A/N: The person who is to blame for this chapter knows exactly who they are and which conversation is responsible for this being written.

~ With Me, Into The Dark ~

For some reason (of which none of the purebloods in the group were sure what it was), Greyback had been sent to accompany them on this particular mission. Lucius and Rabastan were particularly wary of the werewolf and stayed as far away from him as they could, but the female members of their group shared no such compunctions, it seemed, as Alecto and Lilith engaged him in a protracted conversation about the eating of human flesh while the group waited for their targets to appear. At first, Lucius was afraid he was going to have to rescue the ladies from the cantankerous predator, but once Greyback realized they were genuinely interested in the subject rather than attempting to annoy him, he proved himself perfectly able to hold a civilized conversation. (Not that the subject matter qualified as civilized, of course.)

All talk ended abruptly when the targets showed up at the place where the Death Eaters were waiting, and their mission began in earnest. Once it was over, and nothing was left of their targets but a few blood-streaked sets of empty robes and scattered shoes, it was clear to them all why Greyback had been sent along.

As they filed out of the little cabin and headed back through the woods toward where they'd left their (unauthorized) Portkey, Alecto - apparently disturbed by what she'd witnessed in there - stuck close to Rabastan.

"What happened to hanging around your new best friend?" Rab whispered to her, the sarcasm in his tone carrying clearly despite the lack of volume.

Glancing back over her shoulder to make sure the werewolf hadn't overheard, Alecto breathed, "Greyback's crazy."

Rabastan chanced a quick peek behind him and saw that Lilith was walking beside Greyback, and seemed to be just as at ease speaking with him now as she had been before the mission.

"Lilith's crazy too," he murmured.

Alecto snorted in a most unladylike fashion and replied, "You didn't know her when we were kids. She was creepy as fuck even back then."

Behind them, completely ignorant of their conversation, Lilith was offering Greyback a biscuit. When the werewolf just stared at her with a nonplussed expression, she reached up to pat him on the head and said, "Because you were a good puppy."

Greyback's expression twisted into a scowl.

"Don't call me a puppy!"

"But you are a good puppy," Lilith protested, pouting in an exaggeratedly childlike manner. "I know, I'll call you Fluffy!"

He growled low in his throat as a warning, but she just laughed and ruffled his hair, saying, "Nice Fluffy. Goooood Fluffy."

She's fucking with me, the werewolf realized suddenly. How long had it been since anyone had let their guard down enough around him to be comfortable teasing him? Too long...

He batted her hand away, not hard enough to hurt but with enough force that she would know that any further attempts to pet his head would not be wise.

"Want the biscuit, Fluffy?" she asked, holding it out, still apparently intent on teasing him.

"No, I don't want the damn biscuit," he snarled. "But..." he said speculatively, letting his gaze rake over her body, "there's something I'd like to eat."

Lilith, completely missing both the look and the subtext of his comment, held her arm out to him and asked sarcastically, "Want a bite?"

~end of scene~