Herbert Fleet got up from bed and glanced over at Cedric Diggory, asleep across the room. He'd had a horrid dream, an awful-bad-terrible dream and he couldn't shake the feeling of it.

Cedric had taken a time falling asleep, too, Herbert had heard him tossing and turning and he didn't fancy waking his mate up now that he'd finally drifted off, but blimey would it have been nice to see his eyes open and hear his voice curse Herbert's name for waking him up. Pausing to see that he was breathing steadily on the way by the bed on the way out of the dormitory would have to do.

He scuffed into his slippers and slipped out of the dormitory, down the winding hallway, past the other rooms and into the central common room and set himself down in front of the fireplace, sitting down on the carpet crisscross apple sauce and watching the flickering fire.

The house elves were still cleaning up in the common room, one was dragging a levitating bag of laundry behind him and another putting textbooks back on shelves, pencils back in drawers. Another was clearing away tufts of cat hairs that had snowed down from the curled up felines that lined the rafters.

"Why is you up? You isn't being able to sleep?" asked a house elf with bright eyes. He was wearing two different socks, one on each foot, a tiny hat on his head that looked like it belonged once to a stuffed animal or a doll.

"No, sorry. Had a nightmare."

The elf nodded and continued on with his job of dusting away the cat fur on the ground. Herbert noticed he wore one of the badges Cedric hated so much but the elf had some how rigged it so the top half had the SUPPORT of the support Cedric Diggory side and the face of Harry Potter from the POTTER STINKS side both showing. Clever little thing, he thought, and he watched the elf wander away, dusting as he went.

When he was mostly alone, the elves finishing up just a bit after two, Herbert dug about in his pockets and pulled out a photo - old and a bit worn out from years of being held and carried about - a photo of himself and Cedric Diggory when they were kids, just little mates running about in the summer with fruit stained lips and sun-coloured freckles.

He -Herbert, that is - had always been a scruffy kid. His hair was aways unkempt, clothes always worn out, and his two canine teeth were more prominent than most of the other kids he knew. Most people never thought anything of it. Thing was, though, there was a reason for it.

Herbert's mother was a werewolf, and possibly his father, too, though he didn't know a thing about his father at all, and what he knew of his mother was only bits and pieces, things like her name, a blurry photograph, and the story of how he had been rescued as a very small child from the pack that she called her family.

Wendy Brighton had been turned while pregnant, which was how he became infected with lycanthropy before he was born. The blood that ran through his still developing body was infected and if he hadn't been so far developed, he would have died when her changing changed him as well. It was so rare for a pregnant mother not to lose the child in the process of transforming that a superstitious mediwitch at Mungo's kept the baby when she was commanded to destroy him, as was often customary with lycathropics prematurely born due to the transformation.

The mediwitch, Norma Voortman, took the child home and tried at raising him herself, but she was single and the baby was hard to care for with his special needs, being a werewolf cub, and she held such long hours at Mungo's, that she couldn't keep him herself. It was less than a year before she knew she couldn't keep him forever. And about that time, rumors were spreading about the town - rumors of a werewolf pack taking up residence in the castle on the hill.

It was a tourist destination - school children with their teachers and middle-aged Americans with cameras crowded the halls of the castle most days - but there were entire levels of the castle buried in the mountain, not open to the public, and it was there, rumor had it, that the pack of Blackburn resided. So it was that Norma Voortman left the baby, in a basket, wrapped in cloths, with a note which explained why she was leaving him - and a plea for the pack to care for him.

It was a man named Carl who found the basket, brought it to his Alpha, who helped assign the baby to the family of George and Greta Fleet, members of the pack. The pack broke up in 1981, when their Alpha went into hiding, and George and Greta Fleet, along with their son, moved from Blackburn to the small town of Ottery St. Catchpole, where they lived next door to a family called Diggory.

