Sirius was pacing again. As usual Lily was seated in her seat the pride and prejudice book open as the early morning sun came shining into the room. "Are you sure she seemed okay when you woke up? She didn't look worn out?"
"She was fine. It's early yet, Sirius. Would you calm down? You're going to give yourself an ulcer and then Gwen will be the one taking you to the hospital wing."
"Taking who to the hospital wing?" Remus asked as he walked into the room.
"Sirius. He's about to have a heart attack." Lily said slowly marking her spot in her book. "What no Potter this morning? Hmm… might actually be…"
"Aha! I knew you would miss me!" James said as he bounded down the steps. "Well, fear not, fair lady. For I am here."
"Spoke to soon." Lily muttered but she smiled instead of frowning. "I'll see you later guys."
She stood and walked up to the girls' dormitory. Sirius sighed and flopped onto one of the seats wondering when Gwen would get up. As he did he noticed Peter scurrying into the room. Funny but come to think of it he hadn't seen Wormtail around in a while.
"Oy, Peter, where you been?"
"Uh… Sirius… oh, around, you know…" Peter said his eyes flicking to him and then away as they always did. "You've been busy with all of… the stuff since Gwendolyn has come… so I was… just study… Big test coming up… you know?"
"Uh, yeah." he muttered as the girl's common room door had opened and Raven, Lily and Gwen exited the three of them smiling from ear to ear. "Hey."
Gwen smiled and walked over to him. "Good morning."
"It is now. I was worried about you. I didn't want you having any more energy crises like the first week. That one scared the heebie-jeebies out of me."
"Actually, I feel better than ever. It might be because I'm getting stronger. If this keeps up I won't feel tired every time I have a vision." She smiled and Sirius found himself grinning as well. How could he help it? She looked so proud of herself.
"Good, now come on, we've got Potions with the Slytherins again and I don't want you to end up with a seat next to Snivellus again. He might want his revenge for those purple pimples. I heard that he still has scars."
Gwen laughed. "It wasn't really intentional, you know."
"Ah, at least not consciously." Sirius winked and then he took her hand as they walked down the stairs to the great hall for breakfast.
Potions went well enough, though Snape giving her the evil eye because as it had turned out he did have scars. Purple scars. When class let out Gwen sighed and nearly ran out the door ahead of the rest of them but she wasn't fast enough.
"Running away, are we, Gwendolyn?" Snape said snidely and Gwen stopped her back going ramrod straight as she turned to face him.
But this time she saw that he wasn't alone. Behind him stood three other Slytherins, six years at the very least. Two were huge, goliaths, but neither looked very smart. Trolls. In front of them stood a gaunt tall boy. Hi s hair was long almost to his waist and his eyes were blue, an evil blue.
"These are my acquaintances. Lucas Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle."
"Charmed, I'm sure." Lucas, the gaunt boy said holding out his hand for hers.
Gwen looked down at it with great distaste and then up at Malfoy. Her eyes traveled to Crabbe and Goyle then returned to Snape's. His eyes glimmered. Feeling a little ruffled Gwen looked down at Lucius' hand.
"Sorry, I can't shake your hand, too many books. Besides, you really wouldn't want to shake hands with me anyway. If you listen to Snape, I'm worse than a Mudblood. Surely you wouldn't want to taint yourself."
She turned away from them and started to walk away when Malfoy said something. "My, my… You're right, Severus. She is a feisty one. Too bad about her mother being a fairy, she might have…"
"What did you say about my mother?" she turned to face him and narrowed her eyes.
"I said, that it's too bad, she was nothing more than a mere fairy…" Malfoy's eyes gleamed as if he was happy to have found the right button to get her angry.
"A mere fairy?"
Malfoy nodded and Gwen felt the tension build in her. A chill ran down her back and she wanted very badly to turn Malfoy into the worm he was. Energy filled her and she slowly set her books down and faced Malfoy and the others. Taking a step forward she looked him right in the eye.
Crabbe and Goyle seemed to take this as a threat and seemed to be ready to fight her. Which was rather funny considering she barely came to either of their chest height. She wasn't mush of a threat, strength wise, but you never messed with a mad fairy…
"I'll show you mere…" she raised her hands as her mother had shown her.
"Gwen!" Sirius, Remus, James, Lily and Raven rushed up to her side and she looked at them distractedly.
"Gwen, don't using magic in the hallways is strictly forbidden in Hogwarts. You'll get kicked out. That's just what they want!" Lily said turned her venomous glance to Severus and the others.
