“Hello, Mr. Alongi!”
Sir Nicholas exclaimed. Richie had been in Gryffindor in school,
while Margie had been in Ravenclaw and Lucius in Hufflepuff.

“Hello, Nick,” Richie
said, grinning. “How are you? Has the castle changed much since the
new staff appointments?”

“Well, some of the
classes had to begin anew as the teachers wanted to teach their own
material. It caused quite an uproar at first but things are settling
down now. We're getting used to it. Though I must say, this isn't a
great time for visitors to Hogwarts.”

“Why not?” asked
Lucius.

“There's a werewolf in
the forest,” Sir Nicholas whispered.

The three of them gasped.
“Is it a student?” Margie asked.

“Nobody knows,” Nick
replied. “They haven't been able to catch it yet. The Professors
are all working on it. Tonight is the full moon and Professor Silvers
has a plan to catch it.”

“Who is that?”

“That's the new Defense
Against the Dark Arts professor. She replaced Professor Mae,” Nick
replied.

“Maybe we could help,”
Richie said, looking worried. “She can't do it alone.”

“Yeah, lets head to her
office. Where is it?”

Nick led them upstairs to
the professor's office. They thanked him and knocked on the door, and
entered when bidden to do so.

“Hello, Professor
Silvers,” Lucius said. “We heard about your plan for tonight and
would like to help you. I know Hagrid is here but we want to help as
much as possible.”

Professor Silvers looked
at them shrewdly, as if assessing their skills. “Are you of age?”

“Yes,” Richie replied.
“We all are.”

“Very well, then. I
cannot deny that I will need help. Night is falling now so let us
make our way to Hagrid's cabin. When the first howl is heard, we
shall find the wolf and attempt to capture it.” They all started
walking towards the cabin near the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
“Now, take heed; if you are bitten by a werewolf, there's no going
back. You're a werewolf and there's no cure for it. We can treat the
actual wound but you will be cursed for life. Of course, we don't
want to harm the creature more than necessary, because if it is a
student then they cannot help themselves. We will simply try to stun
it and if that doesn't work, we fly away. I have brooms for all of us
down at the cabin.”

They reached the cabin and
grabbed a wand each. Hagrid had been awarded a wand after his
assistance in the war against Voldemort, and he held it in his large
hand, with the large flying motorcycle sitting nearby. It looked beat
up and it was obvious that a sidecar had once been attached, but it
appeared to still work as Hagrid revved the engine and tested
everything.

“Hello Professor
Silvers. Hey, kids. Didn't yer just leave Hogwarts?”

“Hello, Hagrid. Yes, we
did, but we want to help catch the werewolf. There's no chance it
could be Lupin's boy Teddy, could it?”

Hagrid shook his head.
“'E's in seventh year and 'e's only half werewolf, anyway. This is
either a teacher or a student an' we need to find out who it is so's
we can help 'em.”

Suddenly, in the distance,
they heard a long, high pitched howl.

“There it is,”
Professor Silvers whispered. “Okay, mount your brooms. We're going
to hover through the forest so that if the stunning doesn't work, we
can fly away before we're bit. Wand's at the ready. If you find the
werewolf, shoot sparks into the air.”

They all flew in different
directions and listened for the sound of the werewolf. Lucius flew
toward where the original howl was heard, and after a few minutes he
came across the creature whimpering and scratching at a tree. He
whispered, “Verdimillious,” and sent green sparks above his head.
Within moments, the others surrounded the werewolf and began sending
stunners at it. It didn't seem to be working. Suddenly, Lucius had an
idea and he sent the Curse of the Bogeys at the werewolf, who started
sneezing. As the creature was distracted by his sudden serious head
cold, Professor Silvers yelled, “Incarcerous!” Ropes shot from
her wand and tied the creature up. It struggled, and pulled the
Professor off of her wand. Lucius saw that her head was about to hit
a large boulder. He waived his wand in an S formation and said,
“Spongify!” The boulder was surrounded by pink mist as the
Professor's head hit it and bounced of of the now rubbery stone. She
leapt to her feet and held the werewolf fast, preventing it from
getting away. All of the other created the same roped from their
wands, to strengthen the hold on the werewolf, and led it back up to
the hut, where the Headmaster, Professor Balog, was waiting.

“Very good job, all of
you!” he said to them as he approached the werewolf. “Oh you poor
creature. I have somewhere safe for you to go.” He cast out roped
from his own wand and told them all to let go of their own ropes.
“Professor Silvers, please accompany me to the Whomping Willow. We
will give this person the same accommodations as Remus Lupin had.
Thank you for your help, all of you.”

Professors Balog and
Silvers walked with the hunched over werewolf to the large Whomping
Willow sitting by the lake. Before they could watch anymore, Hagrid
bustled them into his cabin for cups of tea and rock cakes that they
didn't touch. They told them about their travels so far and told him
their future plans, which was to go to the States and travel around
North America.

“We'll leave tomorrow
morning. Until then we'll stay at the Hog's Head since it's still too
cold for camping.”

“Why the Hog's Head?”
Hagrid asked. “The Three Broomsticks would be safer.”

“We want it to be a
little rougher. Like a hostel,” Margie said, sipping her tea.

“Suit yerselves.”