Unexpected by JAWorley
Summary: Some unexpected changes are taking place in Harry's body, which are sure to make for an interesting 6th year. He will have to rely on Ron, a mysterious man, and a snarky Potion's master to get him through the year.
Categories: Healer Snape, Teacher Snape > Trusted Mentor Snape, Teacher Snape > Professor Snape, Parental Snape > Guardian Snape, Snape Equal Status to Harry > Comrades Snape and Harry Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Dumbledore, Ginny, Hagrid, Hermione, McGonagall, Original Character, Other, Petunia, Pomfrey, Remus, Ron
Snape Flavour: Snape is Angry, Canon Snape, Snape Comforts, Snape is Mean, Overly-protective Snape, Snape is Secretive, Snape is Stern
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Fantasy, General, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Supernatural
Media Type: None
Tags: Alternate Universe, Creature!fic, Hospitalization, Incognito!Harry, Injured!Harry, Physical Impairment, Runaway, Spying on Harry! Snape, Werewolf!Harry, Werewolf!Snape, Werewolves
Takes Place: 6th summer, 6th Year
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys, Neglect, Profanity, Violence
Prompts: Harry is a werewolf
Challenges: Harry is a werewolf
Series: None
Chapters: 9 Completed: No Word count: 29112 Read: 42005 Published: 28 Dec 2011 Updated: 08 Apr 2018
What Best Friends Are For by JAWorley
"I know what we're going to do," Ron said, coming to their new favorite nook in the common room where Harry sat trying to do a particularly challenging transfiguration essay.

"About?" Harry asked, feeling irritated.

Ron spread the Marauder's Map on the small round table on top of Harry's homework and ignored his question. "The Room of Requirement," he said proudly.

"For the full moon?" Harry whispered.

Ron nodded. "We can make it into what we want, right? We can turn it into a cell with locked doors you can't get out of with no windows. You said if the moonlight doesn't shine on you, you don't turn, yeah?"

"That's a good idea," Harry said. He'd been starting to worry that he'd have to go out on the grounds and take his chances with the hunter and the Alpha. The full moon was only two days away and he was already starting to feel the effects. He'd snapped at Ron several times that morning and had been irritated and angry with everybody and everything, including this infernal transfiguration essay and even at McGonagall for assigning it.

"We'll go up there under the cloak, I'll soundproof it and lock you in and come back to get you in the morning."

"What if I somehow get out?"

"I figured we could go to the Room of Requirement tomorrow and ask it to just show us what we need and see if it'll work out. I'd stay with you but-"

"Yeah, I got it," Harry snapped. "I'm dangerous."

"Actually," Ron said, "that's not it." He leaned even further in and whispered, "I overheard McGonagall talking to Snape about bed checks. Seems they're taking the hunter that came on the grounds seriously. They're going to check beds to see if anyone is missing during the full moon."

Harry's face went pale and Ron nodded. "We can stuff pillows and blankets under your blanket so it looks like you're there. Fred and George taught me a spell once to cast noises to another area of a room. I'll make it sound like you're snoring when they come in to check."

Harry relaxed a little. "This can't work," he said.

"It has to. We only have a couple days left to get ready. We can come up with something better for next month."

Harry rubbed his eye with the palm of his hand, trying to force himself to not be sleepy. He'd been staying up later and later at night studying in the hopes that the less time he slept, the less time the Alpha would have to call him out, even though he hadn't been called out for days.

The next morning, which was a Saturday, Harry and Ron walked past the Room of Requirement three times, each thinking different things about what they needed. When they opened the door they found a cell with metal bars all the way around it in a tiny room with a worn red chair sitting in the only space of the room not taken up by the cell. The chair was just out of arm's reach of the cell, Harry noted. There were no windows, and instead there was a light outside the cell above the chair.

"What do you think?" Ron asked.

"We need a bunch of locks on the cell door." As he said it, several heavy metal locks appeared on the cell door as well as the door leading out to the corridor.

Ron went up and shook the metal bars to see if they were secure, and in response, more heavy metal appeared where the metal bars met the ceiling and floor.

"Not exactly how I envisioned spending three nights a month," Harry said, "but it'll do."

