EchoWaves - Most likely Hermione will figure it out, she has spent two years with Pan in a dorm. Hermione knows something is up with Pan, but I don't think she'll have put it together yet because she's not yet had reason to look into werewolves, but I think once that certain homework is set, she'll see all the clues about Pan as well as Lupin.
Pan walked down towards Hagrid's hut with Hermione, their first lesson was Care of Magical creatures. Something that put Pandora at ease, she may have slipped up with the boggart, but this was something she was good at. She just seemed to connect with other creatures; whether it be centaurs, thestrals, unicorns, it was easier for her then most to make a connection. She knew when other creatures were nearby, it would excite her, especially if she recognized the scent. Often when strolling near the forest she could smell Firenze somewhere in the forest and sometimes he would come speak to her. Pan enjoyed those talks, even if most of the time she couldn't follow what he was saying. He would talk about the planets and whether they were all lining and what that meant, and although it confused her, she would listen. She liked her talks with her, he understood how she felt. To a degree that s, being shunned because of what you are; Firenze made her feel a bit more normal. He spoke to her like he wold Hagrid or one of his herd, he often wold stop himself from talking about something because in his eyes, she was still a foal..or a pup. The first time he had called her that, she hadn't been so sure of how to take it. The only other people that had called her that was other werewolves she had met, and they didn't always say it in the nicest of tones, and by her uncle Ash, who used it to try and make her feel better. Whenever the other members of her family called her anything to do with her affliction, it was most definitely not said with the best of meaning. The next time Firenze had seen her, he apologized, and Pan had tried to explain things to him. She wasn't sure if he had understood what she meant, but smiled at her and nodded. It had been a few more months down the line before he called her a foal again, or a pup. Pan enjoyed dipping into the forest to see the thestrals, she found them to be rather elegant...in a creepy kind of way; but that was the way she saw most of the creatures in the forest. Rather elegant but dangerous, she wouldn't but that description to herself but everything in the forest was misunderstood she thought. That was a feeling she knew all to well.
Over the past few years, Pandora had gotten a bit better with recognizing scents of different people and creatures. Of course, if she were in the common room or the Great Hall then she couldn't really pick up on an individual scent, not unless she really focused in on someone. If she were somewhere where there were few people, then she could pick out different scents and she had gotten used to a number of people and their scents; so much so that she would know if they walked in a room...that wasn't very populated. Likewise with the creatures of the forest, if she were looking for the thestrals, she had gotten so used to their scent that she could find them rather easily. Every species had it's own scent, and she remembered half way through her first year, picking up on a rather familiar scent that did nothing but confuse her.
Pan couldn't help but laugh at herself, it was no wonder she hadn't picked up on Lupin's scent. She hated picking up the scent of other werewolves, it always put her on edge. Many other wolves gave her a hard time because of her grandfather, and some took pity on her. Pan had been aware of another werewolf scent, but honestly, she had just figured there was another stray running around the forest. An eleven year old Pandora Argent had anxiously made her way to Professor Dumbledore, who patiently listened to her and told her it would be dealt with. After it had been looked into, Hagrid had informed her that the scent had belonged to two werewolves; and after reading into the subject, Pan realized that the reason the scent had been so familiar was because she has smelt it since she was a young girl. It was that musk every werewolf wore. She figured that when she picked up on that musk for the first few weeks of the term that it had just been a werewolf running around the forest again.
"Pan?"
Her head snapped to her right and she blushed at Hermione, "Sorry, I was miles away."
"It's alright, you've not been sleeping well lately?" Hermione asked, "I hear you tossing and turning sometime."
"Yea, umm...bad dreams." Pan answered, she wasn't lying. It was only partly the truth.
