I blame Jim for EVERYTHING
Harry Potter AU fic, again.
“Urgh.”
Lea looked at Isa as his friend pulled a face, nose screwed up and tongue sticking out. “That bad?” He asked, eyeing the glass from which Isa was drinking.
“Worse than you can imagine,” Isa answered, giving the glass a displeased look.
Lea looked wary as Isa held his nose in his fingers and did his best to down what remained in the glass. “Hojo cooked that up, didn't he?” Isa merely nodded, swallowing and then taking a breath before he went to drain the dregs. Lea continued, tentatively, “Do you think he'd ever,” he hesitated, and then ploughed on, “try and swap it for something else?”
Isa grimaced as he gulped the remnants and pulled another face. “Probably,” he said, sounding vaguely nauseous, “but if he did I'd know straight away because nothing else can taste as bad as that.”
The answer seemed enough for Lea, who shelved his concerns now that Isa had drunk his potion. “So how long to go?” He asked, looking, and sounding, almost eager.
“Four days,” Isa answered, though he sounded considerably less excited at the prospect. Then he looked at Lea, faintly concerned, “You have told your parents, haven't you?”
Lea looked offended. “Of course I have!”
“And they still consent to me staying?”
Lea put his hands on his hips and looked at Isa critically, but playfully too. “Are you trying to get out of coming to my house?”
“No,” Isa answered, his expression flat. “There aren't many who'd agree to house a werewolf over the full moon,” he said.
Lea shrugged, not seeming in the slightest bit concerned. “I told them that you're perfectly fine as long as you take that potion. Not that they'd know the difference anyway. I wasn't exactly going to write to my mom going 'Can Isa stay with us this Christmas? There's just one snag; he's a werewolf now, and if he misses taking this potion he turns into a rabid killing machine who'll eat all our faces.' Was I?”
Isa didn't reply immediately, but instead spent a few long seconds staring at Lea, who eventually gave him a bright grin and said, “It'll be fine! Got it memorised?”
*****
Isa had asked Lea to leave him alone for a couple of hours near moonrise. The transformation was painful, and Isa preferred to go through it alone. He did his best to keep the noise down, but it wasn't easy when his bones were breaking and skin was stretching. The fur itched as it came through; the whole process was uncomfortable at best, agonising at worst.
Once it was over he curled up on the floor. He'd wait a little before he went to find Lea. His senses were different like this too; he could see, but what he saw was less interesting than what he could smell. There was the trace of Lea in the air, and the soft furnishings, mud on the bottom of his shoes, hair gel, and soap, the washing powder smell that lingered on his clothes. There was his mother, too, in traces of sweat, perfume, make up; a dozen feminine smells that overlaid the smell of effort, in cleaning, and tidying, and cooking, making her house presentable to her son's friend whom she knew came from a wealthy family.
Then there was Lea's little sister, who smelled of shampoo, and that grotty teddybear that she refused to be allowed into the washing machine lest it drown. She walked into the room, bold as brass, and Isa sat up, watching her. She went over to him, unconcerned, and patted him clumsily on the head, reaching up on her tiptoes. “Good doggy,” she said. Isa's tail wagged back and forth, slowly, sweeping across the carpet as Mia retrieved something from the other end of the room.
Isa was ready to settle down again when he felt something dig into his fur, and then clumsily scrape down his back, sending a shiver rippling through the muscle. He looked around to find Mia brushing him with a doll's hairbrush. Despite himself, Isa found his tail wagging a couple more times before he settled down; it actually felt rather nice.
Some moments later, Isa sat up again as a ribbon was slipped over his neck. He tried to squirm away, but didn't want to knock Mia over, and she tied it around his neck and fastened it with a bow as she chattered, aimlessly. “I learneded how to tie my own shoes,” she was telling him, repeating to herself, “you take this, and you loop it like this, and you put that one round there, and push it through here, and then you pull it tight, and then you have a bow.” She stood back and looked very pleased with herself. Isa silently hoped that the bow in question wasn't pink.
He felt something slip into the fur of his tail as he tried to reach around and bite some part of the bow so he could pull it free. Vaguely horrified at what Mia might do to him next he turned around, to see her slipping curlers into the fur. A pink bow round his neck, and curlers in his tail. Isa wasn't sure whether he wanted Lea to come back soon, or rather later, when Isa might have been able to remove them.
When Mia came up to his face and smeared something sticky across the front of his muzzle, Isa tried to back away. The smell of whatever it was went up his nose, and he sneezed; all he could smell was whatever it was, oily and distinctive.
