Chapter 8: The Great Escape

October 10, 1993

She was in a deserted wood, the smell of pine engulfing the air. It was dank, and dark, and musty, having rained only a while ago. It was empty, though she had a feeling she was being watched.

There were many trees scattered around her, and the dirt below her shoes was damp. There was pindrop silence, but for the dripping of water droplets from leaves and onto other leavers, else on the ground, hitting the dirt with a splash.

The air was rich with the scent of pine, and the scent of freshly compacted soil, and it was moist, moist as moist could be. The sound of a twig cracking terrified her, until she realized that she had made the sound in the first place. She shifted her foot to evade the twig, taking in her surroundings, absorbing the calm around her.

Yet something was wrong.

She wasn't alone.

It was one of those sixth senses, when you just knew that something was wrong, mainly because it was too quiet, too still, too calm for there not to be something wrong.

It was one of those extra perception senses, because she knew that she was being watched, and she knew that she wasn't alone in this wood. But who was watching her? Where was he? And what did he want?

Nervously, she backed away against a grove of pine trees behind her, her hair getting caught in the pine needles as she felt the tips of the needles prick her, prodding her slightly in the back. As she backed against the tree, a shower of water droplets came forth, gushing onto her face in one motion. She braced herself for the impact, feeling the cool water against her face and trickling down her neck, her shoulders, her chest.

And then she heard another twig snap, and this time, it wasn't her. She glanced anxiously around at the circle of pine trees in her vision, waiting, watching.

There was now the unmistakable sound of footsteps: muffled, dampened footsteps. They sounded heavy, yet soft, but she still couldn't see where the person was.

A shadow emerged from her right. A short, yet wide shadow. It was too small to be a person. Was it some sort of animal, or perhaps an elf, a goblin?

Where was she in the first place? Was it even magical? Were there elves and goblins in this wood? Because if not, what was it, and what was it doing?

There was a low growling sound from the figure, which made all of her hairs stand up on end. It was low, but piercing at the same time. She felt shivers creep down her spine and goosebumps erupt over her arms.

And then it growled again, this time shorter, but more loud. Almost like a bark.

A… bark?

As it walked into view, terror capsulated her, and she saw a large, black dog staring into her eyes.

"Liana! Liana!"

"Liana, please, wake up!"

Liana opened her eyes slowly, flinching away at the light that embraced her as she did. "Y-yeah? What happened?"

"You managed to wake up the entire dorm," came a disapproving voice. Liana peered around to see that it was Sia.

"Could you just shut up?" snarled Liana. "I apologize for ruining your beauty sleep."

Kylie snorted. "Her? Beauty sleep? She's about as beautiful as the Giant Squid."

"At least the Giant Squid is shiny," added Candice. "Sia looks about as dull as an ant."

"At least an ant is…"

"We get the point," snapped Valentina from the opposite side of the room. "We get it. You're being mean. Now can everyone just shut up and go to sleep?"

"I'm being mean?" snapped Liana, her temper flaring as she sat up in bed and glared at Valentina. "I'm being mean? And what do you call your dumb Sia's outburst, nice?"

"I'm done arguing with you, Potter," snapped Valentina. "Now let me sleep."

She pulled the covers over her and covered her head pointedly with her pillow.

"She's such a menace," grumbled Candice.

"I'm not done with you," spat Liana, sighting Sia, who was sitting on the edge of her bed, stone-faced. "What do you think you're doing? You should be helping me, not going on about how I woke you up!"

Sia said nothing.

"Too cowardly to admit it or something?" yelled Liana. "Or did you just go deaf?"

Still no answer.

"Fine," snapped Liana, smoothing her hair. "Go back to bed. See if I care."

Sia closed her eyes, though she retained her posture at the edge of the bed. Liana vaguely remembered Sia mentioning that she didn't sleep. Great. Cursing under her breath, Liana turned back to Candice and Kylie, both of whom were standing next to her bed.

"What happened, Liana?" asked Kylie loudly. "Did you have a nightmare?"

Liana closed her eyes, trying to recall the vision she had just gotten. "Yeah-no, kind of. I'm not sure. It was some sort of dream vision, I think. There was this forest, and there was a… a dog, I think, or maybe it was a wolf. I don't know, something big. And it was…"

A surge of pain and nausea passed through her, and then she blurted out, "Yorkshire."

"What?" asked the other two in unison. "Yorkshire? What about it?"

