Life in an Alien Land 2: The Werewolf Chronicles

This chapter was beta'ed by Jilliane.

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LiaAL2WC

Chapter 15: Turning

Severus and I spent the day after his Turning making desultory small talk, or silently wading through the terror about the coming night that held us in thrall. I was allowed up to sit up, eat, and go to the loo, by the mediwitch who had treated me the night before. She checked Severus' wounds and healed all but the last one given by Greyback. Severus bore the intrusion with a bit more grace than I thought he would, batting her hands away only as she finished.

Birds sang, the sun rose higher, children played catch outside the low basement window, and life went on as we both awaited the coming night.

I watched him closely as he looked outside. I liked his face now, but he was still not a handsome man to me. His hair, even now, lay lank and greasy against his face, his nose hooked and long. I wondered if there was any truth to the rumour that the Prince line was significantly less pristine in lineage than even my own, even before his mother married a Muggle. Many wizards whose family fled from the French Revolution padded their resumes. Of course I knew he was half-blood. That didn't matter to me. I just wondered if his mother had filled his head with fairy tales of the glorious family past. I know Auntie Muriel always tried to spin those tales with us. I had it on good authority that the Prewett line was only established two centuries ago, and the Weasley line was only a little older. Mum let it slip one time when we were talking about Percy and his stick up the arse attitude. As a witch from a poor family raised with the fiction of pureblood, I knew how important it was to maintain that illusion to the world.

I suppose someone could say that I'm just as bad as Malfoy when I say things like that, but if I wanted to be a pureblood supremacist, I would miss the boat tonight. I was to be Turned. Severus and I would be creatures thereafter, existing rather than living.

I felt sorrier for Severus than I did for myself at that moment, even though I would never let him know it. I reckoned that he had become a Death Eater to fit in with his crowd when he was young, and regretted it almost immediately, well, as soon as Harry's mum was threatened. I also reckoned that his life had never been easy. I don't think he had parents that took great care of him. Hermione and I had seen his school photo when we were looking for the Half Blood Prince. Hermione had taken in the photo as just another thing to disregard, but to me, it told the full story of his life.

I noted the faint outline of a bruise under his eye in the photo, which had been taken the second day of school, according to the date, and I know handed down and jumble sale robes when I see them. In addition, I could tell about his hungry past by the pride he took in his robes as an adult. They were never showy like Professor Dumbledore's, but they were well cut and from fine material. Percy had done the same thing when he made a few Galleons of his own, so had Fred and George, even though their robes were more like Dumbledore’s than Snape’s or Percy’s. The last thing that defined his past to me was the hungry look in his eyes in the photo. He still gets it when he sees something he wants and can't have it. I've felt the same expression on my own face, with my own portion of envy over the girls who had everything and complained about wanting more. I suppose we were both now destined to be the grubby urchins with their noses pressed to the sweet shop window, always wanting and forever denied admittance, after we were both Turned.

Well, as long as we lived.

I had my suspicions about what Greyback would devise for us once we were in his Pack, but I didn't want to think of it just then. I also didn't want to think yet about how being Turned would affect Mum. The thought made my already sick stomach roil.

The Muggle Healer came later, his face ashen as he entered the dim cell. Two men entered; I recognised one that had raped me several times during our ordeal. I tried not to flinch as I remembered what he had done to me. That one leered in my direction and I fought the desire to scramble to the back of the cot and huddle under the thin blanket. I would not show fear to that animal, even if my body screamed for me to do so. The other guard looked away from me as if ashamed. He had been the one to scream at me during Mum's rape.

The Healer checked Severus' wounds and then moved to me. He was silent in his examination until a commotion outside the door took the guards away for a moment.

In a soft-voiced whisper he said, "Your brother wants you to know that your mother remains well and is not a werewolf. He also wants you to know that... you both will be a-avenged."

"What... How...?" I began as the guards re-entered the room. I clamped my lips together as the brutal one sauntered over to Severus.

"You like bein' Greyback's bitch?" The man leered. Severus ignored him, his focus on the wall opposite him. The other guard looked on impassively as his friend took a handful of Severus' hair and jerked his head up. "You always thought you were better'n us. I can't wait to see how the Alpha is going to use you. You know, mebbe turnin' little boys and the like. I bet you got a taste for arse now our Alpha’s he's been up yours."

