FIC: Aftermaths, Part 81

[geri_chan]

Title: Aftermaths, Part 81
Rating: NC-17 overall, but most chapters are closer to PG-13
Pairing: Snape/Lupin, Theodore/Blaise, and a few other minor pairings
Word count: ~9,290
Warning: AU; written pre-HBP
Author's notes: {} Indicates character's unspoken thoughts
Disclaimer: No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Sequel to: Always, Summer Vacation, For Old Time's Sake, Three's a Crowd, Return of the Raven, Phoenix Reborn, Phoenix Rising
Summary: Aric is badly wounded during the confrontation between Williamson, Amos, and Lukas, forcing him to make a life-altering decision.

Part 80 (Previous chapters can be found under the aftermaths tag.)

***

While Amos and Williamson were confronting Lukas, Stewart and Tristan were converging on the trio's meeting place, and came to an abrupt halt as they simultaneously spotted each other and stared in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Stewart asked.

"I was following my uncle," Tristan replied. "He seemed really upset during the match, and I think it has something to do with Master Diggory. What are YOU doing here?"

"I was following the werewolf," Stewart said. He lowered his voice to a whisper, "Look, since you're already here, I'll let you in on a little secret. Williamson is going to arrest Master Diggory today; it seems that he's an accomplice of Snape and the Death Eaters. I wanted to watch it happen."

"No way!" Tristan protested. "Master Diggory would never be involved with the Death Eaters!"

"Shh!" Stewart hissed. "We're getting close to the lake; you don't want them to hear us!"

"My cousin is not a Death Eater!" Tristan whispered fiercely.

"I didn't think so at first, either," Stewart said. "But Williamson says he is, and he's an Auror, so he should know."

"Well, Williamson is wrong!" Tristan insisted.

"Well, let's go see what they have to say to each other," Stewart suggested. "I'm a little confused myself; I didn't know your Uncle Amos was involved with this. But keep quiet, and remember not to let yourself be seen, because we're not supposed to be here, and we'll probably be in big trouble if we get caught. We could even be in danger if they start dueling and we get caught in the crossfire."

"Master Diggory is not a Death Eater," Tristan muttered stubbornly, but he followed Stewart. They made their way towards the lake, trying to stick to the cover of nearby trees and bushes.

The three adults didn't notice them, perhaps because Amos and Lukas were preoccupied with their argument, and Williamson was preoccupied with watching Amos and Lukas. They arrived just in time to hear Amos scream that his parents had killed his brother Cynric, not him. Tristan opened his mouth to cry out in surprise, but Stewart quickly clamped a hand over his young friend's mouth.

"Quiet!" he hissed. "We're not supposed to be here, remember?"

Tristan nodded, and Stewart released him. "My grandparents murdered Master Diggory's father?" he whispered, his eyes filled with shock and horror. "How could they kill their own son?"

"I don't know," Stewart whispered back. "I guess they wanted to protect the family name, but that does seem a bit extreme. And I don't see what this has to do with Master Diggory being a Death Eater."

"I told you, he's not a Death Eater!" Tristan insisted.

"I know he's your cousin, but you've only known him for--" Stewart started to argue, but they both fell silent when they heard Amos say, "Stop toying with him and finish him off already!"

Then Williamson said, "Any last words before I send you to join your father, Cyril? If you'll testify against Snape, perhaps I'll spare your life."

"Wh-what?" Tristan gasped incredulously. "They're not going to arrest him--they're going to kill him!"

"No, that can't be," Stewart said, but he sounded shaken and uncertain. "Williamson must be bluffing; he's trying to scare Diggory into a confession, that's all."

But the Auror certainly didn't seem to be bluffing. "Then I guess this is goodbye," Williamson said in a taunting voice. "Maybe I'll send your friend Ash to join you, too--or maybe I'll just let him rot in Azkaban until he goes mad and kills himself and saves me the trouble. You werewolves don't deal well with confinement, do you? He's only been there for one day, and I hear he's practically clawing at the walls..."

Lukas suddenly broke free of the Impediment Curse and lunged towards Williamson as Tristan ran forward screaming, "No, don't kill him!"

"Tristan?!" Amos cried in shock and alarm.

Stewart ran forward as well, shouting, "Stop, stop!" He was not sure whether he was talking to Tristan, Williamson, or both of them, but he knew that something was horribly wrong here.

Williamson and Lukas were both distracted by the sudden appearance of the boys, but Williamson recovered first. The Auror was closer to the boys than Lukas was, and as Stewart ran past him, Williamson reached out and grabbed him, then pulled the boy up against his chest like a shield, and pointed his wand at Stewart.

"Drop your wand!" Williamson shouted. "Drop it, or I'll kill the boy!"

"You're bluffing," Lukas retorted. "Stewart's father was your friend!" But he froze in position, his wand half-raised.

"What are you doing?!" Tristan screamed at his uncle. "Were you planning to kill Master Diggory the way your parents killed his father? And now that crazy Auror is going to kill Stewart, too!" His eyes filled with tears, and he asked in a soft but accusing voice, "What would Cedric think of all this?"

Amos, his face filled with guilt and shame, pointed his wand at Tristan and shouted, "Stupefy!" and the boy fell over unconscious.

"I'm not bluffing," Williamson said to Lukas in a cold voice. "Drop your wand!"

"Do you think I'm a fool?" Lukas snapped. "Once I do, you'll kill us both!"

Williamson moved his wand closer, until the tip of it lightly touched Stewart's cheek; the boy flinched and whispered, "Please, Mr. Williamson...Ian...don't..."

"Avada," Williamson said softly, his eyes filled with desperation and just a hint of madness, and Lukas knew he wasn't bluffing.

"All right!" Lukas shouted, and flung his wand away; it landed several feet away from him. "All right, I've dropped the wand! Let the boy go!"

