[A/N]- I was wrong, it's not
Latin, it's French. Sorry. *grins sheepishly* Ah well. I don't claim to
be an expert at languages. If you
haven't guessed, in the wizarding world I made it the technical term for
werewolf. Poor Remus, I'm so cruel to
him. The worst is yet to come. Some new characters, another memory, and a
full moon. Again, not my world, not my
character, although I wish they were.
^_^ Please don't sue me.
Remus sat, shivering, in the
corner of the dank cellar, cold despite the sun shining outside. It was the day of the full moon. From Remus' stomach came a sharp pang of
hunger. The few slices of stale bread
that the dark wizards threw down to him were in no way sufficient for a werewolf
just before the full moon, a time when his body had the most need for
energy. Remus swallowed from reflex,
his throat parched from lack of water.
Transformations were difficult under any circumstance. To transform without wolfsbane potion,
confined in the cellar, half-starved would be…well… to put it simply,
hell. Remus shuddered, though this time
not from the cold.
The door opened and a hand threw in something Remus
couldn't make out in the darkness.
Probably the evening crumbs that constituted dinner. Remus merely stared at the scraps. His wolf side screamed at him to get up and
devour the hard bread, but the man was still in control. For now.
A small part of Remus' mind wondered where Sirius was. Had he found some safe place to hide? Was he warm? Was he able to keep out of reach of the dementors?
Remus' stomach growled, annoyed with its owner. Remus gave in to instinct and stood up,
stretching. He walked over to the bread
and picked it up. Remus walked back
over to the corner and sat back down.
He broke off a piece of bread and nibbled on it. It tasted like cardboard, and Remus fought
the urge to gag. He forced down the
rest, quickly. A rat ran across the
floor. It seemed to taunt him with its
freedom. Remus looked out the window
again. Just when you think you can't
be any lower… Remus thought. Although,
this is fairly rock bottom. A prisoner
for who I am, something I had no control over.
Probably going to starve to death, simply because I was stupid enough as
a child to go wandering after dark, despite my parents wishes. And now…
I always knew I would die young. Surprised it lasted this long. Most werewolves die young, either from being
hunted down, or starving because of lack of a job. No wonder so many went over to Voldemort.
Damn, this is boring.
I wonder what Sirius does during the day. Of course, he's an animagus.
He can just change and walk around whenever he wants.
Remus
yawned. Maybe the best thing would
be to sleep. Yes. Sleep is good. Remus curled up and drifted off.
Remus
awoke and let out a yelp of pain. His
skin felt like pins and needles as fur got ready to sprout. His head pounded in time with the throbbing
in his limbs. Every muscle and bone
seemed to ache. He looked out the
window to see the darkness illuminated by the full moon. It never gets any better, does it?
Remus thought. He let out a low moan of
pain that turned into a howl as his vocal chords changed into increasingly
lupine ones. He felt the bones shift
and change painfully and the organ twist around creating a nauseating
feeling. The fur now nearly covered his
entire body. As muscle piled on the
sleek body of the wolf, Remus' clothing ripped and tore. Remus recognized the sound in the corner of
his mind, but it was a distant thought.
The wolf was overcoming the human.
And then it was done.
***
Leila glared at her husband
who returned her stare with the calm, lazy look of a snake about to
strike. It finally occurred to her that
Cyrus was insane. Completely and
totally insane. He deserved to be in
St. Mungo's. Of course, he was also
fairly good with the Dark Arts. Lord
Voldemort had taught him well. Leila
knew all too well the extent of his abilities, as well as his temper. Cyrus Reishan disdained disobedience, and
punished it with cruelty. He made sure
that Leila knew this, and yet Cyrus was going too far, this time. Who in their right mind would willingly
enter a room with a werewolf?
"And why should I go in first, Cyrus?" Leila said between
gritted teeth.
A cruel smile played on Cyrus' lips. "Don't tell me you're afraid of a weakened
werewolf." His voice was smooth, low,
and deadly calm. "We put in all the
proper ingredients into its food. It
won't harm a hair on your head, my dear."
"Then why won't you do it if you're so sure?" Leila
muttered under her breath. "Coward."
The smile disappeared from Cyrus' face. His nearly black eyes flickered. "What did you say, my dear?" His voice retained the same silkiness, but
there was an edge to it that wasn't there before.
"I said nothing of importance, dear." She emphasized the pet name he used when
attempting to control her.
"I repeat, Leila, what did you say!" He nearly shouted the last part.
"And I said nothing!" Leila yelled back.
"Never talk to me with that level of disrespect! Crucio!"
Leila screamed in pain.
She bent over double and clenched her fists in agony. It felt as if she were being skinned alive
or burned everywhere at once. She
dropped to her knees and collapsed on her side, curled up. Cyrus lifted his wand and the pain stop, but
the memory lingered. Tears leaked from
her eyes and her muscles twitched from shock.
Cyrus bent down on one knee and leaned over Leila. "Never call me "coward" again, dear." He rose and kicked her viciously in the
ribs. "Now get up. It's getting late." He swept out of the room. Leila took a few shuddered breaths before
following Cyrus into the next room. As
she walked she wondered how she managed to fall in love with the cruel man that
was Cyrus Reishan.
