A Song for Severus ~ (Not Update, but Edit)

Chapter 56 ~ Registration

Eloise couldn’t believe the Ministry was open on a Sunday. Remus explained it to her in no uncertain terms.

“Most of the Ministry is closed on the weekend but the Werewolf Department is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They consider us 'special cases.' During the full moon there are enough Werewolf Control personnel here to start a small war,” the wizard said as they walked around the side of the Ministry building and to the back. Next to a rather smelly dumpster was a wooden door with a sign over it.

“Werewolves Enter Here”

Eloise looked around. There was garbage all about.

“This is terrible. Don’t they care what kind of impression they make?” she said, frowning, although she found the scent of garbage interesting enough to have to fight the urge to rummage through the dumpster.

Remus shook his head.

“No. The staff has their own entrance. Only werewolves come this way. They get rather nasty if you try to enter through any other entrance," he replied.

Remus pulled the door open to reveal a short hallway and another door, this one made of iron. On the wall was a small, hand-shaped depression. A female voice spoke.

“I detect two individuals. Place your mark on the handprint for identification,” the voice said rather mechanically.

Remus placed the palm of his hand with the pentacle mark on the handprint, Eloise looking on curiously.

“Remus Lupin. Dog. Registered Werewolf. Next individual,” the voice said.

Remus stepped aside and Eloise walked up to the print and carefully pressed her hand against it. After a moment the voice spoke.

“Unidentified female. Bitch. Unregistered Werewolf. Enter,” the voice snapped.

Eloise didn’t like the sound of it as the door opened. It was dark.

“Let the bitch enter first, Lupin,” a voice growled.

Remus stepped aside, but caught Eloise’s arm.

“Go in, very slowly and keep your hands where they can be seen,” he said warningly.

Eloise nodded and entered a small waiting room with a counter. Her eyes adjusted quickly and she saw several wizards armed with clubs standing against the far wall, their eyes glittering at her. There were two rows of shabby wooden chairs, and three heavy wooden chairs with restraints, bolted to the floor.

“Walk slowly to the counter, bitch,” the same voice growled. Eloise saw the wizard who spoke was standing behind the counter, his eyes narrowed as he looked her over.

Remus entered, looked at the armed wizards and took a seat, watching Eloise nervously.

The wizard behind the counter was Geoffrey Hiffle. He was brown-haired and brown-eyed, one side of his face deeply gouged by a claw mark. It was red and painful looking. And it was painful. Werewolf scratches never healed properly. He had taken the blow in the field one moonlit night and was now regulated to desk duty because of it. He had a grudge too

“What’s your name, bitch?” he snarled at Eloise, who snarled right back, “It isn’t bitch, that’s for sure.”

”Oh, you brought us a smart ass, eh Lupin? Well, we’ll straighten her ass out. Where’s your wand, witch? It has to be identified,” Geoffrey hissed at her. Once they got her wand away from her, then she’d be easier to handle.

“I don’t have a wand,” Eloise said nastily, “I’m not a witch.”

Geoffrey stared at her.

“What do you mean you’re not a witch? Of course you’re a bloody witch!” he declared.

Remus raised his hand and waved it to attract Geoffrey’s attention. A werewolf never spoke out of place here.

“What Lupin?” Geoffrey snapped at him, not taking his eyes off of Eloise.

“She’s a muggle. Fenrir turned her,” the wizard offered.

Geoffrey stared at her before clapping his hand to his forehead. Shit, a muggle. Damn. This required a different kind of handling.

It seemed the Ministry of Magic and the British Government nearly came to blows over the treatment of a muggle werewolf, and now very strict rules were in place to cover them. As citizens of muggle Britain, they had certain rights not extending to citizens of the Magical world. Basically they held a kind of dual citizenship and as such had legal redress according to the British Rule of Law. Eloise could not be randomly beaten or banned from establishments legally, though she would be discouraged quite openly if she attempted to frequent any of them

If she were to be checked out, they had to produce a legal document each time they visited her or could be denied entry. The Aurors couldn’t push in her door the way they did Lupin’s and the other werewolves. This stuck in Geoffrey’s craw a bit, but there was nothing he could do. As a muggle, Eloise could file a complaint against him or anyone in the Department and it would be taken very seriously to keep her from going to her own government for redress.

“What is your name…Miss?” Geoffrey repeated in a more reasonable tone.

“That’s better,” Eloise snapped as Remus winced.

A growl went up from the armed Aurors, but they knew there was little they could do about Eloise’s attitude.

“My name is Eloise Hedgeberry,” she said archly.

Geoffrey wrote it down and asked her for her personal information, including her old address in England, place of employment and next of kin.

“You realize Miss Hedgeberry that we cannot extend suitable protection if you continue to reside in muggle Britain. We will have to send Aurors to pick you up the night before the full moon, bring you here and confine you each month in our dungeon, then return you the following day. It would be better if you reside here in the wizarding community, perhaps the werewolf village with your own kind,” the wizard said.

“I plan to stay here,” Eloise said, “There’s nothing for me in Britain any longer.”

”Do you have a place to stay? We can provide you a small room for now and a stipend for your basic needs. It’s not much but you won’t starve,” Geoffrey said, frowning slightly. No wizarding werewolves got stipends. A muggle gets cursed and she gets a free handout.

“I am staying with a gentleman named Rubin Fezwig,” she replied, “So I won’t need a room right now, but I’ll take the stipend until I can find a job to support myself.”

The Aurors all murmured. They knew about Fezwig and his son. The Ministry had killed the boy after all. Geoffrey wrote down the information about where she was staying, asked if she had a safe place to transform. She was using Fezwig’s charmed barn. It was suitable. He picked up a parchment then looked up at her.

