Stealing Cinderella Part 2 -- January 1999

I really didn't have much of a plan in place for anything.  I had asked her parents... and I ended up getting permission.  I think whether he likes it or not, Professor Lupin knows that his daughter loves me.  And I don't think it's me he dislikes... just the family history.  Which I did not blame him one bit for any of that.  I wanted Lucy to know how I felt and everything.  But without a real plan I just had to sort of wing it on timing and such.  That's what we always did, anyways.  Which was why I thought that it would be best to do it that way.  Keep in the spirit of us... no reason to make it obvious something was going to happen or anything.

"There you are!" I said happily, walking up to Ayden and slipping my hand into his.  It was so nice once Dad and everyone knew we were an item.  We could be an open item now.  I walked with Ayden, not sure where he had been going.  I didn't know why he seemed to be off on his own more than normal lately.  I was starting to think he was angry or Dad might have said something to him at Christmas.  Which totally would have been uncalled for.  "You've seemed to be avoiding me or something since we got back.  I swear if Dad or Will said something..." I warned, getting worked up.

I chuckled and kissed her forehead, making her calm down.  "Honey... I haven't been purposely ignoring or avoiding you," I assured her, squeezing Lucy's hand.  "I've actually made a break in my potion."  Since my father bit me, my blood was more like a werewolf's blood.  I had been using it to try to get a cure.  I would prefer pure werewolf blood -- like Lupin's or my dad's -- but I had to work with what I had.  Since my dad bit me, I didn't turn completely on the full moons where I needed Wolfsbane potion.  But I changed.  My attitude turned dark, I felt my bones wanting to change into a wolf but unable to... and after seeing my blood, I saw how similar it was to my father's.  So I knew that I was pretty damn close to being a werewolf.  Just not enough of the venom or whatever was in my system.  But each full moon it got worse and worse.  And with each draw of my blood I saw that it was multiplying.  It would only be a matter of time before I changed completely.  And I really didn't want that.

My eyes lit up instantly.  "REally?" I asked, excited for him.  He was going to make a cure... and it was going to be awesome!  I knew he didn't necessarily want to become a alchemist or anything... but he was so good at it.  He was doing this just because it held something dear to him, but wouldn't he want to share it with others who were suffering?  I think he would.  He just had to make sure it worked, of course.  "What kind of breakthrough?" I asked, loving the fact that he shared this with me.  I might not understand all of it, but he tried to tell me it in a way that I could at least somewhat follow what he was doing.

I smiled at her and started leading her towards where I was allowed to keep all of my things without the chance of anyone breaking into it and messing it up.  Me and Steph called it my workshop.  Even Professor Dumbledore, who allotted me the room, called it that.  I think he knew I was trying to do some good and that was why he was helping me.  I wasn't really sure, though.  Lucy had never been to my workshop, but I figured that the best way to explain it was to show it to her while trying to explain what she was seeing.  "Lucy, it'll be easier to show it to you," I said to her as I stopped outside of the doorway.

I grinned broadly.  "I get to see your workshop?" I asked, getting really excited.  I had never seen it before!  I watched as he went through a series of different thins to get the door to unlock.  We walked in and I was impressed by everything that was in there.  I saw books -- all about lycanthropy of course -- with different potion ingredients.  Some were familiar to me, others were not.  Then there were so many different tools and such that I had never seen before.  The room was small, but didn't seem too cramped with everything that was in there.  I walked around a little bit while Ayden got things situated.  He had quite enough room to work with things.  It was a little stuffy, but I suppose that would be expected since there were some things brewing.  "Am I allowed to open a window?  Or will it mess anything up?" I questioned.  I didn't want to hurt the breakthrough.

I chuckled a little bit and waved my wand, opening the few windows in the room.  "I always work wiht the windows open... I think I'd suffocate if I didn't," I told her with a smile, indicating she should come over to me.  I was ready to try to explain to her what I had accomplished.

I made my way over and bit my lip.  "Okay... what do I need to do?" I was kind of nervous being in here.  I thought I'd mess something up or break something.  The only thing I had ever done to help Ayden with this was to give him some of my blood.  He had wanted to see if I had any trace of the venom in my system or if I was completely normal.  He never did say what I was.  I figured he was just going to show me things... but I wasn't sure what I needed to look through or do once I started to do anything in here.  We were on his playing field.

