Ch. 30 - Snowstorm
Friday dawned late on a heavy snowstorm. Wind whipped through the Grampians and over the lake, whistling in high-pitched, eerie gusts past the windows and through the courtyards of Hogwarts. It carried swirls of snow with it: fat, wet, slushy flakes that soaked through all but the thickest cloaks and scarves.
Harry, who never had enough time for a shower between weapons practice and lunch, stayed a slight distance away from the rest of his dormmates as they left Hermione and Neville brewing hot chocolate in the common room - Neville's idea, something the entire House would be glad for, but most especially the first and third years. The youngest Gryffindors had Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures today. Neville didn't really need the help, but Hermione was lying in wait for the Weasley twins, to threaten them with all sorts of dire hexes if they dared to boobytrap or spike the chocolate.
They clattered and shoved their way up the stairs in Gryffindor Tower, and Seamus opened the door to the 5th-year dorm. "Oh HELL-" he moaned, rushing in. "What idiot left the window open?"
The other boys swarmed into the freezing room, as Seamus jerked the window shut. Snow had soaked into the curtains and coverings of Yuusuke and Harry's beds. Harry tried to brush the melting stuff from his pillow - why, oh WHY had he left the curtains hanging open today? - and Ron shook it from the blankets.
Kuwabara dumped more coal in the stove. "Where's the shrimp when you need him?" he grumbled.
"Who knows?" Yuusuke answered, thumping his own pillows harder than he needed to and throwing them back on his bed. He yanked the nightstand out of the slushy puddle it stood in, and paused. "Did one of you guys move my broom?"
"No."
"Nope."
"Not me."
"Then..." Yuusuke's voice trailed off. Harry glanced up in time to see the other boy's gaze flick from the window to the place where his left his broom and back. "That little-!"
Kuwabara set the coal bucket down with a clank. "What is it?"
Yuusuke stomped to the window and threw it wide open once more. Frigid air gusted back into the room.
"Hey-!"
"Oi-!"
"Cut it out-!"
"HIEI, YOU BASTARD!" he yelled, leaning out the window into the blowing snow.
"Close the window!" Seamus shouted.
Yuusuke ignored him. "GIMME BACK MY BROOM!"
Harry caught the furious boy by the back of the shirt before he fell headfirst from the room. "Whoa, hey! What makes you think he can hear you?" And what makes you think it's him?
"Oh, he can hear me JUST fine," Yuusuke seethed. "He left the goddamn window open..."
That makes NO sense, Harry thought. Ron reached over and helped push Yuusuke back, closing the window. "What makes you think Hiei's got your broom?" the redhead asked.
"Nobody else would go flying in a blizzard," Yuusuke answered, as if it was obvious.
"But-"
Yuusuke jerked loose from their grasp, pivoting on his heel, and stormed from the room. Harry glanced around, hoping to convince Kuwabara to help calm Yuusuke down.
Kuwabara was also gone.
-0-0-0
Hiei fought the wind for control of his - er, Yuusuke's - broom, as he flew high above the broad fields between the school and the Forest. Snow whirled and blew in his eyes, nearly at whiteout conditions, but all it affected was his visibility.
The frigid soaking he was getting would've doused any fire demon... except him. One of the only perks of being half Ice Maiden was his inability to be bothered by snow and ice (the equinox didn't count: that was about magical influences, not actual weather). Being wet and cold was somewhat refreshing, in fact. He liked it better than being sooty and dry.
"Hiei!" Yuusuke's voice floated up to him on the blustery winds, nearly drowned out in the hollow rush of air. "Teme!"
Hiei glanced down, squinting through whirling white. Two splotches of black, one dabbed with orange, floundered towards him through the snow.
"Get down here so I can kick your ass!" Yuusuke yelled, his fist waving.
"Can't shoot this far?" Hiei shouted back, goading him. Fire already, Urameshi - I'm BORED.
"The hell I can't! Get off MY broom so I can shoot!"
That's what's stopping him? That he might damage his broom? Hiei sneered.
Flying over to the high walls of the school, Yuusuke and Kuwabara kicking up snow as they ran in his wake, Hiei landed next to a statue on the roof. He dismounted and set the broom in the outstretched stone arms.
"What are you doing?!"
Hiei leapt from the roof, landing several meters before Yuusuke. "Safekeeping."
"Bring it back down here!"
Hiei smirked. "Make me."
"I, the great Kuwabara Kazuma, will make you, shrimp!" Kuwabara leapt at Hiei, fists swinging. Hiei darted away.
