Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognize as Harry Potter. Danni
and others you don't recognize are mine.
A/N Here's chapter two, one little thing that you might want to know about chapter one is that it takes places when the main character Danni is 9 years old. You might think how can she use her fathers wand and that's a good questions. The only answer I can give is that "it's magic". ha-ha sorry for the bad pun.
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That night seems very distant from this safe train compartment hundreds of miles away but still it lingers with me as a constant companion never really ever leaving. I never returned to my home after that night either. I let the muggle neighbors come across my parents' charred remains and presume us three kidnapped or dead somewhere in the ravine. The muggle police never looked hard for us anyway; we were outcasts in both worlds. Seen for what we truly were in the wizardry world and as eccentric weirdoes in the muggle world. Maybe both sides had a point but that never stopped me from trying to succeed in a world were everything is turned against my kind.
Sarah and Andrew had escaped to a moldy tree house in the heart of the tangle mess of trees. This tree house should have been used as a haven for lazy childhood days, not an escape or sanctuary from wizard mobs. We stayed cooped up in there late into fall till nights became to cold and Andrew's frail lungs couldn't hold up with his hacking cough any longer. It was a bright early October day when Andrew's spirit left us. It was peaceful and without much fuss on either Sarah or my part. Not much more could have been done to us anyway. Parentless and now laying a dear little brother under a shady willow was a part of a werewolf's life. We cherish the time we have with others but we are always prepared to walk alone in the darkness. We cling to the loved ones we meet but when the time comes for us to part its not hard for us. Another friend will come along and while it's not the same friend it's a friend nonetheless and that is all we could hope for.
The winter chilled bother Sarah and me to the bone. We had seized a small cabin deep in the heart of the forest well away from towns and other cabins. While this was more comfortable then the tree house had been the warped boards let the chilly wind sweep through the hut and snow often piled both inside and outside the door. A trek was made once a month to the nearest muggle town for canned food, perhaps a new pair of mittens and other things needed to survive. Finally after months of huddling around the stove to keep warm, sleeping in stolen parkas and eating canned beans spring was on its way. The snow had melted away from the door and we were now making weekly trips to town giving us both a moral boost. No one ever took notice of the seven and nine year old raven haired girls hand and hand buying stocks of baked beans, a bag of apples and two sweets each. The world had more important things to worry about like politics, their own families and gossip about the neighbors. It never bothered us either, we were content with ourselves and if we could go without getting noticed it didn't bother us. However someone did notice us.
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For another year we lived in the cabin, taking gold out of our deceased parents' bank account every three months. We didn't get mixed up with the wizard mobs anymore and our transformations were almost painless. We were where werewolves should live, deep in the heart of an ancient forest, with nature and far from ordinary humans. Out there we could be ourselves, werewolf's, not pseudo-humans. During the summers, truth be told, modesty wasn't something we usually concerned ourselves with. Lounging around the hut in just a shirt and with a bare bottom didn't seem wrong between sisters.
During the following summer when I was 10 years old and Sarah, a brand-new 8, I receive my first letter by owl. It was from Hogwarts the legendary school for witchcraft and wizardry.
Dear Miss. Davis,
It is my greatest pleasure to invite you to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry next fall. If you are willing to attend please be at King's Cross Station in London at 11 am sharp on the morning of September 1.Attached to this note is the full list of school supplies needed for your first year. Thank you.
Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall
(A/N I don't have to book near me right now so I made this all up and I know Minerva's last name is spelt wrong. Just live with it.)
I flipped the first back and looked at the long list of supplies. I knew that I was never going to afford all 7 of the text books and other things needed. And the other thing was what was I suppose to do with Sarah. Living in the woods with you sister was one thing but by yourself and being only eight? Some of my psudi-humaness came through. I didn't want to bury the last member of my family. I had already failed three of them; I was never going to fail the last. The opportunity was tempting but I had my responsibility elsewhere. I'll never become a witch but thinking twice I didn't think that it'd be all that bad. No exposure to wizards, no threat of making enemies, smaller threat of dying; I wanted nothing more for Sarah and myself.
