Blood Ties
Date: Sunday, 8 April 2001
Time: Late afternoon
Location: Southern Wales
Characters Involved: Remus Lupin and Fenrir Greyback
Rating: PG
There was no sound in the forest aside from the low hum of insects as they went about the business of living their brief lives in the warm spring sun. A slight breeze brought the occasional soft rustle of budding leaves to add a bit of rhythm to nature's song. To the unobservant it might seem a perfect, quiet day in the woods. But the more astute observer would notice the absence of any other sound. No birds called to each other from the shadowy boughs overhead. The scuttle of small animals through the underbrush had died moments earlier. While the insects danced on the brightening air, the rest of the forest stilled, sensing a change in their world.
Amoungst the trees, a predator stalked.
Remus had left the house early in the afternoon, the call of the awakening world and the restlessness of his blood demanding he get out of the house and work off a bit of the nervous energy that had had him spending the morning pacing his room. The idea of his usual solitary preparation for the coming ordeal that evening was strangely distasteful this month and he suspected he knew the reason why -- which was exactly the reason he needed to find something physically challenging to pour his excess energy into.
It had been some time since he had done any sort of personal training outside his own passes through the obstacles he set up for his students every few weeks. Putting himself through his paces would ease the growing sense of some thing crawling beneath his skin and keep him in something like fighting form. After all, what was the use of a Defense Professor who didn't practice what he taught his students?
Reaching the green forests of southern Wales, he'd sought his peace in the still woods and the scent of spring in the earth. For an hour he had run amoungst the trees, stretching leg muscles that had become more used to strolling casually through castle halls in recent months than sprinting between tall oaks. It had felt good to let go and just focus on becoming a part of the land around him. He'd not allowed himself to nurture this side of his nature, this part of him that craved the ebb and flow of a wild existence, uncomplicated by societal politics, since long before returning to Britain almost eight years earlier.
Fear had grown during the twelve years he'd spent running away from the grief of his past, fear that had nearly incapacitated him emotionally.
Until one unexpected kiss in a hidden muggle garage.
Now he was terrified. The last five months had brought with them more contentment and true happiness than he'd known in the last two decades, if not his entire life. And with that happiness came the heart-numbing fear it would be ripped away from him as everything else he had ever loved had been. He'd admitted his feelings to himself. The time was drawing nearer when he would have to take a chance and admit them to a particular someone else.
Who knew what fears might grow then!
So, he ran. And when running was not enough, he took to the trees, drawing on every inborn sense and training skill he possessed to bring focus and clarity. He tracked birds and rabbits across the forest floor. He followed a doe to a clearing where her young fawn waited for his mother. Watching them, Remus had a fleeting moment in which he thought he truly understood the cycles that controlled not only his body, but life as a whole.
It was then he caught a familiar scent.
An unwelcome scent of unwashed human animal and lingering bloodstained violence.
The doe, perhaps sensing the same danger, herded her young off into the shadows of the same tall oak in whose boughs Remus was concealed. As the deer passed beneath him, a footfall sounded across the clearing, bringing the woods to sudden silence, smaller life forms trying to conceal their own existence to prevent the predator they sensed approaching from making them it's next meal.
"Honestly, Lupin, are you a wolf or a fucking sparrow?" The cold, rasping voice preceded the large, tattered form of an animal masquerading as a man as the former leader of Voldemort's werewolf 'army' stepped out into the clearing. "I don't know why I still bother with you. You're a disgrace to your blood, after all. I should have just killed you instead of giving you this gift if all you were going to do was disgrace your own kind. Get down here. I will not look up to an insolent cur."
"Perhaps you had better stop bothering me then." The hours spent in the forest served to help Remus maintain his outward calm, but inside he was seething with anger. One of his dearest friends was going through the hell of being alone as a result of the machinations instigated by the werewolf below. Were he not intelligent enough to know he was still a long way from being able to take on Greyback alone, Remus would have been more than happy to jump down. Instead, he stayed were he was, perched arrogantly upon a branch high enough above his 'werewolf sire' he could not be taken unawares. "What is it you want, Greyback? Time grows short, unless you come to offer challenge?"
"You'd like that, wouldn't you puppy?" The other werewolf's harsh, barking laughter was more canine than human. "But why should I come to challenge an upstart runt like yourself? Obviously having that band of refugees you call a pack follow you about has gone to your head. I merely sensed another wolf in my territory and came to investigate."
"Your followers have fled to other lands. You have no territory."
"I need no followers to claim what I like. I need no wizard's approval to live how I like." With surprising swiftness, the older werewolf leapt up to grab hold of Remus' ankle, pulling downward. The motion caught Remus off guard, having expected Greyback to first try to establish an equal position upon the tree branch before trying to knock Remus off balance. Twisting as he fell, Remus managed to land crouched upon the forest floor. Greyback's voice mocked him as he stood over Remus. "There. That's better."
