Wolf Daughter

by Kendianna

Daughter of Fenrir Greyback and his late wife, Hermione is destined to be the next alpha one day with her adopted brother Harry as her loyal beta. When she accidentally claims the lordship of the house of Black, her family’s situation radically changes. Werewolves aren’t allowed at Hogwarts, but who would dare keep the head of a noble house from their rightful magical education?

7. You have the right to remain furious

Asmund Rowle and his house elf have a very busy night and morning, Fenrir and Remus have an important appointment, and Albus uncovers a mystery (Featuring CelestialSeaWitch's OC Asmund Rowle, just borrowing him for a while!)

The owl tapping softly at his window that he had been resolutely ignoring for the better part of half an hour had started to increase its volume and frequency until it sounded more like a muggle power drill, and he finally dragged his sorry carcass out of bed to see what it had for him. He didn't appreciate being woken up in the middle of the damn night, no matter how much his stupidly rich clients paid him to be on call all hours. He was a lawyer damnit, not a fucking prostitute.

He opened the latch and the angry thing fluttered in and clawed the hell out of him, and he nearly shot a blasting hex at it. He glared at the bird "This better be important or I'm going to harvest you for quills" he snarled at it. Understanding him and clearly unimpressed, the thing fluffed itself up twice its size and flew above his head to the top of his wardrobe. It turned around and stuck its tail over the edge and he immediately knew exactly what it was threatening.

"I'm sorry!" He shouted, in disbelief that he was apologizing to a fucking owl. He stuck his open hand out towards it hesitantly "I'm sorry, I know you're wide awake and feisty but this is when people sleep. Can I please just have your letter?" He begged, feeling pathetic. It turned around and peered down at him over the molding at the top of his wardrobe, as if judging his sincerity. Slowly it stood up and lowered its leg down, and he reached up and untied the letter that was attached to it. What a ridiculous display. He shook his head, and shuffled back over to sit on the edge of his bed and read.

He nearly cracked the wax without even glancing at it twice, but it at the last moment he realized it didn't have a seal. That was unusual for his clientele. They were all showy bastards who loved to let you know exactly where their money came from. With a hum of curiosity, he opened it and read, and his jaw slowly dropped farther and farther.

Dated August 31st, 1991

From the desk in my room

Alpha House

Greyback Compound

In the wood

Dear Mr Asmund Rowle (Esquire?),

I'm sorry for writing you so late, I assure you I would not do so if it weren't an emergency. You do not know me, but I am the new Head of the Black family, and I am writing to request your services for my father. You come highly recommended by my Aunt Andromeda, and I thank you on her behalf for helping her when other less responsible heads of our house may not have seen to her care or wellbeing.

There is a difficult situation that I need your assistance with, and your confidentiality is imperative. It is in regards to the custody of Harry Potter. When his parents were killed, he was supposed to go into the care of a Mr Remus Lupin, who was denied his rights on the grounds of his lycanthropy. I do not understand the full situation as I was not there nor have I heard directly from anyone who witnessed the events first hand, but for some reason Harry was placed in the care of muggle relatives who hated magic and mistreated him severely. We met when we were six years old, and became fast friends. Hearing that he was being abused, my father ritually blood adopted Harry into our family. He has lived with us since, and we have become as close as any naturally born siblings. He has taken our surname, and uses Potter as a middle name now.

As we prepare to attend our first year at Hogwarts, my father is fearful that his custody of both Harry and myself by association will be challenged. Hearing him talk about how terrified he is that he will send us off to school and never see us again broke my heart, sir. For these reasons, I would like to hire your services to stay on retainer in the nearby village of Hogsmeade in case my brother and I find ourselves in need of your legal aid at school. I hope that it will at least give him some peace of mind to know that someone is on our side in this matter who actually understands the law and can use it to help protect us.

Once things are already arranged (NOT before!) please go to our home and speak with my father about this. I'm sorry in advance. He's very skeptical of outsiders, and he'd probably never invite you directly to our compound, but show him this letter and he'll know that I informed you of it's location of my own free will. Also, Mr Lupin should be there as well, as he can tell you more than what I know about the situation surrounding Harry and his parent's will.

Furthermore I, Hermione Elena Greyback, give permission for this letter to be used as an affidavit for any hourly or daily legal fees you require for services rendered to be charged directly to the main Black family vault in Gringotts bank. Gornuk if you're reading this, please provide Mr Rowle with whatever assistance and relevant information he needs.

(Fenrir Greyback's pack can be found near Ganllwyd in The Snowdonia National Park, Gwynedd County Wales. Please use this information responsibly, and dispose of it FULLY when you are no longer in need of it. Do I understand correctly that you are already employed by our house? I am not entirely sure how hiring a solicitor works, so please forgive me if I got anything wrong)

Thank you, and I hope to hear from you soon

Hermione Elena Greyback :)

Lady Black

He read it a second time, and shook himself awake. He needed to- Merlin's bollocks he needed to get moving now. He practically sprinted down the hall and into his study, where he ignited his fireplace and floo traveled directly to his legal offices. From that hearth he had secure access to the Gringotts 24/7 emergency floo. He tossed the powder in and stepped through, still clutching the letter and only realizing at the last moment he was in his pajamas and robe. Rolling his eyes at himself, he shook it off. The goblins had seen worse and weirder.

The room he stepped out into was essentially a small waiting room. A snoring goblin stationed next to the hearth startled awake as he came through, and slurred slightly as it asked how it could be of service. "I need one of the Black accounts managers to authenticate a letter for me" he whispered harshly, and the pudgy little thing nodded and waddled off to collect someone who could help him.

After he'd been waiting for what felt like an hour, right as he was starting to feel both bored senseless and keyed up beyond belief, Gornuk himself finally entered the room. It bowed to him and he nodded back as politely as he could manage. "Well met," he groused at it, and it responded in kind "Yes yes, well met Solicitor Rowle. I hear you have a letter from my patroness?"

He held it out for the goblin to examine, and was startled to see the thing grin toothily "Isn't she just the kindest child?" It said with more sentiment than he'd ever heard a goblin display before "Worried about her poor father of all things" it said with an amused shake of its head. He felt like he was in wonderland or some other upside down fantasy. It seemed to realize how unusually it was behaving, and closed itself off like he'd seen wizards do when they occluded.

It cleared its throat "Yes this is indeed from Lady Black, and I see the notes for us she's included. What is the rate you'll be charging her for your services this evening? I'll have it drawn from her accounts and deposited into yours immediately if you'd care to write me out an invoice" it said, withdrawing a parchment and quill from its little waistcoat and handing them over to him expectantly.

Still feeling incredibly wrong footed he took them and thought for a moment. This creature was clearly very fond of the little witch. Staring down at the parchment, he wrote a very humble number on it, on the end of his pricing scale that he usually reserved for children's hospitals and war widows, and passed it back to the goblin "You can keep that on file as my per diem and I'll owl you with the dates it can be charged for, but let's call tonight pro-bono" he said weakly. It grinned at that, taking the parchment back and tucking it away "Very good sir!" it barked at him happily, and he felt he'd somehow stumbled upon the correct move.

He bid it goodbye and trudged back through the floo to his office, firecalling his personal assistant to come help him get to work. He immediately delegated, having her send for his entire staff of paralegals and a few of the better junior associates to come in for the night. He'd need all hands on deck if he wanted to get a base of operations set up in Hogsmeade before the new Lady Black arrived at school tomorrow. He scrubbed his hands over his face, and moaned tiredly. He would have to contact an estate agent, get a lease agreement signed, and have staff transferred to the new office. Why hadn't they set up a second office in the village there before now? They could easily double their business with another location.

Most importantly he had to make sure that the appropriate parchment work had been filed at the ministry when the boy had been adopted, or they could very well be completely fucked right out of the gate. He needed to find out what had happened with Dumbledore and why no one had stopped him from essentially kidnapping a child. He needed to be ready to have a protection order in place to be filed that referenced the kidnapping should there be any foul moves made by the headmaster. He needed to get in touch with Greyback and Lupin and get the whole story about the Potter boy.

Somehow he had to cram what could be arguably be considered two-to-three business days worth of work into roughly 14 hours. He wanted to cry. He took out his favorite quill with the auto-sharpening charm, and began to pen several letters. He'd wait until morning to send them, but they had to be written while he was still in the right frame of mind and still had two ounces of focus to rub together.

He flexed his dominant hand, it had begun to cramp halfway through the second letter and they weren't even the last things he would have to write before dawn. Leaning back he took a breather and called for his house elf Tootsie. She arrived next to him, displacing the air around her with a pop like a bubble. The tiny poncho she wore was a sweet checkered pink and white, and he thought he recognized it as a corner of a picnic blanket he'd used as a child. She sat on the edge of his desk and swung her little legs.

"It is being very late, Master Asmund! How cans Tootsie be serving?" She asked in her high squeaky voice, and he sighed heavily "I know it's late, and I'm sorry for waking you. Unfortunately I've got urgent business and I don't think I'm going to be able to go to bed anytime soon" She frowned at this and crossed her little arms, "It is being night time, Master should be sleeping! Can Masters clients not be waitings until morning? And can Tootsie not be helpings work get dones faster?" She asked hopefully. He resolved not to drink anything she brought him in case it had a sleeping drought mixed in. The dear thing was very protective of his wellbeing.

