Grace Eddy’s commute to work that morning had been a contemplative one. Some of the water cooler conversations at the office for the last several weeks had centered on the ELF movement, August’s full moon and the state of werewolves in general.

Now that the full moon had come and gone, it left many to deal with the aftermath. To survey the damage. And pick up the pieces.

Even Grace.

She had spent much of her free time that weekend quietly helping the werewolves who knew and reluctantly trusted her from the (now) years she had spent working with Knox and others with the Underground Werewolf Clinic.[1][2]

But she understood their apprehension in seeking out her help or anyone else’s because of their position in society and the dangers it presented. Her own position as an Auror presented unique challenges in navigating her desire to be an ally and an advocate. To this end, Grace never dabbled in anything related to wolfsbane so it wouldn’t conflict with her job (too much). Though she was no stranger to toe-ing the line of troublemaking and rebelliousness when it came to social justice matters, she also recognized the value in doing things by the book whenever possible in case leverage was needed later.

She was well aware that her old Headmaster had been under some fire recently for his own efforts to help. There were times when she didn’t want to know more about what he was doing so that she could always – as much as possible -- claim that she didn’t know anything. But, it wasn’t illegal to help heal someone. Or soothe someone in duress.

So, Grace mostly stuck to lending a mending hand[3] with werewolves in need deal with the after effects of their monthly transformation. Using her medic or healing skills and knowledge to treat some of their self-inflicted wounds or ill health in the days that followed the full moons never felt like it was enough. There were nameless werewolves in need – both registered and unregistered -- with whom she had crossed paths. She never needed any more information once she saw their suffering, knowing that she could help ease their pain or their trouble. And she never needed thanks either. Practically, it all provided valuable field work for her medic training. But it was also the right thing to do.
 
And still never enough.

Those nameless patients haunted her thoughts on most days. And even the ones who didn’t come to her for help haunted her thoughts.

Which was partly the reason why Grace did not stop at Level 2 first thing upon arriving to the Ministry that morning. Instead, the newly minted Auror-no-longer-in-Training found herself on Level 4 at the Werewolf Capture Unit. Usually, Grace would’ve planned such a trip better. She liked having all of her ducks in a row. All of her paperwork ready. All of her thoughts and notions rehearsed and laid out in a reasonable, methodical manner.

She could not remember the last time she had stepped foot in these offices or many other Ministry offices for that matter. She happily kept to herself while other colleagues mingled and furthered collaborative relations among their contemporaries.

Something else besides practicality or comfort drove her in this moment as she stood awkwardly in the WCU, keenly aware of curious gazes that begged the question, “Can I help you?”

Instinctively, Grace reached up intending to tuck long strands of auburn hair behind her ear. A nervous tick that had done wonders in helping her cope with challenging situations. Only those lovely locks of flowy hair no longer existed. Instead, Grace’s fingertips darted over the short strands of hair that had been left behind from her recent (some would say extreme) cut from earlier in the summer. She was happy with it, but it still took some getting used to.

Like now, she immediately wondered who was better to suited for this interaction – the old Grace Eddy or the new Grace Eddy?

Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders, certain she was about to find out. Meeting the curious gaze of the nearest person, she hedged, “Uh, yeah. Hi. I was hoping I could check in with someone about the recent full moon….”

1.	Wise beyond your years...
2.	Urgently, Grace
3.	Post title comes from the song Wolf by First Aid Kit

It had been a relatively subdued Monday in the Werewolf Capture Unit office. Bagnold had given them all the weekend off after the full moon. That had been a little unusual since it typically took at least a day to process paperwork and wind everything down after their patrol, but Tessa had assumed it was because he gotten sick of Harris's Goodnight Moon epic recitation, and had decided that delaying their reports by a couple of days was worth it if no one got a murder charge.

The office felt conspicuously empty this morning without Bellingham. They'd tried to fill it where they could: Li had stepped in to delegate tasks, Harris was talking up a storm about his movie marathon over the weekend, and Sasaki had taken on their elder teammate's role of worrying incessantly about whether or not they were completing the forms correctly. But something still felt wrong, as if someone had dug a giant hole around their coworker's desk and they had all decided to simply step around it until he got back.

Tessa had been in the middle of helping Smith to untangle and re-wind the Tenacious Twine when someone new stepped into the office.

“Uh, yeah. Hi..."

It wasn't usual for the Capture Unit office to get visitors -- most other Ministry employees avoided them like they had the dragon pox unless they were coming to talk to Bagnold. Surprised, Tessa looked up at their unexpected guest, along with everyone else in the office.

Charlie Harris, unsurprisingly and unhelpfully, was the first to speak up.

