Baiting

Aberforth Kendrick Modred Giles Dumbledore was standing behind the bar at the Hog's Head as usual. Also usual, if not nearly as common, were the three young men, not a year out of Hogwarts, sitting on stools on the other side of the bar, and for the four of them - gray-haired barkeeper and young men - to be the only ones in the bar, which was closed, it being considerably past closing time.

"Where's Remus?" Peter couldn't imagine why the werewolf hardly ever seemed to make these meetings. One of the few advantages to working at the Ministry was that his parents had stopped telling him what he could and couldn't do. It helped that he was letting the upstairs flat from Aberforth, too, of course. He was finally completely on his own, away from his parents.

"Paranoid, of course," said Sirius. "Afraid of questions if he got caught here."

"I still don't get it," muttered Peter. "He's not underage, or anything. It's not against the law. Why would anyone ask him questions?"

"Yeah, well, he's really not in on this anymore," said James. "He's going to have enough trouble making it as it is."

"If this is just a social call, I'll thank you to conduct it elsewhere," the barkeep growled, leaning heavily on the bar.

"Right," said James, unfazed. "There was a new Death Eater inducted this week. Evan Rosier."


James and Sirius had taken to patrolling Diagon Alley. If the Death Eaters wanted to harass Muggles, they would have to deal with Potter and Black. Remus tended to be busy with appointments, but it wasn't as if he'd join them anyway. And Peter and Lily were usually at work.


Nineteen seventy-nine started out well enough for Horace Slughorn. Newt Scamander was awarded the Order of Merlin, Second Class, for his contributions to the field of Magizoology. He was barely into his eighties, and already he had written the best-selling common reference book on magical creatures (1927); created the Werewolf Registry (1947); and written the "Ban on Experimental Breeding" (1965). Most of his years at Hogwarts had overlapped with Horace Slughorn, although they had shared few interests and Newt had been a Gryffindor. Still, Horace had connections and managed to finagle an invitation to the ceremony at the Ministry of Magic.

Lily worked at the Ministry. Professor Slughorn had gotten her into the Department of Mysteries by pulling strings with his old friend, Augustus Rookwood. It had taken some doing, since Augustus didn't approve of Muggle-borns. Another day of reading books, cataloguing ingredients and cleaning cauldrons. The books were okay, but as for the rest, it was like Hogwarts with all the fun parts taken out. One thing, though. At least she had access to dragon's blood.


It had happened again. Remus had arrived at Number 39, Diagon Alley, to see "Werewolf: registration number 128232" scrawled in large letters and numbers over the door.

He was in the Werewolf Registry, of course. Had been, ever since he'd been turned at the age of eight. Anyone who wished to look it up was perfectly free to do so. Just go to the Ministry of Magic, fill out the necessary paperwork, pay the necessary fee, wait the requisite four to six weeks, and you could find out if any particular witch or wizard were on the Registry.

The purpose of the Werewolf Registry was to compile statistics on werewolves and incidentally, to determine whether a werewolf accused of a crime were a renegade or not. By definition, any werewolf not on the Registry was a renegade and could be destroyed like any wild beast for any reason whatsoever. A werewolf on the Registry, however, had the same rights as any other Witch or Wizard, consistent with public safety, of course. Which, depending on the state of public opinion and paranoia, could end up being scarcely different from the treatment of a renegade.

There was talk about requiring werewolves to identify their status and provide their Registry number to any employer or client. "Thanks again, Greyback," Remus thought to himself as he scrubbed the graffiti from the door. That kind of talk came up every time Greyback attacked another child.


Petunia didn't know how she had ended up in the middle of a circle marked with one-inch blue flames with three other people, but she knew where she was. She had accompanied Lily to Diagon Alley with her parents, back when she had still thought she might turn out to be a witch herself. If she hadn't been scared out of her wits, she would have sniffed at the thought that she had ever wanted to be as freakish as her sister.

Speaking of freaks, one of her companions in the circle was a girl in dirty jeans with purple spiked hair and a torn band T-shirt. That one wouldn't look at all out of place in a garish robe and pointed hat. Petunia half expected her to pull a wand from her back pocket.

Purple Hair looked about curiously, sniggering when the uptight matchstick in the fashionable but appropriate mini skirt stepped back from her, affronted.

Then a young man seemed to appear out of nowhere to join them in the circle. He, at least, looked respectable in his button-down shirt and slicked back blond hair, so Petunia ventured a smile at him. He didn't spare a glance at her, though, instead grabbing Purple Hair like a drowning man reaching for a life preserver.

"Jenny! Where are we? How do we get out?" he stuttered, when he finally released her.

Jenny looked up at the huge marble edifice near them. "Sev's school, maybe?"

Petunia harrumphed, despite her fear. "That is not Hogwarts," she said scornfully. "It's Gringott's."

A middle-aged man and woman who had been huddling together, silently, in the circle, spoke up at that. "That's where Dirk works, isn't it?" said the woman, half to her husband, half to the rest of the circle. "He's at Gringott's Bank. But this doesn't look like Manchester."

"We're in the eldritch part then, yeah?" The young man turned to the middle-aged couple and offered his hand. The older man took it. "You from Manchester?" he asked. "Me and Jenny, we're from Bolton. I'm Joe."

"Bill and Agnes Cresswell," the man answered, somewhat stiffly. "Yes, we're from Didsbury."

"For your information," sniffed Petunia, feeling ignored, "we are not in Manchester. This is Diagon Alley in London."

"Do you know why we're here, then?" Agnes asked hopefully, turning to Petunia.

