Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling. All works posted at this community were written entirely for fun without making any profit. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: This fic is open-ended, meaning there is no pretty bow tying everything happily together. Lots of love and adoration to lorcalon for the speedy beta and title suggestion- You're awesome, bb.
"Where are you going?" Teddy hesitated briefly before tucking the folded shirt in his hand into his bag, unable to bring himself to turn toward the man standing in the doorway of his room. He could feel James's eyes on his back as he busied himself checking through what he'd already packed, biting down gently on his lower lip while he searched for an explanation that would keep James from asking questions. Before he could settle on one, however, he felt the other wizard's arms wrap loosely around him from behind. "Ted?"
"Sorry," Teddy murmured, turning in James's arms to smile faintly at him as he leaned in toward him. Their lips brushed together briefly before he straightened, his eyes focusing on anything but the other man's.
"What's all this about?" the brunet asked, nodding his head slightly in the direction of Teddy's half-packed bag, perched at the foot of the bed. "I didn't know you were going anywhere..."
Clearing his throat awkwardly, Teddy nodded, gently pushing James back a step so that he could move, turning his back on the other man as he resumed his packing. "I just have something I need to go take care of, James; that's all." His lover's eyes bored into Teddy's back as he stuffed a folded pair of socks into his bag, waiting as the silence stretched between them for a moment.
"Will you be back before th-"
"No," Teddy interrupted firmly, his hands clenching over the sides of his bag as his eyes narrowed. "No, James, I won't be."
"Ted-"
"Don't," Teddy hissed, his knuckles whitening as his fingers tightened their hold on his bag. "Just don't, James." He began to relax when James remained silent for the moment, the tension easing from his shoulders when the other man gently laid a hand on his arm.
"You know they're not going to like this," James said softly, jumping back with a sharp gasp of surprise when Teddy spun on him. The older wizard's hair flared an angry shade of red as he met his gaze, eyes narrowed dangerously.
"No, I suppose they won't," he snapped, taking a step closer to James and watching him retreat toward the wall. "The lot of them expect me to be exactly like Dad, never mind that it's been twenty-five years now and I haven't changed once."
"Yes, but-"
"But they continue to lock me up on every full moon, like they're hoping that it happens." James's back bumped against the wall finally, his eyes widening a fraction as Teddy moved close enough to press him fully to it, pinning him in place with an angry gleam in his eyes. "How many times have they told me Mum and Dad would have done the same? Quite the argument for someone who never really knew them, isn't it, telling me what they supposedly would have done to their own child."
"T-Teddy..." James whispered softly, looking up at him with a hint of fear; in eighteen years, he'd never seen Teddy this infuriated, and it was rather terrifying to watch the usually peaceful man's demeanour morph as quickly and drastically as his appearance often did. "You know they're just trying to keep you safe."
Teddy's fist collided with the wall beside James's head unexpectedly, causing the other man to jump in surprise, looking between the slight crack that came from beneath Teddy's knuckles and his lover's face. "I'm tired of them 'keeping me safe', James," Teddy whispered brokenly, stepping back and turning his back on James again. "If they insist on doing this to me every month, then I'm going to give them a reason for it..."
It was two days before Teddy actually left his flat.
He and James had argued most of the night after the other man had walked in on his packing, and Teddy had been determined not to leave on bad terms with his lover. After the screaming match had died down, however, James had resorted to pleas that, while heart-wrenching to hear, did nothing to change Teddy's resolve. In an attempt to quell James's concerns, he had postponed leaving long enough to convince the other man that everything would be all right.
In the back of his mind, Teddy knew it wasn't exactly fair to lie to James; the younger man had never been a part of the group that ushered him into the containment room once a month, and had always been a friend to him, even before they'd become lovers. However, those thoughts were quickly pushed aside whenever Teddy thought about the barren room that his grandmother and godfather would convince him was necessary each night of a full moon. A few hours each month might not have been the worst of punishments when one considered those poor souls rotting away in Azkaban. But Teddy's only crime was being the son of a werewolf, whose feral nature may or may not have been passed on to him.
