VII
Breath Focus Feel
The valley was warm, in the midday sun, the tall grass moved like waves on the breeze.
The trees rustled with life, not just their own but also the birds and other critters that
made them their home. A determined elf was ignoring the stings of the bees whose home
he was trying to put back on the branch it fell from.
And two naked wizards were standing on the edge of a stream, going through a lesson in transformation
"Once again, Love?"
"Yes, please."
"Okay. Close your eyes. Relax and when you feel you're ready you're going to breathe in slowly,
quiet your mind and sense the energy around you flowing into you,
not just through your nose but through your whole body,
center your focus on the center of your body just below your rib cage,
let the energy there grow, then exhale slowly, breathing only the air out,
feel that wild energy, you breathed in with it, flow through your veins and synapses,
as your muscles and bones reshape. Give in to it, and when you sense a different rhythm to your heart open your eyes.
Remember, if the pains too much, stop, you're either forcing it or letting your fear take over.
Good luck, Little One." he said, as he bent and kissed her forehead for luck.
Luna repeated his words in her mind then inhaled slowly, feeling the air and life force flow into her from every direction.
She focused and channeled it to a spot just below her diaphragm and felt it fill her.
She let it sit there and grow for a bit, she could see in her mind the light swirling, electric sparks and arcs feathering themselves outward,
then slowly she let the air out of her lungs,
compelling the energy she had stored to flow through her.
It traveled up and down her spine with intensity, radiating through to her finger tips, toes and the top of her head.
Sirius watched as her muscles grew and the lean willowy body of the woman before him started to change it's shape,
more gracefully and determined, than any of the other first attempts he had ever witnessed.
Her arms stretching towards the ground, her back lengthening with rhythmic pulses, her shoulders and hips, elongating
and pulling themselves as if to touch the earth itself.
Luna felt the changing and gave into it completely, trusting in the lessons her lover had imparted to her.
She felt her skin start to warm and a wild primal tempo rush flow through her, the beating of her heart,
changed it's tempo echoing the cadence in her blood.
She opened her eyes and stretched embracing the vision of her newly found paws with glee.
The dark haired wizard stood awestruck at the majesty of the cat that stood before him,
a pure white leopard with her ice grey eyes and muscles that rippled through it's pristine silky fur.
Her patronus was a rabbit, that's usually the shape the animagus takes, but this girl is a contradiction
in so many ways, that it did not surprise him that she'd have this form inside her.
She was spacey but brilliant, shy but fierce and though she looked frail she was steel and stone and
by far. one of the strongest people he had ever met.
No need to mention her loyalty and heart.
He approached her and knelt before her, taking her face in his hands.
She licked him nose playfully with her raspy tongue as she pushed her head further into his fingertips,
he could feel her purrs rolling through them.
He repeated the ritual as she just had, calling up his own new found form and transformed.
The pure black canine with the silver brow approached the feline with his tail wagging.
The two beasts, circled each other, sniffing and rubbing their bodies against each other, taking in each other's essence.
The big black wolf, reared back on it's hind legs and howled, then bounded across the stream, tempting a chase.
He had barely made the forests edge, when the sleek white cat was upon him.
They rolled and tumbled through the grass, wrestling and biting each other playfully.
The black beast turned and burst forth to the cabin, the big white cat flew past him,
the hairs on her tail flowing, like a tendril of steam on a brook in a light summer breeze in the first suns rays of the morning.
She stopped before the porch of the cabin, arched her back and stretched her long lean body to the sunlight,
her paws out in front of her, her chest barely touching the ground, her tail swaying sensually high and proud behind her.
The wolf was at her side, quick enough and reshaped to the man that abided within it.
She sleeked herself around him, as he knelt beside her, nuzzling her face to his, purring contentedly.
"Snowmist" he whispered in her perked feline ear.
The lustrous feline purred and pounced pinning him to the floor with her paws,
then shifted back to the woman who had just summoned it to life.
"That was incredible"
"I've never seen anyone take to it like that," he said, "even I took several attempts"
"I had a good teacher" she replied, as she softly placed kisses all over his face with tiny little pecks and giggles.
She reached behind her, grabbing his warm flesh, to tease it to life, only to find he was already there.
The rush of the chase and and the lingering of her pheromones already had the desired effect.
She slid him to her slowly, taking him in salaciously as she kissed his face, chin and neck.
With a purr and a growl the two chased their bliss.
.-. .- ..- ... .
Hogwarts Owlry was astir with activity.
As the heart of the schools correspondence and information center, it garnered more than it's fair share of a workload.
Letters from home, packages for students and a myriad of other correspondences were routed through it.
