"Do you want me to wake him up, Headmaster?"
"No, no, Poppy. Let the man sleep. Even he couldn't deny that he needs it."
"Yes I could."
His voice was a low rasp, and the two people hovering over his bed jumped in surprise.
"Remus?" It was Poppy. "Remus, how are you feeling? Any better?" She lowered a hand to his forehead, but he batted it away weakly.
"Never mind that, I need to speak to Albus."
The formidable school nurse crossed her arms over her substantial bosom and said imperiously, "Alone, I presume?"
He rolled his eyes and replied, "I don't really care, Poppy. So long as he tells me what I want to know and doesn't treat me like I'm seven."
It was a little harsher than intended, and she stalked off looking rather offended, but Remus didn't waste many brain cells on regret. He pushed himself up into a sitting position with his back against the wall, ignoring Dumbledore's disapproving look and his own discomfort, and looked his employer straight in the eye, as if daring him to lie.
"Albus, I want to know what happened here last night. I want to know what I did, what that feral was doing here, and above all, what happened to Hermione Granger's arm. And if you even think about leaving things out, or stretching the truth a little because you think it would be better if I didn't know, I will strangle you. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"
The Headmaster looked quite taken aback by the ferocity of Lupin's words, but he managed a small smile and said quietly, "I have no intention of lying to you, Remus. I was going to wait until you were a bit better, but I can see that's not going to happen. So I'll just start at the beginning, shall I?"
His former student just gaped at him, obviously surprised that he wasn't spending an inordinate amount of time beating around the bush.
"Close your mouth Remus. It wouldn't be pleasant if a fly got in there, would it?" The man's jaw closed with a snap. "Now, where was I? Ah yes, the beginning. Well, I guess this all started when that new Potions assistant showed up."
"Litnor? That idiotic, skulking, weasel of a man?"
"That's the one. Anyway, he wasn't really a Potions assistant. He was a servant of Voldemort."
"Figures. I suppose it was him that sabotaged the Wolfsbane?"
"Yes, that's right, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. You remember how he always, as you put it, skulked around?"
Remus recalled the various times he had seen the skinny little man prowling the corridors at strange times of the day. "How could I forget? Creepy man, that one."
"Well, it seemed that there was a method to his madness. He was collecting hair, you see."
Remus cocked an eyebrow. "Albus, I have heard of stamp collecting. Book collecting. Card collecting. Hell, even flobber worm collecting! But I have never heard of hair collecting."
The Headmaster chuckled. "Perhaps I phrased that poorly. He was collecting hair for Polyjuice Potion."
"Polyjuice Potion?"
Albus nodded. "In the end, he found strands of hair from Professor Sprout, Professor Sinistra… and me."
Realization dawned in Remus. "So… whoever drank the potion would be able to enter the school… undetected."
"Which is exactly what they did last night."
"Who did?"
"The ferals. Three of them. Just before sunset, probably when you were getting the potion from Snape, they came to the gate and pretended like I was hurt. Hagrid let them in, they knocked him out, then transformed and entered the school."
"Oh god…" Remus buried his face in his hands, feeling as though ice water was pouring into his stomach. But, peeking through his fingers and seeing the empty beds surrounding him, he realized something that made his brows snap together.
"Wait a minute… was Hermione the only person hurt last night?"
"Besides you, yes."
"But – but… the ferals! Even if everyone had had prior warning and gotten themselves into the Great Hall, there are tons of secret passages leading into it that the teachers don't know about! Surely the ferals or… or I… would have found one of them!"
At this, Dumbledore stood, walked over to the door and beckoned to someone outside. He came back, closely followed by a nervous Hermione Granger. Unable to look at the bandage on the girl's arm, Remus fixed the Headmaster with an inquisitive stare. When the two had reached the bed, Albus spoke again.
"I thought I would leave the rest of what happened to someone who was actually there. Miss Granger?" He turned to Hermione, who was gazing at her Defense Against the Dark Arts professor with a mixture of fear and pity that scared Remus immensely, and said, "I will pass onto you the same warning this polite young man gave to me. If you even think about leaving things out, or stretching the truth a little because you think it would be better if he didn't know, he will strangle you."
