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Lunaticus Book Three: New Moon Rising	By : JBankai89 Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Remus Views: 12599 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter, I gain nothing from this but a way to pass the time.

Chapter List
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A/N: Early update because I have good news: First Draft of NMR is COMPLETE. That's right, all 42 chapters are DONE! I'm so excited I can't even. Just you guys wait, I am so, so, so, sooooooo happy with how this came out, and I really hope you guys like it as much as I do. What does this little tidbit of information mean, other than your fair author is a little bit loopy with exhaustion(I wrote 50 pages in like 2 days. My brain is SO fried.)? We are moving up to twice-weekly updates, Tuesday and Thursday. So, that means that the next update will be up August 29^th!

I'd love to update more often than that, but in between my other fic responsibilities in the Yuri!!! On Ice fandom, school, and my work, twice a week is pretty much the max I can do to give me time to properly edit the chapters before they go up. Thank you guys again for your continued support, and I'll see you on Tuesday!
Chapter Nineteen – Devastation

The following four weeks were nothing short of hell for Harry and the rest of the pack.

Without Greyback around to keep the other dominants in line, Ulrich was doing the work of at least five people as he tried to maintain some semblance of order, while also in correspondence with Ron and the Ministry. They were all trying to at least secure some sort of fair trial for Greyback, to which the people in the Office of Magical Law Enforcement refused to budge on—as far as they were concerned, Greyback was a rabid animal that did not deserve such things as Basic Civil Rights.

Intermingled with the bureaucratic headaches had been another moon, and Hermione came to the territory dangerously close to sunset with a wad of parchment under her arm.

“I need to show this to Ulrich,” Hermione said quickly after she offered Harry a quick smile in greeting, “I'll be back in a bit, yeah?”

She hurried off before Harry could respond, and he watched her retreating back with a deep frown upon his face.

Despite his insistence that he could help, much to Harry's chagrin, he was still being treated like he had been in fifth year—be a good boy, stay in the territory, there's nothing you can do.

Except he wasn't a child anymore, there were things he could do to help, except everyone seemed to have forgotten that.

Harry had been careful to keep his complaining to a minimum around Adina and Tavish, both of whom were libel to bite anyone's head off in relation to their mate's imprisonment, but it did not stop Harry's feelings of inadequacy from manifesting themselves, usually in the form of glowering at the dominants, and arguing with Ulrich. Despite how good he had been to Harry, there was no denying that the side of werewolf culture that dictated that subs were not fighters was a deeply ingrained belief in him, and he seemed to consistently struggle with Harry's adamant arguments that he could actually help.

“This isn't up for discussion,” Ulrich would snap every time he lost patience with his mate, “you need to stay here. Let me deal with this. I'm the leader of this pack in Alpha's stead, and I will not have you risk it all just to satisfy your ego.”

“That's not what this is about,” Harry protested, “Ulrich, I was with the Aurors for a long time. I know how the system works, I can—”

“No, Harry,” Ulrich growled, and Harry's eyes narrowed into a glare.

“Fine.”

Every other day they would bicker over it, in particular every time an owl came for Ulrich, and he would casually brush Harry aside in an effort to deal with whatever the letter detailed. His bitter feelings towards Ulrich began to grow, and as a result Harry spent more and more evenings in his old bed in the Sub House, instead of with Ulrich. The only downside to this was some other dominants had begun to believe that he was an unmated sub again, and immediately took the opportunity to make advances on him—especially Bryce.

“Come on, sweet thing,” he purred, a thick arm around Harry's waist, crushing them chest-to-chest as he gave Harry's bum a sharp squeeze, “I'll make it so good for you, you won't even remember that you and the beta were ever together.”

“Get it through your thick skull, Bryce,” Harry growled as he struggled against the dominant, “I'm not interested.”

Usually Hermione or Ulrich would have to come to Harry's rescue when Bryce got too handsy, and Harry hated how weak it made him feel. He was still too angry with Ulrich and his cold brushoffs to offer his mate anything more than a brief, “thank you,” before he hurried off to rejoin the other submissives, his skin still twitching from Bryce's unwanted advances.

It was a warm day in early July when a visitor came to the pack. It was a visitor that Harry did not particularly want to see, but most surprisingly, it was not Harry this visitor had come for, but someone else entirely.

“Harry,” Remus said politely as he approached the main area of the territory from the Apparition Point, and nodded his head in greeting. “I need to speak with your mate about Alpha, where might he be?”

Wordlessly, Harry lifted his hand and pointed across the clearing, where Ulrich was arguing with Bryce—again.

“Thank you,” Remus said in the same bland, polite tone, and offered Harry a small smile before he turned his back on him and strode over to Ulrich while extracting a thick wad of parchment from the inside pocket of his blazer.

