A/N: Well, this one was finished quickly, and of that I'm most proud. Now, onto the problem: Like Hermione was scared for Harry in GoF movie, "I'm scared for this chapter." I hope some can say after this that they may have seen it coming, if not, I wasn't as good as I thought it was. Or maybe I was.... And the ending, I am so very sorry. Don't kill me... please?
*runs to corner to hide as precaution* *calls from corner* Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Yeah... I would have no reason to be looking around for the $34.99 or $20.99 or how much ever for the book in Barnes&Noble. But since I do, the world and some characters belong to JK Rowling, everyone else, mostly the kids, are mine.
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Chapter Nineteen
Something was wrong. As I ran towards the MacFingall house with Zoe in my arms, ever mindful of my attacker behind me, my wand lost in the snow, the Lupin house on fire, the fact that I had no idea where Ophelia was, and that my father didn't know that my attacker was here, all at once, this was the one thought raging through my mind. After weeks of non-stop and increasingly violent attacks, when he finally had me cornered, instead of doing me in immediately, my attacker suddenly decided that he wanted to play...? Why? I couldn't get anywhere on foot, without money or my wand. He had me at his mercy, and yet he'd just given me the baby and allowed me to escape?
Something was wrong.
The snow crunched noisily under my boots, and somewhere in the distance I thought I heard an owl's hoot. But loudest of all was the sound of my own breathing as I ran, and the further I got from the quartet, I was able to pick up Zoe's as well. How long until I began to hear my attacker behind me too? How long until his breath was misting before my eyes as he uttered the last two words I'd ever hear? How long until my cold dead body dropped into the snow not to be discovered until Dad returned to check up on me when no one answered his owl?
I looked around me in the dark night, though not back, listening to the crackling flames of the house now reduced to the sound of a fireplace in the distance and began to wonder.
Somehow or the other my attacker had followed us from Hogwarts and now with Uncle Lupin and his family trapped he could do whatever he wanted for as long as he wanted, and there was no one to stop him. At least he'd given me a head-start, one which I fully intended not to waste... and that was the something wrong.
Based on prior incidents my attacker was not someone known for this kind of patience. The first attack would have been successful had the two girls he'd Imperiused not been seen by Camilla. The second, the one on the full moon, had been interrupted by Uncle Lupin and Connor, but the Shrieking Shack led to a secret passageway into the school, and if they were not there he surely would have gotten in. The Dementors had also been repelled by Connor, in that he'd given the OGB enough time to come out and save us. Because the letter bomb had exploded in the large and open Great Hall, and within metres of some of the best wizards and witches in magical Britain, the effect was dampened by their quick actions, or so I was told. The Kappa had been held off for as long as it took for the OGB and other teachers to arrive and chase it away. And then the attack in the Common Room Friday night, because he didn't know about the school's Founders' set up with the girls' dormitories, he didn't realise that he couldn't just charge in and kill me.
But still....
At this I stopped, thinking. He wasn't known for patience, if he was going to kill me, if he'd planned it all along he would have done it the moment Connor and I came running out of the house. And yet he had waited for us to almost get to the neighbour's....
Then out of muggy depths of my mind something Rigel said came to me: "`-the path to hell is paved with good intentions, not bad ones. All men mean well'? That Muggle quote? Voldemort certainly didn't mean well and the guy who's after you.... I think the better quote for this situation is `revenge is a dish best served cold', for a lot of people are trying to get it and they're not in any hurry."
I gasped in horror.
"`Revenge is a dish best served cold', for a lot of people are trying to get it and they're not in any hurry."
The words tumbled from my mouth, but they were barely above a whisper, "Oh... no...."
At once I spun round in the snow to look back at the Lupins, to find my attacker ranting wildly amidst them, holding a macabre court before the incapacitated family.
I was wrong, we'd all been wrong. He wasn't my attacker; he wasn't after me and never was. In fact I was just a diversion. He was after the Lupins.
If I turned each incident around in my head and applied it to a scheme where the Lupins, or at least, Connor was the main target and not me... then: the first attack was the set-up of the diversion. My Dad was the Man-Who-Triumphed, no one could just attack me and not expect the Ministry of Magic to overreact, and they did. But their concerns at the time were for me and no one else, and so, even days later he would have had the advantage of this to kill Connor's family. No one really cared for a werewolf and his family anyway; some were still clamouring to prevent them from getting married and having children in the first place. He was thwarted though, because an unintended side effect of the attack meant that Uncle Lupin was watching over the school from the Shrieking Shack, and at the time Aunt Tonks was out of the country.
