The Wolf of Change
Chapter 1 - The Accident
A purple haze lay across the lands surrounding Hogsmeade. Warm glows came from the windows of cosy little homes, and a summer breeze rustled the trees of the Forbidden Forest gently.
On a patio outside a particularly inviting house, Roland Lupin was deeply absorbed in the letter he had received earlier that evening. It concerned the rising evil in the country, and he read and reread it with growing concern.
His son, however, was innocent and free of such concerns, weaving throughout the trees at the bottom of the garden on his small broomstick, only a couple of feet off the ground. Remus loved Quidditch, and he was obsessed with the idea of being on the national team. "Daddy! Daddy? Can you release the Snitch? I'll never get on the team without practice!"
Roland laughed absently at the practicality his four-year-old already showed, and reached down to unlock the trunk beside his deck chair. "I doubt that even Fielding Snipes would find the Snitch in this light!"
The golden ball shot from the trunk as an equally amazing silver ball rose above the horizon. The full moon shone down on the land, illuminating the young boy as he raced in circles after the little orb. The Snitch eventually veered off, heading into the trees. After a swift glance to check that his father wasn't watching, Remus directed his broom after it, revelling in the adrenaline rush as he wove between the dark shapes around him.
A clearing ahead awash with moonlight revealed the Snitch hovering in the white glow. Remus grinned, going in for the kill, when as his small fingers closed around the cold metal he heard an odd noise.
"Daddy?"
The noise came again, apparently nearer. Remus looked wildly about him, panicking when he realised that he did not know which way he had come. He shivered in the now chill wind and began to sob quietly, not knowing what to do.
The pitiful sound of the small child crying attracted the attention of the forest-dwelling creatures. Bright glints began to ring the clearing where the boy wept into his hands, unaware.
Roland may not have heard his son's questioning "Daddy?" but he did hear the piercing shriek that radiated from the forest. He looked up sharply, flint-grey eyes scanning the long, clear lawn for any sign of his son. A chilling howl split the air and he leapt from the deck chair, parchment floating to the ground now forgotten, and wineglass chipped, the red liquid pouring out over the paving stones.
"Remus?" He shouted. All that answered were those haunting cries that now seemed to come from behind every tree. Roland half-turned back to his new house, and saw his wife's silhouette in the light from the kitchen window. "Miranda?" being summer, the window was open, and she leaned out of it, looking relaxed and interested until she saw his worry. "Miranda, I - Remus has gone, he's vanished. He was just playing in the garden here, on his broomstick, and I was reading my letters. And he's gone!"
Miranda Lupin's face changed, and the lines that the city had imposed on it were all of a sudden apparent once more. "What? How could this happen? Roland why weren't you watching? And why can I hear wolves? Britain was supposed to be clear of wolves for a long time now."
Roland's hopes faded with that statement. "Oh no...Miranda, it's a full moon. Could - could it be that these woods, that have been quiet for the past month, are full of lycanthropes?"
Before he knew it, Roland felt her brush past him; her wand brandished in one hand, and a silver necklace in the other.
"Miranda! What on earth are you doing?" He grabbed her arm.
"I'm going to find my son!"
"Don't be stupid! You can't do anything for him with a silver chain and a stick!" She opened her mouth to protest, but he silenced her with a soft gesture. "There are a lot of them out there. Now, all we can do is wait patiently until morning, lock the house securely, contact the local healer, and begin a search during daylight tomorrow. It will not do Remus any good if we go charging out there and get ourselves bitten." Roland's controlled and balanced words calmed Miranda slightly, and she sighed deeply and bent down to pick up his broken glass and letter before hurrying back inside.
* * *
The sun rose early, blissful summer in the air with a gentle breeze caressing the treetops. Deeper under the boughs where only speckles of the warm rays reached, the day to day inhabitants of the Forest began to emerge from hiding. As usual after the Full Moon, the floor was a sea of carnage and debris. Animals not so fortunate in keeping invisible were strewn in bloodstained patches of grass, low branches were often torn off the trees, and the claw marks of some immense group of creatures littered the disturbed earth and shredded bark.
