until we learn from our time | lily

[rhys alexander greyback]

the same trouble in a different disguise

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October 18, 2025
lily luna potter

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The Three Broomsticks, this place brought back fond memories for Rhys both recent and old. It had been somewhere to go those old months and the Hogsmeade visits with his friends where they could grab a Butterbeer although they really wanted Firewhiskey as they got older. One of the boys in his year as a Slytherin student their fifth, sixth and seventh years always managed to have some at hand for clandestine weekend parties with the upper classman. The older Rhys got the more he wondered how clandestine they were really being at sixteen or seventeen, then again he supposed the professors had turned a blind eye after they had all completed their NEWTs and were set to graduate regardless. It was chill out and Rhys stuff his hands in his pockets while he walked down the familiar path, normally he was a bit more aware of his surroundings in the sense of preparedness, but months at home with the quarantine had changed a few of his habits. Some were gone, some changed and of course some new ones.

One habit never changed, a drink. It was also the visiting weekend for the eligible students from Hogwarts and the paths were crowded with students brandishing their house colors. There was the yellow of Hufflepuff, the blue of Ravenclaw, the red from the Gryffindor's and the all too familiar Slytherin green. It seemed that as time went on there were less and less familiar faces, although there were a handful of students he knew through his younger siblings and they'd recognize him or even some Professors he used to know in his own school days or used to work with. It also happened that typically werewolves all became acquainted in some way especially when his sister brewed potions for them. Rhys entered the pub, it was loud with the waves of students and professors taking a break this visiting weekend.

Walking to the bar he ordered his usual whiskey, double and looked around for an open place to sit for a moment. Rhys never knew when the students were visiting the village but he had an uncanny ability to accidentally time his own visits, which while inconvenient due to the crowds was also convenient because he would bump into his siblings or old friends. Squeezing in-between crowds of small, what he assumed to be, third years he saw an open chair at a small table and sat in it before really realizing who was sitting around him. As he got his bearings and he looked to his side at the occupant of the other chair he was met with brilliant green eyes and fiery red hair. Without skipping a beat his brain immediately went to Weasley as he had been in school with some of the elder Weasley children. But, not just any Weasley--a Potter. "Oh, hey Lily."

Rhys was acquainted with the youngest Potter as she was usually found with his brother Adrian, even after he had moved and come back to the UK and chosen not to use the Greyback surname as his other siblings had--a small point of contention but regardless. Again, he found his timing was impeccable and he found himself greeting his younger brother's girlfriend and also fellow werewolf. Again, another point of contention between his brother and himself. Why would you put yourself in the possible crossfire of Harry Potter and the Weasley clan but it had been a few years now and they were all alive and physically well. Rhys looked around again, "No Adrian today?" He asked. Although he did love his younger brother they got along as well as you could imagine a Gryffindor and a Slytherin might, so they didn't keep in touch as often as they probably should have even when he had moved to the States.

[lily luna potter]

▲

Hogsmeade weekend! It was all Lily could think about throughout the week, and with the full moon occurring at the start of the month, she finally had a weekend off where she wasn’t suffering from the side effects from either before or after the moon, and next month’s was still a week away at the very least. Not that the moon had ever stopped her from doing what she wanted to before, just that feeling like a train was repeatedly running into her while trying to hang-out with friends at the Broomsticks was a lot harder than she made it seem at times. Usually bag full of candy from Honeydukes cured those aches and pains, as well as the required daily doses of Wolfsbane. But that wasn’t anything she had to worry about during this trip, because the wolf was sleeping this time!

The only problem? Literally everyone was busy with the silly Zombie Island thing. She hadn’t been allowed to volunteer by the school because it would ‘interfere with her studies’, or something like that. Professor McGonagall made it sound a lot worse than it actually was. Lily still refused to see how repeating seventh year was the most awful thing in the world, but her parents had decided that she needed to actually buckle down or else. Those warnings didn’t come lightly in the Potter household, so taking her eighth year at Hogwarts slightly more serious than the last seven seemed like the smart thing to do. That didn’t mean she wasn’t absolutely sore over the fact that Hogsmeade was still on the table when Zombie Island wasn’t. Rumor had it that there were real zombies there, as well as werewolves (obviously fake!), and she desperately wanted to investigate for herself. The only course of action would be to sneak out in a crowd of students one night, and hope for the best when it came to evading professors and chaperones. That had become easier at school because of the family map, but there was no way it would cover this island place as well.

So Lily Potter went to Hogsmeade alone. It wasn’t necessarily as horrible as she made it out to be in her head, and the morning had been spent trying to find a new way into the Shrieking Shack because someone had boarded up her other entrances. That probably meant someone had spotted her entering it last month, because it had been fairly well hidden under the front porch. Enough that she had slipped in and out of the house all spring without any issues. But today wasn’t exactly turning out to be fruitful when it came to finding a new way in. After an hour of pulling at loose siding and window frames, Lily gave up and headed back into town.

The line at Honeyduke’s was beyond excessive, and from snippets of conversation she picked up while peering into the front window, it seemed like the confectionary had pulled out all the stops this year for the Halloween candy. Lily could already feel her pocket becoming lighter just thinking about how much she could score today. Her new roommates wouldn’t be back until much later in the evening anyways, so that meant she had the whole room to eat herself sick in. Her old roommates hadn’t exactly found that to be the most enlightening experience. They said she always looked like a dog shoveling food into her mouth like it was her last meal. The joke was on them since she was one, and every meal had the potential to be the last.

Her dreams of overdosing on sugar would have to wait until the line shortened and the crowd dispersed. In the meantime, the Three Broomsticks had always served its purpose of providing her entertainment of some sort. Even if all of her friends were off school grounds, there would certainly be somewhere at the pub that she knew. And if not, making a new friend wasn’t exactly impossible for her.

The worst realization ever, though, was when she went up to the bar to order a drink. While she was going to get her normal butterbeer, she would have been able to order something alcoholic if she had managed to graduate in May. Still being a student, there was no way they would ever let her get away with it though, regardless of her age. It made her scrunch her face up as she tapped her hands impatiently on the bar while waiting for her giant mug of butterbeer, and a few of the bar flies that definitely lived on their stools gave her funny looks. As if her slapping the bar top was the most distracting thing in the pub currently. The winner of that had to be the charmed napkin paper airplanes that a group of Hufflepuff boys sitting in the corner were currently zooming around, dive-bombing patrons’ heads at every chance they got.

Refusing to give up on her new staring contest with the bar regular, Lily grabbed her drink once it arrived, stuck her tongue out at the guy, and then skipped off through the crowded pub until she found a small, empty table all to herself. Eventually she’d be asked to move or someone would join her, but that was the whole point of going to the Broomsticks in the first place!

Bouncing happily in her chair as she sipped on her drink, she watched the ebb and flow of the groups in the bar. The target of her interest was still the group flying the paper airplanes around, because it looked fun to her. She was sort of surprised that she had never done that before, considering the amount of times she had been to the bar over the years. With the one square of napkin that had been soggily attached to the bottom of her stein, there was no way she could join in the fun just yet. But she was definitely going to try and snatch it out of the air if it came anywhere near her.

While her gaze followed the airplane around the room, a large figure stepped up to her table and suddenly took a seat at it. She tried to crane her neck to see where the airplane had gone in that moment, but it had disappeared completely. The person that sat down across from her hadn’t even interested her until she heard her name said, her eyes immediately flicking over to them. “Rhys!” she yelled a lot louder than would normally be considered appropriate inside. Nobody around her seemed the slightest bothered by it though.