Cyrus was leaning against the heavy wooden cellar
door. He shook his man of brown hair
out of his eyes. Cyrus' fingers ran
down the sharp knife of pure silver he held in his left hand. "Ready, Leila?" he asked, daring her to
respond negatively. Leila stuck out her
chin in defiance and made a gesture for him to move. With a smirk he cleared the door.
Leila took a deep breath. She could hear the snarling, growling, and baying of the beast
below. God help me, she
whispered in the corner of her mind. What
am I thinking? God doesn't help the
wives of Death Eaters. Leila opened
the door with the shaking hand and descended into the darkness of the
cellar. The snarling stopped as the
werewolf found the scent of the approaching humans. Ah, nice. We also made
the oh-so-intelligent mistake of not feeding it enough. It'll be hungry. Wonderful. The creaky
steps made chills go down her spine. As
she cleared the last step with Cyrus behind her, Leila heard the low growl to
her left. Leila whipped her head around
as the werewolf leaped. "Stupify!"
she yelled. She saw the flash of gray
that collapsed at her feet. Because it
was a magical creature, the werewolf was not fully unconscious, however it was
incapacitated. It whimpered in pain.
"Come on," she yelled over to her husband. And more quietly, "Let's get this over
with."
Cyrus walked over, the smirk still on his face. "At least you're good for something." He handed her the knife. Hands shaking, Leila knelt down beside the werewolf. It was shaking. As she made the first snip, it jerked violently. Leila jumped. Cyrus glared at her.
"Keep cutting." Leila took a
deep breath and nodded, handing the silver-gray fur to her husband. As Leila resumed her cutting, the werewolf didn't
jerk anymore, but continued to shake.
It let out a soft whimper.
Still, Leila continued to cut, trying not to pierce the werewolf's skin. Finally, after what seemed like forever, it
was done. Leila stood up, gathering the
pieces of fur. As she handed them to
Cyrus, Leila couldn't help but look down at the werewolf's body. It had almost no fur left on that side. It looked at her in what would have been
sadness…if wolves could show emotion.
But it looked at her. It looked at
her. Leila shivered. The eyes looked so human. She shook her head to clear it. It was way too late.
"Leila. Come on
to bed."
Leila realized that while she had been thinking about
stupid beasts, Cyrus had already walked up the stairs and out the door. "Yes.
I'm coming." She ran
upstairs.
***
As the first ray of sunlight
hit Remus' body, he stirred. Groaning
in pain at the dull ache that ran through every muscle, as well as his brain,
Remus sat up and rubbed his eyes. As
his brain cleared, memories from the night flashed through his mind. They weren't as clear as they were normally,
due to the lack of wolfsbane potion.
Remus shuddered. He was just a
beast to these people. Merely a means
of getting rich. But as the woman's
eyes flashed in his memory, Remus saw something more. She had tried not to hurt him.
Remus couldn't help but wonder if she felt remorse at what she had done.
And why would she?
Remember, you're just an animal to her.
If she feels any guilt, it's because she hurt an animal, not
because she hurt you.
Again, Remus shuddered, and tried to push away the
voice. He sighed. It probably was just his imagination. The mind sees what it wants to when it's
desperate. No, there was no way she
felt any type of emotion towards him.
The only people who did were either dead or in no position to help. Why did it all have to go away? Remus
wondered. Why did my luck have to
change so drastically in one night? How
did the best night of the night turn into the worst? For the full moon had indeed once been the
best night of the month. The Marauders
spent days planning where to go. They
didn't care that he was a werewolf.
They embraced it, even from the beginning…
As Remus stepped out of
the Gryffindor common room, a hand snatched the sleeve of his robe. Remus whipped his head around to face the
person. "James! What are you doing? Let go of me!"
James grinned broadly at his friend. "Shh.
We have to show you something.
Come on."
Remus groaned, preparing himself for one of James and
Sirius' strange schemes. "What, did you
tie up Snape again? I told you, I don't
feel like helping you get out of detention, again."
"No, it's nothing like that. It's…come on. I can't
tell you out here, I have to show
you."
"Is this going to make me want to kill you, James?"
"Well…"
"James…"
"To be honest, Moony, probably at first. But once you find out our plans, I'm sure
you'll get just as excited and forget all about any nasty murderous rage you
might have."
"Are you—" Remus was interrupted by another yank on his
sleeve.
"Shh! Come
on. In here. We can't have anyone see us."
The two young wizards walked into a deserted classroom in some forgotten
corridor or another.
"James, what did you—ah!" Quite suddenly a huge, black dog jumped on Remus, nearly knocking
him over. "James!"
"Down, Padfoot!
Bad dog." The animal growled at
James, but backed off. Then it grinned
(or what looked very much like a grin) at Remus.
"Sorry, James," came a squeaky voice from the back. "I tried to talk him out of it, but, you
know…" Peter Pettigrew looked down at his feet, his face a bright red.
