I don't own the HP series or Pokémon.
Some dialogue and scenes derived from Prisoner of Azkaban, both the book and the movie.
Chapter Nine: Long Evening
Moon had never really liked the concept of schools.
She enjoyed learning, and she enjoyed the material being taught, but she had never liked being around other children. Whether it was due to the fact that she was comparatively mature for her age, or because she didn't get along with the other children particularly well, she hadn't truly had any friends before she moved to Alola. The teachers adored her (and maybe that only kept her isolated from people her age), but they had always treated her like she was a kid, never answering her questions properly and claiming that she had time to worry about things when she was older. Moon had grown up believing that children were ignorant and that adults liked keeping them that way, and she had never found evidence to disprove that theory.
She had been glad when she finally got out of mandatory schooling. She had worked in a library for nearly a year and had hoped to challenge the Kanto League at one point before her mother announced the move to Alola. Now, two years after she had gotten Rowlet, she was back in school.
She hid near a statue, wearing her plain black robes, as the students drifted in. Most were drenched from the rain, but a fair number of them were chatting happily. Some were shaking from something other than the cold.
Moon joined a group of students whose robes were lined with red. McGonagall pulled two of the students away, and Moon slipped into the empty space. The Great Hall was as beautiful as ever with its enchanted ceiling, but the rainy sky was hardly a thing to marvel at.
She sat at the long table with the Gryffindor students, across from a redhead with bright blue eyes. The boy blinked.
"First years are supposed to be up there," he said, gesturing to the single-file line of eleven year olds being brought in by Flitwick.
"I'm not a first year," she argued, "I'm a transfer student."
The red haired boy stared at her for a moment. "From where?"
"I've been homeschooled for the past few years, but I'm originally from Hawaii," she bluffed. She had found a map of the world and had studied the islands intensely. They were close enough to Alola that she could make the story seem plausible.
"That would explain your accent," he said. Moon bit her lip, but turned towards the front of the room when the Sorting started.
Moon noticed that whenever a student was sorted into Slytherin, the applause from the other houses was forced. She knew that the rivalry between the houses was intense, and that Slytherin got the worst of it, but she didn't imagine that they would start stereotyping eleven year olds the second an old hat made a decision.
As the Sorting was just wrapping up, the doors opened again. Moon turned to see two students (both Gryffindors) and Professor McGonagall walk in. McGonagall headed for her empty seat, while the two students tried to attract the least amount of attention as possible as they walked to the table. Many of the students from every house pointed and whispered anyway. The redheaded boy waved them over, ignoring the stares entirely.
"What was all that about?" the boy asked as the two students took seats on either side of him. One student was a girl with bushy hair and teeth that were slightly too large. The other was a boy with chaotic black hair and glasses that shrunk his green eyes. The boy with glasses leaned over to whisper something to the redhead, and Moon caught a glimpse of a lightning bolt scar.
Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived
There had been newspaper clippings, and some books written with him in the later chapters, and the teachers had brought him up in conversation ('he ran away from his guardians,' Moon recalled), but none of her resources had led her to believe he would appear so… normal.
And small.
The books had only agreed that, somehow, Harry Potter had managed to survive the Killing Curse after Voldemort had murdered his parents. Everything after that was speculation; one book claimed he was being trained at Hogwarts, another said he was taken by Death Eaters to be raised as their next leader. None of the scenarios presented would result in him being so thin.
Don't ask. It's none of your business. Leave him be.
Dumbledore had been talking for a minute about the Dementors, how they were stationed along the school grounds, and how the younger students should follow the Prefects and Head Boy and Girl. Moon didn't listen. She thought of how her friends would joke that she'd be fine on her own, seeing as she had no soul.
Dumbledore looked around the room seriously, and his eyes rested on Moon for a brief moment before he turned back to the rest of the room.
"On a happier note, I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year."
He gestured to a wizard that Moon did not recognize. She figured that he was the replacement DADA professor.
"Firstly, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."
Moon blinked. The scattered, half-hearted applause was drowned out by her shock. She found herself clapping along when Hagrid was announced as the new Care of Magical Creatures professor, but she didn't properly think until the food appeared on the table.
