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Fragmented Soul	By : StrawberryGirl87 & Bickymonster Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Fenrir Views: 79703 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 10
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything in the fandom. no money/profit is made.

Chapter List
- 90
- 91
- 92
A nice long, and much awaited chapter for you all. We hope you enjoy it.

Fragmented Soul

Chapter 91 - The Storm

Fenrir and the rest of the pack had just sat down to eat dinner and the mood was rather sombre having left the pups at Hogwarts after a pleasant day in Hogsmeade. However, everyone was suddenly put on high alert when the ward’s let out a high pitched shriek, telling them that someone had passing through them.

“Damon stay here,” Fenrir barked almost immediately. “Jenson, Lukas, with me, now.” Without question Jenson and Lukas were on their feet and following their Alpha out of the clearing and towards the source of the sound, while Damon gathered up the rest of the pack, encouraging those that could to climb up on to the platform.

The sight that the three dominants came across as they reached the edge of the territory and where the wards had been passed was something that they hadn’t expected at all. An unconscious body lay on the ground, battered and bruised, and just beyond their warded boundaries, Dean was fending off three strays but he was not faring well.

For a split second Fenrir deliberated on whether or not to help him. He was in two minds about it but seeing Aiden unconscious on the ground, battered and bruised, he could only put two and two together and conclude that this was either a trap or the two of them needed help and the Alpha was leaning more towards the latter.

“Lukas help Aiden,” Fenrir commanded, deciding to take the chance on the two men. “Jenson and I will deal with the others.” The Alpha knew the risks but was confident enough in his pack that they would be able to hold their own if it came to a fight. Lukas went straight for Aiden, checking him over and he quickly realised that the injuries were beyond his capabilities to heal. They would be extremely lucky if even Callie was able to heal him completely.

There were more than just the three strays now. Dean had managed to kill one but several more were approaching. However, Fenrir could not see Gideon, and so he was fairly certain that whatever was going on, it wasn’t a full scale attack; Gideon wouldn’t have missed that for anything, he was far too blood thirsty.

Jenson managed to kill a second stray as Dean took down Russ, hitting the man’s head against a nearby tree and knocking him out cold before he could even think about trying to get through the wards. Fenrir held back, simply deflecting the blows thrown his way as his mind went over the many possibilities of what they could do. As much as he didn’t trust Dean, they were hugely outnumbered and would likely sustain serious injury or potentially lose a life and he wasn’t prepared to have that happen.

Making the decision, Fenrir strode forward and slammed his fist across Dean’s face, knocking him unconscious but catching him before he fell to the ground. “Get back to the clearing,” Fenrir demanded of his pack members, flinging Dean rather carelessly over his shoulder. He watched as Jenson charged back through the wards to help Lukas carry Aiden, before stepping through himself. The Alpha watched with great satisfaction as two of the smaller strays collided with the wards, flying backwards and landing in a heap on the ground unconscious. He growled a warning at the others, baring his teeth threateningly, wanting them to know that he would be taking no prisoners.

To their credit, the strays backed off a little, not wanting to mess with the infamous Alpha. Satisfied with this, Fenrir began to make his way back towards the clearing, Lukas and Jenson carrying Aiden a little way ahead of them.

FGHP

“Damon,” Niko said a little fearfully, “where’s Dad?” The ten-year-old had point blank refused to climb up on to the platform. He had promised that if trouble came he would be up faster than lightning but he didn’t want to hide, he wanted to be brave and make his Dad proud of him for helping to protect the others. Particularly given that Callie couldn’t climb up either in her current condition.

“He’ll be back soon,” Damon promised in a hushed whisper, wanting to encourage the quiet. He needed to listen out for any signs of trouble and prepare himself if whatever had penetrated their wards got past Fenrir, Jenson and Lukas. Niko nodded his head and fell silent, shuffling closer to Callie when his whole body shivered with a mixture of cold and fear about what might happen to his Dad.

They were all waiting on tenterhooks but jumped into action when Fenrir came bursting through the treeline with a body over his shoulder. Not knowing what had gone wrong, Callie immediately feared the worst and set out at a full run towards her Alpha, thinking that her mate had been hurt, Damon and Niko on her heels. Tessie and Jaylon both hurried back down from the platform, wanting to help.

A few moments later Jenson and Lukas emerged from the tree line, carrying yet another body between them. Now it was Tessie’s turn to lurch forward into a run, recognising her cousin despite the many cuts and bruises that littered his body. She was speechless as the two dominants lay Aiden down close to the fire, as Callie enveloped her mate in relief that he hadn’t be hurt.

“What happened?” Niko asked before anyone else could, horrified at the state of the two men. He was worried about them but also very glad that his dad had returned unscathed and so immediately went to tuck himself into Fenrir’s side, wanting the comfort of his father; however, the Alpha, still carrying the dead weight of a fully grown man, pushed him back.

“I will explain,” he said, not only to his son but to his entire pack, “I will return.” And with this, Fenrir headed off towards the cave, still carrying the unconscious man over his shoulder. The Alpha’s intent was to bind Dean to a tree until he could determine what had happened. He intended to question each of them individually and see if their stories matched. Though he did have to admit that the injuries that Aiden had sustained were fairly serious.

“Callie, please help him,” Tessie begged, having fallen to her knees next to her cousin, eyes welling with tears at the state of him. He was barely drawing breath at all, almost every inch of his skin bloody or discoloured.

“I will do what I can,” Callie promised, having hurried over to Aiden the moment she was sure that Jenson was unharmed. She wished she could tell her friend that it would be okay but she was unwilling to offer more certainty than that. A wave of her wand and a muttered spell confirmed what she suspected, Aiden’s injuries were severe and the man was going to take a lot of care if he was to even survive the night. “I need fresh water, both heated and cold,” she said with barely a glance in Lukas’ direction.

The soft padding of feet told her that he had obeyed without question, just like she knew he would, and she focused her attention on trying to at least close the worst of the bleeding wounds, both inside and out.

“I am going to fetch supplies,” Jenson told the group in general and, trusting Damon to keep them safe, he headed off in the direction that the Alpha had gone moments earlier. He thought it was probably best he check on Fenrir and Dean too, not least because he wanted answers about what was going on.

He was only about half way to the cave when he heard shouts that made it very clear that Dean was once again conscious and also rather pissed off. Jenson trusted his Alpha but he hurried anyway, heading straight for the voices, and was unsurprised to find Dean trying to break himself free of the bindings holding him to a large tree.

“Untie me!” Dean roared in fury. However, Fenrir simply stood a few feet away, arms crossed over his chest, as he watched the other man’s futile struggles. “What have you done with Aiden?!”

“He is being treated,” Jenson informed them both, as he approached, and Dean paused in his attempt to get free, to stare at his former pack brother. “Callie will do all she can.”

“I want to see him,” Dean demanded, scared that his mate was going to die, despite their bid for freedom, and furious that he might be denied those last moments by his side.

“No,” Fenrir said simply. He wouldn’t have Dean free to wander around until he was sure that this man wouldn’t hurt any of the others in his pack.

“I think what Fenrir means is, we can’t let you see him until we know that you aren’t a danger to the rest of our pack,” the Beta said, wanting to make the conversation a little more civil despite the fact that Dean was tied to a tree.

“They raped him,” Dean shouted, “they beat him and slashed him with a knife, they were going to do the same thing to me, they would have killed us if we’d stayed. I thought we’d be safe here!”

“You are,” Jenson said quickly, “you and Aiden are perfectly safe here, but we need to be sure that you aren’t some kind of Trojan horse.”

Fenrir grunted in agreement, though he hadn’t understood what Jenson had meant, but he was grateful for his Beta being able to explain what was going on, the Alpha knew that he didn’t express himself brilliantly.

“I need to get some potions for Aiden,” Jenson said, mostly for Fenrir’s sake, so that the Alpha knew what was going on, though he hoped it might also help convince Dean that the pack was sincere in their desire to help them. “Try not to piss each other off too much,” he suggested as he headed off towards the cave, which was close by.

FGHP

Jaylon was trying to keep himself out of the way, sticking close to Tessie’s side and comforting her as best he could, while Callie tried to do all she could for Aiden. Callie was cleaning the blood from the wounds as she healed them to make sure they weren’t still bleeding. It was a disturbing sight, but Jaylon knew how much Aiden meant to Tessie and he wanted to be there for her, like she always had been for him.

“Jaylon, press here,” Callie said, suddenly taking his hand and pressing it against Aiden’s abdomen. “Keep that pressure, it will slow the bleeding and keep his pressure up until Jenson gets back,” she told him.

Jaylon just nodded, and did as instructed. Glancing up at the rest of the pack around them, he could see that they were all rather shaken by what was happening, Micha sticking close to Damon, and Niko clinging to Damon’s trouser leg in the absence of his parents.

Heavy footfall announced the return of Jenson, who placed the bag of supplies next to his mate and held out a blood replenishment potion for her to see. “This?” he asked; he could see how much blood the young man had lost and had seen his mate heal enough people to hazard a guess at where to start.

“Yes, give him that,” Callie instructed with a firm nod. She delved into the bag at her side and pulled out gauze and bandages, which she started to apply to her patient, while Jenson lifted Aiden’s head and, with Lukas’ help, poured the potion down Aiden’s throat.

“Is he going to be okay?” Niko asked, his voice a lot quieter than usual. The sight of such a badly injured man was something that he had never seen before and it didn’t help that he knew Aiden and Dean, cared about them even. The two of them had protected him from Gideon and the other strays, Niko didn’t want them to die.

“We don’t know yet,” Damon told him honestly. He didn’t want to give the ten-year-old hope if there wasn’t any. It honestly didn’t look good. He was a little surprised that Niko was crying, Damon wasn’t aware that the ten-year-old had any close connection to either of the wolves that had been brought in.

“Is Dad with Dean?” Niko asked, looking up at Damon questioningly. Damon looked to Jenson, not sure who it was that Fenrir had had over his shoulder and fairly sure that the Beta would have gone to check on their Alpha when he left the clearing.

“Yes, your dad and Dean just need to have a bit of a talk,” Jenson told the ten-year-old, not wanting Niko worrying about either of them.

“What if Dad hurts him?” Niko asked, a little panicked; he remembered seeing how Gideon ‘talked’ to the new members in the other pack. “Dean helped me, he saved me from the horrible wolves, I don’t want him hurt.”

“Fenrir won’t hurt him unless he has no choice,” Damon said told Niko; he wanted to reassure the ten-year-old but he didn’t want to lie to him either and he knew there was a chance, if Dean decided to make things difficult, that the man could get hurt.

“Perhaps someone should take Niko to Fenrir, he can see for himself,” Damon suggested, thinking that this would be beneficial in more ways than one. Fenrir was less likely to beat the living daylights out of Dean if Niko was there and it would get the ten-year-old away from the clearing just in case Aiden didn’t make it through the next few minutes.

“Please!” Niko said, looking between Damon and Jenson hopefully. He hadn’t seen Dean since the day that he and Jaylon had been handed over to the Greyback pack, after they had found Jaylon alone in the woods, and he was eager to know that the man was okay.

“Want me to take him?” Lukas offered, looking up from where he was crouched with Jenson, close to Aiden’s head, in case Callie needed either of them to do anything. However, she seemed to have things relatively under control from what he could tell.

“No, it’s okay,” Damon told him, taking hold of Niko’s hand, “I’ll go. You stay in case Callie needs help.” He wanted the chance to check on his best friend and was keen to keep Niko close, while Harry was away and Fenrir was busy. “Stay here, trouble,” he told his mate, pressing a brief kiss to Micha’s lips.

Micha pouted at Damon, but didn’t argue. He didn’t want to be separated from him but understood that the situation was a difficult one for everyone and that Niko and Fenrir probably needed Damon more than he did at that moment.

“Let’s go find your dad,” Damon said to Niko, and the two of the headed off in the direction that Jenson had just returned from.

FGHP

Fenrir had had enough of Dean’s pleading to be untied. He could understand the need to see one’s mates but the Alpha had to think of his entire pack and he was coming close to the point that he wanted to knock Dean unconscious again.

“What’s the point of bringing me here if you are just going to hold me prisoner?” Dean raged, snarling at the larger man.

“You might be useful,” Fenrir stated bluntly. Part of it was that he didn’t want to separate Aiden from his mate if he didn’t have to, but he wasn’t about to admit that to Dean. “What happened?” the Alpha demanded to know.

