Harry Potter: 19 Years Later

14: Seraphine's POV

  Seraphine scuttled to the Great Hall, an anxious pit in her stomach. She didn't know how she was going to eat anything, what with being nervous like a Quidditch player who had to win a game like their life depended on it.

By the time Seraphine arrived at the Slytherin table, the nervous pit had turned into a sinkhole of worry.
Ok. Ok. Calm down, girl. Just calm down. Use the skills you learned from Coping with Anxiety in Muggle school.

Seraphine had gone to a Muggle school before she got her Hogwarts letter because her mother thought she was a Squib. She had checked out a book called Coping with Anxiety to help calm her nerves and get advice about her mum (she'd never actually told someone at school about what her mum was like).

Now, as she sat at the noisy Slytherin table, staring at a plate rich with potatoes and steak, Seraphine tried to summon up the knowledge she had learned two years ago. What did they teach her? What was it you had to do when you were overcome by anxiety? What was it.....? Ah, ha! She remembered.

"Take a deep breath and assess why you're anxious. Is it a valid reason? Is it worth wasting your time worrying about it?" the book had said.

So Seraphine decided to assess the problem. Why was she feeling anxious? Because my mum told me she wants to meet me in the mirror tonight.

And really, this would have been tolerable and normal for Seraphine... if only it was scheduled on another night. But no, it was scheduled for tonight. Tonight, of all nights. Tonight... the night of the full moon.

"How could I be so stupid?" Seraphine cried aloud.

Albus, who had been writing his essay for Transfiguration, looked up from his work. "What do you mean?"

"N–nothing." She scrambled up from her comfortable seat by the fireplace and ran to her dormitory, panting.

Where is it? Where is it? Seraphine thought as she frantically searched through her trunk. Where'd it go?

"No, no, no, no, no..." She pulled out every piece of worthless junk she found in her trunk. And searched through that. And re-searched. And searched again. She looked through her stuff one more time before flopping down on her bed, despair clawing at her heart.

"Where did it go?" Seraphine sobbed. I knew I put my werewolf book in my trunk. I knew I did. I knew it. But why isn't it in there?

No. This couldn't be happening. It simply couldn't. The circumstances were simply too ridiculous for it to happen. But it was. She had gotten her book to help her get through her werewolf morphings. And she'd lost it.

"But I didn't lose it!" Seraphine wailed into her pillow. "I put it into my trunk when I got it! Where is it?!"

I must've misplaced it. She tugged at her choppy black hair, mentally beating herself up for being so careless with something so important.

Deep down, she knew that she hadn't been careless. She had placed it into her trunk. There was only one conclusion. Someone must have stolen it.

  Seraphine must've fallen asleep because an hour later, she woke up to the familiar feeling of anxiety and fear. She quickly remembered why. Hectically looking at her watch, she saw that it was 7:45.

"The moon will be up soon," Seraphine breathed, a little louder than a whisper.

She scrambled to her feet, smoothed her wretched hair, and shuffled out of her dormitory and the common room faster than she'd ever done. All the way to the hospital wing, the same thoughts raced through Seraphine's mind.

Will I make it to Madam Pomfrey before I turn into a werewolf? Who stole my book? What will my mum say if I can't meet her tonight because of my werewolf-ness? Will she find out? Can I stop her? What will she do when she does? Why does she want to meet me?
 
Just as she passed the girls' bathrooms, Seraphine felt a lurching pain in her stomach. A sharp pain in her shoulders and head. A knife-like stabbing pain in her legs and arms. Not giving a second thought, she veered to the right and shot into the bathroom, locking herself into a stall.

Seraphine crouched in the corner, behind the unbelievably fancy toilet, and buried her head between her knees, clenching her teeth to keep from screaming in pain.

I want this to stop! STOP! THIS HURTS SO MUCH! Oh, why didn't I be more careful with the book? Why, oh, why? Before another thought could slip her mind, Seraphine felt another sensation in her shoulders.

She stood up and stared into the mirror, not knowing what to do. All of a sudden, she saw her shoulders and head beginning to broaden. Her arms began to grow thinner, longer, hairier. Seraphine ripped her clothes off and thrust them onto the floor just as another wave of pain swept through her. Her head began to grow longer and her ears and hair sank back into her skull, causing a pair of ears to sprout on top of her head. Her teeth lengthened into fangs, her fingernails grew into unattractive claws.

Before she knew it, Seraphine had lost her human intelligence. All she wanted was flesh. Human flesh. But, no. There was no human flesh in this uncomfortably small room. Realizing that she couldn't escape, she growled and whimpered, clawing and pummeling against the walls.

A few hours later, she gave up, having tired herself out, and sank back against the wall, letting sleep take her.