A/N: Ollie and Norah are both characters who are really growing on me, in their own way, for separate reasons. I still can't believe that the entire time during all the horrible abuse poor Tonks was subjected to, Norah was sleeping.

Though, sleep doesn't admittedly last very long in the Forbidden Forest. We're changing things up a bit in this chapter of Remadora's long tale, focusing on Ollie and Norah's Points of View more than Tonks or Remus's (though there's plenty of that left to come).

And holy Merlin's Beard, this chapter wound up being way longer than I initially thought it was, but hopefully, still a good one! I hope that you enjoy it, my lovely readers!

Also, a slight warning I guess for some language in this chapter. Norah has a bit of a trash mouth, but given her hardened tough exterior and life in the Forest as a Wolf, I feel like it's kind of expected of her, so I'm not that* sorry lol.


CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE

The young blonde werewolf slowly drifted into consciousness. And back out. The Forest around her was a blur, and random images of their makeshift campsite seemed to float aimlessly in the pool of Norah's tired thoughts. A sharp tap on her shoulder momentarily brought her back to the outside world, but after a second, the young She-Wolf was once again pleasantly lost.

Norah felt her brows furrow and come together in mid-sleep. She could swear she felt the other Wolf, Lupin, trying to look at her, tapping her roughly on the shoulder and staring her dead in the eye, but she just couldn't seem to find it within herself to manage to keep her focus right now.

Confusion blossomed in her heart as she felt the tap again on her shoulder, stronger this time, more urgent, knowing that sooner or later, she was going to need to wake up and face whatever the hell new, unpleasant reality that was staring her dead on in the face, challenging her.

But for now, she was content to lay down her heavy head and retreat into wallowing black.

At least, until the sound of a faint scream pierced the late-night autumnal October air and woke her up. It echoed through the tree line and the canopy, making the origin hard to pinpoint.

The first cries were undoubtedly terror, but not the shrill cries of someone bloody faking it.

No, this was the screaming cry of someone with their eyes locked wide and every muscle rigid. The next ones were fainter this time, of immense, suffering pain, garbling, and pitiful. Sad.

It was the kind of scream that made Norah's blood run cold in her veins. It pierced her brain and ignited some primeval pathway. Adrenaline surged through her veins as Norah bolted upright. She plunged her hand into the interior pocket of her black leather jacket, the fingers of her wand hand twitching as they curled into an instinctive, protective fist around the handle of her wand, and her decision was made for her. Save whatever the hell was making such a damn ruckus.

Maybe then, the Forest would allow her some small semblance of peace and to go to sleep. Norah Jameson could only sleep when exhausted. When she felt the tiredness in her chest, in how she breathed and her thoughts dragged by in slow motion, she slunk to a quiet spot and curled up.

On good days she'd get three hours, on bad days two. Should she doze later on she'd wake as soon as sleep came, always as fast as if a jinx had sounded, heart beating fast and breathing as if she'd just surfaced from deep water.

After that it was time to get up, to do something, keep moving. When Norah finally woke up, alongside Remus, she could have sworn it was because she'd heard faint screams and cries of pain coming from somewhere off in the distance, as her slightly pointed ears perked up and her wolfish, heightened sense of hearing took over. Her ears perked up as she heard a noise and her eyes widened in shock. There it was again.

Lupin had woken her first, in a panicked state of mind, saying Tonks was missing. Norah huffed in frustration, the breathy puff of air as it left her lips dissipating as quickly as it had come as she sat up slowly and blinked once, twice, three times to shake the sleep from her senses.

Norah swiveled her head to the left slightly to regard the other werewolf. "Remus? You all right? Hello?"

Norah frowned and practically snapped her fingers in front of Lupin's face to jolt him back to reality. But the man was having trouble answering her. Lupin's brow was practically drenched in sweat and his face was pale, much too pale for even Norah to consider it healthy, and most wolves were pale.

Lupin was pacing about the forest floor like there was a bloody hurricane moving inside him. He was moving like his brain demanded the energetic expenditure of a runner but won't tell his limbs what to do. His light brown eyes were wild with a tinge of melancholia and familiar panic.

But when Norah forced him to sit back down on the log next to her, he started fidgeting. He got faster until he exploded into motion again, bolting from his spot on the log, and pacing. Norah's cobalt, sky-blue eyes followed his movement. Back and forth he went. Back and forth in a repetitive motion until she thought for sure the soles of his shoes would leave permanent indentations in the ground beneath the man's feet as he walked in the same line, back and forth.

