Card Name: Bonfire
Square #: B
Square #: 3 (Bonfire)
Link:
Line Y/N?: (Down, Across, Diagonal) no
Blackout Y/N? no
Your Team: Vampire
Card Name: Bonfire
Square #: G
Square #: 5 (Weekly Social: Monster)
Link:
Line Y/N?: (Down, Across, Diagonal) no
Blackout Y/N? no
Your Team: Vampire
Long Live the Queen
"The werewolf by the moon. The wererat by money.
(Loup garou par la lune. - Rat garou par les thunes.)"
Charles de Leusse
Severus knew he was going to die.
He was going to die because he was an idiot.
A thrice-damned idiot with a side of mushy peas and a double order of chips.
Lupin was a bloody werewolf, and he—
He was going to be werewolf food.
He should have listened.
Let it go.
Let it be.
Carried on.
But instead, he had held onto a grudge—and looked for reasons—any reasons—to get Potter and his gang of reprobates into trouble.
Even if it meant following Black down the tunnel to where Lupin was apparently transforming into a werewolf.
He'd never been able to let things go.
Not his grudges.
Not Lily.
Not his conviction that his mum was somehow insane for giving up on the magical world to live in Cokeworth—the manky armpit of midlands Britain.
And now, he was running for his life from claws and fangs and fur. He was running from a werewolf.
Remus—the name of one of the founders of ancient Rome who had supposedly been raised by wolves.
Lupin—a shortening of Lupinus "of the wolf" or even Lupus that meant "wolf."
How much more bloody obvious could it have been? Why had he been so blind?
Idiot!
The entire Lupin family were probably bleeding werewolves.
No, instead of staying longer at Slughorn's party, he'd stupidly allowed himself to be lured off to the lair of a bloody werewolf during his transformation.
And now he was going to pay the price.
He should have listened to his father.
He should have listened to his father's friend.
He should have listened in general.
"They will see you as a freak, boy," his father warned him. "They will not care who your parents are—only that your name is not emblazoned on their list of the sacred. You will never be like them, and they will never understand you."
"I will be powerful in my own right!" Severus had protested. "I will show them that I am more than a nobody. A freak!"
"You are not a freak," his father said grimly. "You will never be a nobody, but you will be and are different. It will take much more than power to break through such deeply ingrained prejudice. Just as it takes more than money to wash the stain of midland Cokeworth from your body."
Severus ran—faster than he ever had before.
He had no broom to summon.
He had no air to spare in which to scream for help.
He could hear the werewolf's breath—
All he had was put into the effort to run fast and hard back toward Hogwarts.
All his spells—useless.
He was useless because he needed sufficient air to form the words.
And enough focus to aim—
A centred mind.
His was chaos incarnate—he could barely breathe, let alone think.
He knew that if he was going to do something he had to do it before he was bitten or mauled.
His lungs burned.
His muscles were screaming in agony.
And deep within his soul, he suddenly felt something—shift.
Shift both in his energy and his physical body.
He tasted blood in his own mouth as he bit his tongue with newborn fangs. His fingertips were bloody where talon-like claws sprouted from where his dull, human nails had been.
Rage filled his body, and he whirled as Lupin leapt upon him, jaws open wide.
Severus grabbed the werewolf's head and foreleg, snapped the werewolf's head to the side, and buried his fangs deep into his neck, drinking down the beast's hot blood in ravenous newborn hunger even as Lupin's teeth tried to savage his arm.
Severus barely felt the jab as a set of antlers pierced his body, but he did feel those antlers being torn from his body as a dark brown blur took the stag by the head and slammed it down into the ground so hard the antlers broke off.
He let go of Lupin in his disorientation, hunger no longer a priority. Sanity—questionable.
What he saw was a giant ratlike creature that stood up on two legs. It was huge—much taller and more bulky than an adult human. It had a torn ear, and a swath down one side of its face, as if something even bigger had taken a swat at it. The wound had healed, yet the scar still remained.
Familiar…
It seemed—somehow familiar.
The creature's mouth gaped in a screech, two prominent rodent teeth bared—only there was something distinctly different about this particular rodent. Two elongated fangs framed the rodent teeth.
This creature wasn't just a giant vermin—it was a vampiric one. He suppressed a shudder. He'd never liked rodents.
Cokeworth had a lot of them, and they reminded him of—well, Cokeworth.
A black dog threw itself at the rodent, going for its face, but where a rat may have had paws, this beast had hands and equally dangerous talons that fanned outward in another sign of being more than just a mutant rodent.
The beast caught the dog, teeth bared, and then—
Severus cringed despite himself.
It ripped into the dog's gonads and took them clean off, savagely shook them, and then flung the dog headlong into the Whomping Willow, which kindly proceeded to pound the yelping dog into the dirt over and over again.
Severus only vaguely realised the willow was whomping again—something that had oddly not happened earlier when Black was leading him down the tunnel.
"AVADA KEDAV—" the spell was abruptly cut off by a harsh choking sound.
