"I am surprised you're awake," Regan smiled. "It's almost morning."
"Ah," Rubeus Hagrid waved a hand. "I'm kept up at all hours."
The teakettle began to whistle so he stood and removed it from over the fireplace and poured, making up the tea. Regan reclined in her seat in Hagrid's cabin, smiling at his comment. She looked around the area, though she'd taken it in when she first entered. A one-room place, it had hams and peasants hanging from the roof, not what she expected. The massive crossbow she'd seen him holding when she came across him in the Forbidden Forest was sitting on the table, taking up most of it. Regan could tell from his scent he was half-giant, but raised as human and considered himself one so she didn't take that into account for his personality.
A large black dog, which Hagrid called Fang, was lying on the floor under the table. It looked old, white hairs in its body and when it had laid down there earlier it had tottered. Regan got the feeling its lifespan was being enhanced magically, but that wouldn't work on a non-magical creature for long.
"Here yeh are," Hagrid held out the cup.
Regan took it, relishing the smell of seeping tea leaves. She blew on it, then sipped. "It's good."
Hagrid laughed as he sat in a chair across from her. "I've had some time to learn to make it."
Regan inclined her head in acknowledgement, taking another sip.
"What were ya doin in the Forbidden Forest, if yeh don't mind me asking?"
"Not at all," Regan smiled. "I have never been around so many humans for so long andneeded a break. It's hard enough trying to match my schedule to yours. I can't imagine sleeping through the beautiful night."
There was a chuckle from Hagrid. "I suppose that's a problem."
"There aren't any humans in the Forbidden Forest so I went there," Regan continued. "I explored it a little earlier. It's a marvelous place. I feel I could spend weeks hunting and still not know all the land."
Hagrid smiled at her smile. It was quite a forest.
"Besides," Regan added. "It's a new moon out. That's the best time to hunt. It's darkest then. My kind normally stays in during the full moon. We don't like having to share the night with werewolves and anything else using the moon's extra light to navigate."
"I wasn't expectin' ter see ya arguing with centaurs," Hagrid supposed.
Regan threw back her head and laughed. That was exactly what she'd been doing when Hagrid had found them.
"I wanted to keep exploring," Regan smiled, fangs flashing in the light as she did so. "It was hardly my concern I was entering their territory. They didn't need to get so huffy about it, as if an arrow is fast enough to hit me."
"They're territorial," Hagrid confirmed.
He'd looked between Regan and Magorian, the leader of the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest, as they shouted insults back and forth: half-breed, leech, gelding (that one had smarted the centaur), ghoul. They'd stopped when Hagrid agreed to take Regan back with him.
"I think I was winning that fight," Regan smiled mischievously.
It had looked that way from Hagrid's point of view as well. He just… hadn't expected the name-calling.
"Vampires and centaurs don't get along?" Hagrid asked.
Regan shook her head, picking up the teacup. She took a brief sip. "Centaur blood tastes like horse. We have no interest in them. You know how they are when you start calling them half-breed." She set the cup back on the saucer. "By the way, what were you doing in the Forbidden Forest? Are you normally there?"
"Ah," Hagrid waved a hand. "I was trying to check on Eoghan, not that I got close."
Regan tilted her head to one side, curious.
Hagrid explained. "He's Aragog oldest. He leads the spiders now."
"The Acromantula colony," Regan offered. Hagrid nodded. Regan had thought so. "I came across it when I was exploring, didn't get too close. Our flesh tastes terrible to them but we're light-footed enough we can maneuver across their web without getting caught. They hate it."
Spiders didn't coat their webs solid with the sticky adhesive that caught bugs. They'd get caught in it to if that was the case. Rather, they put small beads of adhesive with minute gaps, just large enough they could put their foot between them. With webs as big as the acromantula's, vampires could take advantage of it as well.
"Our species rarely meet," Regan admitted, "at least in this part of the world. The last time was oh, a thousand years ago. There was a small colony in Ireland, some Dark Wizard tried to control them to guard his horde, but native wizards exterminated them and him."
It was actually in dealing with Eilise, that spider's leader, her father got the respect of the other vampires despite being a half-breed.
