Short Story: Once a Wolf, Always a Wolf.

Not-so-short Short Story. Emz. Minor HP-fandom, werewolves, dead people, implied obscenities. Overal 16+ minimum, 18+ adviced, as the saying goes.




It had been dirty, rainy weather all week and today was no exception. The sky was filled with angry, grey clouds and rain pored down endlessly. It had been raining when Teddy had left home with his grandmother and it was raining still. They had gone to visit Harry and Ginny Potter, the parents of his best friend James and James' younger brother and sister Albus and Lily. Sometimes Teddy wished his parents were still alive, like his friends'. But they had died fighting Lord Voldemort when he was still a baby. He had lived with his gran for 12 boring years so far and he had no memory of Remus and Andromeda Lupin. He only knew them from the old wedding photographs his gran kept on the mantlepiece of the fireplace. He stared out of the rain splattered window and sighed.
“I see... I see... what you surely can't see! I see something yellow and green,” Lily said with a twinkle in her eyes. They were sitting in the small livingroom playing games because they couldn't go outside. Their parents and Teddy's gran were in the kitchen, talking and drinking tea as they always did when Teddy and his gran visited. “You'll never guess what it is!” Lily edited excitedly.
“Is it the vase in the window still?” James asked as he indicated the yellow and green striped vase with coloured tulips that was standing close to Teddy.
“Oh! How did you know?” Lily replied on a disappointed tone as she pouted slightly.
“It's the only thing in this room that is yellow and green,” James answered with a smile. “It's your turn, Ted,” he said as he nudged Teddy.
“Can't we play some other game?” Teddy responded on a bored tone.
“But we're having so much fun!” Albus remarked sarcastically as he surpressed a yawn.
“Albus!” James responded as he gave his younger brother a disapproving look.
“We could play hide-and-seek!” Lily offered as she clapped her hands together.
“That's such a babies' game,” Albus replied.
“No it's not!” Lily said as she started to pout again.
“Yes, it is,” Albus retorted, “only little crybabies play it”.
“Stop it, Albus,” James said firmly as he put an arm around his little sister, “that's enough”. He glanced at Teddy. Teddy only shrugged in answer. James looked at his sister again. “1... 2... 3... 4...” he said as he got up, “...5... 6... 7...”
With a cry of joy Lily jumped up and ran away.
“Come on Albus,” Teddy said as he got up as well, “let's hide”. Both left the livingroom on a trot. Once in the hall they went up the stairs where they split up. Albus went into the laundry room and Teddy climbed up the ladder to the attic. He shove the latch away and pushed the hatch open so he could climbed inside. He'll never find me here, he thought as he made his way through the junk to the other side of the attic, all the while looking for a good spot to hide. But as he squeezed past a particularly high stacked pile of odds and ends everything suddenly came tumbling down. With a yelp he tried to jump away but it was too late. All kinds of objects fell on top of him. Grumbling softly he quickly crawled from underneath them, hoping that James hadn't heard the noise. He frantically shove objects out of his way as he heard someone below. As he crawled for cover he grabbed a blanket he passed by and threw it over himself. Holding his breath he listened intendly. There was someone coming up the ladder, he could hear the wood squeak. Carefully he peered from under the blanket. As he did so his eyes fell on a small, tattered little booklet. It looked strangely out of place among all the old junk. Cautiously he reached for it and slowly dislodged it from the pile it laid in. He pulled it under the blanket and opened it somewhere in the middle.
February 16^th, 1997
I've been with the werewolves for a while now, yet they will not trust me. Always one seems to be watching me. Maybe I'll never find out why they are in league with Lord Voldemort. They won't tell me if they don't trust me. But I have to keep trying. For Dora and for the Order.
Teddy frowned and opened the booklet on the first page. Moony it read. It didn't ring a bell. It sounded like someone's weird, school nickname. He quietly thumbed to the back of the booklet, absorbed by its mysterie.
April 7^th, 1997
Fenrir has been gone for a week, the betas have a hard time keeping everyone in check. Why is there such unrest?
April 11^th, 1997
I have learned little these last weeks. Merely that there apparently is an Alpha opposing Fenrir's reign of terror. I do not know his name but they call him 'Sterling'. I also learned that Fenrir is not english at all, or even brittish, but german! I wonder how this is all connected. I might find out.
April 15^th, 1997
I have to be more careful, my questions have drawn too much attention to myself. I'll have to stay quiet for a while and hope it will pass over and have no lasting effect.