When he was younger, Teddy had gone along with things easily enough, but after seventeen years and still no change, his patience had begun to run thin. He'd tried talking to Harry, hoping that his godfather might relate somehow to his plight and talk to Andromeda on his behalf. That idea had failed nearly as well as refusing outright to comply, which had resulted in him waking up in the confinement room after something had been slipped into a drink. The final straw had been watching his twenty-fifth birthday pass him by through a tiny window in that blasted room. It had taken him more than a year after that to come up with a plan, but it was more than worth the long hours to know that soon, at least he wouldn't be locked in that room every month for no reason at all.
The wolf had been hard to track, although that had been expected. Since Greyback's body had never been found after the Final Battle, he was presumed living, and as he'd never been captured and carted off to Azkaban, most had assumed he was lying low. None of the Aurors had yet been able to track him down, which made the task, once it had crossed Teddy's mind, seem all but imposible. That he had accomplished it at all was a feat worth celebrating, but the difficult part was what came afterward: convincing Greyback to leave him alive, when all was said and done.
He didn't try to be quiet as he made his way through the tangle of trees, knowing that it would do him no good in the end. Even the smallest rustle of the underbrush would give him away to the wolf, if his smell didn't do the job first. Instead, Teddy made an effort to be louder than necessary, hoping that his obvious lack of stealth would work in his favour and prevent Greyback from immediately identifying him as an enemy.
Nearly three hours into the forest, he found what he'd been looking for- a dilapidated house that had long ago become overgrown. Half-collapsed now, with its boards obviously rotting and the windows shattered out, it looked eerily appropriate as the hideout of England's most notorious werewolf. His feet crunched over something as he approached the building, and Teddy glanced down to see a weathered animal carcass had splintered and cracked apart beneath the weight of his boot.
"Find what you were looking for?" Startled, Teddy whipped around to find himself looking up into a ragged face he'd only ever seen in aged and yellowed wanted posters. Instinctively, he took a step back in retreat, only to have the man close the distance again just as quickly. Greyback's brow furrowed slightly as he leaned in toward Teddy, baring his teeth menacingly to show the still-fresh blood stains that marred them. "Y're not as afraid as you should be, boy," he rasped, looking Teddy over slowly and sniffing at him more than once. "Why have you been following me?"
Teddy's throat worked to swallow back the lump of nervousness that rose at Greyback's nearness, and he felt his palms start sweating as he was faced with the reality of what he'd done. "I-I..." Pausing to clear his throat, Teddy took another step back from the wolf and suppressed the wave of panic he felt when Greyback once again compensated by stepping forward. "I needed your help..."
To his surprise, one corner of Greyback's mouth twisted into a cruel smile. "Have a death wish, do you, boy?"
"No!" Teddy snapped desperately as his panic surfaced again. His breathing quickened and his hand reached for his wand in the pocket of his robes. Before he was able to curls his fingers around the handle, though, Greyback's hand wrapped around his wrist in a painful grip.
"Looking for your fame then," Greyback sneered, twisting Teddy's arm sharply until he heard the bone snap. Teddy's knees crumpled beneath him as pain seared through him, the cry that burst from his lips coming out strangled as Greyback's other hand closed around his throat and began cutting off his airway. "Hoping to bring me in after all these years and make a name for yourself, is that it?"
"N-no-" Teddy gasped out, bringing his intact arm up to claw at Greyback's hand desperately. His eyes watered as he felt his lungs start burning when the limited air he was able to breathe in was no longer enough. "Please..." It was nearly inaudible, but the other man heard him and loosened his hold on Teddy's throat only slightly, allowing him to draw in a proper lung-full of air.
"Say it now, before I break your neck," Greyback snarled, flexing his fingers around Teddy's throat again for emphasis.
