Chapter Two

Info

Harry's brisk walk down the hall portrayed his irritation. Even long limbed Agape had difficulty keeping up.

"That woman must be working with them," he said to his assistant. He really considered her more of a partner, who did more investigating than grunt work.

"What was her name? Melendia Snook?" Agape asked, looking down at her notes as if expecting to find the name written somewhere.

"No," said Harry, "It was Melencolia Snook."

"Sounds depressing."

"Find out everything you can on her – and Drake." They turned a corner around some cubicals. Harry gave a grim wave to a fellow Auror as he and Agape passed his office. "And Thorpe and Bireley."

"I already have everything on Drake that the Ministry knows about," Agape told him.

Harry slowed slightly and glanced at her sideways. "All of it? But I only asked for that this morning when I found out he was the witness."

"And I got everything, just like you said."

As usual, he was impressed by her efficiency. "Good. So what do we know?"

Agape flipped trough her notes until she reached the information she had copied earlier. She read: "He is twenty-tree-years-old; he went to Hogwarts and was sorted into Hufflepuff – " (" – They even list what house he was in?") " – He has quite a record from McGonagall. Mostly about blowing things up with firecrackers. He graduated and got serving jobs at two separate restaurants – one Muggle, the other in our world. He was warned by the Ministry for Apperating too close to his Muggle job. Then, the summer before last he was captured from The Crossroads Pub by the Optimates. No one knows how he got out of the dungeon cell, but that night he was first seen by Augustus Schmitt and one of Dumbledore's old friends."

Harry turned his head to look at her notes over her arm. "Which friend?"

"Someone named Creighton Squires."

They made it to Harry's office and closed the door behind them. "I don't know a Squires, but Dumbledore seemed to have an infinity of friends and associates. Look into this Squires fellow as well. Maybe he'd help us."

"You got it," Agape said.

1

The next day Agape already had two more folders in her hands, one full of information about Thorpe, the other about Bireley. She was in her chair holding them aloft as Harry walked into the his office that morning.

"What did you get?" Harry asked, taking the files and opening both on his desk before sitting down.

"Who do you want to know about first?" she inquired. "Vivian Gray's new songwriter, or a peaceful werewolf that lives in the middle of a forest?"

"Just because they don't sound that threatening doesn't mean they're harmless," Harry reminded her. "Thorpe writes songs for Vivian Gray? As in the growing super-star?"

"Yes. Well, only two so far. Apparently , they went to school together. He graduated only last year," she said. "The summer before last – the same summer Drake disappeared – he was attacked by two Optimates, who he and his father got away from and turned in to the Ministry."

Harry was impressed. Young Ferris already sounded experienced in fighting dark wizards. "How did they escape?" he asked. Trying to find that page of Thorpe's file.

Agape beat him to it. "The two Optimates were a married couple and they brought their kid along to use as a ploy. Well, they got distracted when the boy ran off, and the Thorpes got away, found the kid, then turned him in to the Ministry for safekeeping."

"That was Ferris Thorpe?" Harry said incredulously. "I heard about that. I even saw him. He was a blond kid. He still had the marks on his mouth from where the Optimates had sewn his lips together."

"That they did," Agape continued. "They also used the Torture Curse on his father."

"Why were they targeted in the first place?"

"Because Mr. Thorpe, or rather, Dr. Titus Thorpe, happens to be the only Muggle in history to fight in a purely Magical battle." Harry knew where she was going and his head jerked up from the papers to look at her. "That's right, he fought in the 1997 battle, with you, against Voldemort."

"Titus Thorpe? Why didn't you mention him before? I had no idea they were the same Thorpes."

"So you've met Dr. Thorpe?" Agape asked.

"Only once formally," he told her. "His wife was my Mum's best friend before she died. In fact, Dr. Thorpe was the only medic on the scene when I was born!"

Agape raised and eyebrow. "You're kidding. Harry Potter was delivered by a Muggle doctor."

"Actually, he probably wasn't a doctor then. He would have been too young," Harry said. "Anyway, now I certainly see why the Optimates would want to target them. They were pretty perturbed to find out someone was fighting with a gun instead of a wand."

"I'm sure," Agape said. "Well, his son's record is a clean a his. Ferris Thorpe has almost no marks against him – unless you count a detention at Hogwarts when he was fifteen."

"Okay. What about this peaceful werewolf? Did you ask Lupin for his records?"

"Of course," said Agape, slightly indignant. "I wouldn't have been able to find out everything about werewolf if I didn't get his records from the head of Werewolf Registration."

When she didn't continue, he prompted, "And?"

Agape sighed. "He wouldn't give me anything. He said he would rather you come get the information yourself."

