November 2, 1996

The cottage was small, it was covered in white stone and had beautiful gardens along the path that led to the cottage and encircled by a thick grove of forest. It was pretty! Probably one of the loveliest country cottages I had ever seen. I stopped periodically along the path to examine the plants to see if there were any I recognized.

Most of these gardens appeared to be No-Maj plants that were holding out longer than expected for the change in weather. Thalia, if that was who I was meeting, seemed to be a very gifted herbologist. I wondered if she was a herbalist as well? Someone who kept No-Maj flowers in such health must provide plants to apothecaries for their potions.

A cold chill moved through my bones as the sound of dogs barking from inside of the house brought me out of my wondering. Was she a dog owner? It sounded like more than one. I prepared myself for the onslaught of barking and braced myself to be jumped on as I stepped up to the door of the cottage.

This was it. I had waited for this meeting. I had fought for it. This would change my life. I would either have a lead on my brother, or I was functionally back to square one.

I took a deep breath.

Everything would be fine.

If I could believe that for a few more minutes then anything that could come from this meeting stood less of a chance of breaking my heart again.

I knocked on the door and was greeted by an ever louder chorus of barking.

"Back Atlas! Down Monty!"

The woman who opened the door was not what I expected. She was short, maybe five three, with her blonde hair in a chin length bob and a bit pudgy in a way that made her look soft and approachable aside from the bags under her eyes. This woman looked like she had struggled to sleep for at least the last decade. Though, the thing that really caught my attention was the cane she was leaning on to support herself. It seemed to be made of oak and I could see the faint shape of a dog's head on the handle.

She adjusted her glasses and heaved a sigh as she looked me over with the same discernment I had given her.

"What do you want?"

"Are you Thalia?"

"Depends," She took her weight off her cane by leaning against the doorframe instead as she rested the hook in the crook of her arm, "who's asking?"

"I'm Audrey Graves, Alex's sister. I believe you sent me a letter last week."

"I did." Thalia nodded, her eyes drifting over me again, her brown eyes seemingly filing every aspect of me away as she blocked a very large white dog with her foot. "I'm Thalia Rannulf. What did Alex and Jack fight about the last time they were together?"

"Valencia Talbot's claims of assault. What kind of bird does Alex's favorite quill come from?"

"Gyrfalcon, the king of falcons." Thalia gave me a slight smile and moved out of the doorway to allow me inside. "Come in. Mind the dogs. The white slobbery one is Atlas, Monty's the lover boy. They don't bite and they love attention."

I was immediately greeted by cold snouts as Atlas and Monty shoved their noses into my hands with loud sniffs. Atlas was a large white dog with a beautiful, if slightly dirty coat who was drooling in pleasure at the attention I was giving his ears. The other was a large Irish Wolfhound with a scruffy gray coat and gentle eyes who was pressing himself against my upper thigh until I scratched his chin and cooed at him.

I pet the dogs for a few moments before following the path Thalia had taken into the kitchen where she was checking on something inside the oven.

"This will be another hour," she tapped her cane on the floor as two bottles of butterbeer came out of the cabinet. "Want some ice?"

"No thank you." I caught both of the bottles to carry them into the living room with Thalia hobbling behind me. I placed the bottles on the corner table by the couch as Thalia sat down in a large recliner.

The house was peaceful, it matched every vision I had of a country home with the small cozy space and the fluffy carpets and the dogs who were laying by the fireplace. The walls were a light cream and the carpet was white, presumably to help hide the shedding I was sure the big white dog did on a regular basis. I let my gaze drift towards a large red curtain that seemed oddly placed against the wall near the hallway. Perhaps it was an oddly placed window. I thought no more about it as I took in the rest of the house.

This was nice. I had always liked the idea of living out in the country some day. Away from the hustle of the city, which I enjoyed in a youthful fashion but I knew I would want to leave at some point. It seemed wise to put some physical distance between my home and the heart of politics. When the war ended, there would be a return to focus on scandal and I had no doubts about Jack Graves coming into the world stage with intentions that he believed to be good and just, to build alliances with Scrimgeour or whoever succeeded him. I thought Scrimgeour would not be able to handle the transfer to peacetime, there was too much fight and political skullduggery in him. In polite terms, the man was a bulldog who had quickly grown comfortable with power.