“Do you menstruate, Miss Hedgeberry?” he asked her directly and without hesitation.

”Yes I do,” she responded evenly.

Geoffrey rustled through a few parchments.

“When would you like to schedule your sterilization?” the wizard asked her.

The hair on the back of Remus’ neck bristled and he stifled a growl.

“I’m not scheduling it. I refuse to be sterilized,” Eloise replied.

Now the muttering behind her grew and Eloise turned and looked at the wizards for a moment, then turned back to the counter.

“Sterilization is recommended to prevent your having offspring, Miss Hedgeberry. All bit…female werewolves have it done in the wizarding world,” he said.

“Have it done or are forced to do it?” she asked him pointedly.

Geoffrey at least had the grace to look uncomfortable.

“Well, it is a requirement for them,” he admitted.

“Is it a requirement for me?” Eloise demanded.

“No. You are a muggle. The same laws do not apply to you,” he said softly, “But I do suggest you…”

”I don’t need your suggestions. I’m not having it done and that’s final,” she snapped.

Geoffrey looked at Remus.

“For gods sakes, Lupin. Talk some sense into her. We can’t have werewolf whelps running around the wizarding world,” he said to Remus.

“She’s an alpha. I can’t tell her what to do…nor would I,” Remus said evenly, “She has a right to decide what to do with her own body.”

Geoffrey looked at Remus murderously. If Eloise wasn’t here and had rights, he would have had the werewolf beaten for his refusal to assist him.

“But…she doesn’t understand,” Geoffrey said, looking back at Eloise, whose eyes were hard and little black veins were beginning to stand out.

Normally he would have summoned the Aurors to restrain her because of the display…but he couldn’t. Eloise would have to actually physically attack someone for them to do anything to her.

“I understand just fine. You can’t touch me,” she snapped at him, “Now are we finished? I want to get out of here. This place stinks of bigotry and fear.”

Geoffrey filed away her paperwork and handed her a stack of parchments. On top was a flyer for the werewolf village. The wizard looked extremely frustrated. He turned to Remus.

“You have any business with us, Lupin?” he asked the werewolf with a scowl.

Remus stood up.

“No, I only brought Miss Hedgeberry here to register,” he replied.

“You’re about due for another ‘visit’ Remus. We’ll talk then,” the Auror said with an unpleasant tone in his voice. Remus didn’t say anything as he escorted Eloise out.

When they were walking around the building, Eloise looked at him.

“What did he mean ‘time for another visit?’” she asked the quiet wizard.

Remus looked at her, his eyes slightly black-veined. He was angry but trying not to show it.

“They kick in my door whenever they feel like and harass me, even beat me if I’m not properly ‘agreeable,’” he said darkly.

“They can’t do that. It’s against the law,” Eloise declared angrily.

“It’s against the law in the muggle world, but not here, Eloise. Here it is very different for werewolves. We are never addressed by a title, such as Mr. or Miss. And we don’t have the rights you do. They aren’t allowed to just visit you at anytime, and when they do, they can’t just go through your things. They can only ask how you are and leave,” he said, falling silent.

Eloise said nothing more, but was thinking hard. Poor Remus. What a terrible life he led. They apparated back to Fezwig’s farm to find the farmer magically placing tall iron posts in the ground surrounding the area of his home, Eloise’s barn and the animal barn. The posts had loops on top of them.

“What are you doing, Rubin?” Remus asked, drawing his wand to help the farmer.

“Just putting up some fence posts. I figure I am going to need to enclose the area with silver fencing whenever Eloise goes into heat. You are going to have to come early when it comes on her so you aren’t locked out,” Rubin said to the werewolf.

Remus looked at Eloise, then said, “I…I…planned to go elsewhere when the next transformation came, Rubin. Eloise lives here now and I don’t want to infringe,” he said softly.

Eloise looked at him, realizing she had inadvertently taken the place where he came to safely transform.

“No. No Remus, you can still come here. I’d like the company,” she said.

Remus stared at her. If she went into heat while he was present…

”I don’t know if that’s a very good idea, Eloise,” he said as Rubin shook his head. The wizard was doing his own cockblocking, “If you go into cycle…”

Eloise arched an eyebrow at him.

“Are you scared I’m going to ravish you, Remus?” she asked him with a half smirk.

Actually, she thought she might like to ravish the shy, kindly wizard. He was cute. Plus it had been quite a while between ravishings for the muggle.

”Ah no…it’s not that…it’s just…just…” he said lamely

“Just what?” she asked him, still smirking.

Rubin shook his head again, this time in sympathy for Remus. Eloise was a lot of woman in human or werewolf form. Remus didn’t stand a chance.

”Fine, I’ll stay then,” Remus said quickly trying to avoid a deeper conversation.

Rubin chuckled as Eloise cut her eyes toward him and winked.

”Come on, Remus. Help me get up the rest of these posts, then I’ll make you and Eloise a couple of steaks,” the farmer said.

Remus removed his robes and set about raising posts as Eloise sat down on an overturned barrel and watched the two men work with their wands, a thoughtful look on her face.

Eloise wanted to enlist Remus’ aid in killing Fenrir. There were few better ways to get a man onboard for anything than by using sex as a springboard. Her hatred for the werewolf that turned her was so great, she would gladly use her body and Remus' attraction as tools to bring about his demise. If that was what it took…then that’s what it took.

Besides, Eloise found Remus’ reluctance quite…appealing.

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A/N: Thanks for reading.