Unleased - 2/?
Title: Unleashed
Author: captainspag
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing(s): Remus/Sirius. Remus/OC
Rating: PG15
Beta Reader: The wonderful That Guy Again. Found of Fanfiction.net. A great beta! Thank you so much!
Notes: Will go on for some time. It's about Remus Lupin and Kenneth Webber, told from my OC's point of view. Rating may go up in later chapters and the joys of being part of the Order where death is often right around the corner and learning to control the powers of the wolf.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter.
Summary: Kenneth Webber, admitted to hospital for a werewolf bite and subsquently the end of his life as he knows it, meets Remus Lupin. Remus Lupin has never been good at love and lets his friends and those he loves get away with so much because he's pleased to have friends and lovers. What happenes when two people at once show an interest in him?
The letter sat on the table opposite from the head of brown hair that was resting his brow against the cool wooden table top. The curled corners, messed that way from constant touching, fluttered gently in the breeze that swept across the room from the open window.
The house was moderately untouched: a very tidy place with not even a hint of organized mess anywhere. A stronger tuft of air buffeted against the curtains from another open window behind the still form in the kitchen. The curtains, plain blue, were ripped from their hangings, and the bottoms that rested against the top of the tap heads above the sink were torn, shredded into mere strands of blue fabric. That was the only hint of destruction in the flat, but anyone who walked in would be able to feel the tense atmosphere situated in the room, especially hanging limply around the still form of the man sitting quietly at the kitchen table with the letter before him.
A sniff sounded from under the folds of hair shielding the man’s face from view as he reached out toward the letter, grasping it in his hand and pulling it back to him. He lifted his head shortly and surveyed the letter again with pale blue eyes before flinging it back across the table with a sigh of despair.
First had come horror, quickly followed by a bout of tears, then had come slight anger with Kenneth jumping up like a spring and slashing what was closest to him at the time: the curtains. But on remembering Remus Lupin’s words, sat in deep concentration for ten minutes while he focused on pushing that anger aside. Sadness had come again, settling deep on and pushing him forward so he rested pitifully on the table.
He hadn’t thought about it for two days after receiving it in the hospital, but he’d only just arrived home and was not taking it well. Now that he’d reached for the letter again, something else had sparked within him, but what was written on the page gave him little time to think about what emotion was coming through and what he should do to stop it. There was little he could do about this - what the letter said, how it limited him, restricted him, and classed him quite happily as someone below the rest of the magical population, a creature close to dirt.
According to the Ministry of Magic, Kenneth no longer had the rights that he’d had when he wasn’t inflicted. He was so restricted that the people at his current job had sent him a letter detailing his own resignation that he had never filed; he couldn’t hold a job any more.
The Ministry of Magic made sure of that. If he wanted a job he’d have to go through screenings to make sure he was safe to be around even when the full moon was weeks and weeks away, and he was sure that the Ministry would see to it that he’d failed those screenings. If he was caught doing something against the law, Muggle or magical, he’d be sent to Azkaban without a trail or a second’s notice. If he merely scratched someone with a nail or shoved them in a queue by mistake, the Ministry had every right to terminate his life under the law passed in 1637 by the Werewolf Code of Conduct if he should harm someone even if it was not the full moon.
Dolores Umbridge had been playing around with the Werewolf Code of Conduct as her dislike for half-bloods was well known and it was she who had made it almost impossible for Kenneth to get a job now. And once the Ministry had informed his employer of his new aliment they had chosen to fire him rather than go through all the trouble of keeping him on the job. One thing the Ministry had done for him was to gain his records from the hospital and put them into the registry as it must be done within 48 hours of receiving the bite. They’d entered all his records (place bitten, time bitten, hospice held at after bitten, and then all the unessential’s, like name, address and former job) and sent him a number along with the letter that he must present when being questioned by any Ministry official even if it was not about his lycanthropy.
And, apart from all of this, and making sure someone would report his death so the Ministry could file it into the registry, he was on his own. All he had to do to keep the Ministry happy was to be scarce half the time. The Ministry only cared if he died or caused a fuss.
Kenneth choked out a sob that racked his whole body. What was he going to do without a job? Sure, he had a small amount stashed away in Gringotts and it was enough to live off modestly for the rest of his life but, the Ministry even had a grasp on that. They could rightfully pull it out from under him whenever they pleased. If they saw that he did something wrong they could take everything he owned right away from him, and they could describe it as lawful punishment for the threat to our society.
Kenneth was sure that all the wizards and witches who knew nothing about werewolves would nod joyously thinking that’s right, a threat they are. Randomly, Kenneth snarled down at the letter before him and grasped it in both hands and ripped to shreds, letting them fall down, down, down to the wooden surface. It was bad enough finding out what had happened to him after he’d awoken in St Mungo’s suffering from significant blood loss only to discover he’d been bitten by a werewolf.
Now he had to deal with losing all the privileges the normal wizard had! He rose to his feet, his knees banging against the table. He had little for that and gripped it with both hands before flinging it aside where it smashed with a racket into the book cupboards that separated the dining area from the kitchen.
