Authors Note: Hello, I'm really rubbish at replying to reviews and comments. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has left me wonderful messages. You've left me grinning and so happy, inspiring me to do lots more writing this week. I really appreciate all of the kind words and I'm glad so many of you are enjoying this story as well as some of my other works. Thank you so much. 😊❤️
Greyback had been here alright was Draco's first thought as they appeared in the dense purple heather. It was moorland, the Peak or Mount Snowdon towered to the west, still snow-capped despite it being the end of August while towards the east a large lake stood; the rising sun reflecting off of its pristine surface. The scene would have been picturesque had it not been for the herd of mutilated, dismembered sheep. It was a bloodbath reminiscent of the time his cat Midnight had brought in a magpie as a child, tearing the creature to pieces; blood, feathers and flesh, covering the cream carpet in his mother's favourite sitting room. But this wasn't a small bird, this was at least two hundred ewes all off them dead and ripped to pieces: their white cotton fleeces-stained crimson.
"Fuck me," Derick Smethwick whistled, looking around at the carnage, his eyes wide. The brown haired Auror was still green having only passed Auror training a few months back. A mission like the one they faced today could make or break they young lad's career. Draco watched him with critical eyes. They had a task to accomplish, and Smethwick was new, untrustworthy, hadn't earned his right to be one of them yet. If he was too eager, he could fuck it up, if he froze in the face of the beast, he could fuck it up. There were a lot of ways he could fuck it up.
"Focus," Robards snapped. Smethwick nodded looking serious, an enthusiastic smile on his face; Draco fought a sneer reminiscent of the one he wore as a stuck-up bully in his youth. They had a job to do today.
"We tracked him to a farm, five miles north of here," Robards said pointing in the direction unnecessarily. "The objective remains the same; kill on sight. Don't play the hero, last time we faced him; two of our own died, three were bitten and Malfoy here got sliced to pieces," Robards said gesturing to Draco.
"Our plan is to divide into four teams; each team will approach the farmhouse from a different side, hopefully trapping him long enough to get him;" Harry said seriously.
Soon they were split into teams of four; each approaching the stone farmhouse from a different angle; Draco's team were approaching from the south of the property. In addition to Harry he had Hitwizard Samuel Pike, a lanky rat like man with strawberry blonde hair and Patricia Rhodes a dark haired slender Auror. He didn't care much for the Hitwizard, the man always grated on him, he was crass and rude, horrible to any one he considered beneath him. Patricia however was nice, always willing to help out and offer assistance; the blue-eyed woman had joined the Aurors five years ago and Draco thought the former Hufflepuff was a good sort of person.
"Advanced wards," Patricia breathed, holding her hand out to stop them. They were about a half mile out from the stone house and the zing of magic was palpable in the air.
"He didn't use wards last time," Harry commented.
"Didn't think he was still capable of using a wand," Draco spoke as he assessed the wards with his wand.
"If we break them, he'll know where here," Patricia said.
"Who gives a shit if he knows, lets blast them," the Hitwizard spoke, raising his wand to cast good only knows what curse at the wards.
"NO," Harry spoke firmly, glaring at the man, his emerald eyes enraged.
"We don't give him the chance to escape," Draco hissed.
"What's your plan then," the other man grunted.
"We don't break them, we find a crack and slip through undetected, there's always a week point, we'll break into it," he spoke quietly as he focused on feeling the magic, looking for the weakest point, to slip in without detection.
"Been on desk duty too long, not a real Auror anymore," Pike muttered.
"At least I got into the Auror's, how many times have they denied your transfer to our department, you don't have what it takes to do our job, even the mundane aspects like desk duty. Draco replied, his voice even.
"Malfoy is one of the best Auror's in our department and you will show him the respect he deserves," Harry reprimanded.
"Yes sir," Pike nodded, his face the picture of annoyance.
