Disclaimer: The same as the previous chapters.

Chapter 38

It was nearly an hour, but to AndromedaTonks, Time seemed to be galloping away. She shuddered inwardly, thinking, and praying, that Greyback won't jump out of the shadows. She worried about Remus, Nymphadora, and little Ted. More for Little Ted, all this while the only thought that kept her trembling with fear...it was over nine months that little girl was missing...nine months, full-term, and Lavender Brown, had said it was Fleur's sister, a veela, carrying a verified werewolf's child, just like in the prophecy. Only once in the history of magic will that happen. She had no time to waste, they needed to start looking for her and save her, and that innocent babe.

With renewed determination, she continued narrating the forgotten myth of a faraway land, "Bûcherons were distinguishable by their flowing blonde hair and their leather-bound long handle axes. They carried two of those either around their wide belt or slung across their shoulders. And the Old Pack had lost many of their own in the hands of those dancing men with swinging axes. Grauer had vowed to kill as many as he could lay his eyes on. He hadn't even wasted his time to engage the veela. Enraged by the very sight of him, the werewolf had punched at him and snapped his neck with one brutal blow.

Raph could do just one thing before dying. He had called out for Rouge and pleaded with her to run away. Simultaneously, something else had happened, Rouge had looked down and Nacht that growled. Their eyes met and time stood still. She thought as her blood ran cold, how could a huge beastly wolf have such soulful eyes, before coming back to her senses and running towards the forest, following the echo of her husband's earth-shattering cry. Dazed by her flowing hair, and hearing Grauer and the others in the hunting pack through the packs connected minds, rejoicing over a victorious kill, Nacht bounded just behind her.

But the wolf in him, made him take several shortcuts until he skidded right next to Raph's lifeless body, and none of the pack members, in view. It was his misfortune that Rouge too had appeared the very moment his snort was close to the dead man's face, and accidentally the tip got smeared with fresh blood. The Mondes say Veelas curses could burn anything to ashes. But Rouge could not bring herself to curse the black wolf. His eyes had captivated her. And she had let him escape.

Grauer had seen and heard all the thoughts of the Alpha. And worse he had seen Rouge with his own eyes." Sipping some tea from her cup, Andromeda looked up at Severus and gave a rueful smile," What do you think happened next?"

Hermione saw the memory Snape flick his eyes at Remus and then spoke cautiously," Mondstrahl left the pack and Nacht feeling betrayed and the Bûcherons vowed to take revenge. But Rouge could not bring herself to give away the identity of the wolf she saw hunched over her new husband's lifeless body."

The old woman abruptly leaned over and caught his sleeves asking urgently," How can you.. do you already know this story...I should have guessed...Oh! Merlin…" raising his hand to halt her rambling, he spoke softly," No, I guessed because, contrary to what the world thinks, I know how love works...please, Andromeda, do continue." Remus had lowered his eyes making sure his mother in law did not see the shame the man was currently feeling. Bewildered, Andromeda shook her head and started," Well, you are right, the Bûcherons questioned the shocked young wife but could get nothing out of her. Seeing her state, Gran Grezel volunteered to take her away from the accusing and mourning settlement. Since then, the miserable girl stayed with the old wise woman at her secluded cottage. But he did miss her parents who were now frowned upon by the still grieving and shocked dwellers. You see, Raph was quite a popular young man."

"Bûcherons vowed to launch a massive hunt to kill the beast, but none could find those predators. On the other hand, in the Pack Lair tensions were rising, never did it happen that intruders were scouting so deep into the forest and that the alpha was uncharacteristically unphased by that. Mondstrahl found her husband distant, thoughtful, and prying a little further; she was shocked to see Rouge's face flashing in his mind. Unable to trust anyone, she went to Grauer and asked about the last day they went hunting. The vicious brother in law was waiting for this chance, pretending to be too ashamed, he chose to lead her till Gran Grezel's Cottage. The wife knew at once, she had lost her husband forever. Rouge even in mourning was as brilliant as a forest nymph, how could she a wildering tribal woman compete with an angel like her? Neither did she have it in her to be a scornful woman."

