A rapid levitation charm lifts the devil as if he was a rag doll, putting him at my mercy once more. I barely have time to register where we're going as we trail the castle corridors. My heart beats strong against my ribcage as my eyes scan the narrow halls, nerves frayed by the never ending walk.
More than once I am forced to stop and hide with the unconscious devil in unseen crevices, heart lodged firmly in my mouth as an unknown body would pass alongside our hiding place, mere inches from discovering my unfathomable secret. But none did, all too concerned with their own happenings to notice the uninteresting girl and the collapsed man bound under her spell.
It was only when we reached the room of requirement that I began to notice my surroundings once more. Indeed, upon entering, the room had presented it perfectly for my purpose - a rigid, wooden chair stands tall in the center of the room, with manacles on its back and legs and a fabric bag placed casually upon its seat. Floating the unconscious devil over, I quickly place him in the chair, fastening his hands behind his back and placing the fabric bag over his head securely.
The awakening charm passes my lips as if second nature, tumbling out quietly as my hand curls and dips to the appropriate rhythm. At once, the devil's head shifts with a start, arms struggling in a disorientated fashion as he attempts to find his bearings.
"Hello?" He states into the air, beastly voice curling my insides with its deep rumble. "I know there's someone there. Can you please explain what is going on?"
I almost let my lips open, to tell him why he's here, to tell him of my worries, my fears, my hatred of his putrid spine. But I hold my tongue, knowing it was only his devilish charm that bent my will into wanting such things.
I imagine that he's wearing a smirk behind his fabric bindings, knowing that he's driven me to bondage and violence in my envy and anger. Yet the tight line of his muscles reveal how tense he is; how much my spontaneity has worried him.
He needs to hurt as I do. He needs to feel his heart beating so painfully that it feels ready to split, he needs to have pain flood his veins in the way his rendevouz make me feel. I let my wand rise, and begin to draw the intricate pattern in the air as if second nature.
I drew my wand closer to him, scraping the soft pattern of the spell across his chest contemplatively as I stare at his covered head, blood pounding as my mind begged me to make him hurt and suffer as I had.
"Whoever you are, you don't want to do this. The cruciactus isn't the sort of spell you can just perform once and forget about. Once you perform this on me, its on your hands forever." His strong voice wavered slightly as he said it, lips stumbling over the easiest of vowels.
I continue to trace the pattern, lips shaping out the syllables even though no sound passes them. My other hand takes to the devil's form, tracing his average arms, his broad shoulders, his normal neck. And all at once, I realise how desperately human the devil is, how average, condemned to the same mortal life span as the rest of us, subject to the same loves and hates, with the same weaknesses, same strengths, same hands and same feet.
I can't do it. Though the envy still courses through my veins, the tremors in my hands give me away, and I know that even if I truly wanted to, I could not cast the unforgivable. As my hand drops, I hear Remus release a shaky breath, head dropping thankfully.
A noise from behind me made me start as I realised someone was entering. Instinct takes over, and before I even realise I'm casting an invisibility charm, making me disappear into thin air.
The door slammed open just as the disillusionment charm kicked in. And there he was, with a tattered piece of parchment in his hand and a look of horror on his face. My bad boy. Sirius.
"Remus." The name tumbles from his lips softly, as he runs over and slides the fabric bag over the boy's head, stroking the supple skin of Remus' neck as their eyes connect. My bad boy leans forward to rest his lips against my captive's forehead, eyes scrunching tight as his arms wrap round his partner's neck. "I thought - we found blood - I was -"
"Shh, its fine, I'm okay." Remus cooed, smiling as he was rapidly unbound. Once my bad boy had untied his hands, he reached forward, taking the beautiful face in front of him into his palms softly, caressing the high cheekbones with callous pads. "I'm so glad to see you." He laughed, trailing his thumb over the lips in front of him, before following the trail with his lips.
"Who was it, Rem? I swear, I'll kill them." My eyes widened at this. Kill? My bad boy couldn't kill me, wouldn't dare.
"I could have sworn I could smell Mol-" Remus started, as my breath caught with a scratch. Smell Molly. He smelt me. He knows that I caught him, knows that I was going to tear into his flesh, knows that I was going to - that I considered -
"Who... Who was it Rem?" My bad boy begged, nails scraping patterns along Remus' arms as he stares lovingly into those pools of molten gold.
"It was probably just some Slitherins, Sirius. Do not worry about it, I'm fine now." Remus smiled, inhaling deeply as he looked round the room, eyes seeming to fixate in the space where my body should be. I watched his nostrils as they inhaled once more, allowing his eyes to follow my form with astounding accuracy. As if my scent left a visible aura for him, he continued raising his eyes, until his amber almonds bore holes into my own dilated pupils. Eyes never leaving mine, he continued to talk to my bad boy, hand tracing the angel's face. "Unbind me and we can get out of here, Pads. I just want to lie in your arms for tonight, you can worry about revenge tomorrow."
My eyes burned as my bad boy did just that, arms wrapping around the lithe form in front of him with a smile, before he rocked back onto his heels in front of the chair. Remus stood, placing a hand under his partner's chin and raising him to his feet also, placing a light kiss on the pureblood's lips.
Guiding him out the door, I watch numbly as the pair disappear, but before the door clicks shut it is ripped open once more, the man slamming the door behind him and locking it with a quick spell, before he turns to where I stand, shattering the disillusionment spell with a non-verbal, stalking over to where I stand. He towers over me, not touching an inch of my flesh as I lean back against the wall nervously.
"I don't know what this is about, but if you ever so much as look at Sirius again, I will have no hesitation in hexing you to next week." The boy in front of me growled, golden pupils shining in the moonlight descending from the opalescent, near full orb in the sky. "If I'd have told him, I shudder to think what he would have done!"
"You're a sixth year, why the hell did you even consider using an illegal curse on me!" He growled above me, form intimidating from this close. Suddenly, his eyes changed, the frightening golden colour retracting to make way for a more generic, amber colour, shining out of the pits of his soul with a mixture of pity and disgust. "You think you love him." He stated softly, placing his hands on his hips as he stepped away from my shaking form. "You don't even know what love is. I won't tell him. He doesn't even know you exist anyway." I stare as he collects his wand from his pocket, hands steady as he recasts the invisibility charm, turning on his heel and leaving without looking back.
My hand brushes the tears from my cheeks as I sink to the floor, letting Remus' words sink through my skin rapidly.
My bad boy is dead. Remus' Sirius Black has taken his place, ripping my bad boy from my heart with barely a second thought, leaving me cold, and lost, and alone once more.