This chapter begins in the Gryffindor common room only minutes after Knox Greyfriar receives the first letter[1] from Kurby Bagnold. It is around 8pm.

The secret entrance to the Gryffindor commonroom was no barrier to the Hogwarts Headmaster. He need only approach it before the portrait swung open promptly with not even a word uttered. He must have looked a fright to anyone still lounging around on a school night. He said nothing at first, but took a stance in the middle of the space upon a lush red rug, emblazoned with a lion rampant. He looked tired and unusually grim, even angry.

"Lucinda Temple and Greer Grant!" he bellowed. He knew his voice would carry to every corner of the tower sanctuary. Appearing docile was a typical priority, but something like this had never happened. He needed to know immediately that the girls were safe, and if they were, he had to speak with them immediately.

"I need Lucinda and Greer absolutely this second!" He looked to someone nearby for help, and gestured that they go up for him. He had, at least, the discretion not to burst into the dormitories.

1.	10 Jan 2012 - Silver and Blood

Why can't she just sleep. She had been unable to sleep properly for a week, and now she was being called awake. If her room mates didn't already hate her for waking up screaming or crying all night long constantly. They would definitely hate her now that the headmaster was making the tower shake with his voice. She didn't want to climb out of her bed, she was so comfy in it, she didn't even leave when it was time for dinner. Although she probably should eat she just did not want to.

"I just want to sleeeeeep..." She groaned before she pulled herself from the sheets, putting on the first thing she could find before she started to leave.
Why was he even after them? Did it turn out that they didn't act like good dogs during the previous night? Was he going to teach them to sit? She wasn't going to play fetch if that is what was expected.

She walked down the stone stairs, with a gasp and brief pause before continuing as her bare feet touched the cold stone.

Once at the bottom of the stairs and in the main common room she looked at the headmaster. What house was he even in? She can imagine him being a Gryffindor, but with his persistence of talking and helping everyone it seemed more like Hufflepuff, too hufflepuff for her.

"What is it? You better have some bloody amazing hot chocolate or something." Lucinda snapped, then sat on the arm of a large chair that no one ever seems to study in by the fire. Resting in a Weird Sisters t-shirt that looks about twice the size of her, her hair a mess of bed and her eyes still darkened by bags but looking better rested then the night before.

For a fact though, she was alive, and safe, and here.

Greer was curled up in her bunk bed, sleepily casting charms at the knitted throw blanket she'd strung up on the underside of the bed above her. Re-knitting, creating patterns, unmaking them, creating little mazes with thread.

She'd done this with the stars painted on the ceiling in her den underneath the tree. Her mother or father would stay with her until the last half hour or so before sunset, letting her tick and tie the fake stars above their heads, creating constellations and solving riddles that her mother hid up there. Her mother used to say that when she'd worked for the Ministry as a floo regulator it was all about solving the problems that came up, and she would laugh at Greer when Greer would say she didn't care to solve anyone's problems but her own.

Charming the painted stars had helped take her mind off of the full moon to come, the transformation. She'd missed doing that last night. No stars in her clean Ministry cell.

She stretched out her legs, stretched out her arms, fidgeted. Her muscles were sore, her leg ached. Her father had always pestered her to stretch after the full moon. Insisted it would help. She could almost hear his scolding voice.

Did she hear his scolding, booming voice?

The voice she heard bursting into the dormitory was not the one she wanted to hear. An older girl threw a red and yellow pillow at her and disrupted her wandwork.

"Hey!" Greer shot up in bed.

"Hey yourself. The Headmaster wants you. He looks ready to bite someone's head off," she smirked.

"Why?"

"He's in the common room," the Gryffindor shrugged and left without waiting for her.

Greer sat for another moment, stunned. Oh no. What had she done? She hadn't broken curfew. She had only sassed him just yesterday. This morning too. Had he had a cup of tea and decided she was a pain in his arse?

Her stomach sinking, Greer slowly walked down the stone steps, catching a glimpse of the sighing Lucinda who appeared to moonwalk in her bare feet. Greer at least wore socks! Socks with holes but socks.

Greer started to smile at the back of Lucinda's head, then sobered when she reached the entryway to the common room.

