Bitten
Bitten
Barnaby and I were both tired after our long day previously, but we still got to the Ministry early enough to see Tonks again in passing and also a harried looking Mr Weasley. He stopped and offered us his congratulations and thanked us for sending him and Mrs Weasley our announcement before we rode up in a lift together.
When we arrived into the messy WCU office Uncle Cecil was already buzzing about excitedly. "I've just had word! Someone's been stealing hens off a farm not far from Hogsmeade Village!" He was practically bouncing up and down as he relayed his news to us.
"Er, hens?" Barnaby said in his adorably confused way. "Yes! Exactly! Hens are a telltale sign of Werewolf activity. We must make haste, the whole team is heading out on this one and you two will be Team Bravo, time for your first assignment!" he told us enthusiastically.
I had more than a few questions but I started off by looking around the office for the other teams. I thought it was only the three of us at first, until I noticed a short, rather pudgy wizard who was dozing at a desk in the far corner.
Uncle Cecil's eyes followed mine and he shouted, "Caltus! Look alive, you and I are Team Alpha and we are leaving immediately after briefing!" Caltus shuffled over to us and started checking the pockets of his coat. He pulled out a few things, bits of twine, one solitary dog biscuit, a wrinkled handkerchief, a magnifying glass and a small flask which sloshed when he shook it. When everything seemed to be satisfactory to him, he handed Barnaby and I each a copy of the same laminated instructions we'd read the day before.
I scanned mine quickly to make sure there was no new information, and there wasn't. Uncle Cecil had been hurrying around the office stuffing his own pockets but he returned a moment later and said, "Right, are we all briefed then? We haven't a moment to lose!"
Barnaby voiced my next concern, "Sorry, but what exactly are we supposed to be doing? The moons waning Uncle Cecil, there can't be a transformed Werewolf stealing hens."
"Yes that had occurred to me too" Uncle Cecil said hastily. "Some Werewolves are bloodthirsty enough to eat live chickens while in their human form. You never know what you're going up against when you leave the safety of the office behind! But fear not, just stick to the rules and you will do just fine. Stick with your partners and we will spread out in a grid formation. First to find the Werewolf send up red sparks and others converge on that point to assist in the capture. All clear now?" He finished. "Er, yeah I think so" Barnaby replied hesitantly. "Excellent, then we must be off! Make your way out of the building and Apparate to the outskirts of Hogsmeade Village" he instructed us.
Barnaby and I did as he asked, we arrived to the general area and took a moment just to laugh together before Team Alpha caught us up. "Kind of a mess isn't?" Barnaby chuckled. "I'm not even convinced there is a damn Werewolf."
"I know" I agreed. "But if there is, and they're in their human form, I think it might be better if we find them first. We can at least talk to them before the cavalry comes to arrest them, let's head off, I can hear Team Alpha getting closer."
Barnaby and I walked quickly ahead and then veered left along an overgrown path, trying to get some distance from noisy Team Alpha. We walked along for a while, not saying much, but eventually we stopped and I asked Barnaby the question on my mind."Barnaby, do you like doing this?" He looked a bit confused again. "What, mucking around the countryside with you? Well, actually yeah. I like the outdoors and anytime I'm with you I'm that much happier" he smiled at me.
I smiled back, he was such a sweetheart. "Well I like being out here with you too" I told him. "But I guess I meant working in the WCU. You could have been on a Magical Creatures Reserve in Brazil, you really don't regret giving that up to do this instead?"
I could see the understanding in his eyes then. He put both of his hands on my shoulders and said, "Samhain, I will never regret choices I make to be with you. You're all that I need to be happy. I promise you, I regret nothing. And I actually do like it. It feels like we're getting paid to do a whole days worth of Care of Magical Creatures lessons. And, well, Werewolves are kind of creatures too, aren't they? I mean when they're not being people of course. I want to help them if we can."
I thought again how the simplicity of the way Barnaby's mind worked was really his genius. He made a lot of sense and he also made it sound like fun. I looked around furtively before jumping up into his arms and kissing him. It was hard to stop once we'd started but as Barnaby pointed out we did have a job to do.
We continued on along our path for another twenty odd minutes until Barnaby sniffed the air, pausing his stride. "Do you smell that?" He asked.
I sniffed the air gingerly, hoping not to detect Werewolf musk or cow dung or anything else nasty, but I didn't smell anything. "Nope. Smell what Barnaby?" He sniffed again, turning his head slightly to the West and said "Roasted chicken I think." I raised my eyebrow at him. We were miles past any houses, there was no way he could smell someone cooking from all the way back in the village.
"Are you sure you're not just hungry?" I asked, laughing in exasperation. "I could eat. But I'm not imagining it, come on, it's coming from over here." He led me off the path we'd been following and straight into the trees on one side. We stumbled over the shrubs for a few more minutes and then I smelled it too. Roasted chicken, just as Barnaby said. I couldn't understand why we'd be smelling roasted chicken in the woods, unless.. "Barnaby? I think we might have found our Werewolf. Wands out?" He nodded in reply and we silently crept through the brush until we came across a small clearing.