April 25^th, 1997
After laying low for a while I gathered that at least two of the werewolves here are also Death Eaters. Fenrir, as I suspected, but also the Ministry executioner Walden MacNair. His father is the notorious ringleader of the scottisch werewolves William MacNair, or 'King Billy' as most seem to call him jokingly. Apparently the scottisch Alpha got in trouble for siding with Fenrir. Perhaps I should approach this Sterling figure, see if he will stand on our side in the battle against Lord Voldemort.
April 29^th, 1997
I have to leave at once! Fenrir and others apparently went to London to deal with matters for Lord Voldemort. They know the location of the Order! I have to go, for Dora. She might be in danger! I need help, I'll have too... the baby and Dora... I have to tell... he has to know...
Suddenly there was a bright flash of blue light from the booklet as Teddy read these last sentences. The world around him blurred and his vision went white as the ground seemed to disappear from under his feet.
When vision returned to him he was suddenly outside, on a dark street. High overhead he could see the moon, heavily veiled by clouds and starts twinkling here and there. He turned around several times, trying to figure out where he was and how he got here when he noticed something strange. His surroundings were coloured in dull browns, like an old photgraph. As he stood there wondering he saw a man running towards him in the distance. The man was moderately tall and had haywire, longish short hair and a rather gaunt face and a small moustache. He wore old clothes and a patched cape that billowed behind him as he ran. Teddy looked at him in wonder. Then had a strange realisation: that was his father running towards him! He recognized him from the wedding photos gran kept on the mantlepiece of the fireplace. It was as if he was inside one of the photographs and looking at him.
“Dad?” Teddy said carefully, “Dad!” But the man didn't respond, he didn't even blink. He just kept running straight towards Teddy. “Dad!” Teddy called again when he was closer. But he still did not respond. He ran straight at Teddy and then right through him, as if he wasn't even there.
“Must be in time, Dora and the baby are there,” Teddy heard him mutter as he passed through him, “I have to be in time”.
I'm in the diary, Teddy thought. Could it really be so? Or I fell asleep and this is all just a weird dream. That seemed far more likely. He shivered and rubbed his arms. Could wind be so cold and life-like in a dream? Apparently. His father was already several paces past him.
“Dad, wait!” he called as he ran after him, even though he knew his father wouldn't respond. He ran as fast as he could to catch up with him and reached out for his arm. But when he closed his fingers he grabbed naught but air. His hand went right through his father's arm. Yet Teddy did not stop, he kept running along. Why he could not say. He ran along down the dark street and then down another, through various alleys and a third street. Teddy could hear his heartbeat in his head and was breathing heavily when they finally stopped running. They had stopped in front of a threestory house crammed in between two others. Yet while the houses on its left and right looked completely normal the one in between them was a wreck. It's garden had grown wild, the glass in the windows was shattered and the door hung crocked on one hinge. There were long scratches and gashes on the door and the doorpost.

“Oh, no,” Teddy heard his father mutter as he grabbed his wand from his coat and went inside. Teddy quickly but quietly followed him. The hall was torn up as well. The carpet was turned upside down and pieces laid crumpled in the corners. Paintings had been torn from the walls and long gashes tore through the wall paper. It looked as if something had been set lose in it. Several somethings.
As Teddy followed his father further down the hall colours slowy started appearing again through the brown surroundings. The carpet had a vague red colour and the stairs along the left side of the hall had old, black leather lining kept in place by metal rods. An umbrella stand was standing sadly in a corner, two of its umbrellas broken in half.
Vague voices could be heard up ahead. His father strode on and kicked the door to the room beyond the hall open so hard it slammed against the wall and bounced back. In a flash Teddy could see the room as his father entered it. It was as utterly distroyed as the hall had been. Broken furniture laid everywhere, the curtains were torn and here too the walls were half peeled. For a heartbeat he could see a girl sitting on the ground with her back towards the door and a man looming over her. Dark shapes moved behind them in the shadows. Then the door closed almost entirely. Quietly Teddy moved towards it and peered through the creak between the door and the doorpost.
“Fenrir, step away from her!” he heard his father bellow as he strode into the room, his wand pointed at the man, “now!”
