XXXI
War of the Werewolves
Last Warning - rated "M+18" for violence, language, and graphic depictions of battle!
"You want me, come and get me!" The blazing Patronus Wolf issued his challenge.
And the Black Wolf leapt.
The defenders of Hogwarts, both living and not, all jumped back as the Gytrash's jaws snapped shut with a hideous report.
"TEDDY!" Harry screamed, drawing the holly wand with his free hand.
But there was nothing there as the Black Wolf slammed into the locked front gates, just millimeters from Fenrir Greyback's nose. An explosion of red, green, yellow, and blue sparks erupted, throwing her backward, but Greyback stood his ground. At the top of the battlements, Professor Flitwick, Hermione Weasley, and a half-dozen others stumbled as the Hogwarts protective Charms took damage.
"He's a Gryffindor, all right," Draco nodded, looking down and around for a sign of Teddy or his Patronus as the Black Wolf got up and seemed to reconsider her plan.
But Teddy was nowhere to be seen.
"Merlin's sagging shorts!" Flitwick squeaked in alarm. "That bitch is packing some power!"
"Where's Teddy?" Ron gasped. "Of all the mad things to do..."
He was interrupted at the Black Wolf charged the gates again, throwing even more of the defenders to the floor of the battlements.
"Well, she'll not take much more of this!" Flitwick complained, panting and waving his wand to try and repair some of the damage to the shields. "Some retirement this is! Potter, what is it with your family?"
"Harry! Neville!" another voice then spoke up, as a glowing fox leapt over the wall and spoke in Seamus Finnigan's voice, "We had Jack ‘n' Ciaran in here, when the shields glitched jus' long enough ter let Freddie and the new pups in! Jack give ‘em what fer in woof talk, got ‘em to drink some Potion, but then they run off again! We did'na see Teddy er Lee!"
"Any damage to the interior?" Hermione asked.
"Jus' some dust shook loose," Seamus' Fox replied, "The new pups are fine, jus' a bit confused. It's startin' ter smell like a bloody kennel down ‘eer, tho! The portrait of ol' Slytherin up an' left twenty minutes ago!"
Draco Malfoy cringed. Hannah Abbott snickered.
"I dinno ‘ow they done it, neither, but Madame P. thinks these kids were Imperiused before they changed!" The Fox added.
"Is that possible?" Neville asked.
"Yes," Hermione pointed out, "If the Curse were strong enough, it could carry over."
"Harry! Down there!" Kingsley pointed at the front gates.
Greyback and Circe were still staring down one another, and the Black Wolf was tentatively nosing at the perimeter. Behind them, the assorted dark creatures then parted ranks, allowing the humans through.
They stopped at the gates, leveling their wands. In the crowd, someone screamed as the mutter of incantations in an odd language was heard.
"Uh oh," Ron groaned, "There's gotta be a hundred of them down there!"
"Shield Charms, now!" Flitwick snapped to those lining the battlements. "Concentrate on the gates!"
There was a brilliant flash of red-orange light, as at least a hundred voices below cried out "REDUCTO!" in unison. A wave that quickly turned black crashed into the perimeter.
The Castle shook, as all along its hallowed halls, House Elves raised their hands and let loose their own magic to stabilize it.
Flitwick went to his knees, and Ron caught Hermione as she swooned. Many of the parents helping hold the defense perimeter went down as well, the shock having somehow drained them.
"Blood magic!" Kingsley gasped, shuddering. "They just sacrificed someone down there!"
From their new hiding place behind the rose bushes, Teddy and his pack watched as the wave of blackness hit the shields. All of them, including Argos, wrinkled their noses in disgust. "She has crossed the line," Argos snarled. "Ordinary magic, Wizard or Elf, will not be enough to withstand her now!"
"What do we do?" Freddie whined, his fur shifting to a lighter yellow.
"We fight!" Teddy growled, getting to his feet as his fur turned first black, then red.
And his pack stood with him.
They stepped around the rosebushes as Podmore's knights took a step forward, their ghostly chargers champing at their bits and pawing the turf. The resurrected defenders advanced as well. From the battlements, the living defenders raised their wands again. The Dementors rose up, probing the fence, and the werewolves began to move.
"I can't get a target," Kingsley muttered, waving his wand at the crowd. "Whoever did it is Disillusioning, somehow!"
And then another scream.
Again, the Castle shook.
Flitwick collapsed.
The Dark Army charged.
"Shields collapsing!" Hermione warned them.
