The wolves are coming...
Their feet are falling on long-forgotten paths,
Their lost voices are filling the vast sky.
While their golden eyes slash through the night;
They leave their prints on the deserted riverbanks.
Victoire was lent over her transfiguration homework, her tongue between her teeth, a strand of curly, silver-white hair had fallen down from the long ponytail and was just brushing the top of her hand that was laid firmly on the essay she was writing. Her pale ice-blue darted across the paper. She was by far the most beautiful girl in school.
Teddy, who was sitting on the other side of the Gryffindor common room, hastily turned his hair back to dark brown; he had been watching Victoire so intently that his hair had been idly changing colours. He lazily flicked through the book on charms, not actually reading it but glancing over the top at Victoire who had just thrown down her quill and collected up her parchment.
Teddy hastily focused on his book as Victoire seemed to glide across the room easily dodging the many circular tables that littered the common room. As she drew closer, Teddy’s hair switched nervously between blond and brunet.
“Sorry just finishing my transfiguration essay. So… where’s Jake”
“Er” Teddy could only just force himself to concentrate on speaking “ Em Hagrid’s”
“Ok, em, I’m gonna go down there and help him, Hagrids trying, and probably failing, to help Jake revise for his care of magical creatures O.W.L” Victoire replied, already turning towards the portrait hole.
“Er no, erm, Victoire, I’ll do that I need to revise as well so I’ll go so you may as well just not go”
Victoire raised her eyebrow, but before she could say anything Teddy had slipped past her and disappeared through the portrait hole.
The wolves are coming...
The forest whispers of their return,
Of their attempt to restore themselves in Creation,
To weave themselves back into the web of life
That connects all living things.
“We are all sad to hear the tragic news of the death of Jake Jordon, though we do not fully know the cause of death we do know that it was through no fault of his own, so do not remember him as the boy who strayed into danger for it was he who was attacked and so we must ask each and every one of you, to keep a careful eye on forest and do not under any circumstance enter the forest” McGonagal fixed the great hall with one of her most ferocious stare.
Teddy was quiet, his best friend was dead, all he could think about was going to the examination of his family. Jake’s parents had run off as soon as he was born, he didn’t have any family, so Teddy and Victoire had gone to the examination, because they’d been the closest to him. All Teddy could think about was what had happened at the examination.
The inside of the private operating room at St Mungo’s hospital was irritatingly clean and plain. The metal table stood in the centre of the room. The picture of Jake’s pale terrified face was burned into the back of Teddy’s eyelids. The bored looking Auror addressed Teddy and Victoire while reading the healers notes.
“We now have the statements from all witnesses and healers, this is confidential information, you know that don’t you?” he asked them.
They both nodded glumly and he continued. “Jake Jordon was found precisely ten meters from the start of the forest, ten and a half meters before that we noticed that there was a change in the footprint left in the thin layer of snow, the heel of his boot no longer showed, as though he was walking on tiptoe. He died from a heart attack; but no marks were made upon him, also, possibly, the most unusual thing of them all, he was found running towards the forest.”
“So?” Teddy said mechanically.
“So, only a man crazed with fear would run away from a castle that was filled with people, rather than towards it.”
Teddy and Victoire walked down the empty irritatingly white corridors of St Mungo’s.
“So what do you think?” Teddy asked Victoire without meeting her eye.
“The thing about his footprint seems strange, why would Jake be walking on tiptoe?” Victoire replied.
“He wasn’t walking on tiptoe. He was running. Running from something that scared him so much his forgot where he was. Running until his heart burst and he fell dead upon his face.”
The wolves are coming...
Their fangs are seeking out their pray tonight,
The deer and the elk, not the cattle and sheep,
And they will leave little blood and many bones deserted in their wake.
Yet meat is what they need, so on meat they must feed.
The two of them sat in the common room, surrounded by other morning Gryffindors. Victoire rested her hand on Teddy’s forearm, feeling his skin it was perfectly smooth, except three dents in the skin. Hastily victoire pulled back the sleeves of Teddy’s robes and found an ugly scare staring back at him, three long scratches which had now morphed into three foul scares.
Teddy noticed where she was looking and hurriedly pushed down his sleeve and then got up. Her looked deep into Viictoire’s eyes as though he wanted to say something, but couldn’t say the right words. After a moment of struggling with his words, Teddy fled through the portrait hole and disappeared from sight, leaving Victoire feeling alone and confused.
Teddy walked back into Gryffindor tower. The fire was burning low in the grate; shadows fell across the deserted room.
“You’re back late” Victoire was sat in the corner of the room, curled up on a squashy red armchair.
“Hagrid’s” Teddy lied coolly.
“Well I was just looking in your dorm, and I found this” She held up a piece of parchment covered in Jake’s thin spikey handwriting, except for one small scrawl in the bottom left corner, which was written in Teddy’s large loopy letters. Teddy averted his eyes he couldn’t face that yet.
“Can’t you just leave it alone” Teddy whispered hoarsely as he scurried into the boy’s dormitory.
Victoire looked at the writing in the corner of the page the message that Teddy had left on Jake’s essay, the shining black ink looked as though it was still fresh. The words shone in the dim light:
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry
The wolves are coming...
