Beta Love: The Dragon and the Rose, Dutchgirl01, Flyby Commander Shepard, and the Wayward Crazy Mishka
Trigger Warning: Scene of abuse within, sorry.
Feather, Beak and Claw
Chapter Four
Another AU Crackfic by Corvus Draconis
A gift for The Dragon and the Rose
Life and death are illusions. We are in a constant state of transformation.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Two happy gryphlets blazed a crazy trail through the woods, leaves and snow flying in all directions as they played together, chasing each other's tails as they pushed towards a mutual destination. They chirred and chirped and made a rollicking fracas only to bounce and pounce each other in play. Their bodies glowed, shifting into a larger, more mature form only to return again to the smaller body.
Suddenly they skidded to a halt, sniffing the air. Then they took off together full tilt, for once preferring the thrill of the chase on the ground to the freedom of flight.
Chirrp?
Chrriirrirr!
They bounce-pounced along until they reached a small clearing in the woods, or at least what might have been one before it became completely overgrown. The two gryphlets clacked their beaks together before staring up at what looked like an old tree that had fallen over a ramshackle house. The roof was badly damaged and plants were growing in and out of the house's remains. The wall was somewhat erect, but there were large pieces missing. The window was open with rusty hinged shutters that were hanging by a thread.
The gryphlets sniffed the air and warble-growled to each other. Slowly they walked towards the building, cautiously padding through the snow and leaves. The surrounding conifers littered the forest floor with a dense layer of needles, and they pair seemed terribly suspicious.
Severus picked up a pinecone and chucked it with his beak, and a log swung down from higher up in front of them.
The gryphlets exchanged nervous chirrs, neither wanting to end up in a situation where their father would have to rescue them while they were out on their very first combined mission.
Ari stood stiffly, her body glowing. Then her long tail lashed, and a powerful gust of wind blasted through the clearing, blowing away the ground cover, leaves, branches, snow, and loose stones out of the area, instantly creating a clear path to the shelter.
Severus eyed her, tail lashing. Show off.
The golden gryphlet nuzzled him in response. You could do it too.
I think you did overkill, he said, chirping.
They continued to skulk along, their bellies close to the ground, and then jumped a few feet into the air as a black blur of fur and feathers zoomed over their heads and slammed straight into the fallen tree trunk with a loud thump.
Regulus lay unconscious on the cold ground, having slightly misjudged his rapid descent through the forest canopy.
The two gryphlets crept up to him at a faster pace, still not sure if any falling logs were waiting for them. They nuzzled and nosed him, checking to make sure he was still breathing.
Severus sighed.
Even when we do our best to keep him out of danger, he never fails to find and fly face first right into it, the bloody idiot, Severus muttered, smacking Regulus soundly upside the head with his front talons.
When Regulus still didn't rouse, Ffraid hopped out of Ari's neck feathers wielding a small silver bucket and splashed Regulus square in the face with ice-cold water.
Regulus sputtered awake.
"Gah!"
Regulus moaned, shivering now in his human form, unable to maintain his Animagus form.
Severus changed into his human form, taking Regulus by the collar. "Are you incapable of staying out of trouble, brother?"
Ari pecked Regulus sternly on the stomach.
"I saw you both leave. What else was I supposed to do?"
"Stay in bed where you belong."
Regulus pouted.
"Oh, don't think that pouty lip is going to get you out of this one. Did our Lord Father not tell you to study for your exam?"
"Come on, Severus! You can't seriously expect me to stay sequestered with books when you and Ari are sneaking out on some clandestine mission!"
"Yes," Severus said, his eyes narrowing.
CHIRRRSK!
The golden gryphlet pegged Regulus squarely on the rump.
"Ow!"
"As your elder brother, your safety is a great concern. As your friend, doubly so."
"Really? You're going to pull that card with me after all we've been through?" Regulus scowled.
Severus wrinkled his nose. "I know our Lord Father. So, too, do you."
Regulus flinched.
"Father is likely to plaster you to the ceiling to teach you humility and then use a permanent sticking charm to keep you from just shifting and flying away."
Regulus twitched.
Ffraid glowered at Regulus with all of her multiple eyes. "Want me to tie him up?"
Regulus eyed the spider with comically wide eyes.
Severus sighed. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't bind you to this log and leave you here for Father to pick up?"
Regulus gave him the best appeasement expression he could muster, resembling a wide-eyed kitten of pure adorableness.
Artemis tapped her talons, her leonine tail lashing back and forth with jerky movements. She snubbed Regulus, turning her beak up at him like a cat who had been left alone for a week only to have their owner come back from vacation smelling of far off places and strange cats. She padded into the shelter, making odd chittering noises.
"Come on, brother. I'm already here."
"No, stay here."
"But if you'd just tell me what you're looking for—"
"No, Regulus!" Severus' face was stern. "Stay here, or so help me Merlin I will make a potion that gives you mange and causes you to perpetually molt for the next fifty years."
Regulus sighed, slumping. "Fine."
He sat with his back to the log and grunted, crossing his arms petulantly.
Severus walked into the shelter, narrowing his eyes as he saw the remnants of a life abandoned. Broken bowls, rusted ironware, tattered bits of cloth— all of it seemed like the life of the family that had lived there had been frozen in place to decay and molder forever.
A skeleton sat in a chair, having been preserved in place by time's neglect.
"He or she—was murdered," Severus said finally, his face grim.
Ari sniffed the air and seemed to sigh. Her tail swished back and forth.
Severus looked around, reaching out his hand to feel the energy of the room. For a moment, his hand was nothing but bone, the finger bones reaching out in a fan as a fire ignited in his eyes.
"You're right. There is something still here."
Artemis chirred. The end of her tail was a tuft of flame that glowed different colours before settling on green. She flicked her tail, and flame went zipping out in different directions. The flame, however, didn't burn. Instead, it sank into the old floor and caused it to glow where old footprints once were. Footprints, handprints—traces of life before death—glowed all around them.
Ari bonked against his leg, tail twitching.
"You're right, of course. It would make things much easier."
Severus cracked his neck, and the sound seemed to echo in multiple joints. Flesh gave way to bone as his skull-face emerged, elongating into the shape of an eagle as flames flickered in their sockets. His fingers seemed to elongate, taking on the shape of talon-like extensions. His breath came in wisps of frozen air. Artemis leapt into his arms and perched on his shoulder, her body completely skeletal but for the flames in her eye sockets.
She leapt up into the air and her body shuddered as a wave of cold signalled the transformation of her body, and she became his instrument. The glint of shine of metal came only a moment before Severus' bone-hands grasped the scythe and cut the air as a blast of magic blew outward.
"I finally found a use for your trinket, Grandfather," a young wizard said, his dark brown eyes seemingly far too dead for the living. "A far better use than sitting on your withered, disgusting hand."
The wizard's lip curled up cruelly, even though his face showed very little true emotion. He held up a ring between his fingers. "I've found a use for you too."
There was a flash of powerful magic as the wizard pulled out his wand and pointed at the withered corpse of his grandfather and seemed to suck out something from the body.
A soul or some remnant of life, screamed as it was torn from the body it haunted and was bound to the ring. The wizard smiled as he twisted the energy into a Dark curse. "May all who attempt to put on this ring suffer as you— withered and destroyed by your betters."
The wizard took the ring and placed it in the stone wall of the building, using magic to space it in the very stone itself and even more to cover it with wall mortar.
The glow faded along with the vision, and the once complete wall faded to the jagged remains caused by the fallen tree.
Foop!
Two gryphlets picked amongst the stones together, single-mindedly focused on finding the one stone that mattered: the stone that held another stone.
They piled up the stones they had checked to keep them straight, realising that the wizard hadn't put things in stones only that once. Dead animals, objects, seemingly random things were set inside almost every stone in that wall in a disturbingly macabre graveyard—a practice ground for some greater purpose.
It wasn't that they were looking for one stone that contained something; they were trying to find a stone with something in it surrounded by stones with a horrid variety of even more things encased in them. As they perched on top of the broken wall, attempting to focus on finding the stone they truly needed, they saw Regulus reaching out to pick up a nearby rock.
The gryphlets launched toward him together, but Artemis was more used to her form. She shot toward Regulus with a shrill screech—
But Regulus' fingers were reaching out—
"NO!"