Williamson lowered his wand slightly, but did not release Stewart. "Pick up the wand, Amos," he ordered.

"This is isn't how it was supposed to happen," Amos said in a distraught voice, practically whimpering. "You said it would be easy. You said all I had to do was lure Cyril to the lake, and you would take care of everything!"

"Pick up the goddamned wand!" Williamson shouted. Still whimpering, Amos obeyed. "Cast an Impediment Curse on him with it," Williamson said. As Amos raised the wand, Lukas started forward, and Williamson snapped, "Don't move, or I'll kill Ackerley!"

Lukas hesitated for a second, just long enough for Amos to hit him with the spell, full force in the chest this time. Unable to move, he whispered, "The boy has nothing to do with this, Williamson. Let him go. You can Obliviate the memory of this from his mind so he won't be a threat to you. Just let him go."

Williamson laughed. "Oh, but he has everything to do with this! You're such a fool, Cyril! You have just sacrificed yourself for a student who has been conspiring against you. He's been feeding me information about you, and he stole the Hogwarts library books that enabled me to frame Snape."

"I'm sorry, sir," Stewart said miserably, flushing with shame. "He told me that you were involved with the Death Eaters, and I believed him. Because you're friends with Professor Lupin and Professor Snape, and I thought Snape was a Death Eater." But now he was no longer so sure. Everything had just turned inside out and upside down; if Williamson was a villain, then maybe Snape wasn't a Death Eater, after all.

"He's just a boy," Lukas said to Williamson. "He made mistakes, and if I were free, I might give him a good thrashing. But at least he has the excuse of being too young to know any better--and of being influenced by someone who should know better. You are lower than low, Williamson--maybe you think that a werewolf's life is worth nothing, but to kill a child? That's the sort of thing that a Death Eater would do!"

"Oh, shut up!" Williamson snapped. "Of course I wasn't really going to kill you," he told Stewart in a reassuring tone that rang hollow. "I was just pretending, in order to trick Diggory into dropping his wand."

"I don't believe you," Stewart said, looking sick and betrayed. "You must have known all along that he wasn't a Death Eater. A real Death Eater would never have thrown away his wand and put himself at risk just to save a student."

"You're a little too smart for your own good, Stewart," Williamson snarled. He cast an Impediment Curse on the boy and shoved him aside; Stewart toppled helplessly to the ground. "Give me the werewolf's wand," he told Amos.

"You...you're not going to kill the boys, are you?" Amos asked, staring at his friend with a look of horror on his face.

"Of course not!" Williamson snapped. "We'll Obliviate them, and we'll tell the Ministry that the werewolf attacked them, and we killed him in order to save them. We'll be heroes!" But the Auror was thinking to himself that Obliviated memories could sometimes be recovered, and maybe it would be safer to kill the two boys and blame it on the werewolf. But that meant he would probably have to kill Amos, too. Nothing had gone the way it was supposed to today; if only the boys hadn't followed them out here! Well, the first order of business was to kill the werewolf before he managed to break free of the spell again. He could figure the rest out later.

"What do you need his wand for?" Amos asked, as Williamson snatched it out of his hand.

"The werewolf tried to attack us with a Dark Magic spell," Williamson said, raising Lukas's wand. "But fortunately, I was able to reflect it back at him and kill him with his own spell. And a Prior Incantato spell will support my story later, if certain other Aurors--such as Tonks and Shacklebolt--should choose to question it."

"Very clever," Amos said in a tone of admiration, although he still looked nervous and worried.

***

Meanwhile, Aric was slowly heading towards the lake when he heard shouting. He felt a little disgruntled that his desire for peaceful solitude had been thwarted, and was about to turn back when his curiosity got the better of him, and he went closer to see what was going on. He heard a flapping noise, and looked up to see a large raven flying above him, flapping its wings in a slow and labored manner, as if flying took a great deal of effort. He thought at first that it was Bane, then realized it was too fat to be Blackmore's familiar. There were a great many creatures much stranger than a raven in the Forbidden Forest, so he supposed it wasn't that odd a sight, although a wild bird shouldn't be that fat. Maybe it was one of Hagrid's pets.

Aric shrugged it off, being much more interested in what was going on by the lake than someone's pet bird. He was expecting to see a lover's quarrel, or perhaps a bunch of Gryffindors up to mischief, but instead he saw Tristan Ames-Diggory and Stewart Ackerley lying on the ground, and Amos Diggory and a red-robed Auror confronting Master Diggory, who appeared to be paralyzed by a spell: his face was contorted with fear and rage, and his body was jerking and twitching slightly, as if he were trying desperately to move but could not.

The Auror taunted, "I got the spell from one of the books you stole for me, Stewart. So his death will be on your hands twice over."

Aric had thought that Stewart was unconscious, but he let out a wordless, anguished groan. Then the Auror's words sank in--"his death will be on your hands." He meant to kill Master Diggory!

The Auror raised his wand and shouted, "SANGUIS VENENO!"

The raven above him screeched in alarm, and there was also the sound of a little girl screaming (where had that come from?), and Aric acted without thinking--as usual. His family and his teachers had often scolded him for it over the years, and later Aric would realize that perhaps he should have tried to cast a spell or tackle the Auror instead. But his first instinct was to protect the teacher who had befriended him, and he ran forward and shoved Diggory out of the path of spell, and the beam of red-black light hit him instead. He fell to the ground screaming as the werewolf shouted, "NOOOO!"

As he collapsed, he thought he heard Master Satoshi shouting, "Help! Remus, Branwen, Hooch--anyone! HELP!" and the Auror shouting, "Get that bird!" And then he heard Portia Pettigrew screaming for help, Allegra Zabini shouting, "Expelliarmus!" and Amos shouting hysterically, "Where the hell did all these brats come from, Williamson?" But Aric's body was too racked with pain to try and figure out what was going on. A searing agony rushed through his body, as if fire were flowing through his veins instead of blood...