"Oh?" Hagrid looked intrigued.
"It's a long story," Regan waved a hand, "and I'd like to get back out before the sun rises. Why were you concerned about them?"
"Aragog was one of my friends," Hagrid told her. "I helped him escape into the forest when the other wizards tried ta kill him. The colony was awful worried. It sounded like Eoghan had been attacked, maybe hurt, but they won't let me near 'im."
Regan was taken aback. "What would attack the leader of an Acromantula colony? They're huge."
Hagrid shook his head. He didn't know. Regan took another sip of the delicious drink, finishing it.
She set the cup down. "By the way."
Hagrid had been staring into his drink moodily, but raised his eyes.
"Do most humans live in homes like this?" Regan waved a hand at the cabin. "The only ones whose homes I've visited are Griffin Lestrange and his cousin Malfoy. Their houses are huge."
Hagrid gave a chuckle. "Aye, I suspect they are. Most aren't."
"They this sized?"
Hagrid gauged her for a moment, but she didn't seem to be mocking his dwelling.
"In between," he decided.
Regan nodded thoughtfully. This gap in her knowledge was why she was here. She thought about the Forbidden Forest. Now that Hagrid was mentioning it, the centaur patrol she'd come across had been on-edge before they'd seen her. She'd wondered what had them in an uproar.
"There's still a few hours left in the night," Regan said as she stood. "Why don't I see how close I can get to Eoghan?"
"Oh, would ya?" Hagrid was surprised.
"The only acromantula who breed in a colony are the ruling pair, which are fifteen to twenty feet tall," Regan pointed out. "If there's something that can get through the hundreds of other children and hurt the alpha, I'd like to know what it is, if only so I can avoid it."
Hagrid smiled. "I'd be much obliged. He's Aragog's son yah know. I'd help 'im if I could. Nothing's ever attacked them before, if that's what happened. His children jus don't trust me the same as Aragog did."
"I suppose I'll see," Regan smiled, standing. She paused. "Would you mind if I came back and we spoke again later?"
Few humans felt comfortable around her. Though she'd met and spoken to all the teachers individually, some, like the Potions teacher Sebastian Burns, made it clear from their manner they didn't want to see her again.
"Sure," Hagrid smiled. "I love the company and I know Fang does, don't yeh Fang?"
He looked down at the giant black dog, which ignored him.
"Confounded dog," Hagrid grumbled good-naturedly.
Regan smiled. She'd done that a lot in the past few minutes. Of all the teachers, the Care of Magical Beasts instructor was the friendliest. She left. Other than Griffin, Marcelle, and Scorpius, no humans had been so totally relaxed around her. Hagrid had a good heart. Maybe that was why she'd agreed to look in on the spider. Part of it was curiosity to see an alpha acromantula she knew. She'd been schooled by her kin with other part-human children at Tír na nÓg. Magical beasts were an interest of hers.
Regan slipped into a steady jog as she headed to the forest. The stars were bright overhead and she rapidly reached the forest. She oriented herself, using the trees, stars, and her own previous scent from her explorations, then went to where she had seen the webs. She stopped when she saw the first strands. The massive funnel web that served as their home wasn't far. The spiders wouldn't stray outside as long as she didn't touch their web strands.
Regan shifted her eyes down, focusing her magic to her hearing. There were hundreds of heartbeats within, none human. Some were larger than others. One was truly massive. Of course, all of the hearts she was hearing were adult acromantula. Unless they were the alpha pair, they would only be about waist-height. The infant ones, some the size of a coin, were too tiny for their heartbeats to register so far away. She lifted her head, magic fading. She didn't have much contact with bugs compared to humans so she couldn't tell if their hearts were racing or the rapid pace she heard was normal.
Well, the best way to say hello was to say hello. She ducked under a strand and walked into their web. The spiders weren't sure what to make of her. She could feel their hunger, an almost palatable force, but also their hesitation. Larger ones hung from the trees above waiting to descend. Smaller ones scattered underfoot as she walked so she didn't step on them. Webs wove into the canopy, killing the trees and blocking the stars. Regan fought back the instinct to draw her dirk. They were circling but not attacking.
