-- Kayli --

Oh, dear God.

It was on our agenda to drop by the Minister of Magic's office in St. Paul today. Yes, the center of the magical community in the United States is St. Paul. Why, I have no idea. Maybe because it's sort of in the middle of the country?

Well, apparently someone beat us to him.

I carefully crouch down next to the body, automatically checking for a pulse, even though there's no way he's alive. He's more…in pieces. He looks like he was torn apart by a wild animal.

Behind me, Harry makes a choked sound, and Hermione says, her voice clear and even, "excuse me, I think I'm going to vomit."

Gotta love the British.

My stomach's fine. I've seen worse. Having the occasional severed head thrown at you will toughen up your stomach in a hurry, believe me. I lean closer to the body, carefully breathing through my mouth so that I don't have to smell him. He's probably been dead about a day, I reckon, but somebody thoughtfully left the heat off, so the body's frozen.

Winter in Minnesota. Brr. Kinda makes me feel stupid for bitching about Caradhras. That was a vacation, compared to this. Well, except for entering Moria, and the 'fell voice' and nearly getting hit by rocks.

On second thought, I don't feel stupid for bitching about Caradhras. Actually, I feel pretty justified.

Legolas crouches next to me, examining the teeth marks on one ...bit. "If I didn't know better, I would say that this was the work of a warg," he says softly. "The teeth -- they are not those of an ordinary wolf."

I shake my head. "Jaw's too long," I reply. "Just too damn big, really. But check this out," I add, and poke the dead man's shoulder. "These, here, on the one shoulder. They almost look human."

Legolas looks thoroughly revolted.

I nod. "Yeah. So...not a warg, not a wolf. Werewolf."

"Aye," he murmurs. "Are such creatures truly so common here?"

I shrug helplessly. "Love, I ain't got the foggiest. I mean, I don't even know who to ask."

Harry swallows hard. "Is there some way we can contact Remus?"

I look up at him and shrug. "I have no idea. Why?"

"Remus is a werewolf."

I blink. "Oh. That explains the vibes."

Legolas nods. "Aye."

Harry blinks. "Vibes?"

I poke at another bit, checking out the bite -- this one looks about half-transformed. It's sad when somebody can be an expert on teethmarks and not be either an anthropologist or a crime scene investigator. Wargs and Orcs, man, Wargs and Orcs. "He just gives off a funny feeling, that's all. Like he's not completely human."

His eyes narrow. "Remus is human."

"Yeah," I reply. "That's why he turns into a wolf once a fucking month." I stand up and shake my head. "Forget it. Let's go back to the Headmistress and tell her what's happening."

It takes us about fifteen minutes to get back to the school, since we take the Floo Network. And that's not funky at all.

The Headmistress meets us in front of the fire. "You look troubled," she says immediately. "What happened?"

"Don't bank on the Minister backing you," I say dryly. "He's...let's just say he's not in the running anymore."

Her face goes pale. "Dead?"

Hermione nods. She's still a little green around the gills. "Yes."

"Very dead," Ron chimes in. "Extremely dead. The deadest person I ever saw."

"How?" she asks. "The Killing Curse?"

"I don't know what that is," I say, feeling pretty tired myself. "But unless it's very messy and has teeth, no."

I swear, she goes even paler. "Teeth?"

I nod. "Yeah. From what we could see of the bites, it was either more than one, or something that underwent a transformation. I'm leaning towards the second one, because you could see the variations in the bites. Longer teeth, elongated jaw."

"A werewolf!" the Headmistress exclaims. "Surely you're not serious! There aren't any of those...those creatures around here."

"How do you know?" I counter. "They look human most of the time, funky vibes or not. Unless you happen to catch one on a full moon, I don't know how you'd tell, unless they told you. Which is why we need to contact a friend of ours back at Hogwarts."

She glares. "There is a Werewolf Registry at the Ministry," she says, all snooty now. "Any one who is a werewolf is required to register."