There was a confusing blur of sounds--cursing from Amos and the Auror, squawking from the bird, shouting and screaming from the girls, and then the sound of running footsteps and new voices.

"It's Satoshi!

"Over there, by the lake!"

"Professor Lupin, help!"

"Allegra, Portia, are you all right?"

"Oh my God, it's Aric! He's hurt!" That last voice was Theo, and he sounded frightened.

There was a great deal of shouting and a flurry of spells cast, and soon Amos was lying Stupefied on the ground. Williamson was harder to take down--all that Auror training must have paid off--but he was clearly outnumbered, and he knew it. With a look of anger and desperation in his eyes, he pointed his wand at Master Diggory. "If I'm going down, you're going down with me, werewolf!" he shouted. "Avada--"

The crowd of newly-arrived rescuers all raised their wands, but it was Portia--mousy, timid little Portia Pettigrew--who pointed her wand at the Auror's back and shouted, "Impedimenta!" and Williamson froze in place.

"Expelliarmus!" Allegra said, and the wand went flying out of Williamson's hand.

A couple of minutes later, Amos and the Auror were lying on the ground, securely trussed up with magical black ropes. The spells cast on Tristan, Stewart, and Master Diggory seemed to have worn off, or perhaps had been removed by Lupin. Aric wasn't sure which, because he had been too busy writhing in pain and vomiting up blood to have noticed. He did notice that the blood he was coughing up was so dark that it was almost black, and very thick and viscous--it looked rather like treacle, but tasted foul and acrid instead of sweet, or even salty and coppery like normal blood. He was sure this was not a good sign. He struggled to remember his Latin, and recalled that "sanguis" meant "blood" and "veneno" meant "to poison." Definitely not good.

Master Diggory crawled over to him, and Lupin and Theo knelt down by his side. "What happened?" Lupin asked.

"Williamson hit him with some Dark Magic spell," Diggory said. "Sanguis Veneno, he said. I've never heard of it before, but from the name, I can guess what it does."

"It's a very old and nasty spell," Prospero Zabini said. What was he doing here? Aric wondered. Snape's mother was here, too.

Meanwhile, Prospero continued, "It poisons the victim's blood, literally eats away at his body from the inside out. It's almost always fatal. He'll die if he doesn't receive treatment immediately."

"We can't let him die!" Theo said frantically. "Sera, you've been learning Healing Magic, right? Can't you do something to help him?"

"I'll try," Serafina said doubtfully. She knelt beside Aric, took out her wand, and cast a healing spell. He felt the pain ebb slightly, felt a kind of pressure in his body, as if something were trying to hold back the fire coursing through his veins, like a dam trying to hold back a river. But then the dam gave way and the pain broke free, and Aric groaned and coughed up another gob of thick, black blood.

"I can't do it," Serafina gasped, her face pale and sweaty. "I haven't been trained to deal with this type of injury. I'm not sure that even Madam Pomfrey could heal him. I've managed to slow down the poison a little, but he'll die if we don't get him to a trained Healer within the next ten minutes."

"We can't Disapparate on the school grounds," Lupin said despairingly. "We'll never make it back to the castle in time!"

"Dietrich, you idiot!" Diggory cursed, tears glittering in his eyes. "You should have let me take the spell--I'm a werewolf; I might have survived it. I'd have had a better chance than you, at any rate!"

"You could thank me for saving your life," Aric said, in a feeble attempt to stave off his pain and fear with a joke.

"That's it!" Serafina shouted, and everyone turned to look at her. "A werewolf might be strong enough to survive the poisoning until we can get him to the castle or St. Mungo's! Master Diggory, Professor Lupin--one of you has to transform and bite him. It's his only chance of survival!"

"He could still die," Diggory argued.

"He'll die if you don't!" Serafina retorted. "I may not be a full Healer, but I know enough to see that he's dying!"

Selima frowned. "Even if this works, they could be sent to Azkaban for infecting him with lycanthropy."

"Please!" Theo begged. "Please, Remus, Master Diggory, you've got to save him! Please don't let him die!" There were tears streaming down his face; one of them fell onto Aric's cheek and trickled down between his lips. It tasted warm and salty, distracting him from the taste of the poisoned blood in his mouth. Why was Theo crying? Why would he ask Lupin, his foster father, to risk imprisonment for his sake? Theo hated him...didn't he?

"Theo," Aric whispered.

"All right," Lupin said quietly. "I'll do it."

"No, I'll do it," Diggory said firmly. "You have two cubs to look after, and besides, Snape would kill me if anything happened to you." Then he turned to Aric and said, "But I won't do this against your will. For some people, lycanthropy is a fate worse than death." He asked solemnly, "Will you die as a pureblood or live as a werewolf, Aric?"

Aric hesitated, but he could already feel his hold on life slipping away. The pain was beginning to recede, which was not a good sign, because his vision was blurring and everything was beginning to go dark although it was the middle of the day. He was suddenly filled with terror and reached out blindly, and felt Theo clasp his hand; he clung to it as if it were a lifeline. Maybe it was.

As a pureblood heir, he should be willing to die to keep his line pure, but the threat of the encroaching darkness made a coward of him. "Please," Aric whispered, "I don't want to die."

Diggory stood up and took a few steps back. "I can't transform when the moon is not full unless the wolf feels threatened. Someone needs to attack me. And it needs to be a strong spell."

Theo pulled away from Aric, stood up, took out his wand, and shouted, "Crucio!"

Diggory screamed, and the scream turned into a howl as he collapsed onto all fours and his body began twisting and transforming. A few moments later, a huge blond wolf with yellow-green eyes lurched to its feet, snarling and baring its teeth.

