November 15, 1997

My Dear Sister,

I wish to extend to you an invitation to visit my home, as the garden is no longer in bloom and my ever-loyal hounds miss your company as I miss your wine preferences. The garden is dead to the help of a neighbor who brought me the wrong weedkilling potion. The roots of my garden are infected with evil and the ignorance of man.

Warmest Regards and Dearest Affections,

Your Docile Lamb of a Sister

P.S. – My wand is near the end of it's life, and I was wondering if you had a spare?

The hood of my cloak attempted to fall back off of my head as I knocked on the door of a house surrounded by a brown garden of dead plants. I reached up to grab the edge as there was a raucous, chorus of barks from the other side of the door and muffled, annoyed tones from the home owner.

"What is the root of all evil?" The voice rose of the barking dogs.

"The ignorance of man!" I replied, recalling the letter that had brought me to this house.

"Atlas! Monty!" The door swung open and I immediately began to pet the large dogs who had begun to lick my hands and nuzzle at my pockets.

Thalia's voice contained all of the presence and power that her appearance alone lacked. A short, slightly pudgy woman with a round face and chin length blonde hair with perpetual bags of exhaustion under her eyes who leaned on a walking stick with a wolf's head carved handle. There was nothing feeble in her voice, no uncertainty or illusion of it. Thalia had a genuine confidence and grace of a woman who could not be shaken or intimidated by anything at all.

"Hi boys! I got nothing for you!" I scratched Monty's soft white ears and Atlas' grey snout as the pair pressed against my hips for more scratches and attention. I looked at Thalia who was leaning against the doorframe, a wry amused smile on her face. I could see the gleam of the wedding ring around her neck as it rested on a delicate gold chain. "I'm so happy to see you! Congratulations on your wedding."

"I'd hardly call it a wedding, but papers were signed and we did have cake." Thalia's warm voice was soothing and her easy confidence was infectious. Her blonde hair had grown longer since I had last seen her, the ends resting and couple of inches above her shoulders, framing her round sweet face. Really, she was too pretty and too smart for my brother. "Come on in, Val's excited to see you."

"Valencia's here?" I let the dogs in the house before me as Thalia motioned me inside, closing the door behind her with a click.

"Of course she is. We've been in touch."

A familiar shade of red hair popped up from the floor next to the couch, quickly getting up to throw her arms around me in a tight, bone crushing hug. "Audrey!"

The hood of my cloak had fallen back and revealed the truth of my appearance, I squeezed Valencia as tightly as she was hugging me.

"I'm so happy to see you!"

"You see me at the embassy office," I choked out, trying to make a joke. "How's Elihu?"

Valencia moved away from me, her face red and eyes wide in embarrassment. "Alive. It's not like I see him every day! I just see him for news comments to put out for the American Expats."

Thalia rolled her eyes as she summoned a plate of small sandwiches from the kitchen. I was not touching that. I was never going to be able to joke about Elihu and I's clearly shared predilection for redheads. Ugh. That was a thought best left unspoken.

I could only pray Elihu was of the same mind.

I hung up my cloak on the hook next to the aquamarine one I recognized as belonging to Valencia as my thoughts drifted off to one of my favorite optimistic topics. Valencia and Elihu could be very happy together if they could allow themselves to be so. I could not understand the loss of the spouse, but Elihu was still fairly young in wizarding years and Elaine would not want him to go through life alone. In some ways, Valencia was emotionally old and jaded, not in a bitter caustic way that could be found in young people who wanted to suffer in safety to understand add warranty to their angst, but perhaps it was best described as a sort of resilient strength that most people would never need in their lives. Much like Thalia, one would have to look closely to really understand or see it in them. Life had been hard for both women, but they coped and emerged as something else in the aftermath of terror and tragedy.

The pair was really not so different.

Thalia spoke as she moved into her armchair, her eyes were shadowed and had bags of exhaustion beneath them. "Food? I have three kinds of sandwiches here, all with ingredients from my garden." Thalia looked at the begging dogs nearby. "None for you two, you've been fed."

Atlas and Monty wandered dejectedly into the kitchen on the vague hope of crumbs.

