The Lambs

2. Attempting to Meet

October 1981

For the next year, Fenrir spent most of his time stalking the village. Hogwarts, as the whole village was known as, was protected by its magical wall, but that didn't deter Fenrir from trying to catch glimpses of his mate. Every two or three months, Fenrir would attack anyone who dared leave the protection of the wall. He would drag them to the Forbidden Forest, and he would try to persuade them to bring Harry to him. If they refused, he would torture them, if they still refused he killed them.

The forest was to the right of the wall, and while there were other towns to the left of Hogwarts, the most prosperous and useful towns were beyond the forest. Fenrir vowed that people would not cross safely until his mate was within his reach.

Harry was fifteen months old when James Potter finally reached his limit. He had, irrationally, continued to refuse to allow Remus to rejoin them. He changed the subject whenever the werewolves name was mentioned, and he threw things at anyone who attempted to order him to let Remus come home. Peter Pettigrew was secretly very pleased by all of this. He might have been a Lamb, but he was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

He had known all about Harry's mating mark since the boy was born; he had been the only one to recognize it for what it was, out of those who had seen it. That didn't include Remus. He had been the one to hint that it could mean something more to James, who had believed it to be a perfectly normal birthmark. Each time they spoke of it, Peter's eyes would stray towards Remus. He didn't like Remus. Peter's father had been a Werewolf, and he had attacked and raped his mother who was an Elemental. When Peter had been born, his mother had sent him away with a nanny, even after she had been reassured that her son was not a wolf. But he wanted to be.

He hated his mother. She was too weak to love him, to overcome her fear of her attacker and love the innocent child she bore. And Peter hated her for it. He wanted to be a wolf, so he could be strong and fierce and worth something. If he gave a mate to the leader of the strongest wolf pack, surely one of them would turn him as repayment.

He hated Remus for being a werewolf but was too much of a cowardly human to embrace the gift for what it was. It was something Peter would kill to possess.

Peter watched as James paced around his throne room. It was actually the greeting hall of their castle, named Godric's Hollow, but James thought it sounded better as the 'throne room'. He hoped James agreed to his plan. It would make everything so much simpler for him.

"Yes, Peter. You're right. We should send him away. Greyback can't keep killing our men. If Harry leaves," Lily scowled at him and hugged her son tighter. "Just for a little while Lily, just until Fenrir goes searching for him. Then he can come back."

"Just until he turns 21 you mean," she hissed mutinously back at him.

"Of course not." James frowned at her. "What about your sister? Would she take him?" Lily looked horrified.

"James! She's a horrible, magic-hating woman who is married to a magic-despising horrible man!" The red-haired woman shrieked at her husband.

"We'll make it worth their while," he suggested as his fingers brushed over his pocket. His wallet bulged through the fabric.

Peter listened intently as they worked out the details. He had rather hoped the Dursley family lived to the right of Hogwarts. They didn't, but that didn't deter him. He would find Fenrir and he would travel with the werewolf to the south of Hogwarts, to a town called Little Whinging, where the Dursleys lived at number 4, Privet Drive.

---

Five days later, Harry was bundled up in a thick blanket and cradled in his mother's arms. The woman's cheeks were tear-stained, but she agreed that Harry's best interests should be at heart. James helped her into the black carriage. The four black horses whinnied slightly, and James followed his wife and son into the carriage. The driver cracked his whip, and the four fastest horses in Hogwarts sped out through the left door, and across the fields and hills towards Little Whinging.