Severus whirled, and saw Pettigrew aiming a wand at the the giant rat but the wand fell from his hand as—
Sanguini pulled back from Pettigrew's neck, his face a mask of blood. He bit his own hand, and clamped it over Peter's mouth and jerked upward, forcing him to swallow his blood. Sanguini's eyes glowed as he threw Pettigrew to the ground with a snarling hiss of bared fangs.
Severus had never seen his father's friend in such a state.
Never once.
Suddenly, Sanguini's face went slack as he held out his hands to the giant rat. "Șobolanul meu," he whispered.
The ferocious-looking beast stopped slamming the stag into the dirt and came to him immediately. Sanguini touched his forehead to the beast's, his hands gently curling into the fur around its neck. The giant rat ground its teeth, eyes bulging slightly at the attention.
With a silent gesture, all the blood was gone from the beast and him. He grasped a pendant around his neck—one Severus recognised from his childhood. He'd always thought it was some gaudy costume jewellery from a time long past.
Multiple cracks of Apparition suddenly sounded off as a team of Unspeakables arrived in uniform along with a rather dishevelled-looking woman with a piercing stare who was attired in a dressing gown as if she had been preparing for bed.
The Whomping Willow flung the severely battered canine down in front of her, and her lips flattened into a line.
Sanguini was already pulling strands of silver-grey from his temple even as Amelia thrust out a vial. Shimmering memories floated into it, and she corked it at once.
"Short version, please," Amelia snapped.
"Reprobates lured Severus to the den of a transforming werewolf, and the fright prematurely Turned him," Sanguini reported. "The werewolf then thralled himself to Severus by swallowing his blood after or while Severus drank from him in instinctive hunger, and my mate slammed his transformed unregistered Animagus mates into the dirt. Save for one—who attempted to murder her with an Unforgivable—I then drained and thralled him for his crime against my mate."
Severus stared dumbly.
Sanguini was mated to a monster?
Weren't vampires monsters?
Could he even judge?
The irritated woman shook her head. "My lady Snapdragon, can we not look ready to bench press a car so that I can get a proper look at you?"
The huge rodent mutant squeaked as it shrank down and seemed to fold in on itself until a familiar figure sporting a headful of bushy curls appeared. "My apologies, Madam Bones."
Amelia tutted, looking her over for wounds. "Wererats just love their scars, don't they?"
Hermione smiled at her. "They are evidence of survival."
"Tch, I suppose you want to keep the new ones on your nose?"
Hermione shrugged. "They will heal. You needn't fret. Mr Templeton will want photos for the fridge."
"I like her scars," Sanguini purred. "They match the ones on my skin from a time long past."
"Your face is immaculate," Amelia said.
"That doesn't mean I do not have scars," Sanguini said, eyebrow lifting. "I have simply learned to—appreciate them more being mated to wererat."
"I think they look beautiful," Hermione said. "Very respectable."
Sanguini shrugged as if to say, "See?"
"What is going on here!?" exclaimed Dumbledore as he rushed up.
"Cleaning up your mess, Headmaster," Amelia snapped as she pointed to the werewolf that was sitting and staring adoringly up at Snape as though he were his entire world. She then pointed to the limp body of a stag with broken antlers that had been shoved into the ground enough times to make a stag-shaped hole and then at the battered black dog that had been smashed into a dog-shaped hole by the Whomping Willow.
The headmaster cast a spell to freeze the tree in place and then levitated the tree-battered dog toward them. "I don't see how animals are my responsibility," he objected.
Amelia scrunched up her nose in disgust. She snapped her fingers, and the Unspeakables cast a few spells in rapid succession as the stag turned into James Potter, the dog turned into Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew blurted, "Why couldn't you just die and save us all the trouble?!"
Dumbledore's expression paled as he swallowed hard. As he eyed the werewolf, his pallor became even more dramatic.
Lupin's stubby tufted little tail beat against the ground like a happy hound's as he stared up at Snape, one of the stag's antlers in his mouth.
Amelia scowled at Dumbledore. "I think there are some things we need to discuss. My Unspeakables will tend to the students and ensure they are admitted to St Mungos. The little I know of vampire powers tells me that Mr Lupin is now effectively neutralised and under control at the very least, and Mr Pettigrew will—tell us everything we want to know. If you would be so kind, Lord Sanguini?"
Sanguini tilted his head to the side slightly. He made one gesture with a finger toward Peter. "You will tell Madam Bones everything she asks in explicit detail, won't you, Wormtail?"
"Yes, Master!" Peter babbled. "Of course, Master!"
"You turned my students into thralls?" Dumbledore protested.
Sanguini slow-blinked, crimson light oozing from the sides of his eyes. "You would rather I let this one—" he pointed a clawed pinky toward Peter, "murder Hermione in cold blood? And that would've been—acceptable to you?"
"Miss Granger shouldn't even be out here," Dumbledore protested.
"Neither should these gentlemen," Sanguini pointed out. "Or a werewolf, for that matter. You'll get to see the memories of a rampaging werewolf chasing and attempting to savage young Severus as they flew across the Hogwarts green at a high rate of speed. All 'Miss Granger' did was simply alert me to their absence, which I excused myself to check out of courtesy so that Horace did not have to leave his party. Had I not done so, this field would be the scene of a massacre."