"I'm gonna use the map to nick some healing potions tonight," Ron said. "I figure we can keep them in here, and if you get hurt having them in here will get you to class faster in the morning. If you look sick and all scratched up they'll know."

"Yeah, and I can't exactly go to the Hospital Wing either."

"I figure you could probably get away with skipping class in the morning once, maybe twice, but you'll get detention and you don't want detention at night on the full moon. We can make up a story and say you just didn't feel like going to class. Snape'll eat that up."

"I'll have to use that excuse on the day after the last night of the full moon if I need it."

Even though a plan was in place, Harry still felt uneasy as Sunday night approached. He decided to spend Sunday by himself studying so he wouldn't keep snapping at his friends, and ended up skipping dinner as well, opting to meet Ron in the common room after dinner. Harry made a show of telling Hermione he was going up to his room to study for the evening where he could get some peace and quiet (because there was a group of loud first and second years playing Exploding Snape in the common room), and then he and Ron went up to the dormitory and got out the Marauder's map and Harry's cloak. They wouldn't both fit under the cloak, so only Harry wore it. He followed Ron back to the common room, where Ron made a comment to Hermione about wanting to go look for a Quidditch book in the library and told her he'd be back before curfew.

"You'd better actually go get a book," Harry told him when they made the Room of Requirement."

"I'm going to after I lock you in," Ron said. "I'm going to sneak into the Restricted Section under the cloak and get a book on love potions too."

"What? Why?"

"If they discover you're missing, I'm going to pretend like I don't know where you went. Then in the morning you'll turn up with the book from the Restricted Section and you'll get in trouble for breaking school rules. You can say you and I were both planning on pranking the Slytherins by slipping them all a love Potion at breakfast."

When Harry just stared at Ron, Ron asked, "What?"

"Where do you even come up with this stuff? You're a Slytherin at heart, I swear."

"Take it back Harry, that's not funny."

"First you break into the Hospital Wing to steal healing potions, then you come up with a plan to make it look like I'm in bed sleeping when I'm not, and now you're planning on keeping us out of trouble by getting us into trouble for another fake plan to prank the Slytherins. It's sneaky."

"I'm a man on a mission. That's being a Gryffindor."

"And sneaky," Harry said as he went into the cage and Ron set to locking all the locks and then warding the room against intruders and also soundproofing it.

"Did I miss anything?" Ron asked.

"No," Harry said dully, looking at the bars of the cage again. He felt like a caged animal.

Ron looked at his watch. "Crud. Only half an hour to curfew. I gotta go or I won't make it back in time."

Harry waved him off. "Thanks Ron."

"Don't thank me yet. Nothing's worked yet. I'll see you in the morning. I'll bring up a change of clothes for you too."

Ron left and Harry couldn't hear if he was warding the door from the other side or not because of the sound barrier. He looked at the bars of the cage again and then sat down on the cold stone floor.

Harry was glad there were no windows. He didn't know how he could tell that the moon was up, but he could. All of his senses were heightened like they had been on the last full moon. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he strained to hear any little sound outside of his room, even though there was nothing to hear.

Harry kept looking at his hands and arms to see if any new hair had grown, but it hadn't, despite the fact that the hunger was starting to come over him and his mind was starting to feel foggy.

As the night wore on, Harry grew more and more restless, and had taken to walking in circles around his tiny cell. He punched the cell bars several times and reached through them to fiddle with the locks Ron had set, wondering if he could break them with sheer strength. He tried, but failed. He tried pulling on the bars to break them out, but failed at that too.

Harry began to feel sick around one in the morning and wondered if he was going to throw up. He had an urge to howl, and fought it, but before long he let out a piteous howl and whimpered. He checked his arms again, but there was no new hair. Finally, feeling weak and too sick to move, Harry lay on the cold stone floor and stared at the door, waiting for Ron to return. He couldn't remember Ron's name, or even who he was. He just knew that a red-headed boy was supposed to come let him out. He wished he could remember when, and why he was locked up in this cage instead of being allowed to roam free under the moonlight with Ethan.

* * *

"Blimy Harry," Ron said early the next morning.

