30 September 2012
Late, under a full moon
SlandermouthJasper Limrick should not have been out late, not on a full moon. What a fool he was! But his cat was missing and his husband Rufus was beside himself with worry. They searched on brooms, gliding over the windswept cliffs in the north of the seaside village of
Slandermouth. It was a brushy area and their dear tabby Snorky
[1] was known to favor it for trophy hunting. The moon brought dangers, but it also brought helpful illumination.
"Look! There!" Rufus called to Jasper over the wind. "What is that?"
Jasper looked where Rufus was pointing and his stomach turned to ice. A creature was there. It was as grey and hazy in the moonlight and mysteriously difficult to make out, but it was there. Jasper creature was enormous and was hunched over. That is, until the wizards' shouts caught its attention. Pitch black eyes flashed towards them and in a flash, it began coming towards them, impossibly fast. It barely seemed to touch the ground.
The wizards shot away as fast as their brooms would carry them. Jasper had the presence of mind to shoot off red sparks on the way. They didn't stop until they were home. They believed they lost it somewhere on High Street, or was it before? After?
Inside, Rufus rushed to draw the curtains on all the windows, as if that would help.
"I've never one!" he panted. "Blimey, I've never seen one! I can't believe it. What do we do?"
Jasper was an Unspeakable. He remembered what had happened to Alec Carter, he remembered the Ides of March, he remembered the werewolf fights.
"I've sent red sparks. And now we must follow up with a Patronus. I didn't - I didn't think we had any here." Jasper whispered the last part as if someone would overhear.
Rufus rolled his wand in his hand impatiently. "Shouldn't we warn everyone? What if it's still out there."
After a little hemming they agreed. While Jasper's Patronus (a hedgehog) was on its way all the way to London with further details, Rufus sent his (a terrier) to the neighbors, house to house. Jasper's message said:
It's Jasper Limrik. Werewolf sighting in Slandermouth, cliffs north of town. May have followed us into the village. We are safe. It was large and white.
On the other side of town in her stilted home, Talisha Crowe gasped for breath and cast a cover over the mirror. Her left eye dimmed to flat pale blue. She put her hand to her chest to still her heart so she could listen in the moonlit dark. She heard nothing but the wind. The wards were holding.
[30 Sept] When All Is Not As It Seems