I had everything ready for her to just look through.  All I would need to do is to add a little bit of the potion to the one blood smear and let the magic happen before her eyes.  "First, thing... look through this first scope here," I said, directing her to where it was just my regular blood, untested.  "That's a fresh sample... so I know it has a lot of venom in it -- it seems to be multiplying, as I've told you," I explained.  Then I had her look through another scope.  Beneath that was regular human blood.  I heard her gasp.  "I know, right?  There's a huge difference.  Now I'm going to have you look through this scope that has my blood in it again -- it's just an older sample so it doesn't have as much venom in it.  I'll add the potion and let you see the magic happen."  When she was ready, I added the sample, knowing that it would work with the older sample of my blood.  Every time I changed and more venom was present in my blood, I needed to tweak the potion.  I was slowly building to a cure... I just needed full-blown werewolf blood... and mine wasn't it.

I pulled back and smile.  "Ayden, that was amazing.  But I have a question," I said, hoping that it wouldn't make me sound super stupid.  "This third sample doesn't look anything like your blood -- which is the point, I know.  But it doesn't look like the regular human blood, either.  Is that supposed to be right?" I questioned.  Maybe I just didn't see the little things that made it hte same?  I wasn't sure.  When I saw his smile I felt a little better.  At least he wasn't thinking I was stupid... wel not to my face, anyways.

I was hoping she woulnd't miss that.  I wasn't sure how obvious it would be to someone who wasn't sure what they were looking at.  I walked over to her and kissed her forehead.  "You have no idea how brilliant you are," I told her, taking her hand over to another scope that I had placed away from the rest of the samples.  "Look... you'll see," I explained.  When she pulled her head back, I nodded.  "The same as what the new sample is -- after the potion.  It's like I'm creating a whole new set of blood typing with the outcome.  But this isn't my creation."  I was hoping that she would ask who's blood it was or something.  I really wanted her to.

That was really weird.  A whole new blood type or something?  How interesting!  "Okay, I'll bite," I said, seeing that he wanted me to.  "What's this new sample from?  Or who created it?"  I wasn't sure how I should phrase the question.  He seemed so excited that I couldn't help but keep smiling.  He really was onto something here.  I couldn't believe it.

"The people who created this sample were your parents," I explained, figuring I'd answer both questions.  THe look on her face was priceless.  She was so confused.  "Let me explain further... they made this sample and this new blood type when they had you, Lucy.  What you just looked at was some of your blood that you had let me take."  I couldn't believe that she had been copmletely different than anything else I had seen.  It was like her parents made a cure without really realizing it.  But I felt like it would be hit and miss.  I wish I could have stumbled on this before because who knew... maybe I had blood like that before my dad bit me not on a full moon.  I was too young then and my mum wasn't sure what she was doing when she started this project.  It really was amazing, though.

My mouth fell agape slightly.  "You're kidding," I said.  There was no way that was my blood.  I had thought for years that I was missing out on something due to the fact that Will had more special qualities than me.  Not that I wanted to be a werewolf, but I had always wondered why I hadn't become one.  Now I knew.  "So why did you use an older sample toshow me what happened rather than the newer sample of your blood?" I asked, taking my eyes away from the sample of my own blood.

I ran a hand through my hair and started to clean up and whatnot what I had gotten out.  "Every time I taek a new sample from me and introduce the potion to it, it doesn't work.  I have to keep tweaking the potion.  Eventually, when the venom has finally completely taken over my system -- meaning when I finally actually change completely -- will I have the correct sample and hopefully be only a few montsh away form having the cure.  Until then, I just have to keep tweaking it.  But I do like the small changes steadily, though.  It makes things go alittle bit smoother than going from on eextreme to the next like I had been trying to do with my father's sample."  I had everything put away and saw that Lucy was sitting on the top of the desk.  I walked over to her and smiled.  "But do you see what I mean that I had a breakthrough?  Thank you for letting me get the sample... I don't know why I Hadn't thought about comparing it before."  I had only had her blood for a month.  I had kept trying ot make the potion get the blood back to normal -- which is nearly impossible.  But after testing and testing nonstop for the past month -- each of my samples getting more and more potent -- I had finally gotten this far.  I was so close... I knew it would happen one day.