"Make-" Teddy started, breaking off to gulp down another grateful breath as the ache in his lungs eased slightly. Lifting his eyes to Greyback's with a mixture of terror and desperation, he tried again. "Make me like you..."
His eyes cracked open to a darkened, foreign room, and a wave of fear and uncertainty washed over him. Sitting up, Teddy's breath hitched sharply as his foggy mind failed to register his broken arm until his weight shifted to it and sent a stab of pain searing through his body. Pressing his eyes closed tightly, he focussed on his breathing for a moment, until the pain lessened to a more tolerable level.
"Pathetic," sneered a gravelly voice from the opposite corner. Teddy's eyes snapped open as he turned, the lack of light in the room making it difficult at first to recognize the bulky form stepping closer as Greyback until a faint ray of light breaking through half-rotted boards of the wall fell across his face. "Hardly worth wasting my time with, if a snapped arm'll do you in so quickly." The wolf stepped up to the edge of the tattered mess of fabric Teddy had been laid out on, one corner of his mouth pulling back in a silent laugh as the young wizard scrambled backward awkwardly. "Frightened of me now, are you?"
"No," Teddy answered quickly, his voice unsteady and hitching in pitch slightly as his back bumped against a wall. A chill worked its way along his spine as Greyback's rasp of a laugh washed over him. The ragged-looking man leaned over him, pinning Teddy to the wall without touching him.
"Y're a foolish one, aren't you, boy?" Greyback asked, bracing his hands on the wall on either side of Teddy's head as he leaned in further. "I can smell your fear," he growled. His head tilted to one side to breathe in deeply near Teddy's throat, a low grunt of approval rumbling in his throat. "Give me one reason I shouldn't tear your throat out now."
"No!," Teddy gasped out in surprise, his eyes widening slightly as panic seized him. "I-I'll do anything, but please-"
Greyback straightened with a deep laugh, his dark eyes glinting maliciously as he sneered down at Teddy's cowering form. "'Anything', you say?" Slowly, the wolf's gaze wandered over Teddy, considering him, before a satisfied grin split his face that was more terrifying than any of his displays of anger or violence had been. "Oh, yes... I may have a use for you after all, then, boy."
A startled gasp tore from Teddy's lips as Greyback closed his fingers around a handful of Teddy's hair, yanking him to his feet and tearing out several turquoise strands. Without thinking, he threw out his arms to catch himself as he was turned roughly to face the wall, gritting his teeth against the spasm of pain that ripped through his broken arm.
"W-wait," Teddy stammered, attempting to push himself back away from the wall, only to find himself pressed more firmly against the unforgiving surface.
"If you want to live to see the moon tonight, you won't do that again," Greyback growled in Teddy's ear, jerking his head back by the hand still in his hair. The young wizard trembled at the threat, squeezing his eyes closed as he willed himself to relax to avoid angering the wolf when his wand was nowhere within reach. His trembling increased as Greyback leaned in and traced his tongue along the curve of Teddy's throat.
A low, desperate whine escaped Teddy at the contact, and his body tensed as he felt the long, jagged nails of one of Greyback's hands clawing at the waistband of his trousers. Fighting would only get him killed, with his wand Merlin-knew-where, leaving Teddy with very limited options as the coarse hairs that covered Greyback's jaw scratched roughly against his jawline. Sinking his teeth sharply into his lower lip, Teddy squeezed his eyes closed, hoping to block out as much of the experience as possible.
No amount of wishful thinking was capable of helping him confuse the rough and calloused hands that stroked his bared hipbones for James's smooth and familiar touch. Despite his better judgement, Teddy gave one last futile push away from the wall, only to find himself slammed against it a second time, with enough force to knock the wind from his lungs as black spots blossomed and slowly faded at the edges of his vision.