Lupin quickly stepped between Theo and the wolf, perhaps worried that the wolf might turn on its attacker. But the wolf turned away from Theo and sank its teeth into Aric's shoulder. Aric cried out, but the pain was welcome, because if he could feel pain, it meant that he was still alive, and the sharp pain in his shoulder made him feel more alert, and pushed back the cloud of darkness a little.

The wolf snarled and tore at the wound, and Aric remembered that this wasn't a normal transformation. He wasn't sure when the next full moon was, so he had no idea whether Diggory was currently taking the Wolfsbane Potion or not. He began to worry that even if he did survive the poisoning spell, the werewolf might lose control and kill him. Wouldn't that be ironic?

"Enough, Lukas!" Lupin cried, grabbing the wolf and trying to pull it off of Aric. He was the only one there who could safely try to restrain a transformed werewolf, since he was already infected. The wolf snarled and snapped at Lupin, but the other werewolf did not flinch, only gently and soothingly said, "It's all right, Lukas, you can stop now. The bite should have been enough to infect him. Aric will be all right."

The wolf calmed down and allowed itself to be pulled away, and a moment later, Master Diggory was on his hands and knees, coughing and choking, as his mouth was filled with Aric's blood. He started to spit it out, then stopped and asked, in a slightly garbled voice, "Is the poison contagious?"

"Yes," Prospero replied. "But since you are a werewolf, I don't think swallowing a small amount of Aric's blood will hurt you."

"Good," Diggory said, then crawled over to Williamson, grabbed his face, and firmly clamped his mouth over the Auror's.

"What the--?!" Aric heard Dylan gasp, and Tristan exclaimed, "Ewww!" Everyone else stared at the pair in shock. Aric turned his head slightly to watch. Diggory's eyes did not look lustful; instead, they looked furious and vengeful. Williamson desperately tried to pull away, but his bound limbs made his struggle futile. Diggory kept his mouth fastened on Williamson's, and covered the Auror's nose with one hand. Williamson's face went red, then started to turn blue, then finally he swallowed convulsively and Diggory released him.

The blond werewolf gasped for breath, grimaced and spat, as if to clear the taste from his mouth, then wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Wha...what have you done?" the Auror asked, looking horrified.

"If Aric dies," Diggory said with grim satisfaction, "then you die as well, Williamson. You had better hope that the Healers can cure you both."

The Auror suddenly began writhing in pain as the poison took effect, and the Slytherins, except for Theo, all looked impressed. "A fitting punishment, Cyril," Selima said approvingly.

"Never mind that!" Theo said impatiently. "We still have to get Aric to a Healer!"

"By the way, Theodore," Diggory said with a faint smile, "when I said 'strong spell,' I didn't quite mean for you to hit me with an Unforgivable Curse."

"Sorry," Theo said sheepishly. "I figured an Expelliarmus spell or an Impediment Curse wasn't going to cut it, and that was the strongest spell I could think of that wouldn't kill you outright. Are you okay?"

"I'll live," Diggory replied. "And if we want Aric to, we'd best get him back to the castle."

Just then, Hooch, Blackmore, and Hagrid arrived. "You're late," Diggory said sarcastically.

"I just got the message from Harry and Sirius that Williamson and Amos were near the lake," Blackmore said. "What happened?"

"A Sanguis Veneno spell," Selima told her, and Blackmore's eyes widened in recognition. It didn't really surprise Aric that the demonic Professor Blackmore was familiar with the spell.

"I bit him to help him fight off the poison," Diggory said, "but we have to get him to a Healer right away." As Hagrid and Hooch started to ask questions, he impatiently added, "I'll explain later!"

Diggory borrowed Hooch's broom to fly Aric back to the castle as quickly as possible; the werewolf had to bind Aric to him by the waist with a magical rope to keep him from falling off, as Aric was in no condition to keep himself upright on a broomstick. The others followed on foot, bringing along their two prisoners with a levitation spell.

When they got to the hospital wing, Pomfrey took one look at Aric and immediately declared that he must go to St. Mungo's.

"I'll take him through the Floo," Diggory said.

"I'll go with him," Dumbledore said. "You should remain here, in case the Aurors decide to arrest you for infecting Aric."

"I'm the one who turned him," Lukas insisted. "I won't abandon him."

"I cannot protect you once you leave the castle, Lukas," Dumbledore warned.

"I don't care," Diggory said stubbornly. "Aric is part of my pack now. I will remain with him until I'm sure he will be all right."

"We don't have time to argue!" Pomfrey snapped. "Go or stay, but someone must take this boy to the hospital!"

So they both took Aric through the Floo, and he was whisked away to a hospital room where several Healers and mediwizards began casting spells on him, treating his bite wound, and pouring potions down his throat. One of them was Takeshi; his face turned sheet-white when he recognized Aric, but he worked quickly and efficiently, his hands steady although his face remained pale. Aric smiled a little, glad that Takeshi was one of the people working on him, not just because of his medical skills, but because he was happy to see Takeshi one more time when he had thought he would never see him again after that night at the clinic.

Finally, Dumbledore and Diggory were allowed to enter the room, along with Lupin, Snape, and Theo, who must have arrived while the Healers had been working on Aric. "He will be bedridden for a few days," the head Healer told them, "and it will take him a couple of weeks to recover completely, but he will make a full recovery, providing that he gets plenty of rest and takes the proper medication." Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, even Snape. "Actually, I'd like to talk to you about that later, Professor," the Healer told Snape. "We didn't have much of the antidote on hand, since it's very difficult to brew and this type of curse is so rarely seen."

"I'll be happy to brew more for you," Snape told him.

"Thank you," the Healer said gratefully. "We can discuss this further when you have time; I'm sure you're all anxious about Mr. Dietrich. You can visit with him for a little while, but don't wear him out. He needs to get his rest."

Theodore approached the bed, his face filled with relief and his eyes red from crying. "Are you really all right?" he asked.