“Well, that was weird,” Harry remarked as he watched Remus go, and rubbed at his arms a little in an effort to rid himself of the goosepimple sensation that had spread across his skin at the older man's sudden appearance.

“How what that weird?” Tavish asked as he looked up from the thick tome on Wizarding Law he had been poring over, and regarded Harry oddly.

“It's weird that he was so...polite. Normal. Like nothing ever happened.”

“I say again: how is that weird?”

“The last couple of times I've been around him usually involved him trying desperately to get me to forgive him,” Harry explained, “or cop a feel...or both. I just—it's weird, it was like he looked right through me.”

“Hmm,” Tavish intoned as his gaze dropped back down to the book, but did not offer up any sort of proper response.

Harry turned his gaze back to his mate and Remus, a small frown tugging at the corners of his lips as he watched them. They seemed to be debating heatedly about something, and Harry had the strangest feeling that they were talking about him, though he could not clearly hear them to determine whether he was right, or if his ego really had gotten out of control. He watched Remus throw his arms out at Ulrich in some sort of desperate plea, while the beta crossed his arms and glared at Remus.

Harry watched the pair for a few more minutes, but they did nothing more exciting than argue and debate until Remus seemed to hit his boiling point and stormed off. Harry turned back to Tavish, and they resumed idle conversation while trying to pretend like everything was fine, both of them pointedly avoiding the elephant in the room. It had been a long few weeks of dead ends and red herrings, and they had taken their toll on the mates of Greyback—Tavish, in particular.

His hair had grown a little longer, but it was frizzy and unkempt. There were dark circles under his eyes at all times, and his emotional state was extremely delicate, and he had a tendency to bite the heads off anyone for no particular reason whatsoever. Harry was quite certain that he was very near his breaking point, and Harry refused to be the one to cause him to fall apart completely.

Adina seemed to be faring a little better—she was still tired and stressed, but less likely to jump down someone's throat for no reason. Harry attributed that to the fact that she was a little older, and thus had more experience with the world at large. Either way, Harry felt awful for both of them, but it wasn't enough to make him completely push back his bitterness towards Ulrich for not letting him help out.

At the full moon itself, Harry's feelings of inadequacy had bled through into his werewolf mind, and he snapped at Ulrich more than once, and refused to let his mate come anywhere near him. He spent most of the night with the unmated subs, while Ulrich looked on miserably—Harry would not even join him for the first meal on their kills for the night—as mate to the stand-in alpha, Harry had every right to do so, but his anger at Ulrich was so heightened by the influence of the moon that instead, he close to not eat at all, and stayed away from his mate.

It was another fortnight of this behaviour before Ulrich had had enough.

“All right, Harry,” he growled, his arms crossed as he glared down at him, where he was sitting with a handful of the other unmated subs, with little Sheng in his lap. Apparently sensing danger, Jade snatched her child from Harry's arms, and not a moment too soon as Ulrich grabbed him by the back of his throat and dragged him to his feet, while he ignored Harry's strangled yelp of surprise. “I've had enough of your shitty attitude. We're talking about this—now.”

He ignored Harry's garbled, stammering protests as he dragged him away from the main area of the territory and to their cabin. Without saying a word, Ulrich marched him over to the fire pit, forced him down onto one of the benches, and ignited the fire with a quick, angry jab of his wand. He dropped down onto the bench next to Harry, and both men crossed their arms as they glared at each other.

“Harry, we need to talk.”

“Why do we need to talk?” Harry sniped back at him, “I think we're in perfect agreement—I think you're being a git, and you think the same about me. What's there to discuss?”

“Would you stop being a fucking princess for five minutes and listen to what I have to say?” Ulrich demanded, his tone of voice less angry, and more frustrated and pleading. “I've got enough on my plate between running this pack, keeping Bryce from trying to usurp me, and trying to get Alpha out of jail. I don't need your stupid, selfish attitude lumped on top of it all.”

“I'm not being a princess!” Harry snapped, “I'm being practical. You have this stupid mindset about subs. We aren't supposed to do anything important or strenuous—just be a good boy and stay in the territory. I worked with the Aurors for years, Ulrich. I know how the system works, and yet you're refusing my help because, as you say, it's not my place as a sub to do something like that. At least with Remus he never tried to stop me from doing my job—”

“—that is such bullshit, Harry,” Ulrich cut in with an angry growl, “I'm not trying to stop you from doing anything, but I won't have you go blundering in and risking Alpha's freedom for your bleeding ego. I won't have it—”

“—need I remind you that it was me who got Alpha released in the first place? You were there, Ulrich, the day Alpha was freed it was me who escorted him back here. Why the hell would you want to deny my help now? You're not being fair.”

