Werewolves at Hogwarts

Chapter 8

Severus stood in the doorway of the DADA room and looked down as the four children chattered and giggled as they helped Remus clean his classroom. The girl chased the older boy with a wet rag, the two little boys giggling and squealing as they were splashed. Remus called them to order with a yelp that made them all laugh at him. He was teaching them the language of the wolves as they went along, Severus realised, as the children scattered to their tasks. The one called Paul suddenly saw him in the doorway and skittered back, the one called Charlie turning to growl.

"Ah, Severus," Remus said with a smile as he straightened and looked up. "Feeling better today?"

Severus glared. "I came to discuss your, 'pack's' need for Wolfsbane," he hissed through clenched teeth.

Remus raised his eyebrows, wishing he had mastered the art of raising only one. "I wasn't told you had agreed to mix the brew for us," he said, propping a hip on his desk. "Have you met the pack? Andy and Malcolm is our beta male and female, Charlie and Paul are our cubs. If you are prepared to spend your time in brewing for us we will be most grateful."

The smile was gentle and warming, touching a chord in Severus' heart and he felt any resolve he had softening. Something deep in his core wavered and changed but the unsettled feeling made him stiffen and frown.

"It is an imposition," he began but then faltered to a halt as the children clustered more closely around their alpha male, the signals Remus was sending off making them feel somewhat insecure. "However, the Headmaster has requested and who are we to disobey?" Severus smirked grimly.

"What's Wolfsbane potion?" Paul asked and Charlie just shrugged as the older two exchanged long looks behind their Professor's back.

Severus saw the looks and smirked even more as Remus rose and motioned the kids to stay while he climbed the stairs, and almost casually herded Severus out without seeming to. Outside the door, he glanced up at the tall man and sighed. "Please, Severus, I know you have a problem with me but do not vent your spleen on the children, or confuse them."

"How am I confusing them? All I said was..." Severus began then shivered as the smaller man encroached into his personal space. Severus backed up a little but it was no good, the corridor wall was behind his shoulders and there was nowhere else to go. "Get away from me Lupin!" He put out a hand to push him away, but it seemed more interested in tangling with the Muggle style shirt Remus wore under his slightly shabby robe.

Remus covered the hand and stroked the side of his palm with a thumb as they stared at each other. "You've lost weight, Severus, not a good thing. Are you taking care of yourself properly, or are you missing meals and not sleeping at night?"

A shiver coursed its way up Severus' spine, centring on the softly stroking thumb. "I eat enough, and I do sleep, mostly. I'm...." He almost whimpered as Remus reached up and gently kissed him, a simple brushing of lips that did more for his libido than the most talented courtesan Amsterdam had to offer. "Oh Merlin, Remy, please.... No! Stop this! I don't.... We...."

"Hush, its all right, Sev, relax. I won't push you any faster than you are ready to go," Remus assured him, stepping back with a small, satisfied smile. "Thank you for agreeing to brew Wolfsbane for us. I know my old bones will certainly appreciate it."

"You aren't old!" Severus snapped then glared bitterly. "Let me out of here, now."

"I'm not stopping you from departing." Remus smiled and waved a hand at the open passages in both directions.

Severus fled unashamedly as Remus turned back and cocked his head at the cluster of children in the doorway. They were staring wide eyed at the retreating Potions Master, all except Andy who was frowning slightly at their pack leader. Finally, she smiled and tapped Malcolm then the boys, motioning them back to work. Remus watched them leave then turned thoughtfully to watch Severus turn the corner and disappear.

Andy hung back to study the alpha with careful consideration. That nasty piece of work had been giving off even more mixed signals than the Alpha! The corridor still stank of pheromones, almost enough to trigger a heat in an alpha couple. A small spark of enlightenment suddenly caused her to draw a sharp breath. They were an alpha couple, even though they were both male, estranged for some reason, but still wildly attracted to each other.

Her enlightenment must have shown on her face and a gentle, authoritative hand fell on her shoulder. She jumped; a fleeing shaft of fear shooting through her, but Professor Lupin didn't look mad in any way. He smiled at her and she smiled at him, and they went back to work.

~~*~~

"Arithmancy was created by sadists for the torture of innocent young minds, wasn't it?" Andy asked of the study table in general as she chewed on the end of her quill.

"There! I knew it was good for something!" Rose Clearwater muttered, equally disgusted. "He's got it in for us, for sure."

"Who is that? Professor Carpenter? With a switchblade! Has anyone any idea of what to do with problem four?" Lisa Murtow wailed, banging her head gently on the desk.

The three girls groaned as they all shook their heads in dismay. "I know six ways to lay a table and twenty nine ways to say it with flowers, but this lot? Oh my God, it's painful!" Andy complained and the other girls grinned.