"I feel like a herd of Graphorns ran over me," Aric replied. "But the Healers say I'll live." He hesitated, then asked, "Theo? Why...why do you care what happens to me? I know I've been a git to you...I thought you hated me."

"You idiot!" Theo said angrily, starting to cry again. "You are a git, and maybe we never got along, but...you're my cousin. You have Rafe's blood in you. I've already lost Rafe...I couldn't stand it if you died as well."

"Theo," Aric whispered, and he realized that he no longer hated his cousin. He wasn't sure exactly when that had happened. But before he could say anything else, his parents and grandparents burst into the room.

"Aric, oh Aric!" his mother cried, rushing to his bedside.

"I'm okay, Mum," Aric said, reaching out to pat her hand, and she began sobbing hysterically.

"You did this!" Karl shouted at Master Diggory. "You still have my son's blood on your lips, you beast! I'll have you sent to Azkaban--no, I'll see you executed for this!"

Aric looked up and saw that there was still blood spattered on Diggory's mouth and the front of his robes, and realized how things must look to his father. "No, Father, don't blame him," Aric said. His voice was still weak, as he was exhausted from both the poisoning and the healing process, but he tried to speak as firmly as he could. "He only did it to save my life. I would have died, otherwise."

"It's true," Takeshi said quietly. "He would have died before he could reach the hospital, without his new lycanthropic healing powers. Even then, we nearly lost him. It was a very close thing."

Aric's family stared at him in shock, and the full impact of what he had done finally hit him. He had deliberately made his blood impure. Would they ever forgive him for that? "I...I asked him to do it," Aric confessed in a shaky voice. "Don't blame Master Diggory. I was so scared...I didn't want to die, even if it meant becoming a werewolf. Do...do you hate me for that?"

His family just stood there, still looking stunned, and Aric felt tears sting his eyes. Lupin started to say something, but Snape stepped forward and said harshly, "Would you rather he were dead? Would you rather have a pureblooded corpse than a living son?"

"No!" Alison cried in horror, and Aric's grandmother began to weep.

Karl's face turned pale, and he stuttered, "N-no, of course not, but..."

Roderick was leaning on a cane for support, but unlike the rest of his family, he remained calm. There were tears in his eyes, but his voice was steady and grave as he said, "I do not wish he were dead, but the heir of the Dietrich family must be a pureblood. I hereby remove you as heir, Aric. The title will now go to Erika. We will have to find her a husband who is willing to take on the Dietrich name."

"But we can't abandon him!" Alison protested tearfully.

Roderick held up a hand, and she fell silent. "I didn't say that we would. We will provide for him, of course; he just will not be heir. He can continue to live at home, or if he prefers to get a place of his own, I will set up an account for him to draw his living expenses from."

"Which do you prefer, Grandfather?" Aric asked bitterly. "That I hide away on the family estate where no one will see me, or remove my tainted blood from your house?"

"I am being generous!" Roderick snapped. "Most families would disown you entirely! And make no mistake, my generosity is contingent on one condition: you must never have children. If you ever try to sully our bloodline, I will cut you off without a single Knut and throw you out on the street!"

"Don't worry, Grandfather," Aric said, an ironic smile briefly twisting his lips. "I doubt that will be a problem." It had not occurred to him before, but of course the Tierney family would never let their daughter marry a werewolf. He wondered why that didn't make him happier. He could be with Takeshi now...if Takeshi still wanted him. He had plenty of werewolf friends of course, but being friends with a werewolf and sleeping with one were two different things. And even if Takeshi did want him, it came at the price of losing his family. Because even if they were oh-so-generously allowing him to live off their charity, he had lost the family of his childhood, who had loved him without question. Maybe they had never really existed. Maybe they had only seemed to love him because he had never defied or disappointed them up until now.

"And don't worry," Aric added angrily. "I don't want any of your money, not a single Knut! I can take care of myself."

"As you wish," Roderick said curtly, and turned and walked out of the room. His wife followed him, still weeping, without saying a single word to Aric.

His parents lingered behind for a moment. Karl awkwardly placed his hand on Aric's cheek and said, "I'll talk to Father, try and get him to relent a bit. Give him some time to get used to the idea."

"He'll never get used to the idea," Aric said flatly. "And you don't think I should be heir, either, do you, Father?"

"No, I don't," Karl said quietly. "I will always love you, son, but the bloodline must remain pure. You cannot be heir, but that doesn't mean you can't still be part of the family."

"I love you, Aric," Alison sobbed, and bent down to kiss him on the cheek, but his parents' professions of love left him cold. Maybe they did love him, after a fashion, but he could also see the horror and revulsion lurking in their eyes. He was a monster, a beast, to them now.

Aric rolled over on his side, turning his face away from them. "Go away," he said, and they left without protest. Despite his words, part of him had hoped they would stay, but he was not surprised when they didn't. He began to cry, and he said, "Go away, all of you," but none of the people remaining in the room left.

"I am sorry, Aric," Diggory said, gently placing his hand on Aric's unwounded shoulder. "Perhaps it is no comfort to you right now, but you do still have a family. My pack will be your family, your brothers and sisters, and none of us shall ever betray you."

"Maybe I shouldn't have let you turn me," Aric wept, although he knew that he was being ungrateful. "Maybe it would have been better if I died. Then at least my family wouldn't be ashamed of me."

"You should not be ashamed of your wolf blood," Takeshi told him quietly. "The wolf is regarded as a divine creature in my homeland."

"I don't see what's so godlike about going mad and trying to kill people during the full moon every month!" Aric snapped.

"Don't you know that those who are touched by the gods often walk a fine line between sanity and madness?" Takeshi asked calmly, apparently unfazed by Aric's anger. "The human body and mind are fragile things, not built to contain divine power."

"Hmm, that's a theory I've never heard before," Lupin muttered to himself thoughtfully.