"I do have an important task for you Tootsie, one that I can't trust to anyone else" he said, and she perked up eagerly, practically vibrating with excitement. He held up the two letters he'd written "In the morning I need you to personally hand-deliver these to my clients. The person I'm doing all this work for in the middle of the night is the new Lady Black. She's just a little eleven year old witch who's going to start school tomorrow, if you can believe it" Tootsies tennis-ball sized eyes widened comically larger and she gasped "such a young missy!" She whispered under her breath in awe.

"The letter for the girl can be delivered at any time, in fact that would actually be a good task for Thorfinn… Give it to him in the morning before he leaves for the train, and tell him to find her and make sure she gets it. Encourage him to be nice and make friends if he can. She's going to be an important client in the years to come, and having an in with her would be a smart move. Tell him to help her out with anything she needs at school - firsties always get lost or forget things at home" she repeated his instructions back to him verbatim, and he was satisfied.

"Now, this next part is delicate so pay close attention. I need you to deliver this second letter to her father, but I have good reason to believe he is a werewolf" she squeaked in terror and covered her eyes with her hands "I'm sure he's a perfectly nice man, but he's scared for his children's safety, Toots, so please do try and comfort him. That being said, he might be dangerous if he gets upset, so you have my permission to defend yourself with your magic if you need to. Just try not to hurt him too badly if that happens. Do you understand me Tootsie? I don't want you risking your life in any way shape or form" he commanded, and she reached up with her spindly fingers to tug anxiously on her long floppy ears "Yes Master, Tootsie be understanding. Tootsie will be givings the letter to Mr Wolfy and staying safes" she crooned.

He patted the top of her head, and continued "Good, I'm very glad we're clear. You helped raise me me and my dad and now my boys, and I'd like to make sure you're still around to take care of my grandchildren and their children as well. This is the part that might get a bit complicated. What I need for you to do is wait at the train station until it's come and the children have all gone, and then deliver the letter to her father before he leaves. Directly into his hands, please. If you can, I'd like you to make sure he reads it there in front of you. You see it's an invitation to come meet and talk with me, and the reason I need you to try and be there when he reads it is that I'd like to know if I can expect him to be angry or not. I've heard he's got a bit of a temper" she squeaked in fear, and he shushed her softly.

"It'll be fine, Toots. If you don't like what you see and you think it's going to be dangerous, just come find me and let me know and we can try again another time when he's calmed down. I'll be waiting for him in Wales near his home. I'm not sure exactly where he lives, so I'll just be in the nearest town. Mmm! Go a little early before anyone else gets there. While you're waiting, make yourself invisible and find their family the moment they arrive. Watch them and pay close attention, notice as many details as you can like those games we played when I was a boy. I want to know everything you can remember seeing and hearing when you're done" he ran his hands through his hair, wracking his brain for any other instructions that would make her job clearer or easier.

"The girl's name is Hermione Greyback, and her father is Fenrir Greyback. Her brother is Harry Potter but it's a secret we can't let anyone else know yet. I don't think they have any house elves, but if you have time tonight and you're feeling particularly social you can go visit your sister and ask if she and the other Malfoy elves have heard anything. Those chatty things have always got the best gossip, don't they Toots?" He asked with a cheeky grin, and she let loose a peal of teensy weensy giggles.

"Try and find out if there are any elves still in service that belonged to the Potters. If there are, see if you can get in touch with any of them. I'm going to try and figure out what happened after their family died, and they might have important information that could help. If you do find any and they don't want to talk or they're scared to come forward for whatever reason, let them know I'm working on helping their young master Harry. That should light a fire under their cute little bums"

His elf eyed him with a bit of a judgey look that told him he was being more of a shark than usual "Tootsie be tellings his mother when he be little but she neeeever listens. Master be sneaky like a little snake! Clever, but sneaky" she said with a huff of exasperation "And knowings much more than he shoulds about the elf families, Master does" she said dismayed, tugging her ears again.

He grinned and shrugged charmingly "I only know what you taught me, my dear one"

---

Tootsie was having an exciting night. Master Asmund had give her a robust set of instructions, and she could feel the Rowle family magic zipping through her nerve pathways. Her mistress and her young masters were all still sleeping, and she briefly mourned that her master was determined to work all night, but she ignored that. He had been very clear that both of them had important work to do.

She had visited her sister in the kitchens of Malfoy Manor, and Wootsie had given her a treasure trove of good gossip for her to bring back to her Master. Her Mistress Narcissa had been writing letters to the little Lady Black, and had even met her! Her young Master Draco had been having play dates with the little Lady and her brother all year, and he was much looser about what he said and let slip in front of the elves. She had gotten so much information she'd had to start writing down physical notes, and had left the manor with several sheaves of scrawled pages.

She had been much more careful asking around if any other elves knew who had been serving the Potters before they were killed. Her kind were deeply sensitive about the loss of a family, and she wouldn't have been surprised to learn that whatever elves they had died trying to save their family if that was the case. To her utmost shock, it was not the case. A young elf named Pippin had been very hesitant to speak to her, but had eventually revealed that her aunt Kipper had been a Potter elf and worked at Hogwarts now. She'd asked if the little elfling could convince her aunt to come talk to her, and the thing had gotten a bit spooked but agreed to try. An hour or so later, the elfling had popped back into the manor wards with her aunt in tow, both of them looking nervous and unhappy about being there.

Tootsie had followed her Master's instructions and taken a very gentle tactical approach, starting by letting Kipper know that there was still a living Potter child, and that her Master was trying to help him. The elf had been ecstatic to discover her young Master had survived. Her bond with the Potters had been so shattered upon their death that she hadn't been able to feel baby Harry, and she had nearly worked herself to death in her grief and guilt in the decade since.

The elf had been incandescently furious to know that her baby Harry had been taken and given to her Mistress's awful muggle relatives. After that, it was easy to convince Kipper to come and talk to her Master and tell him what she knew. Tootsie had earnestly promised the other elf that he was a good kind wizard who would be able to help her see her young Master, and maybe even arrange for her to work for him again. She had promised to come when Tootsie called her.

Satisfied from successfully digging up all the dirt her Master had wanted her to inquire about, and certain that he'd be very pleased indeed with her for finding a living Potter elf, she popped home to Rowle House just as dawn was breaking. She spent a scant ten minutes blitzing through the house, whipping away dust and polishing surfaces, she rooted lint and dirt out of the carpets like a whirling dervish. Sinks and toilets and bathtubs and hardwood floors all scrubbed, curtains and pillows and rugs all beaten, she finally took herself a quick breather.

In the cellar where the ward stone buzzed and glowed, she laid her hands on it and absorbed some of its ambient magical energy. Her cheeks flushed, her belly filled with tasty magic, and she was fresh as a daisy. Cleaning done and feeling rejuvenated after her little rest, she set out to ready her family for their day.

In the Mistress's rooms she laid out a lovely set of day robes and ran her a bath with all the fragrant oils she liked best. Down the hall she set out the littlest Master's play clothes and put away the toys he'd left out the night before. In the Master's room, she prepared one of his best suits and made sure it was free of any scents of cologne or perfume so as not to irritate his clients sensitive wolfy nose. She put it in a garment bag, and popped into his office to deliver it to his secretary.

In the laundry she made sure all of young Master Thorfinn's new school uniforms and robes for the year were washed and pressed and steamed until the edges were crisp and the buttons shone. His little black dress shoes were clean and polished until they gleamed and reflected her features. She lightly layered subtle elf magic over them lovingly so that they would resist dust and dirt and stains, and so that he would stay looking handsome all day long.

Popping into the kitchen, she made tea and coffee and pastries and a full breakfast, and placed it all under a shimmering stasis field on the countertop. She placed a portion of everything onto a tray for the master and delivered it to his office for him, stubbornly refusing to leave until she'd watched him eat. Then she headed back home and to young Master Thorfinn's room.

She kneeled next to his pillow and gently poked his face until he woke, bleary and mumbling "Toots? What time is it?" He asked with his eyes barely squinted open, reaching up to scrub the drool away from the side of his mouth. She snapped her fingers and cast a mild freshening charm on his face, and his eyes popped open with a yelp. "Little warning, please!" He said sitting up and leaning against his headboard "Really Tootsie, are you just excited because it's the first day of school?" He grumbled.

She told him about the task his father had left for him, and told him she'd put the letter on his desk for him to carry onto the train and deliver to the girl. He nodded seriously, and got up and started getting ready for his day. He'd already packed his trunk, so she didn't have to do that for him. She still double checked that he had everything he'd need, and added a few things here and there. Why did children only ever think to pack themselves two pairs of socks for an entire year away from home?

As the rest of the morning passed she woke her Mistress and the littlest Master, served them all their breakfast, and helped the little one wash and dress. Little Master Magnus was still her baby, but only for another year and then he'd go off to school with his brother. She had wished with all her heart the last few years that the Master and Mistress might have another baby for her to take care of, but was starting to lose hope. That was just the way the world worked though, it was rare for pureblood families like hers to have more than one or two children anymore.

Things had gotten better for elves over the years, Masters were kinder than they used to be and chores were easier than ever. Still, she sometimes found herself longing for the days when the children were plentiful. Her Master's father had been the oldest of five. The family magic was much more rich and vibrant in those days. Had a better chew and flavor to it as well. But those times were gone.

