Blood of the Moon {Remus Lupin}

Chapter 93

It's morphin' time! :)

Auriga embraced Tonks tightly as she left through the back door. "Are you sure I can't come with you?" Tonks asked, looking at her pitifully.

"I've already told you," said Auriga, "that Metamorphmagi use complex charm work and not transfiguration. So no, we can't risk it. Thank you, though."

"I still don't understand the difference between me turning into a dog and her turning into a dog," said Sirius from behind her, a frown on his face.

Auriga rolled her eyes. She'd repeated this so many times it was boring. "You transfigure yourself," she said, pointing to Sirius. "So you're technically not a human anymore. Tonks charms herself to look like an animal, but she's still technically human."

"Auriga's right," said Remus, placing a hand in her shoulder. "It's just not worth the risk."

"But you've both taken the potion," Tonks spluttered.

"A difficult potion that I've only brewed once before and never by myself," Auriga pointed out. "And besides, we've got Sirius keeping an eye on us. You need to keep an eye on the house."

"Arthur and Molly are coming tonight," Tonks said. Merlin, she really wasn't giving up.

"But they're not here yet," said Remus. At that moment, Sirius pushed past Auriga and shut the door firmly, placing a physical barrier between them and Tonks.

"Merlin," he muttered, leading the way into the small patch of woods. "You two are too bloody polite." He walked a few feet ahead of them, presumably to give Auriga and Remus a little bit of privacy.

"Talk me through it again," said Auriga, trying not to trip in tree roots as her heart hammered in her chest. It was so dark, if she didn't have her wand light she'd be surprised if she could see five feet ahead of her.

Her first transformation. It didn't feel like a whole month since she found out about her father, but apparently it was.

"It'll be OK," Remus promised, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his side. She let him do it, feeling comforted by his presence, like it was just another evening cuddling on the sofa. At least she didn't have to do it alone. Without wolfsbane. "It'll hurt a lot - the first few are the worst. But the potion numbs it a little bit. You'll feel disoriented at first, like you've just woken up somewhere you're not used to, but give it a minute and you'll be alright."

"What about the hunting thing?" asked Auriga. "You said you needed to hunt."

"Only without the potion," said Remus, calmly and warmly. "If you've brewed the potion correctly it'll be like trying to suppress the feeling of eating when you're bored."

"And if I haven't?"

Remus kissed her on the top of her head. "You will have," he said. "But on the off chance you missed something, I'm there and so is Sirius. Moony and Padfoot have a lot of experience in dealing with werewolves going rogue."

Auriga forced a laugh. "Am I going to get an imaginative nickname too?" she asked.

"I've been thinking about that," called Sirius, making Remus chuckle at his eavesdropping. "I thought Mrs Moony might work, but-" Auriga threw a pinecone at the back of his head. "Ow - yeah, I deserved that. What about Apollo?"

"A-what-o?" asked Auriga as they reached the clearing near the centre of the woods.

"First muggle space mission to land on the moon," Sirius explained. "So a massive fuck-you to pureblood bigotry!"

Auriga smiled, despite the nervous buzzing of her stomach. "I think my being a werewolf is a good enough fuck-you. We'll think of something, I'm sure."

"Right," said Remus, looking around the clearing and getting his bearings as Sirius began climbing a tree. "Sirius'll put our stuff up there-"

"What stuff?" asked Auriga with a frown.

"Our spare robes?" said Remus. "Your bones are going to change shape. Your robes don't stand a chance."

"B-but," Auriga stammered. "These are custom order from Twillfit and Tattings!"

"They're plain black," said Sirius, jumping down from the lower branches.

"This is rubbish!" protested Auriga, ignoring his comment and crossing her arms.

"Oh, yeah," said Remus, a sarcastic grin on his face. "Easily the worst part." Auriga shoved him playfully and he took a step away.

A sudden pain shot up her spine, spreading to her ribs before she could so much as gasp. Remus's smile dropped straight away, and Sirius quickly transformed into a shaggy black dog. She felt as her spine forced itself to invert and curve upward. She screwed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth, hearing a far off call of, "It's alright!"

Auriga cried out as her shoulder blades popped from their sockets and cracked and jerked into a new position. She could feel something damp on her face, but she couldn't think on it any further when she fell to the ground, smelling the dirt and pine around her. There were more loud cracking sounds as her pelvis jolted and shifted, and now the pain was everywhere, comparable to the cruciatus curse, at least.

Her hands and feet and skull were all shifting, all clicking into new places, and her skin felt like it was being pricked with a thousand tiny pins. Something stung in her mouth, and she could taste the sharp metallic blood filling it, that she hastily swallowed. It was unladylike to spit, after all.

The sharp pains stopped, and she knew she was no longer contorting against her will. She could still smell the dirt and the pine around her. She brushed the palm of her hand gently against the floor and felt something like wood chips and soil mixed together. She was very conscious of the complete aching all over her body, and she felt like she'd never be able to stand again.

Something nudged her side, and she winced a little, moving away from it. She could feel something's hot breath on her own face, and she finally peeled her eyes open to see a werewolf's face next to hers. It stepped back, still looking at her but apparently satisfied.

Auriga looked down at her hands. They were now paws, with claws and covered in brown fur. She craned her neck, feeling it ache even more, and saw that she had a whole wolf's body, covered in the same fur. And a tail! Merlin's beard! She lifted it up to admire it, climbing clumsily to her feet and craning further to have a look at it. And then she realised that the black dog was rolling around on the floor, apparently unable to breathe. Sirius was laughing at her.

She tried to tell him to shut up, but all that came out was a yap. She yapped again in exclamation. This was so odd. The werewolf - Remus - padded over to her again, walking around her and sniffing her and nudging her. Auriga wondered what on earth he was doing.

She peered round as he worked, and was surprised to see that she could see far into the treetops, and all the way through the gloom of the woods, as though it were only early evening. She sniffed the air, but could only smell four things, other than the trees. One of them was of chocolate and a particular laundry detergent, and she traced that to the torn pile of robes where Remus had been. Another had notes of orange and cedar, and Auriga recognised it as her own perfume from her robes. One was the smell of Sirius, slightly lemony with a tinge of what she could only describe as dog. But there was an unfamiliar smell too. It was musky and sweet. She sniffed harder for it, finding her nose buried in Remus's fur. She couldn't decide what she liked better - his excellent choice of soap or what she was smelling now.

Remus eventually trotted away, through the trees, his head swerving from side to side. Sirius followed suit, working in parallel to him, a few trees to Remus's right. Auriga followed after them, not wanting to be left alone in the woods. Eventually, Remus came to a halt and barked into the trees. Auriga picked up her pace and caught up with him, tracing him just as Sirius did. They followed him through a gap under a bush, where there was a gulf in the roots of a tree and dry earth under the bush. He nestled down into the roots and Auriga wandered over to him cautiously. Was she welcome to go close to him in this form?

Apparently she was, because the moment she got near to him, he lifted his head and nuzzled into her neck. She lay down and cuddled into his side, feeling the warmth radiating from him. She watched as Sirius found a spot under the branches of the bush, before yawning and closing her eyes.