Werewolves at Hogwarts

Chapter 24

Christiana Edmunds stood looking out her window, her back to the tastefully furnished office as she studied the street scene below her. She had come a long way and worked very hard to get to this position in life, made a lot of sacrifices and had some lucky breaks. Now she was at the top of her professional tree, the most sought after consultant in the business analyst game. Ailing companies both wizarding and Muggle came banging on her door cap in hand, begging her to work her magic for them to pull them out of the proverbial poo. Some she did, some she told quite frankly that it was too late for them and their best bet was to sell out while there was still some equity in the company to sell.

When she did choose to go into bat for a company, she always took a percentage of her fees in shares 'to give a little incentive', she said and it usually worked. Once the company was back on its feet, they found they had a new stock holder who didn't sell out but kept the incentive shares and took a cut of the profits over and above her consultancy fee. It was a lucrative way to do business.

Today she had an appointment with someone who had not given over a fancy business card but simply requested an appointment to consult with her over a Moon issue. The wording had scared ten years growth out of her, but the man couldn't know of her little secret, could he? After all, that was in her other life, the one she went to for a week at a time and was always careful to keep separate from her everyday life. Taking another deep breath, she moved away from the window and took up her position of power behind her very impressive and very empty desk. Not a minute later, her secretary knocked on the door and announced Misters Lupin and McCarthy.

Both men padded into the office, the older looking at her piercingly, and the younger casing the joint with a very experienced eye, before they took the seats before the desk and both turned their gaze on her. She knew what they thought they were seeing, a middle aged woman with short cropped black hair and a no-nonsense grey business suit. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously when her nose caught their scent, and it flared through her senses screaming dominants.

"Gentlemen," she said flatly, casting the first volley.

"Ms Edmunds," the younger, slightly self-effacing man said in a soft almost caressing voice. It was out of keeping with his scent and his expert assessment of her office but she let it ride for the moment, and turned her attention onto the older man, who was much more interested in her by the way he was studying her.

"So you are Christiana Edmunds, Plume," McCarthy said pleasantly and smiled as she snarled at him.

"What do you want?" she growled deep in her throat. If she had have been wearing fur her hackles would have stood straight up.

"I am Hayborn, Alpha Prime of the British Werewolves, and Jonathon McCarthy in human terms. This is my Beta Prime Moony, and Remus Lupin. We are here to offer you a proposition."

"Prove you are who you say you are," she broke in flatly, her hand creeping to the lapel of her jacket.

Remus' wand was out faster, Hayborn's a millisecond later. "What would you like us to do? Show you our scars?" Hayborn asked cheerfully.

"That will do for a start, show me the bite," Christiana demanded with narrowed eyes.

McCarthy harrumphed and Remus grinned wickedly, but obligingly slid his jacket and shirt off his shoulder to show his upper left arm and side where the unmistakable silvery lines and hollows of a werewolf bite still showed stark against his lightly furred skin. McCarthy made a production of dropping his trousers and turning his back, his scar covering most of his right buttocks and thigh. Christina's lips twitched, but she did put her wand up as the two men dressed again.

"So, what can I do for you?" she asked again, pressing the buzzer on the intercom and ordering tea for her guests.

"Well Miss Edmunds..." McCarthy began but the secretary came in and put a tray of refreshments on the desk before he could go further.

As the girl left, Christiana grinned. "I think you had better call me Chris, since I have seen your arse, after all."

Hayborn glared and Moony laughed as he accepted tea and biscuits. "She's got you there, old man," he remarked, toasting her with his cup.

Hayborn snorted and shook his head. "Bloody inconvenient place to get bitten, let me tell you," he commented, and then sighed. "Plume, I am getting old. In real years I am nearly a hundred and five, and in dog years that's older than Merlin! My Beta Prime here is a wonderful adviser, a terrific lieutenant and a dear friend, but he is a terrible politician. Times in the Clans and Packs are changing, and I am too old to run the new world. I need a successor who is skilled, strong, a good manager and a fantastic politician. I was grooming Wind Biter for the post but alas, he was murdered early last year. Since then I have been trying to find a successor who is as good, and still in touch with our times and people. I've chosen you."

