"Wildcat vigilance?" Fred couldn't even attempt to cover up the laughter that came from that. It was a really silly thought, but her mind conjured images of kitty cats in latex and leather with capes and little masks. It was very cute and not at all terrifying. It did help her let go some of the tension she had been locked up in, though.
Fred uncurled and sat up, but did not actually leave Trent's lap. Instead she just shifted so her bare feet could balance on his knees and her back could rest against his chest. It was her way of trying to minimise his presence. She was really trying to make her brother more a piece of furniture. "Look, I don't think I'm going to be as useful as you're hoping I'll be but I'll tell you what I know. There are no written records of lycanthropy in any form other than wolves. I'm talking nowhere. Not in muggle or wizard folklore. Then again, wizard folklore writes off a lot of stuff as imaginary because they don't know of it currently. Something that's shot us in the foot since the war and the heightened demand for our department.
"There are tales though, oral tradition only here, of shapeshifters who are children of the moon. I've been a lycanthrope as long as anyone's ever known me. My parents found me as a cub wandering around the woods during the moon. There was no sign of my actual parents. They either ditched me or they were dead, we don't know. They took me in, adopted me. My birthday is the day I was found and it's why I'm the only person in the family with mum and dad's last name, because I'm the only one who didn't come with a name. But I've never met a werewolf like me. Werewolves smell sick. Like they've got an infection or they're dying. I don't." Fred paused because she wasn't really sure what to tell him about her brand of lycanthropy itself. She could compare and contrast between herself and werewolves, but she wasn't honestly sure how much of that he'd be interested in.
"From what I've pieced together the snow leopard thing is easy. Lycanthropy came from animals. It was caused by magic, I think. There's always sorcerers involved in the folk tales so I think the first lycanthropes were wizards. Most muggles die when they're bitten. More wizards survive a bite and become a lycanthrope than muggles by a large margin. I think it has something to do with their magical strength. My theory, and it's a theory, is that magic adapted what should have been a fatal disease. Snow leopards haven't ever been in England natively but Brits have been in Siberia. People spread lycanthropy, not the animals. I can prove that with wolves, actually, but it's harder to explain because grey wolves used to be native here."