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The First Drops of Blood


“I’m so bloody hungry, I could eat a horse,” Greyback groaned as they moved through the trees.

Ned Veigler shivered. He had a feeling the words were a threat to him. He closed his eyes, trying to remind himself of all of the reasons why he was ready to die tonight. Not seeing another full moon, not having to transform into the horrific beast that he would be under Greyback’s full control was one of them. Ending the pain, ending the fear, ending everything he had been through all of his life… He wished things were different, wished he’d taken Newt Scamander up on his offer of safe keeping in his briefcase... But this was his destiny.

The centaurs had said so.

Orion Black paused in the path. They’d come to the top of a ridge that looked back over the forest’s tree top, the village of Hogsmeade below, Hogwarts castle silhouetted far away at the horizon. He looked back across the way they’d come. “We’re being followed,” he said.

Greyback smiled broadly, “Do you think I don’t know that?” he reached the crest of the hill. “He’s been there for some time.”

Rudolphus was clutching onto Ned Veigler’s forearm roughly, holding so hard that Ned’s skin was turning purple beneath his fingertips. “Who’s followin’ us?” he asked. “Dumbledore?”

Greyback shook his head, “Better.” His eyes twinkled with excitement.

Ned glanced over his shoulder at the trees, wondering who was there, if whoever it was was coming to save him, if there was any hope at all.

Greyback took a deep breath as he stepped into the moonlight at the top of the ridge. The moon burned his skin, made his forearms tremble with pain and strength, and he could feel the wolf within him awakening, though not yet coming. He grinned and reached into his pocket, withdrawing the aconite leaves and shoving them into his maw. He looked at Veigler, “Aconite?” he held a couple of the purple flowers to him.

Veigler shook his head.

“Aren’t you a martyr,” Greyback laughed, and he shoved Ned down to the floor of the forest, slamming him into the roots of a large tree.

Orion’s eyes moved along the treeline. “Greyback.” He nodded to the break in the trees where a dark shadow moved closer.

The chestnut and auburn form of Neremai emerged, stepping into the clearing. He held his bow, loaded with an arrow already, at eye level as he approached.

Greyback grinned, “Hello, Neremai.”

Ned looked around to see the leader of the centaurs step into the clearing. His heart rate rose quickly, his skin going cold with fear and the smallest strain of hope.

“You are not welcome in this forest,” Neremai said, his arrow pointed directly at Greyback’s chest.

Greyback grinned, “My omega has told me you’ve said this.”

“The stars predict blood, Greyback,” Neremai said thickly. “And I am prepared to make that blood yours.”

Greyback smiled, his lips curling into a laugh slowly, eyes twinkling. They stared into one another’s eyes. Neremai let fly his arrow and Greyback ducked away with his wolfish instincts, and drew his wand from his sleeve, slashing it in the direction of the centaur. “Petrificus totalus!” he shouted, cackling loudly as the centaur went stiff and fell into the snow, unable to move.

Ned Veigler’s hope went out of him.

Orion Black stared down at the stiff centaur at his feet.

Greyback looked around at them, “Well look at this,” he said. “I said that I was so hungry that I could eat a horse… and the gods have given me a horse. Perhaps the fates are on my side after all.” His eyes danced with amusement… and he bared his teeth, approaching the centaur with a barking laugh echoing out from his throat.




Peter and James crept slowly down the stairwell, pausing at each landing to listen… wait… and see if Filch would come from the shadows. James grabbed hold of Peter’s wrist at one point, stopping him from moving, when he spotted Mrs. Norris’s lithe frame down a couple floors, rubbing against the rails of the stairwell landing, her mangy tail whipping about. “When does Filch sleep?” Peter asked, “It seems like he is always wandering about the castle.”

“I expect he’s secretly an inferius,” James whispered back, “And he doesn’t need sleep because the undead never sleep.”

Peter whispered, “But if he was an inferius… wouldn’t his flesh be… I dunno... rotting off?”

“Looks like it, doesn’t he?”

Somehow or other they made it down all of the stairs and out the door of the entrance hall. They ducked into a large bush along the path across the grounds only just in time to avoid being spotted by Hagrid - who was singing quietly into his chest.

“The land of the Gurg where the sun does show
Tis the land where one day we’ll go
Ever the paradise you dream it shall be
Tis the land for the folks like you and me
The land of the Gurg where the riches never slow
Tis the land where one day we’ll go…”


James looked to Peter as Hagrid disappeared over the bend in the road, headed for his cabin, rocking his arms back and forth gently. James nodded for Peter to follow along and the two of them crept through the brush as silently as they could until they reached the cover of the Whomping Willow. This was the challenging part - James picked up a rock and concentrated very hard, closing one eye and biting his tongue as he aimed. It took several rocks and a good deal of minutes before he managed to hit the knot at all, and even then it wasn’t hard enough to get the tree to freeze and he had to try again. “Too bad you can’t just change into your rat form as easy as Sirius does Snuffles,” James commented, “You could run under there and hit the knot with your paws easy.”

“But I can’t,” Peter said.

“Yeah, but if you could,” James said.

So Peter rushed about collecting rocks for James to use, as that was the most helpful he could be, seeing as his personal athletic abilities were strongly lacking. Finally, James managed it and the tree froze and the two boys rushed under the hanging vines and dove into the tunnel that led to the Shrieking Shack.

