Chapter 36 (Part 2)

Basement of Grimmauld Place.

"That just looks so wrong." Tonks said, shaking her head.

Harry glanced at what was left of Greyback, basically just a chest with a head and four stumps where his limbs used to be. They had amputated his arms and legs just above his knees and elbows respectively and put him into a rope harness so that he hung upright on the wall. Harry had to agree, it did look rather wrong, or perhaps disturbing was the right word.

"It's the only practical way of keeping him upright." He shrugged.

Tonks shook her head and changed the subject. "What are you going to do with his limbs?"

"I want to study them for a bit. They have an unusually high magic concentration for a wizard's body parts, but I suppose that's only to be expected given Greyback's condition. I've never heard of lycanthropy getting to the point that it affects a person's untransformed appearance like this, but I have some ideas as to how he managed it." Harry answered.

"Oh?" Fleur asked curiously.

"The werewolf is a very odd creature, it hates humans and will attack them on sight even if they're normally friends, but it doesn't care about animals at all. For the curse to be this strong, Greyback must have gone to great lengths ro reject his humanity in favor of the beast. Simply letting it do whatever it wanted while transformed wouldn't be enough. No, he had to have been acting like a werewolf even when he was human."

"But that means…" Tonks said, looking a bit nauseated.

"Yes, he's probably been eating people, and eating them raw at that." Harry nodded. "The psychological impact of cannibalism would weaken his connection to humanity and make the beast that much stronger. It would certainly explain why Lupin is so weak in comparison - he hates and fears his wolf, fighting it at every turn. It could also be that eating the magic infused flesh empowers the curse in much the same way that sex and blood does to veela and vampires respectively, but that's an educated guess at best."

Tonks shook her head in disgust. The clinical, detached way that Harry dissected the reasons behind Greyback's appearance only made it sound more horrible. Any objection she might have had against killing the monstrous werewolf were evaporating quickly.

"Do you think he ever gets indigestion?" Luna asked morbidly.

Harry choked on a cough that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

"Luna!" Tonks exclaimed.

"What?" Luna inquired cluelessly. "I don't think raw meat is good for your tummy."

Harry and Fleur both snickered at the strange juxtaposition between the topic and the language Luna had used.

"You guys have a really fucked up sense of humor." Tonks said with a shake of her head.

"But I wasn't trying to be funny." Luna protested, which only sent Harry and Fleur into another round of snickering. Even Tonks felt her lips twitching.

Etal, who was also present and had been merely observing silently thus far, hissed in confusion.

" I do not understand, what is it that you find so amusing? "

Harry opened his mouth to explain, but Greyback started stirring and cut him off. It was worth noting that he should have been unconscious for a long time still given the amount of stunners he'd taken. Actually, he should probably have been dead from the amount of stunners he'd taken, but that was werewolf constitution for you.

The werewolf attempted to lunge at them as soon as he saw them, which was when he discovered his new state.

"What did you do to me?!" He howled in horror, looking at what remained of his limbs.

Etal hissed at the unpleasant noise.

"Disarmed you." Harry deadpanned.

"Dislegged him too." Luna added cheerfully.

Fleur and Tonks snorted, both thinking that Luna was simply not cut out for gallows humor.

Greyback didn't reply with words, but merely screamed his horror, rage and despair, thrashing violently the whole time.

" So loud. " The quetzalcoatl complained again.

"Are you done?" Harry asked unsympathetically once the werewolf slumped brokenly in his rope harness.

Greyback didn't answer, merely glared at Harry with such hatred that all four of them and even Etal felt nauseated by the way it poisoned the werewolf's already vicious aura. But it was a defeated sort of hatred, the kind you felt when you knew that you were beaten.

"You won't have to live like this for long if it's any consolation." Harry said. "You were one of Voldemort's allies, a dangerous one that I can't afford to leave alive. The advanced state of your lycanthropy presents an interesting opportunity however. Who knows, I might even discover a means of curing the infection by studying you. Wouldn't that be great?"

Greyback's glare somehow managed to become even more baleful.

September 16th. Grimmauld Place basement.

"Begin dictation. Chapter: curses, subsection: lycanthropy, subsection: werewolves, specimen: Fenrir Greyback, true name unknown, gender: male, age: estimated to be between sixty and eighty years." Harry said to the enchanted quill, a plain looking thing made out of a long raven feather, causing it to scratch out the words into the floating notebook, more of a personal grimoire really. The grimoire was also heavily enchanted and connected to the quill so that the topics of research were kept in order. That had taken quite a bit of effort to make properly, but it was worth it to keep his various interests organised.

