Bitten

Two

Harry boarded the Hogwarts Express, whole body aching. His first full moon, and thus transformation, had been two nights ago and his body was still sore from it. He was thankful for his upbringing teaching him how to hide the pain his body was in. He had managed to heal almost all of the injuries he had caused himself, minus a few of the deeper ones.

He made it into the first empty compartment he found and levitated his trunk onto the shelf above the seats, not having the energy to lift it physically. He collapsed onto the seat, glad to be off his feet. He let his head against the window, waiting for his friends to come find him. As he waited, he allowed himself to drift into his thoughts and memories.

He thought back to yesterday, how he had woken up from his first transformation with a second voice in his head. The voice had introduced itself as Romulus, his wolf. Romulus explained everything he would need to know about being a werewolf. He had learnt that he could shift into his wolf form, shift into Romulus, any day he wanted. He could shift into a wolf at will, except for full moons when the transformation would be forced, and new moons when the ability would disappear.

Romulus then went on to explain having a mate. He would be mated to one person and that would be the only person he could be fertile with. He would recognise his mate at first by a crush, and then the feeling of completeness when with them. Romulus explained how some wolves needed to take the wolfsbane potion because they supressed their inner wolf. They wouldn't shift except for full moons, causing their wolf to become feral. But if a werewolf shifted regularly enough, and listened to their wolf, they would be sane and completely in control whenever in wolf form, even during full moons.

Harry was just thinking about how he was planning on keeping his secret when the door was loudly opened. Harry winced slightly at the loud noise, louder to him with his newly improved senses, before looking up. In the doorway stood three people that Harry had been looking forward to seeing again. Hermione was the first to move in, sitting down opposite Harry. She levitated her trunk onto the shelf as Ron flopped down next to her, trunk still lying on the ground. Ginny seated herself next to Harry, after stowing her trunk above them.

"Honestly Ronald, are you going to deal with your trunk?" Hermione asked, voice exasperated. Ron grunted in reply and Hermione sighed, turning away from Ron to face Harry instead.

"How have you been Harry? Did you enjoy your time camping?" Her voice was soft and filled with concern. Harry knew that they had been worried about him, but he just had to get away from everyone. Get away from the attention and just relax. He smiled at Hermione and saw her relax.

"Yeah, I'm great. The time in the wilderness was just what I needed. I'm definitely ready for school again. So, what have you three been up to?" He asked. Hermione looked down at her feet and Ron turned as red as his hair. Ginny laughed at them before speaking up.

"Hermione and Ron are now dating; they are just both too embarrassed to say it."

"You're dating," he said. He realised that his voice sounded surprised, while he was far from it.

"Yeah, you ok with it mate?" Ron asked. Harry laughed at the worry in his friends voice.

"Of course, it's fine. I just honestly thought you were already dating. You know, with what happened in the battle and all." At this, Hermione blushed and looked at her feet again, while Ron's face turned an even darker shade of red.

The four of them talked and laughed as they waited for the train to leave. It finally began to move, just as someone knocked on the door of the compartment. Harry turned to see Luna and Neville standing at the door and waved them in. Luna moved in to sit between Ginny and Harry, while Neville sat between Ron and the door.