"This conversation will resume under Caution," Amelia said. "Unspeakables, get these students to Mungos and interrogate them the moment they are deemed stable. No one is permitted to visit them until that is done."
"Ma'am!"
Amelia cracked her neck. "Headmaster," she said grimly. "Please join me in my office. Lord Sanguini, at your earliest convenience after you tend to your—affairs."
Sanguini nodded silently.
"Mr Snape," Amelia requested. "Please go with this Unspeakable. We will take you to our clinic to have you looked at, and we will contact your father."
Severus grimaced and nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
"'Miss Granger'," Amelia addressed Hermione. "If you would please accompany Lord Sanguini to the clinic for a check up."
"Of course, ma'am," Hermione agreed, bowing her head slightly.
Amelia gave a tight smile. "Move," she ordered, and everyone did.
"You—you're a rat," Severus said.
"Well spotted," Hermione said as she pulled her robes back on from the examination. Unlike her demeanour at Hogwarts, Hermione did not seem to have the same modesty he was accustomed to seeing. She was comfortable with her body, and she had no qualms about dressing in front of Severus.
The healer had looked them both over behind a privacy screen, but unlike Severus, Hermione didn't seem to care who saw her dressing in the clinic. Her skin was criss crossed with scars—once deep scratches from claws and teeth, most long healed. One ear, her right, was torn slightly, and the savage bite from Black in his dog form was red across her nose.
"Why—didn't you let the healer mend your nose properly?" Severus asked.
Hermione tilted her head. "They prove I have survived."
Severus winced.
Hermione's expression softened. "Amongst my species, it is considered a badge of honour to have battle scars. You wear them proudly as a testament to where you have been and why you should probably consider battling with someone else."
"Wouldn't no scars mean that even more?" Severus asked, frowning slightly.
Hermione chuckled. "I have tussled and tested and have been tested by many a doe and buck since I was fighting over my first strawberry patch," she said. "My parents were very proud of my first scars and that I kept my strawberries."
"Your parents—actually encourage combat?"
Hermione tilted her head. "They encourage self-defence. I do not start fights, but I am expected to finish them. As a matter of pride and self respect. There are many stories dating back to the Roman arenas where we were gladiators. Not always willing ones. But in the end, we often were the survivors. My mate rescued me from a fighting pit and returned me to my parents when I was a young pup. I had been put on display as a freak at a travelling circus. Fighting against everything from cocks to cats to dogs—and even people. He took the man who had captured me and pounded him into the dirt. I respected him. He returned when I was mature, we courted, and the rest, as they say, is history."
"Why were you going to school with me then?"
She tilted her head. "I was not familiar with human magic, though I have the talent, or so I've been told. Lord Tobias gave me a tonic to alter my appearance, age-wise, and my memories were sealed as to not give me bias while learning. There they would remain until I graduated unless—my life was threatened. Or my mate's."
"So, you weren't put there to watch over me," Severus said.
Hermione shook her head. "No, but I'm sure they hoped we would befriend one another at some point."
Severus grimaced.
"Do not worry," Hermione said with a slow blink. "I, like so many others, realised you only had eyes for Lily Evans, but like I said, I didn't know you as the son of Lord Tobias. You were just Severus Snape of Slytherin with great ambition and a lashing tongue you never hesitated to use."
Severus winced. He, like many in Slytherin, had seen her scars and found them unattractive. While Lily was a social bulldozer in many ways, she got away with so much due to her pretty looks. Hermione had gotten away with nothing. If anything, many had picked on her for her differences because she had stuck out.
And he—
Well, he hadn't exactly helped any.
Whenever she'd taken the mickey, that meant he wasn't being focused on. He'd always taken advantage of that reprieve, even enjoyed it. It wasn't the Slytherin way to stick your neck out for anyone unless there was something really beneficial from doing so, and Hermione had been from a different house.
Ravenclaws weren't exactly known for being "normal" amongst magicals.
He realised in that moment that he'd been guilty of doing what others did—judging her on looks as if that mattered when it came to magic. Doing what he'd been trying to prove himself against since the beginning—being judged against a prejudice.
Shame churned in his stomach, and he didn't like it.
"You needn't worry about me," Hermione said. "Wererats are used to being judged by outsiders. Underestimated. They are thought of as vermin. Something to be trapped and destroyed rather than respected."
"Just because it's 'normal' doesn't make it right!" Severus blurted suddenly, part of him wondering why it mattered to him all of the sudden.
Hermione's lips turned up into a small smile.
"All poked and prodded, my love?" Sanguini rumbled, having appeared out of nowhere. Silent. Unnervingly so.
Hermione brightened significantly, and Severus felt a twinge of jealousy upon seeing it. He knew he had no right to feel that way, but felt it he did.
Hermione stood and thumped into the elder vampire lord, no fear or hesitation. He enfolded her with a half-lidded hiss of pure pleasure, his fangs glinting as he obviously enjoyed the contact.
"I will be relieved if they decide you are to return to us rather than go back to that horrible stewpot that is Hogwarts," Sanguini said. "You can take your exams without the drama there."
