First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who read this story, and of course, those, who had taken their time to write a review, either a small note or a long, involved one or, even going as far as to review almost every update. I'm glad to have gotten more than two hundred reviews as I have finished the first book. It was a fun journey, and this day here marks the beginning of the second part of the journey, which, I hope will be as fun for you as it will be interesting for me.
I have decided, contrary to the idea I had when I started writing FFF, not to post a new story, but continue publishing the new chapters here. If I had, though, this is what could have possibly appeared in my story list today:
Feathers, Fangs and Flames: The Hunt by Nauro
Harry Potter, turned into a werewolf by Remus Lupin a year ago, scarred and injured, yet never completely defeated, is on the hunt for justice. Fighting for the truth, himself, and those dearest to him, Harry wants to see Cho and Ginny safe. But his life has never been simple.
Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 3,500 - Published: 12/26/2012 - Harry P. & Ginny W.
Without further ado, let's move on to the newest chapter.
Disclaimer: You should know the drill.
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BOOK TWO
The Hunt
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Feathers, Fangs and Flames
Chapter XXXVI
Sacrificed
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The Triwizard Tournament was over the very second two Hogwarts Champions had touched the gleaming cup. Everyone was expecting a colourful ending to such an astounding performance, but now...
Students and guests, every wizard and witch were in disarray. Some people were fleeing, spreading unrest as they were moving through the crowd to someplace they could apparate from, some students choosing to run towards the caste, one on top of another - the panic, some deep, primal fear of the wolf, of a violent and painful death, was spreading like a wildfire. Only some Ministry employees were holding ground, unsure as to what their role was to be.
The panic was not at it highest point yet, but that was only due to the fact that the change was not yet complete. The black werewolf already stood in a widening circle. Empty, but for him and a screaming girl he was pressing into the ground. The silvery white fangs, shining with the reflections of the moonlight, were dripping blood and his dark fur was standing threateningly.
Cho Chang looked even smaller than she was, with her long black hair sprawled on the ground like an exotic, surreal, shifting carpet, a shining darkness reaching for the world. Her round, dark brown eyes were tracing the paths of the falling drops. Her face was already freckled with spots of red, warm blood, latched onto her fearful expression.
Albus Dumbledore looked shaken, his worry creeping into his pose - the drawn wand was slightly twitching, and he was slightly crouched, standing on his toes, ready to act.
Lucius Malfoy was a pillar of cool anger - his wand pointed at the wolf, the tip of it lit with green light, his eyes bathing Harry Potter in rage. The eyes of an unrestrained murdered and madman.
It seemed that the time had stopped - any moment now, something would happen, sending everyone in the action.
Many things did happen at once, a second of stillness broken.
Harry's transformation was over.
A phoenix burst into life with bright flame on the shoulder of Albus Dumbledore, looking ready to swoop down and snatch Harry at the word of the Headmaster.
Remus Lupin dashed to stand in the way between Lucius Malfoy and Harry Potter in a swift, inhuman motion, a wand already in his hand.
Alastor Moody snapped a disarming charm at Lucius from the side - point blank - sending the glowing wand up in the air and making Lucius stumble to regain his footing.
A swirling whirlwind of the Portkey snatched both Harry and Cho, sending the wolf and the girl spinning in a mad whirlpool.
Lucius Malfoy screamed in rage.
The Minister of Magic stared, dumbfounded.
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Harry's mind was reeling - there were strange smells of the crowd, blood and death assaulting his nose, his vision was blurry. Filled with red rage of the wolf, he saw only blood and the warm shapes surrounding him - he remembered snarling, growling, trying to make them back off, to focus enough to survive the assault of their foreign presence.
Now, the spinning Portkey had sent him flying into a desk. Something bad was going on - the room was rather silent, and only one warm shape was there with him, falling backwards, trying to escape. And the wolf was still enraged - all Harry's attempts to call it down were for naught.
An enemy?
His rage was tearing deep into his heart with overpowering waves of anger and pain, desperation and fear, and he lunged forward. Something silver flashed in the air - and his fangs bit into something hard and rather heavy - something that should have been flesh, but wasn't.
The red curtain of rage, muddling his vision was slowly retreating and Harry realised just what he was doing - he had jumped forward, trying to bite at the only other person in the room in anger. Cho! She had only half a second to react, and had covered her neck - Harry was afraid to event think about what could have happened just then. And what could still happen - he was biting at her hand, his jaws not closing onto human flesh only because of the silver bracelet she always wore. One he had gifted her, seemingly ages ago.
