The Secret's In The Telling by Sakuri

chapter 4

Chapter 4: Do You So Swear?

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Severus Snape had been living in hell for over twelve hours now. With Albus busy running the school, and Minerva appointed to keep an eye on the werewolf who had caused this mess, it had been left to himself and Poppy to watch over Draco, and together they had sat up with him through the night.

The boy's condition had deteriorated so fast it had almost sent the formidable Potions Master into panic. For hours Draco had suffered through the unpredictable attacks of agony as the magical disease surged through him, and each attack lasted longer than the last.

Afterwards, in his exhaustion, he would be too tired to rage and yell, and instead fixed Severus with wordless looks of betrayal, silently asking to be freed, instead of caged like an animal. At first, Severus had tried to explain, but had soon found it useless. Draco had long moved past lucidity, and would only work himself into fits of fury or panic.

The Potions Master had both hoped for and dreaded the rise of the full moon. Part of him urged the hours to go faster, if only to speed up Draco's transformation and end his suffering. Another part of him had no idea how he was going to deal with the creature his godson was to become.

His disdain for Lupin's kind was common knowledge. His fear was a lesser known fact.

Of all the creatures in the magical world, it was werewolves that scared him – though this was only something he'd admit to silently, in the safety of his own mind.

Poppy had been as helpful as she was able, but there was really very little either of them could do. It did faintly disturb him, though, how protective the nurse had started to act. He didn't know if she was the same with other patients, and frankly didn't care, but it was something else entirely to watch her play mother hen to a Malfoy.

Especially this Malfoy…

And so, when the sun finally did set, and the silvery glow of the full moon became the main source of light, Severus found himself standing as far away from the cage as he could. Poppy stood next to him, and they watched in morbid fascination as the change began.

All at once it started. Draco, who had been dozing after yet another ten minutes of painful convulsions, suddenly gasped. His eyes flashed open and he cried out in what may have been pain, but the scream turned quickly into a deep, resounding howl. As the moonlight touched him, seeping in through the small window in one wall of the ward, he transformed.

His face was the first thing to alter, lengthening into a long, vicious muzzle, filled with teeth meant to kill. Ears pulled back, becoming canine, as did his eyes, their colour becoming such an icy blue they were almost colourless. The flimsy hospital pyjamas they'd dressed him in soon ripped at the seams as Draco's body shifted and changed, gaining mass and muscle. The ties binding his wrists also fell away without difficulty. Claws erupted from his fingertips and toes, and a tail formed at the base of his backbone. The trademark Malfoy blond hair paled even further, and sprouted across the rest of his body, until silvery fur entirely covered the newly formed werewolf.

The metamorphosis was terrible to watch, even to Severus, who had observed the distasteful transformations brought on by polyjuice and similar potions. He shuddered slightly when it was over, and Draco lay quietly, a limb occasionally twitching in the aftershock.

Hesitantly, the two adults drew nearer the cage, their curiosity evident, and in Severus's case, almost equal to his revulsion.

Draco was smaller than Lupin, but that wasn't exactly a surprise. Even so, Severus could tell that when he stood, he'd be large enough to give pause to any experienced witch or wizard. He was also almost pure white, surely a rarity among lycanthropes, who tended towards black or the common brown. Thin and long legged, even in this form, the Potions Master could guess he'd be horribly fast when he chose to be.