Published at 27th of May 2024 12:14 am

Chapter 224: The Long Howl

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20 May 1994, Republic of Ireland

Remus Lupin watched a small village near a green valley, admiring the way the children were playing without a single care in the world. The adults were sitting comfortably next to each other, either working or taking care of the children. To most outsiders, this place looked like it was a muggle village from the nineteenth century.

However, to Remus' trained eyes, he could see the small scars that practically had, the way the adults kept looking over their shoulders as if expecting to be attacked at any moment. It was some very old reflexes that people just couldn't forget about. Pain was like that, it stuck around like a lesson that would have been very hard to forget.

The conclusion was clear. This was a village of werewolves.

When he was younger, this place would have been a dream come true. This was a place where he wouldn't have had to worry about infecting anyone or killing anyone during a full moon, a place where he wouldn't have to hide his condition, a place where he could talk to other people who suffered the same way he did.

He was thankful now more than ever that Lily had saved him all those years ago. He looked at the residents of the villages, looking content, and couldn't help but ponder how much of this was just an illusion. There were no traces of magic. They didn't even have the comforts of the muggle world. Remus could never imagine living like this. Not after so long.

The former professor slowly walked towards the village, feeling conflicted by his admiration that this place was actually built and disappointed that the residents settled in such a disappointing lifestyle.

By the time he arrived in the village, all the residents, even the children had frozen and watched him intensely. A large, muscled man slowly walked forward, "That's enough staring everyone. Get back to what you were doing. I'll speak with Mr. Lupin here."

The crowd quickly dispersed but everyone still eyed him suspiciously. Remus gave the man a small smile, "Is it just me, or do you look bigger somehow, Gideon."

"I suppose I might seem so. The last time I saw you, it was at your father's funeral. You're looking better than you did back then. I have to admit that I was a little worried about you."

The former Marauder suppressed the urge to cringe at the mention of his father. It was a dark time in his life when his father died in the Dragon Pox outbreak. His mother had already been dead for over a decade before on the night he had been cursed with lycanthropy. His father had told him about it once after he drank a little too much Firewhiskey. Greyback had killed her in front of Remus, cut out her throat and bit her son. He admitted that after her death, he had been tempted to abandon Remus, thinking of him as a reminder of his wife's fate. Remus didn't know if his father remembered his confession, but he never mentioned the matter afterwards. Remus certainly didn't forget about it.

Still, the former Marauder decided not to let the memories of the past hurt him anymore, "I could say the same thing about you. It took me a while to find your settlement. No one seemed to want to talk about it at all."

Gideon shrugged, "It's not really your fault, it's by design. We made a deal with the Irish ministry to stay within the boundaries of the valley. We try not to advertise our presence to avoid werewolf-hating bigots. It's been working well so far. Much better than in Britain, at least."

"I get you. Those werewolf laws were brutal, right?"

"Can't say I didn't expect them. Greyback and his brood terrorized a better part of the population for decades. It was only a matter of time until someone with a vendetta decided to hunt us down. Still, it's pretty annoying that they're pretending that the law was to our benefit. At least here, even if we're not allowed to enrol our kids in magic schools, we're allowed to buy wands and teach our children how to use them. We're also allowed to get into any shop in the local magic district down in Dublin as long as it's not near the full moon."

Remus hummed, "But you can't buy anything since you don't have any gold, right?"

"Yeah, employers are very wary of us. A few of us were bitten after going to a magical school and can brew a few basic potions. Nothing fancy but enough to bring in enough gold for any magical needs we might have. It's not much, but we have ourselves, and it's a lot better than Britain."

Lupin could agree with that, at least. The way werewolves were treated in Britain was abominable. The ministry decrees that forced werewolves to be registered, the heavy taxes on Wolfsbane, the measures that employers needed to take for 'public safety', and no magical education, just made every single person suffering from lycanthropy feel stifled and desperate. They couldn't even defend themselves against any wizard outside of the full moon since they weren't even allowed to buy wands, since they couldn't officially go to Hogwarts.

They weren't even allowed to live in the muggle world permanently, at the risk of breaking the statute of secrecy during a full moon. And an unregistered werewolf could be killed without any punishment. That was the sad part. They didn't offer prison time as punishment but actively supported their murder as they could be a 'danger to society' without the ministry's supervision.

Was it any wonder why most werewolves in Britain had joined Greyback and wanted to lash out at the society that kept hurting them repeatedly? Things in Ireland were far better, but they still weren't perfect, "So, they tolerate your presence but nothing more?"

"Far better than the alternative, in my opinion," Gideon answered with a defensive tone.

"Is this really how you want to live your life? Hiding away hoping that the rest of the world would leave you be?"

The older werewolf growled, "What would you know about suffering for being a werewolf? You have no idea how lucky you are. Your father accepted you for what you were and asked me for help in managing your condition. He made a deal with Dumbledore, probably selling everything but his soul in the process, just so that he would take you to Hogwarts even with your condition. You have a future. What you have is something that everyone here would dream of and what did you do with it? The moment you graduated you went around moping, acting like a glorified bounty hunter. Your father gave you everything he could, and you squandered everything."

