Rating of R.
I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.
As a hired hit man, Sirius Black's newest target is a potential danger to the motives of the Death Eaters. The only information that is available to him is an age, gender, location, and the condition of werewolf. Werewolf narrows it down a fair bit, yet that's not going to help him when the location just happens to be an all werewolf school.
Major Alternate Universe alert and mild slash.
Coffee Stains
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Remus was aware of the foul tasting residue in this mouth even before he was fully conscious. He frowned slightly, running his tongue over his teeth, and slowly opened his reluctant eyes. He cringed in pain, his hands moving quickly to his face to shield his sensitive eyes from the light streaming through the windows in the hallway.
Remus winced, his fingers irritating the burns on his face and rolled from his side to his back. In confusion, the werewolf glanced around the room, painfully aware that he was no longer in the sub basement levels where he should have, by all means, awoken.
"There's another one up here!" He heard an unfamiliar voice shout and flinched at the harsh sound.
What? Remus thought in a mute panic, his fingers shaking as they scratched at the dried blood on his forearms and neck. It wasn't unusual for him to be covered in blood, his own blood, but the aches that Remus felt were only those of the transformation, not those caused by the usual self inflicted lacerations.
He yelled in surprise as he was yanked roughly to his feet by a strong hand on his shoulder. Remus' panic escalated as a gag was forced into his mouth and his hands were bound behind his back against his will. He bit at the cloth gag, his still unnaturally sharp teeth taring at it. The controlling body behind him maneuvered him down the stairs quickly, the grip on his arm painfully tight to keep him upright and in check.
Remus screamed against the gag, the burns on his stomach that had been left undisturbed until then, stretching and pulling and leaving him in a state of anguish. When they reached the ground floor, Remus collapsed, the pain from the burns too much, and his eyes began to water.
"Get up," the unknown voice commanded and he was yanked to his feet violently and pushed toward a pair of men that flanked the double doors into the dinning hall.
"Get some clothes on, you filthy thing," the man to the extreme left said without much spite and conjured plain white robes onto Remus' body with a fluid motion of his wand.
Remus clutched at them thankfully, his confusion and pain having caused him to momentarily forget about his state of vulnerableness.
"Name?" The second man, dressed to match the other in elaborate clothing, addressed him, holding his clip board aloft and studying it out of his thin reading glasses. The man that had robed him stepped forward in annoyance at his companion and loosened the gag around Remus' mouth.
Remus gasped and shook his head, the thick cloth loosening further and falling down to rest lightly against his chest like a bandanna.
"Remus Lupin."
"Not that one," the man snapped impatiently, aware that more of the students, naked, bound, and gaged as Remus was, were being ushered into the hall, waiting to be admitted.
"Oh," Remus muttered, blushing but refusing to avert his eyes to the ground in his embarrassment. "2511228."
The man nodded, shouted "next" and pushed Remus into the dinning hall. Inside the hall were others like him and like the ones waiting to enter the same way he just had. They were helping untie each others' hands and he was grateful when a boy he barely knew, but knew to be three years younger than himself, started to work on his own bound hands.
"Thanks," Remus said, trying to ignore the painful burns and already feeling his body adjusting to the dull aches caused by his transformation.
"No problem," the younger boy said with an attempt at a smile.
As he moved away, Remus tried not to dwell on the dried blood that had stained the corners of his smile. He scrubbed at his own face, subconscious about his appearance, and moved further into the room as more students were admitted behind him.
It was odd, how well everyone seemed to be. As a grace period classes were always canceled for two days after the full moon, to give the students a better chance to recover. Looking at the boys in the room, it was hard to say that they needed any time to recover. They were talking seriously with once another, some having their hands untied, some untying the hands of others. Although most shard the dried blood that adorned their faces, for it was the only feature left uncovered by the long sleeved white robe that trailed to the floor, they all seemed to be relatively unharmed the same way he was.
The realization left Remus with a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"What's going on?" He chocked out, his voice hoarse.
Some of those nearest him turned to look at him, only to shake their heads briefly and return to their speculating.
"That's all of them," Remus heard the man who had asked for his number and called it his name say and turned in the direction of the double doors.
