LEAH

Just leave it to me to fuck everything up.

I don't think I'd been able to hear Mollie and Zach because of the anger rushing through my head, making me deaf to everything but it. Either way, I had messed up - as usual. Only this time it was much, much worse than trying to scribble a Potions essay the very morning it's needed.

I'd probably freaked the poor bloke out when I told him he wasn't fully human, but like I said, the anger made me do it.

"Shit," I cursed under my breath and sat up in bed. "Did I really do that?"

Mollie hummed in response. "You sure did."

OK, Leah. Calm down. You've only exposed your entire species to two seemingly normal people. But wait, one of them was different. I know this is going to sound disgusting but one smelled human and one just didn't.

"Don't pull your fur out about it," said Mollie. "Everybody makes mistakes."

"Yeah," I breathed, looking at my hands already laced with black veins. Wolfbloods only 'vein up' in dire situations, such as this tornado I'd so wisely tossed myself into.

I swallowed. "Yeah. Everybody makes mistakes."

* * *

It took me around two weeks to come to a decision. When I finally did it was already a Dark Moon. Dark Moons are the same as new moons, except without the moon wolfbloods are pretty much useless.

I dragged myself to the Gryffindor table and tried not to look like I'd been trampled by a herd of rhinos. It was hard. My eyes skimmed over the table until I found the boy I was looking for, carefully stacking cornflakes one by one onto the forehead of another boy. It looked fun, but also like a complete waste of time.

I slowly approached them. When I turned round I saw Mollie and Zach giving me thumbs ups. They thought this was a good idea. I, on the other hand, wasn't so sure of what I was doing anymore.

The one with longer hair who'd convinced me to talk and not 'fight' looked up and nudged the boy who was staking the cornflakes and they both looked up at me. The boy whose forehead was being used as a foundation realized the stacking had stopped, and straightened himself, sending cornflakes flying everywhere across the table.

"Oh," he said, sounding shocked but I'm not sure he was. "I take it you're Leah?"

He held out his hand. I slowly shook it, trying to conceal the weirded out look I had on my face.

The boy pushed a pair of glasses up his nose and suddenly he looked more likely to get an 'Outstanding' in History of Magic or something.

"That's better," he said. "I'm James, these here are my good friends Sirius," –the one with longer hair gave me a wink;– "Remus," –he pointed to the one I'd pushed;– "and Peter." He indicated a pudgy sweet-looking boy. (no I don't mean sweet as in delicious.)

Sirius snorted. "Good friend, huh?"

"You couldn't last two seconds without us," said Peter.

"Oh yes I can," protested James.

"Can't," said Sirius. James stuck his tongue out at Sirius.

The whole time Remus hadn't said anything. He just kept staring at me with this funny look like he might just decide to stab me with his butter knife. I took the empty seat beside him.

"Do you want to know?" I asked. He seemed to have understood because his reply was,

"Right here?"

I shook my head. "Of course not here." There were too many people.

"Library?" he suggested.

"Perfect." I said, getting up and trying not to trip over myself as I walked towards Mollie and Zach. We walked to the Library in total silence, which was fine, although I could hear all my questioning thoughts much louder.

We sat at a table that was mostly blocked by bookshelves; the ideal place to reveal your most valued secret, which by the way had been kept a secret for the past 600 years. Oh hell, what was I doing?

"So let me get this straight," said Zach. He always said that right before he was about to dive into his 15 minute long presentation/lecture on how and why I shouldn't have done this or that. Normally I didn't mind and Mollie would stand behind him and make funny faces and I'd really struggle to keep a straight face. But today Mollie sat right beside me, and we listened - sort of - to Zach.

"You assumed two normal people–"

"One smelled human and one didn't." I interrupted.

"OK fine. But still, you were so angry that you just couldn't help but blurt out oh, I don't know, literally all wolfblood secrets and now you're going to tell them more?"

I opened my mouth slightly as if to urge something defensive out of my brain and onto my tongue, but my mind was void of anything but panic and worry. Instead I closed my mouth and bit the inside of my cheek. I usually did that when I was annoyed, or just about to break into a million pieces, like right then.

"Give her a break, will you?" said Mollie. "She's made a mistake, but she's trying to correct it. Can't you appreciate that?"

"I am appreciating it," said Zach, "but I'm also thinking about wolfbloods everywhere. What if they tell everyone?"

"They won't." I said quickly.

"How do you know?" asked Zach.

I didn't, but I didn't tell him that. "I can just... Feel it."

"Ah, wonderful!" cried Zach. "You can feel it."

"Yes, I can!" I said, standing up and banging my fists on the table. I could feel my eyes flash that dangerous, vibrant yellow.

"Stop!" said Mollie.

