A/N: This story is inspired by the song 'Howl' By Florence and the Machines. Hopefully you'll enjoy it.

Howl

Chapter 1

Luna moved easily over the ground of the wood, elegantly moving past any roots or other things that could make her trip. She had made this trip too many times.

Luna knew she shouldn't be out in this hour, let alone in the Forbidden Forest, but she had forgotten to feed one of the foals and surely they would get mad at her if she didn't feed all of them every day. When she finally came to the clearing where the Thestrals were, she smiled of relief when she noticed they still were there. Luna pulled a rather large chunk of meat up from her bag and reached it forward as soon as she found the foal that she hadn't feed. The foal made a happy sound and walked forward pulling the meat chunk out of Luna's hand and swallowed it in one piece afterwards.

Luna tilted her head and studied the foal as it stumbled back to it mother only to settle beside her. A sound behind Luna distracted her. She quickly turned but could not locate where it had come from. The sound came again. It sounded like a human that was crying. Luna walked towards the sound and it didn't take long before she could see a person sitting up against a tree. It kind of looked like –

"Professor Lupin?" Luna asked, not shielding her surprise. Professor Lupin looked up at her, eyes red from crying, containing equal amount of surprise. "M-miss Lovegood." He just said. His eyes panicked and he stood up. "You can't be here!" he exclaimed, walking a few steps backwards. Luna frowned, "Why not?" Now that she got a better look at her professor, she noticed that he was terrible pale and was sweating quite a lot actually. Not waiting for an answer, she continued; "You don't look so good Professor. Is something wrong?" He didn't answer at first because he focused on something on the sky behind her. Luna turned to see what he was looking on and saw that behind the mountains, the moon light was finally surfacing and the moon itself would be able to be seen in not so long.

Lupins voice broke Luna's train of thoughts. "You need to run, Luna. Now." Luna turned, reacting on him calling her Luna, just in time as the first moonbeam hit Lupin and gasped. Lupin eyes turned yellow and his pupils turned more cat-like. A werewolf. A huge crack-noise broke through the silent forest and Luna realized it was coming from him. Luna had stood still long enough and when Professor Lupin gave out a growl she turned around quickly, her blond hair flying everywhere and ran.

Luna ran and ran, not sure if she was even being followed yet. The Thestrales clearing was deep in the woods, almost a 15 minutes' walk. If she ran like this the whole way it would still take a while to get out of the forest. She didn't know how long a werewolf transformation took, and she was defiantly not going to stop and ask. She soon got her answer as a howl coming from far behind her. This only made her run faster.

She could finally start seeing the light from the castle through the trees and was just about to sigh at relief, but then she heard running steps behind her. Fast ones. Luna tried to run faster but she just couldn't. The steps haled in on her, but she was nearly there. She could almost touch salvation when she felt a push on her back followed by a sharp pain the same spot. Luna screamed and fell forward down on the grass before her, just outside of the Forbidden Forest. She breathed heavily and turned around so she was on her back. She stared directly up into those yellow eyes. They looked quite sad actually. Like it didn't want to do it, but was forced by some invisible master. The beast before her growled and opened its mouth to bite her, also unleashing a horrible breath. Luna closed her eyes, waiting for what was about to happen.

A loud bang was heard and the beast whined in pain. And then the warmth that she had felt from the beast disappeared.

"Miss Lovegood!"

It was Professor McGonagall. She opened her eyes but suddenly found them to be too tired to stay open. The grass beneath her had suddenly gone wet. Luna moved her hand up in front of her face only to see it dyed red from blood. Her eyelid slid shut again and Luna was devoured from the darkness.

When Luna next time opened her eyes, it was four days later. The sun was shining through the curtains of the window above the bed she was laying in, giving the room a redish shine. Luna made a move to sit up, and was then about to scream, but muffled it by clenching her teeth. Instead a groaning sound came. Her intire back felt like it was burning! Almost immediately Madam Pomfry was over her. "Oh dear. I didn't expect you to wake up before a couple of days!" A small pause followed before she finally asked; "Would you like to sit up?" "Yes, thank you." Luna answered with a voice that was broken from many days of unuse.

Madam Pomfry mumbled a spell under her breath and the bed behind Luna slowly rose until she was sitting up. She noticed a slight soreness in her back, but that really was all that was to it. She looked at her surroundings. She was at the Hospital Wing.

