The Fellowship of the Fox

by Ryuuohjin

/ AN /

Disclaimer -I do not on any way own Harry Potter or any of its world or characters.

They all fully belong to J.K. Rowling and her affiliates.

Sorry for taking so long with this chapter, but I was really struggling to get it to get complete, especially the Ollivander scenes, which I still am not 100% with but decided to leave it as it is for now. For any that is following my other stories, they will take some more time before being complete, especially Naruto, as that is really going nowhere at the moment.

Updated 2019-05-23: Rewrote things here and there, along with fixed some things, and put through Grammarly.

Updated 2019-12-25: Rewrote things here and there, added a few things, along with fixing some things, and put through Grammarly. It took me a while to write it as I had a really big problem with this, as my muse really refused to co-operate with this chapter. Have instead written lots of other random stumps and notes, which might become something in future but really is nothing for now. Along with some other reasons and there are parts that I'm still not 100% happy with, but I don't want to delay any more as don't see how to do it.

Updated 2020-04-08: Rewrote some things here and there, added some things while removing some others, along with fixed some minor things, and put it through Grammarly.

/

Chapter 18 – Trials & Expectations

"Do we really have to wear these outfits?" Ginny asked sheepishly as she blushingly looked down at the clothes laid offered in front of her. She was currently in one of the many large guests' rooms at Potter Manor, with Luna, Hermione and the Rasp sisters, who were currently shedding their normal outfits and socks and dawned sports bras, short shorts and running socks and shoes.

"It's so hot out though, we need these or we'll sweat to death," Kerry pointed out as she dawned a green sports bra, black shorts and green socks with white and green shoes.

"Not to mention we'll all become just so sweaty that a t-shirt would become quite see-through," Ena then added as she put on a dark purple sports bra with black shorts and dark purple socks with black and purple shoes on.

"I personally don't really see any problem with them," Luna then commented as she put on a white sports bra with black shorts and white socks with black and blue shoes. "I kind of like them."

"They will also help to prevent breast pain and prevents your breasts from flopping around when exercising, especially when running," Hermione then remarked as she put on a black sports bra with white shorts and black socks with grey and black shoes.

"Suppose so, I guess..." Ginny then admitted resigned with a long sigh and slowly began to change to the pink sports bra top and red shorts with matching pink socks and black shoes that she had been presented with. Somewhat starting to slightly regret agreeing to join the Rasp sisters in their morning exercises, as she, like the others, knew that knew they need to get their now younger teenaged body up to the fighting fit shape they had been once in the future, and they would need it.

Though Ginny was still somewhat unhappy about the early hour and judging from Luna and Neville, who had arrived a day earlier than the others and had woken up feeling quite stiff this morning, she would not like waking up tomorrow. As both Neville's and Luna's stiff bodies had protested at any movement as they woke up. They would have been more than happy to stay put in their beds but for two things; firstly they knew from first-hand experiences that the only way too really feel better was to get moving and work the stiffness from their bodies; secondly, they knew they would need to be fully fit in the future.

Still, outside in the brisk, warming early morning air was invigorating and the quiet forest around the manor was relaxing to traverse, and soon they were all jogging and their bodies were warming up allowing them to pick up their pace, so they made good time. They weren't running particularly fast nor long, as they didn't want to cause any damage to themselves, but they were all somewhat proud of how they were doing so far. When the physical training was over, they focused on mostly on meditation and the mental arts, before they then began discussing what they really were here for, what to do with what they had just found out about the Sirius and Longbottoms and if they really should involve anyone else in this.

/

Next day at Diagon Alley, Remus Lupin was in deep thought as he waited for old wandmaker, Garrick Ollivander, to finish the evaluation on the new pair of wands and wand holsters he had just given the man for examination. While honestly, Remus didn't really think it was anything wrong with them, but it was better to be safe than sorry, just in case if there really was something, as it never hurt to be a little cautious. It had just been a few days since the full moon, and Remus had now recovered from the usual weakness that followed him after his monthly transformations.

Not that he actually had been allowed to leave unless the Rasps, Rhy especially, had been convinced that he was completely healthy and fully recovered. Although, truth be told, Remus hadn't made that much fuss about leaving any earlier either. In actuality, he hadn't felt this good in a while.

Though even if he had been somewhat confined for a while, that didn't mean he had been completely idle. As Remus could now with complete certainty say it really was Potter Manor that the Rasp siblings lived at. How or why they had come to live there he didn't know, as all he got was evasive cryptic answers whenever he asked them about it. Then there was the day before yesterday

Just as he was about to leave the youngest of the siblings, Rhy, asked him if he would be willing to follow her the to their shop, Fox Den. While Remus was quite confused about what they would be doing here, he saw no problems in indulging the little girl for a while. The first thing he noticed after having arrived at the siblings somewhat quaint shop, was that it yet seemed to have opened up for business for the day. The next thing he noticed was that Rhy seemed to have disappeared somewhere. Though after a short moment wait, the little girl returned with a pair of beautiful wands, each in sturdy-looking holsters, which she proceeded to hand to him.