She hadn’t seen him in a while! Being one of the older Greybacks meant that she had normally only ever seen him while hanging around Adrian or Jamie. And speaking of the man himself…“Nope. I think he’s got work stuff. Like, who makes people work on the weekends? That’s stupid,” she sighed dramatically, before putting her grin back on. “So what brings you to my kingdom this fine day? You should’ve written ahead so I could have rallied the troops to show them what a real werewolf is like.” And by troops, she meant the two other werewolf students, who were brothers in the Weekly family. Lily hadn’t actually talked to them much since their arrival the previous year, and they were definitely not her underlings yet. She was working on fixing that though. All good things came with time, and as the only eighth year student, self-proclaimed queen of Gryffindor, and top dog in the castle, they’d come around eventually.

rhys alexander greyback ● 1,268 ● Wake Me Up by Fickle Friends

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

the same trouble in a different disguise

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October 18, 2025
lily luna potter

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Rhys still thought about when he'd just about punched his own brother in the face when he found out he had turned someone. It had been such a fear of his that he had apparently falsely assumed that his sibling would share that same fear. But then again, Adrian didn't use the Greyback surname either so it was just another item on the list of things the brothers did not see eye to eye on. It might have been because of Adrian but Lily had never treated him any differently than she would another friend's older brother nor did she have any qualms about being a werewolf like them. He'd never asked, but she wouldn't have been the first individual that wanted this. If it had been up to him any chance to feel closer to normal was something he would have taken almost on the spot. Lily was an interesting personality, such a contrast to his own calm and composed demeanor he had adopted and worn for so many years though really the only time he'd spent with her was through his siblings. The age gap between Rhys and the next known Greyback was just over five years, it was just a reminder that he'd been a werewolf as long as they'd been alive.

His traveling for work hindered some of his ability to socialize as well, it seemed he was always meeting a friend of his sister or brother somewhere but he didn't mind. The pub was crowded and loud, which wasn't Rhys' favorite type of situation. Crowds were hard to read, hard to follow and observe and his habit and instinct was always to know what was around him. A habit from work, really but also there was a claustrophobic feeling to being surrounded by a large crowd. From what he had observed and learned from speaking to Lily she was almost quite the opposite, not afraid to speak her mind and at first such honesty had caught him unprepared. It was easy enough to adjust to most days, though this would one of the few times his brother was not present. She explained that he was working and Rhys' could have guessed, he supposed the apple didn't fall too far from the tree when it came to the Greyback men in terms of Rhys was out entering hidden and dangerous tombs while Adrian played with dragons.

The higher the risk the higher the reward and even Rhys couldn't deny the adrenaline rush that came with recovering a particularly dangerous artifact no more than Adrian might have said the same about taming a Hungarian Horntail. "He does seem pretty busy these days, I seem to keep missing him." Not even the quarantine had helped their paths cross more often, but such was life. Really, there was plenty of time toward the holidays and then come the end of next spring their sister would be graduating. It was one of those times that had become important to Rhys and though he didn't talk about or it care to say it out loud but he never forgot that feeling on that day, surrounded by friends but the loneliness that had hit him rather hard when he knew he was leaving his home away from home and that nobody had attended the ceremony for him. So, he had attended for Jamie and then for Adrian just as when had visited for the tournament when they had Owled about Elias.

Rhys smirked, Lily had turned out to be exactly what he hadn't expected and perhaps it was his assumption of her namesake and that he tended to disagree with Adrian on most things but maybe she might actually be good for him after all and that was what he cared about. Werewolves seemed to be popping up more and more at Hogwarts and he wasn't sure if that was a positive thing in the sense of some kind of acceptance or if Fenrir was still out there trying to spread his curse. "I didn't realize there were more troops that needed rallying." He admitted, though all the werewolves seemed to find one another at some point since he was much older it was more likely the students would connect with one of the younger Greybacks. But, as one of the eldest he supposed that did hold some kind of weight. "Besides, I think my brother actually enjoys being a werewolf more than I do." He added, drinking more of his whiskey.

So, what trouble have the both of you been up to?" It was a valid question really, the past few years had been a bit tumultuous to say the least and these things had a tendency to have a rippling effect. Since Rhys wasn't home as often he often heard a lot of things second hand from Jamie or Max, depending who was the least upset. And even with this new potion he was testing for his sister he hadn't even bothered asking if his brother was participating knowing he preferred no potion at all. There were specific lodgings that had been built and warded for werewolves, but he preferred something with a bit more self-control even if he had warded his own flat in a similar fashion. Anything that was not able to be managed carefully only reminded him of Fenrir.

[lily luna potter]

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There were times where Lily realized that she should have felt more down or hurt by Adrian’s lack of presence these days, but that never really happened. Everyone around her that was in a relationship would have had her convinced otherwise. Her opinion on the matter was more focused on the fact that he had run off a few times and always came back. While she had joked about that with him, usually calling him the loyal puppy that he was, this time the separation was all her. Being stuck at Hogwarts for another year was her fault and hers alone. Adrian had tried as best he could without sacrificing his own studies, and he hadn’t really needed to do that. Having to repeat had been a long time coming, and the professors had been warning her since this time last year. So far that hadn’t happened this time around, mostly because she sort of knew the subjects that were being taught already, but also because she was trying to buckle down more. Getting to flaunt eighth year status was one thing, but even she knew trying to brag about being a ninth year was sort of pathetic. If that happened, she already planned to drop out completely. There really wasn’t a point to school by then.

Still, she wished she could see Adrian more than she had. Summer had been consumed by his training and her studying. Why did her parents have to be professors again? And her dad wasn’t even himself too! Total bogus, in her opinion. She didn’t even take their classes, and yet they still had sway over her studies and how she went about completing her work. Obviously last year was a bit of a hiccup, considering everything else going on, but this could have been prevented by her mum as well. She was the best at wrangling Lily after all.

“I just wait for him to owl me these days. It’s easier to wait for his schedule to open up,” she explained, quickly hiding her frown with a sip of her butterbeer. The froth clung to her upper lip when she went to set the mug back down, causing her to laugh because she could feel it tickling her nose. While having a real, adult drink would have been fun and awesome to hold over other students’ heads, the sheer amount of joy she got out of drinking butterbeer made up for it. Her attention span wouldn’t have allowed her to dwell on that issue for long anyways, and even if she been able to acquire alcohol, she most likely would have reverted to her favorite drink sooner, rather than later.

Her eyes widened as Rhys explained that he didn’t know there were other werewolves at Hogwarts. Somehow, she hadn’t found out about them at all last year, but maybe that was because they were siblings and were allowed to sleep the moon off somewhere else. She had the comfort of a cell-like dungeon, magically locked in behind a foot-thick iron door. Lily had requested an extra-large dog bed and chew toys for her room, but that had been shut down pretty quickly. If they weren’t going to let her run free like she had managed to do the first few moons, then what was the point? Even the hotel in Horizont Alley had a more comfortable room available. “Yeah! Two more that I know of. They’re a couple of the Americans. Big family where I think everyone is adopted. It’s pretty cool because there’s a half-vampire sibling, and a reallllly tall guy, and one in Gryffindor with me is part-Goblin. It’s really cool!” The whole Weekly family had completely blown her mind at first, partly because she heard the Ilvermorny students calling the various siblings and thought they were trying to get the attention of her Weasley cousins. “Oh! Oh! And all of their first names are the days of the week! Except for one of the girls. I guess they ran out,” Lily let out another fit of giggles that she tried to muffle with a drink of her butterbeer, only managing to blow a couple bubbles in it.

Taking her drink calmed her down enough to listen Rhys without looking like a complete nutcase, and she nodded her head as he asked her what she’d been up to with Adrian lately. “Depends on how explicit you want me to get,” she winked at him, biting down on her lower lip to stop the ensuing laugh. “But let’s see…I didn’t really see him during the summer, so that really only leaves Christmas last year. Did he ever tell you about that?” she asked. Her adventure to Los Angeles without her mum’s permission had certainly been a good start to her failure at school, but it had been well worth it. She had never been to the United States before, and Adrian was the perfect chauffeur around Hollywood. The trip on a whole had been amazing, with the nightcap being the New Year’s Eve party some of the Ilvermorny students had thrown in New York City. Apparently she would have been able to attend regardless of where she was, but it rounded out Lily’s Adventures in America perfectly.

