Werewolves at Hogwarts

Chapter 35

They apparated in as a group, holding Professor Lupin flat between them. The two girls were content to allow Andy to guide them to the bathroom, where she had the two prefects transfigure a towel into a thick padded mat on the floor. The two youngsters were chased into the pack room to get ready for Transition while the six older ones studied the unconscious man consideringly.

"You know, when our dog cut his belly we had to put a collar and a bucket on his head to stop him biting out the stitches," Chandler said thoughtfully then shrugged when they all stared at him. "It was just a thought."

"A good thought actually, as he is going to break open every half healed wound and his legs...." Andy shuddered at the twisted wreck of flesh and bone his captors had made of his legs.

"Do you think he'll ever walk again?" Rose whispered fearfully.

"That depends on you four, actually. Once you leave here you have to go get Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore, and tell them what has happened. They have to arrange a medical team to take the Alpha straight away, as soon as he finished transition tomorrow morning. In the mean time, I was thinking about putting him into a sack of cushioning foam so that even in transition, he can't do any further damage to himself."

"Good plan, and make the cushioning foam antiseptic so he doesn't get any more infections or stuff," Chandler added.

"Let's do it. How much time have we left, Paul?"

"Ten more minutes which gives us five minutes to get the humans out and five minutes to get ready. If we have to we can stretch it to seven minutes but not longer, really not longer!"

"Rose and Lisa, you two make the bag big enough and attach it to the collar on the head stall. Chandler, Henry, make the gel to cushion him, Malcolm, go shower and get ready. As soon as you are done, come and take over from me so I can get ready then we can spin it out to eight minutes."

They worked like demons, Malcolm dashing back in while Andy ran off, Paul calling the minutes until he came to three minutes to transition, then two minutes and his tone was getting more frantic and high-pitched the closer they got.

"You have to go NOW!" Malcolm suddenly roared, throwing his wand down and wrapping an arm around Andy's waist, literally tossing her bodily through the door and slamming it shut after them.

"Oh Merlin, it's their time!" Rose pointed to the professor, still unconscious but beginning to writhe and growl under his breath.

"It really is fascinating, isn't it?" Henry said in enthralled tones but Rose clipped him over the back of the head. He glared at her in indignant surprise but she was already Apparating out as were the others. He glanced back once at the professor, realised he was almost conscious and in terrible pain and apparated out in a hurry.

~~*~~

Sweetbriar rolled to her feet and snarled furiously at the human stink all around the doorway. She could smell her alpha on the other side, smell the sickness in him and the human stench surrounding him. She threw herself bodily at the door in an effort to get through. She staggered back as the werewolf proof door refused to budge, leaving her groggy and furious. Snarling, she threw back her head and howled her fury and fear out at the top of her lungs, Storm, Red and Cloud adding their notes to the long, multipart harmony.

All around Hogwarts lights came on and the four outside the shack stared at each other in shock. The noise was huge, making the hair at the back of their necks stand straight up, especially when a lone wolf answered from deep in the Forbidden Forest. The notes from the shack changed, rising and falling, changing pitch and loudness, as if talking.

"Oh no, they didn't have time to set the silencing charms," Lisa gasped then nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand landed on her shoulder.

"And what do we have here, I wonder? Children not only out of House, but out of school too. Oh deary me, this is a fine state of affairs, I must say."

"Mr Filch! You nearly gave me a heart attack! Come on, we have to see Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape right away!" Lisa yelled grabbing the astonished caretaker's arm and dragging him back toward the school unceremoniously. "Will you hurry up now; this is no time to drag your feet!"

~~*~~

Severus Snape had decided life was no longer worth living. It was a sober and considered decision, arrived at after a careful weighing of the odds. He picked up another splinter from Remus' wand and tried to fit it into the jagged jigsaw puzzle in his lap. His affairs, things he considered important, were in order and the Family could go hang itself, fight to the death over the succession, for all he cared. His class notes were clear, any idiot could follow them, and he was ready to go. This was his last task before he went back to his rooms and drank one of his own concoctions, probably something painless like tincture of Arsenic in Draft of the Living Death, he'd be too deeply asleep to feel the arsenic working.

"Yes, yes, Albus, I'm listening," he commented, turning to stare flatly at the old man, his eyes dead and empty.

"Severus, you cannot give up hope, not after all you have been through to get this far. Severus!"

"Yes, yes, Albus, I'm listening."

Albus and Minerva exchanged worried looks. They had seen Severus in pain, enraged, terrified even, but this flat hopelessness was more frightening than anything they had ever witnessed before. Minerva opened her mouth to say something when the unearthly howling began from the Shrieking Shack. Severus' head shot up and a look of acute pain crossed his face for a few seconds before the blank hopelessness fell over him again.