This new bit of information confused Remus even
more. "What? Talk him out of
it? James? Peter? What did you guys
do? Where'd you find him? And where's Sirius in all of this? Some twisted plan, he's got to be here
somewhere."
"Oh, he is," said James with a wide grin. "Sirius?
Mind coming out of your true nature for a bit?"
Suddenly, instead of the dog sitting in front of James,
there stood Sirius Black, grin as big, if not bigger, than James'. He walked over to Remus. "Hey, Moony, what's up?" Remus opened his mouth, but no words came
out. "What, speechless? Ah well, there's a first time for
everything. James, care to explain what's
what?"
Despite the strangeness of the situation, Remus couldn't
help but feel a bit perturbed at Sirius' comment. I don't stop
talking? Like he's the one to comment, Remus
thought, sardonically.
"Sure. Remus,
you've heard of the animagus transformation, right?"
"Of course. We
learned about it in transfiguration.
Why do you ask?" James turned to
look at Sirius pointedly. "What? Oh!" exclaimed Remus as it hit him. "But…how?
They actually let Sirius register?"
"Well, not really.
We just kinda skipped that part."
Remus rolled his eyes. "Anyway,
it's not just Sirius, I did it, too.
And Peter." The last part of the
statement hit Remus like a slap in the face.
They had all done it. It must
have taken years, but that had all done it without telling him. All because
I'm a werewolf, thought Remus.
"Why…?" he choked out.
"We didn't keep it a secret because you couldn't
transform, if that's what you think.
It's us, Moony, remember? We
didn't tell you because we wanted it to be a surprise."
"Well it worked.
Congratulations," Remus said, bitterly.
"No, you don't understand. This was all done for you."
"What? How?"
"Well if you'll let me actually explain." Remus grinned sheepishly as James glared at
him.
"You're too slow James," broke in Sirius. "Here's the deal. We figured it must be pretty lonely in Shrieking Shack. So we wanted to help."
"But we can't be up there as humans when you're a wolf."
"So we decided to accompany you in animal form."
Remus raised an eyebrow skeptically. "You did all of this. Even you?"
He looked at Peter who squeaked and nodded. For some reason Peter always seemed afraid. Maybe he was frightened by werewolf
stories. Remus grinned. "So what's this plan?"
"Well, I'm a cute loveable dog, as you know," Sirius
began. Remus James and Peter raised an
eyebrow at that. "What?" Sirius shook his head is mock
frustration. "James is a stag. We figured that two of us should be bigger
animals so that if we had to, we could overcome the werewolf." Remus nodded. They had planned this very thoroughly. Of course, they had had three years. "Peter's a rat, so that he can be small enough to press the knob
on the whomping willow. It's
perfect. We can do whatever we want, and
we have a night to do it. What do you
say?"
"I'm in. When do
we start planning for next month?" said Remus.
Even
Peter had to grin.
The crash of some heavy
object from upstairs broke Remus from his reminiscing, bringing him back to
painful reality. He heard some
shouting. What a perfect couple,
Remus thought sarcastically. Not at
all like Lily and James. He sighed
and stared out the window (an activity Remus seemed to do a lot of,
lately). The shouting stopped and
someone stomped towards the cellar door.
Remus turned to see why. The
door opened, something flew in, and then it closed. Upon further inspection, Remus found it to be a very stale slice
of bread that his captors enjoyed serving him for breakfast. On the plus side, Remus thought as he
nibbled on the crust, they couldn't afford to have me die.
The
shouting restarted, and this time Remus blocked it out. He stretched and paced for a bit, then
decided to rest again, exhausted from the transformation of the night before.
He
awoke to someone poking his shoulder.
Remus opened his eyes, groggily to see that he had slept through the
day. From the placement of the moon and
stars, it was already very late at night.
Remus wasn't surprised. It was
an often enough occurrence if the transformation had been hard enough. And last night had been awful. He blinked at the woman staring down at
him. He couldn't see her very well in the
blackness of the cellar, and her dark features didn't help any. Her blue eyes stood out in the gloom. She put a finger to her lips.
"Come
on, werewolf. You're coming with
me." Remus stared blankly. Why?
What more do they want with me?
They've taken everything they want, He though with shame. But of course I'm just an animal, to
them. Why should they care about the
thoughts of a beast? "I said move,"
growled the woman. If you don't, then I
can simply leave you here to be starved and tortured. Eventually killed. No come
with me." Remus needed no further
motivation. The two wizards crept out
the door silently as the night surrounding them.
[A/N]
Hehehe. Wonder where she's taking him. We'll find out in the last chapter. But we will see more of Cyrus Reishan. The question comes, who is the true
monster? Thanks to everyone who
reviewed and shtuff. You guys are
awesome. Also thanks to Ruby and
Jammer. Jammer looked over part 2 and
Ruby looked over this part. *huggles
them both* I'm going to try to write
chapter four in the next two weeks, but I'll be busy. After that I'm leaving for six weeks, so nothing will be posted
after June 24 for six weeks. Don't even
bother checking, 'cause it's not going to happen. More action in the next part, don't worry. *looks at her story length* These chapters keep getting longer. But whatever. Thankee for reading this far.
Please review. I will be forever
grateful.