Uncle Lupin had then been in the wrong place at the wrong, or right, time. Too bad he hadn't waited around after they'd been interrupted for he would have gotten Connor then too.
The Dementors would have gone after anyone, that was sure, and Connor was more susceptible to them than I, but I was not supposed to be having detention. The letter was addressed to me, which complicated matters, but not if you knew that everyone usually got letters from home at breakfast, and as Connor and I were in the same house, would probably be seated nearby. Then this could also be another diversion, an attempt to get Connor out of the school, which it did. But he hadn't attacked them after that, which meant that he must have somehow been unable to follow him home. With the Kappa, Connor hadn't had a class that day, but put together with the attack in Gryffindor Tower days later, it must have been a way to get into the castle. And that attack was once again a diversion when he ran up the stairs of the girls' dormitories. Everyone thought he was coming for me but he was going for Connor all along.
So maybe he'd been a Hogwarts student once after all....
I looked back up at the quartet just as he suddenly launched himself from before Uncle Lupin to ruffle Connor's long dark hair about his head. In the glare of the fire I could only just make out Connor's frozen face, but I knew that he was conveying all he needed to with his eyes. But if he could see his hatred and disgust, and probably fear, he ignored to return to Uncle Lupin with a gesture that was most certainly a taunt.
Realising all this meant nothing though, I was still in the same situation as before, unarmed and unable to help in any other way than to get as far away as I could and hide Zoe from him. But I could not just leave them to die, for he was surely going to kill every one of them, and maybe still me just to take care of witnesses. I had to do something, and fast.
The first matter to attend to then was Zoe. I at once turned back and raced to the MacFingall house, hoping all the while that he would not kill them before I could secure Zoe there. At the end of all this she just might be the sole survivor, taken in by my parents to replace the girl they lost....
Before I got to the house I saw the blood, and when I ran ahead anyway, I walked into a scene so ghastly that I jerked myself out of the doorway and slammed my back into the wall trying not to vomit. The image had already imprinted itself in my mind though, the sight of the house' owner, the former Mr MacFingall I assumed, eviscerated and dismembered in the middle of his entrance hall. There was blood and bits of flesh everywhere, the walls and floor bore deep slashes and scratches, and I would never forget the sight of his disembodied hand beckoning eternally from the mat before the door.... I swallowed to stopper the bile rising again. Even if he had put up a good fight he'd never stood a chance.
There was no way I was going to leave Zoe in that house. I would have to risk going back to help with her, and hope for her tiny sake that she would not cry and give me away beforehand. I turned then, rocking her gently in my arms and, whispering as Connor had, "Shh, Zoe... shhh," trekked a slow but steady path back to the quartet in the shadow of the blazing house.
Connor's Warming Charm was beginning to wear off, and each step reintroduced me to the fact that we were now in the dead of winter. My hands were very nearly numb. My jumper and thick cotton top beneath did nothing to spare my upper body from the hypothermia-inducing cold. My feet were thankfully still warm in my boots, but it would only be a matter of time before the frostbite got in. As I had been running for now I could stave off the worst of it, but I had better hurry.
Zoe was luckier. Thankfully Aunt Tonks had managed to put her into her winter suit before they raced out of the house, and with her blankets-now dirtied where she'd been held by the man-she should be nice and toasty. But there was no telling for how long if anything happened to me.
My focus then was to get my wand. Of course, it was conveniently lying somewhere in the middle of the lawn and I wasn't exactly sure where it had landed the second time it had been sent away from me. Another glance to the quartet was just in time to see the man pluck Connor's wand from his grasp as easily as one would a grape from a bunch, and then chuck it carelessly. He turned to grin madly back at Uncle Lupin, and then leaned forward to Connor in a movement that looked, rather strangely, as if he were sniffing him.
My mind flashed to scene in the MacFingall house, and I came to a horrifying conclusion. He was sniffing him all right, and quite possibly in preparation to do to him what he started on with Uncle Lupin the night of the full moon and had just done to Mr MacFingall. But that was impossible, wasn't it? For unless he had some kind of help from a vicious wild creature or intended some creative use of magic, there was no physical way he could do that again.
