A Child is a Wish a Mum Makes
There is a lot that is not known about werewolves. Fear has prevented the magical world from delving too deeply into it. Fear was man's most magnificent straight jacket. Lack of research led to a lack of understanding, a lack of understanding led to fear, and fear led to pain. Mischa knew a lot about that particular process.
Mischa Dalton wasn't even technically alive when she met her first werewolf. Her very existence wasn't even known to her parents. A bundle of cells full of potential- most hadn't yet decided what they were going to be. Chaotically bustling around some would become part of a liver, others eyeballs. It was the lack of certainty that opened her up to corruption. The right interference at the exact right time may cause unexpected side effects.
Evelyn and Pascha Dalton had been enjoying a relaxed camping honeymoon by the forest of Dean. It wasn't much, but it was all that they could afford. In each others company, there was no greater happiness. Outcast by both of their families, they took all that they could and, they struck out by themselves. A simple life, a quiet life, that was all they ever wanted. Even with the rising popularity of blood purity, they believed they could fly under the radar. They were viewed as blood traitors, and that was not a situation anyone wanted to be in.
Still, a marriage is something to be celebrated, so off to the forest of Dean they went. It was just mildly unfortunate that a young werewolf by the name of Fenrir Greyback happened to be on the prowl. Normal witches and wizards don't think they have to monitor the moon cycles, that was probably what led to their misfortune.
In the middle of the night, Fenrir made his way into their tent, and without warning, he attacked.
Pascha Dalton did not survive the attack, he fought- valiantly, but ultimately not wizard can survive a surprise attack from a werewolf in his prime. Evelyn Dalton did survive, apparating away just in the nick of time, all except for one scratch. That's the problem with werewolves; unfortunately, the potency of their venom is such that only a single scratch ensures the continuance of their kind. A month after the initial attack, Evelyn found herself in the basement of her home, trapped in a cage.
Evelyn hadn't known she was pregnant- and female werewolves were unable to procreate, so she didn't hold out much hope for the future, but as she gained weight as the months passed, she began to sense that all was not as it appeared to be. A simple spell, and all at once, Evelyn was a werewolf mother-to-be.
As the months passed, Evelyn was sick for the worry she felt. Each month marked a time that the baby may not survive the mother's traumatic change from human to wolf and back. She didn't dare buy baby clothes or baby toys, fear of acknowledging the baby led to greater fear of losing it.
In her eighth month of pregnancy, Evelyn moved to a smaller home in a place where she felt safer. Godric's Hollow had long been a safe haven for witches and wizards throughout history. In recent years, more muggles had moved into the area, but with the famous Dumbledore home being there, none of the dark wizard's followers dared to attack the Hollow unless there was a specific reason.
Evelyn picked a small cottage out from the main village, on the edge of the woods. It had been unused for many years, but she knew there was far more to the building than appeared. Before her fall from grace by marrying the man she loved, she had worked in the Ministry archives. A true Ravenclaw at heart, she soaked up knowledge where she found it, and she had heard of the magical nature reserves, and it had stuck in her brain. With population numbers rising in the UK, the Ministry of Magic had been dealing with more and more injuries due to magical creatures. The magic behind the reserves was ingenious. Giant bubbles were created, accessible by the groundskeeper cottages, that allowed the creatures to be gathered and wander freely, without a chance muggles would discover them. Should anyone fancy a walk and happen to come by the bubble, they would naturally feel themselves walking around it, or an inclining would appear in their mind that they may have left food in the oven, or their door unlocked; and would turn around. It had been an idea put forward by none other than Newt Scamander. Animals could wander in, and the bubble would provide a home, designed to sustain all manner of beasts.
Of course, wizarding attitudes as they were, in the end, it proved too big of a task, and the reserves were all destroyed, and the ministry allowed for the hunting of the creatures and erasing the memories of poor muggles.
As Evelyn Dalton investigated, however, she realised that the Godric's Hollow reserve was still intact and that it would provide the perfect hiding place should she ever find herself and her child hunted in the Hollow.
By herself, Evelyn built up the small cottage, not daring to ask anyone for help for fear of their betraying her. She gave birth, alone, in the middle of the night as a werewolf, to a small baby girl. She had woken, terrified, having had her water break as the shift began. She dared not open her eyes until she felt a tiny weight in her arms searching for a source of milk, whining at the lack of success, and for the first time in nine months, in the confinement of a cage in her own home, Evelyn felt content.
