𝕮𝖀𝕽𝕾𝕰𝕯 {𝐴 𝐶𝑒𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝐷𝑖𝑔𝑔𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝐹𝑎𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛}

PROLOGUE

July 31st 1650
Sam Hoodman, one of the nicest men in the small village of Hennington. Known to both the muggle folk and the wizarding kind as a shrink, servicing both kinds. Sam and his family are looked down by some wizarding families as a disgrace as they associate with muggles risking to break the statute of secrecy.

He owns a house on the shores of a lake, close to a forest where he lives with his wife, Alice and their son Matthew. The village was full of folklore, legends and myths, but one tale that moved around was more of reality than myth, the story of 70-year-old Nicholas Sherling, or better known as Butcher Nick.

Children have heard the story from their parents, Butcher Nick’s slaughterhouse for naughty children. They say that if you disobey your parents, a spirit shall lead you to the forest right at his doorstep where you’ll witness him torturing animals and the next day you awaken with a feeling of change, not wanting to witness such again.

However, that was muggle propaganda. The wizards and witches knew of his fate. He was cursed, cursed to be cunning like a snake, ruthless as a wolf, and the only way he could be free was to chant the incantation, staring right into the victim’s eyes so that the process could be complete.

Nick was living in agony, recurring painful transformations, one after the other, his bone structure started to change as time went on, his backbone bending giving him a hunchback posture, the skin on his forearms and legs turned scaly, long claws protruding from where his fingernails were supposed to be.

He was fed up, he wanted to be free for the remainder of his life so he planned. Each day, he walked through the forest, searching for someone to give his misery to. He trekked for days, months, years, but every chance he got was foiled. It was as if the universe wanted him to suffer until the very end but luck was able to find him, ten years later when a black-haired young lad crossed paths with him.

It was now or never to him, all he needed was the eye contact and it would be done. The boy was busy picking fruits that he didn’t notice the old man creep up behind him. He felt a pair of hands forcefully turn him around and the next thing he saw were glowing green eyes and a weary old voice spoke to him.

“for the curse I lay on this boy shall not be treated like a toy, ruthless as a wolf and cunning as a snake, no one knows how long it will take, I give you this curse to be free from mine, from now on, nothing will be fine. Morcus-Almantra” the green in his eyes then moved to that of the boy who then collapsed on the ground.

“Free, finally free” the man laughed and was on his way back to where he stayed and left the boy in the forest. Matthew woke up hours later, the sky had turned dark, the clouds had gathered, the wind was howling, these were signs of a storm approaching and he was a distance from home so he had to get up and trek back home. The rain had found him when he was a few minutes away and when he got home, he was partly drenched.

He restrained from telling his parents what had happened but that wasn’t the case. A few days after his encounter in the forest, he started to change, behavior-wise and physically. His parents started to notice his sudden changes but thought of it as maturing.

One night, they started hearing noises coming from his room. They sought to check it out but when they opened the door, they were appalled at what they saw. Their son wasn’t in the room, to them, it was a wolf with black fur and a few green stripes. It was writhing on the floor, low growls escaped from it, saliva leaving it’s mouth.

Alice shrieked in terror as her husband ran back to his room and grabbed his wand returning to the room. Before he could even raise his wand to cast a spell, the wolf had changed back into a boy with torn clothes and a few cuts on his skin. The same thing happened weeks later, one day it’s a wolf, another day it’s a snake.