23 December 2011
Friday, 1pm
Auror HQ, Level Two
Ministry of Magic

This would be his last opportunity to catch Fauna Blake before everyone got busy with the holiday. Knox Greyfriar was looking forward to spending time with his aunts but also some peace and quiet on his lonesome in his little stone cottage. Hannah Bombay would be getting a visit whether she liked it or not. Not was more likely, but he knew she'd suffer his sentimental display.

You see, there was the matter of the book.[1] By happenstance, the topic of the troublesome parcel had come up during last week's holiday get-together and suspcious were had by all that it could be related to other unsavory deliveries. He'd agree to Harper Graves's proposal he file an official report. [nb]17 Dec 2011 - Light the Hearth, Lift a Wand[/b]

The Headmaster of Hogwarts, in the grand tradition, was ever skeptical of any involvement of the Ministry of Magic in the school's. It was notable that the central wizarding government had no office for managing education and that's how Greyfriar preferred it. Thus, this being here was to be a notable exception. Knox was satisfied the matter  concerning Feliks Spectre and Nicola Bagnold and a dozen angry letters was resolved. But he was feeling apprehensive. With Feliks's unfortunate lineage, with the impending return of poor Greer Grant, the investigative arm of the Auror Corps could prove a prudent precaution.

Greyfriar was a Wizengamot Elder so he had a tiny shared office on Level Two, and since he was putting in some time between Hogwarts terms, it was easy enough to schedule something with Fauna Blake. He'd been offered a refreshment and he'd taken tea. He was quite patient to stand in the vestibule cooling his tea with his wand.

1.	15 Dec 2011 - Somebody Likes You

Had it really been almost a week since the Ministry mixer? Felt like just yesterday since she'd last seen the amiable Hogwarts Headmaster. Fauna gathered her notebook, her quill, her coffee, and a sneaky surprise, and left her cubicle a few minutes before 1pm. Her neat and tidy cubicle! She'd cleaned it this morning, trying to get files in order before her time off over the holidays.

She smiled at the Aurors as she passed, in a very good mood since returning Virgil's stolen violin to him a few hours ago.[1] A small matter, but it meant a lot to him, and made her feel like she'd made someone's day a little better.

When she neared the shared office, she tried to don a more professional outlook and demeanor. As excited as she was to see Knox Greyfriar, she knew well that he preferred to handle Hogwarts business on his own, using his own resources and clever methods. If he'd requested a meeting with her, it meant that he either wanted to follow up on the book and the tenacious twine, or...

Something else had happened since Hogwarts had been let out on the 17th.

Squaring her shoulders, she knocked on the open door and stepped in.

"Sir," she said automatically, the term of respect coming more naturally to her with Knox Greyfriar than it ever did with (ahem) several of the Aurors.

"Er, Knox," she amended with a bashful smile. "How are you?"

She glanced around the sparse office, shifting her notebook in the crook of her elbow and taking a sip of her coffee.

1.	So tender and mild

"Happy Christmas, Fauna," Greyfriar boomed with a wide smile and open arms. He'd spared her a hug at the holiday party but wouldn't miss the opportunity now. She hesitated to call him by his name even though he'd always asked her to, but he understood the reticence. A professor was always a professor it seemed. Maybe when she started to go grey...

"All is well, all is well. Will be traveling a bit. If you think I'm boisterous you'd have to meet my aunts. They put me to shame in more ways than one." His extended family was a lot to handle and they knew better than to gather more than infrequently, but it was always worth it. There was food, drink, conversation and cards.

As ever, Knox was in no rush to get to business, but he thought he might for the busy young Auror. "But enough of that, you must be flooded with last minute nonsense now that your seniors have all rushed off." The Ministry really did feel empty.

He took a seat but made no move to withdraw the book. "What sort of a report really shall this be? Owl fraud?" He was joking. "It wouldn't even amount to the standard of harassment, certainly nothing contraband, and no harm came of it."

If it wasn't clear before, he was doing this as a favor. He did see the value, if it was part of a grander pattern, but what was he supposed to say?

Fauna gave Knox a hug back, warmed by the gesture.

"It's ok, I'm hoping to sneak out soon after this. Don't tell on me," she chuckled. "Well, you can tell your aunts. I'm putting aside my wand and work for a few days and heading to my mum's."

She'd have to put magic aside around the muggle relatives who didn't know about her witchiness yet.

Knox seemed relaxed and mentioned the book. Fauna held back a sigh of relief. Nothing else had happened, as far as she could tell.

"I call it a C-Y-A report," her eyes twinkled. Sometimes work lingo was the same everywhere. "People file reports for much less. I hope it will sit and collect dust, be a one-time thing, but we'll dust this one off if we need to, you know?"

