Severus walked briskly to his potions storeroom in search of his dittany to treat some injuries uncovered on a couple Hufflepuff students. Sometimes, health exams revealed far more than anyone was ready for, especially muggleborns who say their kids’ magical abilities as unusual and freaky, or worse, as satanic. Those cases produced some of the worst abuse situations and Poppy was besides herself as she read over the parchment listing what injuries needed tending to.

            Severus found the salves he needed, and he grabbed a few other healing potions and shoved them into his robe pocket. He closed his storeroom and cast a few security charms and locks on it. No need to have any students finding the storeroom and snitching supplies from it.

            As Severus walked down the corridor, a thud in an adjacent classroom caught his attention. There was a small scuffle and then silence.

            Severus paused outside the classroom door, then pulled out his wand and flicked it toward the ceiling in the room. Hundreds of dormant candles came to life, lighting up the dark room. There was a rattling noise, then silence.

            Severus stepped into the room. Chairs were resting on top of tables, and a thick layer of dust settled over the furniture. Severus moved through the rows of desks with silent footfalls, swiveling his head in search of anyone, or anything, that could have caused the disturbance. As he neared the back of the room, a cupboard door creaked.

            Severus froze and stared at the door.

            Silence filled the room once more. Carefully, Severus reached for the cupboard door, and it creaked as he slowly pushed it open.

            Teeth flashed and Severus fell to the floor with a shout as a werewolf lunged out of the cupboard and snapped at him. He crawled away as the wolf stalked after him, its face scarred and its eyes red. Its gray fur bristled as it bared its large teeth at Severus.

            Finally feeling like he had put some distance between himself and the wolf, Severus raised his wand at it.

            “Riddikulus!” he shouted.
            His curse hit the wolf, and it shrunk down and turned into a yellow puppy chasing its tail. After a few spins, the puppy whimpered and ran back for the cupboard, jumping inside and disappearing in the darkness. The cupboard door swung closed at the movement of the boggart jumping inside.

            Severus panted on the floor for a few minutes, cursing himself for even investigating the damn room. He made note of the classroom so he would remember to come back down and relocate the boggart so no students came across it. Shakily, he stood up and left the classroom, locking the door behind him. He leaned back against the door, taking a minute to occlude his mind and slow his heart rate down before he carried on his way to the infirmary.

            When he arrived to the infirmary, he handed the potions to Poppy, who set them aside with a small muttered “thanks” as she reviewed her papers. A quill hovered in the air next to her, ready for the next exam.

            “Do you need any assistance?” Severus asked.

            “No,” Poppy said, “I just have to keep moving. We are on a bit of a time crunch and there are a lot of students to examine. As long as everyone shows up when they are supposed to, things should flow nicely. Unless we keep getting surprises.”

            “This may be for the best. We are uncovering things we may have never found out if not for this incident. Some of these students will be grateful when they are not returned to their wretched home lives.”

            “True. How are you holding up?”

            “What do you mean?” Severus frowned at Poppy.

            “You know,” Poppy pushed, giving Severus a pointed look, “with your history and all, this incident can be—”

            “I’m fine,” Severus snapped, cutting Poppy off. “I will deal as I always do. We must find the injured student before something awful happens.”

            Poppy stared at Severus for a moment, but he refused to acknowledge her, so she returned to marking up the parchment in front of her. Severus took a deep breath and occluded his mind some more.   

            Harry followed his friends to his next class of the day, his eyes aching behind his glasses. He rubbed at his eyes and adjusted his glasses, but his vision was very blurry behind them. He reached up and pulled the glasses down so he could see above the rim of his frames. The world was less blurry without his lens, which was odd, but he was getting a headache keeping the glasses on, so he pulled them off.

