All Harry felt was searing pain in his shoulder. He'd tried to talk his professor down even after the change. He should have known that would be foolish, Snape had even given them an in depth lesson on the transformation that affects a werewolf, Moony didn't know who he was. Harry was just prey to the large carnivorous beast man.
That's probably why he was dying right now, all he could hear was screams as Moony's powerful jaws tore into his flesh before everything went black and he accepted his fate.
To his surprise Harry was able to open his eyes.
That wasn't something he had expected. He figured that when he was dead that would be it, just nothing afterwards. But it was possible that this meant there was an afterlife… that looked identical to the Hogwarts infirmary. 'Maybe that's hell, being stuck in a hospital bed.' He wondered to himself as he started to try and sit up before the pain of doing so shot through his entire body. It felt like knives were digging into every nerve of his body. 'Why does being dead hurt, this is such bullshi-' starting to work himself up before his thoughts were cut off by voices nearby and approaching fast.
The large wooden doors to the hospital wing swung open and a contingent of people began to move down the room towards the occupied beds. "Albus please, there has to be something you can do, it hasn't even been a full day, maybe we can… I don't know what but something," the voice of Sirius Black said with an exhausted tone.
"Of all the times to admit that I do not have all the answers or a solution to life's problems, right now is when I truly wish that I did," Albus sighed as he and the others came around the screen to stand a few feet away from the bed Harry was sitting in.
"Sir?" Harry asked because he really didn't like the looks on the faces of everyone.
"I… Harry… fuck," Sirius ran a hand through his unkempt hair before tears started to form in his eyes. "How the fuck do I tell him this?!"
"Professor Dumbledore?" Harry turned to the headmaster hoping for an explanation.
"Harry you might want to sit down for this," Albus said despite the fact that Harry was already sitting in the hospital bed, but simple cliches seemed to be what he needed to get through this. "Do you remember last night?"
Harry answered the question with a nod as he began to recall the events of the previous day. How they had attempted to save Buckbeak, Peter Pettigrew and… "Oh." Harry said with finality, remembering that his professor had bitten him.
"Oh is an… understatement," Albus said with a weary tone.
"I'm going to guess that since I got bit that I'm now a werewolf?" Harry assumed as the information was pretty clear on what being bitten would do to him.
"There is a small possibility that it did not take but… yes sadly Harry, you are likely now a werewolf," Albus answered, wringing his hands in his lap.
"Fuck. Where's Professor Lupin, I want to tell him it wasn't his fault." Harry said, hoping to help his professor know that he didn't blame him for something that happened when he wasn't in control of himself.
"Harry," Sirius bit back a sob. "Harry Moony is… he's... " unable to tell his godson that Remus was dead.
"I had to make a choice," Albus stated flatly. "He was just done ripping into your shoulder and was going for your throat and I chose you my boy."
"You chose me? Professor, what do you mean you chose me?" Harry questioned while looking around at the solemn faces. "Sir, what do you mean you chose me?"
"I killed Professor Lupin," Albus answered with a heaviness to his voice that Harry had never heard before.
"Killed, but no he didn't need to die, it wasn't his fault." Harry protested while trying to get out of the bed, but with the sharp stinging in his shoulder he wasn't able to take pain before needing to lay back down.
"Harry if I had not done so you would be dead and I think that the guilt would have driven him mad once he came to his senses about what he had done," Albus tried to offer something comparable to a reason for why things had to be done that way. "I didn't have time to think of a different way to save you."
Harry was left fairly unresponsive from the information for the rest of the night. Someone had died and that someone had been a person who he knew.
The following morning Harry was preparing himself to leave the Hospital Wing when a large procession of people came into the wing arguing with each other. "He is a threat to every student in the school." A plump woman wearing pink said firmly to the group of adults, many of whom Harry recognized.
"It is an illness and Remus was fully capable of completing his education at Hogwarts without any incidents. So Harry should be given the same chance," Sirius shot back at the woman.
"And we saw how well it turned out for him." Getting in her last verbal jab before she was motioned to be quiet by Minister Fudge.
