As the full moon approached, it dawned on Scorpius he would actually be able to use his animagi ability for the very reason he had wanted to learn it. Well, except he'd be hanging around with other werewolves that weren't Michael. For one night they shuffled around the sleeping arrangements, Maurene would go down sleep in the living room with Varanian – who was still out from the Sleeping Potion – while Scorpius and Lamb would join the Leebins in the spare bedroom. The werewolves who weren't in Hogan's would be doing their own thing, being divided as they were with not enough space was pretty awkward and he could definitely see why Varanian had wanted to avoid this if possible.

Scorpius wasn't entirely sure what to expect but Hogan had him transform and just lie down, Lamb was in a single bed beside him while the Leebins – minus Maurene, and Hogan who was flitting about – were in the double opposite. Lamb and Myriam were weak and half-asleep from the exhaustion, Leebin himself was just waiting like Scorpius but what really surprised him was Lysel. The boy had looked on his deathbed for days but in the hour before he full moon rose he came alive, he was practically bouncing off the walls while a never ending string of words poured from his lips as he rambled on, mostly about what names he was considering for his future band and why they related to werewolves.

It became obvious when the full moon rose, Lysel stopped mid-sentence while Myriam and Lamb started screaming. Lysel just sat down on the edge of the bed with a stoic expression, closing his eyes and gripping the fabric, his body trembling but he didn't turn. The adults meanwhile were mostly covered by blankets but he could see the human-shaped lumps contorting beneath the fabric, only when the screams had become howls did he notice the wolfish snouts now sticking out. When it was over, Myriam got up to stretch while Lamb lay there mewling in pain and twitching.

"Are you not going to turn, Lysel?" Leebin asked his son worriedly after sparing a glance for Lamb who Hogan went over to look at.

"Yes I just thoughted to wait for Mummy and Eph to stop," Lysel admitted with a sigh while Myriam watched on with worry shining through despite her now wolfish form, "I like being a human and a werewolf but the turning hurts."

"I know," Leebin said gently, pulling his son into a hug.

He cradled him for a few moments while Lysel seemingly braced himself, he then planted a kiss on his son's forehead and Lysel moved away. The toddler took off his pajamas and immediately started to turn, maybe it was just because he was so young and so small or fully visible but the transformation seemed more violent on Lysel though ironically also less drastic. Myriam and Lamb were very noticeably a lot larger as werewolves then humans, Lysel was bigger than he had been but still small like a little wolf cub. Lysel also didn't scream, it was only when he was fully turned that he howled into the night and both Myriam and Lamb's heads picked up to attention.

Lysel stretched his legs for a minute while Myriam climbed back onto the bed, Leebin leaned back against his wife – who was now more than twice his size – and motioned for Lysel to come on. Lysel did so, curling up on his father's lap and leaning against his mother. Leebin stroked his son soothingly and Lysel quickly fell into a slumber, Myriam watched her son until then before sleeping herself and finally Leebin who took a bit longer to nod off. Especially considering during her first transformation Myriam had injured him, Scorpius thought Leebin was pretty brave to so willingly, casually and closely hang out with his werewolf family like that. He tried to imagine his father doing that if he was in Leebin's situation and somehow he just couldn't.

After that the night was uneventful, Hogan left after a bit and Lamb seemed to recover from whatever had happened with the transformation. Scorpius did eventually fall asleep though he was awoken by howls of pain coming from the adult werewolves, Lysel's eyes had snapped open but he wasn't transforming back like the other two. Lamb was still under the covers and Leebin pretty quickly covered his wife as she got more human shaped, morphing back into the petite, delicate woman you would never have thought had dwarfed her husband a few minutes ago. She again didn't seem to have issue but Lamb moaned in pain when it was over, his body spasming uncontrollably for a minute. Scorpius could only assume it had something to do with his nerve damage, maybe it would make Hogan do something for him now. Well, whenever Hogan got back anyway.

"Lysel?" Leebin questioned fearfully and Scorpius' attention snapped back to the Leebins, seeing Lysel was in fact still a werewolf. He was just lying on the bed wagging his tail, seemingly not concerned at the thought he might be stuck like this, "Lysel if you can turn back then you need to do it right now, I know turning hurts but we don't want to risk you being trapped in this form forever."

