Another School Mystery…
Chapter 1: A Friend's Pain
13 year old Martha Black was looking at the addresses she'd gained from her friends, and realised one lived in Scotland, and one lived in Ireland.
How the hell do they manage to get to Hogwarts on time, then!? She thought to herself, before realising that maybe she should write to them, because she hadn't spoken to them since they parted on the Hogwarts Express. So she got a few pieces of parchment and began writing:
Hi Adelyne,
I know I haven't written to you, but I've been busy. Dad's just decided that so he's able to help look after my baby sister, Jessica, that he wants to get bitten by a werewolf. He's even planning to get Mum to bite him on the next full moon. She told him that she doesn't want to bite him so he can be with Jessica, but he's insisting. He's even told me that if that doesn't work, that he'll go to Remus and get him to bite him. I don't know what he's thinking, so don't ask me, please. (LOL)
Anyway, I'd better go now, I still need to write to the others.
Please send a letter back, so I know that you'd received it.
Thanks and I'll see you at school.
Your best friend,
Martha.
Martha sealed the letter and tied it to the leg of her family owl, Firebane, who took off out the window and was soon nothing more than a black speck in the slowly darkening sky. Martha sighed and dipped her quill in the ink bottle on her desk and wrote:
Heya Dora,
How've you been? Sorry I haven't written in ages, but I've been so busy with Dad suddenly deciding that he's definitely going to try and get himself bitten by a werewolf so he can be with Jessica. I have no idea why, but then again, neither does Mum. Anyway, how is Catherine? The last time I saw her she was only a tiny baby. She is so adorable, I want a baby sister like that, even though I already have one. (LOL)
Anyway, changing the subject, have you spoken to Paige? Apparently her parents are fighting again. Don't ask me why, but she wrote to me earlier on and told me they were fighting again, with McGonagall accusing Remus of having an affair. I don't know why she would think that, but then again, Paige told me he's been away from home quite a lot. He apparently told her that he's been looking for work so he can keep the family running, but she doesn't believe him. Apparently she thinks he's been to see another woman.
But on a different note, I realised you live in Scotland, so how is it you get to Kings Cross on time? If you live in Edinburgh, how do you manage to get to London before the train leaves?
If you could please send a reply back to me as soon as possible, I'd be really grateful.
Thanks,
Your best friend,
Martha.
She sealed that letter and was about to begin writing the next one, when she suddenly heard a shout.
"Martha! Hurry up Martha, get down here quickly!" called her mother's voice, sounding rather stressed. Martha ran down the stairs, after looking out the window and realising the moon, although low in the sky, was full.
Crap! She thought to herself, running downstairs and towards her mother, who was holding a small baby in her arms. This was Martha's baby sister, Jessica, who was born a werewolf, after her mother, Natalie Black, had been bitten the previous year.
"Sorry Mum, I didn't realise it was a full moon tonight." She admitted softly.
"Didn't you feel the urges for blood?" Natalie asked her in mild confusion.
"Well I did, but I kind of ignored them." She replied.
"Alright, well, you and I are going to eat something quickly to keep the wolves from the door for a while, but we'll obviously end up eating tonight anyway, because we'll still be hungry. Sirius, you're cooking for Cody and Georgia." She added, turning to her husband, who was tall with black, shoulder-length hair and brown eyes. Sirius nodded and began walking towards the kitchen. Martha looked quickly at her watch, realising that the time was 7:08pm.
"Mum, it's only almost ten past seven." Martha said, showing Natalie her watch. Natalie bent over slightly to look and nodded, sweeping her long brown hair back behind her left shoulder as she straightened up.
"I know, but we have to get there a bit earlier in order to have time left over before we transform." She said, also walking towards the kitchen, where she opened the pantry and had a look in it to see what she and Martha were able to eat, as Jessica, although liking to chew, was still supposed to be on milk. Martha could see her mother struggling to both hold Jessica and look through the pantry, so she walked up to her.
"Mum, do you want me to hold Jessica while you look to see what we can eat?" Martha asked Natalie, who looked relieved as she handed the baby girl to Martha.
"Thank you Martha." Natalie replied, continuing to look through the pantry. "Okay, this'll have to do. Come on Martha." Natalie said, pulling a couple of pieces of bread from the pantry and, handing one to Martha, the two of them walked briskly out of the house. "Alright, we'll have to apparate, but because you and Jessica can't, I'll have to take you both on side-along apparition." Natalie said after they'd left the house. Handing her baby sister back to Natalie, she held onto her mother's left wrist.