"Oh, the Werewolf Registry desk is down the hall," he piped, his glasses askew on his nose. He reached up to adjust them, surrounded by the tarnished silver chain mail that he'd been helping Sasaki polish. "They do all the check-ins, we're just here to lasso you during the full moon."

"Harris --!" Affronted, Tessa was already on her feet.

Really.  Grace Eddy had only been a year behind them in school, and although she might have a new haircut, it wasn't as if she'd disappeared off the face of the planet since then! The Auror trainees had even taken patrols with the WCU recently, even if no one wanted to trust Harris to be alone with anyone from Level Two by himself.

Sighing loudly, she turned toward the new Auror in the doorway, giving her a look that clearly said, Boys.

"Sorry, Eddy," she said, embarrassed. "Um, what do you need? We don't owe you a report, do we?"

Grace was relieved to see a familiar faces in former classmates (or at least contemporaries), Tessa Fenneken and Charlie Harris. Her social life was essentially non-existent to the point where knew that she was probably considered a very bad friend. Her goals for the last year (okay, few) had equated to a singular focus with many other areas of her life taking a back seat. She had even moved out of The Radford House in order to help minimize distraction and give her ease of access to work which had caused her to grow away from many people she had been close with during school.

Before she turned her grateful gaze to Tessa, she first responded to the snark given by Charlie , who she remembered him well from Hogwart's and more specifically, Quidditch. She could understand if he didn't recognize her though, both due to her post-Hogwart's life as a hermit and also her short haircut. She could take a good ribbing, for sure. But she had also been a Gryffindor. And they were notorious for giving as good as they got, something she was more than happy to remind him about.

"You don't say," she responded evenly. "So tell me....just how good are you at using your lasso?" She did her best to maintain a serious and earnest expression. After a beat, she smirked and teased, "Hopefully a lot better than handling a bludger." Sneaking a glance at Tessa, she then held up her hand and added, "But don't worry, I won't ask you to demonstrate."

Her smile widened as she turned her attention back to Tessa who apologized for Harris' comments. "It's all good. I know it's a little odd to see me here. I've been a ghost even on Level 2 so it's understandable." She paused as she tried to find the best approach for her response to Tessa's next question. "No, no reports needed. I actually came on my own curiosity. I heard it was an...eventful...Full Moon. And some of what I heard from office chatter over the weekend made me want to come and ask for clarity on some details of what happened." A long pause ensued. Her first urge was to barrel on forth with all the questions she had, but she considered being more simplistic, hoping they wouldn't immediately clam up. She took a deep breath and then dropped, "I heard there was an unregistered werewolf."

Getting visitors directly from Level Two wasn't normal, and this kind of question seemed highly unusual. The Aurors stuck mostly to their own floor, and if they had questions for the Capture Unit, they usually sent a memo or summoned Bagnold to their office. Blake was really the lone exception, but Tessa suspected that that was mostly because her girlfriend also worked in the Werewolf Wing.

Around the office, most of her teammates had gone back to their tasks of cleaning, untangling, and organizing -- Harris at least had the shame to look embarrassed, even if his dark brown skin made it hard to tell if he were blushing -- but the air was also still quiet, as if everyone were still waiting to see what this strange intruder wanted. Across the room, Tessa could see Li looking at them directly, as though she were trying to decide whether to step in. The Capture Unit didn't really have formal ranks the way that other departments did, but the longer-serving members tended to take on more authority. After Bagnold and Bellingham, Stacey Li had the third-longest tenure with the team.

Eddy's question wasn't exactly top secret information though. Tessa shrugged in response.

"Yeah, there was," she agreed, looking a little wary. "It wasn't really any more eventful than usual, though."

Maybe when she'd first started with the WCU, she would have considered any werewolf encounter to be terrifying, but after two years, it took things like a full moon ambush, an invaded safe house, or the murder of a high-ranking Ministry official to really feel dangerous.

Grace thoughtfully chewed on her bottom lip as she contemplated her next course of action. She wasn’t trying to make trouble or stir things up. Truth be told, life would be easier for her if she just kept her head down and out of the way until she had a few more years as an Auror anything- trainee or not. But the thought crossed Grace’s mind yet again how she often failed to take the easiest routes in life. For good or for bad.

Her hand tightened around the strap of the bag she had slung over her shoulder.

“Can I ask…” she started, then paused and tried again, “Hmm…how do I say this?” She reached up and again meant to fidget with strands of hair but with them gone she instead scratched her forehead. “Do you….happen to know if this one was in more distress than you’re used to seeing them during encounters?” She paused again, her brow furrowing before adding, “And not exactly physically distressed either. But maybe….more distress that comes from anxiety or…delusions even?”