Remus lay in bed that night, staring blankly ahead, absently running his fingers through Sirius's hair, like he was stroking a dog, although Sirius remained in human form, his head resting in the crook of Remus's shoulder and chest, mouth hanging open ever so slightly.

He couldn't stop thinking about Carl and his family, about the things Carl had said about Ned Veigler. And about that funny exchange at the end of their short, private conversation.

"Fenrir Greyback was not Ned Viegler's Alpha." Remus had said, "Professor Viegler had no alpha. He was a lone wolf, as am I."

"Is that what you think?"

Remus's mind prickled over the words. What did it mean? What was Carl leading to that never got said?

It was going to drive him mad.

He glanced at Sirius and carefully slipped out from under him, sliding a pillow in to take his place. Sirius's limbs flailed out in a big X across the mattress. Remus took his wand from the night stand and opened the drawer, removing the parchment marked with Ned Viegler's writing.

He'd never had the nerve to open it.

He pulled on his jumpers and a pair of trousers and snuck out of the room. He was getting good at this. This time, he cast a silencing charm to keep Spencer from waking, and he slipped out onto the stairs.

It was cold out, a dampness lingering from the rain the night before, a fog that loomed in the streets, thick and smelling of the Thames. Remus shivered, but sat on the top step anyway, the pale moon bright, full moon just a week away. He held the parchment on his knees a moment, then took a deep breath and ran his thumb up to the seal, poised to break it. This was as far as he'd gone before - he'd been too afraid to hear the last words from Ned. But now, it seemed important to know what his brother had wanted him to know as a parting message.

He had long wondered how Ned Veigler had known he would die in order to have written such a missive and give it to Mr. Scamander in the first place. After all, there had been no reason - from the outside, at least - that Ned would have ever thought such a thing likely. He had been safe at his own castle, at Fallengunder, with the promise of the Wolfsbane potion from Dumbledore... He had often wondered how Greyback had been able to get near enough to cast the impirus, how Ned had fallen onto the trouble that had led to the fall of Fallengunder and the battle there... But suddenly Remus realized that there had been a catalyst to it. Carl had been there to see it.

The seal broke easier than Remus expected.

His heart stopped for a moment as he stared at the broken seal; this was it. This was the last words he would ever have from Ned Veigler. Tears burned his eyes and a lump grew heavily in his throat.

Remus wondered for a moment if he ought to go inside and wake Sirius up, or else go to the Potters for Lily - but he knew waking either of them would likely result in a long bout of vertigo and nausea for either of them, and he didn't want to make either of them suffer that. He could do this alone.

Besides that, part of him did want to keep it for himself, to keep the words private. They had been written and sealed, intended only for his own eyes, and he could keep them that way if he wanted to, for as long as he wished. Forever, even.

He took a steadying breath and, exceedingly carefully, he unfurled the parchment and with shaking hands he slid his finger along, reading:

Remus, my brother -

This alone made the tears breech the rim of his lower eyelid and silent droplets rolled over his cheeks, catching in the pink scar and rolling across his face diagonally along the jagged line.

Although I wish this letter to find you well, it is only under the Worst Circumstances which you would have received it. I am sorry, then, Remus, that we did not have this talk in person, before - I meant to, and I should have done. It is the sort of thing that ought to be spoken face to face, looking one another in the eye, with solemn pomp and circumstance... But I feared worrying you, feared seeing the look in your eyes. I feared losing my nerve.

I firstly wish you to know that I have been most grateful for you, and I have loved you deeper than blood could reach, into the sinews of brotherhood. It is not Greyback's venom which has linked us alone - perhaps that which brought us into one another's world, but certainly not what has kept us there. You may be my Little Brother but there is nothing Small about you. You are bold and brave and I am prouder of you than of any other artifact of my existence.

While I hope more than anything else to be Successful in my mission, I write this letter to you in case I am not. There are things which you must know.

