The Dangers of a Full Moon

[Kaleb Bane]

It had been an easy start of term so far, and it was drawing close to a month. Of course, to Kaleb the end of month brought a scary memory. Almost a month ago, When he was out looking for some potion ingredients for his mother in the forest behind where they lived, he had been attacked by a wolf. It'd frightened him, as you may expect, and as Kaleb had fell to the ground, its teeth had tore through the flesh on Kaleb's fore arm.
When his mother had gone out looking for kaleb, he had been unconscious and was loosing blood...

That had been the previous full moon, and thinking of the one in only a few days times brought fear to Kaleb's mind. Lucky for him, although his mother was a squib she was also very talented with potions. It was because of his mother he was here, at the owlery. She sent out a letter every week and Kaleb was sitting on the steps just outside the door waiting for it. He didn't get many letters, so it was easy enough to notice when one was for him.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar had had a busy time in the office as of late, it looked like there was a rogue werewolf on the loos as there had been a few attacks recently and lthough she was in werewolf support services not the werewolf capture unit she was still being asked to help as the capture unit was only a few people more there for tradition than to do aynything. and briar was getting the reputation for being the werewolf expert.
She entered her office one morning hoping to get some work done so she could leave half an our earlyer as she wanted to go out that evening for dinner. as soon as she saw her desk she saw that there was a file on it that hadnt been there the previous evening which meant that it was most likely something new and seeing the red tags in it she realised it was a new werewolf bite. she read the note that was left on the top

Briar this is now your case. as it is your area of expertise

this would most likely meen one thing, a student that had been bitten. she read through the few pages of documentation as quick as she could (which was rather slowly) before taking a fresh peice of parchment and writing a letter.

Dear Mr Kaleb Bane
My name is Briar Rowan and I am writing to introduce myself to you. I work for Werewolf Support services at the ministry of magic. and it is my job to make sure new werewoves are treated appropriatly, and get the support they need. I will tell you a little about myself. I am a werewolf and was bitten just over three years ago. I am nineteen years old and also attended Hogwarts new Zealand, graduating just over a year ago. I will be your support worker for as long as you need it. which is a fancy way of saying I am someone who will be there to help support guide and help you since you have been bitten.
There are a few things that you should know about werewolves which if you already know feel free to skip. being a werewolf is a condition that is bast between saliva blood contact from a transformed werewolf and a person. once "infected" (for want of a better word) with lycanthropy (the official name of the condition) you transform into a wolf during the full moon. for the rest of the time you are the same you. there is no cure for it though there is a wolfsbane potion that helps with the transformations enabling you to keep your own mind which really helps. If you want i can send you some as the next full moon approches. be warned. it tastes horrible and bitter however dont tahe it with sugar as then it won't work.
Socially it is important to remember you are still you you don't have to let being a werewof define you. in fact you don' have to tell anyone who you don't want to. however I would personally recommend if you have one or two close friends who you can trust with anything telling them as then you know if anything happens you will have someone on your side. however that is entirely up to you. a few of the profesors at you school know as they have to make arrangements for you, professor Kingsley in particular is really great.
If you have any questions about anything at all related to anything not necessarily lycanthropy. also if you want me to call you anything not your name then just let me know. I have charmed the name that it vanishes after you read it just in case you don't want it to be there.
Best wishes
Briar Rowan

Briar charmed where there the name was so that one the boy had read it it would vanish. she hoped that he was okay and wasn't too upset about things and that the letter would help him and she would get a reply.

 

[Kaleb Bane]

As Kaleb saw his mother's owl fly into the owlery, he stood up and walked through the doorway. As he picked up the letter and started reading it, smiling, an owl started squawking at him. "Shut it, will you? I'm trying to read!" He said the the bird, before looking down at the letter it held in its jaw.
Kaleb's eyes widened in surprise as he saw the name on the letter. As he cautiously took the letter from the owl, he became increasingly nervous. There was a ministry seal on the letter!

5 Minutes later he had forgotten about his mother's letter and was sitting on the steps outside the owlery again, mouth agape. Is... Is it true? The wolf that attacked him had been extremely big... and it had been a full moon... Could it really have passed on the curse to him? He thought, as he rolled up his sleeve to inspect what was left of the wound on his left arm. It was still red in places, and it was clear to Kaleb this wasn't a normal wound... If it was a normal wound, his Mother's potion would have healed it fully by now...

reaching into his cloak pocket, he tok out a piece of parchment and started writing a letter in reply.

Dear Miss. Rowan

First of all, may I ask... Is it 100% certain that a transferal of Werewolf saliva or blood into a normal person's blood will cause a transferral of the disease? I guess I should say Thank you for the letter... I had been wondering about why the wound wouldn't heal properly.