Herbert Voortman Fleet became the best of friends with Cedric Diggory, as did Greta Fleet with Mrs. Diggory, and even George with Mr. Diggory...

The Diggorys were very nice to the Fleets, very nice indeed, and they all became very good friends who spent most evenings together, apart from the once a month "visits to London" the Fleets made to George's elderly mother's home. The Fleets did not know that the Diggorys were wizards and the Diggorys did not know that the Fleets were werewolves. They lived in perfect harmony for several years, completely unaware of the sort which lived next door.

Cedric and Herbert were the first to know each other's secret and it happened because of a bit of accidental magic. Herbert and Cedric were and running about as they always did in the summer when Cedric's foot caught a tree root and he went down, twisting his ankle with a sickening crunch. It had Cedric keeling in pain and Herbert panicking for his best friend's well being. They were off in the woods, a good way away from home, and there was no way that Cedric could walk on the twisted ankle. When Herbert grabbed onto him, wishing so hard to be at home, and they suddenly were in the Fleet's backyard, they were both astonished.

"How'd you do that?" Cedric asked.

"Dunno," Herbert replied.

"You can only disapparate when you're licensed and you have to be seventeen!" Cedric had said. "Wait - are you a wizard?"

"What's disapparate?" Herbert had replied.

The Fleets were muggle werewolves and though they were aware of the the magical community because of their Alpha's magical abilities, they were not fond of it because of the Werewolf Restriction Act that dictated what they could and could not do. They kept the magical world out of their lived as much as possible, afraid to be found out by the Ministry for what they were - so to find out their adopted son was a wizard was rather terrible news. It made Greta cry with implications of the horrible things the Restriction Act could bring upon her family, and George shudder with the thought of how horribly hard Herbert's life was destined to be if he were registered. The fear of what might happen if the Diggorys found out about their furry little secret had them up late at night talking about what to do. It would be only a matter of time before the laws regarding underage magic would kick in if Herbert kept having bouts of accidental magic, and, when they did, they were terrified that they would have to admit that Herbert was an unregistered werewolf, as were both parents, and the law would most certainly not be in their favor. Since Herbert had been adopted by appointment within the pack, his adoption may not even be considered legal, they worried, and wondered if the Ministry would take him away.

"The only thing to do is wait and see what happens, and if the push comes to shove we can go to Iceland, to the Alpha's sanctuary," George Fleet decided, and so they waited.

Cedric, however, thought it was great news that Herbert was a wizard and the boys started talking about magic quite a lot. Cedric told Herbert about Hogwarts and Quidditch and all the brilliant things that they would get to do together as they grew up. "Why aren't you more excited about Hogwarts?" Cedric asked when they were talking about the school once, when they were about nine.

"Because," Herbert hesitated, "I dunno if I'll be able to go."

"Why wouldn't you be able to go?" Cedric laughed, "You're magical, of course you will."

"Well Greta says some things are - are different - for me."

"Why?" Cedric asked, confused.

Herbert had stared at his best friend. He'd been told a hundred times to never-never-never tell anyone about his Condition. People don't understand, son, George had told him. They just don't understand. But Herbert thought that Cedric would understand. Cedric, who had stayed by him through thick and thin, through all the troubles a young boy could have - bullies and mischief and the sort. Certainly Cedric would stay by him through this.

And he did.

Cedric understood.

And soon enough Cedric was sneaking him comics books to take with him to read on the "visits to see his gran" and writing him notes, encouraging him to be brave and not to forget that he wasn't a monster but rather the very best friend that a boy could ask for.

The Fleets did not move until the news that Amos Diggory had received a promotion. He was promoted from the Department of House Elf Assignment to the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures, and even as the Fleets celebrated with the Diggorys the night Amos came home with the news, George was squeezing Greta's fingers in fear under the table.

They left in the dead of night.

Herbert begged and begged to be allowed to keep in touch with Cedric, but it was utterly forbidden to tell anyone where they were going, where they would be hidden...