The air was still on the forest-floor, humidity already setting in. Flies buzzed around the corpses of everything from squirrels to foxes, and all in all the scene was much like that of a battlefield abandoned. The torn and bruised form of a little boy could easily have been mistaken for that of a dead fox; and had his parents not been the ones searching for him it might have been.
Miranda gave a sobbing cry when she saw her son curled up at the foot of a mauled tree. Roland stared with suspicion and his wand at the ready, scanning the boughs above them.
With trembling and tentative hands Roland reached down and gently turned Remus on his back. He gave a gasp and drew back. Miranda held his shoulders and peered around him, letting out a muffled wail. The wizard traced his fingers along his son's right collarbone, outlining the gash in his pale skin and trying in vain to wipe some of the blood away from the clear bite-mark.
Remus's young face was contorted into an expression of pain, and drying blood surrounded his mouth. His fingers were also caked in red and brown, and splinters of bark adorned his hands and arms. His shirt and shorts were torn and muddied and his feet were bare and soled with earth. Roland and Miranda's tears left clear trails along his dusted skin as Roland carefully hoisted Remus into his arms and carried him out of the Forest.
In a clearing not too far away, had they looked in it, the boy's parents would have found a chewed and mangled Snitch, and the splinters of a broomstick hardly noticeable among the broken branches that littered the dew-frosted ground.
* * *
The healer Magda Nimif eyed the Lupins with distaste as she stepped out of the fireplace. Remus was huddled on his mother's knees, thumb in mouth. He hadn't spoken at all since they had found him. Roland paced behind Miranda's chair, and Miranda absent-mindedly stroked her son's hair and stared into nowhere.
"Ah you're here at last." Roland's abrupt statement didn't impress the healer, who had heard about this family of outsiders already and thought little of their ignorant attitudes.
"Yes, I'm here. Hello, you must be Mr. Roland Lupin?"
"Hello. Yes, I'm Roland, this is Miranda, and this..." he sighed deeply, "is Remus."
"My name is Ms. Nimif. I'd just like to ask you something before we start. What on earth possessed you to buy this house?"
Miranda seemed to drag her gaze from the point on the wall she had been staring through. "We-we thought it would be a nice place for Remus to grow up, a-away from the hustle and bustle we had in Manchester. It's also less conspicuous to have a fire here, and it's easier for Roland's work. We had no idea that this forest is...haunted..."
Magda pinned the younger woman with her glare. "You moved in literally the day after the full moon of June, you didn't notice the destruction? You didn't think to ask? This Forest reaches all the way to the outskirts of the Hogwarts Wizarding School grounds. It is not known as the Forbidden Forest for nothing! Almost every wood in Britain used to be populated by werewolves-" Remus flinched convulsively and dug his fingers into Miranda where he clung. "-But now it is only those here in the North that contain groups of lycanthropes. I cannot believe any respecting witch or wizard would not know that, and a Ministry wizard of all things!""
Roland and Miranda looked guiltily at one another and then at Magda. Roland shook his head sadly. "I work in the Department for Wand Safety. I have never encountered anything in my job to help me find the areas of the UK inhabited by w-wolves...but we should have checked. You're right. It did seem too good to be true."
The old woman nodded brusquely and moved towards Miranda and Remus, placing her bag on the table. "Right then, boy, let's have a look at you." She turned her attention to Roland for a moment. "I trust you performed the spell I told you to?"
"Y-yes. It stopped the bleeding but nothing else."
"That was all it was meant to do." Magda snapped, as with Miranda's help she pried Remus away from his mother and set him on the table edge. He was now in a clean pair of shorts and a vest, hugging his grazed and bruised arms about him. When she spoke to him Magda's voice softened. "Okay, sweetie, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want have a look at your shoulder."
Baleful grey eyes studied her with caution, and she waited a few moments before he nodded slowly. Experienced and gnarled fingers shifted the strip of material from his shoulder and gently explored the wound. Remus whimpered and looked to his mother for support. To his relief she smiled warmly and nodded at him.
Magda took a small vial from her bag and poured it straight into the gash. Remus jumped and gaped in horror at the healer. She said that she wouldn't hurt him! Magda regarded the boy with wonder, however. "Goodness, you're very brave. That's the least reaction I've had from anyone who I have treated with this potion."
