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Lavender's POV
Lavender Brown opened her eyes. She started to turn her head when someone grabbed her chin. "No! Don't move! I've only just gotten the bleeding stopped! You can't move or you'll start bleeding out again!" She stared up at the young man staring down at her. He smiled shyly and she shivered at the sight of his fangs just barely showing. "Don't worry. I won't hurt you. I'm trying to help you."
They stayed like that, her laying as still as she could, him tenderly cradling her jaw. When the healers finally made it to her, they immediately called the aurors. The young man was grabbed and taken away before she could tell them he wasn't the one who had bitten her. Lavender was quietly panicking. 'How could she help him the way he'd helped her?'
Just then she looked up and found Hermione Granger standing over her. She immediately held up her hand. Hermione knelt down beside her. Using her hands to make a point, Lavender managed to get her to understand what she was trying to convey. "Don't worry, Lavender. I'll find out who he is and where they're taking him. I'll help him as much as I can. I promise you. I'll be back as soon as I know anything." Hermione said before she jumped up and rushed off after the aurors.
Lavender closed her eyes in relief as the healers worked on her neck. She was bundled up and quickly transported to St. Mungo via the Floo. She couldn't get his face out of her mind. She had so many questions about him, namely when he had become a wolf. He hadn't been much older than her from the looks of him, so it had to have been fairly recent that he'd been turned. 'Who had turned him? Had it been Greyback, the one who attacked her during the fight? Or a member of Greyback's werewolf army?'
Once she was settled into a bed, she noticed that all of the healers who were tending to her were being careful to not touch her any more than they had to. 'Silly people! She'd have thought professional healers would have more sense and know lycanthropy couldn't be conveyed any way besides being bitten! What are they all so scared of?" She felt like yelling BOO at them everything they came in, but she didn't. If she started deliberately trying to scare them, they wouldn't treat her and she needed to get better, if only for him. She wondered how long it would be before she heard back from Hermione, if Hermione even bothered to keep her promise. Seeing as how Hermione had hated her when she was with Ron their sixth year, Lavender wouldn't blame her at all for 'forgetting' her promise to help.
A few hours later, Lavender had a visitor. It was Hermione and she held a sheaf of papers. "Lavender! I found him! Ok, this is everything I was able to find out. They've taken him to Azkaban but don't worry, we're going to get him out." She pulled up a chair and sat down. Lavender raised her hand and shook her head as soon as she heard 'Azkaban'.
"Thank you." Lavender whispered. "You don't have to stay. If he's in Azkaban, then he'll be there for a while."
"Do you have anywhere to go? I could-?" Hermione started to speak.
"No. I can go home. My parents have already been notified. They're coming to get me." Lavender looked away as she remembered the Howler she'd received from her father. Neither he nor her mother had wanted Lavender to go back to school. She'd argued to go back, pointing out that she might not be able to finish her education otherwise. Now she just wanted to go to sleep, knowing that once her parents arrived, that would be the end of the peace.
"Well, I'm still going to get Kingsley on his case. If anyone can get him out, it'll be Kingsley." Hermione told her. Lavender nodded as she left. She picked up the papers Hermione had left. There was a picture of him. It looked like a school picture of him. He was blond and blue eyed. With surprise, Lavender realized he was wearing a Durmstrang uniform. She looked closer at his face and tried to recall if she'd seen him the year Durmstrang came to Hogwarts. She opened the file up and saw his name, Alex McKeon. She touched the picture as a tear rolled down her cheek. 'He'd been a nice dream while he lasted but now it was time to let him go.' She put the picture back, closed the file and closed her eyes.
The healers were checking on her throat when her parents walked in. Her father crossed his arms as he stared at her disapprovingly. Her mother looked like she'd been crying. Lavender started getting a bad feeling. They waited until she was discharged and walked her down to the ground floor. As they left St. Mungo, they turned left towards the Leaky Cauldron. After passing through the back wall, they stopped at the counter. Her mother sat her down on the bench as her father spoke to Tom in a low voice. Lavender leaned back and rested as her mother held her hand.
"Ok. Everything is set. We'll keep your bills paid until you're able to work." Her father's voice jerked her awake. He was looking down at her with a sneer. "You're not going home with us. You disobeyed us by going back to that school. Therefore, you're responsible for your own injury and yourself now."
"Why are you really leaving me here? Is it because I disobeyed you or because I was bitten by a werewolf?" She glared defiantly at him. He began to bluster angrily. "Oh, don't answer that! I've known for a long time that you were ready to get rid of me! Fine, just go! And take your money with you!"
