Dinner of rabbit and wild onions was tasty. She ate in silence.
"Miss Briarcliff," he started, then stopped.
"Mr. Lupin." She had to lull him into trusting her. That would make him easier to kill. She had to look him in the eyes. She had to talk to him. She had to smile at him. She'd never resolved to kill anyone before, and was having trouble smiling at all.
"If there is anything at all I can do, within these unfortunate constraints of course, that would make your stay here more comfortable, please let me know."
"I could use a sharp knife to cut this meat."
"Oh, I'll cut that for you. Diffindo." He waved his stick at her plate. The meat was neatly cut.
"Thank you." What to try next? "That stick is pretty cool."
"Stick?" He laughed. "Oh, you mean my wand."
"Could I get one of those?"
He handed it to her. He handed her his wand!
"Sorry, It won't work for you. You're a muggle. That's a human born without magical ability. Most humans are muggles. Muggles don't usually survive a werewolf bite, so most of the werewolves here started as witches and wizards. They can at least in principle do magic, although most are untrained."
The stick just felt like a stick.
"Feel free to try a spell if you want. Here's a simple one I teach all the magical children here. May I have my wand back? Lumos." The wand glowed like a flashlight. He handed it back to her. The light went out as soon as it left his fingers.
"Lumos," she said, feeling stupid.
"Fine pronunciation, fine grip, no magical ability. Sorry. We all have different talents." He took his wand back. "Please tell me about yourself."
"No."
He was silent for a while. "That's understandable." Then, "Are you done with dinner?"
"Yes."
He cleared the table and washed the dishes. "I generally exercise before bed," he said. "Feral werewolves consider physical strength to be very important, so I had to develop these ridiculous muscles like a cartoon supervillain. They take some effort to maintain."
Sarah couldn't help but laugh. She didn't want to. She didn't want the monster she was going to slay to have a sense of humor.
"You haven't been outside today," he said. "You could walk with me for some fresh air if you like. I'll find someplace outside this tent to get sweaty, while you watch the sunset or something. That would require acting on both our parts, though, walking through the encampment. Or you could stay here."
"I'll stay here."
"As you wish." He left again.
She read a chapter on how to remove an infestation of doxies from curtains. She had no idea what doxies were. She threw the book across the tent. It bounced off the fabric wall. She picked it up and put it back on the shelf. There were no weapons here. There was no mirror in the bathroom to provide broken glass. There were no knives in the little kitchen area. There was a thin pillow on her bed, but she doubted that it would be useful to smother anyone. Could she strangle him with her shoelaces? That seemed her best bet. He looked awfully strong. He'd fight back.
He returned quite a while later. "Miss Briarcliff? May I come in?"
"It's your tent."
He came in. "I need a shower. Excuse me." He later emerged from the bathroom wearing grey pajamas. He waved his wand and muttered strange incantations around a blanket on the floor. Then he said "Goodnight," and lay down on the blanket, pulled another blanket over himself, and closed his eyes.
Of course he put protective spells around his bed, or the spot on the floor where he slept, anyway, as he'd apparently given his bed to her. He wasn't going to just let her murder him in his sleep.
The last dregs of sunlight faded from the walls of the tent. There was no moonlight.
She wasn't tired. She'd been sitting around all day, and was itching with unspent energy. She had to use that energy to kill him, to escape, to do something, but there was nothing to be done.
She watched her captor silently sleeping, as the tent grew darker and darker. Could she crush his skull with a big rock, if she had one?
She must have fallen asleep eventually, because she woke up in the morning. Her captor served her porridge.
"Do you want to stay in the tent today, or accompany me as I teach? The first option would be boring, and the second stressful."
"Just being stuck in this tent all day is stressful."
"I know what you mean."
She pointed to his suitcase and asked, "What were you a professor of, before you got bitten? Latin?"
He looked confused for a moment, then laughed. "Oh! Sorry, that does give the wrong impression of me, doesn't it? That was a gag gift from some friends of mine. It was a practical gift too. It holds a lot. I've always lived out of my trunk or suitcase, and my old one was wearing out. They always said I spoke like a professor, so they stuck that label on it as a joke. I was never really a professor of course."
