Werewolves and Their Downfalls

Werewolves and Their Downfalls

At almost 7 o'clock on a cold November evening, 28 year old Harry Potter sat on the couch in front of the fire reading the Daily Prophet. He distractedly pushed away his messy black bangs and revealed a thin lighting bolt scar above brilliant green eyes. As he approached the end of the page he frowned and mumbled, "Insipid Bovine? Well that's Fudge for you."

"Yes I read that article this morning. To tell you the truth, I thought it was the most honest thing that Rita Skeeter has ever said." Harry grinned as he set the paper down and looked into the roaring fire in front of him, which now held the smiling face of his lovely wife Ginny Potter.

"Ginny!" Harry said happily. He got off the couch and kneeled down in front of the fireplace so he could see her face more clearly. Ginny Weasley had been Ginny Potter for just over eight years. She still had her trademark Weasley hair and freckles and beautiful brown eyes. In Harry's opinion, it certainly wasn't the fire that was lighting up the room.

"Oh, it's fine. Fudge keeps checking up on us though and I'm really about to quote some Rita Skeeter to his face." Harry chuckled. Three days ago Fudge had strode into Ginny's office at the Ministry and told her that it was her duty alone as a curse breaker to travel to Rome and investigate some problems with some magical coins muggle archaeologist had unearthed in and ancient tomb. So, two days ago Ginny had ranted and raved with steam spitting out of her ears all the way down to the International Flooing section of the Ministry. He smiled remembering some of the phrases she had used to describe their dear Minister. Definitely not something Molly had taught her.

"So," she asked casually. "How are my babies doing?"

As an answer to her question, a small, high pitched voice yelled out "Mommy!" Harry let out a light grunt of amusement as he was shoved to the side by their 7 year old daughter Molly Potter.

"Mommy, when are you coming home? Do you miss me? Are you gunna bring me anything? Don't bring the boys anything though, they're mean! Do you know what they did to me?" She turned to Harry. "Daddy, did you tell her what they did to me?"

"No sweetie, I didn't," he answered.

Turning back to Ginny, Molly continued. "James told me that I looked like a dragon and that I have breath like one and that I must have been born from and egg! Well daddy wasn't around so naturally, I kicked him. Than Sirius came up behind me and cracked and egg open on my head and Garrett came in and laughed at me! Can you believe it?"

Ginny sighed. "Well honey, Daddy will just have to talk to those boys. Won't he Daddy?" She sent a pointed look towards Harry that clearly meant, or else.

"Yes sir!" saluted Harry. He sent a charming grin her way which only made her roll her eyes and smile. Suddenly she turned to her right and started to listen to something that only she could hear. Turning back to them she rolled her eyes.

"Sorry guys," she said. "I'll have to cut this visit a little short. Grace has something that she positively must tell Fudge right now." She rolled her eyes again then flashed an apologetic smile. "I'll check up again tomorrow. And Harry? You will talk to those boys. That's the second time they've found it necessary to smash an egg in Molly's hair." And with another quick smile and a "pop" she was gone.

Harry sighed and gazed down at Molly. Just seeing her brought a smile to his face. Molly Potter had inherited her mother's famous Weasley hair and freckles, her shining brown eyes, and even her quick temper. In fact, the only time that Molly wasn't the spitting image of her mother was when she put on her round, black glasses for seeing long distances.

He picked her up and twirled her around causing her to squeal with joy. Then he sat down on the couch with her balanced on his lap and cautiously asked "So, where are those meanie boys?"

"Oh," she said still laughing. "They're upstairs trying to turn Garrett's hair purple. I don't think its working though because I heard a lot of explosions."

Harry's eyes went wide as they looked towards the ceiling. He then looked back down at his daughter who was wearing the world's goofiest grin. "Oh." he said. He then gently picked Molly up and set her on the couch. "Well I'm just going to check up on that." Picking a random book of the shelf he handed it to Molly. "Why don't you stay hear and read this."

