October 14
8:15 pm
The Moon is Full

The old Headmaster led the small band back through town and towards Hogwarts castle, a few paces ahead and unusually quiet.  He'd been happy to see his former students, of course, and Vlad was a level-headed companion always.  But he had nothing to be proud of about his latest shouting match with Devlin.  And now, perhaps his secret was out.  Of course, on the bright side, serendipity and provided him with a supportive circle for the evening, at least for the trek back.

He'd told them at the Broomsticks, "Not a safe night to be afoot." But it was just a cautionary thing witches and wizards had grown accostomed to hearing and accostomed to saying. Stay in during a full moon. Be careful during a full moon.  Wand at the ready during a full moon.  Although the actual incidents of werewolf attacks were so low in the modern era, it was more of a traditional precaution than a practical one.  But Knox did his duty just the same and escorted his former students up the road. He was glad for the company even if he didn't show it.

He hadn't been angry when Sasha, Beatrix and Fauna had been made known to him.  Again, since he'd quit the castle over the summer, he wasn't even expected to be angry about this sort of thing.  He was now free to play the part of the irresponsible uncle who let the kids stay up late, taste the Ogden's and use their wands in the house.

The night was even colder now and quite dark.  The moon was up and gleaming to light their path.  So funny how something as illuminating and pretty like a full moon is what made folk shutter their windows and bolt the door, filing their own houses in darkness.

Knox wrapped his cloak more tightly around his shoulders and adjusted his favorite moss green fez.

"You probably heard," he said, not elaborating as High Street turned from cobbles into cold dry earth and flat rocks, "But I'd appreciate you take what you heard and stow it away in the part of the brain that your tongue doesn't have access to." 

This he said mostly to the younger companions.  A glance at Vlad assured him that other old wizard knew that Knox would need time to fashion this story into something presentable.

Fauna was quiet during their walk back to the castle, guarded by Knox and his friend. She hadn’t been thinking about the full moon when she’d sneaked out, though she should have. It meant something more to her now, with everything SAWS was working towards, and Ollie being stuck at home all the time, boxed in by her affliction. With the moon, came the old warnings to lock your doors, trust no one, and stay inside. She knew that, and couldn’t disregard it. But to her, the moon also offered hope, made the night not so dark, and illuminated the path before them. She couldn’t see any shadows, or omens. They all faded in the background. For now.

Though Knox didn’t seem angry in the slightest, or even very surprised that she and the other two students had been at the Three Broomsticks, Fauna felt like she’d disappointed him, a bit. She worried that he’d guessed the reason she had followed Devlin, and that he thought she was acting like a silly teenage girl. Maybe it was because the students were being escorted back, like children. No doubt, the former Headmaster had more important things on his mind than judging Fauna’s romantic adventures, but she kept glancing at him worriedly, interpreting his silence as disapproval instead of the more likely possibility- Devlin. He was thinking about Devlin. His son.

Fauna couldn’t wrap her head around that. It was too bizarre! To imagine Knox as someone’s specific father, when he had acted like a father to so many students at Hogwarts. To imagine him as a younger man, falling in love, or maybe not in love, but getting close enough to someone to have a child. An adult doing adult things. She’d always thought of him as this perpetual headmaster, gruff but kind, and she’d never considered his life before Hogwarts, changing and making mistakes like any person did. It made her head spin. Devlin! Greyfriar’s son. Devlin was Greyfriar’s son.

Through the haze of shock, her mind buzzed with questions. Had Greyfriar known all these years? He couldn’t have! He wouldn’t abandon a child, or pretend as if he wasn’t related to them. Could he? He wasn’t like Fauna’s father, who she hardly ever saw, and who had left her mother shortly after she was born. Merlin, she couldn’t think that. There had to be an explanation. But now was not the time to ask.

Fauna wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, glancing at her feet as they walked and hopelessly oblivious to their surroundings. When Knox finally spoke, she looked up in surprise. He was asking them to keep quiet about what they’d heard. At this, she felt a mixture of emotions, and wondered if he meant to protect Devlin from vicious gossip, to protect himself, or some combination. Or if there was another reason she wasn’t seeing.

