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A Wolf's Soul	By : sinfulsanctuary Category: HP Canon Characters paired with Original Characters > Het - Male/Female Views: 2410 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
Chapter Eight – The Beast Next Door

That essay on duelling traditions earned me an Outstanding. I was very proud of myself, and I hoped that Professor Lupin really appreciated all the work I had put in to that essay. After seeing him in his office that weekend I had gone back and edited the essay. I was already finished of course, but I wanted to make it better, so I worked well into the night. When I handed it in it was 10 inches longer and good enough to be published in Defensive Digest, if I may say so myself.

We had now moved on to nonverbal duelling. I wasn't doing so well with that, but since nonverbal magic wasn't required to leave Hogwarts with good grades there was no need to have extra tutoring.

Professor Lupin didn't act any different since he made me leave his office. I had been afraid he might be cold or indifferent or stop calling on me when I raised my hand. But he was completely normal, I still received those heart stopping smiles and he still buzzed around me.

Easter was closing in and the revision was starting to take over everything. Only two more months before the exams of a lifetime. Every day I was going through a new subject in a new class, everything from first year to seventh year, along with all the rest of my homework.

It was tiring me out, and I was becoming quite cranky. The only time I felt truly calm and happy was in Defence Against the Dark Arts. So on this particular Thursday at the end of March I decided I would revise nothing but that subject. I was sitting with Tia and a few other seventh years in the library, each of us working on a different subject, but pitching in whenever someone needed help.

I was now looking through the revision essay Professor Lupin had us do a while back, on all the magical creatures we've had in class. I used the essay as a reference list, and was doing a more extensive research on every creature. For the next creature on my list I was ploughing through Do You Know The Beast Next Door.

With each list item I wrote down, characteristics and defensive measures, I became more and more stunned. It all made sense, every little thing I had just written down. I knew where to find this creature.

I couldn't believe it! But it all made sense, so it had to be true.

"Penelope." I turned to the girl across from me at the table. "You know your way around here well, right?"

The Ravenclaw girl nodded.

"Can you help me find books on lycanthropy?"

"Sure, but why? Isn't it enough with the text books you already have?"

"No, I- I just need more books, you understand, right? Help me?"

Penelope nodded again and stood up, a few other people at the table looking strangely at me. But I didn't care. I had no find out more.

Penelope walked me through the library, finding every book I needed. After just five minutes I had a stack of books in my arms that I could hardly look over, not to mention carry. We got back to the table and I systematically began going through everything these books had to say about werewolves.

Most of it wasn't fun. It described how vicious and bloodthirsty they were. How every one of them was dangerous and had been cast away from society. While the beast in them were out only once a month, the humans weren't really any better. They were short tempered, aggressive and distrustful.

I already knew all of this of course. I had grown up knowing that werewolves were among the deadliest creatures out there. I had learned it both in Defence Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures that werewolves were not creatures one wanted to be associated with, unless you wished to die painfully or become a shunned monster yourself.

I read until curfew. I had forgotten all about revision. When Tia asked if I wanted to come back to the common room or just stay in the library and be caught out after hours, I didn't even remember there were other people around me.

I only had a couple of books left to read, so I checked them out and continued in the dormitories later. One of the books had nothing new to tell me, so I opened the last book; Hairy Snout, Human Heart. This book was written by an anonymous werewolf, about their own life and struggles with the inner monster.

It was heart wrenching. This person wrote of loneliness, of being an outcast. Friends abandoning him, family staying in touch only out of fear he'd turn them. Never being able to hold a decent job, living from pay check to pay check or on the charity of others. Being frowned upon when walking down the street, mothers turning their children away from him.

He wrote about how his heart ached for nearness, for someone to look upon him without disgust. All about how he locked himself up every full moon, about the incredible pain of his transformations. Bones reforming, body changing, hair sprouting out of his skin, all his human senses vanishing and knowing nothing but the hunger for raw flesh. Transforming back without any memory whatsoever of the night, seeing only blood and wounds all over his body. Hating and fearing himself.

It was 4 in the morning when I finished the book, and my tears were falling freely and uncontrollably. None of the text books covered this aspect of lycanthropy. No wonder there was so much prejudice.

I couldn't sleep at all that night. I couldn't stop thinking about what I had learned. One person at this school was a werewolf, and that person must have gone through a lot of what the anonymous werewolf had described in his autobiography. Thank Merlin no one else seemed to know about him, here at Hogwarts. Though Headmaster Dumbledore must know, there was nothing he didn't know. And if Dumbledore let him stay here, what harm could he really do? If Hairy Snout, Human Heart was anything to go by, he just wanted to be treated like any other person.

Any other person, that was exactly it. He was just like any other person, nothing dangerous about him, as far as I'd seen. Helpful, patient, kind... If he'd been dangerous, we'd all have been dead by now.

...

Alarms started to go off in the dorm. The sun had risen and it promised a clear sky. The girls around me woke up and began their morning routines.

Tia popped her head in through my curtains. "Aren't you getting up, Niamh?"

I turned to her. "I'm up."

"Niamh? You look awful. Haven't you slept?"

"No, I guess I haven't. I'm been up all night reading this book." I held it up, showed her the cover.

"Hairy Snout, Human Heart? Why have you been reading that? Why did you read all those books about lycanthropy last night?"

For a moment I almost told her, but something stopped me. "For revision," I answered quickly. "Have you ever read this book, Tia? It's devastating."

"I haven't read it, but I've heard about it."

"You have to read it."

"You have to get ready for class, if you can manage on no sleep."

It was going to be a long day.
- 7
- 8
- 9
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A Wolf's Soul