"And you're sure that you'll be alright?" asked Meredith once again. She knew that she was being worrisome, but still.
"It's fine. We're going to watch a movie. It's time for you two to have a girl's night out. Go. Have fun," said Tom, give her a little peck before shooing her towards Felicity, who was shifting her weight from one foot to the other and biting her lower lip.
"Right then, we're off! Bye girls!" said Meredith, waving at Rosalina and Hermione one last time before turning on the flames in their fireplace and casting the floo powder into them.
"The Werewolf's Howl!" she said as once she'd stepped in and she felt herself be whisked away from their home and into the ethereum. She'd travelled via ride-along apparition with Felicity a few times but no matter how pleasant Felicity was to hold, apparition always made Meredith feel sick.
The Werewolf's Howl was a wizarding nightclub located in Knockturn Alley. Owned by closest thing the wizarding world had ever had to a necromancer and staffed by a pair particularly well preserved inferi he crafted for reasons known only to himself, it was quite the place to be if a witch or wizard wanted to go out and go wild.
At least, that's what all the rumors said.
"Meredith, darling! You've come!" said Ashton Plotz, stepping out into the street to greet her, arms wide and a grin on his face. Ashton Plotz was, overall, a well-intentioned if forgetful wizard with a knack for magic that might generously be called 'uncouth' ("I don't do Dark magic, just Mildly Unsettling magic. Dark magic requires a depth of malevolence that I do not possess.").
"Of course I'm here! I love your special nights, you never fail to disappoint!" said Meredith, stepping up and giving him a little hug.
James, a tall, pale, and looming figure, stood by the door and, seeing that Ashton had greeted her, simply nodded as she passed, which she returned. Felicity was already inside when she'd walked up to the bar. From the look of things, she's started heavy and had not let up yet.
"Meredith, it is always a pleasure to see you. Tonight is a special night. You should be in for some fun," said Sara as she turned from Felicity to her, already whipping up a drink for her.
Sara and James were indeed inferi, but other than the fact that they were dead, they were quite friendly and pleasant to be around so long as you weren't a complete ass.
Like whoever the man in the center of the dance floor was being right now.
"I challenge any werewolf here to face me down, and I'll show you what an alpha is!" said the loud, boisterous man. He looked like a homeless man, but not the 'spare some change please' kind. No, he looked like he'd shank you for fun and leave you to die in an alley because you looked at him wrong.
"Who's the asshole," said Meredith as she took her drink from Sara.
"Oh, he's," she began, but in an instant the man was in front of her, teeth bared. He was much hairier up close than she'd thought he'd be.
"The Asshole is the chiefmost werewolf in all Britain. Wizards fear my name and shrink from my presence. The Aurors do not dare come close to me. I am …"
"Accosting another patron, Fenrir, and I've given you one warning already. Consider this warning number two. Do you want to go for three? Cause you know what that means, don't you?" said Sara, crossing her arms.
"Yes. I was coming to pay my tab and," and Fenrir sniffed me a couple of times as he slammed a few coins down on the bar, then grinned, "Greet the muggle. Hello, muggle."
"Goodbye, Fenrir," said Sara, ice in her voice.
The conversation around Meredith died away a little once he left and the folks around her scooted away a bit. Felicity looking rattled.
"Sara, I love coming down here but Fenrir Greyback is a menace. I don't know why you keep letting him come," said Felicity as she sidled closer to Meredith.
"It is Ashton's rule, not mine. Three strikes. He has had two as of tonight. So long as he does not earn a third strike, he shall be permitted to enter the premises," said Sara in a way that suggested that had it been up to her alone, this would not be the case.
"And the fact that he comes is half the reason why everyone else comes," said a voice next to Meredith.
Meredith turned and there next to her was a woman whose fashion sense almost mirrored her own. Wearing a red and black dress, fishnets, and black combat boots, she couldn't help but stare in wonder.
"You have excellent taste," said Meredith, grinning. She was wearing a skirt, fishnets, combat boots and one of her old band shirts.
"You as well," said the woman, grinning in turn.
"Ah, you've met!" said Ashton, appearing next to them. "Meredith, I'd like for you to meet Sara U. She works at a muggle university in," and he trailed off and looked at Sara U, biting his upper lip as he did so.