Regardless, she did not intend on telling anyone. If she needed to talk, she had Beatrix and Sasha, who also knew the truth. Spreading the news around school would feel like she was betraying both Knox and Devlin, and whatever their reasons for hiding the truth, she couldn’t hurt them.

“I won’t say anything,” she replied quietly, glancing at Sasha and Beatrix and hoping they’d agree, too. Sasha gave the impression that he thought before he spoke, and he wasn’t the type to gossip, so she trusted he’d keep quiet. Beatrix had a good heart, but she tended to blurt things out, so Fauna was more worried about her.

She looked at the former Headmaster again and tried to make eye contact with him. “Are you… um, are you okay?”

He probably wasn’t okay. She didn’t much expect him to tell her how he was feeling, or to explain. However, asking made her feel better, so she asked.

For Vlad things were a bit different than they were for Knox. Having been an Auror whose territory centered in the Carpathian Mountains...and as a descendant of the most notorious of all vampires...for Vlad the full moon was a time when he sensed things crouching behind every tree, lurking in every shadow, waiting just around every bend in the path. But...this was Britain, he reminded himself. Excepting the Forbidden Forest there were only tiny remnants of wilderness left; the New Forest, certain of the Yorkshire Dales, a few glens in  the Highlands...

And Fenrir Greyback was dead, as were most of those he had infected. Before retiring from active duty, Vlad himself had a hand in eliminating the pack Greyback created in Albania. He still carried a silver dagger in his boot, but had not drawn it in need for the past ten years. His crossbow was in a closet, all but forgotten, along with the silver-tipped arrows...

Vlad did not know how to act around the three students. True, he had a daughter of his own, and a stepson as well, but they were grown, and the truth was that after their mother’s death, he had little hand in their raising. When he was widowed the children were younger than these three; and he left them first to the care of nannies and later, their teachers. He had made sure they never wanted for anything materially, he spent holidays, birthdays and two weeks each summer with them, but he had been a mere shell of himself in those days.

It could not be helped...he had been grief-stricken...but he knew even then that he was not conducting himself as a father ought. So now he looked to Knox for clues of what to do and say. After all though Knox seemed to be as nonplussed by fatherhood as Vlad himself, at least he had all those years of teaching and being a Headmaster to guide him...

Knox did not behave sternly toward the three students, even though they obviously should not be out and about on a weeknight. He seemed rather to be taking the part of a kindly, indulgent uncle, so Vlad did the same. It had taken many years, but over time he did recover his natural warmth and geniality.

Vlad relaxed a little as the moon rose, shining through the trees. It was a beautiful sight; even though at home people would be hanging bunches of garlic and wolfsbane in every window and stall, locking all their doors, and if they could afford it, placing crossed silver blades in every doorway. A sudden chill breeze caused him to fasten his black wool traveling cloak, which he had been wearing loosely tossed over one shoulder. He also lowered the ear flaps of his black fleece cap.

"You probably heard...But I'd appreciate you take what you heard and stow it away in the part of the brain that your tongue doesn't have access to."  

Vlad nodded silently. Of course he wouldn’t tell what he heard, he would not have risen to the position he held, had he been the sort to repeat such things. He felt sure that the three students...even the eavesdropper whose hair turned bright yellow, though she quickly covered it...respected Knox enough to keep quiet. However, he wasn’t so sure about Knox’ son...

“Are you… um, are you okay?”

Vlad himself was wondering the same thing.

Fauna asked him if he was alright and Knox's immediate, instinctive reaction was the one that won out, only because of its swiftness.

"Yes, I'm fine," he said pressing forth some cheery energy.  He wanted to put Devlin's words out of his mind, and his own words as well.  But they were out in the world now, dissolved into air and contributing to the chill.  Only the most skilled wizards could recover spoken words.

