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Lunaticus Book Three: New Moon Rising	By : JBankai89 Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Remus Views: 12583 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter, I gain nothing from this but a way to pass the time.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Chapter Five – Fine Without You

In the days to come, Harry prepared himself to experience firsthand what he'd witnessed Remus go through every month for years, but it was far less unpleasant that Harry expected it to be. In point of fact, Harry found himself experiencing none of the same side-effects of the impending moon that he'd witnessed Remus experience, and he wondered if that had anything to do with the fact that he wasn't taking the wolfsbane potion. But quickly, Harry learnt that it was for another reason entirely.

“Doms are like...I don't know. Their forms are a lot bigger than ours, so they need to eat a lot in order to maintain the change,” Tavish explained as they sat huddled together at lunchtime the day preceding the full moon. The subs were acting and eating normally, but the dominants were another story entirely.

Hypersexed and constantly hungry, it was like watching half a dozen enormous, burly versions of Ron Weasley tramping about the territory. The unmated subs stuck even closer together than usual, given that the moment any one of them strayed too far from the group, a dominant was always quick to sweep in and stake a claim—whether they liked it or not. As a result, Greyback was darting about the territory like some sort of pinball, separating unwilling subs from over-enthusiastic dominants, and looked more and more frustrated with his entire pack as the day progressed.

Harry could feel Bryce's eyes follow him wherever he went, but it was a small mercy that he was the only dominant doing so. It seemed as though all the others couldn't even look at him, though Harry wasn't certain why. His thoughts on this were interrupted quite suddenly however when the scent of a dominant overwhelmed him, and two seconds later his vision was completely obscured by a large amount of frizzy brown hair.

Harry yelped in surprise as he tumbled off the log that he had been sitting on from the force of the embrace, his bowl of stew he'd been eating was upended, and he could distantly hear a voice say, “it's okay! It's fine, they're friends, relax,” though he could not tell to whom the voice belonged.

“Oh Harry, it's so good to see you!” Hermione cried tearfully, but clearly did not know her own strength, and seemed wholly unaware that she was crushing Harry's lungs.

“Hermione...can't...breathe...” he choked out, and with a soft gasp of surprise, she quickly released him.

“Oh, I'm sorry! Are you all right?” she asked as Harry sat up, breathing deeply, and he used his wand to clear away the mess of venison stew off their clothes.

“Fine, you know, enjoying the flow of air through my œsophagus,” he replied sarcastically, and she smiled apologetically at him.

“How's—” Harry began, but he was interrupted by the sound of Tavish pointedly clearing his throat. Harry turned and saw his new friend watching them with his arms crossed and a clear, are you going to introduce me? look on his face. “Oh, sorry, Hermione, this is Tavish, Tavish, this is Hermione. She's one of my best friends.”

Hermione beamed at Harry, then turned to Tavish. Harry could see her nostrils flaring a little, and Harry knew that she could likely sense that Tavish was a sub. They shook hands, then Hermione stepped back a little, though she still stuck close to Harry. Harry doubted this had anything to do with her status as a dominant, and more to do with the fact that she was surrounded by dozens of new faces, and Harry was the only one that she really knew.

“I've been keeping an eye on Harry ever since he got here,” Tavish explained with a proud grin, “been making sure the doms keep their hands to themselves...with a little help from our resident Beta, of course.” He glanced over to where Ulrich had been standing with Greyback, and suddenly Harry felt very warm. He glared at Tavish, but the expression was met only with a broad grin.

“I'll bet,” Hermione replied with a snort.

After their awkward albeit enthusiastic reunion, Hermione pulled Harry away from the other subs to privately catch up, an action which was met with a flurry of confusion on all sides. Harry's new werewolf senses balked at being alone with a dominant, even if it was Hermione, and the other subs seemed to be just as uneasy about this as he was. At the same time, Harry caught the sight of Ulrich out of the corner of his eye lurch forward as though he was going to intercept the pair, but Harry shook his head minutely, and he backed off, though Harry could see reluctance in every move that he made.

The pair moved away from the main hustle and bustle of the territory, and meandered around the edges as they began to chat idly.

