Onward, Moony

With a flick of his wand, the curtains before the floor-to-ceiling windows parted on their own.

Moonlight poured into the room.

Lupin's eyes widened as he stared at the full moon outside in terror. "Don't do this. Please, don't do this. No!"

The old wizard cackled. "Relax."

Soon, thick wolf fur covered Lupin's body. His head seemed to have a restless rabbit trapped inside, darting frantically from side to side.

At last, it became a massive wolf's head.

Lupin, still half-suspended in the air, grew enormous. His feet braced against the floor, and his struggles set the chains rattling.

"What a perfect magical Animagus." The old wizard marveled at him as though admiring a work of art.

"Do you know?" He turned to Anton, looking half-mad. His eyes were bloodshot and bulging with excitement. "None of them understand. This is the perfect magical Animagus—the only Magical Creature a human can transform into, a terrifying war machine that can easily be replicated."

"Reducto!" A spell flashed from his wand.

It struck Lupin, sending a few strands of fur flying. The exposed skin bore only a slight scrape.

"Look. Just look."

The old wizard clicked his tongue. "How perfect."

"Praise the wizards of old." He burst out laughing. "Praise their great achievement in creating the world's only Animagus Magical Creature."

"Praise Damocles Belby, who invented the Wolfsbane Potion and overcame the werewolf's lack of reason."

"Praise Alex Fiennes. I will improve this magic so that people can become werewolves whenever and wherever they wish."

The old wizard shouted like a madman over the werewolf's roars.

He swung his wand toward Anton. "Drink the Wizard's Eye potion you made. Now."

Anton was silent for a moment. Then he picked up the vial and downed it in one gulp.

Wave after wave of coolness washed through his brain. He blinked in confusion.

He had another eye!

In his new field of vision, the old wizard appeared as a human-shaped patch of light, grayish-brown streaked with dark green. The green filaments looked like cracks, and if Anton looked closely, he could just make out three strange patterns.

They were identical to the runes in the pattern on his wrist!

He looked down. Beneath the uneven wooden floorboards, which looked worn with age, strange patterns of grayish-brown patches and dark green threads glimmered with the light of a magic circle.

He looked up. Countless pale blue lines filled Lupin's body, surging and twisting like ocean tides.

The sensation was deeply strange.

And with each new thing he examined, his head felt as if it would split open under the weight of the information.

Nausea seized him, and he retched.

"Ha!" The old wizard laughed hysterically. "The potion I developed is incredible, isn't it?"

"Quick, cast the Soul-Transferring Charm on that werewolf."

The old wizard eagerly handed Anton the old wand, his eyes burning with anticipation.

Anton looked at him calmly. "Teacher, if this potion is so incredible, why didn't you drink it yourself?"

Anton had learned that questioning the old wizard when he was anxious led to one of two things: a vicious curse, or a hurried answer given without thinking.

He was betting that the old wizard needed him too badly right now to kill him.

"The Wizard's Eye potion requires a strong body. Mine is so frail I can barely keep it functioning." The old wizard stared at Anton anxiously. "I can't withstand another drop of potion."

"Quickly, my precious apprentice. Cast the Soul-Transferring Charm on that werewolf. Let's begin the final stage of this great experiment."

"Is that so?" Anton smiled faintly.

He pointed the wand at Lupin. "Soul, leave the body!"

The spell flashed.

An invisible force linked him to the werewolf.

"Yes, yes, that's it." The old wizard snatched up a sheet of notes bearing a strange diagram drawn in dark green ink.

"Quickly, close your eyes. Use your Wizard's Eye to look inside your body, then tell me what these missing lines are!"

Under the combined effects of the charm and the potion, Anton felt as though the entire world were shaking violently.

Panic clawed at him. Lines darted wildly everywhere, so dazzling they made him want to vomit.

Perhaps his many encounters with the Cruciatus Curse helped him endure it.

He fixed his gaze on the roiling image within his body. At last he saw dark green cracks, line after line, opening and closing in strange ways as everything surged around them.

The pattern was wondrous and beautiful.

Then, as though a rubber band had been stretched to its limit, an immense force yanked him back.

He gasped for air, dragging in breath after breath as though he had been suffocating for ages.

Perhaps he had. He stared blankly at the sunlight outside the window and at Lupin, who had returned to human form.

It was already noon, though to Anton only a few minutes had passed!

"Quick!" The old wizard thrust a sheet of parchment in front of him. "While you still remember, fill in the rest of the diagram!"

The parchment had clearly been used many times. The ink differed in color in several places.

Anton pressed his lips together, took the quill, and carefully filled in the gaps.

"Ha! Perfect, perfect!" The old wizard marveled as the strokes joined up. Then he frowned at one line. "No, why would this connect here? What does it mean?"

Because I drew that line wrong on purpose! Anton grinned and watched the old wizard's expression.

Those almost-right lines must be a real headache. You'll spend ages puzzling over them, won't you?

After two months of observation, Anton knew the dark wizard all too well.

He was a madman who would stop at nothing for his magical research. When he encountered a problem he couldn't solve, he could stand there in a daze for an entire day.

And at that moment,

Anton quietly picked up the vial behind him. He had placed it there after drinking the potion specifically so the old wizard wouldn't notice it.

Because

there was still a small mouthful left inside.

He watched the old man sink into a trance, head tipped back, eyes unfocused, muttering to himself.

Heh.

Finally, an opening!

Your body's too frail to withstand even a drop of potion, is it?

Well, look what I've got!

"No, no." The old wizard was still muttering when something cold suddenly flowed into his mouth. "Glug."

He choked most of it back out, but swallowed plenty.

His eyes widened as he stared in disbelief at the vial in Anton's hand. "You!"

Anton smiled. His other hand was already raised, and he seized the old wizard's wand and wrenched it away.

He rolled across the floor and came to a stop beside the werewolf's iron frame.

"No! No!" Dark green cracks spread across the old wizard's body. "No!"

The cracks widened. One glowing fissure ran straight up from beneath his collar, splitting his head in two.

And somehow, he was still alive.

"You made me drink the potion! You damned fool! Argh!"

His furious scream was louder than any Anton had made while being tortured. "Give me back my wand!"

The old wizard flicked his fingers sharply.

A spell shot toward Anton.

Damn it!

Wandless magic!

It came too fast to dodge!

Anton stumbled and fell, but his eyes lit up. "The Cruciatus Curse?"

And a much weaker one than usual?

He was used to this. He had been hit with the curse every few days for the past two months. His body knew its agony all too well.

Gritting his teeth, he got up and shoved the old wizard's wand into Lupin's hand.

Lupin stared at the scene in astonishment. With a gentle wave of the wand, he shed every chain binding him.

He waved it again, deflecting the Cruciatus Curse the old wizard sent at him.

Then he turned to Anton, who was sitting on the floor, and smiled. "My name is Lupin."