Harry managed to stumble on his way to a nearby classroom. He ran into the edges of a few tables, bruising his hips, then he tripped and fell over a chair, nearly striking his jaw against the hard floor. His teeth caught his lip when he jerked his head to avoid it hitting the ground, and he tasted blood in his mouth. Pushing to his feet, Harry forced himself to stagger over to the shelves in the storage closet in the back of the classroom.

            He threw things off the shelves in his search for supplies. He found a few old vials with smeared names on the labels, but Harry threw all caution to the wind that they were pain relievers and drank them down. One reminded him of the taste of a minty Pepper-Up while the other was simply repulsive, but some of the pain in his shoulder subsided the slightest, reducing the bite wound to a dull ache rather than sharp stabbing jolts. Harry shuffled through more supplies in the closet, knocking more things off before he found bandage material and a jar of dittany salve. The jar was old and covered in dust, but Harry was hopeful it still contained some healing properties.

            With zombie-like movements, Harry made his way over to a chair and set the bandage material and salve down on the desk. He pulled off his robe and removed his pajama shirt, exposing the wound.

            There were four deep punctures in his shoulder that turned into jagged cuts from the way the werewolf had dragged him. It wasn’t bleeding like it was moments earlier, but it was very swollen and red. Harry scooped up a generous amount of the dittany salve and gingerly applied it to the wound, hissing as he did so.

            The salve had a cooling effect, and Harry let out a small sigh of relief as the inflammation went down a bit, and he rolled his shoulder a couple times. With the practiced ease he learned while living with the Dursleys, Harry wrapped his shoulder with the bandage material, making sure to apply enough pressure to reduce the swelling but not enough to cut off blood flow. When his arm was wrapped, Harry leaned over the desk and rested his head in his arms, fighting back more tears. Minutes later, he fell asleep from the physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion of the night.

            “He was crying up a storm last night,” Severus snapped at Albus as he paced back and forth in front of the headmaster’s desk, his long black robes flowing behind him while his hair flicked with every agitated turn of the potion professor’s head. “Howling and screaming—he clearly forgot to take his potion. And what’s worse, the students heard him. They’re all talking about what could have possibly been causing the noise. All the what-ifs they’re coming up with . . .”

            “He was contained in his rooms, Severus,” Albus said tiredly. “Even if he had missed his potion, he was unable to leave his rooms. His door is always spelled lock with extraordinary runes and spells that would require quite a gifted wizard to break through.”

            Before Severus could reprimand Albus for foolishly hiring a werewolf some more, there was a quite knock on the door before it opened, revealing Remus Lupin. Remus’s hair was sticking up every which way and his robes were disheveled. His brown eyes still had yellow flecks in them, and he seemed a bit unsteady on his feet as he stumbled into the headmaster’s office, accidentally slamming the door behind himself. Remus winced at the noise before he collapsed in front of the headmaster’s desk.

            “I bit someone,” Remus whispered.

            There was silence in the room. Severus’s eyes widened and he felt anger swell in his chest. He glanced at Albus, who was still sitting behind his desk, his eyes on Remus, but the older wizard’s eyes had crinkled with concern.

            “You must be mistaken,” Albus said. “No one could have gotten through the wards set on your office.”

            “But someone did,” Remus insisted in a louder voice. He slowly stood up, gesturing wildly to his face. “I can smell it. All over me, my office, my desk. There was blood on the floor that wasn’t mine. I’ve bitten someone.”

            Albus paled considerably while Severus pointed his wand at Remus.

            “I knew this was a terrible idea,” Severus snarled. “You forgot your potion, didn’t you? All it takes is one missed dose and what do you get? A savage uncontrollable beast. Once again, you were mistaken for putting your trust in the likes of him, Albus. Look at what’s happened now. A student could very well have been devoured.”        

            “No,” Remus was quick to say, shaking his head and closing his eyes. “I would know. Whoever it was escaped.”