Suddenly, the man was talking. Talking to Norah and himself like Lupin didn't have enough time to say whatever it was that he thought he needed to. His sentences were fragmented, and his thoughts seemed to jump from one thing to another.

All his fears tumbled unchecked out of his brain, the poor man was in some kind of awful, mental free-fall, unable to analyze things or assess the risk of going off alone on his own to search for his missing, pregnant, stupid fiancée.

In all honesty, Norah was of the belief that Nymphadora Tonks shouldn't even be out here in her current condition, given the state of things, and the witch's pride and stubbornness was going to be her downfall. Norah ground her teeth and bit down on the wall of her cheek,

Yes, she thought the girl was so very stupid. Foolish. Arrogant. She'd told her, no, she had warned her not to go off alone! And now look! She was worrying her mate to the point she thought the guy would collapse.

Her words that she spoke to Remus Lupin meant to reassure the man bounced off of him as good as hard rain.

Now he was practically right in front of her and invading her personal space, his fingers were white-knuckled holding onto fistfuls of her shirt as he pulled Norah to her feet, causing her to let out a surprised squeak of anger intermingled with concern at the sudden shift in the man's countenance, and he was asking Norah where the hell Tonks had gone off to.

If it will be OK. Norah tells him yes. She told him over and over, all the while somewhat awkwardly patting his back and trying not to shirk away in an uncomfortable disgust at the contact. Unwanted physical contact always unnerved her, especially from Strangers, people she did not know, though she supposed that Remus Lupin was no longer a Stranger to her, was he?

Norah huffed in frustration and gingerly pried the man's hand off of her shirt. With a clear view of the Wolf in front of her, she could see the sheer terror practically mount within him as Norah looked to the left and right and confirmed Lupin's suspicions: that Tonks was (again) lost.

Her unblinking blue eyes ran up and down his tall, towering form as he continued his restless pacing. His light brown eyes looked towards anywhere but at Norah in a state of panic.

Remus seized tufts of his brown hair and tugged on them violently, truly agitated, and terrified. Norah furrowed her brows at the man as she could have sworn she heard him whimper.

"She—she's gone. I've scoured the entire perimeter and I can't find her. She's hurt. Dead. Something's happened to Dora, Jameson!" Lupin shouted, truly beside himself with panic.

For several long seconds that felt like they were suspended in time, Norah simply stared at Remus Lupin in shock. She felt heavy as her feet remained firmly cemented to the forest floor. Norah blinked owlishly at the werewolf, feeling a wave of sympathy and guilt as it wracked through her entire body as she looked upon him, hating how she had been so cold to him.

To both of them, really, though the witch was the one who was proving to be problematic, and quite frankly, in Norah's blunt opinion, a bit of a dumbass. How many times could one witch allow the Forest to get her lost? What if the centaurs or worse, the spiders found Tonks?

Norah bit down on the wall of her cheek, thinking it would be in poor taste to voice this concern to the man standing directly in front her, clearly a distraught mess fretting over his fiancée's whereabouts. Pregnant fiancé, Norah reminded herself darkly and let out a tired sigh.

Her guilt got the better of her, however, and the young blonde werewolf pinched at the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. This man and her partner were not monsters. They were not like Umbridge, just because Lupin had attempted to live amongst humans.

Remus was a person, a human being, just like his mate was, and just like Norah was. And this man had lived through an entire world of hurt and anguish his entire life if the backstory of his Turning was anything like hers, and Norah decided that she was not about to continue that scorn.

"Hey…" Norah lowered her voice, ensuring that it was low, quiet, and softer than silk as she looked upon the man's tired, lined face without a hint of fear or disdain, though the muffled scream in the distance sent a surge of fresh adrenaline and panic coursing through her bloodstream, hotter than any Hungarian Horntail could flame.

The nervous werewolf's light brown eyes met her sky-blue cobalt blue orbs. His shining eyes were filled with utter dismay and dread. His hands, which had been entangled in his tuft of thick hair, tugging on his locks, his fingers sticky every which way as he pulled relentlessly on his hair, dropped slightly in hesitation.

"I don't know which way Tonks went. But I'm going to find her," Norah heard herself reassure Lupin as best as she could. "I—I'm sure it's not that bad. She probably just tripped and fell off the path." She snorted at her own quip and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "She's fine."

Though even as Norah spouted the words of reassurance, the words that she knew the man needed to hear in this exact moment, she herself was having trouble believing her own words.