‘No job!’ he shrieked loudly storming across to one of the chairs that was left violently wobbling after being hit by the table as that flew past. He snatched up the chair and broke every single one of the four legs in fluid movements like he was tearing through paper. ‘No chances!’ he growled throwing the broken legs at the wall to the study and living room. He threw one so strongly it burst through the wall, making a perfect little hole in the wall. ‘No life!’ he snapped vividly as he kicked down the door separating the rooms with strength that would have surprised him if he wasn’t so overcome by anger. ‘Fuck Merlin!’ he hissed and pushed the bookshelf over, snarling and swatting away the books that fell atop of him before he moved aside to destroy the couch.
His rampage only discontinued when he cut his hand open on a nail that protruded from the ill made chair in his bedroom. He stopped suddenly like this had all never happened and sat shakily down on the floor, staring at his bloody palm. ‘Ow,’ he murmured feeling around for his wand. He looked over his shoulder for it wondering why it wasn’t on him; he saw the debris from his mad rage first.
Everything was strewn about the place, and it looked as though nothing had been left untouched. Though he only remembered up until the part just before he’d started to maul the couch. He stared, panting heavily at what he had done on impulse and lifted his hand to his forehead to push back the hair that was sticking to his sweaty skin. The blood of his hand dripped down into his eyes, and he shook his head sharply, expelling it from his vision. He could smell the red life on his hand and almost taste pointed tang of it. He tried to breathe in deeply and look away from what he had done upon impulse; he’d never ordered his body to do these things.
And what’s more he never physically attacked things when he was angry. When he was angry or upset he usually shouted and screamed, he never turned violent like this. This was insane, this was terrifying ... he gasped softly. This was the wolf. He quickly struggled to his fist, slipping on the sheets from the bed he had thrown to the floor; tears fell from his face as he searched for a pen and paper. His owl, which he couldn’t see at the moment, would be around somewhere. It wouldn’t have let him hurt her; she would have flown off at the mere gesture of violence towards her.
He finally found a quill by tripping over it and the ink pot was a few metres away. He righted the table in the dining room and dipped the quill in the ink, writing hurriedly. That had been the first time he’d ever felt the wolf so strong, so terrifying. He wrote as though his life depended on it, desperate to get his message away to Remus Lupin before something else happened that would trigger the wolf.
He wasn’t really sure what he wrote; he put it all down in a stream of tears and blood. Tears he hadn’t bothered to stop dripped from eyes, and blood from his untreated hand dripped onto the page as well, making a right mess of it. He couldn’t help but cry. It was the first time that had happened to him and honestly, it was the strangest thing next to being bitten. He knew why he’d gone into the rage but most of it he couldn’t remember and when he’d snapped out of it because of his hand, Kenneth felt like he’d just woken up from sleep. He sniffed once more, not bothering to place the letter in an envelope.
His owl hopped towards him, shyly at first and extended her leg ready to take the parchment he’d written on. Owls were good like that, his was anyway. She was always shy but never refused to deliver and never got snappy at him. She did her job and she did it quickly. Kenneth’s hands were shaking far too much for him to tie the letter to her outstretched leg and she eventually (after he tried three times) got sick of this and snatched the letter from his quaking hands in her beak and flew off, out the open window and veered a sharp left towards the older werewolf.
He remained seated, just waiting.
Ten minutes later a flash upset him, blinding his eyes it was like he’d been staring at the sun. He whimpered and covered his eyes with his hand. The noise of Apparition never bothered him in the past because he was usually around wizards and witches so talented at it that he never heard a peep but he heard a deafening bang that left his eyes ringing and drew his hands away from his eyes and to his ears.
He couldn’t stop himself from crying out from the sharpness of the noise. He felt a tingling fear that Lupin had Splinched himself badly and from the amount of noise, there was no other explanation. He was stopped short of running towards the man to see if he was ok because the delicious smell of chocolate overwhelmed his senses and he couldn’t think straight. His body suddenly became chocolate, he couldn’t smell anything else.
Remus Lupin smelt delectably of sweet warm chocolate. He crashed to the floor, the light of the Apparition still fierce in his eyes, his ears still ringing a merry tune, and the smell of chocolate strong in his noise. He was only faintly aware of the tears running pathetically down his face and an arm slithering around his shoulders.
‘Kenneth?’ Lupin asked him kindly. ‘Kenneth,’ he repeated. Even his breath and clothing smelt of chocolate. ‘Kenneth, hush. What happened? Tell me what happened.’ He was speaking with more tone to his voice and Kenneth choked back his tears, recognizing some kind of authority in Lupin’s voice and tried to squeak out what happened.
‘Flash,’ he murmured quietly as he gulped down air and starting with the most recent events. ‘Really loud noise, you haven’t Splinched? Sounded like it,’ he said when Lupin said no. ‘It was so loud. And you, you smell like chocolate, I can’t get your smell out of my head.’ He groaned loudly and grabbed at his hair like he was trying to pull the smell from his head.
‘Normal, it’s all normal,’ said Lupin. Kenneth felt arms tighten around him. Lupin didn’t just sound calm, he felt calm too. ‘Don’t panic, it’s all normal. Your senses are heightened. It’s the only perk of being a werewolf; everything is so much clearer and defined.’
