Chapter 22: Tracking down a were

For disclaimer and author notes please see chapter 1. Additional AN: I didn't really check the full moon dates claimed here.

1986-09-11 11:00 UTC, the Leaky Cauldron

Sirius walked into the Leaky the day after the next full moon. He knew, from Tom, that there would be several weres here today, and although they may not be able to tell him anything about Mooney, they may know of Greyback.

Danny Currier saw him enter, and waved to him cheerily. Looks like I'm a hit with these guys, smirked Sirius to himself.

"Hey Danny, how're you doing? Where's Ray?", he asked.

"I'm very well Lord Black. As for Ray, I think he just stepped out for something; he'll be back soon enough".

"So, have any of you found my friend Remus Lupin?", smirked Sirius, as if at a private joke.

"Umm, no Lord Black. In fact we could find only a few who even knew him, but then we're all a bit younger, and I dare say there would be others outside our circles who knew him. We need to ask around some more", said Danny.

"I would have been surprised if you had found him. Remus had pretty much gone muggle, and yes I did find him. In fact, he should be joining us soon. He wanted to meet you guys, find out how you were doing, etc."

And at that moment Remus walked in. Waving a cheery hello to Tom, he came straight to the table at which Sirius was sitting, grabbed an unoccupied chair across from him and sat down.

"Hello everyone, my name is Remus Lupin", he introduced himself. "Sirius found me a week or so ago, and we both decided we should visit you guys today".

There were about a dozen of them. Every single one was staring at Remus in shock. For a werewolf to be so affluent - which he clearly was, from the cut and cloth of his muggle suit - and, even more surprising, to be so apparently unaffected by last night's full moon, was unheard of.

"Mr Lupin-", began Ray, who had walked in a bare couple of seconds behind Remus.

"Please call me Remus".

"And call me Sirius, please", interrupted Sirius. "Being called 'Lord Black', considering all the people who had held that title, makes me feel very uncomfortable". Then he nodded to Ray to continue.

"Thank you Remus and Sirius. What I was going to ask you, Remus, is this: I can see you can afford wolfsbane, but even with wolfsbane you'd be more affected by last night than you seem to be. It's almost as if you've been cured, but that's not possible, is it?", said Ray. Then, before Remus could speak, he said "I'm Ray, by the way, and this is Danny, and I'll let the others introduce themselves by and by".

Remus nodded at both of them in introduction. "No I'm sorry Ray I've not been cured. What I have found is that a certain muggle sleeping pill - a very strong one, I might add - appears to completely suppress everything. You're effectively dead to the world, just barely breathing, and with - I can only assume - not enough consciousness to even transform".

Danny looked very hopeful. "Is that as expensive as wolfsbane? And does it have any side-effects? I know lots of muggle drugs have side effects, and you have to often take other medicines to curtail them".

"Muggle-raised, are you? So was I; my mother was a muggle. And to answer your question, it's a tad expensive but nowhere near wolfsbane. And I can easily afford to supply all of you. But there are three things to bear in mind", he said.

"First: it's a restricted drug, naturally. Supplies are limited. A doctor who owes me his life, prescribes them for me. He does not know who I really am or why I need this, but he trusts me enough to not ask questions. I'll try and figure out some way to get more of them but the muggles have pretty good systems, and if they figure out the consumption of this drug has increased dramatically, they may start investigating. We do not want that".

Sirius had a thought. "We should build contacts in countries which treat weres with dignity, and are possibly spending huge amounts on wolfsbane. If we tell them this, they may figure out some above-board way to get it from their muggle contacts. Our price will be the very reasonable one that they supply us too - and we'll even pay, so it's not a bad deal at all for them".

"Great idea; see if Nick can help there, will you?", said Remus. Then he continued, "Second, you'll need to find a place where you are sure of being safe. You will be in no position to defend yourself if someone does. Sirius, can we use one of your properties for that?"

"Sure; we can ward it to hell and back, then I can make portkeys for all of you."

"Great. The third point is that Danny is right. This drug very likely has side-effects. But I believe they only kick in if you take it, like, once a day or something, certainly not once a month. Still, we should watch for symptoms; we can't be absolutely sure of this in the really long term".

