Chapter 1
Sleeping Draughts
"ROWAN!" Eleanor screamed at the top of her lungs. "ROWAN! HELP ME! SOMETHING'S WRONG!" she cried desperately as she looked down at her bed, her sheets soaked with blood.
"WHAT'S WRONG?" she heard her brother bellow back at her from the shop beneath their apartment. "I'M A LITTLE BUSY HERE!"
Eleanor pulled back the sheets and stared wide-eyed at her right leg. There were puncture wounds up and down her calf, and blood was flowing from them like water.
"ROWAN, THIS ISN'T FUNNY! GET YOUR ASS UP HERE RIGHT NOW!" she yelled, becoming frantic. "Oh my fucking god," she muttered to herself as she used the sheets to apply pressure to her leg.
Rowan burst through the door, ready to scream at her for interrupting his precious work, before he saw the blood, and then his eyes grew wide as he walked over to her bed.
"Jesus fucking Christ, Eleanor! What did you do to yourself?"
"What did I do? WHAT DID I DO? I just woke up! I don't fucking remember anything! I sat up to get out of bed, but then I felt this horrible stinging in my leg and then I saw all the blood!"
"Well obviously you did SOMETHING! People don't just wake up with injuries like th-" Rowan paused, and he stared down at the puncture wounds. His eyes grew wider.
When Eleanor saw the look on his face, she went postal. "WHAT!" she screamed at him. "WHAT IS IT?!"
"El, that's… that's a fucking werewolf bite!"
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ROWAN, THIS ISN'T THE TIME TO PLAY YOUR STUPID FUCKING GAMES! GO GET A POTION OR SOMETHING TO FUCKING FIX MY LEG BEFORE I BLEED TO DEATH!"
"I'm not joking, god damn it!" Rowan screamed right back. "Just look at it! Those are teeth marks… and some really fucking big teeth marks at that!"
"Rowan," she said angrily, becoming light-headed at this point from all the screaming and the loss of blood. "How in the Dark Lord's name could a mother fucking werewolf come in here in the middle of the night and BITE ME WITHOUT ME WAKING UP?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"
"Did you take one of your damn sleeping draughts last night?"
"Yes, but what the hell does that have to-"
"Damn it, El!" Rowan screamed at her, cutting her off sharply. "I've been trying to tell you for weeks that you are making them too strong! They knock you out cold! I could hit you with a sack of bricks after you took one of those, and you wouldn't even budge!"
"Rowan," she panicked. "You can't be serious! How could a werewolf get in here without you hearing it?"
"I wasn't here last night remember, El? I was at Charlotte's!"
He pulled out his wand, pointed it at her leg, and muttered an incantation under his breath. She stared at her wounds, but nothing happened.
"I can't heal it," he breathed, now sounding panicky himself.
"This can't be happening!" she cried.
Eleanor grabbed her wand off her night stand and flicked it hard. A heavy, leather bound book flew off her shelf, and she snatched it out of the air as it soared towards her. She flipped through it quickly until she found the passage on werewolves. She stared at the sketch of a werewolf bite and then glanced down at her leg several times over before she gritted her teeth in fear and anger.
"Damn those sleeping draughts!" she cried bitterly. "How could this have happened?!"
Rowan stared into her eyes in disbelief. He was obviously in as much shock as she was.
"We, uh, we need to get you to St. Mungo's," he stated calmly as possible.
"HELL FUCKING NO!" she yelled at him, her fear of hospitals immediately kicking in.
"WOULD YOU RATHER JUST LIE HERE AND BLEED TO DEATH?!" he roared.
"YES!" she screamed.
"YOU'RE INSANE! I'M APPARATING YOU TO ST. MUNGO'S RIGHT NOW WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!" he replied, grabbing hold of her arm.
She yanked it from his grip.
"WAIT!" Eleanor screamed again. "Take me up to the school! Madam Pomphrey could help me!" she said hopefully. After all, they were located right in Hogsmeade.
"All she's going to do is give you a calming draught and send you to St. Mungo's herself!"
Eleanor became even more frantic.
"Rowan, please, please, please, don't send me to St. Mungo's," she begged. "You know how much I hate it there! And then if this really does turn out to be a werewolf bite and I'm in the middle of St. Mungo's, everyone will find out! HOW COULD I LIVE WITH THAT?"
"Stop screaming, Eleanor! And start thinking straight! Do you realize how serious this is?"
"Take me to Snape!" she pleaded. "He would know what to do! He's the most brilliant-"
"Alright, that proves it, you're out of your fucking mind, and we're going to St. Mungo's RIGHT NOW!"
"ROWAN! Please, I beg you! Come on, you know Snape loves us! He would help either of us in a heartbeat! And I trust him more than any crackpot Mudblood lover at St. Mungo's!"
"And what if he can't do anything?"
"For one, you know that's total fucking bull shit, and two, I promise you if Snape says he can't help me then I'll go straight to St. Mungo's," she declared, calming down only slightly.
"Fine," he said bitterly. "But if Snape gets pissed off, I'm putting all the fucking blame on you."
"Whatever, just get us out of here," she replied as Rowan grabbed her arm again and put it around his neck.
Rowan helped her onto her feet, and she was careful to not put any weight on her right leg. Simply standing was causing her enough agony. They Apparated quickly, and Eleanor greatly resisted the urge to be sick as she felt her feet leave the ground.