Another boy, one who Remus recognized as Adam, a boy his own age, was shoved into the room. Like the rest of them, Adam was nearly dwarfed in his white robe. Following Adam, a group of intimidating people entered the room. Most of them, Remus noticed, were stern faced, had their wands drawn, and were similarly dressed as the man who had admitted him into the dinning hall.
Mixed in with this group were five, very haggard looking, staff members of Stonegate Academy. Remus' heart beat painfully in his throat and he took an instinctive step toward Sirius.
Sirius met his gaze rather quickly and shook his head firmly, his eyes clouding with something like fear. Remus frowned and took another step forward.
Two of the elaborately dressed men advanced quickly, one shoving him down to his knees and the other hitting him hard in the stomach.
Remus cried out, his burnt stomach contracting painfully, and doubled over at the waist. Sirius looked away, forcing his feet to remain rooted to the floor. At his side, his hands clenched around his wand painfully tight. The two men regarded Remus coldly for a moment before retreating back to the orderly line and standing still. They eyed the student population as if waiting for someone else to make any other moves that they deemed to be threatening.
Satisfied that they now held the attention of the entire room, the man in the middle of the group took a step forward from the line to address the students in the room. One of the men that had attacked Remus flicked his wand subtly and the man from the center of the line who was attempting to address them suddenly found his voice magically enhanced.
"As of today, February 26, 1977, this institution, Stonegate Academy for the chronically infected, is under a permanent quarantine."
The students started murmuring amongst themselves and the speaker had to clear his throat for absolute attention.
"We've sent a letter to each of your families. In it, we've explained the circumstances of what has transpired as of last night, February 25, 1977."
The boys stared talking again, some in mild confusion, others in their excitement. While the majority of them had understood by now that something had happened, they couldn't be sure of the entire details. Others, the ones that had planned the escape and the execution of the plan, quickly rushed to full in those who, like Remus had been until the last possible moment, had been unaware.
There was a loud bang and the students fell silent, wincing and turning toward the front of the room once more.
"You will all be delivered home by approximately eight o' clock this evening," he continued as if never interrupted.
"What are you trying to say?" Someone from the back of the hall yelled, his question accompanied by other, less confrontational, murmurings.
"What I am saying is that this school is a mistake, full of mistakes, and that it is simply waiting for disasters like this to happen."
The protests of the students becoming confrontational as they transformed from murmurs to a roar.
"This is an order by the Ministry of Magic!" The man yelled. "We are containing the problem! Quiet!" He yelled, casting a second amplifying charm on himself to increase the volume of his voice.
The angry protests of the students drowned the Ministry employee, with the assistance of his double amplifying charms, out completely. Remus himself was yelling with the rest of his classmates, his hoarse voice straining.
Stonegate Academy shared a funny type of relationship with the students that attended it. Some of the boys that called Stonegate Academy home during the school season also called it such all year long. Some of them would live there full time from a very young age to the legal age of seventeen. For others, it offered an escape to a place where they were greeted with acceptance by their peers.
Some of the boys saw Stonegate as a way to escape from families that either didn't want them or were abusive physically, verbally, and emotionally. To take away such a safe haven, even if it became violent at times, was to take away the only concept of life that made everything tolerable and possible.
For Remus, it was the fatal blow that he would not graduate. It had only been a month ago that Wilton had pulled him aside and quietly confided in him that he would be the second person in over eighty years to graduate from Stonegate with the highest sense of honor.
"You're a good boy, Remus," Wilton had said kindly, placing a hand on his shoulder and smiling warmly. "I've watched you struggle though this school, and I'm very proud of what you're accomplished. This school will try it's hardest to accommodate your future, you just let me know what you need."
Remus' voice grew stronger as he remembered the achievement. He was bitter like the others, yet for a different reason, and voiced his discontent.
Rob jumped onto one of the tables and pumped his fist into he air. The student body swarmed around the base of the table. The Ministry employees regarded him wearily and shifted uncomfortably.
"This is bullshit!" Rob's voice was met with a loud roar of approval.
Remus was hesitant to go along with anything led by Rob, knowing it was most likely to lead to unnecessary violence, and moved toward the wall, toward the sidelines of the conflict. The blood rushed in his ears as he watched carefully to see how his past tormentor would lead the restless student body.
