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After all, Regulus knew from his modern, canonical knowledge that the highly anticipated Wolfsbane Potion was absolutely not a foolproof, miraculous solution or a magical panacea.
Contrary to poor Lupin's desperate, hopeful expectations, the eventual advent of the Wolfsbane Potion did not actually bring salvation or blessings to the vast majority of the werewolf population. The experimental potion contains incredibly complex, highly volatile ingredients, the rare botanical components are violently expensive, and the month-long brewing process is agonizingly, microscopically cumbersome. This makes the financial and skill threshold for regular production terrifyingly high.
Moreover, even its strict method of consumption is highly specific and deeply unforgiving—a massive, smoking goblet of the foul-tasting sludge must be taken every single day for an entire week directly preceding the full moon. Missing even one single, daily dose by a few hours is entirely enough to violently invalidate all previous doses, resulting in a full, bloodthirsty transformation.
And even so—after such massive financial effort, spending a literal fortune in Galleons and burning precious time—it is absolutely not a cure. It merely allows the transformed wolf to miraculously maintain its human rationality and curl up to sleep during the full moon, rather than tearing itself and others apart.
For the vast majority of normal werewolves who generally live in crushing, systemic poverty and societal hardship, this 'miracle' Potion... it was honestly better not to even mention it. It was a luxury for the rich. In fact, the infamous, progress-resistant criminal and werewolf supremacist, Fenrir Greyback, later violently, politically opposed its distribution, claiming it weakened their 'natural gifts.'
Fortunately, Regulus thought morbidly, the Lycanthropy curse, at least, is absolutely not genetically passed on to the next generation. He was honestly still actively hoping that Remus Lupin would eventually become a legal relative in the future by marrying baby Tonks. He had to keep the boy alive long enough to see it happen.
"I carefully talked to my dad over the summer. How did I put it... I aggressively 'beat around the bush' about the highly theoretical concept of the Animagus transformation, and I still got aggressively scolded for even asking," James Potter complained, his hazel eyes full of deep sympathy for their lack of progress. "My dad is completely paranoid about human transfiguration. I honestly didn't get any useful technical information out of him at all."
"Well, I successfully found a highly restricted, ancient book called Strongly Protective Enchantments and Shifting Forms hidden deep in the Restricted Section of the library," Regulus began to smoothly share his own illegal academic findings with the group. "It has a massive, highly detailed section entirely dedicated to the complex runic theory of the Animagus—but I unfortunately didn't have time to look closely at the equations. Madam Pince the librarian was already hovering around me, looking very, very suspicious of my presence. We absolutely must research this in total secret."
"If Professor McGonagall somehow finds out we actively borrowed this specific book..." James physically shivered, vividly thinking of the terrifying wrath of his strict, feline Head of House. "She'll definitely guess our exact plan immediately. We'd be expelled."
"Indeed. We absolutely cannot be too obvious about this," Sirius agreed, nodding approvingly. His sharp grey eyes darted intensely towards Regulus. "Where exactly is that specific book located right now...?"
"It is currently still sitting in the Restricted Section. Specifically, in the far northwest corner, on the second tallest oak bookshelf, exactly three rows up from the top, shoved all the way in behind a book on cursed fungi," Regulus recited flawlessly. "I can draw you a highly detailed map."
"Then I think our exact next tactical step is completely, wonderfully clear!" James suddenly became incredibly excited. He aggressively reached into his bag and began squeezing something highly bulky and shimmering hidden under his school robes—presumably the famous, legendary Cloak of Invisibility; one of the literal, mythical Deathly Hallows.
Secretly visiting the highly dangerous Restricted Section of the library while entirely invisible at night... Regulus thought, a massive grin spreading across his face. What kind of classic, thrilling 'Hogwarts Legacy' stealth-mission plot is this? I love it.
Good boy Lupin, however, habitually furrowed his scarred brows. He looked highly nervously at Regulus—seemingly desperately hoping that the usually cautious, mature Slytherin boy would officially step in to aggressively stop his reckless Gryffindor friends from breaking major school rules.
"Hey," Regulus said slowly, leaning forward with a highly wicked, calculating glint in his dark eyes. "The three heavy books sitting directly next to it on the shelf should theoretically also be entirely about highly advanced Transfiguration." Regulus smirked. "Since you are already going through the massive effort of sneaking in... why not just take... all of them?"