Regulus' head suddenly jerked up as a bushy-haired witch made a quick gesture with her fingers. "STUPEFY!"
Feathers flew out from her hair as her hand reached out and then jerked back in a clench. She drew it across her chest and then drew it across her body and flicked her hand like she was shaking water free from wet hands.
Regulus went flying away from the rock he was going to touch. Severus rose up in his humanoid form, his arms wrapping around Regulus as he skidded to a halt. He slowly lowered Regulus to the ground, propping him up against a sturdy tree.
"Your curiosity will surely be the death of me—" Severus sighed deeply. "If I could, at least." He scowled down at his now-unconscious brother, shaking his head.
The witch stood tall as she straightened her slender shoulders. She removed the mask from her face to expose a young human face. She took in a deep breath, her hazel eyes flickering with golden fire.
"Such a bother," she murmured.
She blew an errant curl out of her face.
"Brothers. I never thought I'd have them. Tch."
She winced as she rubbed her shoulder. She slowly stretched her neck out, bones popping as they went into line.
"Artemis," Severus touched her head. Her pointed gryphon ears twitched in her curls.
She smiled up at him and then closed her eyes. Severus joined her as a dark mist began to trickle up from the earth. It swirled and materialised into the skull-faced spectre of Death.
"Hello, my daughter, my son," Death said warmly.
"Father," they chimed together.
Death's gaze drifted over to where Regulus was passed out cold against a nearby tree, and his skull shook slowly back and forth as he brought two fingers to the bridge of his nasal bone. "Kids… I suppose I should count myself fortunate that you two are not blundering dunderheads, hrm?"
He let out a sigh, a large cloud of vapour expelling into a cloud shaped like a skull and crossbones. "I cannot even blame adoption for him," he said with a low chuckle.
Ari and Severus exchanged glances.
Death touched their heads, a rush of warmth rushing through them. "Orion is a construct—a human guise. Mortal. Regulus need not worry that one day he will wake up with a very complicated legacy. That is my gift to him. He can be whatever he wishes to be, but he need not have to be. You two chose either in deed or will or both. My protection of him lies in the love of Orion for his children and his family. Humans have such a great capacity to perform amazing feats of emotion, devotion, and bravery, but most do not think much beyond themselves—they are selfish, self-serving. This is something common to all species out of a basic drive to preserve itself."
"I give him free will and free choice, free of the heavy yoke of immortality, for so few understand the price that such things bring. To wish for immortality with no limitations is to court something infinitely worse than death itself."
Death picked up the rock from where they had left it, the imprint of their marking magic and the pull of his lost stone making for a distinctive, unique signature. His hand clenched and crushed the stone surrounding his stone, and the ring then there lay in his skeletal palm.
"Ahh, Tom. This is not the only object you have tainted with a shard of your shattered soul, attempting to cheat the balances of the world." The golden ring melted in his hand, leaving only an innocuous-looking black stone.
"I could not seek out the stone myself for there are rules that even I must follow. I have never been human, you see. Only one who was, and I did take that literally in this case, human could bring the stone to my attention."
"Are you squirming, Tom? Sitting on your imagined throne, twisting words, setting dog against dog in the hopes of scraps. Are you frantically casting spells in the hopes that one of them keeps you from the fate you thought yourself protected of? Or are you so arrogant that you think I cannot see all the things you have hidden away?
Death blew lightly on the stone that had been used as a family heirloom for untold years. "Writhe in agony, Tom, for as I take back what is truly mine— all things connected to it shall become—"
The stone began to turn bright orange with incandescent heat, becoming molten as a cloud of soul taint escaped.
"Dust," Death said with a clear finality.
Severus rose up as Hermione leapt into the air, transforming into the long-bladed tool of office. His skeletal hands wrapped around the shaft of the scythe as his face turned into an eagle skull as his beak opened and he screeeeeeeched defiance. The blade slashed cleanly through the cloud of soulmatter, and the purification of the act blasted outwards, tossing the trees back and forth enough to shake all the snow off the branches.
The cloud of blackened, tainted soul shrieked in rage as the shape of a screaming face formed and then quickly dissipated like fog burned away by the sun.
Death's flame-eyes flickered as the stone reformed in his hand.
Severus and Artemis put their bone-hands together over the stone, and it exploded in a blast of super-frozen air chased by a cleansing fire. The Horcrux, unable to anchor the soul fragment with the stone destroyed, was immediately consumed by ice and fire.
Tom's soul fragment began to resonate, vibrating wildly. Fire consumed what was frozen and seemed to extend tendrils in various directions, chaining off like the forks of lightning. The flash of the answering fragments that had once been connected to the one in Death's palm burst into flames—freeing the fragments from their housings and purifying the objects.
"Free the soul unwillingly enslaved." Death closed his hands around where the stone had been.
"Merge the souls purposely broken." Artemis added her other hand.
"Send the souls to their final judgement," Severus intoned, closing his hands over their combined hands.
The combined scream of Tom, the screams of those who served him willingly, and the sighs of relief of those forced to serve rang out together. Visions showed them further the justice they had carved out. Flames consumed a leatherbound book. A vault deep within Gringotts was consumed in flames. In a dark, unknown place, surrounded in other objects, a forgotten locket opened and burst into purifying flames as the soul fragment was forcibly evicted and pulled back to the original soul.
As their hands parted, Severus and Artemis transformed back into the black and gold gryphlets. Death cradled them to his body, placing kisses upon their foreheads.
"Do take Regulus back to Hogwarts and tell him to expect Orion's letter of reprimand for disobeying his direct orders."
The gryphlets chirred, snuggled up to their father, and then zipped over to Regulus' body. They sank their talons and claws into him, lifting him up with powerful beats of their wings, and carted him off back to Hogwarts.
Death watched his children leave, shaking his head.
"If he's lucky, Orion Black won't string him up by his ankles and make him chant the entire family tree." Death's skull face twisted into a smug, eerie smile. "If he's really lucky, his siblings won't make him do it for them before the letter even arrives."
Inexplicable Coma Epidemic Spreads Across Britain
The last week has seen the alarming appearance of a number of unexplained comas across the whole of Great Britain. Various families have brought in family members who have simply not woken up or else suddenly collapsed with no warning or explanation whatsoever. The only thing these patients seem to have in common is the tattoo of a skull and serpent on their left forearms.
An unidentified wizard was brought in, whose body was horribly disfigured, perhaps by an extreme transfiguration mishap. His eyes were blood red, and his face allegedly looked more snakelike than human. Magical tracing spells have been in progress for days, but most results have pointed to the identity of one Tom Marvolo Riddle, a former head boy of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, resident of London, and former employee of Borgin and Burkes.
While the Wizengamot has yet to rule on the matter, Mr Tom Riddle has been charged with being none other than the self-declared Dark Lord Voldemort. If it is confirmed that he has been at the root of a number of crimes ranging from murder, assault, intimidation, bribery, coercion, to theft, his sentence will most likely start and end in Azkaban.
As for whether he will serve it in his current condition, which seems to be remarkably similar to a Dementor Kiss-like state, or in future should his condition improve, that has yet to be determined.
As for the other victims of the inexplicable coma, we are advising families to perform a prompt wellness check on all of their family members to make certain that some of their number have not been afflicted by this most baffling and inexplicable affliction.
James looked up from his study desk, his mind drifting back to the time when he could study with his peers and friends. Those days seemed so far away now—lost in a time when he seemed much younger and, well, infinitely more stupid.
It didn't feel like years had passed since that first day on the Hogwarts Express. It didn't feel like a Dark Lord had risen and fallen while he was still in school, even if he was now being homeschooled by his parents with a tutor coming every day to ensure he had all his course topics covered adequately.
He was doing well enough in his classes, but he didn't really feel all that inspired without friends around to encourage him or at least compete with. Life was—
Bloody boring, to be perfectly honest.
His one-time fellow students had already sat their N.E.W.T.s and gone off into the real world to find their destiny, but his tutor said that he wasn't ready yet.
"I don't feel that James is prepared for the adult world just yet," the wizened crone had informed his parents over tea. "He does passable work, mind, but the boy doesn't seem to be all that inspired. I don't feel comfortable releasing him to sit his N.E.W.T.s without that internal spark to succeed."