Harry cracked an eye open and Ron's brown sneakers came into view. He heard the locks all clicking open and the door to the cell swung open admitting Ron.

"Did you transform?"

"I don't think so," Harry said.

"Where'd all these scratches come from then?"

Harry looked down at his chest. His shirt was torn in several places and his chest was all scratched up.

"I must have done it," Harry said, not getting up because he was too weak.

"You don't remember?"

"I- no."

"Here, drink this." Ron helped Harry weakly sit up and gave him a bottle of water. Then Ron pulled Harry's shirt off over his head and quickly began applying a healing salve to heal the scratches on his chest and arms.

"It looks like you tried to scratch your own skin off."

"I don't remember."

"What do you remember?"

"It was like- my mind was foggy like when I transform, and my body wanted to transform but couldn't. I felt sick all night. I'm so weak."

"I wish we could tell Hermione. She could research it better than me."

"We can't," Harry reminded him, feeling miserable. They'd discussed it several times already and had both agreed that while they'd like to tell her, and would like to have her help, they couldn't trust that she would keep it a secret. Hermione usually insisted they seek the help of an adult, and on occasion when Harry and Ron had refused, she had gone to McGonagall on her own for help. They couldn't risk it. They knew she meant well, but Harry wanted to keep it a secret and Ron also thought it was for the best.

"They came in for bed checks last night," Ron said.

Harry didn't ask, he just stared at his friend and waited for the rest of the story while Ron slathered salve onto his arms. "They didn't suspect anything. I pretended to be asleep, and Neville was snoring so loudly I don't think McGonagall could tell if anyone else was making noise or not. She left pretty quickly after she stuck her head in the door."

"Good."

"Here." Ron handed Harry a pepperup potion and helped him drink it down. "That any better?"

"I'm really weak." Harry scrubbed at his eyes and said, "I think the Alpha was calling me. I kept trying to break the locks. I wonder if-"

"What?"

"Maybe the Alpha made me scratch myself up."

"You think he did that to punish you?"

"Maybe. I was so hungry Ron... like when I'd transformed. All I wanted to do was get out and roam the grounds. I could feel that the moon was up. I really wanted to transform but it was like I was trapped in this body."

"Your body," Ron reminded him. "Come on." He pulled Harry to his feet and then pushed him up against the cell bars when Harry's legs buckled. "Blimy!" he said again. When Harry regained his feet Ron let go of him, though Harry still swayed.

He pulled one of Harry's shirts out of his bag and then pulled it on over Harry's head. "Don't get any ideas. I'm not your mum, you're gonna have to do your pants yourself."

"I got it," Harry said, leaving the cell to sit in the faded red chair. Ron turned around to re-organize the potions bottles while Harry changed into clean pants. When Ron turned around again Harry was fumbling with his tie because his fingers were shaking. Ron pushed Harry's hands away and did his tie up.

"Thank you mother," Harry said with a weak grin, and Ron scoffed.

"If Ginny saw me she'd make fun too. She's always on me about having mum do everything for me." He sat back on his knees and said thoughtfully, "Actually, I kinda feel bad now that mum does do so much for me."

Harry tried to stand up but fell back into the chair. "I don't know how I'm gonna make it to class."

"Did you sleep at all?"

"I passed out some time in the middle of the night."

Ron scratched his head and sighed. "You've got super strength right? I mean, you're not all human anymore. You could probably get away with another pepperup potion. I'll see if I can sneak a strengthening potion out of the Hospital Wing sometime today too."

"You think?" Harry asked of the pepperup potion.

Ron dug around the box against the wall and pulled another one out. "If I accidentally poison you you'll have a real reason to go to the Hospital Wing and sleep all day."

"Give it to me," Harry said. He drank it down and did feel slightly better.

Ron looked at his watch after a few minutes when Harry had yet to keel over from the second potion. "Breakfast starts in ten minutes. Food might help too."

"I am hungry."

"They don't serve humans for breakfast."

Harry glared at Ron but Ron laughed and helped Harry stand up from the chair. They opened the door and Ron stuck his head out first to be sure no one was in the corridor and led the way down to the Great Hall, walking slowly so Harry wouldn't fall over. Once they were seated, Harry piled everything he could on his plate and began eating it faster than Ron thought was possible.