I looked at them both – they were glaring at each other. I sank back into my seat and buried my face in my hands. My arms, hands and neck were tingling; I was veining up.

"Leah?" Mollie put her arm on my shoulder. Zach pulled his chair next to mine.

"I just don't know what to do," I said. My voice came out muffled from behind my hands.

"It's fine. You'll figure it out, like you always do." said Mollie. Zach gingerly removed my hands from my face and I glowered at him through blurry eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I know I can be a prick sometimes but we'll always be here to help."

"We'll always be here to serve our alpha." said Mollie.

"I'm not your alpha," I mumbled.

"You are." Mollie insisted. "Well, unofficially, anyways."

 I couldn't help but smile at the thought, although the last thing I needed was a big head. 

 "There she is," said Zach, "Leah Aileen, proud alpha of our pack, consisting of only two wolfbloods, Mollie Flynn and Zachary Thomas."

 "Shut up, you sound like a madman." I said, but I couldn't stop laughing. My chest loosened up and I felt a little bit better about this whole 'explaining' thing.

Finally, Remus and his friends showed up. I still had my doubts about the two other guys, James and Peter, and before I could stop myself I asked,

"Are they trustworthy?"

Remus nodded. "Completely."

"So they know?"

"Yeah."

My heart halted for a second at his casual tone. They knew. This was going to be just about as easy as trying to scale a live dragon. Luckily, Sirius started the 'conversation' with the question I had been dreading the most.

"So what are you, exactly?" He asked, pulling up a chair.

I looked helplessly at Zach and Mollie, who both seemed rather keen on staying out of this. I took a deep breath and wondered what to say, but the words came tumbling out before I could bite them back.

"I'm a wolfblood."

The four boys looked at me quizzically before Sirius and James said in unison,

"Werewolf"

"No, wolfblood," I insisted.

"Are we talking about the same thing but just giving it a different name?" asked James.

"Ugh, synonyms. So much work," said Peter.

"I know right?" Sirius chipped in, "I always get 'vary your choice of words' at the end of every essay I write and I don't even know what that means."

James snorted. "Like you'd ever hand in an essay."

Remus cleared his throat and flashed all three of his friends warning looks.

"OK," he said, "So supposing you are a wolfblood - as you call it - could you please explain to us what a wolfblood is?" He gave me this look that made me wonder whether he was teasing or being genuine. He looked a whole lot better now that the moon was gone, which I thought was very unfair.

"I... Uh..." I knew this was coming but I didn't know how to explain that I had a little code in my genes that belonged to a wolf.

"I believe I have a few answers," said Mollie, appearing out of seemingly nowhere and piling up several dusty old books on the table. Zach grabbed one and lay it open, starting to read.

"The first wolfbloods were believed to have first appeared around seven to eight hundred years ago, inhabiting most of Northern Europe. Fossils and other traces suggest them dwelling in areas influenced by Germanic and Scandinavian culture such as Wales and Norway.

"Wolfbloods were once treated as normal people in the society, until the torturous reign of witch hunts began, which forced them into hiding. Wolfbloods, as is their primal nature, retreated into the forests and have since evolved little in terms of technology and so on. 

 "One common speculation is that wolfbloods are the same as werewolves, and although some research has been conducted in the area, the fact still remains that wolfbloods and werewolves do in fact share quite a number of lycanthropic related signs and symptoms such as eating slightly undercooked meat and having periods of uncontrollable anger.

 "Up until 1689 when the Statute of Secrecy was put into play, wolfbloods quite effortlessly interacted with humans and magical beings, but later on the Statute confined them to specific solitary areas. This law did not go through without affecting a good number of lycanthropes (werewolves) as well. However current debates are centered around whether it is indeed werewolves' fault and wish to exist, or whether somewhere along the bloody past of the Wizarding World there simply was some tragic accident."

 Remus scoffed. "'Trying to decide whether it is werewolves' fault and wish to exist.' What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" 

 Our eyes met and I, being stupid and sleepy, didn't think of looking away until it was too late and he had read the emotions in my eyes. 

 "But, you wolfbloods want to live, right?" he asked. 

 "It's not a matter of wanting to live," I said. "It's a matter of survival."

 "Of the fittest," added James. 

 "Would you stop doing that?" I snapped. 

 "Doing what?" James asked innocently and in that moment I realized I had just given myself a whole lot of work. 

 "So... do you transform at full moon?" Peter asked. He seemed like a nice person, apart from the fact there was something funny about him; no matter how hard I tried I couldn't bring myself to genuinely trust him. 

 "Yeah, but we call it 'turning' instead," Mollie chipped in, "it would be a bit weird to go round mentioning 'transform' everywhere you go." 

 They nodded their heads in understanding. 

 "Can you do that thing again?" Sirius asked. I couldn't help myself from rolling my eyes. 