Petunia's fear had faded almost completely away. She was feeling extremely pleased to be the only one of the motley group that seemed to have a clue. "No doubt this is my sister's idea of a joke. Or perhaps her layabout husband's."

Joe stiffened at "layabout." Zeke had managed to find a job and so had Jenny, but he was still looking. He'd been the only one at home when he was grabbed. "Right. I'm laughing, yeah?" he said, moving around the periphery of the circle as if he expected someone to appear out of nowhere. "So call your sister and let's go, yeah?"


Peter looked up from his desk when the green fire flared in the second fireplace from the right. He was dying of boredom. It wasn't too bad keeping track of the ten fireplaces during morning rush hour and then again, over lunch. At least things were happening around him then, even if he hardly ever had any actual work to do. So someone Flooing in during the dead time of mid afternoon was more than welcome.

"Pettigrew," said the figure stepping out of the Floo. When the owl had reached Severus at St Mungo's, informing him that magic had been done at his uncle's home, he was ready to suspect the worst. He had Floo-called both Lily at the Department of Mysteries and Evan at the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

A second later, Evan and Lily stepped out of the second fireplace from the left and the fourth fireplace from the left. "They're in Diagon Alley," Lily said, pointing at a piece of parchment.

"They?" Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Petunia's gone missing too," said Evan. "We've got unauthorized use of magic at her flat in Surrey. There have also been incidents in Bolton, Wigan and Didsbury in Greater Manchester. At least four Muggle relatives are unaccounted for. Rookwood in the Department of Mysteries had a way to trace them, though. He's sending some people over from the Auror office. He still thinks we should go ahead and pop over ourselves, first."

Peter watched the three of them Floo out. Neither Evan nor Lily had acknowledged his existence.


James and Sirius were nearing Gringott's when they saw Evan Rosier casting a spell on a circle of fire and Snape pointing his wand at a couple of Muggles hanging upside down in the air.


When Lily saw Petunia hanging upside down in the air, she carefully levitated her over the circle and cast Liberacorpus to return her to the ground. Her mini skirt had actually been so tight it had not been able to fall and reveal her pants, so her sister was really none the worse for wear. But she was hysterical so Lily gave up on the idea of providing any further help than getting Petunia out of the way.

Meanwhile, Severus had brought the Cresswells down without first moving them over the flames. They would not believe they needed only to step over the harmless blue flames, so Evan took the task of removing the flames while Severus directed his wand aloft once more to bring down his cousins.


James and Sirius raced towards the circle.

Severus saw them but had to choose between letting Joe and Jenny drop six feet unimpeded to the cobblestones and taking the hex. They touched ground just before he fell to the ground himself, bound in ropes.

Evan, meanwhile, simply Apparated away. He couldn't afford to have his Dark Mark revealed.

No Aurors ever arrived, but there were plenty of photographers.


The next day, James and Lily Potter and Sirius Black were on the front page of the Daily Prophet, under the headline "Muggles Rescued from Suspected Death-Eaters."

Over the next few days, Evan discovered which Death Eaters had actually pulled off the episode and Obliviated them, so that he could convince Lucius that he and Severus actually had been responsible for the attacks on the Muggles. Meanwhile, he avoided actually being called in for questioning by the Ministry by insisting that Snape had acted on his own. Severus spent two weeks in Azkaban for Muggle-baiting.


Author's Notes:

I've selected Aberforth's three middle names to both contrast with and mirror those of his brother.

Albus is: white knight, mighty wolf, hill, noble, father's son.

Aberforth is: black river, greatest champion, clever goat, mother's son.

Albus [white; also a term for Scotland] Percival [knight of the round table; also their father's name] Wulfric [mighty wolf; an animal reference] Brian [hill; high, noble; geographic feature]

Aberforth [mouth of the Forth; mouth of the black river; color and geographic reference] Kendrick [greatest champion; male version of Kendra, their mother's name] Mordred [knight of the round table; skillful and clever] Giles [goat; an animal reference]

Although the name Mordred sounds like it has a reference to death, the name is not from the Latin but is derived from Welsh, where it shows no relation to the Welsh words relating to death. The earliest accounts of Mordred (Medraut in the earliest versions) and Arthur describe them both dying in the same battle, but don't identify them as enemies. Also, in these earliest accounts, Mordred is described as knight of the round table, as noble as any other knight.

According the HPL, Newt Scamander was awarded the Order of Merlin, Second Class, for his contributions to the field of Magizoology in 1979, at which point he was in his eighties and was responsible for the book, registry and ban. His time at Hogwarts could have overlapped with Slughorn's, although we don't know for sure because we don't have a birth date for Slughorn. Since Newt is also described as involved with dragon research, I decided to make him a Gryffindor.

The number I chose for Remus's Werewolf Registry number, 128232, is the number actually tattooed on the forearm of Solomon Radasky, a Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz.

www dot holocaustsurvivors dot org/

According to HBP, Slughorn was friends with Death Eater mole Augustus Rookwood, who worked in the Ministry of Magic. It is reasonable to assume he used his connections to help Slug Club member Lily Evans Potter.

We know that James and Sirius were independently wealthy and didn't need to work. As James' wife, neither did Lily, but I assume she was more motivated than he was.

I am accepting the idea from Deathly Hallows that Petunia originally hoped she would turn out to be a witch too.

Dirk Cresswell is mentioned as the head of the Goblin Liaison Office and former member of the Slug Club in HBP. I postulate that he spent some part of his career working with Goblins at Gringott's. I accept the idea from Deathly Hallows that he was Muggle-born. I've made up the name of his parents and where they live. I've placed the Cresswells in Didsbury, which I understand to be a rather posh community in the Greater Manchester area.