Changing Fates

1972

Septimus and Cedrella were startled when Severus took less than a day to think about the offer Cedrella had made and make a decision. They had both fully expected Severus to take a good bit longer than that, if he acted on the offer at all.

The only thing that didn't surprise them was who Severus approached. Harfang was the quietest and gentlest of demeanor of the elder Marauders, which would have made him far less intimidating to someone used to violence from adult males. Even at that, Severus had opted to approach Callidora rather than Harfang himself.

According to Harfang and Callidora, when they talked to the rest of the Marauders later, Severus had asked for them to become his magical guardians. He had, apparently, made it quite clear that if he never saw his parents again, it would be far too soon. He had also revealed the source of his speed in acting on the offer tendered.

It had been his friend Lily. Evidently, Severus had gone to her to talk it over, and she had encouraged him to both accept the offer and go for the magical guardian option. This hadn't really surprised Septimus and Cedrella. During the two-week vacation, it had become quite clear that Lily was deeply concerned about Severus' welfare. The two of them acted more like brother and sister than they did friends, much of the time.

Harfang had immediately begun the process of making himself Severus' magical guardian. That Severus was Muggle-raised would simplify the process immensely, despite his mother being a witch. It was easier for the authorities involved to believe a Muggleborn or muggle-raised child had been abused than it was for them to believe a wizard-raised child had been. In this one instance, the prejudice against muggles worked in the Marauders' favor.

The process proved to be even easier than anyone thought it would be ... because Eileen Snape didn't fight the assignment. It turned out she was ill with a lingering, degenerative and incurable disease. A condition she had hidden from her son, though Severus had been aware her health was frail. She would be dead before Severus came of age, no matter what the Healers did for her.

She had been as badly abused as her son, but she'd had just enough will left to recognize that Severus' situation would become dire indeed once she passed. She'd also had wit enough to realize that the magical guardianship Harfang was willing to take up was Severus' best chance at escaping her abusive husbands' clutches. When Harfang had shown up with the paperwork (and a lawyer, just in case), she'd lost no time in signing them. Tobias hadn't been able to sign them fast enough to suit him, eager to be shut of Severus.

When they learned about Eileen's condition, Harfang lost no time in hexing Tobias to forget about her and removing Eileen from the home. Her marriage could not be broken, but she could and would at least spend her last years in comfort and free of fear ... and not be separated from her son. It was the best that could be done under the circumstances.

Harfang also went to speak to Lord Prince, Severus' grandfather. The man had disowned Eileen when she had fallen for and married Tobias. Harfang was hoping that he could convince the man to reinstate at least Severus. His chances of that were good, as there were no other males to inherit the Prince title when Lord Prince died. The Prince estate was closer to the size of the Weasley estate than what other pureblood families enjoyed, but it was more than enough to see Severus well settled as an adult. It would also give Severus another layer of protection and support.

It took Harfang a few months of arguing with the old man, but eventually Lord Prince saw the wisdom of reinstating Severus as the Prince heir despite his halfblood status. Unfortunately, despite her terminal status, he refused to reinstate Eileen. Still, it was better than nothing.

The remainder of the '71-72 school year was pretty quiet, so far as such things went, both in and out of Hogwarts. It wasn't until the summer of 1972 that things really started heating up.

July saw four attacks on Muggleborns and their homes - one per week. Each attack was accompanied by a skull-and-snake sign hovering over the house. In all four cases, the parents had been tortured before being killed. Three of the Muggleborn students had also been tortured and killed. The fourth had, by some miracle, managed to escape. The going theory was that accidental magic was responsible, as the kid had been a first year, and hadn't known anywhere near enough magic to fight off or escape an unknown number of adult wizards bent on torture and murder. The poor kid was in pretty bad shape both physically and mentally, but he was alive and would recover.

The attacks alarmed Septimus for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it made it clear that Voldemort had someone in the Underage Magic department, as that was the only way his followers could have known where the muggleborn children lived - not even the teachers knew that. The only person at Hogwarts who would know the childrens' addresses was the Headmaster, and then only if he looked at the Book of Names for some reason.

The second reason it alarmed Septimus was because far too many people had not made that connection. Even Dumbledore seemed to be clueless as to how the four families had been attacked. He seemed to be assuming they had been four random and unexpectedly lucky attacks. The third reason for alarm dovetailed with the second. Because no one else seemed to be making the connection, absolutely nothing was being done about the situation. It boded ill for future problems.

Septimus talked to Harfang and Charlus, and they agreed that if Voldemort and his followers were being so bold, there was a damn good chance they'd strike the Alley when it was full of Muggleborns and their families. Accordingly. and knowing that the Aurors would not be present in any kind of numbers, the three men agreed to do what they could to keep an eye on the Alley during that crucial couple of weeks.

Fortunately, it proved to be one of the few times they were wrong. The atmosphere in the Alley had certainly been tense, but Voldemort and his followers hadn't made their presence known. Septimus for one was grateful, but he wasn't about to make any bets on how long that state of affairs would last.

Especially not when, shortly after school started again, so did the attacks. September, October, and November saw an attack a week. This time, it was all on muggles who didn't have magical children. The Aurors still had to go investigate due to the presence of a magical sign. The Marauders still had a lot of contacts in the Auror corps, so they soon heard about the attacks. That was the only reason Septimus and the other Marauders became aware of them - because Voldemort always left that skull-and-snake marker above the attacks. None of the attacks made it into the Prophet because the muggles attacked had no other link to the magical world, and the events were thus deemed unimportant.

