By: Morgan Le Fay of Avalon
"He's close."
Miguel looked up at the woman who had just spoken. She was younger than him, but the streaks of
white that were visible in her long brown hair and the fine lines across her
face made her seem ancient. Her
attitude had been becoming tenser with the appearance of the half moon, and the
look of fear that always filled her eyes had been replaced by something else.
"So, what now Boss?" he asked her. She rose off the ground where she had been
kneeling only moments before, and looked at him with her all knowing eyes. Once again it shocked Miguel to realize just
how young she was. They had been
working together for about nine years now, but he still didn't know what to
make of the expression that she was giving him now.
"I'm not quiet sure. I'm now sure where he's gone.
I mean where else could he go.
Unfortunately, that was what I said last time I thought we'd found
him. I can feel one close by, so if
it's not him at least we can track the other."
Miguel could hear her normal confidence leaving her voice, and he wished
for the first time in his life that Robert was there. Damn vampire, Miguel thought to himself, what the hell is he
doing? Robert would have known what to
say to cheer her up, or maybe not. They
seemed to have been fighting a lot lately.
For a moment Miguel once again surveyed the group around him. Other than the brown haired woman in front
of him, he was surrounded by the very essence of magic. Standing next to him was the vampire's
adopted daughter. She was a sprite, but
a highly intelligent one. Miguel had
always felt like she was his little sister, and she was really the only reason
he put up with Robert. The other girl
with them was an unusual young witch.
Miguel had known from the moment he saw her that she was part veela. Ugh, he hated veelas. They were so annoying. They were obsessed with their own appearance
and power.
"VHAT IZ ZAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" the veela yelled out
suddenly. Her French accent was really
getting on Miguel's nerves. " 'OU WERE
SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST HUNTING TEAM IN ZE 'OLE OF BRITAIN, AND NOW 'OU ARE
TELLING ME ZAT YOU CAN'T EVEN FIND A ZIMPLE WIZARD." Miguel watched as his partner flinched at the way the veela said
wizard, as if anything that cunning could be a simple wizard. He almost felt like smacking her. That was his best friend she was yelling at,
and he would have started yelling if it hadn't been for his friend's words.
"Miss. Delacour, I must ask that you keep your voice
down!" she said through gritted teeth.
"We will find him. We have
to." Her eyes now looked forward and
determination returned to her face.
"Do you really think so, Relena?" asked the little
sprite at Miguel's side. Relena must
have shut the girl out of her mind, because usually they could read each
other's thoughts.
"Yes, Spridal, I really think so." This was Relena's only response as she
stepped over what she had been looking at on the ground. Her hair, which was beginning to fall out of
the braid she had put it in only that morning, blew around her face with the
cool wind. Her loose hunting clothes
were simple, and all except for the back of her brown shirt was being blown
about by the wind. Her shirt was being
held against her back with her gear pack.
The end of her shirt was held to her loose blue sweet pants by her belt
that held any supplies she might need to get to quickly.
Suddenly, Miguel felt Spridal go ridged at his
side. He saw Relena tense as well.
"What's wrong?" he asked feeling his own natural
defenses go up. For a moment no one
said anything. They just stood
there. Miguel and Fleur watching as
Spridal stepped forward to stand next to Relena.
"Do you feel that?" the sprite asked her blue eyes
changing to her danger color of violet.
Every part of her body drew itself up, but she was still only half the
height of the full-grown woman at her side.
"Yeah," was her reply, "It's a vamp. She's been tailing us. She's probably planning to eat the veela,
because her body is charged. Damn
magical senses!"
"OW OULD OU KNOW?" yelled Fleur.
"Your mating defenses have gone up. You're ovulating." Miguel watched as a slight smile spread across Re's face as she
said this. "Miguel you protect
Fleur. Spridal and I will work on
killing this one off. I can feel her thoughts. She's no friend, and she sure as hell isn't
about to let us track her, so our options are really very limited. On three we run. She'll know that we know she's there, but were in an open field,
so we have the advantage. Ready? One.
Two. Three." With that they were off, but before they
could move only a few yards away the vampire was upon them. As Relena had predicted, she tried to grab
Fleur, but Miguel hit her wit the butt of his sword, and Spridal used her
mental powers to throw the vamp into the air.
Miguel grabbed the French girl's hand and began to
pull her to the distant lights of the near by town. Once they were a safe distance away he would stop to watch the
battle.
In the meantime, Relena and Spridal had been
keeping the vampire busy. Spridal had
been using her advanced apparating powers to disappear, reappear, attack, and
then disappear again before the vampire had a chance to strike back. While she was doing this Relena had taken
off her hiking pack and was looking for a hole in the fight where she could
attack with a stake.