"They didn't get their doses of Wolfsbane potion this month and they are upset," Minerva commented softly.

"The fact that their Alpha is spread all over the kitchen of a derelict house might have something to do with it," Severus muttered desolately before turning back to stare into the fire.

"That is only a speculation, Severus!" Minerva snapped angrily but was stopped when the staircase announced Mr Filch and four students. "Oh, what now?"

As soon as the study door opened, the four tumbled in excited voices overriding each other and making no sense. Albus shook his head and held up his hands for silence. "One at a time children, Mr McDermott, please be the spokesman."

"Sir, it's Professor Lupin, he's really badly hurt but we've got him stashed in the Shack, that's why Andy and Malcolm are so upset, they can't do anything for him at this moment. He was alive when we left at one minute to Moon and we did everything we could think of to make sure he survives the transformation, but we don't know if we did enough or did it right," Chandler gabbled, not seeing Snape rise to his feet, a hand over his mouth for a moment in a very uncharacteristic gesture.

"How did you find him?" Snape demanded harshly.

"Andy had Professor Flitwick charm some parchment and she sent him an owl. We followed the coordinates and rescued him as soon as the owl delivered the letter. We got Auror Shacklebolt out too."

"Bugger Shacklebolt, how badly hurt is Remy?" Snape snapped, glaring at the boy.

"It's bad, Sir, as bad as it can get," Henry said flatly. "I stole as many of your potions as I could get my hands on, particularly the fortifying potions and the analgesics potions. I wasn't sure if the box marked Werewolf Emergency Supplies was important, but it only seemed to have chocolate in it, so I left that one."

"He won't thank you for that oversight," Severus muttered, then pinned his prefect with a glare. "Did you see the extent of the injuries?"

"Yes sir, internal rupturing, bruised heart, punctured lungs, split liver and pancreas, compounded fractures of both legs, ribs, pelvis, cheek bone, broken and missing teeth, fractured skull, broken jaw, and those are only the ones Auror Shacklebolt's Acclaro spell showed. Auror Shacklebolt had the young ones pump their energy into him, but it wasn't enough to counteract the damage."

"We really need to get in there to treat him," Severus muttered, rising to pace distractedly. "Albus, have you any ideas?"

"At this very moment, no, I haven't."

~~*~~

Luanna looked at her very large companion and giggled. "You want me and Keen Nose to go to Hogwarts to check on Professor Lupin? Ok-ay, we can do that but is there a fireplace big enough to get us both through at once? I don't think I can drag his arse through an apparation all the way up to Scotland."

"I had planned to send Harry and a couple of others with you to add strength," Ron said patiently while the werewolf chuffed indignantly and nudged her with his nose, hard.

"Ouch! Quit that! Alright, no more fat jokes, I promise," she muttered out the side of her mouth, making Harry grin when he caught the words. "What do you want us to do?"

"Er, does he understand? Good, er, Drajan, we need you to check on Professor Lupin and see if he is still alive. Er Luanna, how do you sort of communicate with him?" Ron asked uncomfortably.

"Talking usually works best, Ron," Harry said in amusement. "One yip for yes, two yips for no, does that suit you, Keen Nose?"

"Yip."

"See, easy and sorted. Now, I'll call Albus and make sure he's ready. After all, it is getting late and he is an old man." Harry tossed a handful of floo powder into the fire and made the call, explaining what it was all about and that they would be bringing a werewolf with them. There was a flurry of black in the background and a door closing hurriedly before Albus nodded his agreement. "Was Professor Snape with you?" Ron asked as he stepped out of the flames.

"Yes but unfortunately he is still terrified of werewolves. My goodness, you are a handsome fellow, aren't you? I don't think I've ever seen a live werewolf up close before," Albus commented, patting the large head as he would a hound.

Keen Nose's eyes narrowed for a moment and then he snorted, turning to roll his eyes at Luanna who managed to keep a straight face, even though she could almost read his mind. "Detective Constable Murovski is willing to go into the Pack's territory and see if he can ascertain if Professor Lupin, Moony, is still alive. He has some limited control of his magic but not a lot unfortunately."

"Detective Constable," Minerva repeated edging away from the huge creature carefully. "Please excuse me, my animagus form is a cat," she explained as he followed her progress with narrow-eyed interest, making a small, playful rush as she skittered out the door.

Luanna slapped his shoulder and he dropped his jaw in laughter, showing off his teeth until Harry cleared his throat. "Please, can we get a little serious here? My Godfather is probably dying and I would really like to know if there is any way to prevent it."

"Sorry, Sir, what can we do?" Luanna asked more respectfully, and Keen Nose came to attention at her side.

