Fenrir Greyback

"Delicious girl...what a treat...I do enjoy the softness of the skin..."

- Fenrir Greyback to Hermione Granger

 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.

Biography
"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

Early Life
Not much is known about Fenrir Greyback's early life. It is not known who bit him and infected him with lycanthropy. However in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Harry, Ron and Hermione are caught by Greyback's group of Snatchers, Greyback uses a wand to cast light on their prisoners and is able to dissapperate which suggest that he has had some magical training. So he may have been bitten as a teenager and rapidly became embittered towards 'normal' people. Greyback's goal in life was to infect as many people with lycanthropy as possible in order to create enough werewolves to defeat the wizarding community. Greyback purposely would be 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, who Greyback attacked in retaliation for Remus's father insulting him.

Alliance with Lord Voldemort
At some point in his life, Greyback joined the service of Lord Voldemort, though he was not given the Dark Mark and thus is not considered a full-fledged Death Eater. This is both an insult to him, and a sign that Voldemort's new society has no place for him. Greyback was the leader of the werewolves who were on Voldemort's side, fighting along with them during Voldemort's two attacks on Hogwarts. After Voldemort's first fall, Greyback was one of Voldemort's numerous followers who thought he was dead and did thus not make any attempt to find him.

As a weapon of the Dark Lord, Voldemort would often use Greyback as a threat to intimidate opponents to do his bidding, sometimes threatening to send the werewolf to attack their children. For example, when Ms. Montgomery refused to cooperate with the Death Eaters in April of 1997, Greyback attacked her five-year-old son, who died from his injuries. Also, Draco Malfoy once threatened to send Greyback to punish Mr. Borgin, though this may have been an idle threat, considering that he later expressed horror at the thought of Greyback being among the group that assaulted Hogwarts in 1997.

Battle of the Lightning-Struck Tower


Fenrir Greyback was present at the Battle of the Lightning-Struck Tower, where he witnessed the murder of Albus Dumbledore. 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. Later on Greyback, who perpetually retains some werewolf features such as long claw-like nails and pointed teeth, viciously brutalized Bill Weasley, biting him and scarring him so badly that Molly Weasley assumed French witch, Fleur Delacour, would no longer want to marry him, which didn't prove to be the case. Fortunately, as it was not a full moon, Bill did not become a full-fledged werewolf.

Greyback also tried to bite Harry Potter during the battle, but Harry retaliated with a Full Body-Bind Curse.

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.

Although Bellatrix and the Malfoys were punished by the Dark Lord for this failure, it is unknown if Greyback and his gang were punished. It was indicated that Bellatrix intended to kill them to keep the sword's theft secret. She spared Greyback as he was useful to the cause and Voldemort would have noticed his disappearance.

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 at Hogwarts 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 (presumably in his human form since Remus Lupin did not change shapes during the battle). In the end, he may have been killed by Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom.

It is unknown if he survived the battle, but if he did, he may have been imprisoned in Azkaban following Voldemort's defeat.

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. If this isn't the case, he at least portrays himself this way in order to intimidate others. During his capture of Hermione Granger, his threats to her had both cannibalistic and sexual overtones.



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.  Charlotte Otten relates this story in A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture as do Sabine Baring-Gould in The Book of Werewolves and Montague Summers in The Werewolf in Lore and Legend.

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 (film)

Notes and references
Фенрир Сивый