Father of the Year

Fenrir wasn't exactly sure how he'd gotten into this. Children were one thing. He had lots of them. The ones that knew him usually hated him. He almost preferred it that way. There were a lot more, he knew, that didn't know he existed. Their mothers were sure enough about sleeping with him, but when they realized Fenrir seemed to be blessed--or cursed--with being able to produce a great many offspring, suddenly it wasn't such a status anymore to sleep with him. Oh well, at his age, he honestly didn't give sex much thought anymore. He wasn't entirely dead, but still, there were other things in life now.

Like this child. He could see through the scheme being tossed at him. The child's mother, Elisha Ardens by name, had been charmed enough when he was with her. Now, he figured, she was finding it more difficult to raise a child. That was her problem. However, she was out to make it his by thrusting their child at him--a daughter. This one threw Fenrir out of his element. She actually wasn't able to see Fenrir for the murderous, cold hearted thug that he'd turned out to be, more animal than man, more heartless than parental.

It really would have been far easier to "eat" Elisha and get it overwith. But, now, that was pointless. That would mean he'd actually have to raise this clueless young girl who was totally enamoured with him. He figured that Elisha was thrusting her upon him in search of some claim of parental support. Part of him already hated Elisha for that. Not because someone actually thought he had money. He was used to that. But that a mother would actually toss out her own child like a worm on a hook, attempting to ensnare Fenrir's bank account? That galled him. Infuriated him. And, so far, he had tolerated visits with this child.

Elizabeth. That was her name. 13 going on, well, 10? Something before any real knowledge base of the wizarding world, anyway. Surely as a third year the girl had heard all about his evil deeds, but she stood in denial somehow, believing him to be parent material. He didn't want to be a parent to an ignorant all-too-sweet child, but neither did he want to leave her being used by her mother for money. That was too much of a reminder of how he'd grown up, without anyone to really care about him.

And so here he found himself again, agreeing to see her again, another owl sent to him by Elisha wanting Fenrir to "take her" for the afternoon. Bloody hell. This wasn't some happy little divorce where he had his child every other weekend. He was a monster, a werewolf, who lived in the catacombs, and came out at night when he had something thuggish to accomplish to keep his pack fed. And yet, here he was, waiting at the crossroads to Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, hidden in the shadows today by a long full grey suede duster coat with the hood pulled up to hide him a bit. Not that hiding someone of Fenrir's overall size was easy anyway, but it was an attempt.

He was a bit less unkempt today. Well, he had never been in his true unkempt state, just by coincidence, when he'd seen her, and he didn't see sense in going to see her looking overly grizzly. She'd learn in time. Perhaps today just didn't need to be it. She had figured out he was a sarcastic, candid, and just generally grouchy old fart. She was determined that she loved him anyway.

He had reasonable children. And then he had this one--this one who sorta was looking to him like she was perhaps a bit crackers. He'd have preferred to meet her in Knockturn, but she wasn't wise enough to keep herself safe there. He had visions of her skipping merrily off with some dark arts old crone and calling her "Granny" and then forcing Fenrir to "eat" Granny just to get Liza out. No thank you. He preferred they avoid that little sort of disaster. He was hoping she didn't want to go to Fortescue's for ice cream or something equally as docile. He just wasn't sure he would be welcome in the gentler parts of the wizarding world.

He pushed back slightly into the shadows, waiting and watching.

Liza felt excited from the moment that she woke up and hopped out of bed. Today she would get to see her Daddy once again - and this time without Mum there to make him upset - and they would spend part of the day together. Before the previous summer she had never met the man who had fathered her though she had known his last name her whole life and his first name for quite a few years. During first year it had been confusing to hear the man shed never met and knew nothing about being referred to as an evil monster or a scourge on humanity when he had obviously been nice enough to make women like him, and didn't it take some kind of heart to manage that?

Then after meeting him she couldn't understand how anyone would think him nothing but a monster when he was so nice to her though of course weren't people usually nicer to their own children? Even if they had never met them before they still counted as such didn't they? Thinking so hard about it had made her head hurt. What mattered was that he was her Daddy and he had seemed to like meeting that first time.

Mum had something she had to do during the afternoon, Nammie was busy today with something and couldn't watch her so the girl would be going to visit her father instead of being left at home alone to get into trouble. Liza didn't think that she could get into that much trouble if let home alone for just a few hours but when her mother had mentioned going to see her father instead she hadn't been about to complain. She was always excited for a chance to spend even a small amount of time with the man.

