Chapter 13
Hermione flung her arms around Ron when she saw him. Ron gasped for breath she was hugging him so tight.
"Hermione!" Ron managed to gasp.
"Ron! You're okay!!!!!!!" she cried. Harry pulled Hermione off him and gave her a look.
"I mean. You made it to class!!!!" Ron gave her a look.
"Yeah.. I did." Professor Midrigge walked over to unlock the door.
"Good morning Ron. Tough night?" Professor Midrigge asked. Ron didn't answer. In class, Professor Midrigge quizzed them on all the half-breeds that they learned about. Ron tried to keep his mind on class but his arm was throbbing. He kept thinking about Leila.
"Your quiz, Mister Weasley. Your quiz." Said Professor Midrigge's voice in his head. He looked up and found her staring at him from her desk. Ron went back to his quiz.
At lunch, Ron thought more about Leila. He had promised to bring food and visit her on his next break. The next break was only 5 minutes. Only enough time to gather the Charms and History of Magic books for both of those classes in a row. Then there was dinner. He decided to grab some food from the Great Hall and then go to the cave.
"Oh Mr. Weasley!" called a voice. Professor Midrigge was walking towards the Gryffindor table. She was holding a very large lamp.
"Here." She said, handing it to him. "You'll need it tonight. And I suggest you should go and talk with Professor Sinistra."
"Okay.. Thanks.." Ron said, staring at the lamp. Professor Midrigge winked at him.
After Charms was done, Ron decided to quickly talk to Professor Sinistra.
"Hello Ron." Professor Sinistra said. She was looking at a lunar chart and writing things down on a piece of paper.
"Hello, Professor Sinistra. Um.. Anything interesting about the moon?" He nodded towards the lunar chart.
"Yes. Yes. In fact there is. You recall the full moon yesterday?"
"Mmm hmmm."
"Well, the moon isn't changing! It will be yet ANOTHER full moon tonight." Ron blanched.
"Wh-what?"
"Yes! Can you believe it? I am still trying to find this out. Perhaps He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is behind this.. Was there something you wanted Mr. Weasley?"
"Um.. When is our next assignment due again?"
"Thursday."
"Thanks." Ron fled the room.
Voldemort stepped out of the shower onto the blood red bathroom rug. Wrapping the towel around himself, he wiped the fog off of the mirror. He grinned at his reflection. His first murder went successfully. And keeping the moon full went perfect. He jerked a comb through his hair and opened the door. He decided a nice cup of tea would help him come up with more ideas for his next kill. He wandered down the stairs and entered the kitchen. The smell of lemon tea was already wafting though the kitchen.
"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." said a voice. Wormtail was cowering, wringing his hands by the kitchen table. Ophielus was sitting sipping tea at the table.
"You!!! What are YOU doing here?" Voldemort yelled, clutching his towel tighter around his waist going red.
"Hello Tom. Nice to see you too."
"Wormtail!" Voldemort hissed, walking over to him. "Why is she HERE?"
"I. I." Wormtail spluttered.
"Nevermind." He spun around and stormed towards Professor Midrigge. "Look lady."
"Ophielus."
"Ophielus. What a lovely name.." Voldemort said, his grip loosening.
"Whoa there." Ophielus set down her cup and brought out her wand and the towel wrapped itself tightly around his waist.
"I've been wanting to talk to you Tom." She said.
"You.. Have?" He sat down and moved his chair next to hers.
"Yes Tom."
"Wormtail! Leave, NOW." Wormtail scurried out of the kitchen.
"So, my dear. What did you want to talk about?"
"You, Tom. You." Ophielus purred.
"Heh heh.." Voldemort said.
"Harry!" Ron said. "You won't believe what Professor Sinistra just told me!"
"What?" Harry asked, flipping over a piece of parchment to continue his History notes.
"There is going to be another full moon tonight!!!!"
"There IS?"
"Yes! Professor Sinistra said it had to do something with You-Know- Who!"
"It did? Well, what are you going to..."
"See you in the morning." Ron said to Harry and ran to get food from the Great Hall.
Ron flung his food filled pack over his shoulder and pulled out his wand. He lit the lamp Professor Midrigge gave him. Even though the sun wasn't about to set, he figured he needed it anyways. Ron ran as fast as he could behind the trees, the bushes, and behind the greenhouses to Leila's cave. Finally, he reached the side wall of the cave.
"Leila!" Ron yelled, running into the cave.