His parents, damn them, had agreed completely with her assessment of him. Every time he tried to muster up enough gumption to actually care, however, he just fell back into a rut of total apathy.
His parents hadn't returned home in several hours though, and at first he was grateful for the unexpected reprieve from their near-constant attendance of late. As the time grew ever later, however, James began to worry. The later it got, the more his worry deepened until he found himself in an absolute panic.
His parents just didn't stay out that long, let alone late at night. They were terribly habitual. They both had quirks that made them every bit as regular as clockwork. They were so punctual that he hadn't even thought to leave the house and take advantage of their conveniently being gone.
There had been a time, a time that felt like forever ago, that he'd have been out the door, window, or Floo the very moment his parents lost track of him. His parents' failure to return this time, however, truly troubled him.
They just went to the healer to see about a bothersome cold, he chided himself.
This morning.
James wished he'd paid more attention to the Patronus lessons. His tutor had said it was very complex magic, and that would have been something he'd take as a personal challenge at one time in his life. Being away from Hogwarts and without random people to outdo, however, had stolen away his gumption.
When he thought about it, he realised that he had always relied on others to inspire him to do better, even if that was entirely selfish in his desire to be better than them. His relentless persecution of Snivellus, as bad as it had been, had been utterly inspired. It drove him. It molded him to be better—
He wondered what the hell the sodding Slytherin git was up to now.
James stood up and stormed over to the Floo. He grabbed a handful of green Floo powder and threw it down. "Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
The green flames consumed him and carried him away.
"How long have your parents been gone, Mr Potter?"
"Only most of today, but you have to understand, sir. They are like a ruddy Tempus charm. They are always, always punctual. They would have been home for lunch as usual if nothing was wrong. And they're never out late, ever. They were supposed to go to Mungo's to get checked out by a healer. They had both complained of having this kind of heavy feeling in the last week. I'm telling you, something is seriously wrong."
"Miss Evans, could you please handle Mr Potter's case and get all the particulars?" the elder Auror asked. "Most of our regulars are helping out the French Aurors who are stretched pretty thin right now trying to contain a rampaging Nundu that some idiot was keeping in his residence to supposedly guard his library."
"Sure, boss," a familiar-looking redhead said, walking over to them. Her eyes widened as she saw James standing there looking worried. "This way please, Mr Potter."
Lily took a scroll and unrolled it, picking up a quill and starting to write. "When did you last see your parents, Mr Potter?"
"It's James, Lily," James said quietly.
The young witch sighed. "I remember. But this isn't about you, Mr Potter, it's about your parents. Please remember that and let's try to keep this professional, okay?"
For a few minutes, all Lily did was ask questions and take down information. She sent off a few quick owls, some to Mungos and some to other places James didn't recognise. The owls in the DMLE seemed quite eager to fly, zipping out of the offices so fast that they ruffled the hair of passersby in their wake.
"I sent a few inquiries out to see if we can get some confirmation if they have been admitted, which is the one logical reason why they wouldn't have come home after visiting." Lily frowned as her writing quill leapt out of her hand and zoomed away, giggling like a young girl.
"MURPHY!" Lily yelled.
No one answered her, but Lily didn't seem to be all that surprised by that. She blew a long strand of hair out of her face.
"Now we wait for the replies before we make any hasty assumptions," Lily said with a sigh. "Would you like some tea?"
"Please."
Lily walked over to where an enchanted teapot perpetually kept the water at the perfect tea-brewing temperature. She poured the water into a second pot and brought it over with a pair of mugs, pouring tea for James and herself before setting down a tray with sugar, milk and a small tin of biscuits between them.
"Department of Magical Law Enforcement? I never saw you as a wannabe Auror," James said curiously, sipping gratefully at his tea.
"I'm what they call a junior caseworker. I don't go out in the field and wrestle bears in the woods or duel Dark wizards in Knockturn Alley." Lily looked thoughtful. "I help keep the cases organised so we can assign the best people to each case, and filter out the ones that do not require immediate Auror attention."
"Rescuing Kneazles stuck in trees?"
"Kneazles are far too intelligent to not have a secondary escape plan."
James snorted softly. "As you say."
"Oi, make way for the new acquisition!" a voice boomed. "Clear a path!"
Lily and James turned to see a flood of French Aurors pushing through as two dark-clad masters walked in. One had a shrunken thunderbird on his shoulder, while the other was walking in with a Nundu at his side. He lay one hand behind the great cat's ear, the universal signal for "this one is under control".
Behind them trotted the largest Nundu he'd ever heard of—so large he almost hit his head on the ceiling—carrying two wriggling gryphlets in his mouth right behind his elongated canines.
The gryphlets, one black and one gold, seemed somewhat beside themselves at having been kept from their mischief.
"Sodding Blacks got themselves adopted again," Savage guffawed from his desk as he began to fill out forms. Proudfoot, who sat down at his desk nearby and pulled out parchments to fill out, grunted. "Who gets to explain to France?"
"Not me," Savage said, tapping the side of his nose with a long finger.
The extra-large Nundu with a secondary helping of huge mrowled and lay down on the head Auror's desk—which basically meant he engulfed the entire office, leaving only his tail sticking out the door.
"SAVAGE! PROUDFOOT!" a voice bellowed, slightly muffled by fur. "WHY IS THERE A BLOODY NUNDU IN MY OFFICE?!"
"You said to put the evidence of our results on your desk, boss!"
"KINGSLEY! STOP PETTING THAT NUNDU THIS INSTANT!"
Thump.
A large paw wrangled Kingsley and pulled him closer into a feline cuddle as he attempted to remove his hair, hat, and half his body hair with his tongue.
"Animal magnetism," Savage said with a straight face.
The two dark-clad masters chuckled. The smaller Nundu playfully pawed at the larger's tail, amusing herself.
Master Shadowstalker pet the Nundu's head and smiled. "Now you won't be so lonely, eh, Cadbury?"
"Mrrrrl!" the smaller Nundu said, smaller being relative considering she was easily the size of a shire horse.
"I'm just glad you can shrink down to size, Marahute," Cloudsinger said, leaning against the wall of the office as he dodged the swipes of the Nundu tail sticking out of Senior Auror Briscoe's office.
"Ssssssshhirheee!" the thunderbird replied, bobbing her head in fervent agreement.
Auror Briscoe pushed his way out of his office, his somewhat silvered dark hair sporting a rather impressive Nundu-styled cowlick. His bushy eyebrows furrowed as he attempted to adjust his tie. He tried in vain to look authoritative, but his broad smile made his eyes half-disappear as the corners of his mouth quirked upwards.
"I swear the lot of you would be fired if you weren't just that good at your jobs."
The Aurors chuckled as he waved them off.
"Good work, I'll debrief the French lot as soon as we get a translator. Their English is awful when they're this excited, and their French is practically a hundred miles a minute."
"Kingsley!"
"Yeah, boss?"
"Register this Nundu as the Black family's new familiar."
"Which Black, boss?"
"Yes," Briscoe answered, storming off down a hallway.
Kingsley wriggled, earning himself another playful paw swat and thorough grooming by Nundu.
"A little help here?"
The other Aurors ignored him on purpose, looking as busy as humanly possible.
"Who says Nundus are mindless killer beasts?" Cloudsinger said, nudging his partner.
Shadowstalker snorted.
"Cadbury and I have been trying to tell people that Nundus are not sodding dunderheads. They react in kind to whatever they are given."
Mrowl!
Cadbury thumped Shadowstalker over and proceeded to groom him, Nundu style.
"Good timing. You stink, Softfoot."
"Shut it, Windsong."
Regulus Black walked in from the floo, still dressed in his Hogwarts uniform. "Aww, why do I always miss all the FUN?"
Two gryphlets made a beeline towards Regulus, all mischief in their eyes and beaks.
"Oh, gods, NO!" Regulus cried as he was bowled over by gryphlets, supine and with arms twitching spasmodically.
The great Nundu squeezed out of the small office and, in the manner of felines of all natures everywhere, flowed like a liquid out from the door before bounding over to double-pounce the already pounced one.
"Hhhgggkkk!" Regulus croaked, all but smothered by the massive beast.
Savage handed Proudfoot a galleon.
"You win again."
Regulus wheezed. "Hate you so much, Savage!"
"You love me, really," the Auror bantered back, grinning madly.