"We've put up with your oppression for too long! This is our school and we're not going to let you take it away from us!" He stomped his foot against the table as if to underline is very words. "We'll fight you for it!"
As soon as the words had left his mouth, the boys started to work together, ripping up the chairs that had been bolted down to the floor. The chairs came free with a groaning sound and they started ripping the wooden legs from the chairs, wielding them as if they were clubs.
I suppose they are now, Remus thought as he was forced to ducked when a red stunning spell soared over his head and exploded against the wall behind him. Over the din, he could hear someone shouting incoherent orders.
The Ministry workers scattered as the students rushed at them. Rob maintained his position on top of the table, shouting his own commands as if his classmates were his own personal army. It was hard to tell if the students were responding to him or rather operating on their own whims. Remus felt it was the latter as it was becoming increasingly difficult to hear Rob over all the noise.
The noise was painful to Remus' sensitive ears as spells fired, sometimes hitting their targets, other times shattering windows or colliding with the walls, and the students screamed and hammered at the Ministry employees with their handmade, impromptu weapons.
Remus tried his best to stay out of everyone's way and flattened himself against the wall to avoid two werewolves that were rushing one Ministry employee who had his attention focused elsewhere. He started desperately to search for Sirius and dived under one of the tables for shelter. He glanced up from his safe spot, thankful that he could concentrate fully on locating Sirius rather than dodging the two clashing parties.
He cringed at the sound of shattering glass and looked up to where Rob was, his shouting silenced. Rob's body was relaxed, his legs continuing to support his weight and his facial features fixed even as his eyes became glassy.
His eyes were not as if stunned, they wouldn't look as if he were a dead man still standing. Rob toppled backward off the table and fell to the floor with a loud thud. His head collided with the stone floor hard and Remus could see the blood start to pool around his head from his crouched position under the table.
It seemed as if the entire hall had become silent to watch Rob, the instigator that had voiced the young werewolves' opinion, fall. Remus' head, receiving phantom pains from the sound of Rob's head cracking against the floor, turned from where Rob lay, dead, to the doors of the hall. Both of them were wide open and standing in the frame was a dark haired man with glasses, his wand still directed at the spot where Rob had been. His face was hard and, streaming through the doors around him, were two dozen others like him.
They looked different from the other Ministry employees, dressed in humble dark green robes. They looked more ready to fight than to make speeches and, foolishly, expect that the new position would not be met with any opposition. They were also more relentless than their other Ministry counterparts.
Remus yelled in terror as a flash of green light hit the corner of the table that he was hiding under. He covered his head and moved to the other end. As he moved, he caught sight of Sirius, dueling with the bespectacled wizard who had killed Rob. Breathing uneven, Remus darted out from beneath the table and dodged his way toward the other man. Not for the first time, he wished that the institution had entrusted him with a wand.
"Sirius," he yelled, ducking under the extended arms of one of the green robed men that was trying to grab him.
Attention diverted, Sirius looked up from his duel and toward Remus. The man who he'd been dueling with raised his wand in preparation. Remus glanced at him momentarily before throwing himself at his teacher.
Sirius drew him close with a grim face and held his wand aloft like a silent threat. His opponent lowered his wand and jerked his head. Another green robed Ministry employee grabbed Remus by the neck and pulled him off of Sirius forcefully.
"Savages. Attacking without the slightest warning—" the man's words were cut off as Remus bit his forearm, which had been snaking around his neck to achieve a stronger hold.
He howled in pain and Remus ducked away from him. All of a sudden, deemed as an immediate threat, Remus felt himself weighted down by three bodies. One grabbed at his neck, another his waist, and another clutched at his shoulders. He could feel them hitting him, hard, trying to get him to submit.
Remus screamed again as they disturbed his wounds and, as Sirius had taught him, fought back. He got rid of the one latched at his throat first, the man stumbling back and holding his broken and bloody nose. The ones clutching at his shoulders and waist quickly followed, yelling in pain and Remus forced himself free of them.
They silently acknowledged that a new tactic was needed to deal with this threatening opponent. Remus snarled at them, frightened, and launched himself into Sirius' arms for a familiar touch that equaled security. Sirius balked, turning Remus behind him and, finally admitting himself outnumbered as the Aurors began to close ranks on him, Apparated.
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