Suddenly, the vampire turned her attention away from
Spridal, and attacked Relena. She
pounced on her, and Relena, who had been caught off guard, fell back onto the
hard ground. She struggled against the
vampire. She was suddenly, very
thankful for the turtle neck collar on her shirt. The Vampire clawed at her wildly. Her dark blue eyes would have filled Relena with awe if she
hadn't seen Robert's with the same expression so many times.
"AHHHH!" Relena cried out in pain as blood began to
pour from a place on her arm where the vampire had ripped her long nails through
the flesh. For a moment she stopped
struggling due to the pain, and as she stopped the vampire grabbed her
shoulders and stared into her eyes.
"You think I am evil?" she
hissed. "I can read your thoughts,
bitch. I know your secret. You had a chance to save yourself, but you
didn't take it. You could have run
away, but you didn't. Why? Are you really that stupid? Do you think that you are special? That he wouldn't come after you? That you could save him? You are a fool! And you are the one who is evil!
At least I don't kill my own kind!"
These words both terrified, and infuriated Relena. She was scared, because only two people in
her whole life had been able to read her mind, and she had the power to block
both of them out when she wanted to, but this vampire who she didn't even know
had read her mind. It couldn't be! Who did this vampire think she was! Relena was filled uncontrollable anger. She felt a super human strength surging
through her body. Now she had the power
to fight back. In a move that was so
fast that it could barely be seen, she rose one booted foot up under the
vampire's stomach and kicked. The
vampire flew back across the field and landed where the group of four had first
felt her presence. Quickly, Relena
threw her legs forward and jumped up.
Grabbing a stake from her belt, she hurled herself at the vampire who
had no time to react. With an anger
that she hadn't felt in years, Relena stabbed the stake through the vampire's
chest. For a moment the vampire looked
down at the stake. She mumbled
something that sounded remarkably like witch, but with a b where the w should
have been, before turning into a pile of dust that the wind quickly blew away.
Relena fell to the ground on her hands and knees
panting. It had been a long time since
she had fought like that, and she hated how it made her feel. She fell forward and lay on her face. She was exhausted, and the cut on her arm
wasn't helping things. She flipped over
to look up at the sky. Ahh. Her beloved sky. It controlled her and freed her all at the same time. She laid there for a few minutes letting the
cold night air sink into her skin before Spridal floated over to her with her
nap sack. The small black haired sprit
bent over the young witch with a look of fear on her small usually smiling
face.
"I'm fine, Sprite." Relena
replied. She didn't want to think about
the pain, but she knew that they would have to reach the village soon, and that
she would have to take care of her arm even sooner. With Spridal's help she pulled herself into a sitting position
just as Miguel was running back to her pulling Fleur behind him.
"Great Gods almighty! That was one hell of a fight you two put up
there!" The enthusiasm in his voice was
only meant to block the annoyance he felt for having been left to guard Fleur,
but Relena welcomed the support. "You
two were marvelous!" he said grabbing Spridal and swinging her around in the
air.
"Yes, yes very imprezing." Fleur said
with a yawn. After that was over Relena
decided she best patch up her arm. She
unzipped her pack, and started pulling things out of it. First, she removed a very large gun. It was usually the second item from the top,
but with the full moon so close she figured she best be cautious. She took a moment to check and make sure
that there were at least six silver bullets in the chamber, but as usual she
made no movement to touch them. Then
she pulled out her first aid kit, which was usually the first thing at the top
of her bag. Opening it she pulled out
the largest bandage she could find and some antiseptic. She would have taken care of the wound
herself were it not for Spridal who had escaped Miguel's grasp, and was now
trying to heal the tears in the flesh of the only mother she had ever known.
"Thank you, Spridal." Relena said when
the young girl was finished. This
caused Spridal to blush a little. In
truth the blush spread from the top of her head to the collar of her long blue
Greek chitin, but Relena never would have said anything about it. As Spridal was about to lay her hands on
Relena's arm to help the healing, she felt the older woman push her hands away.
"Oh no, little one," Relena objected
as she always did when Spridal tried to use her powers to heal her, "You've
used to much magic as it is tonight, and we still have a long walk until we
reach the village. It's best that you
maintain your strength." With that
Relena pushed herself up onto her feet.
"All right everyone," her voice had
once again been filled with a cool confident kind of tone, "I think it best we
head for the village, and get some rest.
