Ch. 3: Werewolves

Two weeks later, the scratches had healed considerably, though they were still there. I caught Hermione giving me looks whenever I would see her anywhere. I would sigh when I would look because she would look away. Taeryn laughed at me whenever this would happen when he was around and taunt me about it. I would punch him and I even threatened to hex him a time or two.

I took refuge in the library when I had nothing better to do, only because it was quiet. I held a reply from Suzi, who seemed worried that all my sentences in my last letter were short and not descriptive enough. She always worried too much, that one. I remember when I first met her, when I was about eleven and she was about nine or ten. We met in Diagon Alley when our mother's crossed paths for the first time in almost ten years….

…. Daphne was holding Mum's hand as we walked from the Apothecary to go into Florish and Blott's to get my school books. There was this extremely blonde haired lady holding the hand of a equally blonde haired child, though you could see her dark roots beginning to show through. Mum had stopped to look in the lane, staring, like she knew the lady.

"Kat!" she exclaimed.

The lady turned around, her piercing blue eyes looking at Mum. Her expression softened when she recognized my mother. She walked over and hugged her.

"Sallie! I haven't seen you in forever," she said, letting go of Mum. Her accent wasn't English at all. "How're you? Are these yours?" She beamed down at my sister and I.

Mum nodded, looking at the little girl holding Kat's hand.

"And this one?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah."

"Hi," the little girl said, looking up at Mum, extending a hand.

"Hallo," Mum said, holding out her free hand to shake the girl's hand. "What's your name?"

"Suzanne."

"Yeah, not much of my idea of a name. It was her father's idea. Wanted to keep his initials. Oh well, can't have everything." Kat shrugged, looking at Suzanne and then at Daphne and I. I stared at Suzanne, noticing that even her eyebrows were black. She kept looking up at her mum, almost annoyed.

"Chiron and Daphne," Mum said, before Kat could ask. "Out getting Chiron's things for school."

"Hogwarts?" she asked.

"Mhmm. Just about to get his books. I had forgotten how much stuff he was going to need."

Kat gave a small laugh. Even I, being only eleven, could feel the awkwardness rising.

"So, when will Suzanne here get her letter?" Mum asked as we moved out of the middle of the lane to the sidewalk.

"I think I'm going to send her to Levton, actually. I don't like the idea of her being at Hogwarts. She may get into too much trouble."

Mum nodded.

"I'm actually head of the potions' department there."

Kat's smile nearly freaked me out.

"Hey, Mum," I asked looking up at her, "could I just go ahead and go and get my books?"

She handed me the list and some money.

"Just don't get too many extra books," she joked.

"Suzi, do you wanna go with him?" Kat asked her daughter.

It almost seemed as if Suzanne was pleased to hear this. She nodded, looking at me. I shrugged as she and I left the adults and Daphne.

"I was starting to get so annoyed," Suzanne said when we finally walked into the bookstore. "She gets on my nerves most of the time. I'm surprised to actually see her smile."

I chuckled.

"Is she that bad?"

She stopped in front of me and tugged on her hair.

"You see this? This is her wanting me to be a perfect little clone of her. It's not natural."

"What colour is it?" I asked, looking at her roots. Why am I even talking about this with a girl?

"Black."

I nodded as I walked to the counter and handed the man my book list.

"So, how come she wants you to be her?" I asked as the man went to go and get my books.

She gave me a snarky grin.

"Because she doesn't want to be reminded of my dad. And, I've seen pictures. I'm pretty much the spitting image of him, which makes this all the better."

Even at eleven, I could tell this girl had a lot planned….

…. And even now as I sat in the library, reminiscing on that day, I could picture her in my head of what she looks like now. She's fixed her hair since then, back to it's natural black. Her reasoning: to make her mum angry. She had that glint in her blue eyes about how much she doesn't like her mum. She started to come over when Jess came to live with us.

