Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling still owns everything worthwhile, but I do own Christopher (and some hunters, but I'm trying to forget about them…)

Hunted

Chapter 5: Against prejudice

Hours had passed since the bartender had brought Tonks the food that was still sitting on the plate, untouched. She had tried to eat a little, but had found the knot in her stomach, caused by her constant worrying for Remus, was preventing her from eating anything.

Worrying was all she had been doing since then, actually. Mostly about how Remus was doing, although she had also been trying to think of a way to escape, but nothing had come to mind, at least nothing that would work.

Tonks hadn't seen anyone since the bartender had left, not even one of the Vatatore-gang, and that surprised her, surely they would come gloating at some point. Thus, when the door suddenly opened, she wasn't surprised, even though it was the middle of the night. The person who entered the room, however, did surprise her, because instead of one of the hunters, a young man she vaguely recognised stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

As he turned towards her, she frowned in thought, trying to figure out where she had seen him before, and before she could stop herself, she had asked, "Who are you?"

Tonks didn't know what kind of reaction she expected, but it was definitely not the one she got, because the man smiled at her. "I'm Christopher, my father, the owner of this place, has told me what you told him when he brought you some food."

Suddenly, Tonks realised where she had seen him before. "You were the one who was trying to warn me away when I came here a few months ago."

"Yes, my father asked me to do that, I'd have let you stayed the night. I suppose you were looking for your werewolf friend back then."

Tonks nodded carefully, wondering where the man was going with this conversation.

"My father doesn't want to disobey Vastatore, he's afraid of them I think. They may have helped this village in the past, but I never trusted them and I never agreed with their methods. That's why I will help you get out of here. Follow me please."

He made to turn around, but Tonks stopped him. "Wait, will you get in trouble if you do this?"

"No, they won't know I helped you. Let's go now."

"What about Remus?"

The man seemed to hesitate.

"I'm not going anywhere without him."

Christopher sighed and nodded. "I thought you might say that. I don't know if I can help him, I believe there's a guard, but I'll try what I can, now come with me."

He opened the door and closed it behind them after they were out of the room. Quietly they walked through the darkened hallways of the inn, down two flights of stairs and into the basement floor. Tonks was very grateful she had managed to learn to control her clumsiness in precarious situations like this one.

The basement was even darker than the rest of the building, and when Christopher, who was walking in front of her, suddenly stopped, she didn't notice it in time and walked straight into him. Luckily he was more balanced than she was, and managed to hold the both of them upright.

The movements and noises they made, however, attracted the attention of the reason the man had stopped walking so suddenly. A light suddenly appeared out of the darkness, together with a face.

Damn, there goes my luck. Tonks immediately recognised the face as that of Ben Guylt, one of the werewolf-hunters.

For a moment, the three of them just stood there, staring at each other. Then Guylt whispered to them, "I assume you're here to free your friend, Miss Tonks."

Tonks lifted her chin defiantly. "You didn't think I'd just sit there and do nothing, did you?"

Guylt smiled slightly. "Of course not, and neither does Michael, that's why I'm supposed to stand guard."

Tonks stared at the man before her, totally bewildered. It was the first time one of the werewolf-hunters had really shown something that resembled kindness. And what does he mean with 'supposed to stand guard'.

"If you want to escape, we have to hurry. Jack will take over from me in an hour, and you don't want to have a run in with him. Follow me."

Tonks blinked, staring after Guylt for a moment in total confusion, before Christopher took her by the arm and pulled her with him, following after Guylt. They rounded a corner, walked through another hallway and stopped at the end, near a heavy looking door.

"Wait here, don't do anything, you won't be able to go in anyway, the door is warded." Ben Guylt whispered, and the next moment, he was gone.

Tonks blinked again, trying to comprehend what exactly was happening. She turned towards Christopher, "Any idea what's going on?"

"Well, he's obviously helping us," the man answered.

"But, he's one of them."

Christopher grimaced, "I'm also supposed to be 'one of them', Miss Tonks. You shouldn't judge people too quickly, I thought you would know that, seeing how much you care about a werewolf."

Tonks couldn't help blushing a bit, but luckily the other couldn't see that in the darkness of the hallway.

"Guylt is not like the rest of them, I've always had the impression there's more to him than we know."

Tonks nodded, suddenly remembering something. When they captured me last summer and Grawp came to save me, it was also Ben Guylt who helped me, he even gave me my wand back. Why?

They stood there in silence for a while, until footsteps neared them. A moment later, Guylt had appeared in front of them again. He pushed several things in Tonks' hands, to her joy, she recognised not only her own wand, but also Remus', together with the backpack they had with them.

Guylt was now casting some spells at the door and finally opened it. Then he turned back to Tonks, who had lit her wand by now. "They took his clothes, but you'll find them in the backpack. Christopher will show you the way out, hurry, I'll make sure no one will stop you, but be careful, no one can know how you got out. If someone else finds you, I won't be able to help you. Oh, And I think you might want this back."

He handed Tonks her diary back, then he turned around and walked back through the hallway.

"Wait, why are you helping us?" Tonks asked quickly, but Guylt ignored her question and disappeared around the corner.

Tonk sighed, turned and further opened the door which would lead her to Remus. She gasped.

Remus was lying on the floor, only clad in his boxers and Tonks had a feeling he wasn't just sleeping.

She quickly ran to his side and knelt down. Carefully stroking his hair out of his face, she tried to wake him, by softly calling his name. He shivered and moaned a bit, and Tonks started to worry even more now. He seems to be in pain, what have they done to him.

A voice made her jump a little, before she realised it was Christopher, who had followed her into the room. He had walked around Remus and was now staring at the werewolf's back. "Miss Tonks, I think you should see this."