He walked out of the study and closed the door behind him. Harry then proceeded to run as fast as he could up the stairs towards his son's bedroom.

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

Harry raced up the stares and down the many hallways of the Potter Mansion searching for his three sons; two of which were allegedly turning the thirds' hair purple.

'And how many times has this happened in the last month?' he asked himself.

He sighed and muttered, "James? Sirius? Where are you two?"

BOOM!

Suddenly a loud explosion was heard from down the hall followed closely by peals of laughter. Sighing again, Harry took a deep breath and walked to the door at the end of the hall. Opening the door, he cautiously peeked his head inside the room.

Inside the room was a complete mess. Clothes were everywhere and spots of all shape and colors were now covering the once white walls. In the middle of it all sat Harry and Ginny's eight year old son James Potter and his fraternal twin, Sirius Potter. Sitting on Sirius' lap was there youngest child of four years, Garrett Potter who now had not purple, but dark green hair.

"What in the world are you boys doing?" he asked.

Sirius and James got identical looks of innocent surprise on their faces and turned around to look at their father. Garrett just laughed. Being four, he didn't care that his hair was green for the fourth- no fifth time that month, but he did find it funny to see his brother's faces when about to get in trouble by either their father or their mother.

James was the first to speak, and with a quick glance at Sirius he said to his father, "Hi dad. We were just, you know-"

"Playing with Garrett." finished Sirius without hesitation. "Why pass up the chance to spend time with our little brother?"

In response, Harry rolled his eyes and crouched down next to James. James was, of course, named after Harry's father and took the title well. He was the only boy in the family who had kept the Potter tradition of inheriting his father's exact looks and his mother eyes. He was also quite a mischief maker. Remus had laughed and joked with Harry many times that James looked and acted even more like "Prongs" then Harry did.

Little Garrett took most of his father looks and Ginny's eyes, but he had a few, barely visible freckles around his nose and as far as they knew, didn't need glasses. He was much quieter than his brothers and disturbingly seemed to have an attitude that reminded him a little of his former potions professor.

Sirius was the only Potter child who looked like he'd really been dipped in both ends of the gene pool. He had gained black hair from Harry but it was not nearly as messy. He was tall and lanky but well built- a Weasley family trait. Like Garrett he didn't need glasses which Ginny thought was fantastic since out of their four children, Sirius was the only one who had inherited Harry's brilliant green eyes. Sirius-like his surname- rarely lived up to is name, but when he did he used his mother's inherited fiery attitude.

"So dad, did you-"

"Talk to mom?"

"Don't do that," said Harry. "You know it creeps me out."

The twins just laughed. Even though they weren't identical they sure did remind both parents of their uncles Fred and George.

"And actually, I did talk to your mom. I had a strong feeling that she wanted me to ground you when she heard that you yet again, had cracked open and egg on your sister's head." He gave them both pointed looks.

But this went unnoticed by Sirius who was playing with Garrett's hair and clearly not paying attention. "Oh," he said.

James snorted at his brother's behavior and mouthed "He's crazy" in Harry's direction.

He smiled at his son and was about to answer back when he heard a scream from somewhere downstairs. Sirius looked up in alarm and James stared out the door with frightful eyes. Harry was on his feet and racing down the stairs in a flash.

"Molly?" he yelled. Drawing his wand he burst into the study only to find Molly sitting safely on the couch with a book open on her lap and bawling her eyes out. "Molly!" he exclaimed. He rushed over to her and pulled her onto his lap, hugging her tightly. "Molly, what's wrong? What happened?"

She kept on sobbing and tightened her grip around Harry's neck making it almost hard to breath. After about five minutes she managed to choke out, "Uncle...Remus!"

"Remus?" Harry asked. "What about him sweetie?"

"He- he's...going to die!"

This was not exactly what Harry had expected to hear. "What" he asked clearly confused. He gently unclasped her arms from around his neck. Where had his seven year old daughter gotten the absurd idea that her uncle was going to die?