Instinctively I quickly looked around me for signs of such a vicious wild creature, not willing to put anything past him at the moment. But I saw nothing, which was surprisingly not as comforting as it should have been, and looked back up to find that the man had left Connor and was now leaning rather suggestively over Aunt Tonks. Uncle Lupin shoved himself against his bonds with such fury I was afraid for a moment that he would rip his limbs apart. Connor could do nothing though, and I could not imagine what was going through his mind at the moment. Or rather, after my conversation with Rigel, I could, but just didn't want to, didn't think he could possibly be strong enough to....
I chanced a few quicker steps over the lawn to the quartet and was finally able to hear the man's rant:
"-on Lupin, I was just havin' a wee go at the Missus, I had to ken what it was like seein' as you've clearly had fun! Two children now, two! How come the Ministry's not taken yer cubs away yet? But I guess that's one o' the benefits of selling yer soul, they give ye a bonnie wee wife and a house and let ye keep yer bairns as long as ye dinnay rock the boat! YE SHOULD HAVE DONE MORE THOUGH! YE SHOULD HAVE HELPED EVERYONE ELSE! But ye dinnay, ye help yerself and leave the rest of us to die! We have nothing, NOTHING! And now... neither will ye!"
Something about that statement made my blood run cold. He was going to do exactly what I'd thought he was going to and it didn't matter that it wasn't the full moon and there didn't appear to be anything to help him, he was going to do exactly that... and he was going to make Uncle Lupin watch.
I decided to throw caution to the wind, this was no time to stand and watch I had to hurry. I immediately began speed-walking across the snow to them and pressed Zoe's face gently against my chest, taking care not to smother her, but just enough to muffle any cries she might make. Thankfully, and worryingly, since she'd been thrown by the man she'd been mostly silent.
The rant continued unabated.
"I hate waitin' around like this, but there's a cloud up and I need the moonlight. I actually planned to do this on the lad's birthday, or maybe even the full moon, but I dinnay get the chance. Nae worries, I dinnay need the moon to be full now anymore, I just need it to be there and visible. Ye remember Greyback, dee ye? Dinnay understand what I mean? Nae? Well then, yer'll see very soon!"
I was now close enough to the group that I could just see Connor's eyes frantically looking back and forth among his mother, father and the man stalking and ranting wildly before them. I was sure that at one point both he and Uncle Lupin noticed me, but they gave no that would indicate that they had (and Connor couldn't). Then I stepped on something that slid and nearly toppled me.
I hastily bent forward, holding onto Zoe for dear life while wishing with all my might that she would remain silent. But this position allowed me to look at my feet, and to my absolute joy, notice that I'd slipped on a wand. It wasn't mine, but it would have to do. I snatched it up out of the snow, cast a hasty Silencing Charm on Zoe as a precaution, then conjured myself a long shawl and tied it around my middle to secure her against me. Another spell provided a Warming Charm and I barely allowed myself to relish the feeling of it wrapping round me like a blanket, before I straightened and finally looked up at the quartet.
The sight that greeted me nearly ripped a scream from my throat that I had to bite my tongue to stop. The cloud above that the man had spoken of had apparently passed, and now I understood why he'd wanted it gone. He was a werewolf, werewolves were forced to transform by the full moon, but somehow or the other he had managed to find a way around and right then before my eyes he was changing into the beast. His limbs stretched and tore his robes, his hands were becoming furry paws and claws, his head was ballooned a size and his nose, mouth and jaw suddenly elongated and-
I raised my wand and called loudly, "Accio Quasar Mach I!"
I didn't know what made me call for it, but quite possibly it was the realisation that if I waited for him to fully transform he would tear us all to pieces. My broom though, was in the burning house, and though the second floor was clearly ablaze I found myself holding to the hope that it was one of those items charmed not to burn.
In the meantime, I turned my wand on Connor and called, "Finite Incantatem! Accio Connor's wand!"
The moment he fell free of the Freezing Charm, I flung his wand to him and turned to Uncle Lupin, "Finite Incan-"
Before I could finish the incantation I heard an inhuman howl and snapped my gaze back to the man to discover that he was now fully a large, brown and grey werewolf, claws extended, teeth bared, glaring right at me. I could not stifle my horrified scream this time, which started Zoe wailing again, but I immediately began to back away from him, all the while knowing that I had no chance of escape.