"You just want me back at your side," Hermione said with a smile.
Sanguini's lips puckered in a pout. "Can I not miss my beloved mate?"
Hermione snuggled into him. "I would have missed you too, had I remembered. It must have been maddening."
"It was—challenging," Sanguini confessed. "But, it was worth it if you learned the current ways of magic. Tobias will be thrilled that he doesn't have to go back to school to learn it for himself."
Hermione laughed. "I cannot see him back in school. He would surely murder all the imbeciles."
"Tch, Romans," Sanguini snorted as if commenting on the state of pigeons. "Always solving their problems with violence and assassination."
"Probably why we get on so well," Hermione said with a mischievous wink.
Sanguini ran a claw down the side of his neck and drew her close. "Feed, my cheeky mate, before your tail starts twitching seductively and I must mate you into the floor."
Hermione obeyed, but she chuckled into his neck. "Incubus."
Sanguini held her against him as she fed even as he looked calmly at Severus. "You are to give a statement to Amelia Bones, and she will decide if it will be required for you to show up at the Wizengamot hearing for—multiple, how did she put it, ah yes, royal cockups. After that, you will have to speak to your father about whether you plan to return to Hogwarts to finish your education or not. As I see it, you may get that choice, but the elder Black boy will be mending his bones and coping with his lack of—"
Sanguini scratched his head. "Well, let's just say that he lost a bit more than just his todger."
Severus winced.
"If you don't want them targeted during mortal combat, then don't let them hang out," Hermione observed, deadpan.
"Wererats are likely the reason they created body armour," Sanguini said dryly.
Hermione shrugged. "I was always taught not to start fights but by the seven hells, you bloody well finish them."
"You sure that wasn't in reference to your time spent in the fighting pit at that travelling circus?" Sanguini asked.
"The same lessons and rules apply to life," Hermione said with a shrug. "My parents were very proud of me for having kicked their teeth in at such a young age. Though—I think they were ultimately happy that you brought me back home. And I got to see you pound that despicable child abuser into the ground. I respected you even more for it. So did Mr Templeton."
Sanguini chuckled. "Childhood is a true gift," he said. "Despite how well prepared you were to seize life by the throat."
He murred into her neck. "Not that I don't find that quality very alluring, my beloved."
"Mr Templeton will want to hear about what happened," Hermione said.
"I believe our Amelia has already taken care of that," Sanguini said.
"Oh good," Hermione said with relief. "Otherwise he might take his teeth to someone's tail,"
Severus startled as someone walked noisily into the clinic. "Mr Snape," the official said. "Madam Bones would like a word with you."
Severus grimaced and nodded. "As you wish."
Full Moon Drama Unfolds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!
Innocent students were savagely mauled by an alleged werewolf, an anonymous source has informed us. Ravenclaw student Hermione Granger has been reportedly detained by Aurors and sits waiting in a secure holding cage to await the full moon as well as judgement with regard to her possible transformation after having been accused of secretly being a werewolf and roaming free to attack her innocent fellow students!
Granger vehemently denies being a werewolf, and even offered to swear to it under the influence of Veritaserum, but our laws require all accused half-beasts to be caged until their status is either proven or disproven.
Ministry official Madam Dolores Umbridge swears to pursue all angles of punishment for Miss Granger should she in fact be proven to be a werewolf.
The students that had been supposedly attacked, however, have been placed in quarantine and are currently not available to be interviewed.
Rumours that one of the victims may have been a werewolf has been vehemently denied by fellow students.
The Wizengamot has closed its doors for the trials, barring this reporter from obtaining the unvarnished truth!
Hermione sat alone in a bleak utilitarian cell, stripped of all of her clothing as a group of Ministry officials sneered at her, most of them jeering at her like she had already been proven to be a werewolf and darkly promising that she would be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
They drank their champagne and ate their sandwiches and sampled the platter of expensive hors d'oeuvres with greedy lip smacking enjoyment.
But as the time ticked on while she continued to show no signs of transformation, they began to look a bit concerned.
"Worried that I might sue according to law 77.00-W-66-A?" Hermione asked calmly. "You should be."
"I KNOW you are a dirty, filthy beast!" a woman with a doughy toad-like face spewed hatefully.
"I bathe regularly," Hermione stated calmly. "Probably more often than you do."
"Why you impertinent little—" the woman hissed angrily.
"Enjoy your food?" Hermione asked. She coughed up a tiny vial from her throat and grasped it between her fingers. "I believe you meant this for me."
She tilted her head. "All the alcohol you consumed probably watered it down somewhat, but I'm sure the intended effect will take place eventually. Whatever it was you put in it."
The food went crashing to the floor along with the wine glasses as the Ministry people frantically clawed at their collars, their throats bulging as fur began to sprout all over them. Their hands twisted into paw-hands, their bodies jerking and bursting from their clothes as their faces bulged outward to form muzzles even as they screamed in agony.
As the watching room filled with new werewolves, Hermione sat back against the bare wall and smiled as a terrified Umbridge attempted to enter the cell to escape from the newly transformed werewolves. She fumbled with the key but dropped it, and it skittered over to Hermione's foot.