"It's going to be all right. I'm sure your fiancée is just fine. Waiting for me to save her ass again. That's three that she owes me now, and I hope she knows I'm keeping count. She owes me a solid favor after all of this," Norah grumbled darkly to Remus, though a hint of teasing snaked its way through her kind, German accent.

She watched with bated breath as Lupin's wide, slightly glazed eyes blinked rapidly as if Remus were processing her unexpected words of gentle kindness.

No doubt he had been expecting her to yell, to scream, berate the young witch for not daring to wake either one of them up if she had walked into a spot of trouble. Norah swallowed down hard past the growing lump in her throat, suddenly feeling guilty, as that had been her first reaction upon being woken up and discovering the witch missing.

Oh, there were definitely going to be words exchanged between Miss Tonks and herself, though first, she had to find the clumsy young witch. Remus was looking more than shocked by the young blonde wolf's kind reaction.

Lupin's face held a somewhat dumbfounded expression as he nodded towards her, silently acknowledging to Norah Jameson that he had heard and was processing her words to him.

His gaze nervously flitted between the path ahead of them and back to Norah, far too nervous to eye the She-Wolf for very long. His round, unblinking eyes darted from her to the damp ground beneath their shoes.

Well, his shoes, rather, and Norah's black combat boots made for this kind of thing. His breaths hitched and caught in his throat, a relatively poor attempt to calm himself down as he slowly lowered his hands, finally pulling them out of his hair and down to his sides.

Though it did not escape the young wolf's attention that Remus's hands violently trembled, and he practically was forced to ball his hands into fists to keep from striking out at something in anger. Norah cocked her head to the side. "You're going to stay here in case she—"

But Norah did not get a chance to finish her sentence as the scream came again. The blood drained from Norah's face, and before she was even aware of making a conscious decision, her fingers had curled around the tip of her wand, and she didn't even glance back over her shoulder at Remus, though she made sure to raise her voice and bark the only order given to him that she fully expected Lupin to obey, or Merlin help him if he did not by the time she got back!

"Stay here, Romeo!" she roared at the top of her lungs, skidding to a stop. "Listen to me, Lupin. You're going to wait here until I come back, or I signal you to come and provide backup. I'll send up a shower of red sparks with my wand if that happens, but if it doesn't, then you stay put, do you understand? Just in case Tonks is wandering around something and comes back here. If you even think of coming after me, I'll hunt you down and castrate you, wolf, you got that?" Norah shouted; her temper rapidly swelling in her chest. feeling her legs pounding on the muddy track ahead of her. Norah barely heard Lupin let out a low warning growl of his own, or his shout of protest as Norah didn't bother to stick around to wait and see his reaction toward her order.

Let him be pissed, she thought angrily, grinding her teeth as she propelled herself forward, her slightly pointed ears straining for more sounds, more clues as to where it came from.

She had no clue what she was going to do when she found this witch, depending on what kind of bloody mess Tonks had gotten herself into now, just that she had to get there, fast. Norah paused as the noise came again, this time sounded much weaker and muffled. She growled in frustration and bared her sharp canines, letting out an animalistic hiss of anger.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Norah emanated a tense, shaking exhale through her nose, forcing her body to try to relax and shutting out all other stimuli around her, save for the scream. Her scream, she thought, feeling her heart give a painful little stab of fear at the thought, though Norah did not immediately open her eyes, not even when she felt one of her ears give a twitch, or her nose scrunching in slight disgust as she could have sworn she heard cruel laughter.

Merlin damned bloody centaurs. Damn them! Damn to the seven hells below and may they rot there for all eternity until maggots crawl out their eyes! I know those voices, Norah thought violently, feeling that familiar hot fire-seed of anger ignite deep within the confines of her stomach.

Whatever the hell was happening somewhere in the distance, it was something wicked. And if that thought alone wasn't troublesome in it of itself, the pink-haired witch wasn't here at all.

She was nowhere to be found. "For Merlin's sake!" Norah exclaimed violently through gritted teeth, flinging her eyes open and slapped her knee, a release of frustration as the faint sound seemed to reverberate through the trees, making it almost impossible to pinpoint its origin.

Norah quickly searched the surrounding area, doing her absolute best to ensure she stayed calm, though she felt terrified. "How many bloody times can one witch get lost in a single night?" She shook her head, grinding her teeth and locking her jaw in anger and irritation as she mulled this over.