They get into so much trouble together, I thought, remembering that they were in detention together. I never understood why Jess was sent to Levton instead of going to Hogwarts. She mentioned it to me once before that she was recommended for Levton instead of Hogwarts, but she never really went into too much detail about it. When I did asked her once she shrugged her shoulders and dismiss it completely.

SLAM!

I jumped as I looked over to find Daphne sitting there next to me, a big old book in front of her, which she must have slammed down on the table.

"What?" I asked, telling my heart to stop racing from being startled out of my thoughts.

She smiled.

"After much protesting, Professor Lupin gave me a slip to check in the Restricted Section."

Yup, I thought staring at her and the book. She really like the guy.

"And that's what you found?"

She winked as she opened the book and flipped through the pages until she stopped at a page that had a picture of a wood-carving of a wolf-man howling in front of the full moon.

"… 'werewolves date back to the earliest recordings of the magical and non-magical worlds,'" she read quietly, using her finger to scan the tiny manuscript, " 'however, even though they generally do not mate, there have been reports and records of the occurrences of those claiming to have been only tainted by a parent. Half-werewolves are a myth since it is unknown how they can become one without being bitten.'"

I rolled my eyes.

"Something interesting, please," I muttered.

She glared at me and continued to read.

"… 'Half-werewolves are an interesting breed in and of themselves. According to one "half-werewolf" in the year 1566 A.D., she stated that she couldn't control her transformations in the presence of "full" werewolf. The moon only had effects on her in this state. Unfortunately, for the writers of this book, there was evidence that she was actually an illegal Animagus that took the form of a wolf, only to scare the towns folk. But there is the small possibility that the blood of a werewolf can be passed down to its offspring. Some werewolves will not mate for this particular scare. Others try to mate to pass on their genes, only to be disappointed and either killing the offspring or the other mate involved.' And then there's this awful picture here of a werewolf eating its human child."

I furrowed my eyebrows as she shuddered, gazing at the picture.

"Well, we definitely know that none of that's true," I whispered, placing my elbow on the table and resting my head in my hand. "Because I definitely am."

She sighed.

"But you've always been able to control it." She place her finger on the sentence about the woman's claim. "I have a feeling that this lady wasn't lying."

"So, what are you thinking?"

"That there's a werewolf here, somewhere." She clicked her tongue as she read through the passage one more time. She sighed.

"Chi, let me know if you're going to have another episode or something," she said, concerned. "I'll see what I can do."

I looked at the bookshelf opposite from me, thinking.

"Snape had a Wolfsbane potion that he gave me last time," I thought out loud.

"Really?" she asked, scrunching her face as she thought. "So that means whoever it is, is here. Student or professor. Listen," she dropped her voice as she leaned towards me, "let me know if anything happens again, okay? Don't worry about who it is and just do your work. I'll figure it out. Maybe I could ask Lupin about werewolves, since he is the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." She winked again.

"You really like him, don't you?" I half-heartedly joked.

She shrugged a shoulder.

"He's kinda cute."

I rolled my eyes as she stood up with the book and walked away. Just what I needed, my sister having a crush on a professor…. Well, at least she didn't like Lockhart.

Halloween marked the first Hogsmeade trip and the feast. After the feast, though, Taeryn and I walked back up to go to the common room, to find students all around the portrait, confusion on most of everyone's faces. Percy Weasley pushed his way through and then yelling for someone to get Professor Dumbledore. I stood on my toes to see what was the matter.

The Fat Lady's portrait was torn to shreds.

They sent us all down to the Great Hall that evening, everyone in the school. Sirius Black had apparently gotten into the castle, passing the Dementors, and, if I had heard correctly from the prefects and some of the professors as they whispered to each other, the Fat Lady wouldn't let him into the common room without the password, so he attacked her.

