Making Amends with Greyback
Hermione makes a second run at peace with Greyback. The story of Alex and Scabior is heard. Greyback has more demands. An advance is made. Pups are injured. Decisions are made. Greyback tells her his last two demands.
After he left the kitchen, Hermione stayed there a while longer. She knew she had to go find him. Then she'd need to start the whole process over again. She left and went to the small living room. He wasn't there. She stopped by his room and even peered into his bathroom. He wasn't there either. 'Surely he hadn't found his way out of the helicarrier!' she ran to the workout room, thinking he might be trying to kill another punching bag. Nope, he wasn't there. Hermione stopped, looking round. Then she looked up. 'Surely not! Would he seriously have gone back to the cell on his own?'
She crossed the walkway and climbed the stairs. As she stood in the door, there he was. Laying on the cot as if he'd never left. The only difference was his clothes. "Greyback?" he looked at her but didn't answer. She sighed and entered the cell. "Ok. I'll admit it. I'm still very much afraid of you." She crossed over to him. "but it doesn't have to be like that."
He didn't move. He just eyed her warily. Hermione began pacing in front of him. "Look, I can't work this situation by myself. I'm trying but you have to help me! At least let me know if I'm making any kind of difference with you! I know snatching you away from your boys was wrong! I know that I probably should have left the past well enough alone but I didn't, all right?"
Greyback sat up slowly. As she walked in front of him again, he pulled her down into his lap. "Why do I get the feeling this little mission of yours is going to be harder on you than me?"
"Because I'm the one who is changing everything. And, Merlin help me, if I fail again, I might not survive the pain this time! It almost killed me the first time, losing everyone! I can't fail again, Greyback, I just can't!" Hermione gripped his shoulders tightly as she tried to make him understand.
Greyback watched her face closely. He could see that she was dead serious about what she was saying. 'She really thought she had failed, that the events the first time around were actually her fault!' This wasn't just a silly whim she'd decided on. This was an attempt to keep those she loved the most with her, alive and breathing. And obviously she'd decided that he and his boys were the best way to ensure that, even if they personally hadn't been her first choice!
"It wasn't your fault, you know. He was just too powerful." Greyback told her. He'd been thinking more and more about the strange dreams he'd been having. Slowly he was coming to realize those were actually the memories of what had happened the first time around, just as she'd said.
"No, he wasn't. He was weakened by the loss of his Horcruxes! He should have been easily defeated! I missed something the first time, I know I did!" Hermione shook her head in denial of what he was trying to tell her.
He gripped her hair and held her still as he looked her right in the eyes. "Yes. You did miss something the first time around. Me and the wolf packs! That's what you missed, sweetie! Me! And the other wolves! Like you said, we were the best tactic he had and, darling, he put us to very effective use there!"
"And then he betrayed you, went against what he'd promised you!" Hermione whispered as she gripped his forearms. 'She had to make her point here! She could almost feel it! This was the turning point! If she was going to get Greyback onto their side, wholeheartedly onto their side, it HAD to be NOW! While he, himself, was acknowledging how much of a difference he'd made in the battle!'
Greyback stared at her silently. He hadn't thought about it like that. "I suppose he did, didn't he? But that still doesn't mean your side will do any better, does it?"
"What do you want, honestly? Tell me. What is the one thing we could give you that you would trust?" Hermione asked.
"There are two more things I want, Granger, but I'm not ready to tell you yet. Let's see how much progress you make on those other demands of mine first. If you think, for one minute, Moody is going to agree, you're crazy!" he told her.
"Moody isn't the one I'm sending the demands through. Kingsley Shacklebolt is my go to contact with the Ministry. Even I'm not crazy enough to trust Moody." She smiled tentatively at him. "Listen. Kingsley is fair. If anyone can get your demands heard and acted on, it'll be Kingsley. I trust him. I don't especially trust Moody myself."
"If you didn't trust him, why is he one of the ones you brought back?" he was curious to hear her reasoning.
"I don't trust him with anything, except keeping Harry alive. He's just paranoid enough that he's the perfect guard for Harry. He can teach him to fight and that is more than Dumbledore did." Hermione leaned against him as she answered.
