The Butcher of Hogsmeade

The howl of a werewolf after transformation is different from that of a real wolf. Although he had only heard it once, the impression of that night was too deep. The howls of dozens of werewolves made Shen Hou remember the sound forever.

How could there be werewolves in St. Mungo's? And how could they appear at this time...?

No, it's a full moon night again!

Shen Hou suddenly realized that a month had passed since that "Werewolf Night," during which he had been in jail, working, and hospitalized. The moon was full again.

The two jumped up from their chairs almost simultaneously, but Gideon immediately pushed Shen Hou back down.

"Guard the door. Fabian is still inside. I'll handle the rest." Gideon strode towards the stairwell. An Auror couldn't and shouldn't ignore a potentially dangerous werewolf.

The howls of wolves echoed up the stairwell from the third floor, one after another, relentless; mixed in with the howls were countless panicked shouts. Gideon glanced at the elevators, which were still running smoothly, and found that they were all stopped on distant floors; after a moment's hesitation, he ran down the stairs.

The wolf howls were not heard by only a few people; people from both sides of the corridor peeked out from the wards, but were quickly persuaded to go back by the arriving medical staff.

Shen Hou grabbed a nurse who was passing by and asked, "Will the hospital admit werewolves?"

"Werewolves cannot be cured, sir." The nurse looked puzzled and uneasy; the wolf howls were clearly beyond her comprehension of normal hospital conditions. "If a patient is bitten by a werewolf, we will treat the wound, but werewolf transformation... I don't know..."

"Today is the night of the full moon, madam," Shen Hou reminded her.

"I...I didn't notice!" The nurse's panic widened instantly. "Our doctors are very experienced. If...if...they will definitely take appropriate measures, yes, they definitely will."

Her stammering words were unclear; it was unclear whether she was trying to comfort Shen Hou or herself.

The nurse left in a hurry, so nervous that she didn't even bother to ask Shen Hou if he had any other questions or needs—this was a standard procedure—which made her seem extremely unprofessional. But she couldn't be blamed, because at that moment, many people were running up the stairwell. Some were running around aimlessly along the fourth-floor corridor, like headless flies, searching for a safe place to hide, while others went straight up the stairs to the fifth floor.

The elevator doors opened at that moment, and a group of people rushed out, joining the people coming up the stairs; everyone had an expression of extreme terror on their face, shouting "Werewolf! Werewolf on the third floor!" which was bound to spread panic to more floors.

Some of these people had bandages wrapped around their heads, some had pus oozing from their seven orifices, and some had strange spots on their skin; the most peculiar was a person whose body could not be seen, whose empty robe swayed like a ghost in the corridor, frightening everyone who saw "it" for the first time.

The once quiet hospital ward instantly turned into a boiling pot of oil.

While everyone was asking each other for information, Shen Hou seemed to suddenly lose his curiosity. He silently took two steps back, leaned against the door of the emergency room, and hid behind a green plant, which was also the darkest corner of the entire corridor.

The werewolves' arrival was too suspicious; they appeared right when Febian was being rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment after being poisoned.

Amidst the cacophony of noise, Shen Hou remained tense, watching every sound coming from the third floor. When he heard the continuous howling of wolves abruptly stop, and before the interruption seemed to be a sharp scream, he felt both nervous and hopeful—the sound seemed to indicate that the werewolves had been subdued.

But what's unsettling is that Gideon has yet to return.

Soon, the people on the fourth floor gradually realized that the wolf howls had stopped, and their panic subsided slightly. Some began to peek into the stairwell and look towards the third floor. A short while later, news spread that the crazed werewolf had been subdued by an Auror and taken away.

The crowd breathed a sigh of relief in unison. The sounds of their relief, when combined, resembled the vibrations of a giant dragon flapping its wings high in the sky, which then reached the ground. Then, when the "dragon" realized that the danger had passed, the collective anger naturally erupted.

Many people were cursing and swearing, demanding an explanation from the hospital, while others quietly dispersed, moving towards the stairwell and elevators. Just then, a huge commotion came from downstairs, and the howls of werewolves rang out again, this time not just one werewolf, but a whole group of them.

The sounds rose and fell, instantly transporting Shen Hou back to Hogsmeade; this commotion truly felt like a return to the "Werewolf Night."

The first werewolf appeared, practically leaping from the stairwell into the corridor. In its bloodshot eyes, it saw the crowd rushing back in a panic, desperately trying to hide in the wards on either side.

Almost none of the patients in the hospital carried magic wands. Although the medical staff carried magic wands, their hands were trembling when faced with a "beast" that was more than half the size of a normal person.

If therapists and nurses were good at fighting, why would they be working in a hospital? They should have been working in the Auror office long ago.

Before the medical staff could figure out how to deal with the enemy, more and more enemies were rushing up the stairwell. There were three werewolves in total, and the narrow corridor could hardly accommodate them standing side by side.

Shen Hou suddenly realized something was wrong. The three-headed werewolf's attention didn't seem to be on the medical staff, nor did it care about the doors on both sides of the corridor or the human presence inside. Instead, it was staring intently at the door of the emergency room at the end of the corridor.

The medical staff, with their meager courage, erected a defensive line, only to have it crumble instantly under the werewolf's onslaught. Compared to their exquisite healing magic, the offensive spells emanating from their wands were weak and feeble, their lack of power both surprising and understandable.

The knockback spell couldn't push it back even half a foot, the obstacle spell couldn't slow it down even half a step, and the stun spell at most made it momentarily dazed; however, some spells that could usually be used to restrain out-of-control patients did have some effect, such as the binding spell, which at least made the werewolf stop and take some time to tear the ropes.

That was all. The werewolves were delayed for about three to five seconds, and then they broke through the barrier formed by more than a dozen medical personnel with their bare hands.

The male medical staff at the front of the line were thrown into the air like rag dolls, either crashing into the corridor walls or being trampled underfoot, while the female medical staff screamed and scattered in all directions.

Fortunately, the werewolves didn't care about them, and no one was bitten. The most seriously injured had a large chunk of flesh torn off his right arm by wolf claws, deep enough to expose the bone, with blood and flesh flying everywhere; another was pushed against a wall, smashing his head open, and then stomped on the head, nearly popping his eyeball out. But in the magical world, such injuries were nothing serious.

For Shen Hou, the real big deal was that the werewolves had all rushed to the emergency room; his good friend was still inside receiving emergency treatment, and he was the only one left who could stand in front of the door.