Lupin.
She glanced back at the teachers' table. He stood out sharply, as his robes were in dire need of replacement compared to the cleanly dressed professors surrounding him. He was smiling, but there was a certain weariness about him visible even from her distance.
'No shit,' she thought, 'his friends all died and he's been a werewolf since he was four.'
Her eyes flickered over to Dumbledore, and she flinched when she saw him observing her. She focused on the food, spearing a piece of roast beef a little harder than she intended.
"Hang on a moment," the brunette said, "you're new."
"I'm a transfer student," Moon said flatly.
"She's from Hawaii," the redhead added before taking a bite out of a drumstick.
"Really?" the brunette asked, suddenly much more interested than she had been a moment before. "That would mean you went to Ilvermorny! What's it like there? I read that they're the only other school with a house system like ours. In fact, the founders based Ilvermorny off of Hogwarts."
Moon held up a hand to cut the girl off. "I was homeschooled."
The girl only seemed to be more intrigued. "Homeschooled? They allow homeschooling for wizards?"
"It's not exactly common, but yes," Moon answered. "I'm Moon Blakesley, by the way."
"Hermione Granger," the brunette girl replied before she nudged the redhead with her elbow.
"Ron Weasley," he said after swallowing a mouthful of food. Moon nodded and looked over to Harry.
"I'm Harry. Harry Potter," the dark-haired boy said.
"Nice to meet you," Moon replied. She turned back to her plate and carried on with her meal. The three students seemed nice enough, even if they were a little nosy. They had a nice conversation about their upcoming classes throughout the feast. Moon couldn't stop her eyes from flickering over to Lupin. Each time she looked, he seemed to be looking back, but not directly at her.
After the last bit of dessert had disappeared, Dumbledore dismissed the students. Hermione, Ron and Harry ran towards the teachers table to speak with Hagrid. Moon would have walked out with the rest of the students if Dumbledore did not wave her over.
"What is it, sir?" she whispered, daring to glance at Lupin for a second. It had been hard to tell from a distance, but he didn't actually look that old. If she ignored the greying hair and the shabby clothes, she would place him in his late twenties to early thirties.
"I need you to come to my office," he said. "I think that you have some questions you want to ask me."
She nodded, knowing that 'some questions' didn't even begin to cover what she wanted to ask. She refused to have an outburst right in front of the professors (and him), so she went to leave the hall with the three Gryffindors.
"What did Dumbledore want to see you for?" Ron asked.
"Something to do with an incident last weekend," Moon fibbed. She immediately regretted it.
"What incident?" Hermione pried.
Moon looked her directly in the eye. "I got into a fight with a werewolf and got him hospitalized."
Hermione froze, and then glared. "If you don't want to say what it's about, then just say so."
"Fine. I don't want to talk about it."
Hermione nodded sharply, but Moon could still sense some anger radiating off of her as the three headed for Gryffindor Tower. She went off in the direction of Dumbledore's office.
"Crystallised Pineapple," she said flatly. The gargoyle statue moved aside. When she entered the chaotic office, the first thing she saw was Dumbledore sitting in his chair. The second was a man dressed in the green robes of a Healer. Her jaw clenched in frustration.
"You wanted to speak with me, sir?" she asked as politely as she could. Dumbledore nodded, seemingly oblivious to her repressed anger.
"A situation regarding Greyback has arisen. Healer Fawley insisted on speaking with you."
Moon turned to the Healer. He seemed to have a permanent grin stretched across his face, which made him look no older than twenty.
"You're the one who fought with Greyback?" Fawley asked, excitement flooding his voice.
"Er… yeah?"
"Excellent. Fantastic. Magnificent."
Moon was starting to get suspicious about the man's enthusiasm.
"It's the strangest thing," he said happily. "Last night was the full moon, you know. We had to set Greyback up in a warded area. Safety procedure, right? We've been dosing him with sedatives and have kept him locked up in that room since you caught him. Anyway, we were all prepared to deal with his transformation last night—a friend of mine almost gave him an extra strong dose of Calming Draught, wanted to see if it would work, took hours to talk him out of it—except, for whatever reason, he didn't transform!"
