AN: Hi guys! I am so sorry for the way I left off in the story, I absolutely HATE cliffhangers, but I felt like that was where I needed to stop it. This chapter gets pretty dark, so sorry in advance to those who are triggered by violence.
Disclaimer: My pen name is MollyMay… not JK Rowling sooooo unfortunately that means I'll never own Harry Potter or any of the characters. The only thing I own is this non-canon plot and the character Graciela. Cool.
"Welcome to my home guys." Graciela said in a soft, meek voice. "Home sweet home… you know, if the last time you'd been in here was the first time you changed into a werewolf and accidentally murdered someone."
"Lovely home." James choked out.
"Thanks…" Graciela whispered as she wrapped her arms around herself.
"Graciela…" Remus began, his thoughts stuck on that last half of her sentence. "You said you changed into a werewolf, for the first time. In here?"
"Yep. I was sitting over there." Graciela nodded toward a window seat prominently displaying the sky out a white window. "I was reading. Trying to forget my attack… My friend, Jennifer, was flipping through a magazine over on the couch, trying to explain away all of my symptoms as PMS. Girl didn't know what she was talking about." Graciela's voice grew haunted, as if she was reliving that moment. "When the full moon rose, and I fell to the floor in agony as every single one of my bones broke and reshaped themselves, and the words that had finally started to scab over, ripped open once again, Jenny couldn't tear her eyes off me in horror. My last image of her before my mind went black, is of her face, eyes wide in terror, as she looked upon me. When I woke up, body bloodied and naked, it was to find my friend's throat ripped out, her dead body displayed on the floor. I sobbed for hours, my soul felt black. Once I felt like I was able to move, I stumbled to the bathroom and washed the blood off of me. No matter how hard I scrubbed though, the blood never truly washed off my hands. Once I was dressed, I brokenly picked up Jenny, and took her to the closest wizarding hospital. Just told them that I found this girl in my back yard, some werewolf must have gotten on my property. And left her there. I packed up all of my belongings, and ran back to Salem. Where I met Harry."
"Oh Graciela, I'm so sorry." Lily said with tears in her eyes.
"You said Greyback turned you?" Sirius asked.
"Hah! He did more than turn me. He tortured me." Graciela paused, the anguish a constant reminder of what he did. "He broke me."
Hermione put her hand on her sister's shoulder, and only said. "Let me change the scenery. Yeah?" At Graciela's deadly silent nod, Hermione closed her eyes and thought 'I need a place where I feel safe.' Over and over again until the room changed. The room rippled as the grey walls disappeared, the couches popped out of existence, and in its place stood the same room that Neville had turned it into when Hermione and the boys were on the run.
The room was spacious and there were hammocks and couches everywhere. The room was homey yet large, and Graciela instantly settled down, and started breathing slowly through her nose.
Peter whistled appreciatively while he swiveled his head around to see everything.
"So boys." Graciela exclaimed, once she had put herself back together, "What do you think of the RoR?"
"The RoR?" James faced screwed up in confusion. "What does that mean?"
"It stands for Room of Requirement." Hermione stated, "It gives you whatever you need."
"So…. Say I needed a bathroom…" Sirius drawled out, reminding Hermione of Ron when he had said the same exact thing.
A door appeared with a little "Men" sign on it signifying a guy's bathroom.
"Keeping it real classy there, man." Graciela snorted with sarcasm.
Sirius shrugged before sprinting toward the new bathroom door.
"Wait!" Hermione called, her voice dissolving into giggles, "You were serious?"
"I'm always Sirius, love!" Sirius called back as he pushed open the door.
Remus, Peter, James, and even Lily groaned in unison, "Not the serious jokes again…" Remus whined.
"What?" Graciela wheezed out through her laughter, "I thought it was funny."
"That is until you've heard them a bunch of times." James moaned.
Hermione nodded her head up and down in agreement, causing James head to tilt to the side in confusion.
"Wait, Hermione, how do you know?" James asked, as the others looked to her as well, wanting to know the same thing.
"Oh not the same thing, but I understand. I uh, had a friend once who was an animagus, always making jokes and puns about his animal."
"That sounds like an amazing guy, love." Sirius said, walking back into the conversation as he zipped his pants up. Lily rolled her eyes at him in distaste. "What animal was he?" Sirius asked.
Graciela looked curious as well, unaware that Hermione was speaking of future Sirius, until she got a silent picture of Sirius as an adult changing into his "Grim" like dog.
"He was some sort of black dog." Hermione said truthfully. "Freaked out his Godson the first time he saw him transform because he looked like The Grim from the Divination textbooks."
Sirius' eyes lit up with excitement at the idea before turning to James and Remus with a devious look in his eye.
"No." James and Remus both said together.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Graciela cried. 'Do we try to play it off as if we're just now finding out that they are animagi?'
'We could.' Hermione answered. When Sirius tried to say something, Hermione lifted a hand in silence before continuing to talk to her twin. After another 30 seconds of what appeared to be silence to the boys, the twins turned around with bright smiles on their face and wonder in their eyes as if they suddenly figured everything out.
"You guys became animagi for Remus didn't you?" Graciela exclaimed.