Lysel cocked his head to one side as if considering this before reluctantly heaving a sigh and starting to transform back, somehow Scorpius was sure Leebin had never been more relieved that his son was transforming. The energy from before was gone though, Lysel collapsed soon as he was human again and barely seemed conscious as Leebin put his pajamas back on.

Scorpius transformed back while Leebin carried him over to the bedside table where there were some potions ready, he cradled his son gently and started bringing vials of potion over for him to drink. He offered words of encouragement to his barely conscious child but still practically had to pour it down his throat as Lysel was so weak, it seemed pretty normal though. Leebin seemed good there and Myriam seemed to be pulling on her nightie beneath the blankets so Scorpius went over to Lamb, whose twitching arm was sticking out showing numerous self-inflicted werewolf scars.

"Are you okay?" Scorpius asked him gently and the werewolf's eyes snapped open, blinking rapidly as he nodded.

"Y- Y- Yeah, th- its n- normal," Lamb told him weakly, his voice seeming especially shaky but also hoarse.

"Do you want anything? Like a drink or something?"

"S- S- Some w- water w- would b- b- be n- n- nice."

"Okay, I'll get you some water," Scorpius assured him as tried to stammer out a thank you.

He left Lamb, sparing a glance at the Leebins in case one of them wanted water. Leebin had finished giving Lysel the potions and had instead tucked him back into the bed, he'd snuggled up to his mother now and she had a half-full glass of water on the bedside table already. He went to go get the water, Leebin following carrying the empty vials. They almost walked into Hogan as he was leaving Molly and Oathan's room, probably having just had to deal with Oathan – Hogan was in his lime green Healer robes - as he frequently did because the kid was in bad shape.

"Hogan, can you make sure Lysel's alright?" Leebin asked immediately with concern, "When the full moon ended he didn't immediately turn back, he waited a few minutes."

"Hasn't he done that before?" Scorpius wondered curiously and Leebin shook his head frantically, "Well can you also look at Lamb? H-"

"I'll look at them later," Hogan interrupted him irritably, brushing them off with a wave of his hand, "Unless it's an emergency because I already have an emergency to go deal with."

"What happened?"

"I don't know, something about prisoners escaping from Hogwarts and there are injuries and they need me."

"It can wait then, go do your thing," Leebin offered, looking quite relieved, "That's good the prisoners got out."

"Only if they don't die from injuries because I was too busy yakking to you two," Hogan grumbled, starting to head down the stairs and they both followed.

"Can I go with you?" Scorpius asked of the Healer, thinking it'd be good to find out what was going on to tell Varanian and it might be his chance to talk to Brutus.

"Why? Since when did you know anything about healing?"

"I don't, I just want to know what's going on."

"Well if you really want to," Hogan shrugged dismissively and suppressed a yawn as they reached the front door, Hogan pulling it open, "See you later, Flan, or sooner if Oathan crashes again."

"Good luck," Leebin offered as Scorpius followed Hogan outside, glad he'd not bothered to undress when he knew he'd spend the night as a Thestral. He held out his hand for Hogan to take.

"You really need to learn to apparate," Hogan complained at him irritably as he took his hand, immediately ending them violently hurtling through space. Scorpius felt far more disorientated then he usually did from apparation, Hogan was unfazed though and continued his sentence the second they reappeared while already leading him forwards, "It's not like you're in Hogwarts anymore, especially in now of all times its useful. It's not even that hard, I could do it from the first lesson! I mean I kept splinching myself horribly, managing to do it without splinching was the hard part but I could still do it. Elmira – my first wife – could do it and she hated apparating, never got used to the sensation but she could still do it- heck, Flan can do it and he is so bad at magic-"

"I get it, okay? I don't know why it's so hard for me," Scorpius told him truthfully and ashamedly, managing to glance around and was surprised to recognize they were outside the Embry's.

"Because you're an idiot."

