"Does she have a friend from school she could stay with?"
"I can write back and ask, but that doesn't give us much time if the answer is 'no'."
"What are they doing for Vinnie? They've got to be getting him home somehow; maybe she could go with him."
The agents of Sniffers glanced up as Hermione came through the door, and Greg waved.
"I'd hate to leave her alone in the house all night," Roma said, "and I'm sure the Trimbles will have their hands full."
"What's going on?" Hermione asked.
"My youngest daughter, Anissa, is human," Roma said. "She started at Hogwarts this year, and she wants to come home for Christmas."
"She's been awfully homesick," Sammie added.
"The problem is that the Hogwarts Express is returning the 20th, and that's a full moon."
"And they're getting in late enough that we'll be busy being furry," Greg said.
"Why don't I pick her up?" Hermione asked.
"I couldn't ask you to do that," Roma said.
"You're not asking; I'm offering."
"It solves the problem, doesn't it?" Greg asked.
"Are you sure?" Roma asked.
"Absolutely. I love kids."
"Well, I'll need to check with my partner, but I would appreciate the help. I can pick her up first thing the next morning."
"Oh no, you'll need your rest after running around all night. She can stay longer than that."
"Actually, I'm always wired for a few hours after a full moon, and I'd like to get her home," Roma said. She opened a drawer and pulled out a table of astronomical data. "It looks like this month, sunrise is before moonset, and that'll be shortly after 8:00. Can you bring her to the Fox and Deer about 9:00? They serve breakfast, so they'll be open."
"Certainly," Hermione said.
"You're sure it won't be any trouble?"
"No trouble at all."
"Let's send her a photo of you so she'll recognize you at the station, then."
"Since that's settled, Sammie and I better get to St. Mungo's," Greg said.
"Is everything all right?" Hermione asked.
"Yup, just going for transfigurations." Sammie pointed her wand at the wardrobe and ordered 'Accio coat'. Her coat flew to her hand, and Greg did the same once hers was clear. "We should be back by 1:00 unless there's an emergency in front of us."
"Oh, before you go!" Hermione remembered. "Do you guys like Quidditch?"
Greg and Sammie glanced at each other, and Greg asked, "Have you been listening to us at all?"
Hermione grinned. Greg and Sammie were on opposite sides of the Appleby Arrows/Wimbourne Wasps rivalry, as she'd heard over several lunches. "I thought you might. Every Christmas, the Weasleys have a big Quidditch game. They're always telling me to bring all my friends so we can have a bigger game. I thought if your family came, you could meet my other friends, and we could all play."
"I don't think so," Roma said.
"Whoa whoa, hold up," Greg said. "Is this Weasley as in Ginny Weasley, the Holyhead Harpies Chaser?"
"We always make her play Seeker to make it more fair," Hermione said.
"Will Ron Weasley be there too?" Sammie asked. Hermione nodded. "Ooh, do you think he'd sign a Chocolate Frog card for me?"
"No!" Roma interrupted before Hermione could answer. "We are not going."
"Oh, I'm going," Greg said.
"Gregor!"
"Roma! I'm 17. I am not going to miss a chance to play Quidditch with Ginny Weasley. If you want to kick me out over it, I'll move in with Connor's pack."
"Could you take my card with you? Please?" Sammie asked.
"No, I'm not going to take your card and ask for an autograph like a doof."
"You jerk!"
As she raised her fist to punch him in the shoulder, Roma stuck two fingers into her mouth and whistled sharply. Both Greg and Sammie immediately straightened to attention like little kids caught causing trouble.
"Greg, no one is talking about kicking anyone out," Roma said. "If you want to go that badly, I won't stop you."
"Yes!" Greg pumped his fist with mock subtlety as Sammie pouted.
"Samantha, you are nearly 16. That's old enough to make some decisions on your own. You know how I feel about this, but if Hermione vouches for her friends, the choice is ultimately yours."
"Thank you!" she squealed, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"But," Roma interrupted loudly, and both teens straightened to attention again. "Anissa is not going, and I don't want you two torturing her with this. Am I understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," Greg said, giving a salute.
Sammie burst off her feet and hugged Roma. "Thank you so much!" She turned and hugged Hermione, too. "Thank you! This is going to be so cool!"
Hermione waited until Sammie and Greg cleared out and the door closed behind them, then put up her hands defensively. "I'm sorry. I had no idea that was going to be an issue."
Roma sighed. "I know you didn't, Hermione. I appreciate that you think of us as your friends, and the feeling is mutual. Please don't think it isn't. There aren't many humans I would trust alone with one of my children and, well, that's kind of my point. No offense intended, but spending several hours with a dozen-plus strange humans is not my idea of fun under the best of circumstances, and certainly is not how I want to spend my Christmas."
