A/N: Thank you to Fanofbellaandedward, Owlsnape, babyvfan, Anchor, Aiden Clearwater and spittingllama7856 for the support! Please share your theories!
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Sunday 29th October 1888
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It was Draco.
The beast was Draco.
That was the only thing running through Harry's mind once he'd connected the dots in his mind. His body was exuding sweat and his mind was a hot, crystal clear mess. He curled his hands into fists, nails digging sharp crescents into his palms. The small bite of pain wasn't enough for him to tear his eyes from the salivating creature before his eyes. Around him the faint hush of his classmates murmuring started up and –for once –Snape didn't silence them. He wanted to watch them squirm.
The creature –No, Draco! –shifted in the cage, it's long, flat claws snaking through the bars. One eyes was still tar-black and the other was a murky grey colour, a black streak running down the cheek.
'Draco,' he thought, wishing that the creature had some way of hearing his thoughts. 'What's happened to you? Why didn't you tell me?' His stomach bubbled inside him. He felt emotions warring away inside him, but none more than the surge of protectiveness he felt as the hunched over beast, slobbering down its front with soft whines echoing out of its gaping mouth.
"Sir, what do you expect us to do with this creature?" Neville asked.
"We're going to study it," the Professor stated, his lips barely moving as his black eyes lazily slid back over to the beast. "We're going to study it and see if any of the old rituals worked."
Harry's stomach clenched. He'd read those old books, inhaled the dust and ignorance that bled into the ink. None of those rituals had had any distinct results, other than a mutilated corpse that needed to be burned. Snape couldn't do that, could he? Not to his own nephew? Surely there were limits to the man's thirst for success among all else?
"Is that what we're doing tonight?" Blaise drawled, his interest piqued.
"No," Severus swept his gaze over them. "I just want you to observe. Take notes, make observations and let it aid your studies."
It was more than that. Harry could tell by the way Snape had dangled something so strange and hideous in front of their eyes. This was a test; he was testing their limits as well as their loyalty. He was also most likely trying to trap Harry into revealing everything and anything he knew.
He was tempted.
It was blatantly a trap for information –but he couldn't risk anyone else in the room recognising Draco. Not in this state! It would ruin him forever! Chewing the inside of his cheek, Harry tried to tune everything else out as Snape droned on in the usual slow, congealing rhythm. Maybe if he stayed behind after class and spoke to Snape privately in his office? It was the only way he'd be able to buy Draco some more time, for what he didn't know, but he just couldn't risk having Draco exposed naked and covered in his own faeces.
Sweat tricked down the back of his neck.
He couldn't subject Draco to such a fate as describe in those books. Not after everything the older man had one for him, taking him in, letting him live at his townhouse and offering to help fund his research and experiments. There needed to be another way. Harry felt himself slip into a daze completely stunned by what was going on around him. He was both pumped with adrenaline, wanting to dive across the wooden benches, rip the cage open and let Draco run out into the open streets, and at the same time he was rooted to the spot and stiff with fear and what might happen if he were found out.
The bell chimed in the courtyard.
Slowly and nervously, all six of the other men gathered their belongings and made for the door. All eyes kept darting back over their shoulders to look at the beast panting in the cage. No one wanted to turn their backs on it for long. As soon as the doors closed, Snape turned his black gaze to Harry. "Don't you have somewhere to be, Mr. Potter?"
Harry held his gaze and squared his shoulders. "I was actually hoping to speak with you, sir," he stated in a measured tone. "I have some queries regarding my personal study and I was hoping to gain some insights from you." He needed to keep himself calm. There was no telling who lurked in the hospital grounds at such a late hour. Any mere mention of Draco's name could easily be printed in the papers within the next twenty-four hours.
Harry wasn't sure if the professor acknowledged his concerns in the same light, or if he simply wanted to extract as much information from his student as possible. It didn't matter in that moment. Keeping Draco safe and alive as long as possible was the focal point.
"Very well, Mr. Potter," Snape inclined his head, "Let us reconvene in my office."
