Friar's Cap
Nuzzler
Floo Ferret
SalvationI screamed a long painful wail that started far back in my throat, and seemed to tear away my flesh, which stretched, flowed, and conformed to the changing bone structure of my face. As my jaw and cheekbones elongated, they ached, a bone numbing pain that augmented and intensified the agony of my teeth, as they loosened in their sockets, altered in size, shape, and position, and reattached themselves to the pointed muzzle I now possessed. Years of full moons, and the accompanying transitions had taught me to throw back my head during the final moments. Doing so reduced the stress on my neck vertebrae, as I changed from an erect, bipedal human to the quadrupedal form of the werewolf.
I am Remus Lupin, a name fraught with irony, and a source of much black amusement to me and to my few friends. Did my parents unknowingly, unluckily name me that which I was to become, or did the act of their naming me seal my destiny, and ensure that I would become one of the accursed? Questions such as this often occupied my time, particularly that time trapped in my alter form, for the true horror of the person who is a werewolf, is not that he becomes a monstrous creature of the full moon, savage and frightening to mortal man or wizard, but is rather that his human mind is divorced from the mindless beast he becomes, and cannot control. Firenze and I have spoken many times of these conundrums, though the inscrutable, destiny driven fatality of his entire race marks his opinion.
“Remus,” he would say, in his ponderous fashion, “not even the Centaurs, who have spent millennia studying the heavens for portents of the future, and knowledge of the foreordained, know to what extent a name influences the person who bears it. Nor do we ken the effect that our future has on our past, or controls our past actions. What we do know, is that all things are related, and bound, each with the other; so much has eternal Chiron told us.”
Ah, Firenze, my friend; where are you now? Even you were unwilling to walk the paths of the night with me in werewolf form. That has been left to James and Sirius; they have promised to come, and keep me company!I could feel the stirring of my wolf’s blood at the thought of my friends, they who, with Peter, have stood by me these last thirteen school terms. I mentally retched at the picture I sensed in the mind of the werewolf, the twisted, blood enraged hatred of all that was human, torn between the desire to rend, rip, and feed; and the maddening desire to bite, and scar another for life, cursing him with the life I had led for so many years.
My normal routine, since I had started at Hogwarts, was to try to divorce my human mind from the werewolf body; to let it scheme and fester in revulsion and madness, unable to escape this house set up by Dumbledore for my periods of inhumanity; its howls, and almost human screams creating a living legend in Hogsmeade. Eventually, I knew, it would begin to tear at itself in frustration, and over the three days, it would become weaker as it spilled its own blood, and the maddening cesspool of its mind would slowly recede, leaving my human side once again recovering from the horror and depravity that marked each lunar cycle. This time, I knew I must remain engaged.
“We’ll be there tonight,” James had told me. “At least Sirius and I will be. Peter – well Peter’s a little concerned.” I could understand why, and had felt a flash of guilt when we had talked earlier today.
Am I deluding them and myself? Am I right? Will my werewolf side ignore them in Animagus form? My doubts returned, and I pushed them away.
I did warn them! If I make an aggressive move, Sirius will block while the others leave. Quickly! I can maintain control long enough for that! Never mind that I had
never been able to exert any influence over the other side of my personality. But tonight Peter would not be there; he would not be able to escape fast enough, if I was wrong, and the werewolf saw the human behind the stag, and hound, and rat.
I tensed; my body became still, concentrating on the incredible sense of hearing and smell I possessed, as I heard the shudder of the trapdoor below. We both heard it, my unwanted friend and I, but only I knew what it was; only I knew what it portended. I huddled back in my tiny safe haven in the mind of the beast, figuratively shivering in nervous anticipation.
What will his reaction be?We waited, he and I, with curiosity, and anxiety, each to his own. Had I thought of what we felt, I would have cried in ecstasy; instead, I listened to the two, no
three, sets of approaching footsteps, the rapid scrabble of tiny claws scratching along the wooden floor, the measured clip-clop of hard hooves, and the soft pad-click of nailed paws.
Even Peter! Emotion choked my thoughts, as the door slowly opened, and I saw my friends.
We sat and stared at each other – for now, it was enough.
I will reveal to you a love potion, without medicine, without herbs, without any witch’s magic; if you want to be loved, then love. - Hecaton of Rhodes
Round Two ~ Future Ferret Challenges
evlpez Round Two ~ Future Ferret Challenges Oct 23 2004, 01:43 AM
Oct 23 2004, 01:43 AM
Note to ferrets: Remember that you are writing fan fiction as though you are the Floo-Between user you've chosen. This means that if you've chosen Snape, you are writing as though Snape is writing fan fiction, not as though he is a part of the story. Each character may write as many submissions as they wish for this challenge, as long as each submission is significantly different from their others. You must choose one of the above missions for each submission. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday December 1st.