Severus remained silent, his eyes glazed as I had seen them on my first day at the Colony, when Greyback was raping him. The guard yanked his hair harder and then backhanded him with his leather gloved hand. The physician rose.

"That is enough. I don't need you making extra work for me." The doctor had assumed an air of authority, his voice cold. "I'm finished. It's time to leave."

Severus' torturer turned on the doctor. "You don't have the rank to pull that shit on me, you Muggle filth."

The other guard finally spoke. "Aw, leave off. You and me ain't any better off than these two, otherwise we wouldn't be guardin' a Muggle."

The rapist guard turned to the other man with a snarl, his fists raised, then as the speaker remained impassive, he lowered them with a small chuckle. "You always cut straight to the chase, Barrett. That's what I like about you. You're as blunt as that Yank was. You better be careful, if you know what I mean."

The three men exited and the silence of the damned descended on our world again.

We both dozed fitfully in the heat of the room after that. We had no water so both of us were sticky with sweat and dry-mouthed from thirst. I lay on my side, my legs still shackled to the bed just as Severus was once again chained to his spot. I woke and watched Severus sleep, his long legs and arms thrown out away from his body, his white belly taut. He fascinated me in sleep with his shadowed jaw and relaxed face. I wished I could see him like that always. He groaned and I tried to wake him with my voice. He tossed his head but dreamt on.

After a few moments, he gave a low cry. I heard him say, "Lily."

I couldn't help but feel jealous. After all we had been through, all we had been to each other. I turned over the best I could, with the chains and my strained muscles, and pretended sleep as soon as I saw his slumber break. I couldn't bear to see his disappointment when he woke fully and saw it was just plain Ginny Weasley in the room with him instead of Harry's mythically beautiful mum.

&*&*&

I must have actually slept, for when I woke, Severus was singing a tune softly, one I thought I recognised but couldn't place. He had a nice, rich voice, even with the huskiness from the lack of water. I admired it. I had always enjoyed singing, but I couldn't carry a tune if a wand were pointed at my head and I was being threatened with death. I turned over and watched him watching me, his black eyes flat in the dim afternoon light coming from the window. He gave me that half smile of his that made him look so boyish, and stopped singing.

He sighed, and I thought he would close his eyes but instead said, "I do believe you are the first person that I have ever loved who held the same affection for me in return. I am sorry."

"Why?" My voice came out a hoarse croak. "Why are you sorry? I’m not.”

Severus gave a scoffing laugh. "Because I am damned."

"Aw, Love." I turned to face him. "If you are, then so am I.”

That laugh came again and then silence. I said offhandedly, as if it didn't matter to me what he said, "So, Harry's mum, you dreamt of her today. You said her name."

Once, a long time ago, I might have been intimidated by the scowl he gave me. He looked toward the window. "You know nothing of the matter, Miss Weasley."

"You loved her, Professor Snape." I said, growing unreasonably angry. "You still do."

He merely looked away and I flopped over on my side, my back to him.

"I do love her, you are correct," he finally answered. "My feelings for her do not diminish the regard in which I hold you, Ginevra, nor do they matter at this juncture."

When I remained stonily silent, he added with a sneering tone, "And what of your affection for poor Harry?"

"Leave him out of this." I sat up and was jerked back by the chains that held me. "You are such a bastard, Snape. I fucking hate you."

He rolled his eyes in that dismissive way of his, his face in stark relief. We spent the rest of the afternoon in angry silence. I knew we hadn't fought about Harry's mum, not really.

&*&*&

The man, Barrett, and a rough-looking female brought us food and water. They waited for us to eat. I picked at my portion after drinking my fill of the tepid water in the bucket. Severus did much the same. His glittering eyes were on me as he said, "You need to eat, Ginevra. If you are to be Turned, it will drain your reserves."

"You too, Severus," I spat back at him. I could see both guards smiling at our exchange and it made me even angrier. I bit viciously into the bread, biting the side of my mouth in the process. I yelped and clutched my jaw.

Snape's tone was deadly calm as he asked, "What have you done to her?"

I thought I could almost hear the growl of the wolf in his voice as he asked the question, and hairs along my arms and back rose in response. I shivered through the pain as he lunged to the end of his tether. Both guards retreated a step.

I swallowed the half-masticated bread, nearly choking on it in my haste. "Severus, I bit my lip. That's it."

I reached out to him and was just barely able to reach his shoulder. He calmed almost immediately.

