Sunlight filtered through the oak canopy, scattering like flecks of gold across the forest clearing.
Without being told, no one would have associated this place with a "gathering ground for dark creatures" that struck terror into the Wizarding World.
The scene looked more like a bustling construction site, or some sort of hippie commune devoted to naturalism.
Douglas adjusted his collar, his gaze sweeping over the busy figures.
Most wore coarse work clothes. Some were hauling stone, some were measuring foundations, and others were huddled together arguing over blueprints.
They looked no different from construction workers on the streets of London.
Besides the already skilled workers, there was also a group of new students.
They did not need to learn how to be human. What they needed to learn was how to live not only as humans, but with dignity, in a society that treated them as beasts.
That was also Lupin's original intention in establishing the Preparatory Class.
Those werewolves smuggled in through secret channels from the Ashen Tribe in Italy and other corners of Europe.
The first thing they received here was not magical training, but psychological rehabilitation.
They had to shed the self-abasement and aggression bred by years of living in sewers and dark corners, and learn to earn Galleons through labor and skills rather than claws and teeth.
Only those who truly recovered their human dignity and demonstrated sufficient self-discipline and talent.
Would go on to further training and become full employees of the Marauders Power Company.
Or study the skills they wanted to learn, then return to their hometowns to be with their families.
In the distance, the Weasley Twins' trademark red hair appeared and disappeared among the scaffolding, accompanied now and then by puffs of purple smoke and strange explosions-they were testing some new