The fact that she had been woken up by the sound of someone screaming or crying in the not-too-far-off distance from where they had set up camp for the night, coupled with the fact that the young witch who was hellbent on extracting the old Senior Undersecretary from Astelos's clan was deeply unsettling and enough to incite panic in even the calmest of souls like Norah was.

"Keep cool, Jameson," Norah scolded herself, pursing her lips into a thin line. "Panicking isn't going to solve anything," she sighed, though she flinched as she realized her fingernails had practically turned into claws and were raking down the bark of the very tree she'd shot an arm out at to steady herself once she'd opened her eyes again and allowed her hearing to resume to normal.

Using her heightened senses to locate someone always made her feel a little dizzy after.

It was disorienting and overwhelming, to be a werewolf even in the best of times. To have a heightened sense of smell and hearing of a wolf. Sometimes, especially during peak times, full moon times, it made her feel so sick and her stomach could not tolerate 'normal human food.'

Norah frowned as she turned her head to the left and right, having come to a fork in the path. The young blonde werewolf couldn't hear the cries of screaming anymore. All was silenced. She had really only heard them as they were what had woken her up in the first place. That and Lupin prodding and shaking her shoulder with his hand, though now that she was alert, she couldn't even tell which direction they were coming from. The south? Northwest? The west?

"They could have been all in my head," Norah huffed, running her tongue along the top wall of her cheek before she bit it. "But it still doesn't change the fact that the witch isn't here."

Nymphadora Tonks was proving to be a difficult one to keep track of, that much Norah knew in the limited time she had been exposed to the bright young witch with the dark pink hair. The woman didn't seem to want to ever stay put in one place or keep things easy, and to make matters worse, was constantly offering up her verbal opinions on matters that Norah didn't give a crap about, and always seemed to be tripping over her own two left feet and needing saving.

Tonks didn't seem to want to accept the fact that Norah had plainly told her, that there probably wasn't going to be any dinner, and she should have eaten breakfast and lunch like Norah had advised her to, and instead of letting that be the end of it, the stupid girl had wandered off on her own, alone, wandless, away from the campsite in search of berries.

And now, instead of staying put by the campfire and simply keeping watch, again like Norah and Remus had instructed her to…

A relatively easy job so simple that even a first-year at Hogwarts could do it, unless they were especially thickheaded and mentally incapable of doing so, of which Norah was starting to think Miss Tonks was not capable of keeping watch, and she was regretting asking the witch since.

"Now I have to save your sorry little ass. A third time," Norah snarled, allowing a deep, low warning growl that she recognized as the She-Wolf within her, escaping from her slender chest.

Tonks didn't seem to understand that by daring to wander off on her own, alone, and unsupervised, just to make Lupin's life more comfortable while they stayed in the Forbidden Forest, her attempt to 'help' now only made things worse. Who knew what kind of danger she was in now?

Norah almost cursed herself for daring to help the young witch in the first place. Why couldn't she just have left the woman and her mate to their own bloody devices? Left them to fend for themselves?!

But no, she just had to play the noble part of a savior to make some sort of atonement to make up for a lifetime of bad decisions, the first and foremost of ones mouthing off to Umbridge. Because then Tonks would have lost her little wolf cub and you'd be no better than the very bitch you're rescuing, Norah's conscience piped up, rather unhelpfully at the back of her mind.

Norah was hardly aware of the She-Wolf growling, roaring its displeasure in her chest, and she flinched as Norah quickly realized that the beastly noise had come from her own lips. Near the woods, at least a few thousand feet away from the fire, Norah's eyes widened and her ears perked up as the heel of her black boot stepped on a pile of small branches and twigs and they crunched underneath her heavy footfalls as she stomped, yes, quite literally stomped off in the opposite direction where she had left Remus.

She really hoped the man was better at following a simple order than his mate was, because Merlin helps him, if he was not in his exact spot by the time she arrived back to camp with his girl, then she was going to murder him herself.

With a carefully practiced eye, Norah knelt into a crouch by the pile of fallen twigs, picking one up and carefully inspecting it. Tonks had obviously decided to kill some time by gathering more kindling for their fire.

A noble cause, but she could have just borrowed her or Lupin's wand, either one of theirs, or could have lit the fire that way, but Norah suspected Tonks hadn't wanted to wake them. Though something had happened to the vibrant young Auror that had prevented her from making it back to camp, what?

Norah narrowed her cobalt blue eyes and scowled, allowing the She-Wolf within her to take over, using her sense of smell and heightened sight to discover a set of tracks, hoof tracks to be precise, that obviously did not belong to Tonks. Not unless the girl had managed to find someone's wand and Transfigure her feet into hooves.