When Remus just there looking confused and made no move to accept them, Rhy started to explain that while he might not remember it. Though when he first had arrived at the manor Rhy had accidentally broken his old and that she had promised him to give him a new one, and this was her fulfilling that promise. Remus asked why she giving him the extra wand, along with holsters to both of them. Rhy answered that the holsters were as an apology from her for breaking his old wand, along with using him to get some advertisement for the Fox Den. And as for the extra wand, she just said that it could never hurt to have an extra wand. Which was not something he really couldn't argue against. As Remus accepted the wands and the holsters, after much insistence on Rhy's part, he thanked her and proceed to strap them on, all while as he began to study them closely.

The wand holsters were wrist-mounted and custom-fitted, made out some sort of soft black leather. They were also comfortable enough for Remus to barely notice they were, and according to Rhy, there were runes of them make undetectable to sight or touch by others. Charms had also been cast so the wands wouldn't be able to slip out of holsters by accident, no matter what, nor would someone else able to summon the holsters or any wands in them to themselves. And as a final more personal touch, each holster was inscribed with his initials in a luxurious golden cursive script.

As for the wands he had gotten they quite extraordinary by themselves and was amongst the most beautiful he had ever seen. One wand made of a mysterious, dense, heavy wood, with natural dark brown and green colouring and wide, coarse grain texture. It had inlays of some kind of other wood here and there lightening it up slightly. The handle was carved to look like an owl, which was set with what looked like a pair of red gemstones as eyes. That, according to Rhy, was as close to an arithmetically perfect cut for focusing jewels one could get. This wand felt even in more tune with him than his old one, and he felt a familiar yet foreign power rush through his arm, along giving off an impressive display of fireworks when he for the first time had touched it.

The other wand made of a wood that was medium brown colour in appearance. It had coarse texture with straight and regular grains, and it was richly embellished in gold, with its main design consisting of a helical vine bearing one leaf for each of the Norse Futhark runes, and a large golden gemstone with a silky lustre at the pommel. Like the other wand, this also felt even in more tune with him than his old wand. Although, this felt more powerful than the other one, almost wild and untamed. Though what had really surprised him was that instead of fireworks or anything like that, although he didn't know why, when he first touched the wand, his inner wolf seemed to have reacted, and a wolf howl, that had been more felt than heard, had suddenly erupted from it.

When Remus asked about the wands had, Rhy just smirked and told him that it was a surprise for later, but she did let it slip that there was two core in each wand. And that the ash wand wouldn't have been possible without him. And in the lignum vitae wand the broken pieces of his old wand had been incorporated. While the ash wand had some unique cores that she had never had heard someone use in a wand before. Though while that did have piqued his curiosity somewhat, the reason he was currently in deep thought was what had happened during the nights of the full moon, when his inner wolf had been in charge.

While he had never really been able to remember exactly what happened while he transformed, while he did remember certain feelings, like hunger, anger, fear, joy, etc. etc. He also sometimes could get vague impressions or distinct images from the wolf, especially if they made a strong impact while he was transformed. From what he could remember of those nights were feelings of confusion, followed by surprise, then by joy and playfulness, along with a strange sense of belonging, and strong protectiveness. While that still confused him somewhat, but what bothered right now, was how calm and at peace, the wolf had been ever since.

The wolf hadn't been this content in a long time, especially ever since Harry had seemed to disappeared. Remus also had the strange nagging feeling that he had played with a wolf cub during the night, but as that didn't make any sense, he had tried dismissing it, but nonetheless, the feeling wouldn't leave him alone. Which was kind of him bugging even more...

/

Elsewhere, sometime later that same day, another one who was looking forward to today, although for a quite different reason, was Draco Malfoy, at in his least in his opinion, he had recently come up a brilliant plan to slow his current slavery problem. Which was something he really hadn't been able to stop congratulating himself for. After having realised that the summer would be fully up before he could come close to a solution to his problem, Draco had started to become increasingly frustrated and impatient. As not only was he proud pureblood, but most importantly, he was a Malfoy, and they were slaves to none.

Therefore he vehemently refused to return to Hogwarts with a slave brand. Then there was just a few days ago, as he was searching through some old texts in his family's library. When he had kind of by accident had stumbled upon something, that he seemed to be able to change his current situation, at least for what he had been able to discern.

Demons.