He slowed a bit, realizing he'd been a few paces ahead of them all.  He smiled some and moved to reassure his former students.  "And don't worry about this.  I'll take you to the gates and you're on your own.  Headmistress Snark and I are not what you'd call owl pals - I won't be turning you in.  Sneaking back into your commonrooms will be your own -"

A movement in the woods to their west pricked his ears and he paused his gait for a moment.  He knew that Vlad would have heard it to.

"Keep moving," he said, his tone changed once more. It was a whisper and it was no nonsense.  "Keep walking. Don't run. Wands out."

Knox might have considered himself jumpy to be on guard after one bit of rustling and twig cracking.  A deer could easily make that sort of noise.  Or a badger.  Or large rabbit.  But those kinds of creatures moved along quickly.  And then the noise came again.  Whatever was making the noise wasn't moving away from them (like a normal animal might) but moving with them along the road, but just beyond the trees.

"Vlad."

For most of the trek out of Hogsmeade, Sasha had stayed with the group, but just barely.  Despite his momentary (foolish) resolve to abandon his fellow students and find his own way back, Sasha had no desire to get left behind.  But, he was also feeling the strong desire to be alone.  Trailing several paces behind the other four seemed like a reasonable, though safe compromise. 

He wasn't sure what he felt, as he followed behind the group.  Angry and frustrated - certainly.  He shouldn't have been privy to the conversation between Devlin ... and his father.  Professor Knox.  Devlin's father.  There was an uncomfortable guilty knot in the pit of his stomach and he couldn't ease it.  And, the guilt wasn't even his fault!  And, despite all this, Professor Knox - well, supposedly he wasn't 'professor' anymore - Mr. Knox - that just sounded weird in his head - Professor Knox wasn't angry.  Sasha almost wished he was.  It would have been the normal and understandable response and it would justify Sasha's guilt - without it, none of his emotions were making sense. 

But, Sasha knew he was also angry at Devlin - and it was because of that that Sasha chose to hang back.  As if walking to close to them would make it easier for the others to read what was going through his head.  But - he couldn't understand - how could Devlin be angry at Professor Knox?  Could he really, truly not understand the ... the gift he'd been given?  Devlin had found his father - his father was ... was someone decent and -

Ok.  So, Sasha could concede he didn't know anything (nor was it his place to know anything) about the actual dynamics between the two.  All he knew was, if he were standing in Devlin's shoes, he'd be elated right now. 

Which, he supposed, was jealousy.  Wasn't it?

His shoe found a pinecone in the darkness of a shadow of tree and he kicked it, letting it roll in front of him.  As a muggleborn, he hadn't grown up with the old wives tales or superstitions - it was a pretty darn sure thing that talk of 'werewolf legends' never surfaced in his house.  He'd heard Dragulia's warning earlier that evening but it had quickly faded to the background as Sasha had become aware of the drama between the former Headmistress and Devlin.  Now, the moon's phase meant little more to him than providing extra light in which to locate the rolling pinecone.  And, finding the pinecone and dribbling it forward was proving to be a (temporarily) effective distraction. 

In the moonlight, Sasha could see that the group had stopped.  Not yet wanting to be near the group as a whole, Sasha stopped where he was, still keeping his distance.  He could hear Professor Knox when he spoke but they were too far for the whisper to carry.

Apparently, wrangling werewolves wasn't exactly easy.  It had seemed much simpler in theory. 

Find a lesser known werewolf - check.  That had been easy.  With new access to wolfsbane and idiots fighting for equality, there were quite a few werewolves that were well-known and tried to integrate with society.  As if equality with muggles wasn't enough of an insult.  Apparently, clean, uninfected wizards needed to sit around campfires, singing songs, stroking the nearest furry paw.  What was next?  Were they going to start requiring purebloods to clean goblin's houses?  Were they going to be giving wands to the centaurs?  But, there were still enough werewolves with the common decency to hide themselves away from society - living in caves and out in isolated cabins where they belonged. 