Remus wasn't terribly mollified though, and scowled at his stinging shoulder. The healer now took her wand out and muttered something. Right before the astonished child's eyes the injury closed, the red slashes vanishing to nothing more than scars.
Roland, who had been watching from behind Remus now frowned. "Will he have those scars for life?"
"Yes, I'm afraid that is the way with cursed bites." Magda was now closing her bag and moving towards the fireplace.
"We understand, thank you. Er...what do we owe you for this, Ms. Nimif?" Miranda rose to shake hands.
Magda raised a thinning eyebrow. "Legally you aren't required to pay for the treatment of a person bitten against their will." She shook hands briefly then reached for her Floo powder.
"Wait, please." Miranda fumbled with her purse. "Take this." She handed the healer four golden Galleons.
"Miranda--" Roland protested, but she had already turned back to Remus.
Magda nodded gratefully to Roland, then left.
* * *
"Okay, Remus, honey. Now it's definitely bedtime." It was ten o'clock and Remus was sitting in front of the living room fire, struggling not to fall asleep. Miranda had tried before to take him upstairs, but a terrified glint had come into his eyes each time she attempted it.
He still refused to speak, and only when she reached to pick him up did his wail of protest assail her again. "Remus, you have to go to bed now, it's late! Come on, you're falling asleep right here."
With him struggling in her arms, Miranda battled up the dark stairs and along the landing to her son's bedroom. The walls were covered in wizard posters of broomsticks and Quidditch teams, all shining and happy. The England seeker waved at her as she switched the light on. Remus peered over her shoulder at the posters and froze.
Miranda gasped in shock as he dug his fingers into her, sobbing in terror. "Whoa, whoa! Remus, what's wrong? Please tell me!" She sat him on the edge of his bed and searched his young face pleadingly.
He still didn't speak, but he pointed to a poster of his old broomstick and his sobs doubled.
Miranda smiled to herself. "Your broomstick? You miss it? I promise we'll get you a new one."
But this only seemed to make it worse. She flinched at his screams and reached out to hold his arms. "Remus! Remus, you have to tell me what it is that you want! What's wrong? I can't help if I don't know!"
Remus freed himself from her grasp and ran across the room to the poster. He ripped it off the wall and crumpled it up before turning to her and racing back to cling once more. As he sniffled into her robes, Miranda thought carefully about what her son had just done. Roland opened the door carefully. "Is everything okay here?"
She sighed. "Take down the posters, would you, Roland? I think they remind him of what happened. He was on his broomstick, wasn't he?"
"Oh God..." Roland rubbed his temples and began to gently remove the other posters. "What a mess..."
Eventually Miranda and Roland managed to detach Remus from them enough to leave the room, promising that they were only going to be in the next one along. Remus sat trembling on his bed, all his lights on, staring at the blank walls and trying not to sleep.
* * *
Roland awoke with a start, screams were echoing around the house. "Miranda?" He queried, sitting up. She had only just been woken too it seemed, and she exclaimed in horror, "Remus!" before padding quickly out of the room.
Roland followed closely, charging into his son's room to find Miranda attempting to wake him from some awful nightmare. Remus tossed and turned, his bedclothes tangling around him as he flailed and struggled. He called out occasionally, his voice thin and full of fear. Roland reached for his wand. "Would a waking spell work?"
Miranda shook her head. "None that I know of are strong enough - I tried. I suppose it just has to pass."
* * *
It kept happening, played over again and again until he could remember every agonising second with perfect clarity. He fell backwards off his broom, the creature's fangs reached for his flesh and there was nothing he could do. The teeth dug deep, breaking his collarbone with the ease of a strong man snapping a dry twig. The pain radiated out from his shoulder, sending a message of torment to his brain. But it was fast becoming someone else's.
As though watching from a distance, Remus could practically see the alien force take over his mind, shoving his true self aside and replacing it with animal desires and instincts. The more he fought, the more it hurt, and he felt in danger of blacking out. He had been on the brink of blissful peace when a sharp and different jolt caused him to cringe. He raised his left arm and stared in horror at the coarse black hairs that had appeared.
It now felt as though his entire skin had been set alight, and his shoulder and hip sockets ached as though he was being stretched out of proportions. His throat grated too, and a scream filled the air. His face began to itch and he saw his own features elongate into those of a wolf.