"Why are we at the Embry's? I thought we were going to the base," Scorpius questioned worriedly as Hogan knocked on the door.

"Because the prisoners were brought here not the base, duh," Hogan stated as if it was opened and Richard Embry opened the door, stepping aside and gesturing for them to come in. So much for talking to Brutus, Scorpius supposed.

Richard closed the door behind them and directed Hogan into the dining room turned hospital wing, of everyone Scorpius had seen there before only Albus remained while the other beds were now occupied by new people. In the far left corner he saw Byron Knight, his older brother – who Scorpius couldn't remember the name of – was hugging him while Byron sobbed brokenly into his shoulder. Opposite him was Professor Koray, seemingly unconscious while his children – though he almost didn't recognize the girl with her hair shaved off – sat either side of him. Beside the Korays was Albus who was asleep – unfortunately, Scorpius still needed to pass along Vern's message – and opposite him was Marigold, the Healer looked worse than all of them. Apart from looking like he'd been attacked by a werewolf, his skin was an unhealthy ashen gray and he seemed to be struggling to breathe.

It was Marigold that Maximus Nott was tending to, he called Hogan over and started talking to him – presumably filling him in on everybody's status because Maximus was also a Healer in training – as he jumped into helping Marigold. On Marigold's other side was Sebastian, the young boy had thankfully survived the full moon it seemed though he was watching Marigold with anxiously. Opposite him Latimer was helping Wyatt onto the bed, Wyatt was looking extremely pale and had a brown eyepatch over one eye, the sides of his clothes were stained by blood and his one sleeve was literally soaked in the stuff that had to be from some injury to that arm. There was a handful of other people standing around, some leaving as if getting out of the way while others were bringing in trays of potions for the healers to use or glasses of water. For a second Scorpius was looking around for Michael before it occurred to him he'd also be wiped from the full moon and unable to help, some part of him was kind of glad about that so he could avoid more confrontation.

"Not how I expected this day would go when I got up like twenty minutes ago," Richard commented, seemingly half to himself and he put his hand over his mouth as he yawned but nonetheless Scorpius' attention was back to him and Richard seemed to notice, "Have you seen Pip?"

"He's sleeping," Scorpius answered and felt like he should elaborate in case he questioned why he hadn't been woken, "Hogan gave him a powerful sleeping potion so he'll be out for a while, he was exhausted."

"I'm glad he's finally getting some rest then," Richard said, sounding sincere and looking relieved, "I was worried about him, he's not been doing so good."

"That's why I convinced him he needed rest," Scorpius pointed out, feeling glad someone else shared in his concern for Varanian.

"At least he listened to one of us."

"Oh Scor, didn't expect to see you here," a familiar voice spoke and he turned back to see his friend Abby Longbottom as one of the ones leaving the now hospital wing, her extremely long blond usually braided hair was in a hastily tied ponytail and her brown eyes wide with surprise as she quickly pulled him to one side with her voice dropping to a whisper, "Look, we haven't told Al about his mum yet so if you're talking to him then just don't mention it, okay?"

"What? Why? What happened to his mum?" Scorpius wondered worriedly which seemed to surprise her.

"Oh, well then in that case don't worry about it," Abby brushed it aside with a wave of her hand, "I'll tell you later."

"Um… okay," Scorpius muttered unsurely as she continued on, leaving him suddenly inexplicably afraid for Ginny Potter. He did notice she didn't seem mad at him, at least she didn't try to punch him.

"Is Marigold going to be okay?" a small voice asked fearfully and Scorpius glanced back to Sebastian seeing his eyes glimmering with tears, seeing the young werewolf was speaking to Hogan as Maximus had gone over to Wyatt.

"I don't know," Hogan shrugged without taking his eyes off Marigold as he waved his wand over the unconscious man then went to grab a potion from one of the trays someone had brought, "He was hit with a spell that's done a lot of internal damage, he's lost a lot of blood and he's so weak from his first full moon his body's just not as strong as it needs to be right now. I'll do everything I can but he needs to hold on, he stabilized the others so I can focus on him a little bit right now."

