From the Ashes

[Sent late Monday Evening (23rd Nov)]

Gee,

Adam says you owe him some cigarettes and seems strangely agitated about this. According to him it was just teenage hormones and skin problems that had him up in the hospital wing the other week but reading between the lines I'm pretty sure it was actually stress from the outstanding loan issue. I think you should go talk to him and square things up before it gets out of hand. He's prone to wandering off into the Forest late at night on his own when he's upset (he may try and pass these suicidal jaunts off to you as legitimate unicorn searches -- do not believe him).

All the best,

Your favourite brother.

PS. It's probably best if you don't let him know you're coming.
PPS. Cigarettes not actual issue.
PPPS. If you have to pull on his hair again please make sure he knows not to tell me about it afterwards.

Who: Bob, Gabe, William, Gerard
Where: Bob's rooms/the hospital wing
What: Nightime visitations (what happened after this).
When: Late Thursday evening, November 26th 19th (whoops)

One of the nice things about being the healer, in Bob's opinion, was that his rooms were right next to the hospital wing, with doors connecting them to both the wing itself and the adjoining hall. This meant that as long as he has some means of acquiring food and drink (Auror Way, random first years, and the occasional Summoning spell seemed to do fine), he need never actually leave his bubble of safety and risk running into a peeved Lazzara. Not that Bob was planning on hiding away for the rest of the school year or anything crazy like that. Just until the Defense professor cooled down a bit over his forced delivery to Williams. So, sometime after the Christmas holidays, perhaps.

The unfortunate thing about having rooms right next to the hospital wing was that people had no trouble finding him. Which was a good thing, really, since it wasn't as if Bob wanted anyone to be in pain or something longer than they needed to be just because they could find the healer. Still, he couldn't help a small sigh of regret as he was called away from his current game with Betsy (Bob was going to win this one, he could feel it) by someone banging on the door.

Bob limped over to the door and opened it.

Who: Bob and Gerard
Where: hospital wing
What: coffee monkeys are wonderful things
When: Saturday morning around breakfast (11/14)

It was with great reluctance that Bob dragged himself out of bed and over to Betsy's dishes when she woke him up. He cleaned them with a charm, then filled them again. She immediately set in, eating as quickly as she possibly could while still maintaining an air of dainty sophistication. Cats, go figure.

He really wished he could go back to bed, but no doubt the daily influx of confused, de-aged amnesiacs would be starting up soon, which meant he should actually see about making it into the hospital wing. Sighing, Bob got dressed, trying to ignore the way his seventeen-year-old body practically swam in the robes, and did just that, albeit not without some trips and stumbles. Brian better fix this soon, Bob had been overjoyed when he'd grown out of his teenage awkwardness and he was not enjoying this reminder of it. Not to mention that he really, really was not looking forward to aging at an increased rate over what would no doubt be a very short period of time. Nobody ever thought about trying to fix things like this in a gradual, easing manner. Bah.

Who: Nate and Gerard
When: Wednesday, 13 November
Where: Random hallway #72!
What: De-aging shenanigans!

Nate's teenage years had been fine, as far as those things went — he'd actually enjoyed them, which was more than he could say for some people he knew — but that didn't mean he wanted to go through them again. Twenty one had been a well-deserved age; he'd kind of wanted to experience it for a little while longer.

Instead, he'd abruptly lost six years and a fair bit of height, which Nate didn't appreciate in the slightest. When you were around William Beckett, Gabe Saporta and Ryland Blackington for significant periods of time, you needed to keep all the height you could get.

Thankfully, he'd managed to keep most of his memory, even if his body and his mind kept on giving him conflicting messages. Some of his friends — well. Nate was grateful.

The hallways were in chaos, full of people who had kept their memories leading around people who had lost their memories and attempting to explain all the recent changes in the decor. The piles of rubble, for example. And even the people with their memories intact were tripping over their own feet, unused to suddenly being awkward, gawky teenagers again after being years past the worst of their growth spurts.

Nate was in the middle of dodging a flailing elbow when he saw Gerard. "Gerard!" he said, waving, before wondering if that was a good idea. Gerard looked... hunted.

(He was too distracted to avoid the elbow, which hit him in the stomach before the student attached to it drifted past, complaining, "I have acne again!")