"If it makes you feel any better, the Lupins will be there, too."
Roma clenched her teeth, clearly trying to figure out how to phrase her next statement diplomatically. "That doesn't really help. Let's just say that the Lupins and my family do not run in the same social circles. Why don't we change the subject? I understand you spoke to Clio last night. Did she raise any questions you want me to answer?"
"The interview did raise some questions, but I'm not sure you'll have the answers. Do you know when Fenrir first got sick?"
Roma nodded. "It was when he joined the Death Eaters. He just wasn't the same around them."
"What do you mean?"
"Really?" Roma asked with a gesture towards Hermione's scars.
"Oh. Right. I wonder why he joined the Death Eaters. They didn't treat him very well, did they?"
"No better than any other human ever did. I suppose he saw it as his only chance. I don't know if he thought things would change for the better for werewolves under the Dark Lord, but he knew they wouldn't change if nothing else did."
"So he joined them willingly?"
"No. He may have stayed willingly, but he didn't join that way. Not at first, not the first time."
Hermione's eyebrows knit together. "Then, if they didn't treat him any better, how did they convince him?"
"The same way they convinced everyone who didn't seek them out. They found out his weakness. With Fenrir, it probably wasn't that difficult. Everything Fenrir ever did, he did for his children."
Fenrir hurried down the sidewalk, trying not to look as frantic as he felt. Finally, he saw Nic leaning against a bus stop shelter. As soon as Nic saw him, he walked to meet Fenrir partway.
"Where's Roma?" Fenrir asked.
Nic grabbed the shoulder of his suit jacket and hurried him into the park. "Come with me."
"Where is my daughter, Nicodemus?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know? You were supposed to be watching my children!"
"I can't be up their arses while they're picking pockets, Fenrir."
Fenrir grumbled as Nic pulled him off the walking path and into a copse of trees. "I never gave you permission to turn my children into thieves, Nicodemus."
"You never turned down the money, either. You know what I do for a living; you're my damn fence. Don't pretend you didn't know what I've been teaching them." Nic brought him to an enormous tree and crouched by a hollow in its roots. "Look." He put out his hand to reach into the nook. Green smoke billowed out of it, forming a solid barrier that stopped him. When he pulled his hand back, the smoke formed itself into the words "bring Greyback" and blew away.
"What the hell?" Fenrir asked.
Nic shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine. It's not how the Ministry operates for damn sure, but I've never seen the goblin mafia do something like this, either."
Greyback reached into the hollow, and Nic none-too-subtly moved behind a neighboring tree. The smoke didn't appear this time. Fenrir pulled out the wand Roma had taken from the pack's stash that morning; her necklace, which was enchanted so he could track it; and a folded parchment. He unfolded it.
Dear Mr. Greyback,
I'm terribly sorry to inconvenience you and your daughter, but I must discuss a business transaction with you most urgently. Roma will be spending the day with me. Please come to the cemetery in Godric's Hollow at 9 PM tonight to retrieve her, and we will discuss our business then.
Instead of a signature, there was a skull with a snake slithering out of its mouth: the Dark Mark.
Nic cursed. Fenrir stood and grabbed the neck of his shirt, twisting it until the cloth threatened to rip.
"Fen, it's not my fault!"
"You get my kids together and take them to Julian. Tell him to get underground until he hears from me." Fenrir let him go, but grabbed him again before he could get far. He took out his pocket-watch and pressed it into Nic's hand. "Take this, too, and put it in your Thief's Pouch. Tell Julian not to believe anything coming from me until you tell him you've given it back."
"You're going?"
"Of course I'm going. They have Roma."
"What should the kids do if you don't come back?"
That was always a risk with the Death Eaters, wasn't it? "If I don't come back, tell them to stay underground."
The cemetery of Godric's Hollow stretched around Fenrir, white marble tombstones glimmering in the light of the gibbous moon. He cocked his head and heard voices, their tone raising above the eerie silence of the graves.
"Stop that! I swear if she does that again, I'm going to break her neck."
"No, you're not. Not until he gets here, anyway."
"At least let me body-bind her again. Merlin's Beard, she's a brat."
"That won't be necessary. Our guest just arrived," a woman said. She raised her voice. "Why don't you join us, Mr. Greyback? We're by the yew tree in the middle of the cemetery. And you might as well be ready to hand your wand over to one of my associates. We'd rather not have a fight in front of your young lady."
Taking a deep breath to control his raising temper, Fenrir walked toward the yew tree that stretched branches towards the moonlit sky. As he grew close, he could make out four people. A woman was sitting on a tombstone, a cloak's hood drawn over her head but not blocking her face. Beside her stood Roma, her hands bound with several wraps of rope. She kept trying to jerk away from a man holding her. He was wearing the hood of the Death Eaters, his face wholly covered, as was a second man standing on the woman's other side.