Valencia and I quickly made plates while casual chatter took control of the meeting for a moment. Valencia and Thalia were getting to know one another, they had apparently never met before. I was told that Valencia had just received a letter out of the blue from Thalia, explaining that their mutual friend (aka Alex) had listed her as an emergency contact.

"Which brings me to the reason for my invitation." Thalia leaned forward in her armchair, looking both terribly old and far too young for the stress of her life. "When was the last time either of you was in touch with Alex?"

Valencia and I looked at each other, seeming to hope the other would speak first.

Valencia was a braver person then I was, she finished the last bite of her sandwich and heaved a sigh. "I have not heard from Alex in months." She looked at Thalia, "The reports he sent me before he broke contact were really excellent, but I get the idea he was in too deep to keep up the schedule."

"Alex generally doesn't talk to me," I said slowly. "The last time I heard from him was a note after the Ministry fell. He just told me to keep my head down and my mouth shut."

"The last time I heard from him was a month after our wedding," Thalia sighed, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears. "That itself doesn't bother me, we're busy and that's just how we like to be, but I am concerned about if he's even alive or not at this point."

Valencia and I nodded in agreement as Thalia pulled a sheet of parchment from the tableside drawer before summoning a No-Maj writing utensil to scribble down the dates we had reported, I could see other dates of contact above, all of them seeming to grow further apart as time passed.

"I'm sorry," Valencia's voice was low. "I'm sorry for getting him involved in all of this. I wanted a shot at writing a story about how extremism takes root in established, safe, countries and Alex was the only one who was willing to look into it, had experience in it and I never expected him to take this as far as he has."

"There's nothing to forgive," Thalia responded as the scratching of her pen stopped for a moment. "I knew what Alex was like long before I married him. It was part of the appeal, but it does have its downsides."

"It's like being a cat owner." I added dryly, which sent the other two women into peals of laughter. "Thank you for taking custody of the stray."

"My pleasure!" Thalia wiped her eyes of the laughter induced tears. "He's a very pretty cat."

I gagged while Valencia only laughed harder, hiding her face in her hands with her shoulders shaking in muffled laughter, she could have been mistaken for crying until she came up for air with a beaming smile.

"I'll go get some water; I'll be right back."

"Bring the wine bottle on the counter, please!"

Valencia started talking to Thalia about all of good interviews she was doing with other Americans for her newspaper, Semper Honestus, along with some others from local residents. "People back in the states need to know what's going on in this country. It affects us too! And there is a lot going on in this country that no one is really talking about."

I turned to go into the kitchen and something stopped me cold in surprise.

There was a child sitting at the table.

The boy was small, short and a bit thin and ragged-looking in the way young boys could be. He had delightfully curly red hair and a spattering of freckles across his face. He was an adorable child. Atlas and Monty were sitting at his feet with hopeful expressions and wagging tails.

"'Lo," The boy tried to smile through his mouthful of apple and I was concerned he would choke from the effort.

"Hello," I smiled back as the boy chewed faster in an effort to be polite and start making conversation.

This was odd. The last thing I would ever expect to find in Thalia and Alex's home would be a child of any age.

"I'm Audrey, what's your name?"

The boy swallowed, coughed twice and held out his hand for me to shake. There was an easy, lopsided smile that spoke of an easy-going personality and a lively sense of humor behind the sharpness of his eyes. "I'm Todd Shaw, Thalia's apprentice!"

Oh, I have so many questions.

"Todd! Are you being a pest?" Thalia's voice came from the living room, commanding and a bit harsh.

Todd released my hand and leapt to his feet, straightening himself like an Auror Trainee doing drills despite Thalia's lack of physical presence. "No ma'am!"

"Did you finish sorting the storeroom?" Thalia's cane tapped on the floor and I could hear her feet on the creaking floor as she got out of her chair.

"Yep!" Todd smiled widely as Thalia peered into the kitchen. "Told you I was quick."

"Did you do it right though? Go double-check and then report back."

Todd gave a mock salute, a firm set to his mouth before he turned and scampered to the storeroom off the kitchen, the door closing behind him with a click as the dogs laid under the kitchen table with contented sighs.

"Um, Thalia?" I picked up the bottle of wine and the nearby glasses.

Thalia motioned me back to the living room as she summoned a fruit plate from the kitchen counter and placing it on the table in front of Valencia, who was tilting her head slightly like an owl.