Who: Gabe and Ryan (spectators and interruptions welcome!)
When: Thursday after dinner
Where: Staff lounge
What: Serious chess business

Scrabble was all very well and good, but it wasn't a game for real men - it was just a spelling bee crossed with parquetry - and Gabe would feel that way even if he hadn't been banned from playing after the time he got caught drawing an extra leg on a P when he needed an R.

Chess was a completely different matter. Chess had history and tradition and application and gravitas. And also Gabe didn't completely suck at it. It had actually been quite a long time since he'd played a round, and so help him, there was going to be one tonight. He had the board all set up on the table in the staff lounge - Western rules and all, he was making sacrifices, man - he just needed a victim partner and--

"Fuck it." He also needed the pieces to stop rearranging themselves. Bloody animated English chess sets.

Who: Gerard and Mikey
When: Mid-morning, Monday the 9th
Where: the Batcave (AKA, a secret walk-in closet off the laundry room on the third floor)
What: a very confused reunion

Fuck, Hogwarts was a wreck. There were signs everywhere: reconstructed walls, skittish portraits peering around the edges of scorched picture frames, a subtle hint of Dark magic lingering in some of the hallways. And blood, Gerard could smell blood and decay lingering in the stones beneath strong cleaning charms. Blood always lingered.

But apparently that Lazzara fucker hadn't been lying, whatever his issue had been with Gerard and walls, or whatever. There were students in Hogwarts again, flooding the corridors, chattering about classes and exams. Gerard had the urge to bundle them all up and make sure no one was hurt. Surely there shouldn't be children around when there was still the smell of recent death and Darkness in the castle. But they were there, and worse, some of the students knew him--he'd had a bad moment when one had come up to him while he was hugging a wall and making his way down to the third floor.

"Is everything okay, Auror Way?" she'd asked, and she had her hand on her wand and was scoping out the corridor for signs of trouble. "Is something wrong?"

He'd eyed her warily and tried to edge away, but she'd just followed him, frowning, and then had finally given up, muttering something about what pricks Aurors were when they hadn't met their coffee quota for the morning. Gerard frowned after her, but he didn't have time for mysterious students that appeared to know his mid-morning habits. He was going to meet up with Mikey in their old, time-honored Hogwarts location, and they'd figure things out together. He'd relaxed a lot after hearing Mikey's Patronus, but he'd still feel better when he saw his brother for himself.

Thankfully the third floor laundry room wasn't one of the boarded-off areas, and Gerard was able to slip in undetected by any students or adults. There were piles of laundry, mounds of it, which was... odd. The house elves had never let it get that bad, not when Gerard had been a student. Gerard put that on his mental list of things to investigate, and was about to head towards the back left corner of the room and start humming the Entrance Music, when he caught a whiff of mold and heard a grunting clatter. He spun around, wand raised.

A dark, surly little man glared back at him, arms full of yellow sheets. It had a red, pointed hat and a mean sneer, and was definitely not the laundry room elf Gerard had known since he'd been twelve years old.

"Whatchu lookin' at, scruff?" the little man said, and Gerard narrowed his eyes.

"You," Gerard said through clenched teeth, leveling the wand at the gnome-thing's head. "Are not Portnoy. Explain. Quickly."

WHO: Adam and Gerard
WHERE: 7th Floor, near Schechter's Office
WHAT: Adam has had it up to HERE with these student shenanigans, runs across Gerard Way, who is probably batshit crazy, anyway.
WHEN: Monday morning (11/9)

The thing was - really - that Adam was just not having his authority respected. Things had kind of settled after the beginning of the year and he'd managed to, somehow, get most of his students to take him seriously. Most of them, at any rate. However, he was dealing with a pair of rebellious sixth year boys who seemed determined to stay in detention until they were forty.

Adam was tired of dealing with their detentions, actually, and after the fifth or so transgression (and a month of scraping gum off the bottoms of desks - and not being allowed to use magic, which Adam was sure probably counted as something along the lines of cruel and unusual punishment, but fortunately this was not the United States, ha ha ha), Adam had had all he could stand of them. He'd told them previously that if he busted them again (breaking into classrooms - specifically his own, because apparently Adam's storage closet contained very interesting things that he didn't know about), he was delivering them straight to Schechter.

Which brought them to Monday morning, where he was marching them upstairs to Schechter's office, robes flapping, a look of steely determination on his face. He so badly wanted to grab them by their ears and drag them, which would make this situation all the more delightful for him. He refrained, but it was a very near thing.

