All Nightmare Long

I gasp as he steps forward and lowers his head to look at me. I notice he doesn’t try to attack me or anything, like I’d always expected werewolves did. I ask, “Wolfsbane?”

He nods. We can control ourselves with it.

My eyes widen as I realize what just happened. I could hear him in my mind. “Why can I hear you speak in my head?”

We’ve told you before that we’re not normal, bite-everything-we-can-find werewolves. We’re psychic, it’s how we communicate with him. And each other.

I shrug and nod skeptically. “I just wasn’t expecting it, I’m sorry.”

He nods and circles around me on all fours. I begin to feel uneasy as the forest somehow grows darker. He senses it. Don’t be afraid, I’m not going to hurt you. Nothing else in this forest is, either.

“How can I trust you?” I ask out of impulse.

I don’t know how, but I know you do. You’ve trusted me since you found out what I was. You trust me more than you trust Malfoy.

I shrug. “You chose me.”

I managed to find a good stack of books about runes in the library, but had no luck in finding their runes in the first few I tried. With my luck, the end of lunch came before I could delve any deeper. I grabbed the first book I could reach from my pile and checked it out, then made my way up the stairs to the Transfiguration classroom. When I arrived, McGonagall wasn’t there, and neither was half of the class. I suppose it’s because they were still having their Quidditch meeting. I used this time to my advantage and cracked open my book, Darkest of Runes.

“That determined, huh?”

I whipped my head up to see one of Matt’s friends sitting next to me, smirking wide. As my cheeks pinkened, I nodded slightly and said, “I don’t like being ignorant, thanks.”

His smirk turned into a smile. “I’m Jay. There, you’re less ignorant now.”

I smiled at him. “Well thanks for that. I don’t suppose you’d show me your arm again, to make my job a bit easier?”

“Now why would I want to do that?” he asked in a sarcastic manner. “The sooner you find out how freaky I am, the sooner you stop talking to me.”

“I won’t, I promise,” I insisted. “Please?”

He glanced over both of his shoulders and leaned in, lifting his sleeve up once more to reveal the mark on his wrist. It was round with an upside-down cross in the center, but the vertical line of the cross was like a squiggle. I flipped through the pages, searching for anything that even closely resembled it. At last I came upon one almost identical, but all the lines were straight. I read the caption and frowned a bit. “The mark of the shape-shifter?”

He nodded when I looked up at him. When he didn’t say anything, I continued. “Shape-shifter as in…”

He chuckled and said, “Do you know what shape-shifters are?”

“Yes, I’m not stupid,” I said. “There’s different kinds, though.”

“Well,” he started. “Let’s just say my kind doesn’t like the moonlight all too well.”

I gasped when it sank in, and harshly whispered, “You’re a werewolf?!”

He looked away and nodded. “All of us are. Well, the four of us.”

The shock was still settling into me. “You’re… you’re a real werewolf? As in transforms into wolf form and bites everything it sees? If you bite me will I become one, too?!”

He laughed. “Slow down, girly. We’re a different kind. We didn’t get bitten by any wolves before, and we weren’t born like this. We were… chosen.”

“Chosen? By whom?”

McGonagall chose that particular moment to walk into the classroom and begin the lesson. As she was giving us instructions to turn our birds into paperweights, Jay turned to me and whispered, “Meet us in our dormitory after dinner. We’ll explain it then.”

I frowned at him. “I’m not allowed in your dormitory.”

“Yeah you are. Girls are allowed in ours, we’re just not allowed in the girls’.”

I nodded and turned my attention back to the lesson, trying my hardest to complete the task. It was difficult to concentrate, what with what I just found out about Matt and them. All I could think about was the four of them turning into some sort of beasts and killing me.

“Hey, you okay?”

I jumped as Draco caught up to me after class. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.”

“You seemed kind of quiet in class. Are you sure you’re okay?”

I nodded. “I’m fine Draco, really.”

He smiled and kissed me. “Okay. Are you going to watch my Quidditch try-out?”

“When is it?”

“Today, after dinner.”

I cringed. “Um, I can’t. I have a lot of homework I need to catch up on.”

He looked disappointed, which made my insides churn. That was the first time I’ve ever lied to him. But it definitely wasn’t the last.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I cautiously looked all around the empty common room, making sure it was staying that way, before walking up the stairs that leads to the boys’ dormitories. When I reached the door for the second years’, I knocked timidly and stood back. Jay answered it and beckoned me inside.

“The other three are at Quidditch, so we might have some time,” Matt said. “Moose will keep a look out to see when they start coming back.”

“Moose?” I asked.

One of his friends, one of the werewolves, raised his hand and nodded. “I’m Moose. The other one is Padge. So we don’t confuse ourselves.”

I nodded and sat on Jay’s bed with him. “So…”

They all looked at each other, randomly nodding and laughing, before Matt finally turned to me and said, “So you’ve figured us out.”

“I guess,” I mumbled. “You have a lot of explaining to do, though.”

“Yep,” he agreed. “So I guess I’ll try to start from the beginning. Have you ever heard of Salazar’s Children?”

I shook my head. “Never.”

“Well,” he continued. “It’s a clan. There was a prophecy made a long time ago for Salazar Slytherin, revealing all the witches and wizards destined to become a member. We were part of the prophecy. We’re given special abilities to form our own army. Right now, we work solely for the Dark Lord alongside our parents. They’re not clan members, they’re Death Eaters.”

I could hardly speak. “Your parents are Death Eaters? Do you serve him like they do?”

They all shook their heads. “We’re more of a posse of distractions,” Jay said. “What would you do if you were fighting Death Eaters, and a pack of werewolves showed up? You’d either run or find a way to fight us off. Either way, we distract the other side so that our side can complete what they were set out to do. We can choose to become Death Eaters later, or we can be dismissed from them when we turn 17 and be turned back into a mortal. We’re like… a league of extraordinary teenagers, or something.”

“Wow,” I said. “So… what if you don’t become a Death Eater, but you want to stay a wolf? Is that an option?”

Matt shrugged. “I guess. I never asked.”

I nodded, and the dormitory was filled with silence. I didn’t have anything to say, and I couldn’t bring myself to look at any of them. At last the silence was penetrated when Padge asked, “Are you scared?”

I looked up. “Of you guys?”

They all nodded. I shrugged. “No. Not right now, at least.”

“Do you have anything we need to answer?” Moose called over from the window. I’d almost forgot he was there.

“Why werewolves?”

They laughed. “We like them, that’s why. You don’t have to be a wolf, you can be anything. There’s a lot of vampires. In fact, we’re the only four that chose to be werewolves this century.”

“Are you the only ones at Hogwarts?”

They nodded. “Only ones in Great Britain, actually,” Matt said. “And being that, we were given a job to do this year. We need to recruit another member.”

“They trust you to?”

“The prophecy said we’d have to,” Padge corrected. “And we were given the green light from the clan leader. That’s kind of why we told you all of this…”

I frowned. “What?”

“We were kind of hoping…. maybe… you’d be interested…”

“Absolutely not,” I declared, standing up and making toward the door. “I’m out of here.”

Are you ready?

I nod. “Yes, I’m ready.”

Hold out your left arm.

I do as he says, extending my arm out to him and raising the sleeve of my robe.

“Keelan!” I hear from behind me. I turn and see Draco catching up. “Keelan, get away from him! He’s going to hurt you!”

I’m sorry, I have to hurry. Jay bites into my flesh, sending pain surging throughout my entire body. I black out.