A/N: 'ello! Welcome to the fold, EvilClone... Meet our long-time supporter, DeadRoses, mighty fine person! smiles Okay, exams are coming up, not much time to dillie-dally, just the few essentials 'en. The story IS set after Chosen, and we don't really plan to resurrect Buffy any time soon (why pull her outta Heaven?), though her gang will be arriving, as will be seen in Episode Two. Hope you like this chapter. Thank you SOOO much so putting our fic up in other sites, DR, we owe you one. Hope you liked the choc choc chip cookies. So, uh, we own none of the characters, sadly. This is the last portion on Episode One... enjoy with relish, then review with enthusiasm!
CHAPTER FOUR
Sharon woke when she couldn't bear the sun shining right into her eyes any longer. God, with the hard surface she'd been sleeping on all night, she felt as if she hadn't slept at all. She had a crick in her neck, and she needed a massage, she was sure of it. Maybe Lupin'd do it...
... and he was right there in the basement, reclining on the ladder, waiting for her to shake loose the grogginess from her head.
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" she squeaked, hand flying to her throat, momentarily forgetting where she was. "You're not planning to greet me like this every morning, are yo-"
The werewolf wasn't there. It must have escaped.
"O-oh, no!" Sharon leapt up in horror. "The werewolf! There was a werewolf here last night, Lupin... whoever it was ran away before I woke up... I was planning to-" She tilted her head at him, confused. "And why're you here?"
Lupin looked like he'd been out most of the night. His hair was unkempt, dark circles were around his eyes, and dirt was smudged all over his hands and face, but what startled her the most were the rips in his clothes. He looked like he'd been through even a more violent night than she had.
"It didn't run away," he said quietly, fiddling with a stray bit of cloth. In her shock, the uncertainty and exhaustion pervading him had utterly gone unnoticed. There was something he had to tell her.
"Duh, of course it did," she retorted, looking around distractedly, "I was planning to catch it turn-"
"I'm telling you, it didn't," he interrupted, still not knowing how to break his news to her.
She massaged her temples. "Lupin, now isn't the time for jokes. I have to hunt it down, the werewolf... it might do harm-" She tired, and she was irritated. She'd let a werewolf slip through her fingers, and now she'd have to search for it all over again, and lock it up. Ralph Adales had reminded her time and time again... that was how you should control werewolves... and Lupin didn't seem to care...
"I am the werewolf," he blurted out.
She stared at him dumbfounded. She thought she must have been imagining things. That used to happen a lot when she was daydreaming during class. She'd be propping her head on her hand, her inattentiveness showing, and the next moment, she'd ask her friends if they'd said something to her... usually, the answer was that they had.
Lupin walked into the light, and at once, she caught sight of the angry scratches below his chin, previously hidden by the shadow it cast on his neck. "I scratched myself."
"Yeah, you- yeah, right," she laughed bitterly to herself, rubbing her shoulder where it was still throbbing with pain, and still blaming herself for not having woken up sooner. "You're not a werewolf. You're a wizard."
But Lupin didn't answer, and just kept on looking at her, disappointed that she didn't believe him, twirling the stray piece of cloth round and round his fingers.
All of a sudden, she couldn't find the strength to stand.
"I knew you'd find out sooner or later... I just had no idea it'd be this soon."
It didn't make sense to her. The words were echoing further and further in her mind, as if they'd be saturated along with everything clustered in her brain, and she'd just let them stay there. Why? Why him... of all people... Her hand flew up to her mouth when she realized she'd just spoken that out loud.
"Sharon?" He tried.
"Oh... God. I mean, I'm sorry..." She just wanted to... sit down... somewhere.
"I-It's fine if you don't want me to be-" He added hurriedly, taking a step toward her, but not further. "I'm on some sort of probation period anyway, just in case..."
"No." The word came out before she could control herself. That wasn't the problem. She just didn't understand.
"Oh." Lupin seemed to lose his footing.
"I just- I-" She massaged her neck again, weary from more than the post-patrol fatigue. Every muscle in her body seemed to be aching. "I just need to know why... but I-I suppose there isn't really a-"
Rubbing his temples, Lupin trudged to a wooden crate and sat down. "The Council couldn't find anyone a-appropriate in this district on such short notice-- they allocate Watchers to their Slayers according to district-- so I offered to, seeing that I had the qualifications."
He paused to make sure she was listening.
"You know, well-versed in the occult and the dark arts and such. They saw no imminent danger, and really had no other choice, so they decided to give me a try."
She frowned. "Why didn't they tell me?"