Luck was on my side. Connor, now freed, armed and once more morphed into a tall, hairy man-wolf, seeing my situation, bounded after it, and after a swift yank on its tail to draw its attention brought his wand down in a sharp movement that sent a purple flame erupting from its tip to strike the werewolf directly in the shoulder. But it did not fell it, instead it stopped and gave a blood-curdling howl, which Connor interrupted with another curse, and then began to chase him wildly about the lawn. I stood now frozen in terror, feeling my heart pounding in my chest with almost enough force to burst free. It was not to be a long fight though, for it had longer legs and more experience as a predator, and shortly caught up with him. And then with one slash that sent his blood, glittering crimson in the firelight, spraying across the immaculate snow, ended their game.
I screamed again, feeling my heart seize painfully in my chest, while Uncle Lupin's back seemed to bend right over as he strained against his bonds to get to his son. Blissfully unaware, Aunt Tonks still lay quietly in the nearby snow bank.
Forgetting the danger I made a dash for Connor myself, but was halted by the sound of something whistling in the air above, and I looked up just as it came zipping round and stopped, hovering and humming softly, before me. It was my broom, it hadn't been burned and now it was here. I wasted no time in hopping unto it and kicking myself, albeit unsteadily, into the air just as the werewolf pounced into the place I'd just been. Then, as he howled in fury behind me, I took a terrifying dive back to the snow where Connor lay, and bunching the front of his now bloodied jumper into a fist, tried to pull him up unto the broom with me.
This, apparently, was only something that worked in fiction. Connor was a dead-weight, and felt it, for the only thing I managed to achieve were three broken nails, a strained wrist and giving the werewolf time to notice us. He came barrelling back; I turned the wand on Connor and yelled, "Mobilicorpus!", then barely waited for him to float off the ground before trying to fly off again.
At that moment though the werewolf slammed into me and the broom with such force that I heard the bone in my left arm audibly snap in half, and the cracking of my ribs in my chest as we, broom, baby and all, were pitched sideways into the snow. But the Quasar Mach I had been built for Quidditch players under the threat of being battered to death by a Bludger, so that instead of staying there, it quickly bounced us up out of it again, made a dizzying roll to right itself and then shot straight up into the freezing night air.
The stars I'd seen after the werewolf had hit me were rapidly replaced with the real things as I took a few moments to clear my head and plan my next course of action. I had Zoe, a wand, Connor and the broom by which we could escape, but I still needed to get us away and send back help. Knowing that it was best to gain some stability first, I lay flat against the broom, which brought its tip down and set us on a more controllable forward path. Then, taking care to shift Zoe to my right side so that she wouldn't be crushed, I manoeuvred myself until I could grip onto the handle with my underarm while holding tightly to Connor's limp body with my free right hand.
My sigh of relief that I'd managed this without dropping him was short-lived. Connor was still unconscious and bleeding heavily. I wanted, no, I needed him to wake up before he slipped through the jumper and fell to his death below. My strained wrist was hurting badly and with my ribs cracked in the thinner air, breathing was becoming increasingly difficult. Fortunately the wand was trapped in my right hand and pointing at his face, and I whispered, "Incarcerous!" to trap him to the broom, and then "Ennervate!" to wake him.
He woke with a startled gasp, and then tried to move his arms to grab the broom, but he couldn't with the invisible binds round him. I grabbed his jumper again, he stifled a cry of pain, as did I, and I released the spell. He immediately grabbed hold of my legs to stop his fall and fastened his own around the tail end of the broom, just as the broom took a frightful dip under his weight. There was a tense moment where we waited to drop out of the sky, and then he released my legs to grapple unto the broom, then grasped my hip and used it as leverage to spin himself upright behind me. I released a breath I didn't know I'd been holding, and he, once settled, leaned heavily unto my back to grab the broom handle and allow me to sit back upright.
At once our forward movement-which had been taking us progressively further from his house as he had struggled to get onto the broom-stopped and we remained hovering high in midair above a dark and unnaturally silent forest to its sudden end. My hip throbbed painfully from where he'd grabbed it, but it was nothing in the face of the reassurance I received from the sound his voice, though painfully weak and punctuated with coughs, as he asked, "Are you alright? Is Zoe okay?"
I nodded and said, "I think... he broke my arm. He rammed into me while I was trying to get you up onto the broom and he broke my arm. What happened to you? Where did he hit you?"
