The Grey-eyed Serpent

Chapter 19: A Small Prank

"Alix, have you seen the news?"

Alix raised an eyebrow at Sue and she expressed her own surprise when the disturbed muggle-born raised a newspaper in front of her in the hallway where they stood. The headlines wrote:

"A Wendigo spotted in London? What?!" She would have been scolded by her mother without any second for shouting, but she couldn't help herself. And she was confident that people who saw the news were unable to prevent themselves from screaming in shock either.

Alix grabs the newspaper from Sue's hands without any warning. She reads as fast as she could through the news. It entails how there was an attack in muggle London, a whole farm being wiped out and Muggles assuming it was an attack from wolves. Her mother was mentioned as the one who was in charge of the hunt for the rampant beast. It ended with the Minister warning everyone to stop roaming around at night to protect themselves, especially those who live nearby.

"Salazar, what is going on?" she asked, finally looking up from the paper to her friend who had a terrified expression on her face.

"Are you alright, Sue?" Alix asked.

"Yeah, just...worried. You know I live in London" Sue said, before taking Alix's arm and started to walk. The Chinese girl had chased Alix from the halls as soon as she saw the news to inform her.

"It'll be alright, Sue. But if you are still worried, you and your parents will be welcomed in our manor" Alix said, patting the hand that rested on her arm.

"Thank you. How will I ever fight something like that? I'm only a second-year" Sue said and Alix frowned, looking at her friend with firmness.

"You don't. When you see something like that, ever, you run. Do not look back. A wendigo is one-if not the foulest beast on earth. It attacks anything and anyone" Alix said, she took a breath before continuing. "And the amount of power and strength it has" she shivered, not from the cold, but from fear.

"It is extremely dangerous; it takes at least 10 experienced Aurors and at least 5 in my family to take one on. And the odds of winning would still be unknown"

Sue looked even more frightened now. "Have you seen one?" she asked.

"No, fortunately not, and hopefully, I won't ever get to see one in my life" Alix answered grimly and with the seriousness unexpected of a young girl.

"From what I've read, are they not from America? What is one of them doing here in Britain?" Sue asked.

"That is a curious question but I don't have the answer for that. We can only speculate"

Sue swallowed. Oh, she didn't want to be the one to break the news to her parents. They would be terrified. Much more so than her. She didn't know how they would react.

"Sue, don't worry. If you want, I can look up books from our family archives that tells you how to protect us from a wendigo" Alix said, holding both of Sue's hands in an attempt to comfort.

Alix gently smiles and Sue calmed a bit. "I would appreciate that," she said.

"You know, Alix, you really feel like a mother sometimes"

Alix snorted, which was awfully unbecoming of her. "How so?"

"You always know how to comfort us. Or maybe it is the fact that you are taller than almost all of us" Sue answered, smiling in a childlike manner.

"Sometimes I feel like it, too. Ever since Luna, I've been thinking about how I felt like I adopted another kitten" she said, a lovely smile on her lips as she thinks about the new addition to their group. An odd addition where they are not really sure if the girl was a seer or simply a loon.