Transformation

I doubled over with laughter, wheezing. The crowded tavern's music, by the form of a spindly bard enchanting several different mandolins to strum by themselves, could hardly be heard over the howling and guffawing coming from our table. Bjorn clapped my back, thumping it to the rhythm of his bobbing beard as he shook with glee. The entire table cackled, hands beating the sturdy wooden table and tankards sloshing with ale. Unsteadily, I nearly fell down in a fit of giggles, my wand nearly clattering onto the floor. We'd all been done in by a particularly harsh insult exchange between Erik and the bartender, who'd by now surely had enough of our rowdy group. Erik had lost, and by a lot. As expected, the tall and burly bartender came over, bushy eyebrows drawn angrily above squinty dark eyes, hand placed warningly on his wand. Knowing he was about to kick us out of the bar and that a full-on fight was not worth the trouble, I motioned for our gaggle to leave and grudgingly, we stepped out into the crunchy snow.

Looking up at the dark sky, I inhaled the cold air, feeling its piercing presence in my body. We were in a darkish alleyway, the falling snow covering every inch of the cobblestone that it could, save for a little spot under the two lanterns guarding the wooden tavern doors. A row of tightly packed apartment buildings stretched onwards, their top floors tipping over the street like an unsteady tiered cake. Not a single light came from any of the windows, but that was to be expected. We weren't exactly in the most reputable of the drinking houses. Despite that, it was to be Christmas in three days, and seeing as I hadn't been welcome home ever since I'd gotten my wand, spending time in rowdy bars with my Durmstrang fellows was not bad at all. Bjorn, especially. We'd struck it off immediately and remained fast friends throughout our first four years. He got a bad rap for being a close family friend of Karkaroff's, but that man had fled his post as headmaster years ago and it didn't bother me anyways.

Then, as I was looking at the blanket of stars, I saw it. Shudders electrified my body. Fear began clawing at my mind, and I involuntarily took a few steps backward. Bjorn looked at me, concerned, and then saw it as well. "Ulf?" he said, alarm flooding into his eyes. He grabbed my shoulders. "Ulf! You...didn't take it?" My mouth gaping with fear, I shook my head no, then shouted it. I hadn't. I'd completely forgotten. I cursed myself but knew it was already too late. Too late for me. Too late because there it was.

Startled by our screaming and my sudden mood shift, the rest of the group turned around. I saw Erik stop mid-sentence and watched as his eyes widened and he drew out his wand, trembling. He saw it as well and knew what would happen. I was shaking, shaking, shaking. Not it. Anything but it. But there it was. Hanging in the sky, glaring down at me like a clown's face suspended forever in the cosmos. Just taunting me, forever. The moon. The full moon. Then the process started. I screamed, pain writhing within me.

It was unbearable. Time stretched in my agony, every millisecond a new world of hurt. My veins burned, burned as though fire ran through me. I felt my hands changing, breaking, shattering their molds, stretching, sharpening, hardening. My face contorted grotesquely, my sloping nose cracking into a snarling snout. Teeth forced themselves into my mouth, a roar into my throat. I heard my clothes ripping as my claws raked their way out of my feet, my back warping into another creature. My screams turned animalistic. I felt Bjorn stumble backwards as a new creature cracked out of my old body, tearing through the husk that had been my human form and invading my mind. The pain, oh, the pain. Bone by bone, I was remade. What felt like perpetual agony finally stilled, though it had been no more than two seconds.

I stood there a different beast, knowing I had merely a few moments before my mind no longer belonged to me. In the reflection of the bar's window, I saw myself. A deformed, terrible, dark beast, whose hunched back already rose a foot above the tavern roof. No longer the straight-backed blond-haired green-eyed wizard. No longer any friend of Bjorn's. But instead, this. A curving spine spat out a wolf's head, ears pulled back as sharp stained teeth bared menacingly through a frothing mouth. Violently strong shoulders contained a throbbing withered heart and a dark, evil soul. Yellow eyes, vicious and unforgiving, stared back at me from the bar's stained windows. They looked murderous, and I knew they were. Matted fur spottily covered a long sinewy frame from which hung two heavily muscled arms ending in dreadful claws. A single blow, I unfortunately knew, was enough to kill a man. Its claws were sharper than knives, and laced with a curse worse than death. Its chest heaved thirstily, legs twitching anxiously, and I looked at it in the window, knowing I was this creature.

The last vestiges of fear left my powerful body, as though with each exhale more of my mind left. I flexed my claws, inhaling deeply and reveling in the complexity of the scents I picked up. I turned towards the people who I had been so friendly with not two seconds prior. They stood around me in a ring, wands drawn, stupid humans who believed they could contain a creature of my power. I knew they wouldn't stand a chance against this beast. Like defending a glass pane from bullets, I fought for control, but I could already feel the deeply carnal desire for fresh meat. For blood. For murder. Desperately, I tried to scream for them to leave, but all that came out was a keening howl. I still tried to fight the storm of darkness that was merely fractions of a second from seizing my consciousness. The beast inside me threatened to jump out of my throat, and, my mind collapsing, I knew resistance was futile.

The moon blazed so brightly upon me. Yes, the moon. Blood. I wanted blood. I wanted to kill. So lucky there were people right in front of me. Smiling in the horrible way only death wanted to see, I turned upon the weak, foolish people around me. One of the taller ones tried to cast a spell from its weak little wand. What a poor excuse for a meal. I would have to kill elsewhere as well. Easily, I batted away the wand. No mercy, but instead blood. Death.