157 Chapter 157: Feral

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29 September 1993, Hogwarts

And just like that, a switch flipped. The man's face turned cold, and he suddenly burst into laughter, "You know, I should have expected it. You're her son after all."

Harry expected Lupin to have tried to bring up some kind of nostalgic feelings and unearth some kind of bond with his dead father. After all, Harry had snuck into Filch's old files, before the squib left the castle, and he saw his father's detention records. It was mostly to satisfy his curiosity. You could learn a lot from the reasons people were punished.

It was a pretty image, to say the least. He could understand why Snape would be salty after so long. If this was a high school in the United States, Harry would say that James Potter was the typical jock. He was popular because of his talent in Quidditch, and he didn't really take anything seriously. His grades were average. He was talented but barely made an effort. In fact, when it came to his pranks, they were surprisingly ingenious, even if they tended to be malicious in nature. 

He hated Slytherins with a passion, but it probably didn't have anything to do with the war, but politics. The Potter family was shunned ever since they were kicked out of the Sacred-twenty-eight, and considering that his father, Charlus, publicly opposed the frankly ridiculous proposals that the traditionalist faction sent to the Wizengamot, they didn't get any popular in the Pureblood crowd, which as a boy, he easily grouped into the members of Slytherin house.

His friendship with Sirius Black, which was probably built on their common hatred, was very toxic. Lupin and Pettigrew just followed them around, thinking that they were part of the crowd. Their pranks were rarely harmless, but he tended to target Severus Snape since he hung out with Lily Evans, whom he obviously had a crush on.

Of course, once Charlus and Dorea Potter died from a Death Eater attack in his sixth year, James' irritation towards Slytherin turned into full-blown loathing, and the pranks turned into curses and actual harm. It was probably done at the request of the Black Family, now that Harry thought about it since the Black Heir had run away from home and stayed with the Potters the previous summer.

James Potter didn't know how to express his grief and would have gone into a downward spiral of self-destruction if it wasn't for Lily Evans. Harry didn't know if she took pity on him, and the only evidence of when their relationship began was when they were caught snogging in an empty classroom. Lily seemed to have some good influence on him. His grades got better, his pranks slowly faded away, and he graduated as one of the top students.

Each grade, each detention, and each punishment was a clue that allowed Harry to easily model his father's behaviour. But there were surprisingly few about his mother. All there was about Lily were her perfect grades, and a couple of detentions for hexing another student, even if she was never the instigator. There wasn't enough data to model her personality, and very few people actually cared about her. He sure as hell wasn't going to ask Snape about her.

The fact that Lupin mentioned his mother and not his father, did not correspond to the model he built of the man. He didn't like inconsistencies.

The werewolf, or whatever the hell he was, seemed to enjoy seeing Harry think, and figure out things on his own. And Harry was stringing things along as much as he could. But he needed more data, and more facts to build his conclusions in this world of lies.

Lupin's shift in attitude meant that the mast was lifted. The professor waited until Harry called him out on it. He knew that Harry figured out that he was a werewolf. He wanted to emotionally manipulate Harry to spend time with him since refusing would mean that he was biased against werewolves. The man's condition was very easy to figure out if you thought about it in a theoretical manner. 

The faint scars, and the hair, were very obvious tells. His enhanced reflexes, his enhanced strength and speed. They were all clues to that fact. Clues that anyone who read about werewolves would have put together, and Harry's intelligence was hardly a secret, even if the extent wasn't something he shared. Lupin expected Harry to figure out that he was a werewolf but purely on an academic standard, meaning that he didn't expect the young Slytherin to have met other werewolves to make the comparison. Hence his slight surprise and the unscripted part of the conversation.

Conclusion: Lupin was also in uncharted territory. He didn't plan out this part of the conversation. Bringing up his mother meant they knew each other more than the model alluded. A distraction so that he would think of a better way to convince Harry to spend more time with him alone. However, the reason was unknown.

Most favourable action: Don't give him enough time to think of a plan. Make the conversation engaging enough that he has to focus completely on it by being unexpected. 

All of this happened in a fraction of a second in Harry's brain and he responded, "So, you didn't say what the hell you were."

Lupin seemed to freeze once more. He obviously expected a question about Harry's mother, "Ah, that's a very complicated situation. There isn't really a name for what I am. I am a unique existence in a way."

Harry grinned slightly, "You're not a werewolf but the similarities between the two conditions are very similar. Enhanced body, feral reflexes, one belonging to a canine specifically. It would be too unlikely for them to not be related in some way. Is it a mutated form of lycanthropy? No, you have too few scars, that means that you have regeneration capabilities, but ones that weren't there at the beginning. Did they kick in later? No, it wouldn't make sense. Huh, so you were a werewolf, but something happened. Something changed you, your condition. How close am I getting?"

The defence professor's eyes widened with every prediction. He definitely wasn't expecting Harry to bite back from the looks of it, "You're very right. I used to be a normal werewolf and now I am not. It wasn't an easy or short process, but a dear friend of mine that researched my curse crafted a dangerous ritual to merge slightly more with my inner wolf, in exchange for more control over my transformation, and the fact that I can't transmit my curse anymore."

