He was down. Good. Down but not dead. Frankly, under the circumstances, Charles could not have asked for better. Deftly, the healer worked away, doing his best to drown out his son’s panic and the frantic beating of his own heart. It was markedly more difficult, he noted, to work on a loved one than upon a stranger, and he prayed he would never have to again.

At last, he had done what he can. Lupus was, in his professional opinion, no longer perched on death’s doorstep, and while his neck would never be pretty, his forehead would be almost entirely back to normal once more. Not that looks mattered, given the boy’s condition.

His condition.

Merlin’s beard, what was to be done with him? He had tried to turn himself in, to reveal everything, and his present state was, frankly, an act of heroism towards the family on Barnabas’ part. And when was the full moon, anyways?!

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lady makes pretty things <3

As far as Theo could tell, Lou wasn't in unbearable pain anymore, although he would've appreciated it if he hadn't tried to move. That had caused Theo's stomach to tie itself into anxious knots.

Finally, his father seemed to be finished. This was both a good thing but also a bad thing - good in that it hopefully meant Lou was stable now, but bad because there was likely nothing more that could be done so if he started to fade, it was game over.

"Is he going to be okay now?" There was only one answer to that question Theo was willing to accept.

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“He is going to live,” Charles affirmed. That was really all that the healer could guarantee at this point—and the father knew that very little about his son’s life was ‘okay’.

“While he recovers, tell me—what happened? Why did it happen? Leave nothing out,” he directed. This must be prevented from happening again.

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lady makes pretty things <3

Of all the people to tell him whether his brother would live or die, his father ought to be the last person in the world whom he readily believed considering his exposed track record on that topic, but the answer he got was conveniently the one Theo wanted to hear and so it was that he chose to believe it as firm fact.

"I happened to walk past him in the atrium," Theo began, finally starting to relax a little. "I confronted him and he said he was-" He suddenly cut himself off and his mind reached a dreadful conclusion. If he told his father that Lou had been trying to turn himself in - which he already had but he'd hardly been descriptive - then he might decide to take some unsavory action to protect the family reputation. Would he try to banish Lou to a foreign country as he had wanted to initially?

Theo's initial concerns about his brother handing himself over were more to do with what the Ministry might do to him, but now he was seeing a bigger picture where the greatest threat to Lou's liberty might be, once again, their father. He looked down at his sleeping brother and wondered what he'd want their father to know. Probably none of it but it was too late for that. "That he was there to hand himself over as a werewolf and I said I didn't think that was a good idea and then I tried to apparate him back here so he wouldn't be seen and he got hurt so I fetched you and now he's no longer bleeding to death." He couldn't take back the part about Lou handing himself in so there was no point trying to lie about that, but maybe if he downplayed how stubborn Lou had been, his father wouldn't consider him a threat.

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Charles listened with pursed lips as Barnabas filled him in. What he heard filled him with dread. Had Lupus really been on the verge of ruining everything over — what? A misplaced sense of justice? A loss of the will to live? Why had his son been driven to such madness?

'No longer bleeding to death' was an accurate description of the current situation, and probably the only thing Lou had going for him right now.

"No doubt we will need to have a stern conversation with him when he wakes," Charles sighed, "but for now, we have more pressing matters. What time do you have, Barnabas?"

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   Lupus Jameshill

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lady makes pretty things <3

All things considered, a 'stern conversation' didn't sound too bad, perhaps his downplaying of the incident had really done the trick. He wasn't averse to the idea of his father giving Lou a verbal slap on the wrist, in fact, he thought it was one of the few things that might knock some sense back into his head if splinching half of it off hadn't already done the trick. He wanted to protect his older brother from their father's wrath, yes, but he also had to protect Lou from himself and their father might be one of the few people who could do that.

"You know I hate that name," Theo grumbled as he frisked himself for his pocketwatch as gently as he could so as to avoid jostling Lou whose head was still resting on him. "My watch says it's nearly seven." He couldn't understand how it wasn't later than it was, his work day seemed like it had ended a week ago, not hours. "Do you think he'll feel like eating when he wakes up?" It was about dinner time. Theo's stomach suddenly growled in acknowledgement. He placed his pocketwatch back into the inner pocket of his robe where it lived.

Theo had no idea that the full moon was that very night.

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Every muscle and sinew in Charles' body tensed at that. It would be nearing sunset soon, and the wizard was very sure that tonight was the full moon—if it wasn't, it would be in a matter of days. It was not a risk he was willing to take.