Norah snorted and let out a growl that was more like a hiss as she bared her canines, as her heart promptly sank to the pit of her churning stomach. "Fucking centaurs," she snarled, not even bothering to mind her language now that she was well and truly alone. She'd gotten a few withering looks from Lupin the first few times she hadn't bothered to mind her tongue around him.

Tonks, without her wand, was in no equipped state, mentally or physically, to fend off what appeared to be three to four centaurs judging by the set of hoof tracks that she was following.

"Merlin's left saggy nutsack," she swore, spitting the venomous curse words as though they were poison that had settled upon her tongue as she followed the tracks deeper into the woods. "Miss Tonks, what the bloody hell have you gotten yourself into now?" Norah snarled.

Can't leave this one alone unattended for FIVE minutes and look what the hell happens! She silently seethed, fuming, feeling a muscle in her jaw twitched as she stowed her wand in the pocket of her black leather jacket, thinking that to use magic against a group of centaurs, no matter their ill intentions towards Miss Tonks or not, was a direct violation of the treaty against the race of the centaurs and the Ministry of Magic.

She growled, snarling, and practically foaming at the mouth as she continued to follow the set of tracks, following the set of prints further into the Forest's path.

When she heard a horrible cry of agony and pained screaming, and the sound of a male's voice pleading for someone to help them, which was eardrum-shattering enough and loud that Norah knew without a shadow of doubt in her mind that the noises she'd heard earlier were real, she knew she no longer needed to continue following the forest path for more hoofprints.

As quietly as she possibly could, Norah snuck her way through the thicket of the forest, ducking behind relatively large tree trunks or behind bushes were appropriate, careful to mind the thorns catching her hand or any of her clothing.

The young blonde female werewolf carefully poked her head around the trunk of an abnormally large twisted and gnarled elm tree, practically stooped over with age, and found the set of centaurs' hoofprints had led her to what looked like a cave.

Three centaurs were gathered around the entrance, near a fire. "Damn," Norah swore through gritted teeth as she took a cautious half-step forward.

Her jaw locked up, tense and tight. She wasn't allowed to use magic to defend herself against these brutal beasts.

Need to work on getting rid of these three before I can check on Tonks and whoever the hell is screaming bloody murder inside, Norah thought, feeling beads of sweat gather on her browbone, scowling.

Norah bit the inside wall of her cheek as she swore she felt her pupils dilate in the dark. Her left hand, her wand hand, hovered inside the interior pocket of her jacket as her fingers practically twitched as Norah fought back the almost instinctive itch to draw her wand.

But how?! I can't use my wand! Merlin Above, give me strength. She begged, tightly squeezing her eyes shut and grinding her teeth. Norah barely succeeded in stifling her growl of frustration.

The cruel laughter of the three centaurs just outside the mouth of the cave fueled the burning wrath that surged through her bloodstream and her veins, hotter than most dragon fire.

The drop of rage that spread through the She-Wolf's veins was like a fever, like a vexing of the soul for what Norah felt was not at all human, it was twisted and distorted, but it was strong. It burned so bad it was like Dragon Fire itself lacing her veins and creeping up her spine. She could practically feel what little color was left drain from her pale features, but all Norah could feel was desire.

Desire to hate these Merlin-damned man-horses that were true beasts in every meaning of the word. Monsters, the whole pack of them. Or herd, she guessed was the correct word.

Not that Norah gave a damn. Norah continued to stare at the three centaurs gathered around the mouth of the cave, seeming to relish in the He-Stranger's screams of agony and desperate pain, intoxicated with no emotion she had no intention of ever feeling, the acidity of it was residing in her stomach, waiting to be spat out of Norah's mouth in foul and vulgar words that, if Remus Lupin were here, and maybe even Tonks, the pair of them would stare at her for saying them.

Except that Norah wasn't going to say them to these creatures. Oh, no. No, she was to screech them with every ounce of breath that dwelled in her powerful lungs before she would dare to sink her own incisors and canines into these monsters' necks to dispose of them if she had to.

The young blonde werewolf needed to work on getting rid of these centaurs and hopefully reclaim the injured witch before it was too late. She hadn't saved Lupin's mate's baby for nothing, Merlin damns her.

The man had made her a deal. Escort the pair to Astelos's camp. Get Umbridge out, though she would sooner see her rot in here if she had it her way, and then Lupin was to talk to Minister Scrimgeour on her behalf about Norah getting out of here.

