The scent of blood…
11 year old Charmian Black was sitting in Defense Against the Dark Arts (also more commonly known as DADA); thinking about what she would do when she found out about where her DADA teacher went every month. Would she tell her friends what she had found out, or would she keep it quiet? Her friends (well, one is her friend, the other is actually her twin sister, but she calls them friends), Martha Black and Paige Lupin, were looking at Charmian concerned about what would happen when she did go with their DADA teacher, Professor Lupin, to see where he went. Paige, as Professor Lupin's daughter, knew where her father went every month, but she had sworn to keep it quiet. Paige now had to go with him, too, because she had found out where he went every month the hard way.
"You three, are you listening!?" Professor Lupin shouted over the heads of the rest of the class, and the terrible trio looked up immediately, and slowly shook their heads. "No doubt concocting your next prank." He muttered to himself, and the class all looked at the trio, who turned scarlet in the faces and slid under the desk in embarrassment. Charmian, Martha and Paige were all well known as pranksters around the school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and when they weren't listening in class, it usually meant that they were thinking up another prank to play on the students and teachers of Hogwarts.
"Sorry Professor for not listening when you were talking." The trio droned and Professor Lupin looked at the three of them in turn.
"So, as I was saying before the three girls stopped listening, dementors can sense a person's presence, by their mood. If the person's happy or excited, it can feel the presence a lot more than if the person is upset or depressed." Professor Lupin continued to the rest of the class, failing to notice the rest of the class sniggering to themselves about his brand new set of dog ears, dog tail and dog paws instead of hands and feet. His face started to turn into a dog's muzzle and he began to gradually turn into a dog completely. "Woof woof." Professor Lupin tried to talk in English, but only barks came out of his mouth. He looked at the trio, who seemed to have disappeared from the classroom completely. He left the classroom, growling at any person who talked or sniggered, so everyone stayed quiet. Out in the corridor, Professor Lupin-dog looked around and saw the trio in the distance, so he started towards them. They looked up, saw him coming towards them and ran in the opposite direction as fast as their legs would carry them. Professor Lupin-dog ran after them, but soon lost them, so he decided to go to his wife, Professor McGonagall, who was head of Gryffindor house, but also the Transfiguration teacher (so obviously would have taught the trio that particular spell to transfigure people into animals). He ran to where McGonagall was and when she saw him, she knew it was her husband, and looked at him hopelessly.
"Okay, what spell did you muck up this time, dear?" she asked him, changing him back. "And by the way, it would help if you put some clothes on!" She exclaimed, covering her eyes when he was back as a human, but he came back naked.
"I didn't muck up any spell; it was our daughter and her friends that did it!" Professor Lupin commented angrily, getting dressed.
"Oh. Okay, I guess it was a slight mistake teaching them that spell, then. Wouldn't you say, dear?"
"STOP ACTING SO POSITIVE ABOUT THIS!!! MINERVA, THIS WAS OBVIOUSLY ONE OF THEIR PRANKS THAT THEY HAVE BEEN THINKING UP WHEN THEY STOPPED LISTENING IN CLASS!!!" Professor Lupin bellowed, and McGonagall looked pleadingly at her husband.
"Please Remus, stop shouting! You don't have to take this so personally! Remember, you were a prankster as a teenager? Or have you forgotten the time when you did worse than just turn someone into a dog? Remember how you and your friends played a prank on Severus which could have killed him? It's in their genes to play pranks! Of course, she gets it from you, and not me, but that's beside the point."
"Gee thanks Minerva. That was so comforting…NOT!!!" Remus said, calming down slightly, though he was still hyperventilating.
That night, Charmian grabbed her invisibility cloak and threw it over herself and Martha, as Martha, too, got curious and figured that maybe, she too wanted to go and see where Professor Lupin took Paige every full moon. So the sisters snuck quietly into the DADA corridor and waited for them to exit Professor Lupin's office. They didn't have to wait long, as they came out soon after with cloaks wrapped around them and walked briskly down through the hall and across the Entrance Hall and into the grounds. They slowly approached the Whomping Willow and pressed a knot in the roots. They slipped down a gap and the two girls followed, and soon found themselves in a tunnel. They followed the Lupins along it and found themselves in a room. Suddenly, Professor Lupin and Paige soon started yelling in pain as they suddenly turned slowly into a strange creature. The two girls had no idea what was going on until Charmian gasped softly and pointed out that they looked like a cross between a human and a wolf, and Martha agreed, saying that they were werewolves. Charmian gasped loudly at this, out of fear, and the two werewolves heard the gasp and walked slowly over to where the girls were under the cloak. Thinking fast, Charmian decided that there was no other way to survive unless she ran. She motioned Martha to follow her, threw the cloak off herself and ran for her life, Martha following suit, leaving the cloak on the ground. The werewolves joined in the chase, soon catching Martha and biting her on the throat. Charmian looked back, noticing that her sister was no longer following her and ran up to the werewolves, knowing that Martha was in danger.
