While visiting a historic landmark...
Remus shoved aside a branch and stared up at the tall irregular shape of a castle tower silhouetted against the rapidly darkening sky. The stone was leading him straight towards this ancient piece of Scottish history, and he wasn’t very happy about it. The castle was a ruin, functioning now as nothing more than a tourist attraction for Muggles. However, after his last encounter with a couple of the werewolves, he didn’t like the idea of another entanglement involving Muggles.
It was probably inevitable, though. Witches and wizards were most definitely in the minority in Scotland, and indeed, everywhere else in the world. With the werewolves roving about the countryside seeking any prey they could find, it was only natural that most of the time, the prey they found was Muggle.
Not that he was any more eager for wizarding folk to be attacked, it was just that wizards at the very least would have some understanding of what they were facing and most of them could defend themselves somewhat with their wands. Muggles were clueless all the way around and dealing with the necessary memory modification was beyond his area of expertise.
Maybe he’d get lucky this time and no one, Muggle or otherwise, would be around. It was late. The car park he’d passed further down the road was empty. Probably the castle was closed to the public by now. They tended to close up earlier in the winter, and it would be full dark in a few minutes. Heartened by that thought, Remus pushed through the thick foliage and stepped onto the gravel path that led up to the castle proper. Before he could take another step, a scream rang out to pierce the quiet.
“Damn,” he muttered to himself as he took off running up the steep hillside towards the looming wall of stone. The screams continued, rising in pitch and accompanied now by angry growls. Then, just as Remus reached a low wall a few yards from a stone archway leading into a lighted courtyard, the screams ceased abruptly.
Kicking up gravel from the unpaved road, Remus ran as fast as he could. He skidded to a stop when he got to the archway and scanned the area. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a brief glimpse of movement in the shadows of a doorway that led into the ruined castle. The blur of movement was accompanied by the clicking of what could only be claws on stone, but it was what lay in the middle of the courtyard that demanded his immediate attention.
The bloody body of a man lay sprawled on the worn stones. Bright yellow light spilled out of an open office door in a small building near the archway, illuminating the scene like a spotlight on a darkened stage. Remus stepped forward and knelt next to the man, feeling for a pulse at the side of his torn throat.
At his touch, the man’s eyelids flew open and he stared up at Remus intently. A blood covered hand reached out and grasped Remus’s wrist in a desperate, shaking grip. “Woo…woo…fff,” the man managed to whisper through bloody lips. “Cas…uhhh” As his voice trailed off, the man’s eyes glazed over, his head dropped back and the grip on Remus’s arm relaxed all at once as the now limp body collapsed onto the stones with a final gurgle.
With a shiver of sadness, Remus reached out and closed the man’s staring eyes. Then he got to his feet and turned toward the dark bulk of the ruined castle. Somewhere inside lurked the waiting wolf, even more eager for prey now that he’d drawn blood.
Crossing the inner courtyard, Remus stepped up into a dark doorway that led into the empty castle. The inside of the structure was pitch black and the air was cold and close. Lighting his wand, Remus found himself in the entrance to a large room with a massive carven fireplace. The only thing in the room was a large rough hewn wooden table. There was no place for anyone to hide and the windows in the room were far too narrow for a creature as large as a wolf to have escaped through. Which meant, he must have gone up the curving staircase that came down into a corner of the room. There was no place else he could have gone.
Remus crossed to the bottom of the stairs and listened carefully. He strained to catch even the faintest sound but heard nothing. The silence seemed to mock him with weighty anticipation. The wolf was up there somewhere, waiting to pounce, but there was no way to figure out where other than to climb the stairs and seek him out. Advantage wolf, Remus thought with a sigh.
Extinguishing his wand, Remus stood still for a moment and let his eyes adjust to the darkness. It wasn’t as absolute as he’d first thought when he’d entered the building. Full dark had fallen outside, but lights from a nearby village reflecting up the valley in front of the castle provided a faint glow. Along with the few lights that illuminated select spots on the castle grounds, he found he could see well enough to get around without the light from his wand. At least the wolf wouldn’t have that advantage as well.
Carefully he placed his foot on the first step of the staircase and began to climb. The curve of the stairs only allowed him to see a couple of feet in front of him, and he was relieved when the second floor finally appeared without incident. Here the staircase opened into a much smaller room than down below with two chambers that led off it, one to each side. Everything remained silent within the castle, though far in the distance Remus could hear the faint wail of sirens. He stepped cautiously into the room and walked towards its center.
