107Chapter 9: The Big Bad Wolf
After a short walk through the underground building and an extremely unpleasant teleport, we arrive on the grounds of Hogwarts.
"Am I in trouble?" I ask as we walk.
"I should think not." Dumbledore says. "Although Professor McGonagall may not approve of your comings and goings." He smiles.
"When something else comes up in the future, I will need to leave. Demons don't slay themselves after all."
"I understand." He says. "Some duties are never truly complete."
We round the corner into the Great Hall. Dinner is served for a few hours each night here, so we've made it back in time. I walk over to the Gryffindor table and sit down heavily, my armour nosily hits against the bench.
"Evening." I say cheerfully, loading my plate with food.
"Did you have fun?" Fleur asks with a smile.
"I got arrested. It was brilliant." I laugh.
"Couldn't you have cleaned the blood off before you came to eat?" Hermione looks at the dark black ichor dried onto my armour.
"At least Ghed blood doesn't smell." I say. "Dobby, Amour off." I drop down a few inches onto the bench as the armour vanishes. "I never did understand how he could transport the armour but not me inside it."
"Magic?" Hermione suggests with a playful smirk and turns back to one of her ever present books. My eyes drift across the room as I start to eat, Demon slaying works up my appetite.
"She's not here." Fleur says as she cuts her food into neat cubes.
"Who?"
"Camille." She says. I wasn't looking for her … Well maybe a little. It suddenly clicks in my head. It's a full moon tonight.
"Ah, the moon." I say, nodding my head. "Never a good night. Does she use that potion?"
"Wolfsbane?" Hermione supplies.
"Yes, she does." Fleur confirms. "But it doesn't help with the pain."
"It's made my job as a paladin more... interesting, but not the new order." I sigh.
"Why's that?" Hermione asks.
"The New Order will kill, or at least try to, any wolf they encounter." I explain. "I don't kill them because they're wolves, I kill them for their deeds. If I meet an innocent wolf who's using wolfsbane, and trying to have a quiet night, I'll leave them be. If it's a bad wolf that's using wolfsbane to select their targets? Off with their head."
"How can you tell though? They look the same surely." Hermione says.
"The way they act. A wild wolf will attack me straight away, a tamed wolf will weigh their options first, to see if they can overpower me, or if they should run away. Sometimes they sit there and watch me." I shrug.
"And if they decide they can overpower you?" Fleur prompts. I smile and begin in English.
"There is a recent legend among Paladins, only in the past 20 years or so. 'The Big Bad Wolf' we call him. He's the most vicious and powerful wolf in Britain, possibly the world. He prays on children mainly, raising them away from their families to follow him as a pack. The Alpha of Britain. Fenrir Greyback." I pause for a moment. "He's taken out more aspiring paladins than any other single wolf in our history. I've met him twice, and they say that 3 is the magic number."
"Twice? 'ow did you escape?" Fleur asks.
"Me? Escape?" I laugh. "The first time was when I'd barely been free of the New Order for an hour. I was limping through an alley not far from the church in full armour. I see a shadow move in front of me and figure it was a homeless person or something. The next thing I know, a giant wolf is standing in the middle of the alleyway, just watching me. The Big Bad Wolf. Even in my weakened state I knew there was another behind me."
"What did you do?" Hermione asks.
"Stayed perfectly still, leaning on Excalibur still. The one behind me started moving closer and at the last second I spun around. A clean kill." I laugh. "Greyback jumped me when my back was turned. I couldn't have spun again, I dropped into the floor. He clawed the back of my head, still got the scar obviously." I lean forward and lift my hair up so they can see it. "Aurors turned up and he fled."
"And the second time?"
"The night before Halloween of 1993, he'd made his way to a town in Wales to wreak havoc on the children." I explain. "Dobby had gotten wind of a wolf in that area, but we had no idea it was The wolf. So I went there to kill it. The New Order had set me up to fight The Big Bad Wolf." Hermione gapes.
"Why would they do such a thing?"
"Modestly, they know they can't beat me, so they thought they'd get rid of me another way." I grin. "I went out into a field near the town and had Dobby take my armour away, against his protests. I sat in the field for half an hour until the moon was full, then Greyback darted across the mud towards me. At the last moment, Dobby flicked my armour on and I pulled Excalibur from the rock it was in."
