In 1988, the Piccinni family lived in quietude in a modest lodge in England, trying as hard as they could to segregate their family from the chaotic post-war environment the wizarding world was experiencing. The father, Alessandro Piccinni, worked from home, producing the finest wines from mistletoe and juniper berries, and the mother, Fatima Piccinni née Materazzi, worked at the Ministry of Magic, as a Magizoologist. The Piccinni household (named the Grotta) was, overall, very agriculturally-based, sporting seemingly endless vineyards and housing whichever creature Mrs. Piccinni was currently studying.
The three little Piccinni children, Maribella, seven; Giovanna, five; and eleven-month-old Marco, were free to roam the fields and play with the animals as they pleased, for the lodge, being as isolated as it was, provided no reason to worry the parents. And the children did spend most of their time in the long fields, meandering between leaves, accompanied only by the family puffskein, a hairy round creature they had named Nico.
Nico and Maribella were the bestest of friends. He was there for Maribella to pet during her boring reading lessons with her Papa, Mr. Piccinni; he'd sit through her first, second, fifth, twentieth reading of Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump, her most favorite tale of all time; he'd allow her to brush his fur and tie ugly ribbons onto it. Most importantly, he was there for her in times Maribella needed him most. When Maribella had nightmares, for example.
On the morning of June 7th, Maribella Piccinni woke earlier than anyone else, which was unusual for the girl. If Maribella stopped to count the numbers she had awoken before her little sister, with whom she shared a room with, she'd have noticed she'd barely need to use her two hands. That thought, however, was the furthest thing from Maribella's mind that particular morning, for she was struck by the terror typical from a nightmare.
Her mouth was frozen open in a soundless scream, and the comfort of her blankets was claustrophobic, imprisoning her within the wetness of sweat and-
Maribella looked under the covers and winced.
Would she be able to clean the mess before her sister could notice? Being seven, she was the eldest of the three Piccinni children, which automatically made her the smartest and the coolest; the leader. She couldn't have Giovanna waking and discovering the shameful thing Maribella had done. Maribella was, after all, a big girl- almost eight, in fact. So, she moved to remove the moist sheets off the bed, but her hands trembled and shook and the cloth kept slipping from her fingers.
An image from the dream popped into her head. A beast, of almost seven feet of height, covered in hair and teeth and claws. It approached her in bounding steps, then raised an arm, preparing to strike, and-
Something touched her legs.
Maribella shrieked. Her dark brown eyes snapped open, so wide they seemed to be bulging out of her face. She looked down, and her shoulders sagged instantaneously. Her pet puffskein had been rubbing up on her leg comfortingly.
"Oh, Nico!" she said, with a teary laugh. "You are so silly."
He hopped to the bathroom adjacent to her room, and looked at her pointedly.
"You're right, Nico. I'm so goopy!"
She wobbled to the bathroom, and stood on the tips of her toes to look at herself in the mirror. Her brown hair was plastered around her face, stuck in her sweat. Her usually olive-colored face looked ashen and pale. She was in desperate need of a bath. Of course, if she was being picky, she could go down the hall and ask her Mama to help her fill the tub, but last time she tried unnecessarily waking up her Mama so early, she wasn't allowed dessert for a week. So, instead, Maribella stepped carefully under the shower, glad her Papa had spelled the showerfloor with an Anti-Slipping Charm only a few days ago. She stood under the warm water, watching as all the goop came off her body and down the drain. The sky outside slowly painted itself in warm tones of pink, yellow, orange, and, later on, a bright turquoise. Before Maribella knew, Giovanna was stumbling into the bathroom.
"Anna! You have to knock!" Maribella snapped at her little sister.
Anna rubbed her eyes. "Sorry, Mari," she mumbled, and turned back into the room.
Every leader needed a follower, and Giovanna, or Anna, fell humbly into that role. The five year old was considerably calmer than her older sister and younger brother, and often grew irritated at her antics and carelessness. They were so different from one another, what with Anna's lighter features juxtaposing Maribella's darker ones, that sometimes Maribella meanly liked to joke that Anna was found and adopted by their family. Anna hated when Maribella joked like that; the cruelty always made her want to cry. That morning, however, dawned brightly and neither Maribella nor Anna were in the mood for a petty fight.
Maribella's sheets had been magically cleaned when Maribella was finally done with her shower, presumably by one of her parents. She went down to the ground floor, where breakfast was already set, and sat next to Marco's high chair, ruffling his short hair as she did so.