"Well, you are one now."
"What? Werewolves can't be professors."
"You're setting yourself up for a semantic argument in which we contrast the legal and functional definitions of the word 'professor.'"
He laughed.
"So what did you do before you came here?"
He looked rather shifty-eyed. "Scavenged, mostly. I tried a few jobs in the wizarding world, but always had to leave when people started to get suspicious of my pattern of monthly absences and injuries. I had some close calls with the Werewolf Capture Unit. I tried a few jobs in the muggle world, but I have no credentials that mean anything there, so the sorts of jobs I could get were the kind that weren't very forgiving of so many unexplained sick days, and they didn't even pay enough to cover healing potions for my wolf-related injuries."
"But what did you do before you were a werewolf?"
"What? Oh. Toddled. Played with blocks, I suppose. Greyback bit me when I was four."
The explanation that had been forming in Sarah's brain for her captor's various oddly-non-werewolf-like traits disintegrated.
"I went to a playground," he said suddenly. "I remember that, or at least I remember remembering that. I remember missing it more than I remember the playground itself. I didn't understand why I couldn't go outside anymore. My poor mother had to cope with so many tantrums over that, and the tantrums of a young werewolf, well. They confirmed for her why it was so important I not be allowed out in public anymore, I'm sure. I don't think I really developed mastery over the wolf, so I could be absolutely sure I could maintain a consistent human appearance, until I was ten." He thought some more. "And I must have had friends, because I remember missing them, but I don't remember anything about them."
He looked around the tent. "You have my sympathy," he said. "I know what it's like to be trapped in a small space, with death awaiting you outside if you let your mask slip. At least you have books. I brought some of my favorites." He ran an affectionate hand over one of his bookcases. His hand paused over H.G. Wells's The Time Machine. "They're such a wonderful escape. I imagined if I had a time machine, I could change things so my parents never met." He dropped his hand away from the book. "Wouldn't work of course," he said with a rueful smile. "Paradox. But a boy can dream.
"So anyway, what would you like to do today? Besides escape of course, which unfortunately is not on the menu."
"I'll come out with you." There weren't any murder weapons in here. She might find some outside.
He nodded. "I'm afraid you'll be stared at by very many curious werewolves. Fortunately, my rank means I can declare you my property, and forbid any werewolves of lower rank from getting too close to you. The tricky part will be the acting. We have to give the impression that I'm a brutal monster. You need to act traumatized. If Greyback learns the truth, I'm dead, and you arguably even worse off."
He wanted her to pretend to be upset about being abducted by werewolves? He wanted her to pretend that he was a monster, not a nice guy? That wasn't acting, that was honesty.
If she didn't "pretend" according to his specifications, the other werewolves would kill her captor. She realized she'd been thinking about this completely the wrong way. She'd been thinking of weapons like knives and rocks, but she had much more dangerous weapons all around her: werewolves. She'd kill him with werewolves. Bad acting, as he defined it, would arouse suspicion of his loyalty. Greyback and his pack would kill her captor for her.
Then they'd kill her of course, or make her life a living hell. But it would be for the greater good.
"Going outside is a cheering prospect, isn't it ," he said with some surprise at her expression, and smiling with her. "It's a beautiful spring day. It will be nice to get out of this tent. Take a moment to compose yourself. Tears aren't absolutely required. A blank, catatonic look would be fine. Bursts of hysteria might also be believable, although then I'd have to act like a monster to quiet you, which is work I'd rather not do. If I could convince everyone that you're acting normal because I ordered you to demonstrate normal human behavior for my students, that would be easiest, but we'd best ease into that." He looked contemplative. "Lord Greyback could probably be convinced that you're happily submitting to me because the natural order of things ranks werewolves above humans. It would take time to develop the appearance of such a relationship, though. Let's keep it simple today."
"OK." She made her face blank. She'd have to think about how exactly to go about this. It would seem odd for her to run to Greyback to report that her designated rapist was too nice.