"How can you be sure that isn't his real name?" Dora asked skeptically.

"Pause." Harry said and turned to her with a deadpan look. "I refuse to believe that any man could be named so appropriately. Lupin was bad enough, but Fenrir Greyback? If that was the name his parents gave him I'll eat my socks."

Luna and Fleur giggled, causing Tonks to roll her eyes and wave her hand to indicate that she was done talking.

"Resume. New paragraph. Subject shows werewolf traits even when not transformed, visually observable traits are: change in eye color, heavy hair growth all over the body, sharpened teeth, claws on the hands and toes and increased muscle mass. Magically observable traits include: a sense of wildness in the subject's aura, high magic resistance even in human form and magic infused in the body in ways consistent with magical creatures more than human magic users.

"New paragraph. subject has demonstrated ability to transform at will. Speculation: subject is only capable of this feat close to the Full Moon. Fact: a Full Moon triggers the transformation regardless of a werewolf's wishes. Fact: moonlight is reflected sunlight. Theory: reflection changes the magical properties of sunlight. Theory: duality of the Moon, refer to chapter on the connection of celestial bodies to Light and Dark.

"New paragraph. Speculation: subject is capable of transmitting a limited degree of lycanthropy to others when not transformed. Further testing required.

"New paragraph. Speculation: subject practices cannibalism as a means of rejecting his humanity and strengthtening the beast within.

"New paragraph. Subject refuses to answer questions and his intense hatred of me combined with the strength of his beast curtails my ability to read his aura. Subject's magic resistance and strength of will has also proven great enough to resist the Imperious." That had been another long conversation with Dora on the nature of the Unforgivables before she would let him use it. Irritating, but not unexpected, she was an auror after all. "As it is inadvisable to use Legilimency on a werewolf and the subject's high magic resistance would negate Veritaserum, I am unable to confirm my speculations directly. Corroborative study of other subjects required to confirm or refute. Skip to next page."

"Wait a second, 'other subjects'?" Dora interrupted again. "You planning on snatching more werewolves for your science experiment?"

"Pause." Harry turned back to look at his most troublesome girlfriend. "I won't grab just anyone, but my enemies are fair game. I doubt I'll ever find a werewolf quite like Greyback again, but there are bound to be others that don't reject what they are. I saw a few at Bjomolf's Christmas party that looked very powerful in their own right, but not so inhuman as him."

Tonks pinched her nose and her hair cycled through a variety of colors before settling on a subdued mahogany. "Just… don't get carried away, alright?"

"I'm sure you girls will keep me in line." Harry said with his most charming smile.

Fleur snorted derisively.

Greyback, who had been hanging from the wall in his rope harness in sullen silence the entire time, spasmed and began transforming. It was much less intimidating than the last time now that he had no limbs.

"Resume. Subject shows no discomfort during his forced transformation, in stark contrast to Remus Lupin, who shows great pain even with the aid of Wolfsbane. Theory: acceptance of the beast within eases the transformation.

"New paragraph. Subject is snarling angrily and his aura has become even more wild since his transformation, but he appears lucid. Fact: Wolfsbane weakens the beast within, allowing the human mind to assert control during the transformation. Theory: it is possible for a werewolf to retain their mind without the use of Wolfsbane."

Harry spent a long minute staring at the suspended werewolf, ruminating on what he could perceive through the wild haze of Greyback's aura.

"Chapter: curses, subsection: lycanthropy. Skip to end.

"New paragraph. Fact: demi-humans can become neither animagi nor werewolves. Fact: humans are animals, demi-humans are magical creatures. Fact: the Animagus Transformation ability is rooted in humanity's connection to the mundane animal kingdom. Speculation: lycanthropy hijacks this connection and forcibly alters whatever form the victim would have if they were animagi.

"New paragraph. Fact: the beast hates humans, but is indifferent to animals.

"New paragraph. Hypothesis: The creator of the lycanthropy curse hated humans but was indifferent to animals. Plausible, but insufficient information.

"New paragraph. Alternate hypothesis: The beast hates humans because it is in conflict with its host, who is a human. Plausible - animagus training requires one to accept their inner animal as part of themselves, failure to do so results in loss of self. The werewolf is unnatural and much more powerful than a mundane animal, the forced nature of the transformation and the hosts' resentment of their affliction compound the issue.

