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The sun was threatening to set as McGonagall lead Janna to a tree with knotting and winding branches, which looked like whips and barbed wire. The sloping green of the castle was a mile away in Janna's eyes, here there were ferns and small moss patches carpeting the ground.

McGonagall stopped Janna with a hand on the shoulder "I think we need to find a branch long enough to hit the knot in the tree's trunk" Janna squinted and saw the knot, she spotted a shadow near the tree's roots.

On a slope near the tree McGonagall was searching, Janna thought that a human of McGonagall's age would at least need a walking stick to trek this slope... But McGonagall moved carefully and confidently, making Janna feel broken as she struggled to lift a long sturdy branch.

    "Ma'am, I think I found one" Janna called, pulling the branch over the slope, she finally reached the step of the ferns to the forest, Janna slipped and stood up again before lifting the branch, McGonagall stood calmly nearby "I just poke the knot?"

   "Just mind the Whomping Willow's branches" McGonagall added, Janna frowned, staring at the tree as she held her long stick under her arms.

   "The tree moves?" Janna asked silently but she shrugged  "of course, then I would be too easy" Janna came to the tree's shade, it then groaned to life, Janna quickly prodded the knot, she heard a swishing and closed her eyes.  After a few seconds she looked up and saw the branch was right by her shoulder.

   "I will have to make the walk as a cat... I feel my legs are a little tired from the walk here" McGonagall explained, gesturtung to the hole. Janna sat at the edge of the hole's mouth, staring down into unsure darkness but with a deep breathe Janna then slid down the hole.

Janna found herself standing on cold soft ground, she blinked and adjusted her eyes to the darkness. The tabby cat, from the day Harry took Janna to King's Cross, hopped gracefully down the worn steps in the ground... The tabby cat looked up at Janna, her tail swaying like a reed in the wind, the cat moved forwards, Janna looked back and saw the Whomping willow swatting at the branch by his trunk, sending bits of branch into the hole.

The tunnel McGonagall the cat lead Janna through was long and got colder every few dozen feet they went. There was nearly no light, Janna was grateful for her eyes, now... but not after what was going to come after the sun has set and the moon had rose. McGonagall paused at a fork in the tunnel, the cat then scratched at the dirt, the wall she scrapped at was dusty and seemed to have more age to it than its lesser neighbour. The cat then moved through the tunnel at her same pace.

Janna felt things tickling her scalp she held her hands over her head and felt dirt, she looked up and saw tree roots hanging like a long chandelier on the roof of the tunnel. Janna shook her head, to get the dirt out but the tickling continued, now on her nape, she heard Ash giggling.

Janna reached her hand over her shoulder and caught Ash by his scruff, he smiled with bright white needle, his pink paw waved like a person's would "I thought I left you at the classroom" Janna said as she let him grab her sleeve and fling himself to her shoulder like an acrobat.

The long walk came to an end, McGonagall replaced the cat as Janna blinked, "I see your companion followed us"

   "Yeah, Ash is a bit of a trouble maker, but don't worry, he won't be a snack for me" Janna stroked his throat with her finger, making Ash trill happily like a thrush. McGonagall climbed the ladder that lead to an open trap door... Janna squinted in the yellow light. As she climbed the ladder she popped her head through the square.

The floor was caked in dust, trails from long ago were here... She didn't know when but a blurry one looked like a dog paw... A large one at that. The walls were scratched with familiar claw marks, Janna hugged her chest and hid her hands as she stared up at the stairs which creaked under McGonagall's weight. Janna leaned back to see an old kitchen peaking from the corner and a hearth with a turned over sofa.

   "Miss Black, this way" McGonagall called from above Janna felt dizzy with all this dust in her nose and from walking up a spiralling staircase. The upstairs were far more tidy than the lower case, "the house elves will be tidying the rest of the shack later this week"

   "Oh, I don't think it's necessary" Janna shyly said as she felt her wolfish bit have an urge to chew something "I might gnaw on chair legs... Even with Wolfsbane I'm like a puppy half the time" Janna admitted, McGonagall nodded in understanding.

   "Be in bed before lights out, Miss Black" McGonagall said sternly, Janna nodded "and your ferret, where is he?"

   "Ash is..." Janna felt her pockets "not with me... He must have gone back to the dorms"

    "Good night then, Miss Black" McGonagall said as she stood at the steps.

   "Good night, Headmistress" Janna smiled, waving her hand slightly, then watching as McGonagall shrank down the stairs into a cat again. Janna turned to the bed through the gnawed at doors, Janna saw someone tried to get rid of the dust, through the floorboard's carpet of dust Janna saw two or three smeared blood drops. Who else was here? On her skin she felt a radiant warmth, Janna turned to see the windows were boarded shut, the lilac light of the last breathe of the day shined through the gaps.

After shedding her cloths, Janna sat on the floorboards, wrapped in a blanket she pulled off the bed, she preferred the floor than sinking into a bed, especially as a werewolf, she usually struggled to use her long disproportionate limbs on uneven surfaces.

A glimmer of moonlight touched Janna's skin, she breathed in trying to ignore the black fur rippling from the place the moonlight had reached her... Her skin bubbled like water, thankfully none of the bubbles ever popped. Janna closed her ears, she leaned forwards as her back popped and clicked. This was always strange to feel her body just move without her consent or control. The hands holding the blanket turned to rough paws with dark calluses on her knuckles, the curly hair on her head was sucked back, corkscrewing into her scalp, her ears moved upwards with a horrible clicking noise while her hair was replaced with wiry black fur.

Janna was now feeling her face congeal to a short snout, her nose shrunk into her snout, making a black wet nose which twitched as the werewolf had tears trickle down her thin black fur. Lastly her tail waved into existence, it was stubby and looked like a strange husk of black hair mottled with thin fur. Janna let her closed claws wipe her tears away, she opened her glowing amber eyes which caught more light than her human eyes.