That was when Lea made an appearance. “Isa?” He asked, the door half open before he opened it fully. His eyes fell on Isa, and on Mia, and then on the dressing up of Isa that Mia had done. Even as a wolf, Isa's expression was very distinctively him.
The laughter was explosive, and Lea curled up, holding his stomach as he looked at his buddy, smeared in lipstick, wearing a bright purple bow, and with curlers in his tail. He laughed long enough that Isa grew tired and walked over to Lea, gently taking the leg of his trousers between his teeth and tugging him towards the door. It took Lea a while to calm down.
“I need a picture of this!” He said, before breaking out into laughter again. Isa considered the time better spent attempting to wriggle out of the ribbon; he picks the curlers out of his tail with his teeth, and then scratched at his neck, trying to loosen the ribbon around it. When he couldn't seem to get it, he started to growl with frustration, desperately trying to ease it off with his front paws. That was when Lea finally stopped laughing and took pity on him, untying it with a single tug and pulling it away. “I'm gonna remember that forever,” he said, still with more than a trace of amusement.
Isa sat up and looked at him, impassive and steady. Lea got the distinct impression that Isa was giving him that look again
“Wanna go out?” Lea asked, a grin still painted across his face. The reaction was instantaneous; Isa jumped up and spun around on just his back legs, bounding to the door and looking at Lea expectantly, barking a couple of times. Lea answered with a laugh, “All right! Let me get my frisbee,” and then he shot off to dig them out of his school trunk.
He returned to find Isa sat by the front door, his tail wagging. “Going for a walk with Isa, mom!” Lea called out, his hand already releasing the catch, and he let Isa slip out into the cool air ahead of him.
Outside, Isa walked next to Lea like a perfectly trained pet. He looked around, and barked at a local cat, but didn't stray from Lea until they got to the park. Then, and only then, did Isa run full pelt down the length of the field, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. He raced the full length of the field back again, and launched himself through the air to land on top of Lea, bearing him down to the ground and proceeding to lick his face, playfully. Isa had never before been allowed outside during a transformation, and the excitement seemed to have got to him.
It was infectious excitement, too, because Lea hit the ground with a grunt, and then laughed as his best friend proceeded to slobber on him. He fought him away, playfully, grabbing Isa around the neck and hugging him before he kissed his muzzle. Isa responded with another enthusiastic lick of Lea's ear before he pulled away, bouncing on his front legs again as he waited for Lea to stand up and throw the frisbee.
Lea did, and Isa tore off after it, almost out of sight in the darkness before he snatched it out of the air and pelted back towards Lea. He put the frisbee directly into Lea's hand before he was tearing off again.
While Isa was out of sight, trouble found Lea. A group of three teenagers, spotty, wearing branded sports gear and baseball caps, and one of them holding back a pitbull on a lead approached.
“Give us your phone,” one of them said, stopping a few feet away from Lea.
Lea looked at the three of them, and the dog, and replied, “Let me think about that for a moment.” He put on a look of mock thoughtfulness and then replied, “Um, no.”
“Don't be a twat,” the same one spoke again, “give us your phone.” One of his friends, the one holding the lead on the dog, gave a threatening sort of jerk, as if to let the dog go.
Lea looked unfazed, and instead of replying, called out, “Isa! Here boy!”
The answer came in the sound of four galloping paws over the soft ground. Lea didn't need to look to watch Isa come back; he could see it in the reaction of the three would-be-muggers. One of them took a step back, the owner of the dog looked suddenly uncertain, and their friend, who had thus far remained silent, looked as if he'd suddenly remembered somewhere else that he had to be. The galloping sound slowed as Isa padded up, and stood next to Lea, looking at the trio who were bothering him.
“He's a bit bigger than yours, isn't he?” Lea commented, conversationally, and he reached to stroke Isa on the head before he said, “Show them your teeth, Isa.”
The air was suddenly filled with the bestial growl of a wolf. Even Lea could feel it sending a shiver down his spine, and he knew that it was perfectly safe. The pitbull reacted by putting its hackles up, growling in response, and then Isa gave a brutal snarl and the pitbull's owner pulled it back.
“Keep your phone,” the talkative one replied, as the three backed off, with Isa watching them through tawny yellow eyes, growling the whole time until they were out of ear shot.
Lea burst into helpless laughter for the second time that night, bending down and hugging Isa around the neck once more. “Did you see their faces? I think that one with the dog crapped himself,” he said, laughing heartily. Isa responded by nuzzling Lea for a moment, before he wriggled from Lea's grasp and fetched back the frisbee he'd dropped on the grass when he'd got close and this time pointedly dropped it at Lea's feet.
