Chapter 10- Chasing Ghosts

Madelyn and Kingsley entered St. Mungo's slowly, every step causing pain to cascade through her body. The side-along apparition was impossibly painful and had caused several of the scars to open back up and bleed. Every few hundred feet the pain would well up so that she had to stop to keep from falling to the ground in agony. She would not be deterred by any of that though. She would not let them see her be a "Muggle," would not be weak, she was going to see her sister.

"I am afraid this is going to be quite painful," Kingsley said as they entered the room. "They are doing the best they can, but I am afraid the spells addled her far more deeply than I have ever seen before."

As they entered the room they saw Fiona, sitting on the edge of the bed staring out into the distance. She did not move at all, not even to blink. Madelyn rushed to her sister and took he into her arms. Fiona simply sat, remain still and limp. The pain overwhelmed Madelyn as she buried her head in her sister's shoulder and began to cry.

"They will regret this," she whispered into Fiona's ear through the tears.

Cornelius Fudge stopped just outside Barty Crouch's office and spotting his reflection of the door adjusted his hat and coat. If he was going to have to see talk to the man who most annoyed him, he thought he may as well look his best while doing it. Fudge opened the door without knocking and strode to the desk in the back of the room. Crouch was sitting in his chair with his back to the door, he did not turn around as he spoke.

"Nice of you to finally show up Cornelius."

"Why did you call me down here Crouch? I am a busy man."

"Yes, certainly you are. Not as busy as I am, of course, but busy indeed. I called you here for a simple reason though. Your 'visitor' has gone missing again. You must understand that every time that ridiculous Muggle goes wandering off it causes untold amounts of work for my entire department. "

"You know as well as I that I want her gone, but the Minister insists…"

"You brought her here, Fudge. As far as I am concerned, she is your responsibility. People are beginning to fear that she is a spy for He Who Must Not Be Named, and I am starting to believe it. She is up to some sort of treachery, no doubt. There would be no good reason for a Muggle to nose about so freely."

"I have no time for this Crouch, obviously I also want the girl out of here, but the Minister wants her to stay. And if she is staying anyway I can use her in the trail against the vermin."

"Yes, the werewolves, I daresay that bringing two deadly creatures to justice was excellent work, Fudge, far better than we usually see from your measly department. I wonder how you could accomplish such a task."

"Listen here Crouch, I will not be assailed…"

Crouch looked Fudge squarelyin the face and twisted his mustache. Crouch whispered menacingly, "I know who gave you the information, Cornelius. I know that the traitor is behind this, and I will be sure that you get no recognition or advancement out of his help if it is the last thing I do."

Fudge stood up and headed for the door, shouting, "I will not be accused of any treachery here. These are my prisoners and I have done no such thing."

Just before Fudge was out of the door Crouch snarled, "Archibald McGinnis worked for HIM! I don't care how long ago it was, he was in league with him and you should never have been so stupid as to trust him."

The door slammed shut before Crouch had even finished the sentence.

"Boy," the call was weak and distant. Lupin had not heard Fenrir speak since Mad-Eye Moody visited. He had considered the silence a reward.

"What do you want from me now?"

"You've seen what your friends think of us. How they treat us as less than human." The voice was thinner, and it was obvious that speaking caused Fenrir great pain. "Why would you want to be a part of that?"

"Right, I'd rather be a beast and rip people apart for sport like you."

"You are not human, you are not a wizard, you are a werewolf. But, without me, you are nothing." Fenrir croaked out the words and fell unconscious, the lingering effects of Moody's torture too much for even his strong form to endure any longer.

For awhile Lupin sat in silence, but finally another voice called out in the darkness. He could not see the speaker, he could tell it was a woman, she was young, and she was directly outside his cell. Her voice was filled with hatred beyond any limits he had ever heard before.

"So, here you are. Alive and well. Wallowing in your pains. Pretending to be human. Wonderful," Madelyn spat.

"Who are you?"

"Madelyn Gladwell. You and your friends killed my parents and my brother. And since you decided you had to unleash your hellish selves on us all that caused these monstrous so-called 'wizards' to destroy my sister, and you are the reason I'm locked up in this hellhole."

"I'm sorry. Really…" Lupin broke off sobbing.

I'm going to kill you."

"If you want to kill me, go ahead. It seems like everyone is into that right now. I can't seem to control myself either. Do know this, I didn't attack your village. I tried to stop it. This time, I can't speak for what awful things I may do in the future because you are right, I am nothing but a beast. The only thing I ask is that you make sure Fenrir and his pack die too."

"Why would you want them dead?

"That's what I was trying to do, I was trying to stop them. But you see how well it worked out for me. Fenrir is the one who killed my family and turned me into this monster. And now, I've got nothing left, all my friends are dead, or worse, and I just can't keep on living with the same damn horrors happening over and over. Something is broken here, something is turned upside down. We all thought it was the war. But now I don't know."

"I've been listening to the whining about the war from all you wizards since the day I got here. I'll still kill you both, but sure, I'll be sure to take Fenrir down first, so you can see it happen. But if you didn't attack with him then who did?"

"He was with a whole pack, I took out a couple. Then they got to your village and… I think only one got away. The she-wolf."

"Then I'll find her and kill her too."

"It doesn't seem like that is going to work, somehow Fenrir knew I was coming and used me as a patsy in his plans. She could do the same."

"I can't do anything until I'm healed, but I will do it. You've been dead helpful, and seem almost tame. If you help me figure out how to get out of this building and find this wolf, I might not have to kill you after all."

"I'll try, but it took months to come up with my last plan, and look where that landed me."

"Yes, but you seem to be a complete idiot. Luckily I'm not." With that Madelyn turned to leave the dungeons, but for the first time since she arrived in this place, she felt less alone.

The sun was just beginning to set when a ragged woman shambled up to the hedge surrounding an old manor house. She took out a wand and blasted a hole through the hedge then stepped through. She was dressed in clothing that was torn to shreds and covered in dark bloodstains. She ran across the grounds staying in shadows and backing behind turrets and statures whenever possible. Once she reached the building she crawled around looking in each window until at last she saw some people in one of the rooms. A pale, sharp featured woman was feeding an equally pale infant. She then knew this was the right house.

Through her frenzy and her pain she had one thought, "Fenrir's old friends will help me save him."

She decided to wait until morning before asking though.