Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Even my OC, who is NOT a MarySue. S/he evolved from Jonathan Stroud's The Amulet of Samarkand.
My poem, though.
Breaching the Forgotten
A Most Excellent Surprise
The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, highlighting the misty vapours that hung around their feet.
He kept his eyes firmly on the path in front of him, making sure he would not trip…again. His left hand held tightly a lantern that she had supplied him with, while his right hand was enveloped in another, firmer grasp that would pull him forward whenever he lagged behind.
"Keep up," the owner of the hand would mutter at regular intervals. He was running out of breath, easily taking two steps to her one, but sped up nonetheless.
After a while, a hidden root managed to attack his foot, and he stumbled, only being kept from falling on his face by the firm grasp, whose owner immediately stopped walking and turned to him. She pointed her wand, lit with 'lumos', at his face.
"Honestly, Severus Do you think it remotely possible that you could remain on your feet for the next five minutes?"
He looked solemnly at his feet, but only for a moment.
"Mother says you're not allowed to do magic by yourself until you're seventeen, and you're not even ten yet!" The girl clicked her tongue in exasperation and rolled her eyes.
"Well my mother told me I could, so there!" She turned abruptly, once more resuming her usual brisk pace.
He considered for a moment asking if they could exchange mothers, but was soon distracted by having to stare intently at the path in front of him, as tree roots seemed to appear out of nowhere. Although, this was not the only reason he kept his eyes averted from the surrounding trees and brush. The real reason was…that is to say, he wasn't exactly afraid of the forest…
Almost as if she's sensed his thoughts, the older girl tugging on his hand began to softly hum a familiar tune.
He blocked it out, the horrible thing, and tried to think of something else. But then, the girl began to add words to the tune, and he felt distinctly more uncomfortable.
"My mother said I never should,
stray near the beastslings in the wood," she sang.
He whimpered slightly, but she took no notice.
"For if I do, with hat and sack,
I can be sure I won't come back!"
"Ann!" He barely whispered in a voice nonetheless filled with tension. Certainly not fear, though, he wasn't afraid.
She ignored him and kept singing.
"For in the woods, the beasts they play,
and this they do both night and day.
They'll cut your skin and eat your eye,
And leave your body out to dry."
Horrible images entered into his mind. They weren't so scary when singing the song in the comfort of a bedroom, but while he was actually in the forest at the current point in time…
"They'll suck your brain out through your nose-"
"Ann!" he wailed louder, that particular line being his least favourite.
"And have themselves a feast of toes!"
"Ann! Please! Stop!" He could feel the panic rising inside of him. Her voice was so loud now it would inevitably alert whatever creatures were residing in this forest that they were about.
"Your head will end up in the Thames-
The rest will end up scorched in flames!"
A pathetic little sob escaped his mouth and he felt hot tears well up in his eyes. The girl looked sideways at him, smirking.
"You afraid then?" she asked mockingly.
He caught himself, and suppressed his tears, shaking his head furiously.
"Of course not," she muttered just loud enough for him to hear.
They continued through the forest; how long or far he didn't know. The path was becoming thinner now, less worn. Not many people came out here, and far less at night. For a good reason, probably.
The trees became thicker, and the light subsequently drew back. Likewise, the warmth of the area shrank away until he found himself reluctantly shivering.
"Sure you're not scared then?" she asked again, daring him to reveal his weakness. He suppressed his shivering and answered back in what he hoped was a confident sounding voice.
"No."
She smirked again, but said nothing more.
After a few minutes longer, Ann suddenly stopped walking and spun around to face him, and he almost ran headlong into her.
"Okay, Severus, from here on in, you must be absolutely silent. Alright?"
Severus nodded, but his eyes grew wide at the request. Why, exactly, was silence called for?
Seemingly satisfied, Ann took a deep breath and exhaled while turning around. Slowly now, they crept into a small clearing, however, it seemed to be occupied by one very out-of-place, gigantic Mulberry tree, directly in the centre.
"Alright, Severus," she whispered, "Up we go."
Ann shed her outer cloak and deftly began to climb the towering tree. Severus watched her go and swallowed hard, before dropping his own cloak to the ground, threading his arm through the lamp's handle and trying his best to scale up the limbs.
"Come on, Severus," she stressed in a whisper, moving further up the tree.
Severus' brow furrowed as he became slightly annoyed, "I'm slightly smaller than you are," he whispered back to her, still wondering why they were whispering, "and I'm carrying a lantern, so excuse me if I take slightly longer than you!"
Anne rolled her eyes and continued climbing, with a now adamant Severus following her up.
Finally, Ann stopped climbing, and waited somewhat patiently for Severus to reach where she was.
"Took your time," she couldn't help but mutter as he finally clambered up the last branch.
"Umm, Ann?" he whispered, his earlier annoyance forgotten and replaced with slight trepidation, "We're quite high up…"
"Of course we're high up," Ann sighed, "We're in a tree."
"And why exactly are we in a…" Severus' words were brought to a halt as his eye caught onto a small moving figure not two feet to the left of his face.
It was a strange looking creature that was nestled into a large nest, with a face, body and wings like a dragon, two bird-like legs and a barbed tail.
"It's a…it's a Wyvern!" Severus forgot he was perched precariously high above the ground, as his eyes grew wide with wonder at the magnificent creature.
"It's just a baby," Ann explained quietly, "but wait 'till it gets bigger, if you play your cards right, it just might like you."
