It was the first week of September and classes were just starting, unfortunately for Humphrey the full moon had occurred on Monday night. When Tuesday morning rolled around, it found the werewolf in a pretty sorry state. There were multiple gashes on him, some from his teeth covering his legs and arms, others probably from where tree branches or other things in the woods had slashed at him while he was running in his werewolf form that covered his torso area. He was exhausted, and his muscles were stiff and sore from the transformation as they always were. This full moon had been worse for him than a lot of others, he realized upon examining the damage done to himself. Most likely it was from all the excitement and agitation of starting at a new school, even though he was happy to be here.

Rolling out of bed, he tried to stretch and winced as his muscles twinged in pain. That was when an idea popped into his head, maybe he could go for a swim in the lake and try to loosen up. It was unlikely other people would be swimming, so he shouldn't have to worry about hiding the scars and fresh wounds made last night. He grabbed some bandages to dress the injuries after his swim, his towel, and got changed into his swimsuit. Humphrey slipped on his sandals before heading out and making his way down towards the school grounds. The weather was still warm enough so the temperature of the lake wouldn't be too hateful, a little cool maybe but that was to the good. After he was bitten, Humphrey found that he was always too hot; so, a little cool water would be a blessing. As he stepped out the main doors and walked towards the lake, he found himself whistling the melody to a song he was currently working on writing. There was still a lot of work to be done on it, but he was making progress.

Soon he was at the lake, and Humphrey found a nice tree near it to set his things by. He placed his towel and the bandages underneath them right by it before kicking off his sandals. "Time to see if I can loosen up some of these sore muscles, wash away some of the pain maybe." he said quietly to himself. Some full moons had been worse than this past one, but not for a while. Walking up to the edge of the water, he looked around one more time to make sure nobody was there to notice the wounds across his body just to be sure and he found not a soul. Diving into the water with the ease of somebody who grew up swimming, Humphrey decided to swim a few laps around the lake.

The water felt perfect and cooled him off while at the same time helping his muscles loosen up. Before long he felt nearly as good as new, and decided to dive down as deep as he could. Humphrey was happy to see that the water was clean enough that he could see clearly underwater, and he was able to make out some of the fish swimming beneath the surface. After about fifteen more minutes he decided that was enough for today, and swam back to shore. He walked over to the tree and toweled off as gently as he could, trying not to aggravate the wounds from the night before. Once he'd done that he applied some antibiotic to the damaged areas before bandaging himself, hoping that none of them would get infected. Usually he healed up rather quickly, but an infection could make things a lot worse. Finishing up, he examined them and decided it was passable handiwork. He took a seat underneath the tree and leaned back against it, simply enjoying the fresh air and the lovely view of Sapphire Lake.

The campus was prettier at night. Those was the first thought that Tess had as she walked through the campus. The joy about the school was that there was no curfew, they were all adults after all. So long as they didn't ruin anything, they were fine to do as they pleased. But she didn't really care, she didn't live there anyways. The whole day that she had spent with Rhian in her dorm, reassured her that her flat was the right choice. Sharing such close quarters would slowly kill her and drive her to insanity. Or she was being dramatic. Dorming wasn't for her, but the view that Rhian had, well that was enviable. Because while Rhian got the view of the lake, Tess got a view of the busy London street. Speaking of which, she needed to go home. With a smart ass comment she gave Rhian a goodbye and headed down the stairs out to campus. She needed to just take time to herself and sleep before more classes were thrown her way. It seemed the dorm was a nice pitstop before classes so she could run to another.

Black leggings, boots and a long knitted jumper wasn't exactly the best outfit for weather, but it hadn't been so bad yesterday morning on campus. Mumbling a warming charm, she walked down the stairs and headed towards the lake. It wasn't too early for her to roaming and she figured walk would do her well before heading back to her apartment at Avalon. The path had becoming something normal, second nature since she first found it. Stumbling a bit at the end, she walked towards the shore, and smiled.

