On the Moon [Connery]

[Amelia Pace]

That morning, Amelia had woken up, looked at her diary, and saw it, ’Full Moon’. She knew what that meant. Potions, pain, and avoiding awkward questions for the next four days. Tomorrow, she’d wake up with cramp, a crappy feeling in the pit of her stomach and no hair brush. She’d turn up to breakfast looking worse for wear and being questioned by her friends as to why she hadn’t been in the common room that morning.

She’d gone through the majority of the day like she would have any other. She’d gone to her lessons, done some work at lunch time. Avoided James’ annoyed glare as she’d disappeared just before dinner. She was meant to be talking tactics with them or something.

But she had to go. She couldn’t risk being about when the sun went down. She didn’t want to hurt anyone. Or for that matter have any body see her. She knew what happened to the old professor when people had found out about him. It was a comfort though, knowing that somebody else had gone through the same thing that she was going through now.

Saying her farewells to her friends, and promising to ‘Be back soon,’ she ran off towards Connery’s office.

She was used to this routine by now. She’d been doing it for four years. She didn’t like it, she just wished she could stay out of trouble. Well, not trouble as such, she wished she’d been more careful all those years ago and not been bitten by a werewolf of all creatures. Why couldn’t it have been a frog or something? Something less harmless and something that was unlike to ever make her change into it.

What she wanted was to be normal.

Making her way down six floors from the Gryffindor common room, she managed to get down all the floors without making a prat out of herself on the staircases. She always managed to fall over if they moved whilst she was on them. Humming to herself as she trotted down the last steps and turned onto the first floor corridor towards the Head of Gryffindor’s office.

He’d been the Head of House for two years now, and he was certainly more tolerating of her than the previous professor. He treated a lot less like an idiot and more like an equal. He knew it hadn’t been her fault. Still, he was a nicer person overall. She didn’t mind spending time with him – but she’d still rather not.

Reaching his office door, she raised her hand and rapped out a knock and waited for him to answer.

[Adrian Connery]

As he’d suspected before he’d sat down to mark sixth years’ homework; August Jensen, full marks, Arturo Brigstocke, way below what he could achieve. Adrian would seriously have to have a word with that boy. He groaned as his body began to cramp up. Sitting in the same position for hours at a time was definitely not good for him. Once again the man groaned when he saw the next pile of work, first years’ work. That would surely take him all night, but at least he’d have some company. Adrian looked at his watch, damn he’d missed dinner and Amelia would be here soon. He’d have to duck out to the kitchens once the girl was settled in his office.

He glanced over to the cage in the corner of the room. He’d added a few more pillows to hopefully make Amelia more comfortable. Adrian would hate it, having to be locked up once a month and to keep it a secret from all his friends. Amelia handled being a werewolf a lot better than the man could ever dream of. He looked around at the office, it was no stranger to werewolves, it had been the residence of Remus Lupin after all. Adrian very much wished he’d survived the war; he very much would have loved to meet him. Harry Potter only had glowing praises for the man. He sighed and rubbed his neck, lost in thought.

A sharp tap at the door pulled him out of his thoughts. Adrian pushed himself up from his chair, his knees almost giving way from being bent for a while, and walked to the door.
“Evening Amelia,” he smiled and let the girl in. As usual she didn’t look too thrilled to be here and who could blame her.
“Your potion is on my desk as usual and your overnight accommodation is ready,” he joked. Adrian hated saying the word cage. It implied that Amelia was an animal or monster, both of which she definitely was not. The man’s stomach gave an undignified rumble.
“I’m afraid I missed dinner so once you’re settled I might run to the kitchens. If you want anything don’t hesitate to ask,” he said pleasantly before settling himself back at his desk.

[Amelia Pace]

As the door opened she smiled somewhat sarcastically and made her way into the room. As every time she entered this office, she saw it. Her ‘accommodation’. It was a bloody cage, why wouldn’t the guy just call it as such. He was a nice guy, but so annoying sometimes. Maybe that was just her full moon anger coming through. He hadn’t actually done anything wrong apart from attempted to make her feel better. She half smiled at it, hardly any emotion in it at all.

”Hi,” she said as she dumped her bag by the door of the cage, turning towards his desk as he mentioned it, then raised an eyebrow at him as he attempted to joke with her. ”Yeah, five star as always right Adie,” she grinned sarcastically again, and patted him on the shoulder.

Yawning slightly and making her way over to his desk she picked up the vial with her usual potion, bittersweet with a horrid after taste, and flicked it in her hands. She liked having good reactions, at least she got some perks from being what she was.