But before the minister could speak Dumbledore spoke up first. "As riveting as this conversation is. Only the Headmaster has the authority to expel a student, and seeing as young Mr. Potter is simply the victim in this unfortunate incident. I will not seek to ruin his future by taking away from him a safe place where he can get the support and education he so desperately needs." Punctuating his declaration with a disappointed glare that he leveled at Dolores.
Fudge's face turned a particularly interesting shade of maroon at having the chance to assert his authority taken from him and wrung his hat in his hands. It took him a moment but he realized that while he would have no control over Hogwarts itself, outside the boundaries of the castle he would be able to make the decisions. "But what of his living conditions? Surely his new condition would be a significant problem to those who take care of him over the summer."
Sirius moved to interject himself into the conversation. "That won't be a problem for me. I am his godfather after all. I'll be taking care of him," getting into the minister's face.
"Hardly," Dolores cut in. "You have spent the better part of twelve years in Azkaban, there is no way that you are physically nor mentally fit to take care of another person until you have gone through the necessary treatment."
"Yes Mr. Black, there is a procedure that must be undertaken before you can take custody of Mr. Potter," Cornelius said in agreement with his undersecretary. "Those muggles of his will simply have to put up with him until you can finish your therapy."
And that was how Harry found himself sitting inside a cage of the new basement that had been installed into the Dursley home. Even though the moon hadn't risen yet Harry was still confined to the cage, he was thankful that Sirius had managed to reason with the ministry that he didn't need to be chained to the wall for the night.
Speaking of Sirius, he along with quite a few other people were sitting in the expanded room watching Harry sit on the floor. His relatives were in the new basement as they had been told by the ministry what Harry's condition was and why this was being done. Of course the Dursleys had protested quite vocally that they didn't want all of this freakishness in their home but the representative from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures had been adamant that they be aware of what happens during the transformation and what the consequences would be should Harry manage to escape.
Another person that the ministry required to be present for the nights that Harry would be changed was an auror in case Harry made an attempt to escape upon which they were authorized to put him down. Fortunately for Harry Sirius had promised that he would get someone he trusted to watch him, even if he swore he would be present for each and every night as well. So Harry was given a chance to meet the bubbly and energetic pink haired metamorph Nymphadora Tonks, his godfather's cousin.
Her infectious personality had managed to keep Harry's spirits up because the young woman was just so positive and she made sure that Harry didn't dwell on any of the upcoming nastiness.
There was one more person, to his utter surprise Professor Snape was present. It would seem that he was one of a few people in magical Britain qualified to make the complex wolfsbane potion that would, according to Snape, dull some of the pain and help Harry maintain some of his higher cognition during the period of his transformation. Despite the prior antagonism he held for the man, Harry remembered that Snape did try to protect Hermione and himself from Lupin when he changed, not that it did a whole lot, but with how he had been the one brewing the potion for Professor Lupin, Harry was willing to accept the help.
Harry had wished that his friends could have been there with him but the ministry was being very strict on who they would allow to be present and even Sirius had said it would be for the best if his friends didn't see this side of Harry.
Soon though the moon rose in the sky and even with being underground away from the light, Harry could feel his body reacting to the lunar phase.
His body felt as if it had been lit on fire and he crumpled to the dirt floor in agony. "If this… is what… it feels like… with the potion…" he managed to grunt out before he simply devolved into beastly growls.
"Mum I don't want to be down here anymore," Dudley said frantically as he pulled on his mother's sleeve. When he had learned that his cousin had become a werewolf his emotions were a bit mixed on the new information he'd watched a couple of horror movies with his mates on the weekends and he figured that this might be kind of cool. But seeing the actual transformation happening in front of him. It was unlike anything the movies he watched portrayed. This was much scarier and getting to see his cousin's body stretch along with the sounds that were made would give him nightmares.
"Come on Dudders," Vernon said with a noticeably pale face leading his son back up the stairs leaving everyone else down in the basement.
After what seemed like an eternity Harry's transformation was complete and a mass of fur and muscle was curled up in the center of the cage, a soft whimpering and wheezing breathing could be heard.
"Harry," Sirius called out as he approached the cage. He had spent years with Moony; he was not now going to be scared of his godson, not when he needed him the most.