"New paragraph. Speculation: resolving the conflict between the host and beast would allow a werewolf to become a pseudo-animagus as in the case of Subject Greyback. Addendum: Subject Greyback is violently psychotic and thus unsuitable as a control subject, the vampires I saw at Bjomolf's Christmas party were nearly as strong but retained their fully human appearance. Paranoid conspiracy theory: the vampires know a method of taming the beast within and use it to bring werewolves under their influence. The beast may be inherently too violent for the method used when learning the Animagus Transformation. Note: research the connection between the wolf and the Moon more closely. End dictation."

" What a strange practice, to write things down. " Etal commented, rousing himself from where he'd been silently wrapped around Harry's neck. " Would you not remember it if it was important? "

" Maybe, but I like having things written down to better keep my interests ordered. " Harry explained.

" Will you kill him now? " Etal changed the subject.

" Yes. "

" Good, he tastes of angry dog. "

"Now what?" Dora asked uncomfortably.

"Now we kill him." Harry replied, drawing his little used wand.

He felt the encroaching Dark as soon as he resolved himself to making the kill. He had made an effort to be more cautious about touching it ever since Etal had warned him away from it, but it was harder than he expected. He had never bothered trying to keep the Dark away. It had always been useful - it made his aura far more intimidating, allowed him to think with an unsurpassed sense of cold clarity and gave all his spells a little extra oomph whenever he was in mortal combat. Now he was finding it hard to keep it away. It coiled around him like a thick mist, hungry for the life he was about to give it.

Etal hissed in warning and Harry lowered his wand.

"'Arry?" Fleur asked gently, touching his arm.

Harry looked at her and shook his head, trying to clear away the cobwebs around his mind. "I'm fine."

Fleur didn't look like she believed him.

Harry raised his wand again, but did not cast. He lowered it again with an irritated grunt.

"Harry, it's okay if you can't bring yourself to do it." Dora said, just as gently as Fleur.

"It's not that." Harry shook his head again. They didn't understand. It was too easy. He wanted to kill Greyback so badly now that it was all he could do to hold back. Amazing what a man can overlook when he fails to question.

Luna suddenly wrapped her hands around him from behind in a tight hug. "We're here for you, Harry."

He smiled, patting the short girl's arms and once again appreciating her odd perceptiveness. "Thanks, Luna."

Fleur and Dora silently joined in, taking an arm each and reaching out towards him with their magic. Their bright souls, whole and strong and lacking a direct link to the Void, were proof against Dark and focusing on that instead of how much he wanted to kill Greyback slowly cleared his mind.

" The Darkness has gone. " Etal sounded curious, but satisfied.

Harry took a deep breath to center himself. I'm doing this for myself and for them, for a future without the shadow of Voldemort hanging over us. I won't kill for the sake of killing, I can't afford to.

He raised his wand again, and this time he was able to cast the Killing Curse without feeling as if he was not entirely himself.

Two hours later.

Harry carefully shelved the last jar from the day's work. It was labeled 'werewolf teeth, Fenrir Greyback' and now sat next to a long row containing similarly labeled jars containing the now deceased werewolf's various organs and fluids and whatnot. All the jars were enchanted with powerful preservation charms to keep their contents fresh.

He had saved the skin as well, but would not be attempting Skinwalking with it. Attractive as the idea of being able to take the form of a werewolf on demand was, there were too many variables. Lycanthropy was only partially a physical thing, so there was a distinct chance that attempting to Skinwalk with a werewolf skin might infect him just like a bite and that wasn't even mentioning all the other variables like Greyback's own spirit and how violent the wolf spirit might be. Definitely better to stick to fully mastering a regular wolf.

The girls had left some time ago, being rather more squeamish than him. Etal was the only one still here with him.

Harry took another long look at the many jars containing Greyback's viscera. All of it was teeming with magical energy and would undoubtedly make for some interesting material for Potions research.

There was a problem however…

" I need to find a new lair. " He hissed at his serpentine friend.

Grimmauld Place was all well and good, but it was primarily meant as a family residence and call him old fashioned, but Harry didn't feel entirely comfortable doing this kind of thing in the middle of London, concealment spells or no. And what about long term prisoners?

" This one does seem ill suited to this purpose. " Etal agreed. " Where would you make it? "

Harry considered it for a few moments before replying.

" How do you feel about the cold? "

October 1st . Potter Manor .

"Honeys, I'm home." Dora called out sarcastically as she apparated into the foyer.

Not ten seconds later, a grabby veela crashed into her and attempted to shove her tongue down the metamorph's throat.

