I do not own Harry Potter nor World of Darkness

Horizont Alley, London, 30th September 1993 (Thursday)

Dolores Umbridge was not pleased with her new tenant.

She understood why he was there, Sir Zettler had made a very compelling case. After all, 'push someone that won't be missed between you and a werewolf's jaws', while not exactly subtle, was a pretty solid suggestion as to how to not be mauled.

Despite that, she couldn't help but loathe the thing the man sent her. He might have been built like a brick wall, but the drool on the corner of its mouth, the unblinking eye with that glazed over, lobotomized look that seemed unable to focus… Besides, the thing couldn't even talk! He just… groaned in a pitch so low it made her question whether it was even human. Not that learning the thing was half mountain troll would surprise her, of course. It definitely smelled like one, that was for sure. She forced down her revulsion, looking at the blonde with the best smile she could force out under the circumstances.

"Are you sure this… thing… is necessary?" she asked.

Zafrina nodded "Sir Zettler was very insistent. I believe his exact words were 'protect our newest investment for the attack that's all but guaranteed to happen', miss Senior Undersecretary. If something were to happen to you we wouldn't be able to forgive ourselves. And besides… - the blonde glanced at the hulking figure currently drooling on the corner, its hands clasped around a sawed-off shotgun. - … the likelihood of this thing surviving to see dawn is… very low."

Dolores nodded, finding it hard to argue against that.

With a courteous nod, Zafrina excused herself from the home and left Dolores with the… thing. The blonde didn't even give it a name.

Huffing, she walked to her kitchen to prepare some tea.

The night fell, and Dolores was spending some lovely time sipping tea and reading her favorite book next to her Kneazles, if she ignored the stench coming from the thing in the corner. Seriously, had it even moved during the past few hours?

As she turned the page, she heard the distinct sound of a howl before one of her windows shattered. She got up, the book falling from her lap as she stumbled to grab the wand from her side table. She raised it, pointing at the snarling one-armed werewolf charging towards her…

BANG!

The werewolf skittered to the side, yapping.

BANG!

The werewolf howled in pain, blood flowing from his face as the clicking sound of an empty gun.

The thing stepped forward, its eyes still glazed over and unblinking, raising the weapon over its head to try and clubber the creature.

The werewolf dodged to the side, lunging at the thing and burying his jaws in its neck. The thing dropped its gun, ignoring the blood flowing from its neck, and reached for the werewolf's head, its giant hands trying to get a proper grip on the werewolf's neck.

"Ad formam humanam!"

With an explosion of green and red, the werewolf shrunk, its teeth and claws retreating as his limbs shortened. Wyett had a second of clarity to realize that whatever he was biting was certainly not his target.

Then, the creature's hands wrapped around his neck.

With a loud crack, Wyett fell on the ground, his body changing back into a werewolf as the effects of the Homorphus Charm came to an end, his neck twisted upside down and his head now turned to look at his own back.

Dolores Umbridge looked at the scene in front of her. The werewolf was dead and the creature was now bleeding like a fountain, seemingly unaware that his jugular had been severed by the werewolf. After a few seconds, the figure leaned forward, collapsing on top of the werewolf's corpse. She looked at the creatures with contempt. Two dead beasts in her house, stinking up her perfect little world with their filth. She leaned in the chimney, calling for the Aurors.

And probably some kind of specialized worker to remove the corpses and all the blood before it could leave permanent stains on her floor.

Great Hall, Hogwarts 31st October 1993 (Sunday)

Their first visit to Hogsmeade had been…underwhelming. Spending the whole summer in Diagon Alley had made Harry rather used to a wizarding village, so there wasn't really much in Hogsmeade to surprise him. That didn't mean he hadn't thoroughly enjoyed the day, quite the opposite: he had a wonderful time with his friends around the village, drinking hot chocolate at the 'Three Broomsticks' and even had an impromptu snowball fight when Fred and Geoge had ambushed them on the way to 'Honeydukes Sweetshop'. The only downside was the palpable tension between Ron and Hermione: apparently, Hermione's cat had been trying to attack Scabbers for a few days and Ron's rat had been positively terrified of the half-Kneazle.

Hermione herself had been… quite on edge. According to Sally, she had taken offense at something Professor Trelawney had said and two two had been butting heads ever since. The other students were trying to predict whether Hermione was going to drop out of the class or be kicked out. Sally was so convinced Hermione would drop that she had half the idea to start a betting pool on it.

The group had also resumed the Fae Studies club, and they had almost finished filling in the new members, which included both Ginny Weasley and Astoria Greengrass, on what they had learned the previous year.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, considering the friendship between their older siblings, Astoria and Ginny had started to hang out together after the club, and were forming their own circle of friendship with Luna Lovegood.

Now, everyone was enjoying a nice feast of pumpkin-based dishes when Filch entered the hall, running at full sprint towards the teacher's table.

He muttered something, too far for anyone to understand despite the sudden silence.