‘It hurt,’ Kenneth whimpered. ‘Hurt so badly.’ He let his arms fall from his hair loosely.
‘You are fine now,’ Lupin assured him as he stroked his hair like one would when comforting a lover. ‘It won’t always be like that. The senses will drop down so it doesn’t hurt whenever you hear a noise or see something bright. They will calm down and it will go back to being slightly more than normal. Your new senses have come through at exactly the right time. They usually show about a week after the bite.’ Lupin let out a soft breathe right in his ear that made Kenneth shiver as it seemed like he felt it everywhere, not just the hot breath on his neck, but he felt the hot breathe everywhere. ‘It will calm down,’ repeated Lupin.
‘I - ah, I ruined my home,’ Kenneth said blearily. ‘It just happened. I was upset and it just went spiralling out of control. I can only remember flipping the table, breaking the chairs and pushing the bookshelf over. And I cut my hand.’ He lifted his hand to show Lupin. ‘I think that snapped me out of it, and I can’t even remember getting to where I came too. I was just in my bedroom with my hand bleeding. Everything was wrecked, I don’t know.’ He shook his head miserably.
‘Can you remember why you were upset?’ said Lupin.
‘I was angry,’ Kenneth corrected. ‘The Ministry, I destroyed the letter, I remember that. The Ministry sent me that letter.’ He croaked, clearing his throat. ‘I have ... nothing anymore. They can take it all away from me with stupid reasons! I’m not different from anyone else! I can’t help it! It’s not fair! They’ve taken my job from me, and it’s so hard to get another one! Fucking Dolores Umbridge! They can take everything from me just because I’m dangerous. And I am. It’s true. Look what I did!’
‘I know it’s not fair,’ Lupin said to him. ‘I know it’s not. But they do it because they can! The Ministry does that since other werewolves give them reason too, like Fenrir Greyback. There’s nothing fair about it, but they do it nonetheless. If werewolves like Greyback didn’t run feral like they owned the place, the Ministry wouldn’t be so hard on the rest of us. There has always been a werewolf like Greyback who keeps the Ministry on their toes, who keeps the restrictions in place. It’s just how it is, Kenneth. Shh,’ he added with Kenneth spluttered with tears again. ‘It’s not fair, I know. It wasn’t fair that you were bitten. You’re so young.’
‘Twenty-four,’ Kenneth muttered into the man’s neck as Lupin had pulled him into a tighter hug. ‘You know so much, when were you bit?’
‘I was attacked as a child.’
‘That’s not fair.’ Kenneth shook his head. ‘That’s not fair.’
‘We are both old enough to know that life isn’t fair and will never be fair,’ Lupin said somewhat heartedly, and Kenneth smiled and let out a slight chuckle. Lupin rose to his feet pulling Kenneth up with him. Kenneth nearly staggered over but the older werewolf caught him around the waist and steadied him. ‘Where is your wand?’
‘I don’t know.’ Kenneth, now standing, was able to see the damage he’d caused clearly.
Everything was in a right mess, and he’d been sitting in the only chair that wasn’t broken in the house. Books were strewn across the floor from the study, pages were ripped out, splintered wood was scattered all through his house, a window was smashed and all the curtains were shredded. Sponge from the centre of the couch was erupting out from the cushions and it looked like he’d had a real tussle with one as the foamy sponge was spread all across the kitchen floor. He stumbled over broken chair legs and those reminded him of how he’d thrown the chair legs through the wall and lead him to turn to see his dividing wall absolutely ruined with holes and the door smashed down.
‘I did this,’ he said sourly.
‘It was the wolf,’ Lupin said while he drew his wand from wherever he kept it on his person and cast a complicated cleaning spell. In a blast it returned the room to normal, and everything was in its rightful place. The wall had been repaired, but his hand was still leaking blood.
‘Thank you,’ Kenneth murmured gesturing around at the now tidy house and Lupin shrugged guiding him to the couch where he sat the exhausted young man down and quickly followed himself. ‘I’m sorry I sent you the owl, I just didn’t know who else to go to help. The Ministry probably would have sent a squad, and I’d be in Azkaban right now.’ He felt Lupin gingerly touching his hand, inspecting the cut.
‘You were right to owl me,’ Lupin said. ‘Anyone else would have been terrified by the sight; I imagine you would have looked very wolfish. I don’t mind helping you; I know what it’s like not knowing what’s going to happen next. I had to figure out half of these things by myself. It was like a long extended phase of puberty,’ he said and laughed. Kenneth grinned. ‘But I am glad to help you.’ Lupin looked up at him, still holding his hand in his. ‘Did you try and push the wolf away?’ he asked. ‘I’m not trying to sound like I am criticising you, I just want to know what you tried.’
Kenneth nodded. ‘I understand. I think I felt it earlier, and I brushed that aside, but when I did that,’ he said meaning the destruction of the house, ‘I don’t think I tried at all. It just happened in such a rush, I don’t think I could have controlled it if I tried.’
‘You would have been able to,’ said Lupin kindly. ‘It takes time and practise, you’ll get it. Don’t worry, everything will come into place.’
Kenneth nodded, accepting Lupin’s words. ‘What about those senses?’ he asked. ‘Everything’s dropped down now but you still smell so strongly.’