“I told you, they were going to kill us both!” Dean yelled in frustration. “And I think we both know that you are very aware of the lengths that we will go to for our mates, Gideon’s silver hand can attest to that.”

Fenrir grunted in agreement; he was finding that Dean, despite his annoyingly persistent attempts to break free, was being infuriatingly open and cooperative. At least it looked like they would be gaining another dominant, two if Callie could keep Aiden alive.

“Dad?” Niko asked timidly from a little way behind Damon as the two of them approached the tree where Dean had been bound. Fenrir turned, looking towards his son and friend, curious as to why they had come here. “You aren’t going to hurt him are you?”

“Only if he pisses me off,” Fenrir grunted. He knew that he wouldn’t do anything to Dean while Niko was there and he also knew that that was likely to be exactly why Damon had brought the ten-year-old.

“Niko?” Dean asked, having strained his head around to see who else was there. He had heard the voice but couldn’t be sure that it was him until he saw that it was him. “Niko, is that you?”

“Yeah, I’m here!” Niko called out as he rushed around Damon, trying to get to Dean, only to find himself swept up into his father’s arms instead. “Meanie,” he said with a pout, though he didn’t sound too upset now that he could actually see Dean from where he was being held.

Damon snorted at the nickname that Niko had used, thinking that the ten-year-old was surprisingly like Harry for the two of them not actually being related by blood. “You planning on keeping him here until Aiden wakes up?” he asked, gesturing to the tree where Dean was tied.

“Yes,” Fenrir stated. He wasn’t going to give Aiden and Dean any chance to compare stories before he had spoken to each of them.

“You’re just going to leave me here?” Dean asked incredulously, wondering if they would really be that cruel.

“No. We’ll be here too,” Fenrir explained, “watching you.”

“Great, so you don’t even trust me when I am tied to a tree,” Dean said grumpily. He had known that joining the Greyback pack wasn’t going to be a smooth transition but this was ridiculous and he was genuinely worried that he might never see Aiden again.

“Stay here,” Fenrir instructed Damon. “Niko needs to sleep.”

“Daaaddd…” Niko whined, not at all happy with the idea of being taken back to the clearing and put to bed, not when he was just found Dean again.

“Don’t,” Fenrir told his son firmly, and Niko snapped his mouth shut, not wanting to test his father’s patience. “I’ll be back later,” he told Damon.

“Do you still want Micha and me to fetch Aspen tomorrow?” Damon asked, resigning himself to the first watch tonight. He had so been looking forward to snuggling in bed with his mate too. He was wondering if Fenrir still wanted to add an extra burden of another wolf when two had just fallen into their laps rather unexpectedly.

“Yes,” Fenrir said, not even hesitating in his decision. Aspen would be needed, their pack was not as strong as it could be and he planned to rectify that.

“Night, Damon,” Niko called out over his father’s shoulder as he was carried back in the direction of the clearing. “Night, Dean.”

“Night, Niko,” the two men called back, as they both settled down for what was bound to be a long, long night.

FGHP

Harry had been struggling to sleep. He was awake early and didn’t want to disturb any of the others who were deep in dreamland. Leaving a note so that his pack siblings wouldn’t worry about him, Harry got dressed and headed down for breakfast.

It seemed that Harry wasn’t the only one who had been struggling to sleep, Draco was sat on his own at the Slytherin table. There were a few other students scattered across the Great Hall but not many as it was mostly too early.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Harry asked as he dropped into a seat across from Draco, and quickly pouring himself a large mug of coffee.

“No I felt like deliberately depriving myself of sleep,” Draco said sarcastically as he looked up at his friend, though Harry was just smiling at him, looking mildly amused at friend’s dry humour. “Cabinet,” he said by way of explanation.

“Ahh,” Harry said, with a nod of his head as he started putting sausages, eggs, bacon and toast onto his plate, knowing that he did need to try and eat. He was sure he wouldn’t manage half of what he had served himself, but he was going to at least try. “I do have something that might help with that,” he said, reaching in his pocket for the letter from Jenson that Micha had handed him the day before.

“What is it?” Draco asked, wondering if Harry had managed to get some more ideas on how to fix the cabinet from his pack member.

“I don't’ know, I haven’t read it yet but it’s from Jenson and it’s about the cabinet. I thought we could look together,” Harry said, taking a bite of toast before opening the envelope. “Hmm.” Harry made a noise of surprise as he saw what the letter actually said. Swallowing his toast, he turned the letter around and placed it on the table in front of Draco. “It’s the help you need.”

“It’s how to fix it?” Draco asked hopefully, flattening out the letter so that he could read it for himself.

“Not exactly but it’s the man who probably can,” Harry said. “It says that Jenson will come through the floo network tomorrow tonight and meet you and Clay, so that you can take him to the cabinet. And trust me, if he can’t fix it, then it’s not fixable.”

“This is great,” Draco said, his mood buoyed considerably, as he read over the letter for himself, feeling that this had to be too good to be true; though of course there was a chance that this Jenson guy might not even be able to repair it and then Draco would have to find some other way to get his mother and brother out of Malfoy Manor.

“I really hope that he can help,” Harry said earnestly, picking up a piece of bacon. “He’s good at his job, but if he can’t fix it then we will find another way to help, that much I can promise you.”

“Morning,” Theo said rather miserably as he suddenly appeared next to Harry, sitting himself down heavily at the Slytherin table.

“What’s up with you?” Harry asked. “Shouldn’t you be in a happy mood? I hear you had a hot date yesterday,” he added with a grin but Theo clearly wasn’t in the mood to laugh and joke about this.

“Why should I be happy?” Theo asked miserably. “I’m parted from the girl I’m in love with and stuck in a damn marriage contract with someone I absolutely detest.”

“Pansy isn’t that bad,” Harry said with a shrug, “for a girl at least.”

Draco rolled his eyes, but understood exactly how Theo felt. Lucius had made it clear that Draco could date all he liked while he was at school, however, once he had graduated he too had been promised to someone, in his case, a witch from the Carrow family. He thought her name might have been Flower or Flora, though he couldn’t be sure.

“Why are they enforcing that now? Surely it’s better to wait until you both graduate?” Draco asked; though, now that he thought about it, he was sure that his own parents had waited until they had both graduated and it had been Lucius dating around that had resulted in Clayton, so maybe the Notts had good reason to push their son towards his betrothed already.

“They don’t see the point in waiting, we’re at the same school and may as well get to know each other and get used to the idea,” Theo said grumpily. “Pansy isn’t any happier than I am, she’s not exactly my way inclined.”

“You mean she’s a lesbian?” Harry asked in a hushed whisper, a little shocked at this revelation. He honestly hadn’t thought about Pansy or her sexuality before but it did surprise him.

“Now you say that,” Draco said pensively, clearly thinking it over, “I suppose it is fairly obvious, given the way she looks at Tracey Davis sometimes.”

“Yeah, not that she’s completely accepted that yet but if we can’t get out of this then we’re both going to be miserable,” Theo said, feeling and sounding utterly depressed.

“She must have a field day in the showers,” Harry said with wry smile.

“Vulgar as always,” Clayton said as he, Romy and Seamus came to join them at the Slytherin table. “Who are you discussing?” he asked as he sat down and began to load his plate with food, Romy and Seamus doing the same, all three nodding in approval at the amount of food that Harry had in front of him.

“No one,” Harry said with a dismissive wave of his hand, not wanting to spread gossip when it could hurt Pansy, and even Theo, if everyone found out. “Oh goodness, look at the state of that,” he said, suddenly distracted by Robin making an unwelcome appearance in the Great Hall. He was rather surprised to see that she wasn’t alone, she in fact seemed to have a harem of men trailing behind her.

Draco glanced over to where Harry was looking and snorted in amusement. “One thing I can tell you for certain was that she wasn’t in the dormitory last night. I overheard some of the Slytherin girls complaining about her coming and going at all hours but they seemed pleased that she just stayed out all night.”

“I wonder where she slept,” Romy mused, rolling her eyes at the state of the uniform the girl was wearing, it was revealing a lot more than it was covering. “She certainly wasn’t in with us.”

“Rumour has it that she was in the dorms with McLaggen,” Seamus said and the other all turned to look at him in surprise. “He didn’t go to Hogsmeade yesterday and apparently the two of them got up close and personal.”

“How could you know that?” Harry asked in confusion.

“Just because Ron and Dean don’t talk to me any more doesn’t mean that the whole of Gryffindor stopped talking to me,” Seamus said with a shrug.

“Do you think she actually… you know?” Romy asked, “with McLaggen.”

“I think you should be able to say the word, Romy,” Harry said with a laugh, “especially since you’re almost doing it with Clay.”

“Oh shut up, Harry,” Romy said, giving him a playful slap to the shoulder.

“To answer your question though,” Seamus said with a smirk at the easy banter between his pack siblings, “if McLaggen lives up to his reputation, they would have fucked at least twice already.”

Harry laughed, patting Seamus on the back. “You’re going to fit right in with us,” he said happily, “the cruder the better with us, you’ll see when you come to the territory next full moon.”

“Any idea on what we’re going to do today?” Clay asked, changing the subject. With it being a Sunday they had the day to themselves and he certainly wasn’t going to waste it doing homework.

“I’ve promised Dumblefuck some of my time,” Harry said with a weary sigh. He didn’t really want to spend any more time with the headmaster but he knew that it was the right thing to do. He had made arrangements to go down into the chamber of secrets and bring up the body of the poor girl that was rotting down there.

“Yawn,” Clay said, knowing that it was futile to offer to accompany Harry with the headmaster, he would never accept and, besides that, he wanted to spend some time with Romy, which he knew was a little selfish but he honestly thought that he deserved to be a little bit.

“I was thinking of going to the library, I’ve got some essays that I want to get done,” Romy said but Clay shook his head, not agreeing to this plan at all.

“Not a chance, I was more hoping that the two of us might… you know,” Clay said with a wink and Romy snorted in amusement.

“How about the three of us find something to do,” Romy said, motioning towards Seamus.

“No offence but I’m really not into threesomes,” Seamus said causing Harry and Clay to laugh hysterically. Seamus was really going to fit in well with their pack.

FGHP

The clearing was not a happy place on Sunday morning. No one had really got any sleep. Callie had battled through the night, with the help of Tessie and Jaylon, to ensure that Aiden survived. The others had all taken turns to sit with Dean and talk to him. It wasn’t something that they particularly wanted to do but they did it because they wanted to see if his story changed or if he contradicted himself at all.

So far Dean hadn’t said anything out of turn, he hadn’t changed his story once, he had only continued to plead to see Aiden, whom he professed to love. Fenrir would not relent though; he refused to let Dean go free until he had been able to speak to Aiden, who was finally on the path to recovery, though the young man was no way out of the woods yet.

“Jenson, make sure Romy is aware that Dean and Aiden are with us,” Fenrir said as Lukas handed out bowls of porridge. Lukas had been the one to make it this morning, Callie and Tessie simply too run down and exhausted to do much at all.

“Of course,” the Beta said, knowing better than to question the Alpha’s decisions right now; everyone was on edge, especially him. He knew better than anyone the reason why Romy needed to know that Dean and Aiden were with them now. Jenson still wasn’t sure about Dean being there himself.

“I’ll take Dean and Damon some breakfast,” Callie said, picking up two bowls much to Jenson’s displeasure. However, when he tried to stop her she let out a low warning growl, telling him not to interfere.

Jenson was a little taken aback by the way his mate had reacted. Normally she was timid and withdrawn, the added illness from her pregnancy had taken it out of her of late, even with the potions Harry had brewed for her, he wasn’t accustomed to her being so stubborn about anything. Not wanting to upset her, Jenson watched as Callie headed off toward the cave carrying the two bowls of porridge.

Callie, though, had her reasons for wanting to be the one to take the food. Romy had confided in her the details of what the strays had done to her while she had been their prisoner. Being the smart kid that she was, Romy had been able to assign names to faces and although Dean had not been the worst of them by any stretch of the imagination he had still raped her.

“Here,” Callie said kindly to Damon, putting a bowl down in front of him. “You need to eat something before you and Micha go and fetch Aspen today.”

“Thank you,” Damon said gratefully, accepting the bowl from his little sister. Today was going to be a very long and tiring day, Damon just hoped that this next one wasn’t as damaged as Jaylon or as conceited as Robin.

“Would you mind if I have a quick word with Dean?” Callie asked and Damon looked up at his sister in surprise. “I won’t be more than a minute; I just need a quick word with him. You can stay close. I don’t think you would object to anything I have to say.”

