for Dumbledore, we don't know for sure if she really is missing…"
Sirius didn't seem to agree, "You found her wand for God's sake! What are we waiting for? She may be tortured somewhere, right now. Or she may be killed. If we aren't going to do something and soon, I'm going to go and search her myself."
Kingsley didn't say anything, so they went to the kitchen, waiting for other members to arrive.
So, I hope you liked it! Please review, reviews make me write faster. :)