So later that night when I watched the sheet of parchment, with licks of flame dancing around the edges and gently falling further into the fire I did feel as though one destiny was burning in front of my eyes and I was standing at the crossroads for another with the road ahead officially marked "ROAD CLOSED FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE". I won't lie and tell you that it didn't hurt me at the time. My dream since I was a child was to follow my parents' footsteps to Hogwarts. Their stories of the Great Hall, magnificent paintings and the best friends' one could only dream of would only remain stories now. Maybe the last one is what made my heart break when my acceptance letter had turned charcoal black in front of me. I never had had a friend save Sarah but she didn't count. No matter how many times I told myself that I was happier alone I couldn't quash that aspiration of a friend. Surely whatever powers-that-be didn't create werewolves to be friendless, but my decision was made and I wasn't going to Hogwarts. Sarah never knew about the letter when I had first gotten it in June and I was going to keep it that way. She would cry and make a fuss because she would automatically think that by me refusing to go she wouldn't be able to go either. In retrospect I would have let her go even if I had stayed in the forest alone. One of us needed to be a witch after all.
The weeks took wing and the letter was soon forgotten, only ash in the fire place and the occasional untraceable heartache. The summer soon rolled into sticky August days of lazing about the cabin with sunrays streaming through the warped boards stretching far across the frayed crimson rug on the dusty grey floor.
Most days were spent in silence. Sarah might have wanted to talk but I was the alpha in this pack and she didn't dare scold me for my silence. We wouldn't do much on the days of silence; wake up and flop down with the few books we found in dilapidated bags crammed in the corner of the small crawl space. Muggle classics, reference books, children's fairy tales and strange leather bound books. They had rusted clasp and despite my efforts to open one with knifes, and I even poked it with my fathers old wand that I still had with me. The only words inscribed in gold lettering one the biggest volume of the 20 or so was "Repap Erac" I didn't recognize the language for muggle or the few magical ones I knew. As I was a child still I gave up quickly throwing the books aside and moved on to others. Times when we weren't reading we could be found gazing at the blue sky on the slanted roof or walking to the edge of the trees watching children play in a park under the watchful eye of their parents. We never were noticed by the parents but we were by someone else...
(Am I done? Go down and look.)
Ok I'm not that mean. Here's some more. Oh if you read Repap Erac backwards it's Paper Care. How creative am I? Oh and don't worry, we'll meet Remus soon enough
Towards the end of August my heartache for Hogwarts returned stronger then every. Students now would probably be piling into Diagon Alley buying there wands, cauldrons, magical books, robes all while laughing with their families and spotting friends in the distance. Running to meet them they would spout stories of there happy summer vacations or giggles between "Oh did you see Jack? I think he's been working out." or "You must give me that hair curler potion." I never really gave a rat's ass about males, werewolf or human. I was a survivor and deep "connections" just spelt weakness and need.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* I was sitting on top of a hill, 2 hours walk from the hut taking in all of my surroundings. Distant dark masses spelt the sons and daughters of the great forest that loomed behind me. As the late day faded and the last breath of blue died the wolf awoke. Even though the full moon was still three days off the wolf was unsettled about something. I felt my sense of smell heighten and my human vision sharpen suddenly. I heard mice tread on the foot of the hill and smell the mouth-watering pork chops, green beans, garden salad and treacle tart still piping hot from the oven. I turned my head towards the smell and my wolf eyes infiltrated the shadows to see four seemingly happy family members huddled around a lighted porch. Two boys with shaggy mops of hair, one had golden and the other mousey brown but somehow still as brilliant.
A memory drifted into my mind but it wasn't mine. It was the wolf's memory and I felt like an infidel finding the memory. It was of the last full moon's romping through the forest and coming across a strange wolf. Sarah and I weren't the only wolves in the forest but when my wolf had spotted the male trot through my favorite clearing in the forest and curl up between roots of the giant trees around us. Pekkala, (As is my wolf's name) growling and snarling at this new comer leapt into the clearing, neck fur erect, white fangs gleaming in the bright moon light, challenging this bigger but startled wolf.