"Right," I mutter. "Let's make their lives more difficult because they're fucking cursed. Great. Can we use whatever the magical version of a phone happens to be, please?"

She glares at us, but leads us to a fireplace without another word.

All right, this is just beyond funky. His head is in the fire. In the fire.

Wacky.

He blinks those funky eyes at us. "Harry? What is it?"

Harry shakes his head and looks at me. "I, uh, don't exactly know what to ask," he admits.

I nod and kneel down next to him. "The American Minister of Magic had an accident," I say, as dryly as possible. "An accident that involved something with lots of teeth."

He frowns. "There are a great many magical creatures that will eat a human if they're commanded to, or if they're kept hungry enough," he says.

"How many of them change shape?"

His face goes pale. I think, anyway. It's hard to tell if someone's pale when it looks like their head's on fire. "Only one."

I nod. "Does the local Big Bad have any of those ones?"

He looks thoughtful. "The only one I can think of -- right off-hand -- would be Fenrir Grayback," he says. "And if he's there, you need to be extremely careful."

"I take it he's not a nice guy."

Remus shakes his head. "No. He has...he tends to hunt the younger ones. Says their meat is ...well, he says..."

"The younger the meat, the more tender," I finish.

He nods.

"Bleck."

"So he hunts children," Legolas says, managing to put worlds of disgust in that one sentence. Good for you, honey.

Remus nods again.

I sigh. "All right. So, what we have is an extremely violent werewolf Death Eater with a penchant for little boys. Beautiful."

"That sounds...horrifically wrong," Hermione says.

"I thought it fit," I mutter. "Have you ever seen this guy, Remus?"

He hesitates, then nods. "Yes." He looks pained for a moment. I look back over my shoulder at the Headmistress.

"Would you excuse us, please?"

She looks offended. Yeah, I almost care. Without a word, she turns he back and stalks out.

Harry mutters something uncomplimentary under his breath.

"What did he just say?" Remus asks, looking confused.

"Something that he picked up from the twins, undoubtedly," I say, and give Harry a harsh look. "Something he's not gonna say again. Got it?"

Harry blushes and nods. "Sorry," he mutters.

"Anyway," I say, and lean forward. "Greyback. What's the story?"

"He considers it his mission to ...convert as many as possible," he says.

"To make them werewolves," I say.

He nods. "Yes. It's his goal to infect as many as he can. He prefers children, but he'll attack anyone. He's also...a bit cannibalistic."

"Ew," I say. "Not surprising, but gross."

He nods again, still pale. "He's used as a threat," he admits. "Against anyone who doesn't cooperate, either with him or with Voldemort."

"Scumbag," Ron says.

"Scumbag deluxe," I agree. "Scary guy with funky vibes. We'll keep our eyes open."

"Be careful," Remus says, his face very serious. "I mean it, Harry."

"I will be," he says. "I promise."

I ruffle Harry's hair and stand up. "We'll keep an eye on him," I say. "Legolas, we need to go talk to the Headmistress."

We leave Harry, Hermione, and Ron to say goodbye to Remus, or whatever.

"Well?" Legolas asks softly, when we're more or less out of earshot. "What did you hear that I did not?"

"Huh? Oh. Nothing important. Just the general vibes, you know."

"No, melisse, I do not."

"For somebody who avoids werewolves, he seemed to know an awful lot about Greyback."

Legolas nods. "Aye. 'Twas undoubtedly he who passed the curse on to Remus."

"See? I didn't hear anything you didn't."

"Then why do we need to speak to the Headmistress?" he asks, very calmly.

"We need to warn her this Greyback dude's around." I rake my hands back through my hair and blow out a frustrated breath. "If he's half as bad as Remus says he is -- and I got the sneaky suspicion he's a lot worse -- then we definitely need to warn them."

"Aye."

"Besides, maybe she'll know what the hell we're supposed to do next."

TBC...