My gaze was drawn towards the marble mantle where an array of pictures sat to look upon the room. I stepped forward, mindful of the dogs and their wagging tails to get a closer look.

I had not seen a picture of my brother in years, but I knew who I was looking at without having to ask.

Alex wore a careless smile as he put his arm around Thalia's shoulders. His hair was white at the temples and the rest was graying quickly with hidden strands of silver throughout. It aged him by ten years at least, making him look a mature thirty-eight instead of the twenty-eight that he would be now. It also made him look even more remarkably like our father. Alex's hair had been ink black the last time I had seen him and the visible passage of time on my brother made my chest hurt. His eyes were the same gray that I remembered, but they were so much warmer and happier in this picture.

I had no memory of seeing Alex smile like this after our mother died.

I barely remembered him smiling at all to be perfectly honest, he was such a serious personality, especially at the end of his time at Byrgen House when he was investigating Valencia's claims, perhaps knowing that he was going to be metaphorically burning everything down in the process.

"That picture is from about two years ago." Thalia said from her chair. "I think he had just been asked to interview Dumbledore before the Triwizard Tournament."

I turned to look at Thalia, who was cleaning her glasses with the edge of her shirt. I was having a hard time placing her age. She had a youthful, round face that seemed immune to aging in some ways.

"Are you working with Dumbledore?"

Thalia shrugged, "Yes and no." She tapped her bum leg with an idle smile. "I'm a herbalist by trade, and sometimes I cross paths with interesting people who need the kind of help that needs to be kept quiet."

"So you're a neutral, nonthreatening party for anyone who comes to your door?"

"Not everyone. I have things I want done, but I'm afraid what I want won't be possible until certain individuals are dead." She spoke casually, with an airiness that spoke of an apathy to those individuals' lives. If I didn't understand the impulse, I would have been frightened. "Though my contact with Dumbledore is a wet blanket who has lost all faith in any sort of change."

I wasn't going to touch the wet blanket comment, I didn't want to know about whatever Dumbledore was up to, it seemed safer for me to not get involved anymore then necessary.

"What is it you want done?"

"I think medicine should be freely available without conditions attached, and that means researching alternatives which can get me into trouble with the wrong sort of authorities."

I was willing to bet it was painkillers, judging by the shape she was in.

"Is my brother here?"

She shook her head and my stomach dropped. "He's investigating Death Eaters, I haven't seen him for a few months." She paused. "I don't want to put him in more danger than he's already in."

"But you have seen him!"

"He's alive if that's what you're asking."

"When are you going to see him again?"

She looked me up and down slowly, like she was taking account of my person in excruciating detail. From my kitten heel shoes and casual deep blue robes and the short white cloak that was draped over my shoulders. I probably looked every bit the pretentious bureaucrat and I don't think that impressed Thalia.

"It's… been a long time since I've seen him. Six years. Six years I've waited and wondered and this picture is the closest I've been to him! Now he's off playing with the Death Eater's where one little mistake is going to turn him into a political pawn against MACUSA or our father! This has the potential to end in a manner far worse than anything else he has done!"

Thalia looked at me much like a queen on her throne. The imperious tilt of her chin and the hard look in her eyes reminding me I was in her domain and she could remove me at any point.

"Alex was right, you are a very political creature. A goody two shoes who wanted her daddy's approval and wasted herself away to get it. Are you here for yourself or your father, Audrey? Because from the way you talk I think it's the former."

My cheeks burned in embarrassment and a level of rage I had never felt before. My fight with my father was a different beast then the one brewing inside me now.

"I'm not here for my father-"

There was a loud caterwauling that shook the cottage and made me cover my ears in surprise. Thalia leapt to her feet, wincing as she grabbed her cane to steady herself. She hobbled towards me, her eyes serious and glimmering with fear. She moved past me and the dogs, who seemed to be unusually quiet for such a racket, as if they knew something I did not.