As months past, and years followed, benchmarks were set and smashed. Evelyn feared that Mischa would share her burden as a werewolf and so that first month she had been forced to confine her child to a second cage, which proved unnecessary. As Mischa grew, the rackety cottage turned into a home, and the creatures that resided inside of the bubble found themselves studied to exhaustion by a curious young girl. At first, Evelyn had been apprehensive, but upon seeing her having run out into the back garden without supervision and in the care of a herd of thestrals, Evelyn had realised she had an exceptional little girl. Happy as could be, the four-year-old rested her back on one of the calves, and stroked her hand over its leathery skin, chatting to her heart's content. The more Evelyn watched, the more she became curious. Occasionally her speech would become broken by animalistic noises or huffs if she felt she wasn't getting something quite right. Her daughter, her beloved child, had found a way to communicate with the beasts.
It's an odd thing, Evelyn realised, to hope that your child is merely average. She didn't want her burdened with something that would make her stick out, that would make her a target of ridicule. She hoped it was a phase, a child with a wild imagination, but mothers cannot always have what they want for their child. A child will eventually grow to be who they are, not who someone wished them to be.
When Mischa reached the age of seven, their life took another turn for the unusual, a twist that Evelyn had not seen coming. While it was true that witches and wizards who trained to could take on the form of animals as an animagus, Evelyn started to change into animals the moment she spoke to them, or occasionally by just thinking about them. For months, Evelyn had listened to her daughter's screams as she flitted between forms. She knew they couldn't ask for help. Werewolves had their children taken from them because they were too dangerous, and as soon as the Ministry realised that Mischa suffered side effects because of it, the two of them would never be free.
Just when she was on the cusp of writing to Albus Dumbledore himself, a wizard that she knew would listen without prejudice to the details regarding what had happened to her, the changes stopped. As though Mischa's body had acclimatised to its ability, it suddenly became more comfortable for her to do it, less painful, and it required her will to change, not just a stray thought.
As the years past by faster than Evelyn remembered them to do so, she became aware that she could not keep her daughter away from the world. An owl on a windowsill one summer morning confirmed that well enough. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was a place where young witches and wizards realised who they were. It was where they made friends for life, and where they learned what they wanted their future to involve. Evelyn had met the love of her life in her penultimate year at Hogwarts. However brief their lives had been together, they had been some of the happiest times of her life. It would not be right to deny her daughter the same joy, and so, with a heavy heart, she told her daughter of the world beyond the reserve and organised their first trip to Diagon Alley.
As is a mother's right, Evelyn fretted over Mischa in their last few weeks before they were separated until the Christmas break. She worried that Mischa may not have the right clothes, or that she would get hopelessly lost trying to find her lessons. She laid awake at night, thinking that the other children might discover that she was different and might bully her because of it. Evelyn knew her daughter was stronger than she believed herself to be, but she had always been there to make sure she was never hurt. In truth, Evelyn was far more worried than Mischa was. Mischa did what Mischa always did, much like her father before her, there was no point in worrying over something until something happened- worrying was like torturing yourself for not knowing the answer to a question that hasn't been asked yet.
Knowing her mother's feelings on the matter, Mischa never changed when in her mother's sights. With a magical nature reserve as her back garden, however, it afforded her many hiding spots to explore what she could really do. Some creatures required a great deal of concentration; others came as quickly to her as breathing. Her friends were the animals that guided her, taught her how to talk, to walk. In truth, Mischa found her time spent as animals far more natural than as a human.
"Are you ready?" Evelyn asked, holding her daughter's hand on the platform, "If you don't want to go, you don't have to. We can turn around."
Mischa smiled but didn't tear her eyes away from the crowds of students and parents trying to get on their way.
"It's fine, Mum. I will be fine. Stop worrying. Will you be okay with me gone? We can turn around if you want to? You don't have to let me go," Mischa teased in turn.
"One day, Mischa, you are going to be a mother, and I will be laughing at you as you fret over the exact same things I am."
"No one worries as much as you do."
"That's because I care about you so much more than they care about their children," Evelyn winked. "Go on then, my love, before I decide you're not allowed to grow up."
"I'll see you during the holidays, don't worry."
With a swift kiss on the cheek and an assist to get her suitcases on board the baggage cart, Mischa found an empty berth and waved at her mother. There was a pang of sadness that tainted the excitement, but Mischa knew that it was inevitable that one day she would need to meet other people her age, and move on to another stage of her life. Besides, the reserve would be waiting for her to return, always.