Disclaimer: I do not take credit for anything associated with Harry Potter. No financial profit is being made.

A/N: I've given Tonks a new nickname. But if you don't like it, don't worry, it's only a pet name Remus uses for her and probably won't come up much in the story. Also, the first page or so may be a tiny bit confusing, but if you stay with it and read to the end of the chapter things should definitely be less confusing to you, I promise.

Unlikely Partners

Chapter 2

Severus stepped into Remus's flat and Remus shut the door behind him. The werewolf faced Severus with

a steely expression in his green eyes.

"All right, Severus. You have my attention," Remus stated curtly.

"The matter I need to discuss with you isn't something we can be done with quickly. Bring Nymphadora out here before I tell you why I had to show up like this," Severus said to him.

"FAHDEE!" Remus yelled, "There's someone here who wants to speak to the both of us."

The two men stood in tense silence for several seconds. Then, a woman dressed in a lavender silk robe and dark jeans came out of a room towards the back of the apartment. Her gray eyes lit up with surprise when she saw who was standing next to Remus. She shot Remus a quick look before turning her gaze back on Hogwarts former potions master. She moved to stand next to Remus and he instinctively wrapped his arm around her waist protectively as if he was wary of Severus.

"Now you can say what you came here to say," Remus told him.

"Voldemort is aware that Potter wishes to destroy his horcruxes. The two still have an involuntary mental connection, and Voldemort can see Potter's unconscious thoughts when he's asleep. Voldemort has only retained his human form since the beginning of this year. He must sleep now, as a mortal does to retain energy, but he is now completely invulnerable to physical harm of any kind, meaning, Potter could try to cast the killing curse on him a hundred times, and even if Potter had the purest, strongest magical strength for the spell to be cast, Voldemort would be completely unaffected. Voldemort will remain in this state unless the fragments of his soul are all found and subsequently destroyed.

"Now that Voldemort knows Potter's intentions, he will stop at nothing to ensure that Potter is no longer a threat to him. He has ordered me to take a Hermione Granger hostage to prevent Potter from going in search of the horcruxes."

Neither Remus nor Nymphadora immediately responded.

"Understand that if I don't bring her to Voldemort, he'll ask another one of his Death Eaters to do it, and sooner or later one of them will succeed in the task.

"Not to mention that if I fail, you'll be powerless to resist Fenrir's Summoning," Severus added softly. "You know he has been wondering why you haven't caved yet. I assure you the dumb bastard has no idea I've been providing you with a potion to block his persuasive powers over you."

Remus glared at him and he opened his mouth to reply, but Severus interrupted him.

"Miss Granger will not be harmed. Voldemort is under the impression that I want her for enjoyment and is content to let me do whatever I want with her. You have to believe me when I tell you that I will see to her safety."

"I don't see how I have a choice," Remus said icily.

Ever since Fenrir Greyback had joined forces with Voldemort, in exchange for his loyalty, Voldemort gave the depraved werewolf a new set of startling powers. Fenrir now had the power to mentally call each werewolf he had created and will them to become inhuman and sadistic allies of the Dark Lord. He could partially control the werewolf's he hadn't created, but the power he had over his own werewolves was absolute. Severus's prowess at potions had enabled him to create a new variation of the wolfsbane potion that saved Remus from Fenrir's control. Remus owed Severus his trust now because the former Hogwarts potions master had developed the new potion to make sure Remus kept his sanity. Severus, since he was the one who invented the new potion, was the only person who knew how to successfully brew it.

He and Remus were now permanently linked, and it was in Remus's best interest for Severus to stay in Voldemort's good graces. For if Severus was unable to make Remus's potion . . . If Severus was thrown into Voldemort's new prison, or worse, killed for incompetence at obeying an order . . . Remus would be susceptible to manipulation by Fenrir Greyback.

