Disclaimer: I don't own HP or Naruto.

"Psst."

Remus' ears twitched, a remnant of the night's transformation.

"Psst, Lupin!"

He opened his eyes blearily. A face was hovering over him. He gasped and backed away into his pillows.

The face did the same quickly in the opposite direction. Then the same voice who psst him whispered hesitantly. "Are you, you know, Lupin?"

"Yes!" he retorted in an indignant whisper. "Who are you?"

"See he talks, I don't think werewolves talk."

Two people shuffled closer, into the boundaries of the curtains that screened the bed. They were older, he saw; maybe in fifth year.

"So?"

He looked at them blankly.

"How do you feel, after the, er, transformation?"

Understanding dawned. "Are you with the research group?"

"Yes, yes," said the girl impatiently. "so answer the question!"

The boy with her rolled his eyes. "Sorry about her, she's enthusiastic. I'm Markus Gaines. That's Edelhart Hightower. Are you alright?"

"Yes," he said hesitantly.

"Define 'alright'." the girl demanded. "Does that mean alright, I don't feel any different from before the transformation; alright, I'm feeling a little howl at the moon is needed; alright, I want to eat you and gnaw on your bones; al -"

"Edie!"

Gaines sent him a frantically apologetic look. Remus Lupin stifled a sudden laugh, more at the oddness of it all than anything else. "I'm feeling a little sore."

"Sore? Muscles, joints, where?"

"Everywhere? I normally stay here the day after...well...and I get really hungry too."

Hightower scribbled quickly on a piece of parchment. "What does Madame Schnernos do afterward?"

"I don't think there's anything to be done. She just tells the house elf to help me to the dorm."

The girl looked up from her parchment. "Not even a pain reliever?"

He shook his head.

"Do you know why? Maybe potions would have a damaging effect on your body after the transformation?"

"Er, I don't..."

"You'll be here all day, won't you?"

"Yes, I -"

"I'll have more questions later." She grabbed Gaines' arm and pulled him away. The older boy barely had time to nod goodbye to Remus.

The first-year shook his head and lay back against the pillows. That was...weird. He closed his eyes, falling back to sleep.


"Psst!"

"I'm awake," Remus said, eyes still closed.

"Madame Schernos doesn't know a lot about werewolves, does she?" came the rather disapproving tones of the Hightower girl.

Remus cracked open an eye. "I don't think many healers do. Few weres go to St. Mungos."

"It's an affront to the academic community," the girl hissed. "Werewolves might be a minority but there is no excuse for such ignorance!"

Gaines stuck his head into the curtained area. "By the way, we were never here. Poor Madame Schernos didn't know quite what to say. Apparently, they're keeping your existence secret. I'm keeping watch."

The girl, who was now rummaging through her bag, didn't appear to hear. "We'll have to correct the oversight ourselves!"

Remus patiently answered the questions that were just tripping over her tongue. He ignored the manic scribbling that increased in furiousness with every question and answer. If she was going to document weres, he would do his best to disseminate correct information. His hands twitched, remembering all the books that said he was a dark creature, a mindless beast, not human, not worth it to be saved.

He would change all those books, so that young weres like he was would not feel like he did. So that they would not blunder blindly into costly mistakes or become afraid of their own bodies and thoughts.

Remus Lupin was young and full of hope.


"Psst!" came the third time that day.

"I've been expecting you." He felt like the villain in a cheap action movie. He repressed the urge to end with a 'mwahahaha'.

"Any allergies, Lupin?"

"I don't think so."

She offered him a potion.

"Is that mint? A muscle relaxant?"

The manic look in Hightower's eyes returned. "You can smell the potions ingredients?"

The parchment and quill made another appearance and questions on his enhanced senses started. Remus wondered where she stored her parchment. The sleeves of her robe?

The muscle relaxant potion took care of a good part of the soreness but his joints were still creaky. He dropped off into the deep sleep that usually eluded him until a week after the full moon.

He was young and full of hope. That only meant he had time to change and the will to make the changes.