In December, Septimus tried for the first time to sound an alarm in the Wizengamot about Voldemort and his activities, bringing the proof of all the attacks with him. Rather predictably, he was more or less ignored, as everyone seemed to be of the opinion that attacks against muggles weren't any of their problem.

The only good news was that a summer spent with the Longbottoms seemed to have done Severus some good. According to James and Sirius, he was in much better spirits those first few months of his second year than he had been his first year.

Septimus was very, very amused when Charlus received a letter from his son James in mid-December, asking for confirmation of his suspicions as regarded Remus and the source of Remus' apparently fragile health.

Remus had not accepted any of the offers of help that had been tendered. At least, not thus far. He hadn't said a firm no yet, either. Septimus strongly suspected that Remus had refused to accept because of his condition, not wanting to force people he thought were ignorant of the truth into helping someone like him. Septimus knew that Harfang hadn't told Remus they knew about his condition - mostly because they wanted Remus to trust them enough to tell them himself.

At any rate, the boys seemed to have finally not only noticed the pattern to Remus' illnesses and absences, but had also managed to figure out a possible cause of it. Charlus, highly amused at it having taken them so long (a full year and a half - shameful!) wrote back confirming James' suspicions.

It quickly became clear that there had been a war council at the school over the information, because all three of the elder Marauders received letters asking for information on ways to deal with lycanthropy, and any possible ways for someone to be around a werewolf safely come the full moon. Septimus later found out that Sirius had included Arcturus in the information request as well.

The letters made it clear that Severus, Lily, James and Sirius were both looking for a way to help Remus, and doing so behind his back. He had not told any of them of his condition as yet. Septimus finally decided to say something to Remus over Yule break. It was all well and good to wait for Remus to trust them, but lycanthropy was ... not well looked upon by the general populace, and there was a damn good chance Remus would never feel safe in telling them on his own. It might well be better just to let him know they had figured it out, and didn't give a damn.

Weasley Cottage was large enough, if only barely, to play host to the Marauders and their various children and their friends, so that year everyone spent the holiday there. As a result, the cottage was the fullest and busiest it had ever been. Aside from the boys and Lily, Arcturus, and the other two Marauder couples, Septimus and Cedrella's boys were about, as were Molly and Bill, her and Arthur's first child. Septimus' brothers also stopped by for a bit at one point over the holiday, as did his parents and the still-living parents of the other Marauders.

As a result, Weasley Cottage was quite lively for the entire two weeks, with much laughter, goofing about and playful pranks played on all and sundry. By that point, their various children considered it a point of pride to, someday, manage to prank their parents. They hadn't managed it thus far, but not for lack of trying.

Septimus finally pulled Remus aside on Boxing Day.

"Remus, there's really no gentle way to put this, so ... we all know you're a werewolf." Septimus said. "And before you start worrying - we don't care. Actually, we knew last year, when Harfang made the offer to you about one of us sponsoring you or becoming your magical guardian."

Remus went milk-pale for a minute, but finally blew his breath out. "I ... you ... really?" He asked quietly.

"Really." Septimus said. "You're a kid, Remus. There's absolutely no way that you became a werewolf of your own free will. You shouldn't have to pay the price for someone else's cruelty. As you've learned, Harfang, Charlus and I take a rather dim view to people getting the short end of the stick like that."

Remus gave a slightly hollow-sounding chuckle. "Yeah, I sort of got that memo." He admitted. "Especially when you were willing to step up for Severus."

"Now ... that offer is still open. I'll admit to suspecting you haven't acted on it one way or the other because of the fact you're a werewolf, and you didn't think we knew about that ... and that we might rescind the offer when we found out."

Remus actually blushed, glancing down at his worn trainers for a moment. "You wouldn't be wrong." He admitted. Then, after a moment. "Though I ... if you wouldn't mind ... " He hesitated for a moment, then visibly gathered his courage. "If you'd be willing to sponsor me, I'd be grateful." He finally managed.

Septimus wasn't too surprised that Remus would ask it of him in particular. How much being a werewolf affected someone varied widely from person to person, but the chances of the effects being stronger increased the younger a person was when they were first infected. Remus had clearly been infected very young, so the odds of him being strongly affected were very high.

The most common expression of lycanthropy was a tendency towards pack-ishness. That is, werewolves tended to be very social given a chance, and sensitive to power structures within a group. Remus showed absolutely no signs of the sort of dominant personality that would make him a leader. As a result, he'd be looking for a leader to follow, even if only subconsciously.

Charlus had been and still was the leader of the elder Marauders, but Septimus knew that someone like Charlus, with a permanent, debilitating injury, would not be respected as a leader. Septimus, who still retained his physical health, virtually all of his fighting prowess from the war and an unashamedly dominant personality, would be very ... alluring ... as a potential leader for someone like Remus.

Septimus grinned and gripped Remus' shoulder gently. "I'd be happy to." He told Remus. And it was the truth. Helping alleviate some of the financial burden Remus' parents faced dealing with his lycanthropy wouldn't be a hardship for Septimus and Cedrella at this point. Their overall wealth was increasing steadily despite the expenses involved in getting their children through Hogwarts.

Septimus spent the next hour or so talking to Remus about school, and the arrangements that had been made for him for full moons. He made a mental note to check the shack Dumbledore had set up for himself, unwilling to trust the man to have equipped and safeguarded it sufficiently. Eventually, both he and Remus rejoined the others and continued their holiday.