"Why the theatrics?" Fleur asks.
"I had to lure the wolf out somehow, I regretted my decision as soon as I saw it was him. I eventually managed to cut off one of his fingers though. Shame it wasn't a whole hand or it would have severely destabilised the pack." I sigh.
"Could you finish the job now?" Hermione asks. I nod happily.
"I've fought bigger and badder." I stand up. "But I'll avoid McGonagall for tonight." I look around the hall. "Catch ya later." I walk out of the great Hall and into the courtyard before breaking off into a jog. "Dobby."
"Lancelot." He appears once I stop.
"Observation kit. Salt, the cross from my bed. I'll need my armour too, I don't know how many wolves live in the forest." I comb my unruly hair with my fingers. "Uh, silver dust and the holy water. Rope, the good stuff you got. My wand too, I don't know where it is." I nod. "I think that's everything. Oh! And a few raw chicken."
"Raw?" He shakes his head. "I don't want to know." My armour appears as he vanishes. I start clipping it together as I move towards the forest.
"Seems like a good spot." I carefully listen as Dobby unpacks the gear. "De-feathered? You're brilliant."
"I figured it out myself." He says, pouring the salt. I activate the circle and sit down on the chair. I can relax a bit as most things won't approach the circle.
"What are the other elves like here?" I ask him. He shrugs non-committally.
"They've all got the hivemind thing going on. They work hard to feed everyone, clean the castle and the clothes. If they ever feel overworked, Dumbledore has insisted that they take a break, which they have to because it's an order."
"You know what I've always found odd about House elves?" I ask.
"What?"
"The New Order don't call you demons." I smile. "It's documented well that the Originals had Squire Elves, I suppose it's too well written for them to twist it around." A slight change in the air alerts me. "She's here." I look up towards the edge of the clearing. A large, light brown wolf stands just inside of the shadows.
"She's bigger than I expected." Dobby whisperers as I take off my armour. "What are you doing?" His eyes widen.
"She's using the potion, she hasn't attacked me yet, so she probably won't." I shrug.
"What if she's waiting for you to take it off?" He says as if I were a child.
"It's fine." I wave off his protests. "I brought her dinner anyway." I turn to the chicken, which has mysteriously moved. "Err." I follow Dobby's gaze to the large wolf, now inside my circle, eating the chicken. "I figured it would taste better than a spider." She makes a sound that sounds a lot like a laugh.
"Why didn't the circle work?" Dobby asks, too afraid to move.
"Wrong type of salt?" I suggest, sitting down again.
"You know as well as I do that it doesn't work like that."
"Hmm." I drum my fingers on my knees. "The potion then? I've never tried stopping a tamed wolf with salt." I suggest. Dobby relaxes visibly.
"That makes sense, I thought she was some sort of special wolf." He sits against the side of the chair. "There's another wolf downwind of us." He points to something I can't even begin to see. "Absolutely petrified." He snorts.
"This is one for the book." I smile. "Potion negates salt."
"You know I don't actually keep a book when you say 'one for the book', right?" Dobby questions as we laugh.
"Details, details." I wave my hand dismissively. "Who do you reckon bit her?" I ask after a while. "We've only met a few wolves in France."
"The chances that you finished off the one that did it is really low." Dobby explains. "I've told you that they have a huge population there, right?"
"Might've mentioned it." I say as Wolf-Camille finishes the last chicken. Dobby suddenly sits up straight. "What is it?"
"Somebody is trying to call me." He says.
"Who?" I turn to him.
"I don't know." He says. "My name isn't exactly widespread amongst calling candidates." A house elf will only respond to a call from a potential 'valid' caller. I don't really understand it as Dobby is magically considered 'my elf'.
"Are you going to go?" I ask. "It could be the New Order."
"How would they have gotten my name?" He turns to me.
"Somebody in Hogwarts or the newspapers? You're not exactly hidden like the others." I suggest. "Can you ignore it?"
"For a while yes." I nods. "It's like somebody pulling on your sleeve each time. They only tried it twice."
"Might've been an accident."
"Maybe." He admits. "The sounds in my name are uncommon for house elves." He leans back against the chair again. It's clear that he's unsettled by it.
A/N: A shorter chapter and a bit of a gap since the last update. The writing might be a bit different. Enjoy.