Catch the bloke - check.  Between his size and brawn and Eudora's wand, that had been pretty easy as well.  When they'd shown up at the door to his shack five days previously at three o'clock in the morning, the place had been locked.  Of course.  But, a simple smoking hex applied to bundles of wood levitated up and sent down the chimney had done a marvelous job of flushing the fellow out.  The smoke had succeeded in clouding his eyes and leaving him helpless in fits of racking coughing - it had been almost too easy to apprehend him. 

As an added bonus, the smoke would easily, eventually, dissipate out the chimney and the grass would smolder into a simple pile of ash in the fireplace.  Neither the pile of ash in the fireplace nor the gentle scent of old smoke  would seem out of place in a small fireplace-warmed cabin.  And, should the beast survive and should the interrogate him - who was to say the halfbreed hadn't built his fire properly the night before.

Hold the beast - check.  The potions used to subdue Katz had worked just as smoothly on the transformation-weakened halfbreed.  Locked in a small, dark room with only stale, dry bread and the potion to drink, it had been almost too easy.  Allyn Purdyfold, so the halfbreed called himself, had been an easy captive.  And, in their custody, access to wolfsbane had been denied.  Of course.  That would have ruined all the fun.

Bring the halfbreed to Hogsmeade - check.  He'd been stupified and bound and side-along apparated to the edge of Hogsmeade.  The theory seemed simple enough.  Werewolves were more resistant to magic.  They'd keep the beast stupified until he transformed - once a werewolf, the stupifaction shoul wear off.  He would just have to be untied. 

Wait - check.  Eudora had been sent away.  There was no point in risking her safety once the beast had transformed.  From a roost up on a tree at the edge of town, hidden from view to the street below by a thick cluster of pine needles, Cinaed could watch the unconscious werewolf and Hogsmeade for any potential victims.  He'd been planning on letting the beast tear apart a few unsuspecting no-name residents.  Just to shake people up.  He had not been expecting to watch the former Headmaster and the bloke that had come by his pub and four students come traipsing down the street.  If he hadn't had a beak, he would have smiled. 

Untying the beast - check.  But, just barely.  While a magpie was hardly a match for a werewolf, at least Cinaed couldn't get infected.  And, he had the benefit of speed and - more importantly - flight.  They'd carefully chosen a material to bind the werewolf that would be incredible strong and yet extremely lightweight.  Once the creature was transformed, Cinaed could grasp the tail end of the rope and take to the sky.  The rope's length would allow him the security of being well out of reach by the time the slack had reached the slipknots.  But, the plan had worked well enough.  The beast was on the loose. 

Getting the creature moving towards Knox and the students - eh, not quite so check.  That was proving much much harder.  And, hopefully, it would be worth it.  Hopefully it would raise just a few doubts in the minds of those who were believing that the Ministry - who was busy making it illegal for wizards to protect their rights - really had Wizarding Britain's best interest in mind.  He'd watched magpies pester much larger birds and animals (and even people) - dive bombing them to get them to move.  It was harder than it looked.  And, when one's quarry was a raving werewolf, it was a bit unnerving.  But, slowly, steadily, it seemed he was succeeding in getting the creature moving in his intended victims' direction.

"Vlad."

 “I hear it.” Vlad had fallen back a bit, to be nearer the boy who was lagging behind the others. There was a rustling in the dry leaves, plus another sound, one he could barely make out. It might be the flapping of wings, but…that made no sense. It was long past the time that birds should be roosting for the night. Except of course owls, but one reason they were such deadly hunters is that their unique feathers enabled them to fly without making a sound…

Whatever it was, the sounds were gradually moving closer. Don’t jump to conclusions Dragulia, he told himself.

Nevertheless he bent down to pull the dagger from his boot, a flash of silver in the moonlight...

