Here's the new chapter! At least, the first part. I preferred to cut it in two to avoid producing a block of over 9000 words. Speaking of which, do you prefer shorter or longer chapters? Don't hesitate to let me know so I can change the way I write and publish!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
"No man can tame a predator by acting like prey."
Tamerlan Kuzgov
Remus watched with growing anxiety as the Slytherins made their way through the crowd. Their presence had nothing to do with courtesy. The peace they had painstakingly managed to establish was about to be shaken. He knew it.
Lily realized it too. The joy she'd felt at the idea of teaming up with Remus instantly disappeared at Rodolphus' remark. A crease of concern appeared on her brow, and she grasped Severus' arm, silently urging him to intervene once more. This time, Severus did not comply. On the contrary, he disengaged himself from the redhead's embrace and shifted to the side, refusing to look in her direction.
His rejection left Lily heartbroken, and Remus felt a twinge of sadness at the sight. Nevertheless, he understood Severus' reaction. Relationships between houses were often a source of conflict, especially those between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Confronted by the group, led by the Lestrange brothers, Severus was right to be aloof rather than let Lily become their new living target.
Realizing that no one dared intervene, Remus threw himself in front of Rodolphus: "Any pertinent comment to share with us?"
"Oh, don't mind us," Rodolphus replied innocently, running his fingers over his nascent beard. "We were just observing the barbaric way in which the most crossbred house in our school settled its internal conflicts."
His statement was met with outraged shouts. It was true that Gryffindor had a majority of half-bloods and Muggle-borns among its students, a fact that certain "pure-blood magic" worshipers never failed to point out. As if it mattered at all.
Despite the furious retorts of the other students, Rodolphus remained impassive. Back straight and arms crossed in defiance, he continued to watch Severus. In fact, the whole group was staring at him. Rabastan, the elder of the two brothers, glared at him with such intensity that he didn't even seem to blink. His tense face echoed Narcissa's contempt, her pointy chin raised like a dart. Meanwhile, Bellatrix was already leaning toward Severus, ready to pounce. And to think that some students, including Gryffindors, thought she was pretty. All Remus could see when he stared at her was a sort of rabid dog, barely held on a leash by her sister's hand, firmly anchored in her shoulder.
In the back, Wilkes, Avery and Rosier were also fuming. Only the tall Mulciber, who stood a little apart from the rest of the group, displayed a different expression, closer to concern than anger.
"Are you enjoying yourself? Are you having a good time?" Rabastan finally asked Severus in a cold voice, "We heard you shouting to anyone who would listen that you'd give the Gryffindors all their points back. For a mistake they made, moreover. You must really love this house. Too bad it's not yours..."
"No, but, seriously, what the hell are you doing?" Avery continued. This time he seemed so out of his mind that Remus feared he might throw himself at Severus instead of Bellatrix.
Behind his back, Mulciber mimicked a "RUN AWAY!" with his lips, but the ranting resumed before Severus could even react.
"I knew we should never have taken him with us!" said in turn Wilkes, "Lucius doesn't know what he's doing anymore! He wanted to bring us a half-blood, and we ended up with a traitor!"
"What "half-blood" nonsense are you talking about!" Bellatrix finally exploded. A few strands of hair fell over her forehead as she fidgeted, obscuring her face, and Remus found her only more insane. "I'm sure the Prince blood barely runs in his veins! His mother's alcoholism must have washed it all away! He's just like the rest of them! A vermin of Mudblood! They always end up attracting each other!"
An eerie silence fell over the assembly, all the other students having frozen at her words. Even the Slytherins, usually quick to support this kind of provocation, were taken aback, their exchanged murmurs conveying their unease. Bellatrix relished it. She studied the crowd with disdain, lingering on each petrified face, daring anyone to contradict her. Remus wondered how many times she could have thought that in a whisper, without daring to say it out loud. Too often, it seemed. The little grin she wore made him nauseous.
"Oh, shut up, Bellafreak! We've had enough of your bullshit!"
Sirius's riposte — who else could it have been? Only he had the guts to challenge his cousin — unexpectedly broke the silence and snapped the other students out of their state of shock. A wave of anger shook the crowd, making all the Gryffindors roar at once.
"My father may be a Muggle, but he's an ambassador, and he screws you!" snapped Calvin indignantly.
"Mine's a greengrocer, but he screws you too!" echoed Ferguson.
"Wow! Big deal!" sarcastically replied Wilkes, raising his hands to the sky. "How lucky we are to have you in this school!"