In a burst of speed Harry slammed his newly transformed body into the enchanted metal cage before he lurched back in pain. The ministry had the goblins make the cage and they had chosen to make it out of silver coated iron. So wisps of smoke from singed fur wafted off Harry's body. "Harry come on, it's me, Padfoot."
Harry turned his gaze onto the moving prey and let out a snarl before he slammed into a different part of the cage only to get the same result as the metal refused to give and Harry was further injured.
"Dammit Severus I thought you said the potion would let him control himself," Petunia shouted at the potions master.
"It does, but being that this is his first transformation and he's so unused to everything he's feeling there isn't much there to control in the first place. It will take time and many more transformations before he's capable of not losing himself to this new side," Severus answered Lily's sister's comment.
The process of Harry testing the cage for weaknesses would repeat itself for the next hour before the werewolf moved into a back corner and watched the people outside.
Nobody really knew what to do for the next few hours since they were there for Harry as they all didn't have anywhere else to be. So they would be spending the night down in the basement with not much to do but chat with each other. Being that Severus, Sirius and Petunia had a bit of history with each other, they actually managed a somewhat civilized conversation. However that left Tonks feeling a bit out of place, Sirius was the cousin who for years she thought was a traitor, Professor Snape had just been that, one of her professors and this Petunia Dursley was just Harry Potter's aunt. So she didn't really say much as the adults talked until she felt a warm breath on the back of her neck and the conversation had silenced itself.
"Tonks, slowly turn around and then back away from the cage." Sirius instructed as his cousin's daughter had seated herself a bit too close to Harry's cage who at some point had crept up on them. Getting as close as possible to the bars without touching them.
Tonks not wanting to do anything ridiculous in this situation followed Sirius' orders and when she turned around to face Harry she barely suppressed a yelp at how close he had gotten to her and how if the bars were just slightly more spaced apart he would have been able to reach through and grab her. However when she stood up Harry brought himself up to a matching height. A step to the side was mirrored by Harry who never broke his gaze on her. "What is he doing?" Tonks whispered as she moved away from the bars.
"Don't really know," Sirius admitted. "Harry, what are you up to pup?" Sirius called out only to be ignored by his godson who made sure that he had a direct line of sight on Tonks.
"Jeez," Tonks chuckled nervously once she was sure she was a safe distance from the cage. "Tone it down there, most girls don't like it when you stare like that."
Slowly Harry started to move himself to the back wall where he remained for the rest of the night, his emerald green eyes constantly on the group of people. As soon as the sun came up though Harry began the equally painful transformation back into his human form.
Through the pain he felt a warm cloth wrap around his lower half. "Bloody hell," Harry groaned as he wobbled to his feet. "And I get three more nights of this," he said groggily, stumbling forward when he heard the sound of the metal cage door opening.
"Mr. Potter, I will be back again tonight with the next dose of the potion for you," Snape nodded.
Harry nodded back, practically shaking his whole body to do so. "Sure, thanks Professor," Harry replied before he felt someone put their arms under his own and held him up. "Oh hey Sirius, I didn't do anything weird when I was out of it did I?"
"Nah," Sirius denied. "A perfect gentleman. Had a bit of a staring contest with Tonks for a while though."
Harry let out a chuckle and looked at the metamorph. "So did I win our little game?" asking just to have any kind of conversation going as he felt himself being taken out of the basement.
"I'll let you have this round Harrikins," Tonks smiled at the wizard before he disappeared up the stairs.
As he was being laid down in his bed Harry turned to his godfather with a request. "Can you send Hedwig out with a letter to Hermione and the Weasleys that the first night was okay. I'd do it myself but my hands hurt for some reason," looking at how the hands had faint scars from the breaking and reforming of the bones and the stretching of the muscles and flesh.
Sirius gave his godson a nod before handing him a dreamless sleep potion and something to help dull the pain. Once he was sure his godson was out of commission Sirius quietly crept out of Harry's room and shut the door.
"So this is just something he's going to have to go through, forever then?" Petunia asked once Sirius came back down the stairs. She had made some tea to help calm her nerves and keep her awake from staying up the entire night.
Looking at the woman sadly Sirius nodded. "Yeah, unless a miracle cure is discovered then he'll be like this for the rest of his life. I guess there is some benefit that his first time was in the summer since the nights are shorter." Pouring himself a cup and joining Petunia at the table. "Don't worry, he won't be staying with you for much longer, as soon as I can get the ministry to give me custody I can do more for him."