That was groundbreaking. The idea that someone could essentially defang the werewolf population, by making the curse unable to be transmitted would change the world, but the fact that it would strengthen the werewolves would disturb the delicate balance of power in magical Britain, and maybe even the entire world. There wouldn't be a reason why werewolves couldn't be accepted in Hogwarts. There wouldn't be a reason why they wouldn't be allowed in shops. Hell, the entire population of werewolves would just die out in a few generations. It was a solution that was too revolutionary, and people didn't like change.

The professor chuckled, "I can see your train of thought. You're right. We tried to present the research to any guild, but we were either laughed out, or people just weren't interested even if the Arithmancy was logical. I was the first proof of concept, a prototype so that we wouldn't be ignored anymore."

Harry's mind paced, coming to another conclusion, "My mother is the one who came up with it, didn't she? It's why you spoke to her that much."

Lupin nodded without a hint of shame, "Lily was a very complicated person, but her most defining feature was her mind. She was a genius with a grasp on magic that I've never seen the like before, one that did her best to hide it since she understood that Purebloods would never allow someone with her potential to grow into a credible threat. You remind me of her very much. You might look exactly like James, but you're all Lily, except you don't even try to pretend that you care about other people, outside your friends that is. 

"Lily didn't have the luxury of your last name. She fought for every scrap of knowledge, for every privilege. She would have changed the world. She did change the world with me. In my fifth year, she told me that she figured out what I was years back and she was working on a way of helping me. After we graduated, she delivered. Even when no one would fund her research, she still went through with it and gave me the closest thing there is to a cure for my condition. James was my best friend, Harry, but my loyalty to him was nothing compared to my loyalty to my mother. She was even prepared to refine the ritual and offer it to other werewolves for free."

As fascinating as this is, Harry couldn't trust a word of it, "As interesting as this is, why don't you tell me why you never tried to see me before? My residence was public knowledge."

"The ritual was slow," Lupin responded after releasing a deep sigh, "It was a battle, at first, a constant fight between me and the wolf to decide who would stay dominant. It took years for me to wake up properly, having stayed in a half-feral state for years. I was too dangerous to stay near society, especially near children. Considering that we performed the ritual shortly before Lily's marriage and I disappeared afterwards, everyone thought that I was either a traitor or a coward. 

"I woke up with the only hope for my race dead in a freak fire, with my friends gone, and the war stopped. I wasn't welcome in Britain, and everyone made sure that I knew that. I joined a few werewolf packs, trying to convince them to make a stable society of our own, but they didn't like it. In the end, I became a bounty hunter of sorts, taking out high-profile criminals in the continents for gold, and doing a few businesses in the muggle world like Lily always dreamed, to help her parents' finances. Even now, I am not safe to stay around. I live in a constant fight that if I lose, the wolf will take over. It's not an easy life to lead, but at least I have a fighting chance to stay human."

Harry didn't know if this was all bullshit, but he also didn't really care. He would investigate the whole thing on his own. He just needed to keep the upper hand in the conversation, "If you're so dangerous, why did you even come to Hogwarts? I can tell that Dumbledore doesn't want you here, hell most of the professors don't. And if you're always close to becoming an uncontrollable monster, then staying near children isn't an ideal thing to do."

"For you, of course. I'm here to see you. I was curious about how you turned out. You're the child of two of my dearest friends, the only remnant I have of my younger years. Wouldn't you be curious if you were in my place? And that's to mention the rumours that you were a genius, and I thought that maybe you've inherited some of your mother's mind."

"You could have just sent a letter," the last Potter remarked, "it's easier than moving back to a country that you seem to dislike."

And Harry had a point. Lupin really could have sent a letter. There had to be something else, something that the man wouldn't share.

The defence professor snorted, "You're not very trusting, are you?"

"Everybody lies," Harry simply responds, "It's not a bad thing, a world of only truth would result in chaos. Even the way we see the world is a lie. It's in our bodies. Our brains process sounds faster than light, yet light travels faster than sound. Our brain is constantly shifting our reality so that it would make sense. Only if something happens in a radius of twenty-five meters that we see and hear the world exactly as it is when our brain, sound and light are in harmony. The rest of the time we live in a world of lies. Essentially, lies are what let the world make sense to us."

"What's your point?"

Harry grinned, "The point is that everyone is in this world for themselves. In a primal way, we always prioritize ourselves. We lie so that the world would align with us. You say that you want to spend time with me, but the timing is too suspicious. You come here, in this school, in a place where we'll have to interact, where I'm never too far away. Because there's something you want. Something you need me to do. I'm involved, I know I am, but the question is, involved in what? If it was something reasonable, I wouldn't have minded. So, it's something that I wouldn't accept immediately. If you lose control of the castle, then your entire species will be hunted down like the vampires were a hundred years ago. So, it has to be something worth the risk. You've given me a lot to think about, Mr. Lupin. I'll see you next week."

Harry turned and left the room. He pretended not to have heard the man's inner wolf howl in rage and frustration using his Arcane Hearing. Well, that was an enlightening conversation.

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