She made sure to not spare any details as she told Rhys all about the trip. “Oh, but I could do without the smell. LA and New York City were both horrid.” It may have been a side-effect of being a werewolf, or just her sense of smell in general, but the lack of clean air in the cities she had visited in America was awful. Getting outside of the city limits was fine, but spending all day in the heat and direct sun definitely gave rise to smells that were unimaginable. As for New York, it was a surprise that the snowfall hadn’t masked it. She’d take a hundred Care of Magical Creatures classes worth of cleaning up after Blast-Ended Skrewt discharge than have to breathe in any of that polluted air again. Her trip had been fun, but thankfully it was just that, a trip. “Have you been to either? I know you get to travel all over, but I can’t imagine there are too many hidden treasures stashed away in America these days…”

rhys alexander greyback ● 1,051 ● Elliot by Fenne Lily

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

the same trouble in a different disguise

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October 18, 2025
lily luna potter

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Rhys had remembered when Adrian had just taken off and left, more than once actually. He had been away working, but he had received the owl from his sister and been rather angry if he remembered correctly. It had been a point of contention; how could Rhys be angry at Adrian for making a choice despite leaving them all when he was barely home himself. Rhys could not decide what angered him more, the situation or the fact that he had been correct. After that he had decided to let him be. As much as he cared about his younger brother, he did not have the energy to try and make sense of what went on in that brain. Rhys was not his brother, not his father after all. Though with Lily being in school still and he off working and training in his dream career he did wonder if that was a feasible setup. Again, they hardly spoke of these matters really and he was not sure sometimes if he really wanted to know. He was aware of Lily’s situation but didn’t think about bringing it up—if it had been Rhys it would have been an instant way of being on the receiving end of his temper but everybody handled these situations differently. One thing he and Adrian would most likely agree on was their love for their respective careers—he loved dragons while Rhys enjoyed the puzzles he encountered in the form of cursed ancient artifacts. To each their own, he supposed.

Rhys nodded, drinking his whiskey. It seemed a glass in his hand was as commonplace as just having his wand at the ready these days. This situation ”That seems like the best way to reach him sometimes.” Rhys commented, he didn’t mean to lament but he had very specific views on family and loyalty, Adrian may have been the Gryffindor marching to the beat of his own drum for his own purpose and cause but Rhys focused on those close to him. Rhys watched as Lily seemingly entertained herself with her butterbeer, since she was still a student but of age, she was not allowed to drink Whiskey as he was. It had been stressed to his class when he had entered his final year at school. Technically the students were all of age so the tolerance for such behavior and nonsense had been incredibly low but that did not stop them from participating regardless. In fact, it had been occurring for many years as Rhys had first tried firewhiskey at fifteen and there began his longest affair. Rhys had considered a butterbeer, it was always a welcome treat and not a beverage one turned down. He could not remember if he had ever met anyone that didn’t like it but other urges were louder than his urge for something sweet.

Lily seemed genuinely surprised when he admitted that he was not familiar with all the werewolves currently at Hogwarts. And he looked back with a curious stare, it was not his job to know all of them just because he was a Greyback. There were never many at the school and as far as he could tell they were more or less hidden but with his name it had become a rumor though at that point was it just a fact if the rumor was true? Even his friend on the Staff was also cursed though the addition to that club was more of a recent experience for him. The small look of surprise and amazement in his face was hard to hide as Lily explained the family these younger werewolves belonged to, a half-vampire? A part-goblin? The diversity at the school had changed significantly since he had been a student and he wondered what older generations thought of this—not that he cared since he was part of a minority group himself but he was curious nonetheless. ”A vampire? Really?” Rhys had met the occasional vampire in his travels in certain parts of Europe but otherwise he never expected to see them much in public let alone at the school. Though they were American and from the American school, ”Americans do not seem to have the same prejudices they have here, how are they handling it?”

Rhys had visited the States a handful of times, it had been for work or visiting other branches of the bank, but he had never had a chance to stay long. Their Magical community held its prejudices in other areas versus the British community, but he would payed attention considering his own situation. ”So eight of them?” He clarified, if they had in fact run out of days of the week. Rhys made a face that was part confusion and part acceptance, even though he had only graduated seven years prior to this point it seemed that a lot had changed. Having the students from the United States had certainly changed that dynamic as well. She still amused herself with her butterbeer and Rhys could not help but half-smile, her energy was contagious and not at all what he expected from a child of Harry Potter. Of course, all he had known were stories of the man and his generation but nonetheless he supposed people expected great things from that surname as much as they expected the worst of his and some other Pureblood names. While he was taking another drink of his whiskey he almost choked and sent it down the wrong pipe at her suggestive words. It was not what he had meant at all by that question and he would have been surprised if he had blushed for a second. When it came to his sibling’s personal lives, he felt he would know whatever he was meant to know minus some sordid details. Just as he wanted his own privacy for the things in his life. His reaction should have been answer enough and fortunately he did not any whiskey in that exchange, but he shot her a look that only an annoyed older brother could give. She stifled a laugh and continued to speak.

She piqued his interest, the previous holidays he had not been in London. Of course, he had written to them as family does. ”No, he hadn’t mentioned it. Why, did something happen?” There was a tiny bit of concern and apprehension but also curiosity. Rhys had no idea that Lily had gone to see him and at the same time knowing what little he did of their currently relationship he was not at all surprised. They probably would follow one another to the ends of the Earth it seemed and would giggle the entire way there. Rhys supposed for his lack of agreement with his brother, he seemed happy and that was more than anyone could ever say for Rhys most days. She explained having been in LA and New York City and he nodded at her statement, those cities were very crowded places which was the exact opposite of what Rhys enjoyed being around and he had preferred the smaller towns. ”I have been, and I couldn’t agree more.” Rhys nodded as he spoked, drinking more of his whiskey since he had recovered from his previous attempt. ”Also way too bloody crowded.” He added, he’d been able to see some of the excitement from some of the more supposed tourist spots, but they hadn’t really piqued his interest. ”You’d be surprised, sometimes some cursed artifact is some muggle family’s family heirloom or something and one day they decided to mess with it.” Then the authorities have to get involved and it became an entire ordeal. He found that most muggle families kept said heirlooms quite literally locked away for years before someone finally took it out and then come to find its cursed in some fashion.

[lily luna potter]

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There should have been an easier way to reach Adrian currently, but via owl was unfortunately the only way. The communication debacle was multi-faceted: he didn’t always have immediate access to the new magical phones that were being pumped out since early summer, and Lily wasn’t allowed to have one. Like, at all. Her parents had decided that her muggle phone was enough of a distraction during her winter and summer breaks, that allowing her to have one that could work whilst at Hogwarts would cause a multitude of problems. In her defense, she usually only played the free games she could download from the app store, so it wasn’t like it completely consumed her life. At the same time, she also sort of agreed with her parents on this one. Having a phone all the time would lead her down the road of becoming a zombie – always glued to the tiny screen and maybe with a hint of an electric sunburn on her pale face. Keeping her away from the magical phones meant she wouldn’t be fiddling with it during class or study times, and she definitely would have tried to use it to cheat on exams. That was almost a no-brainer. More than half of the professors were stuffy old bats that could barely see over the edges of their eyeglasses. They had no idea what a phone was, nor did they care. But her mum had gotten ahead of her on that one, and nixed the possibility altogether. The joke was on her though, because Lily had been granted possession of the family map that James had held onto during his time in school. That was infinitely better than a silly phone, but still…

Lily had made a bit of a fuss at first because she thought she had a decent argument when it came to being able to contact Adrian. The reminder that school owls were available to send letters was presented by her mum with an unbearably calm smile, the kind that scared the Potter girl more than anything else. She wasn’t wrong though, because owls had been successful modes of letter transit for centuries. Adding to that Adrian’s situation, and it made more sense to send a letter. That way if he wasn’t immediately within reach, he could still take the time to read it later. And a letter would more than likely stay far away from dragons, whereas a phone would be on his person at all times. She would have loved to see a phone melted by dragon fire. Having barely missed the dragon attack at Hogsmeade the previous winter break meant that she hadn’t been able to see the spectacle in person. The damage had been completely fixed since, and she had completely forgotten about it until just now.