"What more can you do in this case?" Petunia curiously asked. "You already put him in a cage."
"I can buy a lot of land, a whole forest if I have to. Then on the nights of the full moon he'll be able to at least run around." Sirius went on to explain how that plan would work. With various wards to keep people out of the area and to keep Harry in where he would run with him all night.
Petunia sat quietly for a long while taking quiet sips from her cup. "But what of his future? I doubt he'll have many prospects for him like this."
Sirius seemed to deflate. "Maybe. I don't know. He's famous and a lot of people are going to be sympathetic to him but, I don't think that will extend itself into getting a stable job. Good thing he's got his parents money and I'm rich. So he doesn't have to work if he doesn't want to."
"But what about romantically? Can't be too many women who would put themselves in that kind of danger." Wondering how Harry would fare in the dating pool now that this was practically front page news. With all that had happened she insisted to Vernon that they get the Daily Prophet since had they had it before they wouldn't have been so blindsided with all the freaks coming to their home to tell them what happened to Harry.
As a result she got to see numerous articles written about Harry and she was vindicated to see that their publications were just as bad as the normal peoples but another part of her was disgusted about what was written about Harry. So much wasn't just incorrect, but complete fabrications. Demonizing speculation followed puff pieces about him, it was as if every day the writers wanted people to change their opinions about him.
"I think the bigger problem is that he might not put himself out there, it's what Moony did. Always shut himself off from other people because he was afraid," Sirius sighed. "I hope that he doesn't do that. That he at least still tries."
The conversation died there with neither wanting to dwell on that topic for much longer. Petunia sent off Sirius knowing that many of those people would be back again that night for the next few days and then they'd have about another month where Harry wouldn't have to suffer like he had.
The following nights were pretty much repeats of the first night where Harry would transform and then test the cage some more before settling down with the odd staring contest between himself and Tonks as the highlights of the nightly watches. Sirius hated that Harry had to be confined as much as he was. But the ministry wouldn't listen to his pleas to let him take Harry out to the forbidden forest or somewhere far away where he could run with him as an animagus. As it was deemed too dangerous because they didn't want to take the risk and none of the aurors were animagi and that was too much uncertainty to have them around Harry when he was transformed.
Harry found that over the summer days he was given more leeway with his relatives than before. If that was because of Sirius being a near constant presence whenever he had a chance to come around or sympathy for his affliction, Harry was freed up from many of his normal duties and that gave him some time to work on other things. Tonks had told him that it was possible that getting regular exercise might help some of the aches and pains that come with the change so Harry went for jogs daily until he came across a local gym and signed up.
He'd been invited to go shopping for his fourth year school supplies with the Grangers and Weasleys and that had been Harry's first foray back into the magical world since he'd become a werewolf. Harry wasn't sure which was more annoying to him, the way that parents would pull their young children away from him or the looks of pity he got from people who recognized him. Despite enjoying being out with his friends for the day, Harry cut his time in the alley short because he just couldn't take the stares any longer. So for the remainder of the month Harry spent most of his time in Surrey, where the only people who knew what was going on were in the Dursley household.
The second period of the full moon that came around and it seemed as though Harry was more in control this time. "Hey pup, are you still with us?" Sirius questioned while the panting werewolf looked around the cage again. That Harry wasn't slamming himself into the bars again was a good sign so far. Slowly the werewolf leaned back on his haunches and nodded.
"Well that's an improvement over last time," Snape said sardonically. Harry's snarl in response to him only made the potions master smirk. "Since it seems the potion is starting to work for Mr. Potter and he doesn't appear to suffer from any side effects, I will take my leave. I have much to prepare for the next year," leaving Sirius and Tonks with Harry.
And Snape did have a lot of work to do. Hogwarts had to have an entire room renovated to fit in a cage for Harry. The ministry was not going to allow Harry to use the Shrieking Shack now that Hogsmeade had been told of the real story. Of course the reason it was taking so long was that Dumbledore and the other professors wanted to ensure that the room wasn't just a filthy cage they locked a student up in all night. They wanted to make sure that Harry had space to move around and things to do.