Fauna settled comfortably into the chair across from him, leaving her notebook closed. Bagnold's teasing rang in her ears, but she'd take notes if she thought she might forget something.

"We can go over the um, owl fraud again," she suggested with a trace of amusement at his phrasing, "And then we can figure out how to phrase it."

She paused, thinking.

"So that would be questions like what date Feliks received the package. Where. If there was a note attached, what did it say."

Pain in the ass questions for a Cover Your Ass report, but the Headmaster was used to answering lots of questions, she was sure. It depended a lot on how much Feliks, a first year, remembered and how much he'd said, too.

The old professor was nearly through marveling about how his former student was grown now living a whole new life. It almost suited her more than her school robes and house necktie. That's what it should be, shouldn't it? Every day trying to become more and more yourself. He sipped his tea and laughed low. CYA, now he'd done a few or more of those in his day.

"Hopefully it's enough that this is a third party report. I'd hate to have to bother the Spectres and Bagnolds with this - I spook Feliks and Nicola just by existing, unfortunately." He shifted in the chair and scratced his beard. "I think they're both still waiting for the other shoe to drop despite my best efforts to convince them I'm not going to erupt from their chimneys and bellow at them."

If any trouble was to come of that package it wouldn't be from the Headmaster.

"You'll never believe how long I can make a short story, but there isn't a great deal to say."

Knox produced the small book from inside his robes and put it on the table between them. It was The Lycan, a copy with the tags and cards marking it as property of the Hogwarts library restricted section, long lost and now returned.

"At the prompting of our Sylvain Onuris, Feliks and Nicola told the tale of how one morning at breakfast a small package[1] arrived by owl for Feliks. No return address. Inside was that charming little volume there, antique in all ways, and, I'm to understand, a length of Tenacious Twine."

"There was no note, or so said the children, but the book is annotated."

Knox honestly hadn't paid the book much mind. Any curiosity he had was colored with some annoyance or overshadowed by the pressing matters of the holiday and end of term. The incident taken on its own amounted to harassment that would be considered nominal by most werewolves, but in context he acknowledged there was more to be concerned about.

1.	This post describes the contents of the package.

Fauna gave Knox a sympathetic look, and refrained from saying he was only likely to bellow like that at his own son, Devlin, when he'd done something dodgy to deserve it. He saved his bellowing for times when it mattered! He didn't yell at first years, and she'd always remembered feeling comfortable around him even as an anxious and easily startled student.

Of course, she'd known him well before he'd been attacked and turned, and Feliks and Nicola had likely come into school with preconceived ideas or had already had negative experiences with werewolves, but with time, Fauna hoped they'd get to know Knox Greyfriar for who he really was. One of the very best people she knew.

"Sylvain Onuris," Fauna repeated, taking a moment to place the name. Oh right, she'd met him at some party or another. "C-O-M-C professor, right? And Nicola is Nicola Bagnold?"

Navigating pureblood family trees was like climbing through a thicket of thorns, and she struggled to remember the family connections woven throughout the Ministry.

With a glance at Knox, Fauna took the book and carefully started flipping through the pages. Skimming sentences here and there gave her the sense that yes, the werewolf hunting advice was antique in outlook and method. The narrative focused on tips and techniques, and even the annotations were factual rather than hateful.

But the implication. The book, sent anonymously, with expensive twine, with instructions for a... a net spell, to a first year at school, encouraging and implying that a first year should act against his Headmaster and even fellow students, was problematic and worrying. It just was, and they could say so in the report.

Fauna shook her head at the incantation scribbled in the corner of the page, then glanced up at Knox thoughtfully. He didn't want to involve or concern the Spectres or Bagnolds. She could understand that, and it would be awkward to explain why he was informing the family months after Feliks had received the package. However!

"It might be worth letting Feliks' dads know that you're taking the time to file a report on this," she suggested mildly. "Feliks wouldn't need to offer any additional information," she agreed with that. "But if the Spectres receive anything strange and anonymous at home, or Feliks receives another package when he returns to school, they would already be aware of the first, er, incident and would know that you're looking out."

Her voice grew clearer and more confident as she thought of Spectre and Storm as a tolerant couple who wouldn't simply assume that a werewolf Headmaster was taking the book too personally.

Knox reponded in the affirmative about Onuris's position at the school. "Groundskeeper as well. "And regarding Nicola, "Kurby Bagnold's niece, if that's interesting trivia for you."

The Headmaster wouldn't likely have mentioned it to the parents if it had remained an apparently isolated incident. He was on good terms with Balfour and Johann, and so Fauna's suggestion to drop them a note would not be at all contentious. Other than that poor boy getting a letter from school. It couldn't be helped, however. A wise suggestion.