They sat like that for a while before she stood up. "Come on. I want to show you another room." She took his hand and led him out of the cell. They went down the steps and across the walkway. She led him past the kitchen to what could only be called a game room. There were arcade games, bookshelves, a pool table and a large table with high sides, perfect for putting puzzles together. Greyback walked around looking at everything. His boys, especially his Beta and Gamma, would go nuts over this room! He looked at Hermione who was already inspecting the bookshelves with interest. He came to check it out himself. They each chose a book and sat down on a cozy couch beside the bookcase.
Hermione wondered how long it would be before she could bring up his two newest demands. He didn't seem inclined to tell her but it must be important enough to him for him to even bother mentioning it. She hoped she wasn't lying about Shacklebolt's ability to get his first demands heard and taken care of. Instead of possibly irritating him by keeping on about them, she decided to ask about something he might not mind discussing.
"So, your Beta and Gamma. You seem pretty fond of them. I remember seeing you during the battle, holding Alex back. Why were you keeping him out of the fight?" she'd long been curious about this point.
"One-because he and Scabior are a team and I was expecting to see Scabior at any moment. You even noticed that, girly, remember? Two-Alex is a dark horse. I'd specifically told him not to use lethal force on anyone, in case I was captured. I'd need him to be able to walk free. He would become the new Alpha with Scabior as his Beta. He might have listened. Then again, he sometimes has a tendency to fire first, then think about it later. That's why he and Scabior are a team. If he's fighting alone, he tends to forget orders. If he's guarding Scabior's back, he remembers what I tell him to do." He smiled, thinking of his young pups.
Hermione smiled as she listened to him talking. "When did they become wolves, if you don't mind me asking?"
"I only recently turned Alex because I haven't had them with me all that long. They both came from abusive homes, Granger. That's usually where I find most of my pups. If I see a child being abused, I keep an eye on that child. The first chance I get, I grab the child and take him out of there. I don't grab the girl children but I do make sure the authorities are alerted to their plight." Hermione had cocked her head to look at him.
"You don't take the females, only the males? Why?" she asked.
"Males are sturdier, better able to handle the bite, the transformations. Not that the girls can't. I know a werewolf who only bites the females. But I tend to grab the boys because my boys usually end up in a fight somewhere. There are some very good female werewolf warriors out there. I've been put on my arse more times than I can count for having underestimated the strength of one, I can honestly tell you that!" he laughed. "But I tend to get attached to my wolves and girls are independent. They want to go out and explore. Find a group and start their own pack, you know? Boys tend to stick close until they're kicked out. At least my boys do."
"Both of them, Alex and Scabior, have been in Azkaban. They had nowhere to go, no home, no family waiting for them, nothing. They're both only children and they both killed their fathers. They were lost. The Snatchers had only been formed a few weeks. They were among the young men who stayed around the Manor. I noticed them after the Dark Lord put me into their group. They both showed leadership skills but Scabior is more diplomatic. Alex wouldn't mind being Alpha, Scabior would hate it. That's why I needed Alex to keep a clear head at the battle. They both started following me and the other wolves around. Turns out they were both looking for a father figure and guess who they decided would be the perfect father?" Greyback spread his hands. "And that, missy, is the story of Scabior and Alex. I bit Alex first and you lot caught me before I was able to bite Scabior. Alex has only been a wolf for the past month. But he has already proven himself to be an excellent Gamma. Now we only need Scabior turned and our pack will be complete. Until I find more new members." He shrugged.
"Do you have a minimum age limit? You know, this one is too young, that one is too old?" Hermione asked him, trying to keep him talking. It was the most insight she'd ever had into the werewolf culture. Remus didn't like discussing it and Hermione didn't want to push him about the subject.
"I tend to bite children no younger than four or five. I take them home and the mated females raise them. The younger they are, the better they adjust. Normally, I wouldn't bite young men the age of Alex and Scabior but they are exceptions to my rule. They are ready for the lifestyle and they have nobody to rail at them for choosing the bite." He pulled her close, bored with talking. Or at least talking about his pack, realizing sooner or later she was going to try and maneuver him into naming his last two demands before he was ready to.
Hermione seemed to figure out that he had caught onto her trick. She grinned sheepishly as she saw that she wouldn't get any more out of him. "Have you ever played pool?"
"No, I haven't." he replied. He watched her curiously as she hopped up and went to the pool table. She handed him a stick and racked up the balls. She explained how they decided who had which numbers and the rules of the eight ball. Then she took her own stick and showed him how to line up a shot. Before long, they were laughing as he tried to block her shots and she did the same.