From what he had found, summoning demons was viewed as even more horrifying than the use of any of the Unforgivable Curses. There even seemed to have been points in the past where Dark Lords had fought side by side with Leaders of the Light in order to combat such terrifying things, as that was how dangerous they apparently were. Which Draco thought was absolutely perfect for this predicament, if the demons were so feared, the must powerful enough break his curse.

While the summoning ritual itself had taken little time to find, the list of components, on the other hand, had taken much longer. Especially as he personally went to tracking them each down as much secrecy he could. The careful inscription of each word, unknown but duplicated geometrically out of the books he had found them in, and the result was right in front of him. There inscribed on the hardwood floors of the room was a summoning circle.

Formed with a what knowledge he in a short time managed to gather, the large circle had been drawn in the centre of the room. The circle was filled with a spiralling, foreign text, ancient runes and a series of neat geometric shapes and patterns were laid out throughout the spiral. It was all nonsense to him, on a practical level, even though he had been very slowly learning what it all meant, or least what he thought it meant.

Draco smiled happily down at his circle for a few seconds, so glad that the day had finally come. He had dismissed the tales of those who summoned great beings of power carelessly were almost always punished for it. He was sure it wouldn't happen to him, as he was Malfoy, even if something would unexpected would happen his parents would take care of it either way.

Six black candles? Check.
Chalk for four wards? Check.
Sage and other herbs to be placed inside the wards? Check.
Ash of a cremated person? Disgusting, but check.

And down the list, Draco went until he was certain he had everything. It took him about another hour of preparation before everything seemed to be ready, though he couldn't help but smile. It was, perhaps, needlessly overdramatic and romanticized. But, then again, he had always had a weakness for theatrics and spectacles.

Today was the day he would once be free from this curse.

He took a few deep calming breaths, trying to let his nervousness and fear sink away.

Here we go then.

As he began reciting the incantation, he first took a piece of parchment had inscribed with a demonic symbol that a tome had recommended. Then he pricked his finger with a knife and let a drop of his blood soak into the parchment. Great. Awesome. Everything was going awesome.

He then set the parchment alight, just pinching the corner with his finger until the symbol was consumed in the fire.

He wasn't sure it worked until the moment the flame suddenly went out, and all of the candles were extinguished in the same instant. His whole room immediately darkened, as if a veil had been placed over the windows.

At first, he thought, despite that, that nothing had happened. The smoke of the candles curled upwards towards the ceiling, and for a few seconds, and then the figure that appeared in the centre of the circle, fading into existence somehow as if it was always had been there but only now gained tangibility, was not at all what he expected.

The small figure, was about 4'8" in height, with beautiful, glossy hair, so black it felt like it was drawing you in, and that was slightly shifted to cover her right eye. The rest was a bit shorter but still went down to around her shoulders. Her visible, barely open, left eye was dark and soulful with graceful long eyelashes. Her skin was an exotic mocha colour, and she had a deceptively slight figure. Her body was a little boyish but mostly girlish.

She wearing cut-off pants and a black tank-top, she had no wings, horns, tails, hoofs, claws, or any other strange body addition or modification from what Draco could see, not even a forked tongue, or strange irises. This girl looked like an average human being, a very pretty one and just a little younger than him, but otherwise looked completely normal.

Draco had expected something like nightmare-inducing eldritch horrors, monstrous arcane abominations, or at least something inhumane with eyes that have seen empires crumble in a handful of dust, which if looked into them was as if it pupils were a great abyss, the heavens without light, stretching on for cold infinite eternity and returning nothing that they took.

However, this… Draco just couldn't bring himself to fear his imminent demise from what looked like an adolescent schoolgirl, that seemed to younger than him. For a moment he simply stared at her, wondering if he had somehow made some sort of mistake and summoned… something else. To voice this opinion of his, he said the first thing that came to his mind.

"I don't appreciate this."

/

When Sirius Black entered the Ministry of Magic for his trial, he was escorted by two Aurors. After both checking his arms and giving up any wand he may have had, they started to escort him to the courtroom ten, which were they trial would be held.

Suddenly, curses flew from all directions, and a spherical shield flashed to life around them. Sirius frozen momentarily, only to then start grinning whilst he gleefully shouted.

"Come on, you cowards. Is that the best you can do? Really?! Pathetic!"

"Avada Kedavra," several of the attackers shouted enraged by the taunt.

As the green light hit the party, they exploded into massive purple flames, that knocked everyone around them off their feet, and filled the atrium with suffocating intense heat.

When the echoes of the blast died down, everybody looked towards the centre. All that could be seen where Sirius and his guards had once stood, was a huge scorch mark in the shape of a sniggering fox head and spread around it laid several groaning bodies.

All of the attackers had had their wands turned to ash, and had several burns in the shape fox paws here and there all over their bodies. They mostly looked like they had been run over by a large stampede of burning foxes, with no paw print being the other alike. While some were small and barely noticeable, others were large fourth-degree burns.