Teddy looked at the man. He looked almost as old as gran! He was nearly as tall as his dad, though a bit chubby. His clothes were old. He wore dark grey, stained, cloth pants and a sleeveless shirt that had once been white but was now smudged and covered with yellow, grey and red-brown stains. His hair was stark grey and pulled back in a scraggy ponytail. His weathered, angular face was covered in grey sideburns and stubble. Was this the man the Ministry was looking for, the one they called Fenrir? Teddy didn't find him that special. Until the man turned to face his father and he saw his eyes. They had an unnatural orange phosphorence to them, which made Teddy fancy they would light in the dark like fireflies. Yet in their ochre depths laid an intelligence so utterly cold, so utterly calculating that it raised goosebumps on his arms as a cold shudder clawed up his spine. They were like the eyes of a lone, old wolf waiting for a prey to pass its lair. There was something terribly disturbing about him, yet Teddy could not say what. It had all to do with instincts and naught with reason. As he gazed at the man, enthralled by the dark orange of his eyes, out of the shadows several wolves appeared. Large and black they lazily encircled the two men and the girl yet they seemed intend only upon Teddy's father.
“I said,” Teddy heard his father say again, “get away from her”.
“And why would I want that?” the man replied in a deep, rumbling, bark-like voice with a strange but distinct throaty accent, “she was just about to tell me where you hid that pretty baby you two have”. As he said this he patted the girl on her head, who winced and pulled away from his touch. As she looked up to Teddy's father he could see that her rather young, heart-shaped face was gaunt and streaked with tears as half long, purple-grey hair framed it.
Mom! Teddy thought as his eyes became large with fear. He recognized her too from the photographs, though only barely so terrible she looked. Like she suffered from anemia or a wasting disease.
“If you so much as marred a hair on her head...” his father replied, his wand pointing at the man still, yet his hand trembled slightly, “I swear I'll kill you Fenrir”.
“Oh, I marred more than just a hair, Remus,” he responded mockingly.
Remus hand moved so fast it blurred. “Avada Kadavra!” he shouted as green light flashed through the room. The man's eyes widened and all colour was drained from them as he missed a step, balancing awkwardly like one intoxicated with alcohol. Then slowly colour returned to them and his mocking grin turned into a vile sneer. “That was very stupid, Remus,” he said on a soft, threatening tone like the distant rumble of thunder. It made the hairs in the back of Teddy's neck stand up on end, “very... stupid...” As he spoke he grabed the girl by her neck and pulled her up onto her feet, his long, sharp nails digging into her skin. She wimpered softly. “You can not kill me, Remus,” he continued as he bared his wolf-like teeth at Teddy's father, “you can't muster the hate for a killing spell. You don't have the strength or guts to kill. You never had and you never will”.
“Let her go,” Remus said, the tremble of his hand creeping into his voice as well now, “I will kill you”.
“And what if I kill you first?” he responded as he looked at the girl from the corners of his eyes and then back to Remus. A sligh grin twitched the left corner of his lips up, revealing a sharp canine which he brushed his tongue past slowly, “you know the rules...”
“Never!” Remus yelled as he took a step forward, shock and anger written on his face.
“You did always have to learn it the hard way, didn't you?” Fenrir responded calmly as he stroke a strant of hair out of the girl's face, “never willing to submit to your seniors”. As he moved his nail past her cheek in the movement of stroking the tress away, he drew a thin line from the corner of her mouth to her left ear, behind which he tucked the small strant. Blood started welling slowly.
“You think it matters, don't you dear? Refusing to tell me where the child is?” he continued as he held her by her neck still, grabbing her chin firmly with his left hand and turning her head to face him.
“Go rot in hell!” she snapped as she wrenched her chin lose from his iron grip, drawing scratches where his fingers had held it.
He made a soft, rumbling sound in the back of his throat. “Attitude... such a shame to go to waste,” he mused as he twisted her down, back to her hunched over postition on the ground. “Don't doubt that the boy will come to me. Oh, don't look so surprised that I know it's a boy. I have my ways,” he said as he tapped his nose while turning his gaze back to where Teddy's father stood. In that instant Teddy could have sworn the man locked eyes with him. But when he looked closer the man had already returned his attention to Teddy's father. He must have been mistaken. It was impossible anyway. His father hadn't noticed him at all earlier. His mom and the man couldn't see him anymore than his father could.

The man looked Teddy's father up and down in silence for a moment. “How you loath the wolf in you, don't you?” he remarked after a moment with such venom in his voice that it gave Teddy goosebumps yet again, “knowing that somewhere deep down, you're just like me”.
“No Fenrir, that's where you are wrong,” Teddy's father said firmly, “I'm nothing like you”.
