By: Milah Luciana Merverosa
(A/N:) I feel an inherent guilt upon my heart that I
haven't updated in ages. My eyes well up with tears at the thought of my
fans sitting white-knuckled at their computers waiting for a new chapter to be
posted, so here it is folks! Professor Milah Luciana Merverosa is posting
a new chapter for An Auror, a Death Eater, and a Professor! She owns nothing but her character and the
plot, everything else goes to Rowling the Magnificent.
**
It's early evening as I sit at my computer, rocking out to "Hungry Like
the Wolf", by Duran Duran (I'm showing my age because I remember when that
song topped the charts!), when I feel a warm presence behind me. Upon
turning my head to see who stands near me, I feel warm breath upon my
neck. Someone rests their chin there and gently whispers into my ear,
"What the hell are you listening to?"
"Remus!" His stubble tickles my neck, and I
laugh. Continuing to sing along to my
favorite song, "I'm on the hunt I'm after you. Mouth is alive
with juices like wine, and I'm hungry like the wolfffff." I see
that he's watching me bob my head to the insanely cheesy music. I grin at
the supreme irritation that Remus is displaying.
"I can't believe that you're listening to this garbage!"
His sweet face was contorted with aggravation, "They glorify the life that
I have to live with every day."
"Oh lighten up!" I poked him on the side as I rose to get dressed in my robes. "I've got to work for a bit, so you're going to sit around here and do..." I was thinking. "nothing! Just do nothing... Oh, I found a website on this computer thing that has a butt load of games. I left the window open for you, so you can play around for a bit, okay?" I gazed at him intently, seeing what he would say.
He stared at me blankly, then walking towards the window of my house "What? On that?!?" He pointed at the window where I had just been sitting.
"No, on that." I pointed to the gray box next to the window. "It'll keep you amused for hours, I promise." He lunged across the room, grabbed me from behind while making snarling noises, and pretended to rip my neck open. "You're funny for an old fool, you know!" I said through all the laughing. "I've got to go, Remus!"
"Can't you just apparate?" He whined.
"'fraid not... The muggles might get suspicious."
"You work in a pub! Half of the people you work with would be too inebriated to notice if a rhinoceros ran through the wall!"
I was just about to exit the house, but turned around sharply. "Can you transfigure something to turn into a rhino? That would be pretty interesting, now that I think about it..." I heard his laughter from all the way down the driveway. Hell, neither one of us may be professors anymore, but we were still very happy...
Kind regards,
~Milah Luciana Merverosa
Chapter twenty two
The moon was intense, and it was the closest to a full moon that we could ever spend walking together. He looked tired and sick, but very very happy. He moved his arm, which had been wrapped around my shoulders down to take my right hand. I hadn't held his hand in more than sixteen years, and had forgotten just how right it felt. Like he would protect me from the end of time, if he needed to.
He slowly picked my hand up to his lips and kissed it. "I've missed nights like these, you know." He stopped walking and faced me. Taking a stray black tendril and moving it from my face he said, "You shouldn't cover your head, silly girl. It keeps people from seeing your beautiful face..."
"Oh, if only..." I gave him a sweet smile. "I think the muggles have aged it quite a bit." A quick laugh escaped me, but was quickly extinguished by his mouth. I shut my eyes, afraid that I would wake and find it all to be a dream. Sheer ecstasy was coursing through my veins as I wrapped my arms around his neck. His strong arms were already wrapped around my waist. The closeness of him was intoxicating, and I couldn't be counted upon to string two intelligent sentences together, even if I had to. He pulled away, and we rested nose to nose, laughing in the freezing cold.
"You sang beautifully tonight, Milah." We resumed walking arm in arm along the lake.
"Thank you, sir." I said casually, dismissing the compliment with a wave of my hand.
"Would you have expected any less of me?"
