Through the dark, silent halls of Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter, a third-year student, walked aimlessly as he tried to relax enough to fall asleep when he returned to his dormitory. Sometimes, a brisk walk in the cold castle tired Harry out, but after waking up from a nightmare of the Grim dog chasing him through the Forbidden Forest, he was struggling to calm his mind enough to fall back to sleep. Perhaps he could talk to one of his professors.

            Of course, there was only one professor he could trust to go to at this time of night and face minimal punishment, a detention of writing lines maybe. Professor Remus Lupin was a new professor to the school, but so far, he was Harry’s favorite and the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher the school ever had. And come to find out, Remus had also been a friend of Harry’s deceased parents, mainly his father, and they spent many evenings discussing Remus’s school days with James Potter over a spot of tea. It always brought a smile to Harry’s face, and he was sure it would help him get over his silly nightmare tonight.

            No, he shouldn’t be wandering the castle on a chilly January night—especially with a murderer out for his blood—and he’d probably get a brief tongue lashing from Remus when he knocked on his office door at first, but Remus always calmed down quickly and knew just what to say to make everything right again. It would be fine; he was sure of it.

            Harry pulled out his wand and the Marauder’s Map, a map of the entire school that revealed everyone’s current location. He cast lumos, and a gentle light illuminated the map for him, and he studied everyone’s position. Remus was in his quarters attached to his office, which was perfect for Harry. However, Mr. Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts, was lurking the hallways, and he was walking down the same hallway as Harry was.

            Harry flicked his wand, cancelling the charm to surround himself in darkness once more. He didn’t have his invisibility cloak with him tonight, so he would have to move quickly and get out of sight before Filch could catch up to him.

            Shoving the map in his pocket, Harry walked a bit faster, heading directly for Lupin’s office door. Another turn down a hall and down one flight of stairs brought him to the office door he needed, and he knocked on the door firmly. He could hear Filch’s steps behind him picking up pace, and he knocked loudly once more, cursing silently. He was not getting caught by Filch tonight. Maybe Remus was a heavy sleeper, and that was why he wasn’t answering the door. He was sure Remus wouldn’t mind if he broke into his office. At least, after he explained why he broke in.

            Harry raised his wand and tapped the doorknob.

            “Alohomora,” Harry whispered.

            The door did not unlock.

            “Alohomora!” Harry hissed through his teeth. The door still didn’t click open. What kind of locking spell did Remus keep on his door? Figures, he was trying to break into the teacher’s office whose job was defense.

            Filch was practically running down the hall now, and Harry desperately threw every bit of energy he had into his next try.
            “Alohomora!” he shouted.

            Several sparks shot off the doorknob before the door creaked open with a reluctant groan. Harry ran inside and slammed the door shut behind him, locking it manually from the inside. He leaned against it and waited as the footsteps paused outside.

            He heard Filch mumble about hearing someone, then the doorknob rattled, and Harry held his breath. After a few seconds, the doorknob went still and Filch began walking down the hall and away from the office door, his boots clicking on the ground.

            Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

            He was sure he would be in trouble with Remus, but far less so than if Filch had caught him.

            Turning to face the office, Harry smiled at the bookshelves of fascinating objects around him. Usually, there was a dark creature in a cage or a tank sitting on the shelves or near the massive mahogany desk that took up the center of the room. Surprisingly, there were no creatures to be seen anywhere. Harry frowned at a tipped over goblet sitting on the desk. The contents of the goblet were spilled over a stack of parchment that was scattered haphazardly across the desk, as if someone had been in a hurry to grab the goblet and knocked it over. Harry stepped closer, touching the fraying ends of the parchment.

            A noise caught Harry’s attention in the adjacent room. The door was slightly ajar, and a muffled grunting and ripping sound came from within the confines.

            “Remus?” Harry called out as he slowly moved toward the door. “Are you okay?”

            Harry tapped the door, causing it to swing open the slightest on its own, but it was enough to see what was happening in the room.

            There was stuffing and splintered wood everywhere from the ruins of furniture, tables and walls included. The chair looked like it had exploded as there was nothing left of the back support, only a shredded seat with destroyed arms. The dining table was broken into three parts and every end was chewed up, along with the two dining chairs. The walls had scratches and holes everywhere, and many smaller items were knocked over. A glass coffee table had been flipped, and the glass top part was shattered.

            And currently, a large, thin wolf was tearing the couch to tiny bits, its thick black claws ripping at the cushions while white fangs bit into the lining, tearing large chunks out.

            Harry gasped, taking a step back.

            The wolf dropped the fuzz in its mouth and turned yellow eyes on Harry, sniffing the air.

            It leaped for him, and Harry dropped to the ground and rolled away as the wolf landed inches away from him, the door slamming open, creating a shield between Harry and the wolf. It snarled as it sniffed the air.

            Harry quickly crawled to the nearest shelter he had—the desk. He squeezed himself under it and hugged his knees to his chest, his heart racing and his breaths heavy, but he forced himself to close his mouth and breath slowly through his nose to avoid making any noise.

            Unfortunately, the wolf had pushed him in the opposite direction of the exit, and he was now trapped in the office with a mad werewolf. Harry put a hand over his mouth to really muffle his sounds as he heard the wolf snuffing and grunting while stalking through the office on four lanky but strong looking limbs. Where on earth had the wolf come from? Was it something Remus had captured for their next lesson, and it escaped? Or worse—was the wolf Remus?

            Harry flinched as he heard the desk crunch a bit, parchment fluttering down in front of him. He froze, his eyes widening as he realized the wolf was leaning over the desk, its front paws digging into the wood as it turned its head this way and that, its nose twitching.