They called light's out, informing us we'll get detentions if anyone is awake and chatting. There were a few whispers, and I could hear Snape and Dumbledore talking about someone possibly helping Black into the castle. Sighing, I rolled over on my back and stared up at the ceiling of the Great Hall, which was reflecting the night sky. I thought about one of the conversations I had with Suzi when she came over on Jess's birthday when no one was home, brandishing a paper in my face, all excited.

"He's escaped!" she screamed for joy, hitting my face with the paper. I took it out of her hands as she squeeled, jumping up and down on the spot with joy. I looked at front page and saw a picture of a man, gaunt and dirty with a straight faraway look in his eyes staring up at me. I saw a little resemblance of the girl excited before me. I raised an eyebrow as Suzi stopped jumping in front of me, taking the paper back. Her smile faded as I frowned at her. She tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at the paper with sad eyes.

"I wonder if he knows…," she whispered.

I shrugged, not knowing really what to say on the matter.

"Mother wasn't too thrilled to see this," she added, a crazy smile appearing on her saddened face. "Actually, she was livid."

She seemed to be playing a memory in her head. I chuckled slightly, still keeping my mouth shut.

"What's your thought, Chiron?" she asked, setting the paper down on the coffee table and sitting down on the sofa. "Do you think he murdered all those people?"

I shrugged.

"Sure. They had witnesses and everything…."

"Well, I'll tell you something that Mum told me." She leaned forward and interlaced her hands. "She said that the man he killed could actually turn into a rat."

"What're you saying?"

She leaned back and didn't have to try to look haughty.

"That the perpetrator could have been a sticky rat. I don't know why, but it's a possibility."

I walked around the coffee table and sat next to her, lowering my voice and grabbing the paper as I heard Mum, Daphne, and Jess walk into the kitchen.

"There were witnesses that saw… this man… murder at least twelve people."

She leaned closer to me, close enough I could have touched her nose with mine. She narrowed her eyes, picking her battle carefully with me.

"I don't think he did it," she whispered viciously. "I think he was set up."

I raised my eyebrow.

"And do you have any proof, Sherlock?"

She gave me a cocky grin and looked into the direction of the kitchen where noises of groceries being put away sounded.

"We could always ask your mother. She went to school with him."

I scratched my face as I gazed at her. Her expression was rather terrifying. But before I could protest in any sort of way, she jumped up and ran over to the foyer, hugging Jess tightly.

If Suzi ever asked Mum about Sirius Black, I never knew.

The next few weeks were tedious. Ran began to beat on the windows and thunder bellowed about. Daphne insisted that I kept her up-to-date with the moon cycle and to make sure I was as good as I needed to be.

After Charms one day, she pushed me into a broom cupboard, startling Alicia as Daphne shut the door, putting the two of us in the dark.

Angrily, I pulled out my wand and lit the small space. Daphne was furiously digging in her bag, pulling out a small nickel flask. She thrusted it into my left hand. I looked at it, puzzled.

"Drink it," she ordered in a whisper, even though if even Alicia were standing outside, she wouldn't have been able to hear anyway since it was time for class change.

"What is it?"

"Just drink it."

I raised my eyebrow as I opened the cap and sniffed the contents. Smoke wafted into my nose and was spilling over the sides of the flask. The familiar stink of Wolfsbane nearly made me gag. Pinching my nose, I swallowed all of it, wishing I could put sugar in it.

I handed the flask back to her and she tucked it into her bag.

"Now, don't tell anyone about this," she warned, slowly opening the door and peering out.

"Where did you get it?" I knew for a fact she did not brew it.

"Don't ask," she answered, opening the door even more and stepping out into the corridor. I followed, not taking my eye off of her.

"Where did you get it?" I asked again, this time more demanding.

She looked up at me, her hazel eyes (which resembled Mum's) full of secrets.

"If I'm caught, I'll get into trouble. Just accept it. I'll let you know tomorrow when I have some more."

She walked away before I could stop her to beat the truth out of her. The taste of the Wolfsbane still lingered in my mouth until supper that evening.