"I don't give credit to werewolves. You people never pay me back."
Remus searched through his pockets for the fifth time as the Potions Master rapped his fingers on the counter. "I'm sure I have another coin." The bell attached to the potions shop door jingled, and the Potions Master let out an annoyed grumble. "It's only one Sickle." Given the price of the Wolfsbane Potion, it seemed ridiculous to stop the sale over such a small amount.
"If you can't pay, get out."
A hand tucked into the sleeve of a robe slapped a silver coin onto the counter. "Give it to him and get him out of my way," a young woman said. "I'm in a hurry."
Remus looked at his benefactor, and gave a start. Most people would just see a witch who had recently left school, but his expert eyes noticed black strands sprinkled through her sloppily-cut honey blond hair, and an amber tint to her eyes, as well as slight indents on her lips where fangs pressed on the skin. She was a werewolf, one bitten so young that she'd developed wolf-like traits even in her human form.
She glanced at him as the Potions Master filled and stoppered his bottle. "Looking at something, Mutt?"
"Leave the other customers alone." The Potions Master slid the bottle across the counter to Remus. "There you go. Now get lost. —Whadday got for me, Athena?"
Athena laid a parcel on the counter and unwrapped it. "Werewolf hair, three ponytails, 30 inches total. —Good-bye, Mutt."
A dangerous glare from the Potions Master sent Remus out the door, but he caught her saying "And I know I can get a Galleon an inch over on Diagon, so don't try to cheat me today," before it closed behind him.
Three werewolf hair ponytails. She wasn't alone; she had a pack, like Dumbledore had asked him to join. Maybe they would be more sympathetic to him than the others had been. Yes, she was throwing that slur around. But she had also put down that Sickle, even as she was selling her own hair as potion ingredients.
The shop bell rang again, and Athena hurried out, tucking a small pouch under her blouse.
"Wait," Remus said, going after her. She didn't slow down, and when he sped up to catch her, she broke into a run. Calling to her again, he ran after her. She turned a corner and whistled sharply, and Remus had just enough time to wonder about it before he turned after her, and skidded to a stop in the middle of three outstretched wands.
"What is your problem, Mutt?" Athena asked. Another girl and a boy stood beside her, both with the same short, sloppy haircut. Kids. They were kids, about the same age as Harry, and her only a few years older.
"I'm sorry." Remus held up the potion bottle. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to thank you, for your help."
"I wouldn't," Athena said. "That stuff'll kill you."
"I can't afford to lose my mind once a month when I'm alone. I haven't got a pack."
Athena and the boy rolled their eyes in that exaggerated way that only teenagers could pull off. The other girl glanced at a watch pendant that hung around her neck. "Athena."
"I know, Selena. Look, we're all racing time here, Rover, so how about you just back out of here, and we'll all go on with our lives?"
"I'm sorry, but I need some more help. Do you know somewhere safe I can transform?"
The werewolves laughed, soft woofing chuckles, and the boy broke into a fanged grin. "Of course we do, Officer," he said. "Just follow us."
Before Remus could respond, the pack apparated away.
"Found something?" Kingsley asked as Remus flipped through the copy of the Werewolf Registry he had brought to 12 Grimmauld Place.
"Maybe." Remus tapped the page, trying to get the young woman in the photograph to look up. Finally she did, then slunk out of the frame. Those hungry, empty eyes couldn't belong to either girl he had seen the previous day. "I ran into a pack yesterday at the Potions Master, or at least part of one."
"If they're a pack, they won't be registered. The Werewolf Capture Unit cleared all those out when the Anti-Pack Law went into effect."
"The whole pack won't be, but maybe one of them needed medical care, or was arrested for something minor." Remus turned to the next entry, and an extra foot of parchment unfolded to hold the arrest record. "What in the world?"
Kingsley glanced over. "Oh, that's just Eddie. He's actually a good kid. He just has a gremlin that gets him in trouble."