That was the deal. And Norah could not certainly keep up her end of the bargain if Tonks was dead, beaten and savagely raped to death by these fucking centaurs, now then, could she? No.

Though going hand-to-hand, three against one was hardly fair odds, and though Norah was brave, she wasn't a fool. This was likely going to turn out not in her favor at all. "Suicide…that's what this is, a suicide mission..."

Norah hid, shrouded under the cover of the shadows, of darkness, her insides quivering at the thought of what she was about to do, all for the sake of one very stupid, foolish woman.

But she set her face hard. She had cried her tears in this life, suffered her fair share of wounds, both of the body and of her heart, walked perhaps the hardest road the day that she lost both her husband and one-year-old son at the hands of Dolores Jane fucking Umbridge. Norah clenched her teeth and closed her eyes.

"Ugh. I really am a stupid woman," she growled angrily. "I can't believe I'm really doing this. Merlin damn you, Tonks, you'd better still be alive, so help me…."

If she bloody wasn't, then Norah would just have to resuscitate her herself, just to have the pleasure of killing her all over again for causing her mate worry, and Norah had to trek all the way out here at three o'clock in the bloody morning to save Tonks's stupid, sorry, clumsy ass.

Norah felt her back muscles tense as her posture became rigid, her shaking, empty hands clenching and un-clenching, not sure what to do with them, given she couldn't use her wand against these three centaurs, not unless she wanted to be arrested, feeling the sweat trapped beneath them, and she swallowed hard down past the lump in her throat that hollowed her throat.

Being brave meant being afraid, or at least it did for the young blonde She-Wolf. There was no bloody way on Merlin's green earth that she was about to go up against three armed centaurs without her wand and expect to come out of this little surprise encounter unharmed. Alive.

The two went hand in hand. First was the fear, then the determination not to be ruled by it, and as she snuck up behind the tree centaurs, all three of whom had their back turned to her, Norah's pointed ears perked up and twitched at the sound of pitiful whimpers and sobs coming from deep within the cave, along with a muffled He-Stranger's voice that Norah did not recognize.

Though whoever it was, it sounded like the individual knew Nymphadora Tonks well enough. That meant that Remus Lupin's pregnant mate was still alive, for the moment, anyways.

Norah knew she would need to move quickly, with lightning, wolfish speed if she wanted the young Auror to keep her life and the life of the little wolf cub growing inside her belly, and fast.

She had three centaurs, all of them adult males and much larger than her to deal with before Norah could even let her mind think of what might be waiting in that cave for her in a sec. Though before Norah could take the first hesitant, shaking step forward, fighting against her revolting body as she fought back a tremor of fear, Norah Jameson felt her arm become heavy.

Puzzled, Norah glanced down at her left hand, her wand hand, only to find it no longer empty, but a sword had magically appeared in hand, seemingly out of mid-air.

"Oh, thank fuck!" The vulgar curse word was out of her mouth before she could stop herself, and as Norah gingerly crept forward, she accidentally stepped on a twig that snapped, breaking under the weight of her boot, and immediately alerted the three centaurs to her presence.

She cringed, biting down on her tongue hard enough that she was quick to taste the metallic tang of iron and copper on her tongue and palate as the three centaurs swiveled their heads in Norah's direction in unison. Norah weighed the sword in her left hand, slashing it delicately at the air with a novice-like apprehension, and as she did so, the reflection of the orange ember flames of the fire danced warmly within the cool steel as she gripped onto the sword with both hands.

The handle of the sword was bound with black leather, the hilt decorated yet understated, adorned with bright red rubies, and the blade was a mid-sized blade. "Perfect for cutting horse flesh," snarled Norah.

She killed the first centaur quickly, slitting the wretch's throat before it even had a chance to throw back its head and whinny.

The second one screamed before she could kill it the same way, and the young blonde was quick to pry the edged sword from the centaur's sausage-like fingers as it let out a frustrated neigh and she whipped around to clash the arrow shelf of the centaur's bow, made from the wood of an elm tree, Norah's heightened sense of smell recognized the scent of the wood.

Norah let out a vicious, animalistic, wolfish snarl and bared her canines.

She held the blade even, a perfect, undaunted horizon, always leveled with the nose. Norah had stalled the centaur's strike, but watched as a wretched, blood-stained grin split the beast's lips as the blade of this mysterious weapon shivered under the brutality of his compelling strength.

