This is for the Quidditch League Competition Round 4. Beater 1 for the Montrose Magpies. Prompt: write an adventure, society is faced with a large-scale disaster that looks like the end for mankind (this can be world-wide or localised, it's up to you)
Optional prompts: cat, Ron Weasley, and hollow (in this case, Godric's Hollow)
Word Count: 2755
I had a multichap going about Rolf and his hunt for the Nundu that let's be real, I'm never going to finish. So here's a little bit of that headcanon thrown in here.
"Anyone we know dead?" Ron asked casually over breakfast. It had been a few years since he'd made a habit of asking every morning. Life had been relatively peaceful, almost normal by wizarding standards, since Harry had defeated Voldemort. But recently, there had been an oddly high number of deaths within the Wizarding community that no one was able to explain. Harry, as head of the Auror office, was on the case, of course. But it was looking rather bleak.
Hermione studied the front page of the Prophet and stirred her tea mechanically.
"No one today," she said. "But now the Muggles are reporting a whole street of people found dead in their homes. It has to be the Avada Kedavra curse though! It just has to be."
Ron rolled his eyes. "Harry and Kingsley both said it isn't."
"But nothing else makes any sense!"
"The Healers at St. Mungo's say the victims all have mutilated lungs. Almost like they suffocated to death. Avada Kedavra doesn't do that."
"Why don't you help us figure out what is doing it then?" Hermione said hotly. "You always want to give us your opinion about how you'd do things even though you quit the Ministry. We could use all the help we can get, you know?"
"You and Harry were always the ones to figure things out," Ron reminded her. "I just helped execute a plan."
Hermione sighed, took one last glance at the Daily Prophet, and then made to get ready to leave for the Ministry.
"Please don't go anywhere today," she said. "Just work and home until we know what's happening."
"Not like I'm safer here than anywhere else. Most of these people were found at home."
"Don't talk like that, Ron, please," Hermione begged. "I just want to know where you are. I don't like going to work without you when things are so uncertain."
Ron grinned and got up to kiss her goodbye. "I'll be alright. I'm heading to the shop soon and I'll send an owl when I get home. Does that help?"
Hermione smiled weakly and nodded.
"Go on then."
She tossed some Floo powder into the fireplace and disappeared, leaving Ron to clean up before Apparating to the joke shop where it was so easy to forget the chaos happening in the rest of the world.
Ron was restocking the Daydream Charms when it happened. An owl swooped in through the joke shop door as a customer was leaving and came to rest on a shelf beside him. It held out a leg and Ron took the letter addressed to him in Charlie's writing.
Really, there was only a brief note at the top of a page that appeared to have been ripped out of a book. Hermione would be appalled. But as he read, Ron knew this is what the Ministry had been looking for.
"Hey, George! I… I have to go."
Without waiting for an answer, Ron ran out the door. He had to get to the Ministry.
Harry and Kingsley were in deep discussion when Ron arrived. He didn't bother to knock and rushed into Harry's office, holding out the page that Charlie had sent him.
"Charlie figured it out!" Ron said breathlessly. "He wasn't sure. Just had a hunch and sent this, but he's right. I know it."
He slammed the paper down onto Harry's desk and all three of them bent over it to read. The picture showed a giant cat, sort of like a spotted leopard, with deep yellow eyes and sharp teeth. Beneath this picture was the word Nundu.
Kingsley furrowed his brow.
"A Nundu here? That doesn't make sense. They're native to Africa. How would it have gotten here?"
Ron shrugged. "I dunno but read what it says here. The breath of the Nundu is toxic. It contaminates the air you breathe and is lethal… can wipe out entire villages. And St. Mungo's did say it damaged the victims' lungs. What if they breathed the contaminated air? It fits, doesn't it?"
"Yeah," Harry said. "Yeah, it really does. So how do we stop it? And what do we do with it once we capture it?"
"It says there it takes about a hundred Stunning spells to take one down," Ron replied.
"Oh, is that all? Perfect." Harry sat in his chair and rubbed the scar on his forehead out of habit. "Why can't we just play it some music the way we did for Fluffy? That would have been so much easier."
"Fluffy?" Kingsley asked.
Harry shook his head. "Long story."
There was a pause while they all thought about what could be done. Not only did Stunning a Nundu seem an impossible task, but there was the question of what to do with it once they found it. Take it back to where it came from? Where had it come from? Where was it now?
Ron started to shift toward the door.
"Well, I, er… ought to be getting back. I promised Hermione. Just thought I'd drop that off."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "You're the one who figured it out."