Sirius had a question. "How many weres are in the UK?", he asked.

"I suspect a few dozen; maybe fifty or sixty? Of those, I think about seven or eight are mini-Greybacks. It's not clear to me whether they follow Voldemort, and hence Greyback, or the other way around, but anyway, they won't accept either wolfsbane or this new stuff. The only thing that's stopping them from arbitrarily infecting people is that their 'lord' is gone".

"So if we spread the word, should these kids", as some of them were really not much older than kids, "expect retaliation of some kind?"

"Maybe, but we can take care of ourselves if we all stick together", said Danny. "They're much more powerful but numbers count!"

"Yeah. Quantity has a quality all its own!", smirked Remus.

A few days later, things were all set. All the weres who were recommended by Ray and Danny - about forty of them - were given portkeys to a Black estate that was behind some excellent wards, and basically consisted of a run-down manor with a few surrounding buildings in various states of repair. Sirius told them it was not necessary to know where exactly it was, and to respect his privacy (not that he would ever live there).

Hobby was there the following evening, when Sirius and Remus were narrating all this to the Flamels. He had a question: "Lord Black sir, my master wanted to know if those portkeys could be personalised, so that no one else can use them".

Remus gave him a very confused look. Hobby instantly knew he had made another mistake, but he waited for Remus to ask.

"We've only just told you about the portkeys; how on earth did your master already hear about them and give you a question to ask us?"

"Well, Mr Lupin sir, the Phantom has a thousand eyes and a thousand ears, they say", he smirked. (Phew, that was a good save, thought Hobby. In truth, this was the first he had heard of it, so Remus's question was valid!)

1987-01-12 11:00 UTC, the Leaky Cauldron

It had been a few days since the last full moon. By this time, Black's hidden werewolf hideaway had been used four times; more than than ninety percent of the British weres were treated to a brand new method to make their monthly pain completely disappear. People had begun to notice.

Tom looked at the news item in the Prophet with a bemused smile.

Lycanthropy cured?

Rumours abound about a possible cure for lycanthropy, following a distinct lack of activity from the majority of the werewolf population over the past few months. Ministry and DMLE officials who discreetly keep an eye on the locations commonly used by weres to spend the full moon night, were at first shocked, back in October last year, when all but a handful stayed away. There were fears that this large mass of weres had gone rogue and were out causing trouble. Reserve aurors and able citizens were urgently, but quietly, called in, the larger population centers - both muggle and magical - were checked, but there was no activity to be found. Nor did subsequent monitoring reveal anything untoward happening.

Bradley Hollen, spokesperson for the DMLE, had this to say. "We spent that night in a desperate search for their location - more than three dozen, almost ninety percent of the weres in the UK, were missing. When we didn't find them, and dawn had come up, we spent the morning looking in more places, for the aftermath of what could have been a most horrific and gristly attack on an unsuspecting populace. We scanned the muggle news too, but there was no sign of any attack, anywhere. We did not know what to do, so we didn't do anything. By now, however, it's been three more full moons, and the weres who were missing that night are seen in various places in the wizarding world. Not only have there been no reports of any problems, these weres look healthy and hale - no signs of scratches or bite marks, none of the signs that the person is even a were."

When asked if this was to be considered definitive proof of a cure, however, Mr Hollen demurred. "We can't be sure. Until someone comes forward and shows us this miracle cure - a cure which has eluded our best potion masters for centuries, by the way - we will be unable to say that. When we questioned these weres about their whereabouts during the last four full moons, they said they could not tell us. Notice the word they used: 'could not', not 'would not'. That means something secret is going on, and we can only hope it is not something sinister", said Mr Holler.

We at the Prophet have another explanation. We have learned, from sources that we cannot reveal, that a cure has not been found, but a muggle medicine has been found that inhibits all activity in the person who takes it, including the effect of the full moon. We have also been told, on good authority, that the weres that Mr Hollen is concerned with are safe at a protected location, because while under this muggle medicine, they are themselves completely defenseless. The fact that they have found someone whom they can trust so much as to make themselves vulnerable, in the interest of not being a danger to us and our world, is a credit to these forty or so weres. This correspondent feels that we should take heed of this gesture from the weres, and finally recognise that most of them are not dangerous animals, but human beings trying to live with an affliction that was forced upon them.

