Gwen awoke the next morning with a squeal of surprise. Harry Jr. was sitting on the edge of her bed, looking excited.
"I got my Hogwart's letter!" He exclaimed the instant she woke up.
"Great, wonderful, get out of my room!" Gwen yelled.
"What will you do if I don't?" He asked with a smirk.
"More like what will I do if you don't." Shane had arrived. He glared at Harry, who glared back. Gwen ignored the two of them and began her routine. Harry left off his argument with Shane. He had never seen Gwen do this before. Shane shrugged. He knew what would happen if the older boy got in the way. Sure enough, Harry had to ask a stupid question. He ended up flying across the room and into Gwen's closet. Shane burst out laughing when Gwen called after him:
"Could you grab my red tank-top while you're in there?" Harry joined in their laughter and brought Gwen's shirt out with him. The three had a great time that day, laughing and joking around. Gwen grew more and more pale as the day went on. Shane finally asked what was wrong.
"Full moon tonight." She reminded him. Harry glanced at her.
"D'you want me to stay?" He asked, kindness in his voice.
"No, Harry, I'll be fine. Shane always stays with me. And it's not like you can do anything about it." Harry looked sad at this, but Gwen took no notice of it. Shane, however, did and glared a warning at Harry, who pretended not to notice. As hard as it was, he didn't say anything to Gwen. If Harry liked her, it was her decision whether or not to like him back. As much as he wanted to, Shane couldn't do a thing about it. Harry flooed home reluctantly. Gwen and Remus ate a quick dinner before heading down to the basement. Remus had put a wall up so that Gwen was in the innermost room. She'd have to go through a silver door, him, and then another silver door to get out. Shane and Sirius took their usual seats in the living room and dozed fitfully throughout the night. Shane eagerly went to unlock Gwen the next morning. He was slightly surprised to see her sleeping. He was even more surprised to find that she was naked. He saw her pile of clothes near the door, but they were in shreds. He blushed, left the room, and went to find Remus. He and Sirius were in the kitchen.
"Where's Gwen?" Sirius asked when he saw the girl was not following her friend.
"She's, uh, sleeping?" Remus raised his eyebrows.
"Was that a question?" Shane only blushed harder. Remus' eyebrows were in danger of disappearing altogether.
"Well, she kind of doesn't have any clothes on." Shane scratched at the floor with his toe. He expected the two men to blow up at him, like it was his fault. To his surprise, they just started laughing. Remus finally managed to gain some control of his speech abilities.
"It's a slight byproduct of turning into a wolf. Our clothes disappear. So she takes them off, hoping she won't tear them apart over the night. I guess she fell asleep as a wolf and didn't wake up when she transformed back." Sirius looked sharply at the older werewolf.
"But wouldn't the pain wake her up?" He inquired. It had always seemed painful to Remus. How could Gwen sleep through that?
"I guess she has a very high tolerance to pain. She's quite lucky, actually." As Remus was still weak after his transformation, Sirius went downstairs to wake Gwen up. She came up a few minutes later, fully clothed and blushing. I guess he told her what happened. Shane thought to himself. She gave him a small smile, then frowned.
"This is the last time we'll be together over a full moon." Shane stated. Gwen started. She was thinking the same thing. Shane sensed that his friend was close to the breaking point. He pulled a small black jewelry box out of his pocket. "Here. Shania wanted me to give you this. She says 'Happy Birthday'." Gwen took it tentatively.
"So she doesn't mind my disease anymore?"
"I don't know. She just told me to give it to you." He smiled and Gwen flipped the box open. And burst out laughing. Shane frowned and took the box from Gwen. In it was a pair of earrings.
"What's so funny?" Remus inquired.
"The earrings were mine once. I left them there years ago. They're made of silver." Remus and Sirius frowned. They failed to find this amusing. Shane started laughing along with his best friend.
"That little bitch. She gave you something that was yours that you can't wear anymore."
"Oh I can wear it." Gwen stated.
"But they're silver." Sirius objected. "You'll hurt yourself."
"Not if I take certain precautions. I've always been allergic to anything I try to put in my ears. I always coated them with clear nail polish. I just put on a few more coats than I normally would and voila! I can wear those things and mystify anyone who might guess my secret at school." Remus cleared his throat.
"Speaking of school, we need to get you're supplies. Albus sent a list of some things you'll need. Harry's going tomorrow and you will go with him." Gwen shrugged at this statement. She was really tired, even though she had gotten some sleep as a wolf.
"Toodle pip all." She called and headed to her room.
Gwen had a great time in Diagon Alley. Harry had been there many times and dragged to all the best stores, laughing in amusement at the looks of astonishment that frequently showed on her face. Her favorite shop belonged to Harry's twin uncles, Fred and George. They boasted that they were the greatest pranksters who ever lived. Gwen immediately saw through this by playing a few, very useful muggle pranks on the two. They had never seen the old bucket over the doorway trick. Gwen even filled the bucket with a magical ooze that had rather devastating effects. Fred received purple hair and George would have won the biggest nose award, if there was such a thing. All in all, Gwen had a great time. The only time she was not happy was when Harry got his wand. Dumbledore had expressly forbidden her to get one until she could control her magic. Unfortunately, that was the last stop of the day so Gwen was really depressed when she got home. Nobody was there. Sirius was at the Hollow and Remus was off somewhere doing something. She got out her guitar and, because of her rotten mood, began to play and sing 'Don't let me get me' by Pink. She finished the song and became aware of a foul stench coming from her bureau. She opened her drawer to find that her socks, which had been clean before, were now smelly and dirty. She thought back to the song and smiled. Then she prayed that washing would help them. Gwen told Remus about it when he got home. He didn't quite understand.
"It's the song. One of lines states 'my socks are never clean.' Isn't that the funniest? Now my socks aren't clean. This is so cool. I wonder what else I could do." She mused, stroking her invisible, nonexistent beard. Remus shook his finger at her warningly.
"No you don't, missie. The first thing we have to do is owl Dumbledore and tell him what happened. And until then I don't think you should play or sing until you get to school." He covered her mouth with his hand as she opened it to object. "I don't want anything horrible happening. Thank God all we got was a few dirty socks." Gwen opened her mouth to bite his hand so he would move it. He pulled his hand away just as she snapped her teeth together. A look of severe anger crossed his face. "Don't you ever do that! Ever! Even as a human you could turn someone into a werewolf! Honestly! Think before you act, sometimes Gwen! You're a bomb waiting to explode! I, and the rest of the world, would appreciate some more caution from you!" Gwen stared at her foster-father, tears forming in her eyes.
"I'm sorry," She whispered before disappearing.