Rescued

Chapter 2

"Excuse me, Mikhail Karkaroff?" Remus entered the gothic and austere Headmaster's office at the Durmstrang Institute, carefully pulling the door behind him shut.

A thin man with white hair, gaunt cheeks and a pointy chin looked up at him over a stack of papers. Remus was surprised to see what a resemblance he bore to his cousin and former Durmstrang Headmaster, Igor Karkaroff.

"I'm sorry do you have an appointment?" The man finally responded haughtily in heavily accented English.

"Actually, Headmaster, I believe it's you who has an appointment with me." Then before Karkaroff could defend himself, Remus raised his wand and yelled, "Immobulus!"

After several minutes of getting nowhere with Karkaroff, his anger became a cold rage, and he did something he hadn't done in nearly seventeen years. He cast and held the Cruciatus curse. The school was empty for the summer, and therefore, no one could hear the man's screams or his confession.

An hour later, Remus stood in Volvograd, Russia; snow drifting silently around his shoulders, a giant grey statue of a faceless woman grieving over a dead man. Lupin's left hand shook as he tightly gripped a Russian newspaper advertising women – a thinly veiled classified ad for foreign prostitutes circled in red ink. Pinching his eyes tightly shut, he tried to find his pleasant façade, his inner calm. But it was useless. His entire person was consumed by rage.

I have to find her before I'ts too late.

Remus Lupin had been walking the desolate blackened streets of Volvograd for hours, and now the sun hung low. And his heart began to sink, as well. He had immediately tried the phone number of the advertisement, but it was disconnected. And he began to wonder if coming to this bleak place had been a mistake. Perhaps he should return to Durmstrang and interrogate Karkaroff again - if he was still alive. Remus closed his eyes and shuddered then fingering the soft patch of cotton fabric, he reminded himself of why he was doing this, why he was once again becoming the man he thought he'd suppressed all those years ago.

"Englishman!" said a young voice with a thick Russian accent. "Come." A dirty-faced child with bright eyes beckoned to him from the alleyway then began to run.

Remus took off after him. Either he was about to face a rag-tag brood of street rats wanting to mug him or Malfoy had found him.

"You're friend's in there," the boy said in Russian, pointing to a building in the shadows then holding out his palm. Remus looked at the boy with doubt to his intentions but pressed two sickles in his hand regardless.

"Spasibo!" The boy smiled and ran off down the darkening alley.

Wand withdrawn, Lupin cautiously entered the seemingly empty building. From the end of a long corridor, he saw the flicker of candlelight. Saying a silent prayer that somehow Tonks would be inside unharmed, he began to silently approach the room; however, who he found bound and bloodied was quite a surprise. Slumped in a rickety chair with leather straps binding his hands and feet to the wooden frame was Lucius Malfoy.

Remus paused in momentary surprise then quickly walked around to survey the room for other Deatheaters but found they were alone.

"So," Malfoy rasped, his head hanging against his chest. "At last, I have been hunted down by… the beast." Then throwing back his head, he laughed manically.

"Where is she?" Remus demanded, wand outstretched.

"You've come a long way for your little freak."

Remus' lips tightened, his pupils contracted with a hunter's focus. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."

Lucius' broad lips smirked, "Are you capable of doing this the hard way?"

"Crucio!" Remus called and Malfoy instantly twitched against his chair. Then flicking his wand again, he released the Deatheater.

Panting, Malfoy finally responded, "You're virility is unexpected. Perhaps that's why the minx wouldn't stop calling your name." Ice blue eyes danced up at Remus. "Is that how you work off that werewolf lust, with that young little auror?"

SMACK

Lupin punched him squarely across the left cheekbone, and Malfoy's head bounced back then forward. Blood trickled from the cut and with a pointed tongue, Lucius licked the crimson streak from his lip. "I'm sorry, Remus. Have I upset you?"

