ROTRUFIN
CHAPTER 16-NIGHTTIME EXPLORERS
REMUS.
I saw Chelsea's expression. I felt really awful for her.
I also began realizing I was starting to like her. Of course, my feelings toward Emma kept resurfacing, but I couldn't deny the new feelings for Chelsea.
I put my face close to hers.
"I'm here if you need help," I said gently.
"Once you're cured, you'll be going home," Chelsea said resentfully. "While I'll be stuck here probably for the rest of my life."
"Don't you have relatives?" James asked stunned.
Chelsea snorted.
"Oh yeah…if you mean my lovely grandparents? They feel the same way my parents do. They'd just love a werewolf in their home. The most they'd care is if I ate their precious cats,"
They all exchanged looks.
"Anyway," Chelsea said changing the subject. "You guys have to bring me some Chocolate frogs! I miss them!"
"We promise," Sirius said nodding.
"So, what's Hogwarts really like?" Chelsea asked eagerly leaning forward.
"Well," James said thoughtfully. "We have lots of classes such as Potions, Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology. It's a huge castle, Hogwarts. The teachers are cool, except the groundskeeper, Aaron Andrews…he's a bit creepy."
"Oh yeah," Sirius said chuckling. "Remember we told him that there were a bunch of second years throwing up in the shower room? He went ballistic because he had just cleaned it? It was hilarious."
"Oh yeah," James said as he remembered.
I shook my head.
"See," I explained to Chelsea. "Those two love to cause havoc in class. They're pranksters."
Chelsea nodded, and then she looked at James and Sirius.
"I've seen his type before," she said to Sirius. "But James seems so straight forward and well rounded."
"My type?" Sirius asked turning to her. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Chelsea frowned.
"The good-looking, wild type,"
"So, now you're judging me?" Sirius demanded.
This wasn't going right.
"You don't even know me! How could you get that from one incident we told you about?" Sirius continued angrily.
Chelsea stood up, keeping both palms of her hand flat down on the table. She leaned forward.
"Because I dated someone like you a while ago," she said in a hard tone. "He abused me, and hit me…that's all before he left me for some hot chick that worked in a Muggle lingerie store. That's how I can tell."
There was silence that followed before Chelsea continued.
"I'm sorry if I judged you too soon, but I have a hard time trusting guys right now. It's nothing personal,"
Sirius didn't say anything.
"I'm sure you're a good guy," Chelsea explained. "But I can't trust anyone."
"I can't believe he did that to you," Lily said shocked. "That's horrible."
"Yeah," James said shaking his head.
"The guy was a jerk," I said.
Chelsea smiled at me before she sat down again and returned to her meal.
Around 8 o'clock, visiting hours were over.
I got hugged several times before Lily and James turned to Chelsea and gave her a brief hug too. She seemed shocked but pleased.
Lily and James told Sirius they'd wait for him downstairs.
He stood in front of Chelsea.
"I'm sorry," he apologized.
"For what?"
"Just coming off like a jerk too," Sirius said.
"Forget it okay?"
Sirius nodded and then followed James and Lily.
Chelsea and I walked back to the Rec room.
"Tonight's a full moon," I said to her.
"Yeah I know," she said. "They have a special area for us to change."
I nodded relieved.
We just sat and watched TV until it was time to go to bed.
A Healer escorted Chelsea and I to a special roped off section of the floor around midnight.
"Okay you two," she said. "When you change, feel free to explore but just be careful not to get caught or be seen."
We nodded and entered the area.
It was really another part of the wing that was already renovated, but there were some tools still left.
"Go over there," Chelsea said pointing to an area with a plastic drop cloth hanging from the ceiling. "I'll change over here."
We went our separate ways and changed.
I shook my wolf body and stretched out my front legs. I yawned widely. I returned to standing on all fours.
I walked around the drop cloth and tucked my hindquarters into a sitting position. A beautiful black wolf with blue eyes appeared.
She came over to me and I got up on all fours again.
We began walking side-by-side in rhythm.
The black wolfs muscles rippled beneath her fur. I could see she was very strong and agile.
We quietly walked along the floor. The nighttime shifts of Healers looked up as we passed the Healer station which was more like a nurse's station at a Muggle hospital.
One of the Healers's spied the black wolf and came around the station and crouched down in front of her.
She opened her palm and in it was a piece of raw meat. The black wolf gently took it from the Healers's palm and hungrily chewed it.
"She's a regular," the Healer whispered to me. "She's got a sweet temperament for a werewolf. It's unusual. You must be the new patient. Here."
She got up and went back around the station and came back with another piece of meat for me. I hungrily ate it.
"Be careful. Don't scare the patients," she said as she wiped her palm on her uniform before getting up and returning to her post.
We continued walking the corridor.
Suddenly, I heard something in one of the rooms.
I froze in my tracks, my ears flicked forward.
The black wolf froze too.
It sounded like a little girls voice.
"Leave me alone!"
Then, a familiar voice:
"Why are you fighting? You used to do this without complaints!"
The black wolf and I trotted along the wall listening. Finally, we came up on the door which was partially opened.
I carefully stuck my head halfway into the room. What I saw made me sick.
Rick was straddling a girl about 11 years old. She was squirming underneath him.
"Let me go!" the girl cried.
Rick put a hand over her mouth and began moving his free hand up her thighs. She was really crying now.
I flattened my ears out sideways and charged into the room, the door flying open. The black wolf was right behind me.
I went right for Rick. I pushed off with my hindquarters and tucked my front legs against me as I jumped on him, knocking him off the girl and off the bed.
I stood over him, and retracted my top lip, exposing my white canines and incisors.