She told her Mistress that she needed to leave early to take care of a task for the Master, and popped over to platform 9 and 3/4 to begin her stakeout. She disillusioned herself and pressed up against the brick wall, and watched each family that came through. It was only nine o'clock, and the station was still mostly empty. Only the most excitable muggleborn families usually arrived quite this early, not sure what to expect and not wanting to miss a thing.

As the hour passed people slowly began to arrive, and around ten there were a steady stream of them pouring onto the platform. A huge group of redheaded Weasleys arrived, and their magic felt familiar but not quite right. The blonde Malfoy family arrived shortly after them, and their magic was a much closer match. She latched onto Lady Malfoy and read her signature, memorizing the feel of it.

About a quarter of an hour passed, and she felt a magical signature that was very similar to Lady Malfoy's come through onto the platform. Her eyes darted over to where it originated from, and she saw a huge man with two small children. She gulped nervously, but then steeled herself and snuck closer to follow them. The little ones were excitedly babbling about the train and the crowds of people, and although she had been afraid of the man at first he looked very fond of his children. That was always a good sign.

To her surprise, the small family joined both the Weasleys and the Malfoys, who all stood together and spoke as if they were familiar and friendly. She would string Wootsie up by her toes for not telling her about this development - the Weasleys and the Malfoys were supposed to be generational enemies! Lady Narcissa and Mrs Molly were laughing like old friends! When had this happened? She would have a lot to report to her Master indeed.

The children were all laughing together, and talking about where they were going to sit. The youngest were dithering over what houses they were most likely all going to be in. Standard first year worries. Her ears pricked and she froze where she stood as she heard the big man whisper to Mr Arthur that someone was spying them and not to reveal anything important. How had he known she was here? She did everything she could to shore up her disillusionment, and cast a spell on herself to disguise her scent.

As the train arrived, the big man and his two little ones all seemed distressed. The children clapped their hands over their ears when the brakes screeched metallically and the girl whined "What on earth is that terrible noise?" She cried. The big man swore "I'm so sorry little wolf, I should have cast muffling charms on you and your brother before we came. I didn't even think of it" he rasped as he came over to her and rubbed her temples.

"Did it hurt you too, son?" He asked the boy, who shook his head "No, Hermione's ears are sharper than mine. I'll be fine but she'll probably have a headache all afternoon" he groused and rested a hand comfortingly on his sister's shoulder. Tootsie hesitated for a moment, then snapped her fingers and a headache potion appeared in her hand from the family potions storage.

Not taking her eyes off the family in front of her, she scooted over to where she saw the Mistress and her children, and tugged on the end of young Master Thorfinn's sleeve. He looked around for her, and then down at the ground, but she stayed invisible. She hopped up onto his shoulder and pressed the little bottle into his breast pocket "The young Lady Black be having a headache. Give her that potion when you is delivering the letter to her," she whispered directly into his ear "and don't be forgetting to be nice."

Gently, she turned his head so that he was looking in the direction they were standing "That is being her by the Malfoys and Weasleys, standing next to the big man" she breathed as quietly as she could. He nodded subtly, as if in response to something his mother said. He was such a clever boy, just like his father. He reached up as if to scratch his ear, and twined their pinky fingers together like they used to when he was little.

She patted his shoulder affectionately, and then moved back over to continue her surveillance. To her horror, as soon as she returned to the place she'd been watching them from the big man's eyes landed on her as if she wasn't hidden at all. She frantically patted herself down and confirmed her spells were all still in place, and tried to stay perfectly still and not hyperventilate. His eyes narrowed and eventually moved away from her, but repeatedly glanced back to where she was standing. She felt exposed and incredibly vulnerable.

The last ten minutes before eleven o'clock passed quickly. The parents all wished their children well, the children all promised to write, trunks were trundled onto the train, and tears were shed all around. Even by fathers. The big man knelt in front of his two children and pulled them into a tight crushing hug "I love you, and I'm here if you need me. There's nothing anyone can do to take the two of you away from me" he told them with no room for argument.

She felt it in her bones as magic swirled around him, his righteous passion turning what was meant to be parental reassurance into a powerful wizard's oath. Her already wide eyes bulged in their sockets and her jaw goggled open. Master Asmund would definitely want to hear about that.

The big man's children very sweetly told him that they loved him and would write him and would see him soon. Soon? The children weren't supposed to go home until the holiday break in December. Another thing to tell Master Asmund, even though it didn't make much sense to her. Then, to her second shock of the day, as they were getting ready to step up onto the train the little girl who was the new Lady Black looked right at her and winked. Winked! Then told her father to keep an open mind and that he could trust Mr Rowle.

The big man looked as confused as Tootsie was for a moment, and then blew out a heavy exasperated sigh "What did you DO? Why are you like this?" He said, as his children laughed and boarded. They waved from the windows, and the train slowly pulled away, gaining speed as it left the station.

The moment it was gone he looked directly at her, and she was paralyzed with fear. He didn't look angry exactly, but she had never met a werewolf before and maybe he was just hiding his rage because there were still humans around. He walked up to where she was hidden and dropped to one knee, less than a meter away from her. He sniffed the air around her, and inched closer and closer.

"Show yourself" he growled "who sent you?" He demanded as she became visible. She held up her hands and he grabbed one of her wrists, preventing her from popping away. Overwhelmed, she squeaked in terror, shaking and crying. His eyes widened and he leaned back away from her "Easy woah, I'm not gonna hurt you, I just need to know who you work for" he said, slowly letting her arm go. He shuffled backwards a little, and looked embarrassed.

She couldn't believe the way she'd just shamed her poor Master in front of one of his clients! She wiped her face with the edge of her poncho, and tried to collect her dignity. She sniffled and stood as straight and tall as she could "Tootsie be belonging to the House of Rowle, Master Asmund be the little Lady Black's family solicitor, and he be wantings to help her father and her brother. Master be asking Tootsie to deliver this letter to Mr Wolfy. He be saying please be readings it and meet with him"

She pulled the letter out of her poncho, and held it out for him with both hands, still trembling slightly. He sat back on his haunches, and tilted his head like dogs often did "Uh…okay" he said uncertainly, taking it hesitantly and holding it like a bomb. She felt a zing of satisfaction rush through her as he broke the seal and began to read it in right front of her. He didn't try to hide any of his reactions either, and though he seemed frustrated his temper hadn't shifted yet to anger, even when he'd turned it over and inspected the whole thing, reading it a second time.

Dated the 31st of August, 1991

From the Desk of Asmund Rowle Esq.

Law Offices of Rowle & Associates

Diagon Alley, London

Mr Greyback,

I am writing to inform you that your daughter the Lady Black has requested my legal services on your behalf, as I am the solicitor on retainer for the House of Black. She warned me that you are a little high strung, so allow me to first reassure you that everything either of you share with me is strictly confidential under attorney-client privilege. I am working to help your family, and your rights are my utmost priority. I am more than willing to take a wand oath confirming this if it is required of me for your peace of mind.

Your daughter has provided me with your general location, and advised me to come meet with you to discuss your concerns regarding your son's custody. I am prepared to fight tooth and nail to help you maintain full exclusive parental and custodial rights, and to waylay any interlopers who may try to meddle in your family's affairs. Additionally, I would greatly appreciate sharing the company of a Mr Remus Lupin, as I believe he has important information regarding the will your sons biological parents made before they died that will greatly help our case.

I understand that you will have escorted your children to the train this morning already by the time you are reading this, and I have arranged to be waiting in the village of Ganllwyd waiting for you upon your return. We can proceed however you wish from there. I am willing to conduct our business in town, at my law offices, or be escorted to your home. Whatever makes you most comfortable. I have been paid generously to be in your employ sir, and am at your disposal.

Congratulations by the way, on your children starting school. From her letter she seems like a lovely child, and she obviously cares about you a great deal.

Asmund Rowle Esquire

In the service of the House of Black

"Of course she did something like this after last night" he said, shaking his head and laughing "That girl of mine gives me no end of trouble" he looked up at Tootsie, and smiled at her. He held his hands up with his palms facing her "I'm very sorry for scaring you, elf. Thank you for your help. I've been on edge since I found out my children would be going to school. I didn't think they'd get the opportunity, I thought they'd stay with me where they were safe" he said miserably "I should be happy for them, but I'm just terrified about what could happen without me there"

She felt very sympathetic for this huge man who seemed very vulnerable and sad, and she reached out and patted his knee kindly "Master Asmund is being a very responsible wizard, he be knowings everything abouts the ministry law. He be taking good cares of Mr Wolfy and his childrens, he will" she encouraged "Mr Wolfy just be needing to make sure Master has all the details he needs. He be asking Tootsie to make sure he be bringings the other Mr Wolfy to tells his story too" she said assertively, proud of herself for the way she'd confidently come back around.

He nodded at her slowly "I can do that, Lupin has been staying at the compound with the rest of my pack. He'll be glad to share his version of events with someone who can actually do something about it. I guess I'll go get him and… Bring him with me? Where exactly is it that I'm meeting Mr Rowle?" He asked

"Master is already waiting at the T.H. Roberts cafe. Mr Wolfy be knowings where this is?" She inquired primly, to which he said he did "Tootsie be going now and telling Master Asmund that he can be expectings both Mr Wolfies" She said. He told her he'd need about an hour, and she thanked him then popped away to where she felt her Master waiting on her in Wales. She was very excited to be able to report a full mission success, she'd done absolutely everything he'd requested!