Damon nodded, not quite understanding what it was that Callie had to say to a man whom she had never met before but he saw no problem in allowing his sister this; she rarely asked for anything and never did anything that wasn’t for someone else in one way or another. He watched curiously as Callie knelt down in front of Dean, putting the bowl in his lap so that he could attempt to feed himself, a struggle with the way he was bound but not impossible.

“You don’t know me,” she said sweetly, smiling at the larger man in front of her, “you probably don’t even remember my daughter but she remembers you.” Callie was careful to keep her voice low and even, not wanting to show her dislike or hatred towards him, she refused to give him the satisfaction.

“I don’t understand,” Dean said, looking between Damon and Callie with confusion. He was not taken in by the sweet tone of voice or the kind face, he knew that the woman in front of him was not to be messed with, submissive or not.

“Three years ago, your pack kidnapped an eleven-year-old girl,” Callie said, wanting to make sure that Dean understood perfectly where he stood. “You, along with half of that pack of yours, raped her. My little girl might have said that she didn’t mind if you’re living here with us, she is a better person than a lot of this pack, but you need to watch your step because there are many people here that would see you dead.”

Dean didn’t know what to say, he was sat there in shock, suddenly losing his appetite. He had done many things that he wasn’t proud of but he had done them to fit in with his pack. Dean knew that it wasn’t really an excuse he could use but he did remember all the girls that he had raped. He hated himself for what he had done to them; he had always leaned more towards men than women anyway, and certainly preferred his partners consensual.

“I want to change, I’m not that person anymore,” Dean said, looking directly into Callie’s eyes. He wanted her to know that he was serious when he said this, meaning every word, though he wasn't sure if he was a different person because of Aiden or just because he wanted to change.

“Just stay away from my daughter. It might be best for your health if you didn’t even look at her,” Callie said with a disarming smile. “Now, eat up, you’ll need your strength because Aiden will need you once he wakes up.”

“He’s okay then,” Dean said hopefully, scarcely daring to believe it. “Aiden’s going to be okay?” He had grown so sure that he was never going to see his mate take another breath. The relief that Aiden was going to be okay made his decision to run from Gideon’s pack completely worth it, no matter what the Greyback did to him now.

“I always find that karma is a strange thing,” Callie said wistfully, “your mate has suffered through the very thing that you inflicted upon my daughter. Aiden will be fine once he wakes up and will make a full recovery. He’s very lucky, if he’d been brought to me any later then the result might have been very different.”

“I take it that you’re the Callie that Jenson mentioned last night,” Dean said, recognising the truth to the words she spoke and just hoping that his mate wouldn’t have to suffer any more for the terrible things that he, himself, had done. “Thank you for helping him,” he told her earnestly.

“I didn’t do it for you, but you’re welcome,” Callie said. No matter who it had been she would have tried to help, it just wasn’t in her nature to stand by and watch anyone suffer. “If it was up to my mate you would have been the one to not survive the night; again, you are lucky that he is a nicer man than anyone in your pack.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, who is your mate?” Dean asked curiously.

“Jenson,” Callie said, “younger brother of the Alpha you just betrayed. He’s the Beta of our pack and he also counts Romy as his daughter, so I would watch your step while you are in this pack. You have a lot to prove before you are allowed to be counted as one of us. However, there is one thing that you can be sure of and that is that you will not be mistreated, you will not be hurt unless you push Fenrir to the point where he has to. He is a good man and a better Alpha. You aren’t anywhere near good enough to be part of this pack so count yourself very lucky that you’re here.”

FGHP

Harry was rather bemused as to why the headmaster had asked him to meet him outside of a girl’s bathroom on the second floor. It wasn’t exactly a normal place to be having a conversation but Harry didn’t question it, he just turned up when he was told, wanting to get it over with.

He hadn’t been looking forward to going into the unknown to track down the dead Weasley girl but he knew that refusing wouldn’t be fair on her family, not when he was the only one who possessed the ability to unlock the door to the place where she was entombed.

This time it was Dumbledore who was running late; Harry was getting rather impatient when, twenty minutes after they were supposed to meant there, the headmaster finally arrived. He offered no excuse as to why he was late, he simply motioned for Harry to go into the bathroom.

“I don’t know what kinky shit you’re in to Dumbledore but I don’t get my rocks off to going into girl’s bathrooms,” Harry said, crossing his arms over his chest stubbornly. If the headmaster was going to make him wait, then he was going to have some fun with the difficult old man.

“Do not make this any harder than it already is,” the headmaster said rather impatiently. He was not in the mood for Harry or his attitude currently. Fetching the body of Ginny Weasley and informing her family was not something he wanted to do, he wanted to get it over with just as much as Harry presumably did.

“I didn’t want to know that you were hard and I certainly don’t want to make it harder,” the teenager said, still stubbornly refusing to enter into the girl’s bathroom. He wasn’t going to budge either until he knew why they were there.

“Harry, I’ve had enough of your cheek already; please can we get on with this,” Dumbledore said, pushing open the door and walking inside, knowing that there would be no one in there, seeing as the bathroom was rarely functional. There was only one thing that he would have to worry about in here.

“Fine,” Harry said with a huff, thinking of all the jokes he could have made about the headmaster’s fascination with his arse cheeks as he followed the elderly man into the bathroom, “just keep your old man hands to yourself, I’m spoken for. Besides, you’re a little too old for me. And by a little, I mean a lot.”

“This is it,” Albus said, motioning to a row of sinks in front of a row of toilets. Harry turned to look at the headmaster, staring at him as though he had lost his mind.

“It’s a bathroom,” Harry said, entirely unimpressed. “If you’re going to waste my time then I’m leaving. I have better things to do than piss about with you, doing fuck all.”

“This is the entrance to the chamber,” Dumbledore informed him, stepping between Harry and the door when the teenager went to leave. “We do, however, require your particular skill to open it.” There was a degree of excited curiosity he felt at the idea of getting to finally see the chamber of secrets, despite the sombre reason for their trip.

“You’re going to open it?” a female voice asked, and both Harry and Dumbledore turned towards one of the toilet stalls, where a ghostly girl was floating. “Oooh, you’ll have to be careful, if you don’t want to be dead,” she said with a laugh, drifting closer to Harry, before flicking her eyes to Dumbledore.

“We’ll take care, Myrtle,” the headmaster said calmly, clearly not surprised to see the ghost there. “I believe you need to speak to the entrance,” he instructed, as he turned back to Harry, though the teenager was still watching the ghost.

“What do you mean be careful if we don’t want to be dead?” Harry asked warily. He hadn’t thought that it was going to be dangerous, if he had known how dangerous it was going to be then he might not have agreed to do it so readily.

“The threat is no longer there,” Dumbledore said quickly, not wanting Harry to back out now. “The Chamber we are about to enter was once home to a Basilisk, the creature is now a pet to Tom Riddle and rarely leaves his side.”

“You realise that if I die down there Fenrir will hunt you down and tear you to pieces,” Harry said with a pointed look to the headmaster.

“I am aware,” Dumbledore said, narrowing his eyes at the teenager. It wasn’t like he had any intention of letting anything happen to Harry anyway, the boy was still far too valuable. “Though as it is likely that if you die down there then I will too. Do you honestly think I would risk it?”

“Probably not,” Harry said with a sigh. Given how self-absorbed the headmaster seemed to be, it was a reasonable point. “Fine,” he agreed, “let’s get on with it. What do I do?”

“Speak in parseltongue to the sink,” Dumbledore instructed, and the ghost floated around so that she could see what they were doing, apparently not wanting to miss a thing.

“Are you having a laugh? You want me to hiss at a sink?” Harry asked incredulously, looking from the headmaster to the sink the man was gesturing at. He was starting to wonder if this was Dumbledore’s bizarre idea of a prank or joke.

“Just command it to open in parseltongue,” the headmaster insisted impatiently. He really didn’t understand why the boy had to question absolutely everything all the time; it was very tiring and it made him wonder how Severus had coped with raising Harry for so many years.

“Oh alright,” Harry said, getting rather annoyed, stepping forward and closing his eyes. It was always easier to speak parseltongue when he pictured a snake with his mind. “Open,” he hissed.

He jumped slightly, his eyes springing open when, with a grinding sound, the sink began to move, lowering and disappearing into the floor. He wasn’t sure what he had expected but, just like the headmaster had said, it seemed to be revealing something. Honestly though, once it all ground to a hold, it was rather… underwhelming. There was simply an opening to what looked to be a large pipe, big enough that a person could fit inside.

“I have a sinking feeling that we’re going down there,” Harry said, not sounding at all amused by the prospect. Though, a smirk twitched on his lips as he turned to the headmaster. “Pun totally intended.”

“Hilarious,” Dumbledore said dryly. “And yes, that is exactly where we are going,” gesturing for Harry to go.

“Oh, no,” Harry said with an indulgent smile, “After you, Sir. Age before beauty and all that,” he added cheekily and the headmaster frowned at him, but simply tucked his beard into his belt as he moved towards the pipe.

“I hope you die down there, I could do with some company,” Myrtle cackled, drifting closer to Harry and fluttering her eyes at him.

“Sorry, Myrtle, if I die there is only one place that I intend on haunting,” Harry said with a pointed look at the headmaster. “Just imagine, Sir, you could listen to my bad puns and dry sense of humour for the rest of your life.”

“You won’t be dying down there,” Dumbledore said with determination; if he hadn’t had enough motivation before, that threat certainly did the trick. “I shall wait for you at the bottom,” the headmaster told him, before getting into the pipe and disappearing from sight.

“Pretty sure I should make some kind of butt joke there, but I shan’t waste the energy,” Harry said, mostly to himself, though he heard Myrtle chuckling close by; his attention, however, was on the pipe and so, taking a deep breath, he followed Dumbledore.

It was very dark, and disgustingly slimy, as he fell, sliding through the pipe that had to be taking them right underneath the castle. He was just starting to wonder how much further it could actually go, when it started to level out before suddenly dumping him out of the end, onto the filthy, damp floor.

“Well… this is lovely,” Harry said sarcastically, as he pushed himself to his feet and pulled out his wand to clear off the worst of the slime that had got stuck to his jeans. Dumbledore, apparently having already cleaned himself up, was now using Lumos to light up the tunnel ahead of them and was peering into the semi-darkness.

“This way, I believe,” the headmaster said. “Stay close.”

“So glad you suggested that, I was planning on just wandering off to explore on my own,” Harry said, as he raised his own wand, casting Lumos to help them see a little further ahead. It didn’t help much, and mostly just made it clear how disgusting the tunnel actually was. However, they had come this far and so Harry followed Dumbledore, stepping over the various animal skeletons that littered the floor, a few crunching underfoot when he didn’t spot them.

“I thought you said this place was empty,” Harry said, when the light from their wands caused something to cast large shadows ahead of them. Though, in the dim light, they could see nothing more than a large silhouetted shape sprawled across the floor ahead of them.

“It should be,” Dumbledore told him, sounding hesitant as the two of them slowed their pace and approached with caution. It didn’t move though, and as they got closer it was clear that it was just an enormous snake skin.

“I have to say, that I am rather glad that Mr Riddle was kind enough to take that snake with him,” Harry said, as he took in the size of the thing, which he was sure had to be the best part of twenty foot long, if not more. “Besides, it would be cruel to keep something so big locked up inside,” he added with a grin.

“Let’s keep moving,” Dumbledore said firmly, lifting the hem of his robes slightly and stepping over the snakeskin, and Harry quickly followed. For all his jokes, he really did not want to find himself alone there and he was sure that if something did happen, their best chance would be to face it together.

It didn’t take much longer before they reached a wall, on which two entwined serpents had been carved, with emeralds for their eyes. It was a rather disturbing sight but Harry knew exactly what was expected of him now, and simply hissed out the instruction for them to open. This time he wasn’t surprised when they started to move, de-tangling themselves from each other as the wall cracked in two, parting to reveal a grand chamber beyond.

“I think we might have found it,” Harry said, as he wandered in first, Dumbledore just behind him. As uninspiring as the rest had been, this more than made up for it. He couldn’t help but feel that Slytherin had someone lacked a degree of subtlety, as he looked up at the large carvings of serpents that twists around the pillars supporting the ceiling.

Their footsteps echoed in the vast space as they made their way forward, their path lit by the strange greenish gloom that hung over the place, their lumos spells not doing much to help. As they continued further in, the enormous statue came into view, but Harry’s eyes were drawn to the heart-breaking sight of the small, clearly dead body close to its feet.