"Fleur, take it easy for pity's sake, some of us need air to live." Dora gasped out once she managed to disengage. "I take it that Harry still hasn't stopped vanishing off to parts unknown then?"

" Non ." Fleur huffed.

"Right." Dora sighed, recalling a bit of wisdom she'd heard somewhere.

Everyone wants a nympho girlfriend until they get a nympho girlfriend. Never had she understood that adage so clearly.

Ever since they'd taken out Greyback, followed by Harry's clinical observation and subsequent dissection of the werewolf, Harry and Etal had been going somewhere that they wouldn't talk about. They came back every day of course, but it was mostly just to sleep or bathe and no amount of nagging on the part of herself, Fleur and Luna would get Harry to reveal what he was up to. He'd always just tell them to wait and see and that he would be done soon. Teeny and Kreacher might know but they weren't talking either.

This was naturally quite frustrating, but the only veela in the foursome was frustrated in another way as well. Tonks had had no idea just how demanding Fleur could get when it came to having her needs met. Well, she certainly did now that Fleur had decided that she and Luna would be picking up his slack since Harry wasn't meeting them anymore outside of a quick shag every few days.

Even after seeing the transformation, she hadn't really understood what Harry meant when he said that he had to keep Fleur in her place. Merlin, how could one woman be so demanding…

"Come, dinner is already prepared." Fleur said, grabbing the metamorph's hand and leading her to the dining room.

Dora held back a sigh. Quite honestly, she wasn't in the mood for sex right now and just wanted a break. Oh, to spend an evening watching a movie or playing a game of Exploding Snap…

Dinner was delicious as always, but Dora found it hard to focus on the moment and properly enjoy it. It wasn't that having sex with Fleur was an unappealing prospect, but the veela just didn't know when to stop and neither she nor Luna had the disposition and force of personality necessary to force her compliance the way that Harry could.

She thought she'd be able to when seeing Harry do it, but now she was finding herself overwhelmed by human-Fleur. What bird-Fleur would have done to her didn't bear thinking about.

And it wasn't even as if Fleur was using force or anything, but it seemed that no matter how 'not in the mood' she or Luna were, the veela would find a way to seduce them. Might as well just switch to male bits on a semi-permanent basis until Harry stops doing whatever the fuck he's doing .

Dora ate as slowly as she could manage, finding an odd sort of amusement in Fleur's impatient fidgeting.

And then Harry walked into the room, completely casual, as if he hadn't caused a veritable domino effect of problems with his absences.

"Hey, girls." He greeted. "You almost done eating? I have something to show you."

"Can it wait until tomorrow?" Fleur asked quickly, looking at Harry with such intensity that Tonks almost expected his clothes to catch fire.

"It could, but it won't take long." He assured. "Aren't you curious about what I've been doing?"

"Of course we are." Tonks said, quickly wiping her mouth and rising from her seat.

"Show us, Harry." Luna added angelically.

The two of them exchanged grins at Fleur's disgruntled look.

"Come on then." Harry said, beckoning them to follow before turning to Narcissa. "I'll come talk to you after we get back, Cissy."

"Of course, my lord." The blonde witch acknowledged easily, making no protest to her obvious exclusion.

He led them down into the basement, towards the space he had reserved as his workshop.

Only, it was cleaned out now. The only thing left was a very large mirror, it had to be close to seven feet tall. The giant thing had an ornate wooden frame and stood on wide, sturdy legs.

"Please don't tell me you've been admiring yourself in the mirror for the past two weeks." Tonks deadpanned.

Harry merely smirked and ran his fingers over the mirror's surface. All three of them could sense a subtle spell trigger being used and the mirror rippled like a pool of water. When it settled, it no longer showed their reflections, but an unfamiliar room made entirely of dark grey stone.

"It's a portal like the one that leads to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters." Harry explained without being prompted. "I've found that mirrors make an excellent medium for this kind of spell, much better than brick to be sure."

"Where does it go?" Luna asked curiously.

"Step through and find out." Harry invited.

After a short exchange of raised eyebrows, all three women stepped through.

As soon as all four of them were through, they looked back to see that the mirror they'd stepped through just now was identical in appearance to the one they'd entered into.

"That was way more comfortable than the Floo, Portkeys or Apparition. It didn't feel like anything at all." Tonks said admiringly.

"I know." Harry said smugly.

"Does it 'ave a range limit?" Fleur asked curiously.

"Nope, it's subject to pretty much the exact same restrictions as the communication mirrors."

"You could market this too then." Fleur said in realisation. "People would be glad to replace the Floo with something more comfortable."

