The Moonraker

A-World-Of-My-Imagination

A/N: Wow, thanks again, everyone! The song is "Mad World" by Tears for Fears. Quick question - would you rather have shorter chapters (1,000-2,000 words) more often (two or three times a week) or longer chapters (2,000-4,000 words) once a week?

Chapter Two – Terror and a Blaze

"Ah, yes, the purple looks lovely, Mildred, good choice. Teddy, hush, you'll have to go to your room if you can't stay quiet," an older woman, hair more gray than brown, scolded the blue-headed child at her feet as she skillfully maneuvered her hands to knit a small green scarf. "There, look, now I'm finished – would you like a scarf, Teddy dear?"

The woman smiled at the boy tugging on the bottom of her robes and wrapped the scarf around his neck. The small child pulled at the scarf and pointed a chubby finger at a sneakascope. With a sigh, the witch looked where her grandson was eager for her to – the small object was spiraling frantically around the counter like a fish, flapping up and down in excitement. The woman gasped, and not a moment later the wards began sounding off, a quivering wail fluctuating in every ear in attendance.

The occupants of the room burst into a flurry, fighting to use the floo and vainly attempting to apparate out of the warded house. Andromeda ignored it all, dropping out of her chair and onto her knees in front of the small metamorphosis.

"Teddy, listen to me closely. I need you to go to the back room, the guest bedroom, Uncle Harry's room, go there quick and hide under the bed. Get between the boxes, and wrap yourself up in the blanket under there. Don't come out until Uncle Harry or I come to get you, or someone else you know. Do you understand me, Teddy?"

The little boy nodded, wide-eyed.

"Good, good boy. I love you so much, don't forget that. Now go, hurry, hide, Teddy, go!"

The older woman pushed the boy towards the hallway, and he stumbled his way back to the bedroom. As instructed, he crawled under the bed, nestling between the boxes stored underneath, and pulled one of the spare blankets from its spot over his small body.

Teddy felt more than heard the entrance of the bad guys as an explosion rocked the house and shook the floorboards beneath. Shrill screams and snarled curses filled his ears, so the boy covered them with his hands and shut his eyes tightly. Under his breath, he sung the lyrics of the tune his godfather offered whenever he visited and found the boy in the midst of one of his nightmares. "I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad…the dreams in which I'm dyin' are the best I've ever had…"

He recognized his grandmother's voice, in the middle of a spell, before it was cut off by a gurgling scream, then silence.

"I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take…when people run in circles it's a very very…mad world…mad world."

The fighting had stopped – Teddy buried his face in the blanket to coat his sobs. It felt like eternity he was hidden there, humming along to his song between muffled cries. Without warning, the door to the room burst open and he heard the rough voices of the bad guys.

"Not in here either."

"Check under the bed, the closet, but be quick about it – the aurors will be here any minute!"

Teddy didn't breath as the closet was wrenched open and a grunt echoed through his ears. The sound of someone heavy getting to all fours pounded against the floor, and the boy couldn't hold back a barely audible whimper. He shoved his hands over his mouth and shut his eyes tighter – the heavy breathing of the floor-bound bad guy was almost right next to his foot.

A millennium passed, but eventually the bad guy stood and grumbled, "Nope, not here either."

"All right, then, no witnesses. Come on, let's get out of here."

"No, wait, I think I heard something." A third voice, a growl, entered the room. "There, under the bed, did you check?"

"Yeah," the earlier man snapped. "No one was there."

The new person ignored his companion, dropping down and pulling out the boxes. When his hand reached the blanket and began groping around its outside, Teddy did the only thing he could think to – he bit down, hard, on the man's hairy hand, then slipped out from the blanket and started scrambling out the opposite side of the bed. As soon as he could, he stood and made his way at a sprint towards the door; he barely got five steps until grabbed around the middle by a furry arm.

"Well, well, well – what have we got here? A wolf boy? Oh, I can just smell it on him, just waiting to be let out. Let's put him out of his misery, shall we?"

The man let Teddy fall to the floor and crouched down next to him while the others looked on, laughing. All of a sudden, claw-like nails were shredding into his back, tearing and ripping, blood spilling like thick mud, and Teddy was screaming, screaming for his Grandma Andy or his Uncle Harry or someone, anyone, to help him, but no one came, and it hurt, oh how it hurt, the man was growling and snarling viciously, then teeth, teeth of all things! were biting into his shoulder, then he was shifting, turning, changing the skin he wore, morphing into something entirely different, and then Teddy himself had claws and teeth, and oh how very, very scared he was, the men were bad, and it was easier to listen to the rabid panting of the wolf in his ears than try to keep a hold of himself, and all he wanted was to get to the door and get away, far away, so he tore away from the person holding him down, snapping his teeth as he went, bowling over the two blocking the door, though they caught him and tried to hold him back, so the wolf snarled and used his claws to break away, running out to the living room where the smell of bodies hit him like a bludger, because oh God, oh no, please no, there was the Teddy boy's grandmother, blood spilling from where her throat had been split open, bubbling, and all the other ladies in attendance, carcasses spewed throughout the room like bloody dolls frozen in time, and he froze where he was, because how could one move when seeing such a thing, and then the first man, the hairy one with the claws and the teeth, found him and tackled him to the floor, forcing a collar of something oh-so-shiny against the wolf's neck, and it burned, it burned burned burned, and the collar was so so tight, and the black just seemed like such a sensible thing to succumb to, so he did and it swallowed him, granting entry to an escape he so desperately needed…

The lanky boy woke from the familiar nightmare with a jerk, sitting upright in bed, drenched in sweat. No matter how many times he relieved the memory, it still sent him into such a state he had to take deep, calming breaths to keep from tearing out of his skin and into that of the wolf inside him. He got out of bed suddenly, tearing the too too hot sheets off and tracing a path back and forth from his desk to his bed and back again with practiced steps.