“She really was just a kid,” Harry said sadly, covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve as he moved forward towards Ginny Weasley’s body.

It was suddenly painfully clear exactly why he had to be here, because it was so very wrong for her to be left down here alone. He couldn’t help but think that she had only been about a year older than his little Niko was right now and his heart broke for this young girl that should never have been down here, who had been caught in the middle of a war that had nothing to do with her at all.

“We should…” Dumbledore started to say but Harry rounded on him and cut him off.

“No, you don’t get to say a damn thing right now, because this right here,” Harry said, gesturing to Ginny’s body, “is a girl who never even got to see her twelfth birthday because you couldn’t keep her safe at school!” And with that, Harry turned back to her, summoning sheets and spelling them onto her small body; Dumbledore said nothing more as he raised his wand and helped Harry with the process.

FGHP

Aiden was still unconscious, though Callie was pleased with how he seemed to be doing. His blood pressure and heart rate had become more stable, and he had tolerated the second blood replenishment potion that she had given him a short while ago.

Fenrir had switched places with Damon and was now out near the cave, keeping an eye on Dean, while Damon tried to catch up on a little sleep, so that he and Micha could leave the pack later.

“You’ve done all you can,” Jenson said, leaning over Callie’s shoulder and pressing a kiss to her temple. She had been keeping a very close eye on Aiden, checking on him regularly throughout the night, worried that he might slip away at a moment’s notice. “You told me yourself, he just needs time now.”

“I still want to keep an eye on him,” Callie said, trying to stifle a yawn. She wouldn’t tell him just how tired and drained she felt. Her belly felt really heavy despite the fact that she was barely showing.

Jenson, however, wasn’t having any of it; he had known his mate long enough now to tell when she was nearing complete exhaustion. With her being as stubborn as she was, he knew that he had to be somewhat careful with how he went about suggesting that she take a nap. “I’ll watch him,” Jenson said delicately, “you need to rest.”

“I’m perfectly fine,” Callie said rather forcefully. She knew that he was only trying to take care of her but she knew her own limits, she knew what she could and couldn’t do. Aiden was her patient and she had promised Tessie that she would take care of him. She would rest when she had ensured she could keep that promise.

“Callie…” Jenson tried to say but his mate cut him off with a ferocious stare, she wasn’t having any of it. She wasn’t sure if it was her hormones being all over the place or that she truly was just sick of him mollycoddling her constantly but Callie just needed some space to be able to make her own decisions without her mate hovering over her.

“I do not need your supervision,” she snapped at him, “I am a grown woman. Between you and my brother, I don’t have a moment’s peace. Now, please just allow me to do my job and make sure this young man’s life isn’t lost.”

Jenson stared at her for a moment, holding his tongue; there was an instinctual part of him that snarled at being spoken to in such a way but he held tightly onto it and formed his words carefully. “It could take days for him to wake,” Jenson pointed out, hoping that Callie would see reason, “surely you don’t intend to stay awake all that time.”

“Of course not,” Callie told him a little huffily, “but as a grown woman, I believe I am perfectly capable of deciding when to sleep, without your guidance.”

“You can’t talk to me like that, I am your dominant, it is my responsibility to take care of you regardless of your age or capability,” Jenson told her, his frustration with his mate growing, “especially now you’re pregnant with my child.”

Callie snarled at him, her own temper rising. “Is that what this is really about?” she demanded to know, pushing herself to her feet and rounding on her mate. “You don’t even trust me to be able to do what is best for our child?”

“Of course I trust you,” Jenson told her with exasperation. “But I also think that you need to stop putting everyone else’s health above your own,” he explained, gesturing towards where Aiden was lying unconscious, oblivious to the argument going on a few feet away.

The rest of the pack, however, were not so unaware, some of the now turning to watch the Beta couple in surprise; Callie and Jenson were not the type to argue at all, let alone in front of others.

“I know my own body, Jenson,” Callie told him furiously, pulling her arm away from him when he reached for her. “And don’t you dare ever imply that I would risk this baby,” she added, her eyes narrowed into a glare and her other hand resting on her still mostly flat belly, though there was a distinctive curve there now that hadn't been there before.

“I didn’t imply anything of the sort!” Jenson cried out in exasperation, once again reaching out for his mate; however, another hand wrapped around his wrist and he turned to find himself face to face with a furious looking Damon.

“Back. Off,” Damon snarled at the Beta wolf; he had been unhappy to have been woken after only a few hours’ sleep, but even more pissed off to see that his sister and Jenson were arguing. “Lay one finger on her and I will rip it off,” he promised through clenched teeth.

“Stop it, Damon!” Callie shouted, tired of these men feeling like they needed to defend her from everything all the time, even herself and her own mate. “This is none of your business.”

“This is between me and Callie,” Jenson said, agreeing with his mate on this one. “And you might want to remember who is Beta in this pack; you can’t beat me in a fight, I’m stronger than you,” he said.

Damon didn’t miss the unsubtle warning in the words but it wasn’t going to keep him from defending his little sister. He had been protecting Callie from everything he could since she had been four years old, he wasn’t going to stop now, whether she liked it or not.

“Let’s go,” Jenson said, reaching out for Callie, “we’ll find somewhere else to talk.” He wanted to reach and understanding with his mate but didn’t think that was going to happen with Damon meddling in their business.

“No,” Callie said, taking another step back from her mate. “I really don’t feel like talking right now.” She just wanted to be left alone and the last thing she wanted to deal with was stupid dominant egos.

“Callie, come on,” Jenson said firmly, a hint of a growl in his tone as he made a grab for her, wanting to drag her away from the others, who were gathering around to watch, curious about what was going on.

“Like hell!” Damon snarled pushing himself between Jenson and Callie. He had seen what Dominants could get like when their mates defied them and as much as Jenson tended to be level-headed and kind, Damon wasn’t going to give the man a chance to mistreat Callie.

Jenson, however, didn’t react well to being separated from his mate, not while his instincts were so close to the surface, and lunged for Damon with a roar of fury. Callie darted backwards out of the way with a cry of surprise, as the two large men hit the ground in a flurry of flying fists.

“No!” Micha cried out, rushing over to Callie’s side, pulling her further out of their way, even as he wanted to dart into the fight and pull his own mate out of Jenson’s reach. He really wished Fenrir was there to help but the Alpha was still watching over Dean.

“I’m going to get Fenrir,” Jaylon said, as though reading Micha’s mind. The sight of the two fighting dominants terrified him but he had been in the pack long enough to know that they needed Fenrir to separate them. He might have been scared but he knew that this was the only way to stop it and it wasn't like he hadn't seen these two going at it before.

“Jaylon, wait!” Tessie cried out as the teenager rushed off in the direction of the cave. He didn’t even turn back at the sound of her voice though and so she hurried after him, not wanting him to be alone in the woods, despite the proven effectiveness of the wards.

“Stop this!” Callie screamed, as she and Micha stayed as close to the fighting dominants as they dared, without risking getting hit by accident. She knew it was futile but she hated seeing them like this, and found herself even more furious at their testosterone fuelled instincts. “I can’t watch this!” she declared, pulling herself away from Micha and rushing off in the opposite direction of Jaylon and Tessie, towards the stream.

“Callie, no!” Micha cried out, his eyes going from her to the fighting dominants and then to little Niko, who was watching on with horror at what was happening. He felt so torn. “Stay back, don’t leave the clearing,” Micha instructed Niko, as he turned and rushed off after Callie, desperately hoping that he was making the right choice and that Jaylon and Tessie would fetch Fenrir quickly.

FGHP

Fenrir and Dean’s tense silence was broken as Jaylon came hurrying through the woods towards them, Tessie just on his heels. Fenrir was quickly on his feet as he took in Jaylon’s fearful expression, suddenly worried for his pack’s safety.

“Damon. Jenson,” Jaylon panted out, his breathing coming in rough gasps from having run as quickly as he could.

Fenrir didn’t need to hear any more, and was already running back towards the clearing before Jaylon had barely finished speaking. He knew his best friend and Beta well enough to know how easily the two of them came to blows, often over their mates or pups, and he knew he need to get back quickly before one of the submissives or Niko got caught in the middle.

This quite suddenly left Jaylon and Dean more or less alone, apart from Tessie, who was watching curiously from a short way away. Jaylon had thought that he would be terrified, Dominants scared him after all. He had become accustomed to the ones in the pack, he had seen them with their mates and knew they wouldn’t hurt him, however, despite the fact that this man was unknown to Jaylon, he didn’t feel scared at all.

“You my new guard?” Dean asked, watching the submissive curiously, remembering the time that he and Aiden had handed the young man over to the Greyback pack along with Niko.

“No,” Jaylon said a little shyly, looking down at the grass so that Dean couldn’t see the blush on his cheeks. “Some of the others were fighting in the clearing,” he said.

“I thought this was a peaceful pack where everyone got along?” Dean asked sceptically. He didn’t want to think that he had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire by leaving Gideon’s pack and coming into Greyback’s. He thought that it was going to be an improvement but now the wasn’t so sure.

“Oh no, they’re all lovely,” Jaylon said quickly, not wanting for Dean to get the wrong idea. “I like it here.”

Dean was looking at Jaylon curiously, not sure why he felt a need to prove himself to this teenager. “They treat you well here?” he asked and Jaylon nodded.

“You’ll be safe here,” Jaylon said quietly, because he knew that Fenrir would always keep the whole pack safe if he could.

“Hmmm, if you say so kid,” Dean said with a crooked smile and Jaylon nodded again. He really was finding the teenager’s shyness very endearing, plus the young man seemed to have complete faith in his safety within the pack, which helped ease Dean’s concerns somewhat.

“Jaylon,” Tessie said, “come, we should get back to the clearing.” She wasn’t sure what was going on between the two men but she wasn’t sure that she approved of it, for either Jaylon or Aiden’s sake, given this man was her cousin’s mate.

Jaylon turned to look at her, before looking back to Dean again, feeling a strange hesitance to do as she instructed. He really didn’t understand the way that this dominant was making him feel but there was definitely something about him.

“Go ahead, kid,” Dean said, with a smirk, “I’m sure I’ll see you real soon.” And with that Jaylon headed over to Tessie’s side, sparing Dean one more glance before the two of them followed after Fenrir, back towards the clearing.

FGHP

Fenrir ran back to the clearing at full speed, dreading what he was going to find when he got back there. Jenson had been the only dominant awake in the clearing when he had left to change places with Damon earlier, and so he knew that the pack’s pups and submissives were at risk of getting hurt if the two men had given into their instincts.

Sure enough, when he pushed through the tree line, he could see the two men brawling a short distance from the fire. However, what surprised him was the sight of Aiden, clearly awake and holding Niko back from the two fighting dominants.

“Dad!” Niko shouted out. “They won’t stop, we have to stop them,” he said. This, however, drew Aiden’s attention to Fenrir, and in his weakened state, he could no longer keep hold of the wriggling teenager.

“Niko, stop!” Fenrir bellowed as the ten-year-old headed straight for Damon and Jenson, who both remained oblivious to everything but throwing punches and kicks at each other. The ten-year-old didn’t listen though and soon caught a hit to the jaw from one of the two men.

Fenrir roared at the top of his lungs, his fury bursting out at the sight of his young son getting injured. He no longer cared that these men were his best friend and his Beta wolf, they were just the people who had hurt Niko, and he was going to rip them limb from limb if the ten-year-old was seriously hurt. Charging forward, he grabbed hold of the huge red-head and threw him across the clearing, before turning to roar loudly at the other man on the ground, who cowered at the obvious rage.

The threat eliminated, the Alpha hurried to Niko, lifting his son’s small body into his arms and cradling him close. “Niko,” he said urgently, already checking his son for injuries, but he couldn’t see any other than the bruise forming on the ten-year-old boy’s jaw.

“I’m okay, Dad,” Niko said, looking up at his father and holding onto his jacket. He wanted to be strong but that had really hurt.

The Alpha, assured that nothing was broken and that his son wasn’t seriously injured, placed the ten-year-old back into Aiden’s arms before rounding on Jenson and Damon. They were both a lot worse for wear but looking as though they were about to go at each other once again. Grabbing hold of the Beta Wolf, Fenrir forcefully pushed Jenson back into a large tree.