He lumbered up on his limbs, not shrinking back but was steady and calm. He was a dazzling grey and black wolf, noble snout, haunting harvest yellow eyes delineated with dark blue giving him a quality of intellect and wonder. This was not only a foreign wolf but an alien werewolf treading in Pekkala's territory. The young male abruptly took a step back stumbling into the roots and giving his dominance. That was the end of the memory, or as much as Pekkala wanted to let her see. They had been together for 10 years, almost 11, and Danni was often at a lose of what this part of her wanted or lived through. Danni was merely the host body for this dominant wolf pup.
My mind turned back to the family eating 100 meters down the hill considering the family, trying to tie them to that memory. My vision intensified again catching the dark blue of the wolf's eyes flash their way up the hill. That boy was the wolf Pekkala had meet in the forest. Something had urged me down the hill to examine this new fellow werewolf. If this was a family of wolves I could have warned them. I felt a nip from inside. Pekkala obviously had had other and harsher plans in mind with the strange were. I had scooted with my backside down the grassy hill bit by bit not wanting to catch the attention of the family. The last 20 meters I belly crawled to the right edge of the porch and listened.
"Remus do you have everything packed for Hogwarts? Do you need anything dear? We only have two days if you need anything." Presumably the mother rattled across the table to one of the boys.
"My lace fly supply is quite low mother. Maybe restocking some of my potion ingredients would be wise." A glass clicked against something on the table. The boy was barely above a mumble.
'And you Romulus? Do you have everything honey?" The mother addressed this son with more affection.
"Yes mother I have everything. You know how I hate waiting until the eleventh hour for Hogwarts supplies. After all, I am head boy this year." He said this as though he had just accepted some great award for world peace or he had just invented the world's greatest waterless cookware.
"Wonderful dear." The family lapsed into silence. Only the occasionally cough or sigh broke the still air in the cozy porch room.
I had slipped away from the porch quietly. I didn't think that all of them were werewolves. Just the boy and he was going to Hogwarts soon so I needn't worry the family. When I got to the top of the rise again and peered down at the family before I set off to the remains of my family I could have sworn I saw the mouse haired youth fleetingly glance towards the hill where I stood.
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Three hours later after I had taken every scenic route and touched all the logs from the hill to the cabin I could I came within view of the crackling fire that Sarah presumably conjured with father's wand. I thought about coming in through the roof to scare the wits out of her and so I had set to slinking up carefully to the back of the small house and with a child's uncanny grace scaled the nearest tree that would let me drop to the roof. I dropped with a slight "thud" hoping that Sarah hadn't heard or minded it.
"What was that Faphson? Go look around outside if it's the girl and take this stinking body out and dump it in the ravine." I couldn't move and I was perfectly poised on the roof hidden in the shadows of the tree so maybe as I think back it was better. A great lumbering mad came into view over the edge of the roof, he had something slung loosely over his shoulder. It flopped lifelessly when he dumbly discarded it on the forest floor. He glanced around, shrugged and went back into the cabin.
"No one was out there. I looked everywhere, must have been an animal. We got the wrong little girls probably." This one wasn't too bright I thought months later when I recalled that night.
"How many cabins are there in this forest with two little girls living alone?" He must have whacked the second man. "This is the right cabin but she's not here and I've watched her. She's not like other children, she's smart. Smarter then you anyway Faphson. She won't come back tonight, maybe ever. She'll be on her guard from now on too. Let's go. We'll find her later."
I helplessly listened to the men disapparate with small pops and I was alone. I remember vaguely scrambling down off the roof and to the small body 10 meters away. A look of shock was Sarah's expression, cold and dead. I didn't cry then, months and years later yes I would cry but right now I needed to get out of this forest and go somewhere safe. The only place I could go to was Hogwarts. With a bag in hand and a last look at the little graves of my siblings I headed off in the early morning light towards a new path of life open for travel.