Chapter 1 - The Accident
A purple haze lay across the lands surrounding Hogsmeade. Warm glows came from the windows of cosy little homes, and a summer breeze rustled the trees of the Forbidden Forest gently.
On a patio outside a particularly inviting house, Roland Lupin was deeply absorbed in the letter he had received earlier that evening. It concerned the rising evil in the country, and he read and reread it with growing concern.
His son, however, was innocent and free of such concerns, weaving throughout the trees at the bottom of the garden on his small broomstick, only a couple of feet off the ground. Remus loved Quidditch, and he was obsessed with the idea of being on the national team. "Daddy! Daddy? Can you release the Snitch? I'll never get on the team without practice!"
Roland laughed absently at the practicality his four-year-old already showed, and reached down to unlock the trunk beside his deck chair. "I doubt that even Fielding Snipes would find the Snitch in this light!"
The golden ball shot from the trunk as an equally amazing silver ball rose above the horizon. The full moon shone down on the land, illuminating the young boy as he raced in circles after the little orb. The Snitch eventually veered off, heading into the trees. After a swift glance to check that his father wasn't watching, Remus directed his broom after it, revelling in the adrenaline rush as he wove between the dark shapes around him.
A clearing ahead awash with moonlight revealed the Snitch hovering in the white glow. Remus grinned, going in for the kill, when as his small fingers closed around the cold metal he heard an odd noise.
"Daddy?"
The noise came again, apparently nearer. Remus looked wildly about him, panicking when he realised that he did not know which way he had come. He shivered in the now chill wind and began to sob quietly, not knowing what to do.
The pitiful sound of the small child crying attracted the attention of the forest-dwelling creatures. Bright glints began to ring the clearing where the boy wept into his hands, unaware.
Roland may not have heard his son's questioning "Daddy?" but he did hear the piercing shriek that radiated from the forest. He looked up sharply, flint-grey eyes scanning the long, clear lawn for any sign of his son. A chilling howl split the air and he leapt from the deck chair, parchment floating to the ground now forgotten, and wineglass chipped, the red liquid pouring out over the paving stones.
"Remus?" He shouted. All that answered were those haunting cries that now seemed to come from behind every tree. Roland half-turned back to his new house, and saw his wife's silhouette in the light from the kitchen window. "Miranda?" being summer, the window was open, and she leaned out of it, looking relaxed and interested until she saw his worry. "Miranda, I - Remus has gone, he's vanished. He was just playing in the garden here, on his broomstick, and I was reading my letters. And he's gone!"
Miranda Lupin's face changed, and the lines that the city had imposed on it were all of a sudden apparent once more. "What? How could this happen? Roland why weren't you watching? And why can I hear wolves? Britain was supposed to be clear of wolves for a long time now."
Roland's hopes faded with that statement. "Oh no...Miranda, it's a full moon. Could - could it be that these woods, that have been quiet for the past month, are full of lycanthropes?"
Before he knew it, Roland felt her brush past him; her wand brandished in one hand, and a silver necklace in the other.
"Miranda! What on earth are you doing?" He grabbed her arm.
"I'm going to find my son!"
"Don't be stupid! You can't do anything for him with a silver chain and a stick!" She opened her mouth to protest, but he silenced her with a soft gesture. "There are a lot of them out there. Now, all we can do is wait patiently until morning, lock the house securely, contact the local healer, and begin a search during daylight tomorrow. It will not do Remus any good if we go charging out there and get ourselves bitten." Roland's controlled and balanced words calmed Miranda slightly, and she sighed deeply and bent down to pick up his broken glass and letter before hurrying back inside.
* * *
The sun rose early, blissful summer in the air with a gentle breeze caressing the treetops. Deeper under the boughs where only speckles of the warm rays reached, the day to day inhabitants of the Forest began to emerge from hiding. As usual after the Full Moon, the floor was a sea of carnage and debris. Animals not so fortunate in keeping invisible were strewn in bloodstained patches of grass, low branches were often torn off the trees, and the claw marks of some immense group of creatures littered the disturbed earth and shredded bark.