Beatrix wasn't exactly afraid of what was going to happen. No, she felt perfectly fine walking in the darkness. She had done it only a few nights before. But, on a full moon, Beatrix should had at least felt a little frightened. The fact was, Bea wasn't afraid of a lot of things. Not until she had to face those things, at least. Like, Bea would say she wasn't afraid of Devlin, but as soon as he's got her around the wrists, she's terrified. The boy had no soul, after all. She's surprised he hadn't attacked her long ago. And surprised that he hadn't attacked her once Knox found her Fauna, and Sasha.

Beatrix walked close to Knox, since she hadn't really seen him in a long time, and glanced around the road. It was very dark and she couldn't really see. Her brown hair was still intact and blinding her a bit more than she was suspecting (Since the wind was blowing it in her face). Beatrix WOULD had been walking with Sasha if he wasn't so upset, or whatever you'd call that, about the whole deal. It wasn't like Sasha had gotten caught by the Headmistress, Greyfriar was a good man and probably would never in his life talk to Snark.

"I won't tell anyone." Beatrix promised after Fauna, "Who would I tell anyways? Devlin would find out and tear out my organs, I assume." And she wasn't even joking. Bea, for once, wasn't in the joking mood.

"Keep walking. Don't run. Wands out."

With a wave of confusion, Beatrix pulled her wand out and fell back to walk next to Sasha. Even though that probably wasn't a good idea, especially since Knox and Vlad were the ones that were going to do the saving if anything were to happen. Beatrix took back all of her thoughts of being brave and that strange feeling was creeping up her gut. Her hair even turned the dark black color it gets when she's afraid. She grabbed Sasha's hand and whispered, "Sasha, I don't have a good feeling about this..."

Who knew what was lurking out there? Whatever it was, the adults were on edge and Beatrix didn't know what to do.

Anyone involved is free to write the werewolf.

The noise in the timber grew ever closer and it was definitely moving towards the road, towards them.  At this point, there were very few options as to what it could be.  Knox Greyfriar was no expert wandsman, a passable spell-caster merely.  His own magical talent was in the earthier disciplines.  But he knew his way around a blinding sun spell.

If it was merely a beast - a wolf, an acromantuala, or perhaps another stray quintaped - the bright blast of light would send it back.  A being like a human or centaur'd be illuminated, but unharmed.

And well - it were anything else, they'd know what it was.  And with the creamy moon gleaming round above them, he was more than paranoid.  What about the students? Part of him hoped they'd been through Mainwarings formidable werewolf unit already.

With Vlad on guard and the panic rising their little band, Knox stepped forward with his wand out and aimed at the on-coming noise in the black forest.

"Solaris Maximus!" A pillar of light shone from Knox's wand like the head lamp of a giant steam train.  For a moment, everything was white and blinding.  Blinking through the light, Knox saw it crashing through the thinnest of the saplings.

"Werewolf!" he bellowed, stumbling backwards.  He was able to cast Reducto before the beast was upon him.

Fauna was watching the former Headmaster so closely, trying to read his reaction and worrying over him, that she missed the rustle in the woods. But Knox caught it. He spoke quickly, quietly, and with a strong urgency in his voice that caused Fauna to follow his instructions without pause. Wand out, keep walking.

Sasha had been kicking a pinecone a few paces behind them, and though Fauna was still annoyed at him, she glanced back, relieved to find Vlad moving near him and Beatrix falling back too. Glancing all around, she flinched when something in the woods rustled- there was something out there, and that scared her.

Fauna stuck by Knox’s side, figuring that since Vlad was near the two other students, she could stay where she was. And she felt safe around the former Headmaster. He always seemed so capable and acted authoritative when he needed to, that she couldn't help but believe anyone would be foolish to mess with him.

How wrong she was. Greyfriar cast the Solaris spell, illuminating a patch of the woods while Fauna blinked away the spots in her eyes. Then she saw it. Looming, agitated, and rushing straight for them.

Werewolf! She thought at the same time Knox shouted. Cold fear seized her in a vise, too afraid to scream, too afraid to move. The beast barreled out of the woods, tree branches snapping in its wake, moving fast, so fast, and Fauna caught a glimpse of its snarling mouth, matted fur, and angry, yellow eyes.

