I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ITS CHARACTERS. I DO NOT MAKE MONEY OFF THIS PIECE OF FANFICTION.
Authors Note: This story has been battling to come into typed form. I can only say I'm already proud of this piece of work.
This is not a crossover! I am using the mythical folklore creature from Japan/Korea, the Kitsune/Gumiho. At the end of each chapter I'll give any magickal terms needed.
(Male/Male) shall appear in chapters to come, Harry/Draco pairing.
Warnings: shall be posted for each chapter. This chapter? slight language.
(Time Frame: 1st Year, The Forbidden Forest)
~ * MAIDENS OF MOONLIGHT * ~
Run faster! His mind screams.
Stumbling through the darkness he keeps his head down and pumps each leg against the twisted earth. The sight of that thing digging into the dead unicorn had him madly dashing through the Forbidden Forest leaving Harry Potter behind. The good-for-nothing prat was at least useful to slow down that monster. The passing thought sent a frightening image of a boyish corpse in his minds' eye. That dead boy's face contorted from Potter's to his own. Draco Malfoy lets out a wail of fright, cursing his own imagination.
On he went, rushing head first into the night.
Shadows swirl about enclosing him in sickened fear. He ran and ran. Soon though, with his focus uneven, Draco trips over an unearthed root and falls to his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs. For a moment the blonde boy just lies there sucking down air. Time slips by and his breathing settles. Young Malfoy breaks the silence with a meek groan as he pushes himself onto his back. Hopefully the distance he put between himself and that monsters' next snack is vast enough so that he won't be chased this far. Surely from here he'll be able to find his way back to the blasted castle.
The sound of low giggles cause Draco to jerk his head up into the trees. There in the shadows, two females with hidden faces sit perched upon a branch. Their naked flesh exposed and shinning eyes glowing like the moonlight. Incredibly long, flowing hair twists around their most private parts that were ready to seduce any wayward man. The maiden's bodies were of matching height and voluptuous volume. Only their shades of hair color set them apart; one the color of an Autumn maple leaf, the other of Spring wheat.
Instead of anticipation or foolish headiness, the young Slytherin feels nothing but trepidation towards the pair. Everything in the Forbidden Forest is dangerous -he would be a blithering idiot if he'd forget something like that. Shakily, Draco reaches inside disheveled robes and pulls out his wand. Pointing it at the snickering women-like creatures he rises to his feet and braced himself. "Everte Statum!"
The spell shoots by the two maidens and they look back down at the boy before bursting into another round of laughter.
Draco's face burns hot in anger giving him courage to yell at the shadowy figures. "What the bloody hell do you think is so funny?!"
Their purring voices greet his ears through their giggles. "Look sis –look, I sees a manthing."
"Yes a manthing an' feisty at that! But oh so small!"
"Ello down there! Be you a manthing?" The first calls out to Draco.
With a frown and glare Draco shifts his wand to point at her. "I am a man!"
"Why you be so small?!"
"So tiny?!"
"So little?!"
"So bitty?!" They snicker in unison.
The Slytherin seethes in anger. "Because unlike you I am still young you hags! Haven't you ever seen a boy before?" Draco wanted to scrub the word 'boy' off his tongue, but he doesn't know any other way to explain to these cracked-out things what he is. "I'm a pureblood wizard! From a powerful family! And I'll fry the lot of you the moment you get too close!"
Those two sets of unsettling eyes glance at each other before letting out howls of laughter making Draco clutch his wand tighter and grind his teeth.
Suddenly one of the maidens fell backwards off her perch and began crawling down the tree, her hair glittering gold trails behind her as she disappears in the shadows. Draco became alarmed at this and turned his wand on the other. The other just giggles and falls forward, snatching a branch out of the air and whisps to another tree with burning red hair blazing after her. Their voices echo around him in the dark…
"Young it says!"
"Boy it says!"
"Offspring to a manthing."
"Indeed a pretty, little kit."
"A kit!" The first female yowls as she shrugs out from behind a tree to snatch playfully at Draco. He stumbles back staring openly at her long clawed fingers. Her creepy moonlit eyes behind a veil of hair watch him fall back.
Turning to run from the dangerous maidens Draco yelps when the second one appears from another tree to reach for him.
"We know who be missin' a kit."
"Dead, gone, dumb kit." Tsked, the redhead as they chat back and forth, taunting young Malfoy.
"Didn' learn fast enough."
"Didn' learn!"
They leave the trees and crawled gracefully across the ground on their hands and feet. Their heels stretch abnormally long to support their weight and their hair whips back down their spines swishing over each nude rear as if it were a tail. Moonlit eyes glow as they corner Draco against a tree.
"Five-tail be missin' a kit."
"Sick, sad, yearning five-tail."
"She's strongest."
"Scariest."
"Flipendo!"Draco screams becoming more frantic by the second. They only leap apart letting the spell hit the ground and approach the boy more cautiously, all the while talking in their strange Broken-English.
"Made her mad we did."
"Oh sis! How we be in her grace again?"
"Bring her gift says I."
"Yes I reply!"
"Bring her kit!"
"A kit!" The fair haired one cocks her head. "But what kit?"
