Chapter 22 Bialowieza Forest

Despite the fact that he was on a mission for the United Kingdom Ministry that took precedence over everything else in his life, Harry couldn't help but admire the stunning beauty of Bialowieza forest. It was so primitive, so untouched by man of any kind, and he understood why Fenrir would choose it as a place to hide away from the rest of a society.

The only problem for Harry was that it is so large, one of the largest stretches of forest in Europe, that he had no idea where Fenrir had gone. Which is why he found himself approaching a log cabin like building on the edge of the forest, hoping to maybe get some clues as to where Fenrir might have headed off to.

The inside looked to be a visitor welcome center, with what appeared to be a park law enforcement set up off to the side. Harry looked around before spotting a man who he could only assume was the Polish equivalent of a park warden.

He tapped his lips and ears, applying the translation charm to each, before approaching.

"Excuse me sir, I'm from the Gazeta Współczesna. We've heard rumors of an aggressive wolf pack in the forest, and were wondering if there was any truth to this."

The warden looked up and eyed Harry. "Gazeta Współczesna? Do you have a press badge."

"Of course." Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out the press badge, holding it up for the warden to see.

The warden looked it over for a moment before nodding his head satisfied.

"We did hear of a rather large, aggressive wolfpack the other night that terrorized some campers. Even bit one, who is still in intensive care at the hospital. However, we haven't been able to find any trace of this pack. No sightings, no tracks, nothing."

Harry nodded his head. Greyback and his pack were definitely nearby. He just had to track them down.

He dug into his pack he had, and pulled out a large map of the forest that was folded several times over. He took some time unfolding it all, and asked the warden if he'd be kind enough to mark down the location of the incident.

"You're not going to go looking for this wolfpack are you? Cause we would highly recommend against it."

Harry let out a chuckle. "Who me? I'm a reporter, not an idiot. Just want to make sure our readers are aware of where they should be avoiding."

The warden pointed out the area the camper had been attacked, Looking it over, Harry pointed toward a special designated area of the forest that was several miles from where the attack was.

"What's this?"

"The inner-most sanctuary of the forest. It's fenced in, and tourist are only allowed in with guides."

That's where Greyback is headed, if he's not there already. That's where I need to go.

"Thank you for your time, but I have to get going."

"Of course, I'm happy to be of assistance."

Harry shook the warden's hand and left the building. It was at that moment that his Ministry provided cellphone started ringing.

"Rick, I got some news. I found Greyback's most probable location. It also appears that they bit a muggle camper here the other night. They're in the local hospital, and I would definitely have them moved to a magical hospital."

"I'll contact the Polish authorities and make them aware of the situation. They are aware of you operating in the area, and have given us the green light to deal with the Greyback situation ourselves. However, Operation Full Moon isn't why I called. We have another assignment for you."

"You're taking me off the Greyback case? It's my first day on, I didn't even get the chance to mess up!"

"No, you're still on Operation Full Moon. There is another group of interest in the area we need you to look into as well. It's a radical anti-pureblood organization that's been gaining traction in Poland. We're concerned about their advancements in technomancy, and what those advancements are leading to."

"Technomancy?"

"It's the term for combining magic with muggle made technologies. The cellphone you are using is the result of technomancy. While we've been working on it for several years, your friends the twins were the first to combine magic with muggle weaponry, at least in the United Kingdom. The United States, Russia, China and Japan have all been experimenting with muggle weaponry for almost a decade at this point. Everything's just been kept very hush-hush because of the controversy of it all."

"So this group is developing their own technomancy, specifically when it comes to weapons?"

"Yes. We believe one of their leaders is a former Russian government researcher. She's a half-blood who went off the grid a few months ago."

"Any ideas what they've developed? Number of group members? Location?"

"We barely have any information. You're essentially going in blind. What we do have we will deliver to you at the Orthodox church in Bialowieza, two days from now at noon."

"Okay, I can be there."

"We're working together with Russian intelligence on this one. They have an operative in the area as well, who you will eventually link up with. You're to gather whatever information you can, and a joint decision will be made between us and the Russians on how best to proceed."

"Alright, so find out what Greyback is doing in this gigantic forest, and look into an anti-pureblood group developing dangerous technomancy."

"Exactly."

"Piece of cake. I'll be in contact when I have more info."

Harry hung up the phone and shook his head. So much to do, so little time. He patted down his pockets one more time, to make sure he had everything he needed, and then set off into the forest. Once he was deep enough in, and far enough away from prying eyes, he pulled out his wand.