The people who had watched everything had just unfolded, looked even confused and lost, then the Aurors that had just had arrived in the atrium. Which had no luck in getting anyone to explain what had just happened. It was to this scene that Albus Dumbeldore, along with Order members, had just stepped into, as they fell out of the fireplace at the atrium and was in the process of brushing off their clothes. When Albus looked up and saw the devastation before them, he then knew that this would be another headache amongst the many he had had lately. That feeling only grew stronger when he spotted the mark burnt into the floor.

'I think I'm getting too old for this.'

/

"Interesting, interesting," Ollivander almost murmured to himself, as he was finishing the inspection of the wands. "Custom made, you said. These are from that new shop that just opened recently, yes, the Fox Den, I think it's called, correct?"

"That's correct," Remus confirmed with a slight nod. "An accident broke my old wand, and as it involved one of the owners of the store... They made these ones for me, free of charge as an apology. But they told have you check their quality."

"Hmm... They did so, did they," Ollivander asked with an eyebrow raised. "Too bad, they only seem to sell custom made wands..."

"But either way, the holsters are of top quality, at least from I can tell, and will do what they have advertised," he said as handed them to back Remus. "Now over to the wands, which are not only aesthetically pleasing, maybe a bit too embellished for my tastes though, but they do show some great craftsmanship."

"First there is this one, while not as interesting as the other one, but it's still a somewhat unusual combination," he said as he handed Remus the dark brown wand. "10 ¼", lignum vitae, it's stubborn and unyielding, with inlays of cypress and a pair small rubies as focusing gems. It contains two cores, tail hair from both a unicorn and Japanese magical creature called a kitsune."

"Did you know lignum vitae is amongst the hardest and densest wood in all of the world?" Ollivander said with a thoughtful expression. "It's also called the 'Tree of Life' as well as 'Iron-Wood'. It comes with a long history and many legends. The greatest legend about this wood is that is aid that Merlin own wand was made from Lignum Vitae."

"Though that's neither here nor there. It's quite a powerful wand, which excels at jinxes, curses, and hexes," Ollivander informed than him. "Treat it well and it will show you wonders."

"Now this other one here is really interesting," Ollivander said with his eyes twinkling with merriment. "Like the other wand, it's also 10 1/4" but made of black ash, unbending, With a large tiger's eye with remarkable chatoyance at the pommel, but it was not for focus like with the other wand."

"No, that seems to be what the runes mostly are for..." his eyes narrowed in thought. His face then seemed to lit up "The gemstone at this wand seems to be more for storage. If pour magic into it, it will store it for you to use sometime later. Although I'm quite uncertain if could store magic indefinitely, nor could I say of how much magic can store, but still..."

"Also, it's not made of your ordinary wand wood," he then added. "No, it is actually made of magical wand wood... Living magical wand wood even..."

"Excuse me but what do mean by magical wood?" Remus asked confused. "I thought the wood for any wand was taken from ordinary trees."

"While that usually it's true for almost all wands," Ollivander informed. "But there is still the rare few that has wand wood taken from a tree with a dryad dwelling in it, making the wood itself inherently magically charged. But as dryads are rare, not mention quite picky with who they give any of their wood too, so only a scattered few of those really exist."

"Then there is this wand," handing the golden wand over to Remus. "It's made of wood taken from an actual real magical tree, one that is truly living and fully sentient, in this case, an Ent, I think. Though how any of the Rasps even managed to get their hand get their hands on that kind of wood is really most curious. As ents, like most fae, really aren't that keen to mingle with humans in general. That alone makes the wand that kind of unique, almost one of kind."

"Now another thing that is really special about this wand is the cores," Ollivander said after some thought. "Like the other wand, this one also has two cores. Though unlike the wood, the cores themselves aren't really that magical, they sure are unusual. Actually, I don't think I have seen any wands with those cores before. Hairs from a transformed werewolf and a grown wizard, as I said before, while somewhat mundane, they are most unusual wand cores combination."

Remus unconsciously swallowed as he heard that, as suddenly recalled what Rhy had told him about that particular wand, now fully understanding what the little girl had meant when she said that they wouldn't be able to create the wand without him.

"As also I said before it's a most unusual wand, but it's extremely loyal," Ollivander then explained. "So loyal that in fact, I'm doubtful it would it help anyone else but you, even if they shared your blood or bested you in combat. It is particularly good at charms or transfiguration."

After that, the two of them chatted for a short while, before Remus then left, with what seemed to be even more questions than answers than when he had entered.

