Scabior courts Hermione

It was two days past the full moon. A young man Apparated into view in the small courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron. He slipped around the corner and walked inside. Keeping to the shadows, he walked to the bar. "I'm back." He quietly told Tom as he took over making the drink orders.

Tom smiled, happy that his boy had come back safely from another transformation. He knew the pack the boy ran with and the territory he hunted in was controlled by Fenrir Greyback. He also knew Greyback had been pressing Scabior to stay with the pack, instead of returning to London. As yet, Scabior was resistant to the idea but sooner or later, he'd get tired of being pushed. Then he would either join the pack or be killed for sassing off to Greyback. Ocassionally, Greyback came back with him but this time he hadn't.

Tom looked proudly at his boy. The Scabiors had been out of their ever loving minds to throw this boy away. He'd been attacked and bitten at the young age of nine. His parents had been horrified. They had called him a monster and dumped him, wandless and defenseless, in Knockturn Alley with all the other 'monsters.' The boy had transformed out of sheer fear and was a fight with robbers when Greyback happened upon the scene. He ran them off, picked up the frightened pup, and took him to the Leaky Cauldon. He came back every month to take the boy to the wild for his transformations.

Tom immediately took him in. He lived upstairs and worked odd jobs, here and there, until he received his Hogwarts letter. His parents had disowned him but apparently they were going to allow him to keep the personal vault they had gifted him with. So money was no problem, as far as school supplies went. He was sorted into Slytherin and tried his best to just fade into the background. He was grateful as the headmaster called him into his office and told him he had a safe place where he could transform each moon. The head of Slytherin would make him the Wolfsbane potion each month. He made it through Hogwarts with fairly decent grades.

Once Scabior graduated, he came back to help Tom run the Leaky Cauldron. Tom had no family, to speak of, so he officially adopted the boy and told him the Cauldron would belong to him someday. The war took Scabior away from him again as the boy was handpicked by Fenrir to lead a snatcher gang. It almost killed him when he heard Scabior had disappeared, last seen falling off the wooden bridge as it exploded. After a few months had gone by and the war was put more and more behind people, his boy reappeared. It seemed he'd took off and stayed with the pack, a few months after the battle, until he was confident enough to come back to London. Tom could still see a hint of wildness in the boy's eyes. He still had some excess energy to work off.

"Oi, Scabior, there's a new bar opened up in the alley. Some of them swotty, rich boys own it. You ought to check it out some evening, boy. Get outta here, away from these old fogies." Tom told him. Scabior smiled. "Maybe some time, for now, I just wanna enjoy being home." He noticed the some of the whiskey kegs getting low so he took them loose and went to the basement for fresh kegs.

While he was downstairs, Fenrir Greyback came through the floo. Tom sighed 'here we go again.' Greyback came to the bar. To Tom's surprise, it wasn't Scabior he wanted to see. "Tom, how's our boy? He get back ok? So you know I've been trying to get him to stay with the pack but I haven't told you why."

"My mate and I are unable to have children. We've been trying for years, nothing. That's why I prefer to bite children. Not because I can but it's easier to raise children than a grownup or a teenager. I've raised about seven children and between war and the Ministry, every one of them has died or been killed. I'm an Alpha but I have no heir apparent. I could name one out of my current pack but I honestly don't like any of them well enough to name them."

"Scabior's not a born were but he's strong, a good leader, he showed that during the war. Of course, he would need to find a mate and have an heir of his own but that boy can charm birds out of a tree. Finding a mate should be no problem. He's shown no interest in any of the females of our pack, has he shown any particular interest in anyone here?" Tom thought hard.

The last time he remembered the boy showing interest in anyone had been about a week ago. That pretty little friend of Harry Potter had strolled through on her way to work. The boy's eyes had locked onto her as soon as she stepped inside and hadn't left her until the girl stepped into the floo. He mentioned her to Greyback who laughed. "Oh, Scabior son, the one who got away. We caught her and her friends during the war. He was a little bit obsessed with her. After the battle, he figured she'd get with Weasley and pop out a dozen little gingers, so he let everyone think he'd died on that bridge. He stayed with us until it cooled down enough to come back. Since he's been back, he's been keeping a low profile, hasn't he?

Tom nodded. He was intrigued about his boy's interest in the Granger girl. Maybe, if he and Greyback coordinated their efforts, they might get a couple of grandchildren out of the deal. "She comes through here almost every day. She works at St Mungo's. She's training as a healer, I believe." Fenrir's ears perked up. "A healer, you say? That's a handy skill to have around.

"I didn't figure Weasley would let her work, figured he'd be the type to keep her in the kitchen or the nursery." Fenrir tossed out that little volley.

"They aren't together, as far as I know. I believe there was a breakup there. Once in a while, you'll see the ginger with her but only if Potter is there, too. Otherwise, it's usually her by herself." Greyback was looking thoughtful. "You wouldn't happen to know any particular place where she goes to rest or relax, do you?"

"I was just telling Scabior about the new bar, just opened up here in the Alley, run by some of those swotty, little, rich prats she went to school with. She's been known to show up there, ever so often. Word is she's turned into a little bit of a party animal, she's been known to dabble in Muggle drugs, too. Potter and Weasley have had a hard time reining the girl in." on hearing that, Greyback burst into gales of laughter.