---

Asmund Rowle was waiting patiently in Wales of all places, after what had to be the single longest night of his life. He'd buckled down and gotten more done in six hours than he thought was physically possible without the use of a time turner. There was a fully staffed second office set up in Hogsmeade, and the doors had opened at the start of the business work day. He'd gotten the building for a steal, and the terms of the lease were extremely favorable. Luck had been on his side in that matter.

His investigation into the legal custody of Harry Potter was going significantly less smoothly. While he had managed to easily ferret out information left and right, none of it had been good. His contact in the ministry archives had confirmed that while the relevant records had auto-updated when the ritual had happened, exactly none of the necessary parchmentwork had ever been filed to make the boy's adoption in any way official or legal. He had in his briefcase a full set of every form he needed Greyback to fill out, and he planned on hopefully submitting it before end of day.

He'd pressed his contact hard and they'd told him that no one from the ministry had ever laid hands on the boy after his parents deaths, and that whatever arrangements had been made for his care hadn't gone through any of the official channels. He couldn't for the life of him tell who had fetched the child from his wrecked home and taken him to live with those muggles. He'd nearly blown his top off on hearing that no aurors had been sent to look for the child when he'd vanished, no case workers had been made to find an appropriate placement for him, no investigations had been done to even see if he was still alive.

Feeling like he had to go a step farther than he normally would, he tried another avenue he usually didn't visit to get answers. He had sent one of the best investigators on his legal team to go and try to suss out the muggle child services office. Surely an orphan being raised by extended family and being regularly abused must have caught someone's attention at some point. What his man had brought back had him steaming like a sauna in a snowstorm. There had been dozens of reports from people concerned for the boy's wellbeing that had been all but ignored.

From his earliest doctor visits, reports about suspicious bruises and fearful-avoidant behavior had been clearly documented. Child-minders, preschool teachers, and neighbors had all called and reported concerns. Even coworkers of the husband had made calls about the alarming way he had talked about the boy in passing. It was an absolute shit show of governmental incompetency, and it made no sense whatsoever that there had never been any attempts to take the boy into protection or had him removed from the family.

Their public systems had failed this poor war orphan at every possible level like clockwork, and he'd slid through the cracks and been left to survive completely on his own. It had been sheer dumb luck that the first wizards who came upon the boy were ones that had actually cared about his wellbeing enough to get him the fuck out of the intolerable situation he'd been in.

That being said, there had been virtually no parchment trail anywhere about his wellbeing in the wizarding world or the muggle one in the years since having been essentially abducted by his current father. He wanted to believe the best about their living situation from what the girl had told him, but he wasn't going to give anyone's word the benefit of the doubt anymore. This was too important, this child had been so neglected that he considered it his civic responsibility going forward to make sure he ended up in a safe and happy living situation.

As eleven o'clock approached, he eagerly awaited Tootsie's arrival, hoping desperately that his elf had gotten information for him. There were currently far too many loose threads and questions and not nearly enough answers. He had to trust that his elf had done her job well like always. Scarcely five minutes after the hour, he felt the air displace on the surface of the table he was sat at. He subtly cast a notice-me-not charm on her, and she dropped her disillusionment. He was immediately relieved to see that she looked extremely pleased with herself, practically preening under his magic. She was a clever thing, his Tootsie, but she was never overly smug without reason, and he had a good feeling.

"Master be telling Tootsie to listen for good gossips, Tootsie be getting very good gossips! Master be telling Tootsie to find a Potter elf, Tootsie find baby Harry Potter's very own nanny elf! Master be telling Tootsie to deliver letter to Mr Wolfy and watch his reaction to see if he be dangerous, Tootsie be delivering letter and Mr Wolfy be apologizing for scaring Tootsie and thanking Tootsie for her help! Mr Wolfy be coming here to meet Master AND he be bringing the other Mr Wolfy!" She announced ecstatically, skipping and dancing in circles on the tabletop, kicking her heels and clapping in delight. She was in rare form, and he was left a bit speechless.

With a disbelieving laugh he took her hand and sat her down next to him on the tabletop "You've really done extraordinarily well tonight, my dear friend. Thank you so much for your help, I could never have gotten it all done myself" he said earnestly and gratefully. In that moment he felt a great surge of affection and emotion for the sweet little creature who had fed him and wiped his bum and taught him how to read.

Pleased by his approval, her little face flushed a light blue, and she smiled and giggled "Master Asmund be too kind to Tootsie, but there be no time for hugs and kisses. Kipper!" She called, and with a snap of her fingers another little elf appeared by her side. She was clean and tidy but in less personal wrappings, and looked like the years had been hard on her. She perked up at seeing him, and bowed low enough for her nose to brush the table.

"Thank you sir, thank you for helping Kipper find her baby Harry" she cried, and he shot a sharp questioning look at his own elf, who remained tight-lipped. Every rose and its thorns he thought with a suppressed sigh. He considered his words carefully for a moment, and when he spoke to her his voice was low and gentle.

"Yes, hello Kipper. I'm Asmund Rowle, the solicitor who will be working to try and help Mr Potter's adoptive father keep custody of him. I know this is probably a very painful subject for you to revisit, and I'm sorry for asking you about it, but if you can tell me everything you remember from around the time that the Potters were killed it would help Harry's case tremendously. Can you do that for me, dear? I need all the information I can get, and there are a lot of things no one knows about what really happened"

She nodded determinedly and sat with Toots, who had laid a hand on her shoulder in either comfort or solidarity or encouragement. Her breath left her little chest raggedly "Where to begin?" She asked him, and he thought about it "The most important things I need to know are who actually took Harry from the house, and who was supposed to get custody of him following their deaths. Did you ever see the will your master and mistress wrote, and if you did do you remember what it said?" He asked as kindly as he could.

She nodded emphatically "Yes, Kipper was being there when Master James and Mistress Lilly be writing down who woulds be taking cares of the baby. They be saying it should be Master Sirius or Master Remus if something be happenings to them. Kipper be seeing the parchment, be takings it to the goblins herself she did. Kipper be givings it to Grippyhooky, she did" He frantically jotted this down in his notepad in his own personal shorthand and nodded for her to continue. Her ears waggled and her lips trembled, but she bravely kept going. She was a very good elf, and Asmund suddenly couldn't help but think that seeing her reunited with the Potter boy was the least he could do for her after all of this was said and done.

"On that night…that terrible night," she moaned "The Dark Lord himself be coming to the house, and Master James be trying to fights him off while Mistress Lilly and Kipper be going to protects Baby Harry. Then he be following her into the nursery and Mistress Lilly be the one trying to fights him off. He be telling her he is needings Baby Harry for his dark ritual, and that she is not having to die if she be givings him up. Mistress Lilly be so brave, and she be telling him no, and he be killing her right in front of Kipper!" The elf sobbed, and he felt terrible for asking her to relive what had to be the worst night of her life. He opened his mouth to apologize and tell her she could stop, but Tootsie glanced at him and shook her head.

Trusting her, he let the sad little elf keep going "It be a terrible thing for an elf to feel their Master die. Breaks the bond, and bond connected to soul. Kipper not be remembering everything, she be barely hanging onto life at that point. But Kipper be remembering holding Baby Harry and the Dark Lord being gone, and then Master Sirius be showing up at the house. He be heartbroken, he be loving Kipper's Master and Mistress almost as much as Kipper did. Master Sirius be holding Kipper and Baby Harry and crying, crying, crying. He be trying to ask Kipper what happened, but Kipper was not being awakes enough to tell him. Too sick in the heart and head" she shook her head self deprecatingly, and her long ears swayed back and forth. He wished he could comfort her somehow, but she was too unfamiliar to him. She soldiered on.

"Then huuuuge man arrive, Master Sirius be telling him to take Kipper and Baby Harry. Huge man be takings Kipper and Harry to the magic school, and when Kipper be waking up in the hospital wing her bond with her Baby Harry be broken and he be gone - nowhere to be found! Kipper be reaching and reaching out with her magic but can't be feeling him anywhere. Headmaster Dumbly be comings and tellings Kipper she can work at the school, and ever since she be staying with the other elves in the kitchens. Lots of other elvesies from families killed in the war be working there, be having a place to stay and magic to eat. The headmaster be very kind, letting us elvesies bond to the castle directly. It be very alive and aware, more than even the most magical houses Kipper ever be feeling"

Furiously scratching away at his notepad to get every detail she'd revealed, he looked back over at her curiously "Kipper, when you say the big man you mean Hagrid the groundskeeper, correct?" She nodded, and he thanked her "Did either the headmaster or Hagrid ever talk to you about that night, about why you were brought to the school but Harry wasn't? Did either of them ever tell you what happened to him?"

She shook her head slowly in confusion "No sir, Kipper often be wishing to know, but Hogwarts elvesies be staying busy with lots of work. It be helping Kipper forget. Have to be feeding every student and teacher. Have to be washing all their clothes and bed linens, and have to make sure nothing be getting mixed up in the laundry. Have to be keeping hallways and classrooms tidy. Have to be feeding and cleaning up after pet cats and owls and toads and rats. So much work only really be good for elvesies who don't like to be having free time. Sad elvesies be missing their families if they not busy enough" she said miserably.

