Chapter Fourteen

Flametail's Secret

Scorpion's Point of view

She stepped into the Archives and the blinding lights of the remanence of magical energy and discharge, the pleasantly intoxicating smell of excessive use of dark magic, the annoyingly vibrant and buoyant sound of an excessive use of light magic, and the mysterious, majestic, delightfully creepy song of psychic energy hit her like a slap to the face. Puzzled she used a location charm to lead her to her to the largest source of her favorite sound, the sound of panic, whispered voices of intense worry. Oddly enough, the song of Psychic energy grew along with panic's melody. She stopped, concealing herself in a shadow, when she saw Snape and Evens talking to Master Leilani, Scorpion had inconveniently 'forgot' to mention that she knew Siren's real name when she told Snape about her. She scowled to herself, wondering how they found her in a matter of days when when it took Scorpion a couple years to discover her true identity.

"Is it really a good idea to tell Flametail, though?" She froze when Snape muttered her name.

"C'mon, Severus. You, of all people, should know you can't be judged by stereotypes and by what you appear to be." Evens said sternly. Oh, so the mudblood thought Scorpion wanted or even needed her help, huh? That was laughable.

"It's not that, I'm just saying, she wants Peter dead..."

"So? You want Potter dead." Evens was obviously suppressing a grin.

"Yes, Lily, well... kind of, but Flametail's just so dark."

"And the pot called the kettle black." Scorpion said, just loudly enough for them to hear her, stepping out of the shadows, making all of them jump. She'd been silent enough to surprise Leilani, and she was proud of that.

"You're even worse than I am, at least I don't," Scorpion felt something in the back of her mind, something that had made it past her mental barriers and occlumency shields, delve into her memories as Snape spoke, "use human children in blood rituals or to make horcruxes." He finished with a nasty sneer.

Evens gasped and Scorpion almost did. Snape couldn't be what had gotten into her mind. No, it wasn't him. No pathetic wand-weiler could do that to the greatest of the Flametail clan. He must've found out another way, and that was almost as bad. If that kid could dig up information on her, anyone could, and that would not be tolerated. Immediately, she drew the Stygian Doragon, a blade of her own making, and pinned Snape against the nearest wall with her foot, the tip of her blade at the base of his throat, breaking his skin slightly, so that a tiny trickle of crimson was running down his neck. He gasped.

"How did you know about that?" She hissed, and even she could tell that her voice had become high and cruel, like the voice of some female demon. Her left eye began to burn, and she backed off with a gasp of pain and horror as the burning intensified ten-fold instantly. Snape had accidently woken it up. She'd make him pay... if she survived that was.

Severus's point of view

One second, he'd been pinned against the wall, Flametail's breath surprisingly cold against his skin as she hissed the words, "How did you know about that?", the next second, she was gasping in pain, holding the left side of her face, which was now playing host to a glowing red ires.

"What?" Lily seemed just as baffled as Severus felt.

"You fool, Snape, what have you done?" She screeched, and with that she disappeared in a puff of smoke, or possibly shadows. Leilani frowned.

"Curious." She mused.

"And understatement of the year goes to..." Severus muttered, but so quietly that nobody heard him.

"What's curious, Leilani?" Lily asked. If it was anyone besides her, Severus would've sneered at the stupidity of the question, it was completely obvious that what was 'curious' was Scorpion's behavior, but, since it was Lily, Severus found it cute.

"Young Scorpion's actions... it seems as though it awakened sooner than I thought it did. Thank you, young Severus, for bringing this to the surface, we may be able to free Scorpion from her curse." She bowed slightly.

"No problem." Severus said, as though he knew what she was talking about, but looked over to Lily, sure her expression of confusion was mirrored on his face.

Remus's point of view

It was like he'd woken up after a long nap. He was groggy and just wanted to go back to sleep, but wasn't tired. The smell of a forest filled his nostrils; the scent of pine, dirt, moss, flowers, and sap mixing into one pleasant aroma. Why would that be? He rolled over onto his back, then into a sitting position and promptly felt his cheeks burning as he moved his hands to cover up his indecency. He was naked and alone in the middle of a forest... oh Merlin. He'd transformed again last night and... suddenly he felt sick. What if Sirius hadn't turned into a dog in time? What if he attacked him? What if Sirius was lying in a half destroyed cart bleeding out to death or, and this was almost worse, what if Remus had passed his curse on to him, and Sirius was waking up somewhere else, wondering what happened and why he hurt so much? Remus's worries were dashed when a pair of robes hit him in the back of the head. He looked over his shoulder to see Sirius in jeans and a T-shirt, when he'd previously been wearing robes, and a smirk.