She knew it might be too cold to swim, but there was no hard in sitting. She ran her hands behind her neck, feeling weird having no hair to block her from doing so. Perhaps investing scarves was the best option, no matter how much she abhorred it. She sat there on her rock, oblivious to her surroundings.

Humphrey sat under the tree, enjoying the feel of the morning sun on his skin. With his back against the trunk, he nearly started to fall asleep. Before he could though, he heard the faint sound of someone stumbling over their feet. Instantly his eyes flashed open and he looked around, wondering who else was there with him. Scanning the landscape, he soon found the source of the noise, a witch with short hair sitting on a rock. Luckily, she seemed to be oblivious to the fact that she wasn't alone...for the moment, at least. His nerves felt on edge as he pulled the towel close around himself, trying to hide the bandages around him from sight. The effort was in vain though, as he had some on his arms and legs as well. He was acutely aware that if she looked his way and saw him, there would probably be uncomfortable questions he didn't want to answer soon following it.

Slipping on his sandals, Humphrey began slowly heading back towards the castle. Hopefully the girl would be distracted by the lovely view and wouldn't see him walking by, after all there was a fair amount of space between where she was and where he was. Before long he'd made it back to the path leading up to the school, and he started to think he was almost home free. Much to his dismay though, that was when a decent-sized rock in the path got in the way of his foot, causing him to trip and fall. He tried in vain to catch himself and stop it, but he failed and started to roll down the hill a ways. Eventually he came to a stop, and got up with a wince. In the process of rolling down he'd ripped off a few of his bandages, and some of the cuts and gashes had started bleeding again. "Well that was grace in action." he muttered to himself. Since his towel had already gotten a little blood on it, he wrapped it around his middle to keep pressure on the wounds.

When he finally looked up after tying the towel, Humphrey realized that he was much closer to where the girl on the rock was. Not only that, she'd heard the commotion and was turning his way. There was nowhere to hide, and he grimaced as he realized that he would have to come up with some sort of story for how he'd gotten his injuries. This was not going to be a pleasant ending to his morning adventure.

Sliding her hands slowly she sighed, satisfied at the environment. She had curled her legs close to her, not wanting to fall in. Her eyes looked up a the sun barely rising and sighed. Smiling, she slowly relaxed her body and let herself slouch her back. Moving her bang from her eye, the only thing that was long enough to make her feel like a girl was not bothering her. Typical. She wondered why the campus was so dead in the morning, it wasn't even that early, perhaps it was the fact that people had been out at pubs, drinking the night away. She could never be like them. But the would be okay, it had to be.

A loud noise immediately made her jump and turn around, holding her bag close to her, her hand sliding in hoping to find her wand. Her feet nearly gave out as she reached the edge of the rock, but lucky enough balanced herself. Someone had most definitely fallen badly. She tensed realizing that he had bandages and walked forward, slowly. He was obviously in pain, pretty much from the grimace, wincing herself she figured she could help.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly, "Do you want me to take you to the hospital wing?"

Bending down, she noticed the gashes, badly taken care of, even worse when the dirt went in the wounds. She didn't want to invade his space, but it seemed necessary. She didn't place a hand on him, instead waited for it to be okay.

Straightening up, he shook his head at the girl's request. Humphrey definitely did not want to go to the hospital wing and have to explain how he'd obtained all these injuries. He wanted as few people as possible to know about him being a werewolf. Most people who learned of it would either hate him or pity him, and he didn't want to deal with either while trying to get his education. "I'll be fine, no need to go to the hospital wing." he said, trying a smile that failed miserably. Well, so much for that trying to convince the girl he was perfectly okay. Nothing ever seemed to turn out the way he wanted it to.