“All right,” Lea said, “just a few more, but then we have to go home.”
“Urgh.”
Lea looked at Isa as his friend pulled a face, nose screwed up and tongue sticking out. “That bad?” He asked, eyeing the glass from which Isa was drinking.
“Worse than you can imagine,” Isa answered, giving the glass a displeased look.
Lea looked wary as Isa held his nose in his fingers and did his best to down what remained in the glass. “Hojo cooked that up, didn't he?” Isa merely nodded, swallowing and then taking a breath before he went to drain the dregs. Lea continued, tentatively, “Do you think he'd ever,” he hesitated, and then ploughed on, “try and swap it for something else?”
Isa grimaced as he gulped the remnants and pulled another face. “Probably,” he said, sounding vaguely nauseous, “but if he did I'd know straight away because nothing else can taste as bad as that.”
The answer seemed enough for Lea, who shelved his concerns now that Isa had drunk his potion. “So how long to go?” He asked, looking, and sounding, almost eager.
“Four days,” Isa answered, though he sounded considerably less excited at the prospect. Then he looked at Lea, faintly concerned, “You have told your parents, haven't you?”
Lea looked offended. “Of course I have!”
“And they still consent to me staying?”
Lea put his hands on his hips and looked at Isa critically, but playfully too. “Are you trying to get out of coming to my house?”
“No,” Isa answered, his expression flat. “There aren't many who'd agree to house a werewolf over the full moon,” he said.
Lea shrugged, not seeming in the slightest bit concerned. “I told them that you're perfectly fine as long as you take that potion. Not that they'd know the difference anyway. I wasn't exactly going to write to my mom going 'Can Isa stay with us this Christmas? There's just one snag; he's a werewolf now, and if he misses taking this potion he turns into a rabid killing machine who'll eat all our faces.' Was I?”
Isa didn't reply immediately, but instead spent a few long seconds staring at Lea, who eventually gave him a bright grin and said, “It'll be fine! Got it memorised?”
*****
Isa had asked Lea to leave him alone for a couple of hours near moonrise. The transformation was painful, and Isa preferred to go through it alone. He did his best to keep the noise down, but it wasn't easy when his bones were breaking and skin was stretching. The fur itched as it came through; the whole process was uncomfortable at best, agonising at worst.
Once it was over he curled up on the floor. He'd wait a little before he went to find Lea. His senses were different like this too; he could see, but what he saw was less interesting than what he could smell. There was the trace of Lea in the air, and the soft furnishings, mud on the bottom of his shoes, hair gel, and soap, the washing powder smell that lingered on his clothes. There was his mother, too, in traces of sweat, perfume, make up; a dozen feminine smells that overlaid the smell of effort, in cleaning, and tidying, and cooking, making her house presentable to her son's friend whom she knew came from a wealthy family.
Then there was Lea's little sister, who smelled of shampoo, and that grotty teddybear that she refused to be allowed into the washing machine lest it drown. She walked into the room, bold as brass, and Isa sat up, watching her. She went over to him, unconcerned, and patted him clumsily on the head, reaching up on her tiptoes. “Good doggy,” she said. Isa's tail wagged back and forth, slowly, sweeping across the carpet as Mia retrieved something from the other end of the room.
Isa was ready to settle down again when he felt something dig into his fur, and then clumsily scrape down his back, sending a shiver rippling through the muscle. He looked around to find Mia brushing him with a doll's hairbrush. Despite himself, Isa found his tail wagging a couple more times before he settled down; it actually felt rather nice.
Some moments later, Isa sat up again as a ribbon was slipped over his neck. He tried to squirm away, but didn't want to knock Mia over, and she tied it around his neck and fastened it with a bow as she chattered, aimlessly. “I learneded how to tie my own shoes,” she was telling him, repeating to herself, “you take this, and you loop it like this, and you put that one round there, and push it through here, and then you pull it tight, and then you have a bow.” She stood back and looked very pleased with herself. Isa silently hoped that the bow in question wasn't pink.
He felt something slip into the fur of his tail as he tried to reach around and bite some part of the bow so he could pull it free. Vaguely horrified at what Mia might do to him next he turned around, to see her slipping curlers into the fur. A pink bow round his neck, and curlers in his tail. Isa wasn't sure whether he wanted Lea to come back soon, or rather later, when Isa might have been able to remove them.
When Mia came up to his face and smeared something sticky across the front of his muzzle, Isa tried to back away. The smell of whatever it was went up his nose, and he sneezed; all he could smell was whatever it was, oily and distinctive.
