A Muggles Importance

"Well? It's a ruin-nothing here but a 'DANGER-DO NOT ENTER' sign."

"That's there to keep Muggles away. Now, if you'll excuse me..." Severus pushed the doors open and looked back at her. She was staring upward, in danger of falling over backward. Her mouth was open and moving slightly.

"I...I...I don't believe this. You...you live here?" He smiled. She could finally see the castle and everything with it. She completely seemed to forget about her predicament.

"I'm not alone, but yes. And it's magic."

"Magic? I didn't believe you before, but..." She suddenly straitened, and pinched her arm. "Nope, this is real."

"Hey, wait a minute!" She glared at him. Her old swagger seemed to come back. "If you live here and you use 'magic', then how come you need a shower?" He sighed, exasperated, and the portraits began to giggle. She jumped. "They can talk? They can move?"

"Yes."

"Holy tolitoes and a bag of chips! Weird!" (A/N My favorite expression instead of holy cow, ect)

"What does-"

"Never mind," She answered him quickly.

Severus watched her for a moment and shrugged. "Come on, let's get you up to the hospital wing."

___

Veria looked around, wishing she had about twenty more pairs of eyes. "The portraits move, the suits of armor walk, and doors and walls talk?"

"Yes. And don't forget the moving staircases."

"Moving staircases?"

"Yes."

"That's...that's...woah!" He stopped in front of a portrait of a former king of England who was sleeping. "There are many shortcuts to get to other places of the school. This is one of them," he informed her.

He poked the king awake, who looked slightly frosted at him but said, "Password?"

"Allarha Cantanz." It swung open to reveal a small passageway that seemed to cut directly across a part of the castle.

"So...why do you and whoever else is here spend time in a concealed castle rather than somewhere else?"

"It's a school. I teach here."

"You? Teach? That's the funniest thing I've ever heard."

"You try teaching over a thousand kids every week a subject as difficult as Potions," he grumbled.

"Difficult? It can't be worse than Chemistry-we have a no good teacher for Chemistry back at my old school."

"Well, this is tougher than Muggle science. And many children seem to think that as there is no foolish wand waving in this class that it isn't really magic. No one seems to understand the beauty of a simmering cauldron and what a potion can do. Bottle fame, brew glory, or even put a stopper in death."

"Bravo, bravo, nice speech," her voice dripped with sarcasm. Severus raised an eyebrow. Kid's got a lot of bravado-one of the only people who's spoken to me like that. Brat...

He said nothing to her, but continued down another corridor before stopping.

"This is the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey is our school nurse, and she is quite good at her job. I shall leave you here for a moment and go get our Headmaster."

"Umm...ok..." Veria shifted uncomfortably, painfully aware of how she looked in comparison to everything else in here-unsuperior, dirty, and vastly strange.

Madam Pomfrey did not end up being a weird old lady, as Veria had suspected, but rather a more businesslike woman.

She seemed startled to see her standing there. "Who on Earth are you? And for heavens sakes, what happened to your arm?" Veria sighed-she really was getting tired of this question.

"I got bitten. And I'm Veria Vegh."

"By what?"

"A wolf."

She looked pale. "A wolf? You're sure?"

"Do I look blind to you? Yes, a wolf!"

"Oh dear."

"What? First that guy Snape, now you! What's wrong with being bitten by a wolf? It can be fixed."

"Snape? You met Professor Snape already?"

"Yes. He said he's going to get the Headmaster, or someone."

"Well, that's good! He's showing some brains for once! Honestly, I can't stand him, let alone understand him."

"I had the same feeling. Not exactly a nice person."

"Try and get to know him."

"No thanks. He starts fights. And speaking of no thanks, what the heck is that?" Madam Pomfrey was holding a jar of what looked like electric blue lumpy glue.

"It's good for your arm. It will heal the skin and stop the bleeding."

"Eww, yuck, it smells like burnt rubber! AND IT BURNS!" She jerked her arm away as it painfully was applied.

"Come back here, it's good for you! And I need to examine those bites!"