“So, how is...Ron and, er, everyone?” Harry asked, his face flushing with embarrassment when Hermione eyed him knowingly. It was clear that by everyone she knew that he meant Remus.

“Ron's fine. It's been a bit of a learning curve, this...turning. But I still love him, and he still loves me, so we're giving a go of it. We were careful around the half moon phase though...we didn't want a repeat of what you went through.” She regarded him apologetically, but Harry did not feel offended by her words. After everything she'd watched him and Remus go through, Harry couldn't exactly blame her for how she felt.

“Remus...we haven't been in contact with,” she continued, “Ron and I don't exactly have anything to say to him, and I think Ginny's reached out to him, but it's like he's dropped off the face of the earth, no one knows where he is.”

“Oh, I...see,” Harry replied awkwardly as they paused near and old oak, and Harry leant up against it as he tried to process what he was feeling. “And no one's tried to find him?”

“Not that I know of,” Hermione said with a small frown, “I mean, Ron's still too angry with him to want anything to do with him, and I'm still getting used to all these new senses, so I've been a little overwhelmed with everything...”

“—I'm sorry,” Harry cut in quickly, and he felt a knot of guilt settle in his gut. “If it wasn't for me, if you hadn't been there—”

“—don't start, Harry,” she said firmly, and Harry refocused his gaze on her, his eyes wide with surprise.

“What?”

“Don't start feeling guilty because this happened to me,” she said firmly, “it's not a death sentence, nor is it the end of the world. I'm still me, I'm...adjusting, and it's going to be okay, I know it.”

Hermione finished her statement with a reassuring smile at him, which Harry returned, albeit uncertainly. He couldn't quite share in her enthusiasm, given how things had been far from okay for a very long time. However, he didn't feel like arguing the point, and merely nodded his head in agreement.

~*~

The pair whiled away the rest of the afternoon, sometimes alone, and other times with Tavish in tow. Harry could still feel the eyes of several pack members marking their movements, though he forced himself to never look back and see who it was—he wasn't certain he wanted to see those looks of disapproval. An unmated dominant wandering about with two unmated subs was not something that they were used to seeing, and Hermione's engagement to Ron really didn't register with them. Despite Harry's best efforts, he did catch the sight of a few pack members watching them, chief among them the alpha, who was often giving Tavish a disapproving look whenever he spotted the trio together.

At sundown, their little group was interrupted by Ulrich.

“I'm sorry to break this up,” he said as he approached, “but, Hermione, you'll need to join the other dominants for when you turn.” The words caused both Harry and Hermione to look up at Ulrich with confusion.

“Why?” Hermione asked at once.

“Your wolf is base animal instinct, and it is your first moon. Your new wolf mind will be overwhelmed and will feel compelled to dominate Harry and Tavish, and those encounters can sometimes get violent. It's for their safety as well as yours that you stick with the dominants, at least at first, all right?”

“Oh. A-all right,” she replied uncertainly, though Harry couldn't exactly blame her for her reluctance. The dominants had all clustered together on the south end of the pack territory, and she was easily the smallest person there—and the only female. She cast Harry one last nervous look, then crossed the space with Ulrich at her side. As Harry watched her go, he silently hoped that she'd be okay.

“C'mon, we better get going too,” Tavish said as he rested a hand on Harry's shoulder, “as unmated subs, we really don't want to be out in the open like this when the change comes.”

Harry nodded woodenly and followed his friend's lead to the north side of the area. The unmated subs had all clustered together, as well as all of the children and adolescents in the pack. The mated pairs were scattered about the territory, cuddled together and talking quietly amongst themselves, very much like pairs of newlyweds.

The children were all chattering excitedly, chasing each other and playing roughly as they waited impatiently for the sun to dip below the horizon. The adults were mostly quiet, save for the few that were watching the children, and called out to them when they got too far away from the group.

Tavish tried to talk to Harry a few times, but Harry found himself far too nervous to carry on a normal conversation, and only offered his companion quick one or two-word answers. Eventually, Tavish gave up and sat at his side quietly while they watched the sun slowly sink into the west.

