NOTHING GIRL || Remus Lupin

-Seventeen: Into the Fire-

Muttering an incantation under her breath, Helia freed Remus from the curse, running toward him. "Go." She said. He stood still. "What are you doing? Get the hell out of here. It doesn't know you're here yet. Go!"

"If I run, are you coming with me?" Remus asked quietly.

"What?"

"If I leave now," Remus said "Will you run with me?"

Helia gave him a straightforward look. "I can deal. Now leave."

Remus returned her steady stare, tipping his chin upward. "No."

Helia spun at the noise behind her to see the qivittoq forcing the tree off it's body. It was angry now, though it smirked again when it saw Remus, who refused to budge.

"Stupid bloody stubborn Gryffindors." Helia muttered.

"Little dove. Your friend came back for you." the qivittoq snarled at her. "The time for games is over. Sing us a song before you go. Sing for your life or for his."

Helia rolled her eyes. "Oh, piss off."

The animal/human began advancing at a slow, loping pace that said it could easily outrun them if it wanted to. Helia slowly began to back away, gesturing to Remus behind her to do the same. "I have never seen a human so unafraid of facing me. What have you seen, little dove, that makes the monster welcome? Why do you embrace death?"

"Who were you?" Helia fired back "If the person you used to be saw you now, what would they say?"

The thing laughed, and it was metal on ice. "Do not presume you knew me, little dove. I smell guilt on you. What have you done? I smell no such thing on me. I have killed, but I am free. What are you?"

"Such deep questions for a Saturday night. I can get existential if you want." Helia said "What am I? It doesn't really matter, does it? We'll all be dead in a century's time."

"Not I," It seemed part if the initiation ceremony to become a qivittoq  was converting all of your speech patterns to that of Shakespeare. Helia found herself unconsciously mimicking it. "I have bought eternity for a slight change in physique. What have you bought with your humanity?" The qivittoq  spat the word 'humanity' like a curse. "Nightmares and complications and death."

"This guy's a ray of sunshine alright." Remus muttered from over Helia's shoulder. "We should bring him back to Hogwarts and introduce him to Professor Trelawney."

Helia smirked.  

It was at precisely that moment that something burst through the bushes behind the qivittoq. Something large and covered in golden fur, running on four legs. It slammed into the qivittoq and pinned it to the ground, driving it's claws into the back of the thing's head repeatedly.

It was then that three thoughts sped through Helia's mind. The first, the instinctual one, was that their savior was a lion, it certainly seemed so from the shape of it's body and colour of it's fur. The second, the analytical one, was that, upon closer examination, the animal appeared to have a human face. It was with the joining of these two thoughts that the third, the conclusion, was brought to light. Sphinx.

Ever heard the phrase 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire'?

.........................................

Remus could physically feel all manner of naughty unprintable words buzzing around in Helia's brain right now. She had moved in front of him when he had refused to run the first time, so now all he could see was the back of her head and the Sphynx currently staining the ground red. Remus reached forward and put a hand on his friend's (if they weren't friends after almost being murdered by a half human/half animal thing, they never would be, Remus decided. That kind of thing tends to build bonds) shoulder, tugging her gently backwards in the vain hope they could make a break for it.