"I have one more question for you Kipper, and it's very important. In just a short time, I'm going to be meeting with the man who adopted your boy. Now supposedly, according to this man's daughter, when they found Harry he was living with muggle relatives who hated magic. They treated him very unkindly because of it. Do you remember anything about any muggle relatives either your Master or Mistress may have had?"

"Petunia Dursley" she snarled, a noise he didn't think he'd ever heard a house elf make before in all his life. His eyebrows shot up "Yes, that's correct. I imagine they mustn't have been on good terms?" He asked tentatively. To his utter shock the elf burst into manic hysterical laughter "Petunia Dursley be my Mistress Lilly's evil rotten no-good sister. She be breaking Mistress's heart, that foul wretched woman! She be refusing to come to Master and Mistress's beautiful wedding. She be turning mistress away from their parents' funeral. She be responding to Baby Harry's birth announcement by telling Mistress she should have drowned him. If Kipper ever gets her hands on Petunia Dursley, Kipper be wringing the life out of her ugly long neck!" The elf's volume increased as she raged, until she was nearly screaming at the top of her lungs.

Asmund had never seen an elf behave this way in his entire life, and he briefly wondered if it would be safe for her to be around the boy after all. To his numb horror his own elf was nodding along, although he supposed in the grand scheme of things he'd want her to have similar vitriol towards anyone who so terribly hurt his own wife and children. Her outburst threatened to break the edges off of the notice-me-not he'd cast. He saw one of the muggles behind the counter glance their way in confusion, as if they had heard something but couldn't place it. Nervously he reinforced it, keeping his wand up his sleeve. He reconsidered what he'd seen, and came to the conclusion it was a testament to the love she had for her family and her trauma from having the bonds broken so dramatically.

"Alright Kipper, it's alright" he said soothingly "I'm sorry you had to find out about it like this. So just to clarify, your mistress definitely wouldn't have wanted her sister raising her son? And your master felt the same way?" she looked at him like he was a little wizard she was teaching to tie his own shoes "Yes sir, Master James be hating Petunia almost as much as Kipper. Master and Mistress would be heartbroken to be knowing their Baby Harry was being anywhere near that woman. Please sir, how long is Petunia having him before he is being rescued from her?" She begged.

"As far as I know, I believe he was six years old when he was adopted and taken away from the Dursleys" she sobbed, and leaned her head onto Tootsie's shoulder, keening like a grieving mother, and he was briefly but vividly reminded of the scene where Anticleia walked into the sea upon hearing that her son Odysseus had been killed. Her tiny body shuddered "Six! Kipper's poor Baby Harry, five years with those beasts! Alls his softests most vulnerablests years"

"He's almost twelve now Kip, he's a big boy. He's had half his life away from them and with people who say they love him. They'll be here soon, and you can help me find out if they're telling the truth, okay? Wouldn't that help you feel better?" He prodded softly, desperately hoping her moods would stop swinging so erratically by the time his client arrived. Unfortunately, it seemed he was out of time, as the door's bell rang and the man in question entered.

---

Fenrir felt like he was scrambling madly to collect himself and get to the meeting his daughter had arranged for him. That girl! He wanted to strangle her and praise her for both going behind his back so egregiously and for solving his problems so perfectly without his even needing to ask her to. How could he claim he was trying to teach her to be an independent leader and then punish her when she had managed to tie up all these tangled threads so neatly? Then again how could he say she was a subordinate member of his pack and not punish her for clearly arranging him to be led around by the tail like a fool? She kept putting him into more and more of these impossible situations as she grew up, and it made him genuinely nervous for her teenage years to come.

When Remus had come to claim sanctuary at the compound, he had offered the man a small cottage of his own. There was one currently vacant that was little more than a shed, but that was still more private than the men's dorm building. As he had expected, the man had politely refused. No one that desperately achingly lonely chose to continue living on their own when they had other options so readily available. Still he found himself wishing Remus had decided to settle in a little closer.

Entering the dorm building, he was surprised to find the man in the communal area sitting down to an early lunch, not looking too terribly put out. He'd come out of his awful funk of loneliness and depression so much in the last year getting to see Harry every day and spend time bonding with him, and Fen had suspected that the children's departure would be a difficult day for him. Remus did look a little downhearted, but otherwise seemed fine. He was glad, and already regretting disrupting his morning.

"I know this is short notice, but I need you to find everything you have in writing from the last decade that has anything remotely to do with Harry. You said you spent years looking for him and trying to track him down - I need letters, documents, anything you've got a paper trail for. Hermione set up a meeting for us with the Black family solicitor and we need to meet him within the hour with as much information as possible" he said, urging the indignant man up and towards his room. He apologized as they went "I know, I know, I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I didn't know we'd be doing this today either. Just bring the sandwich with you!" He grumbled.

He followed Remus into his room, standing a bit awkwardly in the open doorway as the man rummaged through his trunk and file folders. He pulled out sheaf after sheaf of parchments, stacks and stacks and stacks. When they were all spread on the bed the man began organizing them. Fenrir stepped closer and peeked at a few over his shoulder "That's an awful lot of letters from Dumbledore" he remarked a bit lamely, to which Remus responded with an arched brow and a mirthless smile "Well I sent him a letter every week for nearly a year begging to see my boy. He didn't respond to them all of course, but enough that it added up and got a bit repetitive" he said dryly.

He gulped and felt so awkwardly wrong-footed, both embarrassed for shoving his boot in his mouth and searingly guilty about dragging the man into a situation which would only bring more of his trauma back up to the surface. He ran his hands through his hair, pushing it back away from his face and tying it at the base of his neck. He coughed into his fist, and cleared his throat "I haven't met the man yet, but he sent his elf to deliver a letter to me at the station after I'd dropped off the kids" Remus looked startled at that "It wasn't an ambush, she'd been watching us disillusioned the whole time we were there. If what she told me is true, then he genuinely wants to help me fight to keep custody of Harry. I feel exposed and weak, but it would be foolish to not at least hear him out" he reasoned aloud.

A part of him hoped that the other man could tell from what he wasn't saying how much he needed the support of a friend in this, he would ask if it became necessary but he didn't want to have to beg for companionship. For a while with his mate and their child he'd had everything he could've ever imagined needing or wanting. It hadn't lasted forever though, and although fatherhood had kept him alive and been very emotionally fulfilling, it certainly hadn't fulfilled all of his needs. He'd been lonely for the touch of another for a very long time. Something in his wolf sensed a resonant desire in Remus, and he hoped they'd be able to help each other heal from their similar heartbreak.

The other man had the decency not to react to his confusing mix of stress and hormones and untimely desire, and reached for a much newer letter that was sitting on his bedside table. He cleared his throat a bit awkwardly, and handed it to Fenrir, "I just got this last night from Minerva. It's good timing, I wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, but maybe the solicitor can help us put the pieces together into a picture that actually make some sense"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Remus was barely a step behind Fenrir as they entered the cafe, as he found the closer he stayed the more his own nerves were allayed. The man was practically a furnace, and the abundant animal warmth of him leeched into the space between. There had been a heavy frisson of attraction between them that exploded into existence in his room earlier, and he had to push down the urge to roll over and expose his neck and belly to the man.

So much of his paradigm of the world had shifted so radically in the last year and it all centered around Fenrir and his actions and his children. Remus still wasn't sure exactly how he felt, there were a great deal of conflicting emotions buzzing around in his head. He hadn't wanted anyone this way since Sirius, and part of him felt incredibly guilty for his own pathetic lustful desire. A greater part of him resented his wolf's eager willingness to blindly follow and obey the man who had ruined his life on a whim, but he was starting to slowly try and let go of that.

In the year since he'd been allowed into the pack and welcomed onto the compound, he'd been treated very well. Much better than he'd have ever dreamed life in a pack could be - and thinking of the ignorant assumptions he'd lived with his whole life stings sharply now in hindsight. It's with self-loathing and mortification that he thinks back on how he once imagined werewolf packs living in caves like rabid animals. The pack had welcomed him with open arms, given him a warm clean dry place to stay, he'd been fed and clothed, even been offered a satisfying job tutoring the magical children who were old enough to have gone to Hogwarts. Minerva had sent him lesson plans and he'd been making good progress with Melvynthia and Bobberty. It burned in his gut that these children should have been in their fourth and sixth years at school and had never received the letters that he and Harry and Hermione had gotten.

For how very physically difficult his lycanthropy had made his life, it had been hard to come to terms with just how lucky he'd been to be allowed to attend a public school at all. There were well over a hundred adult wolves in the pack, two thirds of whom were witches and wizards. Only the ones who'd been bitten as adults had been educated at Hogwarts or another magical school, all the ones who had been bitten as children had been forced to either learn from others who were willing to teach them in whatever spare time they'd had or try and teach themselves from books. Though many of them were perfectly competent, there were huge gaps in their magical knowledge.

He'd had to push down his resentment that their lives had been blessed with easy transformations, that they hadn't spent decades screaming themselves hoarse the night of the full moon as their bones all broke and rearranged themselves. They hadn't suffered the indignity and humiliation of being feared even by the people who loved them, and having to wonder if they'd infected anyone else after a rough night. He had to remind himself that he didn't know everyone's story, and some of them had probably had similar experiences before joining the pack. It just still didn't feel fair that he'd been so alone and undergone so much pain and suffering when a community had been right here this entire time under his very nose.