"S- So if he w- wasn't a werewolf h- he'd be okay?" Sebastian stammered out, desperately trying to keep his sob at bay to form a clear sentence and barely succeeding as his voice still caught and tears were seeping out. Scorpius was just confused, Marigold was a werewolf now?

"He'd have a better shot of survival," Hogan answered with another shrug, seemingly not noticing how upsetting his was for Sebastian with his attention still on his patient. Or maybe he just didn't care, he was kind of an asshole.

"Hey, it's okay, Sebastian," Scorpius offered to try comfort the crying child, who he thought he probably needed rest not to be upset right now especially, "Don't feel bad, it's not like it's your fault he became a werewolf."

This seemed to have the exact opposite of his intended effect though, Sebastian's eyes widened in horror. He then turned his face into the pillow, breaking down into full blown sobs much louder and stronger than before. Scorpius was extremely confused and not for the first time wished he knew what to say to comfort people, Maximus came over with a potion – it looked like a Sleeping Draught – for Sebastian but not before casting Scorpius a dark look.

"What did I say?" Scorpius wondered at a loss but Maximus' attention was already back on Sebastian, helping him to drink the potion.

"Oh hey Scor," another familiar voice said and Scorpius turned back to see Latimer addressing him, the older teen who was Molly's age. He looked a little different then since Scorpius had last seen him, he had the same horribly pockmarked skin and reddish-brown eyes but his jet black hair had grown out a bit more giving him a scruffier appearance. He also oddly seemed to hold himself a bit more confidently, "How's Molly?"

"Oh, Molly? Um she's good," Scorpius stumbled out in surprise, he hadn't expected Latimer to ask him that of all things though he supposed it made sense, they were friends, "I mean she's hurt but she's recovering, she should be okay to be up and walking around now that's good."

"That's good, I'm glad she's doing okay," Latimer said, looking relieved and scratching at the back of his head, "I've been meaning to visit but I've just been busy, trying to stay on top of things whenever Varanian isn't around."

"I'm sure its fine."

"What are you doing here anyway?" Latimer wondered curiously, also not seeming mad at him. Maybe Leebin had a point. Though no sooner had he thought that, Abby's older sister Heather Longbottom walked by and threw him a murderous glare so maybe not?

"I don't know," Scorpius admitted, feeling less confident in his reasoning for being there by the second, "I wanted to find out what was going for Varanian, maybe help."

"Well there's not really anything you can do to help, the Shadows hadn't scrambled an attack force together by the time we went back to retrieve the escaping prisoners. They were only starting to show up as we were leaving so it wasn't really an issue and everyone's already back now," Latimer explained, gesturing to the room of injured, "What we really need is just Healers, Maximus said everyone except Marigold was stabilized but that's a slipping band aid so they're gonna still need treatment. Unless you learned healing suddenly since I last saw you, you're not much help."

"I guess I'm not much help then…"

"Though didn't you just say you wanted to find out for Varanian?"

"Yeah."

"Well can you ask him if Maurice and Orous' family can join Gray? They offered and the stepdad's girlfriend is a Healer which would be incredible right about now," Latimer reeled off, still not sounding mad just very focused on the subject, "Maurice is so keen for it he thinks it's foolish to not ask them when we have more people needing healing then we have Healers and this is pretty unlikely to be the only time, he and Orous both vouch for them-"

"You can let them join," Scorpius encouraged him, "I think its okay so I give you my permission, I'm sure he'll think its okay."

"You sure?" Latimer wondered in surprise and Scorpius nodded, "Great, I'll go tell Maurice the good news and hopefully the Healer is available to help right now."

Scorpius opened his mouth to say more but Latimer was already leaving the room quickly to get on that, he supposed it was urgent. With Latimer out of the way though he did spot Rutherford handing Wyatt what looked like Blood-Replenishing Potion, making him remember one of the things Varanian had wanted to do. He wasn't super keen to talk to Rutherford, after all he had forced his best friend to be shackled in a dungeon every full moon but he had supposedly turned over a new leaf and he was one of them now, and he might be useful. So Scorpius approached him, he was a tall imposing man with short scruffy dark hair though strangely and almost – okay, not even almost - comically he was wearing large goggles for some reason.

