The wampus cat

// THIS IS AN OLD CHAPTER. THE NEW CHAPTERS ARE IN VOLUME 2. YOU CAN READ THESE CHAPTERS IF YOU WANT SOME INSIGHT ON WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN LATER BUT SOME EVENTS CAN BE DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW CHAPTERS.

The predator in front of us is undoubtedly a wampus cat. As soon as this one emerged from the bushes, I felt it try to hypnotize me and push through my mental defenses. Bad luck for him I have ten years of mastery of oclumency behind me.

Unfortunately, like Susan, I left my wand at home. Not that it is necessary for me, but it is not yet common knowledge that I can do magic without it. I was planning to wait until I came of age to no longer be monitored by the ministry to reveal it to everyone, otherwise I'm afraid I'm going to have an auror following me behind my back until I was seventeen.

The womatou begins to circle around us. If there was any chance this one would leave us alone, now we're sure we're on the menu.

Okay, first step, get rid of the distractions. There was no way I could fight with peace of mind knowing that it might hurt the others.

I levitated them with one hand while I put them to sleep with the other while I'm still staring at the womatou straight in the eyes to make sure he wasn't trying to force other people's minds. Once they're all asleep and flying more or less the same height as the treetops, I can now take care of the big cat.

He seems tired of waiting and leaps in my direction. I summon a shield that the cat's claws crash into before it pushes him back and he lands behind my back. I turn around and start sending stuns from my fingertips. If I remember correctly, this creature has no particular resistance to magic. He leaps like a madman dodging my shots while hiding behind some rocks but despite the sound and light show worthy of a Michael Bay movie, he doesn't seem to want to let his meal and escape.

He eventually lost his patience and jumped one last time in my direction with his claws out, determined to end it. I throw a series of five stupefix that all hit the mark and the beast comes crashing down at my feet.

I bring everyone down; they are still all unconscious thanks to my sleep charm.

How does a wampus cat manage to escape US government reserves? It could have become a serious breach of secrecy if he had ever bumped into hikers other than me.

However, the mistakes of the US government give me an opportunity that I didn't think I would have so soon, that of having a wampus cat to use for my ritual.

There's not a minute to lose, I bet the Native Americans I saw with their crystal were wizards looking for the wampus cat. I quickly trace the runes on the ground, I have repeated them so much that I know them like the back of my hand.

In less than five minutes everything is in place, I don't have a pain-relieving potion with me, but I can limit the pain my body feels by transforming it a little. I trace the symbol of domination on the beast and make sure it does not move a bit. I order him to lower his mental defenses while I work on the destruction of his mind. When his mind looks like a heap of fragmented memory debris, I guess the operation is a success. I'm not completely sure, this is the first time that I have destroyed the spirit of a living being, but even if it is not destroyed it should not be able to reform.

Now that all the preparations are complete, I dig my fingers into the ground and begin the ritual. Normally I would have preferred to use a wand to strengthen my control, but I will have to do without it. A red light takes hold of the wampus cat, breaking it down into a golden orb. This one is much bigger and more powerful than the one I got with the hinkypunk. Breaking the spirit was a good idea, I don't feel any resistance from the animal compared to the previous attempt.

I take a deep breath and grit my teeth as I start the second step of the ritual. The green light of the spell pierces me at the level of the diaphragm, and I feel the essence of the wampus cat entering me. The pain is excruciating, and I barely suppress a cry.

I will start the third and most complicated step without delay. The regeneration spell activates and even the grass at my feet seems to take the opportunity to grow several inches. The pain is unbearable, for several minutes I have difficulty forming coherent thoughts, and even more so in keeping control of the ritual. But I hold on after several minutes, I feel the pain subside.

I am lying on my back and can feel the wet grass. I get up and the first thing I notice when I want to put my hand on the ground to get up is that there is not one but two hands on my left that are supporting me. Looks like I inherited an extra pair of arms. I go to the stream to observe the changes that have taken place. In addition to my two new arms, it now looks like I have a tail that starts from my tailbone. My forearms and shins are covered in fur and my fingernails are thicker and black. Fun fact, it looks like my fur is the same color as my hair, golden blonde. My ears are also longer and covered with a thin layer of fur. I also have the impression that my features are finer like those of a cat.

I am still having trouble moving my new body, my tail is moving on it's own, and my new arms exactly copy the movements of the old ones because I can't seem to get them to move separately yet.

Okay, I'll see how to handle the changes later. I transform into my human appearance but unlike before, I feel that it is a little bit uncomfortable.

I quickly erase all traces of the ritual, it's not very complicated. Just trim the grass, stir the earth a bit, and cast some purification spell to erase the traces of black magic and you're done.

The last thing to do before returning to Mystic Falls is to alter the memories of Muggles and Susan. I almost cried when I saw the rotten childhoods of the Donovan children with their alcoholic mother. As I get to Susan's turn, I hear footsteps behind my back.

The Amerindians are there, strangely their crystal is broken and hardly shines any more. When he sees me with my tattered t-shirt and the others on the ground, one of them raises a wand, presumably to erase my memories.

"Hey easy, I'm from the house!" I make a small luminous sphere appear in my hand.

"Calm down Sam." The leader of the group holds out his hand to me. "My name is Anoki. Are you from the region my boy?" He's an elderly man with his hair cut really short, he has a certain confidence.

"My name Sean, I was born here but my parents brought me to London for my studies at Hogwarts, and here I am back for the holidays."

"Well, it's a shame to go so far when we have a school right next to your home, well it's not for me to judge the choice of others. We are looking for a wampus cat which escape from our magical creature reserve. Guess he ran into you? "

"That's right, we had stopped for a picnic with some Muggle friends when he ran into us without warning. I put my comrades to sleep and faced him, I ended up killing him by pushing it against a rock because I don't know of any curse to restrict it, and to prevent my friends from seeing it, I destroyed the body. I was erasing their memory when you arrived. " A half lie is more believable.

"Destroy? How did you manage to make such a big animal disappear so quickly?" Looks like Sam doesn't really believe my side of the story, too bad.

"I simply reduced his size before setting fire to his corpse and then throwing his ashes in the wind."

"Hey kid, that's damn impressive for someone so young. I could finally shut up this pest of Ephthalius with your story."

"Ephthalius? That's unusual for a first name."

"It's true, yet he's a very famous person here. He's the headmaster of Ilvermorny."