The man just smiled and looked at the girl. Blood was slowly tickling from the small wounds across her cheek and chin. She tried to jerk her head away when he reached towards her face again and winced when he touched one of the wounds. He almost gently rubbed his indx finger past it, staining it with her blood.
“Yes, you are,” he said slowly, “do you not smell it? The sweet, metally smell of fresh blood?” As he spoke he reached behind him and took hold of the tattered curtains, “it's no use lying to yourself, you'll see.” With one firm tug they came falling down, revealing the night sky outside with millions of stars. And one, large, round, silvery moon. Moonlight streamed inside, a large beam striking Teddy's father and drowning him in a pool of silver. The man smiled still and brought the blood stained finger to his lips as he stood in the shadows holding the girl all the while, “once a wolf, always a wolf, Remus...”
“Nooooooo!” Remus yelled as he turned away, towards the door as he grasped his head in an attempt to hide from the moonlight and resist the beast stirring inside him. Such terror was written in his eyes that Teddy stumbled back, away from the door. He slipped and fell... against something soft. As he looked up he saw a large, powerfully built wolf behind him. It was as black as ink, save for grey patches around its muzzled and eyes. It sat quietly as it looked at him with intelligent orange eyes. It looked at him, not past him. The realisation hit Teddy like a sledgehammer. As if in slowmotion he started to scramble backwards, away from the wolf. No sooner had he moved, it threw its head back and let out a long, deep howl.
Instinctively Teddy scrambled up on his feet and started running down the hall towards the front door. Behind him he could hear the lazy trot of paws on the wooden floor. He pushed himself to run faster as he leapt through the door into the front garden. From within the house sounded a defening roar followed by a high-pitched scream that was abruptly cut short. Too frightened to pay it heed Teddy ran through the garden and turned right, storming down the street across the pavement. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him. When he glanced over his shoulder he saw that the old, black wolf was close behind him, gaining on him! Again the wolf howled and to Teddy´s dread two black wolves jumped from the gardens across the street, to his left. They looked identical save for their ears. One had a crooked left ear, as if it had been bitten there by another wolf, the other an identically crooked right ear. Quickly he dashed into an alley to his right. The two wolves fell in behind the old wolf then ran past him, easily catching up with Teddy. He pushed himself even faster as he heard the maws of the two snap close behind him. The insistant drum of their paws on the pavement hammered on Teddy´s ears as he ran. Vaguely he could hear one of the three wolves howl again. Pushing his arching legs even harder Teddy stormed out of the alley, nearly colliding into the enormous black wolf sitting on the street corner to his left. He slipped and nearly fell as he tried to change direction. Quickly he got his legs underneath himself again and ran the opposite way, down the pavement along the backgardens of the houses to his right. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that the two identical wolves and the larger one had fallen behind the old wolf again. As he ran in the lead the wolf threw his head back and let out a short, powerfull howl. When Teddy looked in front of him, even though he was keenly aware that another wolf would probably appear soon, the fact that a slightly fat one jumped right infront of him from a gardenbush less then 10 metres away made his heart skip a beat. He skidded to a halt at once, stumbled and fell painfully on his knees.
Immediately he scrambled up again, scratching his hands and knees further, only barely avoiding a snapping maw as he threw himself over the low garden fence to his right. He rolled into the garden and crawled away from the fence on hands and knees while glancing over his shoulder. When he looked back in front of him he stood eye in eye with yet another wolf, their noses nearly touching. This one was rather lanky and it seemed to be grinning at him. A large gob of saliva fell from its maw and onto Teddy's hand. Behind the wolf he could see the back of a house. Quickly he started backing up but when he heard a low growl behind him he stopped. Slowly he looked over his shoulder. The other wolves had appeared in the garden as well. Slowly they spread out to the fringes of the garden, looming in the rich shadows there. The slightly fat wolf and the very large one went to his left side, while the two identical wolves moved to his right. The one that had been sitting in the garden waiting for him walked around him and joined the old wolf behind him. As they did so they started changing and became tall, black haired men, their nakedness hidden by the shadows of night.
The wolves to his left had changed into a smiling, slightly chubby man and one so tall as Teddy had never seen. To his right now stood two identical men, save for their ears: one missed the top of his left ear, the other of his right ear. Slowly he turned around. Behind him the lanky wolf had turned into a thin man who was rather short compared to the others and gave him a frightening, leering look. While the old wolf had turned into a middle-aged man who Teddy thought looked like a black-haired version of William Wallace. Only then with a small moustache and goatee and grey streaks in his raven black hair.