"I could." Harry nodded. "But I won't. The Mirror Walk is far too useful an advantage to be spread around to everyone."

"So you've left Fleur unsatisfied for so long to make this pair of mirrors?" Luna asked, somehow not sounding accusatory.

"Ah, sorry about that, but I really got into this project." Harry said a tad sheepishly. "And no, it wasn't just the mirrors. Come on, let me show you the rest of it."

He led them from the room, through a barren stone hallway and into a central staircase that was a lot like the one in Hogwarts, minus the random movements and trick stairs. There were no windows and the only illumination was provided by sporadic floating magelights.

"Did you build all this?" Tonks asked. She'd noticed that everything they'd seen so far was made of unnaturally smooth stone, as if the entire construction had been carved from a single block and then sanded to perfection, a surefire sign of magic being used to reshape the rock into the desired form. The dimensions of the whole thing also hinted at extensive use of Expansions Charms.

"Yes, although this central stairway is the only part of the inside that could actually be called anything near finished. Most of my time was spent on the outer shell and the spells necessary to keep it secret. It's got every concealment spell short of a Fidelius on it."

"What is it though, and where is it?" Luna asked curiously.

"You'll see, we're almost at the top."

True to Harry's word, they only needed to climb two more flights of stairs and go through a very short hallway before they reached a dead end. There, Harry cast a simple animation spell and made the stone wall open like a door.

The first thing to register was the brightness, which was in stark contrast to the gloom inside or the after-sunset twilight of Potter Manor. The next was a blast of shockingly frigid air, again a stark contrast to the late summer of Britain, causing all three women to quickly apply warming spells to themselves.

"Did you bring us to the fucking North-" Tonks cut off her grousing as she stepped out of the newly made doorway and saw the view.

Rocky, snow-capped mountains, a narrow fjord with large chunks of ice floating in it and in the distance, an endless plane of blinding white. On the other side were two mountainous peninsulas hugging another fjord between them, and the ocean further out.

The view was almost completely unobstructed, except for the four large, stone spires spread equally around the platform they were on. They had come out of one of them, but Tonks could also feel magic imbued in them, probably to block out the wind.

"Not the North Pole, no, but we are a ways into the Arctic Circle." Harry answered the unfinished, sarcastic question. "This is Ymer Island, located on Greenland's eastern coast, about half way up the landmass. This was the place I was thinking about moving to originally."

"It's so pretty." Luna said dreamily, looking around with interest. Something caught her suddenly eye as she pointed and giggled. "What a funny looking mountain."

Tonks followed Luna's pointing finger, presumably west across the fjord, and decided that 'funny mountain' was a good description. It was a conspicuous, vaguely rectangular thing of reddish rock with a lighter stripe running diagonally across it.

"Interesting that you should notice that actually. It's called the Devil's Castle, or Teufelschloss in the original German. I was seriously considering building on it, but I settled on this unnamed mountain range instead in the end. Makes the concealment spells more effective."

"Congratulations on finally getting your wizard's tower either way." Luna beamed, now looking over the edge of their platform.

"Thanks, Luna."

Tonks went to take a peek of her own and quickly took a step back as she saw the immense height they were at, though that had been clear enough since they were looking down on the surrounding mountains.

"I thought you were just joking around when you said that one of your goals in life was to have a personal wizard's tower, and you actually went and made it in Greenland of all places too." She huffed.

"Maybe you'll think twice about doubting me in the future." Harry replied smugly.

Tonks rolled her eyes.

"I'm pretty sure that Saruman would be upset about you stealing his design though." Luna commented.

Now that she mentioned it, the four stone spires did give it a rather Isengard-ish feel…

"Fortunately, Saruman is a fictional character and thus unable to protest." Harry said airily. "Besides, he'd have no right to complain. It was the Dúnedain that built Orthanc, he just moved in after it was abandoned."

"So if I understand you correctly, you 'ave spent the past two weeks playing with rocks?! " Fleur's voice was sharper than the arctic wind whipping around them.

"It wasn't supposed to take this long." Harry said apologetically, though his twitching lips ruined it. "Originally, I was only going to carve a few rooms out of the mountain so that I'd have a private place to keep all my more questionable research, a day's work at best. Then I remembered how much I missed my favorite thinking spot on top of the Hogwarts Astronomy Tower and decided to make one of those instead, but to do that I needed a lot of spells to conceal it from the handful of people that come through here. Then I felt that the whole thing looked a bit plain and decided to add some artistic touches. One thing led to another and… yeah."