"Hah! You and that other guy-you're all out to kill me! It's a cult, a conspiracy..." she mumbled and continued to glare at Madam Pomfrey as though she was the offender with the bite.

The lady just shook her head, applying more of the glue. After a moment, she pulled it away to reveal a clean, closed arm.

"Woah...weird."

"I suppose. Honestly though, I don't understand why Dumbledore is so concerned for your safety. Let the Ministry deal with Muggles who are lost."

"Dumbledore? Who's he? And don't call me 'Muggle'!"

"Albus Dumbledore is our Headmaster here at this school." She bent down and examined Verias leg, tutting. "You're a mess."

"Thank you, Miss Obvious. I wouldn't have realized that without your help."

"For a child-no, let me rephrase that or I'll get scolded by you," for Madam Pomfrey had correctly interpreted Verias open mouth, "for a young teenager, you certainly do have an attitude."

"You expect me to be all happy and dandy about this? I used to say that if magic existed than my life wouldn'tve been such a hell hole."

Madam Pomfrey tapped her wand against Veria's leg, and Veria could now stand on it without being in pain.

"I'm sorry that your life was terrible."

"Hah! I can hear your sarcasm-you don't feel sorry for me at all!"

Madam Pomfrey sighed. It was going to be a loooooong summer.

___

Severus Snape walked quickly to Albus' office, pausing only to tell the Gargoyle "Rinhar Salue" and was surprised when the door he was about to knock on opened.

"Oh, hello Albus. I was just coming to get you."

"I gathered such. What is it?"

"Veria. She's here; at least I'm pretty sure it's her. She doesn't seem quite right in her mind however; highly understandable. And she claims to be bitten by a wolf."

Albus frowned, worried, but said, "Lead the way." For once, Snape was glad that he didn't ask questions; he himself had many that needed answering.

___

Snape was highly not surprised when he heard, "It's a cult! A conspiracy! You and all these other weirdoes-you're all tricks and cheats! You think you're so smart, but HAH! YOU CAN'T FOOL ME!" coming from the Hospital wing.

Snape turned to Dumbledore. "She's a bit...ahh...nervous and edgy about this whole affair."

"I see." He sounded amused. Albus opened up the doors and was a bit surprised to see Madam Pomfrey begging with the girl to calm down and let her take care of her. Madam Pomfrey wasn't one to beg with her patients-she told them what to do and logic told the patients to obey.

Logic, however, seemed past this girl.

"Hello?" Albus didn't want to startle or scare her, but succeeded in making her be quiet and stop talking about conspiracies.

She eyed him suspiciously, and realized that if she thought that Snape and even Madam Pomfrey were dressed strange, he most definitely was.

"Who...who're you?"

"I am Albus Dumbledore."

"Oh." She blinked, looked to Snape and then back at Poppy, and then turned to him again. "Oh! So you're Dumbledore! You're behind all this!" She took off on her string of cults, conspiracies, and murders without stopping.

"This wasn't exactly the reaction I was hoping for."

"You see, Albus? I told you she was highly unstable."

"Severus, that's not help-"

"Oh, mentally unstable, am I? Crazy, you think I am? Hah! I knew it! Insane, mad, idiotic I am! And foolish are you, to think I was blind so that I couldn't see!" Poppy looked at Severus, who looked at Dumbledore, who seemed amused but didn't show it.

"Please, we aren't going to hurt you, or turn you into the authorities. We want to help you."

"Oh, I get it now! You're not plotting to murder me; this is an institution! An Asylum! No wonder you all look like loonies!" Albus sighed. Madam Pomfrey shook her head. Snape rubbed his eyes, and then stepped forward.

"Try and understand. The world isn't a happy place right now; Magical or Non-Magical. A boy named Harry Potter has seen you and so has Lord Voldemort. The latter is evil; he kills for the fun of it."

"Severus, once again this isn't-"

"Albus, she just doesn't understand. We need to help her understand. Lying won't-"

"I wasn't going to lie to her; it's just that she needs to understand a few other things first." Albus looked at Snape warningly. Severus, however, continued as though he hadn't heard him.