Knox shouted again and Fauna could finally move. She stumbled backwards too, raising her wand shakily, trying to aim at the creature. But her earlier inaction cost her. The werewolf was on Knox in a matter of seconds. It might have been the Solaris charm, or the Reducto, or any number of factors, but Knox was in danger and she had to try something!

“Stupefy!” she shouted, aiming at the creature’s back. It hit. It hit! The werewolf shuddered, and Fauna held her breath.

The werewolf let out a low, menacing growl…

She’d just managed to make it even angrier.

The older Romanian had fallen back to draw up next to Sasha.  The older fellow's wand was drawn and he an alert, attentive, alarmed look about him.   Sasha's eyes grew steadily wider as the man neared him though his own wand remained stowed deep in his pocket. 

"I ... what's going on?"  Sasha asked, peering around him in the darkness.  Why had they stopped? Why did this fellow look nervous?  Why did the two girls have their wands drawn, too?   

Beatrix, too, was moving back towards him.  Her words, and the dark shade her hair had achieved, didn't encourage much reassurance.  Something about the charged nervousness rippling through the group made Sasha's previous annoyance quickly fade from his mind.  His hand closed firmly around hers and he looked towards Dragulia, hoping for some guidance. 

In the light of the full  moon, Sasha could see Professor Knox lift his wand and a flash of light erupt from it.  He heard Professor Knox' yell before he saw the ... the creature.  Reflexively, his fingers closed tighter around Beatrix' hand and he drew her closer, just as his free hand finally fished his own wand out of his pocket.  How was this happening?  A werewolf?  He'd seen pictures of them in their Defense textbook but that was nothing like seeing it in person.  He lifted his wand into the air, though what he expected to do with it, he didn't have a clue. 

Could they outrun it?  Probably not.  Could they confuse it?  Detain it somehow?  "Can... can they climb trees?"  Why hadn't he ever thought to ask these questions before?  Fauna appeared to be trying to stun the creature but all her efforts seemed to just be making the beast angrier.  The creature's attention seemed to have been drawn towards the Hufflepuff by the spell and was starting to circle her, trying to take the advantage by attacking from behind. 

"Sasha, I don't have a good feeling about this..."

Vlad did not have a good feeling either. He moved closer to the two youngsters, though he did not like moving away from Knox. Unfortunately he could not be in both places at once.

"Solaris Maximus!" Vlad froze, blinded, like a deer in the headlights of Knox’s locomotive.

"Werewolf!"

Vlad shook his head to clear it. He was still half blinded, but he could see a four-legged beast lunging at Knox and the other girl. The former headmaster stumbled backwards...

“Reducto!”   The beast stumbled momentarily but shook off the spell as a dog would shake off water. "Stupify!"

The werewolf shuddered, but then it growled, raising its hackles. Circling Knox and the young girl, it was trying to move in behind them;  closing in on them, herding them away from the others like sheep.

“Incarcerus!” yelled Vlad. Ropes came out of his wand, wrapping themselves around the tormented creature’s legs. It snapped at them, growling. They kept growing back as fast as he could bite through them, slowing him down at least for now. Vlad did not delude himself that it could last for long.

“Young lady!” he yelled to Fauna. “Get over here with your friends. Knox has enough to worry about at the moment…”

Raising his dagger, he moved toward the beast, to distract it away from the girl.

Slavering, yellow eyes blazing, it turned toward him.

"Fauna!"

Knox's thoughts were no on his right forearm.  He didn't even know he'd been bit or was bleeding.  The energy and fight running through his veins numbed him to the injury.  All his focus was on the werewolf.  Fauna acted, and so did Vlad.  And this gave Greyfriar enough time to find his feet.

It was nearly impossible to make heads or tails of the creature as it twisted, turned and snarled in the dark, repeatedly freeing itself from Vlad's curse only to be re-bound.  The werewolf wasn't attacking anyone at the moment, but it was snapping and clawing that there was no safe radius to close in. 

