Author's Note: Sorry again for the long space between updates. I've been working on this slightly longer chapter for the last couple of days but sleep has claimed me before I could finish and post it! However, I have some happy news! Today is my birthday! YAY! So to celebrate, I took the day off from work and finished this chapter! I hope you enjoy learning all about Anya's background and giving voice to the question of how in the hell they're going to defeat Garbor once and for all...if such a thing is even possible!


Chapter 52: Raised by Wolves

"So, does that happen...often?" Anya panted, her cheeks a deep scarlet.

Severus glanced over with narrowed eyes as he tried to think of something scathing to say to her, but found his eyes widening with surprise instead. Anya's head and shoulders were normal, but the rest of her body had become shaggy and wolf-like. She lay on her back near the far wall with her paws splayed out, her fuzzy stomach bared, as though begging for belly rubs. Severus shuddered as he remembered the time that Tonks had changed her body into a massive blue heron and jumped out of his Potions closet, which had caused him to shriek in surprise. He'd given her twenty detentions for her prank, which had seriously affected his well-developed authority in the classroom, but she'd laughed the entire time.

"Who's the...fuzzy one?" Hermione asked, and Severus couldn't stop himself from turning back to look at the adorably confused expression on her face, his heart doing flip flops in his chest as she looked at Anya and back at him again.

"That's Anya. Apparently she's a vampire as well as a Metamorphmagus." Erheldt was leaning against the other side of the wide entrance hall with Sanguni quietly leaning back into his embrace. "I hear such a condition is rare. I knew Anya as a child. Had I known that Garbor wished to take her, I would have intervened."

"Would you have, though?" Anya's voice was quiet and oddly flat. "I didn't want anyone's help. Garbor promised me power, safety..."

"At the cost of your soul!" Erheldt replied sharply.

"Hah! As though you know anything of souls!" Anya replied vehemently, her voice softening suddenly as though she no longer saw any point in arguing. "It is done, Erheldt. There is nothing that you or anyone else can do to save me."

Hermione stood and pulled Severus up gently, her hand never leaving his as they turned to face Anya, whose hair was going a stormy blue. Tiny tufts of silvery red hair had sprouted from the tops of both ears to match the rest of her fur, and it was obvious that she'd started to develop a slightly protruding muzzle, the tip of her nose going back like a canine's.

"He promised me what I've always wanted, Erheldt," she said sorrowfully. "You should know better than anyone how skilled he is at finding your weaknesses. It is so easy for him to take you once he knows exactly what it is you need."

Her words hit Severus harder than he'd expected, and he staggered back a step as the memories rose in his mind. He could see a younger version of himself begging on his knees to Dumbledore to be taken in and redeemed. He had almost used the exact words when he'd tried so hard to explain what had possessed him to take the Mark.

What's wrong? Hermione was rubbing his thumb with her finger as she looked up at him, projecting her thoughts into his head clearly.

He smirked slightly at this. She was getting better.

Just...this brings back memories...

Hermione fixed him with an incredulous look.

You turned into a wolf? When?

Severus snorted loudly despite himself. He didn't have the heart to tell her the exact details of how closely he'd come to becoming a wolf...of sorts.

"Care to let us in on the inside joke?" Erheldt asked, arching an eyebrow.

Anya whined, her voice more like a dog's than a human, arching her back so that her fluffy belly was prominently displayed.

"I kinda want to pet her," Hermione mused quietly to Severus, who arched his brow at her quizzically.

Anya's half-wolf-ears pricked up and a too-long-to-be-human tongue lolled from the side of her mouth.

"Yesh, pleash," she said, her tail wagging back and forth against the ground.

Hermione took a step towards Anya, stopping only when she felt Severus squeezing her hand gently. He did not want anything to happen to Hermione, not after everything that had happened.

"Remember, Severus, she's taken the Vow. If she tries anything funny…" Erheldt trailed off. He knew he didn't need to remind anyone of the certain fatal outcome.

Still, Severus squeezed Hermione's hand and strode over with her. Hermione bent down and began rubbing Anya's fluffy tummy while Anya's eyes closed happily and she panted her muzzle more dog-like than ever.

"She was raised by wolves, you know," Erheldt said sadly, though no one had asked. "No one knows anything about her family or her human parents, for she was adopted by her pack long before she learned to speak. I found her in the springtime. She must have been five years old then, and already able to change into a wolf. At first, I thought I was hallucinating when I turned from my fire and found a dirty, naked child with fuzzy wolf ears looking up at me as she held her tail in her hands. Though wolves are very different than werewolves, they are intelligent. They knew that I was different than most humans. I was not a threat. I would have asked her to come with me, but the wolves were her family and she was so young. It would have been a cruelty."

Anya's mouth began to change into a human face once again and she scoffed loudly even as her tail thumped happily at the feeling of Hermione's fingers stroking her fur.

"What the village did to me after was a cruelty," she said sadly, her voice choked with the memory of what had happened. "They found that I could change, and they killed my pack! Hunters shot my mother, my father, even my siblings! I was made to watch so that I would not run away, so that I would know that they could never, ever come back. They forced me to learn how to walk and talk like a human. They forced me to change into shapes that I did not care for. They turned their wands upon me when I did not do as I was told."

Hermione gasped softly. "It was a wizarding village?"

"Yes," Anya said bitterly, "and after a decade of brainwashing, I almost believed that they'd done what was best for me."

Erheldt nodded. "I remember seeing you once more that night at the bonfire."

Anya smiled, but her eyes were sad. "At first, I didn't realize it was you, but then...all the old memories washed over me and I could no longer lie to myself. When I found out your true nature...it became my dearest desire to be as you are and to get the revenge on those who wronged me. Garbor offered it to me."