Only when the sun was little more than an incandescent glow on the horizon did everyone start shedding their clothes, and Adina went around to collect it and stacked in neat piles just outside the Sub House.

Harry felt distinctly uncomfortable about being starkers in front of a group of people he'd met barely a month before, and as casually as he could, he slipped behind a nearby tree so that the others couldn't see him. The action was met with a few titters from some of the older pack members, but no one teased him outright for it, for which he was grateful. He wasn't overly embarrassed by his prudishness, especially when he spotted Hermione across the territory doing the same thing. Her arms were crossed across herself and she was inching behind a tree, though surprisingly, the male dominants that surrounded her did not even pass her a fleeting glance.

Harry stood there, shivering a little in the autumn air, and had just begun to wonder how long he would have to stand there starkers before the change took him, when like a bell toll at midnight, it began.

Harry's stomach muscles began to suddenly spasm, and with a soft groan he bowed forward and his knees bit into the hard-packed ground. He clutched at his abdomen as he let out a low moan of pain, and his bones began to ache as though he was going through a painful growth spurt. His gums throbbed, his skin tingled, and his eyes burned as though he had been staring at the sun. His fingertips dug into the earth, and he gasped harshly as he tried to ride out the pain. However, with each wave of pain that passed, a new one was quick to take its place, and Harry found himself caught in a painful cycle of sensation. He let out another moan of pain, and prayed that it would end soon.

Harry's bones cracked and reset themselves; his skin stretched to accommodate his change in body size; fur sprouted from every follicle; his nose lowered to meet his mouth and both extended into a snout, and claws replaced his dull fingernails.

As quickly as it all started, it suddenly stopped.

Harry lay in the dirt, panting, his eyes clenched shut, and his body trembling from the shock of the change.

A soft nose nudged his shoulder lightly, and Harry's eyes flicked open. He could see more clearly in the dark, and his eyesight seemed to be muted somehow, and did not carry the same scope of colour that his human form did.

Harry looked up, and a shaggy black wolf stood at his side, whimpering a little in concern. The scent struck Harry as familiar, and companion. He pulled himself to his feet and immediately felt a wave of unease wash over him when he realized just how small he truly was. He stood a full head below his packmate, and his ears flattened against his head nervously. His companion whimpered, and he leant down to bump his jaw against Harry's in a gesture of affection and reassurance.

The move made Harry feel marginally calmer, and his tail began to wag faintly. The larger wolf yipped at Harry and gave him a gentle nudge, leading him out from behind the tree, and Harry was suddenly surrounded by wolves. Harry found himself both apprehensive of their presence and able to recognize them as pack in the same breath, but his small stature in comparison to the other adult wolves still made him nervous, and he stepped backward almost unconsciously, his lip curling a little. His companion whined and licked the ridge of his ear, and the gentle contact snapped Harry out of his nervous state. When he next looked around, he saw that most of the other subs had backed off a little, but maintained the protective circle around him as he tried to calm down.

An older female wolf, slate grey with clouded blue eyes approached him, and like the younger wolf, she bumped her jaw to his. Harry stepped forward to accept the gesture, and ever so slowly, he calmed down, and once more the others closed in on him to welcome him. This time, he did not panic, but accepted their welcome, his tail wagging minutely. The female gave Harry a moment to acclimate to the sights and smells around him before she pressed the length of her body against his and led him from the cluster of submissive wolves and towards the dominants.

Even at a distance, Harry felt positively minuscule compared to the dominant wolves. At the front of them stood the alpha, bear-like in size and radiating power like a rank odour. His head was held high, and even the other dominants that were near to or matched his size regarded him with respect and fear in equal measure.

The older female sub only stopped guiding his footsteps when Harry found himself directly in front of Greyback. He did not meet the alpha's eyes, and he remained stock still as Greyback stepped forward and proceeded to scent him. He let out a low growl of approval, then just as suddenly Harry felt an enormous paw press down on his back, right between his shoulder blades. He tensed for a moment, not understanding what alpha wanted of him, but then he understood—submit.