"I didn't. I found a way for us to finally be free. We could be accepted by society."

"You're an idiot if you believe whoever told you that. We will never have a place in society because the simple truth is the fact that society likes to belittle people who are different. If it's not us, then it's the muggleborns, then it's the vampires… They would rather wipe us out than include us."

Remus stiffened, "You're right. The ministry will never accept werewolves. But what if we're not werewolves anymore."

"Now that's a nice thought, but that's all it is a thought. No one can cure lycanthropy. It's been proved by hundreds of researchers over centuries."

"I'm not talking about curing the curse. I'm talking about changing its properties. What if our transformations are no longer uncontrollable? What if our bites do not transfer our curse anymore? We would be nothing more than a bunch of people with the same Animagus form and nothing more. And in a few generations, there wouldn't be any werewolves anymore. The curse wouldn't transmit, would it?"

Gideon snorted, "Yeah, pull the other one, brat. Whoever hooked you definitely knew what they were doing. Every few decades or so, someone comes here and tells us of ways of saving us, of curing us, of integrating us into a magical society. And of course, the most desperate and the most naïve just follow them along and agree to become their attack dogs for the futile hope of being normal. It always ends the same way: tears and disappointment."

Remus could feel his mental wolf howling at the indignation. After all, someone had just insulted Lily, and called her a fraud, even if indirectly. He calmed himself, thinking that the man simply didn't know any better.

Truth be told, the wolf had been acting a lot wilder and more protective the moment Lily returned from her other side. And wasn't that a surprise and a half? Remus had gotten the whole thing backwards, but that had been his fault. Lily did send a Patronus geared towards him the moment she fell in Godric's Hollow, saying that she would be back and to protect Harry.

He thought that Harry would somehow bring her back. Sirius probably thought the same, having heard her message in person or in some other way, and hunted down the son of the man he considered to be a brother. There was a tinge of irony at the fact that if Sirius had hidden away, Lily would have probably been trapped in that dimension forever.

Still, ever since Lily returned, he's been oddly protective and subservient to Lily. It made sense, in a way; Lily was the superior witch, and it made sense that the animalistic part of Remus would instinctively recognize her as the Alpha. It didn't matter though, as long as she helped him save the rest of the werewolf population.

Remus Lupin, the saviour of werewolves. That sounded quite nice, actually.

And Lily was more than willing to help with that. The offer hadn't even involved any werewolf helping her or serving her.

Still, he needed to convince Gideon that this would be the best path forward for their people, "This is not an empty promise, I can guarantee you this."

"Yeah? How?"

"Because it worked on me!" Remus yelled back.

His eyes shifted yellow on command and Gideon stiffened, "How is this possible?"

"I had a friend in school. She's absolutely brilliant. She worked for years for a ritual that would alter our curse, not destroy it. I am faster, stronger, and smarter than I used to be. While I am forced to transform during a full moon, I can transform whenever I want, and I always have control over my body without a single drop of Wolfsbane potion. Hell, even Silver doesn't burn me as much. She's offering to do the same to you."

"And in exchange, we would serve as her attack dogs, right?"

The former Marauder shook his head, "That's the brilliant part. You won't have to. She doesn't want to attack anyone. She just wants to remove the disease. If none of us can spread our curse, then in a generation or two, we'll be free. Imagine for a moment that every single person in your village is not considered a second-class citizen in every wizarding society. Imagine the children here being accepted into magical schools, allowing them opportunities that we couldn't even dream of. Does that sound like a bad dream?"

Gideon snorted, "That's a nice image but I'm not foolish enough to believe that there are no prices attached to this offer. Ritual magic always takes as much as it gives, so what are we paying with."

Remus shifted slightly, "The payment for altering the curse is the fact that you will never have children. That's the price. The lives of all possible descendants against the curse."

"I can't accept that. I can't make that decision for them, it's theirs alone."

"You're the leader of their pack, they respect you."

The older werewolf chuckled, "Pack? Don't tell me you're buying the crap Greyback was spewing about alphas and shit. We're not animals, Remus. Sure, we like our meat rare, we're a little more aggressive, silver hurts us, and we transform once a month, but that's it."

"You're still their leader and they respect you," Remus responded calmly, "Your decision will impact theirs. And honestly, if you look at the children outside right now, tell me honestly if you think their lives would be better with children or without the curse."

Gideon stayed silent and Remus suppressed the urge to smile, "I thought so. You know what? I'll let you think about the offer. You don't have to give me an answer right away. I'm not here to pressure you or anything. I just wanted to repay you for how you helped me when I was younger. I'll be making the same offer to anyone suffering from lycanthropy, so you can spread that around. Send me an owl if you make a decision or if you have any questions. Like I said, this isn't a scam."

With that said, Remus turned and left the building. Yes, everything was going according to Lily's plan.

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