"Hello, Marco!" she smiled.
"Marco?" the baby repeated, giggling.
"Marco!" said Mr. Piccinni, who had come from the kitchen balancing a plate of waffles and a jar of orange juice in each of his hands.
"Good morning, love," he said, kissing the top of her head.
"Hi, Papa," Maribella greeted, more interested in the waffles in his hand.
He put one on her plate, and turned to help Marco with his mashed bananas. With her Papa properly distracted, Maribella snuck a piece of her waffle under the table for Nico. Soon, they were joined by Anna, and the only person missing was Mrs. Piccinni, who had, unfortunately, already left for work.
"Time for a nappy, Marco," Mr. Piccinni said after breakfast. That was their daily routine. Breakfast, nappy time for Marco, reading for Maribella, alphabet recognition for Anna, and desk work for Papa. That didn't mean Maribella had to like it.
Maribella furrowed her forehead. "Why?" she asked. They had just woken up, and Maribella could just tell Marco wasn't tired at all!
"Your brother's tired, Mari. He's been awake for longer than any of us."
Maribella remembered her nightmare and raised an eyebrow.
"Well, can I play outside?"
"Have you finished your reading assignment?"
"Yes, Papa." Her ears reddened as her Papa raised his eyebrows. "No, Papa."
"You can play after you finish reading, Maribella."
"But it's so boring, Papa!" Maribella whined. She had been reading a new tale about some goblin. "I don't care about the goblin's golden broom. It's no fun!"
"Can I read with you, Mari?" Anna asked timidly.
An idea popped into Maribella's head.
"Of course you can, Anna!" Maribella plastered a huge smile on her face. "We'll get right to it, come on!" Before her Papa could protest, Maribella grabbed Anna's chubby hands and pulled her after her, running upstairs to their room.
"Anna, you're so smart!" Maribella exclaimed, once safely in the secrecy of their room. Anna blinked, but beamed at the surprising compliment.
"Why?" Anna asked, so enthusiastic it almost sounded like an exclamation.
"Don't ask silly questions, Anna," Maribella scolded. "It'll be so much easier sneaking Marco out now!"
Marco, being the youngest, wasn't allowed out in the berry fields as much as the two girls, especially not unsupervised.
"But… won't Papa get mad?"
"Well, you know how Mama's always telling us to go out and get some sun? She'll be way madder if we don't go outside." Anna shuddered. No one wanted to anger Mrs. Piccinni, and Maribella's logic sounded accurate to Anna's impressionable mind.
With Anna thoroughly convinced, the two went on to put Maribella's plan into action. While Anna distracted Mr. Piccinni, asking him to remind her what 'th' sounded like when spoken out loud, Maribella tiptoed to Marco resting place, and freed him from the constraint of the warm crib.
And so, the three children, as well as Nico the Puffskein, spent a sun-drenched afternoon playing around in the fields, hunting for bowtruckles, curious twig-like creatures, and eating mistletoe berries, unaware of their surroundings.
Maribella reached up the vines, in all her seven year old glory, and grabbed a few berries for herself and Anna, while Marco played around with the berries' leaves.
"Don't let Marco eat the leaves, Anna," Maribella said, jumping up and flailing her arm against the highest vines. A few berries fell, landing near her feet. "Papa told me they can make our tummies ache. She paused, bending to pick up some of the fallen fruit before adding, "A lot." With a stern look at her sister for emphasis
Her words had the intended effect, and Anna scurried off to where their brother was sitting with Nico, to prevent him from eating the harmful plants. Maribella carried on munching on the berries, delighting herself with the sweet juice and feeling even happier when she spotted a bowtruckle hiding among the leaves.
"Heya, little guy," she cooed, grabbing him by his small wood-like arms.
The bowtruckle, unhappy with her actions, struggled against her; eventually opting to sink his little teeth into her fingers.
"Ow! Ow!" she cried, letting go of him at once.
Anna, having heard her sister scream in pain, came running to help her out. Maribella's lips quivered, and she started to hiccup, sure signs that she was about to cry.
"Mari," Anna started, her bottom lip starting to shake as well.
Anna hated seeing her older sister, her leader, her idol, looking so vulnerable.
"Anna, just go call Papa," Maribella ordered in a small voice, clutching her finger tightly.
Sensing her distress, Nico rubbed his furry head against her leg, causing her to slowly pick him up. She let him lick her wound, his long pink tongue adorning her finger as a band aid normally would. Anna picked Marco up and started making her way out of the vineyard in the direction of the Grotta, struggling slightly under the baby's weight.