"I shall send them an owl," he agreed with the flash of an agreeable smile.

Changing tacks. "Other than Sylvain, I do believe the children relayed at least a version of the story to said uncle Bagnold. Apparently sent an owl asking for context on the items. Which is how Sylvain became aware of the situation, I'm to guess. Office gossip."

The Ministry was good for that, he'd always found. Hogwarts was its own garden but quite isolated as far as the flow of information.

Fauna smiled, relieved. It always felt odd, giving her elders advice, but Knox was receptive and she was in work-mode.

Well, mostly. Fauna set the book back on the table. He spoke freely and she felt like she was sharing coffee with an old friend, the book the runny egg between them.

It made sense now, why Bagnold had wanted to speak to the Headmaster to clear things up. If his niece were involved, he would want to look out for her. He'd been interested in the gift of silver cuffs, too. Fauna hoped he was just being curious and that he didn't suspect anyone from his own department.

She shook her head and smiled slightly at the circuitous journey the book had taken. The news had traveled in bits and pieces, losing bits of truth along the way until finally Knox had received most of the story.

"I guess it's good that one of your own professors had your back," she said obliviously. "And that Bagnold is, I don't know, different these days."

Fauna paused and titled her head. "Have you heard of anyone else receiving odd gifts like this? Now that the trial is over, I keep expecting more unpleasantness."

Knox erupted in rumbling laughter, pivoting in the chair and bringing his hand to his face. He didn't mean to laugh at Fauna, but her charitable interpretation of the behavior of Onuris and Bagnold was this season's best incongruity. If he ever spared a kind thought towards the egregiously zealous werewolf hunter Knox might have given him a lick of credit for being decent to Greer Grant. And the sins of Sylvain Onuris could not be rated at anything worse than a workplace disagreement. But no, neither of them had been particularly helpful and both of them had felt it best to keep the Headmaster out of Hogwarts business because he was a werewolf.

"My apologies, Fauna," he said as he recovered from his mirthless display. "If you can't laugh at the decorous inequities then when can you? But I'll spare you and the record that gossip."

He found his steady again but seemed now slightly annoyed. "But ah, to your question, no. Nothing like this, at least none that I've been made aware of. I expect owls to begin around the new year as parents hear about Greer and their questions and concerns are rewakened, but ..." He waved his hand, unconcerned.

"Nothing in this ilk."

He flipped his hand at the snippy little book.

Fauna blushed, not sure what she'd said at first, but at least Knox was laughing about it. She hoped he had supporters at Hogwarts. She knew he did at the Ministry.

She smiled, in good humor about his good humor, and flipped open her notebook to jot down a few notes.

"I'm just jotting down a few things that stand out. The inclusion of the twine and the incantation in the book, and the anonymity of the sender. Those things could be construed as threatening. Felik's young age and his very public family history make him vulnerable, too."

She paused, reminded of that ridiculous Witch Weekly article.

Hadn't Ira Almasy been involved in werewolf hunting? Well shit. Zel's abduction at the least.

Glancing at Knox, she regained composure.

"Do you mind if I file the book alongside the report?"

Fauna gestured. She couldn't imagine that he'd want to keep it.

Why shouldn't he keep it? Knox paused. He hadn't imagined he'd have any hesitation letting the book go, but he realized now that he'd intended to keep it. Somewhere there was a sense of ownership of it, some kind of defiance towards it, a triumph in having acquired it before it could be a tool of harm in the way it had clearly been intended. It hadn't been meant for him, and now it was in his possession. An object he willing would allow to haunt him, a reminder of the place where the world would contain him, but a haunting he'd chosen for himself. He felt a way about it that reminded him of his resentment towards the needlepoint moon phase chart his auntie had awkwardly made for him.

Fauna had become almost invisible in her role. Not in that she was indiscernible in the combination, but that there were very few misaligned pieces between her and the high-collared black jacket. She knew what she was doing, calm and methodical like her schoolwork had been. She saw the book one way. He saw it another.

Knox rose from the chair as if to put some distance between himself and The Lycan. "Why not? Better an evidence carton than a library shelf."

He put his hands in his pockets and smiled. Why not, indeed.

She glanced at him. He was still smiling, but he'd gotten out of his chair, looking away from the book. Werewolves and Headmasters were vulnerable too, not just first-years, but they had less room to show it.

Fauna closed her notebook and set it atop the Lycan book on the desk, remaining seated but angling her posture towards him.

"Thank you. And thanks for bringing all of this to me."

He understood why it mattered. It would be silly for her to try to reassure him, though she wanted to. She paused, thinking.

"I'll send you a few copies of the formal report so that you can pass it along to the Spectre family, when you get a chance."

