It was a beautiful night; the moon was just starting its graceful arc across the night sky. The high tree-tops were gilded by rays of this moon, occasionally blocked by the clouds. Every so often, the silence was broken by the howl of a wolf or the barking of deer.
Remus John Lupin was enjoying the calm of the pine forest with his mother and father on a night-time walk.
‘Now, Remus I want you to be careful and don’t wander too far, okay?’
‘Yes, Mum,’ sighed Remus. His mother was always fussing over him. Even though he grew tired of it and frequently feigned annoyance, Remus appreciated his mother’s care.
‘Don’t worry Jean, he’ll be fine! See you later son,’ said Remus’ father, Walbert, allowing Remus a second in which to escape his mother.
‘But darling, what about that werewolf?’ Jean paused as she racked her memory bank for the name of this werewolf.
‘Fenrir,’ they chorused. Walbert’s face whitened considerably as he also thought of the man-wolf. Walbert had been on bad terms with the werewolf after an incident in Bulgaria. It had been Walbert who had denied Fenrir of a whole village one night. Since then Fenrir had sworn his revenge on Walbert. ‘But he will not bother us, he has recently been sighted in Russia and has a lot of Aurors tracking him. If he comes near us, we’ll know about it.’ continued Walbert in an attempt to reassure his wife. All the same Walbert called after his son, ‘Just be careful, okay?!’
Further away, Remus had found a large rock on which to sit and enjoy the snack he had taken from the sweet-tin. Remus frequently ‘borrowed’ (in his own words) from the sweet-tin. His parents knew of this, of course, but they simply decided to turn a blind eye.
Remus stopped eating; he thought he’d heard a rustling coming from behind him. Scanning the surrounding area, Remus looked into a bush. It took him a while to realise the bush was staring back with a pair of bright yellow eyes. Startled, Remus blinked and the eyes disappeared. Remus was sure he’d imagined it; he hadn’t been getting lots of sleep recently. He had been awake, reading late into the night. All the same, those eyes had seemed so real.
Turning back to his packet of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, Remus reassured himself that, if indeed they were real, and those eyes belonged to an evil creature his father would save him. His father was very brave. He was the sort of wizard Remus read of in books, defeating evil sorcerers and dragons. All the medals his father owned proved that. When he grew up, Remus wanted to be just like his father. A cloud covered the moon.
A sudden sound stopped Remus’ thoughts dead in their tracks. The rustling was different this time, like paws on dry leaves. It was also louder and seemed to be coming closer. Remus froze with fear; the thing emitting the sound would be very close now. He thought he could feel its breath on his back. Remus spun around and looked up into the face of a large, rough-looking man with matted grey hair. The robes he wore looked like a very tight fit; his hands were very hairy and sported long, dirty fingernails. As he looked up into the face once more and smelt the animal’s putrid breath. There was no doubt about it: this was a werewolf. Well, an untransformed werewolf Remus corrected himself. Remus tried to scream, but it seemed that pure fear had put a plug in his voice box.
‘Hey, kid,’ said the beast of a man. His voice was thin and raspy and made the hair on the back of Remus’ neck stand up. ‘What’s wrong? Wolf got your tongue?’ He laughed a laugh, which, if possible, was even worse than his voice. ‘Mind if I have one of those?’ He pointed towards the packet of beans, now on the floor. It wasn’t a real question; Remus knew it wasn’t a real question. Having not received an answer, the man grunted and took one anyway.
‘Are you going to hurt me?’ asked Remus in a rather weak voice.
The werewolf spat out what appeared to be a cabbage flavoured bean. ‘Don’t worry, compared to what’s coming -believe me it’ll come- you won’t feel anything. By the way kid. When you wake up, give your dad my regards.’
The cloud shielding the moon from sight moved, pushed by the wind and a long ray of moonlight entered the space between them. Remus retreated as far as he could on all fours, desperate to distance himself from the stranger. He got up and sprinted about 9 yards, before tripping up on a stone and fell flat on his face. He rolled over, aware of a snarling getting louder and louder.
What he saw froze his insides. There, about nine yards ahead of him, was a man. The same man whom he had seen just a second ago. However, this man was writhing and contorting in pain and snarling. His clothes ripped in several places as his limbs expanded and grew. His nails grew at and abnormal rate, looking more like claws than anything else. The beast let out a violent snarl and sank to his knees, where he finished his transformation.
Remus was rooted to the spot with fear. The wolf looked up, fixing a pair of bloodshot eyes on him. It closed the space between them in a matter of seconds. And before he knew it, Remus was being wrestled to the floor.
They rolled about on the floor for a while, each struggling to get the upper hand. Remus put up a rather good fight, considering he was up against a fully fledged werewolf. He had barely any time to think, what with the great beast lunging at him every chance it got. Eventually the werewolf put all its weight on his chest and pinning him to the hard rock. Remus knew immediately what would happen next. In his last act of defiance, Remus spat into his aggressors face. This enraged the beast further and it lunged once more, this time not missing his target. The fangs cut through Remus’ flesh like a hot knife through butter. The beast got up and, as if in afterthought said, in it’s gravely, raspy voice, ‘Tell your father Fenrir sends his regards.’ Remus simply caught sight of the beast
When Remus awoke, Fenrir was gone and in his place was his father, ashen-faced and muttering to himself. For a second, he wondered why he was here and why his family was so sad, and then he noticed his mother lying on his chest, weeping her heart out. He felt his neck and, sure enough, there was a fresh scar.
‘M-mum,’ he breathed to her.
‘Oh thank Merlin you’re alive! We thought you we-‘ But she stopped abruptly. ‘What happened?’ A she said this his father rushed over to his side. Remus looked deep into Walbert’s and wondered what connection the werewolf, Fenrir, and his father shared.
Remus hesitated for a fraction of a second and decided to tell them everything. This did not take long, but by the end both parents where as white as chalk. His father was wearing a look of deep regret and guilt and his mother was on the brink of a fresh bout of tears.
‘Dad?’ said Remus, looking up into his father’s face.
‘Yes, son?’ replied his father in a shaky voice.
‘Just who is Fenrir?’ Now it was his father’s turn to tell a story. He told Remus everything, from how he had met Fenrir in a pub to how he had pleaded for his and his family’s life at the hands of this werewolf.
‘So you knew him? You knew that our lives were in danger?’ there a slight note of anger in Remus’ voice, and he hastened to suppress it.
‘Remus you have every right to be angry at me. I was fool, a coward and extremely irresponsible.’
‘But you’ve got all sorts of medals for your captures of animals. Why did you run when you could have used the ministry to kill him?’ he was finding it rather hard to control his facial expressions.
‘When faced with a real animal like that, there is little any man can do. He actively hunts humans so he can bite them. I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you.’ He looked down at his hands as he said this, a note of shame creeping into his voice.
‘But what does this mean?’ asked Jean, the shock of the story seeming to have banished her tears and she looked vulnerable.
‘It means all of our lives are going to undergo a serious change.’ He gave Jean a look which was full of hidden meaning. ‘We will have to take certain precautions,’ He gave Jean yet another look which Remus found even harder to decipher than the first. ‘In order to ensure that no lives are lost.’
When the Wolf Strikes by Tom Piper
Chapter Notes: Thanks alot to my wonderful beta's Hadeer (In the forum she is called BloodRayne) and Natasha (Pondering). This is my first Fan Fiction so i hope you enjoy it. Oh and by the way, please review. Pickles!