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(Enchanting Melodies) Chapter 446: Wolves and Sheep
🕑 Added 2025-03-23 14:00:09 +0000 UTCChapter 446: Wolves and Sheep
21 June 1995, Nurmengard
Marinakis’ grin turned bloodthirsty, and with a crack of lightning, he was gone. Harry exhaled, turning toward the waiting storm. Grindelwald had called. And now, Harry would answer.
Remus Lupin had never been a good man. Not in the way people thought good men should be.
He had killed. More than he could count. Innocent, guilty—it made no difference in war.
He had done it for a dream. A dream of a world where his people weren’t hunted like rabid dogs, where they weren’t treated as monsters before they even had a chance to be men. He knew that it would have been a long road ahead, with many hurdles to say the least. He thought that he was foolish, the dream that they would one day, not just be looked down upon with scorn and fear, not be treated as second-rate citizens for the progressive idiots that pretended to be considerate but become true citizens with equal rights and treated in the exact same way.
He had hedged his bet on Lily Evans, a brilliant girl who cured him, that made him better, more, all in exchange for serving her. She promised that she would do the same to the rest of the werewolves in the world, to turn their curse into something more, something better. With that done, there would be no more werewolves, only Lycans, and the general population would have no reason to fear them, not anymore. After all, their bites were no longer contagious.
When she had disappeared, all these years ago in Godric’s Hollows, it had been the single most devastating loss to his people. He hadn’t realized what had happened, still wrestling with the wolf inside him, but when he came back to Britain, he found no sign of Lily, only ash and death. It had taken years to find a way to bring her back, a mixture of the connection between himself and Lily, and his sheer tenacity, but she was back.
And when she returned, she did exactly what she had promised. Werewolves were no more, and only Lycans remained. Sure, they were subservient to her by nature, but it was a far better fate than what awaited them as normal werewolves. They fought a way against Voldemort and to be completely honest, Remus didn’t mind that. After all, it was Death Eaters who almost killed Lily in the first place. It was the attack on Godric’s Hollow that messed up Lily’s ritual, and Remus wanted revenge for the years he spent trying to undo what they did, years where his people suffered needlessly.
Then Lily died. He hadn’t believed it at first. No one did. But she died defending her son from Grindelwald, having hurt the man more than any other person in history, even more than Albus Dumbledore in their fight decades prior. Dumbledore tried to use that to trick them into serving him, to turn them against Harry Potter, but the boy fought Dumbledore and won. He showed everyone who killed Lily Evans, and they all wanted revenge against the Champions of Light and Dark.
Remus wanted revenge for their saviour as much as any other Lycan, but he knew deep down that fighting against Dumbledore and Grindelwald was a doomed endeavour. His people would perish, no matter how powerful their enhancements were.
Alas, as Lily’s son and his display of power, every Lycan obeyed Harry’s words like gospel. Remus didn’t like how a teenager essentially held his people’s fate in his hands, no matter how brilliant he was. Remus had always been hesitant about Lily’s influence over his people. He knew that she treated them more like an army than people she cared about.
Remus had accepted, long ago, that Lily Evans was a broken woman. She was brilliant, in ways that he still couldn’t grasp, but she was still broken. What happened to her in the Department, what they did to her, changed her in a way that was hard to put into words. She had gained much but lost so much more. Her empathy and her innocence were replaced with an unnatural ruthlessness and a sheer obsession over her goals that was just too intense to be natural.
He had once been tempted to ask Severus about it, as he probably knew more as the Head of the Department of Mysteries, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it when Lily was alive, and now that she was dead, there was no need to do so in the first place.
Nevertheless, someone with barely any empathy was not a good leader for his people and Remus knew that, but he accepted that he had no other choice. But with Lily dead, as tragic as this was, as angry as Remus felt about it, it was still an opportunity for his people to finally be free.
Harry Potter had the keys to this freedom, and he very clearly told him the price. One battle. The Lycans, all of them bar the children, would join him in a single battle, and after that, he would relinquish any authority to Remus and leave the Lycans in peace.
Remus felt that it was too good to be true but accepted anyway.
He should have trusted his instincts.
As he stood before Nurmengard, feeling the sheer might of the magic that protected the fortress, Remus knew that Harry Potter had played him like a fiddle. This was one battle alright, one that every single Lycan wanted to participate in, hoping to get some revenge against Gellert Grindelwald, the man who had killed their saviour.
They had no idea what awaited them. The impossible odds they’d have to face disguised as their revenge. Remus would have stopped them; he would have done his best to save as many Lycans as he could from the coming massacre.
A familiar voice spoke up from behind him, “It’s a beautiful fortress, isn’t it?”
