Chapter 3: The Explanations.
2nd, August, 1998.
After Death left everyone sat in silence, staring at the two wolves that were Harry and Ginny. It was Fleur who recovered from her shock first.
"Zat was weird." she said.
"Yeah." replied Bill.
Ron turned to the wolves, "Harry? Ginny?" he asked hesitantly, "Will you turn back?"
Suddenly the two wolves reared and in their places were Harry and Ginny, with a few changes.
Harry now stood at a decent 6 foot tall and had more muscles on his body than before, he looked like a professional runner. Ginny was taller too at about 5 foot 11 and it seemed she too had a bit more muscle, not like someone who spends all day in the gym but like a swimming champion.
"Wow, um, guys do you feel any different?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah I feel taller and stronger." Harry replied. "What about you Gin, do you feel any different?"
Ginny nodded, "Yeah I feel stronger and taller as well."
"So what are you going to call the species?" Hermione asked.
"Hmm, I have no idea. Anyone got any ideas?" Harry asked the room in general.
"I have one." said Charlie, "How about 'Lycan'. Death did say it was similar to Lycanthropy." he pointed out. "It's easy enough to just shorten it."
Harry looked at Ginny and they both nodded.
"That's a great idea Charlie, that's what we will call it then." Ginny told everyone, "From this day forward we are 'Lycan's'."
"It will be good to find out what else you can do." Hermione said getting nod's from everyone in the room.
Just then George, who had been very quiet since Fred's death, spoke up, "Wait… Fred's coming back?" this was said in a very hoarse slightly disbelieving voice but there was an undertone of hope in it that could be heard quite clearly.
"Yes he is." Harry smiled.
George looked at him for a minute then suddenly grinned widley and went to hug Harry who looked shocked.
"Thank you, Thank you, Thank you…" George whispered into Harry's ear through sob's of happiness, "I'll finally feel whole again."
Molly was smiling at George while Arthur hugged her. "Yes thank you Harry." Arthur said as the rest nodded, "It means a lot to us that you asked to bring our Fred back to us."
"It's not a problem." Harry replied blushing, "All of you are like family to me, you stood by me when no one else would, you have never believed the stories that flew around about me and most of you always managed to cheer me up when I was down and help me battle the pain and Fred deserves to come back anyway. He died before his time as did the rest of the ones returning." he added.
"Who's Regulus Black, Harry?" Percy asked.
"It's Sirius's little brother." he replied.
"Sirius? As in Sirius Black?" Fleur asked. "I thought 'ee was a murderer?"
"No, he was framed by Peter Pettigrew he was innocent the whole time." Hermione explained. "The only thing he's guilty of are a few bad choices and breaking out of prison." she added.
"It's true but we can cover that when we're showing the returnees my third year. They're going to have to catch up anyway so I might as well just show everyone exactly what happened during all of my years at school." Harry told them and they all nodded.
"Who are the rest Harry, I only know Remus, Nymphadora and Fred." Fleur questioned.
"Well there's my parents, James and Lily Potter." he smiled at the though of seeing his parents alive for the first time since he was 15 months old. "Then there's my Godfather, Sirius Black and his brother Regulus Black, I don't actually know Regulus but I know he didn't deserve to die he was only 18 and he died doing what we had been doing during our time in hiding when we were away." here he looked at the other two members of the Golden Trio who nodded in understanding, "And obviously you know Remus and Nympadora Lupin nee Tonks and you all know Fred." they all nodded and chuckled.
"That makes sense." Fleur said.
"Well I think we should all go to bed. It will be a long day tomorrow." Molly said.
Once they had all said their goodnight's they headed up to bed for the night.
3rd, July, 1998.
The next day after breakfast Harry sent an owl to Professor McGonagall asking if they could borrow the pensive to show everyone what they went through and inviting her to join them if she wished. He also explained the deal with Death and told her who was coming back, whilst hoping she wouldn't think he was insane.
Harry and Ginny then traveled to the home of Andromeda Tonks where they found her sitting with
her sister Narcissa Malfoy and her nephew Draco Malfoy, who after the war was becoming a good friend to the Golden Trio, despite their history.
They explained to the three what had happened, as expected they were shocked.
"Your all welcome to join us at the Burrow at 5 pm those returning will arrive at half past we will have dinner after they arrive." Ginny said getting three sets of nod's.
As it was still only 3pm Harry and Ginny decided to stay for a chat and Harry got to spend some time with his godson Teddy when he woke up from his nap.
They all headed to the Burrow at 4 as that was when Death said he would arrive.
At the Burrow
They had just arrived at the Burrow and everyone was sitting at the tables that had been set up outside for the occasion, when there was a bright light, followed by a portal, like the night before and Death appeared.
"Hello everyone," he said, "Mr Potter and Miss Weasley as I said last night I have some more information for you on what my twin tells me you have named 'Lycan'."
"Who's your brother?" Harry asked confused.
"My brother is Life." Death replied sounding amused. Harry nodded thinking that it should have been obvious.
"Now," Death continued, "As you have probably noticed there have been some changes to your human shape, the main differences are in human form your reflexes will be improved as will your senses. Mr Potter you will find you don't need your glasses. Also you will become as fast and as strong as a wolf and your diet will become more dependant on meat like steak and beef."
Harry and Ginny nodded their understanding. Harry took his glasses off and noticed that he could indeed see perfectly, so he put them in his pocket.