In the middle of the clearing we saw a crackling fire, with a clumsily plucked chicken skewered on a bush made roasting stick. We scanned the area but saw no one, but the comfortingly familiar smell didn't ease my anxiety. I raised my wand and whispered, "Homenum Revelio."
There was a second of silence followed by a cry of "What the-" from the cluster of trees to our right.
I stowed my wand and made to walk forward into the clearing, but Barnaby had grabbed me, shaking his head angrily he pulled my wand back out of my pocket and handed it to me. He kept his own wand held at the ready and crept out instead calling, "Hello? Look, we're not here to hurt you mate. Just wanna talk-"
A spell shot at Barnaby from straight ahead. "Protego!" I yelled, throwing my shield charm around him just in time. I ran forward into the clearing and joined Barnaby. Stowing my wand again, I called out, "I'm not armed. We really don't want to hurt you. Please don't attack us." I let my Legilimency drift out and caught a vague image of.. chicken? Oh, I understood. He was hungry, and frightened. My heart went out to him. I squeezed Barnaby's hand and whispered for him to put away his wand. He gave me a very skeptical look, but lowered it by a few inches.
"My name is Samhain, and this is Barnaby. We're here to help" I tried again. He didn't answer, but I knew he could hear me, so I pressed on. "I'm sorry if we scared you. You should know, we are with the Werewolf Capture Unit, and there are more of us here, but we don't have to tell them we found you. We really just want to help, I promise."
Finally, the trees ahead of us rustled and a terrified looking wizard who looked hardly older than us, in dirty, ripped clothes emerged with his wand held out in front of him.
I raised my hands very slowly above my head to show that I wasn't about to go for my wand and said "Hi. What's your name?"
He stopped about a dozen feet away from us, still pointing his wand and looking like he might use it. "Alexi" he finally replied, in a slight accent.
"Alexi? Do you mind not pointing your wand at my fiancé?" Barnaby had listened and lowered his own wand now, but he was still on high alert.
Amazingly, Alexi lowered his wand too. He also moved closer to the fire in a very wolf like stance. It reminded me of a predator guarding it's kill.
"It's alright mate, go ahead and eat" Barnaby told him gently. He could see how thin the man was. "We're just going to sit down way over here, and talk to you a bit, is that okay?" He asked.
Alexi nodded once, then he ripped the chicken in half with his bare hands and ate the insides first.
I tried to swallow my nausea and prodded Barnaby to take the lead while I willed myself not to be sick. Worrying it might offend Alexi if I was.
"Right. Well what Samhain said is true, we're on assignment out here looking for you. There's been Werewolf activity reported in the area and we just don't want anyone to get hurt. But we don't have to tell the rest of the unit we've found you, unless we think you're a danger to people." Barnaby paused there, watching to see if Alexi had understood him.
I'd recovered a bit by that point so I added, "Alexi? How long have you been a Werewolf? And why are you out here all alone, where's your home, your family?" He looked at me. Wiping his arm crudely across the chicken juice dribbling down his chin, he answered. "I don't have a home now. My father wanted to keep me locked up in our shed after I was bitten. I didn't understand why, so I escaped when he came in to bring food. I ran as far as I could so that he wouldn't find me. But that night when the moon was full, something happened to me. When I woke up the next day I thought I'd lost my mind. I remembered what I'd been like, howling like a beast, tearing animals apart. I went deeper into the woods, away from all signs of wizards. I've been out here ever since. Too ashamed and too afraid to go home."
I exchanged a look with Barnaby. We both knew we couldn't let Alexi stay there on his own. It was way too close to the village, too risky. But it sounded like he was newly infected, he wouldn't know what precautions he had to take. And he also wouldn't know what rights he had. If we convinced him or tried to take him by force back to the Ministry, they'd lock him up for sure. And confiscate his wand. He needed time to adjust, a secure place to transform and support. And we needed Chiara, and Penny.
We talked to Alexi while he ate and he seemed to be calming down. We told him about our Werewolf friend who worked at the hospital, and about the Wolfsbane potion that could help his transformations. We talked for a long time and told him everything we knew, doing our best to convince him that putting others at risk was too dangerous and promising we'd help him if he came with us.
It was difficult but in the end, after Barnaby offered to let him stay with us for a while, Alexi agreed to come. Barnaby and I hatched a hasty plan to sneak Alexi home without Team Alpha catching us. Barnaby took Alexi on side along Apparition back to our house, while I ran back down the path we'd followed, towards the others. When I hit the main road I pulled my wand out and said "Vermillious!" Red sparks shot up into the air and I only had to wait a few minutes before Uncle Cecil and Caltus reached me.
I told them we'd found what could be the Werewolf's camp, but that Barnaby had eaten a wild mushroom and gotten very suddenly sick, so he'd Apparated home.
Uncle Cecil and Caltus told me off for splitting up from my partner, but said that I should probably go home and look after my fiancé and that they would take it from there. Success. I Apparated home immediately to tend to my pretend sick fiancé and our Werewolf houseguest.