Thalia threw aside the large red curtain that I had observed coming into the house to reveal a reinforced door of thick wood and iron and flung it open, whistling at the dogs who quickly descended the stairs. She tapped the floor with her cane and the picture of Alex from the mantle flew into my hands.

"Get down there, stay there and stay quiet until I come for you!"

"Wha-?" Was all I was able to reply as the wailing grew louder and Thalia tapped the floor again to raise me into the air and through the iron door into the darkness that lay below.

As my feet touched the ground the door slammed shut with a bang, leaving the dogs and I in darkness.

Lumos!

The tip of my wand lit as I took in the room around me. It was dark, the floor and the walls were stone and dirt and there was a musky smell of dog in the air. I pointed the light towards the stairs, there were five steps. I'd have to remember that. Was this a cellar maybe? But where were the shelves and pantry supplies?

Was this some kind of prison?

There were claw marks on the floor. They were large and deep. As if something was trying to dig a way out of this room.

Atlas put his head under my arm, his gaze at the door at the top of the stairs.

I took a deep breath.

I needed to know what was going on. Thalia had clearly been scared of something. I was not going to be unprepared and trapped underground to wait for whatever was coming.

I crept up the stairs, walking up the edge of the steps to lower the risk of stair creaking and pressed my ear against the door.

There was nothing.

The door was too thick or she had placed a silencing spell on the door or on the room itself.

There had to be something I could use. I was a top student at Ilvermorny for crying out loud! Dying in a basement would be embarrassing for my alma mater.

Wait… silencing spells… good silencing spells needed to be concentrated on every part of the room. The part most people forgot when casting on a door were keyholes or the underside of the door. This door had no keyhole.

Fantastic!

I laid down on the stairs awkwardly to press my ear against the bottom of the door. There was a faint noise of voices.

I leaned back to cast a hearing charm on my ear, wincing as the sound of my own heartbeat became audible to my own hearing. I laid down again and closed my eyes to focus on what was being said in the other room.

"This place smells." The voice was deep, male and snarling.

"Yeah, I'm a herbalist. It comes with the job."

There was a pause and a deep sniff. "You've had company?"

"Left before you got here. Annoying little sales girl but she had a rare plant I wanted for my business."

There was a grunt of affirmation.

"What do you want, Greyback?"

What the fuck?

"Nothing."

"You always want something." Thalia's voice was cool, "Last month it was information on a patient and you tried to threaten me when you didn't get it. I don't have to keep your pack healthy, I can leave at anytime."

There was a furious snarl that shook my bones. "Your services are needed by our master."

Thalia gave a snort of disbelief. "Services? I'm a herbalist, not a Healer. If your master needs a good medic, perhaps he should look at Saint Mungo's. Oh, wait, you bit a Healer's daughter and now the Healers have made themselves unplottable so you can't find them. I was surprised, I thought nine was a little old for you."

Something shattered on the floor and an animalistic laugh shook me to my bones. "Tender morsel she was."

I wanted to puke.

"I heard Dragonpox is spreading among your younger recruits." Thalia's voice was steady and unshaken by Greyback's words and seeming assault on her personal possessions. "You can't have an army of lycanthropes if they die of preventable illnesses. All that wasted effort to bring them into the fold. Waste of a good bite and I know how much you hate that."

There was a faint scratching of a quill on parchment.

"I'll come by tomorrow morning with supplies, I'll also need an escort. Lupin or Hemming would be fine, they're smart enough not to eat anything I give them."

I moved away from the door, quietly sliding down the stairs to hide in the darkness. I did not want to hear anymore about this. It made me sick. It made me scared.

Oo0Oo0

I did not know how much longer I sat in that dark room, alone with my orb of light, the dogs and my thoughts as I struggled to rationalize what I had heard and all of the implications therein. My brother had taken up with a werewolf. A werewolf with sympathies for others of her kind. Who knew and crossed paths with the most dangerous and savage werewolf in Magical Britain.

I needed a drink.

Thalia opened the door, letting light cut through the darkness like a knife and I moved out into the living room quickly, wanting the space to run away and not be trapped in a cellar. The dogs followed behind me and made their way to the water bowl in the kitchen.

