The March Hogsmeade weekend was wildly anticipated by the students, even more so than other opportunities to stock up on sweets and butterbeer. Sirius and Remus had decided to drop by to congratulate Harry on making it this far in the Tournament. This meant that most of the school would be trying to meet the exonerated Azkaban escapee and the beloved Defense professor who'd inexplicably resigned, even if they weren't exactly invited.

Hermione would not be meeting Sirius and Remus with the rest of her friends in the Three Broomsticks today, however, as she had somewhere else to be.

Of all her plans for the neutral-dark faction, the first to approach its next phase had actually been Cassius Avery's efforts to establish an alliance with werewolves. From what he'd relayed, it had been a delicate effort to rebuild enough trust to even begin persuading them to reject the Death Eaters. Given that Cassius had extolled the benefits of serving Voldemort when he'd last approached them, it was entirely understandable.

Nevertheless, the clan that he'd been reaching out to was finally willing to talk - sort of. It was now time for both of them to navigate this ice field of a meeting and negotiate a working relationship on behalf of their faction.

"Slytherin," greeted Avery once Hermione Apparated out of the school and took a Portkey to a small clearing in a forest somewhere in Devon. "Found the place alright, I see."

"I've never been here before," Hermione looked about her, committing it to memory. There were no wards to impede her senses, and she could tell that she was around fifteen leagues east of Ottery St. Catchpole.

"There's not much out here," nodded Avery, "except our quarry. Anyways, my old associate Ernst agreed to meet with you. I got him caught up on what's developed since You-Know-Who's defeat, but I'm not sure if he followed entirely."

"I see," In other words, they should not begin too quickly in arguing their case. "Well, I'm sure we can offer a good explanation to address any misunderstandings,"

"Between the two of us we'll probably have something," Cassius pulled at a lock of hair by his right ear, "You should know that I haven't really been close with my old associates over the years. I'd see him in Knocturn Alley from time to time, but those coincidences would always get a little awkward given the fate of, well, you know. Ours was a failed partnership that didn't get the neatest of endings."

"I know what those are like," said Hermione in understanding, "But we do need to make an honest effort here regardless. This alliance is for our own benefit as much as theirs."

In the last war against Voldemort, a significant proportion of mage and muggle casualties had been inflicted by werewolves. The neutral-dark faction would do well to avoid such a loss if at all possible.

It was Cassius's turn to look around now. "Of course. He'll be here in two minutes. Er, may I advise…?" he hesitated.

Hermione turned to peer at him. "Why, certainly,"

"Well, Ernst's clansfolk are the blunt, plain-speaking types, and they're not fans of excessive subtlety. It's my understanding that some of their members are born in the clan and have never even set foot in society. Your mask may confuse them given the association of metal masks with Death Eaters."

"I will remove it," Hermione took off her silver half-mask without a lost beat. Her face under her mask was, as always, that of a brunette in her late thirties. Incidentally, this was also the age when witches were most likely to liberally apply beautification charms to hide clues of their age. "I appreciate your consideration. Any other etiquettes that I should know?"

Cassius Avery peered intensely at her face in search of any recognizable features, but ultimately gave it up as a lost cause. "Not much. Like I said, they're not big on mincing words. They're not big on family names, they're not big on titles or proper addresses... Ah, they're here."

A group of four figures emerged from the woods - two men, two women. One waved.

"Cassius! You're on time," greeted the man who Hermione assumed was Ernst, "and you've brought your lady friend. This here is Claire, Jacob, and Ashley."

Avery Sr. shot Hermione a long-suffering look as if to say, 'see what I mean?'

"Cassius and I are associates," Hermione decided to suggest a more suitable word in case there was genuine confusion. "I'm Selaine. Pleased to meet you."

"Whatever," said Ernst, going straight to the point, "Say, could you or Cassius explain again what he was saying the other day? Ten years ago Lord whats-his-name made us a lot of pretty promises if we killed his enemies for him. Said he could get us everything the mages have when he takes over your world."

"Which obviously never happened," added Ashley. "Sounds like he got himself killed. What happened to him anyways?"

Ernst snorted. "Frankly, I wasn't even sure what he was trying to do half the time. Never even seen the man in my life, although I think the previous clan leader met him once. It was always Cassius who brought us food and supplies and such, and told us whenever Lord Whatsit wanted us to go somewhere the next full moon. But Cassius, you're telling us that he's only playing dead, that he's coming back soon, but now you've ditched him to serve somebody else?"

