In those moments, all Cosette knew was pain. She could see her fathers, watching hopelessly with tear-filled eyes, and could smell her mother's perfume drifting through the air, and right when she finally thought the pain was over, it started again. Her parents were arguing, trying to decide what to do as she laid there, screaming as her bones pulled and popped and transformed back and forth and back and forth, unable to decide in seaming a never-ending cycle between human and werewolf.
They always knew that Cosette being a werewolf was a possibility, but as she grew older the less they worried about it. They were always told that if it didn't happen before puberty then it wouldn't happen and yet there they were. Not only was she a werewolf, but something was incredibly wrong. It was like her body couldn't decide what it wanted to be, thrusting her between two forms with the snap and crack of her bones reforming just to reform back.
In a panic, Lena quickly left, scrambling to find a potion strong enough to knock a werewolf unconscious, and while Remus and Sirius waited for her return, they watched helplessly and kept track of how many times she morphed in and out. Seven times, she became a werewolf, and four times she became something in between, almost human and almost wolf, but not quite either, occasionally becoming human for a moment, before Lena arrived with the correct potion to render her unconscious and thus safe from the pain.
Each of her screams felt like a knife in her father's hearts, each of them unable to bear witness to her pain. Remus particularly felt as though her pain was his own, knowing that he was the one who caused it. Before Lena was able to knock her out, the transformations had slowed, and once unconscious she remained in the half state she was in when the potion was administered.
When the sun began to rise, she and Remus were both returned to their human states, and she remained asleep as they did their best to heal her self inflicted wounds. Most were from her thrashing, but a few claw marks raked across her leg painfully.
When they arrived back at Grimuled place, Cosette remained wordless as she had all morning, slowly making her way up the staircase and ignoring George as she passed. She couldn't think through her pain, all she knew was that she longed to lay down. Her body ached like never before, and it felt almost as if her bones were still broken as pain-filled tears escaped with every step.
Cosette looked as though she had been through hell, her hair was in disarray, and her clothes slightly bloodied from the bandages that peaked out of the edges of her sleeves. Her eyes were empty and dark, haunted by the night's experience. George took a step towards her but was caught on the arm by her father, who looked almost as badly as she did. An order meeting had been called, and everyone was waiting in the kitchen for the three adults, even Dumbledore. To Georges's surprise, Remus used the hand on his arm to lead him into the kitchen where the order waited, though he was unable to tear his eyes away from Cosettes slow descent.
"Why have you asked me here?" Dumbledore asked kindly. "Has something happened?"
"Cosette is Remus's," Sirius told him, eyes blank along with her other parents.
"And you know this, how?" Tonks asked curiously, anxious for them to get to the point.
"She shifted last night," Remus said, skin paler than ever. The whole room seemed to gasp in shock.
"You knew this was a possibility," Dumbledore pointed out, not understanding why he was called.
"Something went wrong," Lena told him, making him raise an eyebrow. "It was like her body couldn't decide what it wanted to be."
"She became a full werewolf seven times," Remus said, "Four times she was something in between. We have all done our research and this is- this is not anything that we had been expecting."
"We know that this isn't official order business," Sirius stated, "but she is our daughter. If this happens again- I don't think she'll be able to handle it."
"I know I wouldn't be able to. We need your help," Remus pleaded to the room.
"I will conduct some research, scour every book, contact experts, whatever I can," Dumbledore stated confidently. Wasting no time, he disappeared before their eyes, along with everyone else in the order promising to do whatever they could. Molly held Lena as she cried and Remus and Sirius stood there blankly, hand in hand with the other, at a loss for words.
"I want you to teach me to be an animagus," George said to Sirius after a few minutes of silence. "I want to be able to help her if it happens again, no matter how small. I cant sit around and do nothing."
"Yeah, sure," He answered without hesitation.
"And Fred as well."
"You sure you don't want to do it legally?" He asked curiously.
"Wheres the fun in that?" He asked, though his tone was serious. He couldn't bring himself to joke.
"You're okay with her being..." Remus started, but George stopped him.
"I love her," He admitted, "this doesn't change anything. She is still her, just a little different. If I was scared away by something like this then I wouldn't deserve her. She deserves the world and more and most of all to be respected, accepted, and cared for. I'll be damned if I desert her when she needs me the most."
It took him a minute to realize what had just flown out of his mouth, that he had just poured his heart out to her parents of all people. He was just glad that his mother had left.
"I think I needed to hear that," Lena said, her tears stopping for the first time since they had started.
"I'm grateful that she has you by her side while she goes through this. Merlin knows I've been there and I don't know what I would do without Sirus."
YOU ARE READING
Compass *George Weasley
Fanfiction"I thought you were stuck on the whole soulmate idea?" He asked him. At first, George was confused, not understanding what he meant or why he couldn't just say it out loud, then his brain processed what he was being told, and he pulled his hand away...