And it was. Nurmengard had a charm to it —a dark, imposing beauty carved into the mountains, its black stone towers reaching toward the storm-laden sky.
The first Lycan didn’t turn as he answered, “I suppose one could consider it beautiful. But you didn’t come here to talk about beauty, did you, Severus?”
Finally, Remus turned to address his former classmate. They had a history between them, a dislike stemming from their younger years, which turned into an uneasy alliance and even a slight rivalry when Lily returned, which turned into a shared grief when she died.
Nevertheless, despite their allegiance, Remus barely had it in him to trust Severus, not without Lily enforcing him, and every conversation with the man tended to rile him up even further. This was why he wasn’t surprised when the potion master spoke up, “I have to admit that I didn’t expect to see you here, Lupin. If I was a betting man, I’d have put my money on you hiding away with as many of your people as you could.”
Remus rolled his eyes, suppressing a wince at how much he wished he had done just that, and answered, “And I’m just as surprised that left that hole in the ministry to come fight.”
Snape snorted, “I have no plans on fighting, I’m just supervising my ward breaker to make sure that they adhere to my deal with the Potter boy. After that, my agreements with him will all be over.”
The first Lycan stiffened at that, “You made a deal with him too?”
He regretted letting that out given the wicked smile on the potion master’s face, “I did. Full autonomy over the Department of Mysteries without him pressing his position as Lily’s son to take over. It’s not that big of a deal, but I’d rather pay my debts when I can and lending him my warding team wasn’t that big of a cost.”
“He didn’t ask for any of your operatives?” Remus questioned.
Snape shook his head, “Not a single one. I didn’t even know that he was planning a full-scale war when he asked for them. I expected an old tomb or something that he wanted to rob, not attacking fucking Nurmengard. Still, given his forces, I can see why he didn’t ask. My department has some very competent fighters but they’re barely more than a drop in the bucket of his forces. There are tens of thousands of mercenaries here.”
“And yet, he asked for my people’s help.”
“Your people have abilities that his forces simply don’t. You provided a tactical advantage. My Unspeakables didn’t. Still, I’m surprised that you kept your side of the bargain. I would have fully expected you to back off given the scale of the conflict.”
Remus actually flinched at that. He wanted to back off, regretting his agreement with Harry Potter now that he understood what he actually wanted to achieve. When Harry had asked for his people for a battle, Remus had expected something like what Lily had done in Britain. He expected a few losses, but not anything near this. Attacking Nurmengard, no matter what the plan could be, was beyond suicidal. Remus would have left with his people if he could… 'Could' being a very key word here.
His regret must have shown on his face because Snape snickered. It was an ugly bitter sound, obviously delighting in his suffering, “You can’t back out, can you? I’m guessing he made you swear a vow?”
“A blood contract, apparently to put me at ease. He knew I’d try to convince as many people as possible and ensured that I wouldn’t try to convince people to get away. It seemed so reasonable at the time, and now my people will pay the price for it. And to make it worse, he took the children to some safehouse Merlin knows where. He didn’t say anything, but the implications alone are very clear.”
The moment Arcturus Black and Sebastien Delacour came to him, giving him plans on formations and actual battle plans, Remus knew that he’d been had. It was worrying how much went into that single battle, and how the Lycans were being put as frontline fighters, supported by spells from the mercenaries. There were dozens of squads, ambush formations, shielding tactics and so much more. In just a few weeks, they trained his people to the bone, making warriors out of them, obviously planning on using them as distractions, pawns against Grindelwald’s armies. And yet, Remus couldn’t do anything. He simply agreed that he wouldn’t try to convince people to not fight and given that they had dangled the idea of avenging Lily’s death in front of his people, they immediately jumped at the opportunity.
They didn’t force them. That’s the sad part. They didn’t force anyone to fight, only Remus’ silence. Remus had thought that his people would refuse something unreasonable without his input, and yet the thirst for avenging Lily blinded them all, enough to go fight against the two most powerful beings in the world on the whim of a boy.
He didn’t know what he expected to see on Severus’ face, maybe glee at being tricked by a boy, or outrage as his people were probably going to die. However, he didn’t expect to see fondness of all things, “He really is his mother’s son, isn’t he? That’s exactly something that she would do.”
Remus looked back at his portrayal of Lily, and as warped as it was, he couldn’t refute the fact that she would have definitely done this, “She would have probably done that if she was desperate. The boy must know that if we survive, we’d never work with him, not again. He’s losing all his bargaining chip for a single fight.”
The potion master looked troubled for a second, “He is. He’s betting everything on this. Years of work went into this, months of planning for the tactics alone, I think. The logistics would be a nightmare. It was always going to come to this and he’s putting everything he has into it. And the secrecy is worrying.”