A few of the professors appeared shocked and Headmaster Dumbledore frowned, before heading to the podium to make an announcement.

"Dear students, I have been informed that an intruder has been spotted in the castle. As per the new measures we implemented after the troll incident, the prefects will now take attendance and make sure every student is accounted for. Once the dinner is concluded, House elves will prepare emergency sleeping beds for everyone and you will spend the night here in the great hall. If you need something picked up from your dormitory or your house's common room, I am sure the elves will be more than happy to bring those items to you. Professor Lupin, Professor Snape, Mr. Filch, a group of dementors and myself will search the castle for the intruder. While we are away, Professor McGonagall will be in charge of everyone's safety. - Dumbledore waited for the murmurs to calm down. - Prefects, you can start checking for attendance."

Luckily, this year no students were missing from the feast. While the Professors were rather tight-lipped about what happened, the students started to gossip among themselves, trying to puzzle together what little informations they got from the Prefects, those students sitting close enough to the professor's table to have overheard the headmaster's conversation with Filch and those who claimed to have read the headmaster's lips. It was only when the house ghosts made their appearance, accompanying a group of frustrated teachers, that the rumors were confirmed: Sirius Black had tried to break into Gryffindor's tower, slashing the portrait of the fat lady that acted as a guardian for their common room.

While no one knew exactly why Sirius Black had tried to get into the tower, some whispered the man wanted to finish the job he started a decade ago by killing Harry Potter. As to why he went to Gryffindor's tower instead of Slytherin's dungeon, however, remained an unsolved mystery.

DADA classroom, Hogwarts, 5th November 1993 (Friday)

News of the attack against Miss Umbridge had made it to the front page. As a response to the attack, minister Fudge had declared a 'war on werewolves', promising the death penalty to any werewolf found outside of a secured area during the full moon. There were even whispers about allowing the use of the Killing curse against known werewolves, but for the moment those remained just rumors. The second event that shook wizarding Britain was the 'heroic sacrifice' of a certain Gregory Gaunt, a squib of the ancient and noble house of Gaunt that seemed to have popped out from absolutely nowhere who had sacrificed his life to ensure the protection of Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge. While no one had ever heard of Gregory Gaunt, as it was common knowledge how squibs born from house Gaunt had a tendency to have deadly accidents with uncanny frequency, the Prophet's story about this defenseless squib's heroic sacrifice seemed to have struck something within the readers and very few questioned the authenticity of the report. What got people talking was the weapon the squib used to fight off the werewolf. As Harry expected, copies of the 'Alakablam Mark V' soon found their way into Diagon Alley, being sold at a small little shop that just opened right next to Power Potter's by the name of Full Force Solutions.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was becoming one of Harry's favorite subjects, thanks in no small part to Professor Lupin. Aside from being a generally well-rounded wizard with a good deal of experience thanks to the war against You-Know-Who, the man was also fun. He had many anecdotes about his Hogwarts days, telling students about many creative applications of seemingly useless spells that, while during school were used for little more than pranks and jokes, ended up saving his life during the vicious battle of his early adulthood. The fact that Harry knew many of these pranks involved his father made these little tangents all the more enjoyable for him. Despite that, however, Harry could feel a deep sense of uneasiness coming from the man whenever the two interacted with each other. Was he ashamed for not being there while Harry was growing up? That was almost certainly part of it, but something in Harry told him that what the professor felt wasn't shame. It seemed like the professor was… almost afraid of him.

Today, much to everyone's surprise, Professor Lupin wasn't the one waiting for them in the DADA classroom. It was Snape.

"Where's Professor Lupin?" asked a Gryffindor student.

"He says he is feeling too ill to teach today."

"What's wrong with him?"

Snape's black eyes glittered.

"Nothing life-threatening. - he said, looking as though he wished it were. - Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far…"

"Sir, we've done Boggarts, Hinkypunks, Kappas, and Grindylows." said Hermione quickly

"Be quiet - said Snape coldly. - I did not ask for information. I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin's lack of organization."

"He's the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had," said Dean Thomas boldly, and there was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the Gryffindors in the class.

"You are easily satisfied. Lupin is hardly overtaxing you, I would expect first years to be able to deal with Boggarts and Grindylows. Today we shall discuss…"

Harry watched him flick through the textbook, to the very back chapter.

"...Werewolves. Turn to page 394."

Harry could feel a good number of eyes on him. His opinion on Garous had been made abundantly clear with anyone who had bothered paying attention to him. He eagerly flipped to the chapter about werewolves and rapidly skimmed through the material.

"Which of you can tell me how we distinguish between the werewolf and the true wolf?" said Snape.

There was silence in the room, only interrupted by the quiet sound of Harry flipping through pages.

"Well, well, well, I never thought I'd meet a third-year class who wouldn't even recognize a werewolf when they saw one. I shall make a point of informing Headmaster Dumbledore how very behind you all are…"

Harry's hand shot up.

"Yes, Mr. Potter? Have you found the answer to my question with all that page-flipping you've been doing?"