/

To state that the demon Draco had just summoned, was currently less than pleased, was quite the major understatement. Not only had Draco been completely ignoring it ever since it had appeared. Being way too busy ranting about how much of failure he thought the summoning was, and how dissatisfied was with all of this, all the while, at the same time, also kept blaming demon for all of this, along with how it humiliating him by besmirching his good his name.

As one could probably quite easily expect, the summoned demon didn't really appreciate any of that, and was more than little annoyed, and was growing all the more annoyed with him as time passed. Which was why Draco was now sprouting various quite odd body parts; like a pair of large hairy donkey ears, great buck teeth, a thick forked tail, a pair of clunky cloven hooves, an elongated duckbill, and a pair of tiny bulging eyes receded in a pair of deep alcoves.

That resulted in riling Draco up even more, and he had now begun sputtering in indignation before he then loudly and brashly starting to throw whatever insults he could come up directly at the demon's face. Which really to pissed it off, especially as it came out that Draco had never prepared any kind of tribute, nor had considered bringing anything to bargain with. Expecting the demon to just give him whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it. Because felt entitled for it, just because of his name and who his parents were. Which he arrogantly told it as if it was matter-of-fact.

Needless to say, the demon became more the little enraged, because of this, and its anger it reverted back to true form, at least that Draco thought it was. It previous form was what it called a 'business form', which was just a form it had made specifically to deal with humans. As it had found out a long time ago, that it was much easier to deal with most humans, if they didn't felt threatened or danger in its presence. A child-like form, it had found was often the most appropriate for this kind of task. But now the demon no longer looked like a small child, as it now towered tall high over haughty teen wizard. Now resembled fully grown somewhat humanoid female, which body seemed to be fully constructed of a blazing hot and raging inferno. And was wearing scorched black metal armour, possessing curved twisted horns, sharp-pointed ears, three fingers, and two toes.

It now also was constantly floated above the floor, and as moved it closer to him, leaving a trail of fire behind. Making the temperature in the room escalate rapidly, intense heat now surrounding the demon as malicious, bright red and yellow flames licked away, devouring everything in its path. Sweat beaded on Draco's forehead and soon the heat seemed to become unbearable. Thick clouds of smoke his vision, making it hard for him to breathe, as the roaring flames drowned out any sound around them. But instead of meeting a quite certain, fiery and torturous death, Draco was saved in nick of time by some house-elf that had momentarily managed to distract the demon. Though it lasted for very long, as the elves had quickly become a pyre of ash.

Though instead trying running away or begging for forgiveness from the angered demon, Draco instead began firing curse, jinx, and hex he knew at the demon, putting as much power he could behind each one. Not that that had really done anything to the demon, expect from maybe angering it even more. Then with a mocking laugh, it snapped its fingers, making Draco's wand turned into cinders, slightly burning his hand in the processes, leaving him staring in shock and pain at the scattered ash pile the had once been his wand. Before he then started to shrink, to about half his usual size, his skin turning green and his hair orange. Which was soon followed by both his iris becoming malformed, worsening his eyesight, as they turned pink with a tint of yellow.

/

Alastor Moody hated it when things didn't go according to plan. He was a man that liked to account for every possibility, even the seconds of time it took to do the one thing. He knew the exact time it would take him to get from his bed to either his bedroom door or the second-story window of his flat in London. He knew the sound the third step of his staircase made when someone stepped on the first. He even knew the exact positioning of every painting in House Black, and how to use the eyes of the paintings to tell where anyone was in the house, without ever having to tap into his magical eye. While some may some call him paranoid, he just called it being cautious.

Which was one of the main reasons why he really didn't like the mysterious group that called themselves, the Fellowship of the Fox. There was almost no information about them at all, which frustrated him greatly. He knew they were responsible for portkey debacle, as well as razing the manors belonging to Malfoy and LeStrange families to the ground with fiendfyre, along with several more properties, mostly all belonging to know Death Eaters in Azkaban. While there had yet been any clues to how they were accomplishing this, but, expect for manors belonging to Malfoy and LeStrange families, none of the wards had been triggered, and all properties showed traces of being scraped clean first. With most of the stolen belonging had later been found being auctioned out overseas under Fellowship's name with help of Gringotts Bank, creating yet another mystery.

Moody also knew that the Fellowship were responsible for what happened to the Minister's Undersecretary, Dolores Umbridge. Though while they still really didn't what was wrong with her, nor what has caused it. Though an unknown potion was what they strongly suspected at the moment, but they weren't quite certain yet. But it really couldn't have happened to a better person, Alastor thought. He had never liked that pink toady anyway, as she had always got on his nerves.

He also suspected that Fellowship were the ones that gotten the goblins to seize the vaults of all the know Death Eaters. But he lacked any sort of proof or evidence to confirms this, as it was only just gut feeling at the moment. But through his many years as an Auror, he had come to trust his gut, as it saved his life more than once. He really wondered how they accomplished that feat, as they been adamant against touching any families vaults when either the Ministry or Dumbeldore had asked them to do something similar. Then there was this latest mess with the ambush in Ministry.