She listened but couldn't make sense of their clicking sounds. Eoghan was certainly going to know she was coming. Regan looked around when she noticed there were strands of webbing freely drifting in the wind, unanchored. Other sections of the web looked to have been hastily rebuilt. Her eyes shifted downward. There were stains on the webbing on the ground. It didn't smell like blood, but spiders, like all bugs, lacked conventional blood. No bodies, but acromantula ate their dead. Still, there must have been a fight.
She came into sight of the massive funnel web the colony's alpha lived. What would attack the spiders in the heart of their territory?
Something very large and dark was in the back of the funnel. Regan stopped near the entrance. Spiders hung on webs and branches and tree trunks around her, on fallen limbs on the floor, and dangled from their thread in the canopy.
"Come out," Regan ordered the massive spider within the funnel. "I know you're there Eoghan. Hagrid sent me to check on you. Unless you're his mate."
The mention of Eoghan's mate aroused noise from the spiders around her. Regan guessed it wasn't a coincidence she could only hear one massive heartbeat. She looked into the den, the shadows doing little to hamper her vision.
"Can you even stand?" Regan sighed.
The giant heap in the back of the den shifted, struggling to his feet. Regan stepped away from the mouth of the entrance to give him room.
"Hagrid?" A voice echoed around the clearing. "I knew that name once."
Masculine, Regan recognized, so Eoghan.
"My father told me he was a great man," Eoghan recalled almost wistfully. "He said we could never hurt him. I understood why he cared for such prey, who sheltered him and brought him his wife, my mother, but he was prey. He still is. Why would he send you to me, vampire?"
Regan's eyes got a little bigger. How did he know what specie she was? As far as she knew, they'd never met a vampire before, so they should have no knowledge of her kind. How much had Hagrid taught Aragog?
The tip of a foot appeared at the opening of the web, then another. Eoghan stepped into view and Regan had to tip her head up to look him in the eyes. His stride was uncertain, wobbly. A right leg, second from the front, was gone, torn off at the body. The flesh where the joint had once been was ragged, the wound still open and exposed.
"Hagrid thought you'd been attacked and wanted to make sure you were okay," Regan replied. "You wouldn't let him get close-"
"So he asked a living dead to come in his place," Eoghan finished.
"I volunteered," Regan corrected. "I didn't know there were any animals in this forest capable of hurting an alpha like you. Evidently, I was wrong."
"It does not belong here!" Eoghan raised his voice, staring down at her, the hairs on his body twitching. "It has never been here before! It came here, killed my siblings, my children, my wife Moira…"
His voice cracked, trailing off. Regan stared at him. Wife? Even vampires addressed their partner as consort or mate, never something as human as wife. But this spider was. And he sounded heartbroken. Regan exhaled, rubbing the back of her neck. It seemed these spiders were more human then she had thought. They were certainly as sentient as any Being.
"What attacked your family?" Regan asked gently. "If it is in the forest, it may come back, or attack someone else."
"It will not return," Eoghan promised. "It lost its taste for our flesh after it tore off my leg and left in disgust. If it attacks someone else, that is not my concern."
Which Regan admitted was true. "Do you know what it was?"
"They were of the forest," Eoghan said. "It was not."
That wasn't a whole lot to go on. "So… something got into the Forbidden Forest and recruited some of its inhabitants?"
"Yes…" Eoghan said. "A shadow. We could not kill it because it does not live."
Regan felt a chill. "An amortal?"
Poltergeists and Dementors were amortal. Neither however, would try to eat an acromantula's leg.
"I suppose I better try to figure out what it is," Regan sighed. If it was amortal, a non-being, that significantly narrowed the range of possibilities. She recalled how flighty the centaurs had been. No doubt they knew more than they were letting on. "Have anything else to tell me?"
The spider, its legs almost twenty feet long, said nothing.
"Didn't think so," Regan smiled. "Will you let your family attack me, Eoghan?"
The massive spider was silent for several seconds and the spiders around them fell silent, waiting their kin's command.