Maribella , finally alone, took the opportunity to loudly cry; Moaning about the unfairness of the situation. Why? She had been a good sister today. She hadn't fought with Giovanna or lost Marco somewhere while they were out of the house. Not only that, but she had spent a significant part of her day picking out berries for her siblings and Nico. She'd been a good girl, and she most definitely did not deserve a bite from such a vile beast.
It never did occur to her that the small bowtruckle wasn't the only beast wandering nearby, nor that it wasn't the most monstrous being to exist. It didn't even occur to her that she was alone and far from her parents, leaving her defenseless- an easy target. In her short, well-sheltered life, monsters were found only in one place; nightmares.
By that time, the sun had already started to set in a striking kaleidoscope of colors, and the full moon twinkled in the sky. The girl now sat quietly, hugging the puffskein close to her body, waiting for either one of her parents to arrive. Suddenly, a branch snapped, breaking the serene post-crying state that Maribella found herself in. The seven year old stood up, deciding to finish her tantrum where someone could actually see and pity her.
Until she heard a growl.
Having spent most of her childhood surrounded by various species of animals, Maribella was accustomed to the noises they'd make. This growl, however, wasn't one she was familiar with. It was threatening and it made her feel smaller and weaker than she actually was.
Her rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath told her she'd better head home fast. She started to speed-walk towards her house, eventually breaking into a halfhearted sprint, until she noticed something; she had forgotten her pet! Nico had been in the family for ages, and Maribella knew for a fact that Marco would not be able to sleep well not knowing where the puffskein was.
She let out a growl herself, frustrated that she'd forgotten something so dear to her. She needed a solution, and she needed one fast. She took a few moments to think, when it occurred to her; Magic! Of course, magic! Mama and Papa always used it around the house, and sometimes Maribella would too, accidentally or not, when she really really wanted something.
She really really wanted to find Nico.
So Maribella tried to think hard of the spell that she had often heard her parents using when summoning something, hoping that maybe if she just thought about it hard enough, it'd work; Accio.
Accio. Accio Nico. Accio Nico the puffskein. Accio, accio, accio, accio…
It didn't work.
Oh, how Maribella wished she had a wand and could do magic! Or rather, how she wished she hadn't left poor poor Nico to be possibly eaten by the bowtruckles that inhabited the vines! She felt a wave of guilt, and promptly decided to run back to fetch him. She ran past the plants, whisper-shouting Nico's name, to no avail. The puffskein was truly lost. And, she realized as an afterthought, so was she.
She walked aimlessly through the fields, trying to remember which direction she had come from, when she spotted a small body, surrounded by a pool of blood. As she approached it, she realized it was a dead mooncalf, a creature that looked like a deformed lamb from the right angle, and could only be seen on full moon nights. There was a huge chunk of its neck missing, and with a horrific yelp, Maribella backed away slowly; too scared to run off and protect herself. And there it was again, the crunching of leaves and sticks on the ground. She heard another growl, but this time it sounded like it was much closer, and, if possible, even more hostile.
"N-Nico?" Maribella whispered, knowing fully well that such small creature couldn't, and wouldn't, make such noises. "Mama? Papa?" she asked, her voice's intensity increasing with her fear.
She saw it then.
It being a wolf, possibly of some rare species. It looked like one, at least, apart from its shorter snout and its strange eyes, which closely resembled a human's. Maribella stared at it, and it stared back. For a moment, it seemed like the creature was harmless; an innocuous animal simply hunting for its dinner, the mooncalf.
Of course, nothing was ever that simple, and when the animal bared its bloodied teeth, Maribella knew that she was in grave danger. She turned and ran like she never had before, crying with snot all over her face, and no Nico to lick it clean. She briefly wondered if he, too, had been killed by the vicious beast, a thought that soon escaped her mind as she kept on running.
The animal, it seemed, was toying with her. It'd run close to her, to the point where they were almost running side by side, and then let her sprint away, repeating the cycle over and over again until the girl was so exhausted she felt about ready to just let it have her hand for dinner. Still, she didn't stop running and it didn't stop chasing.
The animal caught up with Maribella one last time before it pushed her over, using its two front paws; making her topple by the sheer force of the shove. The beast stood over her, menacingly, and she shrieked, closing her eyes tightly and using her arms to shield her face. She suddenly felt a blinding pain on the base of her neck, and she realized it had bitten her.