Marahute cheekily whistled You're In My Heart by Rod Stewart, batting her eyelashes flirtatiously.
A sleek black cat with a small white bib on her throat jumped into Savage's lap and purred luxuriously, commandeering his lap-front property as her own as normality once again descended upon the DMLE.
James was staring.
The wait for a response from Mungo's hadn't even had long enough to be maddening when complete madness had waltzed through the front door of the DMLE in the shape of a terrifying giant disease-breathing feline from Hades.
Make that two terrifying giant disease-breathing felines from Hades.
James was not oblivious to the fact that the two beasts were sodding Nundu, the infamous takes-100-wizards-to-defeat-one-feline of Wizarding infamy. The huge—even more 'larger than life' than he expected—Nundu had come in carrying two young gryphlets in its mouth. Its head touched the ceiling. Merlin's fingernails, the smaller one was the size of the largest horse he'd ever seen.
Gods.
How?
How was this even a thing?
And how was everyone so sodding calm about it?
Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt, a man who commanded a dignity of the quiet sort, walked so very calmly up to the giant feline, and with a few pets and a determined shove, had moved the beast over enough to unpin the wizard underneath. It was obvious he wasn't really concerned, so the beast seemed unconcerned, calmly allowing the wizard to move him around as he wished.
"Could you please put our beloved apprentices down, my very large friend?" Kingsley asked in a soft tone.
The Nundu appeared to ponder the request and then gently placed the two gryphlets down on the nearby desk. The two poofed out almost instantly, their fur and feathers appearing extra fluffy.
The Auror gave the two gryphlets an affectionate pat, obviously knowing them both well enough not to think his hand was in danger of being snapped off and used for a chew toy.
"I heard you rescued a Muggle lost in the forest out in Leicestershire," Kings said with mild curiosity.
Cloudsinger and Shadowstalker grunted in assent. "They did quite well, as they always do," the two masters said together.
Kings chuckled.
"Overachievers."
He helped Regulus up. "Homework done, I hope? I cannot release you to help around here unless those two are quite satisfied."
Cloudsinger and Shadowstalker gave Regulus extra stern versions of "the look" known to all adolescents everywhere.
Regulus bowed politely, brushing the loose fur and feathers off his robes. "Yes, I completed my studies for the day."
"Our homework done?" Cloudsinger asked. His eyes were the colour of skies. One was the colour of threatening storm clouds, but the other the crystalline blue of the high atmosphere.
"Yes, save for the one question on what is the best method for searching for a Muggle without revealing the use of magic around other Muggles."
"That was the challenge question, yes," Shadowstalker said. "This is why Amelia has us work with Aurors. It helps that we can group together to search, often keeping to our own, which helps shield us from any potential breaches in the Statute of Secrecy."
Regulus frowned. "Oh, I'm such an idiot. We have glamours for the Animagus forms."
The two gryphlets on the nearby desk made simultaneous sighs.
Regulus glowered at them.
"Hey! No fair. You two share a mind."
Cloudsinger laughed. "Yes, but you are a bit of a strange case, lad. I guarantee you that an overgrown house cat flying through the air without wings will still attract a certain amount of scrutiny."
Regulus pouted, pointing at the lounging gryphlets. "That's hardly fair. They get a full glamour."
"You'll have one eventually, but since you haven't perfected Disillusionment yet, you must consider these things until you can."
Regulus sighed. "It's a hard spell. Just when I think I have it, I get the itch to chase something and the spell breaks."
"True Disillusionment requires focus, young Regulus. The gryphlets have a natural cloaking about themselves, but you are a jaguar, which relies on natural stealth and blending in, which is a different, more physical skill."
Cloudsinger smiled.
"You will get it, eventually. Just keep practicing."
Regulus rubbed his head and stood up. "Thank you, masters."
"Masters Cloudsinger, Shadowstalker," Lily said, walking up to them. "I have a situation that requires a tracker."
The two dark-clad wizards eyed Lily with surprise.
"Oh?"
Marahute peered at Lily, beak open in a silent hiss.
Cloudsinger clamped the thunderbird's beak closed.
"Rude."
The thunderbird hung her head in shame.
Mrrl?
Cadbury thumped her head into Shadowstalker's side, almost toppling him over.
Lily bowed slightly. "Mr Potter's parents have disappeared. It is quite unlike them to not return without notice, let alone not return at all. St Mungo's said they were due to come in for a checkup this morning, but they never showed up. They were feeling under the weather, but we have no other information short of their being missing. Our other trackers are currently assigned elsewhere. If you could spare the time—?"
Shadowstalker shrugged.
"Do you have something of theirs they have both touched often?"
The mop-haired wizard came up beside Lily. "No, but I can take you to our home where everything has been touched by them."
Cloudsinger nodded. "That will do."
"Severus, Artemis, Regulus," Shadowstalker said. "Apparate behind our trails. Mr Potter, you can side-along, yes?"
James looked down, visibly embarrassed. "No, sir."
The two masters did not flinch, but their gaze was piercing. "Floo then?"
James nodded.
Shadowstalker placed a hand on the gryphlet's heads, rubbing. "Trace us after we floo over. This will be good practice for you, and a good way to break in our new, larger friend, yes?"
The gryphlets pressed their beaks to his palm, memorizing his magical signature and chirred.
The two masters herded James in front of them to the hearth.
"We'll take the case, Miss Evans," Cloudsinger said.
"Thank you," Lily said, unable to resist bowing yet again.
Shadowstalker and Cloudsinger exchanged glances. "We will be busy locking down the residence. If you wish to assist by making a record of the report while we are there, you may. Otherwise our report may be delayed depending on what is being done."
Lily looked towards her boss at his desk.
"Go," Pepperwort said, waving a hand dismissively. "That lot only has to report to Amelia, so we'll get nothing if you don't go."
Lily, looking a bit intimidated as the giant Nundu padded by to join the relatively tiny gryphlets, nodded shyly. "Yes, ma'am."
Toussaint scooped up the gryphlets in his mouth and padded toward the atrium, deciding that he wanted more room to sprawl out while they waited. The gryphlets chirred, wriggling in protest, but it was markedly half-hearted at best.
"Touch nothing," Kingsley ordered them sternly. His demeanor was relaxed, but he had that tone in his voice that brokered no exceptions.
Lily nodded and followed after the others.
"Miss Evans, you will side-along with me," Shadowstalker said.
"In the Floo?!" Lily squeaked.
Shadowstalker's smile was just a hair's breadth away from sadistic glee. "Yes."
Cloudsinger took the floo with James as Shadowstalker grabbed Lily's arm and jerked her close when she dragged her feet.
Cadbury eyed the witch suspiciously as the crack of their Disapparate carried them off.
Crack!
CrackaCRACK!
The trio and the newest member of their ever-growing band of mischief makers disappeared as they trace-apparated to their masters' trail.
Perhaps, Regulus thought as they ended at the Potter residence, James Potter hadn't heard their masters calling them all by name.
Perhaps—
But it was obvious that when Severus rose up from his gryphlet form in the foyer of his parent's home that James Potter was not happy. Even when Severus went back into his Animagus form, James continued to glare daggers.
Maybe it was because his parents were missing. That would be distressing enough for anyone.
If by some strange twist of fate Orion or Walburga Black just up and walked off, never to return, Regulus knew he'd be a total wreck.
Hell, if Severus or Artemis hadn't come back when they were supposed to, he'd be climbing the walls to find them.
James was glowering darkly at Severus as he stood calmly awaiting orders from their masters. No one of their crew was stupid enough to move before Cloudsinger and Shadowstalker said to go. They were very thorough in doing the preliminary scans to make sure the area was safe for both their apprentices and their beast partners.
Toussaint, despite being the newest of the group, seemed perfectly mellow now that he had a real bond to the Black family. Orion had often regaled them with stories of the Old Ways, when Wizarding families had a "hearthbeast" or a "heartbeast" which became the center of the family, serving as both companion and protector. The problem, his father had said, was when wizarding folk treated the beasts as servants or mere trained animals.
While that was never an issue in the Black household—hell, they even left out cream on the mantle for wandering Silkies—Cygnus' side of the family hadn't had good relations with beasts, fae, or magical folk in centuries. The only reason the house elves were still with them was because they were bound to the family from hundreds of years previous.