If I am really a werewolf, am I the only werewolf at hogwarts? Won't I be seen as an outcast if the secret gets out? I only just started here... How would I go about telling my closest friends? Does My mother even know?

Does it hurt? The transformation, I mean. and where will I be able to transform? I don't think I should just wait it out in my dorm, even with Wolfsbane. I don't want to freak out the other first years...

Thank you, and sorry this letter is all over the place... It's a bit of a shock...

K.B.

P.s. Since I have no idea of how you managed to make my name disappear, I'll just sign these letters with my initials...

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

It didnt take long for briat to get a reply from Kaleb. it was only the next morning when hte same owl appeared on the desk. she had learned by now not to use the owls too long or they got tired. she let the owl go back to where it stayed. read the letter and took a roll of parchment. and wrote a letter on it.

Dear KB.
as i was not there when you got attacked I can not say. though i am 99.9% sure that if it wasn't a werewolf then your file wouldn't have ended up on my desk. there are tests but the real confermation comes when it is a full moon comes. I am 100% sure that the disease s transfered from the saliva of a werewolf to a human. Actually I know a Healer who has made a ointment that helps heal werewolf bites. it doesnt stop the disease but it helps heal the wound. I had to use it once on my arm. I will go and see her and try and get you some.
You are not the only werewolf at hogwarts. I can't tell you who the other one is due to confidentiality however if you want me to tell them who you are then let me know. I have told them the same thing. you don;t have to tell them yet. maybe at some point it will feel natural to tell them. but don't feel rushed, and don't feel like you are holding back i think that is the key i think.
I am not going to lie to you. the transformations are painful. most painful when you are changing. the wolfsbane does help but it doesn't do much for the pain. there is a pace in the grounds called the howling cavern where you can transform in safety. I am sure you will be shown it soon. If you don't soon i will contact the school for you. I can also write to your mum and explain things to her.
Don't worry about it being all over the place. I am when i first found out my thoughts were all over the place too.
I think that is all for now
Briar
p.s. I used a charm. and please call me Briar, miss rowan makes me feel like i should be a lot more formal and official than i am.

Briar rolled the parchment up and sealed it, thinking how odd it was that he favourite part of her job was the thing she dreaded most at school, writing. she then found a nice looking eagle owl and sent it to the boy at her old school.

 

[Kaleb Bane]

The next day Kaleb had returned to the Owlery to await one of the letters from the werewolf at the ministry.
He had avoided his friends since he had recieved the first letter, unsure of what to say (if anything at all.)
Looking around the owlery for the owl that had sent the letter last time, Kaleb saw an eagle holding a similar letter instead. As he read it, Kaleb took out a piece of parchment and an envelope and immediately started writing a reply.

Dear Briar

Thank you for your reply. Would you be able to send some of said ointment to me? The remains of the bite are still rather painful and it's becoming increasingly hard to hide it from the others in my dorm. If it's too much trouble, I'll see about sending off for some with some of my pocket money...

Would you be able to tell me if the other werewolf has transformed before? Or if s/he is a First year? It'd be nice to know a bit more about other of my kind, especially how they managed to get through the start of the condition. And feel free to tell him/her about me. Just don't give them my full name, yet...

How would I go about retrieving Wolfsbane? Judging by how you said sugar would make it's effect fail, it must be a rather advanced potion... Therefore, wouldn't it be extremely hard to buy, or just plain expensive?

Well, Anyway. Thanks.

KB

P.s. IS there a book where I can learn how to perform that charm? It could become useful for pranking privacy.

After he wrote the simple 'KB' as his signature, he folded the parchment and sealed it in an envelope with some wax. It gave him an Idea... A signature that was less specific, yet that could also contain an eerie, mysterious aura... He walked back to his dorm elaborating on the idea while the ministry's bird flew off with his letter for Briar.

It seemed after only a day after he learned of his condition, he had already become used to it. Or at least, forgotten about what would happen on the full moon in a couple of day's time.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

It was couple of days later when Briar turned up to work to find two letters on her desk. she had the previous day gone to st mungos. she had needed to talk to one of the healers as well as put an order in for the wolfsbane. she had also used the time to call in and see Sunako, she had learned that the lady was the one who had suggested that Dee break up with her and caused the second worst six months of her life so there was always the uncertainty around her but she really did seem to know her things, and was interesting so she did forgive her. the six months were probably what they had needed but it had still been painful.
she read both letters first one from Kaleb and then one from Raziel and she replied to them in that order as Kalebs had arrived first.

