The Heart of Night

Heart of the Night

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Discover the Truth

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2 Moons, 6 Nights

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"Good morning, Tiny Ginger Cub," said a quiet voice from the doorway. "Feeling any better?"

"I think so," Alan sniffled, looking up at the beta of the pack as the tall man approached him. "But -- I still miss them..." His eyes were again veiled with tears as he thought about his parents.

"Of course you do," Severus said, sitting on the edge of his bed. "It's perfectly natural, Alan. You have every right to be sad. You were very close with your parents, now were you not? After all, you spent almost all of your time with them before coming here, to Hogwarts."

"Right... Before I came here, I'd never spent more than one day apart from my parents. And even at those rare times, I was always only with my aunt, nowhere else."

"Well, don't worry, cub," the older werewolf said, ruffling his hair. "You won't be left alone. I promise."

"Really?" Alan glanced up at his Potions Professor, and, seeing only sincerity in the amber eyes so similar to his own, he sniffled again. "What am I going to do now?" he asked quietly. "Surely they won't let me live with my aunt, they'd never allow a werewolf to be a ward of a Muggle. I don't want into an orphanage..." He tried hard to wipe the tears away. Still, his amber eyes were veiled again and again.

"You won't go into an orphanage," promised Severus. "I will take care of you, if nothing else. Right now, you'll just stay at Hogwarts. We'll later see what to do about you, okay?"

"Okay." Alan tried in vain to clean the tears from his face. He didn't manage, until he was given a handkerchief. Drying the tears with the soft cloth, he gave the beta a teary smile. "...Thanks."

"Do not thank me," replied the older werewolf. "You are allowed to cry, Tiny Ginger Cub. Don't try to hide it. There's nothing wrong with showing human feelings. Do not take me for an example."

Nodding briefly, Alan then pressed himself against Severus's chest. The other werewolf stiffened for a moment, but then carefully wrapped his arms around the boy. Sighing as happily as he could in this situation, Alan enjoyed the comforting warmth of the beta's embrace, listening to the calm voice murmuring soothingly at him. If "Tiny Ginger Cub" had sounded like an endearment when coming from the alpha, from the beta it sounded rather like it'd always been his name. Not like Alan was his name, no, but... rather like his mother had always called him Allie. Familiar, comforting, and ...loving. There was no other way to put it. It sounded like the other werewolf truly loved him just for himself, no questions asked.

Severus held Alan until the boy had calmed as much as he could calm down, given the circumstances. Then he gently put the boy back to the hospital bed. "I'm sorry, but I have to go now," he said quietly. "I only have one free period in the morning, and I'll soon have to be teaching. Don't you worry about lessons, though; you are excused from all classes for the time being. I'll come back after the lessons."

Alan nodded and sniffled for one final time. Even though the tears hadn't ended yet, though, they weren't even nearly as numerous as before as he watched the beta of the pack leaving the room.

*

Sighing, Severus sat in an armchair in front of the fireplace in his quarters. Staring at the flickering flames, he let the dance of the fire burn all other thoughts from his mind. It was easier that way.

After dinner, he'd spent a good hour with Alan. The boy was taking the bad news rather well, at least considering how close he had been to his parents. And, to Severus's great relief, it certainly didn't feel like an unpleasant duty to care for the boy. But that didn't make it any easier.

The boy still hadn't even half healed from the silver wounds the Gisser bastard had made to him -- not only did silver injuries heal rather slowly, but his disease was also slowing the healing process. And now this child, with his bandaged arm, tiny form and almost wholly used time of life, had to deal with the loss of his parents. He'd given the sweater his mother had sent to him to Severus, pleading him to keep it safe until he could look at it again. If he ever could before he died, had gone unspoken between them. Understanding that the boy knew of that possibility as well, Severus had promised. And he knew very well that even if Alan died the following day, he'd keep that sweater in a safe place until it wore into mere threads with time, or he died himself. Because he had promised it to the cub, and he would not break that promise.

"Severus?" asked a voice from the fireplace. "Is something wrong, maybe?"

Severus focused on the face that had now appeared in the flames. "Yes, Victor, I am afraid something is truly wrong," he sighed as he recognized the face of his old friend. "Something that can't be fixed."

Victor Elessar Voronwe, the previous Potions Master of Hogwarts, had been one of Severus's best friends for a long time. Fortunately, he was not prejudiced, and even the fact that Severus had been Turned into a werewolf had not bothered him one bit. In fact, Severus had been rather surprised about the fact how calmly Victor had taken the news.

Now, the old wizard inclined his head to one side like was his habit, eyeing Severus sharply with his small, blue eyes that held none of the twinkle in Dumbledore's. "Spit it out," he said. "What's the problem?" For a moment, his blue eyes turned almost black -- a talent none of his students had ever understood. Even though Severus nowadays knew of the bit of Metamorphmagus blood in the man's veins that allowed this little trick, it definitely didn't make it any less startling than it had been on their very first Potions lesson.

Sighing, Severus shook his head. "Well... Do you remember Alan Mortimer?" he asked. "The cub I told you about last time?" As his friend nodded sharply, impatiently, he continued, "Well... A few Slytherins decided that he'd look better with a few silver wounds on his arm."