“Where’s Callie?” he roared. “Gone; just liked Micha,” Fenrir added, turning on Damon. “My son is injured because of you!” Then, before anyone could comprehend what was going on, the Alpha had slammed his fist into Jenson’s jaw.

“I’m sorry, my Alpha,” Jenson said, sinking to the floor in submission as Fenrir released him, his jaw aching terribly. He just wanted to go and find Callie and make sure she was alright; he hadn’t even realised that she was gone and he felt terrible about that.

“Damon,” Fenrir barked, “find Micha, then go and fetch Aspen. Now,” the Alpha demanded. He had no idea how he was going to punish his friend but he would think of that later, for now he just didn’t want to see him or the Beta wolf. “Jenson, go and watch Dean.”

“Dean?” Aiden asked, still cuddling Niko close to his chest as the Alpha strode towards them. “Dean’s here, where is he? Is he alright?” He was feeling a little out of sorts still but he was keen to get back to his mate, to figure out how he had ended up here with the Greyback pack.

“He’s fine,” Fenrir grunted, taking Niko back and lifting the ten-year-old up into his arms; right now he wanted his son close, while he got the rest of his pack back in order, and it seemed, from the way that Niko wrapped his arms around Fenrir’s neck, that the young boy was perfectly fine with that. “Tell me what happened.”

“I have no idea,” Aiden said, as he glanced off in the directions that the two dominant wolves had just gone. He was honestly very confused about what he had woken up to.

“With Gideon,” Fenrir clarified with an annoyed snarl; he was not in the mood to have to wrangle answers out of anyone. He wanted to get the answers he was looking for so that he could stop having to waste a dominant to watch over Dean.

“Oh…” Aiden said, his expression becoming sombre, “that.” He glanced at Niko, who was cuddling in close to the Alpha before looking Fenrir in the face again. “It’s not really a story for small ears,” he explained, “but let’s just say, from what I do remember, that if Dean got me here, then he probably saved both our lives.”

Fenrir grunted and nodded, that was more or less what he had expected to hear, and so, he would wait long enough that he thought he would be able to face seeing the Beta wolf without hitting him again, and then bring both Jenson and Dean back to the clearing. He was about to say as much, when an excited shout sounded from the tree line.

“Aiden!” Tessie called out, and by the time that they had looked towards her, she was rushing to him for a hug, obviously delighted to see her cousin awake.

Now that the pack was momentarily calm once more, Fenrir left the two of them to their small family reunion and moved over to the fire. He really was feeling like he needed to just take the moment to just be with his son and reassure himself that Niko really was okay.

Fenrir held Niko close to him, allowing the ten-year-old to cuddle into him; he knew the little boy was crying and didn’t want to show it, so the Alpha let him be for a moment. He didn’t deal well with tears anyway. Instead he watched curiously as Jaylon was introduced to Aiden, expecting for the timid teenager to hide behind Tessie and found himself surprised when Jaylon went forward and actually hugged this new man.

FGHP

Seamus had opted to go and study in the library. With all of the drama and goings-on, he had fallen a little behind, so he had politely declined the offer to spend time with Romy and Clayton while Harry was busy with the headmaster. Clay had taken that opportunity to suggest to his girlfriend that the two of them spend some quality alone time together. Romy had happily agreed, taking that to mean that something would be happening between them.

Getting back to the forest room, Romy ensured that the door was closed before she pounced upon her boyfriend. Their lips crashed together and her hands went straight for the hem of his t-shirt, attempting to tug it up and over his head.

Clay allowed it for a moment, his heart racing as they broke their kiss only long enough for her remove his t-shirt, discarding it across the room; however, when she went to undo his trousers he had to take hold of her hands and stop her. Almost at once, Romy stopped kissing him, stepping back and looking at him confused.

“Not yet,” Clay said softly, “not today.” Letting go of her hands, he reached up to stroke one of her curls that had fallen into her face. However, as he went to kiss her again, Romy took another step backwards.

“Then when?” Romy demanded to know, her feelings badly hurt; they had only just got back together and now it seemed he was rejecting her. “You keep claiming to love me, that you’ve wanted me for so long, but here I am, offering myself to you and you don’t want me!”

“I just don’t think you’re ready,” Clay said with a sigh, reaching out to his girlfriend again and frowning when she stepped back for a third time. He was just trying to do right by her and he honestly didn’t understand why she was so upset.

“I think I’m the one who should be the judge of that,” Romy argued, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m the one who was beaten and raped by those monsters. I’m the one who should be the judge of when I’m ready, not you,” she told him firmly.

“I don’t want to rush into this,” Clay tried to explain, but it was already clear that Romy didn’t want to hear it.

“You don’t want to rush into this,” Romy said with a laugh, “you’re the one who pushed me away because I wouldn’t tell my Dad. You wouldn’t even look at me or touch me for days and you still won’t.”

Clay stared at her, trying to find the words. He had no idea how they had come to be fighting again so soon. He was with the girl that he loved and he knew that Romy loved him too and he just didn’t understand how it kept ending up with arguments. “I just don’t want to hurt you…” Clay said, his voice soft and full of concern.

“You’re hurting me now,” Romy countered, not at all in the mood to be patronised and treated like some porcelain doll. Over the last few months, she had proven time and time again, just how strong she was now, and it was infuriating that Clay seemed to forget that so easily.

“I’m not having sex with you because you’re throwing a tantrum,” Clay told her, his voice more stern and determined now.

“Tantrum!” Romy said, outraged, unable to believe the nerve of him. “I’ll show you a fucking tantrum!” Romy snarled, storming towards the door and leaving the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

FGHP

Not wanting to disturb Seamus in the library, but in need of someone to talk to, Romy went in search of Luna, thinking that her best bet was the Ravenclaw common room. This also had the added bonus of the fact that Clayton wouldn’t be able to come and find her. She really didn’t want to see or speak to him right now.

She was barely aware of answering the eagle knocker’s question about poison antidotes but, as the door swung open, she was very glad to quickly spot Luna at one of the tables across the far side of the common room, head buried in a large book. Taking a calming breath, Romy headed straight over to her friend and dropped herself into the chair across from Luna’s.

“You seem a little upset,” Luna said in her usual dreamy tone, as she looked up over the top of her book, and gave Romy a kind smile.

“You could say that,” Romy grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back in her chair, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself. “Don’t really want to talk about it though,” she said, sitting back upright again and forcing a smile onto her face. “How are things with Theo?”

Luna closed her book and leaned forward over the table a little so that the two of them could talk more quietly. “Wonderful,” she admitted with a sneaky smile. “He doesn’t like lying to his parents, and that date with Pansy was a disaster, but he does like to tell me I’m worth all the trouble.”

“I don’t know how you can stand all that pretending,” Romy said with a look of sympathy. “And sharing him, letting him go on dates with another woman…” she added, shaking her head.

“Pansy might get his time, but his heart, not to mention a few other more intimate parts, are all mine,” Luna said with a deceptively sweet smile and absolute confidence. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing that Pansy could do to steal Theo away from her.

“Luna!” Romy said, her voice full of surprised laughter. She had had her suspicions about just how far Luna and Theo had gone, but to hear it all but confirmed, and while they were sitting in the common room… It was delightfully scandalous. “So you and Theo are still sleeping together?”

“Of course,” Luna said happily; as far as she was concerned it was only natural for the two of them to express their love physically and she certainly wasn’t going to be ashamed of that. “Are you and Clay not?” she asked curiously.

“No,” Romy said, her face becoming suddenly serious as she frowned. “Not due to lack of trying on my part, I assure you.”

“Theo is rather forward with what he wants, and he always seems to want it,” Luna said, watching her friend curiously. “I can’t believe that Clayton wouldn’t want that, he seems very masculine and dominating when it comes to anything sexual.”

“I think he probably is really, but he is trying so very hard to protect me,” Romy said, not even trying to hide her exasperation. “I don’t need protecting half as much as he seems to think I do.”

“Maybe he just doesn’t want to trigger bad memories,” Luna suggested.

“I’m sure that’s a big part of it,” Romy agreed, “but at this point I would like to actually make new memories, rather than living in fear of the ones that I already have. Not having sex with me doesn’t mean those memories of all the stuff that was done to me go away, it just means I don’t have positive ones by contrast.”

Luna nodded in understanding. “Maybe Clay hadn’t thought about it like that,” she said, knowing that she hadn’t considered it in such terms before. “Talk to him,” she suggested.

“I will,” Romy said with a sigh, knowing that Luna was right, but for the moment she just needed some time to cool off, and needed to give Clay the same, otherwise it was likely that one or both of them would say something that they would come to regret. She was determined that one way or another she was going to get Clay into bed with her.

FGHP

Harry was itching to get back to his pack siblings. He had done his duty and brought the Weasley girl up from the Chamber of Secrets, the last thing he wanted was to meet the girl’s parents, however, that was exactly what was about to happen. He was sat in the Headmaster’s study, waiting for them to show up, twiddling his thumbs nervously.

Once they had made it back to the office with Ginny’s wrapped body, the headmaster had transfigured a wooden casket and they had placed her carefully inside it. Harry had silently agreed that it was for the best, thinking that her parents didn’t need to see her how she was now after nearly three years below the school, rotting in the secret chamber that only he could gain access to. Now though, they were simply sat in silence, waiting.

Harry didn’t know what to expect from these people, after all they were Ron’s parents and the red-head must have got all that hate and bitterness from somewhere. The last thing Harry wanted was to be yelled at and berated by these people, particularly when he had just been trying to do right by their daughter.

A knock on the office door had Harry practically jumping out of his skin, his heart rate sky-rocketing. Dumbledore rose from his chair and went to open the door, ushering inside two red-headed grown-ups. Whatever Harry had been expecting it wasn’t these two, who looked as if they couldn’t hurt a fly. They were followed in by several other younger redheads, all clearly related, the twins who Clay had spoken to a few times earlier in the term, and the last one through the door was one of the last people Harry wanted to see, Ron.

“Molly, Arthur,” Dumbledore simpered, as he approached them, taking one of the woman’s hands in his own as she used the other to wipe away tears with a handkerchief. “I cannot imagine how hard this is for you all, but I asked young Harry to remain here with me, thinking you might want to meet the young man responsible for this bitter-sweet moment.”

Harry couldn’t help but roll his eyes at how the headmaster’s demeanour had changed. The old man was no longer the stubborn and infuriating meddler that Harry knew him to be, instead he was weak and pathetic. No wonder so many people had fallen for his act, he was very good at it.

Molly sobbed again, clearly trying hard to hold herself together, and so it was Arthur who stepped past the Headmaster to greet Harry. “We cannot thank you enough,” the man said, holding out his hand; Harry hesitated only a moment before taking in his own and shaking it. “Thank you, Harry.”

“You’re welcome,” Harry replied a bit awkwardly as he watched the tallest of the Weasley children wrap an arm over their mother’s shoulder in support, most of the others hanging back, close to the door, seemingly and rather understandably sad. Ron, however, looked livid.

“Don’t touch him,” Ron said suddenly. “He’s a werewolf, he could contaminate you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Ron,” the stockier looking of the two eldest said firmly, turning to look at his youngest brother with a frown, unsure of where he had got this attitude from.

“He’s already bitten one of my friends and turned him!” Ron shouted. He was not about to give his family a chance to be sucked in by whatever nonsense had so many people fawning over Harry Prince.

“That wasn’t… it was a mistake,” Harry pointed out defensively, catching himself before he could accidentally incriminate Clay. “It only happened because you were being a horrible bully, and Seamus has forgiven me, so don’t you think it is about time that you let it go.”

“Never,” Ron said through gritted teeth, crossing his arms over his chest. “We are here for my sister, not to talk to disgusting Slytherin beasts like you.”

“Ronald Billius Weasley,” Arthur said firmly, quite shocked by his son’s viciousness. “We are indeed here for your sister, but only thanks to Harry, so you will be quiet until you think of something nice to say. Where is my daughter?” Arthur asked, suddenly sounding very weary as he turned back to Dumbledore.

“Over here, Arthur,” the headmaster said as he gestured to the casket on the other side of the room. All eyes turned towards it and Molly broke down into hysterical sobs in the arms of her eldest, who also now had tears on his face. Harry took a step back so he was leaning against the wall, simply watching. This wasn’t a moment he wanted to get in the way of.

The twins too were crying, as they leaned against each other for support. “I still can’t believe she’s gone, Charlie,” one of the twins said, as the stockier of the older boys came over to them and wrapped an arm over the other twin’s shoulders.