Suddenly his quarry burst out of one of the side chambers and lunged at him. The attack came so quickly that he didn’t have time to set himself to resist, much less aim for a specific target. The wolf was on him in an instant, knocking him to the floor. The two of them rolled together across the rough stones, the wolf’s hot breath caressed Remus’s face as it strained to plant its teeth in his throat.
After a lengthy struggle, Remus finally gained the upper hand, throwing the wolf off and blasting a burning hex into its rump. He’d hoped to get the wolf to turn back and attack again so he could target its stone, but instead the wolf lunged for the staircase and disappeared up into the darkness. Not wanting to let the creature get too far ahead of him, Remus jumped to his feet and followed. He could hear the wolf’s claws scrambling on the uneven stones of the stairs as it continued upward.
Neither of them paused at the third landing, instead continuing upward until there were no more stairs to climb. When Remus burst out onto the top of the castle, he saw the wolf crouched only a few feet in front of him, it stood on top of the low wall that circled the edge of the roof, its back to open sky. The wolf’s tail lashed the night air violently as it fastened angry yellow eyes on Remus and growled low in its throat.
Out in the open, the sirens that were so faint inside were growing louder by the moment. Remus ignored them and kept all his attention focused on the werewolf in front of him. As the creature reared to jump, Remus fired, but his aim was off. Instead of triggering a transformation, the force of the spell shoved the wolf backwards off the edge of the parapet. The wolf plummeted to the ground with a dreadful howl that was abruptly cut off when its body hit the rock strewn ground four stories below.
Remus ran to the edge of the battlements and peered over, straining to see through the darkness. He could just make out the form of the wolf lying on the ground, but he couldn’t tell if it was still alive or not. It wasn’t moving, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. He needed to go down and check.
Before he could turn away and head down, he suddenly found himself bathed in blinding light. Shading his eyes against the glare, he turned and looked down in the opposite direction and spotted three official looking cars lining the road that led up to the castle. Their Muggle owners had left them and were rapidly climbing the steep approach to the castle on foot. Several of the moving figures held bright lights of some sort and at least one of those lights was aimed straight at him. As voices called out for him to stay where he was, he decided that was the last thing he should do under the circumstances, and turning quickly, he ran for the stairs.
He sped down two flights as fast as he could, but stopped on the second floor and peered out through one of the window slits into the inner courtyard. The people with the lights were now coming in through the archway, a couple of them were all ready examining the body of the dead caretaker. The rest were approaching the castle entrance, albeit slowly, not sure what they’d find inside.
He probably had a few moments before they decided to come in after him, but not many. Rubbing a hand across his face, he stepped away from the window and tried to decide what to do. He couldn’t leave the werewolf for them to find. If it wasn’t dead, it could easily end up infecting several of them before they could kill it. Unfortunately, it was too dark for him to pick out enough visual cues to let him apparate safely down to where the creature lay, and if he apparated to somewhere he knew, he probably couldn’t get back before they discovered the wolf. Clearly he had to find another way out of the castle.
There didn’t seem to be many options, though. The roof was too high up, the windows were too narrow, and the only door he knew about was currently covered by the Muggles. Lighting his wand, he looked around. This was where the wolf had first attacked him so he hadn’t had a chance to investigate the layout. Two doorways led off the central chamber. He walked over and looked into the one on the left. It was just a smaller version of the room he stood in, no help there.
So he tried the second room. At first he thought this was another dead end, but then he noticed the doorway in the back of the room. It led to a closet. A closet that contained what looked like a stone ledge or seat with a wooden plank across it. Of course, the garderobe! With a smile, he crossed the room and pulled up the plank. A hole yawned open beneath it. Thank heavens for a lack of indoor plumbing.
Remus held his wand through the hole and looked down. The hole was enclosed in a sort of stone chimney for about a foot and a half, then it opened up to the outside air. The drop was manageable, but the ground below was rather rocky and sloped. If he landed wrong, it could be painful, but it didn’t appear that he had much choice. He could hear voices calling for him to surrender himself along with the sound of footsteps on the stairs. They’d be on him any moment, it was time to go.
Extinguishing his wand, he slid it into his pocket and climbed into the hole, grateful that he was slender enough to get through it. The opening was a bit of a tight fit in the shoulders, but he managed, dropping down into the darkness just as the first of his pursuer’s lights illuminated the main room of the second floor.
Once on the ground, he climbed around the sloping terrain until he located the body of the werewolf. As he reached out to touch it, the wolf whined faintly and shivered, snapping its jaws in a vain effort to reach its prey despite the severe injuries to its spine that kept it immobile. Remus drew his wand, but before he could use it, he heard the sound of voices getting louder. Bands of light began to sweep the hillside heading in his direction.