To his dismay he saw the girl bending down to look at his wounds, and waited for the question of how he'd gotten them. Surprisingly it never came and he let out a small sigh of relief. "I should probably was those out, shouldn't I?" Humphrey asked her. Reaching for his wand, he got it out and folded his towel to a clean section. "Aguamenti." he said softly, and watched as a jet of water dampened the clean part of his towel. Gently he started to dab at his wounds, doing his best to get rid of some of the dirt in the process. It didn't work quite as well as he'd hoped, really he just moved the dirt around. "This clearly isn't my forte, any ideas?"

She winced at the way he treated his wounds, so unsanitary. The poor guy obviously had no clue what he was doing, for one thing the bandages were old, and didn't allow breathing room for the wounds to heal. All wrong. Still, who was she to say these things. Being a healer in training meant very little if she couldn't properly voice what to do in situations. Still, looking into her bag, she uncovered it and took out the things she might need. Biting her lip she realized she could help.

Taking out her wand she washed her hands and slipped on the gloves that Professor Song had given her when working in class.

"This clearly isn't my forte, any ideas?"

"Stop wiping it, the towel is already dirty, this is unsanitary" she said slapping his hands away from the wound without thinking. "Not to mention you're creating an infection with your care."

She figured how she could sit, but finding no other option, she plopped herself on the ground before him and found herself beginning to help a perfect stranger on a Tuesday morning. Taking out the antibiotic, she sighed knowing she would force him to listen, or hex him. Either way, she was healing him.

"I'm a healer in-training" she explained softly. "Sorry for hitting you, but give me your arm, I can try and work out the kinks you got there."

She waited for him to do give her consent. Perhaps she didn't need to be so rough to patients...if she could call him a patient. She hoped she wasn't buggering it up.

"Stop wiping it, the towel is already dirty, this is unsanitary. Not to mention you're creating an infection with your care."

When the girl started commenting and slapping his hands away he put them behind his back, letting her take charge. It was obvious that she definitely knew more about how to handle the wounds than he did so he stayed out of her way. "Sorry, I really have no clue what I'm doing." Humphrey admitted with a shrug. After he spoke he realized that he hadn't even introduced himself, having been distracted by other things. "I'm Humphrey Williams by the way, just realized I hadn't given you my name." he told her, chuckling a little. It was silly how basic things like that could slip your mind sometimes.

"I'm a healer in-training. Sorry for hitting you, but give me your arm, I can try and work out the kinks you got there."

Listening to her apology and explanation that she was studying to be a Healer, he gave her a small smile. "It's quite alright, sometimes stupid boys need hitting. Umm, yeah, go right ahead if you want to. Thank you." Humphrey replied, speaking quiet like the girl was. She seemed to prefer talking quieter so he decided to as well. He held out his arm for her, wincing a little as he did so. After his swim he'd felt great, but after falling and rolling down the hill he felt almost as bad as when he woke up this morning. Didn't take much to hurt himself after a night like that, he realized.

She overlooked the wounds closely, running her hands softly down his shoulder, feeling the tenseness of all of it. Not normal, in fact there should be less tension in the muscles. Swollen too, and ugly bruises, not normal for his fall, old enough to be greenish purple. Biting her lip, she took out the antibiotic and began to spread it lightly.

"I'm Humphrey Williams by the way, just realized I hadn't given you my name."

Looking up from his wounds, she let out a soft smile, hoping to reassure him. Smiles were good right? She figured she did okay. At his mention of stupid boys, and deserving hits, she tilted her head and frowned. He seemed a bit melancholy now didn't he. Sighing she began to cover the arms with the basic bandage wrappings she was given at orientation.

"Don't say those things" she whispered softly, as she worked as best she could, "no one deserves to be hit, now just accept my apology." she finished awkwardly.

She was shit at this. She flushed a bit, horrified at how terrible her people skills were, how she couldn't bring that comfort that she'd seen healers, mediwitches and wizards brought. Frustrated at herself, she tried to cut the bandage straight, but came out a bit crooked. Tying it she looked at him and frowned. Leaning forward she lightly touched his cheek seeing a cut there and rubbed the medicine too. All these didn't make sense, she couldn't help but ask.