The furstrated veela closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then gave Harry a flinty look. "We are going back 'ome now, where you will be making up for your neglect."

"You really should." Luna chimed in. "It wasn't very responsible of you to leave poor Fleur unwatered for so long."

Tonks wasn't sure if she should groan or snort at Luna's turn of phrase. She was sure that she agreed though - Harry needed to thoroughly fuck Fleur's brains out, coincidentally giving herself and Luna a break from the lusty veela's attentions.

Thirty minutes later, Dora and Luna were happily playing a game of blessedly non-sexual Exploding Snap in Potter Manor's drawing room while Harry and Fleur went at it like rabbits in the master bedroom. Neither of them doubted that Fleur was being fucked back into submission again and were happy to leave Harry to it. Balance was restored.

October 20th. Ymer Island, Ravenhead Tower.

"How are you feeling today, Gregory?" Harry asked politely.

"Fuck you, Potter." Gregory Goyle Sr. spat back.

To be fair, Goyle had good reason to be angry. Harry had kidnapped him and his friend Vincent Crabbe from their homes and imprisoned them in his new stronghold after all.

Crabbe and Goyle were another two examples of 'low hanging fruit' where Death Eaters were concerned - their affiliations were something of an open secret, their homes sported no wards worth mentioning and they were terribly predictable. The only reason that Harry hadn't taken them sooner was because they weren't particularly valuable. Once he had werewolf parts to experiment with though, they had suddenly increased in value.

His girls had helped in the abduction and Dora had stuck around at first to make sure that he was not being excessively cruel or something like that. Unfortunately for Crabbe and Goyle, she had stormed out in disgust after they had been forced to confess to their many crimes under Veritaserum, no longer caring what happened to them. Harry couldn't say he was surprised, Crabbe and Goyle had done some fucked up shit.

He had alredy injected them with Greyback's blood and confirmed that it had some effect. Nothing obvious, but if Harry had to guess, he'd say that their inner animal had been affected. Unfortunately, it seemed that you needed an actual living werewolf to enact a true lycanthropy infection, as even injecting them during the Full Moon hadn't sufficed. He'd needed to transport them back to Britain for that one, since Full Moons were a decidedly different kettle of fish so far north. It was too bad that there was no real way to force them to learn how to be animagi so that he could see what that would do. Ah well, there were still other experiments that could be run.

"I have a potion for you to drink."

"Fuck off."

Harry sighed. Honestly.

" Imperio. Drink the potion."

Goyle drank the potion.

And immediately began clawing at himself, as if there was some monster in his chest trying to dig its way out. Harry was reminded of the chestburster from the Alien movies, oddly enough.

There was no toothy little creature exploding through Goyle's ribs, but there was something similarly dramatic. The death eater began growing fur and his agonised screaming became roaring.

Then he suddenly dropped dead, looking slightly more werewolfish than Greyback had in his untransformed state.

Harry took a deep breath and drew in some power from the Sun to drive away the lingering sense of Dark. This was an issue that he would struggle with for the rest of his life, this urge to kill and send more life into the hungry Void. He'd always have to be careful to not kill for satisfaction or risk yielding more ground. Nothing else for it though, much as he sometimes longed to wrap himself in the peaceful darkness, it was not for the living and he had lost too much of himself already. If it was just him, he might not have cared if he lost the ability to feel anything but the cold, but for the girls…

"Begin dictation. Chapter: experimental potions, subsection: Wolfsboon Potion, test subject: Gregory Goyle Sr. Skip to end.

"Variation two, potion brewed during the Full Moon proved to be more potent, but still fatal to a partial werewolf. Possibility exists that such a potion may allow full werewolves to temporarily transform without the presence of the Moon…"

Harry hadn't really intended to make such a potion and he had no particular use for it in mind, but that's what had come out of his experimenting. He'd been aiming for some kind of cure or perhaps something that could permanently weaken a person's inner animal as a means of deactivating lycanthropy, but all his dabbling so far had only resulted in effects that made the beast stronger. At this rate he was more likely to discover a potion that induced lycanthropy than anything else. Of course, he'd only had two people to test it on…

He was no Potions master, he did not have that innate knack for understanding the interactions between ingredients, but he did have a very precise magic sensing ability that allowed him to feel how stable or powerful a given potion was. Given enough time and resources, he could muddle something together.

And wouldn't you know it, the Halloween Ball that he would be hosting was in ten days. The ball that would be full of 'retired' death eaters doing their best to show what upstanding members of society they were. Since he'd been planning to kill them anyway, he might as well do it this way.