"Put them on, Remus... No one wants to see that." Then he turned around, leaning against a tree. Remus slipped Sirius's robes over his head, still feeling exposed, but being grateful that Sirius was alive an not cursed to become a supernatural beast every full moon.

"Thanks, Mate." Remus said, cuing Sirius to turn around.

"Do you know where we are, Moony?"

"No." He replied hesitantly.

"We're in the forest of whispered secrets, it's a magic desert."

"A magic desert?" Remus repeated, wondering how Sirius knew where they were.

"That means there is no magic to draw from the environment, wands are useless here." He was staring directly up at the sky, his back still to Remus.

"What does Angelica think we should do?" Remus asked.

"Who?" Sirius asked.

"Nevermind." That was the proof he needed to tell him that whoever or whatever that was, it wasn't Sirius, there was no way Sirius was going to forget that in one night. If what he said was true, though, there was nothing Remus could do. The only time he was physically strong was during the full moon, and besides, if it was a demon, what kind of spell would he use against something like that? He heard a twig snap and immediately looked over his shoulder. That had to be the real Sirius. Before he could say anything, the massive black dog bounded at the fake Sirius with a loud growl, and sunk his teeth into the back of his neck. Remus turned away. The sight of blood always made him feel queazy, and the sight of it flowing from the wound of one of his best friends was sure to be worse. Something tugged at his robes. He looked down, and let out a yell. There was, what first appeared to be, a rabbit chewing on his robes, but this rabbit had glowing yellow eyes and claws jutting out of its paws to put most cats to shame. It looked at him strangely for a second.

"Remus, get away from that thing." That was Peter's voice. Sirius was standing to his left, but something was off. The way he was standing, for instance, with his feet in a fighting stance, but the rest of his body in a perfect straight posture. Then Remus looked to his eyes, which were deep blue, like Peter's.

"Wha..."

"Just back up slowly." He interrupted him. Remus did as he was told. He looked passed Sirius, then wished he hadn't. A short man with reddish skin and dark hair, lay behind him, where the impostor Sirius's corpse was likely to be, blood pouring from a wound in his neck.

"This is the real Sirius," Sirius assured him, and now Remus was even more wary than before, "but I am currently, with his permission, possessing him."

"Are you Peter?" Remus asked, trying to keep the monster rabbit and Sirius in his sight at once, which was extremely hard.

"Yes."

"Prove it." Sirius laughed.

"Alright. You were reading the book, Ancient Spirits: A Guide to the Destruction of Demons when I stood up for Severus when James and Sirius were bullying him again." He said. Remus thought back. He didn't remember what book he was reading at the time, but that was so oddly specific, that he was sure he probably was reading that one, and he did remember reading that book after Peter got back to school, but why would Peter remember that specific detail?

"Anyone could know that if they'd been watching us." Remus challenged. The monster rabbit continued to stare at Remus.

"The last time the four of us went to prank someone, I got us caught when I tripped over the foot of one of the suits of armor." He said. That was definitely true, and that was almost a month before Christmas break, before that girl demon started staking out Peter, so nobody would've been watching them then.

"Okay, it's you." Remus conceded. Sirius-Peter turned his attention to the monster rabbit. The two of them locked eyes, and the rabbit thing took off into the woods. "Is this really a magic desert?" Remus asked, wanting to get the immediate out of the way. Sirius-Peter nodded.

"Are you and James okay?"

"I am fine, but if someone doesn't get here soon, James might die." There was badly masked pain behind his voice.

"What?" Remus started.

"They, that is to say the skinwalkers, are draining the magic out of him. Magic energy rebuilds itself every twenty four hours, so it's not like he'll be left without magic, but, in the chance his magic doesn't have time to rebuild itself, they'll start draining his physical energy too, and he'll die if that gets too low."

Remus suddenly felt sick.

"How long do you think it'll take to get to that point, though?" He asked anxiously.

"For James, awhile, but I'd rather not test that theory. You and Sirius are in a magic desert called the forest of whispered secrets, which is not far away from where James and I are being held, but do NOT try to rescue us by yourselves. I've given Severus a message to pass on to Flametail, she'll come and get us. If you two must come, wait for her." His eyes began to fade from blue back into brown, and Sirius shook his head.

"That was only the second strangest thing that happened to me in the past three days, that's got to be bad, right?" Sirius asked, but Remus wasn't listening.

Remus wasn't usually prejudice against Hogwarts houses, but he'd be damned if he was going to let Peter and James's rescue lie in the hands of two Slytherins, much less two Slytherins who each would rather one of them dead.