Evidently, this was also caused by the Fellowship of the Fox, for what could from the paw prints of a fox running over the people that lay on the floor, all around a large scorch mark in the shape of a sniggering fox. According to witness statements, Sirius Black had arrived a few minutes before them, after been searched and handed over his wand he had been escorted by pair of Aurors, which by their description sounded like they looked like Nymphadora Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

After they had passed about half the room attackers had appeared and started slinging spells at the group. The Aurors had then raised some sort of spherical shield over them, and Sirius had begun to taunt them. This had enraged some of the attackers which started throwing killing curses at the group. But curses hit Sirius and rest had exploded in a conflagration of fire and heat, leaving as it was now. After hearing this Alastor didn't know to think, he could conclude two things from this.

The Fellowship had known or suspect about this ambush happening, though how he didn't know, as had seen no suspicious movements. Though it seems like that they had decided to spring the ambush just a little before Sirius himself had arrived giving the attackers no time to regroup and try again. The latter was more worrying than the former, in Alastor's opinion, as that means that the Fellowship knew exactly when Sirius was arriving, which meant something he had long suspected, they had a spy in their midst again or their information was leaked somewhere.

He was suddenly drawn from thoughts when he saw something small move from the corner of his normal eye. It was far to small to a human, even if it had been a child, and he was sure there hadn't been anything there before. His magical eye zeroed in on where he had seen it, but it had been too late. As all that he managed to catch was that it had some kind of small animal, but he didn't any get close enough look to see what kind. He would have to ask Albus later borrows if he could borrow his pensive, he might discover what it was if he got to study the memory closer. But he filed that thought for later and went to back getting more witness statements, hoping to get to the bottom on what happened in just before they had arrived.

/

Draco looked at himself in the mirror and was disappointed and disgusted at what he saw looking back at him. His once good looks were now long gone and were nothing more than just a mere memory now. Where there once had been a slender boy with thin and sleek platinum blond hair, cold grey eyes, a pale complexion and rather sharp, aristocratic features. Though what he saw looking back at him now was quite the different story. Not only was he now no longer a male, much to his dismay, but a female, that just barely looked human. Not that anyone could really tell, as he didn't really have anything to show for his new gender.

Draco was now much more squat and misshapen. With somewhat greyed and grimy, sallow-skin, that was light chartreuse, with yellow hints in its colouring. His now shoulders were seemingly set unnaturally far apart, almost making him wider than he was tall. His hair was now a brash rust colour and was thick, stiff, scraggly, coarse and bristly. That jutted out in a wild, prickly, unruly mess. He was also somewhat bow-legged, and his back was somewhat crooked. Partly hiding his now stubbier cauliflower ears, that came to a blunt point. Draco now also had gained a wide mouth, that had a rather large heavyset jaw with a huge underbite, from which several blunt tusk-like teeth, protruded. Above that were a large broad and flat snout-like nose, and thick, heavy brows were positioned above a pair of slant squinty and seemingly bloodshot and drab pink eyes.

Making him overall look like a chunky and brutish looking creature, that seemed to possess a slight slouch, an appearance which Draco considered be revolting. Though what Draco thought had been even worse than his new hideous appearance, at least according to at least, had been the reaction of his parents, when they had finally found out what he had done. After the house-elves had informed them about Draco's latest venture and had only just barely been in time to save him the enraged demon he had summoned. It had taken them much time and lot of very fast talking and several large bribes, using all of their diplomatic skill to get the demon to calm down somewhat.

It had after many long hours of fast-talking and hard negotiations, filled with several sworn oaths and many strict promises, and even more large bribes, before the demon had been properly appeased, with a few additional bribes to make it withdraw. What had then followed after the demon's departure was the worst and longest scolding Draco had ever gotten from either of his parents, even combined. And was followed by an even longer lecture, which was ended by his parents informing him that he from now was banned for their family library for the foreseeable future. He was also grounded for the rest of the year, along with that he also had lost all of his privileges for the rest of the year as well. Draco was also made aware that this would be just the start of his punishments, and that they would add further punishment later down the line.

/

While the prestigious position Minister of Magic had a lot of perks, it also came with some unpleasantness and drawbacks bundled in. One could argue that the prestige, luxury and attention easily outshone the never-ending meetings, the full-time politicking and the natural distrust people have of politicians. But one would be wrong to say so, for the unpleasant part of being the Minister of Magic wasn't the talk, the bribing or the hate – those things were just normal field game for any natural politician, and one would need to be a natural player if one wanted to achieve the highest chair in their government. But right now Cornelius Fudge really didn't feel as such, as he swore angrily as he poured himself a large glass of fire whiskey.