-0-0-0
From his place in the open doorframe of the school, with a perfect ringside view of the sudden fight, Harry blinked. Had Hiei just Apparated-?! On school grounds-?! He couldn't-!
Kuwabara swung again, and again, Hiei flickered and vanished, reappearing a couple of feet away.
"That's not possible... what's he DOING?" Ron asked, sounding every bit as shocked as Harry felt.
Hiei shot a dark look at Kuwabara. "Go away. This isn't between us."
"Teme-!"
"No." Yuusuke's hand shot out, a gesture clearly stating 'stay out of this'. "This is between me... and Hiei." Kuwabara backed off immediately. Yuusuke half-smirked at Hiei. "If you wanted a fight, why didn't you just SAY so?"
"More fun this way," Hiei answered, an identical expression on his face.
"You've been spending WAY too much time with Kurama..." Yuusuke muttered. Then he blurred into motion and vanished.
"Him TOO?!" Ron squawked, echoing Harry's thoughts as Hiei also vanished. The pair reappeared a split second later, high in the air and twisting towards the ground, before disappearing again. "They can't... they just can't..." Ron started to moan.
They can't be Apparating. They can't be- so how ARE they moving-? Harry squinted, focusing on Hiei, and this time the flicker of the boy's disappearance seemed to last a split second longer, blurring in the direction he reappeared in. Snow churned in his wake.
That's it! Harry's gaze fell to the snow-covered ground. Trails of footprints zipped through it, new tracks laying themselves down in the instants between each boy's 'Apparation". They aren't Apparating at all... they're moving too fast to be seen! He would've thought 'invisible', except for the speed the footprints appeared at.
Another blur as Hiei disappeared, and this time Harry thought he saw a flicker of black over the new trail. Almost too fast to be seen, Harry revised.
"They're running," he said aloud, stopping Ron's soft, confused moaning mid-word.
"What?" his best friend asked.
Harry pointed. "Look at the snow. They're running... I can almost see it, in blurs."
Kuwabara looked over his shoulder. "You can?" he asked. Harry nodded. "How many hits did Yuusuke just try?"
"He tried to hit?" Harry asked blankly. He couldn't see THAT much detail.
"Yup. I counted seven."
Ron peered closer. "I can't... wait, they're kind of blurring when they vanish. Is that what you mean, Harry?"
"Sort of."
Abruptly, both boys reappeared, grinning. Yuusuke's right fist was in Hiei's left hand, near the shorter boy's stomach; Hiei's bandaged right wrist was caught in Yuusuke's left hand, poised to deliver a chop to the neck.
"NOW can I have my broom back?"
-0-0-0
Sunday had turned into Monday scant hours ago, and the castle rested uneasily. A silvery moon hung high overhead, the night clear and brilliant with stars. Light reflected from every flat surface and the shallow, frozen cove of the lake, all mounded with shimmering drifts of snow. The lightest sleepers within the castle lay awake in their beds; the majority of the castle tossed and turned in their sleep, behind their bedcurtains. The few insomniacs, rarely able to sleep in normal darkness, roamed the halls on restless, silent feet.
It was this light, though, shining through the tightly shut windows of the Slytherin dorms and past their bedcurtains, that masked the glow from the monitorleaves of Kurama's spyeye.
Kurama bit his lip as his vines stirred Suzuki's potion one last time. It was dangerous... so dangerous... but he couldn't change tonight's sleeplessness any more than he could change the brewing time of Past Life. None of his sleepflowers lasted less than 24 hours, and all of them had side effects: headaches, aftertastes, miscontrol of magic, and memory loss, so he couldn't drug his roommates, not without anyone realizing. I really should try to crossbreed an indetectable one sometime, he mused, but it had never really been important enough to waste years experimenting. It wasn't as if he'd ever cared before; knock the sentries out, take the valuables, be long gone and days away with everything sold by the time anyone woke.
But that was then. This was a nuisance now.
Vines coiled around his hands, he drew his index finger down slowly, and watched as the last, key ingredient - the peachpit-like Makai seed, all traces of chocolate carefully scrubbed away - plopped into the gray, lumpy sludge. It instantly turned into a clear, syrupy juice, the seed bobbing to the top.
Kurama slowly let out a breath. It looked to have come out right, though he would have to wait and check the actual color in daylight. The feyflower over his cauldron wasn't bright enough.
