Werewolf-B-Gone

My momentary cleanliness, unfortunately, did not last long. Several days spent locked in the underground prison meant the effects of Xavier's spell wore off rapidly, and I soon found myself caked once more in grime.

Al still had not moved, and, although I tried everything, he did not wake. I hadn't had human contact in days, now, as Xavier had not returned.

The boulder let out a loud protest, interrupting me from my thoughts. That was odd. The giant's hand had already given me the day's ration of water and gruel. What was going on?

Xavier appeared again, smelling of fresh air and winter. I could have wept at the smell.

"What? Come back to gloat?" I jeered, but the frailty of my voice detracted somewhat from the barb.

Xavier ignored me, and I noticed for the first time the panicked look in his eyes. Fear gripped my heart tightly.

He strode forward, kicking the emptied bowl to the side, and unlocked my chains with a few decisive flicks of his wand.

I collapsed to the ground, my knees protesting at the sharp impact, and rubbed gingerly at my chafed wrists.

"What-?" I began.

He moved towards Al, his wand raised and his jaw set. I surged forward, reaching up desperately to block whatever curse he was about to cast with my body -

Xavier knocked me to the side easily. "I am trying to help you," he hissed and sent a wave of pulsing blue magic towards the Auror.

"Why?" I demanded, but I fell silent when Al began to stir. Hope pulled me to my feet and sent me stumbling forward as Al's eyes shot open, his eyes gleaming green in the dim light of the cave.

"Al," I breathed, and this time I did cry, silent tears tracing streaks down my cheeks.

"Stop blubbering," Xavier snapped, waving his wand at the chains holding Al to the ceiling.

Even Xavier's animosity couldn't stop me from grinning foolishly. I ran forward, cupping my dirt-stained hands around Al's equally dirty cheeks. The Auror slumped forward, looking disoriented. Merlin, he was so skinny, now. I could feel the sharp lines of his jaw, and his cheekbones were even more prominent than usual. I wrapped his arm around my shoulder, supporting him awkwardly as he tried to get his bearings. I felt anger simmer deep in my stomach, and I whirled towards Xavier.

"Why?" I demanded again, suspicion building. "Why free us? And don't tell me it was out of the goodness of your heart because we both know that's not true."

Xavier glared and, without breaking eye contact, rummaged in his pack for a moment before extracting two wands, one short, the other slender.

"Here," he said roughly, tossing the wands. I caught them, my fingers clenching tight around the smooth wood. My eyes fluttered shut at the answering surge of magic that surged through my veins. Merlin, I'd missed my wand. I had felt its absence like a missing limb, and to have it back now was invigorating, to say the least.

I turned to Xavier, who was looking at us strangely, and disarmed him with a flick of my wand. He scowled.

"I'm helping you - oh, forget it. You - we - don't have time for explanations. The guards will be here any moment," Xavier said and stepped forward, reaching for Al. I backed away automatically, raising my wand.

Xavier made another impatient sound. "You're too short - I'll help him. You'll only slow us down."

Numberita reluctantly concluded that he had a point there. I relinquished my hold on Al, watching the wizard carefully, and said, "Lead the way."

We ran - or stumbled, more accurately - through the long, rocky corridor. The piles of bones, I noted distantly, were gone, and the torches flickered dangerously as we careened past.

At the tunnel's mouth, Xavier held up a hand, his face pale.

"What is it?" I hissed, trying to see past him. He cursed and, shoving Al roughly towards me, reached into his satchel again. I staggered under the Auror's weight, clumsily transferring the three wands to my other hand.

"This" Xavier said, displaying a velvet pouch, "contains a Portkey that will take you back to Diagon Alley. Ragnuk is positioning the giants to surround the Ministry building and St. Mungo's for a joint attack later tonight. You need to warn them."

You need to warn them. "You're not coming with us?" I said, still staggering under Al's weight.

He shook his head. "No. I - I'm a traitor. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life in jail."

"Xavier-"

"Adela, stop. Just - just tell Kate I'm sorry, okay? Please?"

I studied him for a long moment before nodding.

"And - I'm sorry for this, too," he said and, before I could react, snatched his wand from my hand and upended the pouch's contents into my palm.

As I felt the Portkey's cool metal surface touch my skin, I had just enough time to see the troubled, almost guilty expression on Xavier's face.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Diagon Alley was, if at all possible, in even worse shape than I remembered. Although the sun shone bright above us, the streets were deserted. Angry gashes broke up the cobblestone, and every storefront featured broken windows. Abandoned debris - bags, books, clothing - formed large, misshapen clumps on the streets, and the air smelled strongly of ash. Stray flyers spun in the wind and, reaching up, I snatched one as it drifted past.

