It Came Upon the Midnight Clear



Remus could tell something was wrong. He had only had one glass of the eggnog earlier, it shouldn't have this much effect. Normally he could do arithmantic calculations on one glass's worth, and no one would know the difference. But tonight, here he was sitting on Sirius's couch with Hermione across from him, and he was reading A Christmas Carol to her as she fell asleep, and it was all he could do to stay sitting down and keep the words tumbling out of his mouth. He had felt peculiar all day, and there had been something at the back of his mind, something he was forgetting.

He stopped reading for a minute to think. She sat up and opened her eyes. "What? Why'd you stop?" She rearranged herself, pulling her numb legs out from underneath her and extending them to the ground.

"No reason. Just taking a bit of a breather."

"You want me to read for a while? I could, I don't mind."

"Sure, why not? I'm on the left page, second paragraph up," he said, handing her the book.

Hermione took the book, and started reading. She didn't do as well with the eggnog, and stumbled over some of the words. She was beginning to flush, and he coaxed her forward over the familiar passages. They were about to meet the ghost of Christmas present when he suddenly stiffened. She didn't notice, and kept on reading. "Come in, and know me better, man." Remus wanted to tell her to stop, to run, to do something except sit there blindly next to him. But he couldn't. His vocal chords were tightening, and he couldn't say anything, and before he could think to move his muscles contracted tightly.

His insides screamed with pain, but his lips wouldn't move. He jerked involuntarily as the bones in his rib cage shattered, and Hermione finally noticed. It only took her a second to realize what was happening, and she was frozen in fear. Lupin was writhing and twitching in agony, and she could see his clothes shredding around him and hair sprouting from his limbs as they changed form. She tried not to look at his face, at the pain and emptiness she could sense was there as the delicate muscles pulled themselves and the nerves all rewired around his smaller head. And suddenly a thought hit her.

'What am I doing here? Any second now, this will stop and he'll kill me, and I'm sitting here watching like it's a practical lesson in lycanthropy!' She sprang from the seat and ran to the front door. She was beginning to hear the first whimpers and echoes of howls from the wolf as she opened it. 'But I can't just leave. I don't have the key, and he'll get out!' She slammed the door shut, locked it, and dashed up the stairs, sliding one hand up the rail to keep from falling.

Downstairs, Moony began to howl. Pain, pain, all over. He knew this pain, and recognized it, but it cut him like this every time. He jumped down off the couch and shook himself. His tight muscles relaxed and he began to explore his surroundings. There was a fire. He backed quickly away from that. The smells. Spicy, at least five distinct spice smells. And maybe egg. Humans. Two males, and one female. The female scent was stronger than the male. She was still here, somewhere close. He ran around the whole ground floor investigating the scent, before he reached the bottom of the stairs. Yes, it was strong here. She must have gone up. He scrambled clumsily up the stairs.

There, just past that, that's where she must be. He threw his head against the pale thing, testing it's strength. It gave easily, but not enough for him to get through. He set his claws against it and scratched an a low spot, and went at it again, hard enough to make a hole. And he kept hitting it, and scratching at it, tearing his way through until he had torn away the bottom of the door. He rushed through the hole, into the room. There she was, crouching in the corner, fresh meat, and smelling so much like blood.



Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, and Charles Dickens's estate owns A Christmas Carol.



A/N: Well, here's my Christmas fic, I suppose. It will continue, but I just wanted to get first impressions. Thank you for reading, thank you even more if you review.