There was a loud snap, as his teeth cracked the silver bracelet, and a loud pop, throwing him backwards. Some kind of magic had kicked in, throwing him back - away from Cho. Was it a spell she had cast? No - her wand was lying on the grown, mid-way between them.
Harry crashed into something again - this time - a wall, feeling the magical restrictions fall into place - but he knew that they couldn't hold him forever. And he couldn't - mustn't have hurt her. Not anymore. He lowered himself to the ground, trying not to get up. What had he done?
He could see Cho clearly now - everything had a red, bloody shade, but not as much as before. His vision was swirling, he was seeing spots in the air, his eyes were hurting. A trickle of blood was running down his muzzle - was it only his?
Cho, her voice breaking down from terror, was whimpering, looking at the bracelet on her hand. The crack had split the silver bracelet in two - part of the raven was now on the floor, and the whole thing was awkwardly bent - piercing into her skin, even - obviously painful to the girl.
She looked like a small, prey animal cornered by a fearful beast - she was too afraid to move, too afraid to speak, too far from her comfort zone - too broken to act coherently. Cho's gaze didn't even look for the wand, she was looking straight at the big black wolf.
Harry was trying to back away, to hold himself as unthreatening as he could, but he knew that there wasn't much time. When he believed that he wouldn't harm his pack, he wouldn't harm his mate, he hadn't yet smelled human scent so near himself. It was nothing like trying not to hurt a black hound or another werewolf, either in his human or wolf forms. So unlike the ones he had been spending his full moons with. It was a real life human - a true prey.
And humans were alluring - the scent of their intoxicating fear - the tasteful aroma of their raw meat - Harry could see the feast that was waiting for him - he could imagine the incredible pleasure that letting himself loose would bring. He would have to take a step and jump - this time he wouldn't miss, wouldn't let her escape. He would tear into her, breaking the soft skin, feeling the twitching pleasure of the dying prey, it would be so simple, so satisfying... So right.
A part of him was screaming for the wolf to stop, to not give in to temptation, to stand down. And the wolf... He was listening. For now.
Back away! He wanted to scream at her, but it was only a low growl from the depths of his throat. Flee!
Cho, was desperately looking for a way out, when the growl shook her once more, making her jump back.
The sudden movement ticked some sort of switch in Harry's mind - he jumped forward, slamming into an invisible wall. He fell down as a golden translucent barts glimmered from nothingness. Dumbledore - he realised with rising hopes - Dumbledore had accounted for a possibility that he would use the portkey with someone else, someone human touching him.
Cho snatched her wand - luckily - on her side of the room.
The wolf slammed into the wall once again - the magic sent him back, but he didn't care anymore - he was bathing in her fear, taking pleasure in the twitch of her body, in the loud sound of her beating heart. In the change of her smell.
Hunting something that feared him - it was a new thrill, and Harry had to fight tooth and nail for any semblance of control - but like countless times before - he was too weak to force the wolf. Even though the wolf understood his wishes - he had to try and breath the protections - again and again.
Luckily for them both, before the barrier shattered, Cho found the door. It was veiled from their sight - but she knew there had to be a door - and that was one of the things the magic tried to hide. When she started looking - it appeared out of nowhere, and panicking, stumbling she awkwardly grasped the handle and opened it.
She opened a way to an empty corridor - the classroom was in a part of the castle the classes were never held in - at least in the last century or two.
The wolf was still trying to get through, but she saw - not with such vigour as before. And she closed the door, falling on her knees. The wand, clutched like a safeline, fell out of her hand, and she leaned onto the wall- The wall?
The door was gone - stolen by the castle walls. Only the beating heart and the painfully twisted bracelet told her that yes, behind that wall, Harry Potter was a beast trying to get outside - to tear her apart. She had seen his eyes. She knew.
Cho started sobbing uncontrollably.
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"What is the meaning of this!" Lucius Malfoy shouted, wandless and raging. "Dumbledore - you know the law as well as I do! Why are you stepping onto the tradition? Why has your lapdog-," he was still under the effects of a Sonorus Charm and his voice was ringing all over the field. Lucius threw a look at Moody, who seemed worried, but not about the threat in Lucius voice. "Attacked me?"
Dumbledore, at that moment, a picture of venerable wisdom, was no doubt, preparing some well crafted answer. Now, that Harry Potter should have been safe and the emergency Portkey had worked without a glitch - he knew that the destination wasn't changed - he had checked for that first thing. It would be a tough battle of words, that might cost him his Chief Warlock position - but he knew what he had to do.