"Give that to me right now!" Doloros hissed, her pale eyes wide with fright.
Hermione spun the key ring on her index finger. "You put real werewolf saliva in that vial to make sure I would Turn," she said with a whistle. "Devious. Almost admirable that you are quite willing to do whatever it takes to win."
Hermione smiled as she flung the key toward Umbridge's face. "But if you are going to play dirty,"she said. "Don't be surprised if someone out-rats you."
Dolores struggled to put the key into the lock and open the cell, but the key had been bent in three different directions.
Her screams were muffled under the bodies of multiple snarling werewolves as they leapt upon her.
Hermione smiled as she calmly listened to the unfolding chaos. "Pity you locked all the doors to keep the Aurors from coming in," she said.
Outside in the warded hallways, Sanguini stood stoically as the team of Aurors attempted to blast their way into the chamber room. The screaming and then howling and then screaming with howling made them increasingly desperate. They ran about like a swarm of angry hornets, desperate to get in lest the scene get worse.
Somehow.
His eyes slid to the side as he spotted a beetle attempting to squeeze out from under the door just before Alastor Moody's dragonhide boot smooshed the insect into the flagstones.
Alastor let out a startled yell as he fell backwards as the "corpse" of the beetle turned into the broken body of a blonde woman.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!" Moody yelled as the Aurors went from blasting the wards to pointing them at the crushed body of Rita Skeeter.
"That's the reporter bitch, Rita Skeeter!" someone yelled.
Sanguini ran his tongue over his canines. "This night just keeps getting better and better."
Long Night at the Ministry!
Senior Auror Moody Uncovers Shocking Conspiracy To Deliberately Turn Innocent Hogwarts Student Into Werewolf!
It is with a heavy heart that we report the loss of our own Rita Skeeter who was trying to bring your unvarnished truth at the Ministry meeting last night.
What started out as a vigil to determine whether or not Hermione Granger, Ravenclaw student of Hogwarts, was in fact a werewolf, ended with an entire roomful of Ministry werewolves, Madam Umbridge being attacked by said werewolves, and Rita Skeeter being outed as an illegal unregistered Animagus.
Rita was crushed to death by an Auror's boot heel as she attempted to escape the room in beetle form.
As it turns out, Miss Granger was the only safe one in the room, as she was imprisoned within a secure viewing cell as the Ministry officials who had been watching her were transformed into werewolves.
Granger herself, however, did not and was subsequently released from Ministry custody.
A mysterious law office known only as Fruits Du Sang has taken on Miss Granger's case pro bono, and has promised to make everyone who was involved in framing her for lycanthropy to be dragged into the light.
Newly promoted Ministry officials are now pressing for better laws and treatment of prisoners, and certain officials have seemingly retired overnight.
"Sev!"
Severus spun, startling as he heard a familiar voice from behind him.
"Lily?"
"Let me out of here!"
Severus blinked. "What are you doing here?"
"They dragged me out of bed at Hogwarts! Let me out of here!"
"That's a Wizengamot detention cage," Severus pointed out stiffly. "I couldn't get you out of there even if I wanted to! And you accused Hermione of being a werewolf! You saw what those sodding wankers did to me every single day, and you straight up LIED that they were innocent!"
"You don't have to be so difficult about it," Lily said, her voice sounding strangely—different.
Puzzled, Severus turned to face her, and she quickly blew something in his direction.
He wobbled for a moment, his eyes glassy.
Lily was so enchanting.
So beautiful.
Of course he would free her.
"That little bitch ruined everything," Lily hissed as she pulled his hand to her. Her face pushed out into a muzzle, two prominent incisors jutting out of her gums. She laid into his hand, drawing blood, but was so terribly careful not to get any blood on herself.
"So distasteful. But you're just going to have to do, I'm afraid." Lily sighed. "I really wanted James. He was so handsome. Rich. Sirius. He was rugged. Utterly ruthless. They were going to be my bucks. My court. We were going to take over the magical world. I'd assassinate that bitch on the throne of Cokeworth, and I'd lead my pack to the magical world, and we would take it over. I detest changing. That's lower rat work. But you're going to smuggle me out of here, aren't you, Sev? Then you'll change, and you'll never question me again."
Severus just wobbled a shaky nod.
Lily transformed into a small ginger-furred rat and carefully tucked herself into his robe pocket.
"'Fraid you have to sit here and wait for a bit, Severus," the man at the gate said apologetically. "Some clueless idiot left the door open, and all the hellcats are stalking the halls. You okay, son? You look a little out of sorts."
Severus just stared ahead blankly.
"Well, your father wants to see you anyway before you go," the gatekeeper informed him. "Go on, the door will be open by the time you get back or Hastings will be answering to Lord Rada."
Severus shuffled down the corridor without a word, but as he entered the hallway, a hundred plus yowling hellcats pounced on him excitedly and buried him in a pile of flaming fur and claws.
"Get the net on them!"
A cloud of vampires netted all the cats one after another, pulling them off Severus, but one proud-looking hellcat had a tasty prize that she didn't want to let go of—
A screaming, frantically squeaking, ginger-furred rat.
