Remus shook his head sadly as he skimmed through the last few pages of the Daily Prophet. 'Three dead…one seriously injured…and that's this week alone…' . He sighed and folded up the paper, placing it on the desk beside his half-drunk cup of tea. This was how it all started the last time. The Death Eater attacks. First there would be the odd death, nothing all that suspicious, certainly not front page news. Then they would increase slowly, until the Ministry started to get suspicious. Even then the Ministry wouldn't make their concerns public. 'After all,' Remus thought sarcastically, 'There's no need to alarm people…'. Remus smiled bitterly, 'Until they start killing left, right and centre that is…'.
Although there was one small difference between then and now. Voldemort hadn't been dead the first two times. And Remus felt this was the biggest mystery of it all: Who was the new leader behind the attacks? An old Death Eater? A new one? And that's providing that it is the Death Eaters after all. 'But Dumbledore seems pretty certain that it is the Death Eaters…' Remus considered, 'Still, all the same…'
A sharp knock at the door interrupted Remus's thoughts. 'Speaking of Death Eaters…' He smiled wryly and got up from his armchair to open the door. He could tell it was the potions master from the way he knocked; it was a straight, to the point, no nonsense knock. It was Severus Snape all over. Remus's suspicions were confirmed when he opened the door and found the tall, black-robed man standing directly in front of him. As always Severus greeted him with a mere nod and swept past him, Wolfsbane potion in his right hand and a rather bored expression on his face. Remus was never hurt by the lack of greeting, or the hostile looks he got. He knew from past experience that it was simply Severus's way of putting up with an uncomfortable situation. Remus guessed this was in turn caused by the fact that he himself reminded the former Death Eater of their shared high school years, something that Remus didn't really like to think of either. The way his friends had treated Severus, it had been…well, inexcusable. Since they had both been in the Order together and fought side by side, Remus had always treated the man with respect. In return Severus had started to treat Remus with respect too, albeit rather grudgingly. They weren't best of friends, not by any stretch of the imagination, but Remus knew that any sign of respect from Severus Snape - however grudgingly it was given - was quite an impressive achievement.
"Been reading the Daily Prophet, have we?" Severus inquired from across the room, looking at the upside-down newspaper on his desk with a slight frown.
Remus nodded, "Three deaths in one week, it's…"
"Rather worrying?" Severus finished for him.
"To say the least…" Remus sighed and started to walk over to the desk.
Severus turned around suddenly and looked at Remus. His black eyes stared darkly at him and he looked as though he was trying to make a decision. After a minute he spoke.
"Lupin, I am… well, under the impression… that you, you know Miss Granger quite well…am I correct?" he finished rather hesitantly.
Remus was taken completely by surprise. That was certainly not what he was expecting. "I suppose so…yes," he replied carefully, "Why do you ask?"
Severus dropped his gaze and walked round to the other side of the desk. He picked up the paper from Remus's desk and unfolded it as though he was about to read it, staring at the black and white pictures for a moment before speaking. "A few days ago, I saw her outside in the village as I was walking back to the castle," he continued, "And…beside her, just for a moment, I thought…" Severus looked up from the paper, "Well… I thought I saw a cloaked figure standing beside her, just for a moment, then it was gone…"
"And…" Remus sensed there was more to the encounter than Severus was letting on.
"And I wondered if she had mentioned it to you, at all?" Severus finished awkwardly, looking down at the paper again. His lank black hair hung in front of his eyes as he lent against the desk for support. He was obviously regretting starting the conversation, and Remus could understand why.
"Well, I can't say she has mentioned it to me at all…are you sure that-"
"Of course I'm sure I saw it, werewolf!" Severus clenched his fists, crushing the newspaper in his hand, "Do you really think I would be asking you, otherwise?". He glared at Remus angrily for several seconds, before turning away again.
Remus shook his head sadly, "I'm sorry Severus, I haven't heard anything…wait, that does remind me of something," he smiled as he recalled a forgotten conversation from not too long ago with Hermione. "She did mention that she hadn't been sleeping that well recently" Remus started to explain, "She mentioned something about some sort of strange dream she kept on having-"
"What!" Severus had jumped up as though scalded and coming back round the other side of the desk he was now advancing rapidly on Remus with a deeply disturbing expression on his pale face. "What kind of dreams?" He whispered, inches away from Remus's face. "Tell me!"