This also explains why about a half-dozen of the most violent known weres, led by the infamous Fenrir Greyback, are not part of this plan. The sooner those few are caught and brought to justice, the faster will the scourge of lycanthropy be erased from our country.

Reactions were mixed, of course. The silent majority were silently hopeful. A few hard-boiled purebloods probably wanted to say something against the weres being heaped with praise, but they didn't seem to find an avenue through which to vent. Many of the light-side people, especially those who knew Remus, were very happy, and hoped he was in that group.

There were only two groups that did not like it. One was powerful, irrational, and generally unsympathetic to the common man-on-the-street, and the other was Greyback's gang of bloodthirsty weres.

Greyback had a predictable reaction. He ordered his band of six faithful followers to kidnap one of the weres in this program, and find out what was going on. They had to put a stop to this. Without the artificial "us-versus-them" attitude on both sides, he would lose control over all but a handful of the weres, and then why would the wizards fear him at all?

The pure-blooded directors of St Mungo's, curiously, had a similar problem - loss of control. And they did not like it one bit. The profits from the wolfsbane were not much - after all, so few could afford them! That was not the issue.

What was the issue was that, in the opinion of these upstanding citizens, the weres would now stop thinking of themselves as second-class (or even lesser) citizens. They'd expect to be treated on par with normal people, especially because - after a few months - all but a few of the oldest of them would have lost the scarring. You would not be able to recognise a were anymore just by looking at him, his skin, and his clothes. What was the world coming to?

The weres who had signed on to this new way of dealing with the monthly change were very happy. The first month, everyone was sceptical that it would work, the second month they were worried and apprehensive about putting their trust in someone that they did not really know, but Lord Black's track record spoke for him. Not many people could claim to be school friends with a were, and fewer still could say "I taught myself to become an animagus in order to help my werewolf friend".

So when Skeeter's article came out, Greyback, already under some pressure from his small band of six loyalists, was livid. This Skeeter woman was openly thumbing her nose at him. He decided to pay a visit to the Prophet offices.

Remus, however, was wrong in his estimate that Greyback's band of six or seven were all mini-Greybacks.

Lee Giltner had been a friend of Ray Ashfield for some years now, though they had gradually drifted apart. Before he knew what was happening, he found himself running with Greyback and his gang, and that just widened the rift because Ray would not do that.

Now, after four months of seeing Ray be completely unaffected by the change, and looking healthy and - dare he say? - normal, he decided to act. What he wanted to do was risky, but he needed to grab this opportunity while he could.

A few days later, Remus got an owl from Tom at the Leaky. One of his young were friends wanted to meet him. Sirius decided to tag along, and Hobby also said he would like to accompany them.

"What are the chances we'll be able to get a fix on Greyback's location?", asked Sirius.

"Low to none. The best I can hope for is they have narrowed down the location somewhat. He's pretty cagey; I doubt if anyone except the six who run with him know."

They reached the Leaky after a few minutes, and found Ray waiting for them. With him was another were - clearly one who had not taken them up on their offer four months ago, from the look of him.

"Good morning Lord Black; Hello Remus", said Ray.

"Ray, I think if you're calling him Remus you should call me Sirius", smiled Sirius.

Ray smiled his thanks and nodded. "This is Lee Giltner, an old friend of mine from some years ago. We kinda lost touch when I had moved to another town, and he, well, he was sort of alone, and ended up with Greyback's gang. He has something to say".

Lee shuffled his feet a bit and looked down for a moment. He didn't seem to know how to start, so Remus decided to help him along.

"Hi Lee, I'm Remus Lupin; nice to meet you", and he held out his hand. Lee looked up, and mumbled a "nice to meet you too Mr Lupin", and shook his hand. Sirius held out his hand and introduced himself, and Lee in return mumbled something again.

When it didn't look like he would say anything, Ray nudged him, and said to the other two, "he overheard something".

"Look, Lee, if you're worried what will happen to you if you tell us, I assure you we are quite capable of protecting you", said Sirius.

"And anyone else who you care for who may be in trouble", added Remus. Sirius was apt to forget things like that.