Severus shook his head, his brow wrinkling. He suddenly touched his hand and his eyes went crimson. "PUT THAT RAT IN STASIS IMMEDIATELY! THAT'S LILY EVANS!"
"I don't think I have ever tried a rat," Lord Marcus admitted as he sipped crimson liquid from a goblet.
"Wererat, technically," Lord Gareth pointed out.
"We're just here to bear witness," Lady Antonia said. "For once, we get to watch the trial, wererat style."
The orange-furred rodent in the energy prison threw itself against the sides, squeaking furiously.
"What is that scent?" Lady Brunhild asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "It smells like a donkey's unclean bottom."
"Pheromones—" Lord Agvardus said. "They seem to work only on males. Specifically, unbonded males. Or simply young ones, perhaps. Young Severus was affected."
"I have the feeling he should have been able to shake it off, but he had been exposed before he Turned—and his body was used to being under its influence," Lord Nikolai said grimly. "It was a unique situation."
"So we just watch someone else mete out justice?" Lord Zaidu asked.
"I think you will enjoy this one," Sanguini smoothed as he pet the hellcat perched on one arm of his throne.
"You're not eager to bring justice to this mortal?" Lady Layra asked.
"Oh, I am," Sanguini said, "but this is something to be settled the wererat way."
There was a rustling at the door as a number of humanoid rats filed in. Their whiskers twitched, tails moving back and forth as they filed in and formed a ring around the Council's chambers. There seemed to be two distinct groups—one on one side, one on the other. While one group seemed comfortable in their rat forms, each bearing scars from a multitude of fights, the others were more human. Their muzzles shorter. Whiskers more sparse. Scars—barely discernible.
"We are here to bear witness to the dispute between Hermione of the London East Side Pack and Lily of the Cokeworth Pack," a grey-blue rat announced. "Lily Evans has used queen pheromones against humans in a bid to usurp the ruling rats of Cokeworth and take over 'magical' territory. She has also attacked with intent to infect the vampire and fellow student, Severus Snape. She made a false accusation against Hermione of the London East Side Pack, drawing unwanted attention to the wererats as well as accusing another shapeshifter of being a different species—an uncontrollable, notoriously murderous species: the werewolf. In accordance to our most ancient laws, this matter is to be settled wererat to wererat, with the winner earning the right to decide the fate of the other."
Hermione walked in wearing a loose-fitting robe, and they released Lily from her containment.
She rose up in a bipedal form, screeching shrilly with anger. "YOU! YOU FUCKING BITCH! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!"
Hermione tugged at her robes, and they floated off to lay in Sanguini's lap.
"If you wished to fight me, I would have obliged," Hermione said. "Instead, you enslaved humans with your pheromones to do your bidding, attacked me with slander, and attempted to Turn Severus against his will. There is a reason queens were killed at birth in the dark ages. They ignored their roots, lived as humans, and spread the plague far and wide across the land, even as they attempted to create entire armies of rats to do their bidding. Those humans—your friends—will need years of intensive detox to rid themselves of your insidious influence. Like addicts to you—"
"You think I would lower myself to fight with YOU?" Lily snarled. "You unworthy peasant rat? East side London full of criminals and gangs? How dare you judge me! I was born to be a QUEEN!"
"As your queen," an elderly female wererat said as she stepped out of the crowd. She had greying whiskers and fur, but her dark eyes were clear and bright. "I order you to fight for your honour, or I will execute you here and now for your treacherous plot to assassinate me."
Lily paled, her orange fur seeming to fade along with the skin beneath it.
Hermione transformed, her human body replaced by that of a giant, bipedal rat.
But even before her fur filled in, Lily leapt, her teeth bared, claws swiping.
Hermione's other ear bled as Lily's claws ripped it open, but Hermione's arm slammed into her with a swift right hook, sending Lily crashing to the floor behind her. Hermione's tail lashed like a whip, and Lily leapt again, but Hermione jumped, using her legs like a kickboxer, throwing her away from her.
Lily screeched in fury, throwing her weight into a similar kick to put Hermione back as she'd done to her, but Hermione stepped to the side and then mauled her face, blooding her nose and muzzle, and as her legs pistoned up, then clawed down Lily's peach perfect belly, drawing blood.
Lily seemed to lose her mind after that, and that prim little princess finally seemed to drown in her rodent instincts, shoving Hermione down on her back and boxing with her arms as she attempted to bury her teeth into Hermione's neck.
But where Lily had desperation, Hermione had experience.
She used her weight to throw Lily off balance, slammed her head hard against the floor, and clamped her teeth around Lily's neck with an audible crunch.
The Council's eyes glowed together, and Hermione's eyes glowed in response, and she immediately let go and stepped back.
"If this continues, our Hermione will most likely have other instincts that will not fall into the rules of your engagement," Lord Rada said delicately. "Is this—sufficient to prove victory?"
The elder wererats exchanged glances, and a distinguished looking silver-haired gentlerat nodded. "It is enough for the East Side Pack."