"Why don't you hand your wand to Mr. Goyle there?" the woman asked, pointing to the empty-handed Death Eater to her right. Clenching his jaw, Fenrir took out his wand, flipped it over, and held it out base first to the indicated Death Eater, who took it and stepped out of arm's reach.
"Are you all right, Roma?" he asked.
"Oh, I think Mr. Macnair's been getting the worst of it," the woman said. "Your daughter unfortunately may have a few bruises, but they won't be any trouble to take care of. I have to say, she's quite the fighter, downright feisty. We had her under an Imperius Curse at first, but she broke out of that and bit down rather hard on Mr. Macnair's arm. We've had to keep her body-bound most of the day. And I don't know that Mr. Macnair's shins will ever be the same after tonight."
"Good girl," Fenrir said in Gobbledegook. Roma gave a tight smile to acknowledge she'd heard and understood. Focusing on the woman, he asked in English, "What do you want with us?"
"Right to the point. I like that. To be perfectly frank, we want someone bitten."
"But apparently not Macnair here," Roma said.
"Hush, child." The woman snapped her fingers at her, then jerked them back as Roma snapped her teeth at them. "As I said, downright feisty. No, not Mr. Macnair. There is a Mr. Ledyard in Puddletown, whom we need to perform a service for us."
"Why didn't you take his daughter, then?" Fenrir asked.
The woman smiled. "Because he can go to the Ministry and cause trouble for us, whereas you cannot. And if you're not willing to help us, the charming Miss Darcy here will be almost as effective. You see, we've warned Mr. Ledyard that something bad will happen to him if he does not agree to help us by tomorrow night, and he hasn't been terribly cooperative as of yet. And Mr. Ledyard is terrified of werewolves. Under the circumstances, I can't think of a worse accident to befall someone in his family than a werewolf bite. We're not terribly particular who, mind. His wife, one of his children, even himself.
"Now, we could have taken any of your children for this task. They're easy enough to find if you're observant. All we would have to do is get them near the Ledyard family just before they transform, and instinct would take over, wouldn't it? But I doubt that would be very safe for the child in question. I'm not heartless; I hate to think what would happen to the poor thing once the Werewolf Capture Unit was called out. But you, I suspect you could work out a way to do it safely."
"You haven't given me much time," Fenrir said.
"No, but you're clever. I think you can do it nonetheless. But if you'd rather we borrow young Miss Darcy for another day, we can certainly do so. Assuming Mr. Macnair can control his temper that long."
"All right. If you'll give her back, I'll do what you want."
"You need to give me something stronger than just your word. After all, once you have her safely in your care again, you can just spirit your family away, and it'll take some time for us to find you again. Why should you keep your word to me? I'm just a human, after all."
"What do you want, then?"
"I understand werewolves can make an oath that's even stronger than an Unbreakable Vow, one that compels you to carry out your promise no matter what, without even death as an escape. Give me this Moon Oath."
Roma shook her head. "Dad, don't."
Macnair put his hand over her mouth, and before he realized the mistake on his own, she bit down on his finger. He jerked his hand away with a loud curse and shook it, then raised his hand to strike her. As Fenrir stepped forward, the woman flicked her wand at Macnair, and his arm froze in midair.
"You deserved that one, Walden. She's fine, Mr. Greyback. Now, are you going to give me my Oath, or do I have to work out another day's care for Miss Darcy?"
Fenrir took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I swear by the moon, my word more binding than sleep, that if you return Roma to me now and if Mr. Ledyard does not agree to do what you want before sunset tomorrow, then I will be within biting distance of his family when I transform tomorrow night."
"Let her go, Macnair." The woman flicked her wand towards Roma, and the ropes around her wrists vanished. Macnair immediately, and wisely, pulled his hands away from her shoulders, and she ran to Fenrir, throwing her arms around his chest. He put one of his around her protectively.
"Goyle, why don't you put Mr. Greyback's wand down, and we'll be on our way? Happy hunting tomorrow, Mr. Greyback." Goyle set Fenrir's wand down on a nearby tombstone, and the three Death Eaters vanished with a 'crack' of apparition.
"I'm so sorry!" Roma said. "I don't know what happened. I was just going with them, and nothing I could do would make it stop! It's like I was trapped in my own head."
"It's all right," Fenrir said. "You were Imperiused; it wasn't your fault. We'll get you and the rest of the pups somewhere safe."
"But you'll have to go tomorrow."
Fenrir nodded. "I know, but don't worry. I won't get hurt. I can do it safely."