The Marauders: Year Seven Part One

The Incident in Below Ministry Floors

It happened early over the summer holiday.

Elphinstone Urquart, fresh from his time as a Professor at Hogwarts, had returned to his position in the Auror's office at the Ministry of Magic. Things had changed there since Alastor Moody's departure, though - things that Elphinstone did not like. Barty Crouch, he thought, was the least forgiving head of the department that he had ever worked below. And Elphinstone wasn't the only one that felt that way. There was a great deal of mumbling about the office, not the least of which came from Gideon and Fabian Prewett. All of the talk made Barty Crouch very uneasy. Especially around wizards and witches that had been in the department longer than he had - like Elphinstone Urquart.

Perhaps it was this unrest that sent Barty Crouch into a fit when the Department of Magical Maladies and Cures Development requested assistance from the Law Enforcement and Control of Magical Creatures departments in a very dangerous and sensitive testing process that would take several months. Crouch was uninterested in assisting - saying that the testing process was too dangerous, and besides that everyone knew that Lycanthropy was not curable. 

"Well the proposal isn't saying that they're looking for a cure," Elphinstone Urquart had pointed out, waving his wand to underline the sentence that was key to his point, "See here. They're looking for a way to allow the wolves the ability to keep their faculties under the full moon. The Wolfsbane Potion, in early testings, has shown an ability to allow the werewolf subjects to maintain their mental capacities during transformation under the full moon," he read. "That's actually quite helpful. Rather than becoming raging beasts hungry for prey, the werewolves stay in control of themselves."

Barty Crouch had turned rather red - angry and a bit embarrassed for being corrected during his meeting. He said, "Well werewovles are generally dark wizards anyway, I'd much rather a werewolf with wolf instincts than the full capacity of a murderer!" Several people murmured their agreement.

"Not all werewolves are dark wizards," Elphinstone Urquart argued. "There are many that are very fine people. Something like this could revolutionize their lives - it could give them opportunities that are otherwise denied them - the ability to become employed, for example. It would lift the stigma that werewolves carry."

Barty Crouch said, "It is an awful lot of work for one or two good compared to the many thousands who have committed unknowable legions of crime..."

Elphinstone had scowled. "Even if there was but one... it would be worth it."

Mr. Crouch had drawn a deep breath. "Then you, Mr. Urquart, can be the one who volunteers for the committee." 

And that had been that.

Elphinstone had been assigned to the Wolfsbane Testing Unit under the Department of Magical Maladies and Cures Development and he'd moved his office to the newly created office area for the purpose at hand, located just to the left off the elevator or the same level as the Department of Mysteries, just up the stairwell from the dungeons where the werewolves were held in captivity each full moon night.

Elphinstone had heard rumors, of course, of the deplorable conditions and treatments of the werewolves - Newt Scamander had spent a good deal of time in his office during the last term at Hogwarts, giving him a good earful about it during a time he'd spent at the school. But having never been in the dungeons during the processing and containment process of a Full Moon cycle, he had never quite comprehended just how terrible things were.

Witches and wizards from all over the country came to the Ministry for the full moon night - either voluntarily, or else by a specialized team that would go and hunt the registered werewolves and bring them back to the Ministry.