"Is it true that Beauxbatons grants OWLs and NEWTs in curtseying and flower arranging?" Robin Hartshorn asked snidely as he passed.

"Of course, darling, it's called Hauté Mondé, and it's used to turn little barbarians into civilised wizards who can deliver a properly crafted insult with the finesse of a fencer, rather than the grace of a Quidditch bludger."

Someone sniggered while Robin turned bright red. "Bloody stupid bitch wolf," he muttered under his breath but Andy heard it and giggled cheerfully refusing to rise to the insult.

"Which only goes to prove how useful such a subject is to the modern youth trying to garner kudos, or perhaps some sort of support for their cause," Andy continued in an amused and conversational tone, making her tablemates snigger too. Robin was the reserve Beater for the Gryffindor team and not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

"Oh dear, he is so-o mad at you now," Rose murmured as the youth glared and stomped off. "Be careful, he tends to be a sneak at times."

"I sometimes wonder why he wasn't Sorted into Slytherin," Lisa muttered.

"Just watch your back," Rose warned.

"So, who is the best person at arithmancy in the House?" Andy asked glancing around.

"Porter Macklewaite. He topped the school in his OWLs and had even been be given advanced standing toward his NEWTs. Mind you, he is a very strange person, sort of spacey." Rose made a face and shook her head. "He is a total dork!"

"And a 'dork' is?" Andy asked puzzled.

Rose stared at her then blushed vividly. "Oh dear, its- it's a- er - Muggle term for a - er - um - socially inept person, is that a good way of putting it, Lisa?"

Both girls now watched Andy uneasily for some reason. "'Dork'," she repeated a couple of times. "It's a good word. Much better than 'tres gauche' or 'ungeeignet'," she added thoughtfully then sighed. "Look girls, I know you are both Muggle-borns and I am a Pureblood, but who cares? I have always had both Muggle and Squib friends as well as Muggle-born and Pureblood friends. The reason I do not know your slang is that most of my school friends only spoke French or German and their slang is somewhat different to the British versions."

Narrowing her eyes, Rose studied the solemn girl before her then smiled a little. "Fair enough, I must admit you don't act like most of the other Pureblood we've ever encountered outside Gryffindor."

"Is that good?"

"That's good, now how are we going to get this homework done by next lesson?" Lisa asked in mild despair.

"We are going to ask this Porter Macklewaite fellow to coach us," Andy said decisively. "Just point him out."

"He's not here at the moment, he's probably still in the library or in a deserted classroom or something. He doesn't tend to mix with us much, not even when we all have to assemble."

"I think he's shy," Rose said thoughtfully, "And he does tend to stutter a bit when he's in a crowd."

"Remember in third year when we had that presentation to give for Muggle Studies? Poor chap ended up in tears and ran out of class when he couldn't even say the title of his paper," Lisa reminisced with a smile. "We all laughed at him, but now I think we were all cruel."

"So, let's go ambush him and see if he can help us to learn," Andy said decisively.

~~*~~

Porter Macklewaite was curled up in a classroom with his cloak pulled up over his shoulders and down over his feet, which made him rather hard to see in the gloom. When he realised the three people calling in the corridor were hunting for him he tried to disappear completely, but Andy's nose was discerning enough to track him down easily. Cornered, he had his wand out and was ready to fight for his life before the three girls thought to light theirs and reveal they were in fact girls.

"Wha- wha-what do-o you wa- wa- wa- want?" he asked uneasily, shrinking down even more.

"You are the best at arithmancy in the House, we need coaching if we ever want to pass our NEWTs. So we can offer you a deal," Andy said calmly, pulling up a spare desk and hopping up to cross her legs at the ankles elegantly. "You are tres gauche, er, whatever the current term is for it. As one rather rude fellow observed, I have an OWL in Hauté Mondé so I could give you some coaching on interacting with people."

The young man narrowed his eyes, "Why would I want to interact?" he asked cautiously.

"Because we are going to have a Valentine's Day Ball after Christmas and you would like to attend without making a fool of yourself," Andy said matter-of-factly, and Porter flushed a bright betraying scarlet. "Oh don't worry; you aren't the only one who will be panicking, especially when they have to dance properly, not to modern music, but in traditional forms."

"You want arithmancy coaching in exchange for dancing lessons? What if no one wants to go with me? Did you think of that?" Porter asked snidely.

"How about I guarantee you a date, example, me," Lisa said firmly. "Look, I hate these formal things as much as the next person, but there is no way in Hell I would stay in the common room or even worse, go by myself. It happened to me in third year and I will never be so humiliated again in my life!" The girl glared at the three of them impartially.

"I - I do - do - don't have dre- dre- dre -formal robes." His stammer was back in force.