He feigned a hurt expression, "No, of course not!" Suddenly stopping, he whirled towards the dark forest. "Shh!" He extended his left hand to stop me from moving, and drew his wand with his right. I followed suit and drew my own as well. "Lumos." We both stated, causing our wands to light up the area around us. I now heard the movements that his animalistic senses had immediately detected. There was a rustling in the shadows of the trees ahead.
We inched forward until we were relatively near the sounds of movement when something sprang at Remus with such a force that it knocked him over. It all seemed to happen so quickly. Remus fell into the snow with a sickening thud, I heard a bone snap, he let a yelp escape his lips as his head hit something solid. Then my Remus made neither movement nor sound. I only heard the snarls; never took a good look at the creature that was attacking him.
"Petrificus Totalus! Stupefy!" I cried, and the black thing lay as still as death with its four legs bound together. "Remus! Are you alright?" I threw myself into the snow, and he certainly didn't look good. His nose appeared to be broken, and from the look of it, if he hadn't landed in two feet of snow, his arms would have been too. Back up on my feet instantly, I began to actively search out any more creatures. Finding none, I bent over my good friend, "Remus? Remus! Wake up!" I shook his shoulders, but received nothing but slack. He wasn't dead; he couldn't be... "Mobili Corpus!" I rose both the creature and Remus out of the snow. We made the journey back to Hogwarts, which in my eyes, couldn't have looked safer.
It was difficult to sprint through the snow being wet and dragging two bodies alongside me, but somehow I managed. Swinging the doors open, I broke into a great run, nearly slipping on the slick floors quite a few times. I hadn't stopped, despite the cries of surprised students, until I reached the hospital wing, three floors up! Exhausted, I slammed my weight into the doors, and it all seemed to be in slow motion from there.
The snarling creature began to writhe, trying to break the full body bind that I had cast upon him; the stunning charm had worn off. "Poppy! Get in here!" I cried, levitating Remus to a bed. The older medi-witch ran to the bed, but stopped short as she saw the snarling, biting, black creature.
"What in Merlin's beard is that?" Her eyes opened wide with fear as her lips turned downwards in a frown.
"I don't know, but I need you to find out what's wrong with him, so I can go to Dumbledore and see what this is." I pointed my wand at the creature again. "Imperio!" It stopped moving instantly. "Get up." It did. "Walk by my side, not straying one inch, or I swear, I'll kill you!" Silently, the four legged creature, which resembled a great black leopard, padded silently alongside me.
Thankfully, the door to Dumbledore's office was open, and I brought the beast in. He had been sitting at his desk, leaning back in his chair, relaxing after such an fun-filled night. His eyes slowly opened and found their way to me, and the beast that I had in tow. A sudden glimmer of fear passed through him as he took in the blood and slush on my robes.
"Where did you get that, Milah?" He jumped up from his desk, and ran over to me, wand drawn.
"It attacked Remus, outside the castle. Do you know what it is?"
He never took his eyes off the creature. "It's a Nundu. I must send an owl immediately to both the Ministry and to Charlie Weasley, who'll know exactly where to put it." He transfigured a magnificent cage around the Nundu and cast a powerful sleeping spell upon it. My curiosity got the better of me, and I attempted to ask what a Nundu was. "Please, Ms. Merverosa, it's an intensely dangerous animal. I must write to the ministry..." He turned back to an already half scrawled note to Charlie Weasley, and I knew that he would say no more to me on the matter.
I ran to Remus' chambers to fetch some fresh clothes for him, but I also knew that he would have books on all sorts of dark creatures. He had, after all, been the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher. Tearing through his immense collection of books took some time. I found books solely on the Manticore, several on Werewolves, some on Red Caps, grindylows, Occamys, and Nogtails. He had practically every creature that existed on the face of the magical earth, and yet I couldn't find something on a "Nundu".
