You can't disobey the moon [Olivia]

Merlin, he felt awful. He leaned back against the rough stone wall to catch his breath for a moment, letting his eyes fall closed. The full moon was nearly upon him. Each month he felt it nearing with every part of his body. He should have gotten hold of some Wolfsbane... but it was near impossible to get and incredibly expensive. Even though he knew the places to go for black-market potions... you couldn't ask for Wolfsbane without raising suspicion. And he couldn't keep burdening his friends by asking Noemi or Ether to make or buy it for him. It wasn't their responsibility, it was his. And besides, even though Wolfsbane was probably the safest, most responsible course of action, it just felt wrong to Pike. Drugging the Beast, subduing the Beast, trying to tame that wild part of him... it only caused a schism within him. He only felt the Beast get angrier and more desperate to be out. Those months he used Wolfsbane were the ones he felt the worst after... and the next month.

Pike had been through the denial of separating the Beast out in his mind, of thinking of it as something other. Of trying to rule it. But at the end of the day, there was no Beast. It was him. It was all him. It had to be embraced. Accepted. Trained rather than caged. So his plan for the last couple of months was to apparate out to some forsaken wilderness, spend the early evening meditating, and see if he could reconcile those two separate parts of him. So far it seemed to be working. He woke with signs that he'd hunted - but animals, not humans. And he'd felt better. Less ill. Less tired. Less conflicted. The key was just to make sure he found a place where no human could accidentally wander into his path. Where he didn't have to worry about unknowingly doing the unthinkable. And surely that would also become easier over time. Those feral wolves that had served Voldemort... yes they'd given in to dark temptations, but they also kept their mind somewhat when they turned. They remained aware. If they could get to that stage, then surely so could Pike.

He felt a couple of drips of rain and opened his eyes, casting his gaze up at the grey sky. It currently couldn't quite make up its mind if it was raining or not, but the last thing that Pike needed was to be caught out in the middle of a rainstorm when he was living in a place where it was very difficult to get dry and warm again once soaked. Shoving the rest of his chalks into the battered rucksack he took everywhere with him, he got shakily to his feet. He slung the bag over one shoulder, starting to head down the cobbled alley, shoving a hand deep into one pocket to see if he had enough change for a coffee and a sandwich somewhere.

But as he silently counted the shrapnel in his palm, something caught his attention. Or rather, something caught his senses. Even senses he hadn't yet accepted that he had. His head snapped up and eyes narrowed on the witch just a few steps in front of him. He knew what he could smell, what he could feel, and he struggled against the onslaught of bad memories that the scent awoke. Fear, darkness, the wet scent of the moors, his own heavy panting and thudding heart, his aching muscles as he tried to run faster than he'd ever ran in his life. The pain. The blood.

Werewolf.

It was getting harder and harder to control anything when it was closer to the full moon. Olivia Welks felt lethargic and just not herself. The animal instincts wanted to take over. Olivia's animal instincts were to run and hide, which was odd. Maybe it was just easier for her body to do that- maybe it was the fear of hurting anybody she was close to. Olivia already broke up with Geri because of this and he was the love of her life other than her son so far. He was accepting of everything but she just could not love someone if she knew that one day she could turn and hurt or kill them. Sometimes Olivia just wanted to push away Grey and let him have a better life other than one with a mother who could rip out his throat if she ever just missed getting locked up during a full moon. Sure, she was beating herself up but it was more that she cared about her family more than anything. Because she cared Olivia was on her way to Diagon Alley looking for wolfsbane. She was not going to attempt to take any from the school's supplies. Olivia usually got it from the same store and even though it was pretty expensive she spent the money on it. Olivia rather control the beast than let it escape and ruin her life, not that it has not done that already.

As she walked down the street, Olivia just felt exhausted. She knew the store she usually gets the wolfsbane potion was not to fond of muggleborns so Olivia managed to throw a cloak over her normally blue jean dress and her leggings to hide the scars on her leg and thigh from the attack. She was carrying a satchel so she could keep the herbs safe until she was able to get to the school to brew the potion. Thankfully, summer was coming up and she would have an easier time doing this when school was over. Olivia was going to try to find a new home for Grey and her so that they could not live an a flat in Diagon Alley and she was more secluded from people.