"He was talking about my mother…"
Sirius walked up to her and put his hands over hers. "Any other time I would be all for kicking their butts, fairy-style or no… But you can't get kicked out… Not yet… Not ever…"
He whispered it so that no one else could hear and then he let go of her hands and backed away from her. Gwen felt the energy still flowing through her and her heart was still pounding. She wanted so badly to just let it all flow out… But instead she just let her hands slowly relax and sighed.
"Sirius is right… You're not worth it." She turned and walked away even as she saw the evil glint in his eyes. She refused to look back but when she heard the rustling of fabric she waited mentally for the chance. "Serpensortia!" he yelled and Gwen whirled around.
With a quickly muttered freeze spell she stopped the snake's decent the grabbed it out of the air. Bending it like a clown's balloon she pulled the snake into a knot. "Faekentia." She said and then blew on the snake. Suddenly the snake vanished its body turning into a silvery dust that scattered to the wind glinting for only an instant before vanishing as a swirl around Gwen.
Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Snape stared at her in shock and she could feel the same kind of awe behind her. She smiled slightly. The kind of smile she had seen on Sirius' face, with a knowing smirk that said, "I'm better than you and I know it."
"Now that we have that out of our system… Which one of us is mere?" she turned and slowly walked away, pausing only long enough to gather her books. She knew her friends followed her but the only thing she could think of was getting to the common room.
Once inside she slumped into a chair and dropped her books. "Oh dear… that wasn't the smartest thing to do was it?"
"Smart? No!" Raven asked then a grin came over her face. "Cool? Yeah! Where did you learn to do that?"
"I don't know… Must have been all the reading about my ancestors I did. Because I'm pretty sure my great-great-grandma did a spell like that once… But I probably shouldn't have done that huh?"
"Well, whether or not you should have that was so neat. You've got to teach me." Said James a smile sliding onto his face.
"When I remember what I did, you'll be the first one to know. Promise. But we should probably get going. We've Herbology next right?"
"Yeah," Remus said and smiled at her.
"Alright let's go."
As they started out the door, Sirius held her back a moment and kissed her on the forehead. "What was that for?"
"For being the bravest person I've ever met."
"I was hardly brave. More like stupid. Malfoy isn't someone I should have messed with. I should have walked away the first time."
"No… he should have walked away from youfirst." Sirius said and smiled. "Come on, Professor Sprout will kill us if we're late."
Once again Gwen found it hard to sleep. Her energy level seemed to have spiked since the encounter with Malfoy. Even Madam Pomfrey and remarked upon it. She felt restless so after a few more minutes of tossing and turning she finally gave up around midnight and leaped from her bed. She quietly dressed in jeans and a t-shirt pulling on her jacket until she realized it was the one that she had ruined the night of her wing show-and-tell.
Pausing only a moment she dug down into the trunk until she finally found what she was looking for. It was an old worn sweater that her mother had knitted for her a little before she had left. It was green and her favorite but she had refused to wear it because she felt like she was suddenly being disloyal to her mother. For a minute she smiled at how naive she had been. Had it really only been a few months since she had left home?
Already the fall weather she had arrived in had changed to winter and even now that was ending. Soon it would be spring and then summer… and then what? Would she go home if her mother didn't pull her out before then? Surely not, her mother would have to see the change in her. She had only been here a little while and already her powers were getting stronger and she knew spells by heart that her mother had tried to pound into her for months without success…
Sure her mother would see that? Surely…
She forced the sad thoughts from her mind and headed towards the stairs and down into the common room. She needed time to think. And since she couldn't sleep she might as well meditate. Slipping out she quickly closed the door to the common room and made her way to the fireplace that always seemed to be bright.
She moved to it and held out her hands to the warmth. Then with a sigh she sat down and crossed her legs closing her eyes and relaxing herself when she heard a sound that made her jump. Turning she raised her hands to fight and felt the energy just below her surface throbbing to be released only to find it was Remus laying on the couch. But what was he doing out here?
Relaxing she let the energy ebb back as her heart rate returned and then she slowly moved to his side. He was sound asleep on the couch but his face was covered in sweat. He jerked as she came closer and she stopped moving almost afraid to wake him. Then he started mumbling…
"No… No…not again… Padfoot… ohm… Prongs…hm… Wormtail…. run…. run… run!" he jerked and Gwen knew she had to wake him up again.
"Remus. Remus… Remus, wake up! Wake up! It's only a dream! A dream!" she shouted first, afraid to touch him. Her energy was still close to the surface… what if?
But he didn't move and only grumbled to himself so she was forced to. That's what she told herself even as her hand went to his shoulder to shake him. It wasn't that she wanted to go into his dream. To see what it is that made him shake and shiver so much. I wasn't that, she assured herself.