"That's easy for you to say," Aric told Takeshi in a bitter voice. "You're not the one who's going mad. Your blood is pure; you're not the one turning into a beast every month."

"I never said that my blood was pure, Aric," Takeshi said in a soft voice, and Aric gave him a startled look. "I too, have animal blood."

"But you said that you weren't a werewolf," a confused Aric said. "Were you lying?"

"No, I was not," Takeshi replied. "Let me show you what I am." Smiling beatifically, he threw his head back and spread his arms wide, as if inviting an embrace, and a gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and began to swirl around him, even though the windows in the room were closed. It was not really wind, but a surge of magic so strong that Aric could recognize what it was with no need for his wand or an Aperio spell; it made his skin tingle and the hair on the back of his neck stand up. The loose folds of Takeshi's robes billowed out, the cloth rustling softly; his braid came undone and his long hair fanned out behind him, a few loose tendrils floating languidly in the air around his face. Aric felt his breath catch in his throat; the mild-mannered mediwizard no longer looked human--he looked like some divine spirit of the air, an elemental, perhaps, or a creature of Faerie. He looked like a god...

The color began to wash out of Takeshi's lime-green mediwizard robes, fading to white, except at the the edges of the sleeves, where they darkened to black, and then they were no longer robes, but feathers. Meanwhile, Takeshi's black hair was molding itself to his head and likewise turning into black and red and white feathers, and his face narrowed and lengthened into a bird's long beak. And suddenly, standing in front of the hospital bed was a tall, graceful-looking crane, with stilt-like legs and a long, elegant neck. The bird was a pure, snowy white, except for the tips of its wings, which were black, and its head and neck, which were also mostly black, except for a patch of red feathers on the crown of its head, and a small patch of white on the back of its head. The crane's wings were spread wide, as if about to take flight.

Snape, Lupin, and Theo gasped, while Diggory exclaimed, "Well, I'll be damned!" Dumbledore just smiled. Aric, however, was struck speechless and just lay there in bed staring at the bird with his mouth hanging open. The crane flapped its wings, stirring another gust of wind-that-was-really-magic, and the transformation process reversed itself. A few moments later, Takeshi stood before them, human once more.

"Well," he said to Aric with a mischievous but slightly anxious smile, "do you think me a beast, something to be scorned and despised?"

"No!" Aric immediately replied, a little startled by the vehemence of his own response, then blurted out, "You're beautiful!" Then he felt his face grow hot and hastily clarified, "As a bird, I mean! Er...not that you're ugly as a human--far from it! I mean..." He fell silent, realizing that he was babbling and only digging himself in deeper. He heard Diggory chuckle, and felt his face turn even redder.

"Thank you," was Takeshi's calm and dignified response, although a faint blush had tinged his cheeks as well.

Aric was relieved when Lupin diverted everyone's attention by exclaiming, "You're one of the crane people, like Chizuru!"

Takeshi replied, "Well, not exactly like Chizuru; she is a pure crane, while my blood is mostly human. One of my ancestors was a crane maiden who married a human man several hundred years ago. She got caught in a snowstorm and broke her wing; she would have died except that a human farmer found her and nursed her back to health."

Lupin clapped his hands together like a child being told a fairy tale. "Just like in the legends! And she married him in gratitude, didn't she? And did she weave her feathers into silk?"

"In the version you told me, the crane was rescued by an old married couple who adopted her as their daughter," Snape said to Lupin.

"There are many different versions," Takeshi laughed. "And fortunately, this one had a happy ending. In the fairy tales, the crane maiden eventually has to leave her husband or surrogate parents when they discover her true identity, but my many-times-over great-grandparents remained together until they died, after a long and happy life, surrounded by their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And my ancestress passed down to me her blood, and the gift of transformation, as well as a minor Healing Gift."

"So...can everyone in your family turn into a bird?" Aric asked weakly.

"The crane blood runs only in my mother's side of the family," Takeshi replied. "And not all of them can shapeshift; my mother and brother cannot. The blood seems to run stronger in some than in others, sometimes skipping a generation or two."

"Not unlike inherited lycanthropy," Lupin murmured.

"So I assure you," Takeshi told Aric, "that I do not think any less of you now that you are a werewolf." He walked over to the bed and laid his hand over Aric's. "I'm just glad that you're alive; I don't care whether you're a wolf, a bird, or a monkey!" Despite his joking words, his voice was fervent and shook a little. Then he smiled and leaned down over the bed; his long hair, which was still loose, brushed against Aric's face, feeling cool and silky. "And I'm glad you think I'm beautiful," Takeshi whispered, and Aric felt his face turn red again. Takeshi's wire-rimmed glasses slid down his nose, and the mediwizard caught them just before they fell. He straightened up, pushing his glasses back into place, then said in a brisk, professional tone, "Well, I'd better let you get some rest. Professors, please don't stay too long; he needs to rest so that his body can heal." Diggory opened his mouth to protest, but Takeshi anticipated his response and said, "I know you don't want to leave a newly-transformed member of your pack alone, Lukas, so you can stay if you promise to be quiet and let him sleep."

"Yes, sir," Diggory said with false meekness and an ironic little bow.

Takeshi just smiled. "You can use the spare bed tonight; there are no other patients in this room."

"What you really mean is that no one wants to share a room with a werewolf," Aric said, not as bitterly as he might have, because he was still distracted by the sensation of Takeshi's hair brushing against his face. He could swear that his skin was still tingling even though the contact had lasted only for a few seconds, and wondered if this was some sort of magical residue left over from the transformation.

"Well, at least it means that you get a private room," Takeshi said cheerfully. "I'll let the staff know that you're in here, Lukas, so that they aren't...ah...startled by your presence. Sleep well, Aric."

"You...you will come back later?" Aric asked, unable to keep the pleading note out of his voice, and cringed a little.

