Chapter 28: Wolf Hunt

"Maybe after the World Cup, we can go to Ollivander and see if you can use wands." I suggest to Hedwig a couple of days before said event.

"I doubt I can. You said so yourself." Hedwig is lying on her back in front of my chair attempting to solve my Rubik's cube.

"I said I wasn't sure, but it wouldn't hurt to give it a go."

"Urgh." She lets out a frustrated sigh. "It's not fair, you cheat anyway." She lets her arms fall down beside her.

"I can solve it with gloves on-" Knock knock. "Just when I thought it'd be a peaceful night." I sigh, standing up. Hedwig follows me down the stairs. "Albus?" He is not happy.

"A manhunt." He states simply. Oh shit. Uh … duh duh duh … Full moon.

"Werewolf?" I ask, he nods. "Give me a second." I spin around to face Hedwig. "Stay here, I'll be back soon."

"But-" She begins to protest.

"No." I say sternly, cupping her cheeks with my hands. "Please. I need you to be safe." She begrudgingly nods. "Thank you." I kiss her.

"If you die, I'm going to find you in the afterlife and kick your arse." I grin as I back out of the door, we set off at a brisk pace.

"Fawkes?" I prompt.

"Not in a fit state." No nonsense. What's going on?

"This isn't good, is it?"

"I believe you will be the most capable for this task even if I were there with you." His eyes watch the late night shoppers as we walk.

"You won't be there?"

"Not tonight. My presence may jeopardise the task at hand." He sighs. "Fenrir Greyback has been sighted in Britain."

"Greyback. Notorious and savage werewolf, preyed upon children to raise in his back in the 70's. Mass-murdering maniac by day, hairier doing the same job on the full moon. Reported to have vanished in 1981 thanks to yours truly. He was the one that infected Remus." I rattle off my profile quickly. "I'm to assist the hunt?"

"Precisely. Should I be spotted amongst the team, or were my scent to be caught, he would no doubt flee."

"Understandable." We pass through the Leaky Cauldron.

"He has been tracked to a forest and was discovered amongst a massacre site, muggle hikers." He says grimly. We duck into the apparating alley beside the Cauldron. "The whole area has been warded to contain the situation, no apparating directly in nor portkeys of any kind. The DMLE wants this dealt with tonight." I grab onto his arm to apparate. It's unnerving to see him like this – The way he acted during the war. We twist into nothingness and reappear a moment later in darkness. My eyes adjust quickly and we begin to walk again towards the tree line.

"Mister Potter? What is he doing here?" A tall man frowns. Dark hair. He looks behind him at his team of Aurors and approaches us out of hearing range of them. "Dumbledore, The Minister said you were getting your best man to assist us. We are not going to be able to baby sit him."

"I was asked if I knew of anyone, anyone at all, who could track Greyback. Mister Potter is the most capable young man I know, he will be no extra trouble. You must trust him." Albus lays a hand on my shoulder, I look up at him briefly. The look seems to say 'I will be the one baby sitting them'.

"Fine. We move in shortly." Albus nods and apparates away. "Lives are at risk here." He scrutinises me. "I hope you know what you are doing."

"I do." I rub my hands together and follow him to the others.

"Ok, listen up." They turn their attention to the boss, Robards. "This is Harry Potter, our tracker. I've been told by the Chief Warlock to trust him implicitly. Greyback is a dangerous criminal and we must keep our wits about us. Tonight he will be at the peak of his abilities in his own environment. Keep a sharp eye out and listen for orders. If Potter says duck, you flatten like a pancake. If he says form a human pyramid, we will." The team chuckles grimly. They seem to have only been told they were being assigned a tracker. 7 of us in total. It doesn't seem like enough. Robards finishes his pep talk and turns to me. "Once we cross this ward line, there's no going back." I nod sharply.

"Take me to the muggles, I need to use it as a starting point."


"You're an animagus, right? A wolf?" Robards asks me as we travel through the trees. We are spread out a bit, but still in talking distance.

"That's right." I don't look at him as I'd rather not take my eyes off of our surroundings.

"And that's how you track?"

"Something like that." My smirk goes unseen in the low light.

We come across a red trail path, although the red is clearly blood. The strewn body parts and torn clothes make it hard to tell how many people were killed, but the larger chunks further away, torsos, mean that they tried to run. I transform quickly and make a show of sniffing various parts of the ground. I spin back into a human after a long and distant howl reaches us.

"The good news is that I can find him." I say, drawing my wand. "Bad news – He's toying with us. We are being hunted." I turn to the team and walk across the bloodied ground. "What tools have you got?" I gesture to the bags they carry.

