Chapter 9a: Dealing With the Pack Part I
Sam slipped quietly into Harry's room and stood watching Jacob and Harry. Harry was still unconscious, on his back, turned toward Jacob who was lying next to him, one arm propping up his head above Harry's and the other hand over Harry's heart. As Sam watched, Jacob lowered his head to rest on the pillow beside Harry's, the hand that had propped up his head now running through Harry's loose hair. Sam realized that Billy was right, this was no mere diplomatic incident, this was something much more, something more swiftly and violently dealt with. Jacob had Imprinted on Harry and if Sam's suspicions were correct, his pack had tried to kill his Alpha's Mate.
"Jacob, can I come in?" Sam asked softly.
Jacob lifted his head and nodded toward the chair beside the bed. "You know, don't you?" Jacob asked when Sam sat down.
"I don't know anything," Sam said honestly, "but I have a few guesses. Talk to me Jacob, tell me whats going through that head of yours."
"Its the funniest thing, I feel like if I take my hand off his heart, even for a second, it will stop beating and I'll loose him." Jacob said softly. "It should be you, you know..."
"What should be me?" Sam asked.
"You should be Alpha." Jacob said, "You're older than me, stronger, more experienced. If you were Alpha, none of this would have happened. You would have picked him up, he would be staying in your house, he wouldn't have been in the woods this morning, there wouldn't be walking corpses in my front yard, and he wouldn't be lying here drugged out of his mind on things I can't even name."
"No, he would be lying there dead." Sam said, "Jacob, you were born for this. I stepped down for you because of that, and I can see I made the right choice. Even if I was Alpha, the Imprint still would have happened, there is nothing that could change that. And to be honest, Harry would have been here anyway, I would have had him stay with you. If I was Alpha, your mate would be dead now instead of sleeping. I wouldn't have let Carlisle cross the Border and I would have sent Angela away. You saved him today Jacob. Your willingness to fly in the face of tradition, to accept help in any form, that brashness and independence, that is what saved Harry, and that is why you are Alpha and I am Second."
"I don't know what to do Sam." Jacob said.
"You do what you've always done, Jake, you find out what happened, in anyway possible, then you make life a living hell for whomever fucked up your world, and I will be right there beside you enjoying every minute. Now, you kiss your Mate, get off your ass and go be the Alpha you were born to be." Sam said getting up, "I'll call the pack. We will meet you outside."
"Make sure Bella, the Cullens' and Angela are there too, as many witnesses as possible. First we find out what happened, then, well, there will be stories told about what happens in the legends of all four races. Let me know when everyone is here. I'll join you then." Jacob said, turning back to Harry.
"Yes, Alpha." Sam said, opening his mind to the rest of the pack and calling them back.
Someone would pay for what happened to Harry and that payment would come not just from the Alpha, but from a court of the majority of the Major Magical Races. This was going to be fun.
Jacob walked out of the house into a much larger crowd of people than he had been expecting. "Sam!" Jacob yelled. He heard an answering whuff from somewhere in the crowd.
A large brindle wolf bounded up to Jacob and sat at his feet grinning like a canine maniac.
"What the hell is all this?" Jacob asked, "We are holding an investigation, not a barbecue. Stop grinning at me like that! What did you do?"
"You said you wanted as many witnesses as possible, so I provided." Sam said, phasing back to human, "Come on, I'll introduce you."
Jacob looked around in disbelief. He didn't know half of the people, but as Sam obviously did, Jacob was content to let Sam drag him around and attempt to change that fact. In addition to the people Jacob expected to see were Angela's parents, George and Amy Weber, Esme and Jasper Cullen as impartial vampires, Alex Waltman and Coryn Jameson for the Unassociated Were and Shifter Clans, Percy Bennett and Meredith Cole from the Department of Magical Affairs and Alasdair and Sheena McLeod for the Initiated Muggles. Jacob made small talk just long enough to not cause offense, then pulled Sam to the side.
"You convened a whole bloody committee for an internal matter?" Jacob hissed.
"I didn't exactly have a choice, and technically, Angela convened the committee. This is a lot bigger than we thought. Look, you just pretend you know what's going on and I'll explain everything later." Sam said. "Just remember, you are Alpha, you don't actually have to say anything, let me do all the talking."
Jacob pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Fine," he said, "whatever. Let's get the public stuff done so we can sort out the private shit."
"You mean so you can act like you instead of the Big Bad Alpha?" Sam quipped.
"Shut up." Jacob said, smiling slightly.
"Angela!" Sam called over the crowd, "Let's get started!"
Angela flashed Sam a thumbs up and touched her wand to her throat. "Alright everybody, shut up!" her amplified voice sounded over the chatter of so many people, silenceing them instantly.
Meredith stepped up to the table that had been used as an operating table less than four hours ago and shuffled the papers sitting on it. "If you all could take your places please?" she called.
Percy ushered Esme, Amy, Alex and Alasdair to chairs behind the table on either side of Meredith, and took his place at the right of the table. Jacob and Sam sat with Angela, Alice, Carlisle, Bella, Edward and Billy as witnesses. When they were all seated, Percy tapped his wand against the quill, parchment and modified digital voice recorder at his station. "Testing, testing," he said. The quill stood up in writing position on the parchment and a green light lit up on the recorder. "Madam Cole, we are ready. Begin Official Recording."
Meredith cleared her throat. "This is Senior Agent Meredith Cole of the Investigations Office of the Department of Magical Affairs, Washington field office.