He cast a basic notice-me-not before casting the disillusionment over himself. With that done, he cast the handful of charms he knew to hide his smell and to silence any noise he might make. It wouldn't mask it if he stepped on twigs or things like that, but any heavy breathing he would be doing would not be heard.

Satisfied, he re-holstered his wand and transformed into his animagus form. He stretched out his body before setting off in a run toward the general direction Greyback's pack had been sighted.

He would come to a stop every couple of minutes to sniff the air, see if he could catch scent of anything. He came across the scent of wolves a few times, but they were normal wolves, not the were-kind.

Being that he was running as a tiger, he didn't have the stamina he would in human form. After a handful of sprinting and stopping he found himself out of breath and tired from the effort. He was about to transform back, when his nose caught the scent of something.

Not werewolves. At least not completely. He could smell werewolves, a lot of them, but the scent was hidden under the heavy, musky smell of humans. He sniffed around the area, until he found a large clearing that was covered in the scent.

This must be where the Greyback's pack were the days leading up to the full moon. He knew from experience with Remus that werewolves get more and more lethargic leading up to the full moon. They also get hyper-aggressive, so it makes for a rather bizarre combination to deal with. Harry knew if not properly motivated, a lot of werewolves will spend the day or two leading up to the transformation lounging around, growling at anyone who might annoy them. In a pack like Greyback's he imagined the only thing that would properly motivate most of the werewolves would be eating, fighting and fucking, and not necessarily in that order.

Harry transformed back, stretching his sore muscles and trying to steady his breathing. He slipped off the pack he held and pulled out a bottle of water and the large, folded map he had taken out earlier. Taking a long drink from the water bottle, he looked at the map. Using a bit of magic, he determined he was about a mile or two from where the muggle had been bitten, and another five or six miles to where the inner sanctuary of the forest started.

Nodding his head, he put the map and water back into his pack, and then proceeded to dig through it. He pulled out a pouch and looked into it, before shaking his head and shoving it back into the pack. He pulled out another pouch of a slightly different shade of color. Looking inside, he nodded his head satisfied.

He tossed his pack on the ground. Walking around the area, he emptied the contents of the pouch into his hand. Four gemstones and a piece of bone, each one etched with tiny runes. He tossed the gemstones in opposite directions of each other and than tapped his wand to the piece of bone. He felt the magic thrum through the air, and knew the wards had activated.

He waves his wand about, searching the area for pieces of DNA. Anything he could use to track Greyback's pack. It took some searching, and testing of various hairs and poop that littered the area, but he found a few strands of hair he was able to identify as belonging to werewolves in their human form. He was relieved it was hair, because he didn't not want to have to track them holding a fistful of shit.

He used the hair to track the path of the werewolf pack, following it to the campsite where the muggle had been bitten. The area was heavy with the magical presence of fully transformed werewolves. Based on the numbers he had heard about Greyback's pack, it was fortunate only one person had been bitten, and it wasn't the entire camping party torn to shreds.

There was a lot of werewolf hair in the area but not much in regards to discarded muggle camping equipment. He imagined park officials had come out the next day and gathered up whatever the campers might have left behind when they fled. The pack would have been long gone by then.

He continued searching, coming upon multiple spots of blood. One he identified as non-magical but the others all belonged to werewolves. That caused his brows to furrow.

What had happened? Did something cause the werewolves to turn on each other? There was the blood of at least four or five separate werewolves, of that he was sure. It didn't make any sense. Until he came upon numerous spent shell casings.

Harry snorted to himself. The muggles must have been hunters and Greyback had no idea. No doubt a couple of werewolves had taken some bullets, causing enough confusion for the muggles to hightail it out of there. Given the aggressiveness of Greyback, he found it odd that the muggles weren't chased after though.

Summoning the gems to dispel the wards, Harry decided to go talk to the muggle who was bit. He might get answers to some of the questions that were circling around in his head. He carved some runes on one of the trees, turning it into a beacon for him to hone in on when he needed to come back. With that set, he vanished with a pop.

Despite how mow many times he ended up in one, Harry hated anything to do with hospitals. Though it was probably the fact that he ended up in the Hogwarts hospital wing at least once every other month that made him hate them so much. The sterile look and the overall unpleasant spells of medicine did nothing to help that dislike.

The muggle who was bit was a bear of a man named Jan. His wife, who was a small thing who probably didn't even come up to Jan's chest, was named Lena. Both of them were in the room when he entered.

