Fall From Grace

Chapter Six - Tom's Return

"I'm not drunk."

It was over a week later, and Hermione was desperately trying to stop herself from shaking. The problem was, when Remus looked at her, it seemed that trembling was all she could do.

"You need to go. I just took my Wolfsbane, I'm going to change..." His words trailed off as Hermione marched past him and sat on the sofa in his room, then gazed up at him, eyes wide and astute.

"I know. I had it all perfectly timed. I saw Snape come in here and I had to speak to you. By my calculation we have... ten minutes."

Remus managed a small smile. "Have you ever been locked in a room with a wolf before? Even if I am not a full werewolf I am still very, very dangerous." He tried to make himself look as big and as scary as possible. Unfortunately this just made Remus look very sweet, and Hermione had to put her hand across her mouth to prevent her from laughing out loud.

Once she'd calmed down, Hermione reassumed her serious face. "I understand, but I have to speak to you. I will leave the exact minute my dusk-clock reads night." She showed him the small clock in her hand - it looked very much like a normal wizarding clock, but where the numbers were supposed to be, there were the words 'night', 'dusk', 'day' and 'dawn', inscribed in gold.

Remus recognised it instantly. He had one above his mantle piece at home, and one in the bathroom at school - it was any werewolf's prized possession.

"Okay. So, what was it you wanted to speak to me about?" Remus sat on one of the squashy chairs in his room and looked intently at Hermione, she blushed a little and smiled at him, suddenly aware that she didn't know what to say.

"I fell asleep after the vodka, and I was wondering... I couldn't remember what happened. I just woke up really happy," she said, dropping her eyes and directing all her attention to her hands. Remus smiled a little at the way she phrased things.

"I don't believe you," he said gently. "Most people who claim to remember nothing, actually just don't believe what they do remember. Try again."

"I remember telling you something I shouldn't have, I suppose I hoped that it wasn't true - and I remember my conversation with Dean, but I really, really can't remember much after you let me in and I... got changed." Her cheeks were burning a deep, abashed pink.

"Yes, that sounds more likely. Erm... you got changed, went to bed and... er... demanded I join you."

"Oh," Hermione muttered very quietly.

"You saw my... the, erm... you saw..."

"Your scars," Hermione said quietly, the memory of how terrible she felt for Remus flowing back into her. The memory of what she had done afterwards also flooded back and she blushed even more intensely.

"Yes. Then you...I suppose, by the blush, you remember that particular part... afterwards, you fell asleep, and I stayed up... and..."

"Told me you love me?" Hermione remembered something from her dream that seemed too magical to be real and she honestly hadn't wanted to ask it out loud. Luckily the answer was exactly what she wanted to hear.

"...Yes. Yes, I did, but I shouldn't have. You are my student and I'm not allowed to... love you." Remus clenched his teeth and his eyes flew to the clock Hermione had left on the table. The clock switched to 'Night' as he watched, and the first of many painful shocks suddenly took hold of him. His gaze flicked back to Hermione, eyes burning yellow. "Leave, Hermione. Leave now!"

"Okay." Hermione jumped up, her eyes fixed on Remus as he shut his own eyes to the pain. She grabbed her clock from Remus' desk and dashed to open the door. She turned the handle and pushed.

Nothing happened.

Panicking, she tried to pull the door in and was desperately turning the door knob, but to no avail. The noise jolted Remus out of his trance and she only heard the words, "Damn! The wards!" Before his voice turned raspy and he fell backwards. Realising her predicament, Hermione spun to look at him.

The Remus she knew was looking hollow and his shoulders were beginning to round. His still human face was panicked, looking for a means to move away from Hermione. As he took a step forward, however, Remus' legs changed shape, knees bending backwards with a crunch, and he fell to the ground, his now wolfish hands cushioning his fall. Hermione could hear his bones creak as they transformed, the ripping of body tissue, a small growl escaping from his lips. Shaking harder now than ever before, she began to scream for help but it was only as the wolf howled that Hermione realised that one of the wards must be a Silencing Charm. The students would have no problem with a professor that was a werewolf - so long as they didn't have to hear him.

Hermione had to watch him.