Some of us will greet them with traps and bullets,
Others with songs and drums,
Some will say, 'Welcome home brother.'
Others will say, 'Be gone killer! '
The small scrap of land by the whomping Willow that was sheltered from view by the surrounding hills was in total darkness. Teddy stood motionless.
The huge shining orb was just protruding from behind the side of a mountain. The edge of the forest looked inviting, but it was too quiet, as though all the animals were on hyper-alert, as though they knew he was here.
Victoire was lying on the ground her head looking over the hill just enough for her to see Teddy.
The full moon emerged from behind the hill.
There was a moment’s silence, before the most terrible scream of pain broke the silence. In the light of the moon I saw him change.
His head was thrown back and his skull was stretched so his skin was strained to its full extent. Hi eyes bulged out of its sockets and rolled back into his head as they changed from deep grey to piercing fiery yellow and the yellow razor-like teeth, which had just burst from his gums, cut open his lips as he constantly opened and closed his huge jaws as though trying to make them fit together more comfortably. His weak vertical spine was snapped into pieces by a new thicker stronger curved spine. As think brown fur sprouted from his skin, his arms and legs bent into awkward positions, while long curved claws burst through the skin on his fingertips. As the final transformation completed, a blood-curdling howl burst from Teddy’s now lethal jaw, it made the hairs on the back of Victoire’s neck stand on end.
Then, the grounds as silent as they had been before, the huge brown wolf disappeared into the shadows as though he was made of smoke.
The wolves are coming...
Some of them will come alone, others will come in packs.
Grey wolves, black wolves, brown wolves, silver wolves,
Even white wolves, all coming back,
Back to the lands they once roamed.
Victoire stepped numbly across the frozen ground her head spinning, her mind jumping to conclusions.
A twig snapped.
Victoire whipped round to see the outline of a huge shaggy brown wolf. It’s ears flat against, eyes knowing and ferocious, it’s lips pulled back over yellow fangs, saliva dripped from its mouth onto the icy ground. It stalked deliberately towards her. She couldn’t run; the bright yellow eyes held her where she was, the eyes were intelligent and understanding. Teddy was still in there somewhere, but then why was he still coming closer.
He stopped.
The claws dug into the ground suddenly it pounced, propelled forward by his strong limbs.
Victoire stirred slightly. Here head felt as though it had been kicked in by a hippogriff and she grunted and tried to scratch her forehead something wet was smeared on to her forehead. Groggily she squinted through her half-opened eyes and propped herself up on her elbows. A thick brown coat fell off her sholders.
“What… the hell is this?!”
Victoire hastily wrapped the coat around her completely naked body, but that was not the most surprising the about her surroundings; the thing that was most surprising was the half devoured deer that was lying in front of here. Victoire took a second to take in her situation: waking up in a forest stark naked with a half-eaten deer. Slowly turning around she spotted what was left of her school bag, digging her hand deep into the remains of her bag to find something that wasn’t destroyed and eventually pulled out a small pocket mirror, flipped it open and looked at her reflection. Her, usually long straight hair, was now almost an afro, there were deep black circles under her eyes and her face was smeared with blood and mud. As she surveyed her face something on her arm caught her eye, a round darkish mark, a scar, a bite mark.
The wolves are coming...
Their young will play in the meadows,
The old ones will doze in the sun,
And the alphas will watch over them all,
For they are not just a pack, but a family.
A twig snapped. Teddy was leaning against a tree. The two of them stared at each other, no words were needed, it was as though they could understand each other’s reasons and there was no anger or misunderstanding.
“They found your clothes and blood, the Auror’s are looking for you, we have to go” Teddy said quietly.
“Did you at least bring some clothes for me?” Victoire asked hugging the coat tighter around herself, he opend his backpack and pulled out another backpack.
“Undetectable extension charm.” He replied Victoire’s silent question. He chucked the backpack at her and turned. “You’ll have to come with me I’ll change and you can ride on my back”
“You’ll change? I thought it had to be a full moon for a werewolf to transform” Victoire asked as she pulled a jumper on.
“Apparently when a metamorphmagi becomes a werewolf they don’t need to wait for the full moon, oh and you need to put this on” Teddy held out a scarlet clock to Victoire, who had just finished changing.
She raised her eyebrows.
“When I change I’ll recognise you if you’re wearing it” Teddy explained as Victoire put the clock on. “Right come here” Teddy said.
Victoire hesitated and Teddy noticed.
He grinned “ who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” Then he transformed into a wolf. Victoire walked towards him and put her hand on his forehead. His eyes closed slowly.
A flash of green light eliminated the trees, wolf Teddy flew through the air, hands closed around Victoire.
The Aurors had arrived and they were pulling her away as though they had saved her.
An Auror watched, he understood.
Some of his friends were talking.
“It must have known we were coming, stupid animal”
“Ah well the curses got it.”
The Auror who was still staring at the wolves body said quietly to himself.
“It wasn’t the curses, it was beauty that killed the beast.
The wolves are coming...
They are clothed in mystery and majesty,
Surrounded by our love and hate.
They wander through our thoughts and dreams,
And they appear in our stories and legends.
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