"You know gremlins are an old wives' tale, right?"
"I know, but it's easier than saying he has Lithobolia. Point is, magic just happens around him. Every few months, it happens rather impressively around Muggles, and the Obliviators have to clean it up and bring him in. I don't know how he keeps coming up with the fines."
"Lithobolia is accidental magic by definition. He shouldn't be fined for that."
"It gets stronger around the full moon, so he's been told not to be around Muggles for 3 days before or after. He does it anyway, so they don't consider it accidental."
Remus sighed and shook his head. What wizard would hire a werewolf with Lithobolia on top of everything else? He probably depended on Muggles for an income and couldn't afford to lose a week's pay every month. Remus ran his finger down the arrest record. He'd last been arrested the day before, and the fine was 30 galleons.
Werewolf hair, three ponytails, 30 inches total. And I know I can get a Galleon an inch over on Diagon. No wonder she was in such a hurry. He returned to the top of the page. The photo showed a lean, muscular young man in his late teens or early 20s, and his full name was Edward Lowell. Remus looked at his address, but something told him that looking for "123 Sesame Street" wasn't going to be fruitful.
He turned the page, but the next was only a blank registration form. Thinking it an error, he flipped a few more pages, but all the rest were blank. "This can't be all the werewolves in Britain."
"It's not. We think there's around a hundred and fifty left, but only around 30 are registered. No luck?" Remus shook his head. "Do you have anything else to work with? A name or anything?"
"The girls were Selena and Athena."
"Oh no," Kingsley said. "If that was Athena Silversmith, you ran into some of Greyback's kids."
Remus needed a moment to remember the name. "You mean Fenrir Greyback? The one who kidnaps werewolf children?"
Kingsley nodded. "You don't want to muck with Greyback's kids. Every time we run into one, it's a bad day. They're thieves, and they're violent. They're nothing but trouble."
Remus remembered the werewolf traits he'd seen on the pack. He didn't have nearly as many, despite being bitten when he was four. Every two weeks growing up, his mother had taken him to St. Mungo's for medical transfigurations to keep him looking human. Most parents did the same for their werewolf children, so if they had those traits, they weren't raised by their parents.
"Even if this pack was raised by Greyback," Remus said carefully, "I think it's still worth trying."
Kingsley leaned back in his chair. "An old partner of mine, Owen Milburn, thought the same. It got him bitten."
"I suppose Greyback got the better of him?"
"No, Silversmith did. And she did it under Wolfsbane Potion. That's the kind of people Greyback's kids are, Remus. She's facing 10 years in Azkaban for malicious biting if she's ever caught. I'd hate to see you get caught with her."
Remus shrugged. "Any group of werewolves is going to be risky with that Anti-Pack Law in place, and loners like me aren't of any use to the Order. This pack is young; they won't be interested in me unless they have older alphas I didn't see. But maybe they can lead me to some werewolves I can get in with."
"You really don't have any other leads?"
"Not a one. I've never had much contact with other werewolves." Truth be told, he didn't really want to change that. All his life, he'd heard 'werewolves are thieves, werewolves are monsters, don't be like the other werewolves.' But Dumbledore had asked, and he couldn't argue with the man's logic.
Kingsley chewed on the inside of his cheek, then took the registry binder, tapped his wand twice on the cover, and flipped it over. The back side was now labeled 'Werewolf Capture Unit Case Files.'
"I'm not supposed to know about this, but Hunter Marolt likes to talk shop in the cafeteria queue. The Hunters are about to raid a pack. As of right now, all they have is that it's too many werewolves in one house. They're hoping to find more once they get in, but…" Kingsley shrugged. "Might just be cheap rent. The Hunters are planning to go in tomorrow night. That gives you time to get there and warn them, and if that doesn't give you a foot in the door, I don't know what would. But I don't want you leaving until morning. There's a chance they'll move it up to tonight."
"The night after a full moon? Are they crazy?" Remus asked. "That pack has been sleeping all day."