Clutching his satchel tightly under his arm, Harry moved down onto the theatre floor and moved across the open air, feeling the sweat grow cold and irritable on his skin. He passed so close to the cage he could smell the rot of flesh, shit and blood. Bile shot up his throat. He choked it back down. He kept his eyes focused on the tiled floor, fearing that if he looked up into those mismatches eyes, all his bottled up energy would emerge in a violent, feral rage. Then nothing would be a secret.
The tight, dank office hadn't changed since the last time Harry had set food in there. It was still yellowing and damp, like a lot of the long-forgotten books in the local library, but there were a larger number of journals and papers littering the desktop in an orderly fashion. Not like the mess Harry had created throughout Draco's study before he'd –left.
Shutting the door behind himself, Harry turned to address Snape. The man stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed against his chest, looking down his long nose at his student. As soon as the door clicked firmly shut, Harry's resolve exploded. Shutting the door behind himself, Harry turned to address Snape. The man stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed against his chest, looking down his long nose at his student. As soon as the door clicked firmly shut, Harry's resolve exploded. "HE'S YOUR NEPHEW!" he spat, every vein pressing up to his skin, flushing him ugly shades of red all over. The room blurred out, leaving only Snape as the focus point for his hatred. "HOW CAN YOU DO THAT TO YOUR OWN FLESH AND BLOOD? HE'S YOUR NEPHEW!"
"I'm aware of that."
"ARE YOU?" Harry sneered. "THEN TELL ME WHY HE'S CHAINED UP IN THAT CAGE!"
"I don't see how you'd have missed it," Snape curled his upper lip in distaste. "He's currently not in possession of his mental faculties. He'd tear your spine out through your mouth given the chance."
Harry flinched but wasn't deterred. "You don't know that!" he urged. "He's in a half-formed state! He's not dangerous likebefore!"
"Perhaps not compared to his full lycanthropic state, no," Snape conceded. "However, he is still stronger than any mortal man alive today. It's too dangerous."
"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't let you perform those rituals on him!" Harry snapped, positioning himself in front of the door, as though Severus were about to take seven holy daggers and drive them through the flesh of his nephew upstairs. "They will kill him! There's so many other avenues to explore!"
"Why do you think I was gone so long?" Snape groused. "I tried them all."
This was it.
Snape stopped misstep and turned his narrowed gaze upon Harry.
Air trapped in his lungs, Harry tried to focus on the pattern of the tiles underfoot.
"What do you mean by that?" Snape asked slowly, his tone betraying nothing.
"While you were away," Harry's voice tremored a little as he dug his nails into his satchel. The leather was pockmarked with half-crescents, a true sign of his nerves and inner turmoil. "I created a series of medicinal draughts that have healing properties for those afflicted by lycanthropy."
Snape cocked a black eyebrow. "And how were you able to test their effects without a werewolf?"
"I … I came across one last week." It was a small lie, twisting the timeline, but Harry feared for Remus' exposure only a little less than Draco's.
"How … convenient for you."
"It was a coincidence, sir. However, I was able to test one of my experiments. It seemed to have worked, although I can't be sure how long-lasting the effects were."
"Why not?"
"I fell asleep. By the time I woke up, everyone had scarpered."
"I see."
Harry finally looked up at Snape's drawn features. "Please, sir? We can at least give it a try? It can't do any more harm than keeping him locked up like a savage animal."
"It's for his own good," Snape stated. "That cage has silver embedded in it. If he tried to break out he'll be burned."
"Is that what silver does to them?" Harry murmured, momentarily awestruck and sickened. He'd doused Remus in silver; had the poor man felt as though he were being burned alive in that bathtub?
Severus didn't comment. Instead he sighed wearily. "I suppose at the very least, there is no real harm in giving one of your concoctions a trial-run. He's been kept awake for some fifty-eight hours already. Another trivial attempt to render him weakened in his current form."
Harry pursed his lips. Despite how primitive the torture had been, there was now denying that not getting a set number of hours sleep a night severely impaired one's mental faculties and basic motor functions. There was some minor logic to it but at the same time it wouldn't be nearly enough to render a were-beast completely harmless.
"How are we going to restrain him?" he finally asked, as he took the seat beside Snape's desk.