"You're a-a werewolf!" I pressed my back against the wall, one hand resting on my wand as Thalia advanced towards me with her gleaming, predatory gaze. I could have sworn there was a ring of yellow around the iris.

Thalia rolled her eyes, "Relax. Unless there's hair growing out of my ears I'm not dangerous."

"Explain that then!" I pointed back at the iron door, the dents and scratches at the bottom edge of the door and the floor beneath it finally becoming noticeable to me.

"That's the cellar. It's where I go if I don't have wolfsbane potion." Thalia tapped her cane on the floor to summon a plate of something from the kitchen into her hands. "It's not what I usually show my guests."

She was so casual about it. Was she going to bite me? I did not know anything about the effects of being bitten by a werewolf in an untransformed state. They said that was something Fenrir Greyback favored these days, that he had developed a taste for human flesh.

I inched towards the door. I did not want to become part of a cannibalism barbecue. There was not enough meat on my bones to be appetizing, I was destined to starve in some capacity be it survival situations or just my own home from my poor cooking.

"Ladyfingers?"

"GAH!"

Thalia put the cookies she had been offering me on the couch side table with a steady, unwavering glare in my direction.

"Would you calm down if I told you I was a vegetarian?"

I shook my head, my eyes wide. Because that's akin to what serial killers tell their victims to get them into their territory.

"You're right, I lied. I'm not a vegetarian but I'm certainly not a cannibal."

I would have laughed if my nerves were not so frayed.

"I was bitten as a child, the werewolf who bit me sunk his teeth so deeply into my leg that when he shook me it severed muscle and left me with a limp. If my father was not a Healer I would have died or lost my leg."

I nodded as Thalia half sat, half collapsed into a recliner that seemed to swallow her. I had to sit down, my knees were struggling to hold me upright and I went to sit on my original spot on the couch and reached for a cookie as my manners took control while my mind continued to spiral and struggle to focus.

"How did you meet my brother?" I broke the cookie in half to make sure that there were no actual lady fingers inside of it before taking a bite.

"He was in Germany interviewing a werewolf pack. I was visiting a cousin for potions supplies. I met Alex when he asked to talk to me about the politics of the wolfsbane potion. The ingredients are… very expensive." She took a sip of butterbeer. "And heavily regulated by the Ministry of Magic so they can watch us."

Something clicked into place in my mind. A herbalist and potioneer, not an apothecary.

"You're making illegal wolfsbane potion."

"Not quite," She clapped slowly with a sarcastic little smile. "Good guess though."

I raised an eyebrow.

"I'm making a more accessible wolfsbane potion. Something with less expensive ingredients that can be used by more of the afflicted. Belby gave us a good start, I'm just finishing the work."

That was incredible.

"Have you had any success?"

She shook her head. "I'm testing it on myself. I've become more clear headed when I'm shifted, but that could just be because I've made peace with the wolf. I've spoken to others with the affliction and the ones who reject and hate their wolf and think themselves as irredeemable monsters struggle with it." She shrugged. "A disease like this is almost as much about mental health as it is medication, but people can't deal with their mental state until they feel better physically."

"It's like having a long term illness."

"Exactly, a person can have real highs and lows when they're engaged in long-term care, but the days where they feel good can help build resilience for the bad days. It becomes an emotional well to draw on." She smiled grimly, "But for werewolves we spend a week feeling the cycle of the moon, transform when it's full and spend the days afterwards trying to regain our strength so we can engage with normal life. Well, as much normal life as society allows us. We're not allowed to feel as if we are human during those weeks where the moon isn't speaking to our blood. We can't hold jobs, and most of us have retreated to Greyback's pack out of a need for community and survival. Basically forced to the arms of a monster who turned most of us. Isn't that ironic?"

I looked around the cottage. "But not you?"