ROY'S WEREWOLF-B-GONE™ REPELLANT: PROVEN 75% EFFECTIVE*.

At the bottom, in print so small I had to hold the page a scant two centimeters away to decipher it, it read: *NOTE: ROY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY BEHEADINGS, MAIMINGS, DEVOURINGS, MUTILATIONS-

I flung the flyer away.

"Come on," I muttered, touching Al's arm. "We need to get out of the open."

He nodded mutely, following me as I crept towards the nearest building, a bookstore that looked like it had seen more than its fair share of damage. He was being uncharacteristically silent, but I supposed it made sense - he had, after all, been unconscious for the past several weeks. He was bound to be feeling disoriented.

We crouched behind a large pile of crumbling bricks, and I willed Numberita to create a plan that would not get us both killed. Normally, I would say that this should be an easy task - after all, avoiding death isn't too much to ask for, is it? Right, don't answer that question.

Al lifted something - a doll's head, I realised with a start - from the bricks and grimaced, tossing it away.

The doll's porcelain head clattered loudly as it collided against the cobblestone road, and I winced. Al usually wasn't that careless, but then again, the cave, the imprisonment, the fainting…

"Okay, Al, you need to contact the Ministry," I whispered, turning to the Auror. I'd seen him use the small communications device before, and I knew it was sewn into the hem of his shirt.

He looked blankly at me, his green eyes uncomprehending. Merlin.

I reached for his shirt, and he tensed, his hands balling into fists. I froze immediately and slowly, slowly, withdrew my hand. "Al, I need you to reach for the dev-"

Before I could continue my sentence, a small, tinny voice began to sing, "Frère Jacques! Frère Jacques! DORMEZ-VOUS? DORMEZ-VOUS?"

That blasted doll was going to get us caught. Just as I was calculating the risks of blowing it up with a hex, an alarm began to blare loudly, the harsh sound careening against the abandoned brick buildings.

I flattened myself against the ground instinctively, pulling Al down with me, as panic began to cloud my mind. How had a doll triggered such a loud siren? Where was the sound even coming from?

I got my answer soon enough: three runners - one female, two male - came bursting out of a tall marble building at the far end of the street. They sprinted towards our direction (of course), and I tensed, raising my wand -

"Wait," Al hissed, grabbing my arm. My wand scraped against the bricks, and I wheeled towards the Auror. "What?"

The runners were now only eighteen and a half meters away. They would pass our hiding place at any moment, and Al had told me to wait?

The Auror, however, did not respond, and I turned back to the street, brow furrowed. Note to self: get a healer to examine Al.

I squinted at the runners. Something felt off about them. They looked young - mid-twenties at most - and were grinning maniacally, but that wasn't what was bothering Numberita…

They weren't carrying wands, I realized with a start. They were clearly running from something, but they were weaponless. Unless...I crept forward, narrowing in on the strange black contraptions they clutched in their hands. Were - were those guns?

Muggles. No, I corrected myself, watching as the trio sprinted through the rubble. They were too at ease with the Wizarding paraphernalia swirling around them to be Muggles. I thought of Luke, and my stomach soured. They were Squibs.

Before I had time to process fully this new development, I heard two loud cracks.

"Someone just Apparated in," I muttered, looking wildly around the street for the two newcomers.

Al was staring at the Squibs, the oddest expression on his face. "Al."

He looked at me, and his hair was so endearingly rumpled that it was all I could do not to smooth it away. "Help me look for the wizards," I said, my exasperation cut somewhat by the bewildered expression on his face.

"Oh. Alright," he said blankly.

Merlin, he was acting weird. I was still angry with him about Aleksandra and a number of other things, but that didn't mean I didn't care about him.

"Al, what-"

A bolt of scarlet light came flying from one of the windows of the building directly opposite our hiding spot. The Squibs yelled, dodging the hex. The woman climbed on top of a fallen sofa and, aiming carefully, pointed her gun in the direction of the spellcaster.

The gun went off with a startlingly loud bang, and I cursed as large plumes of dust began to spill from the building. If we didn't get out soon, we would be stuck in the middle of a potentially deadly battle.

Another jet of scarlet light shot at the woman, but this time the spell came from the other end of the street. The hex hit one of the men - the shorter one - in the arm, and he howled, half-stumbling.

"That'll show you!" cried a familiar voice.

"Rose," I breathed, staring widely as a woman with wild red hair came running down the street. She brandished her wand with startling dexterity, flinging hex after hex at the Squibs. She looked like a soldier. How much had changed while we were gone?

