Wolves Without Teeth ── theodore nott ¹ ( UNDER EDITING )

chapter forty one

        Water runs into the surface of the wide bathtub, her clothes laid discarded to the stone floor behind her as she sits with her hair pulled on top of her head.

She had awoken earlier than others that morning, when the sky was just painted an early crisp pink, birds chirping in the trees and the grass still full of early morning dew. Winnie had spent the night fighting off nightmares for the better part of the night, she had to blame it upon the moon filling out each night.

Winnie had taken Hermione's password for the prefect's bathrooms that morning when she finally gave up on sleep, making her trudge quietly through the halls of Hogwarts until she stumbled upon the entranceway. The bathroom had taken her by surprise if she were to be quite frank, the bathtub taking up half the room with faucets that poured out different colour water.

The wide window of the moving mermaid moved above her now, as she sat with strawberry scented bubbles floating around her. Her chin resting against her wet knee, back squared against the stone as water lapped into the bathroom still. Steam coiled in the air from the temperature of the water, and while she was sure the water would've burned her last year, this year it brought her a sense of comfort from her chilled bones.

She had noticed signs of the new moon appearing over the next few weeks already, the way her bones would crack and ache at certain times. Her cheekbones had already started to poke out a little more fiercely from yesterday, she knew her skin would start to take on a translucent look, her veins blue from the body temperature she would take on.

Images of her nightmares still pulled at her mind, causing her face to come hard with dried on tears and her nose to sniffle every few seconds through the sound of running water. She turned, resting her cheek on the skin of her knee, as her finger nail traced the bite marks on her ankle.

Despite the warmth she had taken with her from her time with Theo, it was quickly covered by the whispers and the bitterness in her head, covering her in a bubble of darkness with no glimpses of lights flowing through.

'You and me until you die.'

She feels her teeth clank together in her mouth as the voice sends shivers down her spine, her fingers freezing against her skin as she pushes her body deeper into the bathtub. She just wants it all to stop, she wants to sleep through the night, to feel like she owns her head again and isn't afraid of when the whispers would return.

She doesn't want this.

Winnie pushes herself in under the water, her back hitting the stone of the bathtub as she closes her eyes. Lips pressing into a line with her lungs blocked of air, water swirling around her as she closes her eyes. Letting the air that was left in her lungs fizzle out and create a scorching burn in her chest as she stays glued to the bottom of the tub. She stays until the blacks of her eyes grow hazy with spots, until her lungs scream for release.

She resurfaces, gasping for air while strands of her hair stick to her skin. Her fingers push back wet strands as her messy bun lays a soaked mess on the side of her shoulder. Winnie lungs scream, expanding hard and ragged against her chest as she sits, legs folding up to press her knees into her bare chest. Her arms wrap around her legs, bubbles sliding down the curves of her skin as the hot water laps around her body.

And then she's shaking.

Shaking because there's a monster in her head telling her that they are one, and while they whisper their cruel words into her brain she weeps like fallen angels who have lost their wings.

She has been told to accept these things, to accept the way the world is, to accept the pain and inflict that is now upon her shoulders but accepting something that is now forever is harder than it looks.