"No. Not me. I had other opportunities. My father was a skilled Healer, my mother was a potioneer who discovered a new, more efficient potion cure for magical allergies, she put my name on the paper also and I get enough money from it to help keep up with my living expenses. My brother in Germany helps fund my research with his business. My financial independence is unusual for a werewolf and Greyback doesn't like my being out of his reach to control, but I'm too useful for him to mess with too much. He can't have the werewolf army he wants if they die of treatable illnesses. So he leaves me alone until he wants to come and throw his weight around to remind me where my allegiance belongs when his new world order comes to be."

"Do you agree with him? Greyback I mean."

Thalia paused and took a deep breath. "Yes and no. We're trapped in a cycle of hate and poverty, I agree with his rambling in that regard. There needs to be change, but…" She was quiet for a minute. "Greyback is not the leader we need to bring this change. We must reform society, not instill more fear than they already possess, we have to be seen as people before anything else. Reform comes with radical shifts, but Greyback needs to die before any of that can be done."

There was a hardness in Thalia's expression that was frightening. Something wolfish and feral that brought a new level of ferocity to the surface.

"I've considered poisoning him, but he never seems to get sick and I doubt he would come to me if he were. He doesn't trust me that much and admitting that kind of weakness to me would only build on the respect I have already built with the pack."

I nodded quietly, "I take it he doesn't know about your wolfsbane experiments?"

"No, and it's best that way."

I took the opportunity to change the topic to happier things, ignoring this fascinating political chessboard Thalia had presented to me.

"How long have you been with my brother?"

"Alex and I have been together for about four years. He talks a lot about things he doesn't understand but his heart's in the right place. It makes him dumb."

"Has he wanted to come back to the family at all?"

Thalia looked at me as if I were an idiot. "Would you?"

I shook my head.

Thalia sighed and scratched Monty's ears. "He thought about it, he talked to me about it. He wanted to see you specifically, Alex says you're a bit too much like Jack, but you can be reasoned with. The reason he didn't reach out before going to investigate the Death Eaters was because there were already rumors about your father's presidential run. He didn't want to risk putting me under that scrutiny, create a circus for the press and all of that." She paused and looked at me. "I am well aware that I'm not any kind of beautiful woman, the press and the public would have a field day with that, but if they looked at my background and discovered what I was. I would not have protection or privacy. I don't think the world would forgive a pretty girl for being a monster, but I would give them a bevy of other flaws to poke and prod at."

The more I looked at Thalia, the clearer it became why Alex liked her so much. She was independent and clear-eyed. She had her life as Alex had his. They both understood the power of the press to call people to arms and tear people down for profit. There was a courage in Thalia, a kind of leadership quality that I was struggling to place but I knew each word she spoke dripped with conviction.

"Plus, the way you Americans treat werewolves is disgusting." Thalia rolled her eyes, "I saw that article with your father."

My face flushed with embarrassment.

She waved her cane through the air and a folder came flying out of a room in the back of the house and landed next to me on the couch with a muffled thump.

"You should read these if you have the time. I've been keeping up with that fuss in the states."

"I'd love to."

"Good. If you do that, I'll take you with me to meet Alex."

I almost jumped off the sofa to hug her. "Really!"

Thalia nodded, "We meet every few months to make sure we're still alive."

"When?"

Thalia sucked in air through her teeth. "January. I'm sorry. We're both busy through the holidays and the week before and after a full moon are difficult for me."

This was it. It was the answer I wanted in some form or fashion and I would be a fool to reject it. Alex loved this woman and trusted her more than anyone else in his life, I would have to do the same if I wanted to see him again.

"I've waited this long, another two months is nothing."

Oo0Oo0

Author's Note: There is an alarming lack of female werewolves in fiction, where women transform in fantasy, they become something more associated with feminine energy like a cat or something. Werewolves are seen as something very masculine in fantasy, so I wanted to explore that dynamic. Thalia is cranky, she's in chronic pain and while she sees value in being apart from the rest of society, she acknowledges that Greyback's politics, preferences and lack of opportunity have contributed to the current state of werewolves where they have minimal to no choice in their lives and the poverty that follows.

Thalia is named after one of the nine muses of Greek Mythology, the muse of comedy and pastoral poetry.

Rannulf is a surname that means 'Counsel' and 'Wolf'