"Peter and James are being held somewhere around here, and Peter told me that he's left it up to Snape and Flametail to rescue them, and not to try to help. I can't believe him, can you?" Remus asked Sirius incredulously.

"He what? No way! Flametail wants him dead, and Snape wants James dead. What is he thinking?" Sirius gave a response exactly like what Remus was expecting from him.

Sirius's Point of View

"Are you two planning on going against your friend's wishes?" A voice asked from the shadows. Flametail stepped out from behind a tree. She wasn't wearing her school uniform anymore, instead, she was wearing a black catsuit wrapped in silver braided ropes hung with tiny bottles of potions and powders. Her hair, instead looking like ink pouring from the top of her head and over her shoulders, covering the left side of her face, it was pulled back in a long, messy braid that, though it looked hastily done, was almost attractive... wait, what? He did not just think that, he'd always thought Scorpion Flametail was ugly, with that stupid little sneer, and her permanent, ice cold glare. She didn't have either of those things right now, she was grinning, and her eyes were wide, alert, and sparkling mischievously. Other than that, she looked the same. She still had skin almost as pale as snow, makeup as dark as her hair, nail polish the same shade. She looked different, dare he think human.

"So maybe we are, what's it to you?" Sirius challenged, folding his arms. Flametail laughed, not quite a giggle, not a cackle, but something kind of in between, it was almost cute... no way, he did not just think that either. He did not think anything Scorpion Flametail did or said was cute, ever.

"Nothing really, I was just on my way to Cougar's Cavern to collect skinwalker teeth for a potion, when I passed the wreckage of a horse drawn cart and I overheard voices. I thought you you two might need help." She said with a shrug. There was something different in her voice, too. It had a similar sound, but, where it was always depressed or angry, it, while still being deep for a girl's, was bright and friendly.

"Skinwalkers?" Remus snapped immediately.

"Yes, why?" Flametail asked, cocking her head to one side and raising an elegantly sculpted eyebrow.

"If you're collecting skinwalker teeth, then you obviously know where a lot of skinwalkers are, and seeing as our two best friends were kidnapped by them, I feel like it would be important to know where said location was." Sirius growled, anger building inside him. Flametail pursed her lips slightly, looking puzzled. She squeezed her eyes shut when she next spoke, reminding Sirius of an anime character.

"Cougar's Cavern isn't far from here, I think you took a wrong turn at the tree of bitter sorrow." She said, sounding slightly confused.

"You mentioned Cougar's Cavern before, but what is it?" Remus asked, crossing his arms.

Flametail opened her eyes again and grinned. The next words came out of her mouth so fast, Sirius barely understood them.

"You don't know about Cougar's Cavern? You two must be wand-weilders, oh sorry, that means wizard, but you probably figured that out anyway. I always thought you wizards were ever so clever being able to do spells without chi or chakra and being able to make affective potions without knowing about even half of the magical creatures that exist or the different variates of magical plants. Then there are some of you who can change form at will without having to center your chi, but wait you don't know what that is, how silly of me. You probably don't even know what I'm talking about right now do you? Are there schools you can go to, to learn wizard magic? Wait, of course there are, where else would the moggle borns go? That is what you call them right, moggles? I'm not sure, we just call them Te-sukiru. What school are you from? Ooh, wait, how did you end up here in the forest of whispered secrets? Do you know you're in a magic desert? Aw, you poor things must be lost, lucky that we just happened to run into each other isn't it? I can help you, ooh, wait you're two friends.

I can take you up to Cougar's Cavern, and we can bring them out, and I can grab myself some skinwalker teeth. Their pretty hard to get, and their expensive. Have you ever used them before? Do most wand- I mean wizards know what skinwalkers are? No, hold on, I remember now, they don't. Aren't you two clever? Do you know what soul weavers are? I hope you haven't run into any of those, they can be nasty. Poor dears, just minding their own business, then poof! Oh, sorry, I got distracted again." Sirius turned to look at Remus, who looked over at him. Sirius knew for a fact that Remus's dropped jaw and raised eyebrows were mirrored on his face. This was definitely not the Scorpion Flametail they knew.

"Wait, wouldn't you know the answers to most of those questions, you go to Hogwarts." Remus said exasperatedly.

"Hogwarts, where's that?" Flametail asked. "No, wait, let me guess... Hogwarts is a wizard school... Am I right?"

"Yes. You go to school there with us." Sirius answered, feeling quite confused.

"No, I should think not. I've never even met a wand- sorry, wizard before, nor a witch for that matter. You must have me confused with someone else." She said. Sirius hadn't a clue as to what was going on, neither, it seemed, did Remus.