‘Of chocolate still, I hope.’
Kenneth laughed and grinned. ‘Still of chocolate. I can’t get your smell away, it just stays even though my ears have stopped ringing and my hearts don’t heart, I can still smell you really strongly.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Lupin truthfully. ‘Maybe I smell that strongly normally or maybe,’ he paused and blushed a little giving Kenneth the impression it was something he didn’t do often. ‘Maybe you want to smell me. But the senses go down, they will go down. They’ll return to normal with just a bit more strength in no time, usually after the first full moon and they might be a bit erratic until you start to control the wolf.’
‘That was horrible,’ Kenneth muttered. ‘I felt like I had no control over myself when I did it.’ Lupin placed a comforting arm around his shoulders again.
‘It could have been worse,’ the werewolf said matching the quiet of Kenneth’s voice. ‘The wolf may have wanted to hurt or maim something or someone. The new wolf is always so strong, Kenneth. It will want you to hurt people if you don’t sort it out. I have trouble controlling it when I get angry and upset even though I’ve had practise since I was a child. It’s hard to live with, but you just have to.’
‘I won’t let it.’ Kenneth smiled as Lupin returned his attentions to his still bleeding hand.
‘Are you much of a healer?’ Lupin asked him. ‘Because I could heal this for you, it will just leave a bit of scar since I’m not perfect at it, but if you let it heal naturally the scar will be bigger.’
‘I can’t heal very well. My brother is good at it, but I’m not.’
‘I’ll do it for you then.’
‘I - uh, ow,’ Kenneth yelped as Lupin touched his cut.
‘Sorry,’ Lupin said and smiled softly.
‘It’s ok.’
‘You were saying?’
‘Oh, yes. I thought about what you said back at the hospital about finding somewhere to stay during the full moon with no people around, and I’ve rented a place up in Wales, right in the middle of countryside to stay at during the time.’
‘That is a good idea.’
‘Where do you go?’
‘I never stay in one place longer than one moon. I move somewhere different each new moon, otherwise I tend to create urban legends. Have you heard of the Shrieking Shake in Hogsmeade?’
‘Yeah, of course I have.’
‘That was me.’
Kenneth blinked and stared and Remus. ‘Are you serious?’ he asked, shocked. And when the nodded, he chuckled. ‘No ghouls, no ghosts or anything? That was you all along? You made all that noise.’
‘From the pain,’ Lupin said as he stared intently at Kenneth’s hand picked up his wand dangling it a few centimetres above his palm. ‘It isn’t at all pleasant.’
‘I didn’t think for a second it would be.’
‘It’s painful,’ Lupin went on to say. ‘I don’t want to scare you, but it is painful.’
Kenneth sighed in a joke like fashion. ‘Something I’ll learn to live with as well, I’m guessing?’
‘You’ll have to.’
‘Where are you going to be for this full moon?’ Kenneth asked suddenly and was surprised at himself, the question hadn’t even crossed his mind before he blurted it out.
He wanted Lupin to be near him during the full moon because it was his first and the man knew a lot more than he did about the way werewolves worked. He’d feel a great deal safer before hand and it would give the two of them time to talk and Lupin could school Kenneth on what more he should know before. And if anything happened to him during the full moon, Lupin would be able to help him afterwards, and Kenneth would be able to help him if anything happened to him.
‘I haven’t decided.’
‘The house I’ve rented in Wales is more of a Villa,’ he said and caught Lupin raising an eyebrow at him. ‘I thought I deserved something nice. But anyway, it’s big enough for the two of us and if there were two of us putting up the wards we could have more room to ... uh, do whatever we do during the full moon. So, if you want some company, I’ve got a place.’
‘Is it safe?’ Lupin asked quickly. ‘Well away from any towns or other houses?’
‘It’s surrounded by twenty-eight acres of farm on all sides. There’s nothing for miles.’
Lupin cracked a small smile. ‘I’d like that. Moony hasn’t had company for a long time.’
‘Moony?’
‘My friends nicknamed my wolf when we were at Hogwarts.’
‘Oh,’ Kenneth said, surprised yet again. ‘I thought if you named things you ended up becoming emotionally attached to them.’ He was joking a little and Lupin saw that and smiled back.
‘Generally, yes,’ he said. ‘When are you leaving for Wales?’
‘Tomorrow morning probably, late morning,’ he added swiftly.
‘But that’s about a week until the full moon.’
‘Yeah, but I haven’t got anything better to do here. I’ve lost my job.’
Lupin patted his comfortingly on the shoulder and smiled shortly. ‘Maybe getting away for a bit would do you good. I’d love to take you up on your offer, thank you. I’ll probably arrive closer to the date. Is there an Apparition spot near there?’
‘There’s one quite a way away, but it’s wired to the Floo connection. A wizard rents it out. It’s called Blue Cherry House.’
‘Strange name, are there blueberries near it?’
‘I’m not sure, with a name like that there has to be or the house is painted like a blue cherry, but in that case I’m not sure if I’d want to stay there. Too much blue,’ he said sheepishly when Lupin shot him an inquisitive look.
‘Well,’ Lupin said with a shrug and a yawn. ‘Blue Cherry House it is, blue or otherwise, it sounds ideal for two werewolves.’