"What happened?" she asked softly. "Do you have more bruises?"

She had to ask, it was obvious that it happened and it wasn't normal. But his words, his tone, it was just interesting, sad, like he carried a lot on him.

"Don't say those things" "no one deserves to be hit, now just accept my apology."

Even though all he wanted to do was run and let his wounds heal in their own time, Humphrey made himself stay still while she bandaged his arms after putting an ointment on them. The girl was definitely doing a better job of it than he ever could, he had to admit. It was definitely strange though, being tended to by a complete stranger. "Sorry, I was trying to lighten the mood is all. Apology is definitely accepted. After all, can't stay mad at the nice girl tending my wounds now can I?" he told her, this time a genuine smile slowly appearing on his face. He could tell she felt a little awkward, and that helped him to relax a little bit, knowing that he wasn't the only one helped.

When he noticed the girl's cheeks flush he looked away from her because he knew most people didn't like others seeing that. Before long though the bandage was tied and holding in place quite well. That was when she leaned forward and started rubbing more ointment into a cut on his cheek, one he hadn't even noticed was there. Looking at her up close like this made him start to blush a little, and his eyes automatically darted to look at the ground. Why was it he felt so awkward around people nearly all the time? It was a question he had yet to find the answer to, but this year he was going to do his best to make some friends in spite of it.

"What happened?" "Do you have more bruises?"

His instinct was to immediately say no, the problem was he didn't think he could tell her that convincingly. There were bruises all over Humphrey's body, even more than he usually had after the full moon as this had been a rougher one. Raising his eyes to look at her, he simply nodded slightly. "Y-yes. I do..." he whispered, hoping that she wouldn't start to ask where he'd gotten them. "Maybe we should, umm...take care of the other gashes first though. Anything I can do to help?" Humphrey asked, not wanting to make her do everything on her own.

"Sorry, I was trying to lighten the mood is all. Apology is definitely accepted. After all, can't stay mad at the nice girl tending my wounds now can I?"

Tess rolled her eyes at his talkative nature and tried to tie the bandage properly. Gloves weren't being helpful, so with that she threw them aside and worked with her hands. She wasn't sure if this was working fine, not getting the proper protocol of it all, instead she worked on the way she would heal her cuts and scrapes after a Quidditch game. She paid no mind as he flushed, she would have too if people got close to her. She hated touching people and being touched without consent but she figured at the moment she had gotten it from him.

"Tess" she said during the quiet as she was cutting off the last bit. "My name is Tess, I figured I should do it so we're not strangers."

She figured after she'd thrown that question his way she could at least try and be polite to him. She knew she'd been a bit pushy about other injuries but they didn't add up at all. He avoided her question about how it had happened, she might as well let him off the hook. He was not her friend, nor someone she cared for, so it didn't matter.

Y-yes. I do..." he whispered, hoping that she wouldn't start to ask where he'd gotten them. "Maybe we should, umm...take care of the other gashes first though. Anything I can do to help?"

Nodded softly she removed the bandages and figured if he wanted privacy she'd give it to him. She couldn't force him to accept her hope, and she didn't just give it out to anyone either. Handing him a pair of gloves she raised her brow.

"Here, if you're going to touch your gashes then put these gloves, it'll prevent it from getting worse." she explained. "It's obvious you don't want to tell me how you got these injuries, and I'm not pushing you."

"Tess"

"My name is Tess, I figured I should do it so we're not strangers."

Once he realized that she wasn't responding and he was really just talking to himself, Humphrey decided to be quiet. If she wanted silence he really didn't have a problem with it, he was only trying to make himself be more outgoing than he usually was. Maybe he was overdoing it a little though, and should dial it down. He started to think that might be best after thinking about it. "It's a pleasure to meet you Tess." he said quietly, smiling softly. After all this time without her introducing herself, he was starting to think that she wasn't going to give him her name. Good to see that he was wrong on that count.

