The Magic of Family

Chapter Nineteen: Predators and Prey

As the moon's gentle rays peeked out from over the dark arms of the forest. Ron's floating stretcher fell to the ground with a thud and a resounding yell of pain as his broken leg was once again jostled.

Harry was just able to catch a glimpse of Remus Lupin staring transfixed at the slowly appearing moon, before Sirius Black shoved him backwards with a bruising push to his chest. The push caused him to collide with Sephiroth who was climbing out of the tunnel and sent them both tumbling down to the ground, collecting more bruises as they bounced off the hard roots of the Whomping Willow.

Harry and Sephiroth paused in their efforts to disentangle themselves from the roots and each other as a savage growl rent the night air to be answered by a deep bark. The shove and ensuing struggle had knocked Harry's glasses eschew making everything blurry and out of focus, but he was still able to make out the dark form of Professor Snape standing protectively over Ron's prone form with Hermione bent over him helping him up. Pettigrew's was barely visible from where Snape had dumped his still bound form out of the reach of the Whomping Willow's branches, thanks to the moon reflecting off of his pale skin.

Closer to Harry and Sephiroth, and between them and Snape, was Sirius, back in his animagus form a rumbling growl emanating from his chest in an ever rising and falling cadence.

Finally freeing his hand from where it had been pinned between Sephiroth's shoulder and a root, Harry straightened his glasses out and instantly wished that he had not. Between Snape and Sirius loomed a twisted form. If Hermione had not already accused Lupin of being a werewolf, then Harry would not know what he was looking at since there was nothing wolf-like in this creature's appearance.

Half-bipedal and half-quadruped, the creature shuffled on legs too long for walking on all fours while front paws barely brushed the grass as the curved spine kept it from standing completely upright. The skin was grey with patches of mangy fur growing in tufts down the back and in the places where teeth and claws could not reach. The face was vaguely canine, but the teeth were too long and protruding to allow the muzzle to close completely, causing slobber to dangle in shimmering ropes from the open maw. The tail was ropey and reminded Harry more of a kangaroo's tail used for balance while upright than a dog's tail.

The burning yellow eyes flickered rapidly between the whimpering Ron, who Hermione was frantically attempting to hush with a steady stream of partial whispers, and the steadily approaching Grim that was continuing its rumbling growl in an attempt to drown out all other noise. Survival instinct kicked in strong in Harry's brain as those yellow eyes flickered over his and Sephiroth's tangled form as it observed the steadily approaching Grim, skipping directly from 'fight-or-flight' to 'freeze and pray we're not eaten'. Harry had always been able to vaguely sense the predator behind Lupin's amber gaze, but being faced with the true beast was a much more horrifying experience.

The creature slowly swung its head toward Professor Snape, Ron, and Hermione-fear finally freezing Ron's vocal cords and ending Hermione's rambling-Harry was unsure, but he was fairly certain that Snape's wand quivered for a moment in his grasp, before he gained a better grip on it and aimed it squarely at Lupin's muzzle. Before he could get a spell off, Sirius launched himself at Lupin, colliding with the hunched shoulder and attempting to gleaming teeth around the vulnerable neck.

Harry and Sephiroth quickly used the distraction of the ensuing fight to right themselves, however the fight was still between them and Snape, who had once again levitated Ron's stretcher into the air and was slowly herding Hermione and the stretcher behind himself and closer to the castle. Black fur was flying through the air as Lupin managed to get a paw under the attacking dog and send him flying toward the Forbidden Forest. Everyone standing froze in the eyes of a predator hunting for its next meal.

Decision apparently made, the increasingly salivating werewolf took one lumbering step toward Harry and Sephiroth-apparently deciding they were an easier target than the fully-grown wizard-when the creak of wood moving at high speed caused everyone-werewolf included-to pause and look up.

While everyone had been distracted the Whomping Willow had apparently awoken from its frozen state and took offence to so many people being so close to it. A thick branch came close to braining Lupin, but werewolf reflexes allowed for the hit to miss. Harry wished he could say Seeker reflexes also kept the hit aimed for him from hitting, but unfortunately that was not to happen.

A fist sized branch caught Harry in the chest, right where Sirius had pushed him earlier, and tossed him through the air to land like a rag doll outside the range of the flailing limbs, but even farther from the castle than he had started. Too much experience told him that the crack he had heard when the limb connected was the fracturing of one, or multiple, of his ribs, and the slight pain when he attempted to inhale and re-inflate severely bruised lungs let him know that it was only a fracture and not a break.