He was abruptly interrupted by another student who grabbed him by the collar to spit insults in his face, instantly triggering an uproar. The brothers Lestrange, commanded by Rodolphus, seized the chance to swarm Sirius, enraged by the moniker he had given Bellatrix. The latter, faithful to himself, hurried to add fuel to the fire, and it was finally James who had to keep them at bay with his wand.
The other Slytherins soon took out theirs, preparing for confrontation, while the more numerous Gryffindors began to surround them, pushing them in until they stood back to back. One of Ferguson's henchmen seized Mulciber. His eyes shining with terror, the tall blond preferred to retreat into the middle of the circle formed by his classmates rather than fight. Mary tried with all her might to separate them, but was quickly pushed aside by Calvin and his gang, who stood up to challenge Wilkes. Lily had to use all her diplomacy to force them to calm down.
Peter, who had been watching the scene with Remus, chose this moment to run away, pretending to seek out a professor. From Remus' point of view, this was the right thing to do, assuming he kept his word and didn't simply hide in a corner of the castle. The situation was about to get out of hand. The first blow — Remus prayed it wouldn't be Sirius' fault — would inevitably trigger a violent battle. Unfortunately, there were no teachers around to prevent this impending disaster.
Completely helpless, Remus took his face in his hands to massage his temples. He wondered whether he should plunge into the conflict himself or try to defuse it. A glance exchanged with Severus made him realize that he was in the same predicament. Responding to provocation risked putting him at odds with the most fearsome group of Slytherins in the school. Defending them after being insulted wasn't a wise option either. Finally, not reacting and waiting for the storm to pass would surely make him look like a coward. Either way, he was trapped.
In the midst of the chaos, Bellatrix burst into laughter, savoring her little moment of triumph with disconcerting pleasure. It was the first time Remus had seen her so happy. With that disturbing, depraved smile. Every cry of indignation, every expression of disgust, made her squirm with delight. It even seemed to Remus that she was feeding off them. Like a vampire. A fucking leech feasting on the distress of others.
Speaking of distress, she must have sensed Severus', for she suddenly focused her attention on him, her smile redoubling at his sight. Her sister had had to move away from her to help Wilkes, and she took advantage of the situation to charge at her target like a bull in the arena. In a panic, Severus retreated at full speed, desperately trying to keep some distance between them, but it was useless. The fight between Slytherin and Gryffindor had only been an appetizer for Bellatrix; he was the real meal. She was about to devour him too, until there was nothing left.
Remus tried to intercept her before she could reach him, but Lily was quicker. Emerging from the crowd, she rushed at Bellatrix, grabbing her sleeve to force her to turn around.
"Leave him alone," she hissed, red with anger, "And take back everything you've said. Right now."
Bellatrix, initially surprised, chuckled before replying with a voice as contemptuous as ever: "Get out of my way. I have no orders from you. You Mudblood."
The masterful slap Lily gave her echoed throughout the Great Hall. All heads turned toward them, while Bellatrix's remained tilted to one side, her wide eyes staring into space, utterly bewildered. Already, the burning imprint of Lily's hand was beginning to show on her skin, the marks of her fingers baring her cheek.
Then a terrifying hatred invaded her face. Her doll-like features distorted, and she almost growled, her nostrils puffing out, her eyes wild, exorbitant. Her graceful body, her black hair, everything about her swelled with fury, and it was Lily's turn to freeze, mouth open, completely dazed.
"Bellatrix, wait, I..."
She didn't have time to finish her sentence as Bellatrix threw a punch at her with unexpected force. The impact resounded through the air, accompanied by a muffled groan of pain, and Lily collapsed to the ground, unable to withstand the shock.
James was the first to react. He pointed his wand at Bellatrix and cried the start of a curse, a blinding flash already forming in front of him. Remus barely had time to worry about what he was going to produce, given his catastrophic level in spells, when he caught Bellatrix drawing her own weapon to counterattack. With disconcerting speed, she disarmed James before sending him tumbling to the side. Not a word escaped her lips during her attack. Her mastery of informal spells was simply astounding.
Severus tried to attack her from behind, but was in turn thrown backwards, not by Bellatrix, but by Rabastan. The latter took advantage of the situation to simultaneously slam down Ferguson and Calvin, who had tried to join the battle, before getting himself smacked in the face with a curse from Sirius. With his nose spewing steam like a locomotive, Rabastan was knocked into poor Ferguson, who was struggling to get to his feet, and the two of them rolled to the ground in a hazy mix of feet and fists, to the shouts of the other students.