Shaking himself out of his spiraling negative thoughts and his poorly timed lustful urges, he followed Fenrir to the table Rowle was waiting for them at. The man was well dressed and clearly wealthy, and two little elves sat on either side of him on the tabletop. He was a fairly large man, and had shoulder length greying blonde hair and a thick reddish-blonde beard. He stood as they approached, and rather bravely held out his hand for Fenrir to shake.

"Welcome, thank you for joining me at such short notice Mr Greyback, I'd like to also say that I appreciate how kind you were to my elf Tootsie" Rowle glanced his way "and you must be Mr Lupin?" He asked, and Remus couldn't help but be a bit taken aback at how polite and professional the man's demeanor was. As they sat across from him the man took out a file folder and began swiftly removing documents and sorting them into piles in front of them.

"Now in the matter of safeguarding your custody of Mr Potter, I've checked with the ministry and unfortunately none of the correct forms have been filed to make your adoption of the boy official. This puts you on incredibly shaky legal ground, so I've brought the necessary parchments with me today and our first order of business will be to fill them out and get them sent in to be processed as quickly as possible. First though, I'll need you to please inform me of the circumstances regarding you finding him and deciding to bring him into your family. There are no details too small or unimportant, the more I know the more I can help" he said, crossing his legs and folding his hands together on the table in front of himself.

Both men were understandably gobsmacked, and shared a bewildered glance. Remus cleared his throat and spoke up "Well, I've only been living with the pack a short while, but I was part of Harry's life when he was a baby. I was there when James and Lilly wrote their will, they wanted me to take care of their son if Sirius wasn't able to. After they died and Sirius was incarcerated, I was told by Hagrid that he'd taken the boy to the school and entrusted him into the care of the headmaster. I contacted Dumbledore, begging to see my boy, and he refused. Said it wasn't safe, said he was already being looked after, that he was in good hands. I wrote him… so many times" he passed the bundle of letters from Albus that he'd brought with him, and the man nodded in thanks but kept listening intently.

"Those are the dozens of letters I received from him telling me to let it go and move on, that it wasn't my responsibility anymore and that I didn't need to worry about him, but of course I still did! I looked everywhere for Harry, I spent years trying to find him with no leads. Tracking down extended relatives of the Potters on the continent - I even went to India to see if he'd been taken there. I felt like such a fool when Minerva told me he'd been right here this whole time with Lilly's sister. Then I was furious, they'd absolutely hated each other. I knew it couldn't have been a good situation for him, but I had no idea how bad it truly was until I visited the compound for the first time and he told me about the way he'd grown up. Locked in a cupboard under the stairs, barely fed, hurt and screamed at by his uncle and cousin all the time. My heart aches just thinking about it" he paused and rubbed his chest, physically feeling the aching sensation he had described. Rowle's face was a picture of earnest sympathy.

"I was so mad at Dumbledore for so long, but then just last night I received this letter from Minerva that I truly don't know what to make of - maybe you can help. She says in a recent conversation she had with him at the beginning of year staff meeting that he denied all knowledge of ever having placed Harry with his muggle relatives, and expressed shock that the boy had ever been there at all. He told her he thought I had Harry this whole time, that he assumed I had taken him out of the country, that he hadn't heard from me since the war, and that he had no memory of the two of us ever corresponding afterwards!" he said, stress clear in his steadily rising voice.

Rowle's eyebrows were brushing his hairline they were so high on his forehead, and he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms "That does complicated things, doesn't it? So either Albus Dumbledore is playing a very dangerous game with this vulnerable young man's life, someone has memory charmed one of the strongest legilimens in the world, or someone has been impersonating the most powerful and influential wizard in modern history. To what end? There's a clear parchment trail - Dumbledore or not, someone really did send you these letters and discourage you from seeking out guardianship of the boy. If someone who wasn't Dumbledore sent them, they clearly never expected you to ever actually come and confront the man, because they've left you with undeniable proof of their fraud. And if it was Dumbledore who sent the letters, he's knowingly implicated himself in the kidnapping of a child by refusing you access to him. It doesn't make sense either way" he deftly reasoned, shaking his head with a frown on his face.

He turned to the elf next to him "Tell them what you told me, Kipper" he told her, and it was only then that Remus recognized the little thing. "Kip, is that really you?" He asked in disbelief. The poor creature looked like she had aged half a century in the ten years since he'd last seen her, but there was still that shine he recognized in her eyes "Yes master wolfy, it be Kipper" and she came over and sat as close to him as she could get while she shared her story of that terrible night and the years that had followed. He held her hand as she spoke, and though her skin was thin and wrinkled and dry, her grip was still strong.

He felt terrible as he listened to her relive the night that had nearly killed her, and if her grip on his fingers hadn't been so tight and the look in her eyes so resolute he'd have told her she didn't have to put herself through it all again. She seemed determined to get through her story. Hearing how heartbroken Sirius had been, but that he'd still given Harry up to Hagrid even in his grief tore at Remus. How could he have been so reckless and foolish, he should have stayed and taken care of Harry - whatever reason he may have had in his mind, he had neglected his responsibility to the child in his pursuit of Peter.

His mind caught on some of the details from the end of her story, and his gut told him there was something there "Kip you said Dumbledore took you in as a Hogwarts elf and that's where you've been working all this time, but that a lot of other family elves came to Hogwarts around the same time after the war. Did the headmaster ever actually acknowledge that you were the Potter's elf? Are you sure he knew who you were?" He asked, suddenly wanting to give the old man the benefit of the doubt in a way he hadn't in years.

She thought about this and her tennis ball sized eyes bulged in her little head "…Headmaster Dumbly never once be mentioning the Potters or her Baby Harry to Kipper!" She croaked, and addressed the other elf "Could Headmaster Dumbly really not be realizings? He and Kipper never be formings the Bond, Kipper be working for the castle itself" She said breathlessly. Her face fell "But if the Headmaster not be knowings about Kipper, and not be taking and hiding away her Baby Harry, then some other evil sneak be doing bad all on their own!" She moaned despondently.

The solicitor was quick to comfort the elf, and it rose him in Remus' already high esteem "Easy now Kipper, I feel like we can probably get to the bottom of most of this if we initiate a meeting with the headmaster and see what he has to say. He sounds just as troubled by this matter," the man said gently "you can help us make that happen. Can you take Tootsie back through the school wards with you so she can deliver a note to him for me?" The elf considered this and nodded hesitantly.

Rowle quickly pulled out a quill and piece of parchment, and scratched out a message. Remus heard him mutter the words he was writing under his breath "urgently… regarding the Potters… meeting in Gwynedd… soon as possible" the man handed it to Fenrir to read and when he had nodded in approval he passed it off to his elf and told her to be careful not to be harmed by the robust castle wards.

As soon as the elves popped away, the man turned his full back to the two of them "Now Mr Greyback I've heard from your daughter regarding this situation, and we've had a good summary of things from Mr Lupin's side, but I'd love for you to give me the lay of the land from your own perspective" he reiterated, and Remus flushed when he realized he'd spoken over the man being asked about his son's adoption earlier. He leaned back in his chair and firmly resolved to keep mum and give Fenrir a chance to speak.

The man in question fidgeted a bit, and rubbed his hands up and down his thighs. He didn't seem like he knew what to say, and so Remus nudged his foot with his own ever so slightly, jolting him into alertness. He coughed and cleared his throat "I never intended to have any more children after my mate died. My daughter was my whole world, and I lived solely for her and her care. Until she told me about her sad little friend she'd made at the library who wore dirty old clothes, and was too skinny, and always had bruises on his arms. I had taken children into the pack before, rescued them from bad homes and similar situations, given them our gift if they wanted it and let them join us as wolves, but they'd all gone into the homes of others who wanted children. It's hard for us to have our own and many of us adopt, Hermione was our little miracle" he gulped loudly, and Remus placed a hand on his shoulder. He was glad to see the other man smile, that he'd been able to provide some small comfort.

"Harry was special, my daughter and I both felt a connection with him instantly. When she took me to meet him and I asked him about his home life I thought he would shrink away like a beaten dog, but instead he got mad. Others had promised to help him and never succeeded, and he didn't want to hear the same false promises from us. I felt like I had to do something drastic, as quick as I could. I asked him if he truly wanted to escape from his muggle family, and when he said that he did I took him home with us that very afternoon. On the next full moon, we held a ceremonial blood adoption ritual. Hermione bit him and gave him our gift, sealing his place as her beta when she becomes the alpha after me, and her and I adopted him into our family. He's a Greyback by blood and by magic. The school's admission book recorded them as having the same birthday and the bank records did as well. The combination of family and werewolf magic during his adoption rendered them more than just siblings, they became magical twins" he said, with a glowing look of pride on his face as he talked about his children.

In that moment Remus found himself helplessly attracted to the man. Perhaps it was simply the irresistible allure of a clearly devoted single father, but whatever it was - it was potent. It took everything he had to ignore it, and think of other thoughts than Fenrir's deep raspy voice, his thickly corded muscular forearms, and his rich masculine scent. Remus felt like a bitch in heat, and like everyone else in the room knew it. The depth of his desire was utterly mortifying. His eyes threatened to flutter shut and roll back in his head.