"Hey," Rick stammered terrified. "Don't hurt me okay?"
I growled even louder.
I barked and kept my teeth bared.
Rick scurried out from under me and took off running out of the room.
I snapped at his heels until I reached the doorway, then turned around and headed over to the girl and the black wolf.
The girl was hugging herself and rocking back and forth.
The black wolf laid down next to her and put her head on the girls' thigh. I jumped up on the girls other side and gently nudged her with my nose.
"What's going on?" a Healer demanded coming into the room.
She saw the girls face and came over. That's when the black wolf and I jumped down and left the room.
In the morning, Chelsea and I headed down to breakfast.
"I can't believe him," Chelsea growled angrily. "Forcing an innocent girl to have sex with him."
I spied the girl sitting in a corner clutching a teddy bear. I started to walk toward her when Rick stepped in front of me.
"Who do you think you are?" Rick said angrily. "Chasing me like that?"
"And who do you think you are forcing a little girl to sleep with you?" I retorted back angrily. "You were raping her for crying out loud!"
"She allowed me to! Stay out of my business, wolf," Rick snarled.
He shoved me slightly and then went to walk around me, but I grabbed him by the collar and banged him up against the wall. I kept my face close to his.
"It's my business when you hurt an innocent kid," I spat. "I should've torn your throat out last night, but you're not worth it."
"Oh yeah, just like the baby huh?" Rick said challengingly.
My anger hit the boiling point.
I brought my knee up into Rick's groin and released him.
Rick then tackled me to the floor.
He began punching me. I of course fought back.
"Enough!" A Healer cried as a bunch of them came over to us and pulled us apart.
"What's this about?" a male Healer demanded looking from me to Rick.
"He raped a little girl last night," I said wheezing.
My lower lip was cut and bleeding, but I made no attempt to wipe the blood.
"Her," Chelsea said pointing to the girl in the corner.
"Oh yes," the Healer said angrily. "Healer Tyler told us about it last night."
They grabbed Rick by the scruff of his shirt.
"You're being transferred to another wing," they growled angrily. "And I might think about having you suspended and we're contacting your family."
They dragged him off.
"You okay?" Chelsea demanded as she helped me over to the window and sat me down. I leaned back against the wall and shut my eyes.
"Yeah," I muttered.
I finally just wiped the blood away with the sleeve of my blue long-sleeved shirt.
The next thing I knew, I felt little arms encircling my arm.
Startled, I opened my eyes and looked down.
The girl had snuggled up against me.
"She seems comfortable to me," Chelsea said grinning.
"But how does she know?" I mused.
"I'm psychic," the girl answered. "My parents abandoned me when they found out."
I looked up at Chelsea with pain in my eyes.
"I know you two are werewolves," she continued. "You were the ones who helped me last night."
"Did you really allow him?" Chelsea whispered.
"No," the girl replied hugging my arm tighter. "He did it against my will. He first started when he came here."
Chelsea swore.
"What's your name?" I asked looking down at her.
"Marybeth Carter,"
"Well, I'm Remus Lupin and this is Chelsea Maverick,"
She looked up at me.
She was really cute too. Big honey brown eyes and dark brown hair. She reminded me of a smaller version of Emma.
"If you'd like, you can hang out with us," Chelsea said brightly.
Marybeth nodded eagerly.
She released my arm.
The rest of the day went by nicely. James, Lily and Sirius came back to visit. We told them what had happened with Marybeth. Lily, Chelsea and Marybeth giggled over something but I had no idea. James, Sirius and I were talking too.
"What are those girls talking about?" James mused.
"Probably us," Sirius said grinning goofily. "About how dead sexy I am."
He put on a Scottish accent.
"I'm dead sexy, all this is just fer you,"
I smacked him up the back of the head.
"What?" Sirius asked innocently.
"You really are twisted, mate," James said laughing and shaking his head.
"I'd rather poke my eyes out with my wand, then see what you have," I teased.
"What, I'm not sexy enough fer you?" Sirius continued in the accent. "I could always put on a thong if that's what you want, babe."
"Oh man!" I moaned. "The images! THE IMAGES! Make then stop!"
We all roared with laughter.
Sirius let out a snort and that caused us to laugh even harder.
The girls were even laughing at us now.
It took us a good ten minutes to calm down again.
"Oh man," Lily said wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. "That was hilarious."
"I needed a good laugh," Chelsea said. "I haven't laughed that hard in ages."
"You're silly," Marybeth grinned at Sirius.
Sirius grinned back and picked her up in his arms. He put his face close to hers.
"I could just eat you up you're so cute," he said squeezing her.
Marybeth giggled.
His words brought flashes to my mind.
I saw the images of baby Ellie in my mind…the blood…a scream and then a snarl…
I cried out and dug the heels of my palms into my temples. I dropped to my knees.
"Remus," James said concerned.
He, Sirius and Chelsea dropped to their knees beside me.
"I had a flash," I said as the flash vanished now. "I saw Ellie…blood and I heard a scream and a snarl. It was right after Sirius said that to Marybeth."
Sirius' face drained of all color.
"I'm sorry," he apologized.
"Is Remy okay?" Marybeth asked concerned.
"He's fine," Lily said reassuringly.
"It's probably going to haunt you for a while," James said sympathetically. "But letting it control your life won't help one bit."
I got to my feet again.
Marybeth rushed over and threw her arms around my midsection, burying her face into my stomach.
"I just don't want a repeat of it," I said looking at Chelsea and then at Marybeth who was still holding onto my midsection.
"You-Know-Who is dead," Lily said firmly. "We all saw it with our own eyes."
"Relax," Sirius said softly.
I bit my bottom lip.