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Bound By The Moon by shadowycat [Reviews - 0]

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Anticipation was crackling in the air like lightning during a storm. Lupin was almost giddy with hope that his years of agony were finally at an end. Here in this room was the end of the rainbow, the chance to be fully human again. Trying not to get too excited until he was sure but failing miserably, Lupin found himself unable to suppress a huge smile as he looked at the books that represented so much hope.

This room that Snape and Lupin had entered was about 20 feet in diameter, and the walls were completely covered with elaborate tapestries depicting historic events in the wizarding world, including the founding of Hogwarts School. The ancient tapestries were suspended from a ledge that circled the room from about 10 feet up the wall. The domed ceiling seemed to be enchanted much like the ceiling in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Currently it was the deep blue color of twilight.

As stars began to blossom over his head, Snape looked at the ceiling with an alarmed expression on his face and turned to Lupin in concern. “If that ceiling is correct, we don’t have much time left. Why is the window in the other room still lit like midday, I wonder?”

Lupin shrugged and shook his head. The broad smile fading slightly on his face. “Daylight can’t be what’s illuminating that window, Severus. We’ve moved too far inside the mountain for that to be an outside wall.”

Suddenly feeling the passage of time more keenly, Snape glanced quickly at the books. One of them hung from its chain instead of resting on its stand like the others. “That’s the one,” he exclaimed as he strode over and picked it up. Flipping it open and immediately finding the spot where the page was torn out, he began to read.

Lupin took a step forward impatiently. “Severus, we don’t have time to read it now! Just sever the chain, and let’s go. We have to get out of here right away!”

Suddenly a shiver of magic went through them just like the one they’d felt in the pub in town.

“Too late,” muttered Lupin as his heart plummeted into his shoes.

Snape turned to Lupin, the book still in his hands, when suddenly it snapped itself shut and rose up into the air flying straight into the waiting claw like hand of the vampire queen Jenni.

Jenni was crouched on the ledge just above where Snape was standing. Both Lupin and Snape looked up at her with pale faces and pounding hearts.

She tossed her hair over her shoulder and smiled a nasty smile as she gazed down at them. “Company for dinner. How nice.”

Two large males came through the fireplace opening behind Lupin and seized him by the arms. He struggled desperately with them to no avail. Jenni dropped the book she still held onto the ledge and descended to the floor between Snape and the imprisoned Lupin. She glared in disgust at Lupin and shook her head.

“You should have listened to me, Wolf. Now, we’ll simply kill you and take what was yours.”

Lupin bristled and growled at her showing his sharp teeth. “That’s what you think, Jenni.” He shot at her in frustration.

She laughed derisively. “Yes, that is exactly what I think, Wolf.”

As Lupin continued to struggle uselessly with his preternaturally strong captors, she dismissed him for the moment and turned her attention to Snape, who began to slowly back away from her. The problem was, with Lupin and the other vampires in front of the fireplace exit, there really wasn’t any place for Snape to go. All too quickly he found his back to the wall with Jenni firmly planted in front of him, nose to nose.

She reached out a cold hand and caressed his cheek softly, then she slipped her hand into his hair and pulled his head back to further expose his throat. Her glance swept greedily over the expanse of pale flesh laid bare for her perusal, the pulse beating quickly beneath the surface. She licked her red lips and smiled a predatory smile.

The woman’s eyes gleamed in anticipation as she spoke in a soft and seductive tone. “You’re mine now, Sweetmeat. Wolf didn’t take proper care of you, but Jenni won’t be so careless. I plan to enjoy you for a long time. It’s been ages since I’ve come across prey with as much strength and vitality as I sense in you. I’ll feast well tonight and for some time to come. Don’t worry, it’ll only hurt a little and only for a moment. After that, you’ll beg for my touch, you’ll be eager for how I’ll make you feel. I’ll make you as happy as you’ll make me, Sweetmeat. You’ll see.”

She bared her sharp teeth in a grotesque smile and bent slowly forward. Snape smiled coldly into her eyes. “Not tonight, Jenni. You’re more careless than you think, I’m afraid.” With a swift movement, he brought his right hand up to strike her hard in the heart.

The vampire screamed an unearthly wail of despair and threw herself backwards away from the wizard in black. The serpentine hilt of a silver dagger protruded from her chest. Blood began to pour from the wound as well as from her eyes, ears, and that open wailing mouth. She writhed in a sinuous dance of agony. Then suddenly her body just disintegrated, and she crumbled into a pile of dust. Time stood still for a moment as all eyes in the room focused in shock on her remains.

Then Lupin took advantage of this welcome distraction to pull away from his stunned captors and shove them away from the fireplace opening. Snape came out of his reverie, pulled out his wand, and aiming it at the tapestries on the wall behind them, he yelled, “Incendio!”

Immediately the ancient tapestries burst into flames. One of the remaining vampires was standing a bit too close and also caught on fire. He screamed in pain and horror and abruptly vanished. In seconds the entire room was ablaze.

Lupin reached out, grabbed Snape by the arm, and hauled him through the fireplace into the larger library. They ran towards the door, fire licking at their heels as the ages old books and tapestries quickly were engulfed in flames.

The number of vampires who could be living, if one can use that term with vampires, in the castle was unknown. Snape and Lupin didn’t want to wait around to find out how many could be pursuing them. They pelted down the halls hearing chilling screams and other nasty sounds behind them in the darkness. They fled as fast as they could, firing hexes at anything that moved, including shadows. The narrow dark corridors were quickly filling up with smoke, and it was getting harder to breathe and see. Snape followed on Lupin’s heels hoping that the werewolf’s enhanced senses would lead them in the right direction. As the Potions Master found himself completely lost in the stifling murky darkness.

Finally, just when it seemed as if they’d never find their way out, they practically fell down the main staircase and wrenched open the front door to the mountain fortress. They ran swiftly across the drawbridge, feeling safer when they came out from under the smothering layer of dampening magic. Breathing heavily they stopped on the other side of the chasm and looked back at the dark mountainside with its windows glowing a lurid red.

Lupin took a halting step back toward the castle, and Snape grabbed him roughly by the arm. “What do you think you’re doing, Lupin? We need to go before they recover and come after us. They outnumber us rather badly. We couldn’t hope to defeat them without the element of surprise on our side.”

Lupin turned an anguished face to Snape. “Severus, I can’t just leave! We were so close! I can’t give up now. Perhaps the book is still there or perhaps I can find another one. It can’t end like this. I have to go back. I have to try!”

He began to struggle irrationally with Snape, who finally hauled off and slapped him hard across the face. Lupin gasped sharply and stared into Snape’s eyes and for the first time in his life saw what could be compassion in their black depths.

Snape held Lupin firmly by the arm and spoke softly. “I’m sorry Remus, but it’s not possible to go back now. Those vampires would kill you. If anything of value remains, we can try again another time in the daylight. We have to go now. There’s no other choice. We have to go back to Hogwarts. Can you disapparate?”

Painfully Lupin wrenched his eyes away from Snape and focused them on the smoking castle with its eerily glowing windows. Hope died a slow and tortuous death before his weary eyes. He’d had all the emotional ups and downs he could take for one day. With a ragged sigh, he nodded sadly.

Satisfied, Snape stepped back and released his iron grip on Lupin’s arm. “Then let’s go.”

As dark figures began to swoop out of the cliffside structure, Lupin vanished silently, followed a moment later by Snape.




Bound By The Moon by shadowycat [Reviews - 0]

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