"So, there's that," Thalia sighed as she eased into her chair, propping her cane next to her and adjusting her leg with a sigh.

"Hm, a happy family life." Valencia stretched and grinned at the joke as she began to pour the wine that I had handed her before sitting down in a nearby chair.

"Why is there a kid here?" I asked, quickly cutting to the point. Thalia understood far better than I did the danger werewolves could pose in an uncontrolled state where Wolfsbane potion was not available to them. "Thalia, I can take him someplace safe-"

"You're all safer if he stays here," Thalia's voice was firm and direct.

It took a moment for the statement to sink in. Valencia was passing the filled wine glasses.

"He's a werewolf?"

"More like a puppy," Thalia took a sip of wine, "still dangerous though."

Valencia perked up as I struggled to find the words. "Isolt's panties, poor thing!"

Thalia shot Valencia a stern look before looking back at me. "Do you see why I was asking if you knew where I could get a spare wand?"

Yes, I had wondered about that part of the letter.

"If he were not a werewolf, Todd would be starting Hogwarts this year. He can't attend now, he needs a teacher, but he seems to have latched onto the idea of becoming my apprentice and becoming a potioneer. He's not... well, he could be far worse than he is, but don't tell him that, it will just feed his little ego. I don't know much about him. He's only been here a couple of weeks. He's clean. Tidy. I've had worse roommates."

Alex had long been a proponent of leaving clothes on the floor and a messy office, so I could imagine how that could annoy a spouse.

"I didn't think you and Alex liked children?" I said slowly, my voice low out of respect for Todd in the next room, my understanding of children told me that Todd would be the kind of boy to eavesdrop.

"We don't. It's too dangerous for me to be around them while I perfect this Wolfsbane potion and Alex thinks they're weird." There was a contended, satisfied sigh from Thalia. "My legacy in this world will not be a child of my flesh, but one made of boiling cauldron water."

"What will he say about this when he comes back?"

"Nothing. It's my house and he understands the work I'm doing will help kids like Todd. My work could mean so much more to the community for being a creation by werewolves. It means a way to get Wolfsbane potion without having to out ourselves to the Ministry and throw ourselves at their mercy." She spat the word mercy as if it were a poison.

There was a thought going through my head, "What if Hogwarts allows him to attend when the war is over?"

"That's his choice. I'll encourage him to go, but I doubt he would want too, he understands what he is."

"But if the school can provide him the potion-?"

"Then he may never have the ability to blend into normal society once that label is on him. Look what happened to Remus Lupin? He became a public face for werewolves after his teaching stint and not in a good way. Even with the offer, Todd may have a better chance for a real future if he can live a private life. I'm not good with a wand, but I can find people to teach him who are."

I thought for a moment, "We're doing lessons at Lucinda's, we'd be happy to put him on the roster."

"Thank you, we'll give it some thought and I'll let you know."

I could see a flash of curly red hair darting around the corner to the kitchen. Todd was eavesdropping. I allowed myself an amused smile.

"If you want to make a potion Todd, come out here to I can supervise," Thalia barked and I heard the excited scuffling and banging noises of Todd hustling around the kitchen as Atlas and Monty went into the kitchen to investigate the noise. Thalia looked at the two of us, "Todd's confined to the house and property, he's not going to repeat anything her hears. Smart like that."

I was getting the impression Thalia liked Todd a bit more than what she claimed to be her usual interest in children. It might be a combination of sympathy and loneliness brought about by Alex being away from home for so long.

Todd was quick to set up a small, portable cauldron with a small built-in fire beneath it, Thalia assured me it was an invention of Alex's for some of her more experimental concoctions that she could not make in the house. Now she was using it for Todd to learn the craft, it was more of a portable kit, so Todd could follow Thalia around and ask questions as she tended the garden or something. Very practical. They should put a patent on that.

Valencia sighed and shifted slightly on the couch, "So, are we going to agree that whoever gets their hands on Alex first gets strangling privileges?"

Thalia and I murmured in agreement.

"I know that this isn't... Well, it is intentional, but it never felt cruel, this is too dangerous to continue right now." Thalia rolled her eyes. "As much as we enjoy the independence of the thing, he needs to figure out when to pull the plug. It's not just him anymore. It hasn't been for a long time."