            A week had passed, and Harry had managed to avoid the mandatory health check up so far. It was taking a while to get through every student, so it was just yesterday that his year and House was called, and Harry stayed in the Gryffindor Tower while everyone else reported to the Infirmary for their exam. It took the entire day for Madam Pomfrey to get through his classmates, and when everyone was back, Harry had been afraid that Madam Pomfrey would come collect him from the tower herself. However, the next House was called this morning, and no professors came hunting Harry down. It was a relief for Harry. He might just get away with this.

            Besides, the worst of the pain was over, he suspected. His shoulder had two, large nasty scars on it, with four small raised scars over where each puncture wound of the wolf’s canines had been. The book Harry found on werewolves in the library that he spent yesterday reading explained that werewolf bites and scratches leave nasty scars, but aside from that, werewolves had a strange healing factor in their blood that allowed them to heal from wounds and injuries quicker than the average human or wizard. It also talked about enhanced senses, which would explains his current vision problem.

            Harry shoved his glasses into a robe pocket and rubbed his eyes again.

            “Are you okay, Harry?” Hermione asked.

            “My eyes are hurting, that’s all,” Harry said.

            “You don’t have your glasses on,” Hermione said. “Well no wonder they hurt. Where are your glasses?”

            “In my pocket,” Harry said. “They were making my eyes hurt. I actually can see better without them right now. Maybe the prescription needs to be updated.”

            “Huh.” Hermione tilted her head curiously. “Why didn’t Madam Pomfrey fix that for you yesterday?”

            “Oh, well, she did, but I think I told her to change them too much without realizing it,” Harry said.

            “Wait a minute,” Ron interrupted, “I don’t recall waiting in line with you yesterday. When did you get your exam done?”

            “I went really late, so I was last in line. I figured I could hang out in the library while I waited for everyone else to get done with their exams and then got back in line.”

            “You went to the library?” Hermione asked, raising her brows. “Willingly?”

            “Hey, I study sometimes,” Harry said with a chuckle. He scratched absently at his shoulder as they approached the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The headmaster announced during a dinner earlier that week that Remus was resigning due to personal troubles at home and would be leaving very soon. According to what he heard from students coming back from the infirmary, Remus was hanging out there a lot, and it confirmed Harry’s suspicions that the headmaster was searching for a freshly bitten student.

            “I wonder who the new professor will be,” Ron said as he entered the classroom.

            The trio was slightly early, so they took a seat in the front of the classroom. Harry dug more at the scars on his shoulder. They must be in an itchy phase or something to itch so much. He hopes it meant they were healing and wouldn’t look so unsightly in a week or so.

            There was a loud bang in a nearby closet, and Harry winced at the volume of the noise while Hermione and Ron jumped and looked in the direction of the noise. Someone stumbled out of the closet and closed the door behind him. Water leaked out from under the door and small scratching noises could be heard.

            The new professor it would seem. He wore dark gray robes and had shoulder length brunette hair with an anchor beard and bushy mustache. He brushed a hand through his hair and smiled at the kids sitting in the classroom.

            “Sorry about that,” he said, walking over to his desk and leaning back against it. “No one warned me there was a tank full of grindylows in the classroom. I tried moving the tank without upsetting the little demons too much but they did not appreciate their new location. I’ll relocate them later. My name is Professor Connor Huntington, and I’ll be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. What are your names?”

            “Hermione Granger. It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

            “Ron Weasley.”

            “Harry Potter,” Harry said with a small smile as he forced his hands to stop scratching at his shoulder.

            “Harry Potter,” Huntington repeated. “It is an honor to meet the Boy-Who-Lived. I’ve heard great stories of how you defeated You-Know-Who, even as a small toddler.”

            “Yeah, I don’t really recall the toddler incident,” Harry said.

            “I gathered as much. You know what, I also heard a rumor about a werewolf in the school recently. Can you imagine that? Hogwarts with a werewolf in its walls? Did you kids hear anything about it?”

            “Well,” Ron said, “the last full moon, there was something throwing an absolute fit somewhere in the castle. Screaming and howling, it woke everyone up, I’d say. Remember, Hermione?”