"Here, if you're going to touch your gashes then put these gloves, it'll prevent it from getting worse."

"It's obvious you don't want to tell me how you got these injuries, and I'm not pushing you."

Humphrey carefully took the gloves from her and placed them in his lap, listening to her. Sighing, he thought if he should tell the girl the cause of his injuries. Sharing that he was a werewolf with somebody he'd only just met was not something he'd planned on doing today. "No, you deserve to know. There was a reason I was reluctant to tell you why, though." he told her, pausing for a moment to try to steel his nerves. "You see I-I'm a...w-werewolf." Humphrey forced out, ending up stammering a little. "That's how I got all these injuries, it was the full moon last night. And, well with the excitement of starting at Merlin's Academy and all I was a bit more...agitated....than usual." he admitted, starting to blush a little. Until now he hadn't realized quite how embarrassing telling somebody about his "furry little problem" would be. Looking up, he tried to gauge her reaction. To be honest he wouldn't be surprised if Tess decided to run the other way.

Tess was many things, curious, intelligent, stubborn, but she wasn't known to pry in a person's life. For one thing she had little interest in pushing into Humphrey's personal life. Things were meant to stay private, she herself had been taught that any insecurities should be kept inside, behind a closed door, and to oneself. Being raised in a household were "contempt" towards another was seen a bit much, it was funny how many rules Mycroft broke in the process of teaching her the opposite position. In this situation, she knew that if her parents had been in her shoes, they'd walked away from the train wreck situation of the poor kids injuries.

When he said "No, you deserve to know. There was a reason I was reluctant to tell you why, though." she tilted her head curiously. What made her deserving for him to know why he was injured? She didn't understand but wasn't about to interrupt him. Instead she put her bandages down and paid attention to him, despite just meeting him she figured she could be a decent human being and pay attention to what he was saying. Her head swarmed with different reasons why someone could get this level of injuries. A fight? Bullying? She'd seen her fair share of it in her younger years, it was until she had the power of being Head Girl that she began to hurt those that had done it against her. Yet all the ideas could not have fathomed the possibility of him being a werewolf.

Her whole body tense and her encouraging look changed to one of surprise and some fear. She'd never met a werewolf before, creatures were not something a pureblood like her would even fathom being near. It was improper, yet there she was, tending to the wounds of one. Yet the shame in his expression at mentioning his condition made her feel something odd. Something she hadn't ever experienced. It wasn't pity...merlin was it empathy? Wrinkling her brow, she looked at the boy, no older than her carrying so much weight was saddening. Shaking slightly she placed her hand over his and forced herself to try and show sympathy. That was a rare emotion of hers, and whoever was on the other side was lucky.

"I-I'm sorry?" she said unsure. "I-I don't really know what to say" she said

The reason Humphrey felt that she deserved to know was because he knew that many people, healers included, were uncomfortable around werewolves. In fact, some had been refused treatment because people thought they deserved what they got. Hospitals, like St. Mungo's, were not supposed to turn them out; but, it had happened in the past and would most likely continue to happen from time to time. Wizards and witches in general weren't quite as prejudiced as they used to be from what he'd gathered from history classes, yet that didn't mean it had completely died out. When he saw a look of shock and fear on Tess' face, Humphrey pulled away from her slightly. He hadn't meant to scare her, only wanted to be honest about how he'd come by the wounds. If she decided she wanted to leave, he wouldn't blame her.

"I-I'm sorry?"