 "What?" I asked. 

 "The eye thing," he said. "You know, the one where your eyes go all yellow and you look like a complete maniac carnivore and–"

 He didn't finish because Remus gave him a sharp nudge, glaring at him, meaning : shut up.

"Let's get one thing straight," I said, "I'm not here for your amusement. If you ask me to do the eye thing one more time I will rip your eyeballs out." 

 That shut him up good.

Silence blanketed us for a few minutes until Mollie spoke. 

 "What kind of a bullshit book is this?" she asked angrily. Ignoring the glares she received from the other students she slammed a book on top of our table. It was rare for Mollie to curse like that; she only did so when it was really needed, like now. 

 I went livid just looking at the stupid title embossed in golden cursive lettering against a deep crimson cover. 

 'Lycanthropes and the Problems They Pose to a Peaceful Wizarding Community.' 

What the fuck?

 My hands started to tingle. A network of black veins popped up on my skin. All the boys let go of the book immediately they saw me vein up. Maybe they were scared I'd bite their fingers off or something.

 "Ever since the first lycanthropes appeared around the 12th Century AD, things have taken a drastic change– check the publishing date." said Zach hastily. Mollie hastily flipped the pages to the front of the book. 

 "1952," she said.

 "That's not too long ago," said James. Remus stared at the book like he wanted to pulverize it.

 "And that's only one of the problems we face– wolfbloods and werewolves." I said. Then Remus gave me this look like I had just announced his mother's death. It was pitiful and sad and angry. I just couldn't tell if he was feeling pitiful for himself or me.  

* * *

Mollie is the only person I know who understands Quidditch. She's also the one who dragged me to watch the first match of the season, Ravenclaw versus Slytherin.

 I sat in the stands and cheered for Ravenclaw as Mollie tried to explain what was going on. 

 "See that big one – the red one – that's the Quaffle. Slytherin's in possession now," she said.

 "I know what a Quaffle is, thanks," I said.

 "Good. Now the bludgers–"

 "–The zooming balls–"

"–Yes. Ravenclaw's doing a good job with them," said Mollie. Only she understood what that meant because she had to duck a good number of bludgers whenever she was practicing. All I saw was each team's two Beaters madly swinging at the two bludgers as though they were trying to swat them away like flies.

 Throughout the match Ravenclaw was ahead by thirty points, which I thought was pretty good until one of the Slytherin players dove directly towards the ground and instantly the game was over, Slytherin winning. 

 "Caught the Snitch, then?" I asked.

 "Yep." said Mollie.

 "A hundred and fifty points," added Zach from behind his book. I don't even know why he allowed Mollie to drag him out as well; he didn't even lift his eyes once from the book.

Slowly, the stadium began to empty. I would have left it if I hadn't been distracted by a head that looked relatively close to Sirius, but I was sure that Sirius was in Gryffindor.

"Coming?" asked Zach.

"I'll just be a minute," I said. Darkness was beginning to crawl in. I lingered around and before long it was only me left, as well as the other boy who seemed to be glaring at something in the stands.

I shuffled my feet and tried to crane my neck to see what he was looking so murderously at. Then I saw it.

At first I thought they were twins but then to me Sirius looked older than the boy glaring at him. I walked over to Sirius, my footsteps hollow against the wooden beams. We were the only ones on the pitch.

Sirius looked strange, standing alone, mirroring the glare he was receiving. But his glare was somehow softer, as if he was actually more sad than annoyed. Right then he just seemed like a regular, hurting human.

"Is that your twin?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Brother."

Sirius' brother turned around and began walking off the pitch. Sirius turned and gave me a look that drove a crack right down the middle of my heart. Then he too turned and began following his brother.

"Wait!" Sirius called, but the boy seemed to ignore him, pushing along earnestly through the corridors. We had to jog at some places to keep up with him.

"Regulus, wait!" Sirius called again. So that was his name. OK. Fancy names. I liked it.

Regulus didn't turn back, but instead snapped a reply.

"What do you want?"

Sirius hesitated and then picked up his pace. We were slowly descending – probably headed towards the dungeons and the Slytherin Common Rooms.

"You guys played really well," said Sirius. I could hear his voice straining with each word.

Regulus didn't reply.

"You guys might even win the Cup this year," continued Sirius.

"Or maybe it will be you and your mudblood friends," Regulus said snarkily. I looked at Sirius to see his reaction but I found him liking back at me, his lower lip held between his teeth.

"You don't have to call them that," said Sirius. We had stopped walking – I suppose we had reached.

"Pray tell, dear brother, what term am I supposed to use instead of mudblood?" sneered Regulus.

"Look, I didn't come here to argue, OK?" said Sirius. "I've nothing against you. I'm not going to fight you."

Regulus' face twitched slightly as he raised his wand.