”Cup of coffee, no milk, one sugar. And a couple of those chocolate thing one of the cuter house-elves makes would go own a treat. Thanks,” it was her turn to joke back with her, shooting him a grin and flipping the lip off of the glass container in her hands. She winked and downed the liquid in one, pulling a moderately comical face at his distaste to the liquid.

She replaces the cap, and dropped the vial back onto the corner of his desk before turning her back on him and heading to her cage. She crouched slightly and flumped through what would be considered as the door. Pulling it shut she pulled up the keys from the floor outside and locked herself in. At some point in the next ten minutes Connery would put a large blanket over it just so the moon didn’t get her. She was in for a night of pain as it was, without her actually fully changing into a wolf. Once the door was secured she threw the key a couple of foot from the cage to stop herself from being about to open again in her desperate bordom later in the night, and letting herself out.

”What fun have you got for yourself then?” she asked, looking at the pile of paper in front of him.

[Adrian Connery]

Routinely the girl began to make herself at home. The man laughed, Amelia’s humour was something he enjoyed enduring every month. She was the only student that would dare call him something other than ‘Professor Connery’ or ‘Sir’ but their relationship ran a little deeper than just the normal student, teacher one. Once a month for the past four years he’d watched the girl writhe in pain and he’d been the one to confide in on the nights where it just seemed too hard. Adrian felt a loyalty to the girl, after all for 24hours once a month he became her guardian.

“I’ll only get you all that if you stop calling me Adie, Ame,” he joked again, adding the last bit sarcastically. He actually didn’t mind it, it was pretty much the only nickname he had apart from a really strange one he heard every now and again, Cas something. Adrian shrugged it off and glanced back at the first years’ essays when Ame mentioned them.
“These are poor excuses for essays from first years which I will be spending the entire night trying to make sense of,” he sighed, not looking forward to it at all. Once again his stomach growled angrily and the man tried desperately to ignore it.

“What do you think Gryffindor’s Quidditch chances are this year? Congratulations on making captain too,” he asked lightly, trying to distract himself from marking. One thing Adrian boasted about Gryffindor was that its Quidditch team was a force to be reckoned with. He was sure they stood a good chance of winning the cup this year.

[Amelia Pace]

”Oh but sir,”she started with a whine and an over exaggerated pout, ”You know you love it, Adie,” she chuckled before rolling her eyes slightly and fluffing up her pillows. Not that it actually did anything, the moment she put her head on them they’d go flat. Everything was so god-damn pointless. Groaning inwardly she sat in the middle of the cage and looked around a bit. It was the same as it always was.

”Ah first year Defence Against the Dark Arts,” she said fondly, flattening the quilts out that surrounded her, ”Those were the days!” Mainly due to the fact that she hadn’t had to worry about her own Dark Art in the making back then. Since her third year she had been going through this routine. The same year they had learnt about Werewolves for the first time. Luckily for her nobody had twigged about her disappearances around the full moon, and four years down the line they still didn’t know.

She often wondered if they spoke about it when she wasn’t there. Nobody disappeared like clock work one a month for no good reason. She knew her closest friends worried about her, but they never asked her questions about where she was. She preferred it that way in many senses, due to the fact it made her life slightly easier than it could have been.

”Our chances this year are amazing. I mean, come on, with me as Captain instead of that idiot Potter, what more could you expect?” If there was one thing that would bring her out of her downwards slum, it was talking about Quidditch. And this year, more than any other year before, she had reason to talk about it. ”I just don’t want Potter to start lording it over everybody. I’m in charge, but I don’t see him taking it that lightly, do you?”

[Adrian Connery]

“Yeah yeah alright then,” Adrian chuckled at Ame. He began to idly scratch random sketches on a spare piece of parchment with his marking quill, anything to get out of marking tonight.
“James Potter as captain, that thought kind of scares me,” he laughed, “he’s a great kid but would be a bit of a control freak as captain I imagine.” That kid was definitely his father’s son but not quite as modest as Harry. He was probably cocky to hide the pressure he was under to try and live up to his name and father.

Adrian looked down at the picture he’d drawn; a cartoon wolf stared back up at him. How very appropriate for tonight. With a whispered incantation and a small tap with his wand the man made the wolf start to move. It began to howl silently to a small to-do list scrawled above it and wag its tail. Well that was fun for about thirty seconds. Hmm, what to do now that wasn’t reading essays?
“You want something to drink before I cover your five star resort?” he got up and scrounged his office in search for the cups that were in there somewhere. Finally they turned up underneath a text book on various defensive spells.
“Here, all I can afford is water, they don’t pay me enough for anything else,” Adrian joked, handing Ame a cup, “don’t tell McG I said that.” He winked and then pulled the blanket over the cage and blew out all the candle in the room apart from the one on his desk.

