June 1994
As the group proceeded down the tunnel, Quinn holding onto Remus's arm as Remus used his other hand to hold tightly onto Pettigrew, Sirius suddenly realized, "I'm going to be a free man again when we turn in Pettigrew." More quietly to Harry, Sirius said, "I don't know if you know this, Harry, but your parents made me your godfather and legal guardian. Of course, I'll understand if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle, but I thought perhaps —"
"Come live with you?" Harry said, shocked.
Sirius said quickly, "Well yes, but of course, I'll understand if you don't —"
Yes!" Harry exclaimed, stunning Sirius. Quinn glanced back at the two just as Sirius's face broke into a wide grin that made him look at least ten years younger. Quinn smiled slightly as they reached the end of the tunnel.
As they exited the passageway, the light of the full moon washed over them. For a moment, Quinn admired how beautiful the moonlight was until she felt her father trembling under her arm. Then she remembered the truth about the full moon at the same moment that Remus exclaimed, "Quinn, get away from me!"
"You never took the potion tonight, did you?" Quinn asked, horror filling her as she slowly backed away from Remus as he bent over, trembling and groaning.
"Harry, Quinn, run!" Sirius shouted, rushing over to where Remus stood and taking his friend by the shoulders. "Come on, Remus; stay with me," Sirius pleaded as Remus's green eyes glazed over. "You know the man you truly are, Remus! This heart is where you truly live," he said, placing his hand on Remus's chest. "This heart, here! Look at Quinn; think about your daughter. Remember how much you love her."
Remus dropped his wand as the transformation took hold, his body shifting. He threw Sirius back, and Quinn and Hermione both screamed as they watched him land several meters away with a hard thud. Remus, now fully turned, whimpered softly. Harry, stuck shouldering all of Ron's weight as his friend had slipped into unconsciousness, started to make a break for it, but Hermione said, "Wait." Taking a step toward Remus, she said softly, "Professor Lupin?"
Green wolf eyes briefly made contact with Hermione's eyes, then he howled. The sound sent shivers down Quinn's spine, and she started to back away, but then she saw Sirius transforming into a dog and Pettigrew aiming Remus's wand at Sirius. Snatching her proper wand from where Sirius had dropped it in the grass, Quinn cried, "Expelliarmus!" Pettigrew was disarmed by her spell, but he still grinned at her, unafraid of the petite witch. He transformed into a rat and disappeared into the grass.
Letting out a scream of frustration, Quinn shot multiple stunning spells at where she thought Pettigrew might be running towards the forest. As she moved to find out if she'd hit her target, however, a massive force knocked into her from behind. She fell forward and rolled as the heavy weight of two bodies came down on her. She squealed in pain and fear, losing her grip on her wand in the fall. Heat and fur engulfed her, then sharp, excruciating pain shot through her leg as her flesh was ripped open and blood gushed from her hip and thigh. She pushed against the rough tangled mat of fur, rolling to her side to try to force whoever she was pushing on away. As the weight suddenly lifted from her body, she panted for breath, terrified as she watched the large dog that was Sirius Black take a bite out of the werewolf that was her father's shoulder. He howled and chased after the dog, before growing distracted by the smell of Quinn's blood. He turned back again and stalked toward Quinn, and she scrambled back, unable to get up quickly enough before he was above her again, large green eyes full of bloodlust. Drool dripped from his pointed canine teeth onto the front of her shirt. She whimpered, brushing her hand through the grass around her, searching desperately for her wand. Suddenly, Remus let out a howl of pain, his head swiveling back with a snarl to reveal Sirius playing tug-of-war with the wolf's tail. Sirius refused to let go until he'd managed to lead Remus a considerable distance closer to the edge of the woods.
Quinn's left hand finally found purchase on her wand and snatched it up. She staggered to her feet. Everything around her was a blur. Lights were too bright, noises too loud; it was all too much. Facing one of her worst fears was too much. She couldn't handle it anymore. Terrified, she ran. Adrenaline carried her in the direction of the castle, aware only of the sudden sound of several wolves, including her dad, howling close behind her. She didn't slow down until by some miracle she reached the painting of the Fat Lady, somehow escaping capture by any prefects or professors.
It was only then that Quinn realized that she was alone. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were still stuck outside with her dad, and Sirius was alone defending them. The thought worried her as she stepped into the common room. The moment the door closed behind Quinn, something tackled her, knocking the wind out of her. Eyes wild, she pushed the weight away from her body and turned her wand in the direction of the red blur, shocked when she found it was Fred's chest pressed against the tip of her wand. Breathing heavily, Quinn lowered her wand as Fred demanded, "What's the matter with you? It's only me. Where have you been? It's dangerous for you to be out there all alone at night like that."
"You sound like your mother," Quinn said, her attempt at teasing sounding more like a vicious snap than she'd intended.