            The wolf pulled back and dropped down to all fours once more, its tail knocking the goblet off the desk.

            The clang the goblet made was sharp and echoed in the room, and Harry jumped, especially as the wolf spun around and attacked the goblet with a loud snarl, thrashing its head as it crunched the goblet in its jaws. As it was preoccupied with the goblet, Harry carefully crawled out from under the desk and moved to the side the wolf was not on, and from this angle he could see the office door.

            All he had to do was make a run for it, and he would be free.

            Harry was about to move when the room fell silent, and he froze, unsure what that meant.

            A moment passed when he heard low growling, and he glanced to his left to see the snout of the wolf inching further and further forward from behind the desk, the black nose sniffing intently.

            It was right next to him, all it had to do was look around the side of the desk and it would have him. Feeling a shiver down his back, Harry made a quick decision of back crawling away as fast as he could, back into the cubby under the desk. It was just in time as well, as the wolf shot forward and snapped at the empty space on the side of the desk. It sniffed the area, then huffed as it looked around the room, letting out a small howl before trotting through the office space.

            Harry peeked out from under the desk, then crawled toward the side to see where the wolf was. There was a clear path to the office door, all Harry had to do was run for it. It was his only chance of getting out. There was no way he would survive all night with a werewolf in close proximity. Harry crawled a bit more around the desk, looking every which way for the wolf. He swore he had just seen it a second ago sniffing the bookshelves, but it wasn’t there now. There was still a clear path to the door.

            He had to take his chance.

            Harry jumped to his feet and ran for the door, grabbing the knob and turning it.

            It did not open.

            Cursing himself for forgetting he had manually locked it, Harry undid the lock, then fell backward to the ground as the wolf slammed itself into the door in an attempt to grab Harry.

            Once again, the wolf blocked the door as it turned after Harry, its yellow eyes locked on the fallen child wo was back crawling away, and it stalked its prey with ears pinned down and canines flashing.

            Harry reached for his wand and pointed it at the wolf, trying to think of the best spell to use against it.

            “Stupefy!” Harry shouted just as the wolf pounced for him.

            The spell hit the wolf, knocking it back a few feet, and it landed on all four feet in an upright position, though it was still.

Harry backed away and sat up some as he stared at the wolf, unsure if it was stunned or not.

Then the wolf shook itself out before glaring at Harry, teeth bared.

            Harry’s jaw dropped. The spell hadn’t had the full intended effect against the werewolf. And now he had succeeded in making it angrier. He vaguely recalled Snape’s impromptu lesson on werewolves a couple months back but he had not done the homework yet when Remus decided no one had to complete it in the next lesson, much to Hermione’s disappointment. What was something that worked against wolves? What had Snape said?

            The wolf made a strange half-bark-growl noise as it ran for Harry, who jumped to his feet and ran around the desk, sliding to a halt as the wolf jumped on the desk and tried to bite him as he passed, forcing Harry to retreat the other way.

            He ran straight for the door, but just as he reached the knob, he felt sharp teeth sink into his shoulder, and he screamed as he was yanked to the ground and dragged away from the door.

The wolf thrashed its head, jerking Harry around on the floor as he struggled to whack at the wolf with his fists, kicking futilely in its grasp. Harry cried from the pain as the wolf bit down harder, and tears streamed down his cheek while trickles of blood dripping from his shoulder.

            Releasing his shoulder, the wolf stepped over Harry, pinning him to the floor with a massive paw, eyes darting between Harry’s neck and head like it was deciding which would be a swifter kill. Harry stared up at the wolf with glassy eyes, his shoulder throbbing, but despite it, he raised his hand just enough to point his wand at the wolf.

            “Expelliarmus!” Harry screamed.

            The wolf flew and smashed into the wall on the other side of the room, and it slid to the ground, momentarily dazed.

            Despite the pain, Harry jumped to his feet and ran for the door, opening it and slamming it shut behind him just as the wolf jumped for the door. Harry cast a locking charm on the door as the wolf snarled, howled, and screamed from within, the noises so loud he was sure the rest of the school was hearing it. Harry slowly slid to the ground, hugging his knees once more, the yells and shrieks of the wolf loud in his ears as he felt every scratch and thump on the door. Hogwarts was known for episodes of haunting sounds, but being right at the source, it was terrifying and disconcerting.

            Harry sobbed, hiding his face in his knees. He had never been so afraid in his life, not even the times he had faced Voldemort on the back of Quirrell’s head or even the basilisk in the chamber. This topped everything. And for someone he trusted to be the monster to do this . . . He didn’t understand how werewolves worked, but from his understanding, they did not often remember what they did in wolf form. Which made this even worse.

            And bites transformed the curse.

            Harry’s shoulder was swelling up and ached furiously. He was going to turn into a beast now. Like Remus was. And that thought terrified him.

            But who could he tell? If Remus didn’t remember tonight, and Harry exposed him, Remus would never forgive himself. And he would be sacked for sure. Harry couldn’t ruin the man’s life after everything he fought for to get to this point.

            And what of himself? Would they lock him up somewhere—away from the other students? Would he be expelled for being out after curfew? This was all his fault after all, Remus could hardly be to blame. His door had been locked and everything. Harry had just been a reckless, foolish imbecile as Snape would say. The headmaster might force him to leave the school, and it wasn’t like he could go back to the Dursleys like this. They had no protection against creatures like him.

            All Harry felt was fear. Fear for the unknown life ahead of him, and fear for the monster he would soon become.

            No, no one could find out about what happened tonight.

            For Remus’s sake.

            And for his own sake.