Snape had blurted out," Which means she could not go back and ask her delirious husband, that would mean she was suspecting him already. She could not challenge him in front of the whole pack, because she was carrying his child. She would not ask for a substitute challenger because that too would give rise to uncomfortable questions. She must have kept quiet, battling within herself and perhaps watching Nacht who in turn would watch the object of his desire from a distance."

"Why of course that was what happened, but how do you know so much?"

Snape tried to stall a bit. Instead of directly answering her, he looked at the burning hearth and mused," I have been a spy for most of my life, guesswork is as natural to me as is perhaps drinking water."

Remus looked hard at Snape but answered his mother in law's question," For most of his 7th year, apart from sulking, and studying for exams and hanging out with future death eaters, Severus did one more thing- he read every book in Hogwarts library that mentioned the word…"

Smirking back throwing an invisible challenge, Snape pretended to confess," Okay, so I read about wolves, Yes, I agree, I do know a bit about the ways of Magical creatures, but Andromeda I had my reasons," watching Remus from the corner of his eyes, he told her," Magical creatures have always shied away from me, tell me how else would I learn about them, if not from books? It was only after I joined the school as a potion master, and tried my hand at teaching myself some advanced transfiguration skills did I realize, my inclination towards Dark Magic made me unpopular among Hagrid's so-called pets! Now, enough of me, please carry on Andromeda, tell me everything I need to know."

If Andromeda could sense the underlying tension between the two men beside her, she chose to ignore it and decided to speak to Remus about it in private. Inhaling deeply, she nodded," you guessed it right Mondstrahl watched her husband eyeing the lonely cottage from behind the dense bushes. Her heart broke to see the man she had given her heart and soul, was no longer hers. He could not even hear her thoughts, as if he never existed in her mind in the first place. Rubbing her hands over her swollen belly, she would keep trying to reach him through the gradually thinning away mental connection. And Grauer watched both of them from afar. Aunt Helga's notes don't say much after this, at least from the point of view of the Mondes. It is briefly mentioned that one-night Mondstrahl just vanishes from the jungle, never to be seen again."

"But there are some notes of one exemplary performance of the Wolfish Grey's Traveling Circus. It is pointed out because to this day both the muggle world as well as secluded magical settlers around the Black Forest are aware of the first version of the fairy tale, Red Riding Hood. According to villagers, it had been an extraordinary performance. The rumour has it, the master of the caravan had suddenly come up with a new act, where all performers would enact a rather romantic and adventurous play. The story of the play goes like this, A wolf watches a fair maiden with flowing blonde hair wearing a crimson red cape, visit her grandmother's cottage. He makes a plan to eat both the old woman and this beautiful granddaughter. He dresses as a woodcutter and fools the girl into asking her to gather some flowers for her ailing grandmother from the bank of the nearby river. While the innocent girl is off collecting those flowers, he visits the grandmother and eats her. The girl comes to visit without knowing that the wolf is inside the cottage. She is allowed in by the wolf himself who is now dressed in the granny's clothes.

The performance had gathered a huge crowd and all were watching it with rapt attention. And then tragedy struck. The role of the wolf was played by the caravan master himself. And the role of the granddaughter was played by his own daughter. Here all of a sudden, the daughter starts acting like she is possessed and in front of the entire crowd, slits her father's throat. The crew sensing inquisition from local authorities vanishes from the scene overnight. The local law enforcers, the fief guards could only detain the raving daughter bathed in her father's blood, muttering to herself," Red and Black was meant to be, but not in this way, not today."

The memory fizzles away and once again all of them find themselves back in Snape's study. Minerva was first to speak," But that hardly sounded like one whole prophecy." Snape accepted it," No, that was just the crust of it. But there are ample clues to work upon." Neville had spoken up," Yes, like Lupine."

