VII - Filthy Mongrels

8th August 1997

Snape felt nauseous again, but it had nothing to do with the wolf.

They had taken the Ministry just over a week ago. They had also ambushed Bill Weasley's wedding.

The sight of Rufus Scrimgeour's body being toyed with by the Dark Lord would stay with him for the rest of his life.

And he had not known about the wedding ambush until he had found himself Portkeyed smack-bang into the middle of it. Complete chaos and wedding cake flying everywhere. Duelling alongside him were several Death Eaters who had escaped from Azkaban just days earlier, which he also had not known about.

He had at least known about the Ministry plan, but he had not told Lupin about it - after telling him about the Dark Lord's intention to install him as Headmaster of Hogwart's, he hadn't dared reveal too much else.

If the ambushes and events of that afternoon had not all been hellish enough, once the celebratory revels and Death Eater debauchery were done for the evening, he had made his excuses and stumbled back to Islington to discover that the Gryffindor Trio were now camping out in Grimmauld Place.

It was so very typical - just as he had got a temporary brewing lab set up, and had stumbled into some kind of dysfunctional, yet vaguely secure quasi-werewolf-relationship where his "partner" was willingly making him tea, and frying him a large pan of liver and onions each morning, the bloody Potter Progeny had to blunder in...

Then again he was relieved to see that the teenagers were still alive - they had somehow managed to evade capture by both Death Eaters and the Ministry, and Weasley and Granger were accompanying Potter on his mission from Dumbledore…

He had also finally managed to meet up with Lupin again thanks to a screamingly unsubtle note the man had left stuck to a railing in front of 12 Grimmauld Place one evening.

"Blackwolf - follow the aloe vera..."

Snape had muttered darkly to himself. He couldn't believe he was about to track Lupin by following the scent of his fucking aftershave…

He had found him easily just a street away, at the end of a block of garages.

Lupin looked like shit.

"Harry, Ron and Hermione are staying in the house at the moment," explained Lupin. "Harry is now wanted by the Ministry...they are seeking to frame him, I fear."

"Yes, I've known since last week. You look like you've been sleeping in a bin," drawled Snape, peering down his long nose at the man.

"That's because I have. Well, this garage, actually. It's not too bad, when you shut the door and cast a few heating charms...I transfigured another mattress, as the one that was already in here was a bit grim..."

Snape raised a bemused eyebrow. "I wasn't aware that yourself and Tonks lived in a garage…"

Lupin let out a weary sigh. "Oh Great Godric please...Not you as well…!"

"Why exactly are you sleeping in a garage, Lupin?"

Lupin closed his eyes. "Well...Tonk's family got tortured by Death Eaters who were trying to find out the whereabouts of Harry, so they have gone into hiding for the moment. This is my bolthole when I am keeping an eye on the teenagers. I can't face going back in the house anymore...Harry and I had a disagreement...Now he hates me…" He sniffed miserably.

By Salazar's un-oiled beard...a fucking depressed werewolf… Snape wasn't sure he had been blessed with any of the necessary skills to cope with such a pathetic thing…

He sneered unsympathetically at the crumpled-faced man. "Perhaps it escaped your notice, but Potter hates me too, I've no doubt he would love to crucio my arsehole through my blasted eyeball... but as we know this is all for his sake..."

Lupin moaned. "I'm a bloody idiot asking to go on his mission with him... I should just go back to Tonks like he wants me to… I will, after the full moon."

"Indeed, but you must gain access to that cellar first, I have some brewing supplies down there I need, and we also need to start taking the Wolfsbane from today. Do not assume going back into that house is avoidable, Lupin, if you don't go willingly then it shall be by my wandpoint."

Ten minutes later, a jittery Lupin had gone back into Grimmauld Place.

And of course the teenagers didn't mind. Harry was okay. He had even been hugged and cried on by Hermione…

He had been a fool. Again...

Lupin had packed up the supplies, and also asked Harry if he could use the cellar during the next full moon, because he didn't trust the Wolfsbane potion he had bought, and wanted to keep Tonks safe, and the cellar was one of the securest places he knew of. Thankfully Harry had agreed.

x-X-x

On the evening before the full moon, Lupin returned to the house. He waited until the teenagers finished their tea and moved upstairs into the drawing room before letting Snape in. The pair of them moved swiftly through the hallway and down into the cellar.

"Have you noticed any noticeable side-effects, muscle spasms, headaches and so on from the modified potion?" Enquired the Slytherin as soon as the cellar door was locked, bolted and warded.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, aside from the usual dry-eyes, but I recall having that side effect taking the other potion."

Snape's eyes glittered and he looked a little self-satisfied. "Then the experiment is going as planned. I propose we take the final dose at 8pm tonight."

At 8pm, they took the final dose.

After fifteen minutes, Remus began to feel an energising, uplifting feeling. He mentioned it to Snape, who raised an eyebrow; he wasn't experiencing the same sensation.

At 8.35pm Lupin reported agitatedness, muscle twitches and a decidedly itchy back.