Everyone stared at her as they walked through the encampment, but no one tried to touch or talk to her. Everyone stepped aside as Lupin walked, clearing a path for them. They finally got to a pleasant spot in the woods where logs had been arranged in rows. About thirty kids of various ages frolicked around the area, playing some combination of tag, wrestling, and play-biting, but settled down and sat on the logs as they approached. Their clothes were dirty and ragged, their hair unkempt, their eyes bright.
"Good morning class," said her captor.
"Good morning Professor Lupin," the kids chorused. They seemed distracted. They were trying to look at Lupin, but their gazes kept returning to her.
"Of course, you have noticed that I brought a human to class today. This is Miss Briarcliff."
"Good morning," she said nervously.
"Good morning Miss…" chorused a few students, but they looked around and stopped when they realized no one else was doing it.
"Very good!" said her captor. "Tim, Angelique, Veronica, and Rex, that was truly convincing human-like behavior. Let's all emulate them. Ready? Good morning Miss Briarcliff." This time all the kids said it. "Excellent. As this is a class on how to pass as human, I thought this would be a good opportunity to practice simply being in the presence of a human without giving yourselves away as werewolves. There will be no sniffing, no drooling, no growling, no golden eyes, no fangs, and so on. Not even any hungry staring. As I am the teacher, you may look at me, or you may whisper to your friends, or surreptitiously pass notes to them about subjects of interest to humans. For today's class, let us pretend that Miss Briarcliff is visiting from the Board of Governors to evaluate my teaching."
"I need a clipboard," said Sarah.
Her captor looked at her, started. "Right," he said. He looked around, and found a broken branch and some dead leaves. He pointed his wand at them with a look of intense concentration. They reformed into a not-quite-rectilinear clipboard and some sheets of coarse off-white paper, which he handed to her. The students made impressed sounds. "I don't think that would get high marks from my Transfiguration teacher, but I hope it serves your purpose."
"I need a pen, too."
"Right." He made one from a stick. It worked, although the ink was dark brown.
She wrote, "Classroom lacks supplies."
"I'll start today's class by reading a book that's a favorite of mine, Yertle the Turtle, by Dr. Seuss," said the evil werewolf. And he did. He read it aloud, enthusiastically. The kids loved it. He did a very good impression of King Yertle reveling in his high throne: "I rule from the clouds! Over land! Over sea! There's nothing, no, NOTHING, that's higher than me!"
When the moon rose over King Yertle, the evil werewolf did a remarkably good impression of blustering through his fear, declaring his ambition to stack more of his subjects under himself to build his throne higher than the moon. The kids snickered at his hubris, knowing that the moon rules over all. They leaned forward on their log seats, eager for the King's downfall.
"And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing. He burped! And his burp shook the throne of the king!"
The class went wild. Kids who could burp at will did so, to the delight of their peers. The absolutely, totally, definitely evil werewolf sat back and enjoyed the chaos of laughing children. His indulgent smile showed his slightly crooked human teeth.
The kids shushed each other so they could hear the rest of the story.
"And the turtles, of course... all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be." The werewolf, who was completely evil, really, took a slight bow to acknowledge the children's cheers and applause.
"If anyone wishes to borrow this book, it will be on the shelf at your next library day," he promised. "Of course, particularly good students get extra library days, so I hope you're all working hard on your individual projects.
"Moving on, this book leads to today's lesson on various forms of government. Now, although Dr. Seuss calls these characters turtles, they clearly symbolize the humans for whom he wrote. The turtles in this book are ruled by a king with absolute power. This type of system, in which one person has all the power, is called a dictatorship. This ties in with yesterday's lesson on the human concept of consent. Show of hands: who thinks Mack consented to being part of Yertle's throne?" No hands went up. "And who thinks Mack didn't consent to this?" All hands went up. "Exactly. This book is an argument against dictatorships and for individual, human rights. Humans, it is generally believed these days, have the right to be free from oppression. By contrast, it is universally agreed by both humans and werewolves that werewolves have no individual rights at all. Each werewolf exists only to serve the needs of the pack, as determined by the pack leader. It's quite a difficult task to incorporate this mindset into your human persona, to think of yourself as having human rights, but it's essential to be truly convincing.