The last part was said with such glee that Moon thought it was a joke.
"What?" she tested.
"He didn't transform," Fawley repeated. "We were watching the entire night—how many times do you get to observe the effects of lycanthropy?—but there was nothing. Not even an extra hair or tooth."
The Healer's brown eyes were dancing with joy. "I went in there this morning to figure out what happened. The guy was out of it. He had no idea why he didn't transform last night, but he was angry. Took a while to get another Calming Draught in him. I performed a test to see if he actually had lycanthropy. I did the test when he first arrived, and he was a werewolf when he entered St Mungo's, but this time the test was negative!"
The atmosphere in the room was like a bubble, ready to burst at any moment. Moon glanced at Dumbledore. The old wizard was staring intently at the Healer.
"You're saying that Greyback, the most feared werewolf in British history, has been stripped of his lycanthropy?"
"That's what it looks like," Fawley replied. "We don't know how, exactly, which is causing a bit of a fuss. This could be a huge breakthrough if we could figure it out."
He turned to Moon. "As I understand it, you fought him off with some sort of creature that poisoned him?"
"Close enough," she said with a shrug.
"Is it possible that the creature's poison somehow caused Greyback to lose his lycanthropy?"
"It's… possible," she admitted slowly. "Nihilego's venom… it's said to have parasitic effects. If lycanthropy operates in a similar way—a disease that can't be fought off with regular medicine or with an immune system—then, perhaps, the two would… cancel each other out?"
"We'd need to do some more tests to be sure," Fawley said, "but if this is a possible end to lycanthropy, we have to pursue it."
Fawley turned to Dumbledore, the grin fading from his face.
"If it's possible, I'd like to have Moon visit St Mungo's every few weeks or so to help test this theory. We could get a trial started soon enough, I hope, and we would need her and her pet to make this work."
Moon's jaw clenched. Nihilego wasn't her pet, and neither were the other Ultra Beasts. Despite the chaos they brought with them, they were her friends.
"I suppose that is manageable," Dumbledore said. "We could have her Floo over to St Mungo's on Saturdays, if she agrees, of course."
Moon bit her lip, but nodded anyway. Fawley smiled again, showing off a set of shiny teeth.
"Excellent. It won't be this Saturday, of course. We'll send you a message when the trial group is gathered."
The Healer stood up and smoothed out his robes. "I really should be getting back to work. Thanks for your assistance, Moon."
"You're welcome," she said. Moon watched as Fawley threw Floo powder into the fireplace and travelled back to the hospital for his shift. It wasn't until the fire turned orange again that she looked at Dumbledore.
"Why did you hire him?" she asked flatly. Dumbledore wasn't surprised by her bluntness.
"He is currently the best person for the job."
"If he is so skilled, why didn't you hired him before?" she probed, resting her cheek on her fist.
"Professor Lupin has lived a very rough life, especially in the past decade. He hates being pitied, and refuses charity and goodwill outright. I doubt that he would have accepted the position without current events."
The gears in her mind clicked against each other as she thought of the conversation she had with Dumbledore a month prior.
"He was well liked, but he had three close friends. The four of them joined a special group to fight Voldemort when he grew too powerful. One of his friends betrayed them all, however, effectively leading to the death of one friend and his wife, and personally killing the other. The man was caught and sent to prison, but Remus was left alone."
"He was friends with Sirius Black, wasn't he?"
That actually surprised Dumbledore, and the shock showed on his face.
"What caused you to think that?"
"You said his friend went to prison," she stated, "and that he wouldn't accept a job out of pity. He's here because, to some degree, he knows how Black works. He feels responsible, he wants Black captured…"
He was looking at the Gryffindor table, where I was sitting, but not at me…
"… he wants to protect Harry Potter."
Dumbledore blinked. An awkward moment of silence passed before the old wizard sighed.
"You are far more observant than most children your age, Miss Blakesley."
"I try," she shrugged.
"Professor Lupin was, at one point, close friends with Sirius Black, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew. After the events on Halloween night twelve years ago, he lived on his own. I did not want to interfere, but when Black escaped, I decided it was time to ask him to be the Defence professor."