Draco gave his wand a shake and spoke into the tip. "Kreacher! Security breach! Have the Elves prepare for structural damage!"
The first wave of Dementors and werewolves then rammed the shivering gates from the outside, as Greyback rammed back from the inside. There was a squeal of yielding metal as Hermione and several others went to their knees, breaking out in a sweat despite the chill night.
The others moved to assist them, drawing wands as the first rank of Dementors were deflected, and the werewolves were thrown back several meters. Again, the humans fired their Reductor curses.
The shields fell.
There was a defiant roar of an enraged wolf, and then the front gates collapsed. The winged boars fell from their crumbling podiums as well, and would have crushed Greyback if not for the quick movements of Dumbledore and Snape, who somehow deflected them.
"Being dead does have its advantages," Snape noted, as the Headless Hunt charged and the Werebears of Durmstrang sprang into action. Taken by surprise, the first wave of invading werewolves began to fall or flee as the much-larger Bears and Greyback's pack savaged them.
"Your duty is to guard these gates, such as they are," Dumbledore then reminded the fallen boar statues, who then seemed to spring to life and began making use of their tusks.
There were yelps of pain below as the defenders above began firing into the melee, but they soon decided that it was too risky. There was every chance that they might hit one of their own, as Greyback's companions all dived into the fray as well.
"Harry, I don't like this," Ron pointed out. "There's not enough of ‘em down there! This can't be all of them, what didn't come over to our side."
"Noted," Harry muttered, concentrating on the Stone.
And at the forefront, a black dog, two great gray wolves, and the pink wolf went straight for Circe. The Black Wolf, however, took one look at the charging stag and vanished back into her myriad followers.
"I have a nose, you stinking bitch!" Tonks cried out, as a wide-eyed Remus followed her in, slashing and snapping their way through the ranks of werewolves being savaged by Greyback and his pack.
It wasn't long, however, before the wolves of Circe realized that their claws and fangs were no match for the resurrected defenders. In their distraction, many of the werewolves fell to the veterans of the Final Battle. Neither living nor dead, and seemingly invincible, Remus and Dora and their comrades cut a swath of destruction through the advancing dark forces, forcing them into hasty retreat.
Among them was a young man with ginger hair wielding a broadsword, and a lovely lady following the black dog. The physical beings had no power to harm them, but as the trio advanced, anything that got in their way fell before them as the power of the Stone seemed to assimilate Podmore's weapons onto their unique plane of Existence.
"We need to get down there - guide me!" Harry snapped, "I have to concentrate on them, or they'll vanish!"
"Damn!" Draco swore, as a new chill swept over them.
They all looked up, save for Harry, as the second wave of Dementors overran the walls. Finding nothing that they could use in the bears and wolves battling before them, the Soul-sucking wraiths took to the sky, seeking out the humans above.
"Hannah!" Hermione called, "That last hit was too much! We've got to get Professor Flitwick to Hospital! And we've got some more wounded here!"
There was a loud POP! and suddenly Luna Lovegood-Scamander appeared among them. "I think the anti-Apparation Wards have failed?" Luna observed, as some of the parents began Apparating the wounded to the Hospital Wing.
"Where's Rolf?" Dean asked, as he grabbed up a fallen comrade.
"In the Forest, with Hagrid, getting more help," Luna replied, as they prepared to Apparate.
"Luna, could you?" Harry asked, "I'm a bit busy?" He nodded at the descending Dementors.
"Of course! Expecto Patronum!" Luna said calmly, as the Hare burst forth from her wand and began attacking. Ron's Terrier soon joined it, and it wasn't long before Hermione returned to send in her Otter. Before long, a veritable menagerie was staving off the Dementors.
"Bloody Stone," Harry complained, longingly eyeing the next wave of Dementors.
"Give it to me!" Draco implored, offering his hand. Their eyes met for just a second, and then Harry nodded. Draco pulled the ring from Harry's finger, slipped it on, and raised the Hawthorne wand. "Hell, Potter, how did you do it?" He gasped, "The power drain is enormous!"
"Later!" Harry shook his head, raising the Holly wand. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" he shouted, as the Stag burst forth and began pawing his way through the sky, shredding Dementors as it went.
"What was that?" Teddy gasped, as they all picked themselves up from the blast.
"Magic of the darkest kind," Argos growled, shaking himself. Then he looked up sharply. "Stay with me, Teddy! They have penetrated our defenses!"
Teddy and Argos shared a long look, and as those golden eyes locked, something seemed to pass between them.