"And Sirius must be a black dog of some kind if he got really excited by the idea of looking like the Grim to scare people." Hermione nodded, excitement showing as she bounced on the balls of her toes.
"And…" Graciela drawled out when the boys looked like they were about to argue, "you must have been pretty young to accomplish that considering."
"What are you, James? If Sirius is a dog, what animal are you?" Hermione asked quickly before the boys could start interrupting.
"How about this." Graciela stated, with her hand out for silence as the boys tried to sputter out words. "You show us yours, and we'll show you ours."
After a few minutes of the boys trying and failing to come up with a full sentence, Remus' head suddenly dropped in defeat and said, "Give it up guys."
"You didn't think you could keep it from them, did you?" Lily asked, "I mean, what was going to happen when the full moon came around?"
James shook his head as if he was dislodging thoughts out of his ears, before his whole body stilled. "What did you mean, if we show you ours, you'd show us yours…?"
Suddenly, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, all froze in what they could mean.
"I mean, you show us your animal forms, we'll show you ours. So Sirius, you're a black dog?" Hermione asked.
Sirius nodded once before shifting into Padfoot and barked once at the girls. Hermione smiled and rubbed her palm against the back of his head, before she turned to Peter and James. Just as quickly, a rat and a stag stood where the boys had stood just moments before. Hermione and Graciela gave them a good look, and nodded. The boys turned back, and Peter squeaked out, "Your turn."
Graciela gave him a small smile, while she waited for Hermione to turn. When she did, in her place stood a black jaguar, hazel eyes, that just bordered on honey colored, slightly out of place on its dark, sleek coat. Hermione as a jaguar, rubbed her head against Sirius' jeans before going back to her twin's side and changing back into her human form. "Now." Graciela started, her hands about to sweat, "I'm going to transform too. Now, since it's kind of close to the full moon, I need you guys to stand back, and Hermione is going to change again just to make sure I stay in line. Okay?" Without waiting for a response, Hermione was suddenly a jaguar again, and Graciela's skin was rippling.
"What?!" Remus yelled, "I thought you were a Werewolf!"
"I…am…" Graciela managed to gasp in discomfort, but not quite pain, as her body broke itself and she changed into a stark black wolf, with yellow/green eyes. Graciela's mind was a little foggy as she shook her coat, and glanced at the boys and Lily who was shocked still, and looked like they were afraid to move.
Graciela pranced up to Remus, and sniffed his leg. Noticing that he smelt like fear, she pushed her nose against his leg until he bent down just a little bit, and Graciela yipped in excitement.
Hermione noticing that Graciela was more interested in playing with Remus, she transformed back into her human self, and gave Remus a small smile. "She wants you to play with her. That or pet her." Hermione offered him.
Remus looked shocked, while everyone else was just confused. That is, until Remus bent down and let Graciela sniff his hand, before he slid it down her back. Graciela yipped again, before bouncing back to Hermione. Hermione smiled at her twin, and blew at her nose, causing Graciela to sneeze and shake her head back and forth. That caused a nervous chuckle from everyone, before Hermione gave Graciela a hand command. Seeming to understand, Graciela leaped a few feet away from everyone before barking at them loudly. "She says to stay back." Hermione told them. Remus looked like he wanted to argue, but before he could, he could hear the sounds of bones breaking, and turned to see Graciela become human again. Remus blushed when he realized Graciela was naked, and he turned the boys, who also seemed to be red faced, around. Lily chuckled at how embarrassed everyone but Graciela seemed to be and just turned around while slowly shaking her head. Hermione reached into her bag, and handed Graciela a pain potion, and a change of clothes.
Once Graciela was changed, she cleared her throat, signaling for everyone to turn around, before she smiled sheepishly at everyone, Remus in particular. "I think I need to explain some things." She said before chugging down the pain potion.
"You think?!" Remus yelled, his voice cracking with anxiety.
"Woah, man. Slow your roll. So she's an animagus and a werewolf. Right?" James asked.
But Graciela shook her head, "Nope. Just a werewolf."
"I could hear her bones breaking when she transformed, just like mine, only less. Nothing like when you guys change." Remus added.
"Okay, well now you really need to explain." Sirius said, his eyes wide.
Lily looked a little disbelieving. "But you have to be an animagus! It makes no sense that you're only a werewolf, but you can change at will!"
"That's not technically true…" Graciela said.
"Greyback could change at will." Remus said.
"That's not technically true either." Graciela said. "He could partly transform, you know, with the teeth and the claws and what not. But not into a full wolf."
"Yeah, you don't look like a werewolf." Sirius said, "you look like an actual wolf."
"Yeah, how are you able to do that?" Remus wondered, "If you can do that, can I?"
"Umm…." Graciela paused, not sure how to continue. "Eventually." She finally said. "You have a couple steps before you will be able to. And they're not easy."
"Anything." Remus said. "I'll do anything."
Graciela sighed. Knowing how he felt in the future, and how Remus had viewed himself all his life, Graciela didn't think he could do it, but she was ready to have him prove her wrong.
"The first step, is you have to accept yourself. Not just the human side of you, but your wolf side. The two of you are separate beings right now. You have to become your wolf, you have to join together, to become one spirit. One entity. Only then can you take the next step. Can you do that Remus? Can you accept who you are, accept your wolf, and embrace him?"