"I'm not saying it in front of her," spat Liana, nodding her head irritably towards Sia.

"Let's go out to the common room, then," suggested Candice.

Kylie and Candice helped Liana out of bed, and they supported her as she limped towards the common room. When they seated themselves on comfy armchairs, Liana whispered, "I don't know. But it's… it's like it's calling to me. Almost like we need to go there. I'm… not sure why."

"You were muttering Sirius Black's name in your sleep," added Candice timidly.

There was a moment of silence.

"Do you mean to say that Sirius Black is in Yorkshire?" asked Liana in a low voice.

"We don't know where it is, though," pointed out Kylie. "Where in Yorkshire is it? I mean, Yorkshire's as big as a continent. It's huge."

"I don't know about a continent, but it is large," muttered Candice, frowning. "How do we know where to go in Yorkshire?"

"I… I feel like I know where it is," Liana said, putting a hand to her forehead. "I'm drawn to it somehow. I think I'll be able to figure out where we need to go."

"I trust you," said Candice quietly. "But where do we Portkey, then?"

"We'll have to land in the forest somewhere. Then we can trace it around and try to find Sirius Black."

"Do we pack?" asked Kylie excitedly.

Liana nodded. "A backpack each. We need to get out of here before morning. Meet me here in half an hour. Let's go."

The day had just begun, and Ginny Weasley was already in a bad mood.

She had just gotten a P on her Transfiguration paper, which she had studied very hard for. McGonagall had said that her results weren't concise enough, and that she did not show full mastery in being able to convert a porcupine into a pincushion. It wasn't Ginny's fault that Andrew Kirken had knocked her porcupine over on her first attempt, or that she had been holding her wand backwards on the second attempt, or that the porcupine had been too cute to turn into a pincushion on the third attempt. Not at all.

Now, staring at the black P on the top of her paper, Ginny just didn't understand why she had been given such a bad grade.

"You're Ginny, right?" asked a soft voice from beside her, and she whipped around to see a blonde girl looking at her curiously.

"Yeah. Who are you?" she asked bluntly, still upset over her P.

"Luna Lovegood," responded the blonde girl. "What did you get on your paper?"

"I'm not in the mood to share," she replied sulkily. "What did you get?"

"If you're not in the mood to share, then I don't want to brag," said Luna, smiling. "But I got an O."

"Thanks for rubbing it in," mumbled Ginny. Then, before she could help herself, she asked, "How did you do that?"

"Get an O?" asked Luna. Ginny noticed that she was wearing a necklace made of what looked like butterbeer caps strung together. She nodded. "Well, I practiced the incantation."

"I studied the incantation," muttered Ginny. "Same thing."

"Practice and studying are not the same thing," Luna corrected, and Ginny felt a surge of annoyance cascade through her. "You practice when you have to actually perform the spell. You study when you just need to know about it."

"What about when you have both?" asked Ginny snarkily.

"Spend more time practicing. The theory won't change, but how well you perform the spell can," answered Luna. "That's what my daddy says, anyway." She squinted at the board of instructions. "It says we need to pair up and practice the spell together. Would you like to work with me?"

"Okay," relented Ginny, because, to be honest, she didn't have many other people to work with in this class.

And she was still mad at Andrew Kirken for knocking over her porcupine.

Remus didn't know where his students had gotten the idea that they were covering the Giant Squid in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

It had started in the morning, with one of the first-years jumping up and down in his seat enthusiastically.

"Yes, Liam?" Remus had asked.

"Are we gonna learn about the Giant Squid this year?" he had asked excitedly.

"No, I thought that was fourth-year," one of the other students had said, frowning. "That's what my brother said."

"I… don't think the Giant Squid is on the Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum at all," Remus had answered, puzzled. "Why do you ask?"

"Because!" Liam had protested indignantly. "I want to learn about the Giant Squid!"

And then, in his next class, he had overheard a bunch of seventh-years talking about the Giant Squid.

"Too bad we didn't get to learn about it in our fourth-year," one of them had whispered. "It would've been so much fun!"

"I know, right?" one of the others had said. "Hey, do you think for our practicals, Professor Lupin would've dived into the Black Lake and gotten the Giant Squid for us?"

"That would've been so cool!" one of them had tittered. "The real Giant Squid in our Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom!"

"I'm more interested to see what Professor Lupin would've looked like right after," the second girl had whispered. "With his hair all wet, you know. Don't you love how there's a strand of his hair that sticks up in the front, no matter what?"

