Lupus Argentum

Silvery shafts of moonlight filtered through the dark canopy of the Forbidden Forest. Sinister-looking shadows were cast by the tall trees, forming pockets of darkness perfect for concealing monsters around every turn of the path. A thin young man of sixteen with messy black hair and small round glasses followed a towering man with a wiry beard and a crossbow. A big black boarhound obediently followed the pair, whining every so often as he caught a strange scent upwind.

Unnoticed, the three were shadowed by a creature of shadow, moonlight, and stealth. An immense and magnificent timber wolf silently crept through the brush behind them, watching diligently with eyes shining brightly with intelligence. The wolf had fur the color of polished silver and eyes the bright blue usually found only in blind animals. She quietly pursued her quarry, never noticed by any but the hound.

'Silly two-legs. The pet-hound tells them he smells wolf, and yet they do not fear,' thought the she-wolf. A lupine grin bared glistening fangs, and the hunt continued.

.o0*0o.o0*0o.o0*0o.

Harry Potter glanced nervously around himself, wishing to be anywhere but in detention in the Forest. Fang kept whining and tucking his tail between his legs. Surely, breaking that git Malfoy's nose was not cause enough to land him in detention this severe. The underbrush was lush and verdant, but the young wizard was almost certain that something was out there... following them. He could hear it slinking along in the leaf litter. It was incredibly quiet - it hardly made a noise, aside from the few twigs snapping or bushes inadvertently moved.

"Hagrid," Harry muttered, trying the get the giant's attention quietly. "I think there's something following us." The tall man turned and glanced behind them, tying to get a glimpse of the thing he had felt following them all evening.

"'S been foller'in us for a while now," he replied. "Dunno quite wha' it is." Harry nervously peeked back down the trail once more.

Suddenly Harry could hear crashing and feel a rhythmic beating in the earth at his feet. He yanked his wand out of his pocket, with the words to Stun on the tip of his tongue. His body froze in primal fear as he saw the thing that created the noise. His eyes widened in fear as he saw the giant sliver wolf, his and Hagrid's stalker.

Hagrid was not so incapacitated. He reacted instinctively, bringing a massive fist up to bat the creature away. As the thing flew away from him, Harry shook himself out of his stupor.

"STUPEFY!" he yelled. As he brandished his wand at the wolf, which had already risen from the forest floor, a red light impacted with the beast's chest. The steel-strong gossamer threads of unconsciousness claimed it immediately.

Harry stood there, breathing heavily and sweating from the recent adrenalin rush. He looked uncertainly over at the Hagrid, wondering what could have made a wolf grow to be so enormous.

"'Spect Dumbledore'll be wantin' to see wha' this is," the half-giant said. Hagrid calmly walked over to the creature and slung it over his shoulder. "Les' go."

'Why is it always me?' Harry groaned mentally.

.o0*0o.o0*0o.o0*0o.

Harry sat silently in a chair in Dumbledore's office, blushing furiously and trying very hard not to look at anything. His mind was still reeling from the unusual chain of events caused by the wolf-thing.

Dumbledore had recognized the wolf as unnatural, and had begun using a series of spells that apparently were to reveal the true nature of an animal. The result was a naked young woman of about fourteen or fifteen, unconscious and sprawled across Hagrid's lap. Hagrid was blushing as well, and kept making choking noises. Dumbledore was evidently not surprised, and had stoically levitated the girl and conjured some clothes for her from thin air.

"Mister Potter, would you be so kind as to tell me how you two stumbled upon this young lady?" Dumbledore asked, sitting back down at his desk, apparently unmindful of the young woman floating near his office door.

"Err... we were in the Forest, for my detention, and it... err, she attacked us," Harry said. "Fang kept whining, and then all of a sudden there was a wolf in the air. Hagrid hit her, and then I Stunned her."

"Very well, Mr. Potter," said Dumbledore. "Please return to Gryffindor tower."

Harry nodded politely to both professors and headed off to the dorms.

.o0*0o.o0*0o.o0*0o.

Dumbledore stood at the end of a bed in the Hospital Wing, staring down at the young woman strapped to the bed before him. He took a quiet breath of air smelling strongly of ammonia, and said a simple spell.

"Ennervate."

Lucid blue eyes snapped open. One pink, chapped lip of the young woman before Dumbledore curled up in a frighteningly bestial snarl. The Headmaster watched silently as powerful muscles bulged beneath the magical restraints. The bonds held, and the wolf-woman settled for growling deep in the back of her throat.

"Good morning. Can you understand me?" asked the Headmaster clearly, looking down upon the feral lady. She did nothing. Dumbledore beckoned to someone out of sight for the wolf-woman. A dark man, in black robes with long limp black hair and black eyes as well, came forward to glare menacingly into the eyes of the captive.

"Severus," Dumbledore said, stepping aside and gesturing towards the bed. The dark man said nothing, stepping up to the bedside and staring deep into the woman's eyes.

.o0*0o.o0*0o.o0*0o.

She was suddenly no longer in the white room with the bad smells. She was in a place that wasn't a place, an endless void of twilight. Grey light and fog was all she could see, but her keen nose alerted her to the presence of another. The dark man.

She stared him down, glaring right into those dark depths that were his eyes. Suddenly she was assaulted from within her own mind by a deluge of words, images, smells, and sounds of a multitude of things. She cringed away from the onslaught, but it continued without regard for her fright. Finally, when she thought she could take no more, it slowed, and eventually stopped.

"What do you want?" she growled out, in a voice rough in its new-found use.

"I have done my job," the dark man replied. The smoke and light disappeared.

.o0*0o.o0*0o.o0*0o.