Hermione seemed to take that as an answer, and smiled at Pan. She was starting to like Pandora, not to say she disliked the girl beforehand, just she wasn't sure what to think of her. Pandora was...different, but after spending a bit more time with her, Hermione was really coming round to her. Hermione was starting to learn a lot a out Pan, she knew that Pan getting lost in her own thoughts was nothing to find offensive, it was something she did with almost everyone. Hermione had wondered if Pan was just daydreaming at times, but now she thought different. She'd seen the distant look in Pan's eyes and sometimes it was very cold.
"I hear you've got a rather busy time table this year?" Pan asked, trying to get back into the conversation.
"Yes, but I'm sure I'll manage." Hermione answered, "McGonagall wouldn't have allowed me to take so many subject if she didn't think I could cope."
"So it's not getting on top of you? I'm already regretting taking three options." Pan joked.
The two finally reached the paddock near Hagrid's hut where the lesson nearly always took place. And looking in, the two groaned. Flobberworms again, this lesson would consist of feeding Flobberworms lettuce, it was a thought that excited neither girl. Pandora knew, when she selected the subject that she would not be meeting a new and exciting creature every lesson but Flobberworms were..Flobberworms, she had no other word to describe them. She felt as though their name said everything about them. Hagrid had promised them that not every lesson would be about Flobberworms to which everyone was glad. There wasn't really that much to Flobberworms, the best way to care for them was to leave them be and so the class had so far consisted of feeding a Flobberworm a leaf of lettuce every now and again, and just talking among themselves. Hagrid had promised them that some lessons would take them into the forest, a thought that did excite Pan. As more and more of their class began to arrive, Hermione and Pan turned in different directions to Neville and Harry. She vaguely heard something about homework that Professor Lupin had set, she figured this had been after she had ran out. He hadn't mentioned it this morning, but she supposed that it had slipped his mind, there had been more important matter in mind. Pan made a mental note to ask someone in class about it, or to ask Lupin about it later.
It didn't take long for the rest of the class to show up, and Hagrid had let them split up into their own groups and pick a Flobberworm. Pan wasn't exactly sure who she was paired with, but she knew that there was two Flobberworms to her, Seamus, Dean and Neville. Pan and Neville went to collect their lettuce from Hagrid, looking at the line, she could see Hagrid having a chat with everyone that stepped forward. This could take some time, not that she minded nor did she think the Flobberworms would. Neville started to tell Pan about Hogsmeade, the wizarding village that they would be able to visit soon. Neville had been there before with his grandmother and began to tell her about the different shops in the village. He told her about Scrivenshaft's quill shop, which was where he had bought her the eagle feather quill for Christmas last year. He told her about an annoying cafe where couples fled ran by a witch called Madam Puddifoot. He told her about the Shrieking Shack, which was supposedly one of the most haunted buildings in Britain, and about post office, which housed numerous amounts of owls. Most of all though, Neville told her about Honeydukes and all the different kinds of sweets you could get there. There were the normal sweets she knew about, like the chocolate frogs with the collectible cards, Drooble's best blowing gum, sugar quills, pumpkin pasties and Bertie Bott's every flavor beans. He told her about some rather odd sweets like acid pops that can burn a hole right through your tongue, cockroach clusters made out of real cockroaches and Lick-o-Rish spiders, bewitched to crawl around like real spiders.
Pan stepped forward, and Neville turned behind to talk to Ron, and took her lettuce from Hagrid and the half giant smiled down at her. She liked Hagrid, he made her feel safe. She didn't feel so out of place with Hagrid.
"Hey there." Hagrid smiled brightly at the thirteen year old.
Pan turned slightly, and smiled back at him, she'd always thought his smiles were rather contagious. "Hi."
"Haven't seen you in a while, been seeing you in class, but tha's not the same, you normally come down on your first weekend for a cuppa. You haven't come down for a lil...what is it you call them?" Hagrid thought for a moment, "Scruff and a scream?"
Pan laughed a little, "It's what Ash calls them. I'm still recovering."
"Still?" Hagrid answered in a worried tone. "Most have been a hard one."
