To Face the Wolf

No, I am not human. But if you believe that only humans have a soul, your view of Creation is limited. Would you deny the angry willow a soul? Would you deny the ginger cat a soul? The rats you want me to catch? Would you deny that a werewolf has a soul?

—Finrod, To Face the Wolf

To Face the Wolf by "Maglor's_finch" is a beautiful turn on a crazy idea worthy of a Crack Fic: namely, what would happen if you crossed over The Silmarillion and Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. However, the author has done an excellent work and the immersion is incredible. Expect lots of crowning moments.

Tropes used in To Face the Wolf include:

• Arbitrary Skepticism - Finrod finds Lupin's disbelief in Trelawney's divination to be this. Then he meets her...
• Awful Truth (refer to Book Within A Book )
• A Day in the Limelight - For Lupin and Finrod both secondary characters in their stories.
• Badass - Finrod did kill a werewolf with his teeth, even though he is slightly ashamed of this.
• Book Within a Book The Silmarillion is a book Hermione is reading
• British Accents - Snape's original North Yorkshire accent comes through when he's stressed despite his attempts to suppress it. At one point acts as a plot point keeping the other characters in the dark.
• Broken Pedestal - The other Gryffindor's responses to Hermione reading a fiction book in class
• Crack Fic - Averted hard.
• Continuity Nod quite a few, from both sources.
• Deadpan Snarker - Sirius
• Dramatic Irony - the reader knows the Awful Truth about the Book Within A Book long before the main characters
• Entertainingly Wrong - They assume Trelawney's prediction refers to Beren and Luthien.
• Fan Service - Finrod in a towel.
• Fix Fic - Hermione's actions which cause the situation are something of a meta-twist on an attempt to do this and a Self-Insert Fic
• Fish Out of Temporal Water - Coming from a ostensibly Medieval Stasis Finrod is fascinated by more modern technology such as plumbing (more so than he is by magic infact).
• Foreshadowing - Finrod noticing Remus looking at Helluin, or Sirius the Dogstar, and seeing it more clearly than Remus
  • Mixed with a Continuity Nod - Snape reading about upheaval about a piece of jewellery bursting with dark magic.
• Guilt by Coincidence - Being the only werewolf in the castle, if Finrod wasn't able to testify otherwise Lupin would have been taken to be the attacker. Snape is especially convinced he is.
• Guilt Complex - Lupin arguably has one of these.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar - a throwaway sentence has Madam Pomfrey treating "an attractive fifth year" who has been hexed to have a bunny tail. Lupin wonders if a certain muggle magazin is circulating at Hogwarts.
• Inspector Javert - Snape's pre-existing role as this in regards to Sirius Black (and Lupin who he regards as a danger) is extended to Finrod
• I Just Want to Have Friends - Lupin's loneliness caused by death of his best friends so long ago & his condition explain why he bonds to Finrod so quickly. At one point he compares Finrod calling him friend to chocolate after an encounter with a Dementor.
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration - Not exactly this trope but Finrod impersonates Snape to get around the school without attracting students' notice. Although his disguise is physically perfect he wears a blue robe. Hilarity Ensues
• Magic Music even Snape is moved by it.
• Magic A Is Magic A - Subverted. Unlike many this author remembers that Harry Potter & Arda "magic" run on very different rules. The wizards aren't quite sure how to classify Finrod.
• Mind Rape - Doesn't appear in story but Finrod is of the opinion that "assailing the mind was as bad as raping the body"
• Mistaken Age - Finrod guesses that Hermione is sixteen. Given the differences in the ageing processes of Elves and men it's understandable
• Our Elves Are Better - Finrod
  • House Elves - The name confusion between Finrod's kind and Hogwarts House elves causes some difficulty.
• Perverse Sexual Lust - While not sexual (given the character's age) Hermione's reaction to Finrod when reading can definitely be taken as a crush.
• Pretty Boy - Unsurprisingly being an elf, Finrod. Snape says he'd make the young Sirius Black , Lucius Malfoy and Tom Riddle look plain.
• Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic - Finrod after having mastered English. Especially when trying to convince people about something. Taken Up to Eleven after The Reveal when even the other character's notice. The former is somewhat justified in that Finrod has had centuries of experience as leader. There is some justification for the latter part in Canon in that Elves are supposedly very good at mimicking different kinds of speech in foreign languages but tend naturally to an archaic sounding type and with the truth out Finrod might revert to this
• Sadistic Choice 'Then it seems that I will have to choose between an innocent I don't know and one I do know'
  • Lupins all choices come down to this.
• Screw Destiny - Averted. Finrod accepts his both prior to and during the story
• Shown Their Work - Of Tolkien's Work. The difference in Elvish philosophy to Human is portrayed perfectly showing knowledge of more than just even The Silmarillion
  • Of Human philosophy too, Small Reference Pools are averted with Snape mentioning not just Plato but also Plotinus
• Shout-Out - to Shakespeare's Hamlet
  • Which was apparently originally a lot Lighter and Softer with Hamlet himself inducing Draco in Leather Pants
• Stable Time Loop
• Telepathy - How Finrod learns English and communicates with Dog!Sirius, Crookshanks and the Whomping Willow
• Time Dissonance - As expected with Immortal Elves and Humans
• This Is My Human - Crookshanks' opinion on Hermione
• What Do You Mean Its Not Horrific - Snape's response to The Silmarillion backed up by the parts he brings up or reads out load. Given he also thinks the author's a Dark Wizard he might be falling into the symbolic and political versions too.
• Worthy Opponent - Snape admits Hermione is one of the few usually sensible students
• You Can't Fight Fate