Fellowship & Fairydust

~ by Chris S. (alias WerewolfKing350)

The next few weeks brought several awkward meetings with Headmaster Dumbledore. These involved lots of planning and preparing for the next full moon. There were a lot of little details that needed to be worked out. This included coming up with an explanation for Harry’s disappearance for the night, and where he was actually going to go for the first full moon.

Because they weren’t completely certain that Harry was going to turn, they didn’t want to risk locking him in with Remus. But, of course, this meant they had to come up with an alternate location for him, not far from the castle.

“Trust me, the morning after, you will be thankful we kept you close to the school,” Dumbledore said to Harry in a knowing tone. Apparently, the werewolf transformation was quite draining and Dumbledore was trying to spare Harry from having to travel too far after going through such a painful night.

On January ninth, Eileen sent some treats and gifts for Severus’ birthday. Severus was quite impressed with his new cauldron, and both boys found the cauldron cakes inside to be hilarious.

Eileen had been informed of Harry’s possible affliction and had replied almost immediately with a letter voicing concern for his wellbeing and what was going to be done to ensure his safety. It made Harry happy to know someone cared enough to bother. If the Dursleys had replied to such letter, it would be to tell Harry not to come home at all. Eileen had gone as far as to say that if Dumbledore did not address her concerns within the next couple of days, her next letter to him would be a “howler”. Though Harry was unsure what that meant, he could tell that Dumbledore didn’t want to receive one because of how fast he came up with a reply.

Between meetings with Dumbledore and doing his homework, Harry also spent time researching werewolves, and learned a lot about what to expect. The first few months as a werewolf brought on a lot of intense changes—the way his body processed food, the nature of his senses, and even his temperament during certain times of the lunar cycle. He would experience mood swings and sudden bursts of energy, usually followed by crashes. If that wasn’t intimidating enough, it was obvious that the actual transformation would be painful; not that he hadn’t figured that out for himself. Seeing words like “bones breaking” and “screams of agony” was not comforting.

He was at a table in the library, taking a brief break from his werewolf studies, staring at a book about different elves, when Remus quietly approached him.

“How are you doing?” Remus asked.

“I guess I’ll survive,” he said, meeting Remus’ eyes. He was still going under the pretense that they weren’t one “hundred percent”’ sure yet—a distinction that let him sleep at night.

“They found a place for you to go, tomorrow. The owner of the Leaky Cauldron had a friend who’s a werewolf, and the basement was set up to accommodate him. Because I’ve been tutoring the owner’s son, I was able to get the room for you. I spoke to Dumbledore and he’s fine with it,” Remus said, giving him a reassuring smile.

Harry struggled to return the smile, nervous butterflies taking over his stomach; he hadn’t realised the full moon was so close. He’d thrown himself into his studies and everything else he could to keep his mind occupied. He mentally smacked himself on the head for not keeping better track of the days. If he actually was a werewolf, mistakes like this could have terrible results.

“It helps if you take a hot shower beforehand; it relaxes the muscles and mind. It might help with the pain a little bit, but most of the pain is bone-deep,” Remus offered, bringing Harry out of his thoughts.

“Hot shower; got it,” he repeated, taking a mental note to shower around suppertime tomorrow.

“Try not to panic and whatever you do, don’t fight the change. It only makes it hurt more if you fight it. Just try to relax and let your body do what it’s going to do,” Remus said seriously. It was obvious he was speaking from experience and Harry was thankful to receive such helpful advice.

“Will people notice we’re missing?”

“Nah, if you tell them that you’re not feeling well and are going to bed early, people think nothing of it. But you’ll come up with different excuses each time, just to keep people from catching on.”

After a few more hours speaking to Remus, Harry learned a lot about werewolves and how they functioned in society, the burdens placed on them, and the difference between them and normal wizards. It was intriguing and terrifying at the same time, yet he felt a little more relaxed about the next day. After all, he’d survived worse than this when he was a baby; it was going to take more than a werewolf bite to kill him.