“Fair? Harry, this isn't a game of Gobstones—this is Alpha's freedom we're talking about, you can't—”

“You are sitting across from someone who, along with the Minister, worked tirelessly for years to help the werewolf community ages before I was bound to Remus or turned. I worked in the Auror Office and closely with Magical Law Enforcement. I was good, if not better, than Ron. If you're so desperate to get Alpha out of Azkaban, why would you refuse my help? Is it because I'm a delicate little sub, and can't lift a finger on my own?”

“That's not—”

“—I'm not finished,” Harry interrupted with a growl, and Ulrich's mouth snapped shut. “We've been through shit like this before, you want to let me have my space and my life, you're open and honest, but you get stupidly possessive, and you seem to have it in your head that subs are totally incapable of doing anything of importance in the pack. I don't understand it, since you clearly do not share the same views as Bryce that subs are a convenient lay or sentient baby factories and nothing more, so I don't get where this refusal to let me help is coming from. I remember some of the last moon—you know how pissed I am by your attitude, yet you refuse to budge. I'm not trying to make this about me or whatever Tavish claims—I'm really not. I'm just really angry over the fact that you seem to think that I can't lift a finger to help, when I have the tools needed to, y'know, actually help.”

Ulrich seemed to have been stunned into silence by Harry's rant, and he stared at his mate with wide eyes, as though someone had just flicked on the lights, and his eyes were still adjusting to it.

It was several long moments of silence before he finally spoke.

“I'm sorry, Harry,” Ulrich said at last, his gaze dropping to his lap, “it's not that I don't want your help, or think you can't help, it's just...you attract trouble like Thestrals to rotting meat. I just don't want to tempt fate by putting you in danger, and making things more complicated.”

“This is not danger,” Harry insisted, his tone softening as he reached for one of Ulrich's hands, and he wrapped both of his smaller ones around it as he offered it a small squeeze, which the dominant returned at once. “I've been in danger, I can handle myself just fine. Trust me, and let me help.”

Ulrich eyed Harry critically, one eyebrow arched as though he seriously doubted Harry's promises, but something in his pleading expression seemed to make him cave, and with a heavy sigh, he nodded. Harry's face split into a smile, and quickly he closed the space between them, and climbed into his dominant's lap as he kissed him hard.

“Thank you,” Harry whispered against his mouth, and Ulrich smiled softly, though there was a sadness in his eyes too, as though he was already regretting his assent. Harry tried to ignore it as he kissed Ulrich again, while the beta's arms locked around his waist, holding him in place while their kisses intensified.

Ulrich carried Harry to bed, but this time, no flashbacks hindered the short journey. Clothing was shed slowly, and Ulrich did something that Harry had not experienced in a long time—he worshipped his body.

He tasted every part of him, kissing and licking at his lips, his jaw, his throat, his collarbone, and every part in between. He was a shuddering, trembling mess by the time he rolled onto his stomach and pulled one leg against his chest, exposing himself for his mate. Ulrich took him slowly, and the sweet lovemaking was almost enough to make Harry weep. He buried his face in the pillows and shuddered as he moved with Ulrich, and when they each in turn found their release, to Harry it felt more like they had washed away the argument completely in a running river.

Harry buried himself in Ulrich's welcoming embrace, and he pressed his cheek against his chest. He inhaled deeply, determined to commit his scent to memory, while Ulrich stroked his damp hair and pressed gentle kisses to his forehead.

“Well...that has to be the best make-up sex I've had in a really long time,” Ulrich remarked, and Harry laughed softly.

“Tell me about it,” Harry replied, and shuffled up to kiss Ulrich lightly, before he settled back into the welcoming embrace. “I'm...I'm sorry things have been so strained between us lately.”

“It's all right, Harry,” Ulrich replied as he returned to stroking his hair, “it's a tough situation.”

Harry relaxed and closed his eyes, one of his hands moving to curl against Ulrich's hard chest as he began to nod off, only to be roused again by Ulrich's lips on his.

“I love you, Harry,” Ulrich whispered against his mouth, and Harry swallowed thickly.

“I love you too,” Harry replied, and Ulrich beamed at him.

Harry closed his eyes again, but this time, it was to hide his surging guilt over the fact that the words had jumped from his mouth reflexively, and he could not say that he felt it as strongly as the dominant did.

I want to love you, Harry thought sadly, I just wish I knew why I can't.

~*~

The following day, at long last, Harry was finally allowed to join in on the discussions of how to get Greyback out of Azkaban.

He and Ulrich were joined by Hermione and Ron, who Ulrich had let into the territory, despite Bryce's loud protests, and the fifth person added to their group was one Harry both did not expect, and did not want to see, especially when things between him and Ulrich had been so strained and confusing lately.

Remus.

And to say that sitting with his current significant other as well as his ex was awkward would be putting it very lightly.

“This is going well,” Ron remarked sarcastically when after a full five minutes, no one had said a word. The comment seemed to break some of the tension, and with a few strained laughs, the meeting began.