Hagrid huffed in frustration, of all the messages coming and going so far none were delivering word on a friend.
All but one of the owls, that had been sent out with letters of inquiry for any information on one Remus Lupin,
had returned, once again with no helpful response.
There were some that sent their condolences, some with wishes that he be found alive and well,
and others that just replied, no.
.-. .- ..- ... .
Helena Ravenclaw was having much the same luck.
Her families old connections had come up dry, save for the fact, that he seemed to disappear just over two years ago.
It was beginning to feel to her like every stone turned just revealed more stones beneath.
"It's been a week" she frustratingly mumbled to her self,
"just how hard can it be to find a lost wizard, especially one plagued by lycanthropy."
"That's it!", she yelled.
She sprang from her chair and whisp cloaked, and floated feverishly to the office of Minerva McGonagall.
"Minnie!", she called.
"Over here Miss Ravenclaw", came a reply, from the person half inside a wardrobe.
"I have an idea!"
.-. .- ..- ... .
Luna was staring up at a nesting pair of doves, cooing softly to each other in the midday calm.
She was still wrapped in her lovers arms not thinking of much when the thought crept into her head,
"We need to find Ron or Friar, if they live."
It was typical of her, "You want to find an answer forget the question." she once told the Potter boy.
Sirius stood and walked into the cabin, returning with paper and quill and handed it to the prostrate girl,
"We'll just send a letter off to Hogwarts and see what they know."
She wrote three words on the parchment, "Need Ron's Location.",
no signature needed, this bird could only come from one place.
She handed him the note, and he kissed her on the forehead, then went to the owls rest.
He rolled up the paper and slipped it in Thordor's talons, the big brown bird left with it's cargo,
with a hoot and a whoomp of air off it's wings.
They took a dip in the lake, then set up a picnic blanket by the stream under the shade of the great oak.
Three pillows were placed just on the edge, a plate and a cup before each, with one bigger plate in the center,
a good portion of fruits, fish, and a single serving of plumb bread upon it,
a pot steaming with hibiscus tea, placed to it's left completed the menu.
"Wizzen," Luna sang, "food".
"Wizzen coming" a voice came, falling upon them from the tree tops.
The surprisingly spry elf bounced from limb to limb, landed on the ground a short distance from the supper and
greeted the two with a bow, "Miss Luna, Mister Sirius,"
They returned his bow and greeting, then the three friends sat down and began to eat.
They enjoyed the elf's company, as he enjoyed theirs, having seen the scars on both of their bodies,
a trait he shared on his own, he felt a kinship with them, that brought in him a special bond.
They chatted about nonsense and listened to his discoveries of places and things in their surrounds,
the tiny little cove on the western wall that offered him a nice comfy rest,
the tree on the eastern edge that bore fruit that tasted like turnips,
and the myriad of creatures the valley gave life to.
He sat fixed on the stories they told him of their friend's adventures,
of the Potter, the Granger, and the Weasley and of the other wizards and witches they knew.
He hid his head at the exploits of Voldemort and Deatheaters, like a child at camp listening to ghost stories
on a campfire night.
They never spoke of their own past adventures, instead, they included him in their now.
"Wizzen knows you will find Mister Lupin." he told them, after hearing the story of the wizards disappearance,
"Wizzen feels it from the trees and the stream."
.-. .- ..- ... .
Hagrid was finishing a class on the birthing and care of Griffins when he saw the wings of Thordor pass over the forest.
He hurried himself to the owlry and retrieved the noble birds package.
He read the note and went to the castle and found Helena in her study and together they went to see Professors McGonagall.
She read the message and sighed, knowing the one they requested, would be no help to them at this time, if ever.
"Mister Weasley, I'm sorry to say, is in no condition to assist us, I'm afraid," collecting her thoughts she continued,
"He left home some time ago, troubled in his mind, and struggling with something, he thinks, he was responsible for.
Hermione herself doesn't know what it is. She says he left her because he was afraid he'd hurt her too.
She knows he still checks up on her sometimes because she sees a figure hiding in the hedgerow or passing by her window now and then.
She's tried to track him but she has not yet succeeded."
The two women then told Hagrid their plan and constructed a message to reply to the senders of the one they'd just received.
Three quarters of an hour after the message was received Thordor was taking to the wind.
.-. .- ..- ... .
The great brown owl landed on the porch early in the morning, hooting his arrival to the recipients of the letter he carried.
Sirius and Luna stopped their shower short, and went to retrieve their mail, leaving glistening footprints through the cabin and
onto the porch.
"Ron unfit, plan in place, three days needed."
"Another fellow to make fettle."
"We keep getting busier by the minute."
. -. -.. / -.-. ... .- .-. - . .-.