Without a moment's hesitation, Harry dropped to the ground and exposed his belly.

Alpha once more growled his approval, and gently nudged Harry to his feet. Harry jumped up at once and moved to rejoin the other submissives, but was intercepted by an enormous tawny wolf, who closed the distance between them, and almost at once tried to mount him. Harry yelped in fright, scrabbling at the ground to escape the hold, just as a dark grey, almost black wolf shoved the other dominant hard, effectively separating Harry from him.

Harry wasted no time in rejoining the other subs, his chest heaving as he tried to calm down. They closed ranks around him, but due to his size Harry was unable to see what was happening, but he could clearly hear the snarls of the pair of dominants fighting.

He let out a low whine, stepping from foot to foot nervously, and his companion from earlier nudged him gently, and he guided Harry down to the river and away from the brawl. He turned and tried to go back and see what was happening, but his companion snapped at him, and herded him towards the river, while he ignored Harry's attempts to circle around him and go back to see what was happening. His companion eventually grew impatient with Harry's antics, and nudged him very hard—hard enough to cause him to stumble, and with his head bowed in frustration, he allowed himself to be guided the rest of the way to the riverside.

Harry lowered himself down to drink, and the cool water helped calm him from the stress of his encounter with the dominants. As he lifted his head, he froze when he caught sight of his reflection in the slow-moving water.

The lithe white wolf that he saw staring back at him was so small that he was closer in size to a coyote than even a natural wolf. Harry's ears flattened against his head; and his reflection did the same. He lowered his black nose to the water's surface, but the colour of his coat did not change. Even in this form, Harry was fully aware that such an unnatural colour of fur was bound to attract attention.

Ever so slowly, his companion coaxed him back to where rest of the pack had congregated. He was reluctant to go, afraid of what might happen when he crossed paths with the dominant wolves again, but when they finally arrived, he felt himself relax. Aside from a solitary dominant wolf that was circling the edges of the territory, all the other dominants were nowhere to be seen.

As they approached the others, the solitary dominant stepped towards them. Harry immediately backtracked, eyeing the dominant warily, but the brown wolf that stood there let out a low whine at his actions, and Harry pricked his ears, realizing by scent and sound that this wasn't a male dominant—it was a female one.

Harry took a tentative step forward, and Harry felt a wave of familiarity rush over him. The dominant's tail began to wag slowly, and she yipped.

Hermione.

They both rushed forward at the same time and nuzzled each other in the wolfish equivalent of a hug, their tails high as their circled each other and jumped forward in atypical puppy play, while his companion—who Harry now recognized by name as Tavish—intercepted them when Hermione got too rough.

After a few moments, Harry took a step back and looked around the territory, his mind clearing enough that names began to come to his mind slowly as a muddled mixture of human-like and wolfish thoughts passing through his head as he took in the sight of the other wolves in the area. He recognized the old grey wolf as Adina, and near to the bonfire (which was a strange, muted yellow to his wolf eyes) he recognized one of the pregnant wolves—a black one with flecks of white through her fur—as Jade.

Tavish approached him again and nudged Harry's cheek with his muzzle, and immediately Harry felt himself relax. Harry yipped once, and immediately a number of the tumbling pups rushed over to him, jumping up to nip at his ears and headbutt his rump, clearly trying to get him to play with them.

Harry nipped at the one closest to him, a russet pup that was about the same size as a large cat. With an excited cry he took off, and immediately Harry gave chase.

Some of the other subs joined in on the play with the pups, and after an hour or so, the dominants returned, dragging a pair of stags with them.

The subs all approached the dominants' kills, and Harry felt his mouth water at the scent of the fresh meat that permeated the air. He lurched towards them, but Hermione bit into the scruff of his neck to hold him back. At first, Harry was confused, but as he watched the alpha approach the deer first, he understood that they needed to wait for their leader to have his fill before anyone else was allowed to eat.