"Whoa! Didn't expect to see you back so soon!" Leila was folding up the bed sheets.
"Leila! There's another full moon tonight!" Ron said.
"There's WHAT?" Leila dropped the sheets.
"Yes! I talked to my Astronomy teacher. You-Know-Who is behind it! What am I going to do? What are WE going to do?"
"We're going all the way.."
"What?" Ron said aghast, going red.
".Up the mountain." She grabbed his arm and dragged him out. The sun was setting rapidly.
"But. what will happen if.. We change?"
"We won't. It's too foggy and the mountain and trees are going to block the moon until we get to the top." It began to get darker, and with the casting shadows of the mountain, it was getting spookier.
"It's just up there." Leila said pointing. What looked like a cabin was built up at the top, almost hidden among the trees. It seemed to have a very big roof that hardly allowed light in through the small windows. Ron hefted the bag of food again over his shoulder and the two of them made their way up to the cabin. Smoke was curling out of a brick chimney. Leila pounded on the door.
"Who is it?" called a thick voice.
"It's me! I've brought someone with me!" The door opened a crack.
"Leila! Why did you bring. Ron?"
"Professor Lupin?"
"What are you doing here?"
"What are YOU doing here?"
"Remus? Who is at the door?" came a deep voice from behind Lupin.
"Hush, Thor. Leila, you need to get Ron out of the forest NOW. Didn't you hear that its yet another full moon?"
"Yes. I heard. I bit Ron last night." She said this very casually.
"Well. Then that's another story! Come in! Thor just made some potion for us." Lupin opened the door further. There was a fireplace at the far end of the cabin and two beds on either side of it. There was a big pot over the fire and a fat, small man was stirring the contents.
"Ron. This is Xavier Thor. He's um. A werewolf. Like me. And you and Leila. This is our home. Leila usually comes here some nights."
"Great." Ron said. Thor abandoned the pot to shake his hand.
"Pleased to meet you." Thor had very bushy black eyebrows.
"Well. I have feeling we'll be seeing a lot of you two around here lately. Unless Dumbledore and what's left of the Ministry find out how to break the spell on the moon."
"But why did he do it in the first place?"
"Time goes faster. During the day, the moon revolves until it is full again. And once it is full, night has already fallen. I don't know why he did it, but that's why its full. You're welcome to stay for the weekend."
"But. I still have some classes."
"Oh yes.. How forgetful I am."
"Is there someone you can talk to? Like, a teacher?" Leila asked, setting herself in a chair at the wooden kitchen table, littered with syrupy plates.
"Um.. I think there's someone I can talk to. I could ask them for a permission slip to get this weekend off. It might work."
"You do that then. We need some more help around here." Thor glared at Leila.
"Hey! I can't help that I can't carry logs from that pile all the way in here." She said, folding her arms across her chest.
"Enough." Lupin said. "Ron, try to find a way out of class. Me, being an ex-professor, I shouldn't be persuading you to skip class."
"It's okay.. Uh. If you're not a Professor anymore, what should I call you?"
"Lupin. Or Remus. Thor prefers Thor."
"I think Xavier is a wonderful name." Leila pointed out. "And Thor makes you sound like some lab assistant."
"I say, Leila. You are too much involved with Muggle activities."
"So? I live in a Muggle neighborhood! I have to do Muggle activities in order to seem normal. No one except my cousin and I in that neighborhood have magical powers."
"Remus. We should take that potion now. The moon will be high enough soon."
"Right. I think I have an extra goblet around here somewhere." Lupin began to fling open cabinets.
"I keep around extras in case accidents like this happen. You never know when a new one will pop up in the forest."
"Tch! You should talk." Leila said.
"Well, if you hadn't been wandering the forest at night under a full moon then you wouldn't be here."
"Well, She and Ron wouldn't be here if you hadn't ate that last piece of Blood Sucking Bugbear meat and had to go and hunt for more food."
"You mean." Ron started. "That you bit Leila?"
"Yes." Lupin said grumpily, pulling down a goblet from a top shelf.
"Oh." Ron said.
"It'll do. A bit cracked in some places."
"I don't mind." Ron said. Thor took the goblets and began to pour the smoking potion into them.
"Here you go. Wolfsbane potion."
"I daresay Harry told you?" Lupin said as Ron stared at the cup.
"Yes. So. It's not bad for you?" Lupin opened his mouth to speak but Leila interrupted.