A/N Here's chapter two, one little thing that you might want to know about chapter one is that it takes places when the main character Danni is 9 years old. You might think how can she use her fathers wand and that's a good questions. The only answer I can give is that "it's magic". ha-ha sorry for the bad pun.
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That night seems very distant from this safe train compartment hundreds of miles away but still it lingers with me as a constant companion never really ever leaving. I never returned to my home after that night either. I let the muggle neighbors come across my parents' charred remains and presume us three kidnapped or dead somewhere in the ravine. The muggle police never looked hard for us anyway; we were outcasts in both worlds. Seen for what we truly were in the wizardry world and as eccentric weirdoes in the muggle world. Maybe both sides had a point but that never stopped me from trying to succeed in a world were everything is turned against my kind.
Sarah and Andrew had escaped to a moldy tree house in the heart of the tangle mess of trees. This tree house should have been used as a haven for lazy childhood days, not an escape or sanctuary from wizard mobs. We stayed cooped up in there late into fall till nights became to cold and Andrew's frail lungs couldn't hold up with his hacking cough any longer. It was a bright early October day when Andrew's spirit left us. It was peaceful and without much fuss on either Sarah or my part. Not much more could have been done to us anyway. Parentless and now laying a dear little brother under a shady willow was a part of a werewolf's life. We cherish the time we have with others but we are always prepared to walk alone in the darkness. We cling to the loved ones we meet but when the time comes for us to part its not hard for us. Another friend will come along and while it's not the same friend it's a friend nonetheless and that is all we could hope for.
The winter chilled bother Sarah and me to the bone. We had seized a small cabin deep in the heart of the forest well away from towns and other cabins. While this was more comfortable then the tree house had been the warped boards let the chilly wind sweep through the hut and snow often piled both inside and outside the door. A trek was made once a month to the nearest muggle town for canned food, perhaps a new pair of mittens and other things needed to survive. Finally after months of huddling around the stove to keep warm, sleeping in stolen parkas and eating canned beans spring was on its way. The snow had melted away from the door and we were now making weekly trips to town giving us both a moral boost. No one ever took notice of the seven and nine year old raven haired girls hand and hand buying stocks of baked beans, a bag of apples and two sweets each. The world had more important things to worry about like politics, their own families and gossip about the neighbors. It never bothered us either, we were content with ourselves and if we could go without getting noticed it didn't bother us. However someone did notice us.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
For another year we lived in the cabin, taking gold out of our deceased parents' bank account every three months. We didn't get mixed up with the wizard mobs anymore and our transformations were almost painless. We were where werewolves should live, deep in the heart of an ancient forest, with nature and far from ordinary humans. Out there we could be ourselves, werewolf's, not pseudo-humans. During the summers, truth be told, modesty wasn't something we usually concerned ourselves with. Lounging around the hut in just a shirt and with a bare bottom didn't seem wrong between sisters.
During the following summer when I was 10 years old and Sarah, a brand-new 8, I receive my first letter by owl. It was from Hogwarts the legendary school for witchcraft and wizardry.
Dear Miss. Davis,
It is my greatest pleasure to invite you to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry next fall. If you are willing to attend please be at King's Cross Station in London at 11 am sharp on the morning of September 1.Attached to this note is the full list of school supplies needed for your first year. Thank you.
Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall
(A/N I don't have to book near me right now so I made this all up and I know Minerva's last name is spelt wrong. Just live with it.)
I flipped the first back and looked at the long list of supplies. I knew that I was never going to afford all 7 of the text books and other things needed. And the other thing was what was I suppose to do with Sarah. Living in the woods with you sister was one thing but by yourself and being only eight? Some of my psudi-humaness came through. I didn't want to bury the last member of my family. I had already failed three of them; I was never going to fail the last. The opportunity was tempting but I had my responsibility elsewhere. I'll never become a witch but thinking twice I didn't think that it'd be all that bad. No exposure to wizards, no threat of making enemies, smaller threat of dying; I wanted nothing more for Sarah and myself.