Fred took a step back and took in the sight of Quinn properly. She was a mess — her hair was matted with mud and grass, her clothes were dirty with dust and dirt and grass stains, but worst of all, her jeans were ripped from the waistband down her thigh and her leg was still bleeding. Quinn glanced down at herself, hissing when she saw the gash in her leg. The pain of it began to sting her again as Fred began to panic. "What the bloody hell happened to you? You're hurt! We need to get you to the hospital wing immediately! Why didn't you go straight there? Come on; I'm taking you to the hospital wing."
"No!" Quinn practically shouted, making a valiant attempt to run around Fred and up the girls' stairs to her dorm room. He easily caught her around the waist though and held her still. "No," she growled again, quieter this time. "I won't go, and you can't make me." Seeing the sudden burst of determination in Fred's eyes to prove that, oh yes, he could make her go, she amended, "Please don't make me go. It would ruin everything. Please."
Fred frowned, confused. "What would it ruin?"
"Everything," Quinn repeated. "Everything. Fred, please, don't make me go."
Sighing heavily, Fred said, "Fine. Fine. Tell me what's going on."
Quinn shook her head. "I can't."
She could almost physically feel Fred's shock. "What do you mean, you can't? You tell me everything."
"I know," Quinn said, a thick lump forming in her throat. "But I can't tell you about this. It would ruin everything."
"Everything of what?" Fred asked. "It can't really ruin everything in your life. And you're hurt, Quinn. I can't ignore that, no matter what the consequences. Who hurt you?"
Shaking her head again, Quinn took a step back from Fred, as much as his grip on her waist would allow. If there was one thing she'd known her whole life, it was that if anyone ever found out her dad was a werewolf, or worse, found out that his lycanthropy had caused him to hurt her, that the Ministry of Magic would take her away from her father forever. She'd never get to see her father again. As much as she trusted Fred, she couldn't take that risk. It felt silly that she couldn't trust him to know about her dad's lycanthropy when she'd so easily told him about her contact with Sirius Black, but somehow, it felt different. It felt more serious. Too dangerous. "I really can't tell you." Quinn pleaded softly, "Please understand."
Fred huffed and shook his head. "Quinn, come on," he said. "It's me. You never keep anything from me."
"That's not true," Quinn snapped without thinking. "I'm perfectly capable of keeping a secret from you, and I'm not going to tell you this one."
At the hurt on Fred's face, Quinn couldn't help but recoil. He let go of her waist, taking a step back from her. "Fine," Fred snapped back. "Keep secrets from me then. Go to the hospital wing, take care of that nasty wound yourself, let it fester and get infected; I don't care. Do whatever you want and don't talk to me about it. Since that's what you want."
"Fred, no, that's not —"
"What's going on here?" George said as he walked up, clearly concerned that the two were obviously fighting. Noticing Quinn's condition, he exclaimed, "Quinn! What on earth happened to you?"
Fred snorted. "She won't talk to me about it; she certainly won't tell you."
"Fred," Quinn tried, but he cut her off.
"On second thought, go ahead. Maybe she'll talk to you. Maybe she trusts you more than me because apparently, she doesn't trust me at all. Not even a little bit."
"Fred, that's not true," Quinn argued.
"That's what you just said!" Fred snapped angrily.
"No, it's not!" Quinn retorted. "I don't have a choice on this one, Fred! I can't!"
"Ok, enough of this public scene," George said, grabbing Fred and Quinn each by the arm and dragging them up the stairs to the boys' dorms.
"I'm not supposed to be up here," Quinn protested weakly.
"There's no actual rule against it, it's just highly discouraged," George answered calmly before shoving his brother and friend into the twins' room. The room was totally empty as George slammed the door shut behind them. "Sit. Talk it out," George ordered as he walked over to one of the nightstands and pulled a bag of potions out of it, digging around in it.
"Healing potion?" Fred asked as he sat down on what appeared to be his bed.
George nodded as he continued to search. "That won't help. You might as well give up," Quinn said with annoyance as she dropped onto a bed across the room from Fred's.
"And why is that?" George asked.
"Because," Quinn said, then froze. Fred was eyeing her curiously. She couldn't force herself to meet his gaze. Eyes dropping to her lap, she asked, "Fred, you remember how we talked before? About Sirius Black?"
Fred frowned. "Back at Halloween?" Quinn nodded. "Yeah?"
"This is even more secret than that." Quinn took a deep breath. "If anyone else finds out about this, they'll take me away from my dad forever. They might even hurt him or lock him up in Azkaban, and I can't —" Tears stung Quinn's eyes. "I can't take that risk."
"Quinn," Fred said seriously. "You know I'd never do anything to hurt you or your dad, but I can't ignore the fact that you're pretty seriously hurt right now. What happened?"
After a few moments of silence, Quinn admitted quietly, "My dad's a werewolf." The twins stared at her in silent horror. "He normally takes the wolfsbane potion so he doesn't have to worry about safety during the full moon; he's perfectly safe usually. But tonight… Things got screwed up, and he accidentally turned without the potion, and… and…"
"He hurt you," Fred said coldly.
