BLACK MOON ⍋ Remus Lupin

Chapter TwentyFour - Cruel Creatures.

"You think werewolves are dangerous then, huh?" Sirius slid up behind me, disrupting a casual conversation between Clarice, the Slytherin girl, and I.

I jumped in my spot, his body so close to mine so unexpectedly. Threateningly so. I spun around on my heels, back pressed up against the desk, with not much space to separate myself between him.

"Excuse me?" I asked him, studying his face for a potential warning sign of anger. Though I couldn't tell, he read more curious. Almost testing the waters, figuring out his own motive.

"You think werewolves should be detained? You mean like locked up, right?" He cocked an eyebrow up at me questioningly.

I understood he must have overheard or had a conversation with Remus over what we were just previously talking about. I nodded slowly.

"In a way..." I hesitated. Sirius hardened his face ever so slightly, taking a discreet deep inhale of breath.

Perhaps if he had been slightly further away i wouldn't have been able to pick up a difference in his body language. Though as he was so close to me I could feel the oxygen in front of my face being stolen and sucked up into the cold vacuum of his mouth and the muscles in his face restraining an emotion he didn't want to reveal just yet.

"Elaborate." He smiled, though I knew it was fake. My eyes were fixed onto his dark grey ones. Looking dark and dull in the dungeon lighting. I didn't look away with fear I'd show a sign he was intimidating me.

"I wouldn't say 'locked up' as in being kept in a prison. I don't believe that's fair" I stated "though, the concept of an open...what's the word I'm looking for? I'm not sure, perhaps what I mean is I believe werewolves should be known. Be put on some kind of list, just in case." I said calmly.

"A list? So, to be treated as animals or like criminals?" He enquired. My face began feeling hot with his interrogation and I could only imagine it was beginning to look pink and damp with nervous sweat.

"Well...aren't they animals?" I asked genuinely confused. All the textbooks and education I've ever received used the term 'animal, beast, monster' as the common descriptions. I didn't understand where he was going with this.

He laughed shallowly, quiet as if he was laughing to himself and smiled sadly.

"They're people Artemis. Humans. Like you or I." He said softly leant in even further, our noses almost touching. As if he had forgotten the importance of personal space in order to make his opinion heard.

I finally looked down, submitting to the gaze that reminded me so much of his fathers and whispered, feeling too close to speak at a normal level.

"Those people aren't like us Sirius. We don't have an irreversible curse that makes us a danger to everyone...I don't believe they should be used or treated poorly but I also don't believe in their freedom" I mumbled.

He was silent and still. His fingers turning white in clenched fists, though his face read calm and inquisitive. After a moment he took a step back from his spot. I took a deep sigh of relief involuntarily, feeling like I had my own air to breathe again.

"I believe the word you were looking for was a Zoo." He said, rolling his eyes before leaving quickly.

I turned myself around, both hands resting on the desk to steady myself. Focusing on slowing my heartrate down.

"You and Sirius don't get along then?" Clarice interrupted my focused breathing. I shrugged my shoulders.

"We became friends...now I'm not so sure" I said honestly. Glancing over to Sirius whispering in James' ear as he looked over with annoyance in reaction to whatever he was repeating from our conversation.

*
Needless to say, everyone left potions without me. Talking in their usual pairings before I arrived to Hogwarts. No one waiting behind as I packed my things in my satchel.

I wandered down to the library alone to investigate what Sirius had been silently implying to me. Did he honestly believe Werewolves weren't to be feared? What evidence has he read to make him believe so?

A thought crossed my mind as I sat down in the worn leather chairs and started skimming through textbooks on blood curses and magical beasts. Was I being unfair to stereotype?

Werewolves only came up in the back section of magical beast themed books. Under chapters labelled: Monstrous Beasts, Cruel Creatures, Dangerous and Deadly, etc.

Much like beast themed volumes, werewolves only came up under similar titles in blood curse publications too.

Being tied into the same sections with the likes of vampirism. Of which there is an official Ministry vampire register; in order to keep crime to a minimum. It's illegal for Vampires not to hand over their true identification to the ministry of magic, if they don't there's the risk of Azkaban.

Nothing in these scriptures told anything but the horrors of encountering werewolves. It's all I've been taught, all people have told me about. Why was he acting as if my opinions on the matter was so demeaning?

If anything a Zoo, as he liked to call my idea, was tame and kind in comparison to Azkaban.

I slammed each book with frustration and picked myself up from the table. Shaking my head with the fact Sirius had made me waste my time confirming my opinions; because of his judgemental attitude in class. I shouldn't let him encourage me to question myself.

I have never met anyone speak of Werewolves in a positive way and what experience qualified him to go against the knowledge of well educated professors and experts of non-fiction books against the topic?

(This is just a filler chapter to give you guys an idea about how Arty was raised to think of people who aren't thought of as regular people in wizarding society. If you're enjoying this, comment what you're liking and what you want to see more of!!!)