At least he hadn't kept on dreaming. Some nights, he stayed caught in his dream world, his past haunting him in his sleep. After that horrible day, the hairy man had kidnapped – cubnapped? – the wolf-boy, chaining him against a wall and taunting him day upon day, at times holding back food then throwing in a raw animal for the wolf to consume, other times entering the cell himself and taunting the Teddy-wolf with toys coated in silver, held out on tongs. The worst was when he turned back to human, hair matted in both forms, suffering through the cold, damp room without a coat of fur to rely on for warmth; on those occasions, he would wish desperately to return to being a wolf, no matter the uncomfortable feeling under his skin when he transformed, for when the hairy man found him that way he never held back but for keeping him just shy of death, taking sick pleasure in making the child scream and cry and beg until the wolf at last took over once more.

Teddy had spent near a year in the captivity of the merciless man, though it seemed like just a week and a millennium at the same time. When his dad, who he called "Uncle" at the time, finally found him, band of aurors in tow, Teddy had been stuck in his wolf form for far too long, feral with the single-minded terror he'd been faced with every minute of every day for a year. The wizard, barely out of his teens, hadn't let Teddy's state deter him, instead approaching unthreateningly, quietly singing the song the boy had clutched to as a lifeline. Though hesitant, Teddy had allowed him to take off the chains and pick up the boy-turned-wolf in his arms. It had taken a week for the child to revert to his human form, and after that the slightest things would set him off.

Through it all, Harry had been there, coaxing his godson out of the state he worked himself into. It hadn't taken long for "Uncle" to become "Dad", and the man formally adopted the child he already called son as soon as the courts allowed it. While the metamorphosis had slowly, agonizingly begun to recover from his ordeal, he had never fully regained the bubbly personality he'd had as a young child, rather becoming reserved and shy around everyone but Harry. Teddy knew it hurt his dad to see him so bullied, but he'd never been able to master the art of social skills, no matter how much he tried. Every time he worked up his courage to sit next to someone he recognized from another class or ask someone to be his partner in class, his mouth went dry and he started breathing heavily, struggling for words, until he decided, as always, he was better off lurking away from everyone else and staying on his own.

"I find it kind of funny…find it kind of sad…dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had…find it hard to tell you…find it hard to take…"

Teddy trailed off from the song and stared out the window, caught up in his thoughts. After a few moments, he noticed a strange smell in the air, smoke just barely reaching his sensitive nose. Concerned, the wizard fumbled with the lock on the window and pushed the double panels open. The smell was unmistakable now; there was a fire, and a big one at that, if it had managed to reach all the way to the Potters' household. Scanning the land outside, Teddy located the source of the smoke in the distance. There was a town a couple miles down the road, far enough away that people didn't stop by unexpectedly but near enough Teddy and Harry were able to make stops there whenever they wished. Sometimes, Teddy babysat a couple kids, when Harry allowed him too. His ears picked up the screams of a child, a sound his mind registered as familiar and urgent.

Teddy didn't think, hopping out of the window down two stories, and took off at a run towards the town, his heart beating fast and fear pounding in his mind. Somewhere along the run, his body twisted and shifted into a wolf's, and the Teddy boy took a back seat as the animal raced forward, determined to save his pack.

Sirens were going off, wailing in such a way the wolf had to resist covering his ears with his paws to shut out the sound. Screams and cries permeated the air and, sorting through all the voices, the wolf determined there were several people trapped within the burning buildings.

The wolf bounded forward, charging into the first burning house he saw; he followed the sound of shouts for help, ignoring the flames singeing at his fur and the smoke burning his eyes, adrenaline pulsing through his system. He found the source of the yells - a teenage girl supporting her unconscious younger brother. The wolf approached them, slowing down to crawl on his belly so they knew he wasn't a threat. The girl backed up at first, warning the wolf away, but the animal caught her eye. Get on my back if you want you and your brother to make it out safely.

Thankfully, the teen didn't question the order and swung her brother's limp body over the wolf before getting on herself. Once the wolf knew they were secure, he started hurrying out of the house as fast as he could without his passengers falling off. They had almost made it, avoiding the worst of the flames, when a beam of wood fell with a CRASH at the foot of the stairs, falling part of the house's front with it.

The wolf looked around, ignoring the girl's frightened cries. He noticed a sink down in the kitchen through the haze of smoke, inaccessible to the trio, and realized what he had to do. The Harry man had been adamant his son learn basic wandless magic - at least enough so he wouldn't be entirely defenseless without a wand. Though werewolves were rumored to have a higher capacity for mind magics, the Teddy boy still found wandless magic difficult, having trouble with even the most basic of spells.

All right, Teddy boy, you can do this. The wolf concentrated and relinquished some control to the Teddy boy, who willed and willed and willed for an augumenti spell to send water out of thin air to drench the girl and her brother. It worked – the teen on his back sputtered as she was soaked, and the wolf didn't wait any longer to jump through the flames and out the door. Better a couple burns than suffocating within the thick smoke. He hurried the two off several yards away from the house, nudging them to get further before the support of the building gave out, then continued towards the next house.

The wolf spent what felt like hours ushering, dragging, and carrying almost two-dozen people to safety. It was nearly light by the time he had successfully evacuated everyone, and the Teddy boy's dad would be awake soon, so the wolf did one last once over at the houses (or lack of, seeing as most had burned near totally to the ground), hidden behind some bushes, then took off back towards his house.

He didn't notice the figure in black who watched him go.