Pan could only nod; the previous full moon she'd been so busy that she had barely made it to the room of requirement. She had ran from the dining room after a late dinner due to a detention from Snape for something she couldn't remember, ran to her dorm for extra clothing for the day after and even when she made it to the room of requirement, the poor girl had to evade prefects and manage to call upon the correct room. With so much rushing around, she'd entirely forgotten about going to the dungeons and collecting her Wolfsbane; resulting in the last full moon being a very long and painful one.
"Yea...I...I'll explain later." Pan spoke quietly, knowing Hagrid would catch her little hint that this was something she wouldn't be able to get across to him subtly.
Hagrid nodded at her and smiled, "Yea, tha's fine! Why don't we have some tea on Saturday? Say half eleven, gives you a bit of a lie in."
Pan agreed, smiling. She went to join Seamus and Dean to begin feeding their Flobberworm. Unknown to both Hagrid and Pan, others had heard their conversation; leaving a confused Ron and Neville, and what could be worse, a confused Slytherin.
The day seemed to be a miserable one after that first class. During Care of Magical Creatures, it had been rather easy for Pan to hide away with her friends without anyone seeing anything different about her. She'd known that Hagrid would pick up on something about her, normally he wouldn't have mentioned anything about the full moon in front of her peers, but he had been worried about her. She was still easing her aches from the last full mood and her head still pounded at time, but she knew it would pass. She knew if things got any worse then she could just go to Madam Pomfrey and get something to soothe the pain. Regardless, her friends had provided a distraction in the form of a heated discussion between Seamus and Dean about which was the better sport. Quidditch or Football? The two had even tried to engage Neville and Pandora, but quickly realized what a mistake they had made. Pan didn't care much for sport to begin with, but she really didn't like flying so that ruled out Quidditch and she said she barely knew what football was. Neville, as always, tried to play the peace keeper between them.
After that, they had Herbology, and they all seemed so thankful that the greenhouses weren't that far from Hagrid's hut as the skies opened and let our a great downpour upon them. There were squeal from some girls about their hair getting wet, and someone loudly announced that they blame the dementors for the weather, it was as miserable as they felt when those awful creatures were near. No one had been happy to hear that they would be patrolling the grounds looking for Sirius Black, especially after the incident on the train. And despite being told the dementors would stay on the outskirts of the school, there had already been many complaints about the creatures slowly drifting closer and closer towards the school. When they arrived at the greenhouses, Pan didn't need to worry about who to sit next to as Professor Sprout had assigned them all to groups at the start of the year, which left a very awkward Neville with Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. Hermione, Ron and Harry had been split up; Ron was in a group with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot; leaving Michael Corner in Ron's place with Harry and Hermione. Seamus and Dean were less then thrilled to be grouped with Justin Finch-Fletchly, someone they thought to be rather arrogant and pompous. Pan had been placed in a group with Terry Boot and Padma Patil. She hadn't been too sure about Terry, she'd always thought he was rather aloof, she'd never meant it in a bad way, as far as she'd seen, he was alright. Seamus assured her that he was a 'top notch lad', and Pan took her friends word for it. When she'd thought about it, Terry and Michael rather reminded her of Seamus and Dean. Pandora wasn't worried about Padma, the two of them had sat together last year during charms and history of magic. At the start of their second year, the two had barely said a word to each other but they slowly opened up to one another.
When Herbology had ended, it was still pouring down with rain and teens had all made a mad dash towards the castle. Flocking into the great hall and ringing out their cloaks, they were all beginning to settle when Lee Jordan came running into the hall clutching a newspaper. A swarm of kids surrounded him as he placed the paper down. He began to explain that Sirius Black had been spotted in Dufftown by a muggle woman, however by the time any wizarding authorities got to the scene, Black was long gone. In an attempt to keep some order, the teachers ushered the students back to their classes. When Pan had reached the transfiguration class, Hermione had waved her over. Harry and Ron had been rather bewildered that Hermione would do such a thing. They both found her to be quite odd. Harry had spoken to her only a handful of times, but Ron had spoken to her even less then that and had come to the conclusion that he really like her. Something about her just irked him, and it was only just now did he remember the conversation between Pandora and Hagrid.