Ron could feel his ears turn red, and he shrugged. "Charlie did, actually. Figured I'd help."
"Yeah, it's great help. We need all the help we can get now that we know we need a hundred or so Stunners. Come back as an Auror for the day."
"I don't know…"
Harry wasn't easily deterred. He pocketed the piece of paper and assured Kingsley they were on the right track before practically dragging Ron out into the corridor. "You know for being my friend, you have a terrible sense of adventure. We've been through worse than this. Let's go find Hermione and see if she has any ideas."
Hermione looked up from her desk, startled at the sight of Ron.
"Changed your mind then?" she asked.
"Look at this."
Harry smoothed out the page on the Nundu and handed it to Hermione. As soon as she saw the picture, she slapped a hand to her forehead.
"Of course! I should have remembered. This is from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I must have read it ten times!"
Ron shook his head in admiration. He really didn't understand how she could retain any information with all the reading she did. It seemed when she wasn't working, she was reading. Just like in school.
He leaned over her shoulder and reread the Nundu's description.
"So besides his breath being deadly, is it all that dangerous? I mean, is it… aggressive?"
Ron decided it probably was. He had enough experience with giant animals to last him a lifetime. At least this time it wasn't acromantulas. However, a giant wild African cat wasn't much better in his opinion.
Hermione shrugged. "How could it even have gotten here, though?"
"I'll tell you how," a voice said from the doorway.
Ron, Harry and Hermione turned around to see a short, severe looking witch with her wand out and pointed at a wizard in tattered clothes. He was rather dirty, and his face and arms were scarred, and his expression was murderous.
The witch prodded him with the end of her wand and stepped forward, hands clasped together like a schoolboy being brought before the headmaster.
"This idiot brought a Nundu into the country and thought he could hide what he's done."
She reached out and shook all their hands.
"Ingrid Kane. Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. I'm sorry to barge in but I thought I ought to go directly to you, Mr. Potter, and I was told you were here."
"Thank you," Harry said. "I'll take it from here."
Once Ingrid had left, the man started into a rambling explanation.
"It was an accident, I swear!"
From the scars Ron could see, he had a feeling this man had accidents all the time.
"It's been hunting me. Or rather I was hunting it. Anyway, I think now we're hunting each other. He has it out for me. One of its claws hooked into my shirt when I was taking a Portkey back here from Uganda. Last I saw, it was in Godric's Hollow."
Ron looked to Harry who was still rubbing his scar, lost in thought. Hermione was still sitting at her desk horrified.
"I thought I could take care of it myself. Didn't want to bother anyone. My responsibility."
"What's your name, anyway?" Ron asked.
"Rolf Scamander."
Hermione perked up in interest. "A Scamander?"
Rolf rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Not important. I have a plan. If you'll help me, we can get it back to Uganda where it belongs and I can worry about killing it later."
"Kill it?" Ron said. "How do you expect to do that? It takes a hundred wizards just to stun it!"
"None of your business," Rolf growled.
Hermione stood up. "What do we do?"
Rolf sighed. "We need a Portkey. A big one. Something a cat would want to play with. Nundus are like any other cats really. Just more deadly when they're in a foul mood. And this one is especially vicious. Though now it's likely scared since it's not in the jungle anymore. Scared is worse than angry, actually."
"So a toy a cat would play with," Ron said. He immediately thought of Crookshanks. That cat terrorized the house, though Hermione would never accuse Crookshanks of any mischief. He could do no wrong in her eyes. But even she couldn't deny that it was he who was tearing at the shoelaces on all of their trainers.
"What about string? A ball of string even?"
"Brilliant!" Rolf said, clapping his hands together. "This may be tricky. The timing has to be just right. I'll have to arrange it with, ah, Ingrid."
Hermione grinned. "Perhaps I should talk to her."
Rolf agreed. "She's not very happy with me so that might be best."
Hermione left, and the rest of them sat down to finish making plans.
"You sure this is going to work?" Ron asked.
It was nearing midnight. Ron and Rolf were sitting on the stone steps of the church in Godric's Hollow. Harry and Hermione were across the way by the Potters' old house. In the middle of the square by the statue of James and Lily was the Portkey. Hermione had used an Engorgement charm on a ball of yarn. The plan seemed fine on paper, but in actuality it seemed rather juvenile.
Rolf lit a cigarette and peered out into the darkness.
"As long as the charm on the Portkey works. Your little girlfriend said she fixed it so the first one to touch it gets sent back. So don't go near it if you can help it. Wait! Listen…"
They fell quiet and Ron heard it too. The unmistakable sound of a cat purring filled the square. The sound vibrated the very earth they stood on, and Ron wondered how a cat so huge would stay hidden for so long. But then he saw it. Or he thought he saw it.