"She's coming for me!" Teddy growled, his hackles going up.
Argos nodded. "Yes, but she must get through me first!" He promised. "I haven't spent the last twelve years eating kibble to lose you to her now!" He paused to sniff the winds. "We should stay near the Castle, at the back of the fight," Argos pointed out.
"What?!" Lee barked.
"Make her battle her way through them all, tire her out, before I confront her," Argos explained.
"You?!" Teddy gasped.
"She is the Black Wolf, I am the White," Argos explained. "For every action, a reaction. For each thing in the universe, an opposite. Only I can stop her. That is why I am come."
"So what do we do?" Freddie asked.
"These wolves will see you as fellow pups, and not harm you," Argos warned them. "Most of the creatures are no threat you, but beware the humans. You are smaller, and more easily hidden. One would suggest that you sneak about, defend your own, but stay near the Castle. Given their mindset, if they get that far, they will go for the front doors, seeking to take the children."
"They ain't getting' in!" Ciaran snapped.
Jack nodded, uttering a very low and guttural sound as he stared at the heightening battle below them. "No, they are not!" He agreed coldly.
Harry and the others descended the battlements rapidly, and arrived on the front lawn to find a bloodbath.
The Werebears and Greyback's wolves were still chasing Circe's werewolves and wizards, trampling the fallen all around them in the blood-soaked snow of the front lawn as the invaders continued to retreat. Wolves were savaging at various dark creatures, throwing their mutilated carcasses this way and that, and duels were raging all around them between the humans of both forces. Here and there in the moonlight, bright shapes of Patronuses moved through the melee, pursuing the remaining Dementors. The Headless Hunt continued its invincible charge through the rear of Circe's ranks, succeeding in pushing them back and down the way.
"Have at thee, foul brutes!" One of the Knights cried out, throwing his own severed head at a wizard and knocking him unconscious with it.
"Argh!" Hermione choked, leaning heavily on Ron, as she pointed at the ground. "I knew they changed, but I never realized..." her voice trailed off.
They looked, and among the fallen lay a recently felled werewolf. His throat was slashed, and as they watched, the canine form slowly reverted to that of a man. Several of the accompanying parents were ill.
"This is what we're here to stop," Neville reminded them. "Once this is over, none of your children will ever have to face anything like this."
"It was his choice," Draco reminded them all in an even voice, as he kept his gaze on the insanity just below them. "I can't see them all, Harry," he stated. "How do I know they're still here?"
"Because you want them to be," Harry assured him, panting. "Let me know when it's too much, right then?"
"Right," Draco nodded, as a familiar voice came to his ears:
"Oh, and all you had to do was - drink - the - bloody - potion!" Severus Snape complained, as he swept into view and promptly decapitated another werewolf with his ghostly sword. "Crude, but effective," he added. "Hello, Draco. I see Potter's talked you into this madness, as well?"
"Sir?" Draco nodded in reply, his shoulders slumping a bit. He glanced at Harry, and behind their backs, they swapped the Stone again.
"Circe's frontal assault has collapsed, and Hagrid is savaging at her flanking legions with things from the Forest with Centaurs, Hippogriffs, and other...things. And I did see some spiders in there," Snape reported, as Ron cringed. "Oh, and you don't even want to know what Sanguini and his friends are doing. It seems that Circe's dark forces are either too stupid - or perhaps too driven - to consider retreat."
"Sir, have you seen Teddy and the boys...wolves?" Harry asked, as they moved to a better-guarded vantage point near the front wall.
"WHAT?!" Snape gasped, "You mean to tell me they're loose?"
"That was Teddy's Patronus, what started this fight, sir," Harry confessed, looking around for the familiar faces he'd seen earlier.
"Oh, why am I not surprised?" Snape sighed. Then he seemed to shake it off. "Be that as it may, Potter, and as much as it pains me to say it, that mangy Furball - Greyback - and his forces have the next wave of intruders stymied down the way. If you don't like the looks of it up here, then I'd suggest you not go down there," Snape warned them.
"He's right, Harry," another man added, and Harry looked to see his Godfather coming up the way. But there was a shape closing behind him, and Harry raised his wand. "Sirius!" He yelled, but not before the blur of a small black wolf cut across the lane and took down the wizard. There was a snap as the wolf bit the man's wand in half, and Ron fired a stunner and felled the man again.
And just as quickly as it had come, the shaggy little black wolf was gone.