Something caught her nose as she walked, it felt like someone watching her- but then something else just hit her. All the senses of the wolf just started to go crazy. Olivia turned around, he smelled like her. It felt like he was like her. Olivia knew who this person was, Pike. He was a friend of hers. Olivia actually helped him during the war hide. Pike was like her? She walked right up to him, narrowing her eyes turning her head like a puppy investigating a new toy. She had no clue why she was doing it? It was like the beast was coming out already. She stopped herself from continuing and smiled at Pike. "I think we need to talk." She raised an eyebrow at him.

She turned and looked at him and for a moment, the instinct was to snarl, bare his teeth and haunch himself up. Interesting... the wolf was territorial. He hadn't been expecting that, but it made sense he supposed. Thankfully he was able to get that instinctive urge under desire and greet his old friend with a smile. A somewhat sad smile, but a smile nonetheless. Had she always been a werewolf? Had he been blind to it at school because he'd had no way of telling? Now it felt obvious. Everything about her seemed to scream it out. He felt her scent, like it permeated every pore... and the scent was wrong. He wanted to cover it up with his own. Back to the territory thing, he guessed.

"Yeah," he replied, then cleared his throat, realising how odd the pair of them looked, having stopped dead in the street. "Olivia, it's been so long!" He managed in a cheerier tone, which Olivia would probably guess was a little forced. "We really should catch up."

Where to? Anywhere on Diagon would be unsafe. They might be overheard. Knockturn less so, but being seen there could raise all sorts of other issues, and Pike really didn't like the smell of the place. Taking her back to the place he was squatting in was an option. It would give them some isolation. But it might also rile up that territorial part of him. Besides, she might not trust him enough to go somewhere unfamiliar. Not knowing what she now did. The territorial issue would also make her place difficult. They needed somewhere isolated but neutral. And then an idea struck him. He half-turned, flicking his head to indicate that she should follow him, and then weaved his way down the alley. Dashing into a side alley, he ended up at the rear of a boarded-up shop. One which had fallen victim to the war and not yet found a new life. Pike had been here before to meet a potions dealer, but a good sniff indicated that the coast was clear. The front of the shop was completely boarded up, so they wouldn't be seen - or overheard.

Heading inside through the shop's back door, he hoped that she'd follow. Besides the beast that had attacked him, he'd never met another... and he had so many questions.

Pike can't be what Olivia thought. As she spoke they should catch up and nodded for him to follow her she made her way to where he was telling her. The smell of the alley was over-whelming. Some of it just smelled horrible, like dead cats. Some of it was just musky. That was one thing Olivia hated about being about a wolf. It was the smells. She could smell everything and anybody. Sometimes it was unbearable and had to walk away from people. Sometimes the wolf took over and she just wanted to be around that person. Pike's smell just was normal and comfortable, like he was part of her pack. He was supposed to be around her. It was weird how the wolf could just sense it. As she followed him down the dark alley she felt uncomfortable. They were both muggleborns down this alley. They had to be careful. These were two people that you don't mess with.

As they went somewhere that nobody could hear them Olivia looked around and in a hush, slightly excited voice. "Are you like me?" She looked at him. She had no clue how to ask him. How do you go up to someone and ask them if they were a werewolf? It was someone you knew for so long. She did not want to be, I know you are a werewolf. Did he know about?

"Nobody but Grey knows this- I'm a werewolf... I smell--- werewolf on you too." The second part of her sentence was hushed as she listened for someone walking by. Another good part about being a werewolf you can hear a lot more and hear people walking by. She waited for the person to finish walking by and Olivia looked at him. "When did it happen?" She had so many questions. She did not feel alone anymore. She knew that she wasn't, but it was nice to actually know someone who was one with you. A friend.

He shifted a few boxes to the middle of the room so that they could sit, and as he did so, Olivia started to confess what Pike already knew. She was a werewolf. Like him. She sounded excited and wary, just like he felt which led him to believe that this whole experience was new for her too. This was the first time for both of them. She said nobody but Grey, her son, knew... did that mean that she was also unregistered? Surely she couldn't be... didn't she work at Hogwarts?