She had been careful in picking out her outfit, something simple that was still nice but easy to move in because she had no idea what they might be doing that day. They would be meeting in between Diagon Alley and the darker area of Knockturn Alley where Fenrir tended to spend his time. Her mother would walk with her to meet the man which the woman had commented on as being because she didn't trust her daughter not to get distracted and wander off before making it to the man. Sometimes she felt like no one trusted her to make her own decisions like she wasn't thirteen and in her third year of schooling, but she wasn't about to start an argument over something so silly especially when today was going to be a good and happy day. It wasn't often that she let those sort of things get to her or really understood them well enough to classify the comments as insulting but it had begun to bother her when her mother treated her like she was either a pet who couldn't think for herself or a five year old, of course it had been the way she had always treated her but something had changed in the girl in the past year.

She was practically bouncing with excitement when they finally made it to the place where they would be meeting him. At first it seemed like the pair had gotten there before her father but then someone in the shadows of the large buildings caught her attention. "Daddy!" She called out excitedly after spotting him. Her hair whipped every which way when she bounded over with the intentions of hugging him. She heard her mother call out a warning about the area not being a very safe place for a young girl but in her happy little bubble she ignored it, he would keep her safe of course and no one would mess with her when her daddy was there to protect her from harm.

Though during her first two years the last name had been met with one of two reactions - either outright fear of the bubbly blond who carried it which was a laughable reaction to anyone who had spent even just moments in her presence, or scorn of the girl who hadn't been given a choice in who her father was or what last name her mother had given her - now the girl carried it with pride because it was a connection to him. She didn't care if people thought that she was crazy or stupid for putting so much faith and love into her relationship with him because he was her father no matter what. "Daddy what are we going to do today?" She asked him with a bright smile as she stared up into his face.

The child simply seemed to dive right into the alley without looking. He purposely stepped out of the shadows to block anything that might have ideas about interfering with him, and he caught the girl before she could get into trouble. He saw Elisha stepping into the alley gingerly, as if she was afraid she'd step into something foul deposited on the cobblestone street.

"Go away, Elisha," he said to her.

"I'll be back for her by tea time," Elisha said. "Don't bring her to the house. The neighbors don't need to be seeing your type around. And don't get her clothes dirty..."

A low rumble of a growl sounded in his chest. No one gave him orders. Not even her. "Oh, don't worry," Fenrir said, with a passive aggressive tone. "I won't bring her to the house." He had firm plans of breaking up her blessed ladies' club meeting. They ought to value meeting her 'ex,' shouldn't they?

"I thought today I might take you to work with me," he said to Liza. He didn't truly mean it, but he was far more interested right now in baiting Elisha.

"You'll do no such thing, you crass brute!" Elisha fairly shrieked at him. "She's too young to see you as you really are!..."

He clutched Elisha's cheeks and pulled her closer to him with one yank. "Now you listen to me. This is a damned dangerous, dark world. You do her no favors by letting her live in fairy tales. She's a Greyback, and the sooner she knows what that means, the safer she is, you idiot. You wanted her to have the name. Now if you want her to be able to live with it, she needs to see the truth. We'll be here at tea time--or whenever I choose." He released her roughly, knowing her cheeks might bruise a bit. Served her right.

"Come, Liza. There are some new things you need to learn," he said, turning and starting to walk back into the darkness of the alley. One thing he'd learned about her already was that, so far, he generally didn't have to worry about her keeping up.

Liza had never seen her mother act so rudely towards anyone, giving instructions as if she were not even old enough to know that she should be back to meet by tea time, even more mortifying was the comment about the neighbours seeing her father. It made her feel angry because he was her daddy and if she wanted daddy to take her right to the house instead of some hand off in an alley she should be able to have that option. Then her mother just had to tell him that the girl was too young for something without even glancing at her, it always hurt her feelings when she did that.

Of course her father's reaction was just as wrong. He shouldn't have grabbed her mother the way he had even if it was mostly in defense of her mother's treatment of her. Sometimes he could be so silly and rough around the edges, he needed someone to talk to him about it maybe.

She waved goodbye to the woman who was glaring daggers at the man's back while rubbing her cheeks before rushing to grab hold of the sleeve of her father's coat so she wouldn't lose him in the crowd. "Daddy you shouldn't be so mean to Mummy... It was mean of her to talk like that to you and I don't care if the neighbours see you but being a bully never made anyone better. Maybe next time you should tell her how you feel instead?" The girl frowned to herself thoughtfully, "but sometimes mum doesn't listen so well when you talk to her..." She brightened and glance up at him. "You should write her a letter! She always reads letters all the way through even if she doesn't like what they say."

She went silent as she began glancing curiously around them at all of the different stores that were down this Alley, it was so different from Diagon Alley. A lot of the people they crossed were staring at her as if they were shocked to see a girl clinging onto his sleeve and barely succeeding to keep up with the fast paced walk he had set. It was hard to look at everything and continue clinging to him when they were moving too fast for her to get more than a quick glance and impression at all the stores and the busy street. Mum had never let her come here before and she didn't think Nammie had even heard of it because Nammie talked to her about everything and she'd never mentioned it before.