"He didn't mean to," Quinn defended. "There's so much more to what happened, but I can't tell you. It was an accident."
"Is that why Black had to help your father adopt you all those years ago?" George asked, still standing with the potion bag in his hands. "Because he was a werewolf?"
"Yes," Quinn answered. "And they won't hesitate to take me away from him if they think that he's hurt me."
"But he has hurt you," Fred reminded her, the anger in his voice surprising her. "You're hurt! Did he bite you?" Quinn shifted in her seat, looking seriously at her injury for the first time that night. She peeled her bloodstained jeans back from her skin, struggling a little where it was starting to stick to her. The gash was long and ragged, and the sight made her gag. Her eyes teared up a bit as she swallowed bile, and she hesitated to answer. "Quinn," Fred prodded, growing more worried the longer she stayed silent.
"I - I don't know," Quinn stammered. "It - It was all such a, such a blur, and they were both on top of me, I don't - I don't - I don't know if-if - if —"
"Both who?" Fred asked, latching on to the one thing he could understand.
"I don't even know if it was my dad who hurt me," Quinn finally managed to spit out. "It could've been a rock when I fell or a stick or Sirius or —"
"Sirius?" Fred repeated. "Sirius Black? What the bloody hell was Sirius Black doing there?"
"Wait, does that mean he's here?" George asked. "Black's on school grounds with your dad?"
Quinn shook her head, horrified at her slip. "No, no, no, no," Quinn insisted. "I didn't mean that; I just —"
"There's no other way to interpret that, Quinn," Fred said. "You can't be saying anything else."
"You can't tell anyone, either of you," Quinn demanded. "No one, not now, not ever."
"Oh yeah?" Fred sneered. "And what are you going to do when you turn into a werewolf next full moon?" Quinn stopped and stared at him with wide grey eyes. "You hadn't thought of that yet, have you? If it was your dad who bit you, then you're royally screwed, and in a month you'll be a werewolf too. Or had that escaped your mind?"
A shiver ran down Quinn's spine. "I - I don't —"
"A werewolf had no business adopting a child in the first place," Fred continued ranting. "He had absolutely no right to take you in knowing a situation like this was inevitable."
"You —" Quinn tried to argue, but Fred refused to listen.
"One dad a werewolf, the other a mass murdering Death Eater. Man, the Ministry really screwed up your life letting them have you, didn't they?" Fred mocked bitterly.
George warned, "Fred, stop."
"Oh, I won't tell anyone, only because I want to keep your trust, Quinn," Fred said. "But that won't stop everyone from finding out about your dad and what he's done to you. He's screwed, kid, and nothing you say or do is gonna change that. The Ministry will take you away from him to protect you, and you'll be so much better off without him."
"How dare you," Quinn growled, unable to hold it in anymore. "How dare you say such terrible things. My dad is the best man I've ever known, and he's done everything in his power to protect me from everything bad in the world, including his own condition. A condition that only afflicts him thirteen nights a year, I might add. He's only the best Defense teacher this school has ever had, and he was your favorite teacher."
"Until he hurt you," Fred snarled. "I'm sorry, but I can't bring myself to like anyone who hurts you."
"It was an accident!" Quinn screeched, her voice a bit hoarse.
"An accident with dire consequences that could easily happen again!" Fred shouted back, causing Quinn to flinch.
"Guys, wait, stop," George tried to intercede, but the other two Gryffindors were completely ignoring his presence.
"You don't understand what happened!" Quinn argued. "There were extenuating circumstances that forced him to miss his last wolfsbane potion tonight. It couldn't possibly ever happen again."
"It could so! There could easily be more circumstances that make him miss his potion and then OOPS, you're dead! He could've easily killed you tonight, Quinn!"
"I don't care!" Quinn yelled. "I don't care! He's my dad, and I love him. You're the one who doesn't have any right to put him down! He's been an amazing dad, and I don't care if he's accidentally turned me into a werewolf or not."
"But —" Fred said.
"No!" Quinn snapped. "You cannot be a jerk about my dad and expect me to be ok with it! He's one of the only people who really understands me, and I can't listen to you talk bad about him. Learn to accept him as he is, or lose me. I won't be friends with anyone who hates my dad simply because he's a werewolf."
Fred's anger seemed to deflate a little at that. "Quinn, you don't mean that," he said slowly. "We're best friends. You wouldn't really stop being my friend."
Quinn stood up. "Yes, I would," Quinn growled. "My family means everything to me, and my dad is my only family. First, you refused to believe me that Sirius Black was innocent. Now, you think my dad is a horrible monster just because he's a werewolf." She shook her head. "Maybe when Ron comes back and ends up in the Hospital Wing, you'll finally listen to what actually happened and understand. But as long as you hate my dad, then I don't want anything to do with you, Fred Weasley!" With that, Quinn stormed from the room, slamming the door behind her, and stomping down the stairs, across the common room, and up the other stairs to her dorm room, where she threw herself into the shower, trying to drown her sorrows as sobs of anger and hurt escaped her.
