Disclaimer: I do not own particular characters and places mentioned below.

Author's note: This is my first story, it's from Lupin's POV and it's set probably in between the first and third books. I hope you like it!

Chapter I

The D. Umb. Act

"Ah, the thrill of defeat, it's exciting, isn't it Remus?"

Lupin looked at his drinking companion and raised his eyebrows. "Exciting, Alan? I don't know why you would call it that."

Alan tried to look back at him as seriously as he could, though he looked as if he wanted to grin a little. "I didn't say it was good, I just meant that it's at least somewhat exhilarating, that's all. Of course I'm as down as the rest of you are, but still, it does give something to break the torpor, doesn't it?"

"Oh, shut it Alan," said his sister Aurelia, sounding very surly and taking a swig of her drink.

Seven werewolves sat in a pub, getting themselves thoroughly inebriated (except Lupin, whom they dubbed "the designated Apparator") and going over their future prospects gloomily.

It had started a few months before when they had gone to the Ministry to get the potion they needed to make themselves safe for the coming full moon. The Wolfsbane Potion was so highly complex that most potion stores did not carry the ingredients, so the Ministry provided the werewolves with their "monthly fix," as Alan liked to call it. It had been like this for awhile now, getting on four years (that was roughly 48 full moons) and all was actually going well for most of them, until a few months previous to that.

That was when they all had met Dolores Umbrigde, who, they all agreed, truly was the spawn of Hell.

"Or worse than that," Aurelia had interjected gloomily, and Lupin was inclined to agree.

Lupin had arrived at the Ministry that fateful day in July feeling rather optimistic. He had a new job, in Flourish & Blotts (Flourish had retired and Blotts thought himself too old to run the store without help), and while it wasn't the most exciting or well paid job it did do the trick and it did give him plenty of reading time. And it was preferable to doing other things. Nothing, for instance. He'd gone up to the fourth level and found his fellows gathered around the desk, muttering worriedly to each other. They appeared to be so immersed in the piece of parchment they had all gathered around that they didn't even look up as he arrived.

"Hello," he'd said. "What is it?"

Aurelia turned to look at him and looked at a cross between being very angry and very upset. "Read this," she said, shoving it towards him.

The heading at the top of the parchment said in a flowing script:

Werewolf Protection Act

Lupin looked up at Aurelia. "That doesn't sound good."

"Keep reading," she said grimly.

He did.

It has been determined that the current standards placed in order to preserve safety from and for werewolves are inadequate. Therefore we propose to tighten security measures by adding several new ones that are as follows:

Lupin read with growing horror the host of things being proposed, which included "notification to the current employer of the werewolf in question as to the aforementioned's condition," and "A register of all werewolves in the area open to the public." Open to the public. That would be lovely, thought Lupin bitterly.

At the very bottom of the parchment it said:

All persons who resist the jurisdiction of this bill are subject to imprisonment.

This bill has been submitted by Dolores Jane Umbridge

Underneath was her curly signature.

"Have any of you heard of this woman before?" asked Aurelia.

"No, I haven't, and frankly I'm a little disappointed I have to now, it seems like," said Alan.

"I haven't either," said Marie, a small witch whose voice was as wispy as her hair.

"Nor I," said Maylor, Marie's husband, a tall thick wizard with a very strong jaw.

"Remus?"

Lupin shook his head. He was still staring at the paper, frowning, his brow knit.

"I have," said a hoarse voice from behind them.

They all turned around, even Lupin, who was surprised to see this strange man talking.

Adams, the speaker, was a surly sort of wizard. While the others had formed at least some sort of bond with each other over the years, Adams had remained detached and unfriendly, never offering to go out for drinks or to dinner with any of his fellows. He had had a fairly high up chair in the Wizengamot before he'd received his bite.

"She works at the Wizengamot, some secretary to Fudge or other. I knew her before…." He trailed off. There was no need to say before what, they knew what he meant. "Anyway, I never liked her too much, bit of a bitch, really."

"Well, that's obvious," muttered Alan.

"I suppose this hasn't been passed yet?" asked Lupin quietly.

"No, but it's likely it will. Umbridge is fairly well connected, I know, and she's drawn up a healthy bit of support for it," said Adams. (Adams had never said more than two words to Lupin before.)

There was a silence between all of them as they stood there, unsure of what to say to each other.

Aurelia turned to look at Lupin. "If this does pass, Remus, I'll probably lose my job. I'm on thin ice as it is, asking for all these days off…."

Remus nodded, feeling he'd probably be in the same situation as her if it did pass. Sighing, he turned to Adams. "Surely you could speak to these people, they are your former colleagues."

Adams narrowed his eyes and scowled. "If I was in good standing with any of these people, Lupin, I would still be among them, would I not?"

Aurelia scowled back at him. "Well, we're so sorry, but you're among us now, aren't you? And don't scowl at Remus just because you're such a surly git, it's not his fault this damn bill is here."

At that highly tense moment the Ministry witch came up and told them their potions were ready. They filed into the back room, where there were a dozen goblets smoking faintly on the table, giving the room a somewhat steamy appearance. They all grabbed one.

"Cheers, eh?" said Maylor.

"Cheers," they all rumbled.

"I was thinking," said Alan thoughtfully. "We need a name for this bill, a proper one, don't you think?"

"I suppose…."

"I propose naming it after it's author, the D. Umbridge Act," said Alan earnestly. "Or perhaps the D. Umb Act for short." He paused. "You get it?"

"You think of that yourself, Callard?" said Simon, a somewhat callous young man.

Alan looked a little hurt.

"Oh, leave him alone," said Aurelia exasperatedly. "If the only way we can get back at this horrid Umbridge woman is by calling her juvenile nicknames we might as well cling to them."

"That's the spirit, love."

And after that, before the werewolves could really do much about it, the D. Umb Act passed. (Alan's name had just stuck.) Mr. Blotts fired Lupin, saying perhaps he "would do better elsewhere," and Aurelia and Alan also lost their jobs at the wizard pub in Whitechapel.

It was under these rather dire circumstances that Adams died.