The woman looked ill as she said, "Shit. You're right Barry, they are mated."

Barrett said simply, "Yeah."

The woman went to the door and warded it with a weak spell. "Give it to them."

Barrett pulled out three phials; two held Calming Draught and one had the distinctive gunmetal colour of Wolfsbane potion. He said, "Before I give this to you, you've got to promise me that you'll Turn her, Snape."

"No." Severus held his face blank, but his eyes glittered darkly in the dim light.

Barrett crouched to Severus' level, “If you don't promise, and I don't give it to you, you might kill her. Do you want to chance it?"

He held the phial out, shaking it slightly as he did. Severus snapped, "I will not trust that particular potion unless it is made by my own hand."

"It saved the girl's mother last night," the woman barked from the door. "Just give it to him, Barry. If he wants to risk the girl being turned like he was, let him."

"I will Turn her," Severus capitulated, defeat in his voice as the phial was placed in his questing fingers. "I am sorry, Ginevra."

Fighting the panic that winged through me, I shrugged. "Better you than someone else."

Barry gave the two phials of Calming Draught to me after he collected the phial from Snape. "Take them. Your first Turning won't be so bad that way if you're calm for the bite. Don't know why."

I downed both phials in quick succession and felt the magical peace settle over me. I handed the phials hastily back to the man as the woman at the door cursed and hastily brought down the wards. I grabbed my bread and stuffed a piece in my mouth as Greyback entered.

The Alpha kicked at Severus' food, scattering it across the floor. "It's almost time. I want the door left open tonight. The girl needs to know what her new job will be once she's Turned. We've got a lot of unmated wolves hungry for some pussy."

He crouched to Snape's level. "You get to watch them take her, Traitor. I wonder how mad your wolf will become by morning."

He left the room with a sniff of disdain, confident that his orders would be followed. The woman left in Greyback's wake with a speaking look to her partner.

Barrett made a great show of chaining me down and then placing a sticking charm on my hand so that it was within reach of Severus. He then fastened a new length of short chain to Severus' neck. He fingered a section of it. "This has been charmed to break with a good pull. It will reform as soon as you put it back on. Protect her, Snape, you don't want let anyone else get to her. You will go mad."

The man left. A roaring hush filled the room as the sun sank. I watched in fascinated terror as Severus began his transformation.

It wasn't a smooth change as an animagus' was. It was more like a stuttering, halting transformation as Severus' human form assumed the form and function of the wolf. His pelt grew first, a thick, black fur that covered him from head to toe. Then, his feet lengthened and his hands shortened as his thighs and forearms morphed. He crouched on the ground for this as his abdomen contracted and his sternum expanded. He gave a loud, howling grunt as his face lengthened and his ears moved to the top of his head. Throughout the process, the only things to remain unchanged were his eyes, which glittered blackly in the light of the rising moon.

I stifled a scream as the wolf who had been Snape gave an impatient tug to the chain and it broke just as the guard had said it would. Snape-wolf lunged toward me and I cried out again, even with the Calming Draught coursing though my body. He yipped at me, sitting on his haunches as he considered me, before giving me a snuffling, affectionate lick.

I said, through the fear that was nearly closing my throat, "I don't know if you can understand me, but just... do it. Get it over with. I'm scared, just do it..."

Snape-wolf whined and bared his teeth in a tongue-lolling grin. He stood, snuffled at my hand and took it in his mouth. He bit, breaking the skin, bruising the flesh around it, and injecting the curse into my body. I lost consciousness as the curse flooded my system. I remember nothing after that.

&*&*&

I came to in an unfamiliar room, which was brightly lit and clean. I stirred carefully until I realised I no longer had the chains about me. My hand had been bandaged where Snape had bit me and I was clean. I felt fundamentally unchanged, though I knew that with that one bite, my life, as I knew it, was over. I tore at the bandage furiously until I saw the bruised flesh underneath. Two puncture marks marred it, nothing more to show my altered state.

I cried as I cradled my hand against my body, the shame and horror of my state washing over me, as it had not the evening before.

Once through feeling sorry for myself, I rose shakily, still weak from my first transformation, and tottered to a commode. I squatted over the chamber pot and pissed, the stream hitting the porcelain with a hiss.

I went to a window and looked out on the street below, suddenly realising where I was. My days as a drudge were over. I was in the Brothel. I was to be a Breeder.




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