The family made their way across the room and gathered around the coffin that now held their sister. Even Ron, who was throwing Harry another hateful glare, followed his parents and siblings when the most uptight looking of his brothers placed a hand on his back and encouraged him.

Harry felt very awkward, as though he was intruding on this family’s grief, and though he wasn’t particularly bothered by Ron’s attitude, far too used to it at this point, it had made it very clear that he wasn’t welcome there. So, trying not to draw attention to himself, he quietly started to make his way to the door, hoping he could get out of there before Dumbledore tried to stop him. However, it wasn’t the headmaster that spoiled his plans.

“Oh, my dear,” Molly Weasley said, turning on Harry when she had spotted him moving away. “Thank you,” she said earnestly, coming over to him and putting her hands on his cheeks as though trying to get a proper look at him. “Thank you,” she said again, pulling him into a hug.

Harry’s whole body went stiff in surprise at the sudden, unexpected embrace and it took a few moments for him to relax enough to at least sort of hug her back. “You’re welcome,” he said as she let him go, not really sure what else there was to say.

“I speak for my whole family when I say that we are so grateful for what you have done for us today,” Molly said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “No matter what anyone else says about you, we all know that you are a decent human being, such a brave and courageous young man.”

“She was eleven, she didn’t deserve to be down there all alone,” Harry told her earnestly. “My family know what it’s like to suffer, I wouldn’t want to leave any family to suffer if I could prevent it,” Harry said with a shrug, feeling rather uncomfortable with the attention being on him. “This time I could help ease your family’s suffering, even if it is just a little bit.”

“My family is forever grateful to you for this act of kindness,” Arthur said, giving Ron a rather stern look as he added, “all of us.”

“I think I need to apologise for my youngest son,” Molly told him, feeling rather embarrassed for the way that Ron had been behaving. “The headmaster has told me he has been something of a nuisance towards you and your friends; he hasn’t been the same since Neville’s death,” she added with quiet sadness, “such a shame.”

“Thank you but you don’t need to apologize, I know what I am and I know what people tend to think of what I am. My pack and I aren’t barbaric or uncontrollable beasts, we’re still human and we know that people find us difficult to understand and mostly that makes them hate us,” Harry said, ignoring the sound Ron scoffing in disbelief. “I’m glad that I could help you though, there isn’t much good left in the world right now; it feels nice to do something for someone.”

“Not everyone thinks you’re uncontrollable beasts,” one of the older Weasley children said, sweeping back his long red hair with one swift motion. “Dumbledore has told us of the efforts you are going to in the war against Voldemort and we can only be grateful to you for choosing to join us to fight against him when you didn’t have to.”

“The headmaster made a very convincing argument,” Harry said, trying his very best to hold his tongue while he glared hatefully at the old man. “My whole pack stands behind me in helping defeat the lunatics of this world, we just hope we can all live peacefully together once that is done.”

“Let us hope,” Arthur said, nodding his head in agreement, rather impressed by Harry’s maturity. Whatever had been expecting from the young werewolf he had heard so much about, it was not this.

“It really was lovely meeting you all, but I think I should probably give you some time as a family,” Harry suggested. “And I do have rather a lot of homework to get working on,” he added with a small chuckle, hoping to lighten the mood at least a little, and it did earn him a few small smiles from Molly, Charlie and the twins at least.

“Of course, don’t let us hold you up,” Arthur said, eagerly shaking Harry’s hand once more before the teenager headed for the door, subtly blowing a kiss in Ron’s direction and earning a furious scowl, before hurrying out of the room, thinking that perhaps the Headmaster wasn't the only one who was able to put on a good act when it needed to be done.

FGHP

Damon huffed in agitation as he checked the address scribbled on the piece of paper again and confirmed that this really was the place that they were looking for. The combination of lack of sleep and his fight with Jenson this morning, had meant that he hadn’t been in a great mood when he and Micha had left the clearing. He had also been looking a lot worse for wear, and his and Micha’s attempts at healing spells had only been able to do so much and so he was still fairly bruised, with a black eye and a swollen lip.

However, Damon’s mood had gone rapidly downhill when they had got to Aspen’s parents’ house and discovered that he hadn’t lived there in years. Neither of Aspen’s parents had wanted to talk about their son though, and all his father had said, before slamming the door in their face, was that the boy had gone to a care home for special kids.

It had made Damon rather angry to know that they had disowned and abandoned their child just because he was a Werewolf. He knew that was why after a snide comment from Aspen’s mother about not wanting “their kind” around them. She had also ushered two teenagers away from the door, clearly not wanting them to know what was going on.

From there they had gone straight to the local council, trying to find out where Aspen might have gone, but after being directed to the records office, it had still taken them several hours to identify the place that Mr Irving had been referring too. It actually turned out to be a boarding school of sorts for unique and gifted children that were unwanted by their magical parents due to the pollution of creature blood.

“This is now a school?” Micha asked, as they took in the sight of the large, somewhat run down building before them. It certainly looked as if it had seen better days, clearly the owners of the building cared very little about it. It certainly wasn’t a good omen for those left here to be raised and taken care of.

“Sort of, I suppose,” Damon said with a frown, his own memories of the place coming back. It had been one of the places that he, Callie and Fenrir had sought shelter in over winter one year when they had been little more than children themselves. The place didn’t look like it had changed much. “Come on, trouble, let’s get this over with.”

Damon wasn’t looking forward to going inside, his own memories of this place and the basement they had been forced into were startlingly vivid given how long ago it was and were inseparable from his memories of how unwell Callie had been at the time. He remembered all too well how the three of them had been forced to live a tiny basement room, segregating them from the other children. It also had an adjoining room lined with silver especially for their transformations. It was a room that had been built just for them when they arrived, mainly because everyone was so afraid of them and it had certainly done nothing to help Callie’s health, which was why they hadn’t stayed here long.

“I remember this place,” Micha said, taking a moment to really look at it as they started up the drive towards it. During his time when he had been in exile he had ended up in a fair few places and he didn’t remember them all. However, this place did seem a little familiar to him and it gave him a deep feeling of foreboding too. “Think it was covered in snow when I was here though,” he said, and Damon looked at him in surprise.

“You’ve stayed here too?” Damon asked. “Callie, Fenrir and I stayed here one winter when I was about twelve. Did they put you in that horrible basement room?” he asked, hoping that his mate hadn’t suffered through that.

“Yeah,” Micha said sadly, “didn’t stick around long enough for them to try that a second time, the silver bothered me a lot. Do you think they have been putting Aspen in there?” he asked, suddenly concerned for the young man they had come to collect.

“I would bet on it,” Damon said wryly as they approached the door, quickly knocking. Again he found himself wishing that Fenrir had brought him all of these children that had been bitten, rather than leaving them to their own devices.

“I wonder if there are any other werewolves in here this time,” Micha mused as they knocked on the front door, “there wasn’t anyone else like me when I came here, it was lonely. None of the other children wanted to come anywhere near me.”

Damon was about to answer when the door was pulled open and revealed a tall, slender and stern looking man, with receding grey hair and dressed in black robes and looking not at all pleased to see them standing there.

“What do you want?” he asked bluntly, looking between the pair of them. “We only take in children, which clearly neither of you are.”

“Actually, Mr Atwood, we are looking for someone who we believe lives here, Aspen Irving,” Micha said, remembering the man stood before them all too well. It was clear, though, that the man recognised neither him or Damon and that was perfectly fine with him.

Mr Atwood watched him them both for a moment with narrowed eyes before opening the door further. “Very well,” he said huffily, “I suppose you better come in then.”

Knowing that they weren’t going to get a warmer greeting than that, the two of them hurried inside, Mr Atwood shutting the door before leading them down the familiar hallway to the main office. They could hear people talking in the room opposite, but the doors were all shut and so they saw no one else as they made their way through the building.

“Wait here,” he instructed bluntly before leaving them alone in the office.

“I assume he went to fetch Aspen,” Micha said with a shrug of his shoulders as he and Damon went to sit down in the chairs in front of the desk. “Are you okay?” he asked after a few moments when Damon still hadn’t said anything.

“Yeah, just been a long day,” Damon said wearily, “and I had hoped never to find myself here again.” Mr Atwood had been there since the time when Damon, Fenrir and Callie had stayed, though the man had aged considerably in the twenty-four years since then, and seeing him again had brought back a fair few memories he would have liked to have left buried.

It was an hour later when Mr Atwood returned, looking at them rather confused. There weren’t many staff there on Sundays and he had got distracted with the many things he had to be doing and forgotten that he had two people in his office. “You’re still here?” he asked in disgust.

“Yes,” Damon said rather testily, “we’re here to see Aspen Irving. Is he here or not?” He had thought that the hour long wait had been because Aspen had been out doing something, not because they had been forgotten.

“Well I don’t know where he is,” Mr Atwood said testily, he had very little patience when it came to people visiting the children in his home. “Try the basement, that is where the beasts sleep, or the grounds; if they aren’t in the basement, they’re in the grounds. Most of the rooms we do not allow Werewolves inside.”

“Come on, Micha,” Damon said, glaring at Mr Atwood, unimpressed with the level of care that the man had for the children living here. “I highly doubt that Aspen will be in the basement.”

Micha nodded in agreement. He didn’t even live here anymore, had only been there an hour and was already looking forward to getting outside into the gardens. Besides, he had no desire to ever see that basement room again. What made this place worse was that the silver from below seemed to have seeped upwards into the rest of the building because he could smell it quite clearly where he was stood in the office.

“One more thing,” Damon said before Mr Atwood could get far and the man turned to look at him. “If any other werewolves show up here, I’ll pay you if you inform me,” he offered, taking a business card out of his pocket and holding it out. He was disgusted with this whole place, which seemed even worse and more toxic now than it had been all those years before and he therefore wanted to make sure that no other werewolves had to suffer here.

Mr Atwood stared at him in suspicion for a few moments, not trusting this offer in the slightest, but at the same time eager to possibly be rid of such creatures from his home. “How much?” he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“A hundred Galleons,” Damon said firmly, a glint in his eye that practically dared the man to turn down the offer. Micha, next to him, gasped, looking at the dominant in surprise.

“How can I trust that you can give me this? You’re nothing but pathetic beasts,” Atwood asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the two men in front of him as he took the business card.

“Read the damn card, you’ll know that I can afford it,” Damon scowled, unimpressed with Atwood; he seemed to care even less than he had when he, Fenrir and Callie had been here. “Now, where is Aspen?”

“Outside with his little bitch companion,” Atwood said, eyeing Damon with a little more interest. He had little reason to believe that the card he had been handed told the truth but if it was true and this beast was the owner of the Danes’ leisure facility chain then the man could almost certainly easily afford the one hundred Galleon reward being promised.

“Thank you,” Damon said stiffly, motioning for Micha to go ahead of him. They both wanted out of this place as quickly as possible.

FGHP

Outside, Aspen and Rosie were lazing about under a large oak tree. Both of them wearing mostly grey and black, refusing to conform to any of what the other children wore. The two of them liked to be as different as possible because the others treated them as if they were aliens regardless.

Rosie wore a baggy grey dress, black socks up past her knees and black combat boots, her dark brown, almost black hair braided into two deliberately messy pigtails on each side of her head. Aspen was lying beside her, in black jeans and a grey t-shirt. Between the two of them was a glass bottle of vodka, something that Rosie had stolen from one of the muggle houses nearby, not that Aspen approved of this of course; he was a bit of a stickler for the rules.

“What do you want to do with your life after this?” Rosie asked, bringing the bottle to her lips, taking a sip and enjoying the heat that went down her throat and settled in her belly. Neither of them had eaten that day and it satisfied her hunger. They only really got fed when there were leftovers as they were not permitted to eat with the others.

“I’m not sure,” Aspen mused, watching Rosie with disapproval. “Something that will make us enough money to be able to get somewhere to live far, far away from here,” he told her, rolling his head sideways to flash her a crooked smile.

“That is definitely a plan I can agree with,” Rosie said, taking another swig from the bottle in her hand as she turned to scowl at the house; however, as she did so, she spotted two guys she didn’t recognise out in the grounds. “Any guesses?” she asked, tapping Aspen on the arm and gesturing over to the strangers.

Sitting up, Aspen furrowed his brow in thought, trying to remember if he had ever seen either of them before, but nothing came to mind. “I think they are looking for us,” he commented, when he realised that they were heading directly towards them. “Put that away,” Aspen snapped sharply, motioning to the bottle on the ground. He watched in disapproval as Rosie shrunk the bottle and slipped it into her bra from the neck of her dress. She kept her wand in hand, however, wanting to be prepared in case the worst happened.