Now that he thought about it, Remus had no idea what the endgame here was, or why they were fighting in the first place. The mercenaries were doing it for the money, his people for revenge against Dumbledore and Grindelwald, but there was nothing about why Harry was fighting, or even why Arcturus Black and Sebastien Delacour spent so much gold on it.
They weren’t even supposed to fight Dumbledore or Grindelwald directly, only their forces, which are mainly made up of vampires. This was a good idea, generally, but there had to be better times to try to kill Dumbledore and Grindelwald, especially when they’re not in a fucking fortress and surrounded by an army. They could have done it at another time or another space.
Suddenly, a black beam of energy erupted from the tallest tower of Nurmengard and flew upwards, slowly darkening the sky in a cloudless storm. Remus felt a chill crawl down his spine as the unnatural darkness spread, blotting out the stars in thick, swirling tendrils. Magic, deep and ancient, resonated in the air, setting his teeth on edge.
He wasn’t the best at magical sensing, that he would admit, but he recognized a ritual when he saw one, and this one was beyond anything he ever thought possible, and it was woven into the very stones of Nurmengard. The realization came in like a lightbulb. Harry knew this. He wanted something to do with the ritual, probably stop it given his past history with the two Champions, and since it was anchored in Nurmengard, he needed a powerful force to attack the fortress. He turned to say something to Severus, only for the potion master to have vanished. Well, wasn’t that typical?
Remus could see the mercenaries, the Lycans, all muttering with unease in their voices, only to be interrupted by a very powerful burst of lightning that cut through the coming darkness. Even in the distance, Remus knew immediately who it was. Alexander Marinakis, one of Harry’s allies, and former headmaster of Olympus Academy.
An entire army stood silent at his appearance, and the former headmaster spoke up, his voice magically echoing across the entire battlefield, “Some of you are probably wondering why we’re here. We haven’t revealed much that I’ll admit but for a good reason, but now that your lives are on the line, let me tell you exactly why you should fight. You are all here today to stop a great evil that has plagued our society for decades. You are here today to stop the plans of one of the most dangerous men to ever exist. Gellert Grindelwald is in there, right now, preparing one of the most powerful rituals the world has ever seen. If he finishes this ritual, then everything you know—everything you love—will be rewritten in fire and shadow. This is not just about revenge, gold, or honour. This is about survival.”
Marinakis stepped forward, his presence radiating raw power as the lightning crackled in the sky above him, “Now, I will not lie to you, this will not be an easy battle. We are outnumbered. Our enemy fights from within the strongest fortress ever built, and Albus Dumbledore has forsaken us, choosing to side with him. However, Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald are not gods. They are not some beings with infinite power. They are living breathing men, and looking at you all surrounding me, I know for a fact that we sure as hell are going to fix that.”
The army cheered loudly, and Marinakis continued, “On this day, Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore will fall. For we are ready, for we fight not just for ourselves, but for the generations that will come after us. We fight so that magic remains free so that no tyrant—no matter how powerful—can bend the world to their will.”
He raised his hand, and another bolt of lightning split the sky, illuminating the faces of the warriors gathered before him. “This is the hour we carve our names into history! This is the night we rip their illusions of invincibility apart! Nurmengard will not be their fortress—it will be their grave!”
As if it was waiting for his speech to end, the wards around Nurmengard started to crack on their own, jagged fractures of raw magic splintering through the air like glass under pressure, before rupturing. A deafening roar erupted from the army, a collective battle cry that shook the very air. Wands flared to life, casting brilliant arcs of magic, while the Lycans let loose primal howls that echoed across the battlefield. The ground trembled beneath their charge, a wave of fury and defiance surging toward the fortress.
Remus felt the weight of the moment press against his ribs. Like the air itself knew what was coming. There was no turning back.
Tomorrow, the world would wake to something new.
Or it wouldn’t wake at all.
AN: I’m still not feeling that good, but I tried to write something just to keep myself occupied and decided on something that was a bit light, instead of continuing directly with Harry. The next few chapters are very important, and I didn’t want to half-ass them. I decided to write Lupin’s perspective since I haven’t really included it in the fight, and he seemed appropriate to essentially be someone who’s fighting without really knowing about Ragnarök or what’s at stake, essentially a fancy foot soldier who barely a piece on Harry’s board. Anyway, I don’t know if I pulled it off, but I don’t mind rewriting it depending on your feedback. So, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions. Thank you all for your well-wishes yesterday. I really appreciate it.
Comments
Abe 7
Man, that was a very good speech. Eagerly waiting for the next chapter. Hopefully coming chapters will be full of epic action. Battlemania!!