The wolf had entirely taken over now, and was stalking towards Hermione, teeth bared. She cowered into the corner and began to whimper. She knew Remus was a wolf has known since third year, but as his glowing yellow eyes stared her down, it made it all so much more real. She could smell his warm breath as the wolf came face to face with her, but in a sudden flash, the sinister eyes turned a deeper, hurt-looking brown. With what seemed to be a loss of all energy, the wolf collapsed at her feet and began panting heavily. Hermione sighed in utter relief. Remus had beaten his inner wolf at the most important time. Shaking slightly once more, she stepped around him and settled onto his bed, putting up a careful charm against the wolf. Hermione Granger was not prepared to take chances. Her Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher would have been proud.

%%%

'Ginny!' A voice whispered in the darkness of Draco's room. 'Ginny, wake up,' it hissed again and Ginny woke with a start. Her eyes desperately peered into the searing darkness, searching for the person who had woken her. 'Ginny. Do you know who I am?' It asked sounding mildly amused.

"Draco?" She whispered back, although she knew all too well that it was not the person next to her that was speaking.

'Guess again, Ginny.'

"Harry?" Ginny was beginning to get scared. Her eyes had adjusted to the light and there was nobody visible in the room.

The sinister voice chuckled in the darkness and Ginny recognised the laugh.

"Tom," she gasped without hesitation. She knew it was him.

'You think of Harry before me?' The voice nearly sounded upset.

"I... I think of you first, every day Tom. I never stopped..." Ginny paused and looked to make sure Draco was not awake.

'He's asleep until I wake him. Stupid fool.'

"Don't say that Tom," Ginny brushed her fingertips across Draco's cheek, "I'm... becoming rather fond of him."

'You love him?' the voice was now next to her ear and made Ginny spin round. A face she had not seen in four years was gazing back at her. The body was not real, it was not solid - just a shadow of what once had been.

"Why?" Ginny asked, her eyes beginning to tear. Tom stared at her, the pain evident on his pale face.

'I love you, Ginny,' The shadow pushed forward a hand as if to touch her hair and gently cup the back of her head, 'I need you to love me,'

He pulled her closer and kissed her.

I've missed you, Ginny thought silently as she furthered the kiss.

"I've been so lonely without you," she said aloud, still clinging to the shadow's robes.

Tell me, Tom's eyes begged.

"I love... I love you, Tom," Ginny said quietly, but he pulled away.

'That is not my name.' He sneered at her. 'My name is Lord Voldemort, and that is what you shall call me.'

"Tom..." Ginny began.

'DO NOT CALL ME THAT STUPID MUGGLE NAME!' He grabbed her by the shoulder and held her against the wall. 'Do you know what I could do to you now, Virginia? I've done it before.'

"Please, T... please. Not again," His hand was digging into her shoulder, but Ginny didn't care. The pain he was referring to hurt so much more.

'Does he know?' Tom glared at Draco's still sleeping form, 'Would he still want you if he knew where you had been? ...What you had done?'

"I didn't. You... you did it to me I tried to tell you no-"

'Do you think he cares? He wants your innocence, how will he react if he knew I had it?'

"Draco doesn't want anything of that. He's a good person."

'He fights the good fight?' Tom sneered, and Ginny's legs gave. She fell to the floor, sobbing. He placed one cold finger under her chin and stared at her. 'How would he feel if he knew Lord Voldemort had you first. And in his room, you would have given yourself to me again?"

Ginny shook her head, trying to break his steely, bright gaze.

'Think about it, Ginny. You would have let me have you tonight. You are meant to be on my side. I will call you again and you will join me. Tom kissed her on the forehead and vanished, waking Draco on his way.

Ginny was sobbing and shaking, and Draco could only stare at her. Slowly she crawled onto his bed, a renewed fire burning in her eyes. Draco wasn't sure who she was trying to be.

"What do you want, honey?" Draco asked, as Ginny sat stolidly, only inches from him.

"Do you know what I had at home, Draco?" She asked, not breaking the eye contact she had initiated, "Love. Five brothers that would rip your hair out clump by clump if you so much as looked at me in the wrong way, Hermione Mudblood Granger, and Harry-The-Boy-Who-Lived-Potter following me whenever I got upset. A father who still crept into my room and kissed me goodnight on the forehead when I was fifteen, and a Mother who cried if I was even twenty minutes late." Ginny breathed in slowly.