Knox saw the glint of Vlad's knife. He took stock of the kids - Sasha had his wand out and looked white as a sheet.  Fauna's eyes were wide with panic and Beatrix's hair had changed color again.

Panting with exertion, Knox slowly circled around to the other side of the the werewolf.  And that was when the magical ropes suddenly gave way completely under the magical creatures relentless, tireless persistence.  The wolf flailed sharply, claws flying as it righted itself angrily, savagely.

Knox shouted a warning again.  Vlad was way too close!  Greyfriar's wand went off again, another Reducto.  He wanted to tell the kids to run, or hide, but that would only make the wolf's thirst to hunt them overwhelming. 

"Werewolf!"

Beatrix hardly had time to see the werewolf before it viciously attacked Greyfriar. At first, she was stunned and couldn't move an inch. She felt Sasha pull her closer and his grip tighten, but Bea couldn't speak. She could hardly think. It wasn't until the beast had began to circle Fauna and Vlad that she finally began to jerk. "S- Sasha... I- I- I'm glad we're friends..." She choked out and held on to his sleeve. She didn't really expect to DIE, but she didn't know what to expect. What if she ended up like Ollie? She couldn't imagine life without Hogwarts.

She was able to breathe a bit easier after Vlad cast a spell at the wolf. It stayed entangled for a bit and she slowly backed away. What else was there to do? Beatrix was shaking all over. "Trees... I don't know- I don't know- I completely forgot about what we learned in DADA..." She murmured to her friend. Just then, the werewolf got free from the magical ropes and she let out a scream.

But the wolf seemed persistent with its new prey... "Greyfriar! Run while you can!" She shouted, no offense to the others, but to witness her former Professor be eaten by a ferocious monster would definitely cause the girl loose it. Beatrix wasn't ready for another mind-numbing experience, she just wanted to graduate from Hogwarts, marry a nice boy, and possibly be a very successful wrock star. Her parents divorcing, her father getting sent to Azkaban, and Knox Greyfriar dying... What else could happen?

The only thing left to do was pull herself together. "Okay... Sasha... We need to somehow get around the wolf without it witnessing us... And we need to get away." It was a bit selfish of her to leave the rest of them, but she wasn't going to stand around and wait her turn to get devoured.

No, it wasn’t working! She knew werewolves were somewhat resistant to magical attacks, but she didn’t think it would be like this! Fauna stepped closer to Knox, breath hitching in her throat as the werewolf circled around them as if deciding on its first course...

Fauna raised her wand, about to try something, anything, when Vlad’s voice sounded and ropes wrapped around the werewolf, distracting it. Vlad then shouted at her to move closer to her friends, but Fauna hesitated. He’d said something about Knox. She took a closer look at Greyfriar, gasping at the sight of blood on his arm. Should she really leave him? He was bleeding! But, what if she was just getting in the way?

As the werewolf tore through the ropes again and again, Fauna finally decided to listen, and inched slowly towards Sasha and Beatrix, who were clinging to each other. She noticed then that Vlad held a knife in his hand, not a wand, which horrified her. The werewolf was still a person. Though, what kind of werewolf roamed free on the night of the full moon?

Doubt crept into her mind as she kept backing up, stopping when she was standing in front of the two fifth-years. She overheard the last bit of Bea’s sentence and privately agreed with her. Fauna suddenly felt, well, like a seventeen year old. She wasn’t young enough to escape like the other students, but she wasn’t exactly helping Knox and Vlad, either.

There had to be something she could do.

Fauna bit her lip and turned toward Beatrix and Sasha. “Stay still,” she murmured, raising her wand, concentrating for a moment, and casting a disillusionment charm on the two of them. It wasn’t perfect- traces of Bea’s hood shimmered when she moved, and Sasha’s pale face flickered in and out of view, but it helped conceal them.

“Go,” she whispered. “Find help.”

Fauna turned back to the grisly scene just as the werewolf lunged for Vlad.