"No, don't try and go off down that corridor," Adam said, reaching out and grabbing one by the collar. "I swear, one day I'm going to hex you two into next week and make you like it."

Who: Gerard and Spencer
When: Wednesday morning
Where: Greenhouse #4
What: Little castle, LITTLE CASTLE O' HORRORS, CASTLE DU BASTLE.  (okay, so it doesn't scan right. hush.)

Who: Gerard and William
When: Monday afternoon (the day of the full moon)
Where: The library, current safe haven from certain Ministry officials
What: Past and current events

William had a great deal to think about. The headmaster had sent him to greet the visiting Ministry official, as everyone else was busy with classes, and apparently Headmaster Schechter still had a creative sense of humour, because the official in question had turned out to be Hayley Williams.

He'd gotten her settled in her guest rooms with minimal awkwardness, considering their history, and fled before she could unpack parchment and quill to start asking him official Ministry questions. He wasn't sure, anymore, that she was really here as a grief counselor. He needed some time to think about it. And about what he was going to say. She'd looked a bit wide-eyed at the rubble in the entrance hall; hopefully that wouldn't come up.

Thankfully, the library was relatively safe territory. Not that she wouldn't know exactly where to find him if she wanted to, but she was a Ravenclaw, and he doubted she'd start asking leading questions in mutually respected neutral territory. Not yet, anyway. He might not be as lucky in another few days.

Who: Nate and Gerard
Where: the Great Hall
When: midway through lunch in late September (blast from the past!)
What: A mutually beneficial exchange of information (ie, Hogwarts is way better than any soap opera)

William looked fine, sure. He was lounging against the staff table and gesticulating wildly with half a sandwich -- probably Pete had started another debate on the Muggle Romantic poets, again. Either he never learned or he liked watching William flail. Probably the latter. Anyway, William was the picture of librarian health -- good color, indignant expression, decent coordination. Gerard sipped his coffee and leaned against the wall, frowning. Probably he was making a fuss over nothing -- the head nurse had pronounced William healed and released him from the hospital a few days ago -- but he'd seen the man get stabbed with what looked like a really fucking nasty cursed knife, and Gerard was damned well going to keep an eye on him until he was sure no surprise malevolent aftereffects were going to pop up.

In between surreptitiously watching over William, monitoring the student population for further signs of magical illness, and figuring out what the fuck Mikey was doing with all those puffskeins in his room, Gerard hadn't had a lot of time to keep up with his favorite romantic dramas and so was taken by surprise when Peaches the Heartless Siren threw a platter of potatoes at Oblivious McGryffindor. Gerard reared backwards, narrowly missing being splattered with starchy detritus. He only just managed to keep from sloshing his coffee over his shoes. 

"What the fuck!" Gerard said indignantly, glaring at the couple, who were clearly getting ready to launch into another epic shouting match over who forgot their fifth anniversary of their first detention for snogging in the broomshed, or whatever. Gerard'd thought they were still on their lovey-gooey-terrible-nickname stage, but clearly they'd somehow already bypassed that and were heading for another breakup. Fuck, if Gerard had realized that, he'd have picked a safer spot for lurking in.

Who: Everyone
When: Saturday night, Hallowe’en
Where: The armoury
What:

To all staff,

After curfew and following the Hallowe’en Feast, you are cordially invited to attend a holiday gathering in the armoury. Costumes are not optional, so if you find yourself somehow accidentally lacking one upon arrival, there will be plenty available you can borrow from the suits of armour, as they will be dressed for the occasion. Drinks, desserts, and every possible permutation of pumpkin dish will be served, and there will be a festive soundtrack of popular dance music from both wizarding and Muggle cultures to enjoy. Masquerade glamours are permitted in the spirit of the holiday, but please try not to unnecessarily alarm your colleagues. Castle ghosts are also invited to attend the festivities.

Sincerely,
Headmaster Schechter

Who: Bob, Gerard, William, and Travis
Where: Hospital wing
What: Settling in and patching up injuries.
When: Around and during lunch on Tuesday (10/27)

While he would've preferred some time to settle in and get everything arranged according to his preferences before starting in on any patients, it was apparent to Bob as he pushed the door to the hospital wing open and stepped inside that he was not going to get that chance. A good quarter of the wings beds looked to be filled from where he stood, and if Adam was to believed, these were just those who were badly enough injured that they couldn't walk about.