Now, Victor clicked his tongue. "He's not dead, is he?" he asked bluntly, like was his manner.

"Thankfully, no," replied the younger Potions Master. "Instead, the main culprit is. When I surprised them, I snapped the little bastard's neck. He didn't even have time to scream."

"My, my, Severus," scolded the other man good-naturedly. "You've spent too much time with those Gryffindorks if you're starting to act before you think. You killed a student, eh? And a Slytherin, even?"

"Yes," the werewolf said briefly. "I won't be held responsible of it, though -- I was merely protecting my pack. But, still. Like Remus puts it, I'm now like a father to the boy. And like that wasn't hard enough, well..." With a sigh, he finished, "Alan's parents died. He now has nobody but his pack and Muggle aunt."

"Which means that you are practically the only family he has," finished Victor, "as your bond with him is stronger than the alpha's, and the Ministry would never let a Muggle care for a werewolf. I see." With a bit of a smirk, he added, "You know, I never thought of you as a father figure, Severus."

"That might be because I'm not," the other man said dryly. "This situation is merely a consequence of several unfortunate events, I can assure you." Sighing again, he then said, "I just hope we would catch the traitor... Then I could pay back for everything I've had to suffer."

"I hope you do catch them, then." Victor nodded, a long, white strand falling over the dark skin of his face. For a moment, Severus thought this odd -- Victor always kept his hair on a ponytail. Then, the man added, "Well, as nice as it has been to talk to you, I'm afraid I have to go now -- one of those insufferable neighbours of mine is on the door. If I ignore them for too long, they just become even more nosy. But I will firecall you again tomorrow night, if that is all right with you?"

"Of course it is." Severus smirked. He could never understand how Victor, one of the most secretive and solitary people he knew, could end up living in a neighbourhood full of curious old witches. However, the truth was, that was exactly what had happened. Victor was all the time complaining about his horribly nosy neighbours, but for some reason, he had never even thought of moving elsewhere.

"Very well. Do not get yourself into any more trouble, then." And with that, Victor vanished.

Shaking his head, Severus snorted. Well, at least one reliable thing still remained in the world, and that was that Victor Voronwe would never change. The man truly wasn't one for any pleasantries. He was independent, quiet, secretive, impolite, even rather nasty at times, and definitely not pleasant-looking, not to mention obsessive about potions of any kind. In fact, he was rather like Severus himself -- except that where Severus was tall, pale, and black-haired, Victor was small, dark, and had hair as white as snow. From what Victor had told him, Severus knew that about all Potions Masters in Hogwarts had had the same character. Well, Fred Weasley would surely bring a change at that, if he wanted to continue the line.

A shudder went through Severus's spine at that thought. No, Fred Weasley would not be the Potions Master of Hogwarts for a long time, not if it depended on Severus. And it just might depend on him. He was the current one, after all; if he didn't step aside, Weasley couldn't take his place.

At least that was what Severus kept telling himself.

*

Some time later, Severus was reading a book in the very same armchair. Just then somebody knocked on the door. "Enter!" he called, knowing already who was behind the door. He'd already smelled the mix of lemon drops, old robes and cheerfulness that was characteristic to Albus Dumbledore.

And truly, it was the Headmaster who entered his quarters. However, the Headmaster definitely didn't look like he usually did. Instead, he looked old. Very old, to be exact -- old and tired. And that did not promise anything good, like Severus knew better than well.

"What is wrong, Albus?" he asked, frowning, as he closed the book -- another one on the topic of Lycanthropy, right from Remus's bookshelf. "You look like you'd Seen your own death."

"Well, Severus," the ancient wizard started, shaking his head. "I really don't know how to tell you this."

"What?" Severus stood up immediately. "It isn't -- it isn't about Alan, is it?"

"No, it isn't," Dumbledore soothed him. "Instead, it's about an old friend of yours." Sighing again, the Headmaster continued, "I just got a firecall from the Head Auror. Victor Voronwe was found dead in a side alley of the Knockturn Alley this morning. He's been dead for at least two months by the looks of it."

Now, the book fell to the floor from Severus's hand. He stood there, frozen, staring at the Headmaster.

"I truly am sorry, Severus," continued Dumbledore quietly. "You can't understand how sorry I am. I know how close you were with Victor. This must be a horrible loss to you."

"Albus," Severus said, now looking deathly pale. "Albus, I talked with him not an hour ago." After a moment of silence, he continued, "At least I thought it was him..."

"Really?" The Headmaster frowned. "Then it must have been an impostor -- they have tested the magical traces on the corpse, it truly was Voronwe. But I don't think they mentioned that his hair had been cut, so they must have used something else instead of Polyjuice Potion. But I can't think of --"

"They didn't use the Polyjuice Potion," Severus interrupted him. "It was the traitor -- they used my friendship with Victor to get information from me. But they didn't use the Polyjuice Potion, that I know. I also know just what they did." Looking up at Albus with a hard glint in his eyes, he said, "I know who is the traitor in the Order... And how they've managed to hide from us all this time."

*