"Lucius." It wasn't Dumbledore, but Remus, who started to speak.
Worry spread on the Headmaster's face. "Don't," he whispered desperately, knowing what the man was hoping to achieve. "Remus, Harry won't-"
"Sonorus." Remus touched his throat gently, now speaking as loud as Lucius had. His voice carried over everyone, calm, yet ringing with pure steel. Remus was determination personified. "My name is Remus John Lupin and I am a werewolf."
The crowd, still not steady after a werewolf changed, and disappeared in their midst, watched Remus with open fear and repulsion - the thought everyone had in their mind was simple - was this werewolf going to change too, and try to rampage in their ranks - with the anger that radiated together with Remus' voice, it was a viable eventuality. But they listened.
"Albus Dumbledore," he slightly turned to the headmaster as he said this. "Chief Warlock of Wizengamot. A wizard has asked you for an old right to be approved. He is right - Harry Potter is a werewolf, and has been one since last summer."
Lucius didn't know what to say or do - was Remus Lupin defending his claim - that couldn't be true, could it?
"Lucius Malfoy," Remus spat the words like the worst insult there was. "Is right in his saying that the law, passed in sixteen thirty seven, sets a precedent for his request. And he is also correct in Chief Warlock having a final say on the matter, with, of course, the choice to move the matter before the full Wizengamot. In these modern times of change, deciding whether there is a valid reason to use this established precedent, could go either way."
Hermione gasped and started muttering something under her breath. Dumbledore looked at Remus with pleading eyes.
"No doubt, this affair would take quite a while, and our esteemed Lucius Malfoy," the spite was there again, masked under a transparent cloak of etiquette. "The wizard who was a victim in the whole affair, wouldn't see justice served if that was the case. Thus, Chief Warlock, I must ask you to consider your response, and act accordingly."
Lucius had lost any semblance of composure - his eyes were glittering with unrestrained content - he believed that his wildest dream was coming true - was Dumbledore a fool enough to confirm a right to kill his beloved student? There was, however, a nagging feeling that something was going not as planned. Lucius, torn between elation and paranoia, tried to remember the full law established that year.
The Wizarding law, operated similarly to their Muggle counterparts - the precedent of older cases had been the stronger argument - and the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot, like the Muggle House of Lords had the heaviest sway applying the precedents. Lucius did not know what to expect anymore.
"As you might have heard before - my name is Remus John Lupin and it is I who turned Harry Potter into one of my kind - into a werewolf. It was I who forced him to hide the fact for the whole year, I was the one who attacked and turned the last member of the magical family. I await your judgement, Chief Warlock."
The phoenix jumped from Albus shoulder, and flew up into the sky, leaving a fiery trail in the night. There was a cough at the place the bird took off.
Albus Dumbledore, surrounded by complete silence, sighed, and then, there was no more of the old, defeated man. His pose straightened, his eyes started burning with fierce gaze. There was no magic in what he did, but his presence suddenly spiked - everyone turned to look at him - the greatest wizard alive, the man behind the justice of the Wizarding World. The man, having the power to use the old law in the case that, in saner circumstances, would have been dismissed to Wizengamot... With but one word from the Chief Warlock, the ancient law would be applicable.
"Lucius Malfoy, I have heard your claim, and this is my will, as the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot," Albus was speaking slowly and quietly, but with such fire in his words, that everyone turned to see the blaze in his eyes, the firm pose of the wizard, to listen to the words that would decide the fate of the Boy-Who-Lived. "As in the case three hundred years ago, of one Evan Grey, a werewolf who maimed two members of Carrow family, I recognise the connection to the claim of Lucius Malfoy. It must be noted, that in that case, the right for vengeance was approved as per the same right Lucius Malfoy has called forth this night. You all must already know, that like Evan Grey, Harry Potter is the last magical heir to the Potter family, with the magical name to be lost in the event of his death. Exactly like Evan Grey, Harry Potter had been turned against his own will. Evan Grey was pardoned, for a werewolf who turned him had come forth before the Wizengamot and confessed having turned the last member of the Grey family into a werewolf. Like Remus Lupin just did.