Tonks quickly walked around Remus and gasped again. A large part of his back was covered in very bad looking blisters.

"Can you do something?" Christopher asked quietly.

"I don't know, I'm not a healer but I do know some basic spells. I hope I'll do this right."

Tonks carefully traced her wand over the blisters, whispering a healing spell. She heaved a sigh of relief when the blisters slowly disappeared.

"Very useful. I wish I could do magic." Christopher whispered. Tonks looked up at him, startled, only now realising the man was a Muggle. "Don't worry about obliviating me or something, the whole town here knows about the magical world, thanks to the Vastatore's." Tonks kept staring at him. This really doesn't make sense, a whole Muggle village has been told about our world, by Death Eaters none-the-less.

But she had no time to think more about this, because at this moment, Remus started to regain consciousness. He blinked a few times and turned to lie on his back, staring up at Tonks.

"Tonks…?"

"I'm here," she answered softly, stroking a few hairs out of his face, trying to reassure both him and herself that they were all right.

"What did they do to you?"

"They didn't do anything to me, I didn't even see any of them again since they split us up. What really worries me, is whatthey did to you."

He closed his eyes for a moment before answering. "They came in here, all of them, they were carrying massive silver swords. One of them struck me with it on the back." Tonks' eyes grew wide and she gasped. Remus frowned. "The pain's gone."

"I saw the blisters on your back, I didn't know what they were from, but I healed them. Are you all right?"

The intense worry in her voice made his head feel light and he smiled a bit. "I think so, it didn't cut through the skin, I think they didn't want to poison me…" He broke of, but both of them could hear the word he didn't spoke out loud clearly in their minds. Yet.

Remus looked around him and it seemed like only now his head cleared enough to entirely grasp the situation. Including the fact Tonks was bended over him and he was barely wearing any clothes.

Noticing the blush rising on his cheeks and the way he suddenly avoided her eyes, Tonks realised what must be embarrassing him so much, and she quickly grabbed the backpack and handed him his clothes. Remus muttered a quiet 'thanks' and pulled them on quickly. When he was fully dressed again, he turned back to her, looking confused.

"How did you get here anyway? What's going on?"

Tonks grinned broadly. "Isn't it obvious, we are escaping! I told you I would get us out of this."

He stared at her for a moment, and then pulled her into a hug, releasing her again a moment later, once more looking a bit embarrassed. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me, we should thank Christopher and Ben Guylt."

"Who?"

She motioned to the doorway, where Christopher was standing now. "Long story, I'll tell you later, we have to hurry now." She handed him his wand and slung the backpack over her back, ignoring his protests when he wanted to carry it for her.

As they reached the doorway, Christopher retreated to the hallway, and he led them quietly through the building. The three of them managed to reach the front door without any incidents.

Christopher opened the door for them, but before he could close it again behind them, Tonks stopped him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek in a way of thanks. The young man blushed and cast a wary glance at Remus, who had narrowed his eyes a bit.

"Thank you, Christopher, we won't forget this, and give Ben Guylt my thanks." Tonks said, smiling.

Remus extended his hand to the other man, although he didn't expect him to take it, he was surprised, however, when Christopher took the hand and shook it, smiling now.

"I want to thank you too, for letting me see past old prejudices."

Remus and Tonks both smiled at him. Then they turned and walked away from The Bleeding Calf, heading back in the direction of Grawp's cave, just when the sun started to peak over the trees of the woods in front of them.

They walked in silence for a long time, before Remus asked Tonks where they were going now.

"We are going back to Grawp's cave. I still don't know what they have done to him, and I have to make sure he's all right. I'll never forgive myself if something happened to him."

Remus raised his eyebrows. "You seem to be quite fond of him."

"I am, it may sound a bit odd, but we have become good friends over the last months."

Remus stopped suddenly. "Friends. You're friends with a giant? You know, that goes way beyond odd."

Tonks raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?" Before he could formulate an answer, she already continued. "Because you are prejudiced."

Remus stared at her for a moment, blinking, before a slight blush crept along his cheeks and he mumbled something unintelligible.

"I didn't quite catch that."

He sighed. "I said, I suppose you're right."

Tonks grinned widely and joked, "I think I've found my mission in live, helping people see past their prejudices. I'm going to start a crusade against prejudice!"

Remus smiled at her, amused and deep inside very grateful. If there is someone who will never judge me for what I am, it will be her, I wish I could tell her how much that means to me. But he didn't dare to tell her how he felt, so hejust said, "I can only support you in that."

"I knew you would." She threw her arms around him in a hug.

Unprepared for the sudden surge of emotions that went through him, he stiffened and pulled away from her. Tonks looked at him in confusion and Remus quickly turned away, not wanting to see the flash of hurt that flickered in her eyes for a moment.

"Let's go find Grawp now and make sure we're as far away from here as possible when the hunters realise we're gone," he said evenly and started walking. Tonks could only follow him.

When they were once again walking in silence, Remus replayed what had just happened in his mind.

The momentTonks had flung her arms around him, he had wanted nothing more than hold her tight, but the problem was, he had wanted more than just hold her. He had wanted to kiss her so badly, tell her exactly how he felt and hear her say the words she had written in her diary, that the intensity of his own feelings had shocked him. And, though he was ashamed to admit it, but he knew it was true, it had scared him, although he didn't understand why.

I can't do this, not now. I need to keep her on a distance for now.

000

Please review…

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, as I've said on my profile, the new semester has started, and for the moment I don't have much time to write. But I promise I will try my best to update whenever I can.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed.

No more firewhiskey, but everyone who reviews gets a whole tablet of Honeydukes' best chocolate, since it has to last until I can update…