"I-I don't really know what to say"

About the last reaction he expected was a look of, from all appearances, appeared to be empathy appear on the girl's face. Often he saw pity, fear, shock, revulsion, but....empathy was one he'd not seen before. When a soft hand squeezed his, he squeezed back lightly and gave her a small, grateful smile. Humphrey wasn't sure if she know how much the simple gesture meant to him, and a few tears started to well up in his eyes. For once, not sad tears...they were tears of relief as some of the tension started to leave his body. So long he had been hiding what he was from all but those who were required to know, maybe though...maybe there were other people like Tess who would accept him for what he was. It was plain to him that she was still a little uncomfortable, but it hadn't stopped her. "You've nothing to be sorry for. I just...thought you should know what kind of wounds you're treating. Not every healer treats this sort of thing, after all." he said, explaining why he'd shared the information. "If you'd feel more comfortable I'd be happy to go, it's not a problem." he offered with a sad smile. He knew all too well that when you were uncomfortable sometimes you denied it or put up with it anyways, she had done him a kindness though so if she wanted him to leave he would without a second thought.

Tess was never good at comforting people. It was not something someone ever did for her growing up. The first time that she had been comfortable with being comforted came from Rhian when her own heart had been shattered. But never in her life had she been put in a situation where she had to provide the comforting. Putting her medical bag to the side she looked up at him and their hands being together. Was this enough? The squeeze of a hand, was it enough to voice what she couldn't say? No matter how much she tried to put herself in his position she couldn't. And in this moment, at eighteen, Tess Marie realized just how privileged she was. She had everything that people craved for, she asked for something and she got it.

Yet this poor guy, beaten and scratched not from society, but from something that would forever be in him. She knew how the laws were with creatures, vague enough to be ignored by society if needed. Yet despite his injuries he was no different than her, he had feelings, (she knew she had them too, just ignored them) and both had felt different kinds of pain. Frowning slightly, she noticed his eyes had watered and she wished she could make that stop. That was a new emotion, a feeling of wanting to make someone safe. She wasn't a nurturer by nature.

"You've nothing to be sorry for. I just...thought you should know what kind of wounds you're treating. Not every healer treats this sort of thing, after all." he said, explaining why he'd shared the information. "If you'd feel more comfortable I'd be happy to go, it's not a problem."

"No" she said softly.

He was giving her an escape route, and she knew it was so he couldn't judge her or see if there was any disgust. But there was none. Shaking her head she squeezed his hand tighter before letting go. She was frustrated with herself, not being able to just make it all better. The cuts were barely disinfected, her bandaging was mediocre, and she wondered if she would able to really be a healer as she wanted to be. If she couldn't handle a simple comforting gesture, she'd never survive.

"If you want to stay here, then I can stay with you if you'd like. For a bit, no one is waiting for me there anyway. And...and if next month comes, I can try to get you Wolfsbane potion. To prevent some of these..." she pointed to his injuries. "and to keep your mind."

"If you're willing to stay, I would appreciate it more than I could ever tell you. As for the Wolfsbane potion...that would be amazing. Potions is the one class I'm rubbish at, when I tried it before it didn't work right. You sure you want to help me, though? Nobody else aside from the head of the school and the professors know, I think, but if it gets out that I am one...

Tess smiled softly at his words. Wolfsbane wasn't a complicated potion to create, but rather the ingredients were harder to grasp. For example, the aconite itself was hard to not only get, but to also get necessary gloves. Thankfully she had lots of access to the potions lab thanks to Mycroft who would give her the world if he could. She figured he would also have it, she couldn't help but as once he mentioned potions.

"Have you asked Professor Holmes? The Potions professor?" she asked curiously. "He's my brother and he's usually quick on making potions. I know that he'll give you one if you just asked."

And her brother was amazing that way. Despite how much she complained about him, her brother was her number one supporter in anything she sought after. Even if it meant something he didn't necessarily agree with. But that's what siblings did, and her brother was better than anyone else.

..people might treat you differently for associating with me."

His words finally hit and she turned to look at him. She lifted her brow, not believing what he said. Did he even know who she was? A Holmes would never be treated in any way but positively. She never once felt that she would be looked differently or down on. In her arrogant thought she couldn't help but say,

"A Holmes is never looked at in any way but with respect. And if anyone were to treat me differently or looked down on, I will put them in their place, I assure you of that."