That was when Lea made an appearance. “Isa?” He asked, the door half open before he opened it fully. His eyes fell on Isa, and on Mia, and then on the dressing up of Isa that Mia had done. Even as a wolf, Isa's expression was very distinctively him.
The laughter was explosive, and Lea curled up, holding his stomach as he looked at his buddy, smeared in lipstick, wearing a bright purple bow, and with curlers in his tail. He laughed long enough that Isa grew tired and walked over to Lea, gently taking the leg of his trousers between his teeth and tugging him towards the door. It took Lea a while to calm down.
“I need a picture of this!” He said, before breaking out into laughter again. Isa considered the time better spent attempting to wriggle out of the ribbon; he picks the curlers out of his tail with his teeth, and then scratched at his neck, trying to loosen the ribbon around it. When he couldn't seem to get it, he started to growl with frustration, desperately trying to ease it off with his front paws. That was when Lea finally stopped laughing and took pity on him, untying it with a single tug and pulling it away. “I'm gonna remember that forever,” he said, still with more than a trace of amusement.
Isa sat up and looked at him, impassive and steady. Lea got the distinct impression that Isa was giving him that look again
“Wanna go out?” Lea asked, a grin still painted across his face. The reaction was instantaneous; Isa jumped up and spun around on just his back legs, bounding to the door and looking at Lea expectantly, barking a couple of times. Lea answered with a laugh, “All right! Let me get my frisbee,” and then he shot off to dig them out of his school trunk.
He returned to find Isa sat by the front door, his tail wagging. “Going for a walk with Isa, mom!” Lea called out, his hand already releasing the catch, and he let Isa slip out into the cool air ahead of him.
Outside, Isa walked next to Lea like a perfectly trained pet. He looked around, and barked at a local cat, but didn't stray from Lea until they got to the park. Then, and only then, did Isa run full pelt down the length of the field, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. He raced the full length of the field back again, and launched himself through the air to land on top of Lea, bearing him down to the ground and proceeding to lick his face, playfully. Isa had never before been allowed outside during a transformation, and the excitement seemed to have got to him.
It was infectious excitement, too, because Lea hit the ground with a grunt, and then laughed as his best friend proceeded to slobber on him. He fought him away, playfully, grabbing Isa around the neck and hugging him before he kissed his muzzle. Isa responded with another enthusiastic lick of Lea's ear before he pulled away, bouncing on his front legs again as he waited for Lea to stand up and throw the frisbee.
Lea did, and Isa tore off after it, almost out of sight in the darkness before he snatched it out of the air and pelted back towards Lea. He put the frisbee directly into Lea's hand before he was tearing off again.
While Isa was out of sight, trouble found Lea. A group of three teenagers, spotty, wearing branded sports gear and baseball caps, and one of them holding back a pitbull on a lead approached.
“Give us your phone,” one of them said, stopping a few feet away from Lea.
Lea looked at the three of them, and the dog, and replied, “Let me think about that for a moment.” He put on a look of mock thoughtfulness and then replied, “Um, no.”
“Don't be a twat,” the same one spoke again, “give us your phone.” One of his friends, the one holding the lead on the dog, gave a threatening sort of jerk, as if to let the dog go.
Lea looked unfazed, and instead of replying, called out, “Isa! Here boy!”
The answer came in the sound of four galloping paws over the soft ground. Lea didn't need to look to watch Isa come back; he could see it in the reaction of the three would-be-muggers. One of them took a step back, the owner of the dog looked suddenly uncertain, and their friend, who had thus far remained silent, looked as if he'd suddenly remembered somewhere else that he had to be. The galloping sound slowed as Isa padded up, and stood next to Lea, looking at the trio who were bothering him.
“He's a bit bigger than yours, isn't he?” Lea commented, conversationally, and he reached to stroke Isa on the head before he said, “Show them your teeth, Isa.”
The air was suddenly filled with the bestial growl of a wolf. Even Lea could feel it sending a shiver down his spine, and he knew that it was perfectly safe. The pitbull reacted by putting its hackles up, growling in response, and then Isa gave a brutal snarl and the pitbull's owner pulled it back.
“Keep your phone,” the talkative one replied, as the three backed off, with Isa watching them through tawny yellow eyes, growling the whole time until they were out of ear shot.
Lea burst into helpless laughter for the second time that night, bending down and hugging Isa around the neck once more. “Did you see their faces? I think that one with the dog crapped himself,” he said, laughing heartily. Isa responded by nuzzling Lea for a moment, before he wriggled from Lea's grasp and fetched back the frisbee he'd dropped on the grass when he'd got close and this time pointedly dropped it at Lea's feet.
“All right,” Lea said, “just a few more, but then we have to go home.”