Author: captainspag
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing(s): Remus/Sirius. Remus/OC
Rating: PG15
Beta Reader: The wonderful That Guy Again. Found of Fanfiction.net. A great beta! Thank you so much!
Notes: Will go on for some time. It's about Remus Lupin and Kenneth Webber, told from my OC's point of view. Rating may go up in later chapters and the joys of being part of the Order where death is often right around the corner and learning to control the powers of the wolf.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter.
Summary: Kenneth Webber, admitted to hospital for a werewolf bite and subsquently the end of his life as he knows it, meets Remus Lupin. Remus Lupin has never been good at love and lets his friends and those he loves get away with so much because he's pleased to have friends and lovers. What happenes when two people at once show an interest in him?
The letter sat on the table opposite from the head of brown hair that was resting his brow against the cool wooden table top. The curled corners, messed that way from constant touching, fluttered gently in the breeze that swept across the room from the open window.
The house was moderately untouched: a very tidy place with not even a hint of organized mess anywhere. A stronger tuft of air buffeted against the curtains from another open window behind the still form in the kitchen. The curtains, plain blue, were ripped from their hangings, and the bottoms that rested against the top of the tap heads above the sink were torn, shredded into mere strands of blue fabric. That was the only hint of destruction in the flat, but anyone who walked in would be able to feel the tense atmosphere situated in the room, especially hanging limply around the still form of the man sitting quietly at the kitchen table with the letter before him.
A sniff sounded from under the folds of hair shielding the man’s face from view as he reached out toward the letter, grasping it in his hand and pulling it back to him. He lifted his head shortly and surveyed the letter again with pale blue eyes before flinging it back across the table with a sigh of despair.
First had come horror, quickly followed by a bout of tears, then had come slight anger with Kenneth jumping up like a spring and slashing what was closest to him at the time: the curtains. But on remembering Remus Lupin’s words, sat in deep concentration for ten minutes while he focused on pushing that anger aside. Sadness had come again, settling deep on and pushing him forward so he rested pitifully on the table.
He hadn’t thought about it for two days after receiving it in the hospital, but he’d only just arrived home and was not taking it well. Now that he’d reached for the letter again, something else had sparked within him, but what was written on the page gave him little time to think about what emotion was coming through and what he should do to stop it. There was little he could do about this - what the letter said, how it limited him, restricted him, and classed him quite happily as someone below the rest of the magical population, a creature close to dirt.
According to the Ministry of Magic, Kenneth no longer had the rights that he’d had when he wasn’t inflicted. He was so restricted that the people at his current job had sent him a letter detailing his own resignation that he had never filed; he couldn’t hold a job any more.
The Ministry of Magic made sure of that. If he wanted a job he’d have to go through screenings to make sure he was safe to be around even when the full moon was weeks and weeks away, and he was sure that the Ministry would see to it that he’d failed those screenings. If he was caught doing something against the law, Muggle or magical, he’d be sent to Azkaban without a trail or a second’s notice. If he merely scratched someone with a nail or shoved them in a queue by mistake, the Ministry had every right to terminate his life under the law passed in 1637 by the Werewolf Code of Conduct if he should harm someone even if it was not the full moon.
Dolores Umbridge had been playing around with the Werewolf Code of Conduct as her dislike for half-bloods was well known and it was she who had made it almost impossible for Kenneth to get a job now. And once the Ministry had informed his employer of his new aliment they had chosen to fire him rather than go through all the trouble of keeping him on the job. One thing the Ministry had done for him was to gain his records from the hospital and put them into the registry as it must be done within 48 hours of receiving the bite. They’d entered all his records (place bitten, time bitten, hospice held at after bitten, and then all the unessential’s, like name, address and former job) and sent him a number along with the letter that he must present when being questioned by any Ministry official even if it was not about his lycanthropy.
And, apart from all of this, and making sure someone would report his death so the Ministry could file it into the registry, he was on his own. All he had to do to keep the Ministry happy was to be scarce half the time. The Ministry only cared if he died or caused a fuss.
Kenneth choked out a sob that racked his whole body. What was he going to do without a job? Sure, he had a small amount stashed away in Gringotts and it was enough to live off modestly for the rest of his life but, the Ministry even had a grasp on that. They could rightfully pull it out from under him whenever they pleased. If they saw that he did something wrong they could take everything he owned right away from him, and they could describe it as lawful punishment for the threat to our society.
Kenneth was sure that all the wizards and witches who knew nothing about werewolves would nod joyously thinking that’s right, a threat they are. Randomly, Kenneth snarled down at the letter before him and grasped it in both hands and ripped to shreds, letting them fall down, down, down to the wooden surface. It was bad enough finding out what had happened to him after he’d awoken in St Mungo’s suffering from significant blood loss only to discover he’d been bitten by a werewolf.
Now he had to deal with losing all the privileges the normal wizard had! He rose to his feet, his knees banging against the table. He had little for that and gripped it with both hands before flinging it aside where it smashed with a racket into the book cupboards that separated the dining area from the kitchen.
