Ice cream and friends Locked

"...yes, you have to be bitten," Miranda replied her eyes seemed to glaz over lime she was lost in thought. I wondered if she was thinking about how his had happened to her. I regretted bringing it up I almost blurting something out just to change the subject but before I could think of anything she continused one this time her voice wavered less and she seemed less distressed.

"Bitten or scratched, that is I was bitten, but you'll probably find an equal amount of people that were turned either way. And since it's not passed on genetically, if you find two werewolves that are closely related to one another - father and son, perhaps - it's quite likely that it was caused by one turning the other because of their close quarters." She said.

My eyes widened a bit hearing that. How terriffying it would be that you could turn and completly lose all self control and not be able to stop yourself from hurting someone you loved. That made me wonder again about what had happened to Miranda, if she had know the wolf or if it had simply been a freak accident?

"It's not really that complicated, Once bitten or scratched, if you survive you start turning into a similar beast every full moon. And not exactly like all those muggle tales portray us, either. Most werewolves just look like normal wolves, although sometimes their eyes look a bit more intelligent than average, and their snouts tend to be slightly shorter."She explained.

I thought about what she said. That was definatly differnt then muggle potryals and while that seemed a bit less terrifying for anyone who might be near a transforming wolf it would probably actually be worse for the perferson affected by the condition. Being stuck as a werewolf all night unable to change back to a human at all seemed pretty unapealing.

"So you're brother, his names Cedar, right? He's not a werewolf right?" I ask.

After Miranda finished her paltry (at least in her eyes) explanation, there was a beat of silence as Violet seemed to digest her words. Miranda spent that moment staring at her shoes, the walls, her slowly melting ice cream cone - anything but the other girl's face. She didn't want to see what her expression might be, not until she was sure she could take it. Surely after such an explanation, the girl wouldn't feel so partial toward Miranda anymore. Who would, really, after hearing about how much of a monster she could become?

Strangely enough, Violet surprised her by asking someone very different than Miranda had expected. Instead, the other girl asked about her brother. "Cedar's not a werewolf. He was there when I was attacked, but my parents managed to drive the werewolf off before it could get him too." She winced upon realizing that she'd said a bit more than was wise. Although she could deny the painful truth of it all, it was still a harsh - and quite possibly chilling - reality. No doubt the next questions would be more apprehensive, perhaps bordering on fearful. After all. violet could no doubt surmise by now that Miranda at the full moon was nothing short of a monster, unless she imbibed Wolfsbane.

"Cedar's not a werewolf. He was there when I was attacked, but my parents managed to drive the werewolf off before it could get him too." She replied.

I can tell how horrible the memory is for her by the way she winces just thiking about the night she was turned, I'm still curious about exactly what haplened and how they stopped the wolf but I don't want to press her any farther. I try to change the topic as quickly as possible.


"So, um, you mentioned theirs a group for werewolfs, called the Pack that you're apart of. What exactly do you do in that group? Is it like a support thing or do you all only hang out on full moon days when you transform?" I ask curiously.

This makes me think of another question and while I don't want to overwhelm her with a million if my questions which shes probably have to answer a thousand times before but I still want ro know much more about werewolfs so I ask her,

"What do you guys do on full moon days? I mean how do you stay away from the castle? Is there some place you have to go?"

Apparently Miranda was being entirely open now. She'd never been the best at hiding things, but telling everything - especially to someone she'd just met - had never been her style. And whatever she spoke about, it was a million times worse when it came to her...lupine condition. After growing up keeping her lips shut tight on the subject, it felt strange to speak about it, even after a year of knowing more people than her immediate family. Between her brother, who hated all mention of werewolves, and her parents, who simply ignored Miranda, there wasn't really much reason to chat about it, unless she was reminding them that she was going to lock herself up for the night...not that they really seemed to appreciate the reminder.

It was hard, growing up with a sibling who absolutely hated werewolves. On top of that, he still liked Miranda - just not on full moons. The entire thing was confusing and made a train wreck of her emotions every time the subject was brought up.

"Kind of both," Miranda replied with a shrug. "Mostly to help them get used to the idea of their...condition, but also to help them keep themselves and others safe. It's a pretty new idea, it started toward the end of last year - we haven't even had an official meeting yet." She paused for a moment. "And yeah, we stay away from the castle for safety reasons. There's a tunnel that leads to a safe house for us to stay the night." Miranda was purposefully vague, just for safety's sake. It was a habit to not endanger the other werewolves by revealing the location of their nightly full moon haunt, or how to find it. Besides, any curious student that went to check it out would be in grave danger as well, perhaps not as much as if they'd forgone their Wolfsbane potion, but still.