"It is enough for the Cokeworth Pack as well," the queen of the Cokeworth Pack said.
"Hermione of the East Side Pack," the queen said solemnly. "What do you demand for your victory?"
"I would defer judgement to the Council of the Sang, for only they can fairly weigh a crime against an immortal's child not yet Turned," Hermione said. "Since her actions directly influenced his self-Turn, I will accept whatever they decide."
"So it shall be," the Cokeworth queen said. "She is yours for you to decide her punishment, Council of the Sang."
She gathered her dignity and her rats, and they walked out solemnly.
Mr Templeton and his rats, however, turned to the Council and bowed to them silently. The Council bowed their heads in acknowledgement, and then the rats walked out calmly, heads held high, tails swaying, and whiskers twitching.
"Lady Hermione, I congratulate you on your victory, but we will need time to decide the fate of this one," Lord Aku said grimly, two fingers tracing his chin on both sides.
"I must recuse myself from this judgement," Sanguini said, standing. "I would tend to my mate until your summons."
"I, too, must recuse myself," Tobias said, his eyes glowing. "Lest I break her neck simply for her being so close."
Lord Advardus nodded. "We will summon you."
Sanguini, Tobias, and Hermione walked out together.
As Lily stood before the arrogant "people" on their entitled thrones, she couldn't help but smile, especially since something seemed to pass between them all that made their already pale skin even more so.
"LOCK THIS SCORTUM UP IN THE PITS!" one of them yelled, even as others said things in a multitude of languages Lily didn't know, but she didn't need to know the languages to know that her plan had succeeded.
In all the chaos, there was just enough of a window for her to transform and disappear into a crack and escape.
Lily couldn't help but gloat as she peeked out from a crack in the wall to see her smug rival brought low. She had come duly prepared, and while it wasn't an immediate effect as she would have preferred, it had brought that inferior peasant East-ender doe to her place.
Everyone knew that East-ender rats were all brutal criminals and swindlers. They scurried about in the sewer like normal rats.
Disgusting.
Below her, the elders had gathered around the bitch and her supposed mate. That all-too-pretty pervert Sanguini lay still beside her. She hated him. She'd hated how he took away the adoring gazes from HER at Slughorn's parties. Even though he never seemed to favour anyone with his interest. It didn't matter.
She was a queen.
She deserved RESPECT!
She hated having to crawl around in walls and cracks, but it was all the better that no one would ever think to look for her there. They presumed she would rather die than get dirt on herself. But revenge was all too high on the list, well above her fastidious dislike of dirt.
Revenge was important.
Especially to put some peasant in her place.
She hadn't expected there to be mere rabble at Hogwarts. She was a queen. Something extra special as magic would be expected from her. Hermione was a common rat. She should be a Muggle like all the rest of the lowly servants.
But as the arrogantly pale pissants fussed and tried to give their blood to their afflicted, nothing worked. She knew it wouldn't. The poison was a thing of experienced assassins. Her family had developed an immunity to it over generations to resist any assassination attempts. They were perfectly poised to take over Cokeworth and beyond. Now that the queen thought she had been dealt with, she wouldn't be expecting her family to strike. She would seize the throne, and then all of Cokeworth would be under their heels.
First, however, she had to make sure this poser died.
And if they believed they were actual vampires, she would put a nice stake in their chests to be sure.
The pale people left, but then an unexpected boon arrived in the form of Sev.
And her pheromones had already had its hooks on him. He'd shaken them off somehow before, but she didn't need it to last long, not this time. Just long enough to shove a stake through the bitch's chest.
She massaged her lower body, making the pheromones drift thickly down upon him as he lay his head on the side of the bed. The man that looked like a sterner version of Sev lay down beside them—
Such luck.
Apparently, in taking out the bitch, she'd also taken out her stupid supporters too.
So instead of just taking out Hermione, she was taking out four. The ruddy poser and three of those supposed lords. And—
She smirked.
She'd make Sev do it.
They could hang HIM for it.
She scurried down to the ground once she was sure he was under her control, and stood on the side of the bed, squeaking her orders. He didn't have to understand the squeaks to know exactly what she wanted.
He lifted his head from his arms.
Twin trails of crimson tears flowed down his face.
Blood.
His hand closed around her squealing rat form like a vice as his fangs flashed, and she felt fire rushing through her entire body as those fangs sank deep even as he drew his fingers down his bleeding face and shoved one clawed digit down her throat, coating it with his blood before he yanked it out with a snarl of disgust.
Lily squeaked and convulsed, falling off the bed to the floor as her body jerked and twitched then went still.
"Antidote, now," Severus seethed, his eyes hard.
Lily rose in human form and pulled the earring off her ear, placing it in his hand. Her eyes were glassy.
Severus enlarged the earring and found the vial with the antidote in it, and he tossed it across the room, and Lord Nikolai's hand closed around it.
"You've done well, Severus," Nikolai said. "I will analyse it straightaway."
His eyes glowed. "Do with your new thrall as you wish."
Severus' expression darkened exponentially. "Yes, Lord Nikolai."