"That was Lee!" Ron gasped, as he and Dean fired on a few more advancing men. "They're still around here, somewhere!"
"Guerilla warfare, looks like," Sirius nodded. "Couldn't be prouder of them!" He laughed, clapping Snape on the shoulder. "Marauding, of the finest sort!"
Snape cringed, then held out his hand as a woman came walking up. She took his hand and smiled.
"Mum?" Harry gasped, and they embraced. "Where's the Gytrash?"
"Remus and Tonks chased her down the way there, with Albus and James following them," Lily pointed. "Your father sends his regards, Harry, but he's a bit busy at the moment. Something about ‘rending them asunder' with Sir Nicholas and Podmore?"
"Gryffindors," Snape sighed heavily.
"Professor Snape?" Hermione then gasped, "What was that you said earlier? About them being too driven?"
Snape gave her that familiar look, and Lily elbowed him. Snape grunted. "I said," he repeated in irritation, "That they are either too stupid, or too driven, to have the sense to give up this fight."
"That's it!" Hermione snapped her fingers. "Just like that first hit, when she knocked us down? The amount of power she's got to be pulling to keep control over this army has to be enormous, and it can't last forever!"
"Right," Ron agreed, looking past her, "So we just keep them entertained," he paused to take a shot a werewolf leaping over a bush, "until the sun comes up, and we've won?"
"No," Neville finally spoke up. They all turned to look at him. "We have to force her into exhausting whatever it is she's using to control them. We can fight her army until the mortal part of it is all destroyed, but in the end, she'llstill be here. But if we can break her control, somehow, those forces will probably run away."
"What we need is bait, then," Luna suggested, "Draw her in."
Harry flinched. "Teddy said the same thing earlier," he mumbled, a sickened expression on his face.
"He can lure her out, that much is certain," Dumbledore then spoke up, as he came ambling up the way as if simply out for a stroll. "It would seem that Circe is making a stand just down and around the bend, there," he pointed towards the village.
"Professor?!" They all gasped, but Dumbledore held up his hand.
"Harry, do you remember the night, just before you defeated Lord Voldemort in the Great Hall? When you were in the Forest?" Dumbledore asked.
Harry's eyes went wide, and Sirius laid a hand on his Godson's arm. Nausea swept over him, and he almost dropped his wand.
"No," Harry said flatly, as Ron, Neville, and several parents pushed back another bunch of werewolves and wizards who'd managed to get in that far. Smaller shapes of wolves sprang from the shadows to grab wands, as if playing some mad ‘fetch the stick' game, but then vanished just as quickly.
"Harry, I would not ask..." Dumbledore began, but he was cut off by a terrible howl of a wolf in pain.
"Greyback!" Sirius exclaimed, as the pink wolf suddenly appeared among them.
But as she drew closer, they could all see the wounds that bled with a Patronus-like shimmer.
"Harry!" Dora shouted, as the wolf changed form into a young woman with pink hair. "Greyback's down! Circe's regrouped, and heading back this way. She had more forces hidden down there, and we ran right into a trap!"
"That's the rest of ‘em," Ron sighed.
"I hate to say it, but we can't let Greyback fall!" Harry muttered, as he traded off the Stone to Ron.
***
Without Greyback, they all knew, there was every chance that his alliance of werewolves might fall apart and flee. While their having consumed the Circe Solution guaranteed that they were sane and would not turn on the defenders of Hogwarts, everyone realized that with such a reduction in their forces, the battle would soon be lost.
From their hiding place near the front doors, the pack heard it all as well.
"This is not good," Jack whined.
"Greyback is the most powerful werewolf in existence," Argos agreed, "Without him, our chances are marginal at best."
"We just can't leave him," Jack put in.
"But even if'n we blended in," Ciaran cocked his head, "What'd'we do once we get there? It's not like we got hands ter help him?"
"Hand to help..." Teddy thought aloud. Then his ears went up and his tail stiffened. "Scorpius!" he barked in excitement. "That night we cured him!"
They all just looked at him.
"They made him change with the moon rock! We draw our power from the moon! If Greyback is hurt, maybe we can build him back up with the rock!" Teddy yapped, "Repair the damage!"
"A blast o' moonlight at point blank range!" Freddie yapped.
"Problem, Cuz," Lee pointed out, "You got no hands?"
"Yes, I do," Teddy grinned a wolfly grin. "When Scorpius was being treated with the moon rock, I changed into a wolf, too, when the light hit me. BUT, I changed back at will to talk to Professor Malfoy! I forgot all about it until now, but I think I can do it again!"
