Rating: G

Summery: See first chapter.

Disclaimer: Again, see first chapter. (Lazy, aren't I?)

---Chapter 2---

Chandra stared at him. Werewolves were something you read about in horror stories. How could they exist? How could she, herself, be one?

"That's impossible," she stated flatly. "There's no way I can be a werewolf. They don't exist!"

Healer Smethwyck smiled at her sadly. "Five minutes ago you were saying magic didn't exist," he said, gently, "and now you know it does. I assure you, werewolves do exist."

"Then how come more people don't get bitten?"

"There are laws and regulations in place to make sure that does not happen, and when it does, it is kept very quiet from non-wizards like yourself. You should not have been bitten yourself, but you have the misfortune of living in the same neighbourhood as a werewolf with a death wish. He was bitten last Christmas, and it was a very long time before he'd even talk to anybody. We only discharged him last month, as melancholy werewolves can be very dangerous. We thought he had finally accepted the situation...," he heaved a sigh. "We were wrong. He was trying to get himself killed last night, when he ran into you. Thought if he attacked somebody, they would naturally destroy him in the course of self-defence." He snorted, as if he had never heard of anything so obtuse. "Completely illogical man."

Chandra tried to think of another reason why she couldn't be a werewolf, and came up with the fact that this man hadn't proven that she was yet. She said, "Okay, for the sake of the argument let's say that I believe werewolves exist. That doesn't mean I'm one."

"Can you think of any other reason why you would be in a magical hospital? Or why I wouldn't tell you if there was?"

Chandra had to admit he had a point there. She tried to think of something else to argue, and her gaze fell on her right hand. "I'm wearing silver," she said, "and aren't werewolves - er, allergic or whatever to silver?"

"Only in their transformed state," the Healer said. "In their human form they are exactly like any other human. But it was probably that ring that saved you."

Chandra couldn't think of anything else at all to argue with, except her own disbelief and unwillingness to except what she was hearing, but she didn't think this very matter of fact man would accept that as an argument.

He seemed to sense what she was thinking anyway. "I realize this must be very hard for you to accept," he said quietly, "it is even for people who knew about werewolves beforehand, and it must be doubly hard for you. I'll leave you to think about it now, but if you need either myself or Mr Pie, please don't hesitate to give us a shout." He left.

So, Chandra lay there and thought about it. On the one side (the bit of her brain that didn't want to have to change the way it thought argued) things like magic and werewolves just didn't exist. They didn't. On the other side (the bit of her brain that wanted to believe in magic argued) the only two explanations she could think of for changing colours were 1. magic, or 2. she was going crazy.

Well, the first side argued, maybe you are going crazy. No part of her wanted to have to admit that, so by default it was back to option 1. Ugh. She felt a bit like Winnie the Pooh with his sand pit - no matter in which direction she thought, she always ended up back at magic and werewolves.

She suddenly desperately wanted to know just exactly what these people did with werewolves. Did they have werewolf hunters or something? Would she have to turn her bedroom into a cage? Were there werewolf boarding houses or something where they forced all the local werewolves to live? Chandra's mind kept presenting her with ideas like this for another forty-five minutes until Pye came back in to give Mrs. Paleo some more potion, by which time Chandra had worked herself up to the point of hysterics.

"Excuse me, Sir," she called down the ward, "but could I ask you some questions?"

Augustus Pye looked up with a surprised expression. "Of course you can, but maybe I should get -"

"I'm sure you'll be able to answer me as well as anyone else," Chandra interrupted.

The man shrugged, and came and sat down beside her bed. He even sat energetically. "What do want ask?"

"What's going to happen to me now?"

Pye looked at her carefully. "Has Healer Smethwyck explained to you about, um, why you're here?"

"Yes. He said I was bitten by a werewolf."

Pye looked relived at not having to explain this himself. "Well, we have to keep you here at least until the actual bite heals. Werewolves bites are very nasty - I advise not to look at your leg for a few days."

"It feels alright."

"That's because we gave you a potion that stops the pain," he explained. "We always do that first thing. Um, where was I, er, oh yes! After the bite heals, we still might have to keep you here, as we can't discharge anyone who hasn't come to terms with their, er, disease yet as that makes them more dangerous. Sometime in the next few days someone will be over from the Ministry of Magic to register you."

"Register me?"

"Put you on the Werewolf Register. Your name and address and so on. It helps enormously with keeping werewolf biting's down. Oh yes, and before you leave you have to sign some papers saying you won't tell anybody anything about magic or werewolves or any of it and that you except the full legal repercussions if you do."

"Not even my family?"

"Well, they'll have to be told I suppose. Seeing as you live with them. I'm not quite sure about that."

"What about after I'm out of here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Will I have to put bars on my window or something?"

The trainee healer suddenly beamed at her. "Oh no, no, no, that's not necessary at all. It used to be, but then they discovered the werewolves bane potion, so drastic measures like that aren't used anymore."

"What's this potion thing do?" Chandra asked warily.

"Well, if you take it in the week preceding the full moon, it prevents your mind from going completely, so you can still think like and not like a bloodthirsty monster, which means you know to just curl up on your bed and not go attack anybody. It really is an enormous advance in the treatment of lycanthropy." He looked as proud as if he had invented it himself.

"Lywhaty? And how do I get this potion?"

Pye looked slightly abashed. "Sorry, it's lycanthropy, it's the technical term for the werewolf sickness. And we give you the potion - you have to make sure you come in once a month before the full moon in order to get your, um, prescription."

"I see."

"We give you a pass, showing you're supposed to, and that you're not just poking around where you shouldn't be," he assured her anxiously. He seemed to think this was something she was supposed to be worried about, but Chandra thought that that was probably the least of her worries.

"I see," she repeated. "Thank you." She smiled at him. He smiled back and left, leaving her with a lot more to think about on top of weather or not she believed the whole werewolf thing.

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A.N.: Okay, I realize I'm not very clear on the whole does Chandra believe/doesn't she thing, but she's not supposed to be entirely sure herself yet. I may not have shown that too brilliantly. Oh well. Definitely another two chapters at this point, one for the Ministry visit, one for what happens when she gets home, which I promise will be more interesting than this chapter. If not, feel free to throw tomatoes all you want at me. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up quicker, but as I haven't had my computer since April (just came back yesterday) the delay was not entirely my fault.