"Daddy where are we going?" She asked in confusion when he didn't seem to be stopping at any of the stores nearby.

"Liza," he said, "I don't know what you've been told about Greybacks, but not everyone likes our family. In fact, precious bloody few. You aren't always going to be treated well--because of me. I am a bully, and I'm very good at it. When I was younger, I worked for some powerful people, and they depended on my strength. Sometimes being stronger, being a bully, is the only way to get things done."

He drew his wand and flicked it at an old boarded up doorway. The door opened, and he motioned her to come with him. He was taking her into a flat that he'd taken over a few years before from an illegal potionsmaker that had had to flee town suddenly. The flat was sitting empty, and Fenrir had simply taken it. It wasn't his home, but he couldn't afford to take Liza to the den.

"So you know, you can't get in here without the proper spell," he said to her, not wanting her to buggar off from home to try to run to him. "And Knockturn is not a place thats safe for much of anyone by themselves. I'm not at this flat most of the time, but, for now, it'll do."

He looked up and saw that some of his pack had come to make sure the place was safe. One of the younger adult females had evidently wanted Liza to be comfortable and had put on the kettle. One of the younger adult males had made fires in the fireplaces to ward off the winter heat.

The flat had been finely furnished several years ago, and Fenrir had done nothing with it whatsoever. Evidently some of the pack had cleaned. It smelled clean, anyway.

One of the females came over. This female was a good attendant to Fenrir, and the fact that she was an attractive female with chestnut colored hair didn't hurt either.

"You must be Liza," she said. "I'm Bianca. I work for your father. Tea's on. Should be ready in a moment. I'll get you some. It'll help you warm up. I'll take your coat if you like."

"I brought you here so we could talk," Fenrir said to Liza. "There are some things you need to understand about werewolves and about me. Have they taught you nothing at all in Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

His words did nothing more than confuse her, she didn't understand what he meant though the words went in her mind as an obviously properly worded sentence it just didn't make sense. The blond had bumped into plenty of people who didn't like her because of her last name but she had never let it bother her. "When people are mean to me I'm just extra nice to them until they start being nice to me." She told him softly as if it would change anything. "And if they're not then I hope that one day someone shows them how nice it is to be kind to others."

He lead her to an abandoned looking building that didn't really stand out in the decrepit area it was in. She watched him flick his wand at the door so that it would open for them in though she didn't hear what he had said or if he had said anything for it to do so. "I won't come here without you daddy, mummy doesn't even let me past the brick line at Diagon Alley if she lets me look around on my own." She told him as she walked up the stairs carefully.

Liza gave Bianca a bright smile as the woman offered her tea and to take her coat. The pink puffy jacket was pulled off and surrendered before she made her way over to the couch. "I like honey in my tea if that's alright. Did daddy tell you my name?" It was slightly confusing to her that so many people knew who she was without her telling them.

She sat down on the couch and folded her hands together in her lap, "I'm not very good at Defense against the dark arts... There's always so much the doesn't make sense and I think my teacher laughs at me when I talk but I've never actually seen it. We dont talk about werewolves until we're older - something about how the 'complexity of the issue is far more than young children can comprehend fully'? Which is weird because if I can understand that they think we're too dumb how come I can't understand what they think I'm too dumb for?" It was the sort of discussion that made her mother make that frustrated and annoyed noise at her and her teachers to stare as if she were some sort of muggle circus freak doing an unimaginable trick. "Sometimes when I get confused it makes my head hurt."

She heard the woman - Bianca - let out a snort that she obviously tried to muffle. "But I always get really good grades though, once a teacher at my muggle school told mummy it was like I was an idiot savant or something because I don't seem to understand but I can explain it so well... I looked it up in a book at the library and I don't think it was a very nice thing to say, don't you agree?" The girl gave her father a hopeful smile after her words. "Sometimes I think that everyone just thinks I'm stupid or crazy but that's okay because I'm happy with who I am."

Oh lordy, he thought. Elisha had done her no favors. She'd either sheltered the child too much or hadn't tossed enough IQ points into the girl's DNA pool. One or the other. Either way, the girl was not likely to survive in the wizarding world as she was.

I kill people for a living, Child, he thought about telling her. No doubt she wouldn't believe him. Perhaps she'd learn it more effectively if he just turned her. Perhaps she needed to live it. Wouldn't Elisha love that?

"Yes," Bianca was saying. "He did. I'll get your tea." She took the pink coat and went to the kitchen to get the tea.