"Oh, don't worry about it, we will help you choose something suitable, and make sure you are ready for the event. In fact, you might even ask for your parents to give you your choice of robes for your Christmas box," Andy mused. "Stand up, stand up, let me look at you! Humm, your posture is awful, but we can work on that. Lisa, stand beside him. Oh good, you are both going to look very nice together. So, do we have a deal?"

Porter looked at Lisa, blushed vivid scarlet and nodded jerkily. "De-deal. When shall we start?"

"We need to understand our homework for next week's class. So, in exchange, we can have our first lesson in deportment on Saturday, if you are all agreeable, people?"

"I - I could give you a lesson on arithmancy tomorrow afternoon, if you like," Porter said carefully.

"It's a deal. Tomorrow after school we meet in the library, and Saturday at two o'clock in the DADA classroom. Oh, don't worry, I'll swing it with the alpha, he's cool."

~~*~~

"Come on, you know it would be no challenge at all. Just disrupt the howling and show them how a real wolf behaves." The voice was persuasive and teasing, almost playful as it came from the darkness of the wooded area.

"It would be funny to be sure, but would it be right?" a heavily accented voice asked in reply and a sigh gusted. "Lots of the boys are out doing their good deed for the year just now, so we're under strength, and, quite frankly, most of us are tired of pulling stupid pranks. It's time to grow up and settle down."

"With your children clustered around your knee?" the voice was now derogative and mocking.

There was a sharp intake of breath, more than one to betray that more than one listened to the tempting words. "And that's the thing, isn't it?" the original speaker said flatly. "If we disrupt the howling, can you reverse the sterilisations? Can your organisation make us into whole men and women again? Will you give us back the ability to breed and be content with our lot in life?"

"I'm sure it can be arranged."

"And I'm bloody sure it cannot," an older, wiser voice suddenly chimed in. "Go spread your poison, Man in the Shadows, you offer leprechaun gold and fairy day dreams, while those of the Packs offer a life of some worth. We may not be able to breed but we can build a foundation to support those who are coming after us. Let the new generation bring the cubs to our Packs and they will know that we who sacrificed most made sure they had a lawful, safe place to bring them."

The man in the shadows snarled wordlessly. "Have the Wild Ones lost their balls? Are they so pussy whipped they can't even pull a trick on the enslaved?"

There were a concerted snarl, and the man in the shadows screamed, cut off short by a gurgling choke, then silence reigned.

"I think the Wild Ones in Africa just got a new recruit," a grimly satisfied male voice said. "I'll just be transfiguring him into a rock then, shall I? Sean, you had better apply for your walking papers to Africa first thing in the morning, just in case."

"Aye, I will. Sorry about that, I just lost my temper a bit. I didn't mean to rip out his throat."

"Aye well, maybe you didn't mean to, but it happened, and with your human teeth too? I am impressed!" the older man spoke up, a thread of amusement in his voice.

Someone chuckled, a charm was cast and the body became a pebble, then there was a change in the feel of the small coppice of trees as bodies apparated away. Silence fell until a badger wandered through the leaves.

~~*~~

Remus blinked at the girls' hopeful expressions, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Well! This old room has been the scene of some very scary things, but I don't think anything could top a dance and deportment lesson."

The girls giggled, Andy shaking her head. "Hey, Professor, can you dance traditionally?" she asked suddenly, a slightly cunning look entering her innocent blue eyes.

"No. Oh no. Last time I danced traditionally was, oh good lord, probably before you lot were even born," Remus protested hurriedly, backing away as his beta female grinned wickedly and began to stalk him playfully.

"Now come on, Alpha, you aren't embarrassed to be seen dancing, are you? What's wrong, do you have two left feet? Or did you only ever learn the box step?" she teased cheerfully the other girls giggling at Remus' flushed face.

Seeing he was not going to be left alone until he made some explanation, he said. "Sirius - my husband - taught me to dance for a similar event here at school, so I can dance quite well. However, I don't like to dance now that Sirius is dead," he spoke quietly, regretfully but not sadly.

"Damn!" Andy sighed softly. "I hoped it was a silly excuse but that one is gold plated." She patted his shoulder in commiseration then sighed. "I'm going to have to talk Malcolm into it instead, aren't I?"

"Good luck," Remus said with a merry smile that included all three girls, pleased to have squeaked past that situation.

~~*~~

"I'm sorry, Mr White, but Mr Orange has disappeared off the face of the earth," Mr Green reported through the flames of the public fire. "He went to the meeting three nights ago with the Irish Wild Wolves and never came back. Three of the wild wolf pack went to Africa the next day to work with the Peace Corps, but there is no sign of Mr Orange being one of them."

"Damned werewolves, they are so unreliable! Very well, continue with the plans, and try to cover Mr Orange's duties as best you can."

"But, but I'm not a werewolf, I can't...."

"As best you can, moron!" Mr White snapped, and closed the floo in disgust.