Chapter Twenty-Seven
History
Saul knew that something had happened between Lenore and Snape when she came into the room with a frown on her face and evidence of excess tears. They had exchanged brief 'hellos' before he went back to his book. Lenore was placing things in one suitcase with a pensive look on her face. He didn't really concentrate on the book. He was thinking back on how he and Lenore had met. There had been a conference called 'Understanding Magical Creatures' about two months after he had moved to the States from Egypt.
Fourteen-year-old Saul balanced on the chair with ease, his knees to his chest as he hugged himself. He didn't want to leave Egypt, not because he had friends there but because his brother's grave was there. Saul fought growling with distain. His mother and father had dropped him unconscious in front of a Magical Placement Home, which was basically a wizarding orphanage and left with his younger sister, Bethany. They had never forgiven him for not protecting his brother. Saul had never forgiven himself. They had lived for a year in Egypt before the taunts and screams at him got too much.
He shivered, burying his head in his arms. He didn't want to be here. The orphanage made him come, said that he had to accept who he was and move on. His wolf felt all the different sorts of magic creatures in the room and didn't like it. Instantly a calming feeling washed over him as someone thumped in the seat next to him, the wolf settling down curiously. He didn't move.
"Hi." A voice said bringing his head up to look at who was next to him.
A girl, probably no older than eleven, sat next to him. She was in a flowing lace skirt and a black shirt with a red rose on it that had fishnet sleeves. Her hair was done in intricate braids and crimps. Two necklaces hung around her neck; a skull was on a thick choker and an Egyptian onyx on a long chain. Her lips were a blood red and her eyes were surrounded by black glitter that shined to other colors. She didn't look embarrassed as most did that were wondering around. She looked confidant and smiled at him.
"The name's Leo. What's yours?" she snapped some gum.
He stared at her. "Saul." He said after a moment.
She nodded at him. "Nice to meet you…so what are you? I'm Elfish, isn't that cool?" He looked down. "Oh…I see. Vampire or werewolf?" He regarded her with surprise. "Only those two breeds are ashamed."
"Werewolf." He managed to say.
She smiled at him. "You know what, the other people who don't like us because we're different are just jealous." He arched his brow at her, making a face. She giggled. "We have cool powers. You know, like the ability to heal ourselves ten times faster than normal people can. It's that neat?" Saul shrugged looking down again. "Not from around here are you?"
"No."
"If you want to make friends you ought to say more than one word sentences." She commented before smiling. "Mom! Renee, over here!" she called. Two women came over. One was a tall woman with dark brown hair and brilliant green eyes. She resembled the girl next to him. The other was a young woman in a wheelchair with shirt blonde hair. "This is Saul. He's not very talkative."
"Maybe you just scared him," Renee taunted.
Saul's wolf trembled. "You're human," he managed to say.
"Hurray, you can say more than one word sentences!" the girl clapped her hands happily.
Despite himself he smiled. 'Renee' looked at him. "Yes I'm human. Aren't humans magical creatures as well?" the blonde asked with a smirk.
That was how it started. They became friends. He never really expected much from the move to the states. His parents deserting him was hard but his new friends had made the ache go away for the short time they were together. She was younger than him but for the first time, someone wasn't afraid of him. He had become accustomed to being hated since he had been bitten and then branded, like they do in Egypt on his left arm with the words 'wolf'. She had become his first friend, his surrogate sister and he and his wolf felt duty bound to protect her.
Unfortunately he never expected everything to change. Ever since Voldemort's public return, both Lenore's life and his got screwed up. His freedoms as a werewolf were now cut in half because of English laws. Dumbledore was now asking him to aid a 'Remus Lupin', a fellow werewolf as he called the man, in convincing the werewolves to join the side of light. He was part of a war he had wanted to avoid. His old friends were still part of the Destroyers. Saul would not look forward to fighting them in a battle.
He had joined the Destroyers not two months into his move to the States, a week before the convention. The day after the convention he had started rethinking his decision but it was too late. He felt like he had found a place where he had belonged. Lenore didn't find out until they met up at school that year and she bless her, didn't judge him for it. Sure she was scared for a good week but came back and talked with him, telling him that he didn't have to stay with the Destroyers, that they were dangerous. Saul hadn't cared much. He found a home and that's all he cared about.
Quickly he rose to one of the best Destroyers, second in command but the stronger he got and higher he got in the ranks the emptier he felt. That was when Renee presented an idea to get him out of the orphanage. At sixteen Renee adopted him and he was out and had a real family. It wasn't until Lenore pissed off one of the other higher members of the Destroyers did a problem arise. He ordered the group to take her out. By the time his group had found out about it a section of the group was already at the house, getting ready to attack her. When his group got there Lenore was putting up one hell of a fight.
He barely managed to get her out before the entire group showed up. She was in the hospital for a week (three painful days of unwaking sleep) and during that time he had started rethinking his choice in staying. Blade, his 'boss', came to see him after Lenore had woken up, at last, and they talked. Blade had always been more of a friend than a boss to Saul and it was him who suggested leaving completely. "It's not in you anymore, Shadow. You go through the motions, you'll keep fighting but you don't want to. You have a family, go be happy with them. No one will come after you. I promise."
Saul shook his head as Lenore plopped down next to him. "Hey." He looked at her and forced a smile. "What ya thinking?"
"Nothing important." He noted that she was holding something. "What's that?"