He turned and walked away. "Fine! C'mon, Maddie. We're leaving!" Lavender's mother stubbornly stayed beside her.
"Lavender, please let us help. Can I visit you here? Don't turn his offer down. Please, I'll worry myself sick if I don't know you're ok." She stroked Lavender's hair.
Lavender sighed. "All right. I'll let him support me until I have a job. And you can come see me here. Thank you, mother." They hugged and separated. Lavender watched as her mother hurried after her father. Tom came wandering over. He sat down next to her.
"You know, this place is quite a lot to run. I could use an assistant. Of course, I wouldn't be able to pay them until their training was complete." He smiled at her slyly. "Since he refuses to let you return home."
Lavender laughed as she realized Tom was going to make sure her father supported her for a good long while. "I've never been an assistant before. I'll do my best."
"Just so you know, I won't be charging you any room or board. You've been here with Hannah before, and I've started considering you as another granddaughter. I'll train you and her both as my assistants. She'll be taking over the Cauldron someday." Tom told her.
Alex's POV
<>Alex McKeon was throwing curses left and right as he protected himself. The fight had broken out before he could let anyone know that he'd defected from the Dark Lord's side. He'd been unable to break away before now. Being in a Snatcher gang hadn't left a lot of room for argument, especially when your alpha was the leader of the group. If he'd dared to go against Greyback's authority, they would have left him for dead in the forest somewhere.
He swung around a corner and saw his alpha jumping at a student. The girl screamed as she tried to fight him off. The next thing he knew, they were falling over the balcony. He rushed to the rail and looked over, just in time to see Greyback blasted out the window. As he dropped, Alex knew that he'd gone into the ravine just outside that window. There was a lot of things he'd seen Greyback survive but he didn't think even the alpha wolf could survive dropping two hundred feet into a rock laden ravine. He impulsively jumped over the railing and landed lightly beside the girl.
She was struggling to move, and blood was gushing from her mauled neck. He put his hand over her mouth and nose until she was still. Then he leant over and began healing her as he'd seen Greyback doing once. He'd just gotten the blood flow to stop when she woke up. She was a beautiful girl and he hated to see her die. Greyback had told him recently he needed to start looking for a mate. Ironically, he'd never figured he'd find his mate in the middle of a battle. Yet here he was, holding his future in his arms. He kept her calmed down until the healers came to the scene.
As he was led away by the aurors, he could see her starting to panic again. He cursed the fact that he'd been unable to even exchange names with her. Now everything was lost. Even if he could talk his way out of Azkaban, he had no way to finding her. He didn't know her name, he'd never told her his name and she probably wouldn't want anything to do with him anyway. As he was transported to the ministry, he stared at the ground dejectedly. He was taken down to the DMLE floor where he was lined up on a wall, photographed and fingerprinted. 'Had he actually gone through seven years worth of education to let it all be thrown away for a war he hadn't even wanted to be involved in?'
He was handed a black and white jumpsuit and told to change into it. Then he had to hand over all of his belongings to be put away for him. He took the long walk to Azkaban knowing he'd never see his beautiful girl again. He wasn't even allowed to ask the guards if she'd survived or not. He shivered as he was locked into his cell. He could feel the effects of the magic dampening spell placed on the cell. He just hoped, for the sake of the guards, that spell held during the full moon or there would be more wolves than people in here.
By now, it had been quite a few hours since the defeat of Voldemort. He walked over to the window, peered out at the wild North Sea and tried to pretend he was back home, looking out his own window. Except his room had never had stone grey walls, nor a cot with a threadbare blanket on it. He could see now why Greyback had always sworn he'd never go back to prison.
He was lost in a daydream about his girl when he heard the door rattle behind him. He hoped and prayed it wasn't the Dementors, until he remembered hearing that the Dementors were no longer a part of the prison. He turned around and saw the purple robed figure of Kingsley Shacklebolt. He frowned at him. 'Why was the former head of the DMLE standing in front of him?'
"Alex McKeon. That IS you, I'm assuming. I'm Kingsley Shacklebolt, interim minister of magic. Apparently, you have friends in high places. Hermione Granger has talked to me about your case. I've been looking through your file. You were recruited out of Durmstrang, it says. But you have no kills on your record, no use of Unforgivable spells on your wand. You were punished for not completing a mission. Turned by Fenrir Greyback himself. Put into his Snatcher gang. You wouldn't happen to know where he disappeared to?" Shacklebolt stared hard at the young wolf. Alex stared back at him impassively. 'If the minister didn't bother to check the ravine for dead bodies, that was on him.'