‘No job!’ he shrieked loudly storming across to one of the chairs that was left violently wobbling after being hit by the table as that flew past. He snatched up the chair and broke every single one of the four legs in fluid movements like he was tearing through paper. ‘No chances!’ he growled throwing the broken legs at the wall to the study and living room. He threw one so strongly it burst through the wall, making a perfect little hole in the wall. ‘No life!’ he snapped vividly as he kicked down the door separating the rooms with strength that would have surprised him if he wasn’t so overcome by anger. ‘Fuck Merlin!’ he hissed and pushed the bookshelf over, snarling and swatting away the books that fell atop of him before he moved aside to destroy the couch.
His rampage only discontinued when he cut his hand open on a nail that protruded from the ill made chair in his bedroom. He stopped suddenly like this had all never happened and sat shakily down on the floor, staring at his bloody palm. ‘Ow,’ he murmured feeling around for his wand. He looked over his shoulder for it wondering why it wasn’t on him; he saw the debris from his mad rage first.
Everything was strewn about the place, and it looked as though nothing had been left untouched. Though he only remembered up until the part just before he’d started to maul the couch. He stared, panting heavily at what he had done on impulse and lifted his hand to his forehead to push back the hair that was sticking to his sweaty skin. The blood of his hand dripped down into his eyes, and he shook his head sharply, expelling it from his vision. He could smell the red life on his hand and almost taste pointed tang of it. He tried to breathe in deeply and look away from what he had done upon impulse; he’d never ordered his body to do these things.
And what’s more he never physically attacked things when he was angry. When he was angry or upset he usually shouted and screamed, he never turned violent like this. This was insane, this was terrifying ... he gasped softly. This was the wolf. He quickly struggled to his fist, slipping on the sheets from the bed he had thrown to the floor; tears fell from his face as he searched for a pen and paper. His owl, which he couldn’t see at the moment, would be around somewhere. It wouldn’t have let him hurt her; she would have flown off at the mere gesture of violence towards her.
He finally found a quill by tripping over it and the ink pot was a few metres away. He righted the table in the dining room and dipped the quill in the ink, writing hurriedly. That had been the first time he’d ever felt the wolf so strong, so terrifying. He wrote as though his life depended on it, desperate to get his message away to Remus Lupin before something else happened that would trigger the wolf.
He wasn’t really sure what he wrote; he put it all down in a stream of tears and blood. Tears he hadn’t bothered to stop dripped from eyes, and blood from his untreated hand dripped onto the page as well, making a right mess of it. He couldn’t help but cry. It was the first time that had happened to him and honestly, it was the strangest thing next to being bitten. He knew why he’d gone into the rage but most of it he couldn’t remember and when he’d snapped out of it because of his hand, Kenneth felt like he’d just woken up from sleep. He sniffed once more, not bothering to place the letter in an envelope.
His owl hopped towards him, shyly at first and extended her leg ready to take the parchment he’d written on. Owls were good like that, his was anyway. She was always shy but never refused to deliver and never got snappy at him. She did her job and she did it quickly. Kenneth’s hands were shaking far too much for him to tie the letter to her outstretched leg and she eventually (after he tried three times) got sick of this and snatched the letter from his quaking hands in her beak and flew off, out the open window and veered a sharp left towards the older werewolf.
He remained seated, just waiting.
Ten minutes later a flash upset him, blinding his eyes it was like he’d been staring at the sun. He whimpered and covered his eyes with his hand. The noise of Apparition never bothered him in the past because he was usually around wizards and witches so talented at it that he never heard a peep but he heard a deafening bang that left his eyes ringing and drew his hands away from his eyes and to his ears.
He couldn’t stop himself from crying out from the sharpness of the noise. He felt a tingling fear that Lupin had Splinched himself badly and from the amount of noise, there was no other explanation. He was stopped short of running towards the man to see if he was ok because the delicious smell of chocolate overwhelmed his senses and he couldn’t think straight. His body suddenly became chocolate, he couldn’t smell anything else.
Remus Lupin smelt delectably of sweet warm chocolate. He crashed to the floor, the light of the Apparition still fierce in his eyes, his ears still ringing a merry tune, and the smell of chocolate strong in his noise. He was only faintly aware of the tears running pathetically down his face and an arm slithering around his shoulders.
‘Kenneth?’ Lupin asked him kindly. ‘Kenneth,’ he repeated. Even his breath and clothing smelt of chocolate. ‘Kenneth, hush. What happened? Tell me what happened.’ He was speaking with more tone to his voice and Kenneth choked back his tears, recognizing some kind of authority in Lupin’s voice and tried to squeak out what happened.
‘Flash,’ he murmured quietly as he gulped down air and starting with the most recent events. ‘Really loud noise, you haven’t Splinched? Sounded like it,’ he said when Lupin said no. ‘It was so loud. And you, you smell like chocolate, I can’t get your smell out of my head.’ He groaned loudly and grabbed at his hair like he was trying to pull the smell from his head.
‘Normal, it’s all normal,’ said Lupin. Kenneth felt arms tighten around him. Lupin didn’t just sound calm, he felt calm too. ‘Don’t panic, it’s all normal. Your senses are heightened. It’s the only perk of being a werewolf; everything is so much clearer and defined.’
‘It hurt,’ Kenneth whimpered. ‘Hurt so badly.’ He let his arms fall from his hair loosely.
