the gentle moon / george weasley

June 30, 1997

"Hold this for me." She shoved her wand in Bill's hand, as she tied her hair up. They were standing in a dimly lit hallway, unaware of what was lurking just at the end of the corridor. Bill was trying to balance her wand on the tip of his finger when she snatched it from him with a swift movement.

"You could have dropped it." She hissed.

"You really think dropping it from this height could break it?" He teased, "You literally threw it at George last night."

"He deserved it." She huffed. She could smell him, but she already knew he was in the castle. He had to be with the mark above them, so that's why she didn't feel alarmed at the scent radiating in her nostrils.

"Do you also wanna punch the smile off his face all the time?" Bill asked

"All the damn time." August smiled at him. They were told to stay put in this hall. Tonks said she was going to be right back. There was no sight of any death eaters anyways, even though there was a mark above the castle. They had just seen Snape a bit ago walking down the hall toward Dumbledore's office, he of course ignored them. But that was Snape, he always ignored them. They had no idea what was happening at the moment, they had no idea that Dumbledore was just killed by that man, and they had no idea that there was someone coming toward them.

"Did Fleur talk to you?" Bill asked.

"I think she hypnotized me into agreeing to wear that godawful dress," August smirked. "Honestly if she wanted to bridesmaid who likes all this stuff, she should have asked Cedric."

"Cedric asked her." Bill laughed, "The dress isn't that bad..." He tried to play it off.

"Have you seen it? There is a bloody bird across the chest part."

"Okay, yeah..." He snorted, "It's pretty bad-"

And then he was screaming, and bleeding. And then He looked up at her like he was proud of doing it, his terrible smile and dark eyes burning her skin. He growled at her and it made her sick. It wasn't even a full moon, and he still looked like a monster.

Greyback grinned, showing pointed teeth. Blood trickled down his chin and he licked his lips slowly, obscenely. August was trembling as she watched him go down to bite him and then it all stopped. The world stopped, it was like she went deaf in both ears and she wasn't even aware of her own body because she was diving through the air, at him. On him. Then she was the attacker, her nails grew abnormally long and she was clawing him like a cat on a board.

He grabbed her by the neck and threw her across the corridor, slamming her against the wall. He went back to Bill, whose eyes were open, watching his attacker come back, and then a blur crossed him, and August was on top of Greyback again, trying to claw his eyes out.

There was an anger in August that she never felt before. It was radiating through her body like scolding silver. She felt a sting at her side, and then down her chest as his claws attacked her just as she attacked him the same. He flung her across the hall again and the two ran towards each other and collided in another furious battle of bites and clawing.

If Remus or Regulus saw this fight, they would not see August. This was not August fighting. This was her coming forward. This was August's wolf fighting her creator. As much as her wolf wanted to keep fighting, August was growing weaker and weaker with every punch, every claw, and Bill could tell. Bill tried to push himself off the ground when Greyback towered over August, and lifted her off the ground by her neck, and slammed her to the ground. He needed to help her, but he was too weak. He was losing too much blood. And finally, Bill let his injuries take over because he could not bare to look at this anymore. He could not let the last thing he see be her dead body.