"Are you hungry?" the old nurse asked her kindly. "A bit.." Luna answered. Madam Pomfrey smiled. "Well it's dinner time right now, so we could just get a house elf bring it up. What would you like?" "Steak." The word was out before Luna even had a chance to think. She frowned at herself. She wasn't usually all that for eating meat.. But she just had this.. well.. hunger for meat right now. Madam Pomfrey looked concerned at her but didn't speak as she turned around and disappeared into another room.

Not long after dinner, none other than Professor Dumbledore entered the infirmary carrying a bag. "Ah.. Miss Lovegood. You're awake. Good." he said and smiled calmly at her. "How are you feeling?" "It hurts, but I am okay." Luna answered honestly. Dumbledore nodded in approval. "Good." He dropped the bag on the floor beside Luna's bed. "I had Miss Chang fetch some of your clothes for you from your dormitory. I would have had Poppy given it to you, but since you're awake.." he trailed off deliberately.

Luna ignored it, not in the mood to those sorts of conversations. Instead, she asked the one question she really needed to get an answer on; "Professor, what is going to happen to me?"

"To be honest, I am not sure what will happen. It is rare that someone survives a werewolf attack without getting bitten and the few cases we know about, reacted in completely different ways," he explained. He then smiled friendly at her and continued; "Although I think we can establish that you have gotten a few traits from Professor Lupin."

"Like what?" Luna asked, wanting to know more.

"Well.. You've already discovered one thing haven't you?" Dumbledore said. Luna looked at him with a confused look. "Madam Pomfrey told me you had meat for dinner. And lots of it." He said and blinked. Luna looked down at her lap. True enough. Not waiting for a response he continued; "But it could be anything. Not just his beastly features. It could also be some of his personality traits. That is why you might not feel like yourself."

Luna frowned. She would.. inherit some of Professor Lupin's personality traits? That sounded rubbish! "With all the respect, Sir, I think I would have noticed." She said quietly. Dumbledore lifted an eyebrow, smilingly. "Really? How come you haven't mentioned Nargles or Wrackspurts?" Luna didn't have the time to answer as Dumbledore just continued; "Because an increased sense of logic tells you it is not likely." Luna blinked. When she thought about it, she could see it. There were no proof of the existence of Nargels.. Why would they exist?

Dumbledore smiled as a flash of realization came across Lunas face. "Have a good day, Miss Lovegood." He said cheeringly and exited the room.

Luna could do nothing but to gape after him.

Two days later, Luna was still in the Infirmary. Madam Pomfrey had for the past days denied her to go anywhere, but when Luna had asked her today, she had given her permission to go and get her own nightclothes from her dormitory. The bag that Dumbledore had brought had remained untouched until now, but now Luna finally had a reason to wear her own clothes. She took the bag, her back not hurting that much anymore, and went to the Hospital Wings bathroom where she changed. Cho had given Dumbledore her Luna's light-blue leggings, a matching shirt and Luna's gray skirt. Ravenclaw colors. Luna smiled at the sight of herself. As she had gotten all of the clothes on and had gotten on the shoes that had also been in the bag, she exited the bathroom. She threw the hospital clothes on the end of her bed and turned around to start walking towards her common room when she froze.

Standing in the doorway to the Infirmary was Professor Lupin.

He stood there, also frozen and looked right back at her. They stood like that, looking at each other for what seemed like forever to Luna. Then Professor Lupin suddenly said; "Please. Don't be afraid of me.." keeping his hands out in front of him, calmingly. Luna frowned lightly and tilted her head. "Why would I be afraid of you?"

She hadn't frozen because she was scared. She froze because he didn't look at all like she remembered. It was like his green eyes pierced through Luna, filling her with a calm that she hadn't had in a long time. His skin shined in a way that could only be described as beautiful, as the sun landed on it. His rough hands suddenly seemed very soft and Luna wanted nothing more than to have those hands on her.

"I.. I attacked you." Lupin said, breaking eye contact and pulling Luna out of her fantasy. Luna walked daringly forward so she stood in front of her. "But you didn't mean to." She answered, sucking in his traits so she could remember them always. She felt a sort if closeness to him that she hadn't felt with anyone before. She stopped herself from reaching out for his hand.

Lupin looked at her, stunned. "How..?" Luna was tempted to tell him the truth, that she had seen it the beas- his eyes. But she quickly agreed to herself that that would just sound too corny and instead decided on; "We've read about werewolves in Defense Against the Dark Arts." Before he could answer she continued reinsuring; "I don't blame you and neither should you." She brushed a hair away from his face before she could stop herself. He stiffened and so did she as it dawned on her what she was doing. Luna quickly withdrew her hand and stuttered; "I-I'm sorry" and then went past him, eyes down and not looking back.