"I'll check in on you later," Takeshi promised, smiling gently at him. "Although I doubt you will wake again till tomorrow morning." He stroked Aric's cheek lovingly, his fingers slowly sliding along Aric's skin as if he didn't want the contact to end. "Sleep well, my wolf," he whispered tenderly. Aric gave him a puzzled look, startled by the unusual if apt endearment. "In my dreams, you always appeared to me as a black wolf, although I didn't understand why until now."

"You dreamed about me?" Aric asked, surprised but flattered. Diggory chuckled again and Aric blushed, then realized what Takeshi had said: not just that he dreamed of Aric, but that Aric appeared as a black wolf in his dreams. "Are you a Seer?"

"Not exactly," Takeshi replied. "I'll explain it to you later. It's a rather long story, and you need to get some rest." Aric opened his mouth to say that he wanted to hear the story now, but a yawn emerged instead of his intended protest. "Sleep," Takeshi said sternly. "Healer's orders."

"Yes, sir," Aric yawned, then closed his eyes. He felt Takeshi's hand touch his face one more time, then heard quiet footsteps and the sound of the door closing. He didn't know whether it was some sort of wolf sense, but even with his eyes closed, Aric could feel Master Diggory's presence in the room, a guardian wolf standing watch over him, and it made him feel secure and comforted--the same feeling he used to get when his father had sat beside his bed after he'd had a bad dream when he was small. He shifted his weight slightly, settling in a more comfortable position--or rather, a less painful one, since his entire body ached, especially the bite wound on his shoulder. As his hand slid along the bed, it touched something soft, and Aric opened his eyes. It was a long white feather, about the length of a quill pen; Takeshi must have shed it while he was in his crane form. He ran his finger along it; it felt as smooth and silky as Takeshi's hair.

Clutching the feather in his hand, Aric drifted off to sleep smiling, and his rest was untroubled by any nightmares; instead, he dreamed of birds in flight, and the sensation of silk against his skin.

***

Meanwhile, the Aurors had not been idle, and after they left Aric's room, Dumbledore, Snape, and Lupin learned that Tonks and Kingsley were in the hospital interviewing Williamson. Snape sent Theodore back to Hogwarts, then joined the others in Williamson's room.

"We've questioned him under Truth Potion, Severus," Tonks said. "He's confessed to staging the werewolf attacks and planting evidence in the Shrieking Shack to frame you--he persuaded Stewart Ackerley to steal the Dark Magic books from the library for him. He also set up Ash's arrest and conspired with Amos Diggory to murder Lukas."

"Were he and Dawlish behind all the hexes, pranks, and threats at the school as well?" Snape asked. "Did he convince Ackerley and his friends to carry them out?"

"No, he doesn't know anything about that," Tonks replied. "And he says that Dawlish had no knowledge of any of his illegal activities."

"Are you sure the Truth Potion you gave him was not defective?" Snape asked skeptically.

"Not unless you're questioning your own potion-brewing abilities," Kingsley told him. "It was from a batch you brewed for the Order. Dawlish was incredibly shaken when he learned what Williamson had done; he couldn't believe that his partner had been running around committing all these crimes right under his nose. He willingly submitted to questioning under Truth Potion to prove his innocence."

"It does make sense," Tonks said. "I don't like Dawlish very much, but he's known in the Ministry as a by-the-book type. He always follows the rules, whether the rules make sense or not, and he always obeys the orders of his superiors, even if those superiors are incompetent or corrupt. He might use a legal loophole to go after you or Lukas, but he wouldn't break the law and frame you."

"How comforting," Snape said sarcastically.

"I suspect that Williamson was using transfigured dogs in the fake werewolf attacks," Lupin said anxiously. "The victims said they were attacked by two wolves, but only one dog was found in the Shrieking Shack. What happened to other dog? Did he kill that one as well?"

"Aric and Lukas nearly died because of him, and you're worried about the bloody dog?" Snape asked incredulously.

"It's an innocent creature," Lupin insisted. "It shouldn't have to suffer because of its master's crimes."

Tonks cleared her throat to gain their attention and head off a potential argument. "Ahem. Actually, I can answer that question for you, Remus. Williamson got two dogs from a Muggle pound to use as fake werewolves. He killed one dog to plant as evidence, but the other is still alive and well. He was hiding the dog in a flat he rented under a false name, and Frank and Alice are retrieving it as we speak."

"Thank goodness," Lupin sighed.

"The dog is evidence that will be used against Williamson at his trial," Kingsley said practically.

"I felt bad about killing the dog," Williamson muttered from his hospital bed. "But I needed something more dramatic than a couple of spell books and some potion ingredients to frame Snape."

"You felt bad about killing the DOG?" Snape asked in outrage. "When you were about to murder Diggory in cold blood, not to mention my student Dietrich and your own ally, Ackerley!"

"Diggory's a werewolf," Williamson said scornfully. "A dangerous beast who should be put down; the dog's life is worth more to me than his." He sounded slightly remorseful, but also sullen as he added, "As for the kids, they weren't supposed to be there..."

"Why you--" Snape snarled, his face turning red with fury, and he pulled his wand out of his pocket.

"Severus, no!" Lupin cried.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill him!" Snape demanded.

"Well, for one thing, Tonks and Kingsley would have to arrest you," Dumbledore pointed out reasonably. "And I know that would make them feel very bad."

"Sparing their feelings is my highest priority," Snape said sardonically, but he put his wand away.

The head Healer of the Spell Damage ward had been watching all of this quietly up until now, but he finally spoke. "You don't need to kill him, Professor Snape. His life is already in your hands."

"What do you mean?" Snape asked, looking puzzled and suspicious.