"Hang on Martha! I'm coming!" she shouted, and the werewolves looked up and ran at her. Charmian took out her wand and shot a spell at the smaller werewolf, knocking it off its feet. It stood up, more infuriated than before and ran straight at her, and bit her on the throat. It shook its head hard and Charmian soon became unconscious. The sun soon rose and the two werewolves changed back to their human forms, looked at the two girls lying there unconscious and Paige immediately burst into tears, thinking they were dead. Professor Lupin hugged her and told her that they were still alive, and would need to go to the Hospital Wing, so the Medical Ed., Professor Talleo (by the way, Professor Talleo is Charmian and Martha's mother!) could heal their wounds.
"But what if they don't survive?"
"Don't worry; I assure you they will survive. They'll be alright."
"Are you sure Dad?"
"I'm positive Paige. They'll be alright."
Professor Lupin led her daughter, and carrying Charmian, while Paige carried Martha up to the Hospital Wing. The girls' mother, Natalie Black, screamed when she saw her daughters injured that badly. Her husband (and Martha and Charmian's father!) came sprinting out of her office and looked at his daughters lying there seemingly lifeless, and he hugged his wife, tears in his eyes.
"Don't worry guys, they're still alive, but their wounds look so bad that I'm not sure whether they'll survive." Professor Lupin said softly, but loud enough for them to hear.
"Thank you Remus. I appreciate that you looked after them. It's hard to see them in this state, though." The girls' father, Sirius, said softly.
"I know. Paige was in this state as well, so I know how you feel." Professor Lupin said and Paige looked up at him.
"Dad, are you really sure that Martha and Charmian will survive?" she asked.
"They should hopefully be alright. You're a good friend to worry about their survival that much." Natalie said as she checked her daughters' pulses and cleaned and dressed their wounds.
Eventually Martha and Charmian woke, and Paige sat up immediately.
"Martha! Charmian! You're okay!" she screamed and Natalie and Madam Pomfrey came running in, only to see the duo had regained consciousness and were sitting up in their beds. Natalie checked them over and called their father, who also came running.
"Are you alright girls?" he asked them, looking concerned.
"Yes, thanks Dad." The girls chorused and Paige giggled.
"Personal Jinx!" she laughed and the girls all laughed, with Sirius and Natalie looking on, glad that their daughters were laughing after they had been injured. Madam Pomfrey left the scene, as she knew they would be alright in the hands of their parents.
When Martha and Charmian were allowed to leave the Hospital Wing, Professor Lupin called them to his office. Paige was already there.
"Girls, I'm sure you'll realise that we need to tell you something very important. You know that Paige and I are werewolves, right?" he said.
"Yes, Professor." The girls chorused.
"Well, do you know how werewolves are made?"
"Ummm…aren't you born with the curse?" Charmian guessed.
"That would be very interesting if we were." Professor Lupin laughed. "But that's not the case. Werewolves are made when a person is bitten by another werewolf."
"Does this mean," Charmian asked. "Does this mean that Martha and I are werewolves, because you and Paige bit us?"
"Yes it does, Charmian."
"But what are our parents going to say when we tell them?" Martha asked him softly.
"They already know. They know that you two were bitten as soon as Paige and I carried you up to Hospital Wing."
"But don't they hate us now, because we're werewolves?"
"Why should they hate you!? They don't care about what you're like every full moon; they only want you to be alright the rest of the time. They still love you very much. You don't have to worry about your parents hating you because of the curse, but, frankly, I'm quite surprised they don't hate Paige and me, as we were the ones that bit you two."
"But, I still don't understand that part about us becoming werewolves after a single bite from a werewolf. How does it work?"
"Werewolves contain a special kind of gene that will make anyone who is bitten become a werewolf. It's just the way things are."