‘You are fine now,’ Lupin assured him as he stroked his hair like one would when comforting a lover. ‘It won’t always be like that. The senses will drop down so it doesn’t hurt whenever you hear a noise or see something bright. They will calm down and it will go back to being slightly more than normal. Your new senses have come through at exactly the right time. They usually show about a week after the bite.’ Lupin let out a soft breathe right in his ear that made Kenneth shiver as it seemed like he felt it everywhere, not just the hot breath on his neck, but he felt the hot breathe everywhere. ‘It will calm down,’ repeated Lupin.
‘I - ah, I ruined my home,’ Kenneth said blearily. ‘It just happened. I was upset and it just went spiralling out of control. I can only remember flipping the table, breaking the chairs and pushing the bookshelf over. And I cut my hand.’ He lifted his hand to show Lupin. ‘I think that snapped me out of it, and I can’t even remember getting to where I came too. I was just in my bedroom with my hand bleeding. Everything was wrecked, I don’t know.’ He shook his head miserably.
‘Can you remember why you were upset?’ said Lupin.
‘I was angry,’ Kenneth corrected. ‘The Ministry, I destroyed the letter, I remember that. The Ministry sent me that letter.’ He croaked, clearing his throat. ‘I have ... nothing anymore. They can take it all away from me with stupid reasons! I’m not different from anyone else! I can’t help it! It’s not fair! They’ve taken my job from me, and it’s so hard to get another one! Fucking Dolores Umbridge! They can take everything from me just because I’m dangerous. And I am. It’s true. Look what I did!’
‘I know it’s not fair,’ Lupin said to him. ‘I know it’s not. But they do it because they can! The Ministry does that since other werewolves give them reason too, like Fenrir Greyback. There’s nothing fair about it, but they do it nonetheless. If werewolves like Greyback didn’t run feral like they owned the place, the Ministry wouldn’t be so hard on the rest of us. There has always been a werewolf like Greyback who keeps the Ministry on their toes, who keeps the restrictions in place. It’s just how it is, Kenneth. Shh,’ he added with Kenneth spluttered with tears again. ‘It’s not fair, I know. It wasn’t fair that you were bitten. You’re so young.’
‘Twenty-four,’ Kenneth muttered into the man’s neck as Lupin had pulled him into a tighter hug. ‘You know so much, when were you bit?’
‘I was attacked as a child.’
‘That’s not fair.’ Kenneth shook his head. ‘That’s not fair.’
‘We are both old enough to know that life isn’t fair and will never be fair,’ Lupin said somewhat heartedly, and Kenneth smiled and let out a slight chuckle. Lupin rose to his feet pulling Kenneth up with him. Kenneth nearly staggered over but the older werewolf caught him around the waist and steadied him. ‘Where is your wand?’
‘I don’t know.’ Kenneth, now standing, was able to see the damage he’d caused clearly.
Everything was in a right mess, and he’d been sitting in the only chair that wasn’t broken in the house. Books were strewn across the floor from the study, pages were ripped out, splintered wood was scattered all through his house, a window was smashed and all the curtains were shredded. Sponge from the centre of the couch was erupting out from the cushions and it looked like he’d had a real tussle with one as the foamy sponge was spread all across the kitchen floor. He stumbled over broken chair legs and those reminded him of how he’d thrown the chair legs through the wall and lead him to turn to see his dividing wall absolutely ruined with holes and the door smashed down.
‘I did this,’ he said sourly.
‘It was the wolf,’ Lupin said while he drew his wand from wherever he kept it on his person and cast a complicated cleaning spell. In a blast it returned the room to normal, and everything was in its rightful place. The wall had been repaired, but his hand was still leaking blood.
‘Thank you,’ Kenneth murmured gesturing around at the now tidy house and Lupin shrugged guiding him to the couch where he sat the exhausted young man down and quickly followed himself. ‘I’m sorry I sent you the owl, I just didn’t know who else to go to help. The Ministry probably would have sent a squad, and I’d be in Azkaban right now.’ He felt Lupin gingerly touching his hand, inspecting the cut.
‘You were right to owl me,’ Lupin said. ‘Anyone else would have been terrified by the sight; I imagine you would have looked very wolfish. I don’t mind helping you; I know what it’s like not knowing what’s going to happen next. I had to figure out half of these things by myself. It was like a long extended phase of puberty,’ he said and laughed. Kenneth grinned. ‘But I am glad to help you.’ Lupin looked up at him, still holding his hand in his. ‘Did you try and push the wolf away?’ he asked. ‘I’m not trying to sound like I am criticising you, I just want to know what you tried.’
Kenneth nodded. ‘I understand. I think I felt it earlier, and I brushed that aside, but when I did that,’ he said meaning the destruction of the house, ‘I don’t think I tried at all. It just happened in such a rush, I don’t think I could have controlled it if I tried.’
‘You would have been able to,’ said Lupin kindly. ‘It takes time and practise, you’ll get it. Don’t worry, everything will come into place.’
Kenneth nodded, accepting Lupin’s words. ‘What about those senses?’ he asked. ‘Everything’s dropped down now but you still smell so strongly.’
‘Of chocolate still, I hope.’