"Don't worry, Regulus. Just leave the grand heist entirely to us," James chuckled darkly, throwing his arms heavily around Sirius and Remus's shoulders.
Regulus shook his head in fond amusement. You really have to hand it to them. When there is a highly dangerous, incredibly illegal task to be done for a friend, these reckless little Gryffindor Lions truly, fearlessly go straight for the throat.
Feeling both deeply touched by their absolute loyalty and highly helpless regarding their utter lack of self-preservation, Lupin sighed. He shook his head and pulled out several neatly clipped, highly disturbing newspaper articles from his robe pocket. Judging by the varied fonts and cheap ink color, the intelligence sources included The Daily Prophet and several other, smaller underground magical media outlets.
The bold, screaming black headline on the top clipping read: "Savage Werewolf Pack Attacks Isolated Muggle Village, Causing Multiple Violent Deaths, Including an Infant."
"This is the latest, highly classified news regarding Fenrir Greyback and his pack—this is everything I've managed to obsessively collect recently," Remus said, his voice shaking with deep, uncertain hatred. "According to the reports, they seem to be actively hunting in the heavily forested outskirts of Southampton lately, but they keep aggressively, randomly changing their physical locations. Even the highly trained Ministry Auror hit-squads can't seem to track or catch them. I honestly don't know how much practical tactical help such outdated news... can actually be to us..."
Regulus smiled gently, his dark eyes entirely devoid of fear. He leaned back in his chair and asked softly, "Remus, I have a highly logical, modern question for you: exactly how many mathematical steps does it take to physically put a massive African elephant inside a refrigerator?"
Seeing the three little pureblood/half-blood wizards stare at him completely, utterly stunned, Regulus suddenly realized that the modern Muggle word "refrigerator" was absolutely not in their common, 1970s wizarding vocabulary.
"Ah. Right. It's okay, let's put it another, more magical way," Regulus smoothly corrected himself. "Exactly how many logical steps does it take to physically put a massive elephant inside a wooden closet?"
"How is that even physically, spatially possible without a massive Undetectable Extension Charm..." Sirius fell into deep, highly technical magical thought. Remus was aggressively calculating the required spatial mass in his brilliant mind, while James was simply muttering confusedly about shrinking potions.
"The correct logical answer is: exactly three steps," Regulus stated flatly, holding up three fingers. "Step one: open the closet door. Step two: put the elephant in. Step three: close the closet door."
Huh? James frowned deeply, completely missing the joke. Sirius looked highly thoughtful, analyzing the metaphor, and Remus was half-understanding the underlying philosophy.
"What I mean by this ridiculous Muggle joke is this—what we actively want to do (hunting down and executing the most dangerous werewolf alive) is undeniably, incredibly difficult. It seems mathematically, physically close to impossible for a group of teenagers," Regulus explained with absolute, unwavering certainty, looking directly into the continuously stunned eyes of his loyal companions. "But... as long as we aggressively break the massive problem down and proceed logically, step by step, there is absolutely nothing in this world we cannot do. It just takes time, patience, and extreme violence."
Regulus reached into his bag and took out a highly detailed, wrinkled, and yellowed geographical map of the United Kingdom. He spread it out flat on the table. It already had several complex, highly specific red ink markings clustered on it.
"First," Regulus pointed to the map. "We will roughly, mathematically triangulate Greyback's exact hunting range of activity using these news reports. And then, I can safely ask my eagles, Godric and Regina, to aggressively scout the airspace from above. They can't just wander around the entire country blindly hoping for luck, they need a search grid. Obviously, we don't have nearly enough raw magical strength right now to fight him, and we legally cannot leave the school grounds during term. But! At the very least, we can actively, secretly send this highly accurate reconnaissance information entirely anonymously to the Ministry Auror tracking teams!"
"That's a brilliant tactical move," Sirius nodded vigorously in fierce agreement. "Even if the incompetent Ministry can't actually manage to catch him for now, our intelligence can absolutely cause his pack massive, lethal logistical trouble."
"I know of a very good, terrifyingly aggressive young Auror currently rising through the ranks in the Ministry of Magic named Alastor Moody," Regulus said, clenching his fist tightly. "It would be absolutely fantastic if we could somehow find a political way to secretly manipulate the department into putting him directly in charge of Greyback's specific manhunt."
Regulus sighed internally. He was still simply far too young. If he were just a few years older, and officially the Lord of the House, it would just be a simple matter of his family casually saying a single, heavily bribed word to the corrupt Minister of Magic to assign the case.