"Emm…I don't know, something about a dark forest… And a man, a man with bloody red eyes!" Remus stuttered, positively frightened at Severus's reaction, "And she said that when she woke up she, she thought she saw someone standing, leaning over her...but she told me she thought she had imagined it-"
"How long?" Severus growled softly.
"Severus I honestly don't know…" Remus had started to back away from him, "Now can you please tell me what the hell is going on?"
But Severus didn't have an answer. He shoved Remus out of the way and strode out the room, into the empty hallway and up the nearest staircase. Remus stared after him for several seconds in shock. He pulled himself together after a moment and ran to his desk, grabbed his wand, knocking the cup of tea off his desk in the process. He sprinted into the hallway and after the potions master, and as he left he heard a resounding crash from behind him as the porcelain teacup shattered against the stone floor.
………………………..
Severus hurried around the last corner and reached the large oak door with the words: Professor Granger's Office, inscribed into a plaque at eye level. He reached for the brass door handle, but paused instead of turning it. His hunch could be nothing, a figment of an overactive imagination. Or it could be everything. 'Well, there's only one way to find out'. Severus took a deep breath before turning the handle. He pushed the door and it swung open slowly with an uneasy groan of complaint. He had half expected to find her sitting in a chair at her desk, marking papers or reading a book. He had pictured her looking up at him with a bemused expression on her face, trying to figure out why he of all people, had chosen to interrupt her at this time. He had even made excuses up as to why he had chosen to interrupt her in the first place. What he hadn't counted on was the scene of complete destruction that had met his eyes when he had opened that door.
Furniture was broken into bits and strewn around the office. A pile of papers lay beside an upturned desk, covered in crimson blood stains. That wasn't what disturbed Severus the most, however. What disturbed him was that Hermione Granger's body lay in the middle of all the debris, her robes ripped and bloody and leaning over her with its back to him was the black cloaked figure. It turned and stared at him with mixture of both irritation and amusement. Its face was mostly hooded, but Severus could still see the eyes of the creature. They were the very blood red that Remus had described and they burned with a cold demonic fire that simply chilled him to look at. The teeth of the creature were pointed and gleamed in the torchlight as it stood up and smiled at him coldly.
'You're too late I'm afraid, the girl's soul is almost gone,' a voice in Severus's head whispered to him.
"No!" Severus hissed at the creature. The creature laughed at him mockingly.
'Oh yes, I'm afraid so,' the voice in his head added softly.
The creature started walking over to him. Severus was paralysed from fear. And it was then that he realised what was happening. The voice in his head was in fact a female's. It was coming from the creature in front of him. How could it…she get into his head that easily?
"Impossible!" he whispered softly.
The shock of hearing his own voice brought him back to life, and grabbing his wand out of his pocket, he pointed it at the female. She laughed again before looking back down at Hermione.
'I'll be back for the girl, my little dark one, and then…then it will be your turn!' the creature smiled again darkly as, before Severus's eyes, she faded away into nothing.
"What the hell was that thing?" a voice exclaimed from behind him. Severus spun round to find an extremely shaken Remus standing behind him. Severus ignored him as he ran over to Hermione's body. He put his hand to her neck and noticed a small wound at the side. He went to check her pulse. Nothing. The seconds started to tick by. Still. Nothing.
Suddenly, there was a faint thump. Then, another. Severus let out a sigh of relief.
"She's…she's alive…" he told Remus in a whisper.
"Thank goodness!" the Remus muttered from over his shoulder, "I'll run and get Madam Pomfrey just now-"
"No, I don't think there's time," Severus didn't take his eyes off her for a second. "Listen to me. Go to Hermione's room and fetch a blanket, a bowl of water and a cloth."
"Severus I-"
"Just do it!" he hissed angrily at the man behind him. Severus then watched Remus until he disappeared into the next room. Once he was gone he picked Hermione's lifeless form from the stone floor and prepared to take her back to his rooms. He'd had an idea.
"'The girl's soul is almost gone'"
The words of the demon were being repeated constantly in his head.
"'The girl's soul is almost gone'"
Severus hoped his new hunch was correct. The poor girl's life now depended on it.