"You. Why am I not surprised, dog, that you would save the life of a human," it growled, curling back his gums to reveal yellowed teeth. "Weapons do not belong in the hands of women, She-Wolf," the centaur throatily crooned, pressing closer to her face.

The arrow shelf of his bow practically cast a shadow in the dim moonlight, the moon having hidden behind a welly-placed cloud as the cretin brought it over his head and hummed a low tune when he brought it down.

"Say one more word, horse," Norah snarled through gritted teeth, the tip of the blade digging into the centaur's throat, "and I shall ensure you never speak again. I'll do you the kindness of removing your head. Let's see how much you talk the big talk then, you foul, loathsome colt."

The centaur's cracked and bleeding lips split unnaturally wide into a Cheshire-cat like grin and threw back his head and laughed, his laughter cruel and wicked, echoing, reverberating through the caves as the accursed four-legged beast backed itself into the mouth of the cave, with the young blonde wolf following its movements. She was not about to let this one get off scot-free.

Norah froze, the sword still pressed against the centaur's throat as the blade was now the only thing holding it hostage.

She thought it strange that the creature did not seem angry at her arrival. In fact, the monster almost looked immensely pleased with itself as it became stock still, the only thing that occasionally gave a feeble twitch now and again was the creature's silky black tail.

The young blonde woman blinked owlishly, her attention briefly torn away from the centaur and peeked over the creature's shoulder, just long enough for her to locate the very person she had come here for, and now, it would seem, a second person that needed their ass saved.

Behind the centaur, lying limply on the cold stone ground of the cave was the young witch, though she was not alone. A handsome-enough chap with blackening stubble for hair that looked as though it was beginning to grow back, little more than peach fuzz, clutched onto Tonks.

He looked close enough to Tonks's age, late twenties, perhaps a few years old, maybe, and there was such a look of anguish in his brilliant sky-blue eyes as the Stranger blearily lifted his chin, though if Norah wasn't mistaken, a small ember, a flicker of hope against the cruel winds of despair, briefly flitted through his eyes, and his blue eyes widened as round as a dinner plate when he took sight of the ruby adorned sword that Norah held firmly in hand, still keeping the weapon trained on the column of the centaur's thick, beefy neck. Though her gaze remained fixed on Tonks.

Tonks seemed to be unconscious, the only indication that the young witch was still alive was the barely noticeable rise and fall of her chest, and her face was much too pale.

In the split second, the young blonde werewolf had to observe the witch, she noticed that Tonks had quite a bit of crusted blood on her face and a fair bit more on her abdomen and near her collarbones. She wasn't moving at all. Norah's face flushed red in anger as the centaur spoke.

"These two belong to you, She-Wolf?" The centaur growled, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards in a cruel smirk as it nudged against Tonks's limp body with one of his hooves.

Norah bit down hard on her lip as she tasted the tang of blood as it welled and settled upon her tongue, wanting to spew black, putrid, vile curses of the darkest language at the horse.

It took almost all of her self-restraint not to. She wanted nothing more than to lunge at the foul beast right here and now, attack it and cut its bloody head from its wretched abomination of a body as fast as she could and get Tonks back to her partner, but taking on the centaur in such close proximity to Tonks and this He-Stranger, whoever the bloody hell this new guy was to Tonks, would be a dangerous and risky move on Norah's part. No, she needed to get it away from her.

That way, Tonks wouldn't be at risk of any further injury, and Norah knew she needed to hurry. Norah drew in a sharp breath of cold night air that pained her lungs, hoping she wasn't too late.

Remus Lupin was going to bloody murder her himself if she was. For all Norah knew, Tonks was already dead, given how she couldn't even tell if the young witch and Auror was breathing. She thought she had seen her chest rise and fall but a second ago, but not anymore. So, Norah gave a curt nod towards the He-Stranger, who was struggling to get Tonks to her feet.

"Take her, get Tonks out of here, take her to the path that goes to the left, back to her partner. Tall chap, way too skinny and malnourished, light brown hair, goes by the name of Lupin," Norah growled in a lowly, hardened voice that did not sound like hers at all. "And go!" she barked.

The He-Stranger clad in the tattered and ruined set of woolen black robes did not need to be told a second time, practically grunting with the effort to drape Tonks's limp arm around his other shoulder and haul her to her feet, ducking underneath Norah's arm and going as fast as he could, though Norah watched with a heavy, sinking feeling as her heart dropped to her stomach as the boy was practically shuffling, shambling along that suggested he had one or two cracked ribs.

