Harry Potter and The Marauding Champions
By NonsensicalRants
Chapter 11:
The Iron Beast
Part 1
Bane stalked silently under the new moon with Fenrir and Ronin taking up either side of him and together the three made up a hunting party, one with a mission most vital and which he was assigned to lead.
A creature had appeared in this forest some time ago. And now, after over a year of sleep, it had awoken with powers most strange and terrifying. What little balance the many creatures of the Scottish forests had managed to negotiate with one another was now shattered as it's pointless rampage rearranged the land itself. Entire meadows and valleys left twisted as if a titan had reached down and sculpted it like a child at a beach making sandcastles.
And they were hunting it.
"Aragon's messenger said it was last seen near these cliffs." Ronin relayed.
The red-haired centaur was the only member of their tribe who could stand to negotiate with the acromantula clan, let alone tolerate their company. Foul creatures, new to these woods and devastating to the local fauna. It was only respect for Hagrid that the centaurs had yet to wipe the foul being out, that and the fact that the cold winters kept them at bay. They truly did not belong in these lands and Bane's people knew the wizards would one day see fit to relocate them to foreign lands, or else eliminate the colony altogether.
Centaurs were nothing if not patient. Near immortality will do that to a person.
Bane raised a fist to command his two companions to halt and they did so. The sound of their prey was faint, even to their ears, but the sound of metal on metal and metal on stone were unmistakable. And then it roared and the whole forest knew of its coming.
The hidden creatures of the woods fled, birds, insects rodents and even a few wild boars. Bane noticed the lone unicorn in the distance make a beeline away from the approaching danger. Then the sounds of its coming grew louder. Trees, rocks, bushes and even streams jarringly jumped this way and that as the metal beast approached. And then struggled to move back to their original places. Entire sections of the forest, well known and well-navigated by its denizens, completely retopologized in an instant.
For a month now this creature had been on its rampage, after two years of inactivity since it first appeared. And now the whole forest was unrecognizable, even to those who had lived in it for centuries. At their wits end, they had formed a tentative alliance with the trolls and acromantula. And tonight that alliance was coming to fruition as they set their trap this evening.
"Go." Bane commanded and the duo galloped down to the path of destruction their prey wrought.
Firenze led the charge, as the impetuous youth tended to do. Ronin and Bane followed quickly, bows and spears at the ready. Bane kept is attention split between their target and the woods around them. The dangerous foes and hidden allies, making certain not to miss ay signals or subtle communications. A hint or whisper that they might not be ready, or something had gone catastrophically wrong.
A nod from a troll in position above a cliff. A confident retreat of hairy legs into a hollowed out tree. All good signs. All allies ready to pounce when the trap is sprung. Now was their time. For the swift, hooved guardians of the forest to chase this abomination towards its doom!
Their plan fell apart before they could even bear down on their foe. For it appeared before them unexpectedly, like a diricawl unexpectedly interrupting a party. They both jumped out of the way of the other in surprise, but recovered quickly and the chase was on. It's wheels, formerly covered with rubber tires, now a rusted a mass of steel and plant growth, dug into the earth and propelled it forward. Kicking up rocks and wet soil to mask its escape.
Then it sang. Staticky, jittery voices of a man with an accent most strange.
"Now the race is on, and here comes pride up the back stretch. Heartaches are going to the inside..." and on went the Ford Anglia's radio as it swerved to dodge the arrows the centaurs loosed on it.
It dodged in exactly the manner they intended, leading it down a path towards where a troupe of acromantula and two trolls lay in wait.
"And the winner, loses all!" The lyrics ended as the song moved onto a guitar solo.
Bane saw the failing of their trap before it was even set off. What was the point of leading a foe into a pincer trap that relied of catching said foe between natural formations of boulders and trees, when said foe's mere presence changed the layout of boulders and trees around it? As they soon found out, none. There was no point in such a plan. In fact, in hindsight he would later marvel that it went as well as it did, but in that moment, seeing the hard-dug channels focusing boulders onto the point of their ambush turned upward and sideways, he felt nothing but shame about what would surely follow.
The light blue vehicle did get caught up in the webs layed out by Aragog's children, and one of the two trolls laying in wait did manage to pounce on it in its confusion, but that's as much success as they had. The chords holding the organic nets up gave way when the trees and rocks they were bound to changed position. The troll - Hack - held on despite the strange space altering abilities of his query swapping his limbs and sensory organs around until he resembled an abstract painting of a troll more than a troll itself. That was one troll he prayed he never had to come to blows with.
He managed to hang on for the entirety of their chase. As mountains, rivers and a small lake deep in the magical wilds of Scotland found new homes he clung on. As arrows, slings and even a ballista once 'appropriated' during a long forgotten battle with Hogwarts castle by one of the remaining wild tribes of goblins back during the days before it served as a school. None of the weapons did much harm to the Anglia, but all flew true to poor mister Hack.
He only gave up his stranglehold on the iron beast when it disappeared in its' entirety, leaving the mangled man, no, warrior there for them to recover. They held a moment of silence in his honor and quickly sent him away to a place where the best healers from all their tribes had been set up to wait ahead of time in case a scenario just like this came about.
The Ford Anglia reappeared, as if to mock them, and played one last song from its muggle music player as it faded from view into the night.
"When I get off of this mountain, you know where I want to go? Straight down the Mississippi river, to the Gulf of Mexico, To Lake Charles, Louisiana."
Bane ground his teeth in frustration as the mangled music faded from hearing, leaving him, the tribe leader of the wild goblings of Scotland, the acromantila queen and Hack's trusted brother to gaze out upon the destruction. Not since the blitz had Bane seen such a devastated landscape. Such power this foe held. Truly, they stood no chance on their own.