“Yeah…” she wrinkled her nose up when Rhys agreed that reaching Adrian via letter was easier. “Do you have one of those fancy magic phones everyone’s got lately?” she asked, looking at him expectantly in case he did. It wasn’t like she wouldn’t bug one of her classmates relentlessly until they let her play around with one, but she found it easier to weasel her way around with members of the Greyback family. Jamie and Adrian were the same way. They sort of expected her to be a goofball and take advantage of her position as a pseudo-family member. That was the best part of all of the Greybacks she knew. The family was a pack, and she was allowed into it. She had a feeling that even if Adrian hadn’t been the one to turn her, or was dating her, and that some other werewolf had gotten to her, they still would have welcomed her with open arms. Obviously there were other Greybacks and werewolf packs out there that weren’t the same, but the ones she knew were all pretty solid people. So trying to take advantage of that with Rhys made it feel to her like she was asking to see one of her brothers’ phones. “Mum says I’m not allowed. Because…grades,” Lily grinned, even though she had no right to be as flippant as she was about her education. Someone in the family had to take the bullet for being the class clown and local idiot, and she had that down pat by her fifth year when she got turned. It was all uphill from there.

With the introduction of the Ilvermorny students, though, she didn’t feel like such a weirdo as she once did though. While there was always a smattering of werewolves between her and the various Greyback siblings, the last two years had dragged in all sorts of fun characters. Especially the Weekly family. Lily nodded her head vigorously as she watched Rhys process her description of a few of the family members. Somehow he got hung up on the vampire bit, which honestly was the least exciting of the siblings. Thursday was a cool girl, but there were a ton of half-vampires now, and not nearly as many part-goblins like Monday. If there were even others. She was almost positive there weren’t, and she figured her roommate would have said something if there was another. “She’s not a full vampire. We’ve got a bunch of half-vampires now too! Three of them are in Gryffindor, and they’re always sucking on those blood lollipops. Y’know, like the ones you can buy? But they have real blood or something!” She was somehow making the candy sound appetizing even to herself, and while the hankering for raw meat certainly came around with the full moon, human blood had never crossed her mind. But she also weirdly wasn’t opposed to it. Clearly it was safe if they were handing them out to half-vampire children without a second thought. She could probably get one of the Kolstad twins to ‘accidentally’ leave one out if she really wanted to, unless that was a hard line that they drew when it came to their lineage. That would be like someone asking her to turn them. Lily would never do that. Maybe.

“Mmm I don’t know about that. I think that family just happens to be a group of weirdos. Kind of like all of the werewolves at Hogwarts. It’s just one of those things.” It was an interesting thought though. Other than her trip to the States the previous Christmas, she knew almost nothing about their magical culture or how people were perceived there. Seeing all the muggle sites was way cooler than watching a match of Quadpot, or whatever. Talk about a boring game, and somehow they derived enjoyment out of it. As excitable as she was, Quadpot didn’t scratch that itch in the slightest.

Now obviously someone really didn’t want the kids going back to school and that was why they were over here now, but she doubted that had anything to do with allowing werewolves or part-goblins into school. There was definitely a possibility that American magical culture had been taught at some point during her time at Hogwarts and she actively ignored the lesson. It was becoming more and more apparent since her failure in the spring term that she really slacked off. Hard. She had eked by on all of her exams so far, and that was why she still had Hogsmeade permissions. That could easily go away with one bad letter grade on an essay or too many tardies, both of which were staples of Lily’s person.

Rhys repeated that there were eight Weekly siblings, and she giggled again at the fact that they were all named after days of the week. It was hilarious! A whole year later and she still couldn’t believe it. “Yup! Monday all the way through Sunday. And then there’s Charlie,” she explained. She had no idea what the deal was with Charlie’s name, other than the fact that it made her stand out completely amidst the rest of her siblings. And she had a boy’s name too! Rocking that all confident and stuff seemed to fit the girl’s personality well enough, because Lily always saw her wandering around outside trying to find animals and whatnot. The irony of her having the same name (and a very similar sounding last name) as Lily’s uncle, Charlie, was not left on the Gryffindor girl. Uncle Charlie was equally obsessed with magical creatures, specifically dragons, and she had a feeling if she dropped that tidbit of knowledge on the Weekly girl, there would be a never ending slew of questions and a brand new friend.

America had a slew of interesting topics today, though, and her recanting her adventures across the pond had Rhys agreeing with her on the conditions and smells of the more populated cities. Like she had said multiple times throughout her stories, she still enjoyed her sight-seeing and traveling all around, but there were definitely parts she didn’t care to see of smell again in her lifetime. “Right? Way too many people. And here I thought trying to get into the Great Hall on pancake day was tough. Sheesh.” New York City especially. Even with the way she was, there was still an extent to her limits with other human beings. Getting shoved around just by walking down the sidewalk, and that being the norm there, was quite the culture shock. And the muggles there were so unabashed about hitting others with their umbrellas or briefcases. She took a few stiff swings of a leather case to the hip at one point and definitely still felt it days later.

With Rhys explaining that muggle belongings could be cursed objects as well, her mind immediately went to assuming the evil, hip-checking briefcase she had encountered was one of those. It sort of made sense that those sorts of things could leak out into the muggle world; if they hadn’t, half of the Ministry wouldn’t be necessary. And they also wouldn’t have to worry about leaving magical phones all over the place where they could easily be picked up by unsuspecting muggles. Lily had no idea if that was actually a thing, considering she didn’t own one, but it definitely seemed like a possibility. She hated losing her muggle one as it was, so misplacing one that could do so much more and go wherever she wanted would definitely be a real loss. Which was probably another reason why she wasn’t allowed one in the first place.

Pondering this thought, she picked up her butterbeer and brought it all the way up to her lips, only to then realize that she had already drank the whole thing while going on about her adventures in America. She needed more, because one was not enough to satiate her sugar drive (which was why her nightcap in Hogsmeade was always Honeydukes!). “Want one?” Lily asked Rhys as she got up, pushing her chair back with her legs with an audible scrape on the scarred floorboards of the Broomsticks. It was really amazing that the place was still standing after all these years. “I’d order a real drink, but I’m not allowed to because I’m still a student,” she rolled her eyes dramatically before bouncing off to the bar, not bothering to wait for Rhys’s response. She’d get a second no matter what, and if he didn’t want it, it was all hers.

The old geezers that had been perched on the bar stools when she entered earlier were gone now, and that made it easier for Lily to snag the bartender’s attention. She threw up a peace sign to indicate she wanted two butterbeers, slapping her empty glass down on the counter as she waited for her drinks to be made. To pass the less than half-minute of time that it took for the bartender to return, Lily resorted to curing her brief boredom by spinning a galleon on its edge, hoping to get it stuck into one of the pocked grooves on the countertop. She barely had enough time to pass said galleon over when she felt a sharp point jam itself into the back of her neck, causing her shoulders to arch back and her to jump in place. Not many things caught her off guard like whatever that was, and she immediately spun around on her heels, forgetting about her drinks momentarily, to see one of the paper airplanes falling to the ground that the kids in the corner had been zooming around the bar when she first walked in.

She could feel their snickers behind their hands, as her eyes narrowed in on them from across the bar. They were seated in almost a direct line from where she and Rhys were sitting, and from the way it had hit her, they had definitely planned it to fly right over Rhys’s head and into her back as she waited at the bar. Lily had to give credit where it was due. While she was sort of ticked that they had chosen her as their target, the fact that they had gotten a napkin into that form and then flown it effortlessly all the way across the bar was nothing short of amazing. It was one-hundred percent something she would have done a year or two ago just to get a cackle from other people’s unfortunate luck. The thrill of hitting an unsuspecting target was only imaginable by someone who had achieved it, and while she had never done that with a paper airplane before, she had with plenty of other charmed objects. So she understood why these Hufflepuff boys were doing what they were doing. There was no harm or foul play unless someone was injured, and she refused to believe there was a single patron in the Three Broomsticks that would completely blow their lid if they happened to fall prey to the Hufflepuffs’ prank. Except maybe the old dudes, but they were long gone by now, and probably for a good reason.

