I own nothing but the plot.
The next several weeks were very difficult for Ron. Thanks to the Daily Prophet, his status as a newly bitten Werewolf became known very quickly. Percy was quick to stop any bullying he saw, but even as Head Boy, he couldn't stop all of it.
Fortunately, the Weasley family was well-liked by most in the Wizarding community, so the disdain shown to most Werewolves was more subdued than it otherwise might have been. The general feeling of the public was that if it could happen to a Weasley, then it could happen to anyone. The attack occurring at Hogwarts meant that almost every student was being sent home for Christmas. The Weasley family, however, would be staying. Only Bill and Charlie would be absent, both of them working abroad. Mr and Mrs Weasley joined their children at Hogwarts the same day the rest of the students left the school for the break. They arrived at breakfast with a bundle of squashy packages which included hand-knitted sweaters for Harry, Hermione, Neville, Daphne, Tracy, and Lisa. They were in their house colours and had a wolf head embroidered on the front.
"It's to commemorate that day on the train when you all faced a Werewolf," Mrs Weasley said. "I hope that's ok. I was so proud of you all." She then burst into tears and hugged Ron.
After reassuring Mrs Weasley that they liked the sweaters, they all had breakfast before leaving for Hogsmeade Station.
"One hundred eighty-nine," Professor Flitwick said. He was sitting in the Headmaster's office opposite Headmaster Dumbledore. The students had left the castle for the Christmas holiday, and Dumbledore and Flitwick were going to use the break to try and focus on the Horcrux problem. The tiny Charms Professor was slumped in his chair with his head tilted back towards the ceiling, tossing a small metal ball in the air and catching it as he thought.
"I never dreamed it could be so many," Dumbledore sighed. "I had thought perhaps six or seven at most."
"What is the magical significance of one hundred eighty-nine?" Flitwick asked.
"It's not a prime number," Dumbledore said, "nor is it significant in any magical ritual of which I am aware."
"Could they possibly be the Dark Marks?" Flitwick asked.
"No," Dumbledore answered. "I do not believe so. I studied the mark on Severus as closely as I could. While it emanated dark magic, I would have noticed if it were a Horcrux. The mark was merely a modified Protean charm on a magical tattoo."
"How many followers did Riddle have?" Flitwick asked.
"Thousands believed in his ideals and supported him in some way," Dumbledore said. "But if you mean how many marked followers he had, then a few dozen at most. It would have been far too easy to spot his followers if we could have just checked all their arms for Dark Marks. He reserved that for his inner circle. For those, he didn't care if we knew they were his."
"Have you had any luck in your research?" Flitwick asked.
"Somewhat," Dumbledore answered. "I've acquired a new memory."
"Oh?" Flitwick perked up. "From whom?"
"Bob Ogden," Dumbledore answered. "It provides a most intriguing perspective on Tom Riddle's mother."
The Hogwart's Express steamed past snow-covered villages and towns that looked like Christmas cards.
"So," Lisa said, wearing her blue Weasley sweater, "what are your plans for Christmas?" She was sitting together with Harry, Hermione, Neville and Daphnein in a compartment. Lisa looked very dejected. "Ron and his family are staying at Hogwarts due to the upcoming full moon. I wanted to stay there with him, but my parents wouldn't have it."
"Just Christmas with family," Hermione said. "I'm hoping for a full moon without a Werewolf attack."
"Tell me about it," Lisa said. "I'm still having nightmares about it. How about you, Harry? What do you do for Christmas?"
"I'll be staying with Hermione and her parents," Harry said. He had Hedwig out of her travel cage and was stroking her feathers. "Master Toma is still on assignment, so the Grangers insisted I stay with them."
"My parents are taking me to visit my Aunt Victoria in France," Daphne said. "I haven't seen her since I was six."
"Just staying home," Tracey said. "I'm looking forward to the break."
"Same here," Neville agreed. "Well, to the staying home part, at least. My Uncle Algie will be visiting, and we never really got along. He's the one who kept trying to scare magic out of me when he thought I was a Squib."
"That's horrible," Hermione said. "It's not true anyway, you're a very good wizard."
"Trust me," Neville frowned, "Uncle Algie will take full credit for it."
Harry and Hermione sat in the Granger living room with her parents, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Shooter and Doc were in the other room. This was the first time Harry and Hermione had met Peter properly, and the first time Dan and Emma had met him at all. Dobby walked around on his droid legs, refreshing drinks and delivering snacks, much to Hermione's disapproval. She was still working on trying to get him just to sit and not work.
"I'm still unclear on what went wrong," Dan said. "I understand how the Fidelius was supposed to work, but why the switcheroo?"
"Essentially," Sirius explained, "we all betrayed each other. We were so close we were like brothers, but we failed to trust each other when it really counted."
"How so?" Dan asked.