We have to try to end this tomorrow, and it's not like we can just
Apparate into the place. We'll have to
walk for almost a day, and it could take us hours to get up to the castle, but
for now onto Hogsmeade." With that she
marched off. Miguel and Fleur followed
unquestioningly, but for a moment Spridal held back. She stared at the footprint that Relena had been staring at less
than an hour ago. Funny things those
werewolves. They have all the strength
and intelligence of a vampire, but they refuse to just accept their own evil
natures. Or at least they do most of
the time. The only vampire I ever knew
to do that was my father. As this
thought came to an end Spridal looked up and smiled at Relena's back before
Apparating to appear once again at Miguel's side.
Hermione, Ron, and Harry, who was
under the invisibility cloak, walked down the cold damp hallways of
Hogwarts. Only prefects were supposed
to stay out all night, which explained why Harry had to be invisible. Harry looked over at his two friends beside
him. He was so happy for them. Ron besides all of his complaining about
hating the way Percy was had almost wet himself when he found out he had been
accepted as a prefect along with his Hermione.
They had both danced around the Gryffindor common room for a full
fifteen minutes before noticing that Harry hadn't gotten one. Not that Harry was disappointed or
anything. He hadn't really expected to
be made a prefect considering the many dangerous situations that he had gotten
himself into over the past six years.
This evening the air was cool. You could feel the fast approaching winter
even though it was only late October.
Hermione and Ron were patrolling the halls. It was their night on duty.
Thank God it's Friday, was all Harry had to say about it. The three of them would most likely be
exhausted in the morning. With a second
thought Harry added, Thank God for Hermione!
It had been her idea as future Head Girl to use her pull with McGonagall
to have her and Ron work the Friday shift.
This gave Harry ample time to walk around with them, and then they would
all try to accommodate for their lack of sleep with a bit of a lie in.
As they passed the window, Harry saw
that the sun was beginning to get low in the sky. Soon it would be dark, and their real work would begin. All of the other students had already gone
to their common rooms to finish some homework, or prepare fro this weekend's up
coming trip to Hogsmeade. Harry, Ron,
and Hermione had decided to skip this one.
The novelty of the experience was beginning to wear off, and as prefects
Hermione and Ron had to go there all the time on missions for the
professors. The only reason they really
had to go was to get some butterbeers, but in truth if they really wanted one
of those they could just use one of the passages on the Marauder's Map to go
down to the three broomsticks.
"Well," Ron said lifting his arm to
hang around Hermione's shoulder, "I think all of the students are asleep. You guys wanna go to-" They never did find
out where Ron was about to ask them to go because at that moment then entrance
doors to the castle flung open with a loud crack as they hit the walls. The three stood there for a minute before
Hermione ran to get Professor McGonagall.
Standing before them was a woman.
Although she was muscularly built and quite tall, there was no way she
could have pushed those doors by herself that hard. They weighed an excess of about a ton. She wasn't carrying a wand, but she did have what looked like a
camping pack on her back, and in a holster on her belt there were two wooden
stakes where three should have been. A
man stepped out from behind her. He was
almost an ape like kind of muscular.
His blond hair and blue eyes regarded Harry and Ron as if they were
nothing more than a piece of meat at the butcher's counter, an idea that was
emphasized by the long sword that was sheaved in a holster behind his
back. Floating just about his shoulder
was a small girl. She couldn't have
been more than ten years old, but her long black hair and deep blue eyes gave
her the appearance of ever knowing sight.
Finally, a third girl appeared.
When she steeped out from behind the muscular man Ron and Harry knew exactly
who it was.
"Fleur!" Ron yelled out in surprise.
"Allo, Ron. Did ou miz me?" was her response.
"Shut up, Delacour!" was the woman at
her side's only remark. Ron was about
to say more when Professor McGonagall came running down the hall, a confused
and slightly worried Hermione at her side.
"Relena!" she gasped. Instead of acknowledging the professor the
entire group just stood there. It was
obvious that they were waiting for their leader to speak. Her brown hair was streaked with gray strands,
and the bun that she had put it in was beginning to fall out as the loose
strands whipped around her face.
"I'm looking for Professor R.J.
Lupin," she said. Her face revealed no
clues to what she was thinking, and her voice sounded like a dagger of ice. McGonagall didn't reply. She looked as though she was studying the
group for a minute, trying to figure them out.
As her eyes moved over the group Harry saw her glance fall upon the
stakes tucked into the woman's belt.
Her eyes seemed to widen in shock and recognition, and for the first
time ever since Harry meet her she seemed to have no idea what to say. She took a minute struggling for her words.
"There- There- There is no Professor
Lupin here, my dear, Relena. You must
be mistaken." Harry knew this was a
lie, Lupin had come back to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts earlier that
year, but he didn't say anything.