The real problem though? They picked a battle with Lily Potter, and she didn’t stop at just battles. If they wanted to play this game, she would wage total war on them. It took everything she had not to point at them to show she was watching them, because that would definitely give away her plan. Instead, she gave them a thumbs up before turning back around to the bar. There were plenty of napkins sitting around but she wanted to give them more than that. A quick glance to one end of the bar, she spotted a board with a couple of advertisements and posters, a few standing out more than the rest. She slid her butterbeer glasses down to the end of the bar and quickly pulled off an ad for a since played Quidditch match from the summer, and an announcement poster for Camila Calderón’s next tour schedule. These would be perfect weapons of destruction, and Lily gently folded them under her arm before returning back to the table.

“See those Hufflepuff boys over in the back corner,” Lily asked Rhys in what should have been a whisper, but came out at a normal volume for her. “They hit me with a charmed paper airplane while I was waiting at the bar,” she explained as she set the drinks down, one in front of each of them, before taking her seat again. Slipping out the two ads from their hiding spot, she gently pushed the Quidditch one across the table so that it was easy for Rhys to grab, if he chose to assist her. She wasn’t sure if he was beyond games of fun revenge, but she was going to attack back with all that she had no matter what.

Her own paper, the Camila Calderón one, was a nice hue of fluorescent orange, easy to spot sitting on the ad board at the front of the bar, and hopefully a blurry flash of orange death as it approached the boys once she managed to send it in their direction. Lily wanted them to feel the wrath of a real paper airplane, not just a napkin one. Hers would have a real sharp point, and cutting edge wings, something the soggy floppiness of a butterbeer soaked napkin could never hope to achieve. Sure, there were aspirations there, but hopes and dreams didn’t win the war of paper airplanes. The boys had picked the absolute worst person in the world they could have, and she wanted them to understand that.

“I want to hit them, fast and hard,” Lily stated seriously before taking a long drink of her new butterbeer. It hit the dryness in her mouth that the previous one had left behind. She would need to stay hydrated to stay in the zone. “These should be pretty easy to make into paper airplanes. Then I’m going to charm yours and send it at them from the front. Mine,” she pointed down at her orange paper, “Is going to be charmed to sneak around the back. Take them by surprise. They need to learn that I’m top dog around here.” Because they either didn’t know, or that was why they tagged her. Lily had her own character to uphold, as well as the Weasley side of her family. Her Uncle George wasn’t the one of the prank kings of Hogwarts during his time for nothing. “Any questions so far, soldier?” Lily looked up at Rhys from her now half folded paper. She had spent the last few seconds making sure the first fold, the body of the airplane, was even and sharp. It needed all the aerodynamics it could get because her levitation charms weren’t exactly the best in the world, despite the held she had received over the last few years from friends and professors alike. And it also looked way cooler when it had neat edges on it. The fluorescence of the orange paper really stuck out on the drab table, and would look neat as heck flying across the bar on its assassination mission.

rhys alexander greyback ● 3,013 ● Pretty Great by Fickle Friends

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

the same trouble in a different disguise

---

October 18, 2025
lily luna potter

---

Cellphones in the magical world were becoming more common place as the magical world attempted to match the muggle world in terms of technology. For so long there had not been a real need since magic was used in place of fancy machines or anything using integrated circuits. It was even only a recent job in terms of careers available at places like the ministry where wizards, who themselves were older than said muggle technology were being taught to use the new magic cellular devices and other magical adaptations of advanced muggle technology. When Rhys began traveling more and more around the world and especially to the United States, he took notice of the devices that the muggles were using. The smaller cellular devices and larger forms of those devices that were almost the size of small books. In fact, he saw a muggle reading off one of these larger devices and he could see the small print of a novel or possibly even a textbook. It had intrigued him since books were such an integral part of his own life and even his identity, but he could not imagine trading holding a book in his hand. The weight of it, the feel of the worn cover and the cracks in the spine from being re-read and handled so many times. The feel of the paper as he flipped the page and as he felt the creases where he folded a corner to quickly hold his spot or to remind himself to come back to that section or chapter.

Maybe he was turning into an old soul in his advancing age of twenty-five but perhaps it was because he had not grown up around such devices as muggle children do now and maybe even the more well-off magical children. Though he doubted that any Pureblood families with their latent discriminatory ideas toward blood status would ever allow their precious children to be near anything that resembled muggle technology. However, the acceptance of it all showed that times were changing and for the better he hoped. Being a werewolf lumped Rhys into a group that had been prone to discrimination all these years and he had accepted that but he would also take any step forward that would make the life of not only himself but his family as well. It had taken Rhys a long time to not only find other werewolves as more and more of them went public with their conditions and his mostly solitary life had made him wary of trusting people. His Hogwarts experience and the good friends he had made there had helped in his efforts to try and accept more people and finding his siblings who were more trusting people than he was in general. Knowing people like Lily who were special to his younger brother also encouraged him to be open and accept them, family typically meant blood, but it also meant who you chose it to be.

She inquired on whether he had one of these magical cellular devices and Rhys thought of the device that was currently in his front pocket. He did not use it all too often though mainly to just contact people, it felt so impersonal compared to a handwritten letter but for somethings the urgency was convenient. He thought of when Maria had messaged him ’SOS’ not even a week prior to this and how that situation might have gone much differently had there only been traditional forms of communication for them available. Sure, there were Protean Charms and other methods but that had always required the intent to gather the intended objects charm them and distribute to whomever you wanted them to have it. It was not or had not been part of the ‘plan’ as it were when it came to Maria. ”I do.” He nodded though he didn’t motion to retrieve it from his person, there was a mischievous glint in her eye and he had surmised correctly when she explained that her parents had not allowed her to have one herself. Though he supposed that Hogwarts might have had a policy on students having these devices as they might be disruptive, not that it had ever stopped a Hogwarts student from breaking a rule—Rhys included. ”And no, you can’t see it.” Rhys followed up, drinking the remainder of his whiskey. The familiar burn was always less toward the end of the glass with the ice melted slightly.

At this point it was safe to say that even if Rhys hadn’t interacted with Lily as much as his siblings she seemed to come as part of the package when it came to Adrian and he didn’t have an issue with that. Despite his extreme anxiety over the daughter of hero Harry Potter being turned into a werewolf by a Greyback no less he had settled down a bit especially since Adrian had not gotten into trouble over it. That had told him something about Lily and it made him more comfortable, for now. The other reason he hadn’t taken his phone out was the main person he had been messaging this past week had been Maria, in the aftermath of that night he’d check-in quickly or the normal routine of what they had been doing for the past four or five months now, he knew Lily would take the opportunity to ask who Maria was and why she was in his phone and when Rhys denied her those answers she would ask Adrian and then Adrian would in turn as his sisters and then there would be a problem. The bad blood was known to him and he was sure to anyone who bore witness to any, what he assumed, arguments at the school during the tournament last year and Jamie and Max had themselves give him a summary. Though he could not say it had ever come up again, talking about Elias and his death was still a very sore topic for the Greybacks.

The role of big brother had not been an easy transition or Rhys at first but then he settled in it, in fact he liked it. The Greybacks and friends were a very mixed bunch, Lily seemed to fit in well and in fact the more he thought about it he was glad he had run into her. With Adrian off training and working he could check in with her and his youngest siblings and now that she had mentioned the young werewolves at Hogwarts who were part of their seemingly merry bunch of potential misfits he almost felt he had to introduce himself at some point. Maybe Lily could help arrange that on another weekend that they were able to visit the village. Though he wondered if he would meet the whole clan, they seemed to have the array of various magical races in their mix. Vampires, goblins, werewolves, he was afraid to ask about giants, but it seemed probable with eight of them now attending from the currently closed School of Magic in America. Rhys made a face when she mentioned the blood lollipops, he’d actually tasted one back in school mostly on a dare and at the time it had been fairly close to the full moon so it hadn’t been as bad as when he tried it again two weeks later. Again, the various subtle side effects of being a werewolf and they always seemed to appear the closer they got to the full moon. For Rhys, the lollipops told him that the taste of blood did not bother him before a full moon as well as in general he felt more antsy and sometimes what he could only describe as rabid, though tamable.