"Reinforced chains, cuffs and nets. The beacon for the others to pick us up err." The man digs through the bag. "We all carry silver darts to banish at targets and-"

"Silver darts?" I smack my forehead. "Let me see what you carry them in. Please." He, Marcus, looks at Robards, who nods, then hands me a long pouch. Tanned leather, 8 inches long and not enchanted. Bloody hell. "Greyback can smell silver from a mile off. Don't you have a special task force to combat werewolves?"

"No, not really." Robards shifts a bit as I stare at him. The others continue to watch the trees for movement.

"Great." I pace around, running my fingers through my hair before transforming again. "He's getting closer, I can smell him on the wind." I say after changing back. "If we'd done this right, you could have hidden so he wouldn't have known where to find us and we could've caught him by surprise." Another howl. "Ill equip and being hunted. We are sitting ducks."

"Spread out, wands up, people!" Robards calls out. "Deadly force not authorised. We need the target alive." I'm working with employees of a bunch of imbeciles, these guys are hardly at fault for their superiors decisions.

"We don't have a lot of time." I mutter, pouring the darts onto the floor and kneeling down.

"Potter, wand up! We don't need a tracker any more, but another wand would be useful." He growls. I bend the first dart into a ring and hold my ring to the break. There is a spark and the two ends weld together. I thread the next dart through the ring and repeat the weld, slowly forming a silver chain.

"500 meters." I say loudly. The air prickles around us.

"Incoming!" One shouts, firing off a spell as I stand up. A dark mass darts out of the trees and knocks the Auror down, quickly evading another spell and leaping at another. I launch the makeshift silver chain with a depulso and it smacks against the werewolf's torso, but not coiling around. He gets knocked away, giving us a moment to breath. I fire a blasting hex at the downed wolf, but he recovers and the tree explodes behind him.

"Robards, either you kill him or he will kill someone here." I stress as Greyback darts towards me. I wait until he is a couple of metres and hit him with an impedimenta, freezing him mid-leap, before firing a powerful banisher at him, hurling the large wolf into the distance. "Robards!"

"Absolutely not!" He shouts. "Form up around Edwards!" The others form a circle around the downed man, hovering their hands by their silver dart pouches. Greyback reappears from the trees and dives at the bundle of Aurors. I see his jaws bite down on the woman's arm and fire a cutting hex. It skims just past the snout and severs the arm. Fuck. This. I spray fire out of my wand straight at Greyback, it snakes around the Aurors as I approach, forming a wall around us and Greyback. I crouch beside the woman, now cradling her arm, as the others fire various hexes at Greyback.

"Give me your arm." I say gently, prying her hand away from the stump. It hit perfectly and cut cleanly just above the elbow. If she's lucky, the virus didn't spread fast enough and, as it was just a diffindo, they can regrow the arm. If she's not so lucky, they can still regrow the arm. I flick my wand and seal the skin up – A temporary measure, but she won't bleed out. I whirl around spread the fire more, setting the trees on fire and using charms to knock the trees down, creating a wall of burning wood to trap Greyback, and us, in the area. Albus isn't going to be happy with the wide area damage, but better this than an Auror dying.

"What are you doing?! We'll roast alive in here!"

"You said no deadly force." I snap at Robards. "So I'll do your damn job for you." I snatch his bag of chains and lay a cooling charm around the Aurors before transforming into a wolf and jumping through the flames.

"Grrrr." Greyback growls as he watches me. The clearing is surrounded by tall fires, we are trapped in here … but he is trapped in here with me. He makes the first move, jumping at me. I transform in a split second and, now being much smaller, he sails over me. I flick my wand and some of the burning logs shift around, rolling towards each other and forming into a large golem whilst Greyback recovers from his failed attack. I'd be an idiot to fight him as a wolf when I have an alternative.

"Rwaaaa!" The golem lumbers (heheh) forward and swipes at Greyback, who deftly dodges the, purposefully clumsy, transfiguration. I could kill him in a hundred ways, shatter his skull or transfigure a spike from the floor, cut his head off or crush him, but they want him alive, to pay for his crimes. God damn it. I hear a noise behind me and side step, avoiding being crushed by a burning tree. Greyback takes this opening to leap at me.