"Harry," Hermione said, as she sat down across from them, "that's disgusting."

Harry ignored her and piled more eggs and an unseemly pile of bacon on his plate.

"You could at least eat some fruit with your pig and side of eggs," Ginny commented, also coming to sit with them.

"He had two apples before this," Ron lied. All Harry seemed to want was protein. His stomach was uncomfortably full when he was done, but he felt almost strong enough to make it through the day.

Harry did make it through his classes that day, but only barely. He was tired and wanted to sleep and still felt all around sick and unwell. Snape took note of Harry's state in their afternoon Potions class when Harry appeared unable to keep his eyes open in class.

"Up late roaming the corridors were we Potter?" he asked, coming to stand in front of Harry's desk. Harry would have taken it as the man's normal taunting but he could sense an unusual desire to know in his voice. That coupled with the fact that the staff had been doing bed checks to see if students were missing during the full moon set both Harry and Ron on edge.

"Neville snored loudly all night and kept me up," Harry lied quietly (though it wasn't much of a lie because Neville did snore). "Just when I started to fall asleep Professor McGonagall came into our room and woke me up."

Snape made a noise as if he was noting something, glared at Harry, and moved off. Harry could feel Ron relax beside him.

"That's why you've looked sick all day," Hermione said from the bench next to theirs. "I wondered if you'd caught a cold."

After dinner that night, when Ron and Harry had made their way back to the Room of Requirement and Harry had been locked into the cell, Ron said, "Do you think Snape bought it?"

Harry shrugged. "If I wasn't there, how else would I know McGonagall came into the room?"

"Yeah." Ron plopped down into the red chair.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to see what happens tonight."

"What about bed checks? Hermione will know you haven't come back before curfew."

"Hermione went up to her room to study because there's a big exam tomorrow in Arithmancy and she said she didn't want to be bothered."

"That's right, I forgot."

"I'm going to watch the map," Ron said, pulling the Marauder's Map out. "If I see McGonagall or any other Professors making their way to Gryffindor I'll head up there. Right now I've got clothes and pillows stuffed under the blankets on both of our beds. I even stuffed a sock with other socks and left it hanging out under the blanket to look like a foot sticking out."

"Seriously," Harry said, "where do you get this stuff from?"

"The twins and I did it the night we flew the car to rescue you in second year. It didn't work at home ‘cause mum knows the twins sneak out sometimes so she checks to see that there's actually something alive under the covers, but it ought to work here."

"So you're gonna stay all night?"

"For a while at least," Ron said. "I have the cloak to get back to the tower later if have to."

Ron pretended to study instead of watching Harry pace the cell as the night wore on. Around one, Ron came to the cell bars and said, "Harry? You ok? You really don't look good."

Harry flew to the cell bars and reached through to grab Ron but Ron jumped back quickly and Harry missed him.

"I'm not a midnight snack," Ron joked nervously, but Harry wasn't laughing. He was breathing heavily and he began pulling at his shirt until it ripped.

"Don't do that," Ron said, but Harry wasn't listening or didn't hear him because in the next moment he was tearing at his chest with his fingernails. "Hey! Cut that out!"

Harry turned and let out a low growl and Ron frowned at him. He pulled out his wand and cast a Petrificus Totalus on Harry, which sent him falling to the floor with a thud. Ron cringed at the sight of his friend falling to the stone floor. "Sorry about that," he said. After twenty minutes, he canceled the spell but Harry seemed to have passed out. Ron went back to the map and noted that McGonagall hadn't moved from her quarters and that the other Professors all seemed to be asleep. He curled up in the chair and fell asleep a few minutes later, though it wasn't comfortable and he kept waking up and looking at Harry in the cell to be certain he was still there an still ok.

Both boys were groggy in the morning, but thanks to Ron petrifying his friend, Harry didn't have as many injuries as he'd had the previous morning.

"You look worse than before," Ron said, noting his friends pale face and shaking hands, and immediately giving Harry two pepperup potions.

"I'm weak," Harry said.

