CHAPTER 46

Something was wrong. North knew it before Lorelei did. He had jumped at her, barking. It was something she had made it very clear he was not to do. She shoved him down with a sharp command. Then, the pain hit. The Morthahg burn on her chest ignited into a searing agony. She had collapsed and been unconscious until someone tried to move her. Her eyes opened to see light streaming down around three shadows hanging over her.

“I’m all right!” she said immediately.

“You’re not,” came the grim answer. She was lifted carefully to her feet, and to everyone’s surprise, was able to stand that way. Her chest still hurt, but it took her a moment to realize that it was because she had dug her own fingernails into the wound.

“What happened?” she asked, trying to focus on her assistants now that they were at eye level. It was Snape, and Dormire, and a Hogwarts witch with yellow eyes. The name wouldn’t come to her though.

“We found you in the floor,” Snape said. “But something else is happening too. Dumbledore just called in everyone from outdoors.” He looked at her more carefully. “It’s the Morthahg isn’t it? You can feel it because it’s close.”

“It can’t be,” said the witch (Hooch, of course) “There are warnings set up, that would alert us if-”

“Magical warnings that wouldn’t survive the Morthahg’s approach,” Lorelei said. “It...could be.”

“You two get her to the infirmary,” Hooch said. “I’ll find Dumbledore and see what’s going on.”

And so Lorelei was bundled back up and half-carried to see Madame Pomfrey again. She tried not to be so upset about it, but she would almost have rather stayed on the floor. She was settled into her usual bed and was just about to snap at the cluster of fussing when the door swung open and hit the wall with a bang.

There was a gasp and the smell of blood and then Harry and Ron appeared, supporting Hermione between them. She was as pale as only someone with a slit throat could be. Harry and Ron were a more fearful shade of gray. Most of Hermione’s torso was bare except for the blood. Her blouse and sweater had been twisted into a makeshift tourniquet around her throat. Pomfrey all but leaped at her. Everyone started talking at once.

“What Let me- Come here Lay down How could this have happened What has happened Get her into the light Let me try Stay back You two clean off Where’s the Headmaster Where’s the potion What is going out on Get out of the way Where were you How did this Not now Explain Why Where Who!” Only Lorelei sat silent in the commotion. She was looking at Hermione with a sudden intensity and when the bite was revealed, she only sucked in a careful breath. Snape saw it too. He looked quickly back at her. She reached for him and he helped her up.

“I’m all right now,” she said, leaning close to his ear so he could hear in all the noise. “And there’s only one thing in Hogwarts right now that could’ve done that.” They both looked at Hermione as Pomfrey began to heal the punctures.

Potionsmaster and Defense Teacher crept out together and went straight to Tanner’s room. Sirius had just stuffed the werewolf back in his bed when the door begain to open. He dove under the bed as Padfoot and lay there cursing to himself as he recognized Snape’s shoes. They were surprised to find Tanner there, and since the bite on his nose had healed in only a minute or two, he now looked as innocent as he was likely to.

“Where’s Esme?” he asked before they could speak.

“How should I know?” Lorelei said. Sirius could tell she a taken aback by the question. “Have you been here all evening?”

“There’s a girl bleeding to death a few doors down,” Snape said. His voice was cold enough to reduce a class of first years to tears. “Did you attack her?”

“No,” Tanner sounded sad. “I wasn’t there for that.” There was a silence after that. “Esme can fix it!” he added. There was a hint of desperation in his voice now. “She knows how! Where is she? She can make them listen!”

There was a creak overhead as Tanner moved suddenly to grab Lorelei by the arms. She gasped and he gave her a shake. “She’s the only one that knows!” he cried. Sirius risked a peek from under the bed to see what was going on in time to see Snape blast Tanner away from Lorelei. Tanner was flung to the floor and hit hard. His yellow eye lit up and he got up to his hands and knees with a snarl.

Snape had pulled Lorelei behind himself and stood wand at the ready. Sirius saw a touch of fear in the Potionsmaster as Tanner quickly flowed into the shape of the red wolf. He remembers Remus, Sirius realized. A dark flicker of amusement lit inside him and he grinned before it occurred to him that Snape might very well hurt Tanner badly. He tensed to leap out, but North was faster.

The white dog tackled Tanner. Red and white rolled around the floor, snarling and tearing. As injured and out of touch as Tanner was, he was still a wolf. He dodged a snap from North and sank his teeth into the dog’s shoulder. North yelped in pain, and the sound seemed to shock Tanner back to himself. He immediately let go and cowered down, allowing North to attack him without even trying to fight back. After a moment of that, Lorelei called North off and they left.

Sirius crept back out. Tanner’s wounds were already healing up, but he trembled. Sirius couldn’t tell if he was frightened or angry, though, so he approached carefully. Tanner blinked mournfully at him, but didn’t speak. He looked like he’d be all right, so Sirius went sneaking off to go check on Hermione. He found Pomfrey baffled, but determinedly healing and rehealing the bite when it opened up again. It took nearly five spells to get the wounds closed and then a Regeneration Tonic to replace the lost blood.