She had spat out every word by itself, letting them play in her mouth before throwing them at Draco to hurt him.

"So?" He asked and cocked an eyebrow.

"What did you have?" She half smiled in the firelight, watching as he paused, looking at her thoughtfully.

"Pain," he answered truthfully, setting his jaw to stop it from shaking. He stared directly into her eyes.

"Then swap," she whispered throatily. "I will give you the sweetest most tender love you can imagine. I will fall for you. Totally. Kiss you a sweet goodnight. But you must hurt me. Scratch me, bite me. Give me pain and hurt me more than anyone else could. Hurt me more than Tom did."

Draco flinched slightly at Lord Voldemort's name, then brought his hand up to Ginny's face. There was no sound but the crackle of the fire in the grate. He traced one finger softly down her jaw to her chin before pulling it back and slapping her hard across the face. Her head snapped round and she smiled shyly as she turned back. His ring had caught her lip and it was bleeding.

"I'll take that as a yes?" She asked wiping her lip with a finger and looking at the drop of blood on in.

"Yes," he whispered back taking her finger in his hand and putting it in his mouth, relishing the sweet metallic taste on his tongue.

%%%

Sometime in the night, Hermione began to get very cold. Her teeth had only just begun to chatter when the warmth came back, and Hermione settled back down again, blissfully unaware of what was going on around her. It was only as she woke up surrounded by Remus' arms did she realise that the sudden warmth must have been him climbing next to her.

Making tiny snuffly noises, Remus woke up and breathed in deeply the scent of her hair. It was only as he placed the wonderful smell that he realised where he was and who he was with. His eyes flew open only to be greeted by Hermione's charming smile.

"Morning," she said, quietly.

"Did I bite you?" Remus tried to sit up, his voice full of panic.

Hermione placed a soothing hand on his chest. "No. I put up wards around the bed that meant you couldn't get through if you wanted to hurt me. I figured if the Wolfsbane Potion failed even a little, I would still be safe."

"That was very clever of you, but I retained my mind all night." Remus was very aware that she hadn't attempted to move from his body and he had made no move to let her go.

"I was stupid for coming in the first place. I put you in a very uncomfortable position last night. Although this one is getting close - can I just...?" Hermione began to wriggle and moved from having her back against Remus' chest to facing him. He laid onto his back and Hermione curled into the dent in his shoulder, putting one of her legs between his in an attempt to get more comfortable.

"You were stupid for coming last night, but I'm glad you did," Remus said after she finished moving.

"And why is that?" she asked smilingly.

"I got to explain about what happened last time."

"Yeah. But I didn't get chance to tell you that I also love you," Hermione said, still staring at him.

Remus smiled and leant down to kiss her. Hermione captured his mouth in hers and kissed him with as much passion as she could muster. She revelled in the feel of his soft lips against hers. When she had been drunk and kissed him, she thought that the whirlwind in her mind was from the alcohol - now she knew that she was intoxicated by Remus. He sighed into her mouth and shifted. Hermione's heart sank, thinking he was going to stop kissing her, but instead he changeed position so that she was flat on the bed and he was leaning on top of her.

Hermione smiled, pushed her hands through his hair, pulled him closer into her mouth and silently begged him to move further. As if hearing her wishes, Remus pulled away from her lips, looked her in the eyes and grinned in a very wolfish way. He bent back down to kiss her once more and Hermione had to stop herself from gasping out loud as he pushed his tongue into her mouth. She was so preoccupied with the mental explosion he was causing, that she didn't notice his fingertips caressing her breasts. She gently tugged at the buttons of her school shirt and, after what seemed like a lifetime, he had it open and his soft and warm hands were brushing her stomach.

Hermione giggled as he reached for her sides. He pulled back and smiled at her.

"Sorry," she whispered, her breath hot and gentle. He had literally knocked the wind out of her.

"Don't be," he said, gasping and kissing her again.

He kissed her lightly along her cheek and down her jaw. He paused over her pulse point and kissed it gently. He could still taste the faint fruity scent she had put on nearly twenty-four hours ago. His mouth craved the sweetness and he sucked her neck harder. Hermione groaned at the sensation and he continued trying to pull the essence of her out through her skin.