“I knew you'd come to me,” a familliar, low and rumbling voice said. When Teddy turned back cautiously and looked at the house someone was standing in the brightly lit opening of the house's backyard door.
They led me back here! he thought as panic wrenched his throat shut.
Slowly, deliberately, the man stepped outside and walked towards him. As he left the bright light of the house and stepped into the darkness the pale moonlight gave his grey hair and white shirt an eerie silver-blue glow and his skin shone like mother of pearl under the moon's soft caress. As if he had a faintly glowing, silvery aura. Teddy looked at him near, frozen in fright.
“Yes, I knew you'd come,” he said again, “sooner or later”.
He went down on his hunches infront of Teddy and looked at him in silence for a moment. Then he extended his clawed hand towards him. Teddy followed it with his eyes, unable to move so terribly scared he was.
“Don't be afraid,” he said as he stroke the boy's hair and forehead soothingly in a gesture of comfort that was undone by the cunning, victorious gleam in his feral, orange eyes, “it won't hurt... too much...”
The grin that split his lips apart and revealed his wolvish teeth to their fullest made Teddy back away from him. Slowly at first but faster with every heartbeat.
The man let his hand drop to the grass as he looked at the boy cowering away from him. The grin played around his lips as he inhaled deeply through his nose and closed his eyes for a moment.
Teddy glanced at the other men and gave them a pleading look but they remained quiet, holding silent vigil over the unfolding scene. As he looked back the man got up and straightened, the moon still casting its eerie light over him. It was only then that Teddy noticed that the shirt that had been white and stained earlier, was now soaked in bright red. And so were his hands and arms, up till the elbows. Slowly Teddy reached for the side of his face, where the man had strooked his hair, unable to tear his gaze away from him. His hand met hair and then a liquid warmth as he touched his forehead.
The man smiled at him almost kindly, then threw his head back and gave voice to a long, deep howl that tore through the silence and echoed between the houses, filling the night with its eldritch sound. As he did so the other men fell in and started changing until around him stood the black wolves once more. But Teddy hardly noticed, he was staring at the man in front of him as his eyes grew large in both wonder and fear.
For halfway through the soulrending howl the man's frame began to warp under the sickening sounds of twisting and breaking bones. His mouth lengthened into a muzzle as his limbs grew longer and thinner. Everywhere where bones grew, skin stretched and burst, revealing thick, mottled grey fur. No longer able to stand he fell to his hands and knees, as his howling grew more urgent, more pained. He tore at his body, patches of skin flailed away by hands that became more and more like paws with every passing second. Until there was nothing left of the man and a big, grey wolf stood in his place. The only proof that he had ever been human a small heap of crumpled clothes and patches of bloody, torn skin.
As the wolf stood in front of Teddy he looked deep into the orange eyes and saw how they were still the same. The man was still there behind those bright, intelligent orbs. This scared Teddy more even than had he become the confused, raging animal of stories. But there was no trace of confusion here, no inkling of the crazed dementia. Instead there was a calculating wickedness in those orange eyes. A concious evil.
Suddenly it leapt forward and landed on top of him, its heavy front paws pressing on Teddy's shoulders, crushing the air out of his lungs as it pushed him into the ground. It's hindleg slipped from his tigh and caused the wolf's entire weight to shift as it leaned forward to keep its balance. As it slid it clamped it's maw down on Teddy's tigh. Wrenching in pain Teddy could feel his leg go numb under the pressure of the jaws. The wolf let go of his leg and clawed back up, saliva dripping from its snapping jaws. Invainly Teddy tried to turn away as the wolf's maw shot towards his throat.
With a horrified yell Teddy sat up in bed. His heart was pounding in his chest and sweat was streaming down his forehead. Looking at the familliar surroundings of his bedroom he blinked and slowly laid back down again. He stared at the ceiling as he tried to calm his rapidly beating heart.
It was only a dream, he thought as he pulled the blankets up while flexing his sleeping leg as it tingled with numbness, unaware of the small droplets of blood welling from three shallow wedge-shaped scratches on his right tigh. As he turned onto his left side, in an attempt to sleep again, one of the droplets ran down and slid from his leg. Soundlessly it fell through the air and splattered on the cover of a tattered little booklet half hidden under his bed.

The End *drumrole*