Hermione stiffened, her hand drawing back. "What does that mean?" She asked uncertainly.

"Garbor helped me to drain dry every single one who murdered my family in front of my eyes and then tried to beat the wolf from my body. There was one man who...forced me to do other things with my gift, things that make my body grow cold when I think of them. He was the last to die, choking on his own blood. We did not feed from his tainted fluids." Anya rolled onto her side, the top half of her body down to her shoulder blades growing hairless and human once more. "The village was very remote, and they say that the deserted streets are still stained red with blood. You must understand. Garbor understood me. He respected and engaged my love for affection without forcing me to mate. For one such as myself, infertility is an added blessing, not a curse! I was only seventeen when I Changed, but already so many of the village men wanted to breed me, as though I was only good for creating more of my kind mixed with the foul heritage of those monsters!"

Hermione shuddered. The thought of being raped by an entire village and forced to bear children on the off-chance that they would also inherit their mother's gift was abhorrent.

"I know that Garbor wants...your future daughter," Anya said, her eyes running over Hermione's stomach, which caused Hermione to instinctively cross her arms as though to protect the tiny sprout of life inside of her safe, "but I can tell you that he has always treated me well. I have served him for over two centuries and he has afforded me every courtesy."

"So easily you forget the horrible things you said about Hermione earlier," Sanguini said skeptically, bending down and handing Stanley some cheese.

Anya sat up and immediately her ears flattened to the sides and she tucked her tail between her legs as she registered her shame.

"Garbor told me that she had defied him, that she was borne of the vampire sired from the previous vampire that defied him. I had no reason to doubt his word. But...I will admit that I was jealous at the thought of his time being taken up with a new favorite consort." Anya turned to look up at Hermione, her eyes filled with tears. "Please accept my apology, Hermione Granger. I did not mean to cause you such distress."

Hermione had flattened herself halfway behind Severus at the bloody and violent admissions of the metamorphmagus before her, but she stepped out, extending her hand cautiously to shake.

"I can't promise that I will forgive you completely," she said magnanimously, "but I wouldn't be a proper Gryffindor if I didn't try."

Anya shook her hand with a furry half-paw, placing her other hand over Hermione's and squeezing it firmly.

"I must also confess that you are rather skilled at tummy rubs. Do you, by chance, have any prior experience?"

Hermione thought for a moment and then nodded.

"Back at Hogwarts, the caretaker, Hagrid, well...he has a large dog named Fang."

"Sounds ferocious!" Erheldt said with a smirk.

"Well, the first thing you have to know about Hagrid is that he generally names his...er...pets in a manner that is the exact opposite of said pet's innate disposition." Hermione looked over at Severus and saw the corner of his mouth quirk upward in amusement.

"Elaborate, please?" Sanguini asked, looking puzzled.

"Let us just say, for the sake of clarity, that the man procured a massive cerberus several years ago and decided that the most appropriate name for the beast was 'Fluffy.'" Severus made the motion for quotation marks with his fingers as he spoke and everyone but Hermione goggled at him with shock.

"English may not be my first language, but that…" Anya trailed off, looking shocked.

"My thoughts exactly," Hermione said with a knowing smirk.

Erheldt clapped his hands together suddenly and everyone jumped before looking in his direction.

"So!" he exclaimed, "Now that we are all acquainted, shall we continue to Garbor's library and see if we can find the information that we seek?"

"That would be amenable," Severus muttered with a scowl, "especially if it means that it keeps your attention-getting shenanigans to a minimum."

"Has anyone ever told you that you are a shameless spoilsport?" Erheldt asked, his voice rising in mock indignation.

Severus grinned wickedly, the tips of his fangs sliding down past his upper lip.

"Numerous times," he replied, his eyes glittering dangerously. "Sanguini did not teach me to fear my elders and Dumbledore ruined my respect for those in power. And as much as I assume Garbor will want to stroke his own personal circlejerk during his little circus down at the High Council, I highly doubt that he will be away forever."

"Agreed," Hermione said, squeezing his hand, "If you are thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing, then we best begin our search immediately."

Anya stood, her fur rippling into skin and clothing once more as she rose to her full height.

"This way," she said, indicating the door to their left. "It will be dangerous, but I do have some ideas about where he may have hidden the key to his undoing."

"Why would he do that? I thought he'd burned all records of his kind's existence," Hermione said, her brow furrowing.

"Garbor thinks very highly of himself, and for good reason," Anya replied waving her hand dismissively, "He would never dare think that anyone would be so foolish as to slip under his nose. He is immensely powerful, even more-so than you imagine. He is proud of his trophies. It is how he strokes his ego."

"Among other things," Hermione half-whispered to Severus, who snorted with amusement despite the seriousness of the situation.

"I will drop the wards, but you must be warned, the air inside is kept filled with poisonous gas that can irrevocably damage any breathing creature, including vampires. Do not speak, do not breathe. If you must communicate, tap my shoulder and use hand signs or write on parchment."

Hermione knelt down and placed her hand out to Stanley, pulling him up to her face and allowing him to whisker-kiss her nose.

"Be good now, Stanley," she said smiling warmly at him.

He squeaked indignantly as though to say, And exactly what else do you think I would be, huh?

She let him down on the small, thin table that stood flush against the hallway next to the door and he turned his back as he picked up his half-eaten cheese, pretending to ignore her.

But as Anya dropped the wards and the door swung outward, Stanley turned back to see the shimmering bubble-like seal around the doorframe and watched each of the vampires take a deep breath before stepping through it as though there was nothing there.

Stanley's whiskers twitched and he let out a tiny squeak that sounded even tinier in the long hallway as though asking a question, but it was too late.

They were gone.