"He wasn't away this long on his previous adventures?"

"No," Valencia rubbed the back of her neck. "Alex was better at keeping in touch, he was getting in, taking notes, making connections and going in deeper to upstart extremist groups. They were less extensive and ingrained than the Death Eaters, who have about thirty years of activity if we count those years things were quiet when their Chief Death Eater was missing."

"Are you Canadian?" Todd asked as he began to stir his potion with a large heavy spoon.

"American," Valencia grinned. "I'm from Illinois, I lived in a trailer park next to an Amish community before MACUSA realized I was Seed."

Todd perked up, the slight curls of his auburn hair seeming to stand on end for a moment from the humidity of the cauldron. "The man who sent me to Thalia was American."

I turned my head simultaneously with the other women in the room. "What?"

The permeating silence filled the room, Todd continued stirring his cauldron with a contented expression, counting each stir. "Yeah, he talked more like her." He motioned his hand towards me before completing the final two rotations of his cauldron and placing a lid on top to allow it to simmer.

Thalia broke the silence first, an unreadable expression on her face. "Todd. Please explain."

Todd tilted his head slightly, seemingly a bit uncomfortable with being put on the spot with the three of us staring at him. "Well, I was in Knockturn Alley, down in the Undercroft."

Valencia raised an eyebrow, "That sounds sketchy."

"It is. The Undercroft is not a place for children." Thalia clarified as she examined Todd more closely than she had all evening, drumming her fingers against the arm of her chair. "What were you doing down there?"

Todd shifted awkwardly, "Odd jobs."

"You're ten." I said slowly, my voice gentle enough to draw Todd's attention. "How did that start."

Thalia's lips tightened to a thin line, "You got bit and had nowhere else to go."

Todd nodded slowly, "My mum died when I was little and my step-father kicked me out after I was bit. Said I was too dangerous to be around my brothers."

"It's not difficult to contain a werewolf puppy." Thalia rolled her eyes. "That man was just lazy and looking for an excuse to get rid of you, what did you do during the full moons?"

"One of the shopkeepers would lock me in a closet."

The necessity of that seemed to overlay my inherent repulsion at the cruelty of it. I was not too sure what one had to do to contain a werewolf on short notice, but the options available to Todd were limited in so public a place.

"What did you do in exchange?"

"He would send me up to Knockturn Alley to find stuff for him."

Somehow, I doubted it was strictly picking up items, it sounded like Todd was sent out of the Undercroft to be an inconspicuous thief for a duplicitous man.

"I met the man who sent me here after I was up on the surface after a full moon."

Thalia nodded; Alex would be very familiar with a werewolf after a full moon. As tired as Thalia looked when I saw her when the full moon was coming soon or a week past, then Alex would be better able to pin why a young boy looked so unusually bedraggled and haggard.

Todd shuffled awkwardly, "He was covering his face, but he said he knew what I was and told me where to go and find shelter, that I was to tell Thalia what I was and that she would help me."

Thalia was at a loss for words, her fingers toying with the necklace where her ring rested against her collarbone. "That son of a bitch."

I would have laughed at the sudden, very American profanity if I was not so shocked by everything Todd had said in the last few minutes. Alex was alive as of two weeks ago. My brother was out in the world as a living person extending a hand to child in need despite his general dislike of them. My brother was never that sort of monster, despite all of his claims and I could feel some degree of pride and security in that.

Valencia grinned, "I knew he was alive!"

I could not deal with my brother. Whatever he was doing had to be important. There had to be an end to this at some point. Alex could not continue to integrate himself with these monsters. The true loyalist would hunt him down for the rest of his life.

Oo0Oo0

Author's Note: Todd means 'Fox', and 'Shaw' is a surname for people who live by a corpse or thicket. I like to think Todd's wolf form has a reddish tint to his fur.

So, in the context of the chapter title: The Triple Goddess of Neopaganism ( aka Hecate by Greek Mythos) represent the female life cycle and stages of the moon. Thalia is the Crone, older, wiser and grumpier than the others. Valencia is the Mother, she knows fully who she is and what drives her in life, she understands where her impact lies. Audrey is functioning as the Maiden, she's found herself a bit, but she's not entirely steady in her own perception of who she is and is going to be as person when the war is over.