Dear KB
Thank you for the letter. I have attached some of the ointment. it is unusual as you don't put it on the injury instead but i on the skin around it as it works be helping good skin grow not the wound to shrink. if you don't mind me asking mainly out of curiosity, where about is your bite? mine was my foot, and it is now covered in a rather nice tattoo.
The other wolf is a third year though he was only bitten this year. His name is Raziel. and he is in ravenclaw house.
you can get wolfsbane from the school nurse. or i can send you some. it is up to you. make sre that you drink it each day for the week before the full moon. it is expensive to buy because i is hard to brew correctly, however I am trying to work on some form of system where werewolves can get it cheeper as it is I believe partially the reason for wild werewolves is the cost of getting the potion.
anyway enough of my ramblings, you will get used to it some time
I hope you are good. and if there is anything i can do for you or if you just want to talk about something not wolf related just speak well write away.that is what i am here for.
briar rowan
P.s. I cant remember where that charm is from, there are some that i guess you just learn from all over the place as you move through school and after school.

she finished the letter and put another charm on the writing this time on raziel's name so the letters would look different to anyone but Kaleb and just spell random nothing.

 

[Kaleb Bane]

There was just a little more than a week until the full moon, and Kaleb was pleased when he recieved a letter from Briar. Reading over it, he started applying the ointment to the skin around the bite near his left shoulder.
Taking out his notebook, he flicked to his to-do list and added at the top "Visit Nurse for Monkshood concotion." As he wrote the the letter in reply, he couldn't help but feel thankful that he had noticed his first letter from Briar. If he hadn't, the others in his dorm may have recieved a bit of a shock in nine days time.

He had even finished his idea form the last letter, and had it ready with some sealing wax for when his letter was finished.

To Briar

Thanks for the ointment. It seems to already be working, and I only just applied it. My bite was just at the bottom of my left sholder, also tearing as some of my arm... I am inttrigued by the mention of the tattoo. Maybe I should get one for my werewolf bite when I'm older.

So he is also new to being a werewolf? I guess we'll meet at the next full moon...
I guess I'll go to the hospital wing to see about getting Wolfsbane, before making you any busier.

So, I hope you are also doing well. I hope you don't mind me asking, but... How were you bitten? And do you think it changed you? I mean, did it change who YOU were as a person? I'm still new the the whole prospect, and it's rather daunting...

Yours Sincerly, KB.

He folded the letter and placed it in a plain envolope where he wrote one word; Briar. On the back, he dripped a glob of hot wax and used the new seal he had made to close it off.

Spoiler: The Seal

Out of Character:

I was bored, so I went ahead and made that. I already had the idea from my last post.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

a day or so later Briar was sitting in her office working on a report about a rogue werewolf thoug her mind wasn't particually in it. the weather was perfect otside and she was itching to go for a run. maybe in her lunch break she would apparate somewhere nice and go running. glad that today she hadnt had any meatings so she was able to come to work in her own clothes that was a comfy pair of shorts a tshirt that read. Teenage wolfpack. once she returned she felt a little better, though she could feel her high levle of fitness slipping, she would have to run more often. even so she still couldnt face the thought of the report. thankfuly just as she entered the office so did an owl. she took the letter off it and fed it some owl treats she kept in her desk draw.
then she opened it smiling at the stamp holding it shut. he looked like someone who would react to things in a similar way as her though maybe not to the same extent.

Dear KB
I like the seal. unfortunatly i have to use my work one which is boring, not that i have a non work seal anyway.
I have a few tattoos, a wolf, a lion, one on each foot and a centur, and dragon on my back.
the other werewolf is new too only one transformation so far. the nurses in the hospitl are nice, I always tryed to see nurse finigon when i was there but they all seemed nice. but if you ever want wolfsbane just give me a shout.
my story fr bein bitten was an interesting one. I was spending the school holodays camping in the mountains of the south island. I was on my own and was just setting down for the evening with some rabbit stew when i heard someone walking up the mountain. I went and saw it wassomeone i had met before and o invited him for supper not knowing he was a werewolf or that it was a full moon. about half way through the stew he started to transform i ran as best as i could and tried to climb a cliff but he cought me and get my foot as i was to slow. that night was hell. and the next morning i managed to get myself to st mungos.
that next question is a tough one. i guess i have always been tough, loud and always stood up forwhat i believe in, but becoming a werewolf as given me a mission, bersonality wise, it has made me even more firery, though i dont know if tat was the being a werewolf or reacting to others reactions. though my mood swings have teneded to have gotten worse. my diet has changed. it was always rather primitive, fruit nuts, stews, but it has gained a lot more meat, i have become less rational not that i was rational in the first pace. and more hot headed. also energy seems to come in waves, the low around the full moon balanced by the high around the new where i can be buzzing for days. but like i said, it has given me a direction, and something to fight for better than my previous dream of playing quidditch professionally which i did do for a bit. other than that it has enabled me to get my job. and for some personal information my boyfriend. if i wasn't a werewolf i would never have met him. I can't think of much else to say on the matter. i will let you know if i think of anything else
Briar

she then rolled up and sealed the letter. maybe she should get a seal that didn't say werewolf support services. she decided to use the general ministry department one instead.