Ron looked over to Pan, and upon seeing her at the back of class still speaking with Neville, he began to tell Hermione and Harry.
"You know, I heard her have a funny talk with Hagrid before." Harry and Hermione turned to look at Ron, urging him to continue. "He said something about not seeing her in a while."
"Well what's so weird about that?" Hermione asked.
"Why should she be seeing Hagrid?" Ron answered back.
"We're not the only ones who go to see Hagrid in out spare time, you know!" Hermione told the boys, "I've seen her go to meet Hagrid for tea a number of times, it's nothing strange."
"Yea, well Hagrid said something about her having a 'scruff and a scream', what's that about?"
"Well, maybe it isn't anything awful." Hermione tried to defend Pan, "It probably doesn't mean anything awful, Hagrid wouldn't stand for anything like that."
"So what's she recovering from then?" Ron asked angrily, "She said it'd been a rough one, a rough what?"
"Well...I..."
Harry looked between Hermione and Ron as the two argued. He wasn't entirely sure why Hermione was trying her best to stick up for Pandora but he had noticed that they'd been spending a bit of time together.
"Well?"
"Maybe it's her time of the month." Hermione said, enjoying the schanenfreude at the boy's discomfort, "Maybe that's what she's recovering from, you know headaches and cramps."
"Yea, we get the idea Hermione." Harry spoke up at last.
The children left Transfiguration feeling a little better; McGonagall had them reading through a few chapters and writing notes. They'd caught on by now that this was something the professors would do when they were they behind on marking. McGonagall had allowed them to do their work whilst talking as long as it was quietly. After about half an hour, McGonagall spotted a hand raised at the back and took the question. She wasn't surprised when she was asked about the dementors and Sirius Black. Children were curious little things, and she was surprised that it had taken them so long to ask about this.
Susan Bones had asked far away Dufftown was to Hogwarts. McGonagall had told her it was a few hours away.
Michael Corner had asked what the dementors will do when they find Black. And the professor had told him that they will take him back to Azkaban.
Neville Longbottom asked if it was at all possible for Black to get inside the castle. McGonagall told him that of course there were ways that Black could get into the castle and bypass the dementors, after all, he had done it was before when he escaped but there was nothing to worry about.
She wanted to make sure that her students felt safe but they were being careful. She wouldn't lie to them, despite them still being young, she felt it best to tell them the truth. Dufftown was a few hours away by Knight Bus, but she suspect that Black was travelling on foot, and it would take him a lot longer then just a few hours to reach Hogwarts if he really was coming this way. She told them that the dementors would catch Black and even if he got past those foul creatures, then there was the whole staff to get past. And they sure as hell, weren't going to let anything happen to the children.
Minerva McGonagall had looked around the classroom as she spoke to them, she was pleased to see their worried expression just disappear as she promised them that they would all be kept safe. As far as she was concerned they were all children, the first years all the way to the seventh years; they were all children that needed to be guided and protected. It was probably biased of her, but she always looked upon the Gryffindor house as though they were her own children. It was up to her to look after them, to guide them, protect them and love them. She shook her head, she was getting soppy but the thought of anything happening to those children was unbearable. She knew a lot about her students and her heart went out to all of them. She knew that a lot had happened to many of the students.