A heavy boot collided sharply with Teddy's side, snapping him back to himself with a strangled gasp. He'd blissfully lost consciousness, for the second time that day, a few moments after Greyback had finished with him, his body too emotionally and physically overwhelmed to support him any longer. As his eyes opened reluctantly, Teddy glimpsed the worn boot briefly before it landed squarely in his ribs, accompanied by a sharp stab of pain as one bent and ultimately snapped beneath the blow.
"On 'yer feet, boy," Greyback growled above him, his foot swinging toward Teddy again. He narrowly avoided the kick, rolling out of the way with a pained cry as his broken rib shifted. "Pathetic. At this rate, you won't be any challenge at all."
Cracking his eyes open only enough to glare up at Greyback, Teddy, wrapped his good arm protectively around himself. "What are you talking about?" he hissed through gritted teeth, struggling to keep his voice relatively steady despite the fresh waves of pain that washed over him. Preoccupied as he was, he didn't realize until too late that Greyback had stepped closer.
"Forgotten what you came here for already?" he snarled, bending over Teddy and grasping the front of his torn shirt. Twisting slightly, until the fabric wound partially around his hand, Greyback hefted Teddy to his feet. Teddy inhaled sharply, bracing himself to be thrust against the wall. Instead, Greyback's free hand reached up to grasp his jaw sharply, the chipped and ragged edges of his nails biting into Teddy's flesh.
Jerking Teddy's face sharply to the side, Greyback lifted his chin slightly and pressed his nails deeper into his jaw. "The moon will be out soon, boy. Are you ready to see it with me?" Teddy tensed as he looked through the filthy shards of glass that still clung to the window, watching the slowly darkening night sky. The moon would likely come out in a matter of minutes, leaving him defenceless as the madman gripping his face changed.
He tried to swallow back his nervousness, but Greyback's hold on him had shifted to his throat, tracing the column of his throat in a dangerous caress. "I haven't had a good hunt in so long, it's a shame ye're not going to be much challenge." Teddy's focus snapped to Greyback at that, his brow furrowing slightly in confusion, hoping he had properly masked the flicker of hope that crossed his features.
"You're letting me go?" he asked as steadily as he could. Greyback leaned his head back and laughed, pulling away from Teddy and crossing the room toward the lone door. Throwing it open with a bang as it rattled off the wall, the wolf gestured at the hallway on the other side with a feral smile.
"Run as far and as fast as ye're able, boy."
For a long moment, Teddy stood frozen in shock, looking back and forth between Greyback and the freedom on the other side of the door before taking a hesitant step forward. Each movement caused a fresh twinge of pain in his ribs, and he shuffled slowly and carefully forward, looking up disbelievingly at Greyback as he passed by him. He expelled a shaky breath once he stepped through to the other side of the door and saw the front door that opened out to the forest only a few feet away, hanging halfway off its hinges and taunting him with the growing darkness outside.
His mind only on escaping into the tree line and- hopefully- locating his wand to Apparate away, Teddy nearly missed the low, amused rumble of Greyback's voice behind him.
"Not a challenge at all..."
By the time his feet were able to carry him outside, the sky had grown pitch black, and only a few stars peeking out here and there offered Teddy any light to search by. He scoured the ground around the decrepit building in search of his wand, hoping that it would be noticeable among the loose branches and twigs in the underbrush and hadn't been snapped in half or- worse yet- hidden somewhere back inside. His ears strained to listen for any sound to indicate Greyback was coming after him, although he knew that once the moon took hold, it would do him no good. Paws would pad almost silently through that building, and without a wand, there was no chance of him outrunning the wolf.
The minutes dragged on like hours as he searched and scrambled through the leaves on the ground, his hand settling more than once on a promising length of wood, only for him to discover it was a useless stick. When the ground beneath him began to become less shadowed, a chill ran along his spine, and he knew without turning that the moon was coming out. Teddy's search became more frantic, desperate to close his fingers around his wand before Greyback could emerge from the run-down house- if he hadn't done so already.