"James and I didn't trust Remus," Sirius said, tears forming in his eyes, "because he is a Werewolf. You must understand that most Werewolves, even when it's not the full moon, tend to be on the outside of society. Most of them are criminals, and nearly all of them go feral. They get twisted by how society treats them. Remus is probably the safest Werewolf in the world, but even then, we didn't trust him. We knew there was a mole in the Order of the Phoenix, and we believed it was him."
"Why did you think that?" Dan asked. "Was it just the Werewolf thing?"
"It was... implied," Sirius said haltingly. "By Mad-Eye Moody, mostly."
"Mad-Eye Moody?" Emma asked dubiously. "that's really his name?"
"No," Remus answered with a chuckle. "His name is Alastor Moody. He was an Auror. Sort of like a combination of a police officer and an army soldier. Alastor was one of the best and saw the most action. Unfortunately, this caused him to suffer great damage over the years. He earned the nickname Mad-Eye due to a magical false eye he wears. It is pretty disconcerting to see it whirling around in every direction. Hence the nickname."
"All that action also caused him to be ultra-paranoid," Sirius explained. "He never trusted Remus, and I'm afraid I let his suspicions colour my judgement."
"Meanwhile," Remus said, "I was out of the loop entirely. Dumbledore had sent me to try and infiltrate the packs."
"Packs?" Emma asked.
"Werewolf packs," Remus answered. "Since Wizarding society rejects us, most Werewolves try to form our own community. They're called the packs. They are not civilised, though, and are ruled by the strongest. Being cut off and having most of the information I could bring in be considered worthless or disregarded, I began to distrust the Order. It caused me to keep my distance, increasing the distrust between my friends and me."
"At the same time, James and I didn't really trust Dumbledore," Sirius said.
"What?" Peter exclaimed. "I never knew that. James was always going on about how powerful Dumbledore is."
"Dumbledore is extremely powerful," Sirius agreed, "but we were starting to feel he was playing his cards too close to his vest. We understood that there was a security leak, but people were starting to die because they didn't have enough information. Information that could have kept them alive. Information that Dumbledore had and that he'd elected to keep to himself. So, when Dumbledore came along with his grand plan to hide Lily, James, and Harry under a Fidelius Charm, we decided that while we'd go along with it, we'd do it with our own twist."
"That's where we messed it up," Peter said. "We didn't tell anyone."
"It's ironic, and not in a funny way," Sirius said sadly. "We switched Secret Keepers because we didn't like how Dumbledore keeping his secrets was getting people killed, and it was our keeping a secret that got James and Lily killed."
"Now it all seems to be starting again," Peter said. "There were a lot of Werewolf attacks the last time, too."
"It's getting scary," Hermione said. "Every month, there's another attack, and now Ron has been bitten. I just wish there was something we could do to protect ourselves more."
"Remus, Peter and I have discussed this," Sirius said, "and after hearing about all the adventures you lot have gotten into at Hogwarts, we've agreed you should have every advantage. You are both aware, of course, that Werewolves are only dangerous to humans, yes?"
"Yes," Harry answered. "They generally only attack animals in defence or if they're hunting for food."
"That's right," Sirius said. "More importantly, they can only transmit Lychanthropy to other humans. Animagi in their animal form do not count."
"But we're not Animagi," Harry pointed out.
Sirius brought out a dog-eared notebook and flipped through it, stopping at a page halfway through. He looked up at the teenagers and smiled. "Would you like to learn how to do it?"
"We've looked into it," Hermione said. "It's complicated and difficult to master. Typically, it takes even the most powerful wizards and witches two full years to complete, or even longer! I looked up the steps earlier this year, but Professor McGonagall said we weren't allowed to do it without supervision."
"Do you remember the steps you found?" Sirius asked. Hermione reached into her bag and took out the notebook Harry had given her back in first year. She used the attached quill to cause the relevant page to show the text she wished.
"From one full moon to the next," Hermione read, "you hold a Mandrake leaf in your mouth. It must not be swallowed or taken out of your mouth during that month. If it is, you must start over with a new leaf on the next full moon or give up. Removing the leaf for even an instant and continuing would be catastrophic, so you can't simply put it back in your mouth and pretend it didn't happen."
"Go on," Sirius prompted.
"Sometime during this month," Hermione continued, "you use a silver teaspoon to collect dew that neither sunlight nor human feet have touched for seven days. You store this dew in a small crystal phial. Once the month is complete, you must remove the leaf from your mouth when the full moon rises. If it's cloudy, you have to start over. You place the leaf in the crystal phial with at least one teaspoon of the dew. Expose the phial to the moon's pure rays."
"Moondew," Sirius said, nodding his agreement.
"After exposing the potion to moonlight," Hermione recited, "you add one strand of your hair and the chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawk Moth. The hair binds the potion to you, and the moth symbolises the change you are attempting. You then place the mixture in a quiet, dark place. You can't disturb it until the next electrical storm. That is to say, any natural storm that causes lightning. This is also where luck is a factor. At sunrise and sunset every day until the next electrical storm, you place the tip of your wand over your heart and speak the incantation 'Amato Animo, Animato, Animagus.' The wait for the storm could take weeks, months, or perhaps even years. Failure to perform the incantation even once will require you to begin the entire process over again."