"Learning facts and vocabulary is easier. There are different types of dictatorships. Yertle is a king, so this book gives an example of a monarchy, or a monarchic dictatorship. In a monarchy, authority to rule is passed down from parent to child. A more familiar example of a dictatorship, of course, is this werewolf pack, which is ruled by one dictator, who attains his position by fighting skill, as demonstrated in a duel."
A girl with dark brown hair shot her hand up.
"Yes Angelique? You have a question?"
"Are there other ways of organizing werewolf packs?"
Her captor was silent for a little while. Then, "Lord Greyback ordered me to teach you how to pass as humans, so teaching werewolf culture is off-topic, and I shouldn't have mentioned werewolf pack structure at all. Sorry." He glanced sideways at Sarah. "I hope the Board of Governors doesn't get word of my mistake. Returning to the subject of human governments, there are also other types of monarchies. The government of muggle Britain is a constitutional monarchy. We have a royal family, but they're largely symbolic. Our actual rulers are chosen by vote, and they rule with the consent of the governed. When voters tire of their rulers, they vote them out of office. Your human persona may support the monarchy as a beautiful tradition, or scorn it as a waste of taxpayer money, whichever you prefer. Grumblings that it's time to fire our elected leaders and replace them with different ones are always appropriate.
"Dr. Seuss is giving a stereotypically human viewpoint here, criticizing dictatorships, saying that rulers should govern only with the consent of the governed. To pass as human, in this country at least, you must be very familiar with this concept, so we'll be playing at various forms of government in this class over the next few days." He drew his wand. "First let's form a dictatorship. This form of government actually used to be quite common in Europe even among humans, and is still practiced in some countries. We will do just a brief review of this form of government, as it's the one with which we are most familiar." With a delicate flick, a large iridescent bubble appeared at the tip of his wand, then floated over the children. "Whoever catches this bubble will be our king or queen." Pandemonium broke out again. The winner was not the tallest child, but the one who was fastest at climbing up the tallest child. He held the bubble, amazingly unpopped, in his hands, and a look of intense pride on his face.
"Jason is our king," announced Lupin. "So to start the game at least, we must do whatever he says."
Jason had a huge grin on his face. "Everyone must submit to me!"
Moving as one, everyone, even her captor, her designated rapist, the absolutely evil werewolf, oh all right, the teacher, dropped to the ground and rolled to face the treetops, arching their necks to expose them to their smiling king. Sarah wondered if she should play along. King Jason glanced at her, but quickly looked away. She clearly was out of the game. She felt a little disappointed. She just sat there clutching her clipboard.
"You may rise," said King Jason. Everyone got up.
"I command that everyone must… waddle like a duck!"
Jason was quite a popular king, beloved by his subjects. Sadly, of course, power corrupts. "Hey, a king should have better clothes than this," he eventually realized. His clothes were rags dark with dirt and possibly dried blood. He looked around. "You! Tim! Give me your shirt!"
Tim's shirt was in much better shape than Jason's. He looked down at it sadly, then started to take it off.
"Time out," called Professor Lupin. "Let's think like humans here. Just like Mack, we're encountering the problem that dictators often demand that we do things we don't actually want to do. So let us practice defying a dictator, just like we practiced saying no in yesterday's consent lesson. Sorry, Jason, you'll no longer get to enjoy your subjects obeying you, but you will at least get to enjoy making up ridiculous demands for them to say no to. Tim, if you don't want to give him your shirt, you don't have to. Pretend you're human. Stand up for your human right to be free of oppression by dictators. Say no."
"No!" shouted Tim happily.
"Hey!" complained Jason. He looked around. Rex was the biggest teen there. "Rex, I order you to take Tim's shirt for me."
"I don't want to," said Rex.
Jason sighed, and was silent for a while. Then, "Tim, I forbid you from giving me your shirt!"
Everyone laughed.