"We need something more to do than just levitate balls Sirius," Tonks commented after Harry stopped engaging with the tennis balls and just layed down on the dusty floor of the basement.
Sirius knew that Tonks was right but he didn't really know what to do for Harry. Remus just wanted to run and play in the forbidden forest whereas Harry doesn't have that option being locked up. And since he didn't really know Harry personally even if he was trying, he wasn't sure what to do for his godson to entertain him right now. "What do teenagers even still like? Because I'm damn sure Lily would string me up if I got Harry to do some of the things I did at his age."
"What did you- you know what no. I can guess what you got yourself up to." Tonks shook her head because her parents after learning about Sirius' innocence had let her know what type of person he was. They warned her that Azkaban would in no way have mellowed him out and when she was watching over Harry that she would have to be the level headed one.
Giving himself a proud chuckle Sirius snapped his fingers. "What if we could play some of those muggle movies down here?" Getting the idea to just put on some tv to pass the time.
"There's no power outlets on the walls, Sirius?" Tonks pointed out how when the basement was dug it was done with magic and there weren't any plugs for a cord.
"We'll just get a longer cord, I'm sure the Dursleys have something just for that." Sirius dismissed the concern. "I'll go ask Petunia if she can help us."
After a few minutes went by Sirius and Dudley were hefting a television down the stairs with Tonks unwinding an extension cord. With a glance over to the mass of fur and muscle in the center of the cage Dudley looked over to his cousin's godfather. "So did that potion work? Is he... you know, not crazy now?" Whispering the last few words thinking that Harry wouldn't hear him.
"Werewolves have an incredible sense of hearing," Sirius cleared his throat. "So maybe you can talk to him rather than about him like he wasn't here."
Dudley turned back to the cage and yelped seeing that Harry was all but pressing himself against the bars and barring his large fangs. "He-hey," Dudley gulped nervously as he quickly set up the VCR for the group.
"Now what do we watch?" Sirius smiled as he looked at their choices for movies.
Tonks took the cassettes out of Sirius' hands and went over to the cage. "Harry, you pick the first movie."
Harry looked over the choices and pointed a claw at one of the movies Tonks was holding. "Huh, Alien. Didn't expect you to enjoy scary movies." Tonks shrugged before putting the tape in.
About halfway through the film Sirius had screamed his head off. "What is wrong with you muggles!" he cried out after seeing the xenomorph's first gruesome kill. "We're watching something that doesn't have monsters in it next."
Harry let out a throaty chuckle at seeing his godfather scream like a little girl at the movie's scares. After the movie ended Sirius put in Indiana Jones.
"Hey this is the guy your father named you after." Pointing to Harrison Ford on screen. "I just thought he was in that 'Space War" movie."
Seeing that both Harry and Tonks were looking at him curiously for his comment, he explained that for one of James and Lily's dates she wanted James to experience a muggle movie and had picked Star Wars and James thought that Han Solo was the best character in the film and thought that his son should be named after the actor who portrayed him.
After that movie had ended Tonks got to choose the last movie of the night before the sun would rise in the next couple of hours. Of course when Tonks chose a romance movie Sirius decried it as a chick flick. But guess who was a sobbing mess when the credits rolled.
"Are you sure that you don't want to go to the World Cup Sirius? Tonks?" Harry asked after being shut up for the last night of the full moon, coincidentally that was also the first day of the Quidditch World Cup. Harry knew this because the Weasleys had invited him along but Harry had to decline because of the timing. But he wanted to know if Sirius or Tonks would like to go in his place.
Both had declined the offer, Sirius claiming that all the old players he followed before Azkaban weren't playing anymore so he didn't really have a team to support while Tonks said she much preferred to be spending time just watching movies or playing games for a night rather than have to work security for a big sporting event.
The next morning when Harry read the Daily Prophet that came in during breakfast, he practically spat out his cereal. "They attacked the World Cup?" He exclaimed, reading through the article for more information. That information made Harry very worried for his friends, but the article did say there weren't any casualties. He wanted to send Hedwig off with a letter to ask if they were okay but he doubted that the Weasleys were even back at the Burrow and he would need to wait to hear from them first.