"No werewolf can change back before sunrise," Argos reminded him. "Not even me!"
"Colin," Teddy then changed his form of address, "You may be many things - a dog, a wolf, a werewolf, a wizard, a boy, but there is one thing you're not: You're not a Meta-Wolf," Teddy stated.
"Those crazy blood cells of yours!" Jack added.
"Like my Uncle and Cousin said, I'm not human anymore," Teddy reminded them. "I'm something new - something the world has never seen before. I think it's time we find out just what I am!"
Teddy the wolf then went to scratch on the front door, waiting to see that no one on the lawn was looking. The door cracked open, and they all dashed in as Teddy began to howl.
There was a loud POP! and Kreacher appeared at once. "Old Kreacher knows that howl anywheres!" The Elf smiled. Then he shook his finger at Teddy. "What is you doing out of the Castle? Is you all mad?"
"Kreacher, I need the moon rock," Teddy the wolf said firmly, knowing that Kreacher had learned to speak ‘wolf' long ago. "Greyback is down, and we've got to help him. We...I ...owe him that!"
Kreacher snapped his fingers, and the moon rock appeared in his hand. Teddy took it in his mouth, then shook the Invisibility Cloak back over himself.
"Don't follow me," he called back, as he vanished.
"Fat chance," Lee snarled.
While they could not see him, the others could still see Teddy's tracks in the snow and smell his trail. They followed after him, trying to avoid the worst areas of fighting. It wasn't easy for them, seeing fellow canines trying to kill one another, but the pups fought it down and bravely pressed on.
Just as Argos had said, not one single wolf gave them any trouble - other than to berate them for being foolish pups and telling them to go and hide.
Down the lane they went, to the narrow road that led to the village. Like a trail of destruction, fallen wolves, humans, and other assorted creatures lay dead in the snow. Steam rose from some of them, but some had since gone cold.
"I can hear her," Jack fretted, "In my head."
"So can I," the others all agreed, but having taken the Potion, and not all of them being real werewolves, the compulsion for madness simply was not there.
"I don't know if this is worth it," Jack whined sadly, as he stepped over a fallen wolf.
They had to divert to avoid the worst of the fighting, following Teddy's tracks and scent, and topped a small rise to find the source of the noise before them.
***
"This isn't the half of them," Tonks was telling them, as her proximity to the Stone seemed to begin repairing some of the damage she'd taken. "Podmore and the Werebears really hurt them, drove them down towards the village. Then Hagrid's forces started attacking them from the Forest. Sanguini..." she began, but stopped as something went streaking by.
Five smaller wolves of varying colors went racing by them, heading straight for the battle.
"Ah, the New Marauders" Sirius smiled, as Harry just gaped.
Dora smacked him. "You're NOT helping, Padfoot!"
"White, yellow, ginger, black, and gray," Hermione observed. "No Teddy!"
Dora changed form into the pink wolf again and took off after them.
"Let's go!" Harry ordered his forces, as the defenders regrouped and began battling their way through the scant, mostly human forces still trying to storm the castle. They made short work of them, and turned that cleanup over to the Aurors.
"This makes no sense," Draco pointed out, as he waved his wand and began throwing live cobras into their attackers. "I thought they wanted to break through and get the pups?"
"Or maybe they're trying to draw them out?" Dumbledore offered.
"But Circe wants Teddy, and he wasn't there?" Ron put in.
"Or we just couldn't see him," Harry fretted, as the last ranks of attackers broke and ran.
"That was too easy," Hermione fretted, "And we're all tiring."
***
At the bottom of the hill, it was carnage.
The fighting was so intense that the young wolves skidded to a halt, unable to tell who was fighting whom and from what side. The air was heavy with the scent of blood and worse, and they had to look away from the Acromantulas and Vampires who were hard at work to the far end near the trees.
Teddy grumbled as he shook the Cloak over his shoulder, reappearing. "I told you not to follow me," he complained, "There!" He then growled, pointing with his left paw.
Nearer to them at the edge of the Forest lay a great gray wolf, and a glowing stag circled him with a few mounted ghostly knights. There were no humans, save for a woman who was holding off any advances from their enemies with what seemed to be Patronus-like light that radiated from her outstretched hands. At her side was another great gray wolf, battered and leaking the same type of light from his fur. All around them lay more wolves, and it was obvious that Greyback's take had taken heavy casualties.