Unfortunately, the throw had once again drawn the werewolf's attention, and equally unfortunately Harry was now beyond the range of both Snape and the Whomping Willow, and so was apparently the perfect target for dinner.

He knew it was a stupid thing to do. He knew from Harry Hunting and visits from Aunt Marge with Ripper that running only encouraged the others to chase and made what happened after getting caught even worse. But with the breath knocked out of his very lungs and pain radiating from his chest in pounding waves, Harry's rational brain decided to take a few minutes vacation and allow his animal brain time to come out and direct things, and animal brain decided that running into the Forbidden Forest and turning his back on the giant predator was the smart thing to do.

Fortunately, as they traveled under the dark grasp of the twisted trees of the forest, Harry's rational brain decided to reassert its dominance and directed his feet to the areas with the most underbrush and low hanging limbs. Harry wiggled and crawled and scrapped his way through the dark tangle of bushes, briars, and who-knows-what else until he was safely ensconced in a darkened cave where the roots of one tree had entwined with the trunk of a fallen tree.

Harry curled himself in as tight a ball as his protesting ribs would allow and buried his face in his cupped hands in an attempt to stifle his panicked breathing. He could hear Lupin shuffling around outside his hiding place attempting to find a way into Harry's hiding spot. In that moment he knew exactly what a rabbit felt when it knew that it was cornered by the fox.

There was nowhere for him to go, nothing to do except wait and see if Lupin would grow weary of trying to get him and leave...or if the werewolf would manage to gain entrance to Harry's small haven and eat him. Time became meaningless as his breaths became harsher and his heart rate continued to climb in fear and the scratching and snorts of an predator that knew its prey was cornered became ever louder.

Suddenly a howl rent the night air from deeper in the forest. All was quiet as the last echoes faded before Lupin released an answering howl and the sound of heavy footsteps disappeared into the darkness. Harry felt the shakes settle into his bones as the adrenaline and fear drained slowly and then all at once from his body.

He was shaking too hard to move from his hiding spot, and he was glad he did not when the snapping of a twig alerted him that someone, or something else had found his hiding spot. All of his muscles locked up and he felt his breath freeze in his lungs as the underbrush obscuring his hiding place began to shift. His vision was beginning to tunnel and he felt himself beginning to pass out when a pale hand broke through the blind and landed on his shoulder.

Harry was able to contain his automatic scream, but he was not able to prevent the wild punch he sent into Sephiroth's shoulder, a punch that did not even faze the older boy as he was once again attempting to untangle his long silver hair from where it had knotted around a limb.

"What are you doing!?" hissed Harry as he slowly drew in several deep breaths to replace the oxygen he had lost when he forgot to breathe.

"I should ask you the same thing," grumbled Sephiroth as he finally managed to free his hair and turned a piercing look on Harry, "Honestly; out of three options you decide to run to the one option that could possibly be worse than facing a hungry werewolf."

"Well, I couldn't have very well run past it...him...whatever," argued Harry as he allowed Sephiroth to pull him out of his hiding spot and up to stand on shaky legs, "to make it to the castle, and I didn't very much feel like getting either killed by the Whomping Willow or trapped with it...him…*growl*...whatever in the tunnel! Besides, it's somewhat hard to think when you are being looked at like you're a juicy steak."

Harry could feel a pout forming as Sephiroth simply gave him a thoroughly unimpressed look and began to lead him out of the forest. Neither boy spoke as they walked, more interested in listening for Lupin or any other creatures that inhabited the forest-Harry had not forgotten about Aragog and his nest and was not sure he could survive a run in with any of them in his current mental state-but Harry could tell by the way Sephiroth hand kept tightening around his before releasing slightly, only to do it all again, that the Ravenclaw was probably preparing an Aerith level rant about stupidity and putting oneself in danger for once they were out of the forest.

The trees were beginning to thin, allowing the bright moonlight to filter down to the forest floor, when the first wave of chill passed them. They had just stepped into a clearing around a small lake when their breath began to fog in the air as though it was mid-December and not early June. They had just recognized Sirius Black laying whimpering in the center of the clearing when the lake began to freeze, the ground was covered in frost, and a piercing scream and a plea for mercy tore through Harry's head, forcing him to his knees.