First, because he wasn't even supposed to be walking with Ron and
Hermione, and second, because whatever business this Relena girl had there it
couldn't be good.
"Don't lie to us you old witch,"
replied the man at Relena's side, "We know he's here. Frenchy over there tipped us off about him being somewhere around
here two months ago." As he said this
he gestured to Fleur.
"Sir you must be mistaken. I'm telling you that there is no Professor
Lupin here. Now if you don't mind-"
"Oh he's here all right!" the little
girl giggled, "I can feel him.
Mmmm. He smells good. I bet you that he's got good blood for drinking. Maybe I should go find dad."
"Spridal, stop that right now!" the
woman hissed. "Listen Minerva. I know he's here, and I know that he
probably won't want to see me. Trust
me, if I had a choice I wouldn't be here, but I have to talk to him before the
sunsets. It's a full moon tonight, and
you know what that means. Hell! I'll even talk to Dumbledore if it will make
you all listen to me." With this final
remark the woman's voice began to lose her calm. She was ringing her hands, and didn't seem at all pleased at having
been delayed.
"It's all right Minerva. I'll talk to this grouping my office." Dumbledore had appeared out of nowhere with
Snape at his side. "I think it best
that we all discuss some things before I let you see Remus. My office will be the best place considering
that we wouldn't want any students wearing invisibility cloaks or something to
hear us talking in the halls." After
saying this Dumbledore gave a meaningful look in Harry's direction. Harry decided that it meant that he should
follow them. "Thank you Ron and
Hermione. Now off with the both of
you." Ron and Hermione walked back down
the hall thinking Harry was still at their side.
Harry followed the strange group all
the way down to Snape's office not Dumbledore's as had originally been
stated. Harry had to wonder whom
Dumbledore thought he was fooling, because it was obvious from the look on the
group's leaders face that she knew that this wasn't the way to his office. As they reached the door to the Potions
classroom, she spoke.
"What do you think you're playing at
Albus? I'm not a fool! Whether you believe me or not it is very
important that I talk to Remus before he changes." There was anger growing behind her eyes and she spit out her
words like they left a bad taste in her mouth.
Her eyes drifted over the crowd and settled menacingly on Snape before
walking into the classroom.
"Is this some kind of joke,
Severus? You used to be honest with
me. We used to be friends. What changed?" she asked a tone of what seemed
like remorse filling her voice.
"Times change," Snape hissed, "We were
friends, but if I had known that you had planned to become one of those," he
gave her a look of absolute disgust, "I never would have given you a first
glance. Hunter!" It was obvious from the look on Relena's
face that she had not expected him to respond in this manner.
"If you're going to be talking about
Hunters," said the man at her side, "then I'm the only one you should be
snapping at you worthless old prat!"
"And who are you?" Dumbledore stated
plainly.
"I am Miguel Darkhunter of the
Darkhunter clan of Australia. I'm the
only one in this entire group that ever killed any creature in cold blood, and
if you don't leave Relena alone I'll be killing another one tonight,
Severus. Oh, yes, don't look so
surprised, I know exactly who you are.
I've worked with that girl for almost nine years now, and I know every
instinct, thought, and gesture that she has."
"So," Snape replied, "what you're
telling me is that she took you to her bed?
Hmmm? Quiet the whore that
little one is." Harry looked over at
Relena who seemed to be fighting down a very powerful rage, and just as she was
about to say something the sprite stepped up next to Miguel.
"Hey!
That's my mother you're talking about!" the little girl shouted.
"How old are you dear? Nine?
Ten? Hoe could you possibly
fathom what your mother is? Well Relena
I see that you have been busy after all."
"Cram it, Snape." she replied
defiantly.
"Yeah cram it Snape!" the little girl
agreed. "And for your information I am
one hundred and ten years old. I can
read minds, move without thought, and do a hole host of other supernatural
things, including flying." She was
demonstrating this last power as she began to float above the ground.
"EVERYONE CALM DOWN!" Relena
shouted. "I am tired of the
bickering. Now listen to me! The sun is going to set in about ten
minutes, and I have to reach Remus before then. Look through my bag if you want!
I promise that I'm not here to-" Suddenly, she stopped, and clutched at
her stomach. She feel forward on her
hands and knees and began to pant heavily.
"Dammit!" she hissed, "Miguel what
time is it? Oh never-AH! - mind. Spridal, go find your father!"
"But mum," the sprit whimpered, " I
don't think I should leave you!"
"Just do as you're told!" the witch
cried out before grabbing her body in another seizure of pain. The small sprit disappeared, and as Harry
looked around the room he realized that Fleur was gone as well.
