When the full moon hits
Ren ‘Diggity’ Dog was a man of many things, but a liar was not one of them. He could not lie to save his life. But he had to in order to save himself.
Because once every month he would be gone from bed and wake up in the hospital the next morning. Luckily for him his friends were gigantic spoons and did not notice this strange pattern as both Scar and Mumbo were busy men.
So it came as a surprise to him that the first one to actually acknowledge what was going on with him was Iskall Eightfive. The Swede was a year older than him and also a Gryffindor, but they had never talked much.
He was laying in the hospital wing again after a particular nasty full moon. He did not know what happened, he arrived at the Whomping Willow at the same time he always did but he could already feel the wolf inside of him, nagging at his bones.
He had run for the head smashing tree in the hope he could contain it long enough and he was not even fully in the Shrieking Shack when his transformation began to set in.
And boy it was excruciating. He did not have the hour of peace he normally had to ease into the transformation and it was starting to show.
Slight trigger warning; broken bones
His bones cracked on weird places and were set back in even weirder places, he grew a pair of fluffy ears on his head and fur began to replace his skin.
Trigger warning over
He was no longer himself. From now on he could only watch through its red hazen eyes as it looked for something to hurt and when it did not, it began to hurt itself. It began to hurt him.
Ren luckily did not remember much of its memories, he did not want to remember the bloodlust, the hunger and the agony. He counted himself lucky. Even if he had to stay in the hospital wing for another two days because of its anger.
“I need to see Ren.” A voice echoed through the room and it woke him up. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, I’m sorry.” That voice he remembered. It belonged to Xisuma, the headboy that had been taking care of him when madam Pomfrey was not there. He was able to trust him.
“No, you don’t understand. I know.” The second voice replied and now Ren was able to make out who it belonged to. It was Iskall Eightfive, the Swede from a year above him. The person he sometimes played wizard chess with.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Xisuma kept calm as he put on a poker face. “Leave now please, you’re disturbing my patients.” Ren could only imagine what was happening from beyond the curtains surrounding his bed.
The thought that Iskall knew about his big secret was even more painful than the transformation itself. If he talked to anyone… Hell! If he told the whole school about his furry little problem he would be a goner.
He needed to talk to Iskall now! He could at least try to persuade him not to tell anyone.
“X, it’s fine.” Ren croaked out and he could basically smell the confusion radiating off Xisuma.
“You sure Ren?” X hesitated. “Yes my dude.” He nodded.
“Okay, come in Iskall. But keep it quiet, you got me?” He did not see Iskall’s reaction but it must have been a nod as he heard two pairs of footsteps coming closer. Xisuma gently pushed the curtains aside to let the Swede in and went away. Probably to get some more cream to light the sting forming on his belly.
“Uh, hallo.” Iskall began awkwardly. “I, uh, just wanted to let you know that I saw you heading down the Omega tree last night and, uh, kinda heard you screaming.” He paused for a second before looking at Ren’s terrified expression.
“Oh, I’m not telling anyone, don’t worry. I just wanted you to know that you could have someone to talk about it. It just didn’t feel fair to know without you knowing.” Ren relaxed a bit.
“So you’re not making me leave the school?” Now it was Iskall’s turn to be shocked.
“What do you mean dude? Of course I would not!” He managed to bring out.
“Well, most people would. I’m a monster you know.” Ren stated but Iskall shook his head violently.
“No, you’re not. At least not by choice. I like to think that I know who you are as a person, Ren. I’ve played too much wizard chess with you to not to.” He said with a definite tone. Xisuma chose that time to come back into Ren’s little area.
“You’re a good person for that Iskall and Ren, you’re brave for telling someone.” X said as he began to, indeed, smear some cream on top of his wounds.
“What can we say,” Ren grinned but winced as X touched the wound again, “We’re Gryffindors after all.” X grinned back. “Oh I know, it gets you in all sorts of trouble.” He winked.
After their heartfelt talk, Iskall stayed by his side for another hour or so and X went back to treating patients; a Gryffindor a year below him had tried to fly with selfmade wings, so X was probably right.
Gryffindors were trouble.