Disclaimer: see part one.
Chapter four.
"Are you still saying that he isn't out to get a student?" Ron said in a voice that was a little too loud for Harry and Hermiones liking. A few Gryffindor students looked in their direction interestingly "Maybe this is some vengeful vendetta, like Harry" Ron said in a lowered voice after an angry hiss from Hermione.
"What about Sirius Black" Harry mused. "We still haven't figured out how he got in." Ron set his face in a thoughtful frown but Hermione gave a deep sigh and said "There is nothing we can do about Black, Harry. For once let the teacher deal with the problem"
"She is right, mate" Ron agreed. "If Black could enter the castle he must be a pretty powerful and-" he cut Hermione off before she could repeat that Black couldn't have Apparated into the castle "-smart, if he managed to get in here without using magic."
"You are right" Harry sighed. "But what about Professor Lupin? Do you think he is in danger?"
"Feh. The way he looks, the common cold would be enough to kill him"
"Well, it wouldn't be the first time there is something going on with a Defense of Dark Art teacher" Harry said "We seem to go through them quickly"
"One dead, one lost his mind" Ron said counting them off on his fingers "and now Professor Lupin…whatever is going to happen to him? What do you think Hermione?"
"I think you are seeing ghost by daylight" she sighed. She seemed to be tired of their continuing discussing and had already opened her schoolbooks.
"Eh….you do to, all the time, look there is Nearly Headless Nick and-"
"Never mind Ron, it's a muggle saying" she said a little more angrily then she meant. "Look, can we just get some homework done?"
"I think there is defiantly a connection" Harry mused "Snape very much did not want me to get friendly with Rena"
"Maybe you could just ask her?" Hermione suggested tiredly.
"Or Hagrid" Ron said. They stared at him blankly. "Well, you know. When she got sick that day wasn't he the one who went all Commando Man. I think he knows more than he is letting on"
"For once…I agree with Ron," said Hermione and Ron gave a triumphant look.
"We'll go and talk to him. You concentrate on winning the Quidditch match!"
Rena chewed her bottom lip anxiously and studied the ancient drawing of a werewolf. The creature looked like a normal wolf, but its limbs were longer, the snout shorter and the body bonier. It was tied up, spread eagle, and four men were flawing it. It was an appalling scene and Rena shuddered.
"Unable to find even the slightest trace of humanity" the capitation under the picture read.
Is this what I look like she wondered and turned the page unable to stare at the tortured beast any longer.
"It was believed that a moon-rock would cure a person from the werewolf curse. This turned out to be wrong; the lunar power of a moon-rock will immediately draw forth the wolf, even in broad daylight, and the person would go insane. "
"Lunatic, from Latin meaning moon-madness" Rena muttered and closed the book.
She rubbed her eyes sleepily and looked at the large watch on the library wall. Its hands were nearing "Closing time." She had spent the whole day reading everything she could find about werewolves, but there was nothing that she hadn't read before. Sighing miserably she gathered her books and walked out.
What if there is no cure she thought what if I am really turning into a full blood werewolf? What if I lose control? she pressed the books tighter against her chest as if they were protecting her or offering her comfort. Her eyes watered and she pressed the sleeve of her robes against her face.
She thought about her uncle, the only family she had. He had taken her inn, fed her, clothed her and raised her. What would she do without him? She knew how unpopular, maybe even hated, he was among both students and faculty but that wasn't the person she knew. Maybe he was strict and demanding, but it was these two traits that had helped her overcome the ghosts from her childhood. She wanted him to be proud enough of her to acknowledge their relation in the open, to let her bear his name.
She needed to find a cure.
"Miss Epans, just the student I was looking for. May I have a word?" Rena turned around and saw Professor Lupin biding her in to his office. She hesitated. She had tried to avoid him ever since she discovered that he was a werewolf. She had never met another werewolf before and she wasn't sure that getting to know one was such a good idea, maybe it would strengthen the wolf.