The air was still on the forest-floor, humidity already setting in. Flies buzzed around the corpses of everything from squirrels to foxes, and all in all the scene was much like that of a battlefield abandoned. The torn and bruised form of a little boy could easily have been mistaken for that of a dead fox; and had his parents not been the ones searching for him it might have been.
Miranda gave a sobbing cry when she saw her son curled up at the foot of a mauled tree. Roland stared with suspicion and his wand at the ready, scanning the boughs above them.
With trembling and tentative hands Roland reached down and gently turned Remus on his back. He gave a gasp and drew back. Miranda held his shoulders and peered around him, letting out a muffled wail. The wizard traced his fingers along his son's right collarbone, outlining the gash in his pale skin and trying in vain to wipe some of the blood away from the clear bite-mark.
Remus's young face was contorted into an expression of pain, and drying blood surrounded his mouth. His fingers were also caked in red and brown, and splinters of bark adorned his hands and arms. His shirt and shorts were torn and muddied and his feet were bare and soled with earth. Roland and Miranda's tears left clear trails along his dusted skin as Roland carefully hoisted Remus into his arms and carried him out of the Forest.
In a clearing not too far away, had they looked in it, the boy's parents would have found a chewed and mangled Snitch, and the splinters of a broomstick hardly noticeable among the broken branches that littered the dew-frosted ground.
* * *
The healer Magda Nimif eyed the Lupins with distaste as she stepped out of the fireplace. Remus was huddled on his mother's knees, thumb in mouth. He hadn't spoken at all since they had found him. Roland paced behind Miranda's chair, and Miranda absent-mindedly stroked her son's hair and stared into nowhere.
"Ah you're here at last." Roland's abrupt statement didn't impress the healer, who had heard about this family of outsiders already and thought little of their ignorant attitudes.
"Yes, I'm here. Hello, you must be Mr. Roland Lupin?"
"Hello. Yes, I'm Roland, this is Miranda, and this..." he sighed deeply, "is Remus."
"My name is Ms. Nimif. I'd just like to ask you something before we start. What on earth possessed you to buy this house?"
Miranda seemed to drag her gaze from the point on the wall she had been staring through. "We-we thought it would be a nice place for Remus to grow up, a-away from the hustle and bustle we had in Manchester. It's also less conspicuous to have a fire here, and it's easier for Roland's work. We had no idea that this forest is...haunted..."
Magda pinned the younger woman with her glare. "You moved in literally the day after the full moon of June, you didn't notice the destruction? You didn't think to ask? This Forest reaches all the way to the outskirts of the Hogwarts Wizarding School grounds. It is not known as the Forbidden Forest for nothing! Almost every wood in Britain used to be populated by werewolves-" Remus flinched convulsively and dug his fingers into Miranda where he clung. "-But now it is only those here in the North that contain groups of lycanthropes. I cannot believe any respecting witch or wizard would not know that, and a Ministry wizard of all things!""
Roland and Miranda looked guiltily at one another and then at Magda. Roland shook his head sadly. "I work in the Department for Wand Safety. I have never encountered anything in my job to help me find the areas of the UK inhabited by w-wolves...but we should have checked. You're right. It did seem too good to be true."
The old woman nodded brusquely and moved towards Miranda and Remus, placing her bag on the table. "Right then, boy, let's have a look at you." She turned her attention to Roland for a moment. "I trust you performed the spell I told you to?"
"Y-yes. It stopped the bleeding but nothing else."
"That was all it was meant to do." Magda snapped, as with Miranda's help she pried Remus away from his mother and set him on the table edge. He was now in a clean pair of shorts and a vest, hugging his grazed and bruised arms about him. When she spoke to him Magda's voice softened. "Okay, sweetie, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want have a look at your shoulder."
Baleful grey eyes studied her with caution, and she waited a few moments before he nodded slowly. Experienced and gnarled fingers shifted the strip of material from his shoulder and gently explored the wound. Remus whimpered and looked to his mother for support. To his relief she smiled warmly and nodded at him.
Magda took a small vial from her bag and poured it straight into the gash. Remus jumped and gaped in horror at the healer. She said that she wouldn't hurt him! Magda regarded the boy with wonder, however. "Goodness, you're very brave. That's the least reaction I've had from anyone who I have treated with this potion."