"We'd... planned to take the risk and wait to tell you the truth, sort of to test your reaction," he replied, "I know that wasn't fair to you at all, but I am not exactly the most perfect Watcher they had in mind. And I apologize... for everything."
The sun was still blazing outside, but otherwise all was silent. Sharon stood, silent, giving herself a while for everything to sink in. Lupin is her Watcher, that much was true. Before she left home, Ralph Adales had shown her a note verified by the Council, stating the fact. They just conveniently left out some details. She glanced into Lupin's eyes and saw unmistakable kindness and loyalty within. She trusted him.
"Okay." She muttered, convincing herself.
His eyes widened in relief. "You are fine with this?"
"Yeah." She shrugged and gave him a reassuring smile. "I... I guess so. I mean... you're nice enough."
His whole body seemed to shrink when he let out the breath he'd been holding. "That's good..." he murmured, more to himself than to her.
She took his arm. "Come on, let's get youcleaned up."
"You honestly have no idea who shot me?" Lupin questioned her again.
The moment they'd arrived back at Hogwarts, they rushed to the Hospital Wing to have his wounds dressed. Madam Pomfrey was absolutely horrified.
"Forgot your potion again, didn't you?" she reprimanded him, tutting as she smeared some ointment over his skin.
He explained to Sharon what the Wolfsbane Potion was: a stabilizer to curb the ferociousness of a werewolf, making it tame during the three nights in the middle of the month.
"It's quite a recent discovery, and Professor Snape has kindly agreed to mix it for me every month."
"Yeah, sure," she rolled her eyes.
He chuckled, but gasped when the witch-hazel stung him. "He's not very likeable, I know. But he means well."
After bandaging his cuts, they went back to the training room, where he asked her about the mystery person she'd run into.
"I couldn't see him, it was too dark," she replied, "he was wearing a leather duster though... oh, and whoever he was isn't a wizard." She took the dart from her pocket and showed it to him. "He used a tranquilizer dart. I don't think you people use these."
Her Watcher took it, and cradled it in the palm of his hand in fascination. "Hmm... curious. I gather there's someone out there fighting on our side then."
"Yeah, I wish I knew who." She watched him play with the dart for a while. "Lupin?"
"Yes?"
"Have you ever... felt angry about it?"
He set the dart down on his desk, placing his hands behind his head thoughtfully. "At first, I think I did. All the intolerance people held against me… it was unreasonable and difficult. They didn't think that my kind are... trustworthy. It got truly lonely."
"Lonely?" she echoed.
He smiled. "Yes, lonely."
His smile confirmed everything. Watcher and Slayer-- they were the same, with identities they couldn't change, and the loneliness they couldn't fight, because they were both different from the rest of the world.
"Are you still lonely?" she continued to ask.
He replied that at times, he still is. "However, things have been a lot better ever since. Life's that way, you know. Things happen and within a moment, you're changed."
She looked out of the window. The weather was at its best that day. The sun was so radiant, the shadows of the clouds high above were visibly cast on the mountains surrounding the school, and the specks of light danced among the waves of the lake, just as they did yesterday, making her stare. A little corner of life for her alone.
"Yeah, it happens..."
Spike was lounging on the moth-eaten armchair in their room, the one where he slept in during the day. He let Dawn sleep on the bed, and refused when she offered to switch. She couldn't see why, though. She had no use for the bed during daytime. She wished he wouldn't, 'cause the chairs always made him ache all over.
She put down "Magick For The Uninitiated"-- a book that she'd been trying to concentrate on all morning. All the talk of roots and cauldrons made no more sense to her than Spike's generosity did.
"So, you found anything last night?" she asked.
He breathed out some smoke from his cigarette. She had the impression that he'd heard her, but he still appeared rapt in thought.
"Caught a werewolf last night. Made sure it got locked up fine. Did in a few cronies on my way back..." His breathed out, slightly above a whisper, touching the recovering bruises on his knuckles. "Got to wonder... where the Slayer is. Bound to show up soon."
Dawn rolled her eyes. She'd heard that around a thousand times already. She wished he wouldn't say it, and that he would say it, just to prove that she wasn't hurt, that she could take the pain from hearing him say it. Her fingernails dug into the yellowed pages she'd been trying to understand.
Over my dead body.
A/N: SO. That was it. The first episode done. Mostly, the first episode was a trial in writing styles and very much a work-in-progress. But starting Episode Two, Hogwarts is once again in business... meet all your old fave HP characters and a few special new people! Constructive criticism and any comments at all are utterly welcome, people... bows and curtains fall Until Saturday.