"We'll need a number of people to help. The mixture of scents will confuse him and it should be easy for us to be able to shackle him down."
"Will we need the shackles?" Harry frowned.
"Yes."
Harry let his chin drop into his hand. The idea of shackling Draco up was terrifying –he'd never imagined such a horrible idea! It set him on edge and made his skin hot and cloying over his skeleton. He raked a hand through his hair. Pressing his lips together, he let out a shuddering sigh. This was all too much. Just two days ago he wasn't able to tell where Draco was and was afraid of all the unknown possibilities and outcomes. Now, he wasn't sure that the reality was any better. "Does this mean that you'll have to involve the other men?" Harry finally asked, feeling exhausted.
Severus nodded. "Yes. We'll need as many men as we can get."
"What will you need me to bring?"
"A vial of the antidote as soon as you're able. I want you to explain to me exactly what you did last time and make sure that we replicate it as much as possible. If we can achieve the same results, then we may just bring Draco back from the brink."
Harry pressed his lips together.
He needed to hold onto hope.
"I'll bring as much as I can. I'll be here tomorrow at 8PM. We can go over some of the more intricate details then."
Snape inclined his head before dismissing him.
Later that night as he lie in bed staring up at the brocade canopy, Harry listened to the sounds of the night around him. He was exhausted and needed some time to rest before the following evening but he wasn't able to sleep. His mind kept turning to Draco and how things would have been if he'd stayed at the townhouse. Would he have disappeared into another room when the full moon came? Would Harry had been able to restrain him and keep himself safe? Or would Draco have ripped his throat out before disposing of the house-servants?
'By midnight tomorrow you could have the old Draco back,' his mind hummed softly. 'You need to focus on that instead of all the negatives. You need to try and remain positive!'
That was easier said that done. He couldn't help but think about Sirius and Remus and their daily lives. How did one incorporate a werewolf into their life? Was it easy of difficult? What precautions needed to be taken to ensure everyone's safety? Would he have to chain Draco up in the basement? Would he needed to bind the beasts muzzle to stop it from biting him? If so, how would one do such a thing without help?
It was all so confusing and none of it made sense to him.
More than anything he missed the blonde man's company, his dry humour, the way he carried himself with grace even in the privacy of his own home. Harry felt his insides twist painfully. He needed to make sure that, no matter what happened tomorrow night, Draco would live throughout the ordeal.
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Throughout the entire day, Harry was jittery with nerves. His mind was entirely preoccupied with the repercussions of what could go wrong that night. All he wanted to do was to rush ahead to the following morning to see if everything worked out or not. The not-knowing and anticipation was crippling. He was barely able to touch his breakfast and stressed over every detail in his journal. He didn't want Snape to criticise his work above all things right now.
'You're doing this for Draco!' his brain hissed as he bottled his latest batch of the formula.
Gently placing the stoppered bottled into the stiff doctors bag he'd bought from Ollivander. The man had insisted, saying that he'd gotten a new one for his deliveries. Nevertheless, Harry had paid him decently for the weathered case. It had been a Godsend since he had to pack as many vials as possible to take with him to the hospital that night. His hands trembled as he placed the last one in, and snapped the case closed. Stealing a glance at the clock, he felt himself tense up as he saw that it was just gone 7PM.
It was time.
Taking a carriage to the hospital, the vials twinkling softly in the case in his lap, Harry felt his heart beating heavily beneath his ribs. What if everything went wrong? He didn't want to be responsible for Draco's death. Every fear escalated itself in his mind until he was dripping in a cold sweat, his hands damp as he clutched the handle of the leather case and marched up the stone steps to the hospital. He was sure he held his breath the entire time until he knocked on Snape's office door.
"Enter."
Harry twisted the doorknob and walked into the office. Nothing had changed from the previous evening, except that the desk had been cleared off all the papers and journals. Harry tightened his hold on the bag handle. Placing the case on the desktop, he looked at Snape as the older man looked from the few sheets of parchment he was reading.
"Did you bring the formulas?" Snape asked.