Despite the tension of the moment, Remus found himself blushing furiously. Hermione's eyes lit up with mirth, and the corners of her mouth twitched, but it was short-lived, as if the darkness of horrible memories pushed the happiness away.
"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore, I'll remember that," she said seriously. The Headmaster nodded and turned to leave the Hospital Wing. Suddenly, Remus remembered something.
"Wait a minute, Albus?" The old man turned.
"Yes?"
"What happened? At Anstierre, I mean."
Dumbledore paused for a moment and looked at his old student thoughtfully.
"They never came. It was undoubtedly a distraction, something to get me out of the school."
Remus nodded. "So the ferals are still out there, somewhere."
"They are indeed. When you are better, we shall have to look for them."
Not waiting for an answer, the Headmaster turned and strode from the Hospital Wing, dark blue robe trailing in his wake.
Tentatively, Hermione pulled up a chair and sat down, wide brown eyes fixed on her teacher's stricken blue ones.
"Her… Hermione…" he began, but she shook her head.
"No. I'm going to tell you what happened, and I won't be able to do it if you keep asking questions."
After a moment's hesitation, he nodded. She took a deep, shaky breath, and began.
"I was in the library when it… happened. I came out and you were there. Well, it wasn't really you it was… the wolf. Anyway, the wolf cornered me and – and looked like it was about to finish me off when it smelled something. It just took off and – I know it was stupid of me, but I followed it. It ran to the entrance hall, and by the time I got there, it was already fighting those… ferals. One of them tried to get at me, but the wolf stopped it. It was then that I realized that you had come back. Somehow… somehow you had gotten control, and it was you fighting those monsters. Not because it was your territory, or something like that, but because you were protecting us!"
A jolt of surprise ran through Lupin. He had regained control? How could that have happened? He knew from experience that the wolf mind was a powerful and vicious adversary. Never had he gained any semblance of control over it, or heard of someone else doing it. But what else would explain his failure to attack Hermione?
The girl continued to speak. "Well, you were fighting them, but there were three of them and only one of you. I could tell you were in trouble, and I tried to help. But… I dunno… my mind went blank or something, and I couldn't think of any of those spells you taught us. All I could think about was one of them accidentally hitting you. And then Harry and Ron came. They got out of the Great Hall somehow, and they came and started hurling spells around. They didn't know which wolf you were, or that you were back in control. I tried to stop them but…" Her voice choked with emotion. "You had already killed one feral, and wounded another when the silver knife hit you. You went down, and the remaining two attacked us. Harry got the wounded one and Ron managed to knock the other one out, but when we looked around, you were gone."
Remus swallowed. He could tell by Hermione's guilty expression that she had deliberately avoided the part involving the bandage on her arm. He gestured to it now.
"And… and where'd you get that?" he whispered in dread. She cradled it with her other arm and stared at the floor.
"One of the ferals got to me before Ron could knock him out. I guess… we share something now."
Impulsively, she reached out and grasped his hand. He glanced down at their interlaced fingers in surprise, then looked back up at her.
"You didn't do it."
Her voice was sincere, her eyes warm. He gazed into them, searching for the lie he knew was there. The lie she would tell in order to protect him from his own self – hatred. But there was nothing, only honesty and… something else. Suddenly he was trembling.
She released his hand and brought her fingers to his face. He flinched at the foreign touch, backing away instinctively. She moved from the chair and sat on the bed, close to him. She stroked his face until he relaxed, realizing that she wasn't going to hurt him like so many others had.
"You didn't hurt me…" she whispered. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. Remus felt his shoulders begin to shake. He tried to control himself, but the emotions were too strong. Gasping, he pulled her to him and buried his face in her shoulder.
Outside the open door, two boys smiled at each other. A wizened, white – bearded wizard sighed contentedly. A pudgy nurse brushed a tear from her face. A gigantic gamekeeper placed a hand the size of a dinner plate on the head of his enormous boarhound. And they all thought the same thing.
It was going to be all right.
A/N: Aaaand it's over! I actually didn't expect this to be the end; it just kind of turned out that way. Sorry if the idea of the feral biting Hermione is a little far – fetched: I just couldn't bear to have Remus bite her. I hope this ended in a satisfying fashion. On to my other story, Seeker!
Reviews would be loverly.