            Hermione frowned and shrugged, suddenly very quiet. Harry frowned at her as his hand found its way to his shoulder again, scratching away at the scars. He didn’t even realize he had been scratching until he noticed the professor frowning at him.

            “You okay, kid?” Huntington asked.

            Harry stopped scratching his shoulder and rubbed his arm instead.

            “Yes,” Harry answered, “I’m okay. Sore arm, probably from all the note taking.”

            Huntington chuckled warmly as he nodded his head in understanding.

            “You should rest then,” he said. “Wouldn’t want your arm to fall off during the next class. In fact, I’ll keep it light today.”

            “Thanks,” Harry forced himself to say, forcing a smile as well, though it felt more like a grimace. His really wanted nothing more than to scratch at his shoulder more. He did not understand why it was so itchy suddenly, but it was very distracting. He hoped it did not last long or he would not make it through any classes today.

            It took Poppy two weeks to get through every student in Hogwarts, and while she made sure to stay thorough to be fair to the students, especially as this took time away from their studies. Yet not a single one came through with a bite or scratch on them. The health exams exposed a few rough home situations for some of the students, and those were being handled by aurors who specialized in the department. Severus had supplied potions for healing and other small maladies as was needed, but he did not understand what could have been missed.

            Until Poppy reviewed her notes and found one missing report.

            “Oh no,” she said softly. “Harry didn’t come for his health check up.”

            Severus let out a heavy sigh and leaned his head back against the door frame he was leaning on. Of course it was Potter.

            Remus’s jaw dropped, and he paled considerably while his eyes became glassy. He shook his head, rushing forward and grabbing some of the papers Poppy was holding, shuffling through them as if hoping Harry’s was somewhere in the mix.

            “No, no,” he muttered repeatedly. “That can’t be right. No, I couldn’t have, not Harry.”

            “This doesn’t mean it was him,” Poppy tried to reason. “He may be unharmed. You may have not turned anyone for all we know.”

            “Of course, he’s bitten,” Severus said. He crossed his arms and stared at Poppy and Lupin reproachfully. “He’s hiding it. For whatever unknown reason he feels is justified, he’s putting everyone in this school at risk.”

            “We don’t know that for sure,” Poppy said. “He could be avoiding the exam for other reasons, too. I suspect his home life isn’t as grand as you’d like to think it is, Severus. And we cannot know anything for sure until we see Harry.”

            “Then we drag him here first thing in the morning.”

            “Oh, I’m sure that’ll go over well.”

            “I’ll find him,” Remus said. A few tears had escaped from his eyes but he ignored them stubbornly as he nodded his head. “I can find him and bring him here. I have to apologize and make things right with him.”

            “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Poppy said.

            “I agree,” Severus snapped. “You’ve done enough damage, wolf. And we’ve wasted enough time with these exams. The full moon is in fifteen days. We do not need a repeat of the last full moon to occur.”

            “You are right, Severus,” Albus said as he stepped into the infirmary, having heard most of the conversation on his way in. “We must take control of the situation before it is too late. However, we must give Harry the chance to make the right decision himself. He is not one to endanger his friends.”

            “We cannot wait on a child to decide what is best,” Severus argued, “not in this case. This could get ugly really fast. A werewolf is far too dangerous to allow to wander the school unsupervised for long.”

            “We have some time before the full moon, Severus. Let us give Harry a chance. I will let Minerva know that Harry skipped his health exam and must report to the infirmary at once. As his head of house, she will ensure that he attends the exam.”

            Severus scoffed at that. He had a feeling he would be hunting Harry down himself when everyone else’s plans failed. This was just what the world needed—their hero turned into a savage, uncontrollable monster. For a moment, Severus wanted to feel some kind of sadistic justice over Harry’s predicament—James Potter’s son turned into a beast by the very beast they tried protecting in their school years. But there was no joy in knowing Harry may have been bitten. Only a deep and heavy burden of some unknown emotion Severus felt within his chest, with just a dash of fear.