Deciding he’d have to deal with the wolf elsewhere, Remus entwined his free hand in the wolf’s rough fur. Then just before the light revealed his position, he apparated them both away, leaving only a matted patch of ground for the Muggles to ponder over.
It was probably inevitable, though. Witches and wizards were most definitely in the minority in Scotland, and indeed, everywhere else in the world. With the werewolves roving about the countryside seeking any prey they could find, it was only natural that most of the time, the prey they found was Muggle.
Not that he was any more eager for wizarding folk to be attacked, it was just that wizards at the very least would have some understanding of what they were facing and most of them could defend themselves somewhat with their wands. Muggles were clueless all the way around and dealing with the necessary memory modification was beyond his area of expertise.
Maybe he’d get lucky this time and no one, Muggle or otherwise, would be around. It was late. The car park he’d passed further down the road was empty. Probably the castle was closed to the public by now. They tended to close up earlier in the winter, and it would be full dark in a few minutes. Heartened by that thought, Remus pushed through the thick foliage and stepped onto the gravel path that led up to the castle proper. Before he could take another step, a scream rang out to pierce the quiet.
“Damn,” he muttered to himself as he took off running up the steep hillside towards the looming wall of stone. The screams continued, rising in pitch and accompanied now by angry growls. Then, just as Remus reached a low wall a few yards from a stone archway leading into a lighted courtyard, the screams ceased abruptly.
Kicking up gravel from the unpaved road, Remus ran as fast as he could. He skidded to a stop when he got to the archway and scanned the area. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a brief glimpse of movement in the shadows of a doorway that led into the ruined castle. The blur of movement was accompanied by the clicking of what could only be claws on stone, but it was what lay in the middle of the courtyard that demanded his immediate attention.
The bloody body of a man lay sprawled on the worn stones. Bright yellow light spilled out of an open office door in a small building near the archway, illuminating the scene like a spotlight on a darkened stage. Remus stepped forward and knelt next to the man, feeling for a pulse at the side of his torn throat.
At his touch, the man’s eyelids flew open and he stared up at Remus intently. A blood covered hand reached out and grasped Remus’s wrist in a desperate, shaking grip. “Woo…woo…fff,” the man managed to whisper through bloody lips. “Cas…uhhh” As his voice trailed off, the man’s eyes glazed over, his head dropped back and the grip on Remus’s arm relaxed all at once as the now limp body collapsed onto the stones with a final gurgle.
With a shiver of sadness, Remus reached out and closed the man’s staring eyes. Then he got to his feet and turned toward the dark bulk of the ruined castle. Somewhere inside lurked the waiting wolf, even more eager for prey now that he’d drawn blood.
Crossing the inner courtyard, Remus stepped up into a dark doorway that led into the empty castle. The inside of the structure was pitch black and the air was cold and close. Lighting his wand, Remus found himself in the entrance to a large room with a massive carven fireplace. The only thing in the room was a large rough hewn wooden table. There was no place for anyone to hide and the windows in the room were far too narrow for a creature as large as a wolf to have escaped through. Which meant, he must have gone up the curving staircase that came down into a corner of the room. There was no place else he could have gone.
Remus crossed to the bottom of the stairs and listened carefully. He strained to catch even the faintest sound but heard nothing. The silence seemed to mock him with weighty anticipation. The wolf was up there somewhere, waiting to pounce, but there was no way to figure out where other than to climb the stairs and seek him out. Advantage wolf, Remus thought with a sigh.
Extinguishing his wand, Remus stood still for a moment and let his eyes adjust to the darkness. It wasn’t as absolute as he’d first thought when he’d entered the building. Full dark had fallen outside, but lights from a nearby village reflecting up the valley in front of the castle provided a faint glow. Along with the few lights that illuminated select spots on the castle grounds, he found he could see well enough to get around without the light from his wand. At least the wolf wouldn’t have that advantage as well.
Carefully he placed his foot on the first step of the staircase and began to climb. The curve of the stairs only allowed him to see a couple of feet in front of him, and he was relieved when the second floor finally appeared without incident. Here the staircase opened into a much smaller room than down below with two chambers that led off it, one to each side. Everything remained silent within the castle, though far in the distance Remus could hear the faint wail of sirens. He stepped cautiously into the room and walked towards its center.
Suddenly his quarry burst out of one of the side chambers and lunged at him. The attack came so quickly that he didn’t have time to set himself to resist, much less aim for a specific target. The wolf was on him in an instant, knocking him to the floor. The two of them rolled together across the rough stones, the wolf’s hot breath caressed Remus’s face as it strained to plant its teeth in his throat.
