Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Jacin

Jacin watched Cinder impatiently as she brushed aside the vines of the Star Tree, the golden globes nestled between the leaves winking cheerfully.

"Well?" He asked.

"Aimery just sent me the letter." Cinder said, "Black Woods, nearest full moon."

Jacin nodded. "Good. That gives me about a week to research werewolves and try to figure out a way to make them go for him instead of us."
Cinder snorted. "Yeah, good luck with that. Everyone hates werewolves, remember? And the werewolves themselves don't like talking about what it's like being werewolves."

"Some researcher might have found it, or maybe there's something in Hairy Snout, Human Heart. That's basically the ultimate guide to werewolf personality and trauma."

Cinder shrugged. "Well, I wish you luck, but I doubt you're going to find anything."
So do I, Jacin thought.

Two books and half of a third later, Jacin was just about ready to fall asleep. Or throw one of these accursed books out the window, that would definitely make him feel better. None of these books told Jacin the information that he really wanted to know. He knew about the monthly transformations, he knew about the ways werewolves differed from normal wolves, he knew that their preferred prey is human, but what kind of humans do they prefer? Fat humans? Big humans? Male humans? Female humans? Stupid evil smug humans? But of course nothing about this sort of thing was in these books, because the only way to find out that stuff would be to ask an actual werewolf that has encountered people in their wolf form. And no-one wants to do that. After all, werewolves are well known for being savage murderous creatures. Only a fool would go out of their way to actually interview one. Or someone really desperate who happened to know a werewolf who wasn't insane and really just sad. Jacin fell into the latter.

He knocked on the door to Wolf's room and got no answer, not that that meant much with Wolf. Jacin pulled out his wand and tapped it on the keyhole, "Alohomora."

There was a click and the door obligingly swung open. Sure enough, Wolf was inside, hunched over a book at his desk.

Without looking up, Wolf called, "Can you please stop breaking into my room?"

"Can you please answer when I knock?" Jacin retorted, "And don't jinx me just because I won't leave you to wallow in your own misery. Have you left your room at all since you attacked everyone?"
Finally Wolf turned to face him. His normally bright green eyes were bloodshot, and heavy bags hung under his eyes.

"Not been sleeping well?" Jacin guessed.

Wolf shrugged. "Nightmares." He said simply, "And, yes, I did leave my room, to try to go to breakfast. A student set my shoes on fire, screaming that I'm a monster."
"Nobody ever said the students here are friendly."

"When it comes to my kind, the whole world's unfriendly."

"Can't argue with that." Jacin conceded, "So if you're not leaving your room at all, what are you eating? You're usually a huge glutton. No offence." He added as an afterthought.

Wolf gestured to the floor, where several tiles were missing. "I've been transfiguring stuff in my room to food. It doesn't usually taste very good, but it keeps me going."

"Well, when you're isolating yourself I guess you don't have much of a choice."

Wolf scrutinised Jacin carefully. "Why do I get the feeling you aren't here to check on my well-being?"
"Wow, you must have learned legilimency."

Wolf sighed. "Just tell me what you want Jacin."

"I need to ask you a few questions about what it's like when you're in werewolf form." Jacin said, "Specifically when you're hunting humans."

"Why in the name of Merlin would you want to know that?" Wolf asked incredulously. "It's not useful, and it's not exactly something anyone wants to talk or hear about."
"Not unless they're trying to figure out a way to make werewolves pick one human over another." Jacin replied.

Wolf shuddered and inched away from Jacin slightly. "Do I want to ask?"
"Probably not. You tend to get squeamish when people talk about werewolves killing people."

Wolf sighed. "Fine. So, you want to know what would make a werewolf pick one human over another?"
"Yes, that is what I said thirty seconds ago."

Wolf shrugged helplessly. "Well, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. When I transform, I don't really distinguish humans from each other at all. I just think of them all as food. If there's more than one, then I just try taking a bite out of one and then immediately try taking a bite out of the other. There's no real thought process to it."

Jacin frowned. This wasn't good. He couldn't just leave it up to chance like this. He needed a way to make the werewolves target Aimery over any other people who happened to be around him. If there wasn't a way of doing that, then the whole plan was a huge bust.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Jacin prompted, "There isn't anything that makes one human preferable over another to you when you're a monster? Anything at all?"
Wolf raised an eyebrow. "I'm really not liking where this conversation's going."
"You don't have to like it you just have to answer me."
"Why do you want to know any of this stuff anyway? It's not like it's going to be on a test."
"I already told you, you don't want to know."
"I'm asking anyway. Why do you want to know this?"

Jacin sighed. "Merlin's beard, you already know that answer. Why bother asking me?"
"I want to make sure."
"Fine, we're planning to kill someone. Happy?" Jacin snapped.

Wolf's eyes darkened. "Not in the slightest. And there's no way I'm getting involved in a murder."
"You've just been involved in six murders!"
"Which is exactly why I don't want to get involved in a seventh!" Wolf shouted, standing up to his full height. "You think I want to see another bloodied face in my mind, screaming at me that it's my fault that they're dead, that their blood is on my hands?"
"We haven't got much of a choice here Wolf!" Jacin retorted, "If we don't take him out, he'll take out the rest of us, including you."
"You think I care whether I live or die?" Wolf asked furiously, "My life's been nothing but a downhill track of misery since I was twelve!"

"Just because you're suicidal doesn't mean the rest of us aren't." Jacin snapped, "If you want to die, fine. Go Avada Kedavra yourself or something, but that's not an excuse to lie down and let the rest of us go to an early grave. And for that to happen, we need to take this guy out, permanently."

"Isn't there any other way?" Wolf asked desperately, "I don't know if you realise this Jacin, but murder is huge. What about a Memory charm?"
"Won't work. We have to kill him."
Wolf groaned and rubbed his face, clearly still reluctant.

Jacin sighed inwardly. He was getting nowhere. The guy has been the cause of too many deaths, he can't handle being the cause of another. If Jacin was going to convince him to give him the information he needed, he was going to need to take some drastic, and probably unforgivable, measures. But he had no choice. It was Wolf's moral values, or his life.

"I heard that you nearly killed Scarlet during your rampage." Jacin said.

Wolf flinched. Jacin had him now.

"She's fine now but," he spread his hands, "if we don't go through with this, that won't last for much longer."

Wolf's fists clenched and unclenched. Jacin knew he'd forced him into an impossible situation, where any decision he made would result in the loss of a life, something Wolf definitely didn't want to do if he could help it. But Jacin knew what he would choose. It was written all over his face. So he wasn't surprised when Wolf sighed and turned back to him, his eyes somehow more exhausted than they were before.

"Alright Jacin," He muttered, "you win."

A/N: Well, that turned out a lot more emotional than planned.

Please review!