While Regulus suspected the Nundu was well and truly bound to either Severus or Artemis (could gryphons have familiars?), he wasn't really sure which of them was the main bondee.
Maybe, he thought, it really didn't matter. They were so tightly bound that anything one had the other shared. Toussaint seemed quite willing to have shared custody as long as someone was there to rub his belly and that spot right under his chin.
Who would believe that?
Well, other than their masters, who knew better.
Okay, and his father.
Alright, and his mother too.
Toussaint was giving the gryphlets an extra-intensive grooming session, apparently unsatisfied with their present level of floofiness. One swipe of the tongue practically bowled the two gryphlets over. Severus now had a mohawk of feathers on top of his head, and Ari had a crest of fur going down her back like the fin of a dimetrodon.
Lily Evans was obviously nervous around the beasts, but as the black gryphlet rolled over and smoothly rose up into Severus' distinctive human form, her eyes went very wide and she swallowed hard.
Ari chirred and bounced-jingled around his feet.
"Patience, love," Severus said softly.
The gryphlet seemed to mutter to herself as she head-bonked into the back of his knee, tackled his dragonhide boots, and mauled them like they had personally offended her.
Severus crossed his arms across his chest, his expression wrinkling slightly as he rubbed his nose, but he allowed her to take her frisky feline energy out on his innocent footwear.
"Tch," he said, grunting.
James continued to stare and scowl at Severus from across the room.
Toussaint stood up, calmly walked over to the other side of the room, and unceremoniously sat on James.
Lily gasped. "Oh my g— do something, Sev!"
Severus lifted his hands. "Oh no," he said, utterly deadpan.
Kingsley, who had watched the entire deal, walked over and loved on the Nundu's head, rubbing his velvety ears. He then took out a big smelly fish from nowhere (was that a trans-dimensional pocket?) and walked him back over to the other side of the house. "There now, my very large friend. I know you think that such stares are a direct challenge, but he's just a silly human boy and he really doesn't know any better."
Toussaint munched on the tasty fish, fastidiously licking his teeth and then grooming Kingsley's face while administering undiluted fish breath directly to his nasal passages.
"Mfff," Kings grunted, shoving the Nundu's face to the side.
Mrrl, the giant feline replied, going back to grooming Kings.
The two masters came down the staircase, raising eyebrows as Cadbury pounced Toussaint, and the pair tussled and flopped on each other in the middle of the entryway, clogging the arteries.
Lily, who was taking a fastidious care to not look either large cat in the face, tried to look up and yet not look at the felines at the same time with limited success.
"Apprentices. You may check the grounds. Report what you find after making two passes. If you feel any uncertainty, make three passes. Any questions?"
"No, master," Severus and Regulus chimed.
"Artemis?"
The gryphlet lashed her tail back and forth and chirped definitively.
"Toussaint?"
Mrowl. The Nundu yawned, showing all his teeth and the ridges on his tongue.
"Alright, go."
The apprentices and the beasts began their scans of the house, disappearing both upstairs and down.
"All levels are clear," Cloudsinger said, rubbing Marahute's chest feathers. "Attic has three grade one artefacts. Second floor has fifty-two portraits of a magical nature."
"Second floor has twenty-two magical enchantments, all domestic," Shadowstalker said. "Twelve house-elves in residence. Three of them are incapable of working. The living quarters are on the first floor, with one master bedroom and bath—"
"Why are you letting bloody Snivellus paw through my family's things?! James finally blurted out, anger rising before reason.
Cloudsinger and Shadowstalker turned slowly to face James, their faces set like stone. Cadbury puffed out a small trail of blackish-green breath.
"Idiot!" Kingsley yelled as he gave James a flying tackle and put up a barrier. The small cloud of virulent disease hit the barrier and fizzled as a flash of light quickly neutralised it.
Cadbury bounded over and head-bonked the barrier, mrowling unhappily.
Kingsley let the barrier drop and kneaded the Nundu's cheeks with his hands. "You've gotten bigger, my Lady."
Mrorrrrl!
The Nundu thumped Kingsley down and used him as her personal pillow, looking quite satisfied with herself.
"Argh!"
Cadbury then gave him a very thorough re-grooming.
"Mr Potter, I highly recommend, if you don't want a face full of virulent disease, that you keep your hateful comments to yourself. In fact, it would be best if you kept any negative emotion at all out of the picture while in the presence of the Nundus or the Thunderbird."
KRRzzzRRRRIIITTTTTSSS!
The Thunderbird crackled and sent a spark of lightning towards James, but Cloudsinger seemingly grabbed ahold of the bolt, taking it into himself and grounding it out with nary a change in expression.
"Why are you sending them through my parents' house? My house!?"
"They are our apprentices. It is our job to secure the scene, and theirs to confirm what we have already seen," Shadowstalker said. "Would you have apprentices just guess and stumble on some trap, relying only on book knowledge?"
James' jaw tightened and he jutted his chin in the direction Snape had taken to complete his task. "He cannot be trusted. Least of all in here."
Cloudsinger sighed deeply. "I am not sure what history you two have had, have now, will have, won't have, or even want to have; but Severus, Artemis, and Regulus Black are here purely in a professional capacity. They are also bound to a male Nundu whose only experience with wizard kind before recently has been less than positive in any capacity. Do you really think, if hatred and ill emotions were all any of the apprentices had, that he would be calmly padding around after them checking rooms for any evidence pertaining to your parents' disappearance?"
"James." Lily's voice was trembling with barely suppressed anger. Her eyes flashed with fire, making them an even more vivid green than usual. "Grow up."
Potter stared at her, his jaw dropping slightly at her blunt candor. "Sev and I may not have got on since school, but of all the trainees, they are out in the field working as they train. Them. Only them. Do you think the Head of the Department of Mysteries and the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement would send anyone incapable of professional detachment out in the field? I heard you talking to the Auror recruiter earlier too. Do you think you even have a chance when you can't even keep your cool in your own ruddy house for the benefit of finding your parents?"
James swallowed hard, staring back at the fiery young witch with a little more caution in his manner.
Three Patroni went zinging up and down the stairs as the apprentices kept in contact with each other. They came back again with answers. A few minutes passed before the three apprentices and the gratuitous Nundu escort came out of the various places in the house.
"Ready?"
The half furry quartet nodded, the gryphlet and Nundu chirr, purr, and growl-chirping commentary to their human counterparts.
"First, anything that got your furred friends aggigated?"
Regulus stepped up. "Toussaint and Artemis both stopped at a statue on the second floor. In a bedroom. We suspect there is a hidden room."
"Did you open it?"
"No, sir. We are not to open suspected hidden rooms without you, lest you break our knuckles." Regulus turned his eyes skyward. "Sir," he added.
Cloudsinger thumped Shadowstalker on the back, chuckling. "Good. I give you permission to look."
"There is nothing there they need to look at!" James protested.
Severus arched a brow as Regulus' curiosity rose visibly with his eyebrows.
One golden gryphlet tore a path up the stairs, the large Nundu following, startled by her abrupt departure as well as being slightly distressed by it. The two apprentices followed, halting their verbal report in order to finish their exploration.
Cloudsinger eyed James as he patted Cadbury. "You have quite a… fascinating Muggle magazine collection, Mr Potter," he said dryly, leaving it at that.
James turned a fine shade of beet red, refusing to look any of them in the eyes.
A few minutes later the golden gryphlet bounded down the stairs and screeched to a halt in front of the group.
Shortly after, Toussaint arrived and sat down, looking confused. The two Black brothers walked down the stairs, looking very uncomfortable. "Nothing worth reporting, sir," Severus said.
"And did you find a suitable tracer object?"
Severus was completely stoic. "We did, sir."
"The bedroom, master. The trace is strongest in there," Regulus added quietly.
"Describe it."
"A hand-carved effigy, sir. With a few strands of hair strapped to it."
"And this had the strongest trace?" Shadowstalker asked.
"No," Severus said. "It had a constant stream of strong magic emitting from it."
"That's impossible," James objected loudly. "You moved that!"
"I beg your pardon, Mr Potter?" Severus said, arching a brow. "I have touched nothing."
"There is no way you could have found that. It was—" James' face abruptly paled, drained of all colour. "No. It couldn't be. It couldn't!"
"Mr Potter. What is that object?"