Shacklebolt sighed. "Well, in any case, according to your file, we really have no reasonable excuse for holding you here. And we need these cells for actual criminals. Don't think, however, that because we're releasing you that you're off the hook. We will be fitting you with a tracker and keeping a very close eye on you." He stepped to the side as a guard came in. Alex was once more escorted on a long walk, this time away from Azkaban. Once back at the ministry, he was fitted with an ankle brace and given a parole officer.
As he left the lift and started across the lobby to the Floo, he was stopped by a girl he recognized. He could tell the minute she recognized him, too. It was Hermione Granger. He'd been one of the snatchers who'd caught her, Potter and Weasley. "I've been waiting for you. I spoke to the minister about you. I'm glad he saw fit to release you. The girl you saved at the battle, she's a friend of mine. I wanted to thank you for saving her. Her name is Lavender Brown. She was in St. Mungo but her parents were on their way to pick her up. She didn't seem too thrilled about the prospect. Maybe you could go and cheer her up. I'm sure she'd love to see you."
Alex nodded at her as he moved past her. Now that he knew her name and where to start his search, he was anxious to go find his beautiful girl. "Thank you. The minister told me you spoke with him."
"I promised Lavender that I would help you. Take care of her." Hermione told him as she waved him on. Alex hurried through the Floo and headed straight to the hospital. After being told she'd just been discharged, he came back to the street and placed his wand in his palm.
"Point me to Lavender Brown." He said. Watching his wand twirl slowly, he held his breath as it stopped and pointed to his left. He started in that direction. The wand stayed steady all the way through the wall in back of the Leaky Cauldron. Once inside it wobbled before pointing him again. He walked through the hallway into the lobby, and it pointed at the bar. He walked over, took a seat and waited. Sure enough, she emerged from behind a curtain, holding a load of mugs. She saw him and gasped in surprise. He couldn't tell if it was a happy gasp or a scared gasp as she quickly rushed by him.
Lavender took the clean mugs to the bartender and stood there a moment to catch her breath. 'It was him! Alex, from the fight! Hermione had come through on her promise!' She quickly touched her hair to make sure it was tied back, took a deep breath and turned around. She walked back to him and smiled. He was even more handsome than she remembered. "Hi, I'm Lavender."
He held his hand out. "Hi, I'm Alex. Could I take you to dinner sometime?"
Lavender took his hand, leaned against the bar and answered. "You could. That would be lovely." Tom, watching them from behind his register, smiled proudly. The sparks flying between the two let him know he might very well be walking a daughter down the aisle soon.
Alex stayed at the bar for the rest of the evening. When the bar shut down, he walked Lavender to her room, told her they'd go out to dinner the next day and said goodnight. Then he left the Leaky Cauldron. The two aurors assigned to follow him cursed up a storm. He'd disappeared in the blink of an eye. By the time they realized he was outside, the only thing they heard was the crack of Disapparation. There was no way to tell where he'd gone until he actually whooshed back into sight.
Alex popped back into sight already down in the ravine. As he'd suspected, the bodies of the dead hadn't been touched. He walked among them, seeing coworkers and friends. He caught his breath as he saw two very familiar and welcome sights. It was Greyback and Scabior, both of whom were barely hanging on. He knelt beside them. Scabior couldn't speak but lifted his hand weakly. Alex grabbed it. Scabior was trying to say something. Finally, Alex understood him. "Ring, take ring. Family heirloom, take it please, brother." He took the fingerless glove off of Scabior's left hand and removed the skull shaped rung from his right hand. As he did so, Scabior slumped against him. Alex looked down. He was gone.
After laying him back down, Alex moved to Greyback. The alpha wolf was only slightly stronger than Scabior. He reached out and roughly patted Alex on the cheek. "Good boy. I knew you'd be able to make it. You're a survivor, pup! Your scent, it's changed. You've found a mate?"
"I'm hoping she'll want to mate with me." Alex answered him quietly. Greyback nodded. His time was up, and he needed to pass the baton.
"Take my necklace, pup. Wear it proudly. It'll tell the whole world and every wolf you meet that you're an alpha, son of The Alpha." He reached up and removed a necklace with a single pierced fang dangling from it. He put it around Alex's neck. "Before the wizards come down here, and they will, I want you to put myself, Scabior and the rest of your brothers into a pile. Burn us and remember your heritage. You're a wolf, an alpha, never forget that!"