"I believe that my colleague already told you that we need more of the antidote," the Healer replied. "We used up nearly our entire supply treating Mr. Dietrich and Mr. Williamson. Mr. Dietrich received a much higher dosage of the poison, since he was hit with a full-strength spell, but his lycanthropic healing powers, in combination with the antidote, will allow him to recover without any permanent damage. Mr. Williamson received only a small dose of the poison, but his body is unable to heal itself the way Mr. Dietrich's can. We managed to stabilize him for now, but his body suffered permanent damage, and he will die unless he receives a regular dose of the antidote each week."

"Every week?" Snape asked. "For the rest of his life?"

The Healer nodded. "That's right. So you see, Professor, his life is in your hands. The antidote to the Blood Poisoning spell is very difficult to brew, even more so than the Wolfsbane Potion. There are only a handful of Potions Masters in the world capable of brewing such a potion, and I believe that you are the only one in Britain with the necessary skill. I consulted with the Apothecary, Mr. Jigger, and he concurs."

Williamson looked dismayed, and Snape smiled at him maliciously. "And are you asking me to brew the potion for this worthless piece of slime?"

"I am," the Healer said solemnly. "As a Healer, I have taken a vow to do no harm. That includes allowing harm to come to a patient through inaction. I must do my best to save this man, no matter what crimes he has committed. However, by law, I cannot force you to brew the potion. If you refuse to brew it, I will try to obtain it from another source, perhaps your friend, Professor Kamiyama. But it is unlikely that I will be able to get enough of it on a regular basis to keep the patient alive."

"I'll brew it for Aric, for as long as he needs it," Snape said in a cold voice. "But not for him." The word "him" was laced with venom and scorn as he glared at Williamson.

"I think you should reconsider, Severus," Lupin said.

"Surely even your admittedly generous sense of compassion must have some limits, Lupin!" Snape exclaimed. "He not only tried to frame me and the werewolves, he tried to kill Diggory and very nearly succeeded in killing Dietrich and--"

"It's not out of compassion or generosity that I'm asking you to save him, Severus," Lupin interrupted, and Snape looked confused. Lupin smiled, but in a rather nasty way, with a very predatory and vicious gleam in his eyes--the sort of expression that one might expect to see on Diggory's face, or Snape's, but that was alien to Lupin's gentle nature. "Just think, Severus," Lupin practically purred. "Williamson, who hates and despises you, will be dependent on your charity for the rest of his life. Every breath he takes, every bite of food that he eats, every day that he lives to see another sunrise, he will owe to you, and he will never be able to forget it, since the potion that he has to take every week will remind him that he is utterly at your mercy." Williamson had a look of horror on his face, as if he might be wishing that the poison had finished him off, after all. Lupin's smile grew wider, exposing his sharp canine teeth, and Williamson's face turned white. "So you see," Lupin continued, "I do not think you should let him die, Severus--because death is much too swift and merciful a punishment. I want him to live, and to suffer for what he's done."

Tonks and Kingsley were both a little taken aback by Lupin's speech. "Brrr," Tonks laughed nervously, pretending to shiver. "That gave me the chills, Remus! You sounded almost as bloodthirsty as Severus for a moment!"

But Snape was gazing at Lupin with pure admiration in his eyes. "I'm impressed, Remus," he said. "You would have made a good Slytherin, after all!" Then, to Lupin's surprise and delight, Snape kissed Lupin soundly on the mouth, right there in front of the Aurors and the Healer, and laughed, "I knew there was a reason that I fell in love with you!"

Lupin momentarily forgot his anger and relished this rare public display of affection until Williamson stammered, "B-b-but everyone says that you're--"

"What?" Lupin snapped, turning to glare at the Auror. "That I'm a soft touch? Don't mistake compassion for weakness, Williamson. You not only endangered my students and tried to murder one of my best friends, but you threatened my mate." A low growl rumbled in his throat and he bared his teeth at Williamson, who cringed. "It is never wise to threaten a werewolf's mate or cubs." Lupin leaned over the bed, and Williamson whimpered, sinking as far into the mattress as he could, clawing at it with his hands as if he were trying to dig an escape route or a hole to hide in. "And everything else aside, you deserve to suffer just for what you did to that poor dog in the Shrieking Shack! That poor creature died in pain and misery just so you could manufacture some false evidence against Severus--that's despicable!"

"It almost sounds like you're more concerned about the damned dog than me," Snape grumbled petulantly.

"Don't be silly, Severus," Lupin said, managing a smile although anger still smoldered in his eyes. "But you are capable of defending yourself, while the dog was not. It was an innocent animal dependent on its master's kindness, and you used and betrayed it, Williamson."

"Don't preach at me, you--" Williamson started to retort, but Snape interrupted him.

"It would not be wise to insult my lover," Snape purred, a malevolent smile slowly spreading across his face. "Considering that your life is dependent on my mercy--and as all the students at Hogwarts can testify, I have none." Williamson immediately fell silent. "In fact," Snape continued, thoroughly enjoying himself, "I suggest that you apologize to him."

"I apologize," Williamson said through gritted teeth.

"That didn't sound at all apologetic or respectful," Snape said disapprovingly.

"Please forgive me for my rudeness, Professor Lupin," Williamson said humbly, although he looked as though the effort of it might finish him off where the poison had not.

Apparently the Healer thought so, too, because he quickly said, "I'm afraid the patient must get some rest now, if you want him to live to stand trial."

"We've gotten all we need out of him at the moment," Kingsley said, not sounding particularly concerned about Williamson. "We've arranged to have a guard posted outside his room."

"That's fine," the Healer said. "Although he isn't going to be capable of getting out of bed for at least a couple of days. Professor Snape, I take it that you have decided to brew the antidote? We only have a few more doses left, and aside from Mr. Williamson's needs, Mr. Dietrich will need to continue taking it for a couple more weeks."

"I will brew it--for now," Snape said, giving Williamson a significant look. "I'll start a batch tonight."

"Thank you," the Healer said gratefully, and politely but firmly ushered them out of the room.


Part 82