Chapter 24 A Werewolf in the Wizengamot
The day of the 27th arrived and Harry was a bundle of nerves. he'd met Sebastian Abbot and got on very well with the man, but had his doubts about us being able to convince the old farts in the Wizengamot of the points we were attempting, but he was willing to go through with it for the sake of Teddy.
I was hopeful that this meeting of the Wizengamot could right two wrongs, allow Teddy to assume his rightful title as Lord Black and undo the medieval laws that had been penned during the previous administrations, proclaiming werewolves to be dangerous dark creatures and banning them from employment, education and basic rights in the wizarding world. If we could get the classifications changed to werewolf and lycanthrope it might help as well. Werewolves were the dangerous deranged animals like the late Fenrir Greyback, lycanthropes were like Principal Abbot, in full control of their transformations.
Harry and I were sat in our seats in the Wizengamot chambers as Kingsley stood and called the members to order. "Honourable Members of the Wizengamot, I call to your attention the final item on today's agenda, the acknowledgement of Edward 'Teddy' Remus Lupin to the title of Lord Black by right of birth."
"Minister Shacklebolt, we've already discussed this, the boy has no right to inherit as a werewolf, end of case; now let's adjourn and go home."
"Thank you Lord Parkinson, your opinion has been noted, now let us look at this case as is proper, based on the evidence and not on hearsay; in light of this I call two persons into the chamber. Edward Lupin, age 9, and Principal Sebastian Abbot of the Salem Academy of Magic, Massachusetts. I also invoke the formal wards of the chamber for the duration of this debate." There was a large amount of muted discussion amongst some of the members at this last announcement. The doors to the chamber opened and Teddy and Principal Abbot entered, upon which the doors closed and locked behind them and the walls of the chamber glowed for a couple of seconds; showing several rune clusters to my mage sight.
"What is all this rot, Kingsley, we've argued with Potter till we're blue in the face that this abomination is not allowed to inherit, he's a dangerous bloody beast and should be put down. He has no right to inherit. We've been told by the queen that we should allow muggleborns equal rights and to a limited point I agree with that, but this is not going to go through, the boy is a werewolf and as such a dangerous animal."
There was a gasp from the audience as suddenly Teddy was accompanied not by principal Abbot but by a werewolf, which seconds later was human again as he took his place in the stands. "What are you up to Kingsley setting us us to be slaughtered or turned by a werewolf so we won't have any choice but to overturn our previous ruling or lose our seats; not going to work!"
"I think honoured members you are forgetting something, it's 4 o'clock in the evening, the sun is not due to set for a while yet, so by your definition of werewolf he couldn't have transformed. So either he is a werewolf and he transformed without the full moon or he isn't and he performed an animagus transformation into a werewolf, both of which according to our studies is impossible, so are you willing to listen to him before condemning him?"
There were several glances going around the chamber and nods of assent, passing between individual members, mixed with obvious signs of curiosity on several faces. "Very well, Kingsley, you've got us curious here, we'll listen, but be assured if anything happens to us whilst in the chamber, our families will take action, and your days as minister will be less than one!"
"Thank for that vote of confidence Lord Parkinson, without further ado I'll hand you over to Principal Abbot."
Principal Abbot stood and made his way to the centre of the Chamber, "Thank you Lords, Ladies and honoured members. I will speak as briefly and as clearly as I may. From your definition of the word I am a werewolf." There were several gasps at this remark and disapproving glances at him and Kingsley both. "In the United States the definition I go by is Lycanthrope, with all due respect you're acting like a group of muggles after watching a bad movie, err play about werewolves who want nothing more than to bite and eat everyone."
Again there was a gasp from the chamber, "muggles know about werewolves?"
"Of course they do, that ridiculous piece of legal rubbish that you and the ICW brought about in 1692, didn't stop the muggles completely knoing about magic. Magic has been present in the world since before the first man learnt to speak, there are stories in every muggle culture about werewolves, vampires, dragons; they've been distorted over time but they are there. To completely remove this knowledge from them you would have to obliviate every single muggle, destroy every book and computer on the planet. Now I can almost hear some of you thinking that should be done. There are approximately 6 billion muggles on the planet, assuming it takes 1 minute to obliviate all this knowledge from a single mind and one wizard were to do it, it would take 68,000 years to complete. I can now picture you thinking something along the lines of every wizard doing their bit, but it would still be impossible, by the time we'd managed to obliviate every single muggle, new ones would have been born and they would learn of these things through works of fiction, the internet and many other sources, and not us not forget that some muggles are immune to obliviation, and it can be overcome given enough stimulation. Let's be honest gentlemen, ladies, the muggles already know and there's nothing we can do about it. In the three centuries since the Statute of Secrecy was enacted, the muggles have progressed amazingly."