James clenched his fist tightly. "It—"
Auror Shacklebolt walked down the stairs, a small doll-like figure floating in front of him, having been tethered to his wand with a band of magic. "I think I know what caused your parents to just wander off," he said grimly. "Tell me, Mr Potter. Whose hair is on this little piece of Dark magic?"
"I didn't actually use it!" James cried. "We made it when we were back at Hogwarts. When everything went pear-shaped I hid it away. I never intended to use it. I never used it! Sirius made it, but then things started happening. I hid it away. Told him I'd lost the bloody thing."
Kingsley's gaze seemed to evaluate James before he nodded. "This is precisely why this kind of magic is forbidden, Mr Potter. Once made, you don't have to use it. It drains a constant stream of magic to preserve itself. If it wasn't taking it from a victim, it would find whatever was weakest around you. Whose hair is this, Mr Potter?"
James clenched his teeth. "Sni— Snape's."
"When did you collect the hair?"
"Fifth year. The year he and Lily had their fight." James sighed. "He was tearing out his hair over her not forgiving him. Literally—pulling it out. Wormtail got some of it, snuck it back to our dorm. Sirius made the doll. He'd always been so careful about stuff like that before until Lily refused to forgive him. He just fell apart. Sirius said that if Lils hadn't been so damned good at holding a grudge, Snape would never have been so vulnerable. He wanted to use the thing on him while he was down. Teach him a lesson."
Lily was looking as pale as milk, her freckles standing out in sharp relief on her ashen face. She was scribbling the notes quickly, but it was obvious to everyone that there was a serious inner struggle going on.
Shadowstalker waved his wand over the effigy. "You got the hair before Severus Snape became Severus Black," he said. "Your effigy had no one to drain, so it picked the weakest magical thing around you. Like your two elderly parents, no offence, but we know they are an older couple."
James flinched, sitting down on the stairs. "I never used it, I swear."
"That's just it, boy. You didn't have to," Shadowstalker said.
"Right, let's go to the bedroom and follow that trace. Kings, can you take that effigy to Amelia. Get the Unspeakables to break that thing down without cursing the whole country, yeah?"
"Sure thing," Kingsley said. "Mr Potter should come with, in case we have family-bound magic involved."
The masters nodded together. "Take him. We can easily follow the trace without him."
The masters and the apprentices as well as the beasts disappeared up the stairs into the master bedroom, and, shortly after, there was the echoing cracks of Disapparation, one after another in rapid succession.
"Let's go," Kingsley said firmly as he herded Lily and James to the Floo.
Two gryphlets and one drenched winged jaguar sat on the end of the roof looking down over one of the streets of Kielder in Northumberland. The small, remote village was in the middle of nowhere, or so it seemed, but there were still too many Muggle automobiles about for the trio to feel comfortable.
"Mummy, there are gargoyles on the roof!" a little girl exclaimed excitedly, pointing up at them.
"Mmhmm," the mother murmured distractedly, moving her young daughter along.
Ari chirred.
"Children are open to seeing us."
Severus laid his head over Ari's and chirped. "Yes."
Hungry, Toussaint said.
Artemis yawned beakily. "You're always hungry."
Toussaint thumped one huge paw down over the golden gryphlet and groomed her assiduously. Can't help it. My last human only fed me some sort of dried pebbles that came from a large bag.
Ari and Severus regarded the Nundu with mild horror. "They fed you dog food?"
I don't think there were any dogs in it, Toussaint replied, licking his teeth. That might have been tastier.
"Erm… it's meant to feed dogs, not have dogs in it," Severus said, his eyes very wide.
Oh, Toussaint replied thoughtfully. They sounded tasty.
Severus thumped his own paw against the bridge of his beak.
No? Toussaint asked.
"Eating dogs does not sound tasty to me," Severus said, wrinkling his face in distaste. "They sniff each other's bums and roll in shite. Some of them even eat shite."
"They roll in dung to mask their scent to hunt prey— at least the wild ones do," Ari mused.
"Some of them skip over the prey part and just roll in whatever they find."
"Okay, well, maybe those particular individuals are off."
Severus mouthed Artemis' tail, and she chirped at him in protest, pounce-tumble-rolling onto him until they slammed into Regulus with a joint squawk.
Regulus changed into human form, looking over the edge of the roof. "It's so not fair that you two can communicate to each other, but I can't understand you."
The two gryphlets chirruped at him, tails twitching.
Regulus sighed. "Master Cloudsinger says it's because I am still too attached to my human rigidity. I don't even know what that means. I'm a ruddy winged jaguar for god's sake."
Severus transformed into human form, rubbing his nose with his sleeve to itch it. "Yes, but the potions accident gave you the push instead of you studying for it."
"How does that explain you?" Regulus asked, pouting.
Severus sniffed. "I didn't care what form I take as long as I can be with her," he said, petting the golden gryphlet between the ears.
"You can't be serious."
"It's a little bit of faith, don't you think? I found mine in her."
Regulus frowned. "I care for her. You know that, but— you've always had a much stronger bond to her than me You understand her in a way that I don't."
Severus rubbed his shoulder with the opposing hand. "I don't think it necessarily has to be with Artemis, Regulus. I think it just has to be something you are truly willing to change for."
"I've already transformed, Severus."
"Change as in self, not physical form."
"Oh," Regulus said, staring down at the street below. Then he sighed heavily. "That's infinitely more difficult, brother."
Severus shook his head, shrugging. "I can't be the one to tell you how to expand your mind. That's all up to you."
Before Regulus could formulate a reply, Ari suddenly perked from where she was perched on top of Toussaint's head. She let out a soft chain of chortles, bobbing her head. Toussaint seemed to agree, his tail doing his own version of Nundu nodding for him.
"That's them," Severus said, writing something down on a piece of parchment. He handed it to Regulus, and his brother tapped it with his wand and said an incantation over it.
The parchment folded itself into an origami crane and flew off into another direction.
"See, you do have imagination," Severus said approvingly. "Most people would make an enchanted airplane like they do at the Ministry archives, where they don't want owls mucking up their records.
"Odd, isn't it?" Regulus said. "How we separate our worlds, Muggle and magical, yet we both make paper airplanes— something we don't even have or use in the magical world. The airplane, that is. We don't make paper owls or paper brooms. We make paper airplanes, which is a very Muggle sort of thing to do, yes?"
Severus pondered for a moment. "That is kind of strange, now that you mention it."
Crack-crack!
Their masters appeared, having gotten the message.
"Found them then?"
Ari chirped from atop Toussaint's head.
"Artemis did," Severus said, ignoring Regulus' look from behind him.
Ari drummed her talons on the Nundu's head, pointing at him with her beak.
Cloudstalker placed hand on the gryphlet's head and then the Nundu's. Both purred a response, happily accepting the unspoken praise.
"Alright, my four-legged friends," Shadowstalker said. "Why don't you go put a trace on the two in question. Meanwhile Severus and Regulus will manoeuvre into place to catch them in an secluded area that is not filled with unsuspecting Muggles. Windsong and I will observe from above just in case something should go pear-shaped. Okay?"
"Yes, masters," the apprentices said, shifting into their Animagus forms and disappearing down onto the street, Severus carrying the wriggling Regulus in his beak so the cat wasn't seen "flying without wings."
"Ready my dear?" Softfoot asked the gryphlet, rubbing under her beak where her feathers met.
She rubbed against his hand before launching off Toussaint's head, and the pair bounded down on the shop awnings and disappeared into stealth mode.
Softfoot and Windsong shook their heads together.
"If the Muggles only knew. Sometimes I think I'd like to see that— the chaos of a Nundu appearing in a crowded Muggle street."
"Someone would just think it was a leopard," Windsong replied to his old friend. "Besides. Setting a Nundu loose in a crowded magical street would be just as if not more comical."
Cadbury purred, setting her head on top of Windsong's head.
Marahute playfully pecked at the Nundu's long whiskers.
"One of these days our young Regulus will get disillusionment down and he won't have to have Severus carry him down under his cloaking field anymore."
Cloudsinger shrugged. "He just needs to find his focus. It will come, eventually, when he stops thinking that it should be easy. It's the curse of having been born into a strong magical family. Many take for granted the ease in which magic often comes to them. Regulus is a good student, so I have no doubt he will succeed, eventually. He just has to let go of feeling like it should come to him quickly."