"On the count of three. One…two…three!" she said, and Martha felt her feet leave the ground and felt as though she was being pulled through a tight tube which pushed all the air out of her lungs so she couldn't breathe. This feeling only lasted a second, however, and Martha soon felt solid ground beneath her feet and she found she could breathe again. She breathed in deeply and slowly exhaled, letting go of her mother's wrist.
"Is this the pack's location?" Martha asked her mother curiously.
"Yes, and your friends should be here in a jiffy, too."
"Are they in the same pack?"
"Yep. Ah, here they are now!" Natalie said and a scream followed, but it was a scream of delight, rather than fear or pain.
"HI MARTHA!" her friends all screamed, sprinting over. One had long, light brown hair and blue eyes, with glasses. This was Paige Lupin, who was a year below Martha at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, however, she only looked half as happy as the others. Martha guessed the reason behind this was because of her parents, Remus and Minerva Lupin, were once again fighting. The other two, though belonging to two completely different families, looked almost identical. They both had long, medium-brown hair and green eyes, and both wore glasses. Their names were Adelyne Marlo and Christine Wilkinson. There was also another girl, who had shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes. This girl was Lannaster Potter, another one of Martha's friends.
"Hey guys!" she said, just as excited. She then saw Christine's father, William Wilkinson, walking behind, talking to Paige's father, Remus Lupin. William was tall, looking rather a lot like his daughter, except for the hair and skin colour. His hair was black in colour and his skin was a pale tan colour, compared to Christine's dark peach colour. Remus, on the other hand, looked almost identical to his daughter, having light brown hair, and dark-peach coloured skin. Remus' eyes, however, were green-grey, and not blue, like his daughter's were. Paige had inherited her eyes from her mother, not Remus.
Eventually the transformations began. The men had moved away from the women during transformation, and this was because male werewolves, just after transformation, were more likely to be highly aggressive, even towards the females. This was a result of the amount of testosterone in their bodies skyrocketing. This happened most especially during the werewolf mating season, between the months of May – June.
Once the transformation was complete, Martha, as a newly matured female werewolf, started investigating some of their pack males, not quite understanding them. Soon, however, Natalie, as a large, light brown spotted werewolf, ran up to her and bit her on the back of her neck warningly. Martha looked up and noticed, then, that there was a completely black, adult female werewolf growling at her. She instantly knew this werewolf was the alpha, and the male she had been investigating, was the alpha male.
She crouched down slightly, showing submission to the alpha female. The female eventually walked off, and the male, knowing she was likely to be upset with him for patiently allowing Martha to investigate him, followed his mate, who'd gone back to watching their cubs. He slowly walked up to her, his head held low.
All of a sudden, though, a smell of prey caught every pack member's attention. The alpha male knew his position and he stood up, howling to call every pack member to him. All 900 other members walked towards him, their heads held low, but their short tails wagging excitedly. Holding the head low was considered a sign of respect in the werewolf world.
"With the approach of prey, we shall hunt for the food that we so badly crave!" he said in werewolf and every other werewolf present growled in support. "Now, for this hunt to be successful, we need everyone to cooperate and work together as a team! Females, I want you to stalk the prey, and once Rolmio has brought the prey to the ground, hold it down! Males, circle the prey and females, causing a solid wall of werewolves so the prey can't run. And Rolmio," he added, turning to Remus, who was a large light brown coloured werewolf, with some white to his muzzle, stomach and chest, stood to attention, facing the alpha. "You know what to do. Do not fail us. If you fail us again, I will have no choice but to choose a different primary hunter." He said softly to Remus, who held his right forepaw to his heart, as a sign of a salute. "Swear on the Howling Wolf God." He commanded and Remus stood up as straight as possible for a werewolf (which is not very straight!).
"I swear on the Howling Wolf God, that I will not fail to bring food home from the hunt." Remus said, his forepaw still over his heart.
"Good. Now move out!" he called the last command out loudly to the rest of the pack. All the werewolves over two years of age followed Remus out of the centre of the territory, which was known as the Sleeping Area. The mothers of cubs below two years of age stayed behind in a small area beside the Sleeping Area, which was called the Birthing Area, dedicated to the birth of cubs. Martha and her friends followed Remus into the Hunting area, located on the outer edges of the pack's territory.
"This place looks like somewhere humans had fenced off." Martha said to William, who was a large, cream coloured werewolf.
"It was, but this pack had been here since before humans had even started making their own things. There were a lot of werewolf bites at the time, and eventually humans had built the fence to stop the attacks. It was out of fear of us that compelled them to fence it off; otherwise we wouldn't be in a fenced area." William explained softly to her, as they slowly walked towards the scent of prey.