The pack was still calling forlornly as they approached the building from the school grounds. Luanna stuck close to Keen Nose's side as he paced the path, sniffing here and there as he went. Once she had to stop and wait while he cocked his leg on a tree, making a rude observation on the male tendency to just piss wherever they liked. He yipped at her and gave her a lick on the chin before bounding away and racing back, almost knocking her over with the speed of his passing, but just missing all the same. She shook her fist at him and told him to behave as they approached the old building, the others standing by ready to pull them out of the room as soon as Luanna signalled.

The plan was simple, Luanna would apparate Keen Nose into the pack room where he would distract the pack while Luanna apparated into the bathroom where the children had put Professor Lupin. She was to check on his condition, translocate more potions into the sack that was supposed to be all around him and apparate out as soon as possible, without disturbing anything. Once out, she was to call out to Keen Nose and if he decided to leave, he would yelp once, if he was staying he would yelp twice. If anything went wrong then the waiting team would pull them both out immediately.

~~*~~

Sweetbriar spotted the intruder first and galloped down from her high perch to circle him stiff legged. He stank of human but he didn't move when she snarled at him, standing perfectly still and allowing them all to sniff him thoroughly before he so much as took a single step. Cloud lost interest first, going back to lie with his nose pressed up against the door that hid his Alpha from him. Charlie followed the older ones as the three performed the meeting and greeting rituals, peeing on an upright, then covering the scent until the stranger's scent was thoroughly mingled with theirs. Finally Storm relaxed a little and allowed the stranger to move more freely, nudging Red out of the way as they went toward the communal water source. Sweetbriar followed more slowly, still not sure that she liked a stranger in their territory when her alpha was hurt and unavailable to them.

Cloud suddenly sat up and yipped excitedly, digging at the crack in the door as the alpha growled weakly. He yelped and whined but there were no more sounds from the alpha, despite his urging. Disheartened, the small pale cub lay down again, his head on his paws. The stranger whose designation was Keen Nose On The Faint Trail went over and licked the cub's ears consolingly before turning back to the Beta female. The language of wolves in their natural state was not built to convey abstract concepts but Keen Nose managed to tell them that Potion Blender would be in as soon as the Mistress was gone. Even Red stopped his constant movements to listen to the stranger, when a human yelled from outside. All four stiffened furiously but the stranger only yelped twice before wandering over to the food bowls and nosed the remains of the meal.

Outside, Luanna cocked her head and listened for the yelps then let her knees go slack as she sank to the ground shaking. She had thought she was pretty brave but when she had bent over Professor Lupin and he had opened mad amber eyes to snarl at her, she had nearly dropped her bundle. Conjuring the potion into the sack cushioning the broken body had been easy enough but in that tiny moment of consciousness, Luanna had thought she was going to die. No matter how sweet and comforting Drajan was, he could turn into a ravening monster like the creature peering out of the werewolf in the sack's eyes.

"There again," she thought as footsteps approached, "I could die on the job or by spinching myself, or by a sheer accident, but I haven't so far so why worry?"

"Well? Is he alive?" The voice was low and smooth but the anxiety gave it a sharp edge.

"He is alive and regained consciousness long enough to know I was there, and growl at me. I think he might make it." Luanna turned to grin but the man was invisible in the darkness.

"Thank you Miss Jones, you are a very brave young woman," the voice said softly then he was gone.

~~*~~

The Beta Prime was badly mauled but still alive! The howl went up and down the country, passed from group to group until it hit the Isle of Cardoul, carried faintly over the sea by the breeze. Plume heard it from the listening post and let out a thankful howl, taken up by the rest of the Alphas. Moon Walker, lying close to the injured Hayborn, whined deep in her throat, as happy as she could be to hear her friend was still alive. Too many of the old guard were dead or dying to make the loss of another anything but a disaster. Her old friend and often partner moved weakly and flicked a tongue over her grizzled ears comfortingly.

Golden outdid herself as she gave voice to the joy in her heart at the news. Remus was not an old friend but he had become precious in the few days she had known him. Standing on the roof of Moon Walker's house she raised her muzzle to the mistress and gave tongue to the new song she had been working on while human shaped.

On the Yorkshire moors the Roebottoms heard the news and added their voices to pass the message with a lightness they were happy to share. In the cells under the Auror headquarters Aura heard the howl and yelped his pleasure, only having heard how badly Moony had been hurt after the fact. In another cell, the newly turned werewolf attacked the bars, the walls, the shadows and himself in a frenzy of fury that knew no bounds. He did not understand the howling; he only feared and hated it completely.

As the moon lowered in the sky the two men waiting for the screams to start in the dungeon were growing tenser and tenser as the night wore on and no sounds ensued. However, neither of them was brave enough to go down and open the door, not until the moon had well and truly set. Finally, just before Moon set, Mr Green apparated away to prepare for the reception of two werewolf carcasses. Mr Yellow watched him go with a resigned air that did not lift as he trudged down to the dungeons.