A/N: Sorry for the long wait, for which I will provide no excuses.
Only facts. I was attacked by a horde of womabts! It was terrible. I was at the zoo as a bonding experience with my mother, and in a last getaway attempt this madwoman in a jeep came barrelling through and smashed open the gate to the wombat pen on her way by. They immediately charged out and started licking me, I just got away a few minutes ago. Of course I started writing the next chapter at once, so here you go. Credit to J.K. et al.
Word of the day – exfoliate
Song of the day – Scarborough Fair
Time of the day – 10:29
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Chapter Ten: The Bestiary
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I had been to Dumbledore's office regularly since I started causing trouble in first year, and assumed that Lily would have as well. I must have guessed wrong; she was shaking like a leaf and had lost the nerve she had had half an hour before.
"Hey," I whispered, dropping back to walk beside her. McGonagall swept on ahead of us, rather like a marital procession. This put me in a great mood.
"What?" Lily snapped.
"What do you reckon this is about?"
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod –"
"We're not in trouble," I said. Obviously. I hadn't done anything wrong, believe me. I knew the rule-book back to front, having gotten detention for everything in it."
"I'm not allowed in the locker room." She covered her face with her hand. "I'm Head Girl, Potter! What was I thinking?"
I growled. "Potter, is it?"
She didn't answer. Her teeth were chattering too hard. We went up in silence, then sat in the office looking around. Or at least she did. I was stealing lemon drops as surreptitiously as I could.
"James," said a voice from aboive. Lily snapped her head around guiltily. I sat back and crossed my legs to hide the bulge in my pants.
From the lemon drops, you sicko.
"Lily," the voice continued, "thank you for coming so promptly." Dumbledore made his way down from the balcony he had appeared at, and stopped next to his Pensieve cupboard. I narrowed my eyes.
"Sir," I started. Lily chose that moment to crack.
"I'm sorry, Professor! I didn't mean any of it! I'll never go into the boys' locker room again!"
Dumbledore blinked. "I wasn't aware you had."
Oh, he so totally was.
"I HAVEN'T," she burst out belatedly. I shook my head with a sigh.
"Amateur," I muttered.
"I beg your pardon?" he said.
"I was about to ask why you wanted to see us," I said cooly, ignoring Lily's hysterical panting from my left.
"Miss Evans," Dumbledore said gently, "would you like a lemon drop? I'm sure James would be happy to oblige."
"I have lots," I said, pulling out a handful. She took one and calmed right down.
"I called you here for a venture back in time," Dumbledore said. "Into my own mind. As Head Boy and Girl in these dangerous times, I feel that you should know everything you possibly can about the situation at hand."
He paused, and when we didn't say anything he continued. "I don't believe you've used a Pensieve before, Lily."
"No," she said, "but I understand the concept."
"Good. In that case, let us proceed. All you need to know now, is that this particular memory took place some five years ago, not long after Tom Riddle, known as 'Lord Voldemort', began to publicize his views. I'm sure we will have much to discuss afterward.
He turned and lifted out the Pensieve, placing it on his desk. "James, would you go first?"
I nodded and plunged my head into the bowl. Dumbledore and Lily landed beside me moments later, Lily white and shaking.
"For next time, a little less enthusiasm will suffice," Dumbledore told her, steadying her as she wobbled. She whimpered.
"I was scared the first time too," I said in my gentlest voice.
"That was because you missed and came back with a black eye and three broken ribs," she said. Apparently her bad mood was persistent. I waved my hand to catch Dumbledore's attention.
"What are you looking at, sir?"
Dumbledore pointed his former self out in the crowd. There was a gathering of what were obviously witches and wizards, clustered around some sort of pit. Towards the centre of them, Past Dumbledore was crouched down to look at the dirt. Around him, a press of reporters were talking into their quills at top speed.
"… We suspect there may be giant involvement, rumours are flying that they're mounted on Norwegian Ridgebacks, whose scales are often carriers of a rare and deadly…"
"… the tragic loss of several members of the McKinnon family, who are prominent in the Ministry and who, though several Aurors had been assigned to guard them, unwittingly walked into…"
"Marlene, if asked to describe your cousins in a few words, what would you say?"
Dumbledore gestured us over to a space in the crowd, so that we could see Past Dumbledore siphoning something out of the dirt with his wand. He poured it into a glass vial, which he then tucked into his cloak before standing and making his way back through the crowd.
"That was dragon blood," Dumbledore told us. "Move quickly, now, we don't want to lose me."
We hiked down the street, past shops and offices, until the white head in front of us disappeared into the ground. It seemed he had gone into some sort of basement thing. We ran in after him, afraid to miss anything.
