Harry Potter and the Dovahkiin

Remy Linton

Upstairs, Ben barely had time to conjure up a comfortable sofa and pull out Superman #75 that he'd grabbed on his recent trip to the muggle world, before Tom knocked on the door. "Come on in," Ben said, not even looking, simply sliding the latch with

"Um, Sir... there's a..." Thomas peeked through the door, out of breath from running up the stairs.

"Get on with it, Avery… don't die halfway through the sentence," Ben said, turning the next page and couldn't help but grimace, facing a full page image of Superman and Lois while the whole city burned in the background. He couldn't escape the image of people exchanging microbes even after leaving Hogwarts Castle.

"Someone's here, sir...looking for work," Thomas said, catching his breath. 

"Oh, that was fast," Ben said, tossing the comic back into the storage. "Where is he?"

"Waiting downstairs, sir."

"Bring him to see me, quick." Ben waved his hand, looking forward to conducting his first-ever job interview, and put on some mysterious airs while he was at it.

"Bring him up here, sir?" Avery said, looking a bit exhausted.

"Look at you, Avery, scared of some stairs. Here, drink this and bring him here," Ben said, throwing a stamina potion at him and then waving his wand to make the lighting more dramatic in the room.

Thomas drank the potion, a bit scared and sceptical at first, but as soon as the liquid entered his body, he felt his exhaustion disappear and his body brimming with energy.

"T—This—" He stammered, but Ben cut him off. 

"Get on with it, boy." He said, dismissing him with a wave and, at the same time, wondering how little stamina one must have to get that effect from a potion of minor stamina. The answer was less than 25 points in stamina.

While he waited, Ben decided to work his magic and redecorate the room a bit.

Soon, Tom was back up huffing at the door, and Ben waved his hand to open it before he could knock, trying to put forth a shocking first impression. After all, wandless magic was not something one expected from a pub owner in Knockturn Alley.

Tom, who was about to lean on the door to catch his breath, fell over as the door opened. Usually, Ben wouldn't have wasted even a second before saying something like, "Find a Galleon there, did you, Avery?" but right now, all of his attention was on the tall yet lanky man standing at the door.

Luckily, he still had his squid face mask on, or the look of utter bewilderment on his face would have ruined the mysterious image he was trying to project. 

"This...is..."Tom tried to introduce the man while also trying to get off the floor himself, only to realise he'd never asked for the man's name. 

"…Remy. Remy Linton," continued, the man with a polite smile, helping Tom with his own introduction while also helping him get on his feet.

Ben smiled beneath the mask.

"Tom, please be a dear and fetch our Werewolf friend a warm cup of tea," he said, and the smiles on both their faces froze. 

Tom's cause, he had to traverse the dastardly stairs once again, and Remy's cause, well, it seemed like his secret was out even before he got the job.

He usually wouldn't have come to a place like this looking for a job, but times were tough for his kind right now, and he wasn't really in a place to choose where to work; as long as the job didn't go against his principles, he was willing to work. 

"T—Tea, sir?" Tom asked to confirm, as if buying time to prepare himself for the arduous journey ahead.

"Yes, Tea. Go on now, I'm parched." Ben said, throwing him another vial of stamina potion. 

Tom managed to clumsily catch it, doing a sort of juggling dance in the process, and after taking a swig, he hurried downstairs, and Ben closed the door behind him with a turn of his hand.

looked quite calm on the surface despite being locked alone in the room with a masked figure, but Ben could see his hand slowly moving towards his pocket.

"I'm sure there's been some...misunderstanding. I'm...not a werewolf," he said, trying to distract Ben while his hand moved to arm himself for a quick escape. It didn't escape Ben's attention. 

"Come on now, Remus, there's no need to be so tense," Ben said casually, and hand froze, hearing the name. 

"...I beg your Pardon?"

"No need to beg, Remus. Have a seat. Everyone is accepted here at the Wolf's Den," Ben said, sliding the chair behind him with .

It was truly an aura farming Jutsu—I mean spell.

Remus didn't sit, just standing there staring at Ben's masked face. 

"The seat's already under you. Bit late to object." Ben said, casually leaning back on his chair, and Remus finally sat down, cautiously observing Ben's every move.

"You seem to have me at a disadvantage," he said slowly. "I don't recall giving that name."

"No," Ben nodded in agreement. "You didn't."

"…Would you mind," Remus said after a moment, "—removing that mask? It feels rather one-sided otherwise."

Noticing the polite edge in Remus's voice, Ben let out a quiet huff of laughter.

"Fair enough. Just don't act surprised after," he said as he lowered his mask and revealed face.

Lupin stared, his eyes growing bigger in recognition as the mask lowered. 

"…Arthur?" the name slipped out before he could stop it. "Arthur Brown?"

Ben grinned. "Told you not to act surprised."

Lupin didn't find it amusing. His brow furrowed instead as his eyes scanned his face, trying to reconcile the image of a young Griffindor boy in his memory with the man in front of him.

He knew Arthur Brown, after all; they were in the same house. He was two years younger than him and was the beater for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"I was under the impression you were dead."

Ben leaned back further on his chair and gave a smile.

"Yeah," he said, "there's a lot of dead men walking around these days."

Lupin exhaled softly, something tired settling back into his expression.

"…So it would seem."

...To be Continued.