Remus wasn't terribly mollified though, and scowled at his stinging shoulder. The healer now took her wand out and muttered something. Right before the astonished child's eyes the injury closed, the red slashes vanishing to nothing more than scars.
Roland, who had been watching from behind Remus now frowned. "Will he have those scars for life?"
"Yes, I'm afraid that is the way with cursed bites." Magda was now closing her bag and moving towards the fireplace.
"We understand, thank you. Er...what do we owe you for this, Ms. Nimif?" Miranda rose to shake hands.
Magda raised a thinning eyebrow. "Legally you aren't required to pay for the treatment of a person bitten against their will." She shook hands briefly then reached for her Floo powder.
"Wait, please." Miranda fumbled with her purse. "Take this." She handed the healer four golden Galleons.
"Miranda--" Roland protested, but she had already turned back to Remus.
Magda nodded gratefully to Roland, then left.
* * *
"Okay, Remus, honey. Now it's definitely bedtime." It was ten o'clock and Remus was sitting in front of the living room fire, struggling not to fall asleep. Miranda had tried before to take him upstairs, but a terrified glint had come into his eyes each time she attempted it.
He still refused to speak, and only when she reached to pick him up did his wail of protest assail her again. "Remus, you have to go to bed now, it's late! Come on, you're falling asleep right here."
With him struggling in her arms, Miranda battled up the dark stairs and along the landing to her son's bedroom. The walls were covered in wizard posters of broomsticks and Quidditch teams, all shining and happy. The England seeker waved at her as she switched the light on. Remus peered over her shoulder at the posters and froze.
Miranda gasped in shock as he dug his fingers into her, sobbing in terror. "Whoa, whoa! Remus, what's wrong? Please tell me!" She sat him on the edge of his bed and searched his young face pleadingly.
He still didn't speak, but he pointed to a poster of his old broomstick and his sobs doubled.
Miranda smiled to herself. "Your broomstick? You miss it? I promise we'll get you a new one."
But this only seemed to make it worse. She flinched at his screams and reached out to hold his arms. "Remus! Remus, you have to tell me what it is that you want! What's wrong? I can't help if I don't know!"
Remus freed himself from her grasp and ran across the room to the poster. He ripped it off the wall and crumpled it up before turning to her and racing back to cling once more. As he sniffled into her robes, Miranda thought carefully about what her son had just done. Roland opened the door carefully. "Is everything okay here?"
She sighed. "Take down the posters, would you, Roland? I think they remind him of what happened. He was on his broomstick, wasn't he?"
"Oh God..." Roland rubbed his temples and began to gently remove the other posters. "What a mess..."
Eventually Miranda and Roland managed to detach Remus from them enough to leave the room, promising that they were only going to be in the next one along. Remus sat trembling on his bed, all his lights on, staring at the blank walls and trying not to sleep.
* * *
Roland awoke with a start, screams were echoing around the house. "Miranda?" He queried, sitting up. She had only just been woken too it seemed, and she exclaimed in horror, "Remus!" before padding quickly out of the room.
Roland followed closely, charging into his son's room to find Miranda attempting to wake him from some awful nightmare. Remus tossed and turned, his bedclothes tangling around him as he flailed and struggled. He called out occasionally, his voice thin and full of fear. Roland reached for his wand. "Would a waking spell work?"
Miranda shook her head. "None that I know of are strong enough - I tried. I suppose it just has to pass."
* * *
It kept happening, played over again and again until he could remember every agonising second with perfect clarity. He fell backwards off his broom, the creature's fangs reached for his flesh and there was nothing he could do. The teeth dug deep, breaking his collarbone with the ease of a strong man snapping a dry twig. The pain radiated out from his shoulder, sending a message of torment to his brain. But it was fast becoming someone else's.
As though watching from a distance, Remus could practically see the alien force take over his mind, shoving his true self aside and replacing it with animal desires and instincts. The more he fought, the more it hurt, and he felt in danger of blacking out. He had been on the brink of blissful peace when a sharp and different jolt caused him to cringe. He raised his left arm and stared in horror at the coarse black hairs that had appeared.
It now felt as though his entire skin had been set alight, and his shoulder and hip sockets ached as though he was being stretched out of proportions. His throat grated too, and a scream filled the air. His face began to itch and he saw his own features elongate into those of a wolf.