"Is it important Professor?"
"Yes" he said firmly.
She followed Lupin into his office. The walls were covered with shelves filled with books and glasses of unknown substances. In the corner was a tank filled with water and a green creature, with sharp horns had, its face pressed against the glass. He was pulling faces and flexing its long and thin fingers.
"Grindylow" Lupin explained.
"I know" Rena replied awkwardly. "It's a water demon. It lives in marshes and stagnate pools. It waits for children and then drags them underwater before it eats them"
"Very good" Lupin smiled. "You want some tea?"
"No, sir"
Rena sat uncomfortable in the chair, wringing her hands in her lap and hoping that this meeting would end as soon as possible. Lupin didn't seem to notice her unease, because he took his time, making the tea and pouring it slowly into his cup and conjuring a plate of biscuits.
"Miss Epans" he said, unsure where to start. "We need to discuss what happened…and what is happening to you"
"Nothing is happening, sir" she said hastily.
"I am quite sure that you recognize…or at least have read about your symptoms. You are aware that you might turn change permanently," he said calmly.
Rena looked down at her hands and tightened them into fists.
"Yes, sir" she acknowledged in a low voice, and then looked up "but…it won't happen. I have it under control"
"It?"
"The…wolf, sir"
Lupin took a sip of his tea and studied her carefully. He had never met somebody who referred to werewolf as she did. Most people avoided talking about it, even he didn't like to admit what he was and looked at it as a disease. She treated it as if it was an animal, or a human being.
"Miss Epans…how long have you been…." He trailed off, unable to even speak the word.
"A long time, sir"
"And when did the…." He trailed off again. She looked up from her lap again and caught his gaze. Her brown eyes twinkled.
"Are you afraid of it, sir?" She asked, her voice growing stronger.
"Of course I am," he admitted softly. "
When I change, I lose all control, I would even turn on my best
friend and not know it. It's only the potion that keeps me calm.
Don't it scare you?"
"Yes" she said "but I'm not
afraid of the wolf sir, only of losing control of it. I…" she
stopped.
"What?"
"Nothing, sir"
Rena didn't know how to explain how it felt. The wolf had been a part of her as long as she could remember. Turning into a werewolf every full moon was extremely painful and nauseating…but it wasn't scary. Maybe she had been a werewolf for so long that she was used to. She remembered vaguely the one time it had been scary. She had been in a cold and dark place and all around her there had been the coppery smell of blood and rotting flesh. The wolf's blood lust had been so intense that all she remembered was seeing the world through a bloody haze.
"How did you figure out that I was a….werewolf?" Professor Lupin asked and folded his hands in front of his face.
"You…smelled like it" she grimaced "sometimes…the senses linger"
"Did you parents know you were a werewolf?"
Rena looked down at her hands again, unable to meet his eyes. He continued to talk, telling her that there wasn't any mention of her parents in the records, not even her birthday.
How could she tell him that she didn't know when she was born? Nobody knew. She didn't even remember her parents. The years before she moved in with her uncle was a fuzzy blur of faces and voices that she didn't want to remember.
"It…is really none of you business, sir" she said and swallowed heavily. Lupin hadn't expected this and his cup stopped midway towards his lips.
"Why are you asking all these questions, sir? My personal life is none of your concern"
"I am just curious…I have never met anybody a…you know…at your age," he said soothingly trying to calm her down.
"You can't even say it, can you sir?" Rena felt her anger growing. "If it's any consolation we are wolves living with humans. There is a word for that." Without even waiting for his answer, Rena rose from her chair, grabbed her books and walked out of the office.
The corridor was empty and her steps made hollow echoes as she hurried towards the Ravenclaw dormitory. "You have been very rude to a teacher," a picture scolded. Rena growled, literally, and the picture looked nervously at the young girl disappearing down the hall.
"That isn't a normal student" the picture huffed and the painting hanging next to it agreed cheerfully.
"I know, she's barking mad."
Thank you for reading and please review.
