The Crossroads of Fate

Chapter One-shot: A Wolfish Beginning

Albus turned around just in time to parry a jet of red light. Tyro had gotten his wand back, it seemed but the Werewolf was on top of him. The jets were stray, not meant for Albus at all. He did not bargain for this, he did not think it would get this serious this quickly. Two traitors fighting each other. Ok, with both distracted, he could probably modify Tyro's memories and have him beaten before subduing Lycah somehow. He raised his wand for Tyro, "Obliviate!"

"Imperio!"

The aim was true but Lycah's wolf form leapt in front instead, meaning to bite through him. She might have managed if she was not struck with Albus' spell. It collided with Tyro's Imperius Curse, which went astray and hit Albus instead. Albus felt his own mind going under the Imperius Curse while his Memory Charm fought the curse. He heard endless howls in an abyss of night. He saw so much after that. Unfamiliar terrain, a new territory and a girl Albus could only assume was a young Lycah.

A woman was holding a baby, trying exasperatedly to calm it down as Lycah, the little girl, ran outside. "I swear, I hate Wizards., How dare he lie to me!"

Lycah felt offended. Her father, he read father, had been a Wizard. Lycah was like him. Her mother hated him. That meant her mother might have hated her. Lycah ran outside after that, ignoring her mother's calls. "Melinda, Melinda, you have to set Cherry's bed!"

Lycah continued outside in the evening. Cherry seemed to be magical too but she was born from Lycah's Muggle stepfather. She didn't like the tension there. She preferred the outside. It was far more peaceful. Her stepfather was outside too, though. She did not like her stepfather, there was something off about him and he looked at her strangely. She had the dark feeling that he knew there was something odd about her. That he knew the reason light bulbs and windows shattered when she was around, that he knew the reason why things seemed to happen at her own whims. She tried acting normal about it with her mother but she couldn't hide it forever.

She watched a flower bloom itself on her hands and she smiled. If she was a witch like her real father, and her mother hated Wizards, would her mother hate her too? She could never put much thought into this. Before Lycah, or Melinda as she must've been known as back then, knew it, a man descended on her. She jumped but it just turned out to be her stepfather. He seemed kindly enough. He asked if her mother was home and she nodded. He situated himself suspiciously close to her, even helping her find the right flowers she liked smelling when, as the moon rose, he started twitching. Lycah didn't think much of it. It was not until the next day she realized what had happened. She just felt a wolf bite her, the pain spreading through her body.

The first transformation she went through was exceedingly painful and the first thing she did as a Werewolf was run. She ran far away and she never looked back. Even when she returned to her human state in the morning, she ran. Her mother would hate her. Melinda McAuliffe would spend the rest of her life being hated. She nestled herself against a bush, arguing with herself constantly. She had run away. Her mother was probably worried. But her stepfather had bitten her and her mother was not leaving him. She had told her to leave him, told her he mistreated her but she never listened. She was neglectful. She- she would hate her. It was enough being a witch, a Werewolf would hand her too many problems. And the man was a monster. A Muggle, but still a Werewolf.

The next memory Albus saw was her crouching in front of a familiar man. Teddy Lupin stood over her. She looked about ten. She had lived outside for five years, sleeping in alleyways, sneaking into motel rooms, or just resting in the bushes with the spiders. She had grown used to her own condition but became more reserved. She tried not to think of how many people she bit, and of how her mother and sister fared without her.

"A place in Hogwarts isn't bad. It'll gain you what you need. A home, support, family, instead of living outside like an- well- in a way that is unbecoming of you. If I set you up with a foster family, would you accept? Just to see what life is like. Would you take it?"

She did not know what to say. A place in the Wizarding world? The world her father was from? The world that ultimately killed her father? Did she want it? She complied only reluctantly, hoping to keep her condition quiet but her scars and overall exhaustion seemed to be a common factor in determining if she was a Werewolf or not. The second Teddy Lupin left, she tried settling herself in. The couple was nice enough but their fifteen year-old son David was not, nor was the elderly man staying at the house as well. She took his constant snide remarks about what an animal she was, he made fun of her when she ate with her mouth instead of with a spoon, and he laughed at her when she tried curling up in a bush when the full moon came. Finally, when the full moon did come, he barged into her room with a Potion phial and poured it in a dog bowl. He set it down and said, "There. Eat from it from like a good girl."

She went quietly to it, feeling very conscious of how animalistic she had become. She drank the potion. The man and woman informed her it would allow her to keep her mind during transformations. It was when she finished when David smirked and said, "Good girl. Wanna play fetch when we're done?"

That was when she lost it. She struck him. She struck him so hard, his jaw broke but she did not stop. She would not stop. He was unconscious by the time she transformed and she did not stop attacking him, she did not realize how vicious she was being until it was too late. Leaving his body, her wolfish form leapt out of the window and scampered off. This would be a bloody night for her though. She did not end with David. He was dead, she knew that. One other would die that night. She trusted them, she tried living, but the son, the grandfather, they both mistreated her and David's parents turned a blind eye to it all. For one month she bared the brunt.

Well, if Wizards were going to hate Werewolves, fine. If she was hated, as a Muggle and as a witch, fine. She would make sure she made clear the feeling was mutual. She broke down the door of her old house, ignoring her mother, five year-old Cherry, or a screaming two year-old boy. She made straight for her stepfather's room and attacked him in his wolfish form. He was so curled up, innocent ad sleeping, it was easy. One bite on his neck ended it, one swipe sent him falling outside and she leapt out of the window to finish the job.

The next morning, she stopped, thinking back on the horrific dark events of the night before and realized her mistake. She killed. She killed two people. Two people who deserved it, no doubt, but she still killed them. Not only did everyone in the world hate her, she hated herself. She screamed in anger, pain, sorrow, and hurt. Her only friend was Teddy, who held her, who understood or at least claimed to. She did not trust any home afterwards, no wizard or witch, no one. She was to be alone her entire life. She would die as she lived… alone.

She lived in the forest, only revealing herself when a previous game keeper of Hogwarts died. Teddy introduced her to Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood. A Scamander. She kept herself blissfully silent, trying so hard to keep everyone away from her. Nobody could know she killed two people, one of whom was just a kid. No one…

She would be alone forever. Her life was never peaceful. The only release there could ever be was death.