"Mi-Mi-Miguel!" Relena cried as
pain racked through her body causing her to stutter. The large man knelt down at her side.
"Relena, what's wrong? It's never been this bad before!"
"Oh-FUCK-" she screamed, "I didn't
take the thing tonight! I thought we'd
be able to find him before this happened-AH!
Miguel, go into my pack, and get my gun! Use it on me, and only me if you have to! Tell-Tell Robert when he gets here to use
his mental pow-powers to stop me! Warn
him not to let me get to close! The
last thing we need is a werepire!"
Miguel hurried to pull the bag off of Relena's back as another tremor of
pain racked her body. He unzipped the
bag, and pulled out a large revolver, which he shoved into his belt.
"RELENA!" he screamed as another wave
of pain caused the woman to shrivel on the floor. "Relena what's happening to you?
I've seen how you act when you don't take the potion, and it's never
been this bad before!"
"It's-because-he's so close! Ah!
It hurts! Miguel you've only got
six shots in that gun, so use them well, and try not to kill me if at all
possible!" With that she kicked one
booted foot into the larger man's stomach and he flew across the room.
Suddenly, the woman's body went
ridged, and she was staring right at Harry.
He realized with shock that she could see him!
"Ja-James!" she began to stutter as
she reached out her hands towards Harry.
The look in her eyes at that moment filled him with more fear than if
ten dementors had been charging right at him.
"James, you know the truth! Tell
them that I would never hurt them! For
Christ sake I'm Harry's- Ahhhh!
James! You know what really
happened! I found the cure! James!
I found it! James- OHHHHHHH!"
The woman who had one moment been
talking coherently was now howling. Her
back arched, and her fingers began to elongate. It took a moment for everything to sink in, but when Harry saw
the figure of a wolf-like Lupin at the dungeon door he knew what was
happening. She was turning into a
werewolf!
She fell forward with a great thud on
the ground, but where two hands should have been there was a set of massive
paws. Harry had to stare for a
minute. She really was beautiful. He could see the power and rage that she
held in her eyes, and her white coat gave her a ghost like appearance.
"My God!" Snape yelled as he looked at
her. "Then it's true! It's all true!"
"Of course it is you blithering
idiot!" Miguel groaned as he stood up from the ground. Quickly, he ran over to the wolf and
attacked her not with the skill of a trained hunter but as if he were playing
with a very small dog. He toyed with
her in this way, before the door to the room flung open to reveal a tall gaunt
man. Next to him stood Spridal. This must be Robert! Harry thought with
shock. Robert was tall. He would have made even Ron look like a
little boy with his height. His hair
was a beautiful color of gold, which hung in curls about his shoulders. His eyes were a violet color that seemed to
entrance people in the room as he walk through it.
"Well," huffed a very tired Miguel,
"it's about time you got here!"
"Sorry," Robert replied, "You know it
couldn't be helped. Now let me do my
job." Miguel backed away from Relena
slowly as Robert approached her. She
began to grow, and Robert stopped just short of lunging distance.
"Relena," he said, his voice had
become smooth and comforting, "you need to calm down. It's all right. I'll
protect you. Just like the old
days. Remember? I won't let the nightmares come. I'll keep you safe. Now, it's time to sleep wolf child. Sleep."
As he said this Relena calmed and lowered herself to the floor. She seemed to just sit there for a while
until her eyes closed and she curled up in a ball to sleep.
"Thank God!" Miguel hissed with a sigh
of relief. "I was worried that you
wouldn't reach us in time!"
"I would never have let anything
happen to her. The fact that you
wouldn't have shot her if your life depended on it allows me to allow you to
travel with her. Otherwise you would
have no purpose."
"Yeah, well," Miguel stumbled, "thanks
for your vote of confidence, but I don't think that she would like you being so
possessive of her."
"I have a right to be. There are things that should be explained
before she wakes up. Mistress
McGonagall please give Miguel and Spridal a room to stay in. I'll stay here and explain everything to the
Professors, human and no." McGonagall
and the two tired looking team members turned to leave, but they only reached
the doorframe before they were interrupted.
"Oh," the vampire said off handedly
motioning to Harry, "take the boy with you."
The invisibility cloak slipped off of Harry's shoulders, and Professor
McGonagall had grabbed him by the arm before he even have time to marvel at the
fact that two people had seen him in his invisibility cloak that night. As they left the classroom Harry couldn't
help, but fret about the punishment he might receive in the morning.
AN: So what did you
think? I really want to know. As soon as I get 20 reviews I'll post the
next chapter. Also I just love music so
with the next chapter I'm going to probably post some songs that I think
reflect parts of this story. Thanks!