“Aspen?” the larger of the two men asked, as he and the blond came to stand a few feet from their oak tree. The man looked like he had had a bit of a rough day, if the black eye and split lip were anything to go by.

“Who’s asking?” Rosie asked, before Aspen had a chance to answer.

“Micha,” the blond said with a grin, stepping past the battered man and holding his hand out towards the pair of them. “And this is my mate, Damon,” he added, as Aspen reached out and shook the offered hand. “He isn’t usually such a grump, but he had a bad day. So I take it you are Aspen?”

“I am,” Aspen confirmed, confused about how these two strangers knew his name or where to find him, let alone what they wanted.

“What do you want?” Rosie asked, pushing herself to her feet, not liking having these two men towering over her. Aspen too got to his feet, following her lead and wanting to protect her if she went for them. Rosie was quiet most of the time, shy even, but you didn’t want to mess with her, she would fight to the death if anyone threatened someone she cared for and right now there was no one she cared for more than Aspen.

“Wow, you’re a little fire cracker,” Micha said with a grin, “Damon, can we keep her too? She would give Harry and Romy a run for their money, don’t you think.”

“Yes, because giving those two more competition is definitely what the pack needs,” Damon said sarcastically, smiling indulgently at his excitable mate.

“Pack?” Aspen asked, a little hopefully. Ever since he had been old enough to understand what he was, he had wondered what it would be like to live with others of his kind, but Rosie was the only one he had ever met.

“Yes, if you agree, we’re here to take you back to our pack,” Damon explained and the two teenagers shared a look with each other, netiher of them having expected that. “Our Alpha was the one that bit you as a child; it was always his intention to have you join the pack when you turned sixteen.”

“Hmm,” Aspen hummed, sounding sceptical. “This man who bit me and made me what I am, caused me to be disowned by my parents and left me to end up in this place, now expects me to join his pack?”

“It sounds worse than it is,” Micha said with a frown, realising that it did sound pretty awful. None of the children that Fenrir had bitten seemed to be particularly well adjusted, not that Micha or most of the pack were much better. They were a complicated lot, that was for sure.

“When he bit you he didn’t have the capabilities to take care of you, he never thought that your parents would abandon you,” Damon told him. “If he had known then he would have taken you. It’s what he did with the boy who became my son. We can offer you a life better than this,” Damon said, hoping that he could make Aspen see.

“You don’t know anything about our life here,” Rosie said defensively, standing up for her friend, she wouldn’t see these men convince him to do anything that he didn’t want to.

“I came here when I was young,” Damon said heatedly, wanting to get home, “I know about the basement, the room with the silver. I can smell silver all through that goddamn house. Would you prefer to live here, poisoning yourselves slowly and painfully, or come with us?”

“I will not leave here without Rosie,” Aspen said pointedly. He and Rosie had lived here together for years; he would not leave her here when there was promise of a better life with wherever these two wanted to take him.

“We wouldn’t leave her here in this hell hole,” Micha said at once, “we might be werewolves but we’re not animals. We protect our own kind, as long as they don’t try and hurt us.”

“Good because I would never leave Rosie,” Aspen pointed out rather bluntly. Rosie beamed at him, wrapping her arms around his and leaning into his side.

“Well then that’s decided,” Micha said happily, a grin on his face “you both come.” He was glad that they had agree with such relative ease.

“So we leave, the two of us, with you,” Aspen said seriously, with a nod of his head, as though needing the details of what was happening to be stated explicitly.

“Wow, you’re going to be a lot of fun,” Damon said with an exasperated sigh, wondering if Aspen was always like this.

FGHP

Lukas couldn’t keep the smile from his face as he and Nell, hand-in-hand, left the private clinic where they had been seeing a magical healer. It had been something that they both wanted, just to make sure that all was okay with Nell’s pregnancy and to try and estimate her due date.

“Can you believe we will be parents by the end of October,” Nell said, cuddling close into Lukas’ side. The two of them had been doing much better since Lukas had shown up at her door on Tuesday and she was very glad that they had been able to go to this scan together.

“I just can’t believe that you are eight weeks pregnant already,” Lukas said in shock, trying to work out when they had conceived in his head. He was pretty sure that it must have been after the date at the tea house for her to be that far along.

“I know it might be a little early,” Nell said nervously, chewing on her lip, wondering if she should mention it or not, “but have you thought about names?”

Lukas flushed scarlet at the question; he had, in fact, lost a good few hours one afternoon, when he was supposed to have been working, to exactly that. “I have,” he admitted to her, “though I’m not sure that you’re going to like them.”

“I’m listening,” Nell said, keen to hear what Lukas had come up with.

“Well, seeing as we both love tea…” Lukas began, obviously nervous to give voice to his thoughts. “I was maybe thinking either Ceylon for a boy or Chai for a girl… they’re our favourite teas and I thought it would be cute but if you hate the idea then we don’t have to….”

“No, I think I like that…” Nell said, mulling the names over in her head. They weren’t names that had occurred to her in the times she had spent thinking it over, but her choices seemed so mundane and boring now that she had heard Lukas’.

“Really?” he asked, scarcely daring to believe that they might be able to agree on names for their child that easily. “I wouldn’t be offended if you told me you hated them, this is your child too,” he pointed out, not wanting her to feel that she had to agree with him.

“I’m sure,” Nell said, stopping their walk with a hand on his chest and going up on tiptoes to press a soft kiss to his lips. “Though I retain the right to throw a hormonal fit and change my mind later,” she added as they started walking again.

“Deal,” Lukas said with a laugh. “What did you want to do this afternoon, I am all yours,” he told her with a smile, enjoying being able to spend time with her again.

“I could do with a cup of tea,” Nell said, turning to grin at him impishly. The talk of ceylon and chai had her mouth watering and she was feeling suddenly quite in need of a warm drink.

“Are you sure?” Lukas asked hesitantly. “You’ve already had two today, I don’t want to…”

“Say anything else and we’re going to see exactly how hormonal my fits can get,” Nell warned. She loved Lukas, she really did, she saw herself marrying him, spending the rest of her life with him and even having several more children with him, however, if he took away her choice to have tea then they were going to have problems. She knew her limits and wouldn’t go over them, he just had to trust her.

“Sorry,” Lukas said quickly, not wanting to upset his pregnant mate, “you know that I worry, I’m always going to worry. I love you so much, both of you.”

“I know,” Nell said with a sigh, feeling a little bad for having spoiled the mood somewhat, though not for having stood up for herself. “So, tea. Can we go back to mine? I think I am going to need to take a nap in a while anyway,” she told him.

“Of course,” Lukas said, pressing a kiss to her temple, leading her down a nearby alley and pulling her close. “You ready?” he asked and Nell nodded; he had apparated with her a few times now and she was getting used to it, but he still didn’t want to catch her off guard.

FGHP

The clearing was a little tense. Callie still wasn’t talking to Jenson, instead fussing over Aiden and making sure that he was comfortable and healing as he should be. Jenson was sat across the fire from his mate and her patient, watching, his fists clenched in anger.

Dean was a little way from the fire having a stern talking to from the Alpha. Jenson had brought him back a few moments before but he hadn’t been allowed to join the rest of the pack yet or see his mate, and he wouldn’t until Fenrir had laid out the ground rules.

Aiden and Dean’s stories seemed to match and the Alpha knew that he couldn’t keep Dean tied to a tree indefinitely, no matter how much he wanted to. Fenrir wasn’t going to be able to trust Dean for a while, but he was willing to give him a chance, particularly given that it would give their pack the additional dominants that they needed.

“Can I go to Aiden now?” Dean asked impatiently. He had understood Fenrir’s need to lay down the law and make it clear what his place in the pack was but having been separated from Aiden for nearly a full day, knowing how badly hurt his mate had been, was sending his instincts all over the place.

Fenrir narrowed his eyes at Dean, watching him calculatingly for a few moments before nodding his head curtly and grunting in consent. Dean didn’t need to be told twice and so quickly stepped around the Alpha male and rushed over to Aiden’s side.

“I’m okay,” Aiden said quickly before the numerous questions could start pouring off Dean’s tongue. Dean didn’t look entirely convinced however, and so turned his attention to Callie, who was sat on Aiden’s other side.

“He’ll be fine,” she confirmed a little stiffly. As touching as it was to see this man caring so deeply for his mate, this was still the same man who had hurt her daughter, and for that she was sure she would never forgive him, even if Romy somehow managed to. She would, however, be civil, as it looked like he was joining their pack now.

“Told you,” Aiden said smugly, as Dean pulled him into his arms. He chuckled a little as he wrapped his arms around Dean and relief washing over him as it really sunk in that they were both safe now. “It’s going to be okay.”

Tessie and Jaylon were sat not far away, playing a game of cards, Tessie having wanted to keep a close eye on her cousin. She was touched at how tender Dean was with Aiden; she hadn’t thought that two dominants could be so compassionate to one another. Her attention wasn’t on them however, rather she was watching Jaylon with interest because the teenage boy couldn’t stop staring at the two of them; it was actually rather sweet.

After years of captivity Jaylon had learnt subtly and how to go unnoticed and he used these tricks now as he cast occasional glances over to Aiden and Dean, who were holding one another, sharing kisses of relief for the simple fact that they were safe and free from the monstrous pack they had been part of.

“If you’d like, you could go and talk to them,” Tessie said quietly as she placed a card down on the pile, indicating that it was now Jaylon’s turn. She didn’t want to force the issue at all, Jaylon was still so fragile in so many ways, but she could see that he was a little transfixed by the two older dominants and she wanted to encourage anything that brought him out of his shell. “They won’t hurt you, I’ve known Aiden all my life, he’s my cousin, we grew up together, he’s as sweet as could be.”

Jaylon had turned a beautiful shade of beetroot at Tessie’s words, his concentration entirely on the cards in his hand all of a sudden; though it was clearly an effort for him not to look over to Aiden and Dean, who were now kissing each other passionately, much to the displeasure of some of the other pack members. Jaylon shook his head, placing a card down on the pile and indicating that it was now Tessie’s turn.

Before she could say anything else their attention was taken away from the card game at the sound of apparition. Fenrir and Jenson were immediately on alert, simply out of habit but visibly relaxed when they saw Damon and Micha appearing out of the tree line with two unfamiliar faces.

“I sent you for one,” Fenrir grunted, eyeing the two new werewolves with curiosity. The male he knew at once to be Aspen, who he had bitten as a child; the girl, however, he did not know but he didn’t like the weak scent of silver he could smell upon their skin.

“Aspen was living at Atwood house, that place we ended up at as kids, with the silver lined room in the basement,” Damon said to Fenrir. “I couldn’t leave her there; you know what it’s like yourself.”

“Why were they there at all?” Fenrir asked with an annoyed growl. He had been sure that Aspen would have remained with his parents, if he had known that the boy was living as an orphan then he would have found the boy sooner, it wasn’t as if there was no one to care for him here.

“My parents disowned me,” Aspen said simply, thinking that he had as much right to partake in this conversation as either of these two. “I take it you are Fenrir, the Alpha of the pack,” he added, eyeing the large wolf with interest. There was no fear in his eyes at all, however, he did make a conscious decision to reach back and link his hand with Rosie’s.

Fenrir gave an annoyed huff; he was getting really pissed off with all these cowardly humans, terrified of their own children, abusing those he had chosen to be in his pack. “I am the Alpha,” he confirmed as he approached the two newcomers, towering over them, mildly impressed by Aspen’s confidence; though it wasn’t as though the girl was cowering from him either.

“Are you meant to be scary?” Rosie asked, glaring up at Fenrir, “I’ve seen scarier Alphas than you,” she said, much to the amusement of Fenrir, who was enjoying the little girl’s attitude; she was a delightful change from Robin and her infuriating obsession with vanity.

“She can stay,” Fenrir said, with a toothy grin to the newcomers, “just keep her away from Harry and Romy, they don’t need encouragement.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Damon said with a sigh as Micha let out a little giggle.

“Come on, firecracker,” Micha said to Rosie, “I’ll show you around. Grumpy boots will want a chat with Aspen,” he said, putting an arm around the girl’s shoulders. “It’s okay,” he added when she looked a little nervous at being parted from Aspen, “I don’t bite, no one is going to hurt you here.”