"Now you're gaming the system," laughed Professor Lupin. "Which is a very important skill. I think we get the point here. Let's make this game more challenging. It's easy to say no to Jason, your peer. For more of a challenge… Accio bubble!" The iridescent bubble zoomed from Jason's hands to Lupin's. He held it out pompously. "I declare myself King Lupin! I rule from the clouds! Over land! Over sea! There's nothing, no, NOTHING, that's higher than me! I do happen to be the tallest one here," he added in a much more modest voice. "And you're used to seeing me as your teacher, in a position of authority. It will be much more difficult to say no to me than to a peer. If anyone is having trouble, just remember that this is all a game, just like yesterday's consent game, although it is good practice for real situations. Ready? I'm about to order you to do something, but instead of doing it, you are to say 'no.' Now, cluck like chickens!"
The entire class clucked like a loud flock of chickens.
"Maybe I didn't explain properly," Lupin said, laughing.
"But we wanted to cluck like chickens!" shouted one kid.
"It was fun!"
"And besides, you told us you didn't want us to really do it, so by actually doing it, we were defying your authority as our teacher," said one kid proudly.
"I see that I've been outfoxed by a flock of chickens," he admitted, laughing. "Well done. All right, that was so ridiculous I think everyone's earned an extra library day."
The children let out a huge cheer.
"This also seems like a good time for a recess," announced Lupin. "Burn off that energy." He tossed the bubble into the mob for the kids to fight over.
Some kids fought over the bubble, while others played what they called "the turtle game." They eventually selected Jason as a lightweight Yertle and formed a pyramid to try to get him up to the moon.
"Of course, don't actually—" started Lupin, but it was too late. Jason screamed as he got thrown off the top of the pyramid.
He didn't hit the ground, just hovered a few inches above it. Professor Lupin was pointing his wand at him. With a gentle gesture of his wand, Jason drifted down the last few inches. Then Lupin ran to him. "Are you hurt?"
The fact that these were not human children, but werewolves, became very apparent. Jason snarled and snapped his fangs at his teacher.
"You're angry they threw you off," said Lupin. "They shouldn't have done that. They could have hurt you."
Jason growled and tried to charge at the other children, fangs and claws reaching for them, but Lupin caught him. "My students are not allowed to hurt each other. I will deal with them later. This is a bigger problem. You need to control your wolf. Breathe like I taught you."
The young werewolf snarled.
"I know it's difficult. The wolf can be very hard to control. But you can do it, Jason. You are stronger than the wolf."
Growl and struggle.
"You are stronger than the wolf."
Growl.
"Breathe with me."
"But Lord Greyback says—"
"You are stronger than the wolf. Except at the full moon, you are stronger than the wolf. Lord Greyback has allowed his humanity to grow weak, so the wolf rules him all the time. This weakness is not to be mistaken for evidence of the wolf's strength. Yes, you've got it," for the kid seemed human again. "I knew you could do it." His secure grip on the dangerous young werewolf had turned to a hug for the upset child. "Well done." He handed the boy a handkerchief.
Then Professor Lupin, looking quite stern, turned to address the kids who'd thrown Jason off his throne. "I do not allow any form of violence in my class. Patricia, Nathan, John, Elizabeth, I take back your extra library day. Instead, you must write an essay on the importance of respecting your classmates. Take care that you do this as a human child would, so writing this essay does not elicit any actual remorse from you, but only resentment of me and possibly also of Jason for getting you in trouble. I will expect your essays by Thursday. Jason, if you don't find this punishment sufficient for the crime, you may retaliate with some sort of human-style prank, which I will ignore as long as you're reasonably discreet about it. Let me know if you'd like any suggestions. You may ask your classmates for help. Now carry on with your playing. You have ten more minutes of recess."
The kids resumed their play, playing turtle with more care, scrambling for the unpoppable bubble, and also picking sides for Jason's planned revenge.
Suddenly, a girl squealed, "Lord Greyback is coming!"
Instantly, all the kids, and Lupin, dropped to the ground and rolled onto their backs, just as they had done for King Jason. "Submit to the pack leader," Lupin hissed at Sarah. "We must all make ourselves vulnerable to him."
When in Rome. She imitated the werewolves.
She turned her head to see the massive, grizzled werewolf approach. Lupin looked like a pencil-necked geek in comparison. Greyback looked around approvingly, then knelt over Sarah. He raked his claws over her throat in a casual way, then ran his claws down her chest, snagging on her shirt. He then pulled up her shirt so he could run his sharp claws over her bare belly. She broke into a sweat and stifled a scream. Adrenaline was no use to her in this situation, but there was no stopping it from flooding her bloodstream.
