Fenrir Greyback

Name: Fenrir Greyback.

Age: Unknown. He has grey hair, showing that he is at least middle-aged. He is also known to be considerably older than Remus Lupin, as Greyback was already an adult werewolf when he bit the child Remus.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Greyback is a tall, rangy man with matted grey hair and whiskers. He has pointed teeth (even when in human form) and filthy hands with long, yellowing nails. He smells strongly of dirt, sweat, and blood, and is, most importantly, a werewolf.

First Mention: Chapter two of Half-Blood Prince

General: Fenrir Greyback lives apart from civilized society, amongst the underground werewolf population. Most werewolves shun the normal world and live in their own community, stealing (and often killing) to eat, resentful of those who do not have the same problems as they do. Greyback is a powerful voice within the ranks of the werewolves, and while they appear to have little social structure, his opinion holds a great deal of weight. This may be due to the fact that he is generally regarded as the most savage werewolf alive today, and it is likely that his fellow werewolves fear him rather than respect him; there certainly seems very little to respect, but a great deal to fear.

Most werewolves are supporters of Voldemort; they have no love for the normal human population and see that in a land of anarchy and lawlessness under the Dark Lord, they will have a better and freer life. Greyback has taken one step further than his comrades, however, and has gone as far as to become a Death Eater in order to help Voldemort gain power.

This is quite in keeping with his character; while most of his kind try to retain as much normality as possible in their untransformed state, Greyback has made it his mission in life to bite and contaminate as many people as possible in order to create a vast werewolf army to take on the wizards. This is part of his deal with Voldemort, who has offered him prey in return for his allegiance. In order to further his mission, Greyback positions himself close to areas of population at full moon, so that he can be in range to strike when he transforms. He also prefers to prey on children, so that they can be taken from their parents, raised amongst werewolves and conditioned to hate normal people.

Over recent times, Fenrir's ferocity has increased, leading him to seek out human flesh at all times, not only when transformed. He seems to delight in the revulsion this causes in others, and enjoy the way it adds to his reputation. He has begun to frighten even Draco Malfoy, who in the summer of 1996 could be found bragging to Mr. Borgin (of Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley) that Greyback was a family friend. By the summer of the following year, when Draco had successfully gained the Death Eaters an entrance into Hogwarts, he looked distinctly unnerved and displeased that Fenrir had chosen to join them.

Greyback was one of the four Death Eaters who broke away from the battle downstairs to confront Dumbledore on the Hogwarts ramparts along with Malfoy, after successfully breaking into the school. He was clearly not the leader of the four, as he was repeatedly given orders by a brutal-faced unnamed man who was also there, but at the same time it was evident that he was hardly under control. In the end, the brutal-faced Death Eater had to prevent Greyback from killing Dumbledore himself by magical means (as the Dark Lord had ordered that Draco should do the deed), an act which infuriated Greyback.

In the end, with Draco unable to kill his headmaster, it was Severus Snape who arrived to deliver the final blow. Even Fenrir seemed to bow to Snape's authority and stood back to let him execute Dumbledore himself. Following Dumbledore's death, Greyback fled with the rest of the Death Eaters, but stopped to join in the fight that was still raging inside the building. He had already attacked Bill Weasley and inflicted severe bites to his face during the fight before heading up to the ramparts, although luckily for Bill, he avoided any serious side effects due to the fact that Greyback was not transformed at the time.

This battle was not so successful for him, however. He was petrified by Harry when he tried to attack him, and failed to escape with the others. His current whereabouts are unknown, although he may well have been captured and sent to Azkaban.