Responding in body to her groans, he moved down her neck and continued his sucking at the nape of her neck before placing butterfly light kisses over her breasts. He kissed from where the bra strap joined the cup on her right breast and all the way along the top of the soft black fabric. Hermione closed her eyes and tried desperately to imprint this feeling on her memory and in her skin. Remus gently kissed her nipple through the fabric and began to gently undo the clasp on the back. Snapping back to reality, Hermione sat a little further up and slid her shirt and bra off herself as Remus watched her. Suddenly very aware of her body and her sole nakedness, Hermione pulled his face back to her own and kissed him again. Remus responded exactly the way she wanted, and concentrated on kissing her.

Once she had relaxed into his arms again, he gently cupped her breast and ran his thumb across her nipple. Hermione groaned into his mouth and he smiled, doing it again and eliciting the same response. A slightly evil smiled flashed across his face and Remus pulled away from her. Hermione's eyes flew open at the sudden loss of his warmth. She saw the lazy half-smile on his lips and shook her head.

"Oh no, you don't," she said pulling him back on top of her and brazenly pulling at the button on his trousers. Remus smiled as her inexperienced fingers tried to slip the button from its hole. If possible, the fumbling was turning him on even more and he could feel the trousers getting tighter. He kissed her and moved his hands down to help her take his pants off correctly. Together they freed his button and she slowly slid the zip down. Remus knelt up and shook his trousers down, throwing them to the floor without losing his eye contact with Hermione. He slid his hand up her thigh, gently massaging the soft skin and he gently felt her panties. Sliding a finger into the thin elastic he pulled them down and looked at her.

"Please Remus," she said breathlessly and he nodded. The remainder of their clothes were quickly removed and Remus balanced on top of her. He very gently entered her, stroking and kissing gently at her skin, not wanting to cause her any pain that could be result of her first time. She gasped as he entered her and for a few seconds they both lay perfectly still. Hermione began to move against him, running her fingers along his back and nipping lightly at his neck, and Remus' took his cue and began to make love to her, softly and gently with as much love and devotion as both of them could muster.

Once they had both come in the tightest and most rapturous embrace, Remus had fallen asleep and Hermione lay awake in her afterglow, absently touching his hair, his face, his tormented body. The wards had fallen for the day, she could hear the others moving about the castle, students running down stairs and to the bathrooms. She looked at the man sleeping next to her and felt the gap widen between herself and the children in the school. Remus looked so peaceful and exhausted. Hermione mentally told herself off. She had done enough research on werewolves to know that any sort of exercise during the transformation period would require a lot of energy. She kissed his forehead, got out of bed, dressed and gently shut his door behind her. Leaning back against the cool wood of the door, Hermione grinned to herself, then took off at a run to Gryffindor tower.

***

A/N: Thank you to Hannah LS – Man Utd are the best, don’t tell me you’re a City fan! It’s ok you can have a Draco Jumper anyway, Raclswt – I love Draco/Ginny SO much more than Harry/Ginny! He doesn’t deserve her! Dark_Marked – Don’t worry too much I’m a true Draco/Ginny shipper, SlytherinPrincess821- I am going to try and convert you to a Remus/Hermione *evil laugh*, peachygirl – Hope you like this chapter, SílaElen – Aww…I love you too, reviews are the best! Rizka – All hail the champions of England and it’s all true about David Beckham! hiddenhibiscus - sorry about my spelling! I’m getting a new beta so hopefully it will get better, glad you like the story. Anime10473 - Thank you for a very useful review, you have made me question my characters a lot but I think I’m going to stick to my original plan. I’m trying to use Hermione to show how confused teenage girls get! I hope you keep reading even though you find her infuriating!, scout2009 – I love Lupin too! The ‘naughty’ scene is dedicated to you! _chantal_ - Thank you for the review, glad you like my work! Charlotte Thame – I’m so proud that I’m your first review. The logic behind Hermione’s drinking was based on a ver Hermione-like friend of mine who eventually go so fed up with her boy problems that she just went out and got hammered. The drinking thing is dedicated to her! RonRules1 – Remus/Hermione is a ship I am very dedicated to! I think it would just be so cute, she needs a man who can keep up with her brain! (No offense to Harry or Ron)