I had this all prepared to post yesterday since I had said I'd be resuming The Dark Revival "by the end of the year", but I totally spaced. Sorry! But, here it is. Fresh for the new year!

I intended to rewrite the first few chapters and shape them up a little better, but I've got my hands full enough writing new ones, so I might just do that whenever I can get ahead of schedule. I'll let you know when that happens, if it does, but I'll mostly be focusing on getting new material out there!

-Cody

chapter eleven

damsel in distress

thursday, august 12, 2004

"I can change my fingernail now!" said Teddy.

"My mom can do that too," said Dalton. "My mom does that all the time!"

"No, not like painting them!" said Teddy. "Not finger paint!"

"You mean nail polish?" asked Andromeda.

"Yes!" exclaimed Teddy. "I mean no!" He frowned. "I mean yes, I meant nail polish, but I don't mean I can polish my nails! Look, I can change my fingernails!"

Harry looked on, as the Harry of his memories watched Teddy pretend to change his fingernails and throw darts. He had seen this memory about a dozen times now, but he always kept noticing new things. Andromeda's hair curlers and magical ear horn were sitting on a shelf that looked to be just out of Teddy's reach. Teddy's teddy bear was watching from behind the armchair. Dalton was picking his nose when he thought no one was watching. But no matter how many things he noticed, he still never saw anything that suggested to him how Ingot could have been listening in on them.

Maybe I should have Hermione take a look at these, thought Harry, sighing. Was he just not sharp-minded enough to pick up on how Ingot had heard him talk about hide-and-seek and wishing Ymmox was dead, or was there simply no evidence left behind?

He'd have Hermione take a look at this memory, along with the one of him speaking to Ymmox. He looked upwards and lifted himself out of the memory, toppling out of the Pensieve in his bedroom.

In four weeks, they'd have to return Ymmox's belongings after they got scanned for any spells or devices placed on them. If they didn't find anything, then they had absolutely no leads on Ymmox's murder, and when they delivered his possessions to his daughter, they'd have to explain to her that they had no leads on how he was killed. It wouldn't be pretty. It was never pretty when you had to inform relatives that there was nothing you could do about the murder of members of their family.

Harry took a bottle of potion out of his robes—Acropotentia, the potion which would increase his stamina enough to send a Patronus halfway around the world. But he was going to have to practice and increase his endurance with the spell, because it was incredibly difficult to get his Patronus to reach that far, even with the potion. Even so, it was far more difficult to actually get comprehensible speech out of the Patronus. But as long as Luna was Untrackable, she couldn't be contacted any other way, as far as they knew.

He downed the potion, grimacing at the taste. He had to contact Luna as soon as possible. Perhaps she was safe from Ingot—Harry couldn't see Ingot disappearing all the way to Mexico and sweeping the entire country to look for her alone, especially considering he probably wouldn't find her if she was Untrackable—but it was better safe than sorry. Ingot had proven himself much beyond their comprehension of power thus far, and they couldn't take any chances. Especially not with a friend as close as Luna.

Harry cleared his throat, flecks of potion flying back out and reigniting his revulsion with the taste. He raised his wand.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The Patronus burst from his wand. He sensed its travel over endless waves, going, going, going…

It hit land before he sensed it dissipate into the air.

At least he'd gotten it across the ocean this time—that was an incredible feat for any wizard, even one who'd taken a potion such as Acropotentia.

Patronuses could sense the light of the person you were trying to find, if you loved them enough, and could locate even the Untrackable ones to deliver messages. He was bound to get it all the way to Luna sometime in the very near future, but for now, he needed to hit the hay. Just one Patronus had already wiped him out of all his energy. He hit the bed and closed his eyes, hoping Luna could stay safe just for a few more days.

friday, august 13, 2004

The sun was beating down unhindered from a cloudless sky onto Luna Lovegood's shoulders. She had just sprinted from the valley up the side of a long, sloping hill, following the hairy creature that matched every description she had come across. But it had finally shaken her; she'd lost its trail and there was no sign of picking it up again.

The sprint had taken her out of breath, especially that ten-minute sprint in the harsh Mexican summer. She was boiling up, and had to cast a charm to get a cool breeze blowing on her sweat-covered face, but the sun beating down on her shoulders still caused her to feel uncomfortably warm. She took out her quill and opened up her field notebook to the newest page.

The Chupacabra appears to have the ability to make you sweat profusely if you chase it.

She thought for a while about what else to write, considering she had only caught glimpses from afar, even pursuing the creature for ten minutes. This did, at least, discredit Enrique Seppi's claim that the Chupacabra was strictly nocturnal. And it lent credence to the rumors she'd heard that Chupacabras were more likely to turn up if you'd just eaten Brussels sprouts, and were less likely to flee as fast if you were wearing black undergarments. She had done both of these deeds, and voila—a Chupacabra. An upset stomach and undergarments that were clearly visible through her clothes, yes, but a Chupacabra nonetheless.