"Now when you are in wolf form voluntarily you will always have your human mind but you will still have the instincts of a wolf. You will feel over protective of each other at times as you have a soul bond as a wolf you are classed as 'Life Mates' meaning you are meant to be together, it was Lady Fate who created the bond to make it easier to adjust to being a new species. I would recommend reading up on the natural habits of wolves as some of them will be valid to you such as the hunting habits because on the full moon while you have your human minds the wolf is still stronger and you will either have to hunt some animals or you may become restless and start chewing on things like furniture, basically it's a wolf's mind but you're not a danger to humans at all."
"So technically on full moons we can only influence the wolf?" Ginny asked. Death nodded slightly.
"So it's a wolf with a human in the back seat that can say 'No don't do that' or 'Go on it won't kill you'." Harry chuckled.
"Exactly like that, you will have overall decisions but the wolf can choose to ignore you if you don't
fight hard enough. Now you wont be dangerous to humans but if you want to create another 'Lycan', as you have a soul bond you both have to bite the person, it wont leave scars and the bite wound will heal itself, also the Lycan virus will over rule the Werewolf curse and remove any scars that the Lycanthropy curse left, but only those scars. The natural ones or ones not caused by a werewolf will remain, you also have accelerated healing powers this power will heal any small cuts in seconds larger injures will take a few hours, unassisted that is. The accelerated healing wont heal illnesses you catch."
"Like a cold or flu?" Harry asked.
"You can get sick like everyone else. It's less likely but it can still happen. You will have a higher body temperature as well."
"How much higher?" Ginny asked.
"The normal temperature is 37 degrees celsius your temperature will be around 44 degrees celsius."
"Helpful in winter." Ron chuckled.
"Not so good in summer." Harry sighed.
"You'll get used to it. A normal Lycan, without a soul bond, can be alone to change someone into a Lycan."
Harry and Ginny were shocked it seemed being Lycan's would be an advantage instead of being a bad thing.
"There isn't much more to it than that. Now about these returnees they will be here in 30 minutes my twin is bringing them after he has explained what is happening but I will warn you that it is down to you to either show or tell them about what has happened since their deaths as I banned them from talking about it due to the suspicion you'd want those people back, Regulus Black hasn't spoken to any of them about haw he died, so they only know he's not evil."
"That seems fair," Ginny commented. Just then Professor McGonagall Apparated just outside the gate and started walking towards them.
"Hello Professor." Hermione said when she reached them.
"Hello everyone." she replied.
"Hi." was heard from everyone seated around the table.
"Please have a seat Minerva," said Molly, "Death here has just finished explaining things about the returnees and about the 'Lycan' virus." McGonagall sat down and everyone's attention went back to Death.
"Well, we have 30 minutes until my brother gets here, so any questions?" he asked.
"Yeah I have one," said Harry, "How old will the returnees be when they get here?"
"A very good question Mr Potter. Well Mr Fredrick Weasley will be the age he would have been had he not died so the same age as his twin so 20." George grinned at this, "As for the rest they will be getting put back to what their bodies were at 21 but they will still have their memories beyond that. Mr. Regulus Black will only be 17 a year before the age he died at. My twin and I felt it would be better as they suffered a lot and their old bodies were too damaged to restore completely. Lily and James Potter were only 20 when they died, they won't remember anything beyond the night Voldemort attacked."
"Okay." Harry said.
"Anymore questions?"
"Yes," said Ginny, "you said that our virus will over rule the Werewolf curse. Dose that mean if both Harry and I bite someone who is a Werewolf they will become a Lycan and remove the Werewolf curse completely?"
"Yes it does, the Lycan virus can over rule any illness, curse or disease even if it the accelerated healing wont cure the things you can catch. However in order for it to work for Werewolves you must have the Werewolves permission and they must relax and welcome the Lycan virus otherwise their curse will fight back and it may cause them to lose their human minds forever." he explained.
Ginny and Harry nodded.
"I have another question." Harry said, "Will being a Lycan affect any children a Lycan has? I've always wanted a big family." he explained.
"Well yes and no. Any children born to a Lycan will be born a Lycan, but they won't start transforming until they are 5 and able to understand the change. Although they will always have the heightened sense of smell, perfect vision and they will develop faster. A female Lycan will only carry the baby or babies for 6 months instead of 9 because of the accelerated healing powers, the healing powers take away some of the pain of giving birth but not all of it. Also it is more likely that a female Lycan will have twins or triplets, like a wolf has a litter of pups, the female's transformations into a Lycan won't affect the pregnancy." Death explained, "But it only takes one parent to be a Lycan for the child to be born a Lycan. I think you should also be aware that a female Lycan can control when she gets pregnant and when they have their period's but it is instinctive. I can't explain how they do it." Death added.
"Okay we will keep that in mind." Ginny said, blushing slightly.
"Right then they will be here in 5 minutes so we have time for one more question." said Death.
"I have one." George said. "Why is it that people are taken by you before their time?" everyone looked interested by his question.
Death sighed as though he had expected it, "Well… Sometimes I don't have a choice. During the war you were all a part of, and the first war, sometimes someone had to die in place of someone vital to ending the war. There are some people who just couldn't be saved and there are some who just gave up and let themselves be killed. I didn't want to claim as many live's as I did but… I know this sound's like an excuse… I had to. People were terrified to have kid's so the magical population is at
it's all time low… Life is working on that." he smiled.
"How?" Molly asked.
"Well… He's going to create a 'baby boom' bigger than anyone has ever seen before." Death chuckled, "Even bigger than the one he created after Voldemort's first downfall."
"And that was a big one." Arthur chuckled.
"It was. Anyway I think Life's going to stretch this one out over the next 5 years before he relaxes it. It will be strictly magical too." Death added, "It might scare the non-magical population if there's a surge in births."
"It would do that." Andromeda agreed.
"Now I think the returnees' will be here any second." Death said and they all fell into a tense silence awaiting the returnees'.