The majority of London's werewolves were now living in the catacombs below Voldemort's new mansion. Those who hadn't yet been affected by Fenrir's new powers of persuasion were being forced into quarantine by the Ministry. The quarantine was like a more sterile version of Azkaban, and those who were forced to endure it were hardly treated any better than a common criminal of Azkaban.

Remus had avoided the quarantine because his contacts at the Ministry who knew him, namely Arthur Weasley and Kingsley Shacklebolt, had successfully completed a highly illegal midnight mission to destroy Remus's werewolf registration papers. The Ministry now had no proof that Remus Lupin was a werewolf, and as a result, he had been able to slip beneath the Ministry's radar.

The Ministry also had quite a price on Severus Snape's head. Aurors had searched all possible places they could think of, including Voldemort's old preferred location of command, the Riddle House. But when aurors arrived at the old estate, Voldemort and his group of high ranking Death Eaters, of which Severus held the uppermost position, were long gone and no matter what detection spells the Ministry employed, no one had any idea where the Dark Lord and his followers may have moved to.

The thought that Severus was living as a Muggle without using any magic accept what very little he used from within himself when brewing his potions never crossed the Ministry employees minds. As Arthur Weasley liked to say, using one of his favorite Muggle expressions, the majority of the people working at the Ministry didn't think outside the box.

Regarding Dumbledore's death, almost all the adults in the Order of the Phoenix knew the truth of what had happened. The reality was Dumbledore had been slowly dying ever since he destroyed Voldemort's second horcrux. Dumbledore had called an emergency meeting of the Order once he had learned of this, but Dumbledore, being the altruistic man that he was, always believed sacrifices for the greater good were important when they were the best option that one had.

Dumbledore knew Draco's task was to kill him. How he knew, he hadn't divulged, and people hadn't asked given the gravity of the situation. Dumbledore was worried that Voldemort would attack in full force when he saw that Dumbledore had weakened enough to the point of posing absolutely no threat to him. If Voldemort found out that Dumbledore was weak, he would jump at the chance to finish the war once and for all. While he was still strong, Dumbledore had been creating dozens of protection spells on the castle and its inhabitants, spells only he could create and maintain. If Voldemort noticed the strength of those spells diminishing, he would have the greatest advantage in being able to conquer the school and its inhabitants without much of a fight.

So instead, Dumbledore told them all that he had to die before he was so weakened he wouldn't be able to do anything against Voldemort in an outright attack on the school.. He was adamant that Voldemort himself would lead the assault on Hogwarts once he learned Dumbledore was close to death. So instead, he orchestrated an alternate outcome, where he would die before his powers vanished, and the students would be able to be evacuated once his personal spells were gone. If Dumbledore died while he was still strong, his spells would continue to last for a short period of time after his death, almost as strong as they had been when he was alive

Dumbledore had told Severus that he had to kill him, to the shock and horror of everyone in the Order. Dumbledore's reasoning behind this morbid request had been this: By killing him, Severus would secure his position as Voldemort's right hand man, and would no longer be suspected of harboring some sort of loyalty to the Order of the Phoenix. Also, though he hadn't proclaimed it to everyone in the Order, Dumbledore told Remus that Severus would be able to continue to brew the altered wolfsbane potion as a Death Eater as some of the ingredients were only found on the black market. Appearing to be a true blue Death Eater would work in Severus's favor when he went to obtain what he needed to make Remus's potion. No one would think twice about him buying illegal ingredients if they thought him to be a Death Eater. If Voldemort suspected Severus of being loyal to the Order he would investigate what Severus was doing more closely, and if he found out that Severus was brewing a potion to save Remus, both Severus and Remus would be in danger. The best option for everything to work out was for Severus to look like a loyal Death Eater, and to make that appearance convincing, what better way to do it than by having Severus appear to murder Voldemort's most powerful enemy?

Also, the Ministry had to think that Severus had killed Dumbledore in cold blood. There could be no possible way for the truth to leak to Voldemort or one of his other spies. After Severus had done the deed, the world had to perceive him as what he pretended to be. This was agreed upon to ensure both Severus's and Remus's safety.