"Shit," Sirius yelled at the former prefect, "Sorry, man! You okay?"
His question went unanswered. Only grunts escaped from the thick cloud. Then the smoke abruptly dissipated, revealing the crimson face of the Slytherin, Ferguson half-sitting on him, strangling him from behind.
"THIS IS WAAAAAR!" he shouted in a shrill voice.
And, indeed, it was war. In the space of a second, the Great Hall of Hogwarts was transformed into a battlefield. Most of the other students tried to flee, but some took advantage of the general brawl to settle their own differences. Sparks flew in all directions, striking randomly, carrying students from every house indiscriminately across the room.
Wilkes succumbed to a Gull Body-Bind Curse and was lifted like a sack of potatoes by Calvin and his gang. They tried to throw him headfirst into a huge cauldron of juice but were eventually forced to retreat under the assault of Avery and Rosier. A Gryffindor cast an engine-greasing spell on Narcissa. Covered in sludge from head to toe, she screamed before counter-attacking with an Aguamenti, creating a geyser of water that swept away everything in its path in a general panic.
Reacting by pure instinct, Remus narrowly dodged the attack. He then rushed over to Lily, still lying on the ground, and wrapped his arms around her, trying to pull her to safety.
"Come on," he groaned, shaking her, trying to make her regain consciousness. "Come on, Lily, wake up, we've got to get out of here..."
He tried to erect a magical shield to protect them, but his wand, weakened by his misadventure in the woods with Sirius, only responded with a reddish glow and a further crack. Of course, now that he truly needed it, it was failing him. An expletive escaped his lips:
"Shit!"
"Is Lily all right?" asked Severus in a panting voice. He'd managed to get to his feet to join them, but Rabastan's attack seemed to have shaken him up quite a bit. With a trembling hand, he deflected a rain of pumpkins that had fallen from the ceiling due to the rebound of a curse before grabbing the girl.
"She's stunned," Remus rushed to inform, "We can't stay here!"
The two boys' gazes swept over the area. A tactical retreat was necessary and Severus, quicker in his thinking, pointed to an overturned table not far away.
"There, we'll be under cover!"
Dodging the colored lightning and projectiles whizzing around them, they cautiously headed for their new shelter. Their initiative inspired Ferguson's minion and Mulciber, who decided to call a truce and, in turn, knock over a table and hide behind it, soon to be joined by Mary. The pile of Chocolate Frogs resting on top shattered, releasing the candies which jumped in all directions, sowing havoc among the combatants.
The chaos reached its climax when a student, lost in the fray, mistakenly smashed the Boggart's cupboard. Freed from its prison, the creature began to take on the shape of every phobia it encountered along the way. Howls of terror went up among the students, already in the confusion of battle, as it metamorphosed first into a huge dragon, then into a ferocious troll, before bursting into a cloud of locusts.
One of them landed in Rodolphus' eye, just as he was confronting James and Sirius. Taking advantage of the diversion, the pair immobilized him with a Jelly-Legs Jinx.
"You sub-shits!" he shouted as he tried to crawl toward his wand. "The Dark Lord will make you pay! When he takes power, you will all be enslaved!"
"The Dark Lord can kiss my ass!" replied a little girl, before kicking him in the privates.
She was suddenly swept away, as were James and Sirius, by a whirlwind created by Rabastan.
"Oh, come on, children!" shouted Professor Slughorn, his wand over his throat to amplify the sound of his voice. Hidden behind him, Peter, who had surely brought him here, looked on in bewilderment at the general brawl.
"Please, would you stop!" he resumed, observing the crowd with a tense smile. No matter how much he waved his hand with his old paternalistic air, no one seemed to be paying him any attention. "Don't you think it would be wiser to discuss all this rather than fight? It's not manners, really! I... Miss Ferry, please let go of Mr. Garcia's ears... I... I promise you that, if you stop now, no one will be punished. We'll settle this between us, I... Stop. No, but... Stop, I tell you! I'm asking you to stop! Listen to me, I know that sometimes tempers flare, but, you know, when I was your age, I..."
A cauldron, attracted by an Accio, cut him off in his monologue and nearly knocked him over. Slughorn quickly had to retreat behind the makeshift barricade where Mulciber was staying. Peter hurried after him but his round head remained uncovered long enough to have his fringe fried by a fire spell.
Fighting intensified in the hall, spells crackling in all directions. While the Gryffindors were superior in numbers, the Slytherins were far more experienced and didn't hesitate to cast increasingly violent spells. Bellatrix was one of the toughest fighters. Driven by her madness, she refused to submit and fought with incredible skill, having already knocked out a good number of her assailants.
