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Scarlet

"You want me to interrogate Wolf?" Scarlet asked Kai.

""Interrogate" isn't the word I would use. Just… question him."

"That's interrogation Kai!"

"Interrogation makes it sound like you're going to force him to talk. All you have to do is ask him questions."

"Like we haven't invaded his privacy enough already." Scarlet muttered under her breath

"We've never invaded his privacy!" Kai exclaimed.

"We literally sent someone to follow him and find out his deepest darkest secret."

Kai scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well, I guess when you put it like that we have kinda invaded his privacy…"

"Kinda?"

"But this isn't about Wolf's personal feelings anymore Scarlet. I am not exaggerating when I say that it's life or death if we don't follow through on this promise to the centaurs. Wolf knows more about the werewolf situation than anyone besides the teachers, and he's probably the only one who'll be willing to help us."

"What about Professor Clay? Or my grand-mère? They wouldn't be happy about forcing werewolves to shapeshift prematurely."

"Yes, which is why their knowledge of the situation will be limited. The higher-ups in the school wouldn't want them to be in on what exactly they're doing. My guess is that they know some of the students are werewolves and that's it."

Scarlet folded her arms and looked away defiantly. "I still don't like it. Wolf's made it very clear that he hates the fact that he's a werewolf and prefers not to think about it. Now you want me to talk to him about it at length?"

"We don't really have much of a choice at this point Scarlet." Kai said.

She sighed. She knew he was right. That didn't mean it didn't make her want to punch something.

Scarlet trudged through the seemingly endless hallways of Artemisia, occasionally shooting a glance at an empty classroom. The pristine cleanliness of the castle walls made her want to kick dirt all over their stones. Unfortunately, the floor was just as clean. She glared at the hallway behind her, cursing it's bright, shining surface and wishing she'd jumped in a few mud puddles before she came down here. Scattering filth over the building's relentless cleanliness would be a good outlet for the rage bubbling inside of her.

She huffed and tugged the red hood of her sweatshirt over her head. Woe to that unfortunate student who'd dare to say "hi" to her. Best case scenario, they'd learn a whole repertoire of new cuss words.

Eventually, Scarlet's mindless trudging led her to the library. She sighed, and silently prayed that Wolf would be doing his homework in his room. At least then she'd be able to put off seeing the hurt and self-loathing in his eyes for a little while longer.

Her shoulders slumped with disappointment when she saw him hunkered over one of the library's work tables, scowling at a textbook. Occasionally, he'd take a note on a piece of paper.

Forcing a grin, she walked over to him. "Hey, what'cha doing?"

Wolf gave her a slight smile. "Just homework. Got a lot of Potions work to do."

"You're actually bothering to do it?" Scarlet asked, pulling up a chair beside him.

"Well I don't want detention, do I?"

"Suit yourself. Hey, mind if I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

His innocent ignorance caused Scarlet to wince.

She lowered her voice. "It's about your… condition."

Instantly, Wolf's expression changed from almost happy to afraid and wary. His shoulders tensed and his eyes flashed at Scarlet like a cornered animal.

She shifted uncomfortably. This was already off to a bad start. "Last month, some friends of mine, though they are also your friends, snuck into the Black Woods to find out why the centaurs were being so hostile."

"Mhmm." Wolf grunted in reply. His fingers drummed rapidly on the table.

Scarlet ploughed on. "Yeah, well, turns out the reason they were so ticked off was because of all the werewolves running around so my friends kinda ended up promising they would get rid of all the werewolves-"

"I know."

She blinked at him in surprise. "You… know?"

He turned his head, avoiding her gaze. "I was there."

Oh yeah, the other's said that the werewolf looked a bit like Wolf.

"Right sorry." Scarlet cleared her throat. "Anyway, that night wasn't a full moon and we were just wondering why you… changed your look on that night."

Wolf looked up at her, his face blank. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Scarlet opened her mouth. To argue? To apologise? She wasn't sure what were the words forming in her mouth, but before she could speak them, Wolf slid over a sheet of paper he was writing on. "I think I got some of these ingredients wrong. Can you check them for me?"

Scarlet took the sheet. "Uh… sure?"

She scanned over the messy writing scrawled chaotically all over the paper. At the bottom, written in large, bold letters, was a sentence that had no place on Potions homework.

THEY USE A SPELL.

Scarlet's eyes widened. She glanced at Wolf, who looked back at her innocently.

She grabbed his quill. "I think I see something you recorded wrong. Here, let me show you."

She scribbled hastily underneath his message: WHAT'S THE INCANTATION?

Scarlet slid the paper back over to him. He gazed at the paper and frowned. "I thought that was for Veritaserum. Don't you use bezoars in Polyjuice potion?"

Scarlet hadn't the faintest idea, and she doubted Wolf did either, but she played along. "Well, why don't you write down the recipe and let me check it?"

He nodded and wrote something down.

When he passed the paper back to her, it said: DON'T KNOW. THEY NEVER SAY IT. ALL I KNOW IS THEY NEED A WEIRD SILVER BALL TO MAKE IT WORK.

Scarlet nodded and smiled. "Yep, that looks good."

Inside, she was frowning. Weird silver ball? What kind of weird silver ball?

A/N: Finally, several loose threads of story are coming together!

We finally know how the school's been turning kids into werewolves when it wasn't the full moon. How will the gang use this info? And how much longer will the centaurs give them?

Please review!