Dinner had ended a few hours ago, and Remus was waiting patiently in his classroom for Pandora. He wasn't angry that she was late turning up, he understood that it was a lot to take in. He wasn't sure if she'd ever met other werewolves or if she had whether they'd been friendly; he supposed they had a lot to talk about. Remus wanted Pan to know that he was here to talk whenever she needed to, he knew she had some of the other staff but he thought having someone on side that truly understood what she was going through would really help her. He remembered what it felt like to sneak away from his dorm and hide away every month, to hide the biggest and darkest secret of his life from those he loved, and how much all that hurt. From his talks with Hagrid, Poppy and Minerva, Remus had learnt quite a bit about Pandora. Hagrid had told him that the last full moon had been hard on her but he wasn't sure why. Hagrid explained that every Saturday after the full moon Pandora would come down to his hut and the two would have tea and cakes together, at first Hagrid had made his rock cakes but eventually Pan would bring cakes from the kitchen. Poppy told Remus that Pan often came in for pain relief for her aches. And Minerva had told him that she was sure that something was wrong at home.
With each year, Pan would come to school with a fresh set of cuts and bruises, she donned new scars and Poppy would perform a medical exam on the girl just to make sure she was alright. Minerva told Remus how Pan would flinch Hugo Argent's name was even mentioned around her, she suspected he was behind the abuse. Pan would let things slip around her head of house and then quickly stop talking, she was so afraid of getting into trouble with her family. So scared of them, that talking about them for too long would bring her to tears. Minerva did mention that only one Pan could trust was her uncle Ash, that he was kind to her. Remus had also asked Severus if he knew anything about the situation, and the potions master shrugged and simply told him that she didn't turn up last full moon to pick up her wolfsbane. Putting the pieces together, he realized this must have been what she had been talking about with Hagrid.
Remus looked up as there was a small knock on the door and in walk Pandora Argent. She was still in her school uniform, she did not have her school bag with her so he guessed that she had been to her dorm to drop it off and spend a few more hours with her friends before coming to face this. Out of everything Remus had ever done, he thought that this may be both one of the hardest and most important things he'd ever do. Pandora walked to the front of her class, she was playing with the hem of her robe sleeve and looking nervously around the classroom. When she stood in front of his desk, Remus smiled at her,
"Pan, I'm glad you could come." He spoke softly to her.
"Sorry I didn't come right after dinner...I wasn't sure if...I didn't know..."
Remus nodded, "I understand. It's a lot to take in, and I only want to help you."
Pan nodded, unsure of what to say or do.
"Why don't you grab a chair and we can talk?"
Pan went to grab a chair, and Remus noted that she didn't just grab one from the front she went to the third row where she normally sat and brought the chair on which she normally sat. He smiled at her, perhaps it was a comfort thing.
"So...what are we going to...talk about?"
"Where would you like to start?" Remus asked, "Wolfsbane? The help you get here? What about your home li..."
"No. No, I don't want to talk about...being there...with them." Pandora quickly cut him off, "You said...this morning, that you know how I feel..."
Remus gave a sad smile, "Yes, I do."
"Do...do you know a lot about...being this?" Pan asked, "I couldn't tell you were in the castle."
Remus noticed how she sounded a bit more confident when she spoke about him being in the castle and he guessed she meant his scent, "Well if it makes you feel any better, I didn't realize that the werewolf I was smelling was inside the castle either."
She nodded, "A little better."
"I'm glad, you're still getting used to your senses Pan, after all, you're still a p...child."
"A pup. It's alright, Firenze calls me it, or a foal; but I think it's just his way of saying I'm still a child."
Remus nodded, thankful that he was making some kind of progress with her. He knew now that she was opening p, that she would have a lot more questions, and they may have to re schedule this little talk. He thought maybe to make this a regular thing for her, and now that she was getting more comfortable with him then she would turn up on time.
Remus was glad he was able to help someone like this, he may have had this friends in his last few years at Hogwarts but he wished he'd had someone sooner, and perhaps someone that knew what he was going though. He would do whatever it took in order to make this young girl accept that being a werewolf did not define who she was as a person, to help her and guide her through this.
He would help her.
There's chapter three guys!
I'd love to know what you all thought!
Umbralunae