She glanced at it and smiled. "I've been meaning to send this to you; I found it and thought you'd like a copy." She showed a picture to him.
It was of him in his wolf form, the full moon clearly in the background. Next to him sat Lenore in her lioness form, playfully batting wolf over the head and proceeding to wrestle. On a branch sat Washington, his form was a beautiful bald eagle, and he seemed to be amused. Helen and Stephan were spider monkeys hanging off the tree throwing rocks at Saul and Lenore. Last but not least Mary Anne and Garret were side by side, stretching out to watch the show; Mary Anne was an Austrian shepherd whereas Garret was a black cat.
She grinned. "You can't see him, obviously but, Octie and Jocelyn are right there." She pointed to the tree branch near the moon. There was a slight blurred area like something was hanging upside down, which would have been Octavos in his bat form, and another blurred area sitting on the same branch, which was Jocelyn in her raven form.
"Who took this?"
"Mary Anne set it up ahead of time." Lenore said not taking her eyes away from the moving picture. She shifted to another picture. "I found this one as well. You remember when Isaiah and Ralph tried to break into my room," there was a picture of the two boys hanging upside down in Lenore's old house with a raven-haired girl laughing hysterically. "Astrid thought that this was the funniest thing so I had to get a picture." They were both quiet for a moment. "I miss them." She admitted with a sigh.
"I'm sure they miss you too, Leo."
She didn't comment but stared at the animals in the picture. They had teased Garret to no end at the fact that he was a cat. 'Real masculine form' but to be honest, it fit him. He was nimble, light weight, and was excellent at trained fighting. On top of that, no matter how he fell, when he would fall, he always managed to either land on his feet or roll onto his feet. Mary Anne, however, was Australian by birth and loved dogs so the irony was plain there. Octavos was a vampire, bitten at sixteen a hundred years ago and was a fruit bat, which amused everyone. Jocelyn was a vampyre, born into the 'curse' and could become any form she wanted and ended up being a raven. Helen and Stephan, as it was with Fred and George, were two peas in a pod and continuously played pranks. At one point at a lunch the Transfiguration teacher made a crack about the two always monkeying around and immediately they both popped into their Animagus forms, screeching wildly.
"Have you written them lately?"
"Hm?" she dragged herself out of her thoughts.
"The group, have you written to them?"
She bit her lip shaking her head. "Not much. There has been so much going on that there hasn't been much time…Helen and Stephan managed to go to Rome together, Mary Anne is off in the Outback, Garret is surfing in Hawaii, Wash writes periodically but he's in theatre and he's busy with one of the leads. Octie and Jocelyn are both off on one of their special rituals that they say humans will never understand. Isaiah, Ralph, and Astrid aren't much into letter writing."
"They'd love to hear from you, you know that right?" Saul said. She shrugged sinking back into the couch. He tickled her side. "Right?" she squirmed as he tickled again. "Right?"
"Okay, okay!" He stopped and looked at her and she smirked. "Left," He arched his brow at her and began to tickle her again. She squealed in laughter. "Mercy! Mercy!"
Saul grinned shifting to let her lay down, her head in his lap. She was chewing on her lip, her eyes were a swarm of colors. Something was obviously bugging her. Most likely something to do with what happened between her and Snape earlier. He poked her. "What you thinkin' about?"
Lenore sighed. "Sna—Severus…" his body tensed. He really didn't like that man. "I just…I hurt and confused and I don't understand him!" She told him everything that happened between her and Snape. How he treated her, what he said. How she felt, everything. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "Half of me feels good that he wants me but the other half of me hurts and hates him for wishing that I was my mother…for basically saying that I wasn't good enough…that I'm not good enough."
"Come here, Leo," he said motioning for her to sit up. She shifted and leaned into his arm, her head resting on his shoulder. He could smell the salty tears running down her cheeks and he felt the tears soaking his shirt. "What he thinks doesn't matter, he doesn't know you. You've been here a month, if he never wanted you than don't listen to him. The Weasleys are willing to take you in, the parents haven't even met you, right?" She nodded into his arm. "They trust their sons and Dumbledore. You are a great person, just because that man is too blind to see that isn't your fault."
"But it still hurts."
He gave her a tight hug. "I know." Saul kissed her on the forehead. "Get to bed, Leo."
"Are you going to your room?" Lenore asked sitting up, wiping her face.
He shook his head. "No. I think I'm going to go for a run."
"You want company?" she asked curiously.
"No. I just want to run." He smiled and ruffled her hair. "Get to bed."
"Kay. Goodnight, Saul. I see you tomorrow morning." She shuffled to her bedroom as he got to his feet. He set the book back on the shelf and looked at the list she had made of things still needing to be packed. Saul heard her washing her face as he began packing the things on the list for her. She came out of the bathroom five minutes later, her hair in braids and dressed in pajamas with a robe on. "Night. Thanks." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and went bed.
He continued packing until the list was complete and waited until her breathing evened out before slipping out. He was outside in the moonlight within five minutes and he breathed in the fresh air, transforming into a wolf. Saul began to run along the bank of the lake. There were a lot of things laying heavy o his mind. Half of him wanted to go and tell Snape off for what he was doing to Lenore but the other half of him knew it wasn't his fight. Lenore was a strong girl. She could either break past his cold exterior or not. It wasn't his place to help her in this situation. She would have to fight her way out of it with Snape…whether he liked it or not.
