Coming out of the forest, it wasn't immediately obvious where the 'town' of werewolves was. The main structure of the town was surrounded by so many trees that one had to know it was there before they picked it out. Even then, they would be excused in not giving it much thought. It was built like a crude two-story barn that wasn't noteworthy even in the daylight. Well, except the word 'clubhouse' painted across the front of it. The Alpha apparently thought it would be more welcoming that way. It just made Teddy feel like an adolescent every time he came to sleep here. It also exaggerated the strange dissonance of having so many middle-aged people gathering there to eat like they were back in Hogwarts or something.
The Alpha ignored the clubhouse and instead led them around to the footpath behind it, only noticeable in the dark when you were right on top of it. The farther the Aurors walked into the forest, the more tense the group became. The werewolves had chosen to build their homes here every half-kilometer or so. Teddy was probably the only one who picked out the werewolf homes hidden among the trees. The rest nervously glanced in the forest, probably wondering where the Alpha was leading them. Hasan fell back to walk with Teddy. Teddy dropped his own lumos spell, content to rely on Hasan's firelight charm that would hide the worst of the emotions crossing his face.
They had passed Nicola and her husband's house several minutes ago. There was only one more home where a female lived this far back. So Teddy knew whose house they would stop at. That didn't stop cold, heavy dread from coating his insides when they stopped at Lilith's family cottage. Couldn't she have gotten off just this once? They had to have been assigned a god that was unfeeling and cruel, or maybe it was just the universe that hated them. Why did it have to take Lilith away?
He wanted to scream and pound on something until his hands were bloody and his mind was oblivion. But he couldn't. Not now. Due to another twist of those same unfeeling fates, he couldn't show anything. Not without risking his colleagues becoming suspicious of him. He held his breath until a sheen of numbness coated over his anger.
Lilith's cottage was small like the others, only having ever meant to house her and her parents. The light bricks barely peeked out through the massive amounts of ivy that had taken over the front of the house. The ivy choked chimney, usually puffing smoke this late in the year, was dead. The whole house was dead, not a single cheery light to push back the darkness.
Hasan turned to Teddy, bringing his wand's light with him. Teddy ducked his face away, worried what Hasan's perceptive eyes might pick up. Luckily, Hasan's attention was distracted by the Alpha leading the way up the cottage's walkway.
Teddy focused on keeping his breathing steady and face impassive as they followed the Alpha around to the back doors. The whole back of the house was dedicated to the kitchen and that was where Lilith liked to spend her time. Of course she would have been there when she died. The thought hitched his breathing and he couldn't remember how to get it started again.
He worked to get his lungs to inhale and exhale at a steady rate, the effort and lack of oxygen building into a headache. He had almost managed to normalize his breathing when they reached the back. The scene of murder thrust itself upon him without warning and he lost his breath again. The kitchen doors had been left open, exposing her slumped body inside. At least that was what he assumed the dark figure on the ground was. He hadn't realized he had stopped walking until Hasan's body bumped into him from behind.
Teddy wished that he could feign some sort of illness and have Hasan get him out of here. Or be able to just hold onto Hasan and hide his face away from the horrible image of Lilith's dead body. Instead he let Hasan's hand on his back silently direct him onwards towards Lilith's kitchen.