He did not answer, but put his other arm round me to grip the broom handle with both hands and asked, "What about my Mum and Dad?
Thoroughly ashamed, I confessed, "I didn't have time to help them, I was trying to free your Dad when he... well, when he finally transformed. And then when he was chasing you about, I know I should have done something but... I froze.... I still have the wand though, so we could go back and help-"
I was cut off by a loud, chilling screech. We both looked back to look down at where we'd left Aunt Tonks, Uncle Lupin and the werewolf, but we were too far away and the glare of the fire obscured our view in the yard. Connor at once turned the broom around and flew back, over the house where I could feel the heat as a refreshing caress through my boots, to the lawn where the cold refroze them. The werewolf was nowhere to be found, and terribly, Uncle Lupin was now completely still, his blood forming a wide, graceful arch in the snow before his still body. Aunt Tonks looked untouched, but there was no telling at our height. Then there was the screech again, and we looked up above the scene to see the werewolf once more man and flying towards us with his wand in the air and a look of purest rage on his face.
I could not see if he rode broom or beast, but I knew that we had to get out of here. I turned to Connor, panicked, and nearly cried, "Quick, we have to get out of here! We have to get help! What's the closest magical refuge?" Then I reached down and tried to turn the broom in his grasp.
He put his hands over mine, staying my attempts and said, "We'll have to fly back to Hogsmeade, but it's going to be cold!"
"I don't care!" I replied. "If he catches us you'll be a different kind of cold!"
As if to confirm this then, the bright red flash of a Stunning Spell just grazed the tip of the broom. We at once leant forward and braced ourselves against the biting wind as the Quasar speedily raced up over the trees, out of the lawn and northeast into the unrelenting cold, dark air. Our pursuer was hot on our tail though, and made a point sending another Stunning Spell at our backs as he gave chase. Connor bent the broom handle and we dove to avoid it, then he brought it back up to send us a little higher and kicked again at the tail so that we went ahead a little faster.
The cold was unbelievable. At our speed it rendered Warming Charms obsolete, and made my skin feel very much as if it was being repeatedly slashed with a knife. I feared for Zoe strapped against my chest, but I could not check on her now, and nor could I determine the severity of Connor's injury until we were safely on the ground, in the company of the Aurors. If only nothing else happened until that time....
Suddenly Connor jerked and fell limp against my back. I half-turned to see what was going on, and discovered that he'd been hit, I quickly cast a spell over my shoulder to trap him to the broom again, then ducked and willed the broom to go faster. But snow-covered, foggy Scotland was already zipping past beneath us as fast I as thought it humanly possible for it to go. Any faster was sure to rip the hair from my head at the very least, and since I was depending heavily on my right arm, make flying much more difficult. As it was the broom already had to compensate for Connor's added weight.
Another spell grazed at my shoulder, and then I was treated to the shocking sight of the man making a kamikaze-dive towards the broom. I shut my eyes, gripped the broom tighter and took a sharp turn to the left, then soared for the stars again and continued on as before. The man let me know that I hadn't evaded him by blasting off a few stalks from the Quasar's tail.
We would continue like this for what felt like the next hour. While I flew desperately northeast, hoping that Hogsmeade village and Hogwarts would appear just over the next mountain, or swoop lower to check that the village we were passing wasn't it, he would incessantly come up with more and newer ways to get into my path or throw me off course into lakes, trees and, at one point, the rocky ground. I was already fighting the cold, which had now dried out my face, eyes and mouth, chafing my lips, my fears about Connor and his family and the knowledge that if I allowed him to catch me I would surely die, I did not need to deal with employing evasive movements too.
Playing Quidditch just to make Dad happy was increasingly looking like a brill idea.
And then I saw the seven lights coming over the hills towards me. I felt my heart sinking in my chest again, and at the same time the shooting pains in my lower back from having to support Connor's body, fearing that this was more trouble for me. Some of the things he'd managed in his attempts to get to me... or rather Connor, had to involve accomplices.... But then the line broke up into three groups, two to the right, two to the left and three straight ahead, but below and all going directly at my attacker. There was the unearthly screech of whatever it was he rode behind me, possibly a Thestral, and then he gave a maddened howl himself and a violent magical duel broke out.