In the darkness it was but a shadow, stealthily making its way down the street. In spite of its size, it could move quietly enough that one wouldn't even notice it were it not for the purring. But then it stopped, and crouched low, curling up between two houses. The glint of its yellow eyes was faint in the light of a crescent moon.
"It smells me," Rolf said.
Ron regretted choosing to be Rolf's partner. He suspected he would be much more safe with Harry or Hermione. Rolf didn't appear to have much sense of self preservation, nor did he seem to be concerned about the rest of them.
"Why is it hunting you?" Ron whispered.
"Because I was hunting it first," Rolf said simply.
"Okay, why were you hunting it first then?"
Rolf took another drag from the cigarette, and sniffed. He gave Ron a sideways look.
"I knew who you three were right away. Not because of the You-Know-Who stuff. That's old news. No, I knew an old classmate of yours. I suppose no one back here heard what happened to Luna Lovegood, eh?"
This certainly got Ron's attention. "Luna? You knew Luna? She went off to look for Crumplehorned Snorcacks last anyone knew."
"Silly girl," Rolf said with gruff fondness. "She was a natural with magical creatures. Even if half the time she talked nonsense. Never found her Crumplehorned Snorcacks. Helped me catch a few Erumpents once."
Ron let the man reminisce, but there was a heaviness in the pit of his stomach because he knew what was surely coming next. They were speaking of Luna in the past tense, which could only mean…
"This is the Nundu that got her," Rolf said. In the pale light, his eyes gleamed with a few tears. "And one of these days, he'll be mine. Sorry you got dragged into this. This was meant to be my project, no one else's. Ingrid nearly killed me, when she found out."
A lump began to form in Ron's throat. He had always liked Luna. A bit mad, but she had been a good friend. She'd helped on so many adventures. It almost seemed fitting that she'd died doing what she loved. It was a shame she never found the creatures she wanted. Even if they weren't real, Ron lamented it.
Just then the shadow across the way began to move. It crawled low, and a tail swished behind it. One paw reached out and then another, the yellow eyes focused on where they were sitting.
"Let's get closer," Rolf whispered. "We want it to go for the Portkey."
Ron hesitated, but followed close behind Rolf, his legs shaking. And then several things happened at once. The Nundu pounced, launching its great shadowy body into the air and landed with a small thud in the middle of the square. From where Harry and Hermione were hidden, a red beam of light shot across the square and bounced off the Portkey, hitting the Nundu on its flank. The spell did nothing to hurt the cat, but thankfully it did distract him. His eyes shifted from Rolf to the ball of string. Rolf ran with Ron on his heels, both of them covering their mouths and noses with their cloaks. They came closer to the Portkey and managed to get on to the other side of it while the Nundu paced.
Another red beam of light glanced off the Portkey and hit the statue in the middle of the square instead.
"Sorry!" Hermione squeaked.
The Nundu turned at the sound of her voice and Ron's heart leapt in his chest.
"Oy!" he yelled, no longer thinking clearly. "Over here!"
"What are you doing?" Rolf growled.
The Nundu looked from the Potters' house to the Portkey and back. Before Ron could do anything else, Rolf had shoved him to the ground and ran straight for the Nundu, holding his robes to his mouth. The Nundu pounced once and for all, claws reaching for something meaty. One paw landed on the ball of string and the other got caught in Rolf's robes, and in an instant they disappeared with a flash.
Ron slowly stood up, his breath knocked out of him. He leaned against what was left of the statue and Harry and Hermione came running up to him.
"You all right, mate?" Harry asked.
Hermione threw her arms around Ron's neck in spite of his struggle to stand. He rubbed her back reassuringly.
"I'm sorry I was cross with you this morning," she cried. "You were so brave. You're not hurt?'
"No," Ron said. He looked at the place where Rolf and the Nundu had disappeared. "You don't suppose he's okay though?"
"We can find out later," Harry said. "Let's go home. We'll sort things out in the morning."
"Yeah," Ron agreed. He held Hermione tighter still, thankful they'd survived another ridiculous adventure.
He thought of Luna, and the sadness hit him once more. He'd wait til the morning to tell the others what he'd learned. Even though he knew it wasn't true, bad news seemed easier to swallow in the morning.
Far away, Rolf threw off his tattered robes and tended to his wounded arm, sure that it would leave another scar to join the rest. From the safety of his hut he could hear distant purring. This battle was over, but his own personal war had just begun.