Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Forty-Four- Human Wolf Brother

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Remus was walking to DADA with Sirius' arm draped over his shoulder, his face close to Remus' as he whispered plans for James' birthday. James made a big show of trying to hear which resulted in Sirius mock attacking him. So they were all smiling and laughing as they entered the classroom, Remus relieved none of his friends had figured out his birthday was on the 10th, a few weeks before James'.

As they walked into the classroom, Remus having been forced to sit next to them ever since he had told them his suspicions about their professor, he felt something was off.

It wasn't until he sat down between James and Peter that he realized what precisely was off. He jumped out of his seat, all eyes going to him, and went dark red as he made a big show of dusting off some nonexistent prickly item in his seat, before sitting once more with his heart hammering loudly in his chest.

In a large covered-up cage at the front of the room was a large wolf. He knew it instinctively, just like he knew it was no ordinary wolf. Remus wasn't sure how he knew this or why. As far as he knew he couldn't sense werewolves or wolves' presences, although he realized he had never before really tried. Still, the sensation left him shaken even if in the back of his mind he recognized it might be helpful for his search for the other werewolf in the castle. If it truly worked that way? Maybe he was just losing his mind. That somehow seemed like a more likely and preferable outcome.

"I have a special treat for you today, class," their professor began. "Of course, you have the older classes to thank but I figured there's no harm in all my students benefiting. After all, we have been covering a lot of dark creatures lately. While we won't get into werewolves in detail for a while, I figured a practical demonstration would make a more...lasting impression."

If Professor Blavatnik didn't have the whole class's attention before then he certainly did now. A chorus of gasps and scraping chairs echoed around the class as people either learned forward or back. Then the cage was uncovered and intelligent gold eyes were staring directly at Remus.

Thump, thump, thump went his traitorous heart! Remus had to calm down or one of his friends would notice. But he realized instead everyone was staring at the wolf.

"Anger. Cage. Human brother. Help. Cage bad, cage bad."

Remus nearly toppled out of his chair as the words just appeared in his head with urgency. He blinked a few times, never looking away from the golden eyes that stared at him. He had to be going insane!

But if anything, the words in his head were becoming clearer, the buzz of words becoming oddly more melodious and guttural at the same time.

"You hear me."

"Yes," he thought back, hardly daring to breathe. He briefly caught Professor Blavatnik asking the class if this was a werewolf or regular wolf.

"Release me."

Remus inhaled sharply as the wolf laid down in the cage, never looking away from Remus. Nodding its head towards the door, one that merely required opposable thumbs to unlatch, made it clear what was wanted of the boy who had the ability to let the wolf g.

"I can't." Remus replied regretfully.

The wolf seemed to huff, "I know, human-wolf brother. Cage is bad though."

"Yes, it is," Remus thought back, feeling sympathy for the wolf, after all, he sort of knew what it was like.

"My father was like you."