"The moon," was all he was able to muster as he began pacing the length of the room, trying to come up with a viable solution to this very real danger.

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lady makes pretty things <3

His father said something about the moon and suddenly seemed agitated again, but a different kind of agitated. Theo's brow furrowed, what was he talking about?

Oh.
God.
No.

He looked down to his very tranquil looking bandaged brother. Was is it really the full moon that night or was that not what his father meant? Maybe his father was wrong or he'd been using an out of date almanac. Somehow he didn't think so, it seemed appropriate that Lou would be trying to turn himself in today, and it did seem like a whole month ago that he'd heard about the Minister's daughter being turned. Once upon a time, Theo had kept track of the full moons so he always knew when to expect Lou to be locked away. Then he'd "died" and Theo had still tracked them for the first six months until it upset him too much to think of it. He ought to get back into the habit of tracking the moon.

"Is it safe?" It surely sounded like he was being stupid and asking if it was safe to be around Lou at the full moon, but what he was actually trying to ask was whether his condition would be worsened by turning into a wolf. What if it opened up all the wounds and he died upon turning back or while in wolf form?

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For once, Charles genuinely didn't know. Would the transformation reopen Lupus' splinching wounds? Would his sedation extend to the beast, rendering him harmless for the night? Would all he had endured that day somehow make things worse? The healer knew that they would likely know the answers to those questions sooner than later but was not inclined to be in the line of fire when they did.

"We're going to have to take him away," Charles said at last, more to himself than to his son. "Do you feel up to apparition?"

After the day the boys had had, he half expected the answer to be 'no'.

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lady makes pretty things <3

Theo was troubled by the fact his father avoided answering his question. Was it a knowledgeable silence, his not wanting to admit that they may not be out of the woods yet, or was it a silence of the unknown? Theo didn't get a chance to ask.

"Apparating is how I got him into this mess!" he exclaimed, eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets in horror. He was assuming his father meant apparating Lou away but he hadn't actually said as much. "Where would we even take him?" They weren't going to dump him in the woods like a couple of would be murderers leaving their victim for dead, were they?

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"Somewhere where he will not kill us both!" Charles replied softly, but his words carried a great deal of weight. It would be a grand pity if they all died after this. "You'll need to grab his other arm," the wizard continued as he slung one over his shoulder, "and with your other hand, mine. Then clear your mind—this will not be an easy endeavor."

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lady makes pretty things <3

With a look of horror and distrust on his face, Theo obeyed his father and awkwardly draped Lou's limp arm around his neck. He reached for his father and tried his best to clear his mind as ordered. It wasn't easy, not when Lou's pasty, unconscious face was right there and he had absolutely no idea where they were going or what was going to happen. As long as they weren't about to do something horrible.

Merlin's beard, he wished he was half the auror Lou had been.

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   Lupus Jameshill

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To say that this was a risky move was an understatement. Side-along was difficult enough under good circumstances with one passenger, and this was neither. It was, however, the only way remotely safe to get Lupus to safety before the moon drew the beast from within him, and time left father and son very little opportunity to come up with a better plan.

Hoping dearly that Barnabas was holding up his end of the blank-mind bargain, Charles focused all his energy upon a small island in the middle of a lake in the highlands. The trio disapparated with a pop.

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lady makes pretty things <3

The familiar sensation of apparation suddenly overcame him and before Theo could wonder if he'd kept his head sufficiently empty, he had landed firmly on his rear which nearly resulted in a dropped Lupus. He scrambled up off the ground as fast as he could to restore support to his unconscious brother. He didn't feel like he was missing any limbs, but who was to say he wasn't full of so much adrenaline that he wouldn't notice half of his toes were missing until later.

"We're not just leaving him here, are we?!" he exclaimed as soon as he realized they were in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere he recognized anyway. "We can't just leave him... It's- It's wrong!" It felt akin to abandoning him but he was also aware that his father probably didn't want to hang around and end up playing chicken with a werewolf, wounded or not.

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“Do you have any better ideas?” Charles asked, eyebrows raised and half-hoping the answer would be ‘yes’. “Here, he is safe from others, and others are safe from him. We can retrieve him once he’s…himself again.”

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lady makes pretty things <3

Theo didn't have any better ideas but he also didn't like that they were talking about Lou as though he was an old sock or some other commonplace item one wasn't too precious about leaving around. He reluctantly shook his head and looked solemnly down at his older brother. I'm sorry, Lou.

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