Ignoring the surrounding chaos, she set off in search of a new victim. When her head turned sharply to the trio hidden behind the table, Remus' heart missed a beat. Crap. The situation had just taken a nasty turn.
Without thinking, he straightened up to fight her off, but Bellatrix threw him violently against the wall. The impact took his breath away, and he collapsed to the floor, his wand rolling away from beside him. Severus soon joined him. Bellatrix had deflected his attack with a flick of her wrist, then silenced him by removing his mouth from his face. The scream stuck in his throat resounded in a horrible gurgle, and Remus felt a shiver of dread run down his spine.
"Well, well," Bellatrix said as she approached them, "I don't know if you noticed," she punctuated her sentence with a heel strike on Remus' wand that cracked the already damaged wood until it snapped in two, "but your wand is broken."
"You fucking b...", Remus tried to retort.
He was silenced by a searing pain. He didn't know what curse Bellatrix had just used, but it hurt. Hell, it hurt. An intense burning sensation consumed him from within, as if flames were licking at his lungs. Dark magic? Probably. This psycho was capable of it.
"Enough playing," Bellatrix declared in a now bored tone. "I'm here for the redhead. I'm not done with her yet."
The pain faded, giving way to an intense fatigue in Remus' body. Breathless, he watched Bellatrix grab Lily's hair, still unconscious, then point her wand at her. She was no longer angry, just... grim. Which seemed even worse. A wave of terror washed over him as he thought about what she was capable of doing in that state of mind.
"Please... Please, Bellatrix," he implored, trying to reason with her. Assuming Bellatrix was sane enough to use logic. "Don't hurt her... Please, you... You don't have to do this..."
Beside him, Severus vigorously nodded, even handing the girl his own wand in a desperate attempt to coax her. Bellatrix's eyes slid to the offering, and she tilted her head to one side, a little smile stretching her lips.
"Beg me," she whispered, "and I'll think about it..."
That bitch. She wanted to humiliate them to the bitter end. The anger that invaded Remus was doubled by a feeling of helplessness. What could they do to get out of this mess?
Professor Slughorn's screams echoed in the background, mingling with those of Flitwick, probably trying to catch the Scarecrow. Would they even pay them any attention? And Sirius and James? They hadn't reappeared since Rabastan's attack. They were probably fighting him at the other end of the hall. There was little, if any, hope of a kind soul coming to their rescue. Severus was already trying to attract the attention of other students with discreet hand gestures when Bellatrix wasn't looking, but Remus doubted the effectiveness of his plan.
Gritting his teeth, he resolved to stoop before Bellatrix, bowing to her as he reluctantly declared: "I... I beg you, Bellatrix, don't hurt her... She's not worthy of you... Spare her..."
He would have liked to send her tumbling through the air like he had done with Ferguson and the other two morons but, despite his concentration, nothing was happening. He'd only managed to fend them off because he'd been confronted with his own trauma, as it had already happened in his childhood. Severus had told him that during their fight in the infirmary, he had shown superhuman strength against him. Yet Remus couldn't remember. The only thing that lingered in his memory was the terror that had invaded him that night. That feeling of going mad, of being about to die.
Why did he always have to be on the verge of losing it to reveal his full potential? Why couldn't he just try harder, like everyone else?
Bellatrix's foot crashed into his back, forcing him to kiss the floor. Remus struggled to suppress a groan as the heel of her boot dug into his shoulder blade.
"Go on," she simply ordered.
Severus encouraged him to obey by squeezing his wrist, urging him not to snap, but Remus couldn't do it. He felt a terrible anger building up inside him. He was tired of being a victim. Tired of being stepped on by people like Bellatrix or Ferguson, assholes who took advantage of his weakness to drag him down. Worse still, he was sick of himself. Being ill and always falling behind was hell. He couldn't stand having to pump himself full of drugs just to line up one foot in front of the other. He couldn't stand having to rely on Sirius, even though he loved the warmth of his arms, even though he knew Sirius would never tire of intervening. He no longer wanted to be the burden of the group. The one who had to be rescued all the time.
Maybe things weren't changing because Remus was rotting. Or was it the other way around? Wasn't it the fact that he was constantly being assisted, whether by his parents, the nurse, or his friends, in every stage of his life that was holding him back? After all, the few times he'd managed to accomplish anything lately were when no one had been there to help him, even if it had left him in a mess.