Harry sighed. "Never one to let me off easy, that one." He looked at his watch. "I don't suppose he specified a time?"

Twenty minutes later, Harry found himself sitting in the Werewolf Registration Office in the Being devision of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. This office was headed by none other than Remus J. Lupin. The only down side to sitting in this waiting room was that he was between a werewolf and a highly disgruntled vampire, who kept muttering oaths under his breath.

The werewolf on his other side looked pleasant enough. He looked over at Harry and gave him a nod in greeting. Harry nodded back and looked down at the file Agape had put in his hand again before he came. It was Bireley's, and it didn't say much about his recent life, except that he had been made a werewolf two years ago.

"You're Harry Potter, yes?" asked the werewolf.

Harry looked at him again and said, "I am."

The man smiled pleasantly. "The press would have said something if you'd suddenly become a werewolf, so I'm guessing you're here to see Remus," he said.

"Yeah. He wanted to see me," Harry answered.

"Need information?"

Harry saw that his eyes had traveled down to the file in his hands, so he closed it. "You could say that."

"I hope it's not about Neo Death Eater allies. I heard someone else came in last week to question Remus about a few individuals."

Harry gave him a good look then. He couldn't read his expression. The man was probably in his thirties, most likely younger than Harry, but aged due to the lycanthropy. He had a scruffy look: short, messy brown hair and an unshaven face. This didn't take away from his general good looks, however. He had dark, deep-set eyes above a pointed, if slightly aquiline nose, and a strong square jaw.

Realizing the man expected him to say something, Harry quickly said, "It's nothing to do with Neo allies. Just a person." He knew that the Blood Traitors were no friends to the Optimates.

"Hmm. Hope I don't know them if you're looking for them," said the man.

There was a pause that Harry hoped was the end of the conversation. But no.

"Why rely on personal records so often?" the man asked. "Why not ask the person you're looking for?"

"Records are a lot more honest," Harry automatically replied.

"Not necessarily." The man smiled in a way that Harry didn't like. It was a smile that suggested he knew far more about what Harry was after than he did.

2

Remus Lupin, fifty-seven, now ran everything in the ministry that had to do with werewolves and semi-humans. He was the Head of the Werewolf Registration Office.

After Dumbledore's death in Harry's sixth year, Lupin only seemed to get more determined to change the minds of his fellows – werewolves, of course. Still stationed underground for the struggling Order of the Phoenix, he managed to change at least one mind: that of a man named Quinlan Mankiw. Mankiw knew another werewolf that thought like Remus and all three men joined forces to gather more allies. They even found a few in other countries. Eventually they had enough to fight part of Voldemort's lycan followers. The Ministry couldn't ignore that – especially after Remus's pack had such success despite their small numbers.

When Remus applied for a job at the Ministry after the battle against Voldemort, they couldn't simply turn him away, though they would've love to. He had proven that werewolves didn't have to be dark creatures, that they could control the monster inside them. It also helped that the job Remus applied to had recently been vacated.

In the seventies and eighties, Remus had to report to this office every other month to be interrogated by Virgil Hunkamunk. Hunkamunk was a disgruntled man in a position he hated, because he despised 'half-breeds'. He was so terrible that James Potter, who worked as his assistant for a short while after graduation, yelled at Hunkamunk and quit after watching him chew Remus out for absolutely nothing.

Hunkamunk was replaced by his son, who ruled the dead end throne throughout the nineties with just as much loathing. He was fired in 1998 for losing his temper with a Vampire and ending up on the losing side of a very dangerous battle. Remus succeeded him and ended up reworking the entire branch of the Department. Now his office not only dealt with werewolves, but Vampires, hags, and even the occasional half-formed animagus.

But that was nineteen years ago. At present, he was talking to Sydney Ingram, a sixteen-year-old werewolf, who had recently decided to drop out of Beauxbatons. The girl had been bitten when she was only fourteen, and since she was bitten in Britain, Remus was the first person to explain to her how her life would be from that point on. He tried to give all the werewolf victims hope for the future, but Sydney seemed determined to jeopardize hers.

"Sydney, you can't possibly think this will fix things," he said to her. "You need to finish school. I know you only live in London for part of the year, and I have no say in what you do with your life in France, but I can't stand by and not say something about this."

The young girl looked down at her lap, her shoulder-length hair draping over half of her face. "I've already withdrawn from school," she said with finality. "I hate the people there. It's not like I plan to work for the ministry or anything. I don't need the seventh year."

"If it's the school, you can transfer to Hogwarts..."

She shook her head.

Remus frowned. "Why are you really quitting Beuaxbatons?"

She didn't answer.

"Sydney, if this is because of Celeste asking you to join the – "

"It was," she said, cutting him off. "But they wouldn't let me. Now they probably never will, what with this investigation the Ministry is doing."