Kenneth laughed and grinned. ‘Still of chocolate. I can’t get your smell away, it just stays even though my ears have stopped ringing and my hearts don’t heart, I can still smell you really strongly.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Lupin truthfully. ‘Maybe I smell that strongly normally or maybe,’ he paused and blushed a little giving Kenneth the impression it was something he didn’t do often. ‘Maybe you want to smell me. But the senses go down, they will go down. They’ll return to normal with just a bit more strength in no time, usually after the first full moon and they might be a bit erratic until you start to control the wolf.’
‘That was horrible,’ Kenneth muttered. ‘I felt like I had no control over myself when I did it.’ Lupin placed a comforting arm around his shoulders again.
‘It could have been worse,’ the werewolf said matching the quiet of Kenneth’s voice. ‘The wolf may have wanted to hurt or maim something or someone. The new wolf is always so strong, Kenneth. It will want you to hurt people if you don’t sort it out. I have trouble controlling it when I get angry and upset even though I’ve had practise since I was a child. It’s hard to live with, but you just have to.’
‘I won’t let it.’ Kenneth smiled as Lupin returned his attentions to his still bleeding hand.
‘Are you much of a healer?’ Lupin asked him. ‘Because I could heal this for you, it will just leave a bit of scar since I’m not perfect at it, but if you let it heal naturally the scar will be bigger.’
‘I can’t heal very well. My brother is good at it, but I’m not.’
‘I’ll do it for you then.’
‘I - uh, ow,’ Kenneth yelped as Lupin touched his cut.
‘Sorry,’ Lupin said and smiled softly.
‘It’s ok.’
‘You were saying?’
‘Oh, yes. I thought about what you said back at the hospital about finding somewhere to stay during the full moon with no people around, and I’ve rented a place up in Wales, right in the middle of countryside to stay at during the time.’
‘That is a good idea.’
‘Where do you go?’
‘I never stay in one place longer than one moon. I move somewhere different each new moon, otherwise I tend to create urban legends. Have you heard of the Shrieking Shake in Hogsmeade?’
‘Yeah, of course I have.’
‘That was me.’
Kenneth blinked and stared and Remus. ‘Are you serious?’ he asked, shocked. And when the nodded, he chuckled. ‘No ghouls, no ghosts or anything? That was you all along? You made all that noise.’
‘From the pain,’ Lupin said as he stared intently at Kenneth’s hand picked up his wand dangling it a few centimetres above his palm. ‘It isn’t at all pleasant.’
‘I didn’t think for a second it would be.’
‘It’s painful,’ Lupin went on to say. ‘I don’t want to scare you, but it is painful.’
Kenneth sighed in a joke like fashion. ‘Something I’ll learn to live with as well, I’m guessing?’
‘You’ll have to.’
‘Where are you going to be for this full moon?’ Kenneth asked suddenly and was surprised at himself, the question hadn’t even crossed his mind before he blurted it out.
He wanted Lupin to be near him during the full moon because it was his first and the man knew a lot more than he did about the way werewolves worked. He’d feel a great deal safer before hand and it would give the two of them time to talk and Lupin could school Kenneth on what more he should know before. And if anything happened to him during the full moon, Lupin would be able to help him afterwards, and Kenneth would be able to help him if anything happened to him.
‘I haven’t decided.’
‘The house I’ve rented in Wales is more of a Villa,’ he said and caught Lupin raising an eyebrow at him. ‘I thought I deserved something nice. But anyway, it’s big enough for the two of us and if there were two of us putting up the wards we could have more room to ... uh, do whatever we do during the full moon. So, if you want some company, I’ve got a place.’
‘Is it safe?’ Lupin asked quickly. ‘Well away from any towns or other houses?’
‘It’s surrounded by twenty-eight acres of farm on all sides. There’s nothing for miles.’
Lupin cracked a small smile. ‘I’d like that. Moony hasn’t had company for a long time.’
‘Moony?’
‘My friends nicknamed my wolf when we were at Hogwarts.’
‘Oh,’ Kenneth said, surprised yet again. ‘I thought if you named things you ended up becoming emotionally attached to them.’ He was joking a little and Lupin saw that and smiled back.
‘Generally, yes,’ he said. ‘When are you leaving for Wales?’
‘Tomorrow morning probably, late morning,’ he added swiftly.
‘But that’s about a week until the full moon.’
‘Yeah, but I haven’t got anything better to do here. I’ve lost my job.’
Lupin patted his comfortingly on the shoulder and smiled shortly. ‘Maybe getting away for a bit would do you good. I’d love to take you up on your offer, thank you. I’ll probably arrive closer to the date. Is there an Apparition spot near there?’
‘There’s one quite a way away, but it’s wired to the Floo connection. A wizard rents it out. It’s called Blue Cherry House.’
‘Strange name, are there blueberries near it?’
‘I’m not sure, with a name like that there has to be or the house is painted like a blue cherry, but in that case I’m not sure if I’d want to stay there. Too much blue,’ he said sheepishly when Lupin shot him an inquisitive look.
‘Well,’ Lupin said with a shrug and a yawn. ‘Blue Cherry House it is, blue or otherwise, it sounds ideal for two werewolves.’