It was a small room, dingy and badly in need of painting. There were tables set up along one wall, that were loaded with strange-looking equipment, bobbles and squigglies and what looked like Muggle screwdrivers. A Healer, who I recognized from my father's team, was peering through a sort of microscope thing at a drop of the blood.
"I'm going to have to take this apart and send it in to be tested, Dumbledore," the Healer said. "Any rush on this?"
"If you could, thank you, Muriel. I'd like to be in Peru by the end of this week."
She gasped. "You think it will be a Vipertooth, then?"
"I'm almost positive. There must be some truth to the dragon rumours, and I haven't seen anything like these bites since the last Vipertooth attack. You know, of course, that a Vipertooth is the only dragon that can be effectively trained?"
Muriel made a non-commital gesture with her head, that showed she didn't know, but didn't want to look like an idiot.
"Yes, and they're large enough they could easily carry giants. I don't know whether that's at all likely, but if Voldemort is looking for effect…"
He subsided, lost in thought. Muriel continued poking around at the substance. Finally she cried, "Albus! Come and look at this. Do you see those green flecks?"
His face pressed to the eyepiece, Past Dumbledore said, "Yes, what are they?"
"They look like – I'd hate to be wrong – well, no, I'd hate to be right, but I really don't want to spread a panic – let me just look it up." She crouched down and dug below the table, coming out with an enormous book. "Here, take a look at this. Does it look like the same thing to you?"
As they pored over the book, Dumbledore came closer to say, "What we were looking at, both in the book and in the blood sample, was a magically modified form of bundimun. Have you learned about that?"
When we shook our heads, he said, "By definition, it is a fungus whose secretions can rot away almost anything. It's a slow process in such a diluted form, so we still haven't found the full effects, but we're working on a sort of counteracting agent. At the time I had a theory that Voldemort was injecting it into the bloodstream of the dragons so that even when the dragons were killed, lasting damage would be done."
"That's horrible!" Lily gasped.
"Fortunately, it is also untrue. When we received the blood sample's results back we found them to point almost entirely toward the giants. We still aren't sure whether they're using Peruvian Vipertooths, though I think they probably are. But the point of this memory is our discovery that giants can survive with trace amounts of bundimun in their bloodstream. You can imagine the result if we even scratched a giant in battle."
"So Voldemort was finding a way to keep us from killing his giants?" I said slowly. "Or just trying to make things harder for everyone."
"A little of both, no doubt. Sh, we're about to leave, this part is vital."
"In that case, Albus, you won't go to Peru?"
"No," Past Dumbledore said grimly, "I think my talents are better put to use elsewhere. If you find anything out about those dragons, please contact me at once. Otherwise, tell the Order that I'll be in East Africa tracking nundus."
Muriel nodded, and Past Dumbledore made his way to the door. The Dumbledore between us grasped our elbows and pulled us out of the Pensieve. When we were seated in front of him he folded his hands and said,
"I believe you study nundus in Care of Magical Creatures."
We nodded numbly. Nundus are reputed as the most dangerous creature, giant leapords who hunt in packs in the least populated areas of darkest Africa; namely, because nothing survives them. Nothing.
"Voldemort couldn't possibly control them, could he?" Lily asked, her voice higher than usual.
"I don't believe so," Dumbledore said, "not to any extent that could make it worthwhile to him. However, what I saw in Africa was much more terrible than nundus."
I was starting to feel a little depressed and wished he'd stop coming out with all these plots against us. I didn't want to know.
"There is a flourishing chimaera trade that has extended all the way up to the Mediterranean, which was the cause of Dai Lleweleyn's tragic death." He nodded to me, as a salute to my grief when my favourite Quidditch player was slaughtered by one of the stupid beasts. "As a Class A Non-Tradable Good, it won't get too far into Europe, but Africa has very little magical law enforcement and is a breeding ground for chimaeras and the like.
"The point of today's meeting, however, is not to dwell on such things. I would like the two of you – both very talented, bright young minds – to go out today with all of this in mind, and try to think of anything you can. I don't care if it's solutions, premonitions, foolish theories, or nothing at all; just think, and let me know if you come up with anything at all."
One of his words reminded me of something. "Professor," I said, "it's recently come to light that I have a gift as a Seer. Is it too late to enroll in Divination?"
"Yes," he said, "that's the worst idea I've ever heard. Get out of my office."
We slouched out. On the other side I suggested that we study up on our scary beasts together, and Lily agreed, and then we held hands and walked through the halls. It felt pretty nice after all of that.
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A/N… hmm. I did not expect to give you folks a mythical zoology lesson but okay. Disclaimer – the Lexicon was a huge help in this. If you haven't been there, go now! Shoo! And then come back when I've written a new chapter.
Have a v. Harry day, everyone.