"How did you know about that?" Remus asked, his frown deepening.

"Gus told us."

Remus didn't know what else to say. She wasn't going to change her mind anymore. It was too late for that. She was already too involved in the whole nasty business. So he decided to ask: "Will you be living in London permanently now? Away from your parents?"

"Yes. But you don't have to worry. I never could rely on them as much as I could myself," she admitted. "I'll be fine on my own."

"I know that," Remus said, smiling. "What I was more concerned about was who you would be meeting with every other month. However, since you're staying in the country, I suppose it will be me."

"Of course," Sydney said, smiling back. "Why do you think I stayed in the UK?"

3

The door to Lupin's office opened and a black-haired girl walked out. She took one look at Harry and turned her face toward her feet. The slight shake of her head that let her hair fall over her features was almost imperceptible. Her attempt to hide, however, was not. Where all werewolves this cryptic? The man that had spoken to Harry rose from his chair and joined her to leave.

"Harry," said Lupin's voice. "Please, come in." His door was still open and he waved Harry inside.

Harry walked into the office, which he had visited several times before, and closed the door behind him. He sat in the single chair in front of Remus's desk before asking, "How are you?"

"Fine. It's actually been a pretty peaceful day," Remus replied. He smiled and the lines around his mouth and eyes deepened. "How are Ginny and Kyla?"

"They're fine. Kyla told us she's going to come home for Christmas," Harry told him. "As if her staying at Hogwarts was an option."

Kyla was Harry's twelve-year-old daughter. She was already as independent as her mother and she was only in her second year.

Lupin laughed shortly. "I know what you mean. My kids liked to spend Christmas with their friends more than with the family too. I was convinced they were using one of the old secret passages to get to Hogsmeade over the breaks." Remus had a son and a daughter that were in seventh year when Kyla was in first. They graduated and followed their father in working for the Ministry - both in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement like Harry.

"So, you wanted some information," Lupin said, getting to business.

"How quickly did you blow Agape off?" Harry inquired, grinning. "Did she at least get to tell you who I wanted information on before you sent her back?"

"I know exactly who you want information on, but I won't just give out Logan Bireley's file for no reason," Remus explained.

"All I want is some background information," Harry said. "Something up to date. At most, I'd like an interview – which you can arrange."

"Apparently I don't need to."

Harry didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

Lupin sat back in his chair, folded his arms, and nodded in the direction of his door. "You were just talking to him in the waiting room."

"What!" He couldn't believe it. Bireley knew he was looking for him now, if he hadn't before, and Harry let him walk right out of the door.

The girl that walked out with him had hidden her face from him; she must be involved the Blood Traitors as well. He considered her age and hoped he was mistaken. The last thing he needed was a group of vigilante teens and werewolves running around ignoring Ministry laws.

"Who was the girl in here before me?" Harry asked Remus suddenly.

"No, Harry. She's not your concern," Remus said sharply.

"Remus," Harry said in and equally sharp tone, "If she's with Bireley, she is my concern."

Lupin shook his head and held up his hand. "You wanted information on Logan, did you not?"

Harry sighed in frustration, but nodded.

"Alright, I'll tell you about Logan Bireley. First, you should know that he was married, and he has a four-year-old little girl, named Liberty. He had a well-paying job, a nice house; he was happy. Then, he was bitten, and all of that was taken away. His wife divorced him, took his daughter away, and his boss fired him. When I first found him, he was wandering in the woods around my house in wolf form. He'd never even heard of a Wolfsbane potion, so he obviously was not safe – much less registered with the Ministry. I got all of his legal affairs worked out and now he has a job again, though the pay is low. His house is still little more than a shack in the middle of the woods near my house. Now he is harboring a Ministry witness, Alton Drake, in his home out of kindness. He is trustworthy and decent, and I can't have you harassing him, Harry."

Harry snorted. "I won't harass him! I'm not a ghoul, Remus. But I know he's a part of the Blood Traitors, and none of us can be sure they are all trustworthy and decent."

"I think they are our allies," Lupin commented.

"They've disrupted every Ministry action against the Optimates since the beginning of this year – maybe even before then," Harry reminded him, then added sarcastically, "Some allies we've got."

"I never said they were allies to the Ministry. The Order, on the other hand, can use all of the friends we can get."

(Author's note: You may have noticed that Harry was a little slow on the uptake in this chapter, but when you get that involved in a project, it's easy to miss some of the obvious details.)

Useful information: Optimates is Latin for "the best'" or, "the highest race", and is pronounced Optee-mat-es.

Useless information: most people write Harry Potter with a daughter instead of a son. I couldn't decide, so I flipped a coin!