I gave up, and began digging through his armoire. I pulled some trousers, a shirt, undergarments, and robes to throw over it all. I seriously doubted that he would be released tomorrow, but who knows with Poppy. 'She's skilled enough to fix him up tonight...' I thought to myself. While plopping the small stack of clothes on the desk to fold them, I felt something hit my foot. Two books had fallen to the floor. One was simple and leather bound; it looked like an ordinary muggle journal. The other was exactly what I had been looking for, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I picked them both up, sat in his armchair and perused the alphabetically ordered creatures. Fingering the delicate pages, I finally found the entry I looked for:
NunduM.O.M. Classification: XXXXX
This east African beast is arguably the most dangerous in the world. A gigantic leopard that moves silently despite its size... It has never yet been subdued by fewer than a hundred skilled wizards working together.
"Why would one be lurking in the Dark Forest?" I asked myself as I put down that book and picked up the unmarked one. Obviously very old, I flipped through its pages quickly. It was all in Remus' handwriting; this was his journal! I dropped it as if its pages had been scorching. "I can't read this... It's his private thoughts..." As if on cue, the book that had fallen onto my lap fell open to a page that read, "I wish that she could understand me, how I still feel for her everyday... It rips me to pieces to see her with that thing, but she's an adult. I have to simply be waiting around for when he hurts her; I know that he will. I just hope that I can put her back together when he's done with her..." It was practically an invitation to read... I flipped to the night that I returned to Hogwarts as a teacher, and it said, "She's back. I can't believe it! All these years that I thought she was gone, murdered perhaps... I never should have doubted her; I knew she wouldn't let Voldemort get the better of her! I've got the chance for a family after all! God, I still love her so much. I often take out the wedding band she gave me; hell, I wore the thing for four years..."
"I can't read anymore." I put the books back on his desk, folded his robes into a neat stack, and proceeded to walk to the hospital wing. Now I knew what a Nundu was, but I had no idea why it had attacked Remus. More importantly, how had I been able to subdue it alone, when 100 wizards couldn't do it. Something more than we knew, was going on in the Forbidden Forest...
"How is he?" I asked as I stood over his unmoving figure. The medi-witch was pouring over him, her face taut with worry and concentration.
"As you can see, Professor, he has multiple scratches, and some deep abrasions over his chest cavity." Remus was virtually naked, only his boxer shorts remained on him still. My eyes roved over his form. He was so thin! I never remember him being so lean, but then again, when we lived together, he ate my cooking. Always loved my dinner, that one... "If you could assist me in cleaning him up, we may be able to have him out of the wing tomorrow..." She looked at me intently, "If" she stressed that singular word, "someone is around to take care of him."
I knew what she was getting at. She was only going to let him out of the hospital wing for the holidays if he was put in my charge. Poppy knew that I was an accomplished healer, and would be more than a match for any problems that could arise from him. "I'll just have to take him home with me." She nodded and together, we worked on the injured werewolf.
After healing the most serious of scratches and patching his broken bones (his nose and four ribs), I went to his chambers to pack for his home coming. Little did he know, he would spend the entire holiday with me. I know that he was quite angry with me, and decided that he would stay at the castle, but I'm sure that he'll quickly get over it. I sent both our trunks down to the kitchens for the house elves to move, and proceeded to the hospital wing to pick up Remus.
I quietly walked in, as it was still relatively early. Madame Pomfrey had opened the windows and birds could be heard chirping throughout the wing. 'The sunlight and fresh air will do him some good.' I thought as I stopped at his weak frame. He was very pale indeed, and it was odd to know that in twelve hours, he would be something other than an ailing human. Which reminded me, I had to continue to call on Severus for the wolfsbane potion.
Concern flashed upon my face as I ran my fingers through his tousled hair. He stirred very slightly. Trailing my fingers down his body caused him to shiver, much as it always had, and he smiled. I was quite obviously waking him up. We would have to leave now in order to make it home in time for his transformation. He was in no state to apparate, so we would go by carriage.
My three left fingers were making their journey back up his leg when they were caught by his hand. Remus was watching me intently, "You saved me last night, you know?"