”I tried one of those in…sixth year, I believe.” That was when it had been outside the boundaries of when the full moon announced its presence, ”It was disgusting.” Rhys’ face showed his displeasure at the memory and the experience and he’d never wanted for once since then, even at the full moon. Their availability to vampires made sense, especially if they were younger students. Rhys did not know much about a vampire’s experience in everyday life as well as he did a werewolf, but he imagined there were cravings or some side effects being half rather than full as well. He nodded at her words, ”So like their own pack?” It was a term he heard commonly enough especially when referring to himself and his siblings—the currently known spawn of Fenrir Greyback though Rhys never doubted he might meet more siblings and while that would be fortunate in terms of his dreams of having family it was unfortunate because he personally knew and had experience the type of monster that his father was. It had actually taken Rhys a long time to acknowledge the word itself, pack, it reminded him of his father and the other werewolves that were loyal to him as the alpha and enabled his destructive ways. But it was what they were, wasn’t it? A pack? They supported one another and watched out for each and slowly the pack had grown. First Jamie, then Adrian and then Max and even Lily was integrated herself as well.

So, Hogwarts now had a pack of werewolves and a pack of other magically mixed children as well. Though he had thought it before he thought to ask a clarifying question. ”So werewolves, vampires, goblin. Any giants?” His curiosity had been sufficiently piqued, and it was times like these that Rhys’ intellectual curiosity overrode his naturally stoic nature. The noise in the pub had grown to a louder buzzing now though talking to Lily had helped him grow accustomed to it versus siting here on his own while he finished his drink. The glass was empty now and he glanced at the bar with his eyes to see if the crowd had moved from around, he bar area before deciding if he wanted another whiskey or not. But among the adults he figured might be regulars all he could really see at this point was a sea of the Hogwarts house colors. The students of various ages were sitting, drinking their butterbeers and laughing—enjoying the rare break they had from their essays, studying for OWLs and NEWTs and Quidditch practice. It reminded Rhys of his student days which overall he was very fond of despite whatever mishaps he might have had. On that note he had always found it difficult to lecture anyone on their behavior during school as he was often found in detention himself for various reasons not limited to losing his temper with another student and at least one of his younger siblings was a Prefect.

Rhys wondered why he hadn’t known about this trip to America and Lily being over there with Adrian but as annoyed as it might have made him he had to tell himself that could he really be surprised that his brother kept him out of the loop? No, he should not be surprised. ”It certainly made me miss home.” America was a crowded place while at least here in the UK there was space to walk and cleaner air to breath, less smells to overload his senses especially if it was close to the full moon. He could only imagine how that would fair for Jamie who was more sensitive than he was to his own senses. When he had traveled to other places however, such as Egypt or even Transylvania or even China he found it a more rewarding experience than walking down the streets of Los Angeles and having the luck to encounter incredibly rude people and to the point that Rhys wanted to leave them with their cursed family heirlooms. Rhys glanced back at the bar where he saw a crowd had cleared and again pondered another whiskey, the craving was there as it was always there and then a large group of Ravenclaws approached the bar to order butterbeers and Rhys figured he would just wait for another opportunity soon.

His fingers absentmindedly grasped the top of his empty glass as he slowly pushed the edge in between his fingers so the glass would rotate slowly. He was playing with it distractedly while he was talking to Lily and waiting for an open opportunity to go back to the bar. The glass stopped moving when Lily spoke to him again and grabbed his attention, his fingers stopped moving. She spoke quickly and before he could speak up, she had almost literally bounced away. Again, was he surprised? Not at all, and moments like this he realized more and more why she and his brother had become two peas in a pod even if Adrian wasn’t physically here as much as he was sure he would have liked. Well, it was not a whiskey but he could not imagine anyone ever turning down a butterbeer ever either and so he would not. She seemed disappointed she couldn’t join him in real drinking and that wasn’t a surprise as she was still technically a student despite being well over age—he vaguely familiar with her situation in terms of her studies though he figured he wouldn’t bring it up in case it was sore spot. It was not something Rhys understood very well as he had done well academically but it was not his place to lecture. Lily found an empty part of the bar that was not crowded with students or other patrons and Rhys sat back in his chair, playing with his empty glass again and observing the crowd. The charmed paper airplanes that had been flying around when he entered were still making their way around and narrowly avoiding some of the taller customers.

Had Rhys been standing he might have been a target, he was not quite six feet but almost there and last he checked Adrian had barely passed him in height. Fenrir had not seemed to consistently pass off his height to his children though Rhys seemed to be the only one that had inherited the cold blue eyes. Rhys heard laughter that was even louder than the rest of the crowd and he glanced over to a group of students, primary boys near the front of the pub laughing though he was not sure to what. Again, he was reminded of his school days and he could not help but smile, even the for the ultimate pessimist as he was it was a good feeling to see good times. There had been such tragedy this past year that it became difficult to remember good times. He thought about the Quidditch match and how he hadn’t been able to be there for his sisters, but they had protected one another or even the previous year when his brother had been killed along with so many other students. Rhys had not even been in the country when the Azkaban incident had occurred, and the dragon had attacked this very village and hearing about it so far away had been the worst way to hear about it. It seemed he always seemed to be working when bad news arrived.

Rhys glanced over at the students enjoying their day and these happy times and he hoped that at least for their sake and for everyone else’s that it would continue on that path. He looked back forward when he heard Lily speak to him, she was carrying the two beverages which she set on their table ”Thanks.” He said before she spoke again and then he saw she had also brought two larger pieces of paper. One was pushed in his direction but even upside down he recognized a player on their broomstick, he reached out with his hand and with his fingertips on the paper he rotated it. It was for a match but one that had passed already, when he looked back at Lily, she was already folder hers. She explained that a group of boys in a different corner of the pub had attacked her with one of the charmed paper airplanes that he had seen flying around the crowded pub and from his vantage point he didn’t have to turn his head so much to find them. Their yellow scarves made them stand out among the darker colored scarves of the other Hogwarts houses and his gaze lingered for a few seconds before he turned back to Lily. Rhys took his hand off the paper in front of him and reached for the butterbeer to take a drink of it. It was a sweet as he remembered, and it was most likely the only sweet beverage he would entertain as he preferred something more….alcoholic. But it was pleasant, nonetheless.

Sitting back and crossing his arms he looked at Lily and then glanced back at the laughing boys in the corner of the pub. She suggested a plan and had already begun to folder her paper indicating to him that she was going to proceed with or without him. Pranking was not something he did often and had not done much since he had left school, it was not particularly up his sleeve to do so. But he also remembered that Lily was a Weasley as well as she was a Potter and so—again, was he surprised? No, he was not. With a last glance at the group of mischievous Hufflepuff boys he turned his head back to look at Lily, uncrossing his arms and sitting up straighter in his chair. ”Just one.” He commented as he reached into the pocket of his jacket to retrieve his wand. ”Why aren’t you folding these with magic?” Rhys could not remember the last time he’d folded a paper airplane and it seemed faster to not do it by hand. Maybe it was the butterbeer and the present company or even the energy of the happy Hogsmeade weekend for the students but he would go along for Lily’s sake in case this didn’t work out, she had an ally on her side. His wand was in his hand as he knew what simple spells to use in this situation. And for this specific situation, wasn’t she lucky that she had run into a highly trained Gringotts’s Curse Breaker today?

[lily luna potter]

▲

Her comrade had exactly one question, and she stared at him blankly as he asked it: why wasn’t she folding the airplanes with magic? Lily looked down at the one in her hands, and then back up to Rhys. That…was an excellent question. For one, she didn’t really know how to. Was there a specific spell or charm that could fold paper and crease it exactly how she wanted it to? So much of her existence was pure physicality, that Lily enjoyed doing mundane things that could normally be solved with magic. It seemed silly to whip her wand around when she could easily do it with her own hands. Grandma Weasley was always doing that, sending spells at dishes that needed to be washed or tables needing polishing. It was an extraordinary feat that Lily had always enjoyed watching be done, but disliked actively having to cast the spells when she could clean dishes by herself. “I uhh…I don’t know? I was folding it before I knew what I was doing?” she admitted. “Should I not have done it this way?” She was still sort of confused at how he made it seem like the obvious way to do this was through using magic. Maybe it was because of his work? A million and one questions were popping into her head about this, but she decided that it really didn’t matter at the end of the day.

