Return To Innocence

Chapter 5-A Close Shave

REMUS.

I was so enraged that if I'd seen Peter, I would've torn him apart. I began strolling along the grounds, angry that Peter tried to kill Maddie and attacked me. First, why was he about to kill Maddie? What was his motive? Second, was he aligned with the Dark Lord? And finally, would he make another attempt to hurt Maddie or worse…succeed in killing her?

"I would do anything to protect Maddie," I grumbled aloud.

"So," a voice crooned to my left. "You would do anything to protect a sweetheart huh?"

I turned. A figure with a maroon cloak had appeared. The hood was pulled up, shielding the face from view.

"Yes," I said warily watching the figure.

"Perhaps I can help," the figure said. "Are you going to protect against unwanted creature or wizard?"

"Wizard,"

The figure reached into his robe and pulled out his wand. I slipped my hand into my pocket and fingered my own wand, keeping my guard up.

"I can show you spells that will protect your girl," he said. "But they aren't governed by the Ministry."

"You mean Dark Magic?" I demanded shrewdly. "No thanks. I'm not about to be sent to Azkaban."

"Suit yourself," the figure said putting his wand away. "But if your girl ends up dead and cold on your doorstep, don't say I didn't offer."

"What is your name?" I demanded, trying to keep the images of Maddie dead out of my head.

"Just call me Tylus," he said and then Apparated.

I knew he was up to no good because he managed to Apparate onto the grounds even with the protective charms around Hogwarts. He possibly knew a weak spot and a way to get around them. Sighing, I turned and headed back to the castle.

James, Lily and Sirius had gone back to bed, but Maddie remained in the common room. I headed over to her and sat down beside her on the couch. She snuggled up against me.

"Remus, I was so scared," Maddie said pressing her face into my shoulder. "I can't believe he would do something like that after all these years! He was our best friend!"

I exhaled and wrapped my arms around her. "I know,"

"Please don't leave me," Maddie said frightened. "I'm scared that he might try again."

"I won't leave you," I whispered. "I promise I'll stay awake all night and keep an eye on you."

Shortly, Maddie had dozed off.

MADDIE.

The morning came and I felt warm sunshine on my face. I opened my eyes. I was curled up on the couch with my head on Remus' thigh. I got up. Remus was wide awake.

"Morning," he said brightly. "No one came near us."

"Morning," I said and stretched.

I was deeply in love with him now and I knew he felt the same way toward me.

"Let's get some breakfast," I suggested cheerfully and secretly felt relieved that no one, meaning Peter, came back to Gryffindor tower last night to try anything else.

Remus grinned and we headed down to the Great Hall. When we got there, we found James, Sirius and Lily already at the table.

We took our seats and began helping ourselves to porridge.

"You two looked VERY comfy on the couch," Sirius winked. "We didn't want to disturb you. You slept through Dumbledore's announcements."

Remus checked his watch. "Yikes we did. It's 8:30,"

"It's okay," Lily said reassuringly.

I picked up my spoon and began eating the porridge. I felt Remus' eyes on me. I could literally feel the bond between us. I felt it when we first met, but it was much stronger now.

About 10 minutes later, there was a commotion toward the side of the Hall where a suit of armor stood with a bow and arrow. We looked up. There was a flash of light and then the arrow was released from the bow and it came speeding toward me. I froze in my seat with wide, terrified eyes. I felt someone grab my shoulder and shove me forward so that my face was inches from the porridge bowl but not before I felt the arrow graze my temple. The arrow went by and we slowly sat back up. The arrow had lodged itself harmlessly into the wall and quivered before falling to the floor with a clutter. I was breathing rapidly as I felt a trickle of warm blood flowing down my temple and cheek. There was a shocked silence before a flurry of activity. Remus had leapt over the table and sat beside me, placing his hand over the laceration on my right temple.

"Shit!" Sirius cried. "What the hell was that?"

Lily was pale. She was shaking badly and clung to James. It had been her who shoved me forward.

Immediately, Professor's Dumbledore, McGonagall and Dawes rushed over.

"Good Lord!" Professor McGonagall cried raising a hand to her mouth. "Is she alright?"

"Yeah," Remus said. "The arrow just grazed her."

"She could've been sishkabobed!" Sirius cried outraged.

The entire Hall was now silent.

"Sirius, shut up," James said firmly.

"A good old BBQ bob!" Sirius went on. "Did you see how it just zoomed right for her?"

