Till Death Do Us Part

"You have got to listen to me, Remus, please!" She continued on, begging and pleading on behalf of her side of the argument. He laid there, propped up against the wall, his back to her, facing the window, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"What has she done?" His question was barely heard, but Tonks did not stop fighting.

"What do you mean, 'What has she done?' She scared the hell outta me, she's threatening you, and I just know it! She wants to kill you, Remus. It may not seem like it, but I know. I'm an auror, for hell's sake! I would know when someone's threatening another person, just so that they could keep a perfect plan. I've seen it a million times! We get the same fucked up problems in the Ministry, for example!"

"People who think that normal people are just bastards and don't really serve a purpose in society use the same damned threats to get their hands on mass chaos! You have to listen to me! I'm just trying to keep you safe… I love you, Remus… I'm just trying to keep you safe. You do understand that, don't you?" Her voice was pleading, and he fought hard to listen to her excuses, her explanations, as to why Selina had done what she had chosen to do.

But his resolve soon became stronger at the words of love, of affection. He was still hard on her about saying that line, 'I love you, Remus…' He just wasn't used to it, and although he had been brought back down to the merry wonderland called life and its consciousnesses, he still didn't reply. He didn't want to reply. She was right, but he didn't want to lose his daughter just as he had her mother. And now, since he knew that she would be taken under Ministry surveillance, he fought even harder for her.

"Remus…" Her voice struck his procession of thought, and she watched as he suddenly became uneasy, as his ears pricked:

"What's wrong?" Her voice suddenly changed from stern, firm, to mild and gentle, to soft, but it still remained serious however gentle.

"Selina, please go back to your room and stop trying to listen in. None of this concerns your actual presence." He stayed in his exact spot as she stepped into the doorway, her skinny frame leaning against the doorway.

"Selina, I will not repeat myself…" His voice continued to fade, just a whisper.

She made her way to the other side of the room, slinking past Tonks who stood there silently, watching the girl with carefully trained eyes as if she had X-ray vision that could see into her pockets, see what she carried, or see into her mind, telling her what she wanted.

Selina took her place beside her father silently, her head low, eyeing a place in the carpet as she fiddled with her hands.

"I know what you are doing, though. What have I done wrong, Daddy? Please, tell me. I'll try to make everything better. What have I done?" She looked up at him carefully, slowly, cautiously, like a dog that had been scolded by its master. Is that what she was, just a dog, a beast?

Tonks watched her skeptically, trying so hard not to give into those eyes, those solemn, gleaming eyes, those pleading, imploring, begging eyes.

"Daddy . . . Please—"

"Selina, I will not ask you again! This only concerns me and your mother!" Realization hit him. Just as quickly as he stood in front of her, he sank back down onto the bed. Selina backed away, slowly shaking her head. Tonks rushed forward to his side, to the window.

He shook his head and looked wildly around, jumping when he actually realized Tonks was standing there. "You need to leave. I'm sorry; I never meant to say that—"

"Remus, what did you mean?" Tonks asked slowly, cautiously, gently. She wanted to know, so very badly. Was he referring to her? Or . . . It was impossible. Remus would have never let it happen. But nothing else was a good enough explanation as to why he had Selina.

"Remus, please," she looked pleadingly at him.

Selina disappeared completely, running from the room, silently to the end of the hall where he room was. She snaked out the window, slowly landed on the ground below. She realized that her father did not want her. Altogether he had used her. But for what reason, she didn't know. Maybe she reminded him of her mother. But if she did then why had he kept her for sop long?

She ran away, slowly leaving where she belong, the only place that welcomed her with open arms, her father's arms, so comforting. Yet, she just didn't believe that she could trust him much less that Greyback himself.

Greyback's cold eyes lingered on her.

"Tonight is the second night. Tomorrow, yes, tomorrow shall be the day that you become the most beautiful thing in the world. Yes, do you trust me my dear?" She shook her head slowly, her eyes unseeing, glazed, motionless. They held no light whatsoever, and as she shook her head, inside she was screaming, admittance farther away than ever. '

"I'm giving my soul! I'm giving it away! For I have no where to go! And I have nothing to say! Who shall save me now that I've no one left for me to turn to? For I'm giving my soul away and I have nothing to say! Nothing at all! Nothing at all to say! I've turned away, turned ever so slowly. And now no one san save me. I've turned cold, turn away, and so I have nothing to say! For I'm giving my soul away, giving it to the cold devil that seeks nothing except for my lost soul.

Yours,

Selina"

She had left the farewell note on the floor of her room. She had recited it over and over, as instructed by Greyback. "Come up with something good. Leave it there for them to figure. Get your father's Wolfsbane to me, and then you shall bring it back. By the time the sun says goodbye to its fellows, I want you to return to me."

He never said that her father would be dead by the next morning. He didn't want her to suffer through that, for she would never want him if she if she figured what he was doing. He had always thought her beautiful, had always thought her mother beautiful. And now, since her mother had been lost, he had always been angry. But now she was in his clutches.

"Mine to control," he whispered to himself. "Have you brought the potion, my dear?"

She answered reassuringly, unknowing of what she was doing. "The date is due," he muttered mystically.