"It tastes gross! I don't see why they make me take it. They're not my parents." Leila said, peering into the goblet with a disgusted look on her face.
"We're making you take it for the safety of people." Leila snorted and forced down the potion. Ron did too. It burned his throat as it trickled down. It tasted like dirty black glacier ice and rotten moss.
"Ughn!" Ron said. Thor and Lupin finished their potion.
"Now. What are we going to do about beds?" Lupin asked, collecting the goblets.
"I usually sleep on the floor." Leila said. "Lupin and Thor get the beds."
"That's because we live here. We're outcasts from the wizarding world."
"Outcasts of the wizarding world." Leila imitated. "I don't mind the floor anyways. Besides, we usually go to sleep in our other forms."
"Well. We have one other mattress. It's out in the shed."
"I'll get it." Thor said and went to get the mattress.
"I could sleep on the floor then."
"Wellllllllll." Lupin said. "The, um, mattress takes up too much space. You would have to sleep under the table by the door and its much colder there."
"I'll share!" Leila said, jumping up.
"As always." Lupin rolled his eyes. Leila ran out of the house to get blankets. "Seems like she's taken a liking to you." He smiled at Ron. He went red.
"So. How's Harry and Hermione?"
"Good."
"That's good." Ron noticed how much Lupin had changed. His hair was still gray in some places. But the state of his clothes was much better. Seemed he had time to go and get some real clothes.
"You've changed very much over the years Ron." Lupin said. "Getting taller. Still taller than Harry?"
"Yeah. Harry's the Quidditch captain and I'm the keeper."
"Is that so?" The door swung open and Leila bustled in, her arms full of white blankets. Thor dragged in the mattress and he and Ron laid it out on the floor.
"You might want to get up early." Lupin whispered to Ron.
"Why?" Ron asked.
"You'll find out." Thor whispered in Ron's other ear. Lupin looked out the window.
"More light is coming near. We better go outside now." Lupin and Thor took off their wizard robes.
"You might want to do the same." Thor said, taking off his shoes.
"Okay." Ron took off his Hogwarts robe and his shoes. Leila was standing in the open doorway in her bare feet. Leila led them outside to a flat strip of land except for a few tree stumps. They stood there, waiting for the moon to come out from behind the gray clouds. Slowly, piece by piece, slices of the moon became visible. Ron's stomach clenched. When the moon was in full view, Ron's limbs began to stretch. His back tensed and his shoulders hunched over. His whole body prickled as fur began to grow on them. His hands and feet turned into paws and black claws jutted out of the fur. Ron's feet sunk into the soft ground with the weight of change. His pants ripped in several places as his thighs grew into haunches. There was a loud swishing and ripping noise as his tail popped out. His shirt tore as his wolfish chest was released. Ron's eyesight came much adjusted to the light. He could hear better. He could even smell better. He felt his mouth stretch and a tugging on his teeth. Ron clenched his eyes shut and he fell to all fours.
Ron opened his eyes and looked down. He was a werewolf now. He tried to move his fingers. The paw he saw clawed at the dirt.
"Whoa." Ron said.
"Pretty sweet deal, huh?" Leila said, turning around in a circle. "I wanna go inside. I'm cold!" Leila's fur rippled as she shivered. 4 animals wandered in the cabin. Lupin shut the door with his back foot. Ron finally got a good look at everybody. Thor looked like an overweight wolf with jet black bushy fur. Leila was an almost white wolf. She had yellowed white fur and faint traces of red where her tattoo was. Her eyes made her look spookier. One blue, one green. Lupin looked like all the other werewolves he had seen in books. He was gray with tints of brown here and there. Ron could see the color of his fur by the light of the fire. It was a rusty red gold with white on his belly. Lupin and Thor had shook off what was their clothes. They picked up their wands in their mouths and set them on their piles of clothes to mend in the morning. Leila wriggled off her scraps of clothes and Ron, feeling foolish, did too. If someone had happened to peek in one of the windows, they would think it was very strange, seeing 4 werewolves just sitting there.
"What do we do now?" Ron asked.
"Go to sleep!" Thor said, hopping onto his bed. He turned around 3 times before curling up. He pulled the blankets over him with his mouth and began to fall asleep.
"Or, we could talk." Lupin suggested, scratching behind his ear with his foot.
"Yes! Talk talk talk!" Leila said and she chased her tail around.
"All right." Ron said. It was kind of strange lying down or sitting like a dog.