Severus smiled, he had heard that if you were on good terms with a Wyvern, they could be rather helpful companions.
He was about to turn and ask Ann to how she had discovered the creature, when suddenly, a howling sound broke through the forest.
Severus forgot all about the Wyvern, and looked panic-stricken to Ann, however, he now couldn't see her face, as she had dropped the lumos spell from her wand.
Once again, a haunting howling sound emanated from somewhere below them. Immediately, Ann turned around hissed "Turn out the light!"
Severus fumbled with lamp, but by this time he was shaking so much, his fingers couldn't quite grasp it properly.
"Severus!" Ann reached for the lamp herself, but in doing so, managed to dislodge the lamp from Severus' grasp. As if in slow motion, Severus watched the lamp, still lit, fall softly through the branches. Moments later he flinched as it inevitably came into contact with one of the boughs and smashed, leaving them in darkness.
Ann and Severus froze.
Now the only light came from the moon that had recently come from behind the clouds. A large, conspicuously round and most definitely full moon.
"Severus," Ann whispered.
"Yes?" He timidly replied.
"We have a problem."
It wasn't exactly the reassurance he was hoping for.
Things didn't get much better after that. After waiting in silence for about half a minute, Severus heard something that made his blood run cold. It was a scraping, scratching noise, accompanied by heavy breathing.
By this time, Severus' eyes had become accustomed to the dim light, and he saw Ann's face clearly; it was a picture of fear.
"Ann?" He whispered, his voice trembling, "Can werewolves climb trees?"
Ann didn't answer, but after staring down into the darkness and hearing the scraping coming decidedly closer, he had his answer.
The children did the only thing they could do; they climbed. Up and up, they remained as silent as they could, with only the moonlight to guide them, although when Severus looked down and saw the glowing eyes below, his shock wore off, giving way to pure terror.
He screamed and the werewolf pounced. Ann joined in the screaming, and soon, the forest exploded with screams, howls and screeches. Severus scrambled away as best he could, this time away from the centre of the tree. He searched for Ann, but his vision was clouded by a pounding red. He no longer knew what he was doing; he just knew he had to get away, and now.
The branches shook, but he kept moving. The howling was becoming louder, but at this point he didn't know whether it was coming from the werewolf, or from his own throat.
A small part of his mind recognised the agonising wail of Ann, somewhere in the boughs behind him, but it was soon pushed out of his notice as his grip on the branch he was on slipped, and he fell.
His hands grasped wildly and the numerous branches rammed into his body before he was finally able to come to a halt, still in the arms of the tree.
"ANN!" he screamed in blind terror. Tears were streaming down his face. The wind had picked up now, pulling at his small body and threatening to tear him from the branches. And, just as he had ordered, Ann appeared.
He noticed the eyes first, and at that point, he felt a warm gush of liquid flowing down his inner thigh, but was only vaguely aware of it. He knew he was dead.
The glowing red eyes belonged to Ann, the neighbour and friend he had known forever and whom he had come to look up to. She stalked towards him through the branches on all fours, hair and robes billowing, an evil smile on her face, if you could call it a face. It was as if all the life had been sucked from her and she was now only a skeleton covered in skin and sinew. Her cherub face had been replaced with a sight more horrifying than he could have imagined.
She let out a shriek so terrifying he thought his head would explode.
Then, as he could hold on no longer, his body fell into the darkness.
He screamed, a wild shrieking cry and awoke with an incredible start. His heart was beating insanely fast and his breathing was hard. It took him a few moments to realize why and another few to wonder if he had actually cried out. His throat felt slightly tender, so he supposed he may have.
He slowed his breathing to an acceptable rate and fell back down into the pillows. Where had that come from? He hadn't thought about that old childhood memory for years, and now, unbidden, it had risen from who knew where and asserted itself fiercely into his mind.
Pulling himself out from under the rumpled covers he made his way towards the bathroom, somewhat vaguely noticing a cockroach scuttle across the floor and into a cupboard. He would deal with that later. Splashing his face with cold water he regarded himself in the mirror, though somewhat regretted it a few seconds later. His face was gaunt and pale, accentuated by the curtain of black framing it. He felt almost as horrible as he looked, and gave himself a grimace before crawling back into bed.
He lay awake, remembering the aftermath of that certain event which took place many years ago. He must have passed out at that stage, because the next thing he remembered was waking up in his own bed, being tended to by his mother, who caressed his forehead with cool towels. He had not eaten for two days and two nights, and did not leave his bed for a week.
He had never seen his young neighbour again, and after telling his mother what he remembered, he never spoke of her again. No one did, although words like possession were whispered through cracks when they thought he couldn't hear. Anne's family seemed to just disappear into nothingness, and soon it became as if she had never existed.
Almost.
It was his first true lesson, one that could not have been learnt from books or garnered from telling, and its shadow clung to him for years. It still clung to him now, but the specifics, the details had seeped into the abyss of the forgotten, forcibly removed from conscious memory. Until now.
Yes, now he remembered, in full technicolour, the horror of events that plagued him that day. How quickly events had turned, and how they never turned back. His head pounded with memory, threatening never to leave him again.
But as he lay in the darkness, he knew that the memory would fade. That it would be pushed to the back of his mind just as it had been all those years ago. But for now, his mind replayed the night that began when a six year old boy was awoken in the middle of the night to the promise of a most excellent surprise.
Reveiws are always welcome! But read the next chapter first... : )