"Accio!" I can't help but shout the incantation. The silver chain hurtles through the air like a speeding bullet and wraps around Greyback's neck as I point my wand at him. I note that my golem falls apart whilst I retrieve the chains from Robards' bag. The ministry buys these from a company that manufactures enchanted chains and other such things. Greyback writhes on the floor, gnashing his teeth as the silver burns his skin. I flick my wand and the chains coil around him. I turn my wand skywards – This is a terrible idea, but if I don't do it then the muggles will see the smoke and be suspicious. "Tempus pluvia hic est, tempus pluvia hic est, tempus pluvia hic est." My wand kicks back as I stop chanting, knocking me onto my back. Very tiring. The spell roughly translates to 'This is the time for rain'. Whilst not a true weather-modifying charm, it does cause a lot of rain, but without the clouds. The first few drops land on my face as I lay on my back. I grope for my wand and make a large sweeping motion to extinguish as much of the fire as I can before holstering my wand and closing my eyes.

Class 5 magical creature. I'm not getting paid enough for this shit.

"There we are, Mr Robards." I shout. "Activate that damn beacon and put more chains on our friend here-" I cough as a sharp pain heads through my chest. I open my eyes to look down at my now bloodied hand, I hadn't noticed the scratch on my chest. Must've been from when he leapt over me. All of this damage because they wanted to carry silver with them. I hear them jingling chains about nearby. One of them kneels beside me, I open my eyes. It's the woman that was bitten. Fletcher.

"Thank you." She says, still cradling her arm. "I know why you did this-" She motions to her arm. "-and even if it doesn't work, I appreciate your efforts."

"At least it wasn't your wand arm." I push myself to sit up and draw my wand again. "Give me some light."

"Lumos." She mutters, casting a small shaft of light onto me.

"Chest." I say as I unbutton my shirt. The cut starts just below the bottom of my sternum and extends up to my left collar bone. Thankfully werewolf claws are really sharp, so the skin was sliced and not torn. "I don't think you are infected." I tell her as I retrieve a silver dart from the pouch. "If you were, I wouldn't have been able to seal that wound without silver. I admit that I'm not an expert, but your heart wouldn't have even managed a single beat in the time it took to remove your arm, but I might be wrong." I hiss as I massage the newly powdered silver into my cut, no sense in bleeding out. It's not particularly deep, but most of the blood is being washed away by the rain. "Dittany?"

"The extraction team will have some." I nod and lay back down in the mud. That rain dance really took it out of me. "You made it rain." Fletcher, Joanne Fletcher, says in what appears to be disbelief.

"Stranger things have happened." I say, watching as the wards peel down from the sky. So tired. I close my eyes, I've earned some rest. I get shaken a minute later.

"Potter." A gruff voice. Moody. I open my eyes and am treated to a more close up view of Mad-Eye than anyone would ever want. "And get that wand away from my throat." I blink and realise that my wand is pushed into his chin.

"Shouldn't wake somebody asleep in the mud." I grumble, sitting up again. Albus is over with Scrimgeour and the other Aurors. Fudge himself is even here.

"Shame you weren't up when Albus was giving 'em a good bollocking." Moody laughs and helps me to my feet. "Silver in open storage." He scoffs. "Not in my day, no siree. Nice catch on that one." He slaps my shoulder as we join the others.

"Are the others OK?" I ask, causing Albus to smile and nod.

"The healers agree that you have saved Miss Fletcher a great deal of grief by removing her arm." His eyes twinkle. "Are you well?"

"All good, Chief." I give him a lazy salute. "Remind me to thank whoever sealed my cut." I trace my finger across the scar. "I have to ask though, Why send 6 Aurors after one of the most dangerous criminals in the British Isles?" I pace around a bit, absorbing Albus' 'bollocking'.

"I understand that most of the forces are tied up with the world cup, but had it not been for the actions of Mister Potter, we would have been burying six fine Aurors." Fudge looks flustered at the speech and Albus' disapproving look.

"I know the Aurors are spread thin." I try not to smile. "But if Greyback had gotten to the World Cup, the damage he could cause with a wand..." I trail off as Madame Bones arrives and approaches Fudge.

"Minister, your presence is requested at the Ministry." She says quickly. Fudge looks relieved to get away from us.

"Dumbledore, Mister Potter – Thank you again for your services!" He calls out as he retreats after Bones. Albus lets out a sigh.

"Well … Never a dull day." I bite my lip as I smile. "Could you take me back to Diagon Alley? I have a feeling the more painful part of tonight awaits me at home."


A/N: Shoulda been out yesterday, but i rewrote it, sorry! The first edition just wasn't good.

Let me know how you think Harry did. He didn't want to pull out the big guns because a lot of what he knows how to do is dark dark magic, which isn't something any sane person would use in the company of Aurors. So he got another thing to his name with the detainment of Fenrir Greyback and hey, chicks dig scars.

The Ministry is comprised of idiots led by idiots.

Enjoy!