Norah waited until the younger man and Tonks were a safe enough distance away from the entrance of the mouth of the cave and headed back in the direction that Norah had come from until she turned back towards the blue centaur currently commanding all of her attention right now.

"You're the one this wretched little witch was with, weren't you, She-Wolf?" the centaur, one of Astelos's herd, Norah recognized this one, though couldn't remember the beast's name. "And now you've come to collect your precious little prize, is that it? Though you ask me, this one's a liability for you, She-Wolf. She's done nothing to you already but cause you trouble and strife."

Norah was not about to be goaded into responding to the creature's taunts. She owed this rapist beast nothing and did not want to waste her time arguing about Nymphadora's worth.

To her, it didn't mean a damn what this centaur thought of the witch. It was about to be dead anyway, and Norah decided quickly that she'd kick his own head off his body like a football with her own boot if she had to.

The centaur continued to smirk at the young blonde werewolf.

"Would have just been so much easier for the precious little dove if she would have just told me the truth. I don't know why she got it into that pretty little head of hers to protect you, dog." The centaur's sneer widened. A light seemed to ignite behind his beady, narrowed black eyes. "Perhaps she's taking a liking to you, wolf. Maybe she means to put a collar and a leash on you, Jameson, and keep you like the domesticated pet that we all know you to be," he snarled viciously.

That did it. Norah felt her head whiplash sharply upward to regard the centaur, a cry of rage on her lips as she flung herself forward at the centaur, screaming at it. That was the breaking point of her patience, and in that split moment alone, the quiet had become like icy drops onto her already frigid cold skin. Norah had never liked even odds anyways.

If she was going to die now by this centaur's hand, then she could live with such a death. "As long as I take you with me!" she yelled, swinging the sword hard across the centaur's bare, exposed, and vulnerable, thick neck.

The swing was a good one and effectively decapitated the centaur in one swift motion. As its head rolled to the ground and stopped at the edge of her boots, Norah scrunched her nose in disgust and pulled a face, and didn't even have to think about her next move as she hefted her leg back as far as she could and kicked the centaur's decapitated head like it was a new football.

The centaur's now-headless, bleeding body staggered backward for a fraction of a half-second before falling with a sickening, heavy thud against the Forest's floor.

"Merlin damn her."

The curse escaped Norah's lips as her head whiplashed sharply up to regard the young dark-haired man and Tonks, who, Norah was relieved to see was breathing again, and staring wide-eyed.

"N—Norah?" Tonks whispered hoarsely, her voice sounding rough and coarse, and feeble.

Norah felt her temper resurface in the confines of her chest, spiraling through her entire system as hot, boiling rage, hotter than molten lava, as she regarded the young, battered witch. Though, Norah was momentarily puzzled as Tonks's fearful expression was not fixated on that of her, which Norah had been expecting, or even at the centaur's now-decapitated body itself.

But rather, on the sword clutched in Norah's left hand, the tip of the blade now stained crimson with the creature's blood. Norah again scrunched her nose in disgust, pulling her wand from the interior pocket of her black leather jacket and procured a pristine white handkerchief from the air and proceeded to start to clean the mysterious sword, though she let out a startled scream and fumbled the weapon and dropped it, where it clattered to the Forest floor with a loud, resounding clang at the front of her boots.

A hand over her racing heart, the other over her mouth as it covered another muted scream, Norah craned her neck forward and looked with widened eyes.

"Is that…?" She heard the man's voice as he moved to stand just behind Norah to see for himself.

Norah couldn't respond. She bloody couldn't. As she felt her lips part open to speaking, all that came out was stammers and a strangled attempt at speech.

This… there was no way, right?

"Shit." The curse tumbled out of Norah's cracked and bleeding lips before she could stop herself. The three of them stared at the blood-soaked sword that now rested idly on the forest floor.

Though they weren't looking at any ordinary sword. The broad silvery metal was ice-cold to the touch as Norah shakily knelt to the ground to pick up the glistening weapon with trembling fingers.

Just as the moon, it reflected the moonlight itself, this sword that she'd wielded.

Of love's own energy and the duty of protection.

It was the sword of Godric Gryffindor.


A/N: Whaaaat? Bet you guys didn't see that coming! I had to think for a looong time who I wanted to wield the sword. I knew I wanted it to make an appearance in the story at some point, but how was always a mystery to me until maybe a few chapters ago when I was planning this one out. :D