"Dad!" Teddy howled, but his call was lost over the din of battle.
"They are trying to get to Greyback!" Argos pointed out.
"We have to get down there," Teddy informed them.
"In the heat of that fighting, I would not advise it," Argos shook his head. "They could easily mistake us for the enemy; they are too far gone in the fever of battle."
"Someone's coming!" Jack yipped, as they all spun around to see Harry and the others coming down the lane.
"Mum?!" Teddy yelped, as the pink wolf suddenly jumped him.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Dora barked at him. Then she suddenly changed form and grabbed him a crushing hug.
"We have to get to Grey-..." Teddy began, but another howl cut him off.
In Ron's hand, the Stone gave a twitch.
"Moony!" Sirius cried out, as he changed form and dove into the fray again.
Below them, Remus Lupin the wolf was taking on Circe herself as the Gytrash charged Greyback. Throwing himself in front of her, Moony took the full force of her assault before Prongs could dash in and gore her with his antlers. The damage that Circe seemed to be taking, however, was not nearly what Harry remembered from that night in the village.
"What happens to them if she kills them?" Ron asked, "I mean...you know what I mean, since you're all already dead?" He asked Dumbledore.
"I have no idea," Dumbledore shrugged, "But I can guess." He then pointed to a puddle of shining grey ooze. "It would appear that Podmore's forces are taking casualties, although I have no idea how they did it."
Harry felt a chill, remembering that Dumbledore's guesses were usually right.
"Nonexistence," the old man shrugged, "Everything that one was, is, or would yet be in the Afterlife - extinguished."
"Tha's what's left of a...of a Ghost?" Kingsley wondered.
Dumbledore nodded.
"Mum?" Teddy whimpered, turning in a circle as if to lie down. "We have to do something!"
They all watched, most of the parents who'd accompanied them too shocked to speak or act on what they were seeing below them.
"We'll never get through all that," Draco pointed out, as a new sound came down from the sky.
They all looked up, and saw a huge winged shape coming down in the moonlight.
"Bombs away!" George Weasley cried, as Buckbeak the Hippogriff banked hard and dropped something large from his talons.
There was an explosion of what looked like fireworks in the middle of the fray below them, and then an odd smell carried on a cloud of white smoke as a sparkling tsunami of Potion swept over the wolves. The wave swamped them, and they all got a good mouthful of it.
"Fire two!" Lee Jordan Sr. called out, as yet another Hippogriff plunged down over the stunned werewolves and let off another bomb of the Circe Solution.
"Great Merlin!" Kingsley swore, as the drenched wolves began milling around, licking their chops, seemingly confused as to where they were and why they were there. Some of them even ran off as Hagrid's booming voice began calling to halt their attack and Fluffy began berating them all in dog-talk with all three of his heads.
Circe looked up the rise, and her glowing red eyes seemed to lock onto Teddy.
"Teddy Lupin," Teddy could hear her voice in his head, calling, like a Siren Song.
"She has one known vulnerability," Harry reminded them, "That's our only chance."
"And I dare say, Potter," Draco reminded him, "That we're probably all too tired to channel the kind of power you told us about into a Patronus right now."
"Then we should fall back," Neville suggested, "If this is a trap, or if George, Lee and Hagrid just blew it for them, we don't want to be out here - tired and exposed like this. She might have lost most of the wolves, but she's still got plenty of others. Let's get back to the Castle, and hope that some of the Wards are back up and that we can get some more help from somewhere?"
"Tired, are we?" A human voice then asked, as a group of witches and wizards appeared out of the trees. "Now you really didn't think we'd commit all our forces to one frontal assault, did you?"
"Drop your wands, you're surrounded," someone else suggested.
The Gryffindor wolves all exchanged a glance, and then the New Marauders sprang from the shadows with a chorus of snarling fury.
There were screams and yelps of pain alike as men met wolves, and red and green Spells began to fly. Harry and his followers began trying to get clean shots at the wizards, as Dora and the others joined in.
"I have to get down there," Teddy kept repeating to himself, even as he tackled a man and bit his wand to splinters, reminding himself that he was not allowed to bite humans. His claws, however, were formidable weapons.
Teddy's rapid pulse was pounding in his ears as he fought, each beat of his heart sounding like thunder as his fur seemed to take fire in every color of the spectrum. Circe's song was still in his head, whispering, telling him to bite them...
Teddy ignored it, instead springing at another man, just as a blast of green light erupted from that man's wand. There was a flash of white, and the Killing Curse exploded harmlessly against Argos' white fur.