            “And for all we know, they may have suffered a severe scratch,” Albus said almost hopefully. “We must search the school for the injured party and set things straight. We need to see what the extent of the injury is and take the necessary precautions to keep this individual safe.”

            “If they have not bled to death somewhere,” Severus snapped, glaring at Remus, his wand still on the werewolf.

            “We must alert Poppy,” Albus said. “We will search the school first, and if we need to, perhaps we’ll arrange for a mandatory health check on all the students.”

            “I will stay to assist in finding this person,” Remus said, “for I owe them an apology, though no words will take back the suffering I’ve now caused them. At this time, I would like to hand in my resignation, effective immediately. I cannot take the risk of this happening ever again. Severus is right, it is too dangerous for me to be in a school full of children. I was foolish to forget my potion till the last minute, then in my rush to take it, I knocked it over. I cannot be trusted to stick to the regimen of the Wolfsbane, I clearly cannot be trusted to remain in this school either.”

            “He should leave immediately,” Severus said. “I dare say he’s caused enough damage.”

            “Severus,” Albus said, “please lower your wand. Remus is no threat at this time.”

            “I beg to differ. The effects of the full moon could still be felt at this early hour. He could act out in a fit of rage any minute.”

            “Highly unlikely, now lower your wand, Severus. We have a lot of work to do, and Remus can be of help. He’ll be able to sense who had been recently turned if anyone has.” Albus waited for Severus to lower his wand and pocket it away, though the surly professor did not stop glaring at Remus in the slightest. Albus continued, looking at Remus. “Are you sure you want to resign, Remus? We are not even sure of the circumstances that led to whatever happened last night.”

            “I can’t stay after this!” Remus nearly jumped back away from the desk. “My worst fears have come true, Albus. I will not stay here and risk it happening again, I . . . I just can’t. Do not force this upon me. I will do anything I can to make up for my sins, but not that.”

            “We learn from our mistakes. This is a preventable—”

            "Nothing is preventable!" Remus yelled, slamming a hand down on the headmaster's desk before backing away once more, taking deep breaths. "No. We tried, it failed. I have to leave. I deserve Azkaban for this. It's the least I deserve."

"He's not wrong, Albus," Severus said. "We have tried all we can do to keep the students safe. It failed. It would be foolhardy to keep trying at the expense of the students' wellbeing. And if word gets out? You would be terminated from your post for allowing this. I can only pray whoever you turned is not a pureblood Slytherin. This school be shut down. Not to mention, though not entirely unfortunate, hunters from all over would be after your head, Lupin. Perhaps Azkaban would be a far better place to keep the likes of you."

Albus held up a hand to stop Severus's rant. He was silent for a moment before he sighed and gave a reluctant nod of his head.

"I respect your wishes, Remus. After we find who you injured in your werewolf state, pending any charges a parent may wish to bring up, you are free to leave. I will not call any authorities on you myself, however. This was an accident, after all. We will search for a replacement professor immediately. Between the two of you, and Poppy, we will keep the matter quiet until the student has been found. We cannot risk injury befalling whoever this is should word get out to the students or worse, parents. We need to know what exactly happened and with whom before anymore statements, if any, are made."

            Severus crossed his arms and glared at the headmaster and Remus interchangeably.

            Harry yawned as he shuffled over to the Gryffindor table where his friends were finishing up with their breakfast. He glanced at the head table and immediately noticed that Professor Lupin, Professor Snape, and the headmaster were missing. He didn’t think much on it though as he dropped down heavily into a seat across from Ron and Hermione.

            “Bloody hell, Harry,” Ron said over a mouthful of eggs, “you look awful.”

            “Are you feeling okay?” Hermione asked, leaning over the table to peer into Harry’s eyes. “Your eyes are bloodshot and sunken in.”

            Hermione reached over the table and tried to place her hand on Harry’s forehead, but Harry jerked his head away. Hermione pulled back with a frown.

            “I’m fine,” Harry said. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

            “Where were you?” Ron asked. “You weren’t in your bed this morning. We thought you came down to breakfast early, but you weren’t here either.”