So saying she reached out and touched his shoulder intent upon shaking him awake but suddenly she was pulled in. Swept away by the feelings of his dream and she no longer was in the cozy rooms of Hogwarts. The warmth of the fire disappeared and was replaced by a chill.
Gwen found herself a dark room. Outside the moon, full and bright shined through the tattered window coverings. The wood of the building was old and she could feel splinters beneath her bare feet. Her hand was on someone's shoulders and she looked down realizing that it was Remus.
His hair was dirtied and he was whimpering almost silently to himself. Almost like he was already a wolf… Then a low growl reached her ears and she turned to see a great black dog advance on her. It eyes were almost hidden and for a second she thought it was the Grim but then she saw them. Two pools of melted silver.
"Sirius…"
Let's just say that cats don't like me much.
"Padfoot…" Remus groaned… "No go away… it's coming too fast… I… I can't control…"
The clip-clop of hooves on the wood her attention and she turned to face the next surprising thing. It was a stag. He stood tall and strong his antlers held high aloft with glasses marks just under his eyes...
"James…"
…break one of those antlers next time we go around…
"Prongs… no… coming… fast…" Remus groaned and Gwen felt torn she knew she could stop the dream at any time. But she needed to know what happened next. Why did he dream of this?
Scurrying feet caught her attention and in a spring of pale blonde-almost-white fur a rat scampered up the back of Prongs' legs and settled on his back. Little blue rat eyes dart to and fro and then settled on he for just a second before he settled into a ball upon Prongs' back.
"Peter…"
That's why I thought…
"Wormtail… no… go… g-" his voice suddenly stopped and Gwen turned to find him changing beneath her fingers. He curled into himself and suddenly his nose grew and stretched. And suddenly his skin was changing from human to bristling fur that was the same sandy blond as the hair on his head. He grew bigger and bigger and suddenly his shirt was ripping.
Gwen took her hand from his shoulder and stared at him. Suddenly Remus was gone. His clothes lay in shreds around him and he stood shaking his coat off. Remus was gone… Mooney was here… Her turned to her and she suddenly looking at the great white fangs of the werewolf.
A low growling filled the air and she backed up as far as she could go. She felt utter and total fear and then waited…
No! No! No! Gwen!
She heard Remus yelling… she heard him in the back of her mind and she saw Mooney walking forward. But even as she thought that she realized it wasn't Mooney. This animal bore no resemblance to the sweet pup his friends had nicknamed. This beast…
It growled at her and she tried to back up farther but her back hit the wall and she stared wide-eyed at the werewolf. The wolf's eyes gleamed and for a second she saw a red flash of fur as a fox darted in and sat in front of the beast… The wolf knocked it aside as it hit the wall Gwen saw its eyes open for a second… hazel eyes…
Raven! No! No! Raven! No!
"Raven?"
Then the wolf was standing right in front of her and she cringe down as far as she could go. The wolf leaped, she screamed… and with a flash of pain…
She fell off the couch and suddenly the connection was broken. She found herself laying on her side her breathing labored and her wrist throbbing with pain. She closed her eyes for a moment and then looked up at the couch.
Remus was sitting up and he too was breathing hard. Sweat still coated his face but this time his eyes met hers she knew he had just experienced the dream too. "I… I'm sorry, Remus… I was… I was trying to wake you." she finally managed to say and then she looked away for a second.
"Gwen… I dream like this every time… Right before the full moon… I didn't mean to wake you…"
"It's okay… I… I couldn't sleep. I was restless…" she shifted her to her arms and tried to push herself up but the throbbing pain of her right wrist made her collapse and she looked down at it quickly covering it with her left.
But Remus must have already seen the slash of red because he reached out and grabbed her wrist. "You're bleeding…"
"It's nothing. Really." She pulled it away and sat up. But then she took a look at it and shuddered. The gash was about an inch wide and from the top of her wrist to the other side in a long slash… the slash of claws. "I…I'll be fine… I just… I should have left you alone… Sorry…" she walked across the room and marched up to the girls' dormitory not waiting for him to say anything.
As soon as she was there she walked to the window seat and opened the window letting the cool air wash over her. It stung her wrist but she quickly pulled out a piece of cloth from her bag and wrapped it around tight. Murmuring a quick cure spell she looked up at the moon.
It was almost full… just short of not, a gibbous moon.
Soon it would be full… but had Remus taken his potion… or would his dream come true. She thought back to the dream how he had been screaming silently. Telling himself not to. Telling his friends to get out…. Not. If Remus could help it he would never take the risk of his friends. He wouldn't.