Harry could swear he heard Draco chuckle in the back, but he just ignored it.

"Unfortunately no, sir. I was just wondering… where is the rest of the material?"

"What 'rest of the material' are you talking about, Mr. Potter?"

"Well… I only skimmed through, but I couldn't find anything about the Tribes, Gifts or even a mention of the Garou Nation. Aren't we going to learn about any of those?"

Snape stared at the boy, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about.

"Potter, if this is your idea of a joke I suggest you give up your career as a comedian. Where did you get this information from?"

"Pentex has a two-week mandatory seminar about Garou… That's how we call werewolves, sir."

"What would muggles even know about werewolves, anyway?" scoffed Malfoy from the back.

"They've killed more Garous than you'll ever see in your life, Malfoy." rebuked Harry.

"Silence you two!" shouted Snape, nipping the argument before it could start.

"Mr. Potter, while I find it very hard to believe that a group of muggles may know more about magical creatures than educated wizards, especially considering the fact they use the wrong name. - a few giggles were shut down by the potion professor's glare - I will, for the sake of argument, entertain the idea that you currently possess information that no one else has. Many practitioners of the Dark Arts rely on subterfuge and misinformation, and learning about what muggles believe to be true about these… Garou will be a useful exercise in how to spot misinformation. If you wish to humiliate yourself, Mr. Potter, you have the floor."

Snape moved to the side, pointing at the blackboard while offering a piece of chalk to Harry.

Despite the barely suppressed laughs from the class, Harry got up and approached the blackboard. If there was one topic Pentex knew about, it was Garous.

"Ok… so, the first thing that I didn't see in the textbook are the various forms. Garous can shapeshift from human to animal…"

"That's an animagus, Potter!" shouted Pansy Parkinson, causing another bout of laughs.

"Silence!" shouted Snape.

"... but that's not the whole story. - continued Harry, not caring about their comments. Garous have five different forms and they can shift between them at will. The moon may help them to assume a particular form, such as being a lot easier to shape into Crinos during a full moon, but they can always do it."

He started writing on the blackboard.

"The five forms are, from human to animal, Homid; Glabro; Crinos; Hispo and Lupus. Now, Garous are, as my old teacher liked to repeat, creatures born of rage, which makes them very prone to frenzying. When in control, Garou retain human-like intelligence, but when in a Frenzy they lose themselves completely. In some cases they might even attack their own allies, which makes this condition a dangerous, yet very exploitable weakness. Before talking about provoking Frenzy, we should talk about the Garou's powers, in particular their ability to vanish from reality and their arsenal of Gifts …"

"That's enough, Mr. Potter."

"But I barely started. There's…"

"There is clearly a lot more material than what you have presented us, that much is obvious. But it seems equally obvious to me that these Garous you speak of are not the same creatures as the werewolves in our textbook. Now, I suggest you get back to your seat and start taking notes… I expect that the people of Pentex would be curious to learn about what a werewolf truly is. I expect you to owl them a formal request to send me whatever material they have about these Garou creatures you speak of so we can assign them the proper classification and avoid another Boggart situation where two different creatures share the same name."

Harry nodded, handing the chalk back to Professor Snape.

As it turned out, there were quite a few superficial similarities between Garous and werewolves, but as soon as one took a closer look, the differences became evident. Werewolves could only transform during a full moon, while Garou could shapeshift at will. Garou only lost their minds under exceedingly stressful situations, while werewolves in wolf form (or rather, something that looked like a very emaciated Glabro) always lost their mind. Garou had their own brand of magic, while werewolves were either wizards or muggles, relying on wizarding magic or muggle technology when in human form. Garou were organized into tribes and nations with hundreds if not thousands of members, werewolves organizations were little more than packs of animals.

It became pretty clear that during the talks between Pentex and the wizarding world, the two entities had been relying far too much on preconceived assumptions and merely assumed, incorrectly, that they had been talking about the same creature. A horrible blunder that should have been cleared at the start, but somehow had never been caught.

After the lecture was over, Harry rushed to the owlery to send a letter to Park Royal, asking them to send over as much data on Garou as possible.

Notes

Werewolves attack!

Umbridge survives al thanks to a Fomori (or rather, a failed one) holding back the werewolf for long enough.

The spell used by Umbridge is the Homorphus Charm, which temporarily turns a werewolf back into a human. It has a pretty long cast time and against Garou is basically useess, but in this situation, it gave the Fomori a small window to break the Werewolf's neck

Sirius gets into Hogwarts... and nothing happened. With Harry in Slytherin, even less than canon, but I had to at least mention it

Garou and Werewolves! They aren't the same! I spent WAY too ong trying to figure out a way to make them both fit, but ultimatey are WAY too different to be the same creature. Thus, we start the subplot that involves figuring out exactly what they are... I seriously doubt anyone will get the solution on their own, but you readers have surprised me in the past, so I'm not putting past one of you to figure everything out.