'I've killed an old friend… I couldn't… control it…' Remus whispered, while Hermione sat down next to him and she placed her hand gently on Remus' shoulder. But Remus shook her off.

'No… you shouldn't be with me, it's too dangerous,' he said softly, his eyes filled with tears.

'Don't be ridiculous, Remus! Look at me,' Hermione demanded and when Remus looked her in the eyes, she said softly: 'I love you. I still do.'

'You can't mean that, not after what happened,' Remus said, but he saw in Hermione's eyes that she did mean it.

'I do mean it, and you know that! And about Peter, you don't really feel sorry for him, do you? You may have been a little bit too hard on him, but maybe he did deserve this,' Hermione said carefully.

'That's not the point! I've lost my control! Something I swore to myself I would never do! If I can't control myself, then that means that I am still dangerous and not human!' Remus exclaimed.

'Don't say that! It's completely normal for a human to lose his temper from time to time,' Hermione said.

'Not like this! I've already gone too far with Ron, and I swore to myself that something like that would never happen again! And here I am, blood on my hands, with a dead old friend next to me on the floor,' Remus said and now tears were slowly running down his cheeks.

'It will be alright, Remus, come,' Hermione said and she stood up, offering Remus her hand. Remus hesitated for a moment, but then he took her hand as softly as he could, afraid to hurt her. He stood up as well and then Hermione wrapped her arms around him and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

'I don't blame you… Peter had gone too far and you gave him the chance to let me go… It is not your fault,' Hermione whispered.

'You keep saying that, but it partly is my fault. I am the one who has murdered him, after all,' Remus said, laying down his head on Hermione's shoulder. That calmed him a little bit down.

Ron was watching the whole scene from his cage. He felt a little bit guilty, this was partly his fault. He shouldn't have trusted Peter in first place. All just because he wanted to reveal Remus' secret to have Hermione for his own. He couldn't help feeling a little bit jealous when he saw Hermione in Remus' arms. He wanted her to be in his arms instead.

'We should get Ron out of there,' Hermione said and Ron was glad that she hadn't forgotten about him. Hermione walked towards the cage to open it.

'NO!' Remus shouted suddenly, so that both Hermione and Ron jumped in surprise.

'What?' Hermione asked.

'That cage is cursed, of course. Otherwise it would have been too easy for us to open it. Peter was never that clever at school, but he certainly isn't stupid. I think that if we try to open the cage, Ron will die,' Remus said.

'But… Peter said also something about… He said that… that we couldn't hurt him, because then Ron would feel the same pain!' Hermione said and her eyes went wide open.

'No… I know what you think, but Ron won't die. I know the spell Peter was talking about, and I also know that Peter would never be able to produce such a spell. It is highly advanced dark magic, Peter is too inexperienced with magic to produce that spell. However, I do believe that he could do some dark magic on the cage, but… where is his wand then?' Remus thought aloud.

'He has used mine,' Ron said softly.

'Then where is it?' Remus asked impatiently.

'Somewhere here… I don't know…' he answered.

'Accio wand!' Hermione said and a wand came flying towards her.

Hermione handed over the wand to Remus with a curious look on her face.

'Now let's see what kind of spell he has used… Prior Incantato!' Remus said and with a flick of his own wand, a symbol appeared in the air.

'What kind of spell is that?' Hermione asked.

'I hoped that you would know,' Remus answered.

'How am I supposed to know?' Hermione asked.

'I was just joking… It definitely is dark magic, I don't know much about it. We should look it up in the library,' Remus said.

'Do you honestly think that you can find this in the library?'

'Not just in the library. But we can find it in the Restricted Section,' Remus said.

'I am not allowed in there,' Hermione said disappointed.

'But I am,' Remus said. 'And I am sure I can take you with me if I ask madam Pince.'

'Okay, then. The quicker the better. Let's go,' Hermione said and she took Remus' hand. 'We'll be back as soon as possible, Ron!'

'Thanks, Hermione,' Ron said softly. 'Thank you, professor.'

'You're welcome, Ronald,' Remus replied.

Then Hermione ran towards the door and she took Remus with her. There was no time to lose, if they didn't know what kind of spell this was, then it could be very dangerous.

'Remus Lupin, how good to see you again,' Madam Pince said as she saw Remus. 'And Hermione, good to see you too. It's been a long time since I have seen you last here in the library, Remus.'

'Yes, that must be like 23 years ago at least,' Remus replied. 'However, that is not why I am here, I would like to visit the Restricted Section.'

'Of course, you're a teacher, you don't even have to ask me for permission,' Madam Pince said.

'I know, but I would like to take Miss Granger with me too,' Remus said.

'I'm sorry, but students are not allowed there without a note,' Pince said strictly.

'Then give me a note, then I can sign it,' Remus said irritated. Madam Pince handed him a form and Remus signed it quickly.

'Really, what was the point of that?' Hermione asked, which resulted in a glare from Madam Pince.

'Those are the rules, Miss Granger, I thought you would understand that,' she snapped.

'Yes, I understand, but I just can't see why we should…' Hermione argued again, but Remus laid his hand on her shoulder to silence her.

'There is no need to argue about this, Miss Granger, it's useless. Let's just go,' he said and he pushed her lightly towards the Restricted Section.

When the two reached the forbidden part of the library, Hermione took Remus' hand, after looking around of somebody saw them.

'I've never been here before… It's exciting. Have you ever been here?' Hermione asked him.

'Officially, no. But of course I have been here before, under James' cloak of invisibility. I was just too curious, so I went to have a look. But I discovered that the books here can be dangerous, some of them are trying to bite you, some of them are able to curse you, some of them could even kill you when you are not careful,' Remus answered Hermione.

'Then I'd better stay close to you,' Hermione said and she kissed his cheek. 'You will protect me, won't you?'

'Of course, my dear,' Remus answered and he kissed her lightly back on the lips. Then he opened the door to the Restricted Section and made some light with his wand.

'Can I ask you something?' Hermione whispered, there was no need to whisper, but she did it automatically in this silent part of the castle. Remus nodded so Hermione continued her question. 'Why do you want to help Ron?'

'Because I feel that that is the right thing to do. I've made my apologies and as a teacher, I feel that I have to help my student,' he said simply.

'But, he tried to get you expelled!'

'I was not that nice to him either. Now I feel like we are even. He will get detention, but that doesn't mean that I am going to let him die in the Room of Requirement,' Remus said smiling reassuringly.

'It's good that you have forgiven him,' Hermione said.

'I just hope that he will do the same. As long as he keeps his hands off you, that is,' Remus said, with a flash of jealousy in his eyes.

'Don't worry about that, we've been through this. I am yours, remember? Ron is just a good friend.'

'Of course,' Remus said and he kissed her forehead. 'I love you, Hermione.'

'I love you too,' Hermione whispered, but she pushed him away gently when he was about to deepen the kiss. 'We need to find that spell!'

'Yes, of course… Let me think,' Remus said concentrated and he looked into the titles.

He was looking for books about Dark Magic, especially for the ones about curses with which you could constrain people. Remus knew that Peter would never be able to produce an extremely difficult spell, he didn't even have his own wand. He picked up a random book and started to study the spells. Then his eye fell on something, it was the symbol he saw earlier. His eyes grew wide.

'Hermione… I think I've found something…'

'What is it? How can we free Ron?' Hermione asked eagerly.

'We can't… Well, we can, but it won't be easy… Peter has been smarter than I thought,' Remus answered, showing Hermione the book. Her face went pale as she read the page.

'But, we need to free him! We have to!' Hermione exclaimed panicked.