"And is this how you wish to live? Hiding from the world save for a few excursions to murder and torment innocents who have never done you harm? Your way is no better than that of the monsters others would label our kind."
"My way is the way to power." The collar around his throat cut into his windpipe as Remus was yanked upright by it. Still, he did not move to strike against the more powerful lycanthrope, not even when he found himself thrown painfully against the trunk of a nearby tree. "Look at you, Lupin. You're pathetic. Tell me, does this flimsy strip of leather make you feel safe? You're living by their rules, so they won't come after your passel of whelps? I wonder if this strap of yours can monitor your vital signs, hm?"
As the fist curled around the collar tightened, Greyback's voice dropped to a deadly growl that set Remus' hackles rising even in this form. Hot, almost fetid breath threatened to overwhelm him and his own breathing became more difficult. Yet, Remus forced himself to grow even more still,willing his body not to react. Much as it galled him, he knew Greyback would see it as weakness and he had nothing to gain in challenging the weak.
"What do you think? Would those bastards at the Ministry come running if they noticed you were this close to suffocating?" For a long moment, feral gaze warred with feral gaze. "But you're never going to learn, are you? What's it going to take for you to realize you've lost? All your pretty speeches go ignored. This ribbon of animal hide is the only reason they even let you near their precious bairns. You work toward a goal no one wants -- not them and not us.
"Give it up, Lupin. Before you don't have a pack to worry about."
All pretense at controlling his reactions dissolved into a warning growl of his own. Now it was his turn to catch the older werewolf off guard. His hand shot up to grasp Greyback's wrist, applying enough pressure the surprised former Death Eater released his grip on Remus' collar. In another second, their positions were reversed and it was Greyback whose back was now pressed against the rough bark of the tree while a furious werewolf snarled at him.
"Stay away from my pack and my friends, Greyback. One of the first things you ever taught your followers -- pack looks after it's own. I am no longer yours. If you come after mine again, you will wish for the Ministry's mercy." Only maniacal laughter met this declaration and Remus pushed away with disgust. If he didn't leave now, he wouldn't make it home before the transformation began.
"So, the traitor has a backbone after all. Watch who you threaten, Lupin. The french bitch robbed me of much of my fun when she left. When I get bored, I need to find new entertainment."
Time: Late afternoon
Location: Southern Wales
Characters Involved: Remus Lupin and Fenrir Greyback
Rating: PG
There was no sound in the forest aside from the low hum of insects as they went about the business of living their brief lives in the warm spring sun. A slight breeze brought the occasional soft rustle of budding leaves to add a bit of rhythm to nature's song. To the unobservant it might seem a perfect, quiet day in the woods. But the more astute observer would notice the absence of any other sound. No birds called to each other from the shadowy boughs overhead. The scuttle of small animals through the underbrush had died moments earlier. While the insects danced on the brightening air, the rest of the forest stilled, sensing a change in their world.
Amoungst the trees, a predator stalked.
Remus had left the house early in the afternoon, the call of the awakening world and the restlessness of his blood demanding he get out of the house and work off a bit of the nervous energy that had had him spending the morning pacing his room. The idea of his usual solitary preparation for the coming ordeal that evening was strangely distasteful this month and he suspected he knew the reason why -- which was exactly the reason he needed to find something physically challenging to pour his excess energy into.
It had been some time since he had done any sort of personal training outside his own passes through the obstacles he set up for his students every few weeks. Putting himself through his paces would ease the growing sense of some thing crawling beneath his skin and keep him in something like fighting form. After all, what was the use of a Defense Professor who didn't practice what he taught his students?
Reaching the green forests of southern Wales, he'd sought his peace in the still woods and the scent of spring in the earth. For an hour he had run amoungst the trees, stretching leg muscles that had become more used to strolling casually through castle halls in recent months than sprinting between tall oaks. It had felt good to let go and just focus on becoming a part of the land around him. He'd not allowed himself to nurture this side of his nature, this part of him that craved the ebb and flow of a wild existence, uncomplicated by societal politics, since long before returning to Britain almost eight years earlier.
Fear had grown during the twelve years he'd spent running away from the grief of his past, fear that had nearly incapacitated him emotionally.
Until one unexpected kiss in a hidden muggle garage.
Now he was terrified. The last five months had brought with them more contentment and true happiness than he'd known in the last two decades, if not his entire life. And with that happiness came the heart-numbing fear it would be ripped away from him as everything else he had ever loved had been. He'd admitted his feelings to himself. The time was drawing nearer when he would have to take a chance and admit them to a particular someone else.
Who knew what fears might grow then!