She paused right outside the door leading to her dormitory, conscious of her frumpy old flannel pj's, and her hair curling around her head.

Very conscious of the frantic Knox Greyfriar.

His hair was sticking up, his brow furrowed. She'd seen all that before, when he got impassioned during a lecture. The look in his eyes was new to her. Haunted.

"Headmaster?" Greer asked in a small voice, not yet moving from the dormitory doorway.

The girls both appeared presently, irritable and hesitant respectively, groggy the both of them. Knox's frantic mania abated in relief and regret - he had to try not to frighten them and barging into the commonroom shouting wasn't how he'd avoid that. He lifted his hand and said for their benefit as well as everyone else who might be listening, "you're not in trouble. I'm sorry to wake you. Come with me."

He stepped aside to reveal the open portal behind him and nodded at it with is head. "We'll, um, get you something to eat in my office."

Knox had tried to put on a neutral, even comforting, expression on his face but he probably didn't accomplish it well. He was never much good at hiding worry. "Please, it's very important." 

It wasn't a request and he hoped they understood that.

He didn't bring hot chocolate. Was the first thing in her head. She just wanted to curl back into bed, it was late, she thought, it may not actually be. Time is hard without any real clocks as they all break from magic. Last actual clock she had was destroyed by one of her room mates deciding to show off how good they were at transfiguration. They never got her a replacement or paid her back.

As much as she wanted to go back though, the headmaster seemed spooked. She felt her stomach sink inside her, he's possibly the most powerful wizard, atleast in the country. And if something had him like this... We're in danger. Someone is going to kill us.

All colour drained from her body, she tried not to look at anyone, especially the headmaster. They weren't in trouble, atleast from him. I just want to have a normal life.

Slowly she nodded and stood up. Pulled her wand from her shirt and flourished gently. "A-a..." She stopped herself and tried again. "A-accio shoes..." Her voice unsteady and quivering, but by a small miracle some banging was heard from likely a pair of shoes.

No one protested when Greer slipped on slippers that had been abandoned near a couch. She padded off down the hall after the Headmaster, sticking close to Lucinda who looked like she might weep or hit something.

All Greer could think was that some important wix at the Ministry had spotted her and Lucinda there during the full moon and hadn't liked it. They'd figured out that there were one too many werewolves at Hogwarts, sharing the same room and air as the innocent children just there to learn. The same children who squealed when a hair happened to fall from her head and onto the classroom floor. Ew a hair, ew a hair!

Werewolf hair, they thought but couldn't say.

She shouldn't have stuck pictures and postcards on her wall by her bunk bed. She shouldn't have ignored the hushed mood at the Ministry this morning. Greer kept her head down and scuffed her slippers as she walked.

Stupid, stupid Ministry. Stupid everyone. Stupid her.

In the Headmaster's office, before he could make them tea to assuage his guilt, Greer folded her arms and frowned at his shoulder. A safe spot, his shoulder.

"Are you getting rid of us, then?" Her voice sounded muffled and strange, speaking through the lump in her throat. "We only just got here."

Well, Greer had, at Hogwarts. Could she promise that she wouldn't sulk and rail at the next full moon? No. Lucinda couldn't, she couldn't. She wished they could, but they couldn't.

The headmaster led them up to the office mostly silently, and seemed to have found a way through the dark hallways and galleries that brought them to their destination uncannily quickly. Once inside, the fire stoked up in greeting warming the room. He might have asked them to sit, but there wasn't a chance.  His eyes grew wide and his face fell.  He dropped to a knee and held his hands in front of him.

"Oh, no no no, Miss Grant. No, dear, no." He looked over to Lucinda. "I'm so terribly sorry, no, I would never ever let that happen. No matter what. Oh, my dears, no. I'm so sorry."

He'd frightened them, he knew it, but he couldn't think of another way. This wasn't a commonroom or corridor conversation.

"Please believe me, I'd never do that."

Knox looked back and forth between them again, hoping deeply for some sign that they trusted in what he was saying. He'd been gruff with them last night and this morning, what must they think?