Harry nodded. "I brought my journals as well. Hopefully you find them detailed enough to understand the thought process behind them." Snape held out as his hand. Harry dug his neatly written journals out of the bag and carefully handed them over. It felt as though he were handing over a piece of his soul. Snape didn't invite him to sit down; he merely flipped the first journal open and began to read. After a few minutes of standing awkwardly in front of the desk, Harry sat down across from his professor, placing the case gently under his chair. It was difficult as he sat there, feeling flushed and queasy as he watched the older man flipping through the book, each page turned was another nerve plucked.
After about twenty minutes he swallowed thickly. "So –what do you think?"
"This is an interesting take on the information we have," Snape stated bluntly.
"Do you think it's worth a try?"
"Considering you don't fully understand which part of the formula worked or why, I'm inclined to say it's not worth the risk." Harry felt his stomach drop. "However," Snape continued, "Despite his current state, Draco is still my nephew. I'm responsible for him. I don't want to see him die. At least, not like that."
Harry didn't dare believe the words. "So –you're going to let me try it this way?"
Snape inclined his head, handing the journals back. "I don't see what we have to lose."
"So when the others come –what do we tell them? We can't tell them that it's Draco. He'd be ruined!"
Snape dismissed his concern with a wave of his hand. "That's easily taken care of. If we do manage to transform him back to his huma state, he'll be so ragged and battered no one will recognise him."
"That doesn't sound risk-free," Harry remarked.
"It's the only option we have."
In truth, Snape was right. There was no other way. That didn't mean that Harry liked the idea of risking Draco's exposure.
Within the hour Snape told Harry to remain in the office. He'd sent telegrams to the other students to arrive early so that they would have enough time to set up the ritual equipment and mentally prepare everyone for what they were about to witness. Harry waited as still as a statue as his classmates filed in one-by-one. A couple cast him a surprised glance or a frown, but didn't make any comments as Snape closed the door behind them all. He wasted no time in detailing the plan for that evening as well as cautioning the other students that they needed to wear as many thick, rubber layers as possible to prevent infection.
As he looked around the cluster of familiar faces, Harry could see that they all wore the same mask of horror and apprehension. It was bound to be a long evening and Harry was anxious that he hadn't been able to sleep. Somewhere in that building, down a series of winding corridors and narrow hallways, Draco was waiting, panting and scrabbling inside his cage, his misshapen teeth marring the inside of his mouth.
With stiff muscles, they all climbed into thick, rubber overalls, gloves, aprons and had metal collars slipped underneath their formal shirts just in case a wayward claw lashed out at them. As soon as they were all ready the door to the office opened.
Snape appeared in the doorway, a large iron ring of keys in his hands. "Follow me."
Filing out of the office, the group of students followed the tall dark-robed man down into the bowels of the hospital. The hallways were narrower, damper, and the air became stale and suffocating. The darkness was broken up only by the lantern Snape held aloft. He picked a key from the ring and slipped it into one of five steel doors on the basement level. At least two of them had to be the boiler rooms. The room was dark and musty as they entered, Snape taking his time to light the few torches and lanterns suspended from the ceiling. The filled the room with a sickly, yellow glow.
In the centre of the room sat the beast in its cage.
'Draco,' Harry thought. 'He's still Draco, underneath all of that.'
"Sir," Blaise's voice rang out in the low-ceilened room. "How exactly are you going to make that thing easy to strap down?"
"You leave that to me, Mr. Zabini."
The seven young man watched as the older man uncorked a large bottle of chloroform and soaked what looked like an old bedsheet before gingerly slinging it inside the top bars of the cage. The beast growled low in its throat and flinched as the sheet slumped down over its head, catching one of its pointed ears. It tried to shake the sheet of, but the wet fabric caught against its teeth, jaw and shoulder as it fought. Panting heavily, it wriggled around on all-fours, slobbering and pawing at its head to no avail. As it did this, Snape sloshed more of the chloroform through the bars, dousing the marred skin of the creature within.
It took at least eight minutes before the werewolf was subdued.