"Was it like this when you were transforming last month?"

"I was weak," Harry agreed, "but not like this. This hurts in my bones. And I'm so hungry."

Ron pulled an apple from his bag which he'd saved from lunch the day before. "Here. Try not to scarf breakfast down again today or people are going to start talking."

"If I even make it to breakfast."

"You could skip," Ron hedged. "I could bring you food, but you probably shouldn't skip."

"You could tell Hermione that I slept in."

"That could work. And History of Magic is first..."

Harry sighed. "Help me up." Ron helped him and then threw the cloak over him and walked with him up to Gryffindor tower. Just as they entered the common room, Hermione came down the stairs leading to the Girl's dormitory.

"Where's Harry?"

"Sleeping in," Ron said as he felt Harry brush past him and move towards the boy's staircase.

"But he'll miss breakfast."

Ron shrugged. "I think he probably ate enough yesterday to last him all week."

Hermione giggled and left the common room with Ron. She fretted over Harry missing History of Magic a couple of hours later and insisted Ron go to wake Harry up before Defense, which had been the plan anyway.

"You missed a lot of important things Harry," Hermione chastised him when he made it to Defense with only moments to spare. "They're all going to be on the test."

"I'll flunk the test if I don't get any sleep."

"You could cast a silencing charm on your bed hangings," Hermione said.

"You haven't heard Neville snore," Ron told her.

* * *

On the last night of the full moon, Ron locked Harry into the cell and left him alone to go back to the common room. Hermione had asked Ron to study with her and Harry and Ron agreed it would be best if they weren't missing from the common room for three nights in a row. Ron told Hermione that Harry had gone to bed early again trying to get some sleep, and she made Ron promise to cast a silencing charm around his and Harry's hangings to keep noise to a minimum.

In the morning, Harry asked Ron to take him to the Hospital Wing after Ron healed his scratches and bruises again, and Ron took him to see Madam Pomfrey.

"My Mr. Potter, you don't look well at all."

"He threw up this morning," Ron said, and it was true. He'd gone back to the Room of Requirement to find Harry laying next to several pools of sick.

"Was it something you ate dear?" She asked as Harry lay down on a hospital bed and groaned.

"Bacon," Harry said.

She looked to Ron who said, "He pigged out on bacon yesterday and didn't feel good because of it all night."

She tsked and tutted over Harry for a few minutes before sending Ron on his way to classes.

Harry tried to fall asleep but after half an hour the Headmaster came into the Hospital Wing and asked Madam Pomfrey in hushed tones (which Harry heard clearly with his enhanced hearing), "Has there been anyone Madam?"

"No, I'd tell you if there were any suspicious illnesses."

They were quiet for a moment and Harry was sure the Headmaster's eyes had flitted over to his bed because in the next moment Madam Pomfrey said, "He threw up this morning. Mr. Weasley said he overate yesterday. I've already given him a potion for his stomach and he seems to be feeling better."

"Thank you Poppy. Let me know if anyone else comes in today."

"Of course Albus."

The Headmaster left and Madam Pomfrey came back over to Harry's bed.

"Feeling better dear?"

"I think I'm gonna be sick again," Harry mumbled, and within half an hour he was. He couldn't stop shaking either and the mediwitch decided that Harry had probably caught a nasty virus and decided to keep him for the day and through the next night. Harry was grateful. He was miserable, but he was grateful. He only hoped he didn't growl as he slept, and that if he did, she wouldn't notice.

To be continued...
End Notes:
It's been a long time since the last update, but here it is, and there's more to come very soon!

I'd like to know how you think the story is going. Also, I am usually open to ideas, so if you have anything you'd like to see, I enjoy hearing what readers are wanting to see or looking forward to seeing. I make no guarantees that I'll use any ideas, and some of them may already be in the works.

Also, Severus is coming to the story soon. I know Severus sightings have been few and far in between thus far (and will be for at least two more chapters) but most of the things he's done so far have been behind the scenes and unseen to Harry (as many things are that staff do or are involved in when running a school). There's just so much that had/has to happen before we can get to where Severus really comes into the story and becomes a big part of it.

Also, the next chapter should be exciting :)


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