It was time for him to evolve, to become stronger, no matter what the cost. He had to find a way to reproduce and control what he'd done to Ferguson. Rediscover the strength he'd shown against Severus. The strange feeling he'd had in the boathouse, when he'd felt the breeze on his neck. That desire he hadn't felt in years that had pushed him to overcome his weakness and walk by the lake. What had he done to feel like this? What had given him the need to fight? Compared to the other two situations, it was something foreign to his trauma, but he couldn't recall it. His memories were hazy, as if he'd been in a trance at the time. All he could remember was intense hunger and a powerful desire to live.
One thing was certain: he couldn't go on being the damsel in distress forever. He had to learn to help himself. To become his own savior.
"Well? What are you doing?" interrupted Bellatrix furiously. The pressure of her heel intensified on his back, piercing him to the bone. The pain caused a screeching whistle in his ears, and Remus felt dizzy, his eyes rolling under his lids.
"I'm going to get bored if you don't think of something to say..." Bellatrix continued, disregarding his pain with a straight face. "And, stop breathing hard like that, I feel like I've got a mutt under my foot. I hate dogs."
It was true that Remus was panting. He was even gasping for breath. His mouth was dry, his tongue hanging out of his teeth, lapping up the air, tasting it. The smoke emanating from the wands, the pumpkin juice spilled on the floor, the sweat of the students fighting relentlessly, all came to anchor themselves to the back of his throat in a foul mixture that made him want to vomit. Then the smell of Bellatrix's leather boots took over, and Remus's eyes lit up, shining with a sudden fever.
"Bellatrix," he said in a voice so sonorous, so strange that, despite the domination the Slytherin enjoyed, she recoiled. Remus refused to let go. His hands scraped along the floor and up the girl's leg, stretching his arms, arching his back. The shudder that seized Bellatrix as she tried once more to free herself echoed through his own body.
"What? Tell me, what is it? What do you want?" she shouted, trying to keep her composure, probably too proud to admit that she felt fear rising.
Remus didn't reply. His back shifted out from under her sole, and he slowly advanced his head toward her until he was level with her knee. Bellatrix had already pointed her wand at him, but the oddity of the situation was such that she hesitated to attack. Besides cruelty, she seemed to have another nasty flaw: curiosity.
He wasn't going to let this opportunity pass him by.
Without warning, he savagely sank his teeth into her thigh, biting through her woolen tights to reach her flesh. Screams rang out as Bellatrix tried to fight back. She struck Remus's head with her hand, yanking his hair back to force him back, trying to clear a shooting window, but Remus held firm. Severus joined the fray, throwing himself at Bellatrix too, and the three of them tumbled to the ground, the Slytherin's bellowing resounding ever louder. She finally managed to get rid of Severus by poking him in the eye with her wand, then kicking him, before taking advantage of Remus' overhang to cast a spell.
Again, a devastating fire consumed him, forcing him to release Bellatrix's leg with a groan. He hadn't succeeded in biting her until she bled, and the dryness that persisted in his mouth made him suffer more than the invisible flames ravaging his chest. Then there was that little squeak that escaped Bellatrix's lips to ricochet into his head and he felt himself leaving. Voices and gestures blurred together, as in a film where scenes intertwined like dreams. A gaping hole formed in his torso, stretching into his head, his arms, his legs, until he felt so far from himself, huddled somewhere in the back of his mind. He could no longer feel the heat of the flames, or even the cold of the tiles. He could no longer hear the sound of combat. He couldn't even hear his own mind. It was as if he was dead before dying. Incoherent with emptiness.
Then, taking advantage of the great hollowness he'd become, it crept into him. The hunger. The hideous hunger he'd felt before. The one that had possessed him in the boathouse, when he was hunting that mouse, scratching frantically against the boards.
Ah, he remembered now. He could see the images flash before him. The rough ropes, the moss, the yellow leaves. The burrows and the pond. His fingers engulfed in water, desperately searching for something to sink his teeth into.
The pain was gone, but Remus didn't try to straighten up. Standing on two legs seemed absurd, and he preferred to lean on the tips of his feet and the flat of his hands, each movement marked by an uncanny suppleness. His face devoid of expression, he approached Bellatrix, distracted by the scent emanating from her. A perfume of fear, made stronger, more heady, with every pulse of her heart.
He was going to dig through her too. Right down to the marrow. He was going to relish the feel of her bones between his teeth, savoring every moment of it.
Until she became as empty as he was. Until she was reduced to nothing more than mud.