"Harry Potter destroyed Lord Voldemort many years ago. Since then he had been weak and bodiless.

"Now he has risen again, and Harry and a few others are our only hopes of telling what Voldemort is doing next."

"So, Harry's some sort of fortune teller, is that it?" Snape bit his tongue, trying to figure out how to answer that.

"Sort of. He sees things that are true that have to do with Voldemort. Both he and Voldemort saw you running in their dreams. You looked afraid and slightly hurt. I remember you saying you were running from your life?"

"Correct..." She eyed him warily.

"Well, Voldemort wants to kill you. He says that you have annoyed him long enough and that you may lead to someone's downfall. He is afraid that it may be his.

"So, all in all, most of the magical community is trying to find you and keep you away from him, whereas the rest is trying to get you for him"

She stayed quiet for several minutes, thinking.

"So...I'm being chased by the magical world as well as the non magical world?"

"Yes."

"That's not good. I'll never get any peace in my life."

"Probably not."

She glared at him. "You weren't supposed to agree with me."

"And have you explode again? Not likely, I'd rather agree."

"Huh." She stayed quiet again, for a longer period of time.

"If I stay here and try not to kill anyone like the Psychopath that I am, will you not tell my family? Please? I can't stand them."

Severus looked to Albus, who shook his head. "We have to tell them you're alive."

"Why? First thing they'll do is beat me and send me to my room for months. Then they'll drop me from school when I'm old enough and have me be their slave for the rest of my life."

Poppy looked shocked. "I knew that newspapers lied, but that badly?" Albus looked concerned, and Severus nodded.

"My life sucks." Now she sounded bitter, rather than angry.

"I see...is there anybody else in your family alive?" Severus was slightly worried for the girl.

Veria thought hard. "Well...maybe. I think so. I think I have an uncle in America somewhere."

"Do you know anything about him?"

"Not really...He's tall and wears glasses, with really long black hair. He lives in the US."

"Do you know his name?"

"Nope."

"We can't let people believe you're dead," said Albus softly.

"Well, why not?"

"It's not right. Harry Potter has a horrible family, yet he stays there over the summer."

"Well...he doesn't live with them all year, now does he? No! He comes here, lucky guy. I have to stay with my-" she hesitated, and then continued. "-my horrible parents all year. I can never get along with anyone, I can't talk to anyone. All the hate and anger I feel for my parent's vents out of me and into others. I was arrested one time for beating the hell out of a kid, and man did my parents ground me. They threw me in my room from noon till night-not counting school-for 8 months. And the beatings...I still got the marks."

Everything was so still that you could have heard a pin drop a mile away. After a moment, Severus said, "We can't send her back. She's telling the truth, you can tell. Look at her." It was true; her eyes looked dull and tired, her skin paler and her face seemed paler as well, as though she had wanted to say this to someone for a long time.

"I agree. However, the article said that you were meeting with friends. Life can't be that bad." Albus' twinkling eyes were the only hints that he might know what was going on.

"Yeah, that's what it said. I was getting groceries for my parents and ran into Lela-a high school drop out that I served time with because she stole from some guy. She's a waitress who works in London but came down to visit with her brother. She's pretty cool and all and I suppose I did come home after meeting her. A sort of white lie."

"It was plural."

"I met Jake at the grocery store. Works there. Lives in my neighborhood and we get along fairly well."

"Oh." He pulled out the article and stared at the picture. "When was this?"

"That was on vacation last summer. Some kids were playing soccer and asked me to join; they needed another player. Well, my parents couldn't well refuse so I played. I'm pretty good at it, despite my lack of exercise. I scored five of our seven goals."

"Who took the picture?"

"One of the people's moms. They gave me that picture; it was an instant developing camera."

"Strange. Yet it does seem to fit." He scanned the article again. "'While friends and family may be hoping for a break...'"

"My family wants me as a slave. My three friends -yes, three- are actually worried about me."

"'Friend's moved away?'"

"Lemme see that." She took the article and laughed. "Clever! You see that contraction there? It means 'friend has', not plural 'friends'! Ingenious, how these things lie. Lela moved to London a few months back."