When it was over, at least two-dozen witches and wizards were on the ground, splintered wands lying all about.
But Harry and his forces had taken casualties as well, and Teddy flinched as he saw that his Uncle Ron was on the ground, unmoving, but breathing. Then he noticed that his mum, Snape, and Dumbledore were gone. He glanced down, and saw that even though the battle was still paused, Fenrir Greyback was still down with only Fluffy to defend him - and the three-headed dog was taking damage as well.
"Dad?" Teddy wondered, as he turned back to see Neville and several others trying to revive his Uncle Ron, and Apparating others back to the Castle.
"Exhausted," Luna was saying, as she scanned them with her wand. "That Stone must take a lot of power to use?" She then reached down and took the ring containing the Stone from Ron's finger.
"Wh-what happened?" A dazed Harry muttered, as Neville Ennervated him, perhaps a bit too strongly. "Oh, my head!"
"Erm, Harry?" Draco spoke up, "She's looking this way!"
"Freddie," Teddy said, "I have an idea. Shift your fur like mine," he instructed him, "We need to be twins right now!" Freddie did that. "Ciaran, change back and get that ring! Hook it to my collar!" Ciaran did that, as Luna just watched.
"What are you doing?" Argos asked, as below them, many of Circe's wolves just sat and watched her battling Fluffy.
Teddy then began concentrating, knowing that somewhere - perhaps in some other dimension, even - that the Fire-Wolf wand was with him.
As Fluffy yelped in pain, limping on a badly damaged foreleg, Teddy came to a decision.
"Now," Teddy yapped at Freddie, as the two identical wolves moved to the crest of the hill and howled for all they were worth.
Greyback stirred just a bit.
Circe looked up at them.
"TEDDY!" Harry yelled at him, as Freddie (or was it Teddy?) bolted with the moon rock and vanished into the crowd of confused wolves below.
"UP HERE, BITCH!" The sparkling rainbow-colored wolf then howled in defiance.
"Wish I spoke ‘wolf'," Draco mused, as Circe dropped her attack on Fluffy and Greyback and charged.
They all looked down the hill, but the other multi-colored wolf was nowhere to be seen.
"Is she...getting bigger?" Draco wondered, "Not just closer?"
"I think so," Kingsley agreed.
"Harry, she's lost almost all of her wolves, but I think those might be Humdingers behind here, there!" Luna pointed.
Closer and closer the Black wolf came to the wolf that was either Freddie or Teddy. Harry squeezed the Holly wand, preparing to Apparate to him, but just at that instant, Argos appeared next to the smaller wolf and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.
POP!
"They're gone!" Luna gasped.
Circe skidded to a halt, confused.
***
As the bottom of the hill, Teddy the wolf skidded to a halt and shook the Invisibility Cloak back. He dropped the moon rock in front of Greyback, nearly retching at the sight of so many dead and wounded fellow canines, then drew himself up with a shake.
Concentrating, drawing on all the Magic he could imagine, Teddy bent his will towards changing form. I need the boy, he told the Wolf that was also him, I need the boy, just for a bit!
We are the boy, the Wolf agreed, Teddy agreed with himself, embracing the duality of his nature like a warm blanket - just as Greyback had told him to.
And there, under the light of the full Solstice Moon, Teddy Lupin transformed in a flash of multi-colored light.
Enveloped in a nimbus like a glowing rainbow, Teddy the boy took out the Fire-Wolf wand and aimed it at the moon rock.
"LUMOS LUX LUNA!" He shouted, as the valley filled with blinding white light.
Werewolves and dark creatures scattered, and Hagrid had to shield his eyes as he held tight to Fluffy. Sanguini's forces fled, as did the wild animals that had joined Hagrid.
But Fenrir Greyback did not move.
"No," Teddy the boy gasped, kneeing down and giving the great wolf a shake. "No, no, NO!" He cried, as the sum total of all the pain and disgust he'd been suppressing at the carnage all around him threatened to overwhelm him. "GET UP!" He screamed at Greyback, "Mr. Greyson, you have to get UP! We can't DO this without you!"
But Greyback lay very still in the red snow.
"This is all my fault," Teddy sniffled. "He did this for me!"
"Teddy," a voice whispered, and Teddy felt a hand on his shoulder.
Blinking back tears, he bent down and put his arms around the fallen werewolf's neck, trying to force him up. But for as strong as he willed himself to be, Teddy Lupin could not lift Greyback.