When they'd caught them during the war, she'd been the strongest one, willingly stopping and hexing Potter before giving up. Had she not run into a roadblock of more snatchers, no doubt the girl and Potter would easily have escaped from them. He had a hard time seeing them getting her under control but he knew a young ex-Snatcher who just might be able to do the trick.

Before he could tell Tom that, the door burst open and none other than the famous Trio under discussion walked in. She was in the lead and was dressed to the nines. "Leave me alone, both of you, I can take care of myself!" Hermione Granger snapped. She was going to the Riot, whether they liked it or not!

"Hermione, please, just be careful, ok? You never know who you'll run into in a place like that." Harry Potter was almost yanking his hair out in frustration. She was so bloody stubborn, sometimes!

"C'mon, 'Mione, if this is about Parvati, just drop it already! You weren't willing, she was and that's that! No need to go out on a bender every weekend!" Ron Weasley snorted.

Hermione whipped around to stare menacingly at him. "Ronald Weasley, you could go shag half of bloody Scotland, I don't care, this isn't about you! I've always had to be the good girl, the grown up, now it's my turn to have fun!"

Fenrir and Tom were unabashedly listening into the argument, as was over half the Leaky Cauldron, really. Seeing as they were right in the middle of the room, it was sort of impossible NOT to hear the fight. At that moment, Scabior came back and almost dropped both kegs as he caught sight of Granger. Greyback smiled. 'yep, that little girl's days of freedom were in danger of disappearing, especially if the pup had anything to say about it.' Scabior got the kegs reattached as he kept an eye on the arguing Trio.

"Harry, I'm going! If you want to stop me, you'll have to knock me out. If you do that, you better have your will made out and be gone by the time I wake up in the morning! Or you can go with me, if you absolutely INSIST on following me! And you, Ronald, why are you even here?! I'm surprised Parvati even let you out of the house!" Hermione whipped around and started for the floo once again.

"I give up, Harry, she's on her own. She won't listen anything we're saying. She's a lost cause. C'mon, Ginny and Teddy will be at your place soon. I have to get home." Ron said as he turned back to the door.

"You go on, tell Ginny I'm going to be late, maybe if I do go and hang out, she'll be calm down and leave soon." Harry wasn't about to give up on Hermione. Ron shook his head but let Harry go with no more argument. If anyone could get her to calm down, it would definitely be Harry.

Fen and Tom watched as Harry followed her on into the floo. "Hey, Scabior, how are ya, boy?" Fen greeted him. Scabior smiled and shrugged. "I think those two are having a bit of trouble with their little bit of fluff there." Greyback nodded after Harry. Scabior chuckled. "Yeah, they weren't too happy with the girl."

"Hey, Tom, where did they say they were going?"Greyback asked slyly.

Tom grinned. "The Riot, that's the place I was telling you about, Scabior. You should go, check it out."

Scabior rolled his eyes. "Don't think I don't know what you old fogies are on about. If the girl wanted to be chased, she'd let them know. She doesn't."

"Maybe, maybe not. Maybe she does want to be chased, just not by them two!" Tom eyed his boy.

"You'll never know unless you try." Fen told him. "Wasn't her and Weasley being together the whole reason you forgot about her at the battle? They aren't together, now. No roadblocks."

Scabior tapped his fingers on the bar. Tom and Fen exchanged quick grins. He was thinking about it. Tom took the lead. "How about you take the rest of the night off? Go to the Riot, have some fun. Just because you and her are both there doesn't mean you'll end up seeing each other. Potter will probably stand watch over her all evening anyway."

He knew he was being manipulated, but he didn't care, at this point. The girl was there and he would be shortly. They were right. Weasley had been his only roadblock and he was no longer a problem. He looked at Tom. "You can handle it here?"

"I got this. You go have some fun. Knock a few back for me." Tom said.

He and Fen waited until Scabior had walked into the floo before they celebrated with a shot of firewhiskey.

Scabior walked out of the fireplace into a huge room. There were three levels and the floo was the top level. From here he could see down to the bar on the next level. The last level was the dance floor. He could see Potter sitting at the bar as he went down the stairs.

In the middle of the dance floor, he could see Hermione. The girl had a faraway look on her face. Little did he know, she'd taken a pit stop between the floo and the dance floor to pop into the bathroom and down a Vicodin. The girl was feeling no pain.

He passed by Potter and grabbed two whiskeys from the bar. Unknown to Tom and Fen, he'd known this place would be opening soon. He'd frequented another bar owned by them. They knew his order and as soon as they saw him, they knew he'd be by for two shots.

Potter jerked as he recognized him. "What are you doing here?" he hissed at him.

"It's a free country, Potter, and I was never convicted of anything. Cool your jets, Chosen One, I'm just here to have some fun." He sniped at him. Potter glared at him suspiciously. He continued on down the stairs. As soon as he hit the dance floor, he began weaving through the dancers until he was behind her.

He reached around and held a shot in front of her. To his delight, she took the shot, threw it back and whirled to face him. They dropped the glasses, wrapped their arms around each other and slowly danced as the lights went down for a slow number.

He didn't see Potter move to the very end of the bar to keep a better eye on him and Hermione. He was totally concentrated on the beautiful girl in his arms.