They were oblivious to the camera that clicked on behind them. This time, it was Hawkeye and Black Widow with Nick Fury, checking in on them. As they watched the two playfully tussle with the pool sticks, Natasha noted that Hermione had followed her advice and worn a crop top. She watched the wolf closely. He didn't seem to even notice how skimpy Hermione's top was. 'So he must not be a breast man,' she thought. 'Tomorrow then, Hermione would probably try the shorts and if that didn't work, the wizards possibly might have grabbed someone with the wrong sexual orientation for Hermione to work her magic on'.
They only watched them for a few minutes. Long enough to see that Greyback was willing to get along with her, anyway. They hoped it was a good sign of his possible cooperation. After the camera clicked back off, Natasha missed seeing that Greyback was, indeed, a breast man as he grabbed Hermione, laid her on the table in front of him and began nuzzling the very same breasts he'd seemed to ignore!
It happened so quickly that Hermione was grasping his hair, throwing her head back and screaming in pleasure before she even realized what was happening. One minute they were wrestling beside the table, the next minute she was literally on the table. He had her shirt shoved up and bra opened and 'she was going out of her ever-loving mind, dear gods, his tongue!'
Suddenly, from behind them, they heard a voice. 'Alpha, alpha!" it was Alex and he sounded panicked. Greyback jerked away from her and Hermione rolled off the table, straightening her clothes. It was the screen on the wall behind them. They could hear Alex but couldn't see him. 'Thankfully,' thought Hermione, 'he couldn't see them, either.'
"Phoenix Headquarters!" she yelled. Running toward the wall, they were both horrified by the sight in front of them. Alex had a split lip and a black eye but Scabior was covered in blood!
'Alex! What happened to him?" Greyback demanded to know.
"Death Eaters! Bellatrix! Dolohov! McNair! Others! Not Rowle, though! He wasn't there! Dark! Dark Lord tried to, tried to get him to take the, the Dark Mark!" Alex gasped, out of breath from both fighting their way out of the Manor and toting Scabior at the same time. Scabior was unable to do more than cry out in pain with every breath. Once he caught his breath, Alex told them more. "Bellatrix used her knife on him! The rest were using slicing spells and Crucio on him! They called him in and sealed the door. I had to bust my way in to get him! They didn't like how I did it, either! I cast Fiendfyre at their arses! They were scattering to all four corners of the room when I grabbed him and ran!"
By this time, Harry, Ron and Kingsley had run into the room. They quickly made their way to the wounded Snatcher. "Harry, the cabinet! Get the Dittany and two healing potions!" Hermione directed him. Harry ran over, unlocked the cabinet and grabbed the right potions. Then he flew back to Scabior's side. He opened the first pain potion and jerked back in surprise as Alex snatched Scabior away from him and growled protectively, his fangs extending.
"Alex! Alex, calm down. Calm down, boy, danger is over, Alex, it's over. They're just trying to help. Let them help, Alex, come on, let them help." Greyback's soft tone was almost a croon by the time he stopped speaking but it worked like a charm. Alex retracted his fangs and let them give Scabior the pain potions and heal the worst of his injuries with the Dittany.
"Scabior can't go back to the Manor! Neither he nor Alex! They'll kill them next time!" Hermione was pacing wildly as she tried to plot out a new course of action for the wolves.
"Granger, he can't go to the hunting grounds with Alex. The full moon is in three nights. He's still human. They'll shred him, even Alex will." He stared at her. Hermione closed her eyes and thought.
"He'll stay at Grimmauld Place until after the full moon. Then Alex can join him there. Kingsley will keep them safe. I know there's bad blood between you and Moody, I can hear it in your voice every time you mention him. But Kingsley will keep them safe. Scabior can't be moved, not much anyway, or his wounds will reopen and he'll bleed out!" she willed him to agree. He looked at her, then Scabior, then back at her.
"If ANYTHING happens to my pups, Granger-!" he didn't bother to finish the sentence but he didn't have to. She knew what he meant. If either Alex or Scabior were injured further or killed, the very tentative truce they almost had going would be off!
She watched him grit his teeth, unable to help his pup. Scabior leaned against the wall. His Alpha might not be there in person but he could see him. At that moment, Greyback locked eyes with her and seemed to make a split second decision. "Granger! The last two things I want are quite simple. There are two more people I want to add to my pack." He waited until all everyone, even Scabior, was looking at him. Then he smiled at her. "The people I want are Thorfinn Rowle and,,, YOU!"