"I don't have anyone else to worry about; just me", said Lee. Then he took a deep breath, and said, "He is planning to attack Skeeter tonight, he and all his cohorts. Including me, of course, since he does not yet know I am here".

"What time?", said Remus.

"11 pm. He's been keeping watch on Skeeter's movements, and knows she comes home at that time and after that she is alone. He doesn't want anyone else to interfere".

"Hmm", said Remus thoughtfully. "Look, I hate to do this, but you will need to go back to him. If you do a runner on him, he may figure out you've told someone and change the plan. Would you be willing to do that?"

"Sure. I don't think he suspects. Early on, when I first met him" - and here he looked somewhat sheepishly at Ray - "I gave him the impression that my old friends had abandoned me in some manner. As far as he knows, I am still on the outs with everyone except his group".

"OK, you go back then. We will take care of the 11pm issue; just stay behind the others - there may be some spells thrown about; I don't want you to get hit. Can you wear something distinctive so anyone else I bring along can be told to avoid hitting you?"

"I guess so. I have a pale blue windcheater. I keep getting teased about it - apparently it's a baby color - so I am sure no one else will have one. But please tell your friends at the last minute, not before!"

"Good thought. Although I doubt if Greyback has spies in my circles, it's wise to be careful."

Back in Crawley, Remus and Sirius got into a fight about Sirius taking part in the ambush.

"There are seven of them-"

"Six", interrupted Remus. "Remember Lee is on our side."

"OK six, but Lee will at best stay neutral until the tide completely turns. He won't be joining the fray on our side from the word go. Meanwhile, you will be two against six".

"I am sure we will manage fine. Besides, if something unexpected happens, who will take care of Harry? You have no right to do something that would risk him getting back into Dumbledore's clutches. That has to be much more important than catching one were".

Hobby decided to step in. "Then why are you doing this at all? My master wants him - let him go! Why are you going?"

"Well, we do owe your master a lot", said Remus.

"And yet you refuse to let me go and help him", growled Sirius.

"You told me what Nick and Penny told you the day you first met. His main interest is Harry's well-being. And Harry's well-being most definitely includes yours, you moron!"

"And my well-being includes yours! I refuse to be the last marauder alive!"

Hobby had had enough. He said, "Lord Black sir, my master is calling me; I need to go take care of something while he comes here and talks to you", he said, and popped off.

A scant few seconds later they felt someone else was in the room. There was no popping sound as of wizarding apparation, nor any sign that a portkey was used. Yet they knew someone was there.

"Hello, gentlemen", said a deep voice. "I hear you guys are in two minds about who should go, so I decided to settle the matter".

The two stared at him blankly. They could only see a vague outline of a face, no details were to be seen.

Remus's nose twitched slightly, and Hobby was glad he had masked his scent as much as possible. Dammit, I need to be more careful, he thought, while quickly and silently redoing the masking spell.

"I will be going alone. I do not want anyone to be there. I have certain, umm, powers - for lack of a better word - that will enable me to stay quite safe. Regardless of how many werewolves land up."

Hobby was being somewhat specious. He was basically going to use a silver arrow spell, which most aurors knew, except that he would be completely invisible and able to pop silently. He could, basically, appear to be more than one attacker. It was amazing how much a house-elf could do, really, and most of it was very simple stuff that nevertheless had a huge force multiplier effect.

"We can't, in all good conscience, allow you to take that risk all by yourself and not try to help you at all!", said Sirius. "As Remus just reminded me, we owe you a lot".

"And as that same friend reminded you, my interest is Harry's well-being, so consider your debt to me paid if you always make sure Harry's interests are uppermost in your mind. Not my interests, not someone else's, but Harry's. Regardless of what happens or who else is at risk."

That shut Sirius up. Put that way, there was nothing he could really say.

But Remus-

"And before you get any ideas, Mr Lupin, Harry needs you almost as much", said the Phantom. Although they could not see that he was grinning, they heard the good-natured humour in his voice and both men smiled without thinking.

"I want you guys to promise you will stay away from this".

"I think at least I-", began Remus.