He bit the inside of his cheek hard enough to draw blood. In his peripheral vision he noticed Fenrir's nostrils flared dramatically, and heard him sharply inhale through his nose. As he spoke, Rowle was filling things in on the parchment forms he'd brought with him, nodding along. He paused at a line "Now Mr Greyback can you please clarify, you said that you'd brought home similarly abused children before, but not adopted any of them. Do you have any other biological children aside from Lady Black?" He asked matter-of-factly.

Fenrir nodded, and Remus was expecting to hear him mention Matthias. What he was not expecting was for the man to rattle off a list of names nearly as long as his graduating class, including many of the young men in the dorm he had been staying in. He and Rowle both stared open mouthed at the man, neither one of them quite sure of what to say. Rowle was able to put his neutral professional face back on far quicker than Remus "I'm sorry I'm not quite sure I've understood you, so you're saying you have twenty three children all by different women?" The man asked in a far calmer tone than he could have managed at the moment.

To his continued shock Fenrir nodded, a winning smile on his face "Oh yes, certainly. If not more. Before finding my mate I had a great deal of bed partners, and many of them whelped me pups - all strapping lads like their father. I'm much older than I look, and I spent decades sowing my wild oats before settling down. I could have more children out there I don't know about, but those are the ones that sought me out to join my pack. Wolves like their father, every one of them. The ones out there that never came to me I mourn, but I've never turned one of my children away. If they came to me I took them in, no questions asked"

His voice turned unexpectedly tender "That's what makes my Hermione so different from all of her half brothers, and so special. I care for all my many boys of course, but none of their mothers were my mate. Her mother Hydra was the other half of me, heart and soul, and that carried over on to the precious baby we made together. From the moment she was born a connection was lit within the two of us, like a little ever-burning flame in my chest" he said, and he cupped his breast as if there was really something tangible there he could feel. The smile on his face was so sweet it made Remus' teeth ache from it.

"That sounds very special indeed Mr Greyback, thank you for sharing something so personal" Rowle replied masterfully, avoiding mentioning the man's veritable army of sons laying around. It occurred to Remus that he should have thought before now to ask why there was an entire young men's dormitory on the compound. Goddesses be good but the man had sired nearly a fifth of his own pack. He really was… just potently virile. Remus squirmed in his seat and pressed his legs together tightly.

Fenrir let out a low growl next to him, far too quietly for a human to hear, but it had the opposite of its intended effect, and it set him panting. Finally in desperation the man reached under the table and grabbed his leg, gripping it firmly and pressing sharp nails in hard enough to feel through the denim of his jeans "Control yourself this minute or I'll command you to leave" the man said on the faintest exhale through gritted teeth.

Turning back to the solicitor across from them who had an all too bland and unbothered expression on his face, Fenrir tutted and dithered "There's something else that is probably important. I've avoided telling Remus this because it would only have hurt him" he glanced his way and shrugged apologetically before continuing.

"Before I took Harry back home with us the day I found him, I took him back to his muggle relatives house to retrieve a personal item. Hermione and my son Matthias and I all accompanied him as far as the property line before we were repelled by incredibly strong anti-werewolf wards, anti-animagus wards, and anti-house elf wards, but nothing else that would keep out anyone doing harm to the child. When I examined the array schema, it was clear they'd been regularly maintained and recast. The only logical conclusion I can think of is that they must have been specifically intended to keep Remus and Kipper out"

The little elf shook where she sat, having returned a few moments previously while he was discussing his other children, and her cheeks flushed a dark green. Tears welled up in her huge eyes, and she made a horrible noise like a cat wretching up a hair ball "So long master wolfy look for baby Harry, chasing his tail in circles going nowheres. So long Kipper reach and reach for her connection with baby Harry she thought broken. Not broken, not nowheres, just hidden. Hidden! Please Mr Rowle sir, surely it must be being a crime for sneaky thieves to be keeping a nanny elf from her baby" she begged the man miserably, and he looked very affected by her plight. He reached out and patted the little elf on her shoulder, and his own elf hugged her tightly.

"I can't make you any promises Kipper, but I'll tell you right now that we're going to make sure you get to see your boy again. Right, Mr Greyback?" He asked pointedly and Fenrir nodded emphatically "You are under no obligation to serve us, but as long as Harry lives under my roof you are welcome in it as well, elf" he said gruffly but kindly. She sobbed with joy, throwing herself at the table in front of him and holding onto the hems of his shirtsleeves "Mr wolfy is being good and kind, thank you. Thank you Mr wolfy!" She cried, and he patted the top of her head a bit awkwardly and smiled down at her tightly.

Suddenly in a swirling burst of brilliant white and gold flame, Albus Dumbledore appeared before them looking as world-weary as he did flamboyantly showy. With a bone-deep sigh the old wizard inclined his head, and the long tall hat he wore swayed forward "Thank you for inviting me, gentlemen"

---

Albus was having a difficult week. Year. Decade, really.

As much as he resented accusations of his frequent meddling, he had to admit that if Remus hadn't taken the initiative and fled the country with Harry he probably would have insisted on them staying and remaining within his watchful gaze. He didn't necessarily want to control anyone's lives, he just wanted to keep his ducklings close and under his protection. It had eaten at him that they were so far away, and that their location and actions were utterly unknown to him, but he had to let people go eventually and no one had needed more space and time to heal after the war then those two.

He'd heard nothing from Remus after the war other than the furious letter he'd sent rightfully blaming him for the Potter's deaths, for not drawing Sirius in to heel soon enough, for not doing enough to stop Voldemort sooner, for not being in enough places at once to save everyone, for every and any imagined slight under the sun. It had been eye opening and very sad, but had ultimately made him reflect on many of his own actions and try to see them from an outside perspective. He had known he hadn't done enough and hadn't acted as soon as he should have. He hadn't needed anyone to tell him that. What he hadn't considered was how his own unwillingness to go public and openly provoke Tom had prevented wizarding Britain from realizing the magnitude of the threat they were under until it was too late.

After having a decade to ruminate on his own mistakes and wonder nearly constantly where Remus and Harry had gone and if they were safe and well, he had been most confused at the 1991 annual August staff meeting when Minerva waspishly informed him that his scheming had failed and the boy-who-lived had ended up being raised in a happy home after all. Did everyone think he had performed so poorly during the war? But that wasn't the point he needed to immediately follow up on.

"I beg your pardon, Minnie?" He asked croakily, still not quite believing either what she'd said or the sheer venom it had been delivered with "What in Godric's good name are you referring to, my dear woman?" he said as politely as he could manage in the face of such a baseless accusation from a close friend and colleague. She'd scoffed, and her brogue had rounded the sound in a lovely highland way that he tried to not be amused by "Don't act the fool Albus!" She'd scolded as if he were a naughty school boy "I visited Harry Potter myself, and he managed to escape those wretched muggles and be adopted by a perfectly lovely family. No thanks to you, you old goat" she said with an angry shake of her head.

What she said made so little sense it took him a good moment to find a response "I'm afraid you have me at quite a disadvantage, Minerva. What muggles? And why would he have needed to escape them?" He asked tersely, not yet losing his patience but losing the ability to pretend this wasn't becoming a fraught conversation.

Her eyes narrowed as they inspected his face and posture searchingly "Albus really, what are you playing at? I-I'm talking about Lilly's sister Petunia that you left the boy with. I spent all day watching those awful magic-hating muggles, and then had to watch you place him on their doorstep yourself. I told you it was the wrong decision, but you insisted it was where he had to be raised for his own safety. Poor Remus told me all about the way you never let him even see the boy, no matter how he begged!"

At this Albus conjured two plushy chintz armchairs and sat down in his heavily, not caring that they were in the middle of a corridor. No students or teachers were around and he-… he needed to sit and breathe and think. How could this have possibly happened. He looked at his deputy head and lifelong friend where she still stood, an angry flush rising high on her cheekbones, and gestured wearily at the chair next to him.

"Minerva I tell you in all seriousness, I have absolutely no recollection whatsoever of these events you've described" With a wave of his wand he conjured the letter, which he had kept close all these years "as a matter of fact I was under the impression Remus had taken Harry and left the country, where I was perfectly happy to let them stay" he said with what felt like the weight of the world on his chest and shoulders.

He sighed and stretched his back, his bones creaking ominously "Someone has cruelly played us against each other" he said, running a hand through his long and luxurious white beard "causing division and leaving a defenseless child stuck in the middle. You say that Harry was adopted and left his muggle relatives home. Do you know anything about the family who took him in?" He asked, almost not wanting to know the answer. It couldn't be good news if whoever had arranged this oversight on both his and Remus' parts was involved in the child's placement.

To his surprise his deputy artlessly dodged his question, twisting around it like a Slytherin but with none of the effortless social grace "I've visited his home, and they love him like their own. He's been taken very good care of in the years since he was adopted" she replied firmly. He nodded hesitantly "That's good, very good. And they are?" He left off, trying to encourage her to continue. "Kind and trustworthy folk" she said, staunchly avoiding his gaze.

He sighed again, letting the last edges of the grandfatherly affectation he put on to put people at ease fall away "I see" he said quietly. He rose slowly on knees that hadn't had any cartilage left since before Thatcher was in office, and silently vanished the chair he'd conjured. He patted her shoulder kindly as she passed "I hope you'll come to me when you're ready to talk, my dear" he said over his shoulder as he headed back to his tower.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was the first day of the term, and Minerva still hadn't come back to him to continue their conversation or for anything else for that matter. In years past she would have been in and out of his office all day today getting ready for students to arrive in the evening. She'd instead sent castle elves in to fetch things for her and deliver messages to him. He was starting to feel sincerely concerned that whoever had manufactured this scandal had done significantly more harm to his interpersonal relationships than he'd initially realized.