Hermione blinked once at the swift and oddly... comedic turn of conversation.

Cassius, however, seemed entirely unfazed. In fact, he seemed entirely used to it. "It's not so much serving a different master as deciding to wash our hands of the Dark Lord after spending the last ten years thinking long and hard on his plans," he replied. "He hasn't been so much taking over our world as burning everything down, and if we let him have his way we'll all have nothing, you and I both. Now, er, Selaine and I belong to a group of mages who have pledged to protect one another while we go after what we want in a more practical way."

"Huh," Ernst blinked, "Like a clan, then? Now you're starting to think like a wolf. I mean, we have our clan leader too but we don't grovel at him like you did with your Dark Lord."

"Er..."

"I thought you mages just want to have someone to serve," shrugged Ernst, "Never really understood you lot. Have we been rubbing off on you?"

"Er..."

"It's a change for the better, I tell you. Look, you don't even get upset when I call him Lord Whatsit anymore!"

"Trust me, most of us are quite happy with independence," Hermione spoke up as she realized something. "Lord Voldemort promised you what mages have, but it sounds like you don't actually want to live a lifestyle like ours?"

"Hell no!" chuckled Claire, "all your frilly talk and ridiculously convoluted hierarchy would drive me bonkers. We're wolves and we're proud to be wolves, thank you very much."

"But it's not all bad," mused Ashley, "your schools teach fancier magic than we do. A fifth of us can do magic too, you know. If we can just magically get new clothes, or potions, or other stuff whenever we wanted like you, we'd be happy."

"Does all of your clan feel this way?" Hermione wondered aloud. Although only these four people came to greet them, she didn't believe for one moment that they were alone. There were shadows moving in the trees. "What is the relationship between you and the wolves who share your bodies? Are you equal partners?"

"Well, it's as much his body as mine," said Ernst, "Usually he's just in the back of my mind as moral support, but one night a month it's his turn to play. I was scared of him at first, of course, but he's also the reason I have this family."

"Sounds like you're talking about a baby," said Avery.

Claire waved a hand. "That's because he is a big baby."

"But how does the wolf feel about humans?" prodded Hermione, "And the children born to the clan, for that matter? I don't believe they're born with a wolf inside them already?"

"The wolf's an animal, I don't think she really cares all that much," shrugged Claire, "If there's a human around, she hunts. If not, she plays with her siblings. For young children, usually we put them in trees before moonrise until they're old enough to survive being bitten."

"Fascinating," murmured Hermione, roughly slotting the new information she was receiving into partially-formed plans. Werewolves - this clan at least - preferred their own way of life. They had no desire to suppress their lycanthropy "curse", but that did not mean they could not peacefully coexist with non-werewolves given a reason to care.

But none of this was surprising. The actual surprise was Avery himself. 'This is not a man who would casually call werewolves halfbreeds...'

"You're awfully curious about us for a mage," commented Jacob, who had up to now been silent. "When the Dark Lord's servant came the first time - not Cassius, the first one - he wasn't interested in any chit-chat. He started making promises and telling us what he wanted of us the moment he met the clan leader. Didn't even waste a minute, that one."

Hermione chuckled. "Pardon me, Jacob. I believe in understanding the beings who share this world with mages, and I've never had the opportunity to meet a werewolf clan before. But you're right, I seemed to have steered the conversation entirely off course from what we wanted to talk about. Cassius and I came to persuade you not to go near human settlements on full moons."

Cassius nodded. "You've probably already noticed this, but the places that the Dark Lord sent you to weren't always safe for your wolves."

"Places you told us to attack, Cassius," Jacob pointed out.

The former Death Eater batted the accusation aside. "I saw nothing wrong with it at the time - I was risking my life on the Dark Lord's orders too, remember? I could've died a dozen times if I hadn't been lucky. But now the Dark Lord has more enemies, and he will try to send you toward more dangerous targets. My point is, taking orders from the Dark Lord has a bad impact on life expectancy, now more than before. You should stay here on full moons unless whatever the Dark Lord gives you is worth dying for." Then, a bit more quietly, "and if you're really that desperate for supplies you can send word to me. I'm your friend, Ernst. I won't sit by and let your family suffer just because you don't have medicine or something stupid like that."

Hermione observed the werewolves' reactions carefully. Jacob and Ashley looked dubiously convinced. Ernst, however... Hmm.

"In the long term," she asked, "what exactly did Lord Voldemort say he'd give you for your cooperation if he ever takes over?"