“It might take mine a while to get to them for the sneak attack,” she explained as she lifted the paper airplane up and looked down the top of it with one eye. It looked fairly even, and the spine was sharp all the way to the pointy tip. She had thrown some pretty aerodynamic stones in her day, while trying to skip them across the lake, but charming an airplane was going to take some concentration. Which didn’t usually bode well for her. Being focused and Lily Potter at the same time was so dang difficult! “I’m not good at levitation charms. That’s why I have to repeat seventh year,” she told Rhys, as if that was the only reason for her failure. There was so much more than it would take literally the rest of the school year to explain it all to him. “Ready when you are.” She placed her plane on the table and pulled her wand out, trying to remember what the best form of levitation would be for this prank. Probably something that gave her more control. She looked at Rhys and waited to see which one he would use.

rhys alexander greyback ● 434 ● Takeover by Beartooth

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

the same trouble in a different disguise

---

October 18, 2025
lily luna potter

---

Lily seemed genuinely confused at his question and he blinked back wondering what he’d asked that was wrong. Her brain seemed to be pondering the same thought and she didn’t really have an answer for him. His response was merely to smile, there wasn’t a specific wrong or right way to do it but more of an observation but perhaps he was just that reliant on magic. ”I was just curious.” He admitted. His wand was already in his hand and he flicked it and created his paper airplane, since Lily seemed ready to go why was he going to waste time. The plan seemed simple though he could remember how Renfri or possibly Nell might have given him a look of disapproval, but he thought it was simple enough that was it even considered a prank. It wasn’t him and Ilija causing cauldrons to boil over in seventh year. Such activities and behavior had not been something that was natural for him, he’d never been that kind of kid and really it was the influence of his friends over the years.

She admitted that the charms required for this weren’t her strength but he didn’t see that as a roadblock. Rhys picked up his almost perfectly folder paper airplane with his free hand and examined it. It might have been possible to get this done by hand but at the moment he hadn’t had to patience to really do it. As far as repeating her seventh year went, he doubted that might have been the reason but again he didn’t comment on it. School had always been a strength for him, but he knew it wasn’t like that for everyone. ”Well lucky you ran into a highly trained Curse Breaker today.” Rhys glanced at the group of boys and wondered should he go for a slow approach or a quick one, maybe strike them from an angle. It was much like approaching a brand-new tomb or cave or on of the step pyramids. One couldn’t just dive right in and there had be an approach, a plan and an angle.

”I think fast is a good approach.” He commented. It was simple fun, the paper airplanes and a crowded pub but it had been a while since he’d had just simple fun. Life was full of so many complexities the older one got and sometimes a step back was nice. ”In my experience it helps to have a very specific target in mind if you are levitating something from point A to point B.” Rhys explained looking at Lily. Unfortunately, much of his time not in detention had been spent in tutoring other students as much as they hated doing bad in their courses it was extra that they had to be helped by the infamous werewolf’s son. ”The one in the corner with the short hair, aim for his glasses.” Rhys suggested, glancing over with his eyes again and then back, the boy was about mid-height, but his face reminded Rhys of a boy who had been in his seventh year wen Rhys was in his second and had bullied the still very small and scrawny werewolf relentlessly. Unfortunately, Rhys had never seen him again or he would have gladly faced him with his current height and stature. ”After you go, I’ll come in from a different angle.”

[lily luna potter]

▲

There were quite a few times where Lily forgot that some people did everything by magic. Her grandmother was one of those types, where Lily often wondered if there was anything throughout the day that she didn’t need to use magic for. It was certainly a show of expertise in charms and home-aide spells, something that the Potter girl would never achieve in her own lifetime. Eight years of schooling was almost not enough for her, and there were times where she wished it could go on until she really managed to figure it all out. Or that she could go back in time and repeat everything from the start, that time doing it better than she currently was. Mostly on how she proceeded with her schoolwork, or knowing how to deal with her dad disappearing. Obviously that wasn’t something that would ever be possible, but she could still wish it every now and then. She didn’t see anything wrong with that at all. At least then she could go through school without being treated like an idiot. It was starting to get old now – repeating didn’t help that at all.

Rhys seemed more than happy to help her with her difficulty handling levitation charms, and Lily nodded her head as he explained what the best way to focus was. Luckily this was something she could actually focus on, as opposed to watching the Charms teacher droning on about the complexities of the spell. Having a goal, or a target as Rhys put it, definitely helped with her concentration, and she focused on the boy with the glasses like he asked her to. “Okie,” Lily answered as she stared at the glasses boy. Her eyes flicked over to where her paper airplane had floated to in the rafters, and that caused everything she had worked on to come crashing down. Literally.

The airplane dive-bombed, though instead of hitting its intended target, took its flight directly into a glass of butterbeer being held by another boy sitting at the table, causing the drink to explode in his face. While it wasn’t where she wanted it to go, in her eyes it was everyone at that table that was her target, so she quickly looked at Rhys to see what he was going to do, and then back at the table, hoping that he was as good at improvising on the spot as Adrian had told her.

rhys alexander greyback ● 405 ● Crucified by Ghost

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

the same trouble

in a different disguise

October 18, 2025
lily luna potter

If you had told Rhys that he would have befriended any member of the Potter family in his lifetime, he might have laughed at the ridiculousness of it. Why would anyone related to the heroes of the War want to befriend a Greyback? Well, he had most certainly been proven wrong—Lily had befriended his brother Adrian, and Rhys had come to know her as well—she reminded him of his sisters. Rhys vaguely remembered her brother when he was in his sixth and seventh year, though he would have been just getting to the school, he’d been quite the personality but not someone Rhys had ever interacted with or possibly gotten along with. When it came to introverts versus extroverts, there were very few that Rhys had built up the patience for or was willing to and just the same with certain personalities putting up with Rhys’ stubborn and moody nature. From his perspective, Lily seemed to enjoy her independence. Perhaps that was why she was close to Adrian, as he was undoubtedly the one sibling who would always march to the beat of his own drum.

During his years at Hogwarts, Rhys' transformation had culminated from the ultimate target for upperclassman bullies who saw a small, scrawny boy with an infamous name and short temper to someone who was still a target but at least had the academic credentials that most left him alone. It was interesting when one of his classmates had to begrudgingly approach him for help in Charms or Arithmancy since they needed a specific OWL or NEWT for their goals. At first, he hadn’t been used to people asking him for help, but then he’d learned how to build some patience for it, tutoring others though he obviously worked better with those who eventually became his friends. A lot of that patience seemed to have disappeared when he graduated and went into Curse Breaker training and now when he was forced to deal with new trainees.

Rhys observed Lily as she followed his instruction on levitating her paper airplane. She followed it perfectly but saw how the ceiling got in the way and caused a change in trajectory. Rhys saw that plans had to change, one could prepare for a specific scenario, but others had to be kept in mind. Much like his career since one never quite knew what they were walking into when it came to enchanted and cursed tombs. Rhys had planned to follow more or less what he had told Lily to do, but he waited a moment, watching the kids as they reacted to the butterbeer explosion. The boy that he had told Lily to target now stood up and had spread his arms but still held the large mug in one hand. Rhys levitated his airplane to fly a bit lower than Lily’s had and approached from a different angle, aiming for him. It flew with luckily no obstructions as it made contact with the side of the boy's head. However, it not only did that, but it stayed there, sticking out of his temple (the nose had been crunched up), but in his surprise, he had spilled his butterbeer all over his friend sitting next to him.

He dropped his mug and attempted to remove the airplane from his head, but it didn’t budge, and Rhys turned in his chair to reach his own drink and take a sip, satisfied with himself. ”Nobody likes a bully.” He commented simply, remembering all the years of bullying he had endured himself. ”It’ll wear off in an hour.” As tempting as a permanent sticky charm might have been, he’d used a temporary one he had learned in his school years in the development of a potions prank with Ilija. It hadn’t been the initial plan, but it was hopefully a satisfactory conclusion nonetheless. And, it had been a bit of fun—Lily might as well have been one of his sisters now and had they asked for help with annoying classmates, he would have been happy to help.