After a lengthy struggle, Remus finally gained the upper hand, throwing the wolf off and blasting a burning hex into its rump. He’d hoped to get the wolf to turn back and attack again so he could target its stone, but instead the wolf lunged for the staircase and disappeared up into the darkness. Not wanting to let the creature get too far ahead of him, Remus jumped to his feet and followed. He could hear the wolf’s claws scrambling on the uneven stones of the stairs as it continued upward.
Neither of them paused at the third landing, instead continuing upward until there were no more stairs to climb. When Remus burst out onto the top of the castle, he saw the wolf crouched only a few feet in front of him, it stood on top of the low wall that circled the edge of the roof, its back to open sky. The wolf’s tail lashed the night air violently as it fastened angry yellow eyes on Remus and growled low in its throat.
Out in the open, the sirens that were so faint inside were growing louder by the moment. Remus ignored them and kept all his attention focused on the werewolf in front of him. As the creature reared to jump, Remus fired, but his aim was off. Instead of triggering a transformation, the force of the spell shoved the wolf backwards off the edge of the parapet. The wolf plummeted to the ground with a dreadful howl that was abruptly cut off when its body hit the rock strewn ground four stories below.
Remus ran to the edge of the battlements and peered over, straining to see through the darkness. He could just make out the form of the wolf lying on the ground, but he couldn’t tell if it was still alive or not. It wasn’t moving, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. He needed to go down and check.
Before he could turn away and head down, he suddenly found himself bathed in blinding light. Shading his eyes against the glare, he turned and looked down in the opposite direction and spotted three official looking cars lining the road that led up to the castle. Their Muggle owners had left them and were rapidly climbing the steep approach to the castle on foot. Several of the moving figures held bright lights of some sort and at least one of those lights was aimed straight at him. As voices called out for him to stay where he was, he decided that was the last thing he should do under the circumstances, and turning quickly, he ran for the stairs.
He sped down two flights as fast as he could, but stopped on the second floor and peered out through one of the window slits into the inner courtyard. The people with the lights were now coming in through the archway, a couple of them were all ready examining the body of the dead caretaker. The rest were approaching the castle entrance, albeit slowly, not sure what they’d find inside.
He probably had a few moments before they decided to come in after him, but not many. Rubbing a hand across his face, he stepped away from the window and tried to decide what to do. He couldn’t leave the werewolf for them to find. If it wasn’t dead, it could easily end up infecting several of them before they could kill it. Unfortunately, it was too dark for him to pick out enough visual cues to let him apparate safely down to where the creature lay, and if he apparated to somewhere he knew, he probably couldn’t get back before they discovered the wolf. Clearly he had to find another way out of the castle.
There didn’t seem to be many options, though. The roof was too high up, the windows were too narrow, and the only door he knew about was currently covered by the Muggles. Lighting his wand, he looked around. This was where the wolf had first attacked him so he hadn’t had a chance to investigate the layout. Two doorways led off the central chamber. He walked over and looked into the one on the left. It was just a smaller version of the room he stood in, no help there.
So he tried the second room. At first he thought this was another dead end, but then he noticed the doorway in the back of the room. It led to a closet. A closet that contained what looked like a stone ledge or seat with a wooden plank across it. Of course, the garderobe! With a smile, he crossed the room and pulled up the plank. A hole yawned open beneath it. Thank heavens for a lack of indoor plumbing.
Remus held his wand through the hole and looked down. The hole was enclosed in a sort of stone chimney for about a foot and a half, then it opened up to the outside air. The drop was manageable, but the ground below was rather rocky and sloped. If he landed wrong, it could be painful, but it didn’t appear that he had much choice. He could hear voices calling for him to surrender himself along with the sound of footsteps on the stairs. They’d be on him any moment, it was time to go.
Extinguishing his wand, he slid it into his pocket and climbed into the hole, grateful that he was slender enough to get through it. The opening was a bit of a tight fit in the shoulders, but he managed, dropping down into the darkness just as the first of his pursuer’s lights illuminated the main room of the second floor.
Once on the ground, he climbed around the sloping terrain until he located the body of the werewolf. As he reached out to touch it, the wolf whined faintly and shivered, snapping its jaws in a vain effort to reach its prey despite the severe injuries to its spine that kept it immobile. Remus drew his wand, but before he could use it, he heard the sound of voices getting louder. Bands of light began to sweep the hillside heading in his direction.
Deciding he’d have to deal with the wolf elsewhere, Remus entwined his free hand in the wolf’s rough fur. Then just before the light revealed his position, he apparated them both away, leaving only a matted patch of ground for the Muggles to ponder over.