"Let me put this as simply as I can," he said to her. "I have a kind of magic that lets me live part time as a human and part time as an animal--a werewolf. I prefer the werewolf. I like it better. The humans don't like it because they can't control it. Werewolves are extremely dangerous animals. People associate Greybacks with werewolves because they fear werewolves. Werewolves kill. Have I killed? Yes. When it was necessary." And when I wanted to, and when I was hungry or broke, or any other bloody time I wanted, he thought. But she didn't need to know that right now.

"But, since you are a Greyback, and since you are my daughter, you are going to need to learn to understand what a werewolf is. If you don't, the world will be a very, very dangerous place for you. More dangerous than for other people you know. Being nice isn't going to be enough. You do have a wand, right?"

"But... But if its magic then doesn't that mean you can make it stop somehow? Most magic is reversible - they teach you that in first year." The girl replied unsurely. She didn't like the thought of her daddy being a bad person and she was sure that if he had killed someone he must have had a good reason for it or he had made a mistake. Her mother always told her that if you made a mistake you should admit to it an try to atone for it. "Why would they associate me with that? I've never hurt anyone or done anything bad... I'm a nice girl." The blond had never understood why they would hate based on something that didn't tell anything about the person. "I don't think that's fair, to assume someone must be a bad person just because theyre a certain thing or have a certain name... It's just mean and doesn't that make the person thinking that way the bad one? You should be taught to judge people by their own actions and nothing else. Everyone deserves a chance right?"

"Okay daddy, if you say so." She replied even though what he said went completely against how she felt about the world. If it would make him happy then she would do whatever it was he wanted her to do. It reminded her in a way of how mum always warned her not to talk to strangers but yet encouraged her to make new friends, and what were strangers but friends you hadn't made yet? She wondered if her daddy would feel the same way as she did or if he would agree with the 'wisdom' her mother had imparted about strangers. "My wand is right here." The teen pulled her wand out of her pocket and showed it to him. "Mummy says to always keep it with me because you never know when you might need it and if I leave it somewhere I'm liable to lose it. Sometimes when I put things down somewhere I can't find them later... Does that happen to you?" She smiled brightly and thanked the woman as Bianca brought her cup of tea to her, taking a quick sip.

"Well, this is a very different kind of magic," Fenrir said. "It's a very dark magic that changes a person's body forever. It's not reversible, not like you're thinking. A werewolf becomes a very dangerous killer at the full moon. It's a permanent change. There is a potion that has some ability to stop the change at the full moon, but that depends on the person drinking it in time. And, not every person who is a werewolf wants to drink it. Its quite nasty tasting indeed.

"I am a werewolf. I am the werewolf most people have nightmares about. At times, I've made my living by using that part of myself to do the things no one else wanted to do. Its not safe for you to ever be around a werewolf during the full moon. A werewolf can and will kill you in a fraction of an instant. As you get to know the werewolves around me, you'll be relatively safe from them, so long as you're not around them during the full moon.

"In the meantime, you must learn to take your studies in Defense Against the Dark Arts very seriously, of all your classes. You really must. Your wand does you no good if you do not know how to use it. Your mother is right about keeping it with you, but you surely do know how to use it. If you study long enough, you can learn how to call your wand to you if you lose it. Watch." He laid his own wand across the room. He walked back over to her and held out his hand.

"Accio!" he commanded. The wand snapped into his hand. "Your wand can do wonderful things. Beautiful things. But it can also save your life if you need it. Perhaps we need to work on that."

She was trying her hardest to comprehend what he was saying, she understood it but it still didn't make sense to her. "But if the potion could help you then why would it matter if its yucky or not? It's like medication - sometimes it's yucky but you have to take it anyways so you can get better right?" The girl felt completely lost though she was trying to figure it out so that she wouldn't upset him. "Maybe if they knew that it could really help them they would want to take it?" It really confused her that someone wouldn't want to take medication that would help them if they could.

Liza nodded obediently when he told her that his werewolves would get to know her but that she should stay away from all werewolves during the full moon because they were extremely dangerous. She wasn't afraid of any of the people nearby at the moment even though most would be because she felt safe with her daddy with her, if he was the big scary bad guy he kept insisting he was then nobody would dare do anything to her if they knew she was his daughter.

"Yes daddy, I promise I'll work extra hard at it! You'll see!" She was excited to prove herself to him and be the daughter he could be proud to tell people was his. Watching him call his wand to his hand had been amazing to the girl and she sat there for a moment with a dumbfounded look on her face. "Thats so cool!" She squealed with excitement. "They dont teach us many defensive spells or that kind of stuff until fourth year - I'm only a third year but I'm really good at learning things. Most of my teachers tell me that, isn't that good?" The blond looked up at him with hopeful eyes.