"What! You can't just choose someone at random!" Chris yelped, almost spilling her tea in her shock.

"Oh, there was no random involved," Remus assured her, dispelling the drops that had marred the desk and the front of her silk shirt with a quick spell. "You will need to fight for the post, for sure, but your first fight will be more for show than reality. The way we plan it is thus. The Alphas of the twelve main districts are due to meet at the first April Moon. They will be the main opposition and need to be defeated before you can go any further. At the meeting I will take out Hayborn first, and then take on all challengers after that, destroying as much of the opposition as I can. If I look like losing, you are to step in and take me and the challenger out. If I win all challenges then you are to step up and take me, and I promise to lose to you. I do not want to be Alpha Prime, I do assure you, but I will be your Beta Prime quite happily until you choose another."

Edmunds lay back in her chair and studied the two men closely, weighing their proposition and their sincerity very carefully. "Why me?" she asked flatly.

"You have spoken out on a number of occasions against the random attacks the Wild Ones make on non-werewolves. You have made your views known on a number of issues affecting our people over the years, and although I don't agree with all of them, I do agree with enough of them to think you would be a good guardian of the peoples' welfare." Hayborn paused to sip his tea. "I am not looking for a clone of my own ideas; I am looking for a person to be the Alpha Prime, the person most responsible for the future of our species. We are looking for the one who will lead us to join main stream society as equals, rather than make the wizards drive us into concentration camps by gratuitous attacks and violent protests. Remus could do it but he is too soft and it would take too long to keep the radicals out of trouble."

Remus grimaced but did not disagree with his assessment, instead shrugging and smiling. "I hate politics and I would cave in rather than confront and attack. I would rather be in the background working away than at the forefront spearheading the campaign."

"How the hell did you ever get to be Beta Prime then?" Chris was moved to ask incredulously.

"The boy has the strangest damned logic I have ever encountered," Hayborn laughed gleefully. "He fights like a devil and is as tricky as a snake. Then he says he hates to do it but he hates to see anyone not suitable in the position, so if someone better comes along he will step down gladly. And he did, for three years he stood down as my Beta until Logan was killed, and then he stepped up again."

Blushing, Remus shrugged. "I am a terrible Beta and if you know someone better, I will step down again, I promise. My area of expertise is Lore and formulating ways to live and interact with the Wizard community, also inter pack interactions. Singer and I devised a series of howls that taught our people the Lore, their responsibilities and their rights within the massed packs. We started during the SVW and kept on from there until we had most of the tame werewolves sorted. The Wild Ones were a problem but we have devised a way to get them overseas to where their reckless courage is put to a good use. Unfortunately, someone or a group of 'someones' is trying to tear down everything we have built, and I don't know why as yet. Our Lore Givers and Law Makers are being murdered and skinned out. Moon Walker spoke to me after January Moon and proposed that we select some new Lore Givers and Law Makers in secret and train them up. Also, that we devise a way to write the howls down so they aren't lost. These will be your concerns, if you choose to become Alpha Prime."

"We aren't handing you an easy task girl. In fact, in some ways it is harder now than it was when I fought my way to the top of the heap. Still, I think you are the person to handle it, and take our clans off into the future successfully. Think about it and if you choose to do it, come to the Ilkley Moor pack territory in the First April Moon. We will begin the swap over. I'd like to get the subject of my successor settled before June Moon, when all the clans meet."

"I'll think about it, and if I am there then we'll do it, if not then look again," Chris said decisively as she rose and shook hands with the two men, before having her secretary show them out.

"Interesting company you're keeping," Marcia remarked after having shown the men out.

"More interesting than you know or realise," Chris mused as she thought over the offer. "Marcy, I need to know everything you can find on the werewolf population of our fair country. I also want to know about the murders, who is doing it and why. I want everything you have or can find on Jonathon McCarthy and Remus Lupin, right down to their shoe size."

"You don't want much, do you, luv?" Marcy giggled, ruffling her sister's hair cheerfully.

"Those two Primes just offered me the Alpha Prime spot of the whole of the werewolf clans and packs, and Remus offered to be my Beta until I could find my own. How's that for an offer you just can't refuse?"