Lucinda had followed quietly, although she struggled with her shoes a little, rushing them on and without socks wasn't too great for castle walking.

But it didn't matter, they're dead anyway, he wasn't going to be able to protect them. Something was happening, could it be related to this...no that was more like...they were just confusing some people right? Or someone had injured themselves badly during the night, worse then clawing your neck. The safehouses were safe, other then yourself nothing can go wrong there.

Once there and Greer asked...no they weren't going to get kicked, parents would complain, she knew the headmaster was annoying, overbearing, too kind, too hufflepuff but...

"No, you wouldn't let us get removed..." She said quietly. "But...someone is after us aren't they?"

She swallowed and trembled. "Thats why you wanted to go with us, you wanted to make sure we were protected, not just by the ministry they sent to me before...but now..."

She sat down onto one of the chairs and curled up into her defense mode. "We're dead..."

Greer drew back in surprise at the words and reassurances spilling from the Headmaster's mouth, the sincerity in his tone. He did not sound like her Headmaster right then, but like family.

Family desperate to let her know she wasn't alone.

Family who made promises but couldn't keep them.

Family who would, at any moment, open his arms for a hug.

Her glower fading, she took a small step forward, her crossed arms flinching apart, watching his stance.

No, he wasn't going to hug her. She shook her head. Stupid her! He was the Headmaster.

"Well there's no reason to get soppy, professor," Greer mumbled, flopping into the seat nearest her.

Silly, soppy Headmaster! Why was he so nice to her? She made a little nest in her seat, slipping off her slippers and drawing her feet up. If he wasn't going to get rid of her, then she was settling in before he could regret it.

Lucinda had troubling things to say, and Greer glanced at the Gryffindor warily, not understanding where she'd heard that.

"Have you got any tea?"

Greer blurted, looking to the Headmaster.

Knox watched the trust in Greer sprout and whither. She slipped away from him and drew into herself. And Lucinda, leave it to Lucinda's paranoia to erupt and hit the nail on the head. Greer wanted tea. Lucinda wanted hot chocolate. The Headmaster stood up and hesitated. Yes. There was time. There was no hurry. He sighed and move to his cupboard where he kept all the snacks and comforting brew-ables.

He rifled through the packets. He had some English Breakfast for Greer, and there was a little coffer of some homemade cocoa mix probably a gift from a Hufflepuff to Professor McGonagall. He set his hands busy getting the drinks started, noticing uncomfortably that his hands were shaking. That done, he returned to the sitting area and sat across from Greer and Lucinda his face soft.

"Something happened last night. And I don't think you need to worry."

He had to be honest. He had doubts. He was afraid.

"Someone sneaked into a safe house. Far from here in Dumfries." Greer was Scottish, she might know it. "Two adult werewolves were taken in the night and I suspect they've been killed. Whoever did this left a pair of silver handcuffs behind."

He didn't know if that detail would mean anything to Greer.

"And this morning a Ministry leader was found dead, killed by a werewolf."

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

"No one is out to get you, either of you. No one is coming for you. You are safe here."

It killed him to relate everything, and he worried so much for them, but they had to know and they couldn't find out from the papers. He waited quietly and took a deep breath. He had to keep calm and be reassuring. They had to really know they were safe.

Lucinda was right, they are dead. People are out to get them. Sure, this was Hogwarts, but just like the Ministry, it has been broken into before. They aren't going to go into a high alert state. There are hundreds of ways to enter the grounds! THERE IS AN ENTIRE FOREST! Sure its dangerous but anyone who can kill a Werewolf, two werewolves even! Shouldn't find it that hard to get through what, some spiders and centaurs?

She turned a sickly pale, well more pale then she was anyway. And moved quickly to the window, swiftly she opened it and leaned out. Whatever was in her stomach, although she hadn't eaten anything since Sunday. Was lost.

The headmaster couldn't protect them forever, especially if...they had broken into a safehouse. Those are safe. Its in the name and they broke in! They killed a major member of the ministry! She and Greer were school girls! Whats to stop them from intercepting during the passage to Hogsmeade, or in Hogsmeade? The Headmaster was at his weakest and would be off guard!