Where had she been led by this creature? She checked her map to determine her location, and scanned the countryside until she found something that looked familiar to her current position: sandwiched between two hills, following a river that forked into three. She looked up, and saw such a river before her. That meant…

She traced her finger down the middle stream of the river, remembering this from her research of the landscape. Down the center finger of the river… it curved to avoid a small hill and hooked around the other side; it then carved a small canyon. Just beyond the canyon, the river fed into a valley, ending in lake by a mountain on the other side of the valley. And there… there was reported to be a nest of a Mexican Cruxor.

The Mexican Cruxor was a species of dragon which escaped into the wild after a crossbreeding mistake most unexpected: the accidental introduction of owl genes into a Chinese Fireball. They bred very fast, having clutches of eight to ten eggs at a time, and so they populated their new homeland rather quickly. At least the species was not particularly violent to humans, if the humans left them alone. But if its eggs were threatened, the dragon's owl-like ability to track people was uncanny. It could find you anywhere, and it would make sure you didn't pose any more threat to its young ever again.

She could check it out, though. They wouldn't bother anyone who observed from a distance. Dragons and owls were both very intelligent creatures, and they knew that attacking a witch or wizard who was just observing from afar would be much more trouble than it was worth. Thankfully, the Mexican Cruxor was not as large as most dragons, and mostly attacked small mammals. It wouldn't attack her if she made sure she wasn't too close to the nest.

Luna walked on in the direction of the dragons, though she also kept an eye out for the Chupacabra, or signs that it had been through, like footprints or dry goat husks.

She tried to wipe her sweat on her sleeve—an old habit from wearing robes all the time in the chilly British Isles, but which didn't really work when wearing a tank top. Her arm was just as sweaty as her face, and she only smeared the sweat around, stinging her eyes. Not good—Wrackspurts tended to swarm the heaviest when your eyes were compromised. (They didn't seem to know that they were invisible.) She cast a quick couple of spells to clear her eyes and sweat and to speed her progress, and before she knew it, she was approaching the crest of the hill beyond which there was rumored to be a dragon's nest.

She crept up the side of the hill. She kept her ears tuned in to everything around her. When she heard an unexpected rustle to her right, she slowly lowered herself down until she was completely obscured from sight. She waited, and took out her field notebook.

Approaching Mexican Cruxor nest. Thirty feet from top of hill. Too much closer would be absurdly foolish, but a little peek over the crest of the hill shouldn't hurt.

Then she heard the rustling again, and something passed right beside her. Luna parted the grass in front of her eyes and looked up, and was wholly surprised to see another person walking upright, headed straight over the hill.

The young, sandy-haired wizard was wearing very short shorts and a tank top; he was carrying a small bag that looked like it held only his wand and a water bottle. He took out the wand, flicked it once and brought it up to his freckled face, speaking into it like a microphone so as to apparently record field notes by voice. Luna would have to ask him what spell he was using, although she was very fond of her notebook.

"Approaching Mexican Cruxor nest," whispered the wizard; he was also British. "Ten feet from top of hill. They shouldn't bother me even if I walk right up to the nest, so long as I don't disturb the eggs…"

Wrong, thought Luna in a panicked inner voice. Just as she was about to speak up and warn the other wizard about this, there was a terrible roar from the small basin below: His head had appeared over the hill.

He stood completely still. Then he pumped a fist and ran down the side of the hill.

The nerve of that guy—what was he thinking?! After a brief period of shock, Luna scrambled on all fours up to the top of the hill and peeked over, expecting some sort of bloody mess.

Instead, she saw the man playing tug of war with a large rope conjured from his wand. The cry had come from one of the babies; a single egg had hatched so far in a clutch of a half dozen. The man continued to toy around with the baby dragon for about a minute or so before he released the rope from his wand and the dragon pulled it away to gnaw happily. The man turned around and pulled out his wand.

Luna gasped as a shadow grew over the man. There was something flying at him, coming directly from the sun so as to approach unseen for as long as possible. Then before she could shout out to warn him, it was too close. He noticed it as well, and panic was in his eyes as he turned around to Disapparate—

Too late. The Mexican Cruxor was small but lightning fast, and it swooped down on him in a flash. It was also very intelligent, bred from owls and dragons, and it clutched the man's wand straight out of his hand as the claws on its other foot carved at his ear. He tumbled to the ground and shuffled away on his back as it turned around for another pass at him, throwing his wand over the hill.

The dragon had thrown the wand fairly close to Luna, actually; she dove at it and scooped it up, then lifted her own wand. "Occonjuncto!"