At 8.42pm the muscle spasms finally broke through for Lupin and he transformed.

It appeared that it was Snape's turn to watch his fellow wolf transform first this month. It would only be the second time ever that he had witnessed a werewolf transformation, but the very first without fear. He looked on in morbid fascination as Lupin's limbs curved and shifted, his face elongated, sprouting brown fur, and yellowed fangs grew in behind foaming, pained lips, which barely even passed a sound, so used was the man to transforming. The wolf's legs were now growing noticeably thicker and more muscular, and the chest was bulking out as well.

Here no longer was the gangly underfed creature he remembered from the last transformation, now he truly was the beast that Muggle fairytales warned their children about.

Lupinwolf let out a low growl, and tipped his head to the side, as if to say, "what's keeping you?"

As if prompted, Snape felt the beginnings of his own transformation...And everything physical and emotional hit him all at once.

Last time the pain and exhaustion had been all-consuming. This time it was solely a heady, almost euphoric level of pain, no doubt mitigated by his amendments to the brew. His scalp prickled and stung. White dots exploded before his eyes.

He howled.

A minute later and the transformation was complete. He opened his eyes to his first fully conscious experience of being in werewolf form.

His limbs felt bunched and ready like coiled springs. He felt heady, bullish, youthful, like he could smash the world.

It was abundantly clear that the other werewolf in the room felt the same. His mouth wide open and tongue lolling he bounded forward and snatched playfully at Snape's flank. Snapewolf dodged, Lupinwolf came at him again, his bronze eyes darting, and the two rolled into a mound of spiky fur, growling and mock-gnashing at one another.

That bit had actually been vaguely fun, Snape concluded... What happened next, however, wasn't so much, in fact it pretty much ensured that the phrase, "in complete control" wouldn't be something Snape would ever use to describe a pair of werewolves who had taken his modified Wolfsbane ever again…

The first clear indication that something was terribly amiss was when Lupinwolf bounced away from their mock playfight and reduced their carefully bolted, magic-warded door to splinters with a single smash of his right paw.

Snape's first horrified thought was that he had overdone the dose of strengthening solution a bit. But then he quickly realised that there had been no sign of the wards and spells buckling at all; Lupinwolf must have nonverbally cancelled the wards before he had attacked the door.

It seemed that wizards retaining control of their minds in werewolf form, and not sedated, could also cancel their own spells, whoever know or would even imagine?

Well, an alarmed Severus Snape did, as of precisely that moment.

It seemed that the addition of a sedative to the original brew had been for safety as much as convenience...

x-X-x

"Merlin's bollocks…!"

Ron and Harry leapt up in alarm as a sizeable, panting shaggy brown beast suddenly appeared in the doorway of the drawing room. Hermione looked up from her book and froze.

Lupinwolf lolled his long tongue out and seemed to grin at them while wagging his tail. It was recognisably still Lupin in werewolf form, but somehow he seemed quite a bit bigger than they all remembered him being...

"U-Uh...Remus did say he'd taken his Wolfsbane, didn't he?"

"Yes...He did Ron. He's taken it every evening. But he also told us that he didn't trust the brew, and that he'd bolt and ward the door as well..." Replied Hermione, her fingers curling around her wand.

"Do you think he just forgot to ward the door properly?" Hissed Harry desperately.

They heard more paws on floorboards then and a second huge, jet black wolf appeared immediately behind Lupin, his yellow eyes glinting.

"Shit….!"

Harry's heart leapt up to his mouth at the sight of the shaggy black creature.

"Padfoot?!"

At this the black werewolf made a loud retching-snort-cough sound and gave Harry a death glare. It then grabbed hold of and pulled sharply at Lupinwolf's scraggly tail. The brown wolf yelped and turned round to snap at its teaser, the black wolf dodged his jaws, snorted and made off back down the hallway, with the brown one in hot pursuit. The pair of them skidded and scrabbled all the way down the stairs and landed with a loud whump in the hallway, waking up Mrs Black's portrait.

"FILTHY MONGRELS! DISGUSTING FLEA-RIDDEN BEASTS BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS….!"

They heard the front door bang open, then bang shut. A wild howl echoed down the street.

The Gryffindor Trio looked at one another wide-eyed.

Ron stood up. "What the bloody hell is going on...? Those wolves were bloody massive, something's got to have gone wrong…!"

Harry's heart was racing, and he tried to calm himself. It couldn't be Sirius, it couldn't be Sirius...

"That wasn't Sirius, Harry, it was another werewolf - longer legs, shorter tail, and the coat was definitely smoother than Padfoot's ever was." Said Hermione softly.

"I know I know," said Harry. "My mind just leapt straight to it, you know?"

"If it's not… And it's not a ghost, then who the hell is the other werewolf?"

Harry frowned. "Perhaps Remus bit Tonks...?"

"Erm, did you see the other wolf's 'nads mate? It was most definitely a male… " scoffed Ron.

"Nevermind that…" interrupted Hermione frowning. "The front door was chained and bolted, and only opens and closes to magic, so how the heck did two werewolves just get outside...?"