So later that night when I watched the sheet of parchment, with licks of flame dancing around the edges and gently falling further into the fire I did feel as though one destiny was burning in front of my eyes and I was standing at the crossroads for another with the road ahead officially marked "ROAD CLOSED FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE". I won't lie and tell you that it didn't hurt me at the time. My dream since I was a child was to follow my parents' footsteps to Hogwarts. Their stories of the Great Hall, magnificent paintings and the best friends' one could only dream of would only remain stories now. Maybe the last one is what made my heart break when my acceptance letter had turned charcoal black in front of me. I never had had a friend save Sarah but she didn't count. No matter how many times I told myself that I was happier alone I couldn't quash that aspiration of a friend. Surely whatever powers-that-be didn't create werewolves to be friendless, but my decision was made and I wasn't going to Hogwarts. Sarah never knew about the letter when I had first gotten it in June and I was going to keep it that way. She would cry and make a fuss because she would automatically think that by me refusing to go she wouldn't be able to go either. In retrospect I would have let her go even if I had stayed in the forest alone. One of us needed to be a witch after all.
The weeks took wing and the letter was soon forgotten, only ash in the fire place and the occasional untraceable heartache. The summer soon rolled into sticky August days of lazing about the cabin with sunrays streaming through the warped boards stretching far across the frayed crimson rug on the dusty grey floor.
Most days were spent in silence. Sarah might have wanted to talk but I was the alpha in this pack and she didn't dare scold me for my silence. We wouldn't do much on the days of silence; wake up and flop down with the few books we found in dilapidated bags crammed in the corner of the small crawl space. Muggle classics, reference books, children's fairy tales and strange leather bound books. They had rusted clasp and despite my efforts to open one with knifes, and I even poked it with my fathers old wand that I still had with me. The only words inscribed in gold lettering one the biggest volume of the 20 or so was "Repap Erac" I didn't recognize the language for muggle or the few magical ones I knew. As I was a child still I gave up quickly throwing the books aside and moved on to others. Times when we weren't reading we could be found gazing at the blue sky on the slanted roof or walking to the edge of the trees watching children play in a park under the watchful eye of their parents. We never were noticed by the parents but we were by someone else...
(Am I done? Go down and look.)
Ok I'm not that mean. Here's some more. Oh if you read Repap Erac backwards it's Paper Care. How creative am I? Oh and don't worry, we'll meet Remus soon enough
Towards the end of August my heartache for Hogwarts returned stronger then every. Students now would probably be piling into Diagon Alley buying there wands, cauldrons, magical books, robes all while laughing with their families and spotting friends in the distance. Running to meet them they would spout stories of there happy summer vacations or giggles between "Oh did you see Jack? I think he's been working out." or "You must give me that hair curler potion." I never really gave a rat's ass about males, werewolf or human. I was a survivor and deep "connections" just spelt weakness and need.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* I was sitting on top of a hill, 2 hours walk from the hut taking in all of my surroundings. Distant dark masses spelt the sons and daughters of the great forest that loomed behind me. As the late day faded and the last breath of blue died the wolf awoke. Even though the full moon was still three days off the wolf was unsettled about something. I felt my sense of smell heighten and my human vision sharpen suddenly. I heard mice tread on the foot of the hill and smell the mouth-watering pork chops, green beans, garden salad and treacle tart still piping hot from the oven. I turned my head towards the smell and my wolf eyes infiltrated the shadows to see four seemingly happy family members huddled around a lighted porch. Two boys with shaggy mops of hair, one had golden and the other mousey brown but somehow still as brilliant.
A memory drifted into my mind but it wasn't mine. It was the wolf's memory and I felt like an infidel finding the memory. It was of the last full moon's romping through the forest and coming across a strange wolf. Sarah and I weren't the only wolves in the forest but when my wolf had spotted the male trot through my favorite clearing in the forest and curl up between roots of the giant trees around us. Pekkala, (As is my wolf's name) growling and snarling at this new comer leapt into the clearing, neck fur erect, white fangs gleaming in the bright moon light, challenging this bigger but startled wolf.
