A/N:HELLO? IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?

I have not forgotten you!! Writer's block was devouring me, but I am back on track!! I also want you guys to know that I am posting this story at , so if you want to see some awesome graphics for the chapters and stuff, go there to support this story!! You can find my profile at: www . harrypotterfanfiction . com / viewuser . php ? showuid = 179715 (just take out the spaces.) Also, I have posted a new story called SOLA FIDA OUTTAKES. Visit it. Comment on it. Luv it.

Plus, the next chapters should come faster -- I know what I want to happen in them, it's just that I am also putting together my portfolio for the Creative Writing Program, so that forces me to do original work a lot since its due March.

I STILL LUV YOU ALL. PS -- did you like the third person POV? you might be seeing it more in the future....

Stranded

"You cold?"

"Not really."

"I can feel you shivering."

"It's just a little."

"Come here."

"You…you don't have to--,"

But Remus had already pulled me into the corner of our shelter and closed his arms around my shoulders. I sighed into his (my) cloak. I lifted my head then and stared up into his paler than usual face, covered by a thin sheen of dirt, with dried blood and mud in some places, his hair matted and unkempt. A fresh cut across his left brow.

His eyes moved away from me. "You shouldn't look at me like that."

I was surprised. Was I making faces? I felt too sick for that, too tired. "Like…what, exactly?"

He just sighed and leant his head against the rock wall. The only parts of him I could see were his head, neck, and the hand on my arm; everything else was swathed in the black cloak. I had no idea of his condition. A vision of him at dawn flashed through my mind; weak, bleeding, and bare. I bit my lip. "Why don't you try to get to sleep, Remus?"

Remus' head tilted, his visible eye finding mine briefly before he resumed staring at the ceiling. His mouth slanted downwards. "No," he said.

"You were in a lot of pain yesterday," I said hesitantly.

"I'm fine." There was the slightest warning in his tone. He turned his face even further from me, towards the forest outside our shelter. "We need to go."

"Go?" I repeated blankly. I could feel every wheezing breath he took, and could barely lift my head without feeling dizzy. We weren't in the shape to go anywhere. "Go where? You know the way back to the castle?"

He rubbed a hand through his hair. "No," he admitted. "But if we can get outside the boundary line of the school grounds, we could Apparate to St Mungo's--,"

"You are hurt!"

"For you!" Remus looked at me with frustration. I immediately looked away.

"There's no need for that," I said slowly. "I'm okay."

Remus' expression sharpened at that. He leant towards me, eyes narrowed, a dark look clouding his face. Too close too close too close -- "Why can't you see it?" he asked in a low tone, eyes flickering over my face. "How close you came to dying yesterday? Even now you--you're talking with a slur and--,"

"I am not talking with a slur," I said indignantly.

"--and I'm worried," he ended with exasperation. "Ivy, you almost froze to death--,"

"You're in no better shape than me," I interrupted. "I know it hurts you, Remus, and-,"

Remus' hands grabbed my arms tightly; I almost thought he might shake me, with the frustrated expression on his face. "Stop that. Stop it. I am what I am. But you -- you're just a girl, but you keep -- just look at you, you're…"

I smudged away a bit of dried blood from his cheekbone. "Alive," I provided for him.

Remus shut his eyes. He was silent for a long moment. I sagged against the wall at my side, physically spent already. But then Remus opened his eyes again, and looked to me with the most unreadable expression. His voice was low, frustrated, pained. "No one will find us if we stay here. We need to go and find help."

Arguing was useless, his eyes told me. I sighed shakily. Did I have a right to argue? He was probably furious with me. All he knew was that when he woke up, I was here, the Marauders were gone, and Morgan was dead. "O-okay."

He took my shoulders in hand and stood slowly, allowing me to unfold my legs. When Remus was at his full height, he slowly set me down, letting me plant my bare feet on the ground; he didn't release me immediately. I could just make out Remus' face in the faint moonlight. "Remus?"

Remus looked down at me. It was hard to see him, but with so little light his eyes looked much darker than normal. The wolf was there.

He looked away swiftly. "Its nothing. Can you stand alone?" he asked me, voice betraying nothing. I watched him for a moment, and his gaze flittered back to mine during the silence, but only long enough to furrow his brow before looking away again.