Only Sephiroth's arm around his shoulder allowed Harry to make it to Sirius' collapsed form before he too had an unceremonious meeting with the ground. From the ground he could see what looked like every dementor that was guarding the school, plus a few more, swarming and diving above the lake. The twisting mass of dark, tattered cloaks was making Harry motion sick as the accompanying chill settled into his bones and my mother's last moments replayed in his head.

Sirius was too far gone in his own mind to be of much help and Sephiroth was standing guard over Harry and Sirius, but only a pale mist was rising from the end of his wand, a wand that Harry noticed through his pain was shaking in an unsteady hand.

Taking a deep breath, Harry forced himself to his knees and attempted to drag up the happiest memory he could find.

'Expecto Patronum' the words would not come out of his mouth.

"Ex….Expecto Patronum" his teeth were chattering too hard to say it clearly,

"Expecto Patronum" a silver mist flowed from his wand before dissipating on the ground.

"Expecto Patronum" nothing this time, not even a lightening of the end of his wand.

"Expecto…" this attempt was cut off as a dementor swooped down from the swarm and extended a skeletal hand toward his face.

Pain exploded in his head and his vision tunneled onto the dark abyss under the dementor's hood as that extended hand slowly withdrew and began to lower the tattered piece of cloth.

Brilliant white light and soothing green exploded across Harry's vision as the dementor flew backwards with a screech of pain. Black feathers blocked out the overpowering brilliance as cool hands caught his body as he slipped to the side, unaware that he was doing so. Fear filled green, a similar shade to the green floating around mixed with the white was the last thing Harry registered before complete darkness overtook his vision.

When Harry next awoke it was to the dim luminescence of the Infirmary Hall at night, a sight he was unfortunately all too familiar with. He could feel the tight bindings of wrappings around his ribs and taste the remnants of a pain potion on his tongue-again something he was all too familiar with.

With a grunt of effort, he levered himself up on his elbows and searched blindly on the nightstand for his glasses, surprised when they were not automatically handed to him by Sephiroth. He was even more surprised when he realized that Sephiroth was not beside him in the infirmary, either in a chair or a bed. Ron was in the bed across from his, his leg wrapped in several layers of bandages and held in the air by a floating loop of bandage. Hermione was at the redhead's side, one of his hands clutched in hers as though it was her lifeline.

The noise of him moving must have alerted her that Harry was awake, because Hermione looked up before launching herself at Harry with a gasp and burying her face in his chest as tears began to pour from her eyes.

A girl crying was uncomfortable at the best of times, but at the moment it was even worse because Harry was torn between being a gentleman, and simply dumping her on the ground to cry by herself for stealing his father's cloak. Before the impulse for bodily harm could win out, Hermione separated from his chest with a gasp and clutched at his shoulders, giving him a small shake in the process.

"Harry, it's terrible...the Minister won't listen to us and Professor Lupin is still in the forest and Professor Snape disappeared and the Headmaster is trying but he just won't listen to what we say and Harry!"

"Hermione," broke in Harry when it seemed like her rambling would go on longer, "what are you talking about? Where is Sephiroth?"

"Oh, Harry, it's terrible the minister is insisting on giving Sirius Black the dementor's kiss."

A.N.- We just got two new kittens, so as I'm attempting to write this chapter, I have one of them attempting to eat me, my reference book, my keyboard, my phone, and its own tail. This is when it's not walking across my keyboard and turning on caps lock. SMH.

Reviews:

buterflypus: Hello mon cheri. (I've been reading x-men and Gambit has gotten to me)

Scififan33-Not sure if this counts as better...really not sure.

Juxshoa-I hope so too, I really do...then again I know my twisted mind and where I'm headed in the next book...so...

Sephiroth'sGhost- Glad you're enjoying it! Coming up on the big finale in two to three chapters so hopefully it continues to excite.

Enjali-See you're the reason I'm going to have to make an outtakes fic of this story because you say things and alternate storylines pop up in my head. Lol. I hope the handling of the werewolf meets your liking, I described him based off of what I remember him looking like in the movie and how disappointed I was in that transformation-he never looked like a werewolf to me in that movie.

Jenniebennie-It's not sad that you want things to work out nice for people, unfortunately I'm not always the nicest author. And yes, brightest witch Hermione might be, but she has yet to learn that books don't always contain all answers.

Guest (me)-Eloquent but true.

Guest (blackesparrow)- ...possibly...automatic reaction on Harry's part wouldn't have been intentional...yet