At around half past noon one of the elves he recognized from the kitchens popped onto the surface of the desk in his office holding hands with another elf he couldn't place. They stepped closer to him and both bowed very low, and the kitchen elf rose first and addressed him "Headmaster Dumbly sir, Kipper is bringing a friend who is having an important message" she said with a shaking voice. He smiled softly at the pair "Thank you very much Kipper. Could you please introduce yourself, my dear?" He asked the other elf.

She rose and nodded, smoothing out her smart little gingham poncho "Tootsie is being the Rowle family elf, Master Asmund is meeting with clients today and sends Tootsie with an invitation for the headmaster to join them" she said primly, handing him a neatly folded note that he opened and read.

1/9/1991 12:25 pm

Headmaster Dumbledore,

I am working as legal counsel on behalf of a Mr Harry Potter, whose adoptive father has been trying to ensure his custody remains unchallenged. So far we have heard conflicting reports about how he came to be placed in the muggle household where he was recovered from. There is also an urgent matter to address regarding the Potters' will and testament. We are currently meeting in Gwynedd if you would be kind enough as to please join us and perhaps help clear this matter up.

Asmund Rowle Esquire

In the service of the House of Black

He read it a second and then a third time and nodded, swiftly rising from his chair and gathering his wits "Thank you my dears, I'll join them there as soon as I'm able, please feel free to head back" he told the little creatures, and they popped away. He headed into the personal quarters behind his office, and made for his private study. Collecting the letter he'd read and reread and meditated on so many times, he stomach was in knots at the thought that it may have been a fraud all along. Could it really be that the letter he'd so fixated on for years had not actually been the cutting words of a friend and former student he had failed, but the manipulation of an agent saboteur? Either way he had to know. He tucked it into his robes and called for Fawkes.

As his familiar perched upon his shoulder and curled its vibrant tail feathers around his neck, he stroked its head and asked it to follow the pair of house elves that had just left the castle for Wales. In a starburst of fire, he appeared in a humble muggle cafe. On instinct he wandlessly and wordlessly laid down one of his punchier notice-me-not charms, and without a second thought tempered it with the mild muggle-repelling ward that usually accompanied. He winced as many of the patrons checked their watches and began draining out of the business. He'd make sure to leave a rather generous tip in the jar on the counter.

He sighed, bowing and thanking them for inviting him, and made his way to the table where he conjured one of his own standard armchairs and a tea service and made himself comfortable. He turned to the impeccably dressed blonde man "Mr Rowle, I believe we've had the pleasure of meeting once before while you were helping a young Mr and Mrs Tonks with their inheritance from Alphard" he mused as he looked at the two other men at the table.

He nearly dropped the cup he'd been preparing for himself when he realized that the man directly to his left was none other than Remus Lupin "Merlin's beard! Remus I scarcely recognized you my, dear boy" he said, setting down his cup and reaching out to shake his former student's hand. It took him a moment to register the expression of fear and intense distrust that weighed on the young man's prematurely aged and scarred face, and it gutted him when he became aware of it.

"I see" he said quietly "I will be straightforward with you gentlemen, clearing up this matter with Remus is the primary reason I came today. I have had no contact with him in the last decade other than this letter I received in November of 1981" he continued, drawing it out of the inner pocket of his robes and passing it to the man in question. The young man's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

He took the letter and read it, and as he did his cheeks flushed and his eyes widened "Professor I assure you I did not write this! I know we were all hurt and frustrated after the war, but I can't believe anyone would say such things to you. I have to assume that means you didn't send me any of these?" He asked, passing Albus a thick file folder of letters. The older man immediately began skimming through a few and his heart dropped to his toes, and he swore softly "Gods be good, no Remus I didn't write any of these letters to you. All this time I thought you had Harry. If I'd had the boy in my possession you would have been the very first person I'd have brought him to, I swear it on my magic" he intoned seriously, and his magic invoked and swirled around him in twisting purple and pink spirals through the air before sinking into his skin.

Rowle spoke up as the magic faded "So we have reasonable evidence that a third party has been impersonating the headmaster via correspondence for at least however long as the letters continued between Mr Lupin and the unknown fraudster. The other matter we must determine is how this individual managed to place young Mr Potter with his muggle relatives - did they do it themself disguised as the headmaster, did they alter professor McGonagall's memories, or did they somehow force the headmaster to do it himself and then memory charm him? Do you have any insight sir? We know you are an accomplished legilimens, do you also practice occlumency?" He asked quite astutely, and Albus considered this carefully.

"It is true that I am a natural legilimens, with time and effort in my younger years I was able to become a skilled occlumens as well. I have a hard time believing that anyone could have successfully overcome my mental defenses sufficiently to modify my own memories without my knowledge. The only person I can think of whose abilities might allow them to do such a thing is someone whom I trust implicitly. Minerva is no slouch herself, but I cannot for the life of me imagine why someone would modify her memories and yet not remove the incriminating evidence of themselves impersonating me. Why would they not assume that she and I would eventually confer and realize their duplicity? Did they compel her not to bring the matter up again? If they did it must have been a powerful compulsion, as it has lasted nearly a decade. I find this mystery highly disturbing indeed"

Albus began casting on the stack of letters that were ostensibly from himself to Remus. There were in fact hints of compulsion charms on the pages, growing stronger over time. He eyed the young man, who hadn't spoken again since denying sending the letter "It must have taken a great strength of will and determination to overcome the charms on these and continue writing, Remus. It speaks to your resilience and the care you have for Harry that you kept trying" he said tentatively, trying to offer the man some measure of comfort.

To his surprise Remus' eyes narrowed and he frowned "Frankly I think it speaks more of my desperation, sir" he shook his head and gritted his teeth "I'm sorry, I know now that it wasn't you who wrote these, but I spent years being angry with you for dismissing me and it's going to take time to get over that" he muttered, looking down and away from him with suspiciously wet eyes. Albus' heart clenched in his chest, and he wanted to reach out to comfort him but the young man seemed entirely too closed off.

"I'm terribly sorry about what you've been through, and the pain this person caused. I understand that trust will have to be built back slowly. I hope we can come to better terms eventually" he said, folding his hands together on the tabletop in front of him, unsure of what else to say.

Remus cleared his throat, and rested his hand on the shoulder of the Hogwarts elf that had been sitting near him "Professor, you know Kipper, she's been working at the castle for the last decade. Well, she was the Potters' elf, and more than anything else she wants to be able to serve Harry again if you'll let her" he said gently, rubbing the poor little dear's back as she quietly wept. He imagined there would be many more loose threads like this that would find themselves unraveling as the web of lies came to light and began to untangle.

He nodded and held out a hand to her, which she grasped firmly "Kipper, thank you for your service to the school. You may of course remain at the castle in service of your young master while he is a student there, and tend to him personally. I'm very sad to hear that the two of you were separated for so long" she nodded and whimpered.

Bowing even lower than she had in his office, the elf sniffled and wiped her nose and eyes on the tea towel she wore like a toga "Kipper be thanking headmaster Dumbly, she be missing her baby Harry all these years, missing him like her own arm or leg!" She cried, huge tears rolling down her cheeks, and his heart went out to her "Of course my dear, of course. The bond of a nanny elf and her human child, why the only thing stronger is a mother's love. I hope seeing him helps you heal from the pain of losing your master and mistress. I had no idea the Potters even had an elf, I hope you can forgive me for not seeking you out and discovering this entire mess sooner" She broke into even more ragged whole-body sobbing at that "Headmaster Dumbly be a good and kind wizard!" She wailed, and he winced, but smiled weakly at her.

Having remained silent the entire time he'd been there so far, the man between Remus and Rowle suddenly spoke for the first time, his voice much deeper and rougher than Albus was expecting "Kipper I'm not sure exactly what happens at the school once the children arrive from the train, but after they've had dinner and are settled in for the night you should go and find Harry and introduce yourself. I'm sure he'll be very happy to see you, he might even let you help him unpack his things. You can tell him I said hello and that I love him and his sister very much" he said, to which she nodded eagerly, a radiant smile completely transforming her face, and popped away with a much more energetic crack of displaced air than she had earlier.

He looked at the man "That was kindly done, you must be Harry's adoptive father. I assure you that despite the way things may look, I have no personal interest in who Harry lives with or where they make their home, as long as he is safe and well taken care of. You don't even have to tell me your name if you do not wish to. It is no business of mine, I am merely distressed that my likeness was used to harm a friend, and that my good reputation has now been called into question because of it. As a show of good faith, please allow me to use my position as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot to push those forms through any red tape they may encounter and have them expedited by the Office of Births Deaths and Marriages in the Department of Registry and Archives" he implored the man, whose eyebrows had risen higher and higher as he had addressed him.

He would have been disappointed by the disbelieving scoff he heard from Remus, but he supposed his imposter had quite earned the man's scorn. However Albus was a bit taken aback when a rather wolfish grin came over the man's face. Hours later that evening as Harry Potter Greyback was called up to the sorting hat, when he could hear a pin drop in the utter silence of the great hall, he realized that he really should have insisted on getting that gentleman's name before leaving.