I nodded uncertainly, blinking away blotches of black in my vision; Remus slowly pulled his hands away from me, ready to grab me again at any moment; but to our mutual surprise, my legs held strong. Gaining my bearings, I took my hand off his arm, not entirely sure when it had moved there, and fought a wave of nausea that threatened to put me back on the floor. My other arm lay numb and useless at my side. When I finally attained some sense of control over myself -- however delicate -- I looked back to Remus, who had moved to the opening of our shelter. He wasn't facing me at all by this time.

"Put your skirt on.."

Remus stepped out of the shelter and into the cold Forest night, effectively missing my startled expression. For the first time, I took notice of my own clothed state; or lack thereof. I was only wearing my blouse and underwear. A hurried scan of the shelter found my skirt to lay in a pile of green plaid near the firepit. I stumbled over to it as quickly as I could manage, cheeks hot with embarrassment, and picked up the skirt -- only to find the buttons had been ripped clean off.

For a second, I didn't know what to do. I remembered Remus taking my wet clothes off the night before, but in his haste had he ripped the buttons by accident? What was I to do? I couldn't possibly travel in such a state of indecency --

What choice do you have, you idiot?

I took a slow breath. The voice in my head made a good point, though I wasn't at my finest in regards to thinking straight. Remus and I were stranded in the Forest - not just a forest, the Forest, and I was only wasting time with thinking like a pureblood. There was simply nothing for it.

That didn't make it any easier to get up, and feel the cold air against my thighs. Approaching Remus was even worse. Aside from feeling sick, I felt humiliated. Before he even glanced my way, one hand came up and circled my good elbow in a staying manner, as though to keep me from moving away. I came up beside him, feeling his eyes slide over to me, and the blush on my cheeks darkened. Shame, humiliation, and embarrassment all washed over me in equal degrees. I anxiously unbuttoned the one cuff I could reach and rolled it down as far as it would go.

Remus frowned deeply. "I asked you to--,"

I cleared my throat hesitantly, tugged at the hem of my blouse in an attempt to stretch it over as much skin as humanly possible. "I can't wear it," I whispered finally, dipping my head against his stare.

I fidgeted on the spot; Remus was quiet for a moment.

Rain was sprinkling lightly down upon us; Remus moved under the canopy of an oak tree, pulling me with him, and relinquished his grasp on my arm only so that I could push the tangles of black away from my face and fix what remained of my soiled uniform. I glanced at the man at my side as I did so. He was nearly indistinguishable from the shadows in the cloak I had given him, but I wasn't scared. Remus watched absently as I fixed my blouse so it was covering all the skin I could possibly cover, tie hanging pitifully from my neck like some pathetic attempt to look presentable. When he felt I was finished, Remus took my arm again, but his brow suddenly creased as his head tilted, eyeing the left arm hanging uselessly at my side. Though it was hard to tell in the dark, up close I could see that he was paler than usual.

Remus' voice startled me from my thoughts.

"Stay close to me," he murmured, starting into the thick of the forest. He snatched my good wrist as he passed and pulled me along behind him. "Don't let go of my hand." I could sense his growing frustration and anger, no doubt the reason behind his rather brisk pace. I tried my best to keep up, though I was very unused to walking through terrain like this barefoot, and my head felt as though it might explode. I stumbled along anyways, exposed, nervous, exhausted.

The silence was maddening. Remus seemed to be in the blackest of moods, and the Forest around us, whilst quiet on the surface, felt like it was humming with life. I was worried. Very worried.

"Remus," I murmured finally, heart pounding. I felt so very hot, but my outer extremities were freezing. "We have no wands."

Silence was his response. He kept walking.

I paused enough to gather my breath. "How will we defend ourselves if a creature---?"

"Don't worry about it."

He was being short with me, of all things. "What about--,"

I saw his jaw clench, and felt his fingers tighten around mine. A warning. "I said don't worry."

I hesitated; afraid to push him. But scared, too, and I didn't want to find ourselves being eaten by -- by -- chimaeras or something equally as awful. I bit my lip as my stomach churned. "But, Remus--,"

"There are hardly any creatures in this Forest that would approach us." Remus' voice was dark. "Because everything else is too terrified of me to even come close. Just stay near me and they won't bother you."