But it's also absolutely true, Regulus thought fiercely. We are so incredibly young. We have the ultimate advantage of time. Even if Greyback eventually turns to dust from old age, it's not a problem. We will definitely, absolutely win this war.
"Since we have established this highly lethal goal, let's seriously, aggressively implement it. As the ancient Romans said: Si vis pacem, para bellum—If you want absolute peace, you must first ruthlessly prepare for war!" Regulus proudly showed off another highly dramatic Latin phrase. Nowadays, advanced Latin translation was a required, heavily graded core course for them, so he might as well use it.
"This is the official first step to putting the elephant in the refrigerator... no, the closet: We find his exact location, preferably waiting until he is completely isolated from his pack and entirely helpless."
Regulus tapped the table. "Step two: we violently subdue him. This entirely depends on exactly what kind of highly skilled team helpers we can actively recruit, how flawlessly we cooperate in combat, and exactly what lethal abilities and magical items each of us physically possesses. In a raid like this, you can never, ever be too over-prepared."
Listening to him speak, it was abundantly clear that Regulus was completely, entirely thinking about this assassination in terms of aggressively planning a highly coordinated, 40-man raid team to violently take down a massive, overpowered raid boss in an MMORPG.
"Then, in terms of mastering raw combat spells, we can aggressively, legally train ourselves to the bone using your new Dueling Club," Remus said, his amber eyes burning with a new, fierce determination. "We can master highly lethal combat spells without suspicion!"
"And advanced, highly illegal magic items would also be incredibly, tactically helpful in an ambush..." Sirius said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Honestly, I haven't seen a more useful, overpowered magic item in my life than James's flawless invisibility cloak."
"Yeah! And we can also aggressively practice our high-speed combat flying on the Quidditch pitch!" James excitedly waved his fist in the air, a bright, highly dangerous, thrill-seeking smile appearing on his face as he began to wildly fantasize about the battle. "Then we can legally use our racing broomsticks to violently surprise the enemy pack from the sky, raining down curses like artillery!"
Regulus, vividly remembering the canonical scene of Harry Potter's legendary, impossible high-speed flying duel with the massive Hungarian Horntail Dragon in the Triwizard Tournament, completely couldn't help but nod in deep agreement. They truly were undeniably father and son. With a flawless invisibility cloak and a top-tier racing broomstick, even Death itself wouldn't be able to physically catch James Potter if he seriously decided to run.
"However, after successfully finding Greyback, if the physical battle suddenly turns highly unfavorable for us, the absolute biggest, most lethal tactical risk is this: if that coward sees things are going badly, he will simply instantly Apparate away to save his own miserable life," Regulus said grimly, analyzing the boss mechanics. "We absolutely need to have a flawless, magical contingency plan for this exact phase as well."
"We need to find a spell to rapidly, permanently disable his spatial mobility," Sirius agreed, his brow furrowed.
"Well, you logically can't Apparate anywhere inside the grounds of Hogwarts," Remus pointed out thoughtfully. "If we can somehow lure him to a similar, heavily warded place..."
"Or! We can simply aggressively create a similar, localized Anti-Disapparation area ourselves using highly advanced, portable Alchemy!" Regulus countered brilliantly.
"Hmm. Actually, I also recently spent some time reading and learning about some highly advanced Muggle kinetic weapons..." Sirius muttered darkly. "Honestly, many of their explosive, non-magical weapons are actually quite terrifyingly useful for an ambush."
"I will absolutely continue to obsessively collect every single scrap of intelligence about Greyback and his pack's movements!" Remus vowed.
Amidst the highly lively, incredibly illegal, and deeply violent tactical discussion, not only was Lupin's usually lonely, terrified heart warmed by their absolute loyalty, but Regulus was also profoundly, deeply moved.
Initially, his cynical, adult mind had deeply worried that the highly energetic little wizards' initial enthusiasm for this massive, suicidal project would come and go quickly. He had feared that they would rapidly lose steam and cowardly give up halfway when faced with the crushing, terrifyingly difficult magical and logistical tasks required to actually pull it off.
But looking at their fierce, burning eyes, it turned out that genuine love for a friend is not just a fleeting emotion. But even more so, it is an absolute, unstoppable, violent physical force of nature.
Hey, Regulus thought, a small smile playing on his lips as he looked around the table. That old, manipulative bastard Dumbledore was really, undeniably right about the power of love after all.