Wolfmane Academy's Training Room was quieter than usual.
The reinforced stone walls were covered in shock-absorbing runes, and crates of Improved Wolfsbane Potion were piled in the corners, the liquids of different colors sloshing lightly in their glass bottles and giving off a blueberry scent.
Thirty-seven people sat in the Training Room.
Some sat cross-legged on the floor, some leaned against the walls, and some huddled in corners with their knees drawn up.
They all wore silver-gray student uniforms, but there were no wolf-head badges on their collars.
Wolf-head badges were only awarded upon completion of their basic studies.
These were all students from the United Kingdom who had only recently joined Wolfmane Academy.
They watched the oversized Two-Way Mirror on the wall, broadcasting from afar.
Until George and Fred succeeded in their research into converting electricity and magic into one another, and the signal became stable.
They could only use traditional wizarding craftsmanship.
Erin sat closest to the wall.
The mirror showed a panoramic view of Glen Coe Valley-the Moonlight Field marked out in silvery-white powder, the densely packed figures on the curved viewing stands, and those figures in silver-gray robes, standing perfectly straight.
Her hands were trembling.
Not because of the moon.
There was still some time before the full moon rose, and the potion's effects would last through the entire night.
She was trembling because of the person in the mirror.
Edwin.
Forty-six years old, with grayish-brown hair and an old scar running down his left cheek from the base of his ear to his chin.
He had once worked nineteen years in a black-market apothecary in Knockturn Alley.
The owner called him "that dog," never by his name.
Three days before every full moon, the owner would lock him in the cellar and deduct three days'