"Amazing. Albus...?"

(A/N How many of you noticed all of that? I myself thought it was something a newspaper/other media might do, and her parents. I especially like the 'friend's' part...my own friends didn't catch that)

"I see that she's right. We shall keep her here. However, we will tell her family. Her uncle, that is, once we find him."

"Ooh, white lies left and right. I'm beginning to feel at home now." She said this dryly, and seemed amused.

"Yes." He turned to Madam Pomfrey. "Poppy, get her a bed ready. And check that arm. I want to know if there's anything-and you know what I mean-wrong with it. Severus," he turned again, "get some food from the kitchens. Get her a potion or two that should help. I will do what I can about her Uncle."

"If it helps, his last name is Vegh." Veria decided not to question about her arm.

"Thank you. Now, get some rest; you look like you could use it. I shall be in my office if anyone needs me." Poppy led her away and Severus went to the kitchens, and Albus left.

A strange beginning to the day, he thought.

___

"I don't see why a wound on my arm is so bad, Madam."

"It's not the wound; it's what bit you."

"A wolf? Did it have rabies?"

"I don't think so. If it did, that would be easy. Gosh, I hope it was rabid rather than..." her voice trailed off.

"If rabid is a good thing, then what's worse? Come on, out with it. Tell me."

"Well... you believe in magic now, right?"

"Yeah."

"Can you name me some creatures you know are magical?"

"Sure. Fairies, Dragons, Vampires, Imps, Gargoyles, Griffins, Manticores, Shifters...I wasn't bitten by a shifter, was I?"

"Shifter?"

"You know...things that change shape. More than one form. Like a were...wol..." the word died on her lips at Madam Pomfreys expression.

"You mean..."

Poppy nodded.

"I might..."

She nodded again.

"Be a...a..." biting her lip, Veria swallowed. "I might be a Werewolf?"

"Perhaps. It may have been a regular wolf, however."

"But wolves travel in packs. This one was alone!"

"Calm down. I know for a fact that this is the season when wolves break off into pairs and mate. Now, it may have been a hunting male you saw."

"God, I hope so."

"So do I."

"Is there any way to cure it?"

"No. There is the Wolfsbane potion, which turns you tame and lets you wander as a wolf."

"So, if I am a werewolf, then I just take this potion and I become a tame wolf?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Well, it's not so bad then." Veria was slightly relieved. She had heard that one drop of human blood and a werewolf was tainted forever. Now there wouldn't really be that worry.

"I'd rather have you be human," Poppy said after a moment, studying Verias reaction. It wasn't at all as she expected.

"Yeah, so would I."

After a few more minutes, Poppy sighed. "I don't think you are, but it's too early to tell. I had better start you on the Wolfsbane potion however; the full moons not 3 nights away."

"I thought I had to take it then."

"You take it a week each night preceding the full moon."

"Oh. But, if it's three days away..."

"Then we'll double your dose. It might help."

Veria bit her lip harder and tried not to cry.

"Get some rest. You deserve it."

Veria lay down as she was told, but couldn't fall asleep for her life. Too much in too little time.

Was she a werewolf? Was there too little time for the potion to work? What would she do as a wolf once she was tame? She supposed it would be cool to have the senses of a wolf, and to be able to prowl around if they let her.

___

'Shush, try not to wake her. She just fell asleep and she doesn't appear to be a heavy sleeper, especially not with anxiety like this.'

'Did you tell her?'

'Yes, Severus, I did. She seemed to take it well enough, mainly because of the Wolfsbane potion, I think.'

'Good. Well, when she wakes there's a potion for nerved calming, dreamless sleep if she needs it, and Wolfsbane.'

'Good. What will we do with her when the students come? Many of them won't like the idea of a Muggle at Hogwarts.'

'We'll probably disguise her as a student but keep her relatively hidden. In any case, we should talk to Albus about it.'

'I envy the person who gets to stay in their own home; this place will be a very large target now that we've got her here as well as Harry.'

'We're not letting Him find out that fast. It'll take Him a while.'

'I hope so, Severus, I really hope so...'