"Look, I appreciate your concern. I'll do you a deal: if I get into any trouble I'll call Hobby and he'll come and tell you so you can come and save me. Best of both worlds. Covers my confidence that I won't need help, as well as your worry that I might", he said.

"OK that sounds better. And we've already prepared a portkey to Skeeter's place. Weres don't mess about with anti-portkey wards and such anyway, so that should be fine."

"Good; I'll come back with some news around 11:15 or so, I expect. Until then...", and he was no longer there.

Hobby ensconced himself in a conjured chair in one corner of the hallway outside Skeeter's apartment, after making sure that the chair was as undetectable as he was. He got there well in time - around 10:40pm - just in case something happened to change the schedule.

By 11:20, he was wondering if Greyback had managed to grab Skeeter somewhere else, because there was no sign of either. He had no way of tracking them either - after all, if he could, why would he need to go to all this trouble to finish off Greyback?

Just as he was preparing to leave, he heard someone fall and stumble, then a muttered curse. Skeeter was here, apparently a little tipsy. She appeared to have used a portkey - she did not look stable enough for apparation.

A few seconds later, she had opened her door, entered, and locked it behind her. Hobby had determined that she had several wards around her apartment, so the would-be killers could only come through the main hall. He was sure - if they were still going to plan - they would be equally impatient and would be here very soon.

And - literally in the next five seconds - they were. Four werewolves silently popped in, and a few more seconds later three came up the stairs. The last one was wearing a pale blue windcheater. Hmm; I wonder... can they not apparate?, thought Hobby.

Greyback turned to face his comrades.

"We are here to make an example of this woman. I do not want her alive, that goes without saying, but I want her death to be as gory and painful as possible. Once we enter, I will knock her out, and then we shall take her away. When we are back in our den, we will slowly dismember her - with our bare hands, while I keep her conscious and sane."

"You" - he pointed to Lee - "will then produce a pensieve memory of the entire event, which we will send to the Prophet's editor, with a note saying if he does not print the contents accurately, he will be next."

With that, he turned around. And found himself face to face with... well someone who didn't appear to have a face, actually.

The wizard was two yards from him, and before Greyback could react, he had pulled out a wand and muttered something. Greyback's last thoughts were of trying to decipher what the man was saying, but his body knew what it was long before his mind would have figured it out - a silver arrow, right between the eyes and all the way through to about the middle of his head.

Behind Greyback, Hobby saw Lee quietly leave. Mission accomplished, as far as he was concerned. Hobby let him leave, then he got behind the stunned group of weres, and hit the two standing at the rear (who had walked up with Lee) with powerful elf spells to hold them.

When their bodies hit the ground, the thump sound made the other three - who were till then staring at their suddenly dead leader - turn around, Hobby got behind them again and stunned all of them.

He picked up these five, and - one by one - took them away. Each of them was obliviated to the age of ten or so, a permanent elf tracking charm placed on them in case they escaped, and turned loose in an enclosed part of the estate that Sirius had allowed the weres to use during the full moon. He would have to figure out how to test their future intentions and deal with them accordingly.

Back in Crawley, both Sirius and Remus had dozed off. When Hobby, as the Phantom, appeared there to report on what had happened and to stop them worrying about him, he found that neither of them was awake!

So much for worrying about me, he laughed to himself, nudging Remus awake gently.

"Wha- oh hey, you're OK! Thank God! We were getting worried", said Remus.

"I can see that", said Hobby with a smile, although again they could not, of course see his face clearly.

Remus suddenly stiffened. "Err, how many did you kill?"

"Hmm? Only Greyback; the others have been captured and placed in one of the fenced-in parts of the estate which you guys use during the full moon. I will leave it to you to figure out what to do with them. Why did you think I would kill all of them? Do I appear that bloodthirsty?"

"No no, but in the heat of battle..."

"What battle? I told you how it would play out", said Hobby, and briefly described what had happened. "And anyway, don't worry, your friend in the blue windcheater escaped the second I had hit Greyback".

"Phew; that's good to know. Thanks", said Remus.

It would be some hours before he would realise that he had not actually told the 'Phantom' about how to identify Lee. Hobby must have told him, of course, but when did he have the time? Sure he may have contacted his master after the Phantom had left but it didn't sound like it.