Tobias rumbled as Eileen rushed into his arms, and his normally dour expression softened. "I'm fine, woman. It is good that I do not breathe. You'd have murdered me all over again."
"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!" Eileen wailed.
"Torpor," Rada said through an impressive yawn. "Much like the old times when we died every morning and did not rise until evening. Such memories."
Rada chuckled as Hermione had snuggled into him in her groggy haze, her body caught somewhere in between rat and human, her tail wagging.
"Mihail, my old friend, your mate is seducing me," Rada complained half-heartedly.
Sanguini grunted, staring up at the ceiling. "I can't feel my legs. Give me a few minutes to remember how to move."
Rada snorted, drew a claw over his neck, and drew Hermione to it. "Drink, child, you ravenous creature."
Hermione latched on with enthusiasm, her tail wagging more enthusiastically.
"Ah, youth," Rada said with a chuckle as she fed.
"Father?" Severus said, his pale face seemingly more so as he approached.
Tobias took him into an embrace with his mum. "There now, I'm alright. You did very well."
When Severus pulled back, Tobias' eyebrows rose as he noted the trails of crimson on his son's face. "Oh, my son—heh—your timing is always when we least expect it."
"Who is the lucky one?" Eileen asked, suddenly very interested.
Severus grimaced. His eyes slid over to the side where Rada transferred Hermione back to her mate with a chuckle.
"Oh—" Eileen said with a blush. "Both of them?"
Severus closed his eyes with a wince, his face slightly blue-purple with just a hint of pink.
"He'll never have a better time to initiate the bond. Mihail is torpor drunk and lethargic," Tobias mused.
"Why aren't YOU torpor drunk and lethargic?" Eileen asked somewhat suspiciously.
Tobias' brows furrowed. "I am."
"But you don't—" Eileen stared at him.
Rada stood, a bloodfruit already in his mouth as he drained it thirstily. He leaned toward Eileen. "You should take him to bed."
Eileen's eyes widened as she flushed, and she took Tobias by the hand and quickly scurried out of the clinic.
Rada smiled, yawned, and threw on a Lethifold. "Have fun, children," he said as he walked out the door, closing it behind him.
One could hear his laughter as multiple sets of two-finger salutes silently sounded off behind his back.
Meanwhile, Lily Evans in her starkers stood vacantly at the door, a conjured sign hanging around her neck marked "Do Not Disturb." She had Mickey Mouse ears perched on her head, sported a fake tail and a pair of slippers shaped like wedges of Swiss cheese were on her feet. A small pink crown made of the cheapest Muggle plastic adorned her head.
A few vampires came up to the clinic door as if to enter, saw the sign, and then hustled away.
Whether it was the sign or the sight of Lily that drove them away so quickly still remained to be seen.
Mr Templeton leaned against the tree next to Amelia Bones as he sipped his blackberry cordial. A blazing bonfire burned high in the center of the field, and everywhere, people, beings, and beasts all gathered to share in the festivities.
"I do love weddings. Especially secondary unexpected weddings after first weddings without any divorce fighting, drama, and assassination attempts!"
Amelia sipped her wine. "Wererats are so incorrigible."
Templeton smiled. "We knew our Snapdragon was going to make us proud," he said. "We knew that when she took the balls off a werelion."
Amelia gave him the eyebrow.
"It was probably a good thing that Lord Sanguini found her when he did. Otherwise, there would've been a long line of bucks fighting to earn her favour and not her teeth to their bollocks." Templeton smiled, teeth sparkling. "Two bucks seems about right for her. Should keep her properly balanced."
"I don't think I'll ever understand the bleeding," Amelia said with a sigh. "How they can just accept that if you bleed for someone, well, then that's that. That's your mate or mates."
"Oh, I wouldn't say it's always accepted immediately," Templeton said. "It's simply a very big hint that if ignored will paint you an idiot for untold centuries. In a society so long lived, that's worse. Besides, isn't it the dream of so many to know someone is meant for them and have them think the same of you?"
"Amelia resisted my sexy crooning and dexterous wing dance for an entire decade," Manfred pouted as he smoothly evicted a mango from its skin and removed the pit with practised precision.
Amelia flushed.
"Does can be terribly fickle," Mr Templeton said with a cheeky wink. He and Manfred shared a knowing look between them.
"Men!" Amelia complained, scoffing loudly.
But as the three of them watched Hermione dancing with both Sanguini and Severus, oblivious to the world around them even as many a vampire, wererat, and DoM agent shared the dance floor, a genuine smile tugged at their lips.
At the side of the refreshment table, a scantily clad Lily Evans stood in a frilly French maid uniform with a tiny pink plastic crown on her head, her arms holding out a tray that people took their drinks from.
Yes, everything was just as it should be.
"So, who wants to bet on the number and gender of the children?" Manfred said with a twinkle in his eyes.
Templeton perked as many wererats gathered around to excitedly join in on the wagering, wagging tails all.
And they lived smugly ever after…
A/N: It's been one hell of a month. I've been an exhausted wreck, so not much writing going on at the moment. I've even been falling asleep trying to play Diablo IV, so I'm not even paragon 300 yet. So sad. But, I hope you enjoyed this story!