He had been quite happy with his job so far, only doing what had needed to be done, while also earning himself some additional money from upstanding citizens, by listening more closely to their advice, than the ones of Dumbeldore. It had earned him a comfortable chunk of gold sitting in his vault. In fact, he had been so satisfied with his job that he had planned to run for Minister for the next elections as well, after all, there were no true opponents in the political field that he should be wary of, as Dumbeldore didn't seem to want it.

However, his comfortable little world of lazing around and bribes had suddenly become much more difficult with Rita Skeeter's recent articles, not that he couldn't understand the public's outrage. Leaving the Boy-Who-Lived with Muggles, really? The old man had clearly lost it to leave the heir of House Potter and their Saviour to people who knew nothing of magic and were little more than apes. What been even was according to Skeeter articles they had even hated and taken out the boy, which had made them even lower than apes.

Fortunately, he had nothing to do with the decision, which had allowed him to easily avoid a political scandal that would have undoubtedly caused him to resign otherwise. Still, he did not envy Dumbeldore right now, from what he had learnt the man had been buried neck deep into Howlers for days, and he had almost lost both his positions in the political world.

Although it was his the latest problem that got him in such a fit, the open trial of Sirius Black. To him, it had seemed like an open and shut case, where Black couldn't have been anything more than guilty. But there he had been wrong, oh so wrong. It was unbelievable how wrong he had been. During the trial, it came out that there never really been an official investigation of any kind.

All there had it had really been was one incident report of from the Auror that had arrived first on the scene. Then a report of the arrest of Sirius Black, with transfer papers for Azkaban ending the case file. There were no interrogation report, or trial records, not even a follow-up report on what they had found had happened at the crime scene. The Minister now regretted inviting the public for the trial, it had been a political catastrophe, filled with quagmires, both to the left and the right.

They had started the trial, with having every member of the Wizengamot swear an oath of honour, that they would be impartial and would only vote as the evidence showed. Saying while didn't believe the jury would vote otherwise, this way no one would be able to cry foul play about this much-discussed case. To then further minimise suspicions, a pair of healers from St. Mungos had been brought in, to make sure Black was of a sound mind and body he could be, along with confirming that Black was not currently under the effects of any magic or potion. And like the jury, they had been bound oaths of honour, to be fully professional and not personal any feelings, or let any outside influence effect the results of their examinations.

After having been cleared by the healers, Black's goblin attorney claimed him to be innocent of any and all charges, which later turned out to be true, as they prosecution only circumstantial evidence. While Black's had not only went under truth serum but had lots of memories backing him up too. At this point it was crystal clear what happened, and not been the outcome Fudge had hoped for. He had been cleared of all charges and been given a neat sum of gold, along with an apology for the miscarriage of justice.

Even Black's escape from Azkaban was not illegal, for had not been a crime to escape from before he had done it. Meaning he couldn't be charged for it, as one be charged for a crime if it was illegal at the time they did crime in question. The real crime had really could be charged for was being an illegal animagus, but in face of the grave miscarriage of justice had been put through, that had been waived as well, along with the usual fee for that he would otherwise have to pay for registering his animagus form. But only under the condition that he registered his form within a months time.

Fudge then felt a shiver go done his spine when he thought about what tomorrows headlines would be. What he needed now was a scapegoat or a diversion, but where to find that?

/

Dumbledore looked into the bowl and placed his finger on the right. He ran his finger along its diameter and the image in the bowl shivered and reformed to show the Ministry atrium earlier this morning. He watched as Sirius arrived and how the ambush was sprung.

He had to admit that it was some impressive magic that the Fellowship, as they called themselves, had used this morning. Their illusions were superb, he could hardly that it been an illusion, and doubted would have found out know beforehand. And that triggered fire spell was quite magnificent, at least that is what he thought it was.

But it was the Fellowship itself that was troubling Albus. They were a bunch of clearly quite powerful and clever individuals, but so far Albus felt that most of their actions were quite juvenile and brash, as most of their attacks looked like pranks taken too far. While haven't killed anyone yet, he thought it was just a matter of time.

But was troubled him, even more, was how much they seemed to know, and how good they seemed to be at hiding. Like Alastor, Albus suspected that there once again was a mole in their midst, but he had no idea who. They seemed to know too much, to not have a man on the inside, which would also explain how they got past the wards at Grimmauld Place so easy.' I wonder if I could reveal the mole if I recast Fiddielus at the headquarters?'

Albus had already dismissed Severus ridiculous notion that it was the children that were the moles, as he seriously doubted that they had neither means nor the knowledge necessary to send the information without them knowing, let alone spy on any of the Orders meetings. That, along with the fact, that Severus had only started to accuse the children of being spies after he had discovered that he couldn't read their minds using legilimency, which didn't really help with his claim.