"Amazing," Sirius praised.
"Thank you," Hermione said with a proud smile.
"Almost everything you just said was wrong," Sirius said.
"Wrong?" Hermione asked, her face falling into dismay.
"You can actually do it in two weeks," Sirius said, holding up the notebook.
"No, you can't!" Hermione protested. "It would have to take a full month at the very least, and only then if you were incredibly lucky."
"Well, sure," Sirius answered, "if you do it the long, boring way. I am proposing you do it the awesome, Marauder way instead."
"But the instructions say you have to have the leaf in your mouth from full moon to full moon," Hermione insisted.
"The instructions are wrong," Lupin said.
"Well," Sirius corrected, "they're not actually wrong. It's just not the only way."
"It's only vital to put the leaf the leaf in your mouth long enough for it to absorb enough of your cells before you put it in the Moondew," Remus said. "Keeping it in your mouth for an entire lunar cycle is overkill. Two weeks is more than sufficient."
"Our research indicates that one week would probably work," Sirius said, indicating the notebook again, "but two weeks would be safest."
"What about getting the Moondew?" Hermione asked.
"Bought it from an apothecary," Sirius answered. He reached into his pocket and brought out a filled glass bottle. It was about the size of a coke bottle but was stopped with a cork. The clear liquid it contained appeared to glow with a silvery light.
"But you still have to wait for an electrical storm," Hermione protested. Peter was smiling with Remus over how adamant she was at sticking to the official instructions.
"Or," Sirius said, waving the notebook at her again, "you just take a vacation somewhere with a guaranteed electrical storm."
"Where can you guarantee that?" Emma asked.
"Venezuela," Sirius, Remus, and Peter said in unison.
"Lake Maracaibo!" Hermione gasped.
"And she gets the biscuit," Sirius said, smiling at her. He reached back into his pocket, retrieved a small, brown item, and tossed it to her.
"You don't expect me to eat this, do you?" Hermione asked, holding up a dog biscuit.
"What is this lake?" Harry asked. Lupin opened his mouth to answer but was not fast enough to beat Hermione.
"It's in the Guinness Book of World Records," she explained. "It has the most lightning storms of any other place on Earth."
"Between one hundred twenty to one hundred sixty nights a year," Sirius added, consulting his notebook. "So, after you have your potion ready, you just take a week's vacation to Lake Maracaibo, and you're almost guaranteed a lighting storm within three days."
"Why does my book say it takes two years?" Hermione asked, clearly disappointed that her source of information was inferior.
"Well," Sirius explained, "this is something we Marauders worked out. We haven't published it or anything."
"It was because of me," Peter said softly. Sirius and Remus looked at each other, clearly uncomfortable.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"We've told you about how your father, Sirius, Peter and I were friends at Hogwarts," Remus explained.
"Sirius explained about the Mauraders," Harry said, "yes."
"Well," Remus said, "your father, Sirius, and Peter all became Animagi while at school. They did it for me. They were able to keep me company during the full moon. You have to understand this was before the Wolfsbane potion. That's been a recent discovery. Before that potion, I would lose myself to the wolf every full moon. Having my friends keep me company had the effect of calming me down. It was a difficult feat for all of them, but especially for Peter."
"James and I went through the steps just as you listed, Hermione," Sirius explained. "It took us a little over a year to complete it."
"It took me a lot longer," Peter said, grimacing at the memory. "At first, it was keeping that leaf in my mouth. It tastes terrible. I could power through it during the day, but I'd wake up with it on my pillow. James finally got the good idea to use a sticking charm on it, and I finally got through it. The real problem was waiting for a lightning storm."
"He kept oversleeping and missing a day while waiting for the lightning storm," Remus said. "After two years of trying, we developed this shortened method to help him."
"It would be a waste of all that effort for Peter to be the only one to benefit from it," Sirius said, "so we're going to offer it to you two."
"I think we should have Neville do this, also," Harry said thoughtfully.
"And Daphne," Hermione added. "It wouldn't be right to include Neville and not her."
"We can ask," Harry said, "but she's going to France with her family."
"What about Lisa?" Hermione asked. "She'd probably like the chance to be with Ron and keep him company during his... furry time of the month."
"I think it should just be Neville and us for now," Harry said. "I doubt Lisa's parents would let her go on such short notice. If this works as advertised, we can guide the others through it this summer."
"All right, then," Sirius said, rubbing his hands together. "Fortune being that very nice lady who loves me so much, it just so happens that the full moon is two weeks from today, so let's get started."
"Fortune loves you?" Remus asked. "Have you forgotten Azkaban?"
"The exception that proves the rule," Sirius said, waving off Remus's incredulity with one hand.