* * *

Morning came much too quickly. Fear bubbled in Harry’s stomach, and he was restless. He wasn’t certain what would happen if he ate, so he nibbled dry toast and sipped some warm ginger tea.

Severus didn’t bother trying to mask his concern as he watched the younger boy tensely pick at his food. It was obvious that Harry was nervous, but there was nothing he could say or do to help him, besides simply being there.

When breakfast was over, Harry went to the Slytherin common room and worked on homework until a few hours after lunch. Finally deciding it was time to start getting ready, Harry made his way into the bathroom to shower. Upon catching a glimpse in the mirror, it became clear that he was going to have no difficulty faking sickness. His face was pale and clammy, and his eyes looked glassy. He had hardly slept last night. It didn’t help that the one time he was about to fall drift off, his roommate chose that moment to loudly get sick; of course, this would also make it easier for everyone to believe that he wasn’t feeling well this evening.

Harry packed a change of clothes and let Severus walk him down to Dumbledore’s office where he’d be flooing to the Leaky Cauldron. It was nice having someone to keep his mind from drifting towards the dark and scary parts of his brain.

“Are you ready, Harry?” Dumbledore said.

Harry gave Severus a parting nod, and grimly followed Dumbledore into the fireplace.

* * *

Unsure what to do for the rest of the night, Severus made his way to the library to study. Not only was he caught up on his homework, but he was far ahead; not that he’d really be able to focus on work while he was so worried about what was happening to his friend. If Harry turned, he was going to be in pain and there’d be nothing anyone could do to make it better.

“Sev!” Turning around, Severus found Lily smiling happily in his direction. He felt a large smile taking over his face; it didn’t matter what was happening, being around Lily just seemed to make everything better.

“Lily. What are you doing down this way?”

“The library is this way; where’s Harry?” Lily asked, glancing about.

Severus felt his worries returning. “He’s not feeling well; he ate something that didn’t agree with him.” He felt bad for lying, but until they knew something for sure, they had agreed to tell only those who absolutely needed to know.

“Oh no, I hope he hasn’t caught the bug that has been going around lately. Stomach flus are tricky to deal with,” Lily said, her face filled with concern for the younger boy.

“He’ll be fine, I’m sure. He’s in bed resting; the elves brought him some soup and crackers to eat, and the last I saw, he was asleep.” His attempts to comfort Lily seemed to work, but he found himself wishing that his words were true. A simple upset stomach would be much easier to manage than what Harry was actually going through. Heck, projectile vomiting from one end of the common room to the other would probably be easier than what he was going through right now.

“Do you want to study for Slughorn’s test on Monday?” Lily asked, watching Severus’ expression with her wide green eyes.

His face flushed, as it always did when Lily looked at him like this. She could have asked him if he wanted to run across the Great Hall in his underwear and he’d agree without hesitation. Such was her power over him.

“Sure, how did your potion from his last class turn out? My whistling jelly turned out fine, except it came out more potent than I had originally planned. It would probably keep someone whistling for an hour and a half instead of an hour like it was supposed to,” he said with a shrug. Yes, he had completed the assignment and made the potion better than instructed, but it wasn’t what the teacher had asked for. Slughorn wouldn’t have had a problem with it, but any other potions master would have taken points off.

“Hey, most of the class got the potion completely wrong. At least yours didn’t blow up, melt your cauldron, or send any students to the Hospital Wing.”

“This is true,” Severus agreed, laughing as he wondered how mishaps still happened in every class, despite the fact that they had been taking it for a year and a half. It made him appreciate the fact that there were only a few years until NEWT level potions started, and only those who were serious would be in the class.

It wasn’t until a few hours later, when Severus was getting ready for bed that he allowed himself to worry about Harry. It was obvious what had happened; if Harry hadn’t turned into a werewolf, he would have been back at the school by now.

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