"We should tell him the story of the wizard who only managed to Disillusion his bits." Softfoot grinned evilly.
"Shadowstalker, you are the bane of humiliated students everywhere."
The two friends shook their heads at each other and disappeared with a crack.
The thunderbird and the female Nundu gave a startled outcry before disappearing after them with a whispered foop!
Possible Smallpox Cases Surface in Northumberland Area
Doctors are baffled by two cases of what is believed to be a variant of the variola virus, also known as the smallpox virus. Believed to be eradicated by an aggressive vaccination programme, health care professionals were scrambling to contain and quarantine any and all people who may have been exposed to the two as yet unidentified patients believed to be the patient zeros.
Smallpox vaccination was discontinued in 1971, but many places had stopped vaccinating as early as 1948. The last known case of it was acquired from a lab that worked with the variola virus. Even when vaccinated, the protection for this particular disease lasted only for five to ten years, so booster vaccinations were required every three to five years.
Some alarmists are already demanding that the UK start a national re-vaccination programme for smallpox, but the results that came back on the bloodwork confirmed only that it wasn't smallpox at all.
While some are now worried that this may be a sign of bioterrorism, nothing prepared the facility for the arrival of the two patients, both of whom appeared to be suffering from dementia and hallucinations, woke up one morning feeling right as rain.
After an intensive few days of further testing to make sure they were not contagious or going to suffer a relapse, the elderly couple was released with profuse apologies for having detained them.
As for what disease they may have had, researchers say it resembled the poxviruses that had been seen in a number of crocodilian species.
"None of our healthcare professionals that were exposed have showed sign of infection, and they were quarantined along with the suspected patients."
"It's all a bunch of paranoia is what this rot was," Dr Bradley Marsden commented. "We had to lock things down because of protocol, but in this case, the paranoia and rumour spreading was worse than the actual virus.
All attempts to contact the couple following their discharge have been met with no response.
As Severus delivered the next batch of potions to the Potter residence, Mr and Mrs Potter invited him in for tea.
Ari trotted in like she owned the place, followed by a not-so-small Nundu.
Euphemia Potter had the house elves bring in a well-aged and fragrant haunch of buffalo on an enormous silver platter for the gryphlet and the Nundu to share, and the pair dutifully worked on making it disappear as Severus sipped his tea and carefully recorded how the Potters were feeling presently after their treatments.
Fleamont Potter invited Severus to stay for the evening meal as well, wishing him to invite his partner and masters to share in a special feast, and it wasn't until their son slunk in for dinner that Severus noticed that James Potter's eyes were lowered in shame and not shooting daggers into his back or across the dinner table. Even more mind-boggling was that the formerly arrogant, could-do-no-wrong son of Gryffindor had none other than Lily Evans at his side— she trying to hide behind her plate of prawn scampi pasta and not make eye contact.
"Ah, I know you are acquainted with our son, James, who is working on a project to catalogue and turn in all of his school-time extracurricular… projects to the DMLE. Miss Evans has volunteered to assist him so no more of those cursed objects make their way back to this house."
"Miss Evans and I are—" Severus' jaw clenched slightly before a golden gryphlet hopped up into his lap and demanded pets.
Right now, please. Belly side up.
"Acquainted, yes," Severus finished, petting Ari's belly with his right hand as he hastily switched his fork to the left. You spoiled creature, he thought at her, loudly as possible.
Ari purred under his touch, radiating smug satisfaction.
You do realise you're old enough not ot be pint sized, he told her.
Pint sized gets lap space and belly rubs, she replied as she stuck her head over the lip of the table and stole one of his steak cubes. And leftovers.
Severus tried not to roll his eyes as he stabbed some of his dinner with a fork to eat it before the gryphlet relieved him of his dinner.
A warm Nundu head thumped onto the top of his head, his purr shaking the chair.
Et tu, Toussaint?
The Nundu licked his jowls. I like their food. I might even like it more than dog.
You have this thing about dogs, don't you?
They are noisy, Toussaint replied. I would imagine they are less noisy when you eat them. They are probably delicious.
Severus decided to give the Potters his full attention before he accidentally gave away the fact his Nundu partner dreamed of eating noisy dogs. Who said felines and canines not getting along was a myth?
"However did you end up with such a beautifully large Nundu, Apprentices Black, as well as a gryphlet?" Mrs Potter asked.
"The gryphlet came first," Severus said. "Toussaint followed her home when he decided that she was happy, so he could be happy too."
"Interesting logic," Mr Potter said, chuckling. "Watching the house elves tiptoe around him has amused me greatly. There are old stories from back in the day when ancient Wizarding families would have a sort of great beast that was the heart of the house, protecting the home and the family. It seems like you managed to do just that."
"It was his choice, at least it was for us," Severus said modestly. "Masters Cloudsinger and Shadowstalker were good enough to confirm the bond though, to save further undue strain on Toussaint. Being a Nundu puts him under a lot of nervous scrutiny."
Toussaint gave Severus a rough lick upside the cheek before picking up the gryphlet in his mouth and carrying her off to "someplace" in the house. The thump of him laying down in front of the fireplace came shortly after as he made himself busy grooming Ari from nose to tail.
The elder Potters nodded in approval. "I am glad to see some of the Old Ways followed again. It wasn't all rubbish, even if some of it has that name thanks to the once Dark Lord."
"Did you hear, Darling? Cassandra Trelawney's granddaughter, Sybill, was interviewing for a job at Hogwarts the other day. She ended up spewing some prophecy over the afternoon tea."
"Oh? How did that go?" Fleamont asked, sipping his tea.
"From what I heard, Albus Dumbledore wanted to hire her on at Hogwarts to be an example of how an impressive bloodline doesn't necessarily guarantee talent— but that sherry-soused bumbler tripped and tumbled into the hearth at the Three Broomsticks. Set herself on fire she did, almost burnt the whole place down. Ol' Rosmerta has the place closed for remodelling after that. Probably won't get a dime from Sybill, though— if she ever gets out of the Mungo's magical burn unit."
"Magical?"
"She slammed into Rosmerta and her serving tray of drinks on her way to the hearth."
"Dear me, that woman sounds like a bonafide hazard to life."
Euphemia chuckled. "She does fit the bill, husband. Matilda told me that they found about fifty shrunken sherry bottles hidden in her pockets when she got to Mungos. The healer got suspicious when she screamed bloody murder about losing her robes."
Regulus and Severus exchanged horrified glances as their masters shook their heads in dismay.
"This is why I refuse to teach masses of untamed children," Shadowstalker sighed. "If they don't kill themselves off out of pure stupidity first, they'll be trying to be the death of me."
Severus couldn't help but notice that his arch-nemesis from Hogwarts and his former best friend were both trying very hard to silently blend into the chair upholstery.
Fleamont stood up, raising his glass. "I would like to formally thank you selfless work in both rescuing myself and my wife from certain death by dragon pox. Not only did you rescue us from the Muggle hospital, but you also delivered the antidote before we lost our minds completely. It could have ended there, but you have been making sure we haven't relapsed as well as made sure our magic was draining out our ears. Also— Master Shadowstrike— you have figured out why we were so vulnerable in the first place. I can only thank Merlin that the cloak of family is finally no longer with us. The burden of keeping it was high enough— but to think that using it cursed our lines of magic each time it was used—- thank you. Thank you for saving our family and bringing us back to prosperity. You are welcome in our home any time, and I hope that you will continue to visit us outside of checking on our health."
James bolted upright, his face turning red, a rather unhealthy blue, and then purple before he blurted out, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry hating you over some stupid words said during a train ride to Hogwarts. For always blaming you. For thinking that because you were Slytherin that everything bad in the world was explained by people like you. It was wrong. It was bigoted and I—"
James took in a deep breath before he continued.
"I'm an idiot for not having seen that my own actions were bringing ruin to myself, you, and my own family. Even until you walked in to help find my parents, I was willing to blame you for everything, even knowing it was me and my best mates that got me in trouble in the first place."
"And now I find out that the invisibility cloak me and my best mates were using to sneak around school cursed my family's magic every single time we used it. I'm glad it's gone! I'm sorry father, for stealing it out of the trunk, but I'm not sorry that it's gone."
The room was utterly silent.
One golden gryphlet bonked Severus on the hand.