"I said 'Shut up'," James snapped.

"He's right on the second part," Remus said as his hand was pressed firmly over the laceration. "It did just zoom right for her."

Professor Dumbledore turned toward the Ravenclaw table, where the suit of armor stood beside it.

"Did anyone see anything?" he asked.

There was a silence before a boy spoke. "I saw some rat then a man appeared. He waved his wand at the bow and arrow. Then the arrow just sped toward the girl,"

"Peter," Remus and James growled in unison.

So, once again, I was taken to the hospital wing.

That night was a full moon. Much to Lily and I's protests, James, Sirius and Remus changed there in the common room. Naturally, if anyone found out other than Professor Dumbledore, it would be chaos.

I was sitting on the couch just reading. Lily was curled up on the chair. Around midnight, Remus changed. Sirius changed into the black dog, but James refrained from changing saying that a stag in the common room would certainly spark a lot more suspicion then a wolf and dog so he remained in human form.

Remus' human form was gone and the wolf now stood, ear tips inches from the ceiling. I felt a brush of fur on my neck. I lowered my book and slowly looked up. The wolfs ears twitched and it looked down at me, gently pressing its cold nose against my cheek. I gently reached up and put a hand on the side of the muzzle, trusting the wolf not to bite, and pushed his snout to the side, away from my face.

"I wonder what's wrong with Mooney?" Lily mused with an apprehensive look.

"What? What do you mean what's wrong with Mooney?" I asked.

"When Remus changes, he's usually aggressive," Lily said eyeing the wolf behind me.

"Yeah. I'm not sure, but we should keep an eye on him,"

It took a while for me to get used to seeing a 7 foot tall wolf standing easily on two legs. Now it's just a normal scene.

James was dozing off beside Lily. Sirius was chasing his own tail for amusement. I burst out laughing.

"You know I often wonder if Sirius wasn't dropped on his head at some point during his childhood years," Lily mused.

I laughed again.

Sirius stopped chasing his tail and went over to Lily. He playfully lifted his hind leg up against her leg.

"Don't even THINK about it," Lily scolded but had a big grin on her face.

Remus' ears suddenly flicked toward the entrance to the common room. It opened and Lily and I slowly got to our feet. This was it. Remus and Sirius would be busted.

No one came in and the portrait closed.

"Okay that was odd," I replied.

Suddenly, Peter appeared next to the couch. The wolf flattened his ears to the side and parted his jaws, letting out a vicious snarl and growl. His amber/jaundice eyes flashed with rage at Peter. Sirius charged at Peter.

Peter with inhuman strength, backhanded Sirius. With a whelp, Sirius flew sideways and crashed onto the table. Remus pushed me aside and he also lunged at Peter as well as James.

Peter hit James with the Stunning Spell and once James was down, he pulled out a silver knife with a pure silver blade. The wolf grabbed Peter by the throat and bared his canines and incisors at him. Thick saliva dripped from the bottom jaw. Peter thrusted the knife into the wolfs shoulder. Remus threw back his head and let out a ear splitting howl of anguish. The wolf let go of Peter's throat. Peter turned his wand onto Lily and also hit her with the Stunning Spell.

Peter turned his wand onto me and I froze with panic and fear. A jet of blue shot toward me…

REMUS.

I woke up to warm sunshine on my face. I realized I was in the hospital wing. It felt like my shoulder was on fire and like my body was put into an oven. I blinked and looked to my left. James, Sirius (in human form) and Lily were sitting beside me on the cot. Lily saw me waking up.

"Mooney! Thank God! How are you feeling?" she cried with concern.

"Like I've been put into an oven," I moaned. "Where's Maddie?"

James, Lily and Sirius looked at each other. The look on their faces sent alarm bells off in my head.

"Where is she?" I demanded.

"We don't know," James said gravely with a solemn expression. "When we were un-stunned, she was missing."

"She's missing? You mean she's gone?" I cried now fully alert.

"She wasn't there," Lily said her voice shaking. "Peter stunning us was the last thing we all remember."

I propped myself up onto my elbows and looked from Lily to James to Sirius.

"I have to go find her!" I cried cringing as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, but James sprang to his feet and put his hands on my shoulders, restraining me from getting up further.

"Whoa Mooney," James said. "You're in no condition to move. That silver blade did a number on your body. You've hardly got any energy."