"But what are we to do about it?"
"Some steps are already in place. Hogwarts I understand has embraced new subjects and brought some of classes into line with national and international guidelines, already the school has gone from 108th in the world rankings to 97th. The only reason you could say it was the best school in Britain to learn magic is it was the ONLY school in Britain to do so."
"Yes, yes, this is all very interesting but we still uphold our decision that that thing is a luca…, lycos, a werewolf and not allowed to inherit!" There were several murmurs of assent at this.
"I see gentlemen you need some more convincing, tell me what happens when a child is defective whilst it in the womb, or the mother is badly injured in some way?"
"The pregnancy is terminated by the mother, her body will reject the baby," said one woman with tears misting at her eyes.
"Thank you madam for your information, now do you know how soon after infection or creation of a new werewolf the first transformation takes place?"
"The next full moon!"
"Exactly gentlemen, no imagine if you will a child conceived and being gestated when that transformation happens, what will the mother's body do?"
"Err… Reject it?"
"Exactly, the same can be said of a child conceived by a female werewolf from a normal wizard, at the first full moon as her body transforms the foetus will be aborted by the body. The only way for a werewolf to be born is for both parents to be werewolves and for the baby to transform at each full moon with the mother during her pregnancy. Now do you see what is being said here. This boy is not a werewolf, which incidentally should not be seen as making someone into a dark creature because one day a month they turn into a ravening beast; if that were the case most women would be tagged as dark creatures and eliminated and then where would we be as a species?" There were several titters from the chamber at this. Sebastian looked at the members in the chamber and bowed to the nearest lady present, "my apologies ladies, no disrespect was meant by the last comment!"
"This is all very well, but how do we know that the father didn't turn the mother before pregnancy?"
There were again several murmurs at this comment. Kingsley stood up, "You all know me, or I hope you do, if not where have you been for the past few years." Again there were titters from the chamber. "Before we knew that Nymphadora Tonks was pregnant, but still during the early stages of her pregnancy, I myself as a senior auror was on duty with her on several occasions, and at least twice on the night of the full moon. She was no werewolf. So therefore her son cannot be one either! As a member of the Black family by birth, he can be designated the heir by the present lord, at this moment that is Harry Potter, Lord Potter-Black, and he has on numerous occasions come before this body and stated that is his wish. Are we as a body to reject the wish of the head of a family about who should inherit his title?" This was a valid point a lot of the old stick-in-the-muds present felt that this was an affront to the very nature of their titles, they had every right to designate whoever they wanted to inherit their family titles usually it went to the first born son, but occasionally this would be overruled in favour of a second son, as had been done by Harry's Godfather, the fact that on the death of Sirius' brother, he had again become the heir was irrelevant at this point.
There was much whispering in the galleries between members, this went on for several minutes. "Very well Kingsley, you have us convinced on this, the boy is no werewolf and can inherit, but I still say werewolves as a whole are a menace."
Kingsley nodded at this, looked at Harry and smiled. Harry turned to face the assembled members, "Thank you honoured members of the Wizengamot, this means a lot to me and the memory of a great man; and yes, Remus Lupin was a great man, for all that he had a disease which compelled him to turn into a wolf once a month, but at his very heart he was a gentle man who wouldn't hurt a single soul, in his memory I would like to request a change to the law regarding werewolves, re-designating them as lycanthropes, this definition will state that they are a wizard who has an inbuilt genetic ability to become an animagus, albeit a wolf animagus, which they are compelled to undergo on the full moon. The designation of werewolf should be kept for the real genuine cases of such, like the late Fenrir Greyback who liked nothing better than to bite and infect as many people as he could. I would also like to invite several lycanthropes from the States to come over and address the packs to help them become healthy citizens of wizarding Britain, which in turn would allow them to become part of society, which hopefully avoid a dark werewolf lord appearing sometime in the future. Let us not also forget that an untransformed werewolf is generally stronger in body and faster in reaction speeds to a normal person."
"This is a very good point, you make Lord Potter, but who are you suggesting fund this program, teaching young lyca… werewolves how to transform without the power of the moon, it won't come cheap?"
