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The Omega and the Beta


Remus went to see Professor Veigler almost every afternoon now. They talked about Veigler’s past experiences in the wolf pack in Albania. “It wasn’t easy,” Veigler said, “When you’re the Omega of the pack, you’re controlled by so many other wolves - especially in a pack the size of Fenrir Greyback’s. It’s as though you’re never your own. You’re just everyone else’s all of the time.”

“It must’ve been horrible,” Remus said.

“Indeed. That’s why I knew I had to run away.”

Ned Veigler had been eight years old, living in a small town in London, not very far from where Remus lived when he was a toddler. His father and mother were muggles, but there’d always been something special about him, something different. His father didn’t like it, nor did his mother, and they had mistreated him for it all of his life. His father had been the sort that would go out to the pub after work and come home and take out all of the frustrations of his life on his boy; Ned wore the stripes of his father’s many stresses. When he was eleven years old, his Hogwarts letter came, and his father refused to let him go. And so, one night when his father had come home from the pub absolutely smashed and drawing his belt from his waist, Ned ran, screaming he was going to Hogwarts. Already bloody from his father’s belting, Ned had gone into the woods to try to hide as his father had come after him, shouting his name, shouting threats. The smell of Ned’s blood attracted Fenrir Greyback, who quickly hunted him down, intending to kill - until Ned’s father had run into the clearing where Greyback had found the boy.

“It is a horrible, terrible thing to say,” Professor Veigler said now, “But when Fenrir Greyback stepped between my father and I and bared his teeth and -- and killed my father… I thought he was the guardian angel that I had prayed for all of my life. I wasn’t afraid of him. I loved him and I trusted him.”

Remus drew a deep breath and a shiver.

“I think Fenrir knew that when he turned back around, for I was staring up at him in awe and perhaps that was what made him decide not to kill me,” Professor Veigler said.

Ned never made it to Hogwarts, of course, because Greyback changed the boy and brought him back to the pack in Albania, where there was an old boarding house building where dozens and dozens of Greyback’s werewolves lived together in a sort of community.

“Greyback had a knack at keeping only the most terrible,” Veigler said, “The people who lived in the Packhouse as they called it were all very intimidating people with horrifying pasts. Murderers, thieves. They were people who had no place else to go, and their service to Fenrir Greyback was loyal as any gang would be to their leader. I was the smallest, I was the only child. I was the easiest to pick on and abuse. I was the Omega, even in human form.”

Ned had grown among the werewolves, always wishing to run away - but never daring to. Controlled by the pack, watched carefully by Fenrir Greyback, he was always too afraid to go. He cherished days when Greyback was off hunting with some of the most violent of the pack, and moments when he could be alone, apart from the others, when he could be himself.

“When I was thirteen, a witch came to live with us at the Packhouse, a very terrible witch who was being hunted by the Aurors of the Ministry for Magic for killing hundreds of muggles. Druella was her name. She had a fierce, terrible personality - she wasn’t a werewolf, nor would Greyback change her - although she actually begged him to multiple times. She was possibly the only person that Fenrir Greyback had ever loved, but it was an odd sort of relationship… But she was the first there that seemed to notice me. She had children of her own, I heard, back in London, and perhaps she cared for me because I was almost the same age as he daughters that she missed so much. She taught me the skills in magic that I should have learned here, at Hogwarts, and she protected me from the other wolves in the pack. She couldn’t protect me from Greyback, but she could from the others. Druella was the closest I ever had to a mother… though don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t a good person, she was a terrible person. She was only good to me.”

Remus paused… he’d heard the name Druella recently. “Wait. Druella. Druella Black? That witch who’s escaped from Numengard? It was in the Daily Prophet that the aurors are looking for her.”

Professor Veigler nodded. “One and the same.”

Remus shivered, “So Greyback’s got his… his wife now, then?”

“Oh they were never married. Druella was already married, her husband knew nothing of Greyback as he raised their children at home in London while she ran from the aurors. Her relationship with Greyback was most scandalous. It was as though she was acting as the beta female of the pack without ever being changed.”

Remus hesitated, “You’ve said beta female before - in class, too. Are betas… usually girls?”

Veigler said, “Most usually, yes. They’re the second in command in a standard pack situation. Usually an alpha male will choose a mother for his pack and that is what the beta is. The Beta cares for the pack, keeps them in line; the Alpha dominates his Omega. Even when it is a male beta, the alpha typically dominates him sexually. The Alpha and the Beta are the strongest bonded pair in any pack, they would die for each other, and they often do.”