"No," Eoghan decided. "Your flesh will only make us ill and I can sense your power and bloodlust. I have seen enough of my family die."
"Wise," Regan agreed. "On all counts."
She turned her back on the alpha and walked the way she had come. Her senses were hyper-tuned. Eoghan did not attack her. His family stepped back to clear a path, explicitly following his orders. Not a single one moved towards her.
She made it out of the webbing and back into the natural forest. Regan turned and looked back, expression curious. She took a few steps backwards and resumed her earlier jog, heading to where she'd met the earlier centaur patrol. An amortal was nothing to sneeze at, if that's what was going on. There were ways to fend them off, but you couldn't kill something that hadn't been alive to begin with. Besides, it was vicious whatever it was. If it lost its taste for spider, who knew what flesh it may go after next? Griffin and Marcelle were in the nearby castle.
Regardless, Regan relished the chance to be out in the new moon. The stars were plenty of light. She could see as clearly as a human could under the mid-day sun. Let's see. She had been around here when the centaurs had-
Regan's hand snapped out, catching the arrow behind the arrowhead before it struck her chest. She lowered it, turning slightly so she was looking where the projectile had come from. There stood six centaurs, smaller than the number she had run into before. All had arrows nocked and aimed at her.
Regan smiled. She had been around here when the centaurs had done exactly that.
Regan tossed the arrow aside. "You Centaurs aren't the most imaginative branch on the tree, are you? I know the sound of an arrow cutting through air."
"Why have you come back?" The one who had shot demanded. "You just left."
"I wasn't planning on it," Regan supposed, "but there's something in the forest that shouldn't be. It tore through the acromantula colony. You lot were pretty on edge. Know something?"
"I am under no obligation to answer a leech's questions," the same centaur replied hotly.
"Bane," a reddish centaur supposed.
"Shut up Ronan," Bane snapped then returned attention to her. "If there is an intruder in our forest it is you!"
"Oh come now," Regan drawled, "you know that's not true. There's something creeping about with a taste for flesh. It didn't like how those spiders tasted so I imagine it'll move onto something with warmer, thicker blood. You centaurs have normal blood, even if it tastes like horse."
"You don't learn," Bane growled.
"Neither do you if you intend to shoot me again," Regan taunted. "That won't-"
A stick snapped. Regan stopped talking and turned towards the sound, dirk drawn and in her hand. Her eyes scanned the undergrowth, hearing strained.
"Don't try to scare us vampire, it won't work," Bane warned in an almost tired voice.
"Shut up," Regan ordered. "I felt bloodlust. Are you mules that dense?"
"You're going to pay for that," Bane promised.
"Bane," Ronan whispered.
"What?" Bane demanded.
He stopped. Everything in the forest was silent. There wasn't a sound from any of the nocturnal creatures. Bane silently drew another arrow from the quiver around his waist, nocking it. The centaurs looked around. The bloodlust had vanished. Regan slowly straightened her stance but the sounds of the animals didn't come back.
"Where are you?" Regan muttered. "I know you're here. Damn, I can't hear any heartbeats."
A streak of white leapt from the underbrush and latched onto one of the centaurs as they turned to face it, teeth fastening on the human chest, claws dragging across its body. The centaur screamed and tried to pry it off itself. Bane released his arrow but it harmlessly flew through the specter's body.
A bolt of red struck the white creature, knocking it free from the centaur and sending it flying backwards. It fled into the trees. The wounded centaur, a chunk of his human chest torn out with the attack, collapsed to his knees. The other centaurs clustered protectively around him. One knelt to apply healing magics to his dire wounds.
Bane glanced over to see Regan had a hand extended. Red energy wafted about her fingers. She sheathed the dirk, recognizing conventional weapons wouldn't work. Where was it? Whatever it was, it wasn't the source of the blood lust. She flashed a hand. A red lightning bolt leapt from her fingers to strike an incoming white target. It was knocked back and fled.
"The bloodlust isn't coming from them," Regan muttered. "They were of the forest. It was not."
She couldn't see them, but felt them start to approach. Regan was atuned to their presence after seeing them.
"I'm running out of patience," Regan grumbled. "Close your eyes, half-breeds."