Harry watched with a heavy heart and emotions warring inside him as Draco wavered on his unstable, mismatched legs, claws scraping against metal as he finally fell sideways and slumped to the floor, his skull knocked against the studded bars. Once the beast was unconscious, it was easier to shackle the long, hairy legs and drag the drowsing creature out of the cage and onto a thick metal table on the other side of the room. It had been reinforced recently, no doubt for this very purpose. Harry and Neville lit at least a hundred candles and positioned them in a large, intricate pattern around the table.
Five of them needed to haul the wolf onto the table.
It landed heavily, its tongue rolling out of his gaping mouth. The body was exuding warmth, the chest slowly rising up and down.
Each of its long limbs were shackled down and tightened over the furthest corners of the table. Snape produced a large worn leather muzzle with a metal bit attached to keep the beasts mouth open. It looked horribly uncomfortable as the straps bound the skin and fur tightly, but it needed to be done. Harry drew in deep measured breaths, trying to calm his frantic nerves. 'It'll be over soon,' he assured himself. 'Just get through the next few hours.' At the side of the metal block surving as their table there was a crank. With Blaise's help, Harry managed to lower the surface deeper into the steel borders. Draco's body sank along with the tabletop, his claws scraping against the sides as they rose around him.
"Remember what we are here to do," Snape intoned, his voice ringing out through the room. "Potter, take charge."
Head snapping up, Harry looked around the other expectant faces. Drawing in deep breaths, he addressed the others. "We need to douse him in the concocted mixture that's laced with silver, valerian roots and the forumula I've been working on. Ordindarily, we'd need full exposure to direct moonlight but if he remains unconscious we should be able to carry the body to the back courtyard where they make the deliveries."
"What if he wakes up?" Neville asked.
"We'll have to use more chloroform," Snape stated.
"Won't that contaminate the formula?" Blaise asked.
"Perhaps," the professor agreed. "However, depending on how things transpire we may need to take that risk."
"What about after?" Clifford, a usually quiet young man, asked. "If it were so easy just to pour medicine over them surely someone else would have done it?"
"That's why we have these." Snape unsheathed several long, engraved silver spikes. Harry's eyed widened in fear. The spikes glimmered in the candlelight, the Latin words engraved into the silver made his shudder with revulsion.
"Sir, we don't need those," Harry said.
"They're just a precaution, Potter," Snape stated coldly. "In case your way doesn't work, we'll do the rest my way."
Harry opened his mouth to argue, but what else could he say? Snape always had the final ruling. Perhaps the spikes wouldn't be needed and Snape was right; they could just be a precaution. Still, his gut twisted. Pressing his parched lips together he turned his gaze to Blaise. "I need you to turn the tap one; it should produce a solution mixed with hot, soapy water."
Blaise did as instructed. The tap ground loudly through the silence. Pipes glugged and gurgled before chugging out gallons of the stuff. It sluiced over the furry body beneath them, rushing up over its limbs and pooling around the creature until it was soaked through and at least four inches deep. It wasn't enough to drown the beast, but it whetted most of his body.
The fur seemed to writhe with bubbles under the skin.
It was unsettling to watch.
"Now I'm g-going to pour three vials over his body," Harry spoke the words but his mind was several miles away in the townhouse, where everything had been going so well. "T-This is so is soaks into any open wounds and is absorbed by the skin."
"What about the rest of it?" Blaise asked.
"They need to be ingested."
Everyone's mouths set into a grim line. No one wanted to be the one to tip a vial into a sleeping wolf's mouth. Harry uncorked each of the first three vials and dribbled them over the beast's body. He pocketed the empty vials, his breath caught in his lungs. The creature let out a deep guttural growl but didn't wake up, merely shifting. The water sloshed around and over him. The flesh seemed to ripple and bubble a lot more and the other young men hummed in fascination as they looked on.
"Sir, would you care to administer the first vial?" Harry asked, holding a vial out over the table.
Snape narrowed his eyes a fraction but took the vial. He popped the cork and held it down into the tub, hovering just over the glistening fangs and tipped. The smoking liquid trickled down into the creature's mouth. Once the whisp of smoke disappeared they all waited with baited breath. A low groan started to drag itself out of the wolf's throat. The flesh-coloured skin bubbled and grew greasier as it rolled onto its back, the tweaked jaw turning up to the ceiling. Something gurgled at the back of its throat, growing louder and louder.