A loud howl split the night around him several moments later, followed by a loud crash. Teddy's head snapped up, casting a fearful glance at the building. His heart began pounding loudly in his ears as he glimpsed a blur of grey fur through one shattered-out windowpane on the upper floor, and he immediately began to fling his hands through the underbrush desperately. Realizing the futility of using only one hand, Teddy gritted his teeth against the spasms of pain from his broken arm as he began to use it in his search.
Finally, his fingers curled around the familiar, smooth handle of his wand, confirmed as he yanked his arm out of the pile of leaves and expelled a sigh of relief. The sensation was short lived, however, when a low growl rumbled behind him.
Teddy turned in time to see the large wolf stalking toward him, its lips peeled back to bare its sharp teeth in what could almost have been a smile. He was unable to raise his wand fast enough, still clutching it in his broken arm, and the creature leapt at him, sinking its teeth into Teddy's left thigh. His head snapped back with a scream of agony that cracked his throat, and his wand arm moved of its own accord, momentarily oblivious to the pain of the action in the face of the bite.
"Avada Kedavra!"
He thought it might have been his ears playing tricks on him, but Teddy thought he heard a quiet whine in the instant before the brilliant green light burst from the tip of his wand, striking the werewolf between his front paws. The force of the spell knocked Greyback back several feet, leaving him sprawled on his side, unmoving. His adrenaline beginning to fade, Teddy glanced down at the wound the creature had inflicted and let out a child-like whimper as he saw the pool of blood soaking into his tattered trouser legs and the leaves beneath him.
Gripping his wand tightly in his hand, he Apparated himself home to his flat, hoping that James would be waiting for him despite his breaking his promise.
Teddy collapsed onto his side in the sitting room of his flat, his iron grip on his wand the only thing keeping it from flying out of his hand as he hit the floor. The lights were out, and there were no sounds, and another whimper slipped from his lips as he realized he was entirely alone. Swallowing thickly, he forced his throat to work, whimpering an 'Accio' to summon a vial of dittany from the cabinet in the loo.
His hand was pale and trembling as he caught the bottle that floated toward him, the loss of blood from the bite taking its toll on his body. Tearing the stopper out, Teddy overturned the bottle over his thigh, inhaling sharply from the pain as the wound began to cauterize and close itself slowly, the regrowth of so much muscle and flesh nearly as agonizing as losing it had been.
Laying himself back onto the floor, Teddy unfurled his hands from around both the empty bottle and his wand. He pressed his eyes closed, focusing on breathing steadily until the pain in his thigh finally dimmed to a dull ache to match that of his broken rib and arm. His mind wandered and raced through the possibilities of how to proceed, knowing that after so much blood loss, he had very little time to seek better medical attention. James had begun training to be a healer at St. Mungo's, but without the other man here, Teddy's options dwindled until the hospital seemed the only possibility.
His body began to feel cold, the tremble that had been confined to his hands slowly spreading through him as shock sent in. Risky as it was, he reached for his wand again in Apparate himself to St. Mungo's, knowing he would be unable to stand and reach the Floo powder in his condition. Teddy had just closed his fingers around his wand again when the Floo activated, and James stepped through into the room.
His lover looked around for a moment, his gaze disappointed and slightly sad before it finally settled on Teddy, sprawled on the floor. Both emotions immediately disappeared to be replaced by joy and then worry as he fell to his knees at Teddy's side.
"Ted, what happened to you?" James asked, his voice strained as he looked over Teddy's blood-soaked trousers and pale appearance.
"I... broken arm," Teddy managed after a moment, finding speaking more difficult than he'd expected as his teeth began to chatter, the chill over him deepening. "And a rib...don't know how long..." Swallowing thickly, Teddy lifted his hand from the floor to reach for James, brushing the back of one knuckle lightly against his cheek before the hand dropped heavily to the floor. "Help?" he whispered brokenly before the room went black.