Her throat felt odd, almost as if it wasn't really a part of her; at the same time, the pain she felt told her that it was, it clearly was, and oh Merlin, she couldn't think straight, she just screamed and screamed and screamed, for her mama and papa, for Anna and Marco, for stupid Nico who had got both himself and Maribella killed.
Maribella didn't want to die.
She wanted to eat more mistletoe berries and she still had nine other fingers for bowtruckles to bite. She had a lot to live for! She felt a sudden intense urge to fight back. In the midst of her resolve she felt stronger, not physically, just… stronger, somehow, as if the adrenaline empowered her. She felt all that newfound power go off abruptly and blast the beast off her body. As she lay panting on the ground, she could hear the animal picking itself up and once again moving towards her.
"Everte Statum," a voice boomed.
Maribella hardly registered it, finally sinking into her exhaustion and letting the darkness take over.
On June the 7th, Alessandro Piccinni had been having a pleasant afternoon. This year's harvest was looking promising and Mr. Piccinni had received a total of five solicitations for his wine from all over the continent, just in the past few hours.
So by the end of the afternoon, when his two youngest children came rushing towards him, complaining about a bowtruckle that had bitten his eldest, he was too distracted to pay any mind to it and quickly laughed off Maribella's supposed pain as a child's cry for attention. Giovanna and Marco then began seeking their mother, forgetting she was gone. They quickly became distracted by the ghoul they had found a few weeks ago living in their attic and forgot all about the mission they had been given.
Maribella's disappearance was only noted when Mrs. Piccinni arrived home from work, purse in one hand and a single pixie in the other, to find Mr. Piccinni, Anna, and Marco sitting around the dinner table, waiting for Mrs. Piccinni'a arrival home to eat supper. Mr. Piccinni, still distracted by his paperwork, was dead to the rest of the world and Anna and Marco were loudly attempting to play Muggle cards.
"Good evening, Ale," Mrs. Piccinni greeted her husband, who simply smiled and waved at his wife, gesturing towards his papers.
"Mama!" Giovanna and Marco shouted with glee simultaneously as their mother moved to greet them both with a kiss on the forehead.
"What did you bring home today, Mama?" Anna asked, glancing at the pixie warily.
"This, tesoro, is a pixie," Mrs. Piccinni explained as she held the little beast up so Marco could take a look as well, "they are very mischievous creatures and love to play tricks and practical jokes. Which reminds me..." she quickly scanned the dining room, "...that our own little pixie is missing from the dinner table."
"Maribella?" Anna asked. Suddenly a look of horror appeared on her face, and she realized her mistake. "Oh no, Mama! Maribella is still out crying, she told me to come get you, but I forgot!" she exclaimed, and once again her bottom lip started to tremble.
"It's alright, tesoro," her mother wiped Anna's tears before they even started to fall, "we'll just go get her right now, then."
Giving Marco one last kiss on the head, Mrs. Piccinni, along with her youngest daughter, headed out to the fields to find Maribella. Drawing her wand, she cast a "Point Me" to assist her in the search. Anna and Mrs. Piccinni walked quietly side by side, with the former clutching her mother's arm tightly, until they heard a faint scream.
"Mama, what was that?" Anna asked, and her mother replied with a quiet shush as she mentally reviewed the most appropriate defensive and offensive spells to use should trouble occur.
Another scream was heard, louder this time, piercing the otherwise silent and peaceful night.
"Anna, I need you to go back inside, alright, dear? Go back inside and call Papa out to help Mama, okay? Keep Marco safe for me, tesoro, this will only take a few minutes," she said gently, but the tremble on her voice indicated how frightening the situation really was.
Anna ran back inside, as fast as her baby legs could take her. Meanwhile, Mrs. Piccinni rushed to the direction of the scream, silently praying that it wasn't her child making those noises, but some random creature she was meant to be studying. As mentioned before, nothing was ever that simple and eventually, Mrs. Piccinni did find the source of the screams; her child, being mauled by nothing less than a fully grown werewolf. She stood, paralyzed with shock, until the werewolf was unexpectedly thrown off, or rather, blasted off Maribella's body, and the child groaned with pain.
Mrs. Piccinni sprung into action shakily pointing her wand at the werewolf and screaming "Everte Statum", trying to put as much power in her voice as she could.
The werewolf flew back, startled at the interruption. The witch didn't stop, casting the nastiest curses, spells, and jinxes she could think of, until the beast finally left, whimpering. The older woman then ran to the young girl's side.