The other thing agreed upon at the meeting was that Harry had to think that Severus was the killer. He and Voldemort still had some connections even Dumbledore couldn't understand and if Harry knew the truth and unwittingly mentally transferred the truth to Voldemort, Severus and Remus would be hunted down. The former would be killed after being tortured sadistically, and the latter would be forced to become a heartless killer. Before the meeting had ended, Dumbledore had made certain everyone knew what part they had to play in the act to make Harry think Severus was a traitor. Dumbledore had helped them all decide what exactly they would say to Harry and what they would say when they felt he could be listening in on their conversations.

In the end, the plan had been executed as smoothly as anyone could have hoped. Harry wholeheartedly believed Severus was a murderous traitor, and harbored an extreme desire to personally make him pay for what he had done.

Making it look like Severus was holding Hermione hostage would only add to Harry's inner rage.

Nymphadora met Severus's gaze.

"How long do you expect this situation to last?" she inquired softly.

"I can't say. In all honesty, it could be for quite awhile,"

"Two months? Six months? Surely you don't expect her to stay with you indefinitely?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"What are you planning on doing if Hermione refuses to pretend to be your personal hostage?" Remus asked seriously.

"Truthfully, right now, I'm going to pretend that possibility doesn't exist. I need her to agree to this. I was also hoping that you would talk to her for me and get her to agree to it."

"Yeah I'll be a lot of help because I have so much experience at convincing teenaged girls to pretend to be the hostage of someone they believe is a traitor and murderer." Remus said dryly.

"Perhaps I could talk to her?" Nymphadora ventured. "She might be more apt to agree if a woman asks her to do it. No offense Remus, but if you show up at her house alone, you may inadvertently intimidate her,"

"Hey if you want to drop the bomb on Hermione, be my guest. I don't want any part in this, though something tells me you'll want me around if she has questions for me."

"Severus, do you have Hermione's address?"

"I'll write it down for you before I leave,"

Nymphadora nodded. She glanced at the brass clock on the mantle.

"It's rather late. I'd like to wait until tomorrow morning to pay her a visit."

"Let's hope she'll be home."

"If she's not, I'll be able to do an advanced locating spell at the office." she told him. "Mind you, it's frowned upon unless in the case of an extreme emergency, but I'd say this constitutes as one,"

Remus let out a long sigh and pulled Nymphadora against it, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

"Thanks, love."

Nymphadora smiled up at him, coloring slightly at her lover's display of affection in Severus's presence. Severus took that as his cue to leave. He went over to the escritoire beneath the flat's window and wrote Hermione's address on a pad of paper.

"I assume that tomorrow you can get to a telephone. The number written after Miss Granger's address is my pager number."

Remus snorted.

"You have a pager?"

Severus gave him a withering look.

"How do you expect me to keep in touch with people like you without using magic?"

"Still, I would have thought such inferior Muggle technology was beneath you,"

Nymphadora gently elbowed Remus in the ribs. He gave her a look sidelong look turning her and encircling his arms around her slim waist. He tightened his grip and Nymphadora let out a little yelp, as he grinned devilishly as his captive.

"Severus hasn't left yet!" she hissed.

"But he's on his way out the door," he told her in a low voice before raising his voice to call out good night to Severus. The door shut loudly, and Remus's sensitive ears detected Severus's footsteps jogging down the concrete steps.

"And now he's gone," Remus told Nymphadora with a predatory smile. "And you my girl, are all alone with me,"

"Oh no, whatever will I do?" she asked him coyly.

"I'm sure I can come up with a few things," Remus told her before kissing her fully on the mouth. Nymphadora laughed into his mouth before the two of them slowly made their way back to the bedroom to finish what they had been doing before Severus had arrived.

A/N: Did you like this chapter? Even if you didn't, I'd appreciate it if you'd leave me a review letting me know what you thought of it.

And thank you to those of you who added me to your favorites list!

I hope to get the next chapter up in the next couple of weeks.