"Oh, the world," snorted Jacob, "Victims for the wolves to bite, loot from homes, enough gold to buy manors. His words, not mine."

"Well, Cassius and I can offer nothing of that sort to get you not to attack humans, but I don't think you want victims or manors. Instead, we're offering to find teachers to teach you the magic we learn in mage schools as soon as we're no longer in danger of being killed by Voldemort."

"And if we don't listen to you?" asked Jacob, who Hermione was now seventy-percent sure was actually the clan leader.

"Then the teacher I had in mind will be too afraid of you to come." And now for the gamble. "Also, Cassius and I will possibly die."

The four werewolves looked at one another for a moment. "We will pass this on to the clan," Jacob promised. "And Cassius, it's good to see you again."

"So," said Cassius Avery once they'd Apparated to Knockturn Alley, "I guess we're scrapping the plan to give them Wolfsbane and ask them to fight for us."

Hermione patted the feather-light, space-extended satchel beside her that contained several flagons of the Wolfsbane potion. "That plan became infeasible when it became clear that they weren't willing to suppress their wolves. They'll do more harm than good in a battle." Tilting her head, she looked over at him. "Ernst knows your name and face when you could've easily kept your mask on like the first guy sent to them. Then when you brought me to meet them, you were hesitant. Were you afraid I'd use them as weapons, Avery? I don't imagine it'd be a good feeling to coerce a friend into getting themselves killed."

He gave her a complicated look. Hermione met his gaze and held it.

Cassius turned his eyes back to the quiet, half-empty alley. "I really did think of werewolves as halfbreeds once, you know. Before I got to know them. But Ernst, he's a good man. He has my respect."

"You don't have to convince me," Hermione held up her hand, "I agree with you. And don't worry, even if they accepted the Wolfsbane I would never ask them to charge wards or mages. The worst I'd do is have them fight Greyback. Anyways, if your friend Jacob agrees to stay neutral we'll ask them to swear a pledge to keep to their own territories on full moons, and then we'll set up a ward around their forest so that they won't be harassed by Death Eaters or other hostile parties."

"Do you really think someone's going to be willing to go and teach werewolves?"

"Yes," Hermione nodded, gesturing for them to walk, "but he's Dumbledore's man. I'll put it in the alliance agreement."

"If you say so," Avery arched a dubious eyebrow, but acquiesced. "If anything you have an interesting way of negotiating. Guilt-tripping people into alliances. I bet that'll work wonders on the old man."

"I will use every tool in my arsenal, Cassius. How prepared are we for the Basilisk Eye, by the way?"

"We've sent one mage to patrol every ten shops along the street. If they see anything suspicious they'll alert the other two, but they won't rush over from their posts until a confirmation is given - in which case they'll also alert Selwyn and myself. There could be simultaneous attacks. But you said you've checked all the shops' wards and made sure they can last at least fifteen minutes without maintenance against garden variety goons, so we should have enough time to respond." Avery summarized. "Of course, this can be simpler if we know who Pike is trying to bully. My sources are still working on the information."

"Nothing yet on my end either," Hermione shook her head. They'd nearly reached the gate to Diagon Alley. "I'll update you if anything comes up."

"Likewise, Slytherin," smirked Avery, "so, may I call you Selaine, or is that for the werewolves only?"

"You may if you wish. I do believe it's what my mother would have named me," smiled Hermione. Deliberately, she fitted her mask over her eyes. "albeit under some slightly different circumstances. Good day, Cassius."

Hermione's next appointments, Alessandra Greengrass and Maurius Bulstrode, were very amused to hear that she had a first name now. "Selaine? A pity. Selene would've been a more fitting choice. Grapes, anyone?"

"I'll agree that the Gallicization on the moon-titan's name does weaken the pun somewhat," Hermione tittered, taking one of the offered fruits. "The plan regarding werewolves is a go. Barring complications, we've convinced a seventy-member clan to cut ties with Voldemort. They're not going to be a part of our faction, but they're willing to essentially follow the Werewolf Protocol in exchange for a teacher, who I intend to ask Dumbledore to provide."

"And this first clan can help us by influencing others toward neutrality once a relationship is established," nodded Bulstrode. "That's good. Maybe now the Werewolf Protocol will actually be worth the parchment it's written on. Honestly, it's as though none of the werewolves care about the Ministry's laws."

"Education would do them some good as well," sniffed Alessandra. "So with that encouraging news, we're going ahead with the plan to champion a movement to improve the Ministry's relationship with werewolves and other nonhuman sapients, yes?"