"But why didn't the alphas decide to move the pack, Willo?" Martha asked him.
"Manty, there are a lot of things you may not understand, but this was the birthplace of the alpha male's ancestors. He decided that if his ancestors were born here, he would stay here, and there would be no changing his mind. Anyway, I have to join the rest of the males in circling the prey. You follow the females. You'll eventually learn the best hunting techniques." He said, running off to join the other males. Martha caught up with the females and followed their lead, slowly beginning to learn the female's job in hunting.
The prey was a human man. And he was standing there, without any trace of fear of the approaching werewolves. The only visible expression was determination, but what had caught the beta female's attention was a herd of deer grazing nearby, apparently unaware of the approaching danger. Martha slowly walked towards the deer with the other females, and the deer suddenly seemed to catch their scent and tried to flee, but all they did was run into a solid wall of male werewolves. They continued to run, but the werewolves wouldn't let them. Finally, Christine leapt up onto the back of one of the larger males, biting his neck, while Martha bit the throat, crushing the larynx under the strength of her jaws. The deer stopped struggling suddenly, becoming very limp. Martha and Christine let go of him, and that was when the human man appeared in the middle of the circle of males. Christine looked up, panting excitedly. Bowing her head, she approached the beta female.
"Can we please attack this human?" she asked, motioning to the human man. The beta female looked at him for a second.
"Shenny, you know that if we attack him, he may get other humans to attack us…if he survives, that is." She said gently to the young female.
"But he looks like good prey." Christine replied, and the beta sighed.
"Okay, we'll attack him. Because even if he does survive, he'll add to the pack, which will expand us." She replied, leading all the females towards the human. Still no fear appeared on his face, only determination. Martha wondered why he was so determined. Eventually they stopped stalking him, realising he was aware of their presence, and it turned into a frontal attack. Martha leapt at him, knocking him off his feet and she clawed at his face and neck, biting his throat.
"Manty, not that way!" Remus yelled, running forward and pushing her off the human. Instead, he bit the man on the chest, where the heart was located. The man flinched with pain, before Remus was knocked off his paws by another human. Martha ran up to him, checking if he was alright. He got to his paws again and started growling at this human. This one was female, but she had a human man standing next to her. Remus leapt at her, his teeth bared, and the other males broke ranks, forgetting about the deer, and ran, instead, towards the humans. The females joined in, leaping at them but being blown back by the humans' wands. Two females had hit the ground but hadn't got back onto their paws. Martha ran towards them, checking them over, but her instinct told her they were dead.
No. They killed them, I'll kill those humans! She thought, snarling at the two humans, who looked at her and spoke to each other in a strange language. Then they pointed their wands at her and she realised they were going to hurt her like they did Remus and the two females. She was about to leap at them, but Remus held onto her foreleg with his mouth.
"Don't, Manty. They'll get you like they did the other two. We'll get the whole hunting group to attack them together. Because there's more of us then there are of them." He whispered and Martha bowed her werewolfish head.
"Okay." She said, falling back with the rest of the pack. The pack slowly approached the two humans, who, although having wands at their disposal, were suddenly looking fearful. Suddenly, the beta male lunged at the male human and bit him on the shoulder. He yelled in pain and the female human screamed, bashing the beta with her fist on his head. He suddenly let go, whimpering, and running back to join the rest of the pack. The pack's medics ran forward, gently lifting him up between them and carrying him back to the Sleeping Area. The human man was losing so much blood, that he was hardly able to stay conscious, and the female human held him and disappeared, leaving the other man still on the ground, losing enormous amounts of blood.
"Leave him. Grab the deer and get back to the Sleeping Area. The humans will be back." Remus said to the hunters, starting to limp back to the Sleeping Area. The pack followed his lead, all except for Martha and the beta female.
"What about the two dead females?" she asked the beta. "Won't the alphas want to know who died and who survived?"
"They will. But Rolmio's job was only to catch the meal and bring the pack safely back, not bring back the dead. That's my job." She replied, stooping down to pick one of the dead up. Martha followed suit and together they walked down to the Sleeping Area.
In the Sleeping Area, Martha and the beta female lay the two cold, limp females in front of the alphas, stepping back with their heads held low and their tails as far between their hind legs as possible, wagging slowly. They knew the alphas were not going to be happy with the pack for this. Especially not Remus, considering he was supposed to deliver the rest of the pack safely back to the Sleeping Area.