[Amelia Pace]

”You don’t say! I mean his first day back he practically assaulted me because he wasn’t happy. That sort of person doesn’t make a good captain,” okay, so that wasn’t exactly a lie. He had stopped her from going back into the castle and past him, kicked up a fit like a small child and ended up ‘trying out’ for the team. They hadn’t exactly gotten very far. And assaulted probably wasn’t the right word for it, but all the same. At first it hadn’t been appreciated.

Ame shuffled about in her makeshift home and sighed. Another full moon, another painful night. Despite the vial, which only tamed her wolf, she still when through so much pain whilst it tried to escape her, it was worse than any other pain she had ever felt.

Looking up at Connery she nodded, laughing slightly as he made a crack about his wages. If she ever did anything after school, it sure as hell wasn’t going to be a teaching job. Apart from when she was old and decrepit and could no longer play Quidditch. She’d love that. Professional Quidditch player. Us as long as there were no matches around the full moon she would be fine. But then, all that media coverage of her life, she would be found out in no time. Oh who knew, life couldn’t always be wat you wanted, tonight only proved that, ”Thanks,” she said accepting it through the bars and taking a short sip.

She moved back into the middle of the cage after setting her cup down, and got herself comfortable, she was in for a long night.

[Adrian Connery]

“I heard you and Potter fancied each other but that’s what I get for reading you students’ trashy gossip paper,” Adrian jested, he knew he’d hit a nerve of he mentioned, “any way, good night. I’ll be here if you need anything.” He’d just realised that he hadn’t gotten anything to eat but he was too tired to care. He tried desperately to get his marking done but as the sky got darker and darker his eyes grew heavier and heavier. He thought about making a pillow out of some fifth year work but remembered what happened last time he’d slept at his desk. Adrian really didn’t want to relive that morning, apart from the eating of breakfast with Diana of course.

He thought about conjuring some coffee but there was no point really, he might as well settle himself in for the night. Lazily Adrian conjured a quilt and pillow and set it up in a corner of his office. He took off his customary trench coat, shoes and tie and tried to make himself comfortable on the floor. He felt kind of guilty neglecting the first years but their essays weren’t going anywhere; they could be dealt with at saner hour. He left the candle on his desk burning just in case he had to get up later for Ame. Adrian looked up at the window. Through a crack in the curtains he could see a part of the moon peering out from heavy cloud cover. At least Ame was safe from its major effects in here but not from the pain it brought her. It gutted Adrian that they could take away the transformation but she still had to suffer.

[Amelia Pace]

Ame’s eyes went wide. They were in the paper? ”What the hell? That’s not even gossip, that’s like current af- no wait. Oh fuck it,” Ame hit herself in the face with the palm of her hand, her fingers slapping her forehead and making a cracking-slap sound. ”You are going to ignore that, okay? Ever repeat that and I’ll bite you!” she said in a warning tone, her cheeks having turned a deep shade of pink.

”Night, Connery,” she said, watching as the material was stretched across all walls of the cage that could be hit with moonlight. Once covered, she flopped back into the pillow arrangement and sighed. Too much to think about this time over. Quidditch tactics, what she could do about Potter, how they would successfully hide any hint of a relationship from the world. If she kept going at this rate they’d been found out by the end of the week.

She just hoped he didn’t ask her too many questions when she turned up looking worse for wear and cranky the next morning.

The amount of pain she had to go through nearly always made Ame think about just curling up an dying. It was the worst feeling in the world and there was nothing they could do about it. Pain killers did nothing for supernatural pain. She could feel the twinge starting in the pit of her stomach. It bloody hurt – but it was only going to get worse before the night was out.

She groaned slightly and turned over, facing the wall. It was beginning.

[Adrian Connery]

His words had done exactly what they’d been intended to do. Adrian couldn’t help but to laugh.
“Ame you’re too fun to wind up,” he chuckled. It was and had been the highlight of every month for four years.
“I promise I’ll keep it a secret if you stop calling me Adie,” he said sarcastically. They both knew full well that Adrian would keep it a secret and Amelia would never stop calling him Adie, ever.

“Night Pace,” he said through a yawn. Surprisingly the floor felt pretty comfortable tonight. As he drifted to sleep Adrian watched the moonlight reflect through the window and dance on the ceiling. Across the room he heard Amelia groan and he inwardly cringed.
“Hang in there kid,” he said softly, this was the part of the night he hated most. When it was quiet and he could hear every groan and moan the poor girl uttered. Her pain gave him nightmares when he could hear it. All the advances in potion making and they couldn’t be stuffed to create one to take away werewolf pains. People didn't care because they thought people who were werewolves were evil, why did people have to be so God damn stupid and judgemental?