Several students glanced up with fearful looks as Bob limped the rest of the into the room. Of these, some relaxed when they saw Betsy winding around Bob's ankles, arching her back and rubbing against his calf before trotting off to the back of the room, hopping up onto the pillow of one of the free cots, and promptly curling up and falling asleep. Still others relaxed when Bob smiled at them, but a number still looked tense despite that. Which was to be expected after what they'd all just been through.

"Hello. I'm Healer Bryar. I hear the old school nurse had an unfortunate encounter with undead house elves last week, so I'll be replacing her until the headmaster manages to con some other sucker into taking the job. Now, does anyone happen to know who's in the worst condition?" Bob waited a little while, taking the time to take off his pack and drop it next to the door. When it became clear no one was going to volunteer, he sighed and fixed them all with a look. "While I'm sure you lot would love to stay in bed and keep on skipping class, I'm going to tell you right now that without the house elves, there aren't enough available and able bodies in the school to keep your sheets clean. Have any of you seen bedsores? Not a pretty sight, but hey, they happen."

[ delivered by Adam's wolf in an entirely exasperated tone ]

Gerard -
There's a guy by the name of Bob who says he's a healer who's just arrived via floo, bellowing and making threats if his cat has sustained injuries. Being that he's a healer, I reckon he should talk to you, since you've been doing that lately. He's on his way to the hospital wing. I told him you'd meet him there. Although take your time, he's not great company.

Who: Everyone!
When: Sunday, midnight
Where: Ground floor
What: The last stand

Anyone who looked out the windows toward the Forbidden Forest at midnight would have seen, curiously, flickers of torchlight moving out of the forest in a wide arc. If this held their attention, they'd have seen the lights coming closer until they eventually resolved themselves into flaming arrows nocked onto the bows of centaurs, driving the remaining horde of House-elves out of the forest.

With the portcullis still raised, the House-elves made for the shelter of the castle courtyard, flinging themselves against the doors to the entrance hall to batter them down. Some of the centaurs' arrows thunked into the doors rather than finding their smaller moving targets, and the flames quickly spread from the arrow shafts into the old, heavy wood of the doors.

The final battle for Hogwarts was about to begin.


(OOC: Treat this like a party post; join in whenever your character is ready and move between groups and locations as needed, link between threads to let us all know where you're going and coming from. The courtyard is surrounded by stone walls and overlooked by the towers and gatehouse. If the main doors are breached and the entrance hall is flooded with House-elves, the immediate threat will be to the Great Hall, the classrooms on the ground floor which have presumably been cleared, and the two staircases that lead to the rest of the castle - primarily to Hufflepuff and Slytherin.)

Who: The Brothers Way
When: early Saturday morning
Where: The Great Hall and beyond
What: the beginnings of a list and the start of a search (and a bit of elf-whomping, to boot)

Gerard muzzily realized that there was something off about the angle of the light streaming in his window, and then he snapped awake, heart pounding. The Great Hall, he was in the Great Hall, and there had been house elves, and children being bitten, and -- he opened his eyes and felt his entire body relax. Mikey's slack sleeping face was right in front of his, brow furrowed and hair sticking in every direction, alive and healthy. Gerard dropped his wand and burrowed closer to him, breathing in his brother's familiar scent.

He had a vague memory of getting the last feverish student to sleep around 3 AM, and then staggering over to find Mikey. Mikey had been so quiet after he'd gotten back from the greenhouses. Something had happened out there, Gerard could tell, but he hadn't had time to worm whatever it was out of his brother, too busy reassuring panicked first years and trying to get their wounds to stay healed for more than two or three hours. By the time he'd gotten a few moments free, he hadn't been capable of anything more than collapsing into the space between Mikey and Spencer, pressing his face into his brother's shoulder and stealing his pillow.

Apparently Mikey hadn't held the pillow-theft against him; Gerard had fallen asleep huddled in his own robes and woken up snug in a bat-patterned sleeping bag. It was just barely dawn and Gerard was pondering falling back asleep in his supremely comfortable sleeping accoutrements when he heard a small, pained whimper from the other side of the room. Fuck. There went that plan.