“Wait,” Fenrir said, before Micha could lead Rosie away, “hand it over,” he demanded. Rosie looked momentarily confused at this request, unsure what it was that she had to hand over. She didn’t have anything to give to this beast of a man. “I can smell it on your breath, hand it over.” Then Rosie realised what it was that Fenrir meant and with a sigh she reached into her bra and pulled out the shrunken bottle.

“Spoil sport,” she grumbled unhappily under her breath as she permitted Micha to lead her away towards a pretty woman and a young boy.

“Put this in the cave,” Fenrir instructed Damon, handing him the bottle of vodka; if nothing else it would make good medical supplies. “I will talk to Aspen.” The Alpha had a lot to discuss with the new dominant, his role in the pack being the most vital. Fenrir was confident that Rosie would fit in with the other submissives, but Aspen had an important job, one that wasn’t going to be easy.

FGHP

Lukas didn’t return to the pack until much later on in the evening. Even in the madness of four new pack members, Callie had managed to save him something to eat and Lukas didn’t have the heart to tell her that he had already eaten. He was practically glowing with happiness when he sat down on one of the log benches to eat his meal, and he almost didn’t notice the extra people in the clearing.

“Hang on,” Lukas said, doing a quick head count, “there are more of us…”

Damon couldn’t help but laugh. “You don’t miss a trick,” he teased. “This is Aspen and Rosie; Micha and I brought them into the pack this afternoon while you were at work,” he introduced. The two teenagers gave nervous smiles, not really knowing what to do with themselves.

“I’m Lukas,” he said, giving them a smile and a nod as he ate, curious about them but knowing that this was not the time for twenty questions. Jenson was sat a little apart from everyone else and Callie wasn’t talking to him it seemed. It was not normal for the Beta pair to be in a fight for any period of time and it was of slight concern to Lukas, who wanted everyone to be as happy as he was. “I see I missed a lot today,” he added to Damon, motioning to Aiden and Dean, who were curled up together close to the fire, sleeping peacefully in each other’s arms.

“There has been a few interesting developments,” Micha said, snuggling into his mate, allowing Damon to stroke his tufty blond hair.

“Well Aiden certainly looks like he is doing much better,” Lukas commented, sharing a smile with Tessie, who was sat with Jaylon on the other side of the fire; he knew just how much she needed her cousin to be okay, after everything she had lost. “I thought that you two were only going to fetch one person today though?” he queried quietly.

“We’re a two-for-one special,” Rosie remarked with a grin, hugging Aspen’s arm, earning a slightly surprised look from her best friend. “Oh don’t look at me like that, you know you would be lost without me.” Aspen didn’t say anything but shrugged his shoulders and gave her a fond look that clearly showed his agreement.

“And how does Fenrir feel about yet another submissive in our ranks?” Lukas asked cheekily, knowing that the point of bringing Aiden, Dean and Aspen into the pack had been to strengthen their ranks.

“Just look at that face,” Damon said with a teasing grin, gesturing towards the scowling Alpha, who was making a rather poor attempt at pretending to ignore them, “he is clearly delighted.”

“Practically ecstatic,” Micha added with a laugh, “I have rarely seen him so jubilant.”

“Don’t take it personally,” Lukas told Rosie, seeing her glancing towards Fenrir, “he pretty much always looks like that when his mate is out of arm’s reach. And sometimes even just when he deems Harry to be wearing too many clothes.”

“Where is his mate?” Rosie asked curiously. Aspen hadn’t yet clued her into what the Alpha had talked to him about earlier in the day and she was still rather curious about all these werewolves and how they had come to be here with one another.

“At Hogwarts with another four of the pack's pups,” Damon told her, “including my son, and it’s probably where you’ll be going too, after the next full moon, when you’ve had a chance to meet everyone. One of our pack is also a professor at the school too, so you won’t be alone.”

“Don’t,” Callie hissed. While the others had been talking, Jenson had tried to come over to his mate, wanting to talk to her; however, she just wasn’t in the mood to talk to him just yet. “I need some space from you right now,” she said, not wanting to draw attention to themselves but knowing that it was an impossibility at this point.

“I just want to talk to you,” Jenson pleaded. He still hadn’t been healed from his fight with Damon, though neither had Damon, other than Micha’s attempt while they had been out. Callie didn’t particularly want to heal either of them and the others were respecting her wishes.

“Well I don’t want to talk to you,” she said rather pointedly, wanting to make her feelings perfectly clear. Jenson had stepped over the line with the way he had acted and she wasn’t quite ready to forgive him for what he had said. He had to learn to trust her to take care of herself and their unborn child.

Not in the mood to listen to his pack arguing, especially not with Niko asleep on his lap, Fenrir stood up, taking Niko smoothly up with him in his arms. “Enough,” he hissed harshly towards his Beta pair. “Sleep separately,” Fenrir barked out at them, fed up of the fighting and arguments.

“But, my Alpha,” Jenson argued, not wanting to be apart from his mate, not even for a single evening. The look that the Alpha gave his Beta wolf however, put a stop to any other protests that Jenson might have had.

“Sleep,” Fenrir instructed, done with the day, relieved when his pack started moving to sort themselves for bed without further argument. It had been a long weekend and there was still one more pack member to bring into the pack; though he needed to settle the four new members before that happened. They would all need to learn to be comfortable around one another again, especially with Dean.

FGHP

Harry couldn’t have felt more drained. It had been a hell of a long day and all he wanted to do was relax in the Slytherin common room for a while and play pool to help him forget what he had seen and done today. However, it wasn’t to happen that way, not when the first thing he noticed when he got back to the Slytherin common room was that Romy was in tears.

She was sat in a corner with Draco who was trying his very best to comfort her; however, he was looking a little out of his comfort zone as she cried into his shoulder, her arms around him.

“What happened?” Harry asked, going to her immediately and looking round the room for any sign of Clay. However, he wasn’t there, there were no other members of his pack anywhere to be seen, not even Robin.

“Clay and I…” Romy said between sniffs, “we had a fight.”

“But I thought everything was okay between you,” Harry said, dumbfounded over how much the two of them were arguing lately. He knew that things were never going to be easy but he didn’t think that it was ever going to be this bad. “Is it still because…”

Romy nodded sadly. “He doesn’t want to touch me, he knows that I’m too damaged, he hates me for what happened.” She hadn’t been able to think of anything else all day, she hadn’t even been able to deal with Luna’s kind, supportive and understanding words, which was why she had retreated to the common room.

“It’s okay, Draco,” Harry told his friend reassuringly, “I’ve got it from here.” Draco nodded gratefully; this was not a conversation he needed to be part of. Besides, he needed to talk to Theo about what the hell was going on with Pansy. Once Draco had left the two of them alone, Harry sat in front of Romy, looking her straight in the eye. “You are not damaged,” he said with determination. “He’s being overly cautious but you just need to talk it out. I’ve never known two people that are more perfect for one another. You just need to give it time.”

“I can still feel them, Harry, sometimes in my nightmares I’m still with them, they’re still hurting me,” Romy said through her sobs. “I just want someone to touch me who loves me. I want to remember something nice instead of what they did to me.”

“Have you told Clay this?” Harry asked, holding her hands between his and giving her a sad smile. “Or is he too busy trying to protect you to actually ask how you feel about it?”

Romy gave a sad, wry laugh at the truth of Harry’s words, a sound half lost in her tears. “He has decided I’m not ready yet,” she told him, the tears still falling down her cheeks. “I’m ready, I need this and he is just looking for excuses not to touch me.”

“That’s not true and we both know it,” Harry said firmly, not going to let her convince herself of that. “Clay loves you more than anyone,” he insisted, “and as disturbing as the mental images this conjures are to me, he probably wants nothing more than to have sex with you…”

“Then why won’t he!?” Romy exclaimed in frustration. “Everyone is telling me how much he loves me, how much he wants me, but what fifteen-year-old boy turns down their girlfriend when she throws herself at him?”

“One who cares far more about her mental health than his own sexual gratification,” Harry said firmly. As much as he didn’t want Romy to hate herself over the complication in her and Clay’s relationship, he wasn’t going to let her devalue what Clay was trying to do. “He does love you, Romy, but he is, as you pointed out, fifteen and just bumbling through, trying to do right by you.”

Romy had no idea what to say to that. She knew that Harry was right, that Clay was just trying to be noble and kind, and that he didn’t understand what she needed, but it wasn’t as though she wasn’t telling him what she needed; how was it her fault that he wasn’t listening to her?

“Explain it to him,” Harry suggested when Romy said nothing, “and I will play mediator if you need me too. But maybe not tonight, you look as exhausted as I feel,” he told her, pulling her into his arms and holding her close. “I suggest we both go get some sleep and deal with this tomorrow.”

Romy didn’t really know how she was supposed to sleep with her thoughts going around and around in her head, driving her crazy, but she also suspected Harry was right; she felt too emotionally drained right then to be able to properly explain herself to Clay in any kind of rational way. Nodding her head reluctantly, she let Harry pull her to her feet. However, just as the two of them made to move towards the Entrance, Clay walked through, with Robin hanging off his arm.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me?” Romy exclaimed softly, with an expression of pure disbelief. She wasn’t really in the mood to face Clay now anyway, let alone Robin, and she didn’t even know where to start at the sight of the two of them together; it made her sick to her stomach.

“Oh, there you are,” Robin said as she dragged Clay over to Harry and Romy, looking smug. “Clayton and I just had the most delightful afternoon,” she told them, clearly relishing the fury that flashed in Romy’s eyes. “You really should keep a tighter hold on your man if you don’t want to share,” she taunted, pressing herself into Clay’s side, and ignoring his attempts to pull away without actually hurting her.

Romy opened her mouth to speak but words failed her as tears filled the corners of her eyes. Before she could be humiliated any further she barged passed Robin, heading for the exit out of the common room.

“He was a great lay,” Robin called after Romy with a loud giggling laugh, thoroughly enjoying Romy’s reaction. Clay was still staring at Robin in shocked disbelief when Harry snarled at the pair of them and hurried after his pack sister.

Harry was sure that Clay wouldn’t have actually slept with Robin, at least he hoped his best friend wasn’t that moronic, but he was certain that Romy would be in no state to hear that at the moment. Harry just hoped that Clay had the good sense to stay away from the forest room for the night while he tried to put Romy’s heart back together. He really needed to teach Robin to keep her mouth shut.

“Harry, I didn’t,” Clay said, panicked that Robin had just destroyed his relationship with Romy. His fists were clenched ready to punch her, but he was trying desperately hard not to.

Harry was furious; he had just managed to convince Romy that she and Clay would work things out and now Robin had potentially ruined it. “Don’t, Clay,” Harry said, as he rounded on his pack brother. “I’m going to go and take care of Romy, just give her some space, take my bed here if you like, just don’t come to the forest room.”

Clayton nodded sadly, knowing that he was in the wrong here and he deserved to be exiled for the night. “Please tell her nothing happened, I would never do anything to hurt her, not ever,” he said, pleading with Harry to help him. Of course his best friend nodded and Clay knew that Harry would do his best.

“You,” Harry said, rounding on Robin, wanting to punch her in her perfect nose, “I will be reporting back to Fenrir about what you’ve done, everything that you’ve done. You need a fucking reality check; you’re not queen bitch round here, or anywhere, you’re a pathetic, attention seeking whore and it’s no wonder you can’t find anyone who can stand to be mated to you.”

With these last words, Harry stormed from the room, needing to separate himself from the situation before he did something that he might later regret. Draco stepped in and put his arm around Clay, wanting to comfort his half-brother, who was clearly devastated by what had just happened. Robin, however, was left very much alone, no one coming forward to comfort her.

She didn’t care though, she had the Gryffindor boys eating out of the palm of her hand, she had a boyfriend now in Cormac McLaggen and he would be rather convenient for the moment. He wasn’t going to last though, his cock was far too small and he didn’t know what to do with it either. He would help her destroy Harry though, as well as Ron and Dean and then she could claim her real prize; Fenrir.

Thank you for reading. We hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please do take a moment to leave us a comment to let us know your thoughts.

Reviews:

Littlepanther – Sorry to have left you hanging on that last chapter, and we have a little wait until the next full moon I’m afraid.

Green-Extreme-Ninjetti13 – Robin certainly doesn’t have a particular loyalty to the pack, other than she wants Fenrir, but whether or not she will betray them is yet to be seen.

Ginevra_Riddle – Glad to hear you are enjoying the story. Sorry there is a bit of a wait between updates at the moment, real life keeps getting in the way of both writing and editing.
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