The man looked over sharply, not having known that Luna was there. The dragon hadn't, either, and her spell hit it straight between the eyes. It roared and dropped from the sky; the man sprang away as it stomped around, screeching in pain.

Without a moment's pause, Luna cast an invisible barrier between the dragon and its nest; the dragon bumped into the barrier and stumbled off in the other direction, no longer in danger of trampling of its eggs. Luna cast a rope from her wand, aimed it carefully, and lassoed the little dragon; any larger and it probably would have tossed her, but she was able to swing it with enough momentum to throw it over the hill so its eggs wouldn't be in peril after they left. Luna leaned over and grabbed the collar of the man who had crawled over towards her, and she turned and Disapparated to a more open field, pulling him with her.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" she griped, slapping a hand to her face and pulling it down as dramatically as possible.

"Er… can I… have that back?" he asked, pointing to his wand and rubbing the back of his neck.

"It is my judgment that you are too intoxicated to use this," stated Luna, "considering the only thing I have seen you do is walk into a dragon's nest and mess around with the kid when you didn't know where the mother was."

"It was… I wasn't…" The man shrugged. "I really thought she'd be gone longer. I'm not intoxicated, I'm just stupid." He flashed a toothy grin.

Luna threw her hands into the air. "If I were one of your friends," she fumed, "I'd have just cursed you into a crunchy pretzel. You put the eggs and the young one in terrible danger. And yourself as well, although I don't care as much about that—you know this is a species of dragon that will track you down anywhere on the globe if you distress its young, right?!"

"Only if it has seen you posing a direct threat," said the man, as if she was an amateur on this subject. "And all it saw me doing was playing around and about to leave… you, however, cursed its eyes!"

"It won't hunt me down for defending a human," countered Luna. "It will, however, hunt you down if it mistook your playing for trying to lure the baby out of its nest. Which is highly likely, you understand?"

The man seemed to have stopped paying attention; he was staring at Luna. "Wait," he said excitedly. "Wait! You're Luna Lovegood!"

"I may be," said Luna impatiently. "And could you tell me your name so I can avoid you forever and laugh when I recognize your obituary?"

"Rolf," he replied. "Good to meet you!"

"Good to leave you," said Luna.

"Wait—are you here for the Cruxors as well? Shall we look around together?"

"We shan't," she responded. "I'd rather not spend too much time around you, considering that mother will probably be on its way towards you any moment and won't stop until it finds you."

"Nah, I've studied the Cruxors most of my life," said Rolf. "They were the subject of my thesis, actually. It didn't see me committing any stalk-around-the-globe-worthy offense. Come on, I've always wanted to meet you! I've read every article you've ever wrote."

Luna crossed her arms. "Okay. What was my thesis about?"

Rolf flashed another irritating grin. "My grandfather, of course!"

Luna slowly uncrossed her arms. "Pardon?"

"My grandfather. Newt Scamander. The name's Rolf Scamander!"

Luna turned away for a moment. She tapped her foot and sighed, then huffed and shuffled around where she stood.

She turned back to Rolf, who was still looking like a starry-eyed child.

"I suppose we could possibly… compare some notes," she suggested.

Rolf beamed, and Luna felt a strong urge to punch all of his teeth in.

Suddenly, she suppressed a gasp as she remembered the oldest story she remembered her mother telling her…

"He came up to me at a bar and told me I looked like I knew how to handle a Wrackspurt… Of course, I had no idea what a Wrackspurt was before I met your father, so obviously I misinterpreted him. Boy, did I want to punch all of his teeth in! But you know, he looked so charmingly goofy that day, I knew almost immediately that he was the one I was going to marry."

Luna looked back at Rolf, wide-eyed and still grinning like a lunatic at the thought of hanging out with Luna Lovegood.

Well… her first instinct was to be sick about the thought, but heaven knew she'd taken some risky behaviors in the past, and if her parents taught her anything, it was to be open-minded about everything. And wasn't this how these things usually started? The strong and brave and awesome protagonist rescues the beautiful damsel in distress? He did have quite a pretty face, if she looked at him objectively…

She shook her head to clear it. Her mind was moving pretty fast about all this, so she told herself to slow down. It was always nice to have more friends in the field, so she'd maybe start with that. She tossed his wand back to him. "Care to join me back at the cabin I've set up down here?"

Luna held out her hand, and he took it without hesitation. She still had a little hesitation, but she was willing to give him a chance.

Just one, but a chance.

If he gave her some signed copies of his grandfather's books.

And remember I'm also going back to taking questions and answers. Keep it to Dark Revival stuff-don't spoil the Albus series if there are people reading the reviews who haven't read the Albus series yet! But you can certainly ask non-spoilery questions that relate back to the Albus series. Any question that might give anything away, direct to me in a PM. (I'm gonna get to those eventually!) But post in a review if you want the answer listed publicly on the bottom of my profile page.