Tonight, I challenge Fenrir Greyback. To win his pack. The pack that live under the protection of Fallengunder.

Remus felt his blood go cold, his heart beat quicken to an ungodly pace that made his palm clutch at it, as though to sooth it: s'all right, heart, really. He shook his head, knowing even as he did it that was why Ned hadn't talked to him.

The wolves here have become My Pack in the months they have lived at Fallengunder, seeing that there are ways to live that are better than what Greyback has allowed for. But they are mine by mouth and heart only, their blood still screams in allegiance to Greyback's beckoning and they are restless and he torments them, circling Fallengunder like a horrible snake tightening loops about his prey... If not for the Wolfsbane during full moon, they would be forced back - as strong as if under the imperius curse.

Dumbledore fears the stores could run low any month... I fear having to choose who gets to stay and who must leave if we run short on the potion. I have families here, women and children and young men who deserve a Chance like you and I did... How do I choose who escapes Greyback's grip and who stays captured?

I cannot. So, I must break the grip he has over them.

Now Remus, I did not choose to become an Alpha of this pack, it happened quite naturally and out of my own control. I told Dumbledore multiple times that I wasn't the man for the job - but he persisted that I was. Who else, he asked, could possibly do what I could do? A lone wolf, with a heart such as mine, who was once subjected to Fenrir Greyback myself - I was the only one in position to overcome him and become the new alpha of his pack. I thought he was crazy at first but when I got closer to it, when I met the people, looked into their eyes, and considered the nasty way that Greyback and even the Ministry has treated them over the years... I knew I couldn't turn a blind eye to My Community any longer. And if I have the power to help them... I will do whatever it is.

In order to become their True Alpha, to release them from the pull of Greyback's venom in their veins, I must challenge and defeat Greyback in our wolf form - a fight that we will rage this very night.

Now that I have explained my why for doing it, let me explain why I must tell you.

You, Remus, are my second.

Do you recall in the rules of Wizard Duels that one must always appoint a second - the man who will take over should the first one die? Similarly, in wolf packs, there is a second. We spoke of this once, a very long time ago, in your third year - about how the Alpha-Beta pack works, how the Alpha often has a Beta, a second in command that often becomes the Alpha if anything happens to the lead.

You are the only one in this world who I could possibly trust my pack to in the event that I die.

You know of things like binding magic and honor and courage and what it is to lay one's life down for the good of others, what it means to protect your Family with all of your soul and to Risk Everything to save them.

This is why I have chosen you.

If I die, Remus, the allegiance of my pack will fall to you. You will have as much claim over them as I do, and, as much as I hate to imagine this, you would have as much right and power to challenge Greyback as I do tonight.

I, Theodore Veigler, name you, Remus Lupin, as my sole heir - appointed to the title of Alpha for the pack that hails of Fallengunder.

There was more - the letter went on - but Remus's hands shook so terribly that he couldn't focus on the ink on the page any longer. He could see it in his mind. He could see Ned Veigler pulling the courage from the depths of himself to face their common enemy, in the name of protecting the werewolves... He must have fought and lost and that was how Greyback got close enough to control him, to set the imperius curse upon him. It all made so much sense, suddenly it crashed into Remus's mind, a perfect picture... The werewolves were sent away from Fallengunder but they weren't loyal as those in the Great North Woods were, they had to be kept separate. Of course, so that they couldn't talk to the men and women in the other portion of the pack, they couldn't tell them the way things could be if they rebelled and got away... And so they'd formed a second pack. The pack in Blackburn.

Dumbledore had known.

Dumbledore had known Remus was appointed Veigler's heir.

That's why Dumbledore had come to Remus for this.

That's why Carl had said "that's what you think?"

Because Ned Veigler wasn't just a lone wolf.

And neither was Remus.

If this letter was in anyway binding then he, Remus, was the Alpha already, he only had to go and take his place - to finish what Ned Veigler had started. Dumbledore was right. It was his destiny to do this thing, to be the one to save the werewolves.