Interrupting him mid-sentence," No, it is already established that Remus is the descendant of Nacht, at least Remus belongs to the bloodline of Lupine, Andromeda had that part worked out. And with that, she had convinced Lupin to embrace life and stop hiding away for good. I have those papers in here," nudging his head towards the box, the potion master surmised.

Minerva urged," But then the prophecy?" Shacklebolt had noticed that Snape was looking at Hermione discreetly, who on the other hand had fished out a parchment and a quill and had been busy scribing on it.

The witch had triumphantly declared after what seemed to be about five minutes," Red in French is Rouge. I happened to read about that performance in one of the books today, where the witness, who I think was a half-blood or a squib, keeps mentioning," the mad lass went on mumbling Rose, Rose Rose, Black's dear Rose." She was actually saying Rouge. The tale was supposed to be about lost love. I also happened to read in "Endangered Species of the Magical world, a thorough study on Magical creatures''. We might not encounter very powerful Veela these days, but once upon a time, they were powerful seers as well as skilled at the art of wielding weapons. There is a mention of Grezel Sokressin, who with her powers was believed to make nature heed to her summons. But then she died one night. Veela clans to this date can't make heads or tails of the mystery. The texts just say, that night a sudden pull at their magic had made them go look for her at her cottage and when they finally reached there, they were taken aback by the amount of blood spilled on the floor. As if the whole place was bathed with it. Few volunteered to guard the place, while others went back to bring more men. But none of them could find their way back to the cottage once again. And weeks later, the torn apart remains of those unfortunate men who chose to guard the eerily empty cottage were found beside the path that led to the forest. At least, that was what, "Unsolved magical occurrences that become Myths- by Bobpin Bibbit Bugeon'' had to say about it."

She had extended her hand and passed on the parchment to Snape, who just glanced over it and gave it to McGonagall to read and share with Shacklebolt. Neville had watched Hermione write it in the first place, so all he managed to say," Thanks to Merlin and your love for the library, 'Mione, or else, we would have to scale those books from scratch at ungodly hours." Hermione had poked him at his ribs, making him choke and laugh like old times.

Getting back to Minerva's earlier question, Snape sat back on the couch and fiddled with the edge of his wand," Andromeda believes, the prophecy needs to be tested first."

Both Neville and Hermione spoke out of turn," How?", and Hermione insisted," test a prophecy? How can one test a prophecy?"

Shacklebolt replied," We cannot say much about it, right now, Madam Snape," then to her husband, he spoke the last part," but we can hope to learn more about it, now that we are all together." Snape had flicked his eyes back at Fawkes, who had just tilted his head and went back to preening his feathers.

Neville asked the obvious question," So you mean to say, you do have a way to contact her?" When none of the older men offered a definitive answer, Minerva took the hint and asked eagerly," But you are certain, she is safe?"

Severus took pity on his trusted colleague. Nodding back at her, he just said," She is not alone." It took some time for the woman to join the dots. Swallowing a couple of times, the Gryffindor head of the house tried to form the most important question. Hermione ended up asking it instead. Biting her bottom lip hard, she whispered cautiously," They, they are together. All five of them, aren't they?"

Snape deliberately chose not to answer it, instead, he abruptly ended up asking the deputy headmistress," You would remember Dumbledore often said," time will tell', and now I think, if we are feeling up to it, we can see the rest of the memory, if you all can excuse me, for a moment or two?" A curt nod from Minerva, saw the tall man striding out of the room towards his lab, while Neville mumbled closed to Hermione's ears," I think he took precautions of keeping the memory aside. Well, that is more like the ever paranoid Snape, we grew up under, not the one who keeps checking out his wife now and then. What did you do to him, 'Mione?"

Hermione had slapped his arm playfully and blushed, "Shut it, Neville!"