Okay. This is another version of Chapter 21, still before I had decided on doing Remus' POV.


Chapter 21, Take Two

I woke up disoriented, panicked, naked, and wandless. There was no soft easing from dreamland to the world of the waking; as though someone had slapped me, I jerked from my fevered sleep roughly and without warning, and the first thing that registered was that a body was pressing me to the ground.

For one sickened, panicked moment I thought it was Morgan's corpse - some remnant of a nightmare that had burdened my sleep; but then I realised that between us was only skin, and soon after that I was struggling madly under the man's weight.

"Ivy," a voice whispered, and though it was familiar I could not bring myself to listen. Nothing was right, I was not in bed, I felt sick and feverish and violated - a man's hands clamed down on my wrists with iron strenght and pinned them to the ground, causing pain to rip like fire through my left wrist and up my arm. I whimpered and bucked my body sharply, confused and scared.

"Ivy!"

I froze as Remus' voice, a scant inch from my ear, jarred through my head and stopped my panic from building. I relaxed, just slightly. "Remus," My voice was hoarse. "Remus? My clothes - why-,"

"Hold still, please," Remus lifted his head and met my eyes, looking lost and tortured. Only a mere inch away from each other, nose-to-nose, he closed his eyes for a moment to pace himself. "Calm down. I won't - I won't hurt you. Relax, please, relax." I calmed down enough to meet his gaze, for the first time noticing how very tense Remus was. He closed his eyes against and took a deep breath; his chest and stomach seared against my breasts and abdomen. He was too close, too close.