The Fellowship also seemed knowledgeable about what the Death Eaters and Ministry was up, which made Albus wonder just how many of them there were. And let's not forget about what the goblins may tell the. He still didn't know know how they pulled that of. Which still frustrated him, as goblins still kept ignored any of his attempts to form an alliance with them. 'I really wish I knew what kind of agreement the Fellowship had with the goblins.'

The fluid in the pensive then changed again.

An image of the same events but from different person's view was now depicted in the bowl.

But he learned nothing new from memory, the only real difference in this one, was that he could see some sort small animal almost completely behind one of the pillars in the atrium. But he didn't pay it any mind, as it was probably just someone's pet, which had gotten separated from it owner during the whole debacle, nothing of any real importance.

He then switched to yet another memory, putting the sighting of what he presumed to be a pet out of his mind, then that could be an animagus, not even crossing his mind.

Because really, what is the chance that it would actually be one?

/

Later that evening, at Grimmauld Place 12, the Order of the Phoenix once again came together to discuss their latest actions in the war against Voldemort. Like many times before, the meeting was led by Albus Dumbeldore, who updated everyone about the status of things at Hogwarts and the rest of the Wizarding World. This was also the first meeting since Remus had gone on that last mission to persuade the Werewolves from joining Voldemort, so naturally, they weren't aware of what had just recently had happened to him.

"Remus, any news on the Werewolves?" Dumbledore asked as he handed over the word to the werewolf.

"Only that I almost got killed by the last pack I visited," Remus snorted. "Let me tell you, they weren't kidding around."

"What happened?" Minerva said worriedly.

"I was visiting one of the last packs on my list," Remus told them. "At first things went okay, or at least I thought so but they were simply allowing me to do my thing. When I tried to convince them to stay neutral in the fight, their leader snapped at me. Told me that You-Know-Who made them some very fine offers if they joined him."

"That's not good," Dumbledore replied solemnly with a sigh.

"I argued that joining Voldemort wasn't a good idea and that he was only given them empty promises of a better life." Remus sighed. "They asked me what I could offer them, but once they realized I had nothing concrete, things went sour. No matter what I said, they seemed to be sure that following Voldemort was the only way for them to improve their lives."

"Surely they know that You-Know-Who will not fulfil his promises to them?" Minerva asked.

"You don't know what it's like," Remus shook his head. "Werewolves are treated as nothing more than beasts by most of the Wizarding World. We're shunned from participating in society, can hardly find any work, don't receive any help from the Ministry at all and so on. And just before you say anything, I know you all well enough to see that you don't think like that but sadly, people who treat Werewolves kindly are an exception. So it's not surprising that when someone offers them a chance at a better life, they'll take it."

"Even if they know that there's a very small chance at getting that better life," Arthur Weasley said in understanding.

"Yes, a bit of hope is better than no hope at all," Remus said agreeing with a slight nod.

"So what should we do?" Hestia Jones asked. "We can't let them join You-Know-Who."

"I don't know," Remus said with shrug. "The only thing I can of is for the ministry to somehow show that they're willing and trying to change. Though I doubt that will happen."

"That is the most troubling news. But unfortunately, it seems it's not we can do very much about at the moment," Dumbledore said with another drawn-out sigh. "Just one last question, you said you almost got killed by them?"

"Yeah..." Remus replied somewhat nervously. "Once I noticed that things were going wrong, I tried to leave but they attacked. I managed to fight off several of them but they still managed to disarm me and pin me down on the ground."

"So how did you get away?" Dumbledore asked worried and somewhat curious.

"One moment I had several of them surrounding me, thinking I was about to be turned over to Voldemort, when all of the sudden, they were all flung across the room," Remus slowly began explaining. "I looked up to see a house-elf standing in front of me, glaring and pointing his finger at the werewolves that had surrounded me."

Then taken a short break, he then added a bit more hesitantly. "With the house-elf was also, from what could see a young girl, dressed in a red and black outfit, with a large mask covering her whole face. The most unusual thing about her was that some part of her skin was covered with lizard scale, along with the fact that seemed to have a dragon tail sticking out under clothes. Though if any of that actually real, or was just some kind of charm, I don't do know. As after the girl had drawn her weapons and started tearing through the attacking pack as if they seemingly as if they were little to nothing. Don't know what happened after that as house-elf told me I had to leave with him and a second later, I appeared just outside of Hogsmeade."

That last part really wasn't true, but from reason, Remus felt like should not tell the rest of the Order anything about Rasps or what he had found out while living with them. Though he didn't why, he thought it was better to follow his instincts this time, at least until he had figured it out.

/

TBC

/