Three.

The week passed by quickly, quicker than Remus would have liked, and when the clock struck seven, he led Ginny down into the cellar holding an oil lamp aloft.

"No wands," he said quietly. "You don't take anything in with you that you don't want destroyed."

Ginny simply nodded as they reached the bottom, her eyes impossibly wide and her face starved of all colour. Remus hung the lamp up onto the small hook in the ceiling and handed her one of the sheets he'd had bundled up under his arm. He saw her hands shaking as she took it from him, but there was nothing he could do now.

This was his solution to the naked problem. It wouldn't cover either of them for the entire process, but once they were in the throes of it, not even he would care what she saw. They retreated to separate corners and began to undress, backs turned to each other and Remus waited until Ginny announced she was done before turning around.

They faced each other, sheets draped over their shoulders like some odd, costumed muggle playing dress up for Halloween. Ginny looked him up and down, biting her lip, before bursting out laughing.

"We look ridiculous!" she said with difficulty through her laughter.

Remus couldn't help but laugh too, despite the situation. Now he thought about it, he couldn't remember ever laughing immediately before a transformation, even when with James, Sirius, and Peter back in his youth. Those transformations were always fraught with the fear of being discovered.

Then the prickling started and he knew Ginny felt it too, because her laughter died so abruptly it was as though it had been struck by the Killing Curse.

"I'm scared," she bit out suddenly and it seemed to pain her to admit it.

Remus nodded and strode over to her to grasp her small hand in his own. "You're not alone," he said quietly, squeezing her hand gently even as the prickling grew stronger and became unpleasant. He gritted his teeth against it as she stared up at him, eyes swimming with tears as a whine broke past her lips.

Without warning, her hand slipped from his and she dropped to her knees with a groan, only now she wasn't alone in her cries. Remus growled harshly as he felt it in his hands first, but he expected it and let it happen, for he could do nothing else. As it spread to the rest of his body, he fell to his hands and knees, head bowed and he was only vaguely aware of her anguished sobbing as the beast reared forward and tore into him. Fire raged through every sinew, muscle, and bone as his body bent and broke to allow the wolf entry and with a hoarse roar, it was done.

His breathing was laboured and he lay still for a minute or two until he became aware of another. His ears pricked at the soft whining and his nose searched out the sweet scent. Finally, he raised his head and turned to see the other beast that had called to him for weeks on end.

He licked his teeth and growled gently at her for she seemed to be unaware of him, and he couldn't allow that. Her sleek, coppery-coloured coat shone in the dim lamp light as she turned her own head to look at him. He growled again, though not threateningly so, and she whined back at him.

Come here, he urged.

He couldn't speak and neither could she, but he knew she would understand. The beast would know.

She turned her head away from him and now he growled threateningly at her. He rose to his paws and padded towards her, an action he knew she sensed for her fur bristled in response. Then, as he loomed over her, she raised her head again and sniffed his neck and he took the opportunity to do the same. He drank it in, that scent which called to him night and day... Then she got to her paws too and they stood nose to nose.

She was much smaller than him, the muscles in her legs were less defined, and her fur was sleek and shiny compared to his rougher, messier fur.

He wanted to mingle his scent with her own. He wanted to mark her as his own and mount her. But something stopped him, something made him not venture that far. Instead, he nudged her snout with his own.

Lie down.

He was pleased to see she obeyed, her amber eyes on him all the time. This pleasure increased when he joined her and she licked his neck with a whimper. A sign of submission that sated some part of him and he drifted into languid, grateful sleep.

Remus awoke the following morning with a stream of light beaming down on him from the small grimy window near the ceiling. His face was pressed into one of his arms and his body ached deep into his bones. Beneath him, the hay scratched at his skin but slowly, he became aware of a warmth pressed against him, a knee touching where it should not be, and his eyes shot open.

Mark her now.

Remus' heart jumped to his throat as he saw the shiny red crown of Ginny Weasley beneath his chin, her face hidden by hair but pressed into his chest, her hands rested there too it seemed. Her pale, unblemished limbs were pulled up close to him and he could not move. Something kept him rooted to the spot, eyes wide and heart thumping as he looked at her and himself, naked as the day they were born...

"Professor..." she mumbled and his heart jumped again, only this time it was accompanied by a rush of pulsing blood in his ears.

"Ginny..." he breathed out, voice barely above a whisper as he struggled to know what to do. His brain was slow and sluggish. "You're awake." It was a statement of fact and completely pointless to say, but there were no other words as the tingling creep of shame bloomed on his face.

"Yeah," she said softly, her breath tickling his chest. "You smell nice."

Remus blinked and tried to calm his racing mind. That was not... good, he thought to himself lamely. Then suddenly, without any warning, she'd moved her hands up to his shoulders, lifted her face to his throat, and took in a deep breath through her nose.

Mark her now.

The voice was desperate, but it seemed to break the spell he was under and he quickly pushed her away. She whined in protest, but he ignored her and hastened to find the sheet that had no doubt been discarded quickly into the transformation and saw it bundled up a few feet away. Remus threw the sheet over his shoulders haphazardly, his chest rising and falling as though he'd ran a marathon. He closed his eyes and stilled his blood, focusing on the task at hand, the job he'd been given by Molly and Arthur.

