Disclaimer: Ok, I'm only going to write this once so please read it carefully. First people you are on fanfiction, that along should tip you off. If not, while reading this story a few things might sound similar to something you've read/seen before, (ok maybe not in the first chapter, but after that things better start clicking in your head.) If things aren't clicking, you have obviously been living under a rock for the last decade and a half. So after a decade and a half of living in the wilderness you have decided to re-join with humanity (congrats by the way!), and gone to the nearest internet café, tapped your neighbour on the shoulder and asked him to point you to a website that will get you up-to-date on what has happened in the last 15 years which he has replied by directing you to this fanfic story. I'm flattered, really, that after all this time, my story is the first contact you have had with civilisation besides my stalker next to you and the grunt you gave the waitress behind the counter, who is mentally begging you to buy something. However, I must disappoint you, you would be much better off looking for the closest physiologist, for both you and the guy next to you. So if you have reached the end of this paragraph and still have no idea of its point, here it is: I do not own the world of Harry Potter.
A howl pierced the night air. The bark of a dog quickly followed. El's head jerked up. When she had first noticed the forest south of London, she had thought it the perfected place to hide out for the two months she had provisions for. Now, after three nights in this God cursed woods, she wasn't sure.
The howl came again, made more frightening by the soft breeze that made the trees whisper and the shadows move under the full moon. El quickly made up her mind. She doused the fire, packed up her swag, an amazing invention by the Australians, and shoved everything into her pack. Scampering up the nearest tree, she decided that she would spend the rest of the night here, then walk back to the road tomorrow and hitchhike back to London.
El pulled her small handgun from her shoulder holster, after checking it was loaded and the safety was on, she slipped it back into its place, feeling safer. She then settled back and tried to sleep. But sleep would not come. The strange feelings she had been getting from the forest kept flirting through her mind. During the day she had seen spiders that were much bigger than any spider ought to be, one she swore was the size of a toddler. The first night she had woken up and saw coloured lights hovering over the embers of her fire. In the morning she had past it off as a dream, but now she wasn't so sure. And last night she could feel that she was being watched, while about a hundred metres off were a group of … somethings. They felt like humans, but some instinct inside of told her they weren't.
Suddenly, a stag thundered past.
El almost fell out of the tree getting her gun out and pointing in the direction the great animal gone. She didn't have time calm her galloping heart before another creature speed after the stag. But unlike the stag, this creature didn't run past her and off into the night. She could see the instant in which its prey had changed from the stag to her. It was halfway through the clearing that she had set up camp in, when she saw its ears prick, and it veered towards the remanent of her camp fire. It went from full pleat to a graceful walk in a couple of its long strides. After a quick sniff of the area where she had set up her swag, it lifted its head and looked straight at her. The breeze picked up and moved a tree branch, allowing the moon to shine down clearly on the creature.
She had first through it was a wolf, but no wolf could possibly be that big or have such intelligent, menacing, yellow eyes.
It howled.
The sound that spilled from its throat stilled the world around her. The gun lay forgotten in her hand. Nothing registered but the beating of her heart and that one long note.
When it stopped, El felt as though someone had thrown cold water. Jerking the gun up, she took off the safety and aimed. But before she could fire, the stag thundered into the clearing again, and with a swipe of its antlers, took out the wolf's feet. The wolf fell down in a heap, as the stag jumped gracefully over it and galloped out of the clearing again. As the wolf jumped to its feet and spun to growl at the direction that stag had gone, El hoped that the wolf would chase it instead of focusing on her, but her heart sank as it turned towards her again and began to lope forward to the base of her tree.
Suddenly it was jerked to the left and almost lost its feet again. El couldn't see what had attacked it this time until the two creatures began circling each other in a patch of moonlight. Her saviour this time a giant black dog. When she said giant, she meant that that it was big for a dog, but still didn't come close to the size of the wolf. She knew that, unless the stag came back, the dog would lose the fight as, like most large dogs, it didn't have the speed or agility the wolf possessed.
El was so concentrated on the fight that she didn't notice a rat climb up the tree and sit on a nearby branch, nor did she notice when the rat turned into a pudgy boy. So she nearly fell out of the tree for the second time that night when a voice beside her said, 'There's a girl up here! Prongs what do we do?'
As if summoned, the stag galloped into the clearing and ran straight for the wolf, making it jump back to avoid getting trampled. Then the stag, almost lazily, trotted over to the foot of El's tree, before it started shrinking. Before El could blink, a boy stood in its place, grinning up at her. 'So it is! Moony, if it's a girl you want, you know you only need to ask Rebbeca Abbot out.' The boy turned back to the fight that was still continuing between the dog and the wolf. 'Padfoot let's get Moony back to the shack and then I'll come back and take this one to the school.' The dog yipped and danced back as the wolf lunged again. The boy turned back to her and winked, 'You stay right hear luv, and I'll be back.' And with that he ran towards the fight. Midstride he started changing, he bent forward and suddenly, his hands were hooves that were pounding into the dirt. The stag/boy jumped over the wolf, knocking it on its side and raced off into the woods, with the dog following. El almost had a heart attack when she saw her two protectors run off into the woods, at least until she saw the wolf get up and race after then both.
She turned to the side just in time to see other pudgy boy turn into a rat and race down the tree and into the darkness.
Silence.
El just sat there, clinging to the tree, listening to her breath rasping through her lungs, and silence. The whole incident, from the time the stag had first run through the clearing to the time the rat had disappear, would have only taken three minutes.
After a while, she realised that she stilled had the gun clutched in her hand, safety off. With trembling hands, she put the safety back on and shoved it into the holster. Taking a deep breath, she checked that her pack was still safely stowed in the fork of the tree. Only then did she allow herself to think about what she saw.
A boy had turned into a stag. And another one had turned into a rat.
El gripped the tree, closed her eyes and concentrated on taking deep breaths. This was what she had be running from. Jay had always called it Government science experiments, but she knew that there was no way it was science that had been experimented on her. Nor would science be able to explain a boy turning into a rat a tenth of his size or into a stag that was twice his size.
El was torn. A life time of running and hiding made her instincts scream to run, to get out of here and disappear before the boy returned. These are the people who tortured you, a part of her yelled. These are the people that Jay warned you about.
But another part of her wanted answers, a deep need of understand clawed at her heart. After all, they were only boys, 15 at most. They could not have been a part of what had happened at least 12 years earlier.
But the stag boy had said something about a school, there would have to be other people at the school. Maybe they would be the ones responsible, and the boys were just more lab rats. Though she admitted that they didn't exactly look like people who had been experimented on against their will, other than the fact they turned into animals.
She was still leaning against the tree taking deep breaths. She needed to make a decision and fast. She didn't know how far away the shack was or how long it would take the stag boy to get back.
What would Jay do? Would she be dishonouring his memory by not listening to his advice when she had finally found the proof that his conspiracy theories were right? But then again he had always said she would need knowledge if she wanted to survive. Going with the boy would give her knowledge.
But how would she explain being in the forest? Camping, she decided, and her thoughts turned to her explanation of her being here. And without making a conscious decision she knew that she would stay and wait for the boy.
A/N: In an effort to encourage reviewers I have decided to ask a question at the end of each chapter. So the question for this chapter is: Does anybody know what year would it have been when the Marauders where in the 4th year? I'm only going say this once because I don't want to seem pushy, but please review, this is my first story and without reviews I will shrivel up and die, (or more likely stop putting up stories and go back to doing maths). Also constructive criticism is welcome!
Also as this is my first story in not sure about rating or genre, any help with this would be more than welcome. And I don't like the title either, so again, any ideas would really help. Thanks!
Flynn