Though I was clearly being rescued I did not allow myself to relax, but kept on flying straight for the hills they'd just come over. The sigh of relief that escaped my lips then was an automatic reaction to the sight of Hogwarts Castle looming tall in a valley amidst the mountains, the Black Lake glinting peacefully beside it and Hogsmeade village glittering like a series of lighthouses beckoning me safely home. I went straight for the castle, then had to change course when I discovered that I could not go there. The broom began to vibrate terrifyingly almost as soon as it reached the fringes of its gates and I headed down to Hogsmeade village instead.
In a matter of moments I was landing in the middle of the brightly-lit main street before a group of Aurors, a few Hogwarts teachers including the OGB and Madam Pomfrey, and my very worried looking mother and younger siblings. And the broom had barely come to a stop before Mum broke free of the crowd and hastened to help me, crying happily, "Oh Magnolia! Lillie!"
She would come to an abrupt halt when she saw the blood and noticed Connor's limp body and the tears now streaming hot and freely down my cheeks. But then she was on the move again, and almost as soon as she got to me she freed Connor from my back and with the help of the OGB and Madam Pomfrey, conjured a stretcher and laid him out across it. Then Professor Bones and one of the Aurors helped me off the broom, and noticing Zoe, asked, "Is she alright? Are you alright?"
In the background I noticed another group of Aurors mount their brooms and take off after the first group that had saved me from the man. This drew my attention to Ophelia hopping casually along the roof of one of the nearby buildings and I guessed that either Aunt Tonks or Uncle Lupin had sent her out with a warning earlier. Too bad they hadn't gone directly to the house as soon as they received it.
Professor Bones was asking again, "Lillie did you hear me? Are you alright? What's wrong with the baby?"
I looked down to Zoe and realised that though she was wailing again there was no sound coming from her mouth. I pointed the wand at her and said, "Finite Incantatem!"
We were immediately treated to the full blast of her agitated cries. Professor Bones at once took her from my arms and over to where the OGB, Madam Pomfrey and a few St Mungo's Mediwizards were gathered round Connor. And satisfied that they were being attended to, Mum returned her attention to me and asked, "Where's Tonks and Lupin?"
"We left them at the house," I began to cry at once. "I couldn't help them and Connor was hurt, and then the man-he's a werewolf-came flying behind us and we had to get away. I tried to help them, I really did, but he ran into me and I...."
By this point I was nearly completely incoherent, my words reduced to wild mumbling between sobs, and Mum drew me into her arms and said, "It's okay Lillie, I'm sure they're alright... it's okay...."
I pulled away from her protesting, as clearly as I could manage, "No it's not okay. It isn't at all. He's a werewolf who can transform himself whenever he wants to. They had a neighbour named Mr MacFingall... he tore him to pieces...."
Mum's jaw dropped and her eyes widened in horror at this revelation before she demanded, "Did you see it happen...? Lillie, tell me, did you see it...?"
I shook my head. "I was trying to hide Zoe in his house but when I got to the front door I found it open and he was... all over the front hall...."
Mum at once pulled me back into another embrace, but I hastily pulled away, crying out in pain as her action had agitated my arm. A Mediwitch hastened over to inspect it, and said, "We're going to have to reset the bone, it will only take a few minutes and it will hurt, so Mummy... if you'd like to...."
She gestured to me, and Mum took me back into her arms again, pressing my head against her chest and away from the Mediwitch and my arm. When I screamed as the spell the Mediwitch cast began to shift the bone, Mum held me tighter and kissed my head, whispering encouragingly, "I'm sorry; I know it hurts but it'll be fine, I'm so sorry... I know it hurts...."
And then just as she said, the movement stopped, the bone was set and healed, and the pain ceased immediately. The Mediwitch swept her wand over me again and discovering the cracked ribs, said, "That's going to require a potion, give me a minute."
She then disappeared to the others with Connor just as Milo and Mackenzie finally got clear and raced over to Mum and me, and nearly knocked us over as they launched themselves at us for a jubilant hug. I winced and they slackened slightly, but continued to anxiously express their joy at having me back. The feeling was mutual, after the grim cold of the scene I'd just left, the familiar warmth of Hogsmeade was most welcome. And speaking of family... I asked Mum, "Where's Dad?"
"He went with the first line of Aurors, didn't you see him?" she replied.