So, he ran. And when running was not enough, he took to the trees, drawing on every inborn sense and training skill he possessed to bring focus and clarity. He tracked birds and rabbits across the forest floor. He followed a doe to a clearing where her young fawn waited for his mother. Watching them, Remus had a fleeting moment in which he thought he truly understood the cycles that controlled not only his body, but life as a whole.
It was then he caught a familiar scent.
An unwelcome scent of unwashed human animal and lingering bloodstained violence.
The doe, perhaps sensing the same danger, herded her young off into the shadows of the same tall oak in whose boughs Remus was concealed. As the deer passed beneath him, a footfall sounded across the clearing, bringing the woods to sudden silence, smaller life forms trying to conceal their own existence to prevent the predator they sensed approaching from making them it's next meal.
"Honestly, Lupin, are you a wolf or a fucking sparrow?" The cold, rasping voice preceded the large, tattered form of an animal masquerading as a man as the former leader of Voldemort's werewolf 'army' stepped out into the clearing. "I don't know why I still bother with you. You're a disgrace to your blood, after all. I should have just killed you instead of giving you this gift if all you were going to do was disgrace your own kind. Get down here. I will not look up to an insolent cur."
"Perhaps you had better stop bothering me then." The hours spent in the forest served to help Remus maintain his outward calm, but inside he was seething with anger. One of his dearest friends was going through the hell of being alone as a result of the machinations instigated by the werewolf below. Were he not intelligent enough to know he was still a long way from being able to take on Greyback alone, Remus would have been more than happy to jump down. Instead, he stayed were he was, perched arrogantly upon a branch high enough above his 'werewolf sire' he could not be taken unawares. "What is it you want, Greyback? Time grows short, unless you come to offer challenge?"
"You'd like that, wouldn't you puppy?" The other werewolf's harsh, barking laughter was more canine than human. "But why should I come to challenge an upstart runt like yourself? Obviously having that band of refugees you call a pack follow you about has gone to your head. I merely sensed another wolf in my territory and came to investigate."
"Your followers have fled to other lands. You have no territory."
"I need no followers to claim what I like. I need no wizard's approval to live how I like." With surprising swiftness, the older werewolf leapt up to grab hold of Remus' ankle, pulling downward. The motion caught Remus off guard, having expected Greyback to first try to establish an equal position upon the tree branch before trying to knock Remus off balance. Twisting as he fell, Remus managed to land crouched upon the forest floor. Greyback's voice mocked him as he stood over Remus. "There. That's better."
"And is this how you wish to live? Hiding from the world save for a few excursions to murder and torment innocents who have never done you harm? Your way is no better than that of the monsters others would label our kind."
"My way is the way to power." The collar around his throat cut into his windpipe as Remus was yanked upright by it. Still, he did not move to strike against the more powerful lycanthrope, not even when he found himself thrown painfully against the trunk of a nearby tree. "Look at you, Lupin. You're pathetic. Tell me, does this flimsy strip of leather make you feel safe? You're living by their rules, so they won't come after your passel of whelps? I wonder if this strap of yours can monitor your vital signs, hm?"
As the fist curled around the collar tightened, Greyback's voice dropped to a deadly growl that set Remus' hackles rising even in this form. Hot, almost fetid breath threatened to overwhelm him and his own breathing became more difficult. Yet, Remus forced himself to grow even more still,willing his body not to react. Much as it galled him, he knew Greyback would see it as weakness and he had nothing to gain in challenging the weak.
"What do you think? Would those bastards at the Ministry come running if they noticed you were this close to suffocating?" For a long moment, feral gaze warred with feral gaze. "But you're never going to learn, are you? What's it going to take for you to realize you've lost? All your pretty speeches go ignored. This ribbon of animal hide is the only reason they even let you near their precious bairns. You work toward a goal no one wants -- not them and not us.
"Give it up, Lupin. Before you don't have a pack to worry about."
All pretense at controlling his reactions dissolved into a warning growl of his own. Now it was his turn to catch the older werewolf off guard. His hand shot up to grasp Greyback's wrist, applying enough pressure the surprised former Death Eater released his grip on Remus' collar. In another second, their positions were reversed and it was Greyback whose back was now pressed against the rough bark of the tree while a furious werewolf snarled at him.
"Stay away from my pack and my friends, Greyback. One of the first things you ever taught your followers -- pack looks after it's own. I am no longer yours. If you come after mine again, you will wish for the Ministry's mercy." Only maniacal laughter met this declaration and Remus pushed away with disgust. If he didn't leave now, he wouldn't make it home before the transformation began.
"So, the traitor has a backbone after all. Watch who you threaten, Lupin. The french bitch robbed me of much of my fun when she left. When I get bored, I need to find new entertainment."