I fell silent after this. It was like he was trying to scare me off -- didn't he know by now that it was useless to try? With a sigh that hurt my bruised ribs, I concentrated on doing my best to keep up with Remus the farther we went into the Forest. I thought of asking where we were going, but decided not to instead. It may have been because the full moon had been so recent, or perhaps simply his way of dealing with his kill, but it felt as though the wolf was just underneath the surface, a beautiful and deadly creature.

We walked on. I tried not to keep track of the time, nor did I try to take in our surroundings -- I wouldn't have cared if we were going in circles. It seemed that with each step I felt more and more feverish, more sick to my stomach. I was not in good shape, and I was starting to lag behind Remus as much as his grip on my hand would allow. It was only a matter of time before my inattention led me to trouble, and sure enough, I stumbled over and upraised root and fell right into Remus. He turned and grabbed me as though he had sensed the very second that I had stumbled.

Remus took a deep breath, and held very still. "Ivy?" he questioned. I couldn't see him with my own mass of black tangles in the way. His voice caught a worried inflection. "Are you alright?"

Dazed, I raised my head, nodded. He carefully eased my weight back onto my own two feet and kept his hands on my waist, as though I might crumple if left to my own devices. He didn't look for an instant like he believed me, and instead of taking my hand again, he put a hand around my elbow and went much more slowly than before.

This seemed like as good a time as any. "Where are we going?"

Remus said nothing for a moment. "I don't know."

Remus led us through the thick wilderness, stopping here and there to turn back and look at me as though he expected me to fall in a dead faint at his feet. It wasn't too far from how I was feeling, either. I stumbled often, unused to walking barefoot - what pureblood would be? - and could only feel more and more like dead weight that Remus was forced to put up with.

Finally, Remus stopped us. He turned to look at me with a half-frustrated, half-worried expression. "Ivy." he guided me towards the broad trunk of a tree, which I leant heavily against. "When you need a break, tell me. You aren't well."

I swallowed. "I need a break," I said weakly. He huffed slightly in response, guiding me to sit at the base of the tree. My stomach churned violently. It felt as though I might vomit, but there was nothing in me to throw up. I shuddered and curled my arms around my stomach.

"You're getting worse," Remus said, more to himself than me. I felt I was no proper company at the moment. "You need a doctor." He looked about, as though expecting Madame Pomfrey to pop out of the bushes at any moment.

"I'm sorry," I said again, in a small voice. I opened my eyes to look up at him, but froze when I saw, over his shoulder, many eyes looking back. I felt all colour drain from my face.

"R…Remus," I whispered, raising a shaking hand. "A…acro…acromantula --!"

It was with horror rising in my that I watched the eight black, glistening eyes move closer, as a thick, hairy leg crept into the moonlight, thicker than my arm. The creature's gaping maw detached itself from the shadows, revealing long, grotesque fangs dripping with poison, dripping onto the forest floor in generous puddles.

Remus had moved within seconds -- one hand locking over my mouth and the other bracing himself against the oak tree as he pressed me into its trunk, chest to chest. Remus pressed my face into his neck. "Shh," he cautioned softly, watching the acromantula sharply from the corner of his eye. A second leg joined the first, and then two more as the huge arachnid crept into the light of the moon, releasing a horrible series of clicks as that tough, stiff hair coating its body moved in the wind. I whimpered. Remus pressed me harder into the trunk, and lifted his shoulders as if to hide me from the creature's numerous, unmoving eyes.

Remus tucked my head down, as well, and I could see nothing - but I could hear the creature move closer, closer, and I could feel Remus squeeze me tighter, tighter, until the chatter of the spider's fangs clicking together was right against my ear, and I swore I felt the brush of coarse leg hairs against my cheek. It was at that moment that Remus suddenly made a terrible sound, a growl and a snarl, that thrummed straight into me and sent the acromantula skittering back. Only when the sounds of the terrible creature died away and Remus slowly eased off of me did I open my tightly closed eyes.

I felt breathless. "Scary," I breathed.

"Yeah," Remus agreed, though he didn't look even half as shaken as I was. I shuddered and slid to sit at the base of the tree.

"That was…a really…really big spider," I put a hand to my brow; gazing at the place where the creature had been.

"He wasn't hungry," Remus said absently, as though he'd been told by the arcomantula itself over a nice spot of tea, "Just curious. He was fairly young."

Fairly young? It occurred to me for the first time that maybe Remus was more odd than I was.

