Fenrir Greyback

"Fenrir Greyback is, perhaps, the most savage werewolf alive today. He regards it as his mission in life to bite and to conta­minate as many people as possible; he wants to create enough were­wolves to overcome the wizards. Voldemort has promised him prey in return for his services. Greyback specializes in children... Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."

- Remus Lupin on Greyback

Fenrir Greyback is a werewolf notorious for his savagery and preference for attacking children. He is a leader in his community and strives to infect as many people as possible with lycanthropy, hoping to build an army strong enough to take over the wizarding community eventually. He was the one who infected Remus Lupin with lycanthropy. During the Second Wizarding War, he and the pack of werewolves he led allied themselves with Lord Voldemort, though they were not considered Death Eaters. Greyback fought in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, during which he expressed an eagerness to bite the children of Hogwarts and left Bill Weasley badly scarred, and later that year led a gang of Snatchers when Voldemort was in control of the Ministry of Magic. Greyback fought in the Battle of Hogwarts and was possibly killed by Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom. If he did survive, it's likely he was imprisoned in Azkaban.

Early Life
Fenrir Greyback was both a wizard and a werewolf, whose only goal in life was to infect as many people with lycanthropy as possible, in order to create enough werewolves to defeat the wizarding world. Greyback would often purposefully place himself in close proximity with his victims before a full moon to ensure he would attack them after his transformation. One of Greyback's victims included Remus Lupin, whom Greyback attacked when Lupin's father offended him.

First Wizarding War
At some point either before or during the First Wizarding War, Greyback joined the service of Lord Voldemort. He did not join the Death Eaters because he believed in Voldemort's cause, but because allying himself with them would give him greater access to potential victims. Although considered to be a Death Eater, Greyback was not given the Dark Mark on his forearm. He was also not accepted as a Death Eater due to him being a Werewolf and Voldemort being prejudice.

Greyback was used as a weapon by Voldemort, who would often use the Werewolf as a threat to intimidate individuals to do his bidding, threatening to send him to attack their children. After Voldemort was presumed killed in 1981 after his confrontation with the Potters at Godric's Hollow, Greyback was one of the Dark Lord's numerous followers who believed him to be dead and therefore did not make any attempt to find him.

Second Wizarding War
"Oh no - not Ollivander's, everybody got their first wands from here."

- Hermione Granger discovering Ollivander's Wand Shop abandoned.

With Voldemort's return in 1995, he began to gather his old forces to renew his war on the Wizarding World. Greyback returned to Voldemort's side. In the summer of 1996, shortly after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Greyback and several Death Eaters raided Diagon Alley, kidnapping Ollivander himself. He was also among a group of Death Eaters when they destroyed the Millennium Bridge, in London.

Greyback continued in his role as Voldemort's enforcer and terror weapon. When Voldemort charged Draco Malfoy with the murder of Albus Dumbledore, Malfoy invoked Greyback's name as a threat to ensure Mr. Borgin's cooperation with the scheme to transport Death Eaters inside the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry via the use of a paired set of Vanishing Cabinets. Later, in the April of 1997, Greyback attacked the five-year-old son of Ms. Montgomery when she refused to cooperate with the Death Eaters. The boy later died from his injuries.

Battle of the Lightning-Struck Tower


Greyback was one of several Death Eaters that invaded Hogwarts in the middle of 1997, cornering Albus Dumbledore at the top of the Astronomy Tower, much to Draco Malfoy's shock and Dumbledore's disgust. He was among those who urged Draco Malfoy to kill the Headmaster and attempted to take over the job himself, before Severus Snape stepped in. During the subsequent battle against members of the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army, Greyback assaulted Bill Weasley, scarring his face. Fortunately for Bill, Greyback was not in his wolf form, and so the eldest Weasley sibling was not infected with lycanthropy. Greyback also tried to bite Harry Potter during the battle, but Harry retaliated with a Full Body-Bind Curse.

Working as a Snatcher


Months later, after the fall of the Ministry of Magic to Lord Voldemort, Greyback became a primary leader in the Snatchers organisation, and led a group of them around the country scouring for fugitive Muggle-borns and blood traitors who had escaped persecution. It was Greyback's group that caught a fugitive group comprised of Dirk Cresswell, Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas, and goblins Griphook and Gornuk. Dean and Griphook were captured, while Dirk, Ted and Gornuk were killed while resisting capture.