Red lightning jumped between her hands and she pushed them closer together, condensing the red into a white sphere. The soft crackle of lighting turned into a high-pitched whine and she threw it into the air. White light flooded the area between the trees, scattering the animals of the undergrowth. The white streaks were knocked backwards, howling and barking as they hit the ground, rolling, temporarily stunned. The four white figures shook it off, standing. They looked canid, large white semi-transparent dogs with long snouts and forked tails.
"Gytrash?" Regan recognized, stunned.
They were vicious, fast brutes who liked to attack travelers. But to go after a patrol of centaurs and a vampire? This wasn't like them.
"Can any of you do a light charm?" Regan asked. "That'll handle these."
"No," Roran said.
Regan grimaced. Light wasn't a vampire's specialty. That trick she had was the only one and it had only stunned them. Well, she just needed to teach them she wasn't worth the trouble of attacking.
The Gytrash began to back away, ears flattened, whimpering. They were leaving? She looked to either side. The bloodlust was growing stronger. Something growled directly in front of her. Regan stared, eyes shifting, trying to find the location of the sound.
"Grim!" Bane shouted.
Regan saw it. Her eyes widened. A large black shadow had crept into starlight. It was a dog the size of a small bear, yellow eyes gleaming. Its back molars were long curved fangs nearly six inches in length.
"Grim?" She repeated.
No way. That was a myth!
It growled at her. Her predatory instinct kicked in at the strength of its bloodlust focused on her. She growled back, brown eyes lightening to brilliant crimson, canines lengthening into fangs. The creature's silhouette wasn't set but seemed to shimmer, changing dimension, one moment being solid and the next transparent. The ground around its paws was charred with frost like a Dementor.
Red light condensed in her palm and she threw it at it. The bolt went through its image and scorched the ground behind it. Regan resisted the urge to back up.
"What are you?" Regan asked. "Why are you having the Gytrash attack?"
It did not respond.
"What are you trying to do?" Regan asked. "Why did you attack the acromantula?"
The Grim shook its head once, then returned its gaze to her.
"You didn't attack Eoghan?" Regan suddenly realized the gytrash were gone. "Where did they-? What did you do?"
Again, the Grimm shook its head once.
"Are you saying you didn't control the gytrash?" Regan asked. "Eoghan said something not alive worked with the creatures of the forest to attack him and his family. Aren't you the amortal?"
It didn't respond.
Had its appearance chased the gytrash away? Then what had come from outside the forest? Regan could still feel the bloodlust around her, but it was rapidly fading. She'd been mistaken. There was no bloodlust coming from this apparition. Where had it come from?
"You're not," Regan said slowly. She took a breath. "If you're a Harbinger of Death Grim, whose death are you warning me of? Mine?"
The Grim turned and pointed in another direction, snout raised. The apparition vanished, dissolved, evaporated. The only evidence it had ever been there was the frost-bitten ground. Regan's expression was perplexed.
The centaurs' heartbeats were going rapidly, breathing light and fast. Even without turning she could tell they were terrified. Was it the attack, the wounded comrade, the Grim? Probably all three. She looked in the direction the Grim had turned to. Regan could sense the Earth's magnetic field. She could always tell what direction north was. It kept her oriented. Unless she was mistaken, there was only one thing in that direction.
Ignoring the centaurs as they started to try to mend their comrade, Regan went to one of the nearby trees. She ran up its trunk as easily as she had across the ground, part of her magic she loved. When she reached a branch, she jumped from it to the next. Soon she stood near the top of the tree, the slim branches bending under her weight. This was a shorter tree and she needed to go this high to get above the canopy. The wind made the treetop sway and whip her hair.
Regan bit her lower lip. She would tell Hagrid of Eoghan first, he deserved to know. Then she needed to tell McGonagall what was going on. This being not of the forest was a huge threat. All the proof she needed was that the apparition, whatever it was, had turned and faced in the same direction Regan was now looking. The only thing in that direction was Hogwarts Castle.
Whatever the Arclights are up to doesn't come into effect until the full moon but it seems Hogwarts won't have peace in the meantime.
