The curse of the half-bitten (open)

[Katie Cromwell]

Late December, 2005

Katie had been bitten by a werewolf before she came to Hogwarts, but the werewolf in question hadn't quite transformed yet as the moon had still been rising, so she didn't become a werewolf from that incident, but her life was nevertheless altered for the worse. She suffered many of the same secondary symptoms of werewolves near the full moon, including a rush of adrenaline, nervousness, insomnia, and loss of emotional control leading to spontaneous aggression. The permanent, day-to-day changes included a craving for raw or nearly-raw meat and a marked increase in olfactory sensitivity. At least the increased sensitivity to smell was occasionally useful when it came to potions and potion ingredients. She liked herbology and potions and intended to become an apothecary like her father had been. But everything else was a nightmare.

Regular-strength potions didn't have much effect when your symptoms were powered by the full moon.

There was a special room in the infirmary where she had to self-isolate under a quietus charm every full moon.

The full moon on the 15th hadn't been pleasant. She'd broken a few bones this time from wailing on the walls. She couldn't live like this forever.

She knew that her condition couldn't be cured, and nobody was likely to invest any time inventing a potion to mitigate the secondary symptoms of lycanthropy, so it seemed to her that she would have to do that herself if she wanted any relief from them.

Determined to at least try, and perhaps a bit over-ambitious, she decided a reasonable first step would be to compile a list of every potion ingredient that was known to have any physiological effects that might in any way be related to her symptoms, whether good or bad. She knew this process would take months, but she figured a good starting place would be to examine the active ingredients in every potion used by healers. There were books about healing magic, after all, and each one would have a large section devoted to potions. Different magical communities used different healing magic and different assortments of potions with different sorts of ingredients, and these would be documented in books. Many, many books.

Katie was alone in a quiet corner of the library, with one such healer's potion book open in front of her, as she transcribed any ingredient that sounded like it might be relevant into a fresh notebook.

[Grace Concord]

There was a kind of peace that inhabited the library, no matter how loud it was in the main hall, no matter the chaos and carnage that gripped the school the moment you stepped through the doors to the library it was almost like stepping into a whole other world. A world, if Grace was honest, which was almost like a sanctuary. She adored Hogwarts, she really did, the buzz that filled the air and the sheer number and diversity of students that roamed the halls. It was just sometimes they could be a little loud. Well ok, not just loud but overwhelming, and she needed the break sometimes. The girl had found herself a few little getaways over the years, the boathouse, the music rooms, even the forgotten balconies that dotted the rafters, but there was something about stepping into the library that reminded her of stepping into a warm comforting pool. There was nothing quite like it.

Perhaps that was why the hard crack of a book falling onto the floor echoed around the annex like a firework. It wasn’t an uncommon sound, but more of an unexpected one, at least as far as Grace was concerned, enough to pull her attention away from the Ancient Runes homework she’d been picking her way through. She enjoyed the subject, adored it, but poring through a large and dusty tome to find that one rune she’d mistranslated was soporific. Grace hadn’t quite zoned out…yet…but it had been a close fought thing before the slam jerked her up, brown eyes blinking rapidly as she glanced around. She expected the librarians to descend like a pack of hyenas with their stern looks and shushing…though to her surprised their only reaction was a look in the direction and an exasperated sigh.

Clearly they’d experienced the joy of student’s far too often.

A glance back at her own homework was all the impetus Grace needed to put down her quill and push herself to her feet, crossing the annex to kneel and grab the book, passing it up to the younger Ravenclaw.

“Studying for a potions test?”

[Katie Cromwell]

Katie herself had startled when she'd inadvertently pushed one of her books off the table. It had fallen off the far side of the table, making it that much more awkward to pick it up herself. But then she noticed movement in the corner of her eye and saw an elder Ravenclaw coming her way.

"Thanks," she said as the book was handed back to her. She set it on her stack.

The girl's question, however, was met with hesitation. "No, I'm not studying for a test. I'm..." She bit her lower lip as she tried to figure out a way to be honest without revealing too much. She was honest to a fault, but deathly afraid of being ostracized like full werewolves often were. But she was also at her wit's end, so perhaps she could answer vaguely? "Please don't tell anyone this. But I'm trying to figure out what potion ingredients might be candidates for mitigating various symptoms of a particular affliction, because the standard potions that Healers have tried to give me have all proven ineffective. It's a rare condition, but almost everyone else who has it suffers a much worse symptom than I do, so the few potion-masters who're trying to find a treatment are only focusing on the much worse symptom, and so far they've only come up with one thing. I tried it once, but it did nothing for me, leaving me to resort to doing things myself." She sighed. "I promise I'm not going to do anything reckless, so please don't worry about that or try to dissuade me. It'll be a long time before I get to the point of testing anything, and I'll be sure to have supervision when I do."

[Grace Concord]

There was something about Hogwarts that made it easier for people to reach out, to trust one another, or maybe it was just that the other girl had been keeping everything in for so long that she just had to unburden herself to a friendly face. It was a feeling that Grace was all too familiar with and an action she’d done herself more than once or twice.

“You know, if you’re already thinking about having someone around to watch in case something goes wrong, you’re probably a whole lot more…careful than most of the students around here.”

Careful was a good word, mature could have been used too. The Ravenclaw knew that most of the student body would reach out and grab the shiny artifact, just because they could and not even think for a moment about any potential consequences. Most of them should have known better, the school’s history made that much clear, but then who could resist the shiny? The Ravenclaw mascot really should have been a magpie instead of the raven, though that would probably have made her father even unhappier with her sorting.

Grace’s finger’s tightened on the book she was lifting to place on the table, twisting it so she could read the title as she felt her eyes widening. Her entire house was known for their intelligence if not their wisdom but this was way beyond anything she would even try. Ok, so potions might not have been her favourite subject but she was capable but…

“Wait, are you some kinda potions prodigy or something? Cause if you are I could so use some help with some homework, but seriously this stuff would leave me cross-eyed trying to even understand it and you’ve been working on this for how long?”

[Katie Cromwell]

Katie shrugged at the comment about being careful. "I have no choice but to be careful. Experimental potions can have any number of unexpected side-effects that might require urgent mitigation by someone competent. I hope to have a long life. But my affliction is sufficiently life-altering that I can't just wait and hope that someone else evenutally invests the time to find a remedy. Especially considering that I'm the only one I know in my particular situation. There's nobody else to test a potential remedy on. So I suppose you could say that I have a vested interest."

"Kindof? I'm near the top of my own year, at least.", she replied to the notion of her being a potions prodigy. "My father was an apothecary. He got me interested in herbology and potion-making and he taught me quite a bit before I was old enough for Hogwarts."

She sat back and considered the girl's request. "I don't mind offering help if you're struggling. I don't know how much help I'll be with fifth-year material though, but I can try?"