"I know, and you'd think the Hunters of all people would know better, but… Just don't leave until morning, all right?" He pried open the binder rings, pulled out a dozen sheets labeled "Delamere Pack", and slid them across the table to Remus.
"Thank you, Kingsley."
"Don't thank me unless it works. And Remus? Do not get caught in that building when the Hunters come. It's not going to be pretty."
Remus nodded, and Kingsley stood to leave. Then he paused, again tapped the binder's cover, and flipped it over. This time the reverse said 'Office of Missing Children'. "Just in case it happens tonight, I'll leave this with you. But I really think you should steer clear of Greyback's kids."
Remus spent the next hour memorizing the information from the Delamere Pack pages, then turned to the missing child files. The earliest pages about Athena Silversmith had been a case file from Werewolf Support Services. There were Werewolf Registration pages marked "Removed: Not Updated in Three Years," that started when she was 5 years old and stopped when she was seven. On the first page, the young Athena waved excitedly in the way children often did in photographs. By the last, she gave a shy wave with only her fingertips, glancing out of the frame.
Remus flipped past a note that most of the material had been moved to a criminal case file with the Werewolf Capture Unit, then found several supplemental pages with Daily Prophet articles taped to them. "Weaponsmith's Family Attacked!" one proclaimed. "Generations of the Silversmith family have amazed the world with their innovative weapons against Dark Creatures. Today the world was shocked to learn that the family's young daughter was attacked and bitten by a currently unidentified werewolf."
The Ministry was positively shocked, of course, and repeated that statement as often as the reporter would allow. When asked if he would make any changes to his weapons business as a result, her father gave a resounding 'no'. "We're going to give Athena all the support and care she needs, but I'm not going to be intimidated by a monster like that."
Remus flipped to another clipped Daily Prophet article: "Weaponsmith's Daughter Kidnapped by Infamous Werewolf!" The article detailed Athena's kidnapping from St. Mungo's after the failure of an experimental lycanthropy treatment. The key suspect was Fenrir Greyback. Accompanying the article was an inappropriately cheerful family portrait. Athena's younger brother bounced excitedly as his parents tried to calm him, while Athena gave the same shy wave she had in her last Werewolf Registry entry. "The Silversmith family in happier days," read the caption.
There was one more page after that, another Daily Prophet article with "Relevant?" hand-written in the corner.
"Silversmith Family Does It Again! New Charm Amazes the World!
"Representatives from around the world gathered today to congratulate Ares Silversmith for his invention of the new charm 'Fragmina Argentea'. 'This will be a wonderful addition to our arsenal,' said Moulton Withers, head of the Ministry of Magic's Werewolf Capture Unit. 'Sometimes Stunners just aren't strong enough, and I think this spell will save a lot of lives.'
"When asked if he was working on anything else, Silversmith answered 'Absolutely! I've seen firsthand the damage that a Dark Creature can cause, and I'll do whatever I can to prevent tragedies like the one my family experienced.' Silversmith has generously donated his instruction of the new spell to the Ministry of Magic's Beast Division, and has given their Hunters full license to re-teach the charm to representatives from other countries.
"However, not everyone was thrilled with Silversmith's invention. A rather naïve reporter from Transylvania was heard to ask 'Mr. Silversmith, this seems like a very cruel spell. I understand that your sister has lycanthropy. How would you feel if someone used Fragmina Argentea on her?'
"'As far as I'm concerned, my sister died a long time ago,' Silversmith answered coldly. 'As for the monster that has taken her place, I trust the Ministry of Magic to take whatever action is necessary to protect innocent people.'
Transylvania is noted for having very lax control over werewolves, vampires, and other dangerous Dark Creatures."
"Fragmina Argentea," Remus muttered, translating the Latin. 'Silver Shards.' Kingsley had said the Werewolf Capture Unit's raid wasn't going to be pretty. If that spell was used… He shuddered at the thought.