Chapter Seventeen:

"Stand up, Potter. Let's make this as quick as possible. I haven't all the time in the world to waste."

"Yes, sir." Harry stood up and raised his wand.

"Legilmens."

The familiar throbbing in his head had set in, accompanied by the rubbery feeling in his knees. Harry struggled to stay balanced as his sense of direction was distorted. Then a memory came. But it was not his own.

Harry stood in the corner of a room. The sunset was kept out by moth-eaten curtains, and the room contained a dingy smell of age that stung his nostrils. He sneezed, but the two other occupants in the room did not notice.

"I am warning you, Pettigrew. One wrong move and I will be sure you're next."

Wormtail trembled as Snape pinned him against the wall.

"Easy there, Severus. You wouldn't want to do anything stupid. The Dark Lord has not been in the best of moods since Potter escaped."

Snape pushed him further into the wall. "And that's my fault, is it?"

Wormtail clasped his hands together nervously, "No, of course not. But I don't understand how you can't whisk him away from Hogwarts. He's constantly in front of your nose."

"Idiot, do you not realize my position would be exposed then? Dumbledore has the boy guarded much carefully than you can imagine."

"Ah, yes, of course. Please forgive me, but I do believe you're gradually cutting off my air supply." Wormtail's face was going from pink to a deep red. Snape released his neck, and for a moment a print of his hand remained.

"Don't do anything stupid, Pettigrew. Just because you are now in his inner circle does not mean he will be forgiving of your stupidity."

"Perfectly understandable, Severus." Wormtail said in a shaky voice.

Indeed, Voldemort had been killing off Death Eaters left and right for their stupid mistakes. The destruction of the prophecy had lessened what little mercy he had.

"I do not want you sneaking about like that and putting your nose where it does not belong."

Wormtail nodded quickly.

"Leave," Snape said.

Wormtail ran out of the room quickly, not bothering to shut the door behind him. Snape sighed and replaced his Death Eater mask on his face. Clutching his wand until his knuckles became white, he braced himself and walked out of the room to Voldemort's lair.

Harry opened his eyes surprised to find himself still standing. Snape was dusting himself off as he stood to his feet.

"Sir?"

Snape looked up from his wand, which he placed in the pockets of his robes.

"Why did you let me see that?"

"You accessed it on your own, Potter. Don't turn a blind eye toward your abilities."

"I...did that?"

Snape nodded.

"By myself? But why didn't you put that memory in the pensieve? Unless- you wanted me to see it..." Harry thought out loud.

"Nothing gets past our celebrity, does it?"

"But...why?" This was just too bizarre for Harry to follow.

" Potter, you truly are naive."

"What?" Harry asked with exasperation.

"Ms. Lovegood and yourself are quite slow in piecing the puzzle together. Your werewolf friend is a goner. I believe the session is over. Get out of my room."

Harry opened his mouth to comment, but stopped when Snape pointed a boney finger towards the door. Snape would say no more.

"It is quite obvious. I cannot believe we did not see it before." Luna sat on her usual red pouffe in the Room of Requirement, Harry across from her.

"Yea, well...we still don't know where he is."

"Perhaps you can talk Snape into giving your more information." She said, playing with her butterbeercap necklace

"Luna," Harry lifted his gaze from the fire, "I think he's done clueing us in. Frankly, I'm still confused."

"At?" Luna asked.

"At why he's doing us. Maybe it's another trap. Voldemort set one up for me last year, why wouldn't Snape do the same to me this year?"

"But he is part of the search party tracking Remus down, is he not?" Luna stopped fidgeting with her necklace and looked at Harry with questioning blue eyes.

"Yea, but-"

"...and there is also the lemon drop to take into consideration."

"Luna, you don't know Snape like I do. He's a miserable, greasy git who holds a grudge against me because of my father. My dead father, Luna."

"That does not indicate he is after your blood."

This comment set Harry into thought. "No....I suppose not," he said. "But he has something against Wormtail. Do you think that has something to do with Remus's disappearance?"

"I am sure of it." Luna replied.

"That still doesn't help us find him." Harry said glumly.

"No," said Luna, "but it does not mean we should stop trying." Luna pulled a small, beat up book from the inside pocket of her robes and threw it at Harry. "Especially after I found this wedged between the pages of The Ancestry of the Snorkack in the library."

Harry picked up the leather-bound book and his eyes widened.

Tracking the Wolf: A Hunter's Guide by: Adamson Quisby

"Luna," Harry said in awe. "You are a complete genius!" He threw himself at Luna, still clutching the book in one hand. Luna fell backwards and blushed. "No, I would not want to overthrow Hermione's position."

Werewolves have been the target of hunters since the Middle Ages. Catching a man in his wolf form was a form of heroism for knights. They would be awarded by the king with large sums of money, pieces of the king's crops, and sometimes even a young maiden's hand in marriage. The wolf then would be taken to the potions lab of the castle, where the alchemist would extract the wolf's saliva for testing purposes, as well as for rare potion ingredients. Many times the man, after transforming back from his wolf form, would be kept locked away in the castle dungeons. Treatment of the man would be similar to a prisoner or criminal. Abuse was common and killed many werewolves. Thus, creating the need to capture more.

Tears ran down Harry's face as he struggled to read the book Luna had found. He cringed at the grotesquely detailed illustrations that had accompanied the text. He was very aware of the prejudice Remus faced because of his lycanthropy. But he had no idea how far back the mistreatment of werewolves went, nor the harshness of it.

In 1912, an American missionary, Louis Croft, attempted to set a bill that would ban hunting of werewolves after his brother was captured and killed. It was not until after two months past his death in 1917 that the ban was passed. The following year England, Scotland, Portugal, Spain, and France passed the law against the mistreatment of werewolves. Countries such as Romania, Hungary, Mexico, and Peru still widely practice werewolf hunting legally.

Harry took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and set them back on the bridge of his nose. He flipped through the book, unable to read the rest of the historical section in detail. The last few chapters discussed the illegal spells used to locate werewolves using the phases of the moon. He knew instantly he and Luna had found a solution.

According to the April Calendar, the full moon would be on Sunday. This meant Harry had precisely one week to perform the least complex spell in the book, which was under the Waxing Gibbous phase. To be exact, his time was even more limited considering he had no idea how to get to Remus, or how far he would have to travel before Remus turned into a wolf.

" 'Lo Harry."

Harry quickly shut the book and shoved it under his pillow as Ron came in. He was dressed in his Quidditch uniform, and wore a sour expression on his face. Harry felt a pang of anger at his friend even though he was well-aware Ron had nothing to do with his ban.

"What's up?" Harry asked.

"We're horrible." Ron let his broom drop next to his bed as he let himself fall back first onto his bed. "Might as well admit it. Ravenclaw is going to cream us."

"At least then you won't have to face Slytherin next month..." Harry said, trying to sound positive. As much as he detested Ron being able to play and not himself, he would never want Slytherin to gain victory over Gryffindor.

Ron pulled his bed hangings shut around him and did not come out for a long time.