"Holy good night batman," Marcia Edmunds exclaimed, a hand going to her mouth. "My sister will be the Queen of the Children of the Night!"

"Yeah, yeah, the biggest Queen of all, and don't use those corny Muggle TV sayings, it sound so silly."

"Yes Ms Prime, of course, Ms Prime. Are you going to do it?"

Christiana rose and went to stare down at the street scene so far below. "You know, I think I am."

~~*~~

The rumours ran wild! There had been a challenge, Hayborn was dead, defeated, had driven off a challenge and was badly injured. Moony was now Alpha Prime, was dead, was defeated, had been murdered, was about to challenge the challenger. No one knew what was going on and they couldn't get in touch with either Jonathon McCarthy or Remus Lupin. Moon Walker, safe on the Isle of Cardoul, smiled to herself as she sat in the early April sunshine knitting and rocking. The month of two moons always meant change and upheaval, and this April was no exception.

Lucy Carmichael came bustling up, her basket over her arm. "I'm just off to the mainland to get some groceries, is there anything you want or need now, Betty?"

"Well, news of young Moony would be nice, but I think that's still blowing on the breeze at the moment," Betty teased as she finished her row and swapped needles. "Now you mention it, I think my niece could do with some of those marshmallow biscuits with the chocolate on them. Rather partial to them, she is."

"Well, I'm just glad you have someone to stay with you over the summer," Lucy nodded cheerfully. "It will be company for you."

Betty nodded then chuckled as Morag Douglas came out into the sunshine, her ever-present notebook in her hand, her guitar in the other. "Does that woman do nothing but go from house to house instilling her opinion on everything?" the younger woman asked curiously, but without the malice the statement seemed to imply.

"Oh yes, she is a good hearted soul, but such a gossip. If you want to keep a secret, make sure she isn't within a hundred yards before you whisper it very quietly. She has ears like a wolf, that one."

"Well, that would seem normal for around here." Morag laughed, plucking out a simple melody and raising it by fifths.

"Well yes, except she only came to be with her son, who was Turned during the war. Oddly enough she is fully human. How is it coming along?"

Morag grinned and made the guitar wail and howl in a definite pattern.

Betty laughed and slapped her shoulder. "Cheeky girl, don't call me a nosy old bitch like that."

"And you can even read it like this." The younger woman showed the notations in her pad with justifiable pride. "When you first suggested this project I thought you were mad but Betty, thank you, thank you so much. I think you saved my sanity as well as my life."

"Away with you girl, it was nothing! You had the talent and I couldn't let you waste it, or spill you life away on the ground as you were trying. Moony could always devise the howls and make them meaningful but he has no talent for turning them into music and writing them down. That was Singer's job. However, as I said before, you keep very quiet about what you are doing and how you are doing it, as there is someone out there who wants to destroy our way of life and even our very kind, so we don't want to put you in jeopardy." The old woman patted the girl's hand and began to rock again, the steady click of her knitting needles a rhythmic counterpoint to the cheerful noises of village life.

~~*~~

"The word is that Remus Lupin is now the new Alpha Prime," Mr Blue said into the fire.

Mr White on the other end of the flames leaned back and tapped his nose thoughtfully. "Contact Mr Red and Mr Black, their children will be able to tell them if Lupin came back to school in a mess. If he did, I want him caught and held, and I don't care how any of you do it, do you understand. I want the werewolves to be so stirred up that they will attack anything that stands still long enough, and make it impossible for the Ministry to ignore them any further. I want every last one of those animals confined to the Isle of Cardoul with no wands, no resources, no treatment and no food. Let them eat each other like the animals they are!"

"Yes Sir, Mr White, if you say so," Mr Blue promised before he let the flames die, but he didn't move for quite some time. If all the werewolves were to be confined to the Isle of Cardoul without food, then where did that leave him? True, he hated werewolves with a passion for what they had done to him, but he was a werewolf now, too. Did that mean he was also going to be subjected to confinement on the Isle?

A seed of uneasiness planted itself in his psyche and began to grow slowly, slowly, feeding on his convictions and eroding them away.