Herbert had been separated from his only friend for two years. And it had been a terrible two years. He missed Cedric, missed having someone to talk to, someone who appreciated his jokes and mischief, who shared his comics and would play games like quidditch with him. The time in Iceland was very lonely. They were the only family living at the Sanctuary and the town was terribly small and boring.

Herbert had never been more thankful than the moment Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had arrived at the Sanctuary and offered Herbert Fleet a place at his school.

And he had never been more excited than the day he arrived at the castle and was climbing out of the little boat, to hear a familiar voice scream his name with excitement.

"HERBERT!"

He looked 'round and found himself wrapped up in a hug from Cedric Diggory.

They climbed the entryway stairs to the Great Hall and were ushered in by Minerva McGonagall, who told them to wait to be sorted.

"We break apart the group at whole to bring together the similar of soul," the Sorting Hat had sung, "And so by your heart I shall see, which house your best fit will be!"

Cedric looked to Herbert. "I hope we're together."

Herbert had nodded, too scared to speak.

Diggory had been sorted Hufflepuff before the hat had even touched his head all the way.

"Fleet, Herbert!" called McGonagall.

Herbert climbed onto the plinth and sat upon the stool and the hat had landed on his head. "Hmmm, interesting," a voice had murmured.

"Oh. Hello," Herbert had said, startled.

"Hello," the voice had said. Then, "Another werewolf... Dumbledore certainly has his soft spot, doesn't he? Oh don't worry, Master Fleet. Nobody else can hear us, nor does anyone else get to know what we spoke of here."

"Oh good. Because nobody knows."

"Not... nobody," the hat said. "Your little friend Diggory knows, doesn't he?"

"Did he - did he tell you?"

"I can see your minds and your hearts, your futures and your pasts, Master Fleet."

Hebert shifted nervously, then blurted out, "Please let me be sorted with my friend. Please! I need him, he's the only one who knows and understands, who cares. I can't do this alone!"

The hat was silent for a long moment. "Sorting you ti Hufflepuff would provide you support of your friend... but I also see hard days ahead for you in Hufflepuff. If you were to be Gryffindor... you'd make friends. Perhaps better friends than even Cedric Diggory has been. Certainly very amusing friends if nothing else!"

"There is no better friend than Cedric Diggory," Herbert said solemnly.

"Very well, you are a loyal friend, unafraid of the hard days. Very well. Best to be HUFFLEPUFF!!"

Herbert had gasped in relief as McGonagall pulled the hat from his head, and he leaped from the plinth to his best mate's welcoming high five and a great deal of clapping and celebration.

Inseparable was a word for Herbert and Cedric, and Herbert swore that he would never let Cedric be taken from his life again.

Cedric was the one who snuck out of the dormitory on full moon nights to sit in a private library-like room with the wolfsbane-treated Herbert, sleeping on the couch like an owner with a docile lap dog. Cedric was the one who shared his spending money so they could buy toys and sweets at Honeyduke's and who sat up at night in the common room with Herbert talking late into the night when Herbert's limbs ached so badly from moon cycle pains. It was Cedric who spoke up in Defense when the teacher that year had taught the werewolf section of the curriculum - defending their humanity when the teacher tried to call them halfbreeds and act as though they were less than human. Cedric who Herbert told everything to.

Well. Nearly everything.

Herbert, of course, had known who Remus Lupin was the moment the Professor had introduced himself, but he was unable to tell Diggory.

He was bound to keep his Alpha's secret.

But that was neither here or there - not at the moment, at least. At the moment what was pressing was the fear in Herbert's chest - the worry that he might lost Cedric Diggory again.

He turned, spotting a house elf still sweeping away cat hair, humming and tugging his hat on straighter. "Hey," he said, "Elf? Can you, er, help me out with something?"

"Dobby is my name, sir, and Dobby is happy to help, sir!"

"Help me figure out how to defeat a dragon?"