If they could break into a safehouse, then the ministry wasn't safe. That had thousands access it every hour! And its been repeatedly broken into in history.

She bent over the window frame more, she couldn't help it, atleast the others may not hear her sobbing. I need to say goodbye to my parents...before I die...

Greer sat in stunned silence. They were not expelled, no one was after them.

Lucinda was getting cocoa, Greer was getting tea.

Those were things she understood. Dumfries was too far south. She'd never been there. She had been to the Safe House up north near Glasgow. She'd wanted to go to the Safe House last night.

They'd stayed in the Ministry cells last night. She let out a little breath.

The Headmaster talked like the events were connected. Were they connected? She caught his look when he mentioned handcuffs, but they held no meaning for her. The person who had taken the two werewolves must have forgotten the handcuffs. Not smart.

Lucinda stood to go throw up. Greer half-stood too, unsure what to do to help her. Tension and sadness hung heavy in the air, but she just didn't understand.

"Why?" Greer asked the professor, brow furrowed in bewilderment. "Did the Ministry take them, the two wolves? Did they do something wrong?"

As soon as Knox realized why Lucinda got up - the retching was a good clue - Knox rose and went over. Greer had questions but he felt like he had to check on Lucinda first. The poor dear had scared herself sick. He laid a hand on Lucinda's shoulder and moved in to hug her and was relieved that she returned it.

"It's okay," he said quietly. "It's going to be okay."

When he let go, he moved to guide her back over with them. The water heated quickly when you had a magic wand; Knox hurried to get down an extra cup and ginger. He tried to answer some questions as he put it all together on a tray.

"They were taken away by a criminal, not the Ministry," Knox explained. "They didn't do anything wrong. The Ministry is trying to find them and they're looking for the one who did it."

He brought over the tray and set it on the small table. There was a teapot, a mug of hot chocolate, sugar, and a bowl of fresh ginger.  Knox poured them tea all, and one for himself.

"For your stomach," Knox said to Lucinda about the ginger. He turned his head.

"What else would you like to know?"

The hug helped, alot, quickly calming her down in the embrace, she needed to confess to Zeta, if they were after herself and Greer, she didn't know how long she had left. And she needed someone to comfort her, she would do that. Right?

She started to nibble on the ginger, although she didn't feel hungry, she didn't think she could feel hungry again. But she went at it, she disliked puking more then the thought of eating.

More importantly, he had hot chocolate. Like actually had it. She mostly said it as an annoyed joke, but she wouldn't turn it down. "Thank you.." She said quietly as she stared in the abyss of the hot chocolate before she took a sip.

Questions? There was alot, although she didn't want to think about half of them, she didn't want to go into another panic attack, the hot chocolate was good and she didn't want the warmth to leave her stomach.

"Are we really weak to silver? I thought it was a myth but...is it true?" She was always too nervous to really look into more about her new form, and she remembered someone saying it wasn't true..she thinks?

Greer took her seat again, feeling the first few twinges of fear. Somebody bad had taken the werewolves. On purpose. Who would do that? Who hated werewolves that much?

She knew some people hated her because of who she was or what she'd done. But they used their words. They hate-talked, sent in letters to the Daily Prophet.

Greer watched the professor and Lucinda hug, taking some comfort in that and the hot drinks he offered, all laid out nicely on a tray. Maybe one day she'd hug the professor too.

"Thanks," Greer sipped at the tea, looking up at Lucinda's question.

"It's true. For me," Greer clarified, with a glance at the Headmaster. "My skin gets all red and splotchy like I'm in one of those 'Do you live with moderate to severe eczema!' commercials."[1]

She fidgeted in her seat, nervous about her next question.

"Who died from the Ministry?" She'd just been there last night. Harper had hugged her. Not Harper! No one would ever hurt Harper.

Who else?

"Not Bug- Bagnold?" Her mouth formed a worried pout. He'd stood in his silver chainmail like a lure in the water. She had a lot of angry, conflicted feelings about the Werewolf Hunters and Ministry in general, but she did remember that he'd spoken up on her behalf during the trial. Not Bughole! She'd made fun of his name too many times.

1.	Going by the Myth section