"I—" Severus swallowed with visible discomfort, tugging on his collar. "You're right. You were an idiot." He frowned. "But we were both feeding off our mutual hatred, and for that, we were both at fault. I accept your apology, Mr Potter, because I have learned that hatred makes you blind to the things that really matter, and I have found out what really matters."
He cuddled the golden gryphlet while trying in vain to fend off a cuddle-seeking Nundu of unusual size.
Regulus distracted Toussaint with a tasty smoked turkey leg, and the Nundu trotted back to the hearth with his prize, crunching loudly.
"I can see you possess a great depth of compassion, Apprentice Black— both of you to have won over such impressive beasts who are notoriously picky about whom they choose to be with— as the previous owner of Toussaint didn't learn until far too late, yes?
"Thank you, Mr Potter. I think I can speak for everyone in saying that we are all grateful for your gracious hospitality."
Fleamont smiled warmly. "Well, I think it's time for dessert in the garden. Knickknack is excited to serve her special mascarpone cheesecake with balsamic strawberries and tea outside where we may watch the sunset."
The gryphlet eagerly licked her beak, and everyone laughed as the tension in the room trickled away at last.
"Sev, I—" Lily twisted her hands on her robes. "I'm sorry."
Severus had his back to her, his hands folded behind him. He turned slowly. "For what, Miss Evans?"
She winced at his cool formality. "I'm not going to apologise for getting angry with you, Sev. I had that much right. But, I will apologise for having not let you explain yourself afterwards and for not accepting it when I was willing to forgive James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. I'm sorry, Sev. I let it go too far. I wanted you to suffer like I felt I was suffering, and then— when I finally realised how cruel I was, I felt I couldn't take it back. It had been too long."
Artemis attacked one of Lily's high-heeled shoes but her footwear was decidedly not made from dragonhide. Lily yelped as her shoe went flying, and the gryphlet pounced and absconded with it, using her head to flick it into the Potter's garden fountain with a sploosh.
Lily's jaw dropped. "My SHOE!"
"Come back here with my SHOE!" she wailed, running after the gryphlet.
Ari, having been spotted, disappeared on the spot.
FOOP.
When Lily searched the fountain, she found nothing. She stormed back to Severus, dripping and frustrated, only to find her shoe waiting for her next to Severus— in pristine condition and completely dry.
James was chortling helplessly while eating his cheesecake, trying hard to not seem like he was laughing at her while still laughing at her.
Ari bounded up and leapt up into Severus' arms, cuddling into his chest.
"How did—" Lily trailed off. "What the— If this is my shoe, how did it—"
"One thing I've learned with living with gryphons is that if you don't appease their need for attention, they will amuse themselves in a hundred different ways, some that you probably don't want." Severus raised a dark eyebrow at Lily.
Lily huffed, blowing a strand of her long red hair away from her face. "That doesn't explain why my shoe is here, perfectly dry and intact!"
"Are you complaining?"
"I— well, I mean—" Lily stammered.
"I forgive you, Lily," Severus said after a while of watching Lily's face shift through a few interesting colours. "I cannot trust you, but I do forgive you."
Artemis hugged Severus' shoulder and stared intently at Lily, her tail swishing back and forth with small jerking motions. Severus' hand ran down her head and back doing a small tug on her tail to break her intense fixation on Lily. She chirped at him, thumping her head into his chin and used her tail to smack his hand around.
"It must be amazing to know what another living creature thinks without having to ask," Lily said.
"Oh, I still have to ask," Severus said. "She just volunteers some things depending on what I gave her for breakfast."
Lily made a face. "She speaks to you?"
Severus tilted her head. "Doesn't your owl?"
"My owl, Peaches? What? No. Well, not with words."
"Maybe you should try and see what happens."
"Cadbury, get your big head out of the fountain at once, you're traumatising the fish," Softfoot Shadowstalker bellowed at the female Nundu.
Cadbury lifted her head out of the fountain, dripping and looking quite guilty.
Softfoot patted down the Nundu, grumbling, introducing the lady of the house to his Nundu partner.
Marahute looked over at them with jealousy, wanting attention too. She sent a zap of electricity at the Nundu's furry rump, making the Nundu jump and startle. The two partners stared at each other.
Cloudsinger and Shadowstalker belted out laughter together.
"There is always communication, Miss Evans," Severus said. "Words are just ways around reading gestures and motion. I don't need words to find meaning, and some of the greatest truths are revealed by actions, not words."
Lily' eyebrow twitched at that. "Oh. I guess that's true."
Toussaint plucked the sleepy gryphlet out of Severus' arms and padded off with her. Lily stared, unsure of what to make of it all.
She looked Severus in the eye. "Look— I know I could have— should have— done better than I did. But it really hurt me when you called me that awful name. You of all people. I didn't know how to make things right then. I still don't. But—"
She sighed deeply. "I want to try, Sev. I want to be more than the clueless, superficial girl I was in school. I've seen a lot of things working in the DMLE office. I may not be an Auror, but I have worked cases to know that life is shorter than you think. I don't want to die with what we had hanging over my head my whole life. Maybe if I was still that girl, I'd be too angry to care, but I'm not way that I was back then, Sev. Not anymore. And I don't think you're the same either. Can we try and mend this rift between us?"
Severus found it strangely cold without the golden gryphlet and Nundu around, and he wasn't quite sure how to handle it. He hadn't expected Lily to apologise-ever. He doubly hadn't expected her to want to try and mend the fences either. He'd begged for her forgiveness for days upon weeks before she told him she'd never forgive him and he should go seek solace with his Death Eater friends.
The irony was real. Short of the few he had suspected might end up with the Dark Lord, there were only a couple that he knew were. Artemis had shown up in his life, and all desire to seek power and vengeance with some megalomaniacal Dark Lord just petered out and vanished.
He owed his bundle of mischief, feathers, and fur his life—
She, the daughter of Death.
Though, irony of ironies, he was also the son of Death.
Yet, as if to forebode the future, Orion Black had said that one day he might pick someone from the House of Black to cherish and marry. Orion Black was Death. He had sworn himself to the House of Black and to the Family of Death all within a year of each other. He couldn't even imagine a life without Artemis, and it didn't matter that she preferred to spend most of her time small, cute, and infinitely adorable. It didn't matter that she was family because they were more than family already. They were already bound, body and soul to the other. Perhaps, in the eyes of magic, they were already married, and what was human marriage anyway to ones such as they— sworn to Death's family and service until the time when there was no more death— would there ever be a time when that was possible?
So, now, in the blink of an eye, Lily would be dead. It could be tomorrow or a hundred years from the present. He could stall for a long time, but she could not. She deserved the chance to grow, to change and have a better life. He owed her that, at least, for the kindness she had shown him once upon a time. She may not have been perfect, but she had been light years ahead of his homicidal (albeit unknown) drunken father.
"Let's give it a go, then," he said, his black eyes finally meeting hers.
"Thank you, Severus," Lily said gratefully, grasping his hands and looking up at him. "I mean it."
She pulled him down and kissed him on the cheek before disappearing further into the garden.
Severus touched his cheek, a look of serious contemplation on his face.
Later that night, as Severus was settling into bed only to have a Nundu with salmon breath and one sleepy gryphlet curled up with him, he realised that he had many gifts right there in front of him. Holding on to the past just insulted the wonders he had now.
Ari yawn-squeaked and wriggled closer against his chest, happily taking up the space under his arm as he pulled her against him snugly. The cold of the room was drowned by gratuitous feline-gryphon body heat as the pair radiated both contentment and warmth.
Goodnight, Severus.
Goodnight, Ari.
Severus took in a deep breath and closed his eyes.
Severus?
Mmhph?
It's Hermione.
Severus mumbled, pressing his nose into her warm feathers. "Mmph." he muttered into her soothing warmth as sleep dragged him under to where Oblivion awaited.
Somewhere, far, far away in the Welsh countryside, Sirius Black woke up to the ripe stench of a smelly dead fish in his bed, leaned over and promptly hurled all over his own slippers.
Back in London, Regulus Black had the best sleep ever as he snoozed in jaguar form by a merrily crackling hearth, sprawled out in all his feline glory with all four paws in the air.
End of Chapter Four
A/N: Hope you're enjoying the story! Thanks to The Dragon and the Rose for staying up well past her expiry hour to beta this chapter. (Praise her!)