"Durham. I'm the assistant professor of logic and philosophy of language," said Sara, rolling her eyes a bit.
"She's the one who helped me put this whole thing together. Tonight, I mean. Werewolf night. Well, Therenthrope night, there's more than just werewolves here," said Ashton with a glance around the club.
"Therenthrope?" said Meredith, glancing at Sara U.
"A more technical term for people who turn into animals, although werebeast is catching on in the community. Taking back the word from the establishment," said Sara U.
"Werebeast and proud!" said a man standing nearby, and there was a general chorus of cheers on the dance floor.
Meredith smiled at Sara U but caught that Felicity seemed more skittish than not. Normally Felicity was one of the first ones to finish a drink and head to the dance floor, but tonight she seemed content to stay near Sara the bartender.
"I take it that you're a muggle?" said Sara U after a moment, sipping slowly from her own drink.
"What gave it away?" I asked, rubbing a hand on Felicity's back. She leaned into it and sighed.
"You weren't terrified when Fenrir came up to you, mostly. He tends to be a bit much for most wizarding folks, werebeasts included," said Sara U, scowling as she spoke.
"You don't seem afraid of him," said Meredith, part statement and part question.
"That's because I know how to deal with him," said Sara U, taking a deep drink of beer and not going into more detail than that.
They just stood there for a bit, drinking and idly passing the time.
"So, is your last name U or is U short for something?" asked Meredith when the music died down a bit. She would normally have gone to the dance floor by now as well, but with Felicity acting as timid as she was, she didn't want to leave her be. Besides, she felt a sort of kingship with Sara U that she couldn't quite explain.
"It's Uckelman, but since that Sara was here before I was, everyone just started calling me Sara U to tell us apart," said Sara U, shrugging. "It's not bad, as nicknames go."
"Right on.' Meredith bit her lip, then asked the question on the tip of her mind. "I take it you're a werebeast as well, then?"
Felicity nearly choked on her drink. "Meredith, you can't just ask someone if they're a therenthrope!" she said after she'd stopped coughing.
Sara, however, just laughed.
"It's a valid question considering the circumstances. And yes, I'm a werebeast. A werewolf in particular, although there are more than werewolves here tonight. Jones, by the music box, is one of the few werebears left in Britain while Thomas and Andy over there are werefoxes," said Sara, pointing out various people in the crowd, each of whom waved when pointed at.
Meredith couldn't help but batter Sara with questions, each one of which Sara felt more than happy to answer as the night went on.
("Yes we call groups packs, but it's much more familial than not")
("The only alphas that exist are either sad loners or brutes like Fenrir")
And so on and so forth. The last one was the really unsettling one, which she'd asked of Felicity rather than Sara.
"Why are you acting so odd? It's like you expect something to jump out and bite you?" asked Meredith. Felicity, seemed to be just as nervous now as she had been when she'd started drinking, perhaps even more so.
"Well, it's just, you know, there's more, umm, well," and on like that she went, not able to really string together a sentence as she avoided looking at both Sara U and Merdith, instead focusing intently on her drink.
"It is because the room is full of werebeasts, and she fears them, as do many witches and wizards," said Sara from behind the bar, cleaning a glass with a rag.
Meredith was horrified, but Sara U seemed unperturbed.
"We turn into monsters a few nights a month and a bite from us infects you. And not many of us can hold down real jobs, so we're even more outsiders," said Sara U, speaking as if she was simply saying how trees grew or why the sky was blue. Felicity at least had the decency to look ashamed over herself.
"Sorry," she muttered, still not looking at them.
"Nothing to be sorry about. It's not the first time a witch has been scared of me for existing," said Sara U before taking a deep drink of beer.
"I wish there was something I could do to help," said Meredith, looking out at the crowd. None of them seemed particularly unsettled or deranged. Just happy to have fun.
"Come out to werebeast night again, that's all I can suggest. Break the taboos," said Sara U. She perked up a bit, then smiled. "This is my song! I gotta go dance. It was lovely speaking with you, Meredith, we should chat again."
And just like that she'd vanished back out into the crowd, leaving Meredith curious and Felicity still muttering apologies into her drink.