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[lily luna potter]

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Improvisation was clearly up Rhys’s alley, as she watched his paper airplane adjust in the air to target the original boy that had started all of this. Lily was in awe at her own mistake that she couldn’t even make a noise, contradicting her typical cackle that would have erupted from such a gaff. The table reacted quickly to the dive bomb, but the main target wasn’t quick enough despite jumping to his feet and trying to figure out what had happened. The plane commanded by Rhys zoomed into place and immediately took aim at the side of the boy’s head, crumpling upon impact on his temple. And it stayed there.

The boy reacted by spilling his own butterbeer on the friend next to him, and now there were three butterbeer soaked pranksters. Lily had to spin herself around in her chair with her back to them, because she knew the stupidly large grin on her face would give away that it was she and Rhys that had conducted the stealth bombing. Rhys assured her that the plane would unstick itself within an hour, but she was too busy drowning herself in her butterbeer to prevent her giggles from getting any louder.

“Can you teach me that one?” she asked as she pulled her face away from her mug, a ring of froth and bubbles appearing in its place. She quickly licked as much of it away as she could before using one of her sleeves to get the rest. “Because I could definitely do that to Al’s shoes the next time I’m home.” He would probably try to chase her down, only to get stuck to the floor and then topple over. It would be hilarious!

It seemed like they were in the clear from their assassination attempt though, as the only ones peeved by the whole ordeal were now soaked in sticky butterbeer, and would have to deal with it for the remainder of the day. If they used their collective brain cell, they could probably piece it together and figure out she was the culprit, but they would never be able to out-prank her in the long run. Any future attempts would be futile, and met with reactions tenfold.

rhys alexander greyback ● 372 ● Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

the same trouble

in a different disguise

October 18, 2025
lily luna potter

Training the best and the brightest from Hogwarts that hadn’t signed up for Law Enforcement had taught Rhys a lot. It still wasn’t his favorite thing to do, but he did it when he was told. The ranks of Cursebreakers were filled with an array of personalities and different skill sets. Even if all the trainees had met the same academic requirements, they all had strengths and weaknesses that varied. One trainee might be highly skilled in charms and another transfiguration, and it was important to note these things in their training to help them and know who to pair up with in the future. Rhys had always excelled at Charms, Ancient Runes, and Defense Against the Dark Arts but had done just enough to pass Potions, Arithmancy and Herbology. But even then, mentors such as Jasper had helped him with Charms and Cas, increasing his knowledge of hexes, jinxes, curses, and counter-curses.

Lily had almost gotten the hang of it, and what was important was the end result in this case. The boys were still figuring out what in the world had just happened and how so much butterbeer had been wasted and spilled. Rhys never considered himself a bully, and despite his gruff exterior, he didn’t push people that way, and if he did, it was because they started it, and his short temper activated. But, sometimes lessons needed to be taught—and much like he did with the most entitled trainees that needed to be brought back down to earth. Lily looked about, ready to inhale her butterbeer if she didn’t stop giggling, and Rhys couldn’t help but smirk a little bit. His friends during school had taught him that stuff like this—simple times, were the best times.

”Sure. It’s a variation of the permanent sticky charm I discovered on accident during my sixth year. It's not quite a Jinx since I don’t have to look at my target.” Rhys paused, realizing he sounded much as he had as a student and remembering how that had also contributed to the bullying. ”If they were smart, they would find someone that could simply cast a general counter-spell.” The boys didn’t look old enough to be of age, but surely there was a willing seventh year around. But, at least now in his field, when he began rattling off details about his work or some other topic, it was a good thing. Especially, again, for those entitled trainees who thought themselves experts, because they checked out a book about Egyptian curses in the Hogwarts Library. Applied magic was much different than theory. Rhys drank the rest of his butterbeer, so the glass was empty, and he placed it back in front of him.

”Watch.” He pulled out his wand again and pointed it at the large glass. ”Tempus Tenaces” There was no change in appearance or anything to the glass. When he’d created his paper airplane before, he’d cast it in a bit of wandless magic. It was a simple enough spell that didn’t require an enormous amount of intent to cast, unlike an attack or defensive spell. He touched the side of the mug with his free hand, and it stuck to his palm. But he didn’t want to make a big show of it or somehow have those boys notice that the mug was sticking to Rhys, much like the airplane out of his temple. ” Finite Incantatem” And the mug dropped back to the table. ”See? Harmless.”

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[lily luna potter]

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Having the ability to modify spells on the fly was something that she was still trying to figure out, even in her eighth year of schooling. Magical theory, whether orally explained in class or shown in a practicum, absolutely escaped her. Wandless magic was an unachievable feat, and casting nonverbally was still a pipe dream for her. When she had attempted it in a Charms class the year prior, she had accidentally almost blown a hole in the wall from the mini-tornado she ended up casting, instead of a strong levitation spell.

Rhys’s explanation on the spell he had used made sense to her, though only because she sort of knew what a permanent sticky charm required in the first place. The casting it without needing to see the intended target went completely over her head though. “Oh I know how to do those!” she interjected about counter-spells. She couldn’t recall when it was that she had learned them - or in what class – but the fact remained that she knew how to cast them. And they usually worked. The same couldn’t be said about all of her attempts at magic, as more often than not she was left with either a failed charm or sparks.

A demonstration was indeed helpful for her, and she leaned in closer as Rhys used his mug as an example. As he cast the spell, she didn’t see any change at all, leaving her literally hanging onto the edge of her seat. Lily looked back and forth between the mug and Rhys, expecting to see something happen. “Ok?” she said, confused until he grabbed it and it wouldn’t move free from his hand. Her mouth immediately turned into an O-shape, and then puckered up in excitement as Rhys released the spell with the counter. “DUDE. Dude. Dude.” Her first dude being a lot louder than the second. The third almost a whisper. “Can you write down the incantation for me? And how do you get it to be different than a normal sticking charm?” There was so much stuff she could do with that, and far more important things could be stuck together than Albus’s shoes to the ground.

rhys alexander greyback ● 365 ● Turn It Up by The Wrecks

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

the same trouble

in a different disguise

October 18, 2025
lily luna potter

Rhys had spent his entire time at Hogwarts in a defensive state. Idris and others just around the corner to physically incapacitate him had required him to force himself to learn some wandless magic earlier than his seventh year. It hadn’t been all that successful, minus being able to create some distance between himself and his attacker. At least when he got to his fifth and sixth year’s he’d gotten taller and stronger, though he’d still been rather scrawny. By the time official wandless magic classes began in his seventh year, he’d had a leg up versus his classmates, but those bullies were long gone by then. It had been the same with spells, though, in that regard, it had been him and Ilija thinking of new ways to cause mischief telling themselves they were learning.

In the end, both of those experiences had worked out well for him as Cursebreaker since it had become basically second nature by that point. Lily seemed excited to recognize something he was saying, which was a nice change from the blank stares he often got from trainees on the topic of counter-curses. Rhys was never one to be easily discouraged, though he disliked training from more of a standpoint of his lack of patience. The expression on her face made him grin slightly. He was glad he wasn’t boring her—though he knew there was some risk in teaching her something that helped her mischievous nature. Well, since he wasn’t a student anymore, it wasn’t his problem. But, Rhys thought of Renfri and how she might catch the hint that Rhys was somehow involved in Lily Potter learning this spell.

Rhys nodded. ”I’ll write you later today.” It would honestly be faster than him trying to figure out this phone that was still cumbersome to use. Plus, he wasn’t sure what Hogwarts’ rules on such devices were yet. ”Well—it's temporary, while a regular sticky charm exists until it is reversed. A bit like a mild jinx versus an actual curse in severity.” Rhys paused, wondering if there was another example he could use. ”Um—well, for example, a trainee in my class broke this ancient jar, and then he was covered in this dust. We didn’t think anything of it until he started hallucinating—but it was temporary. The Cursebreaker who was training us told us it was like Druid mushrooms but a more temporary effect.” Maybe it was an extreme example. ”Still—he was lucky it wasn’t a curse, or it might have never gone away.” Rhys studied such things for his work, so modifying a charm or a jinx didn’t seem all that outlandish to him while it might have some students.

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