He ran though Suzuki's instructions in his mind. At this point, the potion was relatively stable. It would keep for months, even years if stored properly in stoppered glass bottles (not corked: the corkwood would soak up the potion like a sponge and revert to a twig, which obviously wouldn't actually keep the bottle closed). A bit of rock dust or dirt sifting into the cauldron at this point would do nothing.
The question is, Kurama thought, do I leave it until a safer point in time - and risk having to drink a bit of dirt with it when I do use it, ick - or do I bottle it now?
He glanced at the other spyeye leaves, hung slightly above his head and angled carefully. The hallway outside remained empty; Malfoy's seat in the common room was empty - Kurama quickly panned across the room, finding the blonde had moved closer to the fire - and Snape's patrol route should have him near the library. Kurama raised a hand and jiggled the toggle on his third leaf.
The professor wasn't there.
Kurama flicked his vines back into the depths of his bed's canopy, sending a curt command to his spyeyes as he eased silently down to lie flat. The soft glow of the leaves faded away slowly - snapping the monitors off, even as faint as their light was, would be instantly noticeable to any possible observer. And with Snape off his radar, possibly anywhere in the castle...
Secrecy first. Bottling later.
Kurama shut his eyes and willed himself to sleep.
-0-0-0
McGonagall took names on Wednesday. Harry wrote his down, as did Ron and Hermione - she flat-out refused to leave the library this year, and Ron never left Harry alone for Christmas.
All of the transfer students were staying as well.
-0-0-0
Thursday afternoon, after half-carrying Neville back to Gryffindor Tower - the stubborn kid had tried to repeat last week's surge of power, and had nearly knocked himself unconscious before Kurama could rein him in - Kurama hurried to the greenhouses and let himself into number one.
Greenhouse One was the home of the bottom-level plants used in the first-year fall term. The most dangerous plants in here were Gigglegorse, which induced a quick burst of laughter from people who smelled it, and Impish Snare, a weak relative of Devil's Snare.
Today, the Impish Snare had a firm grip on a little first-year boy, who began kicking and yelling the instant he saw Kurama. "No! Go 'way, ye Slytherin bastard!"
Kurama took note of the Gryffindor tie, and sighed. Stupid, stupid House system... Dodging kicks, he knelt next to the child and began briskly unlooping the vines. "What ever possessed you to come this close to a snare of any sort without your wand out?" he asked, not expecting an answer. He didn't get one, the boy frozen, tense with suspiscion as he realized he was being set loose.
A familiar weight yanked at Kurama's hair, as he finished with the boy's arms and turned to untangling his legs. Kurama smiled. The wood sprite had found him quickly.
"There you are," he murmured. "Come up and say hello." Maybe the stupid sprite would quit pulling his hair - a sharp tug, the bowtruckle squirming under his ponytail, twisting locks of Kurama's hair in with its grip on his robes - or not.
"What's that?" the child asked, startled out of his sullen, automatic distrust of Slytherins.
"A bowtruckle," Kurama replied. "It's been in this greenhouse since September."
"Cor'..." the boy breathed. "I thought those things did nae like humans."
"This one seems to think I'm a tree." He pulled on the vine looped around the boy's waist. "Twist and step out." The boy obeyed, freeing himself.
"What's your name?" Kurama asked, tossing the vine back into the mass of Impish Snare.
"Kenneth."
"And what class are you missing, Kenneth?"
The child gulped, two bright spots of color rising in his cheeks. "Defense," he answered weakly.
At least it wasn't Potions. Snape was far scarier and less fair than Genkai. Kurama smiled. "I need to speak to Professor Genkai anyway. I'll walk you there."
"Dinna ye need tae do something in here?" Kenneth asked quickly.
Observant, aren't you. "I have." Kurama reached up to his shoulder, brushing a finger along the bowtruckle's twiglike arm. "I picked up this little fellow."
"Oh." Kurama put a firm hand on Kenneth's shoulder, and guided him from the greenhouse and back into the castle proper.
Kenneth sulked all the way to the Defense room's open door, where Kurama tapped a knock. Genkai glanced up, pausing mid-sentence.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Special delivery, Professor," Kurama said, giving Kenneth a gentle push into the room. Before too much attention fell on him, though, Kurama added, "And can I talk to you for a moment?"
Genkai left the room, shutting the door most of the way behind her. "What is it, Minamino?"
Kurama smiled in his best human-teenager manner. "Well, one, I found the boy caught in an Impish Snare - that's why he was late to class." Genkai raised an eyebrow. "And, two, I need to check something..." His voice flattened, chilling almost imperceptably. "I might miss dinner."
"It's your stomach," Genkai said flatly.