"Good morning Lupin," he said. "You may sit up to talk to me, no higher than me of course."
One of the kids had a sudden fit of giggles, but was silenced by another kid flopping on top of him.
"Good morning, my lord."
Sarah jerked when a claw snagged in her navel.
"Hold your bitch still for me," requested Greyback.
Lupin put his rough hands around her neck and held her down. His eyes looked dead.
"My pups sounded happy and I smelled the human, so I thought I'd come enjoy watching whatever they were doing to her," said Greyback cheerfully. "You may all rise and resume your play!" he called to the students. "I love to see my pups happy." The students got up, and some resumed their games, but many simply listened to their pack leader and teacher converse. "How are you liking this human?
"She is most satisfactory, my lord. Thank you again." His hands were sweaty on her throat.
"She doesn't seem injured."
"I thought it would be more fun to break her will by psychological methods, my lord. And I need to keep practicing my skills at deception, so I'm working on convincing her that I'm actually a human disguised as a werewolf, rather than the other way around. If she seems to trust me, you'll know my deception is successful."
Greyback laughed. "Didn't you just ruin your plan by telling me about it in her earshot?"
"That's the beauty of it, my lord. I'll convince her I was just doing what I had to do to maintain my werewolf disguise to keep you fooled."
Greyback laughed. "You're such a good liar."
He smiled modestly. "Thank you, my lord. I try."
Greyback laughed again and shook his head. "You're twisted, Lupin. It seems unnatural to fuck a bitch who isn't trying to fight back. To each his own, I suppose. And you even found a way to use her in class?"
"Yes, my lord. We need to acclimate the pups to humans. Their disguises have been improving—"
"I've noticed that."
"But their disguises falter, and the wolf visibly surfaces, when they smell humans. This is a great disadvantage when hunting, as it warns the prey, possibly giving them time to escape. They need to be able to pass as humans to gain their trust and get close enough to ambush them, so they need to hide the wolf even when they sense that prey is near."
"I see. And then are you having them practice attacking her?"
"That would be a trivial exercise, my lord, and also risk damaging my property, as I'm sure any one of them could kill her if they let their wolf-selves loose so close to prey," said the abso-fucking-lutely evil werewolf.
"Seems like a good use of resources," said Greyback. He sat, enjoying the sight of playing children and the feel of a terrified human under his claws, then remarked, "Dumbledore never gave you any girls, did he?"
"No my lord. It would never have occurred to him."
"That human fool knows nothing about how to ensure loyalty."
"Yes, my lord. Even many humans call him mad. He seemed to think I'd be grateful for the honor of being locked in his shack."
Greyback growled. "It's criminal what he did to you. I've never seen a werewolf so scarred. You should have had a happy puphood, like this. I'm sorry son, I should have tried harder to track you down and rescue you, but I assumed you must be dead. I didn't think any werewolf could survive that. I'm proud of you for still having the spirit to escape after the hell he put you through. Years in essentially a cage, isolated from your own kind! Horrific. But you couldn't be tamed."
"There is no need to apologize for that, my lord. Stealing what Dumbledore considers his property is not a trivial matter. I am grateful for the sanctuary you now provide me."
"Don't worry son," said Greyback, patting Lupin's shoulder in a friendly way with the hand that wasn't poised to eviscerate Sarah. "If Dumbledore tries to get his pet werewolf back, he'll have to go through me first."
"Thank you, sire. Mere words cannot express my gratitude for all you've done for me."
Greyback laughed. "You're never at a loss for words, Lupin. That's the only consolation, that your suffering wasn't totally in vain. We're using Dumbledore's crime against you as a weapon against him. Just think of it! An army of werewolves as good at passing for human as you are! We'll be invincible."
"Yes my lord."
"Well, you may rise and resume your class."
"Thank you my lord."
They did so, Sarah a little shakily, as Greyback left. She could still feel his claws on her, and Lupin's hands on her neck. Her neck felt cold as sweat evaporated from her skin. She declined Lupin's offer of a hand up.