They ran through the darkness, wand light illuminating the walls of the tunnel as they moved, their feet stumbling on the roots and rocks and ruts of the ground. Peter nearly tripped several times, but each time James sensed it and caught him before he could hit the floor of the tunnel. Peter looked up at James with gratitude. “Thanks for not letting me fall,” Peter said.

James smiled, “That’s what friends do.”

They reached the Shrieking Shack at long last and James pushed open the tunnel. The dust was thick all over and he instantly sneezed. “Merlin’s beard,” he announced, “It smells like dog.”

Peter couldn’t help but laugh. “Of course it does,” he said.

They were relieved to have made it out ot the Shack, but disappointed to find that it was empty and hadn’t been disturbed since the month before - something that was easily told by the thick layer of dust that filled the pawprints that had been made the previous month. James knelt down to touch one of the prints and he sighed in frustration, looking about the ruins of the furniture and torn up blankets by the hearth. “They aren’t here,” he said sadly.

Peter said, “So now we can go back to the dorms and --”

There was suddenly a very loud scream that pierced the night, filling the shack.

Peter’s eyes went about as wide as they could possibly go. “Bloody hell, what was that?”

James had turned toward the direction that the scream had come from. “Someone’s been hurt,” he murmured.

Peter shook. “Let’s get out of here. We aren’t safe.”

James said, “That could’ve been Rey… or Sirius… we can’t just ignore it. We may be the only ones who heard it. Whoever it is could need us.”

“Whatever it is that’s hurt them could hurt us,” Peter said.

James’s fist tightened ‘round his wand, “We have to find out what happened.”

“You’re mad.”

“So go back if you don’t want to come,” James snapped, sick of Peter’s constant negative outlook, “I’ll go play the hero and you can play the coward and bloody go back to your warm bed and study.” James turned away.

Peter said, “Don’t leave me here by myself!”

“Don’t you let me go out there by myself,” James replied.

Peter looked between the trap door in the floor - the door that led to safety - and the door of the Shrieking Shack, whose handle James was already gripping - the door that led to Merlin knew what. He felt two sides of himself fighting deep within, a battle between fear and bravery. “James,” he pleaded, “I’m so scared.”

“I know you are, Peter,” James said, “But we’re Gryffindors. That means we’re brave. You have it in you, Pete. I know you do.”

Another scream broke through the night, the sound of it so much more agonized than the first had been.

Peter trembled.

“I’m not going to let you get hurt,” James said, sincerely, “I’d die before I let you be hurt.”

Peter looked one last time toward the safety of the tunnel back to Hogwarts, and then he took a deep breath and ran to James’s side. “Let’s go save our friends.”

James threw his arm about Peter’s shoulders. “I knew you had it in you, Peter.”




The first drops of blood stained the snow red.

Fenrir laughed, baring his long teeth. He was in his human form - but that didn’t stop him from ripping the flesh from the haunch of the centaur with his teeth. The scream filled the night. Orion Black stood a few feet away, back-to Greyback’s feeding, not wanting to watch. Ned Veigler had his eyes closed, leaning fearfully against the tree where Greyback had pushed him down. Rudolphus Lestrange laughed and jumped about, clapping, “Brilliant, brilliant! DID YOUR STARS PREDICT THIS, HORSE?” he teased.

Neremai laid on the floor of the forest, the blood flowing from his leg, unable to move - the petrificus totalus Greyback had cast upon him keeping him from doing anything else but screaming out. Greyback had released his vocal chords; he enjoyed the cries of the centaur.

Neremai’s eyes looked to Veigler across the clearing.

Fenrir laughed and lunged for another bite of the struggling centaur, tearing more flesh from him roughly.

Ned clung to himself, shaking, wanting to help but unable to move, unable to stop Greyback.

Orion turned suddenly, “There’s someone else coming.”

“What?” Fenrir looked up, “Who?”

Orion shrugged, “I only saw the shadows. Probably someone’s heard the horse’s cries.”

Scowling, Fenrir looked down at Neremai. “You’re in luck,” he said, “Your pain ends now.” He lunged at the centaur’s throat. When the centaur was dead, he turned to look back at Rudolphus, the blood on his chin. He swept it away with the back of his fist. “Go and find out who it is that approaches.”

Rudolphus dove into the trees.

Veigler shivered. He hoped it was Dumbledore. Dumbledore could stop this madness. He kept his eyes closed, refusing to look at the dead centaur laying in the snow, gritting his teeth to keep the emotions rising up in him at bay as best he could.

Long moments passed, clouds moved over the moon in the sky, and Greyback stood, the blood of the centaur drying on his face and shirt as he paced, waiting, listening. Orion Black stared off across the forest once again.

Rudolphus came back through the trees, crashing his way, holding two forms by the elbows. “You’ll never believe it, Greyback,” he laughed through the dark before he stepped into the light. The moon’s beams fell over the two boys Rudolphus clutched. He threw them down into the snowy clearing. “It’s a two-fer.”

Peter Pettigrew and James Potter landed at Greyback’s feet, and the werewolf grinned down at them, a hungry, excited look in his eyes. The wind had been knocked from Peter’s chest as he landed, and he laid there, panting, trying to catch it, pain shooting through his ribs. James struggled to his feet and faced Greyback, his eyes wide and very, very afraid. He heard Sirius’s voice in his head - just remember your ruddy wand next time - and he reached a shaking hand into his robes and drew his wand.

Greyback laughed, “Well. Aren’t you just adorable? And soooo brave.” He looked at Veigler. “Yours was a job well done after all.”