Kurama took that to mean that she would cover for him if he did, and left, the bowtruckle still clinging to his hair and robes.
Once outside again, he headed down towards the lake, slogging through the snow. Troublesome stuff... makes me wish I was in Tokyo, where there's rarely any. I'm leaving a trail a blind Lyxie cub could follow! And as if that wasn't bad enough... He glanced skywards. A host of green dots flittered over the Quidditch pitch. The Slytherin team could see him if he wasn't careful.
He couldn't delay any longer, though.
On the south side of the lake, the forest grew down to the water's edge - not the Forbidden Forest, but a lighter, younger one that covered the hills surrounding Hogsmeade. The lake, castle, and a wide stretch of rocky meadow separated the two here, at their nearest meeting point. Kurama ducked behind one of the few large trees, and drew the necklace-and-vial from around his neck. It dangled innocently in the sunlight, filled with pinkish syrup.
Kurama worked the glass stopper free.
Hope this works, he thought, as he swallowed half the vial - enough to last five hours - and replaced it inside his shirt.
He really didn't know how long it would take. Of the three times he'd taken Past Life before, the first had been in smoke form: inhaled, with near-instant effects. The second time, he'd dosed himself with the liquid before his fight with Karasu, and it had taken a good ten minutes to take effect. The third time, when he'd needed hair for his wand, he'd had the liquid again, and it had taken scarcely three minutes.
Mist swirled lightly over the snow.
Is this...? Had the mist happened during his fight? He couldn't remember; the psychotic demon trying to blow him up had taken up all his attention.
He smirked faintly at that, leaning forward to put a hand in the snow. I sound so blasé... Abruptly, he realized his hand was large and pale, tipped with long, sharp nails, and his sleeve was gone. Fine, lightweight hair wisped against his shoulders; a quick flex of the muscles on his scalp proved his fox ears were in place.
I didn't even notice the shift!
Going from one natural body to another, without having to make it happen, was evidently so effortless as to give no signal. Lucky... he'd been expecting something flashier, and a bit more uncomfortable, from his memories of his fights. Perhaps that had been simply the injuries and distraction.
Youko put his other hand down, going to all fours, and focused. His hands shrank, bones and muscles sliding under the skin, fur growing from it. Thick, dark pads formed from the fleshy parts of his fingertips and palm; his nose and mouth fused and lengthened into a muzzle. One tail became two, four, five. His long, beautiful hair shortened to a thick ruff.
A large, silver, five-tailed fox stood next to the tree, a bowtruckle clinging to his back. With a gleeful yip, and a doglike shaking-out of his body, he flicked a tail and broke into a run.
The cave where Harry and his friends had gone with the dog was surprisingly close to Hogwarts - a single mile, over the ridge and on this side of the stream. Youko stopped next to the strongest tree with a view of the cave, and nudged the bowtruckle off his back. Pushing with his nose, paws, and growling a couple of times, he tried to convey that he wanted the wood sprite to stay here and watch the dog.
He turned away, only to feel a tug on his tail.
STAY, dammit! he yelled mentally, shoving the answer at the sprite with his magic backing it up. Watch black-dog!
The bowtruckle dropped his tail, staring in wide-eyed astonishment at the fox. Then, slowly, it pointed at the tree, then the cave.
keek? echoed through Youko's mind.
If Youko had been in his humanoid form, his jaw would've dropped. I don't believe it. They're close enough to actual plants that I can make myself understood?! Oh, what he could DO with this... a possible network of informers, like Hiei's!
Stay here. Spy on the black dog I'm going to see right now.
? Stay. Go see dog. ?
Confusion rang through the two contradictory concepts. Youko sighed - the command had been too complex. Stay. Watch dog.
Stay. Watch dog. His bowtruckle happily climbed into the tree, orders confirmed.
Youko edged down the slope, circling the cave site. He sniffed - human-scent, all over, mixed with a bit of dog-scent: both male, adult, not-elderly, and fresh. Recalling the faint tinge of cat-scent around McGonagall, Youko would bet that Harry's "dog" was an Animagus.
There were exactly two reasons Youko could think of for an Animagus to be camping out in the winter. One, eccentricity. Despite how offbeat some wizards seemed to be, Youko seriously doubted that one, though. The other choice was necessity - he couldn't live among people. He wasn't spying or errand-running, not if he'd stayed here as long as the scent told Youko he had. So... that left hiding. So the question was, was he hiding from Voldemort, or from the law? ... or both?
And who was he to Harry?