Problem was, Spencer apparently shared some traits with Venemous tentaculas when he slept -- his arm was snaked so far across Gerard's back it had almost reached Mikey's shoulder. Gerard didn't really mind, per se, but it did make it difficult to stealthly eel out of his sleeping bag without waking anyone. Luckily, both Spencer and Mikey seemed pretty zonked -- Spencer was actually snoring a bit, Gerard noticed as he wriggled carefully out of the bag and into the cold morning air. It was kind of cute. Fuck, he'd have really preferred to stayed put where it was warm for another hour or two, but he had a sneaking suspicion that some of the kids' bite-wounds had re-opened by now. He sniffed the air -- yeah, there was the slightest hint of decay beneath the fireplace smoke and whomping willow bark. 

He suppressed a sigh and padded over to the supply of coffee waiting at the head of the Ravenclaw table, brewing himself a quick cup and inhaling it gratefully before he headed to the make-shift infirmary by the Hufflepuff table.

Who: Travie and William, with eventual Gerard
When: Saturday eveningish
Where: Library
What: Zombie bites.


( Ow. )

Who: Gerard and Pete
When: first free moment in a house-elfless Hogwarts, some time in the distant future
Where: huddled in the courtyard with a bottle of vodka or three
What: Pour one out and light a pyre for our fallen comrades in cosies

The last feverish Ravenclaw was stable and sleeping in the infirmary. Patrick was out on patrol, roaming the corridors and checking the grounds for any signs of trouble -- knock on wormwood, but Hogwarts actually seemed relatively quiet for the night. And Mikey was off doing something mysterious and hopefully cathartic-- he wasn't in his room, but Gerard's new and improved pocketwatch had his brother's hour and minute hands pointing to 'ALIVE' and 'NONE OF YOUR BLOODY BUSINESS' respectively. Obviously fine, wherever he was.

Gerard was left with fuck-all to do, so he'd settled down with his stash of liquor and smokes with the intent of getting thoroughly shit-faced. Fucking werewolf metabolism made it a bit difficult, but he was determinedly plowing through his bottle of pumpkin vodka -- the first go-round had been wretched, but the taste had grown on him after he'd cast a refilling charm or two. 

He huddled into the shadow of the stone column and stared gloomily out at the moonlit landscape. They'd all taken turns with the cleanup, and though the grounds were still a bit battered, the more gristly reminders were gone. Fuck, all of the house elves, every single one -- gone, just like that. Gerard's eyes watered -- they'd have hated going out like that, was the worst thing. The Hogwarts elves had loved their jobs, loved the children and the castle, and to have been turned into shambling monsters -- it was Gerard's job to stop things like that from happening, and he'd failed them. And now they were all dead and in little pieces. He'd never even learned the Owlery elf's name. Or which of them had kept rearranging his action figures into mock-battles each morning, or whether Poggy had managed to figure out the perfect charm to create a carbonated Muggle soda.

Fuck, his bottle was empty again. Gerard squinted at it and prodded it with his wand, but he must have incanted a bit wrong because instead of refilling with delicious, terrible pumpkin vodka, it just exploded in a rain of stinging glass.

"Bollocks," Gerard said morosely, and shook shards from his hair. He wasn't nearly drunk enough and now the vodka was gone.

Who: Maja and Gerard
When: Friday night
Where: Just inside the main gates
What: Hogwarts keeps some creepy pets

The first thing Maja saw was a grotesque face. Giant, batlike ears, distended tongue, a mouth misshapen into a horrible parody of a smile – all carved into the cold stone of the Hogwarts front gates.

She glared back at the gargoyle reflected in the narrow beam of her wandlight. Arriving after dark had not been part of her original plan, but she had scrapped the original plan after the third hour of last minute Ministry paperwork – some of which, she suspected, had been created solely for the purpose of intimidating her. Apparently not everyone at the Ministry thought that Sweden deserved a presence at Hogwarts. Maja, however, was no more intimidated by paperwork than she was by gargoyles; she made a face at the hideous thing, for good measure, and gave the password that the Secretary of Foreign Affairs had reluctantly handed over when there were absolutely no more papers left to sign. Slowly, almost grudgingly, the gargoyle slid aside and the gates opened.

It wasn’t until they had creaked closed behind her that she heard the groaning. She raised her wand a little and something stepped into the light, looking remarkably like the gargoyle she had just passed, only with less grinning and more grime. The creature was about the size of a small child, but stiff and gurgling and strangely lopsided. It stepped closer, and another one appeared behind it, and another, like a curious phalanx of boggart-induced hallucinations. Maja raised her wand and then paused. It was possible that these were just some sort of exotic British grounds animals. Not what she would have chosen, but at a place called Hogwarts, who could tell?