"Oooh, yeah, I think about it all day," one of the others had said dreamily.

"That would've been amazing," the first girl had agreed. "Maybe someone should splash him with a bucket of water so we can see what he looks like with his hair wet."

"I'm sure he looks really cute."

"Ooooh," the rest of them had chorused.

And then there was the kid in his next class who had come to the classroom wearing nothing but swimming trunks.

"Er, Mr. Hughes, what are you doing?" Remus had asked, taking in the kid's appearance from head to toe.

"Someone told me we're going swimming," he had explained.

"What? Swimming? Why?" Remus had managed to choke out.

"The Giant Squid hunting. Duh," Evan Hughes had said, as though it was obvious.

"Er, no, Mr. Hughes. I… don't know where you got that from, but we aren't going Giant Squid hunting. I suggest you run back up to your dorm and grab your… proper attire."

"Oh." Evan Hughes had looked thoroughly put out. "Please can we go Giant Squid hunting?"

"The headmaster would have my head if we did," Remus had explained, trying to sound apologetic. "If we ever do go Giant Squid hunting, I'll be sure to let you know."

Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse - it had. For his last class that day, he'd come to his classroom to see it completely empty of the second-years it was supposed to have contained. Even five minutes after the lesson, nobody'd shown up. He was about to go tell Dumbledore when a second-year girl in a swimsuit (who was supposed to be in his class that period) walked into the room.

"Professor Lupin?" she had asked cautiously. "I'm sorry, could you tell me where the lake is?"

Remus blinked, not sure if he had heard right. "The… The lake?"

"Yeah," she had replied. "We're going Giant Squid hunting at the lake. A bunch of kids are already waiting there." Then she had frowned. "Shouldn't you be at the lake? And why aren't you wearing your trunks?"

Remus raised his eyebrows, alarmed. "What?"

"You're late for class," she had murmured, frowning. "You should be at the lake!"

Remus had stared at her in horror. "The whole class is at the lake?"

"Yes. Come on!" And she had led him to the lake, not giving him a chance to put in one word, where a bunch of second-years were standing in their trunks and swimsuits.

"Hey, Professor Lupin!" a boy had cried. There were a few whistles. "Why aren't you wearing your trunks? Never mind, I'll go first." And he had jumped into the lake, screaming, "GIANT SQUID, HERE I COME! YAHOO!"

Remus had watched, horrified, as the boy swam around the lake, followed by the rest of the class.

He was ready to murder whoever had started this stupid Giant Squid rumor, and he knew where to start.

Right now, he was on his way to Dumbledore's office. He was ready to complain about this whole Giant Squid ordeal. It was getting on his nerves.

"Come in."

Remus entered the room. Dumbledore let out a knowing smile, his eyes twinkling.

"Hello, Remus, what brings you here?"

"Sir…" Remus began cautiously, "everyone in my classes seems to think we're learning how to hunt for Giant Squids. Some kids even showed up in their trunks, a few went directly to the lake, and I heard a few people talking about it. Do you know why…?"

Dumbledore was impassive for a moment, and then he let out what sounded like a giggle. Very uncharacteristic.

"Professor?" Remus asked, worried. Did he need to call St. Mungo's?

Dumbledore smiled. "We all deserve some fun, don't we?"

Remus blinked. "I'm not getting you."

"Do you have any idea who started this rumor?" he asked, his eyes a little too knowledgeable and smug than they should have been.

"No," Remus replied. "Can you talk to the students or something? It's getting difficult to teach now with all this Giant Squid talk going around."

Dumbledore nodded. "But it was funny, don't you agree?"

"Er… no?" Remus asked, feeling that honesty was the policy here.

Dumbledore looked slightly disappointed. "Really?"

"Yeah. Sir… are you sure you're okay?" Remus was a little concerned about his headmaster's mental health right now. "You seem a little… weird."

"Aren't we all," sighed Dumbledore.

"Okay…" Remus closed his eyes and pulled back his train of thought. "Can we stop this rumor and find whoever started it? Because whoever started this rumor… I really want to throw them in the lake right now. I hope they get eaten by the Giant Squid, too."

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "All right then. Let me just get my swimming trunks."

A/N: *sighs* Oh, Dumbledore.

How will James and Lily react when they realize their daughter is missing, and how will Remus react when he runs into a certain pink-haired Auror who has been put onto the case? Coming up in chapter 9! Thanks so much to all our reviewers!