"Yeah, I am," he responded, settling down on one of the boxes and smiling reassuringly at her as he gestured to the other box. The back room of the shop was deserted and would probably stay that way until nightfall at least. "Since the war... a few months before the Battle of Hogwarts." He looked down at his paint-stained hands for a moment, his mind going back to the night of his attack. "I was on the run and some Death Eaters came after me with a werewolf in tow. I only just got away alive, to be honest." His mind struggled to beat down the memories - the scent, the pain, the too-close face of that beast with outstretched claws and yellowed teeth... and then the way he'd apparated to Frey's, collapsing on the living room floor while his own blood pooled out of him, barely able to send a patronus to his boyfriend for help. If he hadn't had Frey, he wouldn't have made it. He was certain about that.

"What about you?"

So he has been dealing with this condition longer than her? Olivia still couldn't believe how people could deal with this for the rest of their lives. She broke up her relationship with Geri for the fear of hurting him. She even wanted to send Grey off with his father because she was fearing that one day she would hurt him during the moon. She knew that they were going to be there to support her no matter what but if she hurt the person she loves she would never forgive herself. Olivia tried to think of who would've hurt him like that, on purpose. Olivia was glad that he survived. Pike was one of her good friends in school. It was just weird that now two people from the same year of school were like this. They were cursed with something that just made them deathly sick during full moon and changed them completely. Two muggleborns none less.

As he asked what about her, "Mine happened in January. I was hunting an animal for a lesson, didn't pay attention to the time or moon phase and I guess there was werewolf there. I was taken to a muggle village for an animal attack and then sent to a muggle hospital. I survived though." The only reason why Olivia was hiding the secret was because how werewolves were treated. They were treated like a beast. An animal. She was not something like that. She was a person just like them. "No- Hogwarts or the ministry knows...." She was adding that, because she thought he would probably mention it. "It was all done in the muggle world, so I haven't really told anybody. I just don't want to be treated differently or lose my job. I actually became Head of Hufflepuff."

Olivia was proud of her accomplishments. She already had her job taken when she had to go on the run. She did not want that to happen. Olivia worked her butt off to help take care of the kids. That is all she cared about... the children. "Have you been using wolfsbane? I think some nights it doesn't work right."

He listened carefully, nodding occasionally but letting her speak uninterrupted. He'd thought that maybe she had also been attacked while on the run, as he knew she was a muggleborn, but no, it was a different, but no less tragic scenario.

And then she made it clear that she, just like him, was unregistered. That she'd told no-one, that she was dealing with this alone. Just like he was.

"Congratulations," he said with a genuine smile, pleased that she'd managed to succeed despite her condition. It was better than him. Since the war he'd done nothing but bounce from place to place, trying and largely failing to claw out a place for himself. "No-one really knows about me either except some close friends." He ran a hand through his long and rather messy hair. "Don't trust the Ministry not to slap me in a cage. Not after the war." He knew that the leadership was different now. That they were apparently trying to make past wrongs right. But Pike had a lot of anger and resentment. He couldn't just forgive that easily. Not when they'd taken his whole world from him. He'd lost everything - his job, his home, his lover. "Frey and I broke up," he murmured softly, wondering if she'd even remember his boyfriend. He was sure that she'd been aware that they were dating - and pretty serious too. They'd even bought a house together. "He got injured in the Battle at Hogwarts... I didn't, couldn't..." Couldn't defend him. Couldn't save him. Couldn't stop what happened. He was talking - and thinking - like Frey was dead. He wasn't, but their relationship was. They were two different people now. "I worried about hurting him, y'know." Yes, she'd know. She was one of the only ones who would truly understand.

"No, I don't use it," he said, with a slight shrug. "I did at first. Frey made it for me... but I didn't like it. Just seemed to make the wolf angrier. I felt worse through the rest of the month, like it was desperate to get out. So I mainly apparate out somewhere deserted. Up into the mountains or similar. Out where there's no people." Well, little chance of people anyway. Pike always worried that he'd come across some hikers or campers and know nothing about it. "Getting a cage too... it's a work in progress, but I figure if I can trap myself properly, then I can let the wolf burn itself out safely."

He paused, debating whether to share his last option. She might think he was crazy. But this was the only opportunity he'd have to talk about this. There was no-one else. "I, uhm... I've been trying out some meditation and, uh... herbal... remedies. Nothing like potions... more like... mind-opening, relaxing..." he blushed, the colour turning his tanned face ruddy. "I sound like a freaking hippy don't I?"