"A manthing kit!"
They both threw their heads back to laugh, showing Draco their crazed features. Faces stretched and pointed at the nose, their large mouths held rows of sharp teeth and large eyes swimming with pale light.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Again the spell misses, but Draco used it as a diversion to dash to the side and takes off in another run, the fiendish women hot on his heels. "HELP! HELP!"
"MA'FOY!" That horrible pronounciation came from none other then that fool Hagrid. Another call, it seems much too far away. Changing direction towards the voices belonging to the rest of the detention party Draco cares not if they're Slytherin or Gryffindor's, he just wants to be well away from this damned forest!
A bitting face jumps from out of the darkness and swaps teasingly at him. Even playfully the inhuman force strikes young Malfoy to the ground. Wicked laughter echos all about and the bellows of Hagrid in the distance are fading. Roots and branches came to life snatching at Draco's feet and wrapping quickly up his slight form. "HELP! I'M HERE! HELP ME!"
He gouges the damp earth with his fingernails and tries to kick wildly. The dirt floor below him groans and splits open dragging Draco Malfoy down into the depths of the Forbidden Forest.
~ * point of view change * ~
Harry jerks forward, sure he heard a scream. Both Ron and Hermione grab at him.
"Don't Harry!" The girl glares. "Don't run off on your own! You'll only get lost as well."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Harry demands.
"The teachers," Ron stammers. "They'll know what to do!"
The other boy rolls his eyes.
"Ron's right Harry! I'm sure they'll send out a search party for him once we tell Professor Dumbledore."
The dark haired boy looks as if he will take flight at any moment. "But what about right now? I know I heard him!"
"He's probably just running around in circles screaming his head off mate," Ron counters, not feeling up to journey back into the forest anytime soon.
Hagrid came bounding up towards them, a lantern swinging in his hand and his crossbow on a shoulder with Fang by his side. He gives a great huff, "The lil' bloke jus' took off fur'ter into the forest! Tried bellowin' for him I did, but got nuthin. Reckon I better tell the Headmaster before things get outta hand."
Hermione gives a smart nod.
"But that thing!" Harry waves frantically. "That thing, is still out there!"
"Which is why 'Arry, I better go tell Professor Dumbledore now." Hagrid tries to reason.
"What's the rush Harry?" Ron frowns not seeing the need for immediate action. "Let the git run around a bit scared, it'll do him good –OUCH! Hermione!" He rubs at his shoulder looking at the glaring girl.
"He may be a right git," Harry said, "but he still doesn't deserve being lost and alone out there."
With a sigh Hermione pats his shoulder. "Which is why we should leave this to the adults!"
"Right then, step lively!" Hagrid began leading the way back with Fang, Ron and Hermione behind him.
Harry Potter stands back, searching the darkness for any sign of the Slytherin boy. He was turning away when suddenly another shout came from the woods and without hesitation Harry whips about and sprints towards the call. His friends yell at him to stop, but he keeps going.
Over a log.
Dodging under a branch.
Skirting around a bush.
Jumping from one root to another.
Harry both fell and got his robes caught several times, but he pushed forward yelling in search of the cry he is sure he had heard. Lungs burning and feet tripping with every step Harry leans against a tree wiping sweat off his brow. He stares bleakly at his feet wondering faintly if Draco Malfoy really is okay…
A mental image of Malfoy sitting on a rock with his arms crossed came to his mind. With that stately posture the boy would lift his chin in defiance of being in Harry's presence and give some stark remark, 'What took you so long Potter?' A chuckle slips out from between Harry's lips.
He couldn't shake off the feeling that if things had been slightly different growing up… if he had started hating his own Aunt and Uncle for treating him poorly, that he could have very much turned out like the other boy. Hell, if he had just let the Sorting Hat do what it wished, Harry would have been in Slytherin. Draco Malfoy would have been his friend. His friend.
Harry shakes his head and suddenly became still when something caught his eye in the darkness. He leans down. "Lumos!"
"Oi 'ARRY!" Hagrid came over the rise and spotted him. "Blimme 'Arry! Ya gave us a scare!"
Ron and Hermione bound towards him the girl growling, "Harry I can't believe you're being so foolish! I-" and halted seeing Harry's crestfallen look.
Hagrid too, notices the boy's stiff back and slumped shoulders. "Whacha got there 'Arry?"
Harry turns towards them holding the missing boys' only protection against the Forbidden Forest. "It's Malfoy's wand…"
^w^ (End of Chapter)
Spells used:
Everte Statum- used to send an opponent flying
Flipendo- used to push or topple something
Petrificus Totalus- full body bind
Lumos- makes light come out the end of the bearer's wand
Creatures:
Kitsune/Gumiho: Fox demons that have the ability to transform into human, mainly take the shape of women to lure men into the forest. They usually eat the mens livers or play horrible tricks on them, but sometimes they even take human men as their lovers. They're known also to gain a tail every 100 years and when they reach 900 years they begin to cross over into the spiritual sense. At 1000, if they make it that far, it is thought that they become demi-gods and get their own planet. There are many didn't legends and ideas for these creatures and I urge anyone interested to learn up on them.