"Harry …?" Neville frowned, backing up a step or two from the thick-set tub.
"Is it waking up?" Blaise frowned panic ebbing into his voice.
"I … I don't know," Harry said.
"Hand me another vial, Potter," Snape ordered his hand extended. Harry obliged, passing another vial over the tub, as the water started to bubble and froth. The candlelight flickered. Pulling the cork out, Snape poured the liquid into the mouth. It smoked and seemed to hiss at the corners of the creature's jaw as it trickled through the fine layer of fur still clinging to its skull. "Another!" Severus snapped.
By the time the third vial was emptied, the wolf's eyes were rolling in their sockets. Its mouth was smoking and its limbs were twitching, tugging faintly at the shackles.
"Sir, are you sure those chains are strong enough?" Clifford asked, his eyebrows knitting together.
"I had the forged specifically for this purpose. Yes, they're strong enough."
Harry watched as the creature writhed and pawed at the water around its body; the chains clinked, its skin squirmed as though a thousand worms crawled under the skin, and its matted hair started to slither away in greasy little clumps. They floated in the water like drowned hedgehogs. Suddenly the beast's eyes snapped open revealing milky grey orbs. Its jaw worked itself into a twisted mask and a long howl burst out, erupting through the silence that had befallen them.
Whilst everyone backed away, Snape and Harry stared down in horror as muscles and broken bones snapped back into place and untwisted themselves, a grotesque pantomime taking place under the marred flesh. "Get back Potter!" Snape commanded, an arm knocking Harry in the chest and snapping him out of his trance. He watched as the black-robed man raised one of the silver stakes high over the tub. In a low, deep voice Snape began to chant in Latin.
The sound rung in Harry's ears, drowning out almost every other sound.
Flashing in the candlelight the stake was plunged down into the tub. It struck through bone and metal. Another, agonised howl ripped out of the wolf's throat.
The chanting continued.
"Professor, No!" Harry cried out, still dizzy from being thrown back against the wall. Had he hit his head? He couldn't be sure, the aroma of the potion was making him disorientated. None of the other men came to his aid nor intervened with Snape. For all Harry knew, they'd fled the basement. Another stake banged down into the creature, and then another and another. "Professor … please?" Harry wasn't even sure if sound came out of his mouth. All he could hear was the striking of those metal stakes, the sound matching rhythm with his heart. He wasn't even sure what he was begging for at that point.
On shaking legs, Harry pushed himself up to his feet, his vision blurred and wavering as he advanced towards the professor, his arms stretched out before him. He needed to stop this madness before the man used all seven stakes. The beast was howling pitifully at this point, crying out for freedom and respite, tugging uselessly at the chains and shackles, water spilling out over the sides of the tub and onto the stone floor.
Harry slipped in a puddle and caught Snape's sleeve as he rose the next stake.
The sound of metal hitting stone was like a bolt of lightning.
"Potter, what are you doing?" Snape's distance voice sneered at him.
Harry didn't –couldn't –answer. He clambered into the tub, terrified or both the beast and what would happen if he let this assault continue. He took the ring of keys of the side and fumbled with them. The creature's chest heaved underneath him, the blood oozing into the milky bathwater and turning it pink. Something tugged at the back of his collar but he dragged himself away. His collar ripped against his throat. 'Two more, two more, two more!' was all he could think.
Finally the last shackle unlocked, sinking to the bottom of the tub.
A howl tore through the air.
Metal hit stone and water rushed over everything.
Harry clamped his mouth shut as it washed over him in foul, frothy waves. Shadows danced through his eyelashes but he was exhausted. His arm throbbed and bled into the bathwater. The cold was seeping into his bones and his mind was numbing everything, including the fiery pain at the back of his head.
Sounds echoed on the periphery of his consciousness.
"Potter, you've damned us all," were the last words he heard before he blacked out.
A/N: So our little beastie has been let loose! What do my lovelies think of these latest developments? x