"As you would have done for me. I'm going to help you dress; we have a long journey before us." I sat his soft pile of freshly laundered robes onto the bed next to him. "You're so thin that a few weeks of real food might do you some good. Fatten you up a bit, if I may..." A sly smile curled on my lips as I helped his weak form sit on the edge the bed.
"Where am I going?" Worry flashed across his sickly face. He let out a yelp as I accidentally touched one of the broken ribs.
"We, Mr. Lupin, are going home." I smiled warmly. "Poppy has left you in my charge so that you can recover. You gave us quite a scare last night." I threw back the cover on my head to display the concerned expression as well as the dark circles under my eyes.
"Home? You mean your home? I said that I was staying at Hogwarts..." He sat on the edge of the bed and allowed me to button his woolen shirt.
Stopping to look at him, I gazed deeply into his pale yellow eyes to let my gravity sink in, "You know full well that you don't want to stay in this old castle. I'd be more than happy for you to stay with me... Poppy won't let you out of the wing without me." I raised my eyebrows and allowed a cruel smile to form.
"But what about my work? I have loads to do!"
"Liar." I stated tersely, as I slipped his trousers up his legs, carefully avoiding the nasty gouges that were ever-present. "Even if you have work to do, it will still be here when you get back..." He slung his arm over my shoulders to stand and finish getting dressed. "For the next three weeks, you belong to me. You will do absolutely no work, and will relax. Besides, I think that a little time together could do us some good..." My voice trailed off as I slipped one of my warmest black cloaks over his shoulders because his tattered ones would do no good in the cold.
He lifted my chin with his right hand and said, "Thank you." Tears welled up in his eyes. "Thank you for caring enough to bring me with you... I –"
"Yes?" My fingers fumbled with the fasteners on the cloak.
"Nothing..." He answered, perhaps a little too quickly.
I may have been aging, but I wasn't stupid... "You're quite welcome, Remus. I dare say that you would be a welcome addition to my gloomy, possibly not standing, house. I'm almost afraid of what state that we'll find it in, but together, we can do anything." I shot Remus a purposeful smile.
"Yes, together..." He repeated, still smiling at me. "That's nice. Together is always nice..." He loomed in, unmistakably to kiss me, but before he could, someone cleared their throat.
"So sorry to disturb you, Professors..." He drawled in a rather annoying tone. "I thought that you might want this potion before you depart." Severus said with a rather cruel sneer, swirling the contents of a smoking goblet in his hand. He was angry to have caught us sharing a rather intimate moment. Poppy stood next to him wearing the brightest smile that a person could possibly wear. She obviously was not opposed to us getting back together. It would fuel some of the best gossip that Hogwarts has had in ages!
"Why yes, thank you Severus." Remus stated in an overly saccharine tone. He was thoroughly enjoying the position that Severus was in. "You should visit us on Christmas morning. We'd certainly love to have you." He said with a weak sneer.
"That we would." I added in with a genuine smile. Walking over to him and taking the goblet, I gave him a quick hug. "You're more than welcome to have dinner with us whenever you like."
"I suppose that it would be good to make sure the wolf hasn't chewed you to bits, now wouldn't it." He spat back with a sneer. "Wouldn't want anything to happen to our favourite Charms Professor, now would we?"
"Whatever it takes to get you out of your home during the break, and into mine." I put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Spinning around to walk the steaming goblet to Remus before it cooled, I saw an inherent scowl on his face. The idea of spending any time with Severus in my house disturbed him terribly.
*** *
(A/N:) What do you think? I'll never know if you don't review... Check out a picture of Milah on the link at my author page. If you have any ideas, please let me know... I know where I have set for things to go, but I can incorporate anyone else's ideas (I'll credit you, of course) in too! Later babe!
Review thank you's must be given to: Imogene Mystique, Hinote, and Chibi Chingo. Without you, there would be no story! *kisses monitor* I love you guys! Oh, and Chibi, I'm glad that you like being written about. All three of you are characters in my story... How very interesting... *gazes innocently to the side* Well kids, mummy has a date to get ready for! *skips* Amore!
~Milah