"What in the world gave you that idea honey?" he asked softly. Molly wiped her eyes and looked into her fathers. She then pointed to the book that still lay open on the couch.

Puzzled Harry looked from Molly to the book then back to Molly. "That?" he asked. "The book?"

"Uh-huh," she said as she wiped more stray tears from her cheeks.

Harry went over to the couch and picked up the book. Looking at the pages his daughter had been reading he winced, immediately recognizing a book that he had been meaning to get rid of for quite some time. The book was entitled Werewolves and Their Downfalls. It was a book that was written in the early 1800s by an author who talked anything but kind towards werewolves.

But Harry soon saw what exactly had upset Molly. There in big bold letters on the center of the page was:

According to most scientists of this time, the common werewolf lives only about 1/3 the life span of a non infected wizard. With almost 7 major groups in Europe dedicated to the noble cause of eliminating all werewolf blood, and the extreme exhaustion following every full moon of the month by the infected person, it is abnormal for an infected subject to live as long as the uninfected.

"What's going on Dad?" said a voice from the doorway. Before Harry had time to answer James, Molly spit out, "Uncle Remus is going to die!" and started sobbing all over again.

"What?" exclaimed Sirius who had just appeared, still balancing Garrett in his arms.

"Uncle Remus is going to die! Why?" cried out James.

Harry closed the book and walked over to the boys. He put his arms around their shoulders and led them to sit on the couch. He took Garrett out of Sirius' arms and set him on his lap.

"Molly," he said gently, "Uncle Remus is not going to die anytime soon."

"But- but the book said that werewolves live 1/3 the life of normal wizards. And Uncle Remus is beyond that Daddy!"

"First off, your Uncle is a normal wizard," he stated. "Second, this book was written a really long time ago, even before Uncle Remus was born. And back then there were a lot of people that weren't...too fond of werewolves. So...it was expected that they-well that they wouldn't die of...natural causes." He looked at his kids and his kids looked right back, obviously expecting him to go on.

He cleared his throat. "But don't worry because all of those groups are all highly illegal now."

"What was the exhaustion thing about?" asked Molly.

"Oh, well I guess they thought that the real reason they wouldn't live long is because werewolves are so tired after the full moon every month. Maybe they thought is decreased their life-span. But trust me Molly, this guy," he chucked the book over his shoulder. "This guy had no idea what he was talking about."

"Oh."

Harry pulled his arms over all of his kids and hugged them close. "Werewolves really don't get all the rights they should but a lot more people are fighting for them now then they did back then."

"But why?" asked Molly.

"Why what?"

"Why don't they get some rights?"

"I don't know sweetie. I guess it's just how some people are."

"Like Mr. Malfoy?" Sirius asked.

Harry hesitated. "Well-"

"No stupid," said James, hitting Sirius in the arm. "Mr. Malfoy doesn't act like that."

"Not now big head but he used to, didn't he Dad?"

But James got to it first. "But it doesn't matter what he acted like back a long time ago it matters what he acts like now. Go ahead Dad. Tell the puppy I'm right."

Sirius gasped. "Puppy! I am not a puppy! And you are not right. I am Bambi." And at that, the twins were off having one of their everyday brotherly brawls.

Turning to her father as her brothers rolled on the ground, Molly asked, "So...I was wrong?"

Harry shifted Garrett from one leg to other and then started bouncing him up and down.

"Gotchya!" exclaimed Sirius who had successfully pinned his brother to the ground.

He gazed down at his daughter apprehensively. Being told she was wrong usually put her into a state of deep denial.

"Well...yes sweetie. I can assure you that your uncle will be old and gray by the time he gives in."

James and Sirius looked up at Harry and started laughing while Garrett giggled on his lap. Molly froze and slowly looked up, her eyes wide as saucers. Realizing his mistake, Harry tried all over again to explain to his now crying daughter that her uncle was fine while his three sons laughed in the background.