I shook my head, and then looked over to the others and Connor, wondering how badly he'd been hurt. But the OGB suddenly appeared before me and said, "You said that your attacker was a werewolf that can transform outside of the full moon? Did it bite you or him?"
"I don't think he bit Connor, but he did hit him, I saw blood," I replied.
At this Mackenzie and Milo pulled away from me and said as one, "And you! You-You're covered in blood!"
The OGB turned me to face him, going over me himself with a series of spells, and then said, "It cut his arm, deep. If he wasn't Stunned he would have eventually lost conscious and died from the blood loss." I gasped and tried to look around him to Connor, but he wasn't finished, "Did you recognise your attacker at all, see his face?"
I shook my head, "No, I didn't really. I was dark out and I was under the Invisibility Cloak and couldn't light my wand or he would have seen me... but he wasn't after me. He was after Connor and his family."
As one the OGB and Mum exclaimed at this, "What?" And they'd said it so loudly that almost everyone else stopped what they were doing to look at us. Well, everyone except the Mediwizards and Madam Pomfrey with Connor, of course.
I repeated, "He wasn't after me. It looked like he was, he'd trapped Aunt Tonks and Uncle Lupin and was holding Zoe, but when Connor and me came he threw her away. He let me catch her, disarmed me and then told me that he was giving me a head-start. But as I was running I wondered why and turned around and realised that he wasn't talking to me. He didn't want me and never had, he wanted them."
The OGB looked up to my mother and asked, "I wonder what your husband will say when he learns this? That someone would dare to use his daughter as a diversion to get to someone else?"
Mum at once pulled me from the OGB's grasp and replied neutrally, "It comes with the territory. We all angered a lot of people during the war, any one of us and our children are fair game."
He arched an eyebrow at her, just as Professor Bones returned with Zoe and handed her over to Mum. "They said that she's fine, just hungry and tired."
At this I said, "We tried to wake Aunt Tonks but we couldn't. I don't know what spell the man used but Connor said that she was still alive."
The OGB then turned away from us and stalked back to where Connor was and asked, "Can he be woken?"
"Oh yes, we were just going to do so in fact," replied one of the Mediwizards. Then he pointed his wand at Connor's face and said, "Ennervate!"
He awoke with a gasp and then started upright and after a moment where he looked around him confusedly, he called, "Maggie! Maggie where are you?" I disentangled myself from Mum and pushed through the others to him, forgetting his wounds he at once pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly. "Oh Maggie, I thought he would kill you!"
The OGB interrupted our happy reunion rather quickly. "Mr Lupin, Connor, do you know who your attacker was?"
Connor looked up at him without releasing me and said, "He didn't give his name, but Dad was trying to remember who he was. He kept saying over and over again that he was going to tear me to pieces, that that was Dad's punishment. But I don't know what he meant bec-"
He was interrupted by Mum's gasp, "Fenrir Greyback sent him!"
"Nonsense!" said someone behind her. We turned to discover that it was the Minister for Magic, who must have just come in from the fact that I hadn't seen him earlier and the others were all looking rather surprised. He continued, "Mr Greyback is in the custody of the Ministry of Magic, being watched over by no less than thirty Aurors-"
Mum began to protest, "-I reckon that the Lupins and that man, whoever he was, may have a problem with that-"
"-He has had and is allowed no contact with anyone outside of those who watch over him-"
"-that hasn't stopped him from arranging this attack-"
"-if he is involved it clearly began before he was captured, he has had no contact-"
"Enough!" bellowed the OGB. "When we have him then you will have it from his mouth who sent him and
then-"
He was cut off by a loud, frightfully close howl, and we all swung round and looked up to see that somehow the man had eluded the Aurors and Dad to come upon us in Hogsmeade. It was like in those movies I used to watch with Milo and Grandpa, where the villain in an action film everyone thought had been killed would suddenly reappear for a second chance. He stood, as bloodied and battered as he'd left Connor and me, hackles raised and teeth bared, growling softly. But this was no movie. And then, before we could react, he bounded down the main street towards us.
The OGB ran from the side where we'd gathered round Connor and tried to block him, drawing his wand and attempting to Stun him. His heroic run would come all to nought though, when he discovered that he couldn't hold his wand steady. One or two of the others had drawn their wands and were beginning to fire curses in the werewolf's direction, and the OGB stood alone trying to stabilise his cramping hand with the other, but it was too late. The werewolf knocked him aside with a backhand swipe and quite a few others before pouncing upon Milo, and sending Mackenzie tumbling in the dirt towards Madam Puddifoot's front door in the process.