He had told the nurse at the reception desk that he worked for the Ministry of the Environment, and they were just doing their due diligence in following up with the attack. When Harry stepped into the room, he made sure to close the door behind him, causing both Jan and Lena to look at him.

His first observance was that Jan did not look good. He was pale and sweating, and looked exhausted. Harry knew that werewolf bites were painful things and culd often lead to death if not treated properly. Muggles did not know how to treat it properly. Luckily, Harry came prepared.

"Are you a doctor?"

Harry looked down at himself. He wasn't wearing scrubs or a white coat or anything like that. Just a casual muggle suit, because he figured that would look more government agent like.

"No, my name is," he bites his lip, "my name is Harry Potter. You haven't heard of me yet, but you will. So, what do you guys know about magic?"

They both stared at him.

"Magic? Like pulling a rabbit out of a hat?"

"Not really, though I guess that's something we can do. This is going to be hard to understand and will be even harder to grasp, but I have the means of backing everything I say up. And it's important that you understand it, because you are now, unfortunately, part of the magical world."

Lena shook her head. "I don't understand."

"There is an entire society of people with magical abilities, hidden from the world of non-magical people. We have our own governing bodies, schools, villages. We also have our own animals and diseases. What bit you the other night was not a normal wolf, and that's why you are so sick. There's no rabies or normal type of infection that is causing you this pain Jan. I have the means of helping you, of getting you better but you have to fully realize what getting better means."

"What are you saying? If you can help my husband, why won't you?"

"Lena, please let him speak." Jan sounded weak.

"I'm sure you have heard of werewolves."

Before either could answer, Jan started to convulse. The machine at his side started to beep wildly. Lena leaned over her husband in concern. Nurses immediately rushed into the room and began the efforts to try to stabilize him.

"Sir, we're going to need you to clear the room."

Harry didn't move, he stared at the scene.

"Sir."

"No," Lena cried. She pointed at Harry. "You said you have the means of helping him. Help him! Please."

Harry flicked his wrist, his wand sliding into his hand from the holster. He gave it a wave and the team of nurses in the room all immediately stopped what they were doing. Every single one had a dazed look on their face and one by one, exited the room.

As they were doing that, Harry withdrew a vial from his pocket with his free hand. With another flick of his wand he vanished the bandages wrapped around Jan's wounded shoulder. The wound was still bleeding, despite the muggles best efforts to stop the flow.

"What is that?"

Harry pulled the top off of the vial. "Powdered silver and dittany."

He poured the contents of the vial into the bite mark and stepped away.

"That's it?" Lena demands, looking anxiously between Harry and her convulsing husband.

"Give it a moment."

Slowly Jan's thrashing stop, as did the bleeding. The crazy beeping from the muggle machines drifted back to their slower and calmer beeping.

After checking to make sure Jan was really doing better, Lena turned toward Harry.

"You made the nurses leave, and got rid of his bandages. How?"

Harry grinned. "Magic."

Harry left before the Polish magical government agents showed up. He had gotten as much information as he could out of Lena, but it was Jan he needed to talk to. Unfortunately, he had slipped unconscious and didn't appear to be waking anytime soon. He would leave it up to the Polish agents to explained the magical world and what Jan's new condition would mean.

He felt a little guilty for casting a bit of magic on Jan and Lena, so they wouldn't remember exactly who he was. The Polish government knew a United Kingdom agent was working on the case, but he didn't need them knowing it was Harry Potter.

Last thing he needed was Voldemort leaving the battlefield in Greece to come hunt him down. If the Paris mission showed him anything, it was that he still had a hell of a long way to go before he would be able to go head on with the Dark Lord.

It was starting to get late. He figured to spend one more night in society before continuing his tracking of Greyback's pack tomorrow morning. A greasy restaurant meal and a warm hotel bed before he spent the next couple of weeks in a tent with Ministry provided ready to eat meals sounded nice.

As he lay in his hotel bed that night, waiting for sleep to claim him, he tried to figure out what Greyback's plan was. Why leave the Unite Kingdom and bring his pack to Poland? It didn't make any sense. At first, the thought was that he was moving to join with the Death Eaters on the continent. However, his being in Poland for the past few weeks had shown that wasn't the case. At least not yet. That might be the end game but there was something that was going to happen in between, and Harry needed to find out what it was.

"What's your plan Greyback?" he asked out loud.

All he heard back was the muffled sound of the television from the room next door. First thing he needed to do though, was find Greyback. Then he'd get the answer he sought.