A funny feeling came over Remus and something stirred deep inside of him. He cast his eyes away from Professor Veigler. Sirius was his alpha, and he was Sirius’s beta - and everything that Professor Veigler said absolutely confirmed it. Remus felt as though his entire existence had been explained to him in one small description, as though Veigler had opened him his heart and found all the feelings and anxiety Remus had been feeling the past couple months building up inside of him and packaged it neatly for him in a bundle of words.

Professor Veigler studied Remus for a long moment, “Remus?”

He looked up at Veigler.

“I thought you said before that you had not met another werewolf?” Professor Veigler asked, a questioning expression on his face.

“I haven’t,” Remus said. He stared up at the Professor, who had told him so much about himself, whose gentle eyes stared back at him, and Remus realized he trusted this man enough to tell him everything. “My friend… Sirius Black… he’s an animagus. But don’t tell anyone. He did it himself over the summer… and he’s been going out to the Shrieking Shack with me every month as a dog to - to keep me company, to stop me from biting and hurting myself.”

Veigler’s eyes widened.

“It’s only really worked the last couple months. Since October,” Remus continued. “He… he knocked me down, got me by the scruff of my neck - just like you said in class - and he took control. I gave in to him, as a wolf, I told him I was his beta.”

Professor Veigler looked positively shocked, “That is an incredibly brave thing that your friend Sirius has done for you, Remus.” Veigler’s skin had gone pale, though, and he looked profoundly worried.

“What is it?” Remus asked.

Veigler shook his head, “It’s just that this… complicates things.” He covered his mouth with his hand and he shook his head, “Bloody hell, it’s not the one I thought,” he murmured.

“What?”

Veigler stood up, frightened looking, “I - I have to go talk to Dumbledore, I’m sorry, Remus, it’s absolutely imperative. Bloody hell, how did I -- I can’t believe --”

Fear welled up in Remus, “Wait, you’re not going to tell him about Sirius?!”

Professor Veigler shook his head, “No, no not about Sirius. About something else… the Boy…”

Remus’s looked up at him, “The Boy?”

“Yes,” Veigler said, “Remus, I’m very sorry to cut our conversation short. I really am. But this is a very important situation, you understand.” And he hurriedly shooed Remus out of the little office and down the stairs to the Defense classroom, and out into the hallway. The Professor locked the door with a charm and he looked down at Remus, “I’ve truly enjoyed getting to know you better, Mr. Lupin,” he said sincerely.

Remus stared up at him, “I have, too, Professor.”

Veigler laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder, “Please, promise me, you’ll tell Sirius that you both must stay very safe tomorrow night with the full moon. Alright? You must not leave the Shrieking Shack for any reason. Promise me.”

“Sir --”

“Promise me.”

“I’ll tell him,” Remus said.

“Very good.” Veigler stared into Remus’s eyes. “I wish that things were different, Remus, I wish they were better. I wish that we’d started talking long before now. I am sorry that we didn’t.”

“So am I,” Remus replied.

Professor Veigler stared into Remus’s eyes a bit longer, then he drew a deep breath and turned away, hurrying off down the corridor.

Remus didn’t like the way it felt. It was like Veigler had said goodbye, as though he wasn’t planning on coming back. “Professor!” Remus shouted, and Veigler stopped at the end of the hallway, turning back to look at him. “I’ll come by again next week to see you?”

Veigler stared at Remus… and shook his head. Then ducked ‘round the corridor.

“WAIT. PROFESSOR!” panic rose up in Remus and he ran - ran after the Professor desperately. “WAIT! PROFESSOR VEIGLER, WAIT!”

But Veigler had already disappeared when he got to the end of the corridor and though Remus ran up the stairs to the fifth floor where the stone gargoyles stood outside of the door leading up to Dumbledore’s office, there was no sign of him there. “Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum!” Remus cried desperately to the stone, hoping to catch up to Veigler in Dumbledore’s office, but the gargoyles didn’t move.

“But that’s the password!” Remus sobbed, “Please, that’s the password. Mr. Veigler’s just come through here!” The gargoyle didn’t move still, so Remus kicked him and cried out, “TALK TO ME!”

The gargoyle’s stone mouth scowled at Remus, “The Headmaster is not here, nor is anyone else. Kindly refrain from kicking my base.”

“Sorry,” Remus said bitterly, and he turned, walking away from the office, his heart breaking. He had to find Veigler. Something terrible was coming, he could feel it, and Professor Veigler had been preparing them for it all along and whatever it was he didn’t think that he was coming back from it.

Remus went to find Sirius and James. They’d know what to do.