"A committee of Magical Races has been conviened today to investigate the events leading up to the attempted murder of one Harry Lupin-Black, seventh year student at WAFE institute in Salem, Massachusetts, Junior Alpha to the Marauders pack in Boston, Massachusetts, son of Remus John Lupin-Black; Alpha of the Marauders pack in Boston, and Sirius Orion Lupin-Black, Lord and Head of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black.
"This committee was conviened by Angela Myako Weber, Witch and Healer-Trainee at St. Gabriel's Hospital and Sam Aaron Uley, Werewolf and Second to the Quileute pack on behalf of his Alpha, Jacob Joseph Black. The committee members today are as follows: Esme Cullen of the Cullen Vampire clan; Amy Weber, graduate of Wayfarers Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry, San Fransisco, California; Alexander Waltman, Weretiger and Alpha of the Frostpaw Clan and Alasdair MeLeod, Muggle, Initiated into the secrets of the Magical Community when his sister Mary Alston received her acceptance letter to Avalon in 1993.
" Testifying today are: Angela Weber, Healer-Trainee; Carlisle Cullen, Medical Doctor and vampire; Isabelle Swan, Initiated Muggle; Billy Black, Quileute Tribe Elder; Sam Uley, Second of the Quileute pack; Jacob Black, Alpha of the Quileute Pack; David Bohannon, Quileute pack member; Leah Clearwater, Quileute pack member..."
"And Harry James Lupin-Black, Victim and all that other crap you mentioned." Harry said, limping forward in his white direwolf form.
"Damnit, Harry, you aren't even supposed to be awake yet, much less out of bed!" Angela yelled, jumping up.
Jacob followed her, catching Harry when his front leg collapsed. Angela and Carlisle reached them only seconds later.
"Change back you idiot, the Stasis doesn't work on Direwolves." Angela said. Beside her Carlisle was readying a shot of dilauded.
Jacob held Harry as he returned to his human form. "Ow," said Harry, "hurts less as a Direwolf."
"Are you allergic to dilauded?" Carlisle asked after Angela cast the pain blocking spell.
"Um..." Harry thought.
"No, he's not. Shoot him up, Doc." Angela said.
Carlisle gave Harry the painkiller and they all returned to their seats, Harry cradled comfortably in Jacob's lap.
"Is Mr. Lupin-Black well enough to testify?" Meredith asked, concerned about the young wizard.
"Well enough or not, he's going to do it anyway, Madam Chairwoman." Angela informed the committee dryly.
"Are you sure Ms. Weber? Surely he..." Meredith started.
"Don't bother." Angela interrupted, "You will loose. The easiest way to get Harry to do what his Healers want is to let him do what he wants and exhaust himself enough that Dreamless Sleep will be effective."
"Very well then, let's continue where we left off." Meredith said, then hesitated, "Um, Percy, where did we leave off?"
"You were just about to give the final instructions to the members of the committee and begin testimony." Percy said.
"Right," Meredith said, clapping her hands, "Ladies and gentlemen of the Comittee, please remember to identify yourselves the first time you speak, so the recording devices can differentiate your voices, and hold all questions until after the testimony has been heard. We will grant time after each witness has testified for questions and testimony will be in as close to chronological order as we can get, so some witnesses may be heard from more than once. Let's start with Mr. Lupin-Black."
"Madam Chairwoman, can I testify from here or do I have to sit in the chair?" Harry asked, eyeing the uncomfortable looking witness chair warily.
"Under the circumstances, I think you and Alpha Black can testify from where you are." Meredith said.
Harry sighed in relief. "Thank you, Madam Chairwoman."
"Whenever you are ready, Mr. Lupin-Black." Meredith said.
Harry took a breath and began his testimony. He spoke of his flight from Jacob's house earlier that morning, leaving out the intimate details of the encounter. He told of running through the woods in his Direwolf form and admitted to not really paying attention to his surroundings. Then he told of the attack that had come out of nowhere, his flight back toward the safety of the Black house, and of his resignation, the knowledge and fear of certain death that he had experianced. Finally he spoke of Alice's rescue and the aftermath of their escape.
"Alexander Waltman, Mr. Lupin-Black. Why were you running through unknown territory alone?" Alex asked at the end of Harry's testimony.
"My reasons are personal and have no relevence to this investigation. However, I know the boundries and borders of Quileute Territory quite well, having studied them extensively when the first tentative approval of my request came through. I had no reason to believe I would come to much harm as long as I stayed within the boundaries of Quileute land." Harry said.
"Alasdair McLeod. Much harm? You believed you would come to some harm then?" Alasdair asked.
"I am naturally somewhat accident prone." Harry said, "I expected minor abrasions or lacerations, but usually I need a broom and a couple of Bludgers to inflict this kind of damage on myself. Ask Angela, she's been patching me up for years."
Alasdair turned to look at Angela, the question in his eyes.
"Its true." Angela said, "I earned my Charms Mastery when I was 15 because of him, and I am less than a year away from obtaining my Healer's Liscence because of all the experience Harry's given me."
"Why would he go to you instead of a real Healer?" Alasdair pressed.
"Is that really relevent?" Angela asked.
Alasdair opened his mouth to reply but Meredith beat him to it.
"No, its not." Meredith said, "Any more questions for Mr. Lupin-Black?"
Everyone on the committee answered in the negative, so Meredith called the next witness.