As her captor got up, he let out a small burp. "Excuse me."
Pandemonium broke out. Everyone who could was burping, and many kids were also trying to climb on top of each other.
A smaller subset of the kids gathered around Lupin. "Who's Dumbledore?" demanded Rex. "Tell me what he looks like so I can kill him."
"Oh Rex," sighed Lupin. "Believe me, many have already tried. Albus Dumbledore is probably the most powerful wizard alive today. He's famous for defeating another extremely powerful wizard named Gellert Grindelwald. I'm afraid you wouldn't stand a chance against him."
"I've got to try. Where is he?"
"With a reputation like his, he can have any job he wants, and he's chosen to be headmaster of Hogwarts, Britain's school of witchcraft and wizardry."
"Why?"
"Well, if one really wants to change society, the minds of the next generation…" He trailed off. "Who can fathom the schemes of an old wizard? Many say he's mad."
"What did he do to you?" demanded a little girl.
The evil werewolf took a slow breath. "Some things are perhaps too disturbing for young ears to hear."
"Tell us!" they demanded. The kids who'd been playing stopped their games and gathered around to hear the story.
"Well. First you have to understand that I had a rather unusual puphood. Lord Greyback gifted me with lycanthropy when I was four, around the same age that most of you were bitten, but then he couldn't take me home to my pack."
The children gasped, horrified and outraged. "He didn't? Why not?"
"Understand that our Lord Greyback loves all his pups, and would never abandon us to humans if he could help it, but this was a very unusual situation. My human father is an exterminator, specializing in Dark creatures such as werewolves, so he had enough training and experience to fight off our lord when he tried to rescue me."
"I'll kill him!" shouted one of the kids, soon joined by others.
"I don't advise going against a wizard who has devoted his life to killing werewolves."
"But why did he want to keep you?" demanded a little girl. "My parents didn't want to keep me."
"Nor mine."
"Nor mine," the kids chimed in.
"Again, this was a very unusual situation. My mother was a muggle who knew nothing of magic until she met my father. Even after they married, she never felt any need to learn about werewolves. When I was bitten, my father tried to tell her that her human son was dead, but she didn't believe him. She didn't want to believe."
The children laughed at this muggle's foolishness.
"She thought that if she just worked hard enough, she could keep me human. She actually convinced my father to try it. Of course, they also had the additional challenge of hiding me from the world at large, because despite their delusion that I was still human, they knew that any witch or wizard would recognize me for what I truly was if they dared bring me out in public.
"So there I was, a werewolf isolated from my own kind, trapped in a house with a delusional muggle and a wizard who came home every day with cheerful stories of how many werewolves he'd killed. I had no choice but to pretend that I was what they believed I was, their human son. I became quite adept at concealing my wolffish self beneath a human facade. I had them convinced, which wasn't that hard, as they were desperate to believe it. By the time I was ten, I was so good at the deception that I could even convince others. The only problem, of course, was during full moons."
The children were rapt. Sarah had curled herself into a protective ball.
"None of you have ever had the misfortune to suffer a transformation alone," her captor said. "Our instincts are to hunt with our pack. Instead, I was locked in a basement, alone. I could smell humans, but couldn't reach them. I…" He gulped. He was having trouble talking, but he pulled himself together and continued. "Perhaps I should just show you." He rolled up one sleeve to show his horribly scarred arm. "Without access to humans, or the company of my own kind, I attacked myself. As I grew older and stronger, my injuries got worse every month. The teeth and claws of Dark creatures like us leave permanent scars, only partially healable by magic. My human parents weren't healers, but they did what they could to keep me alive. Except, of course, letting me go to join my pack.
"Even through their delusion, they knew that keeping me locked in their basement wasn't sustainable. Eventually, my injuries would be beyond the help of their sparse healing powers. Then, when I was eleven, Dumbledore arrived. I have no idea how he knew about me, or even how he managed to enter the house, as my human father tried to keep him out. He offered to take me off my human parents' hands. They had reservations, but they couldn't really say no to the most powerful wizard in the world. Then my troubles really began.