He lumbered up on his limbs, not shrinking back but was steady and calm. He was a dazzling grey and black wolf, noble snout, haunting harvest yellow eyes delineated with dark blue giving him a quality of intellect and wonder. This was not only a foreign wolf but an alien werewolf treading in Pekkala's territory. The young male abruptly took a step back stumbling into the roots and giving his dominance. That was the end of the memory, or as much as Pekkala wanted to let her see. They had been together for 10 years, almost 11, and Danni was often at a lose of what this part of her wanted or lived through. Danni was merely the host body for this dominant wolf pup.
My mind turned back to the family eating 100 meters down the hill considering the family, trying to tie them to that memory. My vision intensified again catching the dark blue of the wolf's eyes flash their way up the hill. That boy was the wolf Pekkala had meet in the forest. Something had urged me down the hill to examine this new fellow werewolf. If this was a family of wolves I could have warned them. I felt a nip from inside. Pekkala obviously had had other and harsher plans in mind with the strange were. I had scooted with my backside down the grassy hill bit by bit not wanting to catch the attention of the family. The last 20 meters I belly crawled to the right edge of the porch and listened.
"Remus do you have everything packed for Hogwarts? Do you need anything dear? We only have two days if you need anything." Presumably the mother rattled across the table to one of the boys.
"My lace fly supply is quite low mother. Maybe restocking some of my potion ingredients would be wise." A glass clicked against something on the table. The boy was barely above a mumble.
'And you Romulus? Do you have everything honey?" The mother addressed this son with more affection.
"Yes mother I have everything. You know how I hate waiting until the eleventh hour for Hogwarts supplies. After all, I am head boy this year." He said this as though he had just accepted some great award for world peace or he had just invented the world's greatest waterless cookware.
"Wonderful dear." The family lapsed into silence. Only the occasionally cough or sigh broke the still air in the cozy porch room.
I had slipped away from the porch quietly. I didn't think that all of them were werewolves. Just the boy and he was going to Hogwarts soon so I needn't worry the family. When I got to the top of the rise again and peered down at the family before I set off to the remains of my family I could have sworn I saw the mouse haired youth fleetingly glance towards the hill where I stood.
~~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~~*~*~*~~~*~*~*~*~*~~~*~~*~*~~~*~*~
Three hours later after I had taken every scenic route and touched all the logs from the hill to the cabin I could I came within view of the crackling fire that Sarah presumably conjured with father's wand. I thought about coming in through the roof to scare the wits out of her and so I had set to slinking up carefully to the back of the small house and with a child's uncanny grace scaled the nearest tree that would let me drop to the roof. I dropped with a slight "thud" hoping that Sarah hadn't heard or minded it.
"What was that Faphson? Go look around outside if it's the girl and take this stinking body out and dump it in the ravine." I couldn't move and I was perfectly poised on the roof hidden in the shadows of the tree so maybe as I think back it was better. A great lumbering mad came into view over the edge of the roof, he had something slung loosely over his shoulder. It flopped lifelessly when he dumbly discarded it on the forest floor. He glanced around, shrugged and went back into the cabin.
"No one was out there. I looked everywhere, must have been an animal. We got the wrong little girls probably." This one wasn't too bright I thought months later when I recalled that night.
"How many cabins are there in this forest with two little girls living alone?" He must have whacked the second man. "This is the right cabin but she's not here and I've watched her. She's not like other children, she's smart. Smarter then you anyway Faphson. She won't come back tonight, maybe ever. She'll be on her guard from now on too. Let's go. We'll find her later."
I helplessly listened to the men disapparate with small pops and I was alone. I remember vaguely scrambling down off the roof and to the small body 10 meters away. A look of shock was Sarah's expression, cold and dead. I didn't cry then, months and years later yes I would cry but right now I needed to get out of this forest and go somewhere safe. The only place I could go to was Hogwarts. With a bag in hand and a last look at the little graves of my siblings I headed off in the early morning light towards a new path of life open for travel.