The second man aimed his gun at my best friend, and the sight spurred me to action. Leaping over the pile of bricks, I flung a silent Stupefy at the man. The spell hit the ground eight centimeters to the right, sending a spray of crimson sparks careening into the air. I winced; several weeks without practise, it seemed, was enough to make my spellwork quite poor.

Spying the female Squib move out of the corner of my eye, I sprinted left just as a bullet bit the ground where I'd stood just moments before. My pulse pounded in my ears, providing a comforting backdrop as I flung another hex in the woman's direction.

This time, I heard an answering cry, and I used the opportunity to raise my wand again, preparing to paralyse her once and for all -

Al rushed in front of me, and I shifted my wand just in time, narrowly missing the Auror.

"Wh-"

He tackled me, sending me crashing to the ground, just as another bullet hit the wall behind us.

"Oh," I said quietly, staring in disbelief at the metal now lodged in the brick. That could have been me. "Thanks."

Scorpius appeared, his silver-white hair almost black with soot, and flung another wave of magic towards the Squibs. He managed to hit the woman, and she went down with another cry.

Her two companions exchanged a look and, as one, began sprinting in the other direction.

"Rose," Scorpius shouted.

"I've got it," Rose answered, moving towards the fallen woman. "Go!"

Scorpius nodded, glancing at me, before running after the two men.

I watched as Rose conjured a length of rope to bind the woman and winced, thinking of my own binding just weeks prior. Still, this was war, I reminded myself. We couldn't afford to leave her running free.

After Rose had bound the woman, she wheeled towards us and, her brown eyes narrowed, flung her arms around us.

"Oof," I protested, but I hugged her just as tightly back, breathing in the comforting scent of books and cinnamon.

She pulled away after six seconds. "Why didn't you respond to any of my owls?" she demanded, her hands planted firmly on her hips.

I blinked, taken aback by her anger. Did she not know that we had been captured?

"I mean, I know you guys were on a top secret mission in America and whatnot, but really? You couldn't have sent one teensy letter?"

"America? Rose, we were - "

Two large bodies came flying towards us, skidding to a stop at our feet. Both men were bound tightly head to toe, their eyes wide with panic.

Rose groaned. "He's always so dramatic," she said, but I could hear the affection in her words.

The "he" in question came waltzing up next, his eyes zeroing in on us. "How was America?" Scorpius said finally.

I looked at Al, but the Auror was staring at Scorpius. "Scorp, we weren't in America," I said slowly, struggling to come up with a logical explanation for this confusion. This, at least, explained why I hadn't seen any evidence of a rescue attempt - not that I expected to be rescued, of course, in the middle of such chaos...but still. It was nice to know that there was a reason we had been left without help. This, however, posed another problem: who had lied to them and why?

"Not in America?" Scorpius echoed, looking as confused as I felt.

"No, we were sent to secure the giants' support or, at least, a promise of neutrality, but it went horribly wrong…" my voice trailed away as I remembered the giants' seemingless endless display of force.

"Kingsley," I gasped out, cursing myself for having waited so long, "we need to see Kingsley. They're - the giants - are planning a full-fledged attack on the Ministry and St. Mungo's later tonight. We need to warn everyone!"

The sirens sounded again loudly, and Rose, who had paled to a frightening shade of milky white, exchanged a slightly panicked look with Scorpius. "We need to go," she said. "It's not safe here."

I bit back the dozens of questions whirling in Numberita and nodded.

"Help me levitate them," Rose said.

I pointed my wand at the shorter of the two blokes and, narrowing my eyes in concentration, levitated him off the ground.

"We'll need to use Side-Along Apparition," Scorpius said. "The base has a Fidelius charm on it. I'll take Al. Rose?"

Rose nodded and offered me her hand. I grabbed it, directing the levitating man so that he was within arm's reach, and took firm hold of the Squib's corduroy jacket.

"Ready," I said.

She spun on her heel, and we were off with another loud crack.

xxxxxxxxxxx

We landed in a spacious living room filled with claw-footed furniture. Seeing my confusion, Rose said, "We're in the southern edge of Muggle London. This is Kingsley's house."

I looked around with considerable more interest. So this was where the Minister of Magic lived. Deep purple paper emblazoned with shifting golden symbols lined the walls, and the expansive windows cast pools of light on the polished wood floor. No photographs were displayed, however, and the few pieces of furniture - a sofa, an armchair, and a squat mahogany coffee table - were pushed to the sides, leaving a large, empty space in the center of the room.