Hermione nodded. "Now that it can be demonstrated that werewolves are able and willing to refrain from endangering mages, we can begin pushing for the relaxation of laws that restrict their activities. I'm sure you've seen it too, Maurius, but some of those laws are clearly written in paranoia and don't stand a chance of being followed anyways."

Bulstrode rubbed his moustache. "Better to simply repeal them as a sop to werewolves and progressives, yes."

"Now, obviously we'll be doing this incrementally," continued Hermione, "I don't expect that this movement would make any major progress until at least a third of werewolves have made contact and pledged cooperation, but I do think we're ready to take the first step."

Alessandra tapped a slender finger on the table. "In that case, I'll find an opportunity to make a statement in the Wizengamot to question whether we may be too hawk-like in our treatment of nonhumans. We'll wait a week or so for reactions, and then we'll raise the issue again to declare our full platform."

"Sounds like a plan," smiled Maurius merrily. "That just might give Dumbledore some thinking to do. Maybe that'll distract him enough to stop his incessant expansion of Law Enforcement. Don't think I've forgotten Diggory's dig the other day, complaining there's not enough Aurors to handle a population that's allowed to defend themselves with Dark Arts, hmph."

"We already got him back for that one by pointing out the true problem, remember? It's not the number of Aurors that's inadequate, it's the fact that they're not trained in the Dark Arts. Rather than blindly expanding, a senior Auror with the right experience should be vetting and training the new recruits. How's John doing these days, by the way?"

"I saw Dawlish on Friday," said Maurius, "He's holding up pretty well for someone who's getting the full treatment. Says there's been two briberies and one assassination attempt already just to stop him from getting promoted," He sighed. "Dear Merlin, it's going to be one of those ugly fights, isn't it? The position of Dark Arts Trainer will be hotter than a Department Head's."

"Oh yes," agreed Hermione, "If we control this position, we'll be able to purge or isolate Voldemort's agents among the Aurors. If Death Eaters control the position then Law Enforcement will be compromised for good. We wouldn't have proposed this position if John wasn't confident that he could comfortably and legitimately win the appointment."

"All the Aurors we know are helping to make sure that justice prevails," reassured Alessandra. "And what an incredible boon it would be if he does pull it off! Delaying the light-progressives from appointing another representative while slowly turning the Department dark! We should speak more on this another time."

Maurius Bulstrode laced his fingers, unlaced them, then plucked another grape off the vine. "So, now we wait for each others' words on new developments?"

"Exactly. Until we next meet, Alessandra, Maurius."

Alessandra flashed them both a sunny smile. "It's good to see you both again. Say, will either of you be attending the Triwizard Tournament finale? I don't usually go to events where Apparition is restricted, but I think I'll make an exception for Hogwarts."

"I'll be there," promised Maurius, "Any chance you'd be there, Selaine?"

"I just might," smiled Hermione, "It's Hogwarts, as you say. Even if I cannot make it I would certainly tap into the broadcast. Our humble young Boy-Who-Lived has a lovely trial ahead of him."

"Perhaps he might even claim the thousand-Galleon prize," said Alessandra with just a hint of challenge.

"The young man seems like he's got a good head on his shoulders, judging from the few times I've met him," said Maurice, "One thing's certain. If he handles himself well to the end of the Tournament, I'll be wholeheartedly convinced that he'll actually matter for something when the ball starts rolling. Oh, I'll be watching Mr. Potter with great interest. Assuming he survives long enough to last until midgame."

Hermione cheerily removed her hat and cloak from the back of her chair. "The Headmaster wouldn't let anything happen to him. He's quite good with his pieces. Not to mention," she slipped the hat over her head, hiding her mask in the shadow of its brim. She gave Alessandra Greengrass a single nod. "Mr. Potter could become one of us with time."

"Ah!" clapped Bulstrode, standing. "Then the new piece is as well-defended as can be."

'Yes,' thought Hermione as she affected an easy, nonchalant smile, 'Now if only I can figure out what trial really awaits Harry, beneath all these challenges for the students.'

She was nowhere close to solving the mystery. But, fortunately, persistence was occasionally rewarded by inspiration. What Alessandra Greengrass said just now reminded her of something. It wasn't much of an idea, but it was actionable.

When Hermione apparated back to Hogwarts, she made a beeline for the office of Potion Master Snape.

AN: can't remember where, but I vaguely recall writing somewhere that Salazar's mother's name was Elaine. Sally literally just added an S in front of it for her alias