She paused again, thinking of something else.

"Uh, Knox," a grimace-smile flickered on her face as she rubbed at the back of her neck. "I don't know what the plan is for January with Greer and anyone else, but if you're going to be away from Hogwarts at all, can you do me a favor and take extra care on the days before and after the full moon?"

Her brow furrowed in concern, unsure how much he'd heard about the direwolves and the ambush earlier. "We had some trouble in December, and we're preparing for and expecting trouble again around the 9th."

Aware he'd shifted the tone of the room with is awkward handling of The Lycan, Knox exerted his considerable talent to radiate warmth. The last thing he wanted was for Fauna Blake to feel any obligation to reassure him. That wasn't her task, and she'd done that for him one time too many.

When she offered to send him the complied information, he supported his voice and thanked her. "Exceedingly kind of you, Auror Blake. Will be appreciated by all parties. I'm sure they'll be appreciative of what I hope will turn out to be a hollow warning."

An unlikely hope, but just the same.

And then came an interesting turn. The January full moon; well more like December's. He tried to act casual about it, but he'd heard a few things about it that the Daily Prophet hadn't published. A benefit from his many connections, but he knew there was much more to the story than anything he knew. Including anything that'd inspire a warning. A warning for him and Greer Grant was no less a warning for their little lunar-sister Lucinda Temple.

He looked at Fauna who seemed affected but he couldn't quite tell how. He furrowed his thick brows then lifted them.

"Rest easy, Fauna. Your warning will be well-heeded. Anyone who'd harm my little ones will have a bear to get past."

It was strange for Knox to speak of himself in such away, his nature and intention was always to be gentle. But the beast that Bagnold feared in him was there should it ever need to be summoned. And that had nothing to do with the curse.

"I'm considering a change of venue. There are three of us now and I expect that we'll all be better together. Here."

He thought for a moment and then cocked his head. "I hope you won't find me too paternalistic if I ask that you be careful. What if something happened to you? We'd all be very lost, I think."

Fauna couldn't tell how much Knox knew, but he was hearing her, taking her seriously like he did. Thank Merlin for that.

Her expression softened. She fully believed him. The bear, the wolf, the human that was Knox Greyfriar had defended her and Sasha and Beatrice all those years ago, and he had been cursed with lycanthropy as a result. At the time, she'd regretted sneaking out of the castle and putting Knox in that position, but she'd found it easy, in a way, to accept the choice he'd made. Easy, out of ignorance and youth. Adults defended foolish teenagers and that was the way of things.

Now, she related to the experience from both sides, that of fearful, foolish youth and responsible adult. Knox would defend any student, and he had, and he would again, and that was rare. She would defend almost anyone who needed help, and she had, and she would again and that was also rare. She appreciated his sacrifice more than ever and it made her feel sad and guilty and at the same time, determined to live up to the chance he had given her.

"They're lucky to have you with them. Whatever place you decide," she nodded, pushing back a conflicting surge of emotions. Hogwarts was supposed to be the safest place, and with Knox there, it was one of the safest for werewolves. The Ministry was supposed to be one of the safest as well. The last few years had proven this was not always so. The Ideas of March, the February kidnappings. Fauna's gaze grew distant for a moment, remembering.

Knox had regained his kindly confidence though, and his next words could not have come at a better time. She blinked. Lost? No, but she understood his meaning.

"That's nice to hear," she smiled up at him, swallowing the sudden lump in her throat. "I'll be careful. Really."

She had been, she will be, she was. Absently, she adjusted her collar to cover the small scar on her neck. A stray hex had happened, but not death, and they were all doing their best. He cared, and it meant everything.

"I'll worry about you, you worry about me," she paused. "And you know, we won't be lost."

Her smile quirked at the corner, rueful but sincere.

"Bah, it's a deal."

Knox's smile was truly genuine now and he didn't waste any worry in wrapping Fauna in another hug. The raggedy edges of the world were always unraveling, and it seemed to be getting faster of late. But that was the rhythm of things, times of trouble alternating with more placid days. Surviving from one to the other wasn't a guarantee and so it was existentially vital to keep the weave tight so no one would get lost. Wands and darning needles for all.

He let her go and stood back. His smile was only slightly apologetic. They were in her workplace. (His too, really, but he hardly cared.)

"Holiday plans? I hope you and the other trainees are given enough time off." And with a bright expression, as if he'd just remembered, "how are the rest of you?"

Knox might have begun listing all the alumni on Level Two and the other departments, but he'd be there all day. He was sure Fauna would take his meaning. It was impossible to keep tabs on all his former students, even the smaller portion of them who'd even want to consort with him anymore. Impossible, so he had to rely on well-intended word-of-mouth.