"As Lucius Malfoy perfectly knows, our society frowns on the events that end a Magical line. Thus, in this case, same as three hundred years ago, I must do the same as my predecessor. I confirm this right for vengeance, your privilege to kill the man who is the true villain in this tragedy - not Harry James Potter, who must live on to continue his family line, but Remus John Lupin. Mr. Lupin, for your crimes against the wizarding society, for changing a wizard into a werewolf, your sentence is death. Lucius Malfoy, by his demands, has his right to take over the place of the executor."
There was short silence, which quickly erupted into shouts and screams - many were shouting one over the other, demanding some explanation or simply trying to understand what had happened. Had the Headmaster, a man who never spoke for any sort of punishments so lightly, just condemned a former Professor of Hogwarts to death sentence?
"Lucius," Remus asked calmly, the charm making his voice boom over the cacophony of whispers. "Am I going to wait for you all day?"
Lucius dove under the seat - where his wand had fallen.
Remus glanced upwards for the briefest of moments and laughed.
Before Lucius could even prepare a spell, the flaming bird dove down from the black sky with a reassuring trill.
"Don't make the assumption that I won't resist, Lucius!" Remus shouted, grabbing the tail of the majestic bird. There was an incredibly light flash, like a sun had born in the middle of the Quidditch field, and when the fire burned itself, Remus John Lupin was not there anymore.
A green beam slammed into the place he had been, scorching the ground with a black, ugly stain, sending bits and pieces of dirt scattering.
"What did you do!" Lucius screeched, forgetting all semblance of control. He had thought to be victorious and lost one too many times. "Don't think I can't recognise your bird, Dumbledore! We all saw that you brought him - it's your familiar - and you have just obstructed my right! Mine!"
"Au contraire," Dumbledore smiled without any sort of cheer, replying as calmly as he could, calm in the midst of the ever rising confusion. "You have moved onto to accept my decision, and tried to end the life of Professor Remus Lupin. As our law states, we cannot arrest you for the usage of that particular curse, even though its calm usage implies something that I do not think anyone of us wants to think about. To answer you question, as no doubt you are curious, Fawkes was never my familiar. Rather, phoenixes only choose the people they like to keep as their company. And, as, inherently, they are the creatures of pure light magic, I can only guess at its true thoughts - it must be that the phoenix found something repulsive in the decision I made today, thus, alas, leaving me forever without his company.
"Is it not something to think about?" Dumbledore asked in a solemn voice. "I condemned a man so easily, that the Phoenix chose to save a man cursed with darkness instead of staying with me. What do you think he is thinking about you? What do you believe was right, Lucius? I pity the state of your soul, even more when I regret this plight of mine."
And, the headmaster turned to walk back into the castle, witches and wizards parting from his way.
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Remus landed painfully, the flames of the phoenix still burning his - well - everything. He hadn't been burned in the direct sense, but the process had been excruciating - his body, his very soul felt like on fire. The curse of Lycanthropy was dark in nature, and even good intentions couldn't shield him from the burning agony of the phoenix flames.
There was an annoying scent of smoke in the air, as Remus stood up, heavily. He was in their usual classroom, watched by the dark wolf - Harry looked alright, and Remus couldn't smell any human blood in the air. There was only a faint trace of Cho and some sort of humming quality of the Dumbledore's protections hanging around the classroom.
He leaned to pick up a small sliver of silver off the ground. Harry was watching with a look of curiosity and confusion, and, Remus realised, regret. Lupin slumped down on the nearest table, playing with the piece of metal. Where was it from? It had the scent of Cho - could she have tried to defend herself with silver? A pointless attempt - she must have known better.
Fawkes had chosen to remain in the room, and found himself some improvised perched near the top of the arched ceiling. The bird was silent, watchful. Remus coughed a few times. He hoped Dumbledore would turn up in the morning, at least - Harry looked to be too violent for any human to be safe around him now.
Werewolves, were another matter entirely - the black wolf, after observing the form of Remus for a while, moved closer. There was a slight crackle in the room as the magical barrier sprung into view once more. It looked deformed and barely holding, but the bars were there.
Remus jumped up, and walked up to Harry, putting his hand through one of gaps.
"You always change early." He offered, while scratching the black, bloody wolf between the ears. "Don't worry, everything is under control now."
The wolf shook his head slightly.
"I know, Harry, I know." Remus stilled in his touch. "We'll just have to adapt."
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Expect a new chapter as usual, sometime in two weeks. In the extra time of Christmas, I will focus on correcting and improving some former chapters, and in this endeavour, Morta's Priest has given me some invaluable help. Expect a newer version of first chapter in a matter of days, more info with next update.