“So what's going on with the trial?” Harry asked quickly, “I mean, I can see a strong defence for the murders, but the Portkey Cuff...” he trailed off and glanced to Ulrich, “did Alpha actually remove it, or was it an accident?”

“Accidental damage to Ministry equipment—provided it wasn't tampered with—he might get a fine of some kind, but he won't be penalized for it,” Ron added, “but if you or he took it off, then that would be seen as a defying his release conditions, and at that point it would probably be next to impossible to secure a release.”

“I've been in touch with Magical Law Enforcement as well,” Remus added, while he kept his eyes fixed on Ulrich, though Harry did not miss the brief flick of that amber gaze from Ulrich to Harry and back again. “I'm trying to file a formal complaint that his arrest was a prejudicial attack, and was enacted when they knew that the pack's defences would not be as strong.”

“Is that the case, though?” Harry asked uncertainly, “I mean, that would imply that someone knew that Ulrich was leaving the territory briefly, and the only ones who knew were Hermione, the pack, and the Weasleys.”

“We better not jump to conclusions just yet,” Hermione said quickly, “it also could be a fluke, like they were waiting for the rogue pack to no longer be a threat before they moved in. Ulrich—what happened with Alpha's Cuff? Let's start there.”

“Alpha hated that damn thing,” Ulrich began, bowing his head forward a little as he spoke, “but he didn't want to be put back in Azkaban, so he left it alone.

“On our first moon with him back, I suppose whoever constructed the thing didn't take our physical size into account—it just broke apart when Alpha turned. The next morning, Alpha and I talked about it—we knew that even though it wasn't his fault, the wizard Ministry would not see it that way, and find some excuse to blame him. Alpha never uses wizard magic if he can help it, so I took the thing and tried to work out if the wizard Ministry would be alerted to it's damage, and I found that there was an alert worked into the charms on the Cuff, but the way it broke—it didn't set off the alarm. I have no idea how. So I mended it and made sure all the charms were still in place, and put it away.”

“So Alpha really didn't try to get it off?” Harry asked, “I mean...when I saw that it was missing, I figured he'd found a way to get it off without alerting the Aurors.”

“Alpha hated having it on, but he also didn't want to be taken from the pack or his mates again,” Ulrich replied, repeating his words from earlier, “the benefits of leaving well enough alone sort of outweighed the risks in this case.”

“Ron, since it was the Ministry's fault and not Alpha's, d'you think we can get him out of it?” Hermione asked, and Ron grimaced a little.

“I'm only an Auror, that'd be a question for the solicitors in Magical Law Enforcement more than me,” he explained, “usually there'd be some kind of compensation for such a massive mistake—the false imprisonment and everything, since it wasn't Greyback's fault that it broke, but because of who he is, there's a big chance that they'll ignore that and look for some sort of loophole or technicality to keep him behind bars.”

“I believe that is where I come in,” Remus interjected, and Harry found himself mildly surprised by the smooth, confident tone with which Remus spoke. As covertly as he could, Harry rubbed his arms in an effort to hide the spread of the gooseflesh that had run up his forearms at the sound of it, and tried to look at Remus as though he was a stranger, and not his ex. “Despite the fact that Alpha is infamous, he's still a werewolf, and being part of the Werewolf Liaisons Department, I can contest that he was arrested based on prejudicial accusations, and without legitimate evidence that he was actually guilty.”

“But how likely are they to listen to that, given that he's Fenrir Greyback?” Harry asked dubiously, and Remus offered him a small smile.

“The Wizengamot at large may be still somewhat prejudiced, but Kingsley approved of his release once before, and he's a fair man. He'll listen to our appeals, even if no one else will.”

They debated and discussed for another hour before the meeting broke up, and Harry found himself feeling confident that they'd be able to at least secure a trial for Greyback, which, while not a release, was at least a step in the right direction.

Harry's positive attitude died when the pack received the date of Greyback's trial date a few weeks later, and saw that it was set for the sixteenth of July. Included with the date was a long note from Ron, scribbled out hastily.

I know it's the day after the full moon, and I swear I tried to get an extension, but the Wizengamot spouted out some bollocks about how they're booked with other things besides just trials, and they wanted this over quickly. I don't think it'd be much of a stretch to suspect that they planned it this way, like they think you lot will be more weakened and less on top of things the day after. If there is anything you will need to stay clearheaded that day—potion, charm, whatever—send it back with Pig and I'll make sure you guys have it. This isn't fair, and even Remus's complaints on the timing were ignored.

“Fuck,” said Harry, as he handed the note back to Ulrich, and he raked a hand through his hair as he stared down at the letter, while Pig twittered excitedly and zoomed around his head.
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Lunaticus Book Three: New Moon Rising