"Still scary," I gasped, trying to get the mental acromantula skittering through my mind's eye to go away, "Even you weren't that scary. At least you were nice to look at-,"

"While I'm tearing you apart, you mean," Remus added firmly. His tone was scolding -- the slight easing of his voice only seconds earlier disappeared. "At least the acromantula has enough conscious thought not to attack instantly. That's the only reason you and I aren't running right now. If it was another werewolf-," he broke off, looked away.

Still waiting for my heart to start beating normally, I pressed a hand to my chest. "If it was another werewolf," I repeated, "You would be here to fend him off."

"And when I was done doing that? What then?" Remus was pacing a little, like he didn't know what to do with himself. He rubbed his face in his hands tiredly, frustrated. "I'd turn on you in an instant, and rip open your throat."

He met my gaze. We stared at one another, unmoving. Then, finally, he turned and sat in front of me, gaze level. "Why did you leave the castle walls, Ivy?" his voice was no more than a whisper.

There it was. And I didn't know what to say.

I thought about how to answer. I looked down at my scratched up fingers, contemplating whether to speak truth or lie. Could I lie to him under these circumstances? I did not think it likely. Yet, reflecting on my actions, on what I did and really why I ran straight for the place where I would be in the most danger, I knew how it would sound to Remus' ears. I could just imagine what he would think if I told it to him straight; 'This is all my fault.'

I could see it now. 'I heard he was coming after you, so I was out here trying to kill Morgan before he got a hold of you; but then everything went to blazes and you ended up killing him instead. Well, as long as he's dead I suppose. Sugar Quill?'

"Ivy. Please."

I thought carefully. Voldemort had sent Morgan on this mission, which meant he knew, at the very least, that there was a werewolf attending Hogwarts -- it didn't mean that he knew it was Remus, specifically. Having lost Morgan in an attempt to capture this werewolf, there is no reason to think that Voldemort would pursue Remus any further. It is safe to say that he sent Morgan on this mission simply on a whim, since it seemed like a fairly easy thing, what with Remus and Morgan attending the same school -- but Voldemort he has scores of all the magical creatures he could ever want in various countries through Europe, and so he has no reason to come after Remus again. It was just, I suspect, a matter of whim.

Remus was safe.

"I…I didn't mean to leave the castle," I said slowly. "I was…in the Slytherin common room when Severus told me that Morgan was in the Forbidden Forest…" I stopped abruptly as Remus' figure blurred before me. I touched my temple in surprise; a second later, I could see Remus clearly again. There was a wrinkle in his brow.

Shaking my head, I tried to remember where I left off. "It's just--," My fingers started tingling. I looked down at them, flexed them. Must be falling asleep.

-- Ivarius --

"What is it?" Remus' voice startled me. I looked at him. Had he just said my name?

He couldn't have. "Nothing. I must be hearing things," I said, studying his face. It flickered in and out of focus, almost like I was blinking rapidly -- I touched my eyelids, they were closing no faster than usual.

-- Ivarius --

A hand touched my head. The tingling was quite strong now. "Lay down," Remus prompted, and I leaned down, ready to do as he said -- when it caught my eye.

-- Ivarius --

The Dark Mark. Its colours more harsh than ever before.

-- Ivarius --

It was burning. Pain prickled at my senses, dimly at first.

"It hurts," I whispered. The black flashes became stronger -- and I realised, no, not black flashes -- visions -- a room -- chamber -- pain.

"Ivy!"

It wasn't just the mark, it was everywhere -- a burning, like boiling water was pouring all over me -- I could feel Remus there with me, speaking to me -- "Remus," I gasped.

-- IVARIUS --

A jolt, like someone had yanked hard on my hair. I shrieked.

"What's wrong? Ivy? Answer me, love, I'm right here--,"

There was another pull, another vision -- a dark chamber -- Death Eaters --

Voldemort.

"Ivarius Black."

I looked up, and found myself no longer in the Forest, with no Remus at my side. No, it was a tight circle of hooded figures and skeletal faces surrounding me. It was a large snake slithering across the dark stone floor beneath my hands.

It was My Lord, in front of whom I was on my knees.

"There you are," his smooth voice cut into me, and drained all colour from my face. I watched his slim figure walk ever closer to me, still disoriented, no idea of what was happening. "You've kept me waiting, my dear."

It gets angsty next chapter, but there's also romantic progress! SRSLY.