The next full moon, a month later, the trio followed Professor Lupin out into the grounds and into the tunnel under the Whomping Willow. The four soon started yelling in pain and they soon transformed. What happened next Professor Lupin would never forget throughout his entire life, nor would Natalie and Sirius, or even McGonagall. The three smaller female werewolves were running around fighting with each other, when the larger, older male werewolf suddenly joined in with one of their fights and breaking one of the smaller werewolves' necks and the other two suddenly joined in with their fight and he tore another's throat out, therefore instantly killing her. Soon it was only one small female and one large male werewolf left, and the larger one suddenly picked a fight with the smaller one and soon killing her. When the sun suddenly rose, Professor Lupin was the only one alive, the rest blood-stained, one less than the other two, but all three dead all the same. Professor Lupin looked from the limp, dead form of his daughter to the dead forms of his best friend's daughters in horror.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!" he bellowed, tears running down his cheeks as he dropped to his knees and cradled his daughter in his arms. "Why! Why my only daughter!? I can't believe that I lost my only daughter." He said, and he carried his daughter and Martha and Charmian's bodies to the Hospital Wing to tell their parents.
"Remus! What the hell did you do!? What did you do to my daughters!?" Sirius yelled at Professor Lupin and he looked at his feet.
"I'm sorry guys; my own daughter suffered the same fate. It was last night, and by checking their pulses and finding nothing I can confirm that they are no longer alive. I'm so sorry." He explained softly, as tears silently slid down his cheeks. "I didn't mean to do this to them. I'm telling you the truth, I would never kill your daughters on purpose. I didn't mean for this to happen, I would never even kill my own daughter!"
"I understand, Remus," Natalie said softly to him. "But, I suggest you bring your wife here, she has a right to know. You were right. Their wounds were instantaneously fatal. And Charmian has a broken neck, also killing her instantly. I'm sorry."
Remus nodded tearfully and left the Hospital Wing, returning about five minutes later with Professor McGonagall in tow. She took one look at the limp form of her daughter and burst into tears, instantly knowing the fate that had befell her.
"Minerva, I'm sorry about Paige, and I also understand how hard it is to lose a daughter, I lost two." Natalie said, as tears ran down her cheeks, and she felt Sirius' arm placed round her shoulders.
"I know darling. Its alright, I know how you feel. Come here." He whispered, pulling her into a hug. The two grieving families were there for ten minutes, just hugging their partner, tears running down everyone's cheeks, as the three bodies lay there ignored for the moment.
Meanwhile, the spirits of the trio were trying to figure out whether or not they wanted to go to the spirit world or stay on earth as ghosts.
"Either way, we'll still be together, just we won't be with our parents if we go to the spirit world, while we can if we stay as ghosts." The spirit of Charmian said earnestly. "And if anyone decides to go to any one place, we all go."
"I can't stand being away from my parents, whether or not I'm dead. I'm not going from earth until my parents do." The spirit of Paige said softly.
"But Paige," the spirit of Martha said to Paige. "If you decide to stay in one place, you can't suddenly change your mind and go to the other place."
"I know, and in that case, I choose earth. You two can choose the other one if you want to, but I choose earth."
"If you choose earth, we all do. Okay, let's stay on earth as ghosts, okay?"
"Okay, agreed."
The trio all cheered happily and their spirit forms all suddenly became transparent and fully their human selves.
The memorial service held for the trio was short, but sad and almost everyone was tearful. The bodies were placed in the coffins and carried slowly up to the altar, and the priest started talking about the memory of the girls, and all the while, the girls' parents were in tears.
"…so may we remember these girls and may god show his condolences for the memory of these three young, first-year girls who died to the hands of a werewolf, and not to the hands of a human. Let their souls rest in peace here and their spirits come back to earth to bid us what may be the last farewell." The priest finished and the three coffins were placed in the earth, and all the while, the ghosts of the trio watched their own funeral procession.
"You know how weird this feels, watching our own funeral from all the way up here." Charmian said softly to her sister and best friend.
"I know yeah! This feels so weird!" Martha agreed with her sister.
"True." Paige agreed.
"Hey, the advantage of being a ghost is not having to go to classes and being able to play pranks on people and never being suspected! This is going to be so fun!" Martha suddenly said and Charmian and Paige laughed and agreed.
The families of the trio had continued to mourn for the deaths of their daughters, and the trio felt very sorry for their parents and decided among themselves that they would make their ghost selves visible to their parents, because they felt sorry for them.
"Mum, dad!" the trio said to their parents, making them almost literally jump out of their skin.
"Girls? Martha, Charmian? Is that really you?" Natalie said softly, blinking in case she was dreaming.
"Hell yeah! Of course it's us mum!" Charmian and Martha choroused.
"I must be dreaming. Are you sure we're not just dreaming?" Sirius asked cautiously.
"Of course you're not dreaming! We're really back on earth…as ghosts, though." The trio all choroused and Sirius, Natalie, Professor Lupin and Professor McGonagall all smiled.
The end…