He rolled the parchment back up and slipped it into his innermost jumper so it pressed against his heart, and he got up. He meant to go inside, but instead he turned and trotted down the stairs, disapparating as he hit the pavement at the bottom, right where the antidispparation charm ended. There was a crack - whether it was the disapparation or his knee was debatable - and he came out walking briskly down the street where Harry Underhill lived. He stopped on the sidewalk outside, his heart pounding.

If he was Alpha, he thought, there would be a simple way to tell.

Carl, he thought, and he pushed his mind toward the house - pushed it with all his might. It reminded him of years ago, when Sirius first became Snuffles, when they were in the woods beyond the lake, the moon high through the branches, illuminating the bracken that lined the ground. It reminded him of Sirius's description of reaching out with his mind - a thing they'd called speaking in a doggy language...

It had been this.

It had been Remus's heart reaching out for Sirius, feeling his instincts, feeling the push of the one he chose to surrender to... That was why Sirius, as a dog, had been able to become an Alpha. Remus had willfully surrendered to Sirius in heart and mind, and so the wolf followed suit, hadn't it?

Likewise, Carl and the Pack at Blackburn had willingly surrendered heart and mind to Ned Veigler. And when Ned had died, his successor - his heir - now had the opportunity to step up. They'd been desperately waiting, falling deeper and deeper into brokenness under the cruel control of Greyback, waiting for the rescue they'd been promised. And Remus had selfishly waited for so long to open this letter, never dreaming it held anything like this... Never dreaming there were people waiting for him.

Well. If they would still have him, he was here now.

Carl, he "called" again.

If they would still have him, Carl would hear it. Feel it.

Remus stood on the curb, shivering, waiting.

Was he too late? Had he waited too long?

Had he let Ned Veigler down?

And then the front door opened, slow and measured, and Carl Lyson stepped outside, pulling it close behind him as quietly as he could. He walked briskly across the lawn to the curb where Remus waited, and he stared, chin raised with an air of pride and his mouth curved slightly upward, nostrils flared with emotion.

"Alpha?" Carl's voice was a rumble, low and sincere. He bowed his head in reverence.

Remus stared, unable to form words. He hugged his jumpers closer as a cold breeze shivered down the road. The title felt bigger than him. He felt very small before Carl. If anyone should've been the leader, it ought to have been Carl. But the respect and admiration in Carl's eyes was clear.

"You figured it out," Carl said.

Remus pulled the letter out of his jumper. He hesitated, then showed it to Carl.

Carl took it and wordlessly looked it over, then looked up at Remus. "I remember the night he wrote this missive," he said lowly.

Remus's heart tightened.

"I was there," Carl said.

"There surely must have been others that were... more qualified than me..." Remus murmured, "People who were already there in the pack, people who were stronger..."

"Ned said you were the strongest person he had ever known," Carl answered.

"I'm n-not strong," Remus said, shaking his head. "I mean, just look at me."

Carl looked. Remus waited, still shivering.

"You are strong, Remus. I could see that the moment you walked in yesterday."

"But - why me?"

Carl drew a deep breath. "He was afraid to ask something so big of you, afraid to put such a weight onto your shoulders. He asked me, how do I do this to him? How do I expect such things from a boy who has already been through so much?"

Remus closed his eyes. He could almost hear the words in Ned's own voice.

"But you were the one. We discussed it so many times... going over and over the reasons it had to be you. Ned had lists of reasons. And I myself have seen it now. I heard it in the words you spoke when we talked to Underhill, your intellect, your compassion, your desire for fairness, for equality, for hope..."

Remus's eyes met Carl's.

"And who knows, Remus. God knows what he is doing, the fates weave time together in ways that don't always make sense to us, but in the bigger picture are clear as ever. You may just have been perfectly made, born into this world, for just such a moment as this... To bring a light into the dark of a community long waiting for you."