Chapter 7
Snape watched the girl closely the next few days. She didn't say much. She was hard to read. She cried sometimes, which always made him uncomfortable. Mostly she just sat quietly, staring into nothingness. Dumbledore told him not to worry, that she was still processing it. He said she was handling it well, but Snape was not so sure.
On Friday when Smethwyck came to change her bandages, he informed them she could return to school.
"You should take it easy for a few days, get the nurse to change your bandages twice a day, but you should be able to resume your classes on Monday, if you feel up to it," Smethwyck said.
"Thank you," said Wendy hollowly.
"There is one more thing. We would like for you to bring her back here on the first full moon. We'd like to observe her transformation."
"Why?" Snape asked suspiciously.
"We have her an experimental treatment when she arrived, we're curious to see if it works."
"You did what?" he asked, feeling livid. He had not been told of any experimental treatment!
"An experimental treatment," said the man. "There's a group of Potioneers working on various potions to reduce the effects of lycanthropy."
"I'm aware," Snape said.
"Then you know, they are working towards a cure. It is still a long way off... When Miss Phillips arrived here we administered one of their most recent concoctions meant to reduce the aggressiveness of fully fledged werewolves."
"You did this without her consent? Without her parents consent? What if something goes wrong?" Snape flared.
"Her parents have abandoned her," Pye said tactlessly. Even Smethwyck glared at him.
"You did not know that at the time!" Snape snapped. "You should have spoken to me or to Professor Dumbledore. She is a child not some guinea pig for you to test experimental treatments on!"
"With all due respect, Professor Snape, we need no one's permission. She has no rights, under the current laws. She is a Beast," Smethwyck said. "I'm not saying it is right, but it the way it is. Everything we did, we did with the best of intentions. Every step we take is a step closer to a cure. Eventually, laws like this will no longer exist."
Snape still felt livid, though he wasn't sure why. What the man said made sense. Still...she was only a child! If experiments needed to be done, let them be done on wretches like Remus Lupin.
"I think you should leave," Snape said quietly. "I am taking Miss Phillips back to school. I will bring her back, as you requested, but I am not letting her out of my sight when she is here."
"As you wish," Smethwyck said and he and the intern left.
Snape turned to see Wendy watching him, her silver eyes dull. He looked away.
"Are you ready to return to school?" he asked her gruffly.
"Yes," she said quietly.
"...Professor Dumbledore said none of the students know about your condition. The teachers know. You can tell your friends if you want, but-"
"I don't have any," she interrupted. "There is no one that cares."
"Right...well...if anyone does ask. You could tell them you were ill."
She nodded and Snape cleared his throat.
"We can use the fireplace in the lobby to travel back to the school. I'll give you a moment to get dressed."
When she was dressed, Snape led the girl downstairs to the oversized fireplace.
"Why is it so big?" she asked, sounding disinterested.
"It is dangerous for wizards to Apparate when injured. Safer to use floo powder. Sometimes they push them through on stretchers," he explained.
"Oh."
Snape took a fistful of floo powder from a bowl next to the fireplace and tossed it in. Emerald flames leapt to life.
"Come," he said to her, taking her arm. They stepped into the flames.
"Snape's office, Hogwarts," he said clearly and the two were whooshed away.