"Maribella, oh no, baby, oh no." She sank to her knees, carefully scooping her daughter's small body in her arms, trembling and with a blurred vision from tears. "ALE! ALESSANDRO!" she screamed, panicked.
Mrs. Piccinni , being the professional magizoologist that she was, knew that her daughter had to be immediately transported to St. Mungo's hospital if Maribella wanted to have any chance of living. Her husband was too far away, in the house, and she had no time to waste, so casting a quick Tergeo to clean the wound slightly, she apparated to the hospital.
"Werewolf," she managed to say to the healers, when she arrived, "please help," she finished breathless, too tired and afraid to say anything else.
As a group of healers took her child away from her, she cursed her own stupidity and the carelessness shown by Alessandro that day. They should've known that just because the war was over and You-Know-Who was gone, the world still contained dangers.
The rest of the night passed in a blur. At some point, she talked to Mr. Piccinni through the Floo Network, and at some point, he joined her at the hospital. Neither could recall when it happened. At some point a healer came to talk, explaining that while there was a chance Maribella would survive, she would forever be haunted by the werewolf who had bitten her, for, from now on, every full moon night she would turn into a beast herself. And at some point, the two oldest members of the Piccinni family realized that, for better or worse, their family had changed forever.
"We've managed to heal her neck muscle on the inside, which unclogged her trachea and eased the pressure on her esophagus, so she should be able to breathe and ingest food properly again," a healer told Mr. and Mrs. Piccinni a few hours after the initial incident. "However, the skin around her neck is still very sensitive. We won't be able to fully seal the wound up until next week, and until then, she'll be in a lot of pain. Ms. Piccinni is currently under a magically induced coma. The accidental magic she displayed before you..." he motioned to Mrs. Piccinni. "...arrived, may be the single factor that saved her life."
"And what will happen after she wakes up?" Mrs. Piccinni asked in a small voice, somewhat afraid of what the answer would be.
"Luckily, when she does wake up, she won't need any assistance with her physical recovery, apart from the daily Restorative Draught she'll have to take, but emotional therapy is highly recommended. We will also provide you with a stock of Calming Draught, in case she isn't able to handle her current situation too well." The healer frowned, as if he was forgetting something crucial.
"Oh yes. Unfortunately, as the two of you may be aware, Maribella has been infected with lycanthropy. There's a whole juridical procedure that will have to be looked at, and she should be registered at the Ministry. The transformation will occur every month and will be extremely painful, especially during the first few full moons. The hospital will provide your family with a supply of Wolfsbane Potion for the initial six months, and um…"
He conjured a piece of paper. "I've been told to give you this pamphlet. It will hopefully answer any remaining questions you might have," he finished awkwardly, quickly excusing himself to leave the couple to process all the information they had been given.
They stared at the pamphlet quietly. No tears fell from their eyes, as they both didn't have any left to be shed. They knew the next few days would have to be spent working towards acceptance and adaptation. They both quietly decided to make Maribella's transition into werewolf-hood as easy and as simple as possible
When Maribella awoke a day after her eighth birthday on June 14th, she didn't immediately register where she was. She felt someone hold her hand tightly, and she felt an almost unbearable pain on her neck, but that was about all she noticed before she dozed off again.
Her father, who had been sitting on a chair next to her, was quick to call in a healer. Ever since that night, a mere week ago, he had felt incredibly guilty, blaming himself for what had happened to her. To a certain extent, it was his fault. He'd been trying to help out as much as he could in the hospital, trying to make up for the negligence he had shown.
"When she fully awakens," the healer said, not unkindly, "you can take her home."
A few hours later, young Maribella awoke, confused and afraid, suddenly introduced to a whole new life she never asked to be a part of. She listened to everything silently, not speaking one single word until the healer and her parents were finished explaining her current situation. Afterwards she promptly burst into tears, and had to be given not one, but two Calming Draughts, before being brought back to the Grotta.
A.N./ Hey, guys! I know this whole 'Golden Quartet' business is a bit overdone, but I wanted to add my own character and write my own take on it. Please give it a try, and I hope you enjoy what I've written. Reviews and critiques are always welcome!
Edit: Hi, everyone. Recently, it's been brought to my attention that the original version of this chapter read more like a dictation instead of the beginning of a story. For that reason, I've rewritten it. Hopefully it's a bit better now. This version has not been edited, but hopefully my grammar is good enough on its own. Thanks for reading it!