"She'll come back," Teddy grunted, "We have to go! She'll come back and kill us both!"
"Teddy," That soft, almost wheezy voice said again, "Why do you feel such pity for this monster? After all, he's done terrible things in his life."
Teddy turned, his tears suddenly changing to anger. "He's NOT like that anymore! He only did it because theywere so bad to him! Because his boy...his boy died! His best friend died, and no one would help them! All he wanted was someone to...to love..." Teddy choked.
"And someone to love him back?" Albus Dumbledore prompted him.
Teddy nodded.
"And do you love him?"
Teddy thought about it, remembering what his Uncle Harry had told him about Greyback and how bad of a person he'd been. But he also remembered Harry telling him about how Greyback's timely advice had literally saved Teddy's life when he'd been just a baby and struggling with the transformations.
"He is the Alpha Male," Teddy nodded, wondering at how he'd felt when he'd first met Francis Greyson, the man, in the Quidditch locker room. Perhaps it was a canine thing, but Teddy knew that he felt something on an instinctual level. He knew that he owed Greyback his life, and it was hard to not equate that feeling of a pack mentality, and the gratitude of the wolf, with love. And no one had made Greyback go charging into battle to try and save other parents' children.
Teddy nodded.
"Teddy, do you realize that the Stone can draw not only me, or your mother and father, or just those that you know, back to this Life?" Dumbledore then asked. "Greyback's body still breathes, but only just. Perhaps we might think of someone to help you with this task?"
"No time," Teddy muttered, wiping at his face and looking up the way.
But what he saw seemed to be a stalemate: Circe stood alone, and she was surrounded, held in place by the Patronus Stag that shone bright as the sun, his powers amplified by not only the Elder Wand in Harry Potter's hand, but by the magic of those who stood with him as well.
"There is truly no Soul whatsoever in that beast," Dumbledore agreed, as Teddy's sharp ears heard two small footsteps at his side.
"Daddy?" a very small boy asked, toddling over to the fallen wolf and reaching out a pudgy little hand to Greyback and ruffling his bloody fur. "Daddy, wake up?"
And Greyback sniffed.
One of his eyes opened.
"Frankie?" He managed, his ears pricking up just a tiny bit. "Frankie, my boy?"
"Miss you, Daddy," the little boy said, turning to look at Teddy.
Greyback groaned, and Teddy held out his hand to the toddler. "I'm sorry," Teddy offered, but as their hands touched, Teddy's nimbus of light enveloped both the boy and Greyback. Dumbledore stepped back, away from the burning moon rock to see to Hagrid and Fluffy.
Then little Frankie bent down and hugged the great wolf again.
"Ian rode the train back, Daddy," Frankie Jr. then informed him. It sounded like "EE-uhn wode deh twain back."
"Teddy," Greyback whimpered, his gaze moving to Teddy, "Teddy Lupin. I'm sorry for..."
Greyback's eye closed again. He exhaled hard, and then lay very still.
And although Teddy knew it was silly, that the one simple Healing Spell that he'd learned from his Gran couldn't possibly be strong enough, he touched the Fire-Wolf wand to Greyback's chest.
"Episkey," Teddy whispered.
The rainbow nimbus surrounding them then seemed to contract, and then the wand ignited in pure white light that flowed out of its tip and into Greyback.
For just another second, in the blinding moonlight, Teddy Lupin waited.
Then Fenrir Greyback sneezed, a violent sneeze, and jumped up and shook himself.
"FRANKIE?!" He howled, but the toddler was gone. "Teddy?" He then gasped, realizing what he was seeing. "I...I was at the train station...with...with my boy," he sighed, wiping a paw over his muzzle. "And the train had just pulled out."
Teddy threw himself at Greyback, hugging him around the neck.
"You did this, for me?" Greyback asked, looking himself over. Then his ears went right up. "WHAT IS THIS?" He demanded, giving Teddy a good look and a sniff, his tail wagging. "You're Human!"
"Actually, no!" Teddy laughed through his tears, as the moon rock's glow went dim, and Hagrid came to retrieve it.
"Circe?" Greyback asked, and Teddy pointed up the hill.
There was an explosion of Patronus-blue light, as Circe and Harry - along with everyone else - were blown back by the recoil as the Elder Wand once again let loose the Stag.
"She has taken heavy damage," Argos then spoke up, suddenly appearing with them. "Well done, Teddy," he added. "What say we go up there and finish her off, now?"