She was rescued by Professor Bones just before she collided with it.
The scream in my head almost matched Mum's one of horror as pushed the others apart to go to him, wand drawn. The werewolf ignored her, and as Milo screamed bit down on his right leg like a vice and began shaking him furiously. Mum froze, halfway through a Stunning Spell, the words dying in her throat at the sight. The others kept up the fight, but still their curses bounced harmlessly off of his fur-covered back, he was fully transformed, and he'd just bitten my little brother....
He couldn't block every spell though, and certainly not the enraged "Avada Kedavra!" that suddenly broke through them all and knocked him clear off Milo, nearly taking his leg off completely in the process. It would drop limply from its mouth as his lifeless body slumped into the dirt, and Milo passed out from the shock beside him.
But the first we would all turn to look at was the caster, Dad, who in turn stood looking shell-shocked and somewhat spent back at his handiwork. No one spoke, no one moved, no one made a sound. For all those who'd never seen him in action, this display of my father's might have looked rather unremarkable compared to the stories they'd heard and told. But then looking at him as a man whose son's life had just been cursed forever and some of them with children of their own, their shock quickly became grim satisfaction. Like in the movies, now it was over.
Mum was the first person to move at last, with an anguished cry in Dad's direction she ran to Milo lying bleeding in the middle of the main street and pulled him into her arms, screaming, "Oh Milo, oh no, Milo! My boy, my little boy!"
Connor let me slip out of his arms and I joined her shortly thereafter, along with Mackenzie, the Mediwizards and the Minister. And the first Mediwizard there, after a quick inspection replied, "We're going to have to take the boy to the hospital. This was a bad bite... I'm sorry, Mrs Potter."
Mum didn't appear to hear him though; she was looking back to Dad who was still staring at her looking shocked. And still no one else was saying a word; it was almost as if they were afraid to breathe. The Mediwizard insisted, "Mrs Potter, we're going to have to get him to the hospital immediately and set up a strict regimen of Wolfsbane, it's not the full moon but that's a fully transformed werewolf... there's no telling what-"
Dad spoke at last, "Go Hermione, take them and go on ahead. The others are supposed to be taking Lupin and Tonks there as well...."
"Daddy you have to come too!" squealed Mackenzie, pushing through the others to go to him.
Dad looked pained as he replied, "I will, but go with your mother now... he's still.... I have to stay here... I just-"
"No, go Mr Potter. I can assure you that no one can arrest you for this... you were obviously trying to protect your son," said the Minister suddenly. "Come, quickly now, I'm assuming you'll be taking the Floo to St Mungo's?"
Dad looked surprised now, but allowed Mackenzie to drag him back to us, where the Mediwizards had finally convinced Mum to let Milo unto a stretcher, as they'd also placed the OGB, and were beginning to head to the Three Broomsticks. Presumably they were going to use the fireplace there, and as we walked I couldn't help but notice the way the crowd parted to let us through. They were all looking at Dad with an expression of sympathy in their eyes, but if he noticed he didn't react, instead staring blankly ahead at Milo on the stretcher and Mum, who kept glancing backwards at him.
Connor slipped his hand into my own and squeezed it, and then whispered, "I'm sorry."
"Why?" I asked, looking up at him.
He nodded to Milo, "I'm sorry for this, I'm sorry this happened to him.... It should have been me he bit... not your little brother."
I sharply pulled my hand from his and rounded on him, "What, did you have something to do with this? Did you do something to cause this to happen?"
The others stopped and turned back to us and we both reddened slightly in embarrassment, but Connor replied, bravely, "It should have been me he bit, not your little brother."
I looked at him incredulous, "What? Why? What good would that have done? I don't think anyone should've gotten bitten. Would his biting you make it right or something? Do you think it would make us all feel better if you'd got bitten instead?" He did not reply, but I continued through clenched teeth, "Because it wouldn't."
He dropped his eyes now to his feet, red with embarrassment, and I went to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. Automatically he draped an arm over my shoulders to secure me against him and we walked quietly into the pub with the others.
It had and was going to be a long night; I couldn't handle him falling apart now. Not now, when my brother's life had just been cursed forever.
For this, I feared, was the one time being Harry Potter's child could not spare you the worst of it.
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