"Found it," he told them, his wand highlighting an airline crack in the ward structure, "We'll widen it and slip right in, unnoticed," he told them pulling the ward wide with his wand, it moved like an elastic band, stretching wide enough to form a small doorway.
"Let's get this done," Harry said, his face determined as he stepped through into the wolfs lair, Pike and Patricia following. Draco took a deep breath, twisted slightly so his wand still pointed at the wards and stepped through the open doorway allowing his spell to drop behind him, the wards pinging back into place, locking them within their confines.
"Hopefully the others have got in too," Patricia spoke quietly, her eyes scanning for signs of danger. A howl sounded loud and haunting, causing Draco to shiver, his spine straightening, his eyes sharp as he looked at a tree line on the other side of the clearing they'd stepped into. There was a pause, everything was silent and then the sound of echoing howls filled the air, responding to the call of the alpha.
"He has a pack," Patricia whispered, her wand arm shaking.
"How are they transformed, the moon isn't out, or full," Harry asked.
"We need to retreat," Draco cut in.
"Don't be a pussy, Malfoy, we have an objective," Pike hissed.
"We aren't prepared to face a pack, we came to get him and only him," Draco hissed in reply.
"All teams, retreat immediately," Robards voice echoed from a skylark patronus that swept into the open clearing they were in.
"See," Draco hissed, raising his wand to reopen the wards.
"AWOOOOOO," the sound came again, much closer than before, the hairs on the back of Draco's neck rising unwittingly in response to the chilling sound.
"BACK FOR ANOTHER ROUND BOY'S," a grizzly voice spoke, Draco twisted and there he was, not one hundred feet from them. Greyback looked feral; human in form yet unmistakably wolf like; his eyes were orange, thick fur sprouted out of his body, his hands were elongated, sharp claw like nails emitting from their tips while fresh crimson blood dripped from his mouth. Draco didn't want to wait around and find out whose blood it was not when he could see at least a dozen fully transformed werewolves in the woods behind him, their eyes glowing in the canopy of trees.
"Aim to kill," Harry hissed to Pike and Patricia as Draco focused on trying to reopen the wards.
"The cracks sealed itself completely," he groaned, switching tactics to dismantle them instead. He could hear his three comrades throwing killing curses and other dark curses at the monster as he worked, Greyback growling in outrage each time one came close to hitting home.
"What is that delectable smell, did you bring me a treat, did you bring me Granger, I've always wanted her, so sweet smelling," Greyback spoke his voice gravelly.
"Avada Kedavra," Draco hissed, spinning around and firing the curse at the wolf, Greyback laughed.
"I can smell her on you Malfoy, honeysuckle, jasmine and the scent of her skin," he spoke reverently as Draco fired another killing curse at him.
"Malfoy the wards," Harry reminded firmly.
"Bombarda," Draco fired, straight at the pearlescent structure they were encased in, blue spiderweb like cracks emitted from the point of contact his spell had made.
"So delicious, is she as sweet as she smells," the werewolf asked, approaching them with ese, avoiding each of the spells they cast at him.
"Don't talk about Hermione," he hissed, firing a curse, intending to burn the wolf from the inside out.
"Who'd of thought, young Malfoy defending a Mudblood, oh how you have fallen, I wonder, does the girl play mother to your son, sweet Scorpius abandoned by his birth mother, raised by a Mudblood, what would your ancestors say," the wolf laughed.
"Don't you ever speak of my son," he said, his voice quiet but thrumming with anger, both hands held out, one empty the other holding his shaking wand, he allowed the anger to consume him, sending the strength of his feelings through his body, releasing it in a wave of pure magic that blasted across the clearing, sending Greyback flying into a nearby tree, his head twisting to an unnatural angle, the earth quaking with the force of the blast, causing trees to fell and the werewolves in the trees to flee, yelping in fear, as their alpha died.
"What the fuck was that" Harry asked, his eyes wide and fixed on Draco, who grimaced, his body aching as his eye's rolled backwards as he collapsed to the floor.