"Where is Rolmio!?" the alpha male growled to the pack and Remus stepped forward, crouching low with his tail between his legs and his head held low, to show submission. "How do you explain this!?" he asked Remus, who looked down at the two dead werewolves.
"We were attacked by humans, I couldn't help it. There were three humans, and they had wands. They were dangerous. As soon as they attacked, we knew there were going to be casualties. We stayed and fought to protect you and the mothers with cubs. If we'd fled, they'd have followed us and killed everyone, including the cubs." Remus said softly to them. "I'm sorry." He added, sitting down, his head held as low as possible, his tail still between his legs. The alpha female sighed and looked at her mate. She whispered something to him, but he shook his head.
"Rolmio, because you were unable to return with these two werewolves alive, you are hereby stripped of the honour of being primary hunter. You are now also a lower-class subordinate. Go sit with the lower-class subordinates. But before you do, you need one punishment more." He said to Remus, but loud enough for the whole pack to hear, and he turned Remus around and bit him on the back of the neck, breaking the skin, but without killing him. Remus winced with the pain and once the alpha male let go; he limped to the edge of the Sleeping Area and sat down, his head bowed.
"Okay, we now need a new primary hunter. Someone who will ensure the survival of every pack member during hunts and will not fail to bring us a meal. Candidates must be mature, whether male or female, it doesn't matter, but they are not to presently have cubs below two years. Candidates must also be in the higher-class subordinates. Who's willing to take up the responsibility?" the alpha female said to the rest of the pack and only two werewolves walked slowly forward with their heads lowered.
It took a while for the alphas to select a suitable candidate. The alpha male stood up and silenced the pack so he was able to speak.
"Okay, we have selected a new primary hunter. We have decided to elect Willo as our new primary hunter! Make us proud, Willo." He said and all the werewolves in the pack howled to honour the new primary hunter, all except Remus, who stayed in his same position, sulking.
Eventually everything went back to normal for the rest of the night. When the sun began to rise, however, every werewolf who was born a human went to the Hunting Area to transform. It turned out that three quarters of the werewolves in the pack were originally human, but were either born with the curse or were bitten by another werewolf.
After the transformations had finished, Martha saw Paige running up to Remus, who was walking slowly away. Suddenly, however, she heard Natalie scream.
"Sirius!" she heard her mother scream and she looked around to see her father on the ground, lying way too still.
"No. Not Dad, please." She whispered, running up to her father and kneeling down next to him, tears in her eyes. "Is he alright, Mum?" she asked her mother, who was trying desperately to revive him.
"He's barely alive. The bite went too deep, and he was losing way too much blood." She said, picking him up gently and taking Martha, who was holding Jessica, by the hand and disapparating.
Back at home, Natalie told Martha to lay Jessica in her bed and get her medical kit.
"We don't have much time. If we're going to save him, we need the kit fast." She said and Martha nodded, walking to Jessica's bedroom and laying the sleeping baby in the bed, before running into her parents' room and grabbing her mother's medical kit and running down the stairs to her parents, her father now on the couch, his shirt had been removed to show the wound to his chest.
"Is he any better, Mum?" she asked her mother, handing her the kit. Natalie sighed softly as she opened the kit and took out her wand to start cleaning the wounds.
"Not yet. But he will get better, if he's able to remain in my care, although it'll probably take about another two weeks to a month." She said, now placing gauze pads on Sirius' wounds and bandaging them gently to his body. "Now all we have to do is make sure he doesn't require CPR to keep him alive." She added, timing his pulse and breathing. "You run up to your bedroom, now. Get some rest, it'll help you." She said, placing her hand briefly on Martha's shoulder. Martha nodded and walked up the stairs.
Entering her bedroom, she noticed a strange owl outside her window. She opened the window and the owl flew in, dropping a letter onto her bed before flying back outside the window. Martha tore open the letter, wondering what on earth it was. She read;
Martha,
I have bad news, but I can't tell you in this letter, in case it's intercepted. It's too dangerous, because we never know what the Ministry's up to.
Ask your mum if you can come to my place. It's urgent! Please hurry! Bring your mum too, if she wants.
Thanks,
Adelyne.
Martha read and reread the letter in quick succession. She then realised what must've happened. Racing down the stairs with the letter still in her hand, she ran to her mother, handing her the letter. Natalie read it and sighed.
"If it's that urgent, I have no choice but to let you go. But I want you back by ten o'clock, alright?" she said and Martha nodded, thanked her mother and ran to the fireplace, where she grabbed a handful of glistening powder (floo powder) and threw it into the fire, before stepping in herself.