            “I was . . . in the infirmary. I had a headache and needed something to relieve it.” The lie rolled off Harry’s tongue easier as he thought up a plausible story. “And then Madam Pomfrey wouldn’t let me leave since it was so late at night.”

            “You should have alerted Professor McGonagall,” Hermione chastised. “She’s our Head of House, she takes care of things like that. She probably had headache reliever in her office. And she’s closer.”         

            “I didn’t want to bother her. And you know I like night strolls through the castle. It helps me sleep better.”

            “You need to stop doing that before it gets you in trouble.”

            “Ease up, Hermione,” Ron said. “He had a rough night.”

            Hermione huffed and returned to her breakfast, sparing one last concerned glance in Harry’s direction.

            Harry didn’t bother with breakfast. His stomach was queasy and flipping at the sight of all the greasy food laid out, and he was starting to regret having come to breakfast at all. Besides that, every muscle ached in his body, and his head still felt very heavy on his shoulders, which were throbbing painfully in unison as if both had been bitten and not just his right. His right shoulder still had some swelling, and the bite wound was oozing through the fresh bandages Harry had put on before leaving the abandoned classroom that morning. He tried to ignore the dampness while struggling to keep his head up and his eyes open.

            “Aren’t you going to eat breakfast?” Ron asked. “We have classes in twenty minutes.”

            “I’m really not that hungry,” Harry said.

            “Are you sure you feel all right?” Hermione asked. “Maybe you should go back to Madam Pomfrey.”

            “It might just be side effects of the potion I took. And lack of sleep. I’ll be okay.”

            Hermione did not look convinced and even Ron shared a concerned look with her.

            “Did you guys hear the screams last night?” Seamus asked at the other end of the table where he was seated next to a few other classmates. “Some of the sixth years said it sounded like a banshee moved in, but I think it sounded more like a beastly monster trying to break into the school.”

            Harry felt a shiver down his back as his ears suddenly seemed to pick up every whisper and rumor.

            “The ghouls must have thrown a party last night.”

            “I bet it was Moaning Myrtle. She’s such a nuisance.”

            “Did you hear the shrieks? It’s like the Shrieking Shack’s come alive again.”

            “Did you hear . . .?”

            “Did you hear . . .?”

            “Did you hear . . .?”

            Harry winced and covered his ears, the voices of many students reverberating off his eardrums and he closed his eyes, trying his best to block them out as his ears rang. Suddenly, everything fell silent, and Harry opened his eyes, noticing his friends giving him odd looks. Ron gestured to the head table with a jerk of his head, and Harry lowered his hands and turned in his seat to see the headmaster standing with his hands up for everyone to quiet down. When there was complete silence, the headmaster spoke.

            “Good morning, everyone. I only have one announcement before you begin your classes for today. As per the new Ministry guidelines, a mandatory health exam must be performed on all students today to make sure everyone is up to date on your vaccinating potions, vision and hearing check charms, and physicals.”

Harry paled, his heart racing in his chest, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. They knew. They had to know. And they were searching for him. Remus had to know. Was that why he was missing? Had he been sacked already? Harry tried to keep his breathing under control while the headmaster continued talking.

“When you hear your house and year called, please report to the infirmary for your health check. We will begin with the first years and work our way up to the seventh years. Please be cooperative with these new guidelines as it is only required once to get the school up to par, and then will only be performed on new first years coming in. You may return to your breakfast, and when you are finished, first-year Hufflepuffs will start the exams.”

“Ruddy new guidelines,” Ron muttered. “The board of education never cared about magical student health before, why bother now?”

“It’s not a bad thing, Ron,” Hermione said. “In muggle schools, this is done yearly. It’s about time Hogwarts did the same.”

            With his friends back to their usual bickering, Harry focused on breathing slowly through his nose, urging his heart to slow down. He could avoid the checkup. He used to do it all the time at primary school. He could come up with a thousand excuses as to why he missed his appointment. He had to. He could not be sent away from Hogwarts. He would have nowhere else to go.