Rose drew the three Squibs together with a flick of her wand. "Scorpius, I'll take care of this lot."

Scorpius nodded, looking at Rose fondly as she exited the room. I couldn't help but smile at that - at least they seemed to be happy together. I chanced another look at Al, but the Auror was staring, open-mouthed, at the door at the other end of the room.

A tall, striking woman with pale blonde hair marched into the room, her black boots clicking smartly against the polished wood floor. Her attention was directed towards the rolls of parchment hovering in front of her, which she directed with several impatient flicks of her wand. She flipped through some leaflets as she walked, saying, "Really, Scorpius, this was a simple stakeout. Did you have to take so very long?"

"Simple stakeout? Eve, we brought back three Squibs and two of our own!"

"What do you mean, two of our-"

Vane looked up from her papers and, spotting the two dirt-covered additions (honestly, I wasn't sure how she hadn't smelled us by then), froze. I half-expected the sheath of parchment to come tumbling to the ground, but Vane was far too composed to allow anything like that to happen to her. No, the Auror chose instead to march forward, her blue eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, and draw her wand.

I backed eight centimeters, not wanting to be impaled with her wand, and saw Al do the same beside me.

"When we first met, what did you refer to me as?" Vane hissed, her eyes - and wand - darting between us.

Over her shoulder, I saw Scorpius walk towards us, his face troubled. "Eve, come on," he said quietly. "They weren't in America at all - they were captured by giants. They're exhausted, and you can interrogate them after they've rested."

His words made me suddenly, inconveniently aware of the fatigue that weighed heavily on my limbs. I wavered slightly, struggling to keep myself standing. Weeks of malnutrition and static confinement had wasted away my muscles, and the heat of the room - why was it so terribly hot in here? - was making me feel light-headed.

"No," the Auror snapped, not breaking our eye contact. If anything, her wand crept two centimeters closer, the end glowing faintly with the beginnings of a spell I strongly suspected would end in my incapacitation and/or painful demise. "We have been betrayed far too many times. How do we know these are the the people they claim to be?"

Betrayed. Who had betrayed them while we were gone?

"Eve," Al said beside me. "It's us. Now, why don't we get a cup of tea and you can tell us all about this betrayal?"

Eve's wand whipped towards Al's throat, pressing firmly against the pale expanse. He swallowed, bright green eyes opening wide.

"Eve," Scorpius said again, placing a hand on the Auror's shoulder. The Romanian tensed but made no move to shake it off. "They're tired. This can wait."

"Tweedle Dee," I said suddenly, feeling as if Numberita had been entrenched in a thick fog and had only just managed to escape. "I called you Tweedle Dee and Al was Tweedle Dum."

She stared at me, her eyes still livid, and I smiled awkwardly. Perhaps this wasn't the best time to recall old, er, less than flattering nicknames, but she'd asked.

"Of - of Evil," I finished faintly.

Vane nodded but did not remove her wand from Al's throat.

"You," she demanded, transferring her attention back to her partner. "How did we first meet?"

Al smiled again, wincing only slightly when the movement sent fresh blood spilling from his cracked lips. "Eve," he said, his voice adopting a strange cast (was he - was he flirting with her?). "You know -"

He paused, swaying, and I rushed to catch him as he fell, unconscious.

"A little help here," I gasped, wedged uncomfortably between the hard wooden floor and a man almost thirty centimeters taller than I.

Scorpius hurried forward, freeing me of most of the weight.

"Eve," he said firmly. "He - Al - needs medical attention."

The Auror, still staring at Al, stepped away, lowering her wand slowly.

"Fine," she said, face drawn tight, and left the room, the rolls of parchment thudding to the ground.

I stared down at Al's wan face. Underneath the mask of dirt and grime, he looked the same: same sooty black eyelashes, same tousled hair, same sharp jaw -

My hand began to creep towards the stray strand of hair flung over his nose, and, feeling Scorpius's curious gaze, I recoiled, flushing red. I still wasn't entirely sure where I stood with Al. Yes, we'd kissed a few times, and, yes, I still thought the Auror was unfairly attractive, but did that mean we were dating? Of course, these thoughts only made me feel guilty because, well, there was a whole goblin uprising going on and was I really worrying about such trivial things as relationship status?

Merlin, I needed to sort out my priorities.

"Here," I muttered, avoiding Scorpius's eyes. "You take him."

I shoved Al roughly towards Scorpius and, half-running, half-stumbling, went in search of Vane.

AN: Thanks for all your support! I love reading your comments - please do let me know what you think! :)