On the other hand, one of them appeared to be gnawing on its own foot.

They could be students, she told herself, playing a prank. Or a transfiguration lesson gone awry. She spent a moment weighing the odds of being gnawed on versus causing a diplomatic incident and losing her access to Hogwarts.

The only things Maja disliked more than threateningly gruesome creatures with their limbs falling off were threateningly gruesome creatures with their limbs falling off that she wasn’t allowed to kill. The growing mass of the creatures around her made up her mind. To hell with it, she thought, and began stunning.

[delivered by a small grumpy platypus]

[To Auror Stumph]
How's the situation inside the castle? We've got hordes of zombie elves out here -- it started off with them moving around in groups of one or two, but they seem to be forming swarms out in the open now. It's a fucking nightmare, we're headed inside as soon as we can.

[To Professor Wentz]
Just letting you know I found nine of your first years out on the grounds. A couple have minor bites, but I cleaned them up and they seem to be doing okay. I'll deliver them to you SOON AS POSSIBLE. We're headed to the castle, so let me know where you want them. You'll definitely want to check some of the first years' pockets, by the way. These kids are insane. Holding up brilliantly, though. Gotta run, but just wondering, have you seen Mikey? I can't get a hold of him.

[To Professor Urie]
I have a whole pack of Hufflepuff first years I think belong to you. All doing well, just a bit shaken up. Are all Hufflepuffs such brilliant climbers, by the way? I had no idea. Anyway, we're headed to the castle soon, I'll find you and hand them over then.

[To Professor Sapota]
Found two of your sixth years out on the grounds -- Primrose Benson and Fletcher White. Give them a couple points to Slytherin for me, will you? They've been fucking lifesavers. On our way to the castle now, be there soon, hopefully.

[To William Beckett]
Spencer said you were headed towards Ravenclaw -- hope you're holding up okay. Fun fact! Zombie house elves still dislike being given socks, it turns out. Doesn't stop them for long, but it'll buy you a couple seconds. Maybe pass that along, if you can. Oh, right, I wanted to let you know we have about six Ravenclaw fourth years and two first years out here, couple with bad bites but I've got them mostly patched up for the moment. We're headed to the castle now, but -- oh, fuck me, that's a lot of elves. Fuck! Spencer, Jon, take the  -- [voice fades out]

Who: Gerard and Jon (and whoever else is wandering the grounds)
When: Friday before dinner
Where: the Grounds
What: patrolling and eluding certain death, etc etc

It was a gorgeous fall afternoon, which meant a good portion of the student population was out wandering around, basking in the crisp air and kicking through leaf litter. Gerard couldn’t blame them for wanting to get out – weather like this wasn’t going to last much longer, and once it ended they’d be stuffed indoors with hundreds of other teenagers. Poor bastards.

Normally he didn’t mind having the kids milling around outside, even if it did mean extra work for him. They were sort of hilarious with all their teenaged drama and posturing – like a live action soap opera. But for some reason, right now it was making Gerard uneasy. Probably just all the weirdness lately – another Venemous tentacula was probably going to spring up any moment now. At least it’d be dark soon and they’d all be heading inside for dinner.

Although if those Ravenclaw and Slytherin fourth years didn’t stop poking at the grindylows under the docks, Gerard was just going to feed them to the fucking squid and be done with it. He felt a little bad for being short with them, but at least they retreated sulkily to the shore, where they’d be safe. Safer, anyway.

He went back to flying his circuit and scanning the grounds for anything out of the ordinary -- oh, look, Gryffindors shouting at each other. Not what he was exactly call unusual. Gerard made a mental note to check back later and make sure it didn’t devolve from shouting to wandwork.

Something still felt off, though. His instincts were something he’d learned to trust during the war, but he was starting to doubt himself a bit now. He was just wondering if maybe he had time to go get a cup of coffee or something, calm himself down, when he saw something odd by the South Wall. He circled down cautiously for a closer look.

Holy fuck, a house elf! Gerard had never actually seen one out and about on the grounds before, so that was odd enough, and then he spotted another three of them. And – Gerard flared his nostrils, frowning. And they smelled – odd. Like old meat. Gerard called down to them, wary, and they looked up at him with blank, filmy eyes. One snapped its little brown teeth at him, reaching upward. The others started up a low, unintelligible moan.

And that’s when he heard the screaming start.