"208 Duke Street, London!" she said and she suddenly span into the floo network. Tucking her elbows in against her body, she was spinning for about two minutes before spinning into another fireplace. She stopped herself before she face planted the hearth of Adelyne's lounge room. Straightening up, she saw Adelyne suddenly run up to her in hysterics.
"What on earth is wrong, Adelyne!?" she asked, shocked.
"It's Dad! Dad's been bitten! He – he – he's –" she choked, tears streaming down her face. "He's d-dead!" she sobbed, falling to her knees, her face hidden in her hands and her shoulders shaking with sobs.
"Oh my god, Adelyne. I'm so sorry to hear that. Where's your mum?" Martha said softly, hugging her distraught friend.
"In her room. I don't think she wants to know about anything at the moment." She choked.
"We need to make sure nothing else happens, or things could prove very difficult for you." Martha said softly to her. "And I'm sorry to bring this up, but was he killed from the bite itself or the loss of blood?" she added.
"Blood loss killed him apparently." Adelyne replied, beginning to sob harder.
"I'm so sorry, Adelyne." Martha said softly, just as a scream pierced the air and Martha and Adelyne looked to the source of the scream in alarm. They both stood up and ran to Adelyne's mother, Eve's bedroom, where they heard the scream.
"Mum!?" Adelyne called out in panic. "Mum!? Mum, where are you!?"
Suddenly, Eve ran out of her bedroom and towards Adelyne's sisters' bedroom, where her younger sisters, Emilie and Melissa, were asleep. She opened the door and soon ran back out of the room with the two little girls in her arms. Martha and Adelyne followed her to the lounge, where she suddenly tripped and that was when a tall cloaked man appeared. He was completely bald and he had snakelike eyes and a snakelike nose. His fingers were skeletal and Martha instantly recognised him as Lord Voldemort, the darkest and most feared wizard in the whole wizarding world.
"Voldemort!" she whispered, shocked. Voldemort lifted his wand arm and pointed the wand straight at Eve, who held her daughters behind her to protect them.
"Give me the children!" Voldemort shrieked in a snakelike voice.
"No! Take me, but leave my children alone!" she screamed and Martha thought this was how Lily Potter begged Voldemort to kill her and leave Harry alive. This was the basic Potter story all over again.
"Accio baby!" Voldemort said, his wand pointed at the children Eve was desperately trying to protect. Emilie came flying from her mother's arms and into the Dark Lord's instead. Voldemort pointed his wand at the baby girl's heart. "Avada Kedavra!" he said and the little girl suddenly became very limp.
"NO!!" Eve and Adelyne screamed at the same time, both with tears streaming down their faces as Adelyne ran forward and kicked Voldemort in the shins. He stumbled, before regaining his footing and pointing his wand at her.
"Don't you dare!" Eve suddenly shrieked, running forward and shielding her eldest daughter.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort said calmly and Eve screamed before falling to the ground, obviously dead.
"Mum! No!" Adelyne screamed and that was when Remus and William appeared in the house. Both men pointed their wands at Voldemort and Martha automatically knew they wanted them to take Melissa and go.
"Come on Adelyne!" Martha urged her friend desperately. "Grab Melissa, then take the flu network to my place." Adelyne took one last look at her deceased mother and sister before grabbing the wailing three year old and running towards the fireplace, but Natalie appeared in the room and told them to hold her by the arms. They did so and she took them on side-along apparition. Arriving back at home, Martha let go of her mother's arm and sat down, breathing heavily.
"Are you two alright?" Natalie asked them, leading the distraught Adelyne over to a chair and sitting her down on it.
"That was truly scary. For a second, I thought we were all dead meat!" Martha whispered, looking towards her friend.
"I can't believe it." Adelyne mumbled softly, looking at her feet. "I lost both my parents and my baby sister."
"I know, Adelyne, but when you were born, your parents chose Sirius and I as your godparents, so I have no choice now but to look after you until you're old enough to leave home." Natalie said, placing her hand on Adelyne's shoulder.
"Where is Sirius, by the way?" she asked softly.
"He was bitten by a werewolf last night and is unconscious on his bed. Anyway, now to find you a bedroom." Natalie replied, looking thoughtful.
"She can have the room next to mine." Martha suggested. "That's free."
"Hmmm…good point. Okay, Adelyne, I'll show you to your room." She said, leading Adelyne up the stairs. Martha picked Melissa up and walked her to Jessica's room, placing her on the spare bed next to Jessica's bed. Once she had done that, she walked up to her room and saw Natalie and Adelyne in the room next door, which was to be Adelyne's bedroom.