"Dumbledore has a taste for unusual pets. He already had a phoenix and a half-giant in his collection, and wanted to add a werewolf. Perhaps his defeat of Grindelwald in his youth gave him an exaggerated impression of his own powers. He was delusional enough to believe that he could actually tame a werewolf to keep as a pet.
"He employs a healer who is quite capable. At Dumbledore's command, she'd lock me in a shack every evening before a full moon, and every morning after, she'd return and heal my injuries. Then next month she'd lock me in the shack again, knowing perfectly well what I would suffer there. If I were human, I'm sure this would have gone against her healer's oath, but of course it doesn't apply to werewolves. My injuries got worse as I grew older and stronger.
"Dumbledore kept me captive for seven years, from age eleven to eighteen. I let him think me had broken my will, he had tamed me. He thought he had done what others called impossible, he had mastered a Dark creature. He was quite proud. He had me do all sorts of human-style tricks on command. He trained me to blend in perfectly in wizarding society, except during full moons of course. Then, once I was eighteen, and he was preparing to finally show off his pet werewolf to the world as proof of his superior wizarding skill and educational prowess, and bring glory to his school, I escaped."
"You outsmarted the most powerful wizard in the world?" asked one child, amazed.
"He's human. Humans are very good at deluding themselves. They believe what they want to believe. And I'm an expert liar, if I may say so myself."
"That's proving very useful to you now," said Rex.
"Excuse me?" Lupin said.
"So you can teach us how to lie like you."
"Oh. Yes, of course. You're all proving to be excellent students. Anyway, once I escaped Dumbledore's clutches, it took me over a year to finally find my pack and come home. I'm glad the unique skill set I acquired during my captivity is of use to my pack.
"I'm sorry we departed so far from my lesson plan today. I'm afraid there's no time for book report presentations, so those will have to wait until tomorrow. We'll reconvene for Magic class after lunch. See you then." He nodded to Sarah and led her back to his tent, past hungrily-staring golden-eyed werewolves. The difference between them and Lupin's students was remarkable.
He started opening some tins for lunch. He didn't have a tin opener, he just used his wand. "If Greyback's going to barge into my class like that, he really should be carrying a clipboard," he complained. "How is he going to report on my teaching to the Board of Governors without filling out the proper forms?" When she didn't laugh, he added, "Sorry." He said that a lot. As supervillain catchphrases went, it wasn't a very good one. "I shouldn't be joking. It would be pointless for me to ask if you're all right after that." He put food and water in front of her. "That obviously wasn't all right."
She stared at the food, although it made her queasy, because if she looked at him instead, she saw his perfectly human-looking brown eyes gazing at her with apparent concern and sympathy. Damn he was good. He acted so human. He'd almost had her fooled. Almost. Wasn't it bad enough to be held captive by a magic-using werewolf? Why did he also have to be a psychopath? It would be impossible for him not to be after a childhood like that.
"Sorry to spring that idea on you, that I'm pretending to be human around you to keep in practice at deception. It's perfect, really. Now no matter how you act, whether you act like you trust me or not, it all supports the same story, that I'm loyal to Greyback. This should make this much easier for you."
"Thanks." He'd just destroyed her plan to murder him, and made it seem like he was doing her a favor.
He had quite a proud smile on. "I've had a lot of practice coming up with excuses on the fly. I did that a lot for seven years."
"I'm sorry for what those humans did to you," she tried, although she knew it wouldn't do any good. Too little, too late.
He laughed at her. "It wasn't as bad as all that, I just had to tell a good story to impress my students. They'll tell everyone in camp, and their story has to match what I told Greyback when I first arrived here. Actually—" He seemed to finally notice that she wasn't acting as delighted as he was. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be talking about myself, getting nostalgic about my school years when you just suffered through another assault by Greyback. He has no right to touch you like that. When humans aren't sufficiently submissive to him, thinks it's funny to suddenly rip their throats out after first threatening to disembowel them, so I did what I could to protect your neck, but… I wish I could have stopped him today, well, every day really. There's no need for you of all people to feel sorry for me."
"You're such a good liar," she said.
He smiled modestly. "Thank you. I try."