"I personally will meet the costs of this program, on the understanding that part of the tax paid by these persons when they get full paid jobs will go to reimbursing me, and they should pay the same taxes as any other witch or wizard, not extra because of their condition. They have been prejudiced against for long enough, they should be no longer. Furthermore, I would like all children of lycanthropes to be given the opportunity to attend Hogwarts to get a proper magical education, this will further help to prevent the rise of a dark werewolf lord in the future because they will be the same as any other member of magical society, just with an ailment that affects them once a month, similar to my wife, most likely your own and any others lady's present, and no disrespect to the ladies here or my wife, but I don't want to try and explain that to her."
Again there was a large amount of discussion around the chamber as members discussed this back and forth amongst themselves. After a few minutes, Kingsley stood, "very well I would like to call for a vote on this proposal by Lord Potter, please raise and light your wands, Green for Yay, red for Nay, and White to abstain." I looked around the chamber as the vote was taking place, after a few seconds the chamber was awash with green light, an occasional red or white light almost drowning in the sea of green. "Very well, I declare this motion passed and pass the proposal to Lord Potter to see to its implementation, I'm just glad to be able to give someone else something to do, instead of having to handle it all myself."
At this point, Principal Abbot stood, "if I may be of assistance here, there would be several persons in the States including someone known to Lord Potter, a classmate of his who fled to the States after that affair with that Tom Riddle fellow, a Miss Lavender Brown."
"I thought she'd died as a result of the injuries affected on her by Fenrir Greyback, her body was never found after the battle and she wasn't among the werewolves who were captured that night."
"Indeed not, Miss Brown managed to leave the grounds of Hogwarts and employed an emergency portkey to get her to her family home, after being healed of her injuries she was sent to the States where she has since come to terms with her condition and is now leading a very productive career as a teacher at a primary school in Wolfsburg, the State capital of Western Colorado. Her family had previously taken a vacation in the States and knew how we treated lycanthropic citizens, so knew she would be safe there."
"I would like to see Lavender again as I'm sure Hermione and my wife would like to catchup, neither were particularly close to her during Hogwarts but she was their friend, and I know she helped Hermione with her make up for the Yule Ball in our fourth year."
At this point Principal Abbot shuddered and changed into his werewolf form and sat for a few seconds in wolf form and then transformed back to human, "sorry about that honourable members but it appears the moon has risen, I'm still affected by it but as you see can pull myself back to human although it feels as if I've been used as a bludger in a particularly vigorous game of quidditch. Kingsley handed him a potion vial, which he downed quickly and seemed to relax as it took effect.
Kingsley rose to speak at this point, "thank you honourable members for your time this evening, we had assumed that we would still be debating at this point, your willingness to listen to reason has meant we will be finishing earlier than anticipated, if there is no other business to bring before this chamber?" He looked around the room and no one made any indication to speak. "Very well, honoured members, I now declare this meeting of the Wizengamot closed, thank you all for your time!"
We watched as everyone filed out of the Wizengamot chambers and made their way either to the public floo's or the apparition point to make their way home. Harry turned to Principal Abbot and offered his hand, "thank you Sebastian, you today have managed to achieve something I never thought would happen, not only has my godson got the right to inherit his family name and title, but we've managed to get a major law passed to give lycanthropes full rights in our society. I never thought I'd see the day when these hidebound purebloods would do such a thing. It means a lot to me and if there is anything I can do for you in the future, you only have to ask!"
"I'm only too glad to help, now if you don't mind I would like to go and transform properly and spend the night in my lupine form, I reckon I'll end up sleeping on the floor in my bedroom at my second cousins house where I've been staying since I arrived in this country, though I've obviously been sleeping in the bed before tonight."
"Of course and thank you once again." Sebastian left the chambers and made his way to the floo system to see himself out. Harry turned to me, "I don't know how you do it, Dudley, I should have asked you in the first place, every time you set your mind to doing something in the magical world you get it done. Here's hoping you don't decide to run for the office of Minister of Magic, you'd probably get in with a landslide victory."
"No Thanks, I have no intention of becoming Minister, I have enough on my plate just running my own department, its a never ending cycle of paperwork, I don't want Kingsley's job, not for all the gold in Gringotts."
"Never say never, Dudley, you don't know what the future holds. If fate has you pegged as Minister one day it will happen whether you want it to or not." I looked at him and wondered, suddenly remembering something I had said in my divination newt and wondered, then dismissed it from my mind as claptrap and we both headed home for the night. Harry had some important family news to pass on…"
A/N Canon says Lavender died at the battle of Hogwarts of wounds caused by Fenrir Greyback, but we all know how observant wizards are and how prejudiced; 'who cares about a werewolf any' would have been most peoples attitude.