Alex held him as he died. This older wolf had taught him how to survive, to take care of himself and a large group. Passing the necklace to him meant that he was now the leader of the Greyback pack. He and Lavender, if she agreed to mate with him, would be the new Alpha and Luna of their pack. He pulled all of the wolves together and lined them up. He took a deep breath, aimed and sent a spell. "Incendio!" He watched until there was nothing there but ashes. As he prepared to leave, he could finally hear voices yelling in the distance. As aurors swarmed into sight, he disappeared again with a loud crack. Back at the Leaky Cauldron, he took his own room for the night. Tomorrow morning was soon enough to start courting his future mate.
The next morning, Lavender came down to a surprise. Alex had gotten a job as a server. Tom explained that the young man also had no family left. "We couldn't just kick him to the curb, now, could we?"
"No, we can't kick him to the curb." Lavender agreed as she smiled at Alex. He looked very handsome with the white apron looped around him. As she served drinks, he waited tables during their busy breakfast and lunch rushes. As the time grew close for their date, Hannah took over the bar and pushed Lavender towards the stairs. As she started up, she realized she didn't have any clothes besides the ones she'd arrived in. She'd washed them the night before. When she entered her room, she was shocked to see her Hogwarts trunk at the foot of her bed.
She flung it open and there was all of her clothes from Hogwarts. 'How had her trunk gotten here from school? Hannah! She'd shown up this afternoon! It had to have been Hannah who brought her clothes to her! She'd have to remember to thank her when she went back down.' She found her favorite red dress with a soft pink sweater to wear over it. She took a shower and fixed her hair and makeup. As she smoothed the dress over her hips, she hoped Alex liked it.
Alex was leaning on the bar, talking to Hannah, Tom and Neville who had arrived to visit Hannah. He looked up and caught his breath. 'Gods! She was stunning!' He met her at the bottom step and slid his arms around her. Hannah ran out from behind the bar. "Wait! You can't leave yet! I want pictures!" They smiled shyly at the camera as Hannah recorded the first pictures of them.
He offered her his arm and they left through the back wall. The restaurant he took her to fit the way she thought of him. Daydream was a softly lit row of booths on either side of a stage. A band played sift music as the patrons quietly dined. It was here that he broke the news about his new accessories. She'd noticed the glove, ring and necklace this morning as soon as she saw him.
"This glove and ring belonged to Scabior. He was the co-leader of the Snatchers, Greyback's beta. If they'd survived, we would all be with the Wolfpack. I'd be the Gamma, the third in command. Greyback gave me this necklace. It's the symbol of the alpha. He was Alpha and now I'm the alpha. He and Scabior didn't survive the fall into the ravine. I went back to the school. I found them. They were just barely alive. I think they'd lasted that long just because they were waiting for me to find them. If I hadn't been held in Azkaban so long, I might have gotten there in time to save them." Alex ducked his head.
Lavender tilted her head. "So, you're probably looking for a mate. Someone to help you lead the group. Why are you taking me on a date then? Shouldn't you be looking for a mate from within your group?"
Alex reached for her hand. "Now why would I go there to find a mate when I've already found her?" Lavender's eyes widened in surprise.
"Why do you mean? Me? B-but I, I can't be a co-leader." She stammered in confusion. Alex chuckled softly.
"And why can't you be a co-leader? I don't want anyone else by my side. I want YOU by my side." He told her.
"But I've been bitten. I'll start trans-." She stopped abruptly as she realized something. She was a wolf now but so was he. He allowed her time to figure it out. "We're both wolves. We'll both transform, won't we?"
"Yes, sweetheart. We'll both transform. But you'll only transform until we have children. Once you're carrying a child, you'll stay in your human form until our child is weaned, usually around one - one and a half years old. Then you'll transform again. The children are all kept with the burdened women while the rest of us transform and run." He stroked his finger down her hand.
"O-our child? You, you want to have children with me?" Lavender was on the verge of crying happy tears.
"Only if you want children. We don't have to have children if you don't want them." Alex assured her.
"Oh, yes, yes I do want children. Very much so." She wove her fingers through his as she smiled brightly at him. Yesterday she'd thought for sure that her life was completely over. Now she was being given an entirely new future, one she couldn't wait to start, all due to the young wolf who had saved her yesterday. They finished their dinner and hurried back to the tavern. Tom and Hannah were thrilled about their news. Over the next few weeks, Tom watched proudly as Alex and Lavender courted and the day finally arrived as he did indeed walk her down the aisle.