Eventually, he opened his eyes and saw her sheet discarded close by, picked it up and draped it over her still form without looking at any part of her naked flesh. He knelt beside her, pushing what had just happened to the back of his mind, and softly spoke her name.

Ginny tilted her face up briefly and stared up at him through the curtain of red hair that fell over her eyes, exhaustion deep within them.

"I can't move," she mumbled.

The feel of her hands clinging to his shoulders burned upon him, but he forced that memory back. "You will," he said gently. "A hot bath mixed with a little muscle relaxant will do the trick."

"I'm cold," she said quietly, and she winced as she moved to draw the sheet tightly around her body.

"It always is down here," he replied, resisting the urge to brush her hair from her face. "Come on, you know you can do it."

She managed a weak sort of scoff. "You seem fine," she said bitterly.

"Years of experience," he reminded her with his own touch of bitterness. "And the first one is always the worst."

Slowly, she pushed herself up, one-armed, as she tried to keep hold of the sheet with her other arm. Remus had to commend her as she clenched her jaw through the pain she felt. He could not remember his first transformation, but being so young and not understanding what was happening to his little body, and without the Wolfsbane Potion, he was glad he could not. Eventually, she was able to stand, eyes filled with angry tears, her cheeks pink with the effort.

She eyed him, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"What?" he asked, unable to disguise the apprehension that crept into his voice.

"We do look really stupid in these," she muttered.

Remus glanced down at her; the sheet overwhelmed her but she looked far from stupid. Her hair was mussed, and the pink tinge on her cheeks made her glow. He managed to force out a little laugh and nodded his head. "Well it was either this or -."

"Well, I've seen you naked now," she said matter-of-factly without any shame at all. But then why should she feel shame? He was the older one here, he was supposed to be a mentor, not some salivating beast sniffing the air for any scrap of her sweet, flowery scent. "And you've seen me naked."

"Yes, I'm sorry," he said evenly, keeping his gaze on hers.

"It doesn't matter," she replied insistently. "It can't be helped. It is only skin and bones and fat, really."

Now Remus laughed. "What a pretty way to put it. The human body summed up in three words."

She gave another small smile, a smile that looked like a secret he wanted to know. She stepped closer to him, her face tilting up again as she breathed in deeply through her nose once more. Alarm bells rang inside his head, but once again he could only watch, the beast wanted to watch, he wanted to watch.

"You smell so good," she whispered, and her face seemed to glow as she struck him with a dimpled, beaming smile. "It's like nothing I've..." she trailed off, unable to find words to describe whatever it was she smelled on him, and she moved closer to him still. A thin, pale arm slid out from under her sheet and reached up to him, but Remus stopped her with a firm grip on her wrist.

"Ginny," he said evenly, his tone a touch more commanding than he'd intended, but her glazed expression slid into focus. "What are you doing?"

Fool. I could have marked her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, pulling her hand from his grip and dropping her gaze from his. "I don't know what... I don't know why..." Then, without much warning, she flung her arms around his neck, forcing his face to level with hers, and she kissed him hard on the lips.

It was instinctive, what Remus did next, and it didn't require any thought at all. He tightened his arms around her waist, and pulled her body impossibly close to his though the sheets got in the way as they fell, exposing their chests to the chill air of the cellar.

A low, appreciative hum issued from her throat as her tongue darted out from her mouth and traced his lips, but then she pulled back before he was ready and buried her face in his broad, scarred chest. Her pert breasts were pressed against his abdomen, and her heady scent filled his nostrils and he drank it in, head thrown back as he mirrored the sound she'd made. The scent alone was enough to make him feel as though he had downed five Firewhiskey's in quick succession.

"I can't stop watching you..." she whispered into his skin, her hands running up his chest as she spoke with such needy desperation. "I can't stop thinking about you..."

Remus feared he was going to lose himself if he didn't put an end to this and soon. The voice in his head was positively storming at him to taste her and make her his.

She's wet. I can smell it. Mark her. Claim her.

"Stop," he growled harshly and she stiffened against him. He grasped her shoulders tightly and forced her to look at him. "Who am I to you, Ginny?" he asked, though looking at her parted lips was not doing anything for his resolve.

"My Professor..." she replied softly, her eyes dropping to his lips. "You have such a nice, kind voice, Professor..."

Remus squeezed her shoulders and shook her gently. "Ginny? Listen to me." But she wasn't listening at all, she was puckering her lips again and trying to reach his. "Ginny, stop," he said firmly. "Cover yourself and go upstairs."

"Make me," she whispered.

The beast inside him reared at this challenge and it took all of Remus' willpower not to give her what she craved, what he craved. It wasn't her that craved him, after all, it was her beast and animals didn't care about such things as age gaps or parental friendship. He had many years of practice with keeping the wolf at bay, and she did not.

"I don't need to make you do anything," he finally said, voice strained as he released himself from her with ease. Fortunately for the both of them, his physical strength greatly outweighed hers and he could make the choice to brush her aside, even though the wolf roared in desperate anger at him. "You can stay down here if you like. I'm going to have a bath and go to bed."

Remus strode past her and left her there without looking back, but if he thought his troubles with her were over, he was sorely mistaken indeed.