I ignored him and stood up. My legs felt like Jello and I wobbled slightly and grabbed James' shoulders for support.

"Remus please rest," Lily pleaded. "You're not going to do any good to Maddie if you can't help her correctly."

"I don't care," I snapped. "I have to find her."

I was bare chested except for gray jogging pants. A bandage was over my left shoulder where the blade had been.

"If Peter is hurting her in any way, I swear I'll KILL him," I snarled as I dug my fingers into James' shoulder.

"I know. Us too," Sirius said crackling his knuckles.

James gently pushed me back onto the cot. I sat down in a huff.

"Do you really think Peter kidnapped Maddie? If so, why?" Lily asked in a small voice.

"Yes and we don't know," James said. "But we told Professor Dumbledore. He knows what's going."

I just couldn't sit and do nothing. I felt helpless.

MADDIE.

I was blindfolded and gagged and my wrists were tied behind a cold, stone object. My ankles were also tied together. I felt grass beneath me. In the distance an owl hooted. The air smelled of decay, must and staleness. It was damp and I felt a tingle running down my spine. I was wearing a pair of white shorts and a navy tank top. My hair hung around my shoulders. I was terribly scared beyond wits and sobbed quietly.

"Here is the one, master," a painfully familiar voice said from my left.

Peter! I thought as shock, alarm and fear filling my chest.

"So this is the pretty witch he pines for," another voice said with mock concern.

I struggled against the ropes that bound my wrists and felt the tears staining my cheeks that were now damp.

"I will send Tylus to get him to join," the second voice laughed. It was cold, coarse and almost inhuman. It had no emotion or anything in it.

"He will join me or watch this wench die before his eyes,"

"He is strong willed, Master," Peter's voice squeaked. "It will be very difficult."

"You underestimate him," the cold voice drawled and I felt a cold, clammy finger touch my cheek. "If he knows his precious witch is in danger, I seriously doubt he will find it hard to resist. Even so, we will have Tylus feed him the information and then let him come to us."

I sobbed again.

REMUS.

After a few days, I was able to be released from the hospital wing. I was still frustrated because I couldn't help Maddie. I felt totally helpless doing nothing but sitting around.

It was now Saturday, a week since Maddie was taken. I was sitting in the common room when a flash went off before my eyes:

I was making love to Maddie…then a wolf appeared and Maddie holding a baby…then came the screaming…

The flash vanished and I felt my body jump as though touched by electricity. Lily had been sitting on the chair. She looked up in alarm.

"Mooney? You okay? What happened?" she asked.

I blinked for a second then told her about the 'premonition'. She listened intently without interrupting me.

When I was done, she replied.

"Well, it could be all the stress from not knowing about Maddie," Lily mused. "But you're naturally wondering about what it would be like to have sex with Maddie…am I right?"

I blushed furiously but she had a coy and understanding smile on her face. I sighed.

"Look," Lily said softly. "Maddie can certainly take care of herself. I'm sure she's just fine."

Just then, Tylus appeared along with James and Sirius.

"He says he knows you," James said gesturing to Tylus. "Do you know him?"

"We've met before," I said warily watching him. "What do you want, Tylus?"

Tylus took down his hood. I was surprised to see him only 2 years older than us. He had short light auburn hair and hazel eyes. He looked grave.

"I have come with information for a Remus Lupin?" he said speaking clearly.

"That's me," I said. "And what sort of information?"

"It's about that girl that is missing," he said.

"Maddie?" I demanded now fully alert. "What about her? Is she alright? Where is she? Is she hurt?"

Tylus held up his hand.

"Firstly, she's being held in the Bandwell Cemetery just a few miles from London. She is safe for now. But her captives want you to meet them at the cemetery. If you do not show up, they will kill her without hesitation,"

"Then I'm going," I said standing up.

"Mooney, that's really dangerous. Plus how are you going to get off the grounds?" Lily asked.

I whirled around to face her.

"I don't give a shit about the danger," I said. "I'm taking James' Invisibility Cloak for the second part."

James nodded and went into the boys' dorm and grabbed his cloak. He came back out with it and handed it to me.

"You're condoning this?" Lily asked shocked. "He could get killed!"

"I don't think that matters to him," Sirius said. "And I'm sure James would do the same for you."

I was dressed in jeans and a white shirt.

"You are taking me to them," I said to Tylus. "Lead the way."

I pulled the cloak over me and followed Tylus out of the common room.