"So. I heard about Harry's owl."
"Who's Harry?"
"A friend." Ron told Leila. "Yeah. He's still kind of upset."
"So who's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?"
"A lady named Ophielus Midrigge. She's Neville's aunt."
"Is she? I've heard that name before."
"She's a well known psychic."
"Hmmm. No wonder Dumbledore wanted to hire her. She predicts things, can she not?"
"Yes. And read minds too. It's kind of embarrassing sometimes. You're trying to think in class and she enters your thoughts and tells you to get back on task."
"I see." Lupin said. He yawned and two rows of sharp white teeth gleamed by the fire light.
"Well. We've got to take a trip into the nearest Muggle town in the morning for more supplies. We have to get up early. I better hit the sack."
"I am to go?"
"Not unless you get permission." Lupin jumped up on his bed and pulled the covers over him. Thor had already fallen asleep and was snuffling slightly.
"I guess we better get to sleep, too." Ron said.
"Mmm hmm." Leila seemed to smile at him as they (Ron mostly) tried to get into comfortable sleeping positions. Ron found it best to lay on his stomach, head resting on his paws, haunches and tailed curled up. Ron started to drift off to sleep. Maybe life as a werewolf wasn't as bad as the books made it seem. Leila wriggled over and curled up tight by him.
In the morning, light barely flowed through the tiny windows. The roof was so low that it almost blocked the window. Ron figured it was to block out the moon until they had taken their potion or gone outside to transform. It had to be very early because Lupin and Thor were still sleeping. Ron slowly got out of his strange sleeping position. He rubbed his eyes. He was back to normal again. Looking around the room, he saw all their clothes, waiting to be mended with their wands. Ron blanched, hardly daring to look down. Leila was still sleeping and Ron thanked the heavens that she was covered. She stirred slightly and Ron freaked out. He inched his hand forward trying to reach his wand without revealing anything. He touched his wand and dragged it towards him. With a wave of his wand, the clothes repaired themselves. He summoned them towards him and he quickly dressed. He got up and looked out of the window. By what he could see, the sun wasn't up that far. Which meant it was around 7:00.
"Unnn." Leila murmured. She woke up slowly.
"Why did you have to move?" she whined. "Now I'm cold." Leila wrapped herself in the blankets and went to get her clothes. Ron went bright red and concentrated on staring out the window. When Leila had finally undressed, she went over to open Ron's bag of food. Ron was able to turn around see what she was doing.
"Oooh! I like pumpkin juice! Oh, and bacon! Where did you get all of this?"
"From the school. If you're nice to the house-elves they'll give you snacks if you go down to the kitchens."
"REALLY?" Leila's eyes lit up. "I haven't had an éclair in AGES!!!"
"Shush!" Ron said. "You'll wake them."
"Oh, they won't wake until like 10."
"But."
"Early is like 10 to them. Then, they travel a mile to this small Muggle town. Get back around 4. Might be back earlier because of this moon deal."
"Well, I think I'll head to the school and see about that permission slip."
"Does that mean you're coming back soon again?"
"I guess so. Either that or I'll have to send a school owl a note saying I won't be able to come if I don't get a pass."
"All right. I guess, I'll see you later then." Leila said. Ron picked up his emptied bag and the lantern. In the doorway, ready to walk out, he turned around.
"Hey Leila."
"Yeah?"
"Ever see a game of Quidditch?"
Harry woke up from someone throwing a pillow at him. He had been up late in the Astronomy tower trying to figure out what Voldemort did to the moon.
"Wake up." Ron said to Harry.
"Ron! Where did you go?"
"To the forest."
"You went in THERE! Something could have happened to you." Harry reached over to his table to put on his glasses.
"Harry. When is our next Quidditch game?
"Right before Christmas break. Why?"
"I won't be able to attend some practices."
"All right. Well. You're a good keeper. And we're playing Ravenclaw. We already know what they're like from try outs."
"Right. Well, listen. I need to talk to Professor Midrigge then I need to go back into the forest."
"But we have Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures today!"
"I know. I have to go." Ron turned to leave.
"But what if something happens to you?" Harry asked again.
"Something already has." Ron slowly turned around to face his friend.
"Harry." Ron said. "I think I'm in love."
Note: Okay. Werewolves can talk. It's like a Disney movie, okay? Animals can talk. Take Aragog as an example. Spiders don't talk. But he did. So there. Ha.
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