"Hey Rutherford," Scorpius started, gaining the man's attention and noticed his normally menacing dark eyes were magnified by the goggles. He was so taken aback by it he didn't immediately continue speaking, he saw the magnified eyes roll.

"I have to wear these until my eyes finish recovering," Rutherford explained through gritted teeth. Now that he mentioned it, Scorpius noticed the white of his eye was a little red and there was faint scarring, "Just another week or two."

"Well that's good," Scorpius offered politely, Rutherford continued to glower at him but since he usually did that he wasn't sure whether he was mad at him or just being himself.

"How's Myriam?" Rutherford asked just as Scorpius had opened his mouth to speak, surprising him as he wasn't sure why the disgraced Ministry attaché would ask about her.

"She's fine, its nothing to do with her," Scorpius answered quickly in case for some reason Rutherford had thought something had happened with her transformation or whatever, "I just wanted to talk to you about something, Varanian wants to try make some kind of alarm to detect when the Shadow Master and um… well you made that alarm for Hogwarts so I wondered if you might be able to help?"

"Do you know how different doing something across Hogwarts is to doing it across the entire country?"

"No. But I'm sure Varanian knows and he's still trying," Scorpius told him readily, "You don't have to help with this or if you can't obviously but you're the only one I thought of who might be able to do something so if you could then that'd be helpful."

"Well I can give it some thought, just not right now," Rutherford offered begrudgingly before glancing beyond Scorpius as if someone had gestured to him from behind, "I'll get back to you."

"Okay," Scorpius said as Rutherford moved past to him, sparing a look to see him going over to Maximus who started talking about Blood-Replenishing Potion. Feeling slightly better about his productiveness, he turned down to Wyatt who looked like he was fighting to keep his eyes – well eye - open. He was alive though which was good, he liked Wyatt who had taught him to be an animagus after all. Though Wyatt might not like him so much anymore, "Hey Wyatt."

"Hey," Wyatt greeted him tiredly.

"How are you feeling?"

"Sleepy," Wyatt answered slowly, sounding particularly sleepy, "And thirsty."

"I can get you a drink," Scorpius offered, whirling out his wand to conjure a glass and fill it with water for him. He handed it to the seemingly unhurt arm, "Here."

"Thanks," Wyatt mumbled as he took the glass and sipped it readily, "The Strengthening thingy is really erm… really fading fast but that Painkiller though… that is working fine."

"Well I'm glad it doesn't hurt," Scorpius said truthfully as Wyatt continued glugging down the water, "Everyone wanted to save you but they couldn't figure out a way so you should be proud, it's really great how you managed to get everyone out alive too."

"I didn't… I didn't get everyone out alive," Wyatt corrected sadly, his expression turning sorrowful and his eyes watery, "My dad died."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Scorpius offered, tempted to pat him on the shoulder to comfort him, "Your dad was…"

"Was what?" Wyatt pressed and Scorpius felt his cheeks burn a little, awkwardly failing at thinking of anything nice to say about his least favorite teacher. He thought of the time he's seen Grant over the son he thought was dead, that was… good of him but he wasn't sure how to translate that into a sentence that didn't seem weird.

"Was… your dad," Scorpius concluded lamely, mentally kicking himself for coming up with that of all things. Comforting people he didn't know as well as the people he usually tried to comfort , "I mean he… didn't hate you… he cared… somewhat… I'm pretty sure."

"Thanks," Wyatt mumbled, sounding actually sincere as he went back to sipping his drink and while Scorpius would like to think he'd succeeded at comforting him he was more concerned Wyatt had hit his head or wasn't hearing right.

"Do you want me to get you some gummy worms?" Scorpius offered instead, knowing that was a sure thing to cheer Wyatt up because he was addicted to the stuff. Wyatt merely cringed though and sadly shook his head, shocking Scorpius.

"No. I don't… I don't really like those things anyway," Wyatt told him sadly, handing him back the empty glass of water, "But thanks… thanks for the kind offer."

Now Scorpius was sure, Wyatt had definitely hit his head.