Moon thought for a moment. "He doesn't know about me, does he?"
"Not at the moment, no. I thought it would be best if you told him yourself. Of course, if you wish for me to tell him instead—"
"Who says I'm going to tell him?"
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "You do not intend to inform him that you're his sister?"
"Half-sister," she corrected, "and no, I am not going to tell him."
"May I ask why?"
"You said he was born twenty years before I was," she recalled. "I'm literally young enough to be his daughter. He's not going to want to be around me, not with everything going on."
A twinkle of amusement glimmered in the old wizard's eyes. "You're under the impression that he would want nothing to do with you?"
"If he is as stubborn and as self-deprecating as you say he is, he would think that I'd be better off without him, and that I would want nothing to do with him. He'd be happier not knowing."
"So you would like to know him better, but due to current circumstances believe it is better to keep your distance so that Professor Lupin is kept from doing the same thing."
She frowned. "Basically."
Dumbledore leaned forward. "I will not force you to reveal your relation to Professor Lupin, nor will I tell him myself. However," he said seriously, "I do not think that hiding such information will be beneficial to either of you. If he were to learn that you're his sister—"
"Half-sister."
"—through a different channel, his reaction will certainly be more severe."
"More severe than him blatantly ignoring me?" she questioned. "Look, I might tell him later on this year, I don't know. What I do know is that I want him to treat me the same way he treats all of the other students. That's not going to happen if he knows right away."
Dumbledore sighed heavily. "Fair enough. It is your own choice, after all," he said somewhat sadly. He glanced at the clock on his desk. "You should head to your room. Tomorrow is going to be a long day for you, I imagine."
Moon nodded and, without another word, walked out of Dumbledore's office.
The halls were dark and silent. Moon had never walked through the halls at night, at least not without the lanterns being lit, and the difference it made was huge. The castle had been warm and comforting, but as night fell and the lights went out, the feeling of magic grew heavy and oppressive.
Her steps were quick but light. Sneaking around was not a new concept for her. Moon had intended to head back to her room without any interruptions, but fate had a different plan in mind. She was about to turn the corner that would lead to the portrait guarding her room when she heard Snape's voice.
"Enjoying a stroll in the moonlight, Lupin?"
The sheer venom in his voice caused Moon to freeze. Snape was never the happiest person around, but he had been decent to her since her arrival. She hadn't expected to hear such hatred coming from one person.
"I am just patrolling, Severus," a new voice replied. It was strangely calm considering the initial remark, and warm.
"Why bother? You and your precious friends had plenty of time to scour for hidden passageways. Surely you know all of them by now."
"I'm merely making sure that there are no students out of bed," Lupin responded.
"Don't patronize me, wolf," Snape spat. "Dumbledore and the others are certain that you're safe, that you couldn't possibly have any reason for being here other than to protect Potter, but I know—"
The sound of metal crashing against stone rang across the halls, followed by a high pitched shriek.
"Peeves!" Snape snapped. "For Merlin's sake…"
Two sets of footsteps headed in the direction of the noise, away from Moon.
"I owe you one, Peeves," she whispered as she tapped the portrait with her wand. She slipped inside her room and tore off her robes. When she had changed into her nightwear, she fell into her bed and let out a long sigh.
School had finally started. Nihilego's poison could be the cure to a horrible disease. Her half-brother was wandering around the castle with no clue that she even existed. She had narrowly avoided what could have been the most awkward conversation of her life thanks to a certain poltergeist.
It had been a long evening.
And the next day wasn't any better.
Alternate title for this chapter: In Which Many Characters Are Brought In and Plenty of Stuff Happens In a Short Amount of Time.
To clarify the last chapter's A/N a tad bit: I'm not planning on doing a romance subplot for Moon during the PoA storyline. However, if I were to extend the story (a collection of one-shots, for example, or even continuing the story past the end of PoA), having a romantic subplot is possible, but not important to most of the ideas I have. If the general consensus is 'no', I might still refer to a relationship Moon is in, but not have it as an actual subplot. The poll will remain up for the time being.
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