Lupin had turned away from the man to check his anger. This was getting him nowhere, and time was wasting. There was more to this puzzle that he certainly wasn't understanding, and holding Malfoy under the Cruciatus wouldn't get him the answers he needed. That was probably what Voldemort and Lucius did for giggles. He needed to be creative. What was Malfoy's weakness?

Remus reached into his breast pocket and removed a small pocket knife, whispering a small blessing to his Muggle father. Turning on his heel, he flicked open the silver blade and smiled.

"Did you know that not even the best mediwizards can heal Muggle inflicted wounds?" Lupin said pleasantly, moving closer with blade in hand. Then standing a mere inch away from Malfoy, he placed the cold steel against Malfoy's face, his eyes reflecting madness. "I wonder how you will look without a nose?"

It only took a few slashes to Malfoy's chiseled cheek bones before the man sung like a canary. The truth was that he had grown tired of Tonks and his little game. But instead of killing her, he had creatively decided to sell the 'little minx' to a Russian Muggle who dealt in woman of a service nature. However, once the exchange was completed, the man's body guards decided they wanted his money, as well. It was only then that Malfoy learned the Russian Muggle was actually a Kazakh wizard named Jahad.

"Where are they now?" Lupin asked, blade bloodied.

"He mentioned Leninsk - a faire. I have no idea where that is, but he was traveling in a large, traditional caravan. Apparently, he travels with Muggles, so I assume he's not apparating back to Khazahstan."

"Why didn't Tonks apparate the moment you let go of her?"

"Magical gauntlets," Malfoy bent his neck away from the growing pain from the pressure of Lupin's shank still pressed to his face. "All of the witches wore them. They bound their wrists together to render them incapable of performing magic."

Lupin twisted the knife again, as he volleyed a final question to Malfoy - one he already knew the answer to but had to ask anyway. Perhaps it was his fatalistic nature. "What are they planning to do with the women?"

Lucius' nostrils quivered with excitement as Lupin looked on with disgust. "He sells women for sex slaves."

That was all he needed to know. Taking out a handkerchief, he efficiently wiped blood from the blade and pocketed the knife. "Thank you, Lucius. You've been a great deal of help. Now if you'll excuse me." He turned to walk out of the room.

"Wait, Lupin! For gods sake, man, you can't leave me here like this!" Malfoy snarled.

"Of course." Lupin walked back and decked Lucius Malfoy so hard that the man slumped forward, unconscious. Remus flexed his right hand. That was the best he'd felt all day.

Outside of the house, Remus scrawled a quick note to Dumbledore.

Headmaster,

I've located Malfoy. He is currently awaiting pickup by Ministry aurors in Volvograd, Russia; third house on Lennontoft Attr. I am now tracing Nymphadora Tonks' location on foot. Will write when I have more information.

Yours truly,

Remus Lupin

Calling down a circling falcon, he whispered to the bird who grasped the note in his beak then flew off towards the West.

"You're magic," said a young Russian voice.

Remus turned on his heel to see the dirty-faced little boy who led him to Malfoy.

Lupin smiled kindly. "Yes, I am."

"Do a trick," the boy commanded.

His smile faded. "I have no time for tricks, but I do have these." Remus opened his palm to reveal a handful of silver and gold coins. The boy looked hopeful. "Can you take me to Leninsk in two days?"

The boy's face also became serious; a child and a businessman. "I take you in three days." Then he paused, whispering, "You follow Jahad?"

"Yes," Remus answered just as quietly.

The boy rubbed his chin. "We'll take a car to the border, then horses. It will be easier to track him that way."

Remus' eyebrows arched in surprise, then he held out his hand to this boy who could be no more than twelve-years-old. "Then let our journey begin, Mister..."

"Ilya."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Ilya. I'm Remus Lupin."

And with that, Remus watched Ilya steal them a car, and they were off for the dangerous borders of Khazakstan to rescue one Nymphadora Tonks.

tbc