The Wizard's Guide to Timelords and Other Demons Book 1: The Forgotten War

Turned Against

Professor Lupin's unconscious body collapsed the instant he materialized in the Hospital Wing. Elise, who had brought him here, caught Lupin just as he fell and lowered his body gently to the floor. Anticipating that this would be the likely result of teleporting a normal human contrary to the will of the charm that restricted teleportation within Hogwarts, Elise had chosen this particular location to reappear just in case the worst had happened, which apparently it had.

"Could somebody please help me!" Elise shouted into the hospital hall, which was unusually active for this early in the morning.

Apparently there had been a crisis and the entire staff seemed to be scrambling about, oblivious to her arrival as well as to the presence of a comatose man sprawled out on the floor by the main entrance. Elise had done her best to shield Lupin from the more serious effects of the spell, having learned to do the same for herself when she had first teleported into the castle several days ago, so she took solace in knowing that he had at least survived. But he would need medical help soon if he were to remain that way.

"Hey!" she yelled in a much louder voice, and for a moment the room went silent. "Could someone please help this man out!"

Two of the nurses who had turned to find the source of the impressively loud voice, immediately dropped what they were doing and ran to assist Elise and the professor.

"Professor Lupin!" One of the nurses called out, and then looked over to Elise. "What on earth happened to him?"

"Molecular teleportation anomaly," Elise explained, with concern for her friend. Both nurses stared at her with expressions of cluelessness, so she quickly adjusted her nomenclature to select the more common terms for this world. "Apparition accident."

"Young lady, you must be mistaken" one of the nurses told her. "Apparition within Hogwarts school grounds is impossible."

"I assure you that is exactly what happened," Elise insisted with a firm, convincing tone.

After closely examining the burns on Professor Lupin's hands and wrists, as well as the charring of his clothing, the two nurses confirmed that he had indeed experienced an "apparition accident."

Harming professor Lupin in this manner was the last thing Elise would have ever considered doing, except she knew that a much more terrible fate would have awaited him had he remained with her to face the Beast in the forest. The thought of this suddenly reminded her that there was somewhere else she needed to be--right now.

"You appear to be correct in your diagnosis," the nurse said to Elise. "But could you be more specific? Please tell me exactly what..."

The nurse looked up towards the young woman she had been addressing but she was not there. Both nurses glanced around the hall and down the corridor outside, hoping to find her, but to no avail. She had completely disappeared. Just then, another nurse arrived with a gurney to help transport Professor Lupin to a proper hospital bed. The first two nurses returned their attention to their patient.

"He'll be just fine," one nurse said, glancing up at the other with the gurney, "we'll have him patched up and on his feet in no time."

Elise re-materialized in the Forbidden Forest at almost the exact place where she had abducted Professor Lupin minutes ago. Only now she found herself surrounded by four of the largest and ugliest gentlemen she had ever seen. They ranged in height from twenty to at least thirty feet, with enormous bald heads and bearded faces. The smell was awful, burning Elise's nose and causing her eyes to water a little.

Elise had materialized with weapons drawn, ready to jump immediately into battle. She spun about swiftly in a full circle, performing a quick survey of her surroundings and evaluating her new enemies. Upon first seeing the giants, Elise felt very uneasy, having never battled humanoids of such immense size, and was unsure how it would turn out.