Soon after, Hagrid came and scooped Tanner up into his arms. Pomfrey had finally decided it would be best to get Tanner out of the castle. She wanted it to be very clear that she was sure Tanner hadn’t attacked anyone, but something had, and it was in the werewolf’s best interest not to be around when the questions were asked. She needn’t have worried.

The first word out of Hermione’s mouth when her throat had been healed was “Raye”. A search was conducted, but the girl was gone. Hermione’s story wasn’t certain. She trauma of the wound kept her from remembering it very clearly, but she was sure that she had seen Raye run out the lower door. When she had followed there had been some sort of animal that had attacked her. She was asked point blank if it had been a wolf she saw, specifically a gangly red one. She had shaken her head firmly.

“This was black,” she said. “And huge.”

“Werewolves can become very big,” Snape had pressed. “Are you certain?”

“Yes,” Hermione said. “I saw its eyes, Professor. There was nothing human in it.” He glared at her for a moment and she met his gaze coolly. “I saw the werewolf that was Professor Lupin, too,” she added, watching his scowl darken. “This was nothing like that. This even felt different.”

“You are positive, then.” It wasn’t really a question, but Hermione nodded anyway. After that, everyone was too busy worrying over Raye to puzzle over Tanner anymore. He was brought back to the infirmary for closer study. The students weren’t told about the Morthahg presence, and after that, it didn’t seem to return again. Professor McGonagall had the tearful job of writing a letter to Raye’s parents and explaining her absence to Newton. The little boy took it well, but he wore his goggles all the time now. Thomas said he always did that when he was worried, as if the goggles would protect him from troubles.

Days passed with no new news. Hermione was finally released from the infirmary. The snow continued to fall. Lorelei’s burn didn’t seem to get any better, but her headaches had finally subsided. The students often saw her outside with North, a black shadow in the snow.

“What could Raye have been thinking?” Hermione wondered aloud. It was her first day allowed back to class, and Harry and Ron had offered to carry her things. They had regretted it soon after. Hermione’s knapsack weighed only slightly less than Hermione herself.

“I knew she was going to try something,” Harry muttered. “As soon as we saw her that day, I knew that she had something planned...”

“I can’t believe she didn’t even try to help you,” Ron said darkly. “Just left you there like that.”

“She’s obviously not in her right mind,” Hermione sighed. “But we won’t know for sure until we find her. I suppose she hasn’t shown back up on the map?”

“No,” sighed Harry. Sirius spent most of his waking hours with the map now, watching for anything coming in or out of Hogwarts.

“Who says we have to find her?” sputtered Ron. “Let her rot in the woods with whatever it was that took her. She deserves it!” He looked at Hermione, then away. She smiled, slightly flattered.

“People get helped because they NEED help,” she said kindly. “Whether they DESERVE it or not. Oh, don’t look that way. We don’t know what’s going on yet. Remember when we thought Sirius was the enemy?”

“We didn’t sit with him everyday and ask how he was,” snapped Ron. “He didn’t pretend to be our friends before scaring us half to death.”

“And it wasn’t really Raye that attacked me at all,” Hermione reminded him. “It was that creature. I wish I’d gotten a better look at it.”

“It was close enough to bite you,” Harry couldn’t resist saying. “How much closer a view do you need?” She made a face at him. She still wore a bandage to cover the bite. Madame Pomfrey assured her it would heal without a scar, but in the meantime, Hermione didn’t want everyone staring at it. She scratched at it lightly.

“Hagrid said that it did look like a wolf bite,” she said in a lower voice. “But it could’ve been a big dog. He was afraid Snuffles had attacked me.”

“What? Why?”

“Because he’s big and black and very careful about who gets to pet him,” Hermione said with a little smile. “I said the thing I saw was big and black, and Fang is the only other dog besides North. And Fang could no more bite me than he could flap his paws and fly to France.”

“Hagrid said that?” Harry started to grin despite the conversation. Hermione smiled too, then sobered.

“He’s really afraid it was the other wolf,” she said. “The black one you saw, Harry. That’s why they kept me in the infirmary so long. They wanted to wait for the full moon to be sure I didn’t transform.”

“And you didn’t. Did you?” Ron squinted at her. She tossed her head huffily.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Ron peered closer. “Does she seem hairier than usual to you, Harry?”

“It’s her teeth I’ve been watching,” teased Harry. She glared at them both, then handed him her library books. The weight made him stagger.

“Two more stops and then we can go to the common room,” she said. “If you two can manage it.”

“How does she haul all this every day?” Ron gasped. Harry shrugged. He had an armload of books too.

“Imagine the upper body strength she must have,” he said. “All the more reason to stay on her good side.”

Pretending not to hear that, Hermione led the way to the next classroom to get her make-up homework.