Wolf and Wings - Remus and Narcissa

Chapter 9

The sun had nearly set on the night of a full moon. Remus Lupin sat alone in the parlor of the shrieking shack. He'd already got undressed and was wrapped in an itchy grey blanket, breathing deeply, trying to calm and prepare himself for the rage and ruin of the night to come. His senses had begun their change already. Some of the colour had run out of his vision, but his hearing and his sense of smell were overpowering, almost dizzying with their sharpness.

When the knocking at the door started, his uncommonly keen reflexes jerked him to his feet, and he bit back the urge to shout. Someone was outside, banging to get it. He couldn't let himself be seen. There was hardly any time left, but he couldn't resist creeping to a window where he could see the door. He imagined he was walking stealthily but Moony was invading his movements already, and it was impossible not to spring and bound from place to place. He struggled to hold the blanket over himself.

There she was, on the other side of the wall, just outside, pummeling the door with both fists. He might have been able to keep from answering if he hadn't heard her voice, if she hadn't called his name.

"Lupin, please. Let me in. Hide me," Narcissa said as she beat on the door. She stopped to listen for his answer. And though he gave none, in the silent pause, they could hear one another's hearts pounding.

His hand - still a man's hand, no claws, no long hair - scrabbled at the doorknob, barely managing to turn it. She surged into the gap as he opened it but he stood in her way. Speech was difficult, his voice low and gritty. "You can't be here," he said. "Go back."

"I can't," she said, pressing further into the doorway. Her body touched his as she tried to squeeze past him. He leapt back. He didn't mean to let her in, but she came when he gave way.

"My father has dispatched Lucius to the school to bring me home. Dumbledore sent me to my room to pack but I ran here instead. I can't leave with Lucius. Something's wrong, I feel it. I feel - " she looked up at his face, trying to catch his eye but his gaze was unfocused, distant " - I feel like if I let them take me, they'll keep me home until I'm married. And I don't think I can - "

He veered away from her, pushing himself off the wall of the vestibule and stumbling into the parlor. His hands rose to cover his ears, to block out the sound of her heart. "Sirius," he said. "Not me, go to Sirius. At Potters."

She reached out, trying to steady him as he staggered away. "But I've never been to Potters, I can't apparate there unless you give an address, coordinates. Where is it?"

"Cissa!" he choked over her questions, holding her at arm's length. "Go now. Anywhere. Go or I'll - "

He doubled over, his hands contorting, letting go of her. It was taking him. With the last of his human speech, he uttered a single word. "Door..."

She did as he said, leaving him in the parlor to run to the door, slamming it shut, finding her wand and charming it locked. Remus had meant for her to do this from the outside of the door but she hadn't come here just to leave. She stood watching as something more than her own magic worked on the locks, as if the house knew to seal itself up when the signal was given.

From the parlor, his cries were awful, as if he knew she was still in the house and was fighting to stop the transformation. It was a sound of pain, and fear, and more than anything, sorrow. Even knowing Moony as she did, the sound of his voice taking over Remus's raised the hair on the back of her neck, all her instincts telling her to run. There was an exit Floo upstairs but she would have to get by him to use it. Maybe once his screaming stopped, she could do it.

For now, she stayed by the door, her hand on the knob, waiting as the cries and then the high dog-like whimpers died away in the next room. What she heard next was quieter but no less alarming. On the other side of the wall, the werewolf sniffed. Moony was here and he had sensed her scent in the house. The walls and floors echoed with thuds and scrapes as he bounded to the vestibule. She stood quaking at the door, stalled in her human form, her eyes wide and grey, her breath shallow from fright.