In the spring of 1998, Greyback and his gang captured Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley after they triggered the Taboo on Voldemort's name. After working through and nearly falling for the lies the three companions gave, Greyback and his gang brought them to Malfoy Manor, where Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco Malfoy—as well as Bellatrix Lestrange—were residing. Greyback hoped to receive the ten-thousand-galleon reward for capturing Potter, and was also eager to bite Hermione.

However, Bellatrix spotted Godric Gryffindor's Sword among the captives' possessions and became frantic, as she had believed it to be in her vault in Gringotts. When the Snatchers protested her taking it, she single-handedly defeated all four of them, much to Greyback's irritation. The Snatchers and Death Eaters were ultimately thwarted with the help of Dobby, the Malfoys' old house-elf, and Harry and the other captives all escaped.

The Battle of Hogwarts
"Two bodies fell from the balcony overhead as they reached the ground a grey blur that Harry took for an animal sped four-legged across the hall to sink its teeth into one of the fallen. "NO!" shrieked Hermione, and with a deafening blast from her wand, Fenrir Greyback was thrown backward from the feebly struggling body of Lavender Brown. He hit the marble banisters and struggled to return to his feet. Then, with a bright white flash and a crack, a crystal ball fell on top of his head, and he crumpled to the ground and did not move."

- Battle of Hogwarts description

Fenrir Greyback was present at the Battle of Hogwarts, where he was repelled by Hermione Granger while attempting to attack Lavender Brown. He was then injured by a crystal ball dropped from a higher floor by Sybill Trelawney. While he apparently was felled during the skirmish, he was later seen as a grey blur running four-legged through the battle. During the final showdown in the Great Hall, he was "brought down" by Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom. It's uncertain if he was killed in the battle, but if he survived, it's likely he was imprisoned in Azkaban for his crimes.

Personality and Traits
"Reckon she'll let me have a bit of the girl when she's finished with her? I’d say I’ll get a bite or two, wouldn’t you, ginger?"

- Greyback to Ron Weasley about Hermione Granger

Fenrir Greyback has greying hair and a shaggy appearance, his face covered in matted hair and whiskers. He has pointed brown teeth as well as sores on the corners of his mouth and long, yellowish nails. Harry Potter, upon first meeting him, noted his "rasping bark of a voice" and that he smelled of dirt, sweat, and blood. In his werewolf form, he is covered in grey fur.

Fenrir, having forsaken his humanity long ago, is driven by his animalistic hedonism. He seems to enjoy the taste of humans, even while in human form, perhaps even to the point of cannibalism. During his capture of Hermione Granger, his threats to her had both cannibalistic and sexual overtones. Greyback is also quite greedy, as he kept arguing with the Malfoy family about who would claim the bounties and glory of catching Harry Potter.

Unlike most werewolves, Greyback takes advantage of his powers and savagery when transformed, and stations himself near his targets. He enjoys attacking them and specializes children, hoping to infect them and raise them to hate humanity. Despite his ideology of thinking werewolves deserve blood, and his attempt to recruit more werewolves for his cause, Greyback would ultimately seem to be just a primal savage who enjoys killing. Greyback's savagery is what differs him from most other werewolves: while most of them bite and infect unintentionally during only their transformed state, Greyback actually go as far as eat and kill purposely whether in his human or werewolf form.

Being a werewolf, Greyback was not branded with the Dark Mark, despite being invited into the ranks of the Death Eaters and permitted to wear their robes. This may have been because Lord Voldemort was prejudiced against half-breeds as well as muggles and muggle-borns. Therefore he would not allow Greyback to become an actual Death Eater, yet he was too valuable of an accomplice not to have in his ranks.

Etymology

 * Fenrir is one of many permutations of Fenrisulfr, the great wolf from Norse mythology. Like Fenrir, he is a savage beast concerned only with hunting and killing. Greyback is likely simply a reference to his greying hair and grey fur when in werewolf form.
 * Greyback is most likely based on French loup-garou tales coming from the 15th to 17th centuries. His language and appearance bear close connections to Jean Grenier. The latter was a young boy accused of being a werewolf. Grenier supposedly claimed that he would eat anything while in his wolf shape but preferred the flesh of young girls.

Behind the scenes

 * Greyback first appeared in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
 * Dave Legeno actually had many hairs, such as goat hairs glued onto him when he played Greyback.
 * Greyback was portrayed by Dave Legeno in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]. The film never explains what sort of creature Greyback is, and the scene in which he mauls Bill Weasley is omitted from film adaptation of Harry Potter Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it is reported that Bill will be attacked during the Battle over Little Whinging.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts I and II

Notes and references
Fenrir Greyback Фенрир Сивый