Greyback paused before the carcasses and looked towards the cluster of subs and let out a soft huff. Both Tavish and Adina broke away from the rest of them and approached their alpha, and moved to stand on either side of him. Harry's wolf mind knew immediately that these two were his breeding partner and his paramour, and as the two highest-ranking subs in the pack, they, too, were allowed to eat first—with their alpha. Harry cocked his head as he watched the scene play out, and felt as though he should be surprised by their presence at the alpha's side—Tavish, in particular—but in his wolf state, he was unruffled by this turn of events, and merely watched it play out in silence.

They tore into the flesh of the carcasses and began to eat, and Harry stepped from paw to paw impatiently. His belly rumbled as the smell of fresh blood rent the air, and frequently Hermione nipped at his scruff or snapped at him as though to remind him that despite his own hunger, he needed to wait.

It felt like they had waited a very long time before the three wolves had at last eaten their fill and stepped back. Harry moved to rush forward with the others, but being so small he was shunted out of the way quickly, and when he tried to wiggle in between the two larger submissives that had butted in front of him, they whipped around, muzzles bloody, and snapped at him with a warning snarl.

Ears flat against his head he let out a soft whimper, and began to circle the carcasses, looking for an opening, but aside from the Omega, a soft grey dominant who was lying down and patiently waiting his turn, Harry was the only one being left out of the meal.

Harry's distress began to mount as he took a few steps back and sat down, but continued to whine as he looked on hungrily at the stags that were very efficiently being stripped of their flesh. Harry started slightly when a sudden large shadow loomed over him; his gaze jerked up, and saw a dusky grey dominant, one almost as large as Alpha, standing over him. He recognized him immediately as Ulrich, and noted that he seemed to be carrying something in his mouth. Harry cocked his head to the side curiously as the dominant bowed forward and dropped something at his feet.

Startled, Harry looked down to see two kidneys and almost a full liver resting in front of him. Harry looked back up in confusion, and Ulrich huffed, nudging Harry gently in clear encouragement. He bowed forward, and quickly snapped up the offal, then licking his chops, he arched up and nudged Ulrich, a move of gratitude for the meal. Ulrich's tail wagged slowly, and Harry felt his stress begin to melt away.

Slowly, the other wolves began to step back from the carcasses, now little more than a pair of skeletons, and the omega stepped forward, tail between his legs as he began to pick through the bones, looking for discarded bits of meat or gristle.

Bellies full, most of the wolves lay down to rest, while others began to seek out what their bodies next called to them for. The dominants sidled up to the unmated subs or their own partners, and while some bowed their bodies forward and accepted them, others yipped and snarled, trying to force the larger wolves away from them. Most of the dominants accepted the refusals, but the pushier ones were quickly intercepted by the alpha, his lips curled back in warning for the dominant daring to try and force themselves onto an unwilling sub.

The dominant from earlier, which Harry now recognized as Bryce, began to approach Harry, and he instinctively moved closer to Ulrich, wholly unaware of how such an action might be interpreted. On his behalf, Ulrich growled in warning, and the other wolf faltered, clearly uncertain whether or not he wanted to challenge Ulrich again. After a brief moment of hesitation, the other werewolf relented, and stalked off with his head bowed. Ulrich shunted Harry away from the others with gentle taps of his muzzle against his hindquarters until they were a little ways away from the rest of the group. Harry lay down, and Ulrich lay more or less on top of him like some sort of large, furry blanket. He tensed, but the beta did nothing more an shield him with his much larger body from predators and the other dominants of the pack.

Harry curled into Ulrich's warmth and fell asleep quickly, completely worn out from the evening's events. Ulrich licked at his ears and stayed awake a while longer, his lip curling at any dominant who got too close to them.

Harry slept away the rest of the night in peace, wholly unaware of the significance of his acceptance of Ulrich's advances, nor what it would mean when he woke again with his human mind in full control again.

For the moment however, Harry felt something that had been in short supply for him these last few months: He felt protected, and safe.
A/N: I know this seems like a setup to a repeat of what had happened to Harry with Remus in book one, but I'm just letting you guys know now that it's not what you think, I promise. Next update will be 2 June, so I'll see you all then, and I hope you guys enjoyed this latest update! :)
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Lunaticus Book Three: New Moon Rising