"We need help." Said the acromantuila queen.
"Help from those who created this foul being." Said the chieftain of the goblin tribe.
Bane didn't stop himself from groaning.
"They speak wisdom." Said Ronin. "From dust we were created, by dust we shall be destroyed. And likewise from them it was created, and from them it can be destroyed."
Bane groaned louder.
"Please. Do not speak their name." Bane begged.
A headache from the near millennia of chaos brought about by their legacy came charging towards him like a freight train.
"Be as apprehensive of their coming as you like, sir Bane, but their coming is always inevitable." Said the goblin chieftain. "But like it or not, we need..."
Bane cut him off with a gesture.
"We need..." He admitted despite the bile rising in his throat. " the Marauders."
"I forgot her birthday." Cedric confessed.
"You forgot her birthday?!" Harry clarified, in a panic,
"I forgot her birthday!" Cedric confirmed, equally panicked.
"But you have been dating this girl since the Yule ball, have you not?" Viktor asked.
Cedric deflated further, sinking into his cushion. Four whole months together and he hadn't thought to ask for Cho's birthday? If that weren't a big enough mystery, Harry couldn't determine why that was somehow their problem instead of just Cedric's.
"It's on the ninth. April 9th." Cedric told them. "I have two whole weeks to come up with a thoughtful present for her. Nowhwere near enough time."
Fleur patted the poor man on the shoulder.
"If my birthday were to pass tomorrow and 'arry didn't so much as say a word I would not hold eet against him." Fleur consoled him. "But zen again we 'ave only dated for a month now."
Really? It felt like so much longer than that. Harry made a mental note to ask Dumbledore on whether it was normal to develop such strong feelings in such a short amount of time. Love, after all, did seem to be his only area of expertise.
Still, he gave her a worried look all the same.
"October zirtyith." She said without prompting.
Oh thank god! He would have felt terrible if it had come and gone and he'd been none the wiser. Still, he did the math and something in his brain rose to the surface.
"Is that why you were in such a pissy mood when you arrived at the school?" Harry asked. "Because you spend the whole day in a cramped carriage flying.
"I was not in a pissy mood!" Fleur yelled defensively
"Uh, I was on the other side of the great hall and even I could tell the shawled woman at the Ravenclaw table was in a pissy mood." Viktor countered, obviously recalling the night before the sorting with as much detail as they all did.
Fleur crossed her arms defiantly and retracted back into herself.
Harry had been walking on eggshells around her for several days. Ever since he noticed that every attempt at an intimate touch caused her to flinch, every chance to talk about deeper topics leading to silence. Now? He was beyond caring. A dark part of him kept whispering to him that she was withholding the affection he craved from her as punishment for denying her the deeper, more visceral intimacy she desired from him.
He violently shut that voice away in the cobwebbed cupboard in his mind and focused on his choice to remain stoic. To show patience until she was ready to tell him what was wrong. He had spent his whole life up until now without a hot, brilliant girlfriend smelling of lily's and cherry blossoms with a fiery attitude. He could easily go back to living without her. Or so went the mindset he was trying to maintain. It was too early to tell whether or not it was working.
"Well Cedric." Harry interrupted the pity party, and his dark contemplations. "I promise to continue pretending to care until such time as this tragedy actually effects me. Until then, are there any other important birthdays coming up? Anybody we know?"
A series of shrugs was all that answered him. Viktor confided in them his opinion that a man is not meant to remember important dates, save for holidays and his own birthday. Anything beyond that is the domain of female relatives, friends and lovers to remind him of. And so Harry set out to ask his female housemates pointed questions to help him fill out a calendar. An actual physical calendar of birthdays.
"Hey Hermione, does anybody have a birthday coming up I should know about?" He asked his increasingly scarce friend when he spotted her in the common room that evening.
"Harry, I barely remember to celebrate my own birthday and would forget both it and yours if it weren't for my parents and Ron reminding me every year, respectively." She had snapped at him teasingly as she walked past him to wherever it was she'd been sneaking off to. "Like hell I would waste the mental energy remembering anybody else's, let alone everyone else's."
She had a good point, and so Harry turned his attention from the brunette to the pretty redhead on the couch beside him.
"Say Ginny..."
"Fey in three days, Luna in two weeks, Professors Lupin and Trelawney just passed. Fred and George on April 1st. Easiest in the world to remember." Ginny said simply, not bothering to look up from the magazine she was reading as she lounged on the couch in an inappropriately intimate position with her head on is lap.A Faux pax he hadn't notices during his reading of the latest transfiguration assignment.
g]Good thing Fleur couldn't get into the Gryffindor dormitory. He really had to do something about his obesssion with transfiguration. It left him too vulnerable whenever he read anything new on the topic. It wasn't his fault McGonigal made the topic so interesting! Still/, Harry managed to put down the reading material and digested the new information. He'd have to send a belated birthday present to Remus and come up with something spectacular for the weird blonde girl. Maybe a friend for David Bowie? But that did leave him with a new question.
"Who the hell is Fey?"
A brunette sitting at the table right across from him looked up from her book with an 'are you serious?' expression on her face. Harry vaguely recognized her as 'That one nameless girl who shares every single class with me and my yearmates save for electives.' She was sitting next to 'that nameless black girl who shares every single class with me and my yearmates including electives.' Harry was pretty sure her name was "killer" or something similar, but now seemed like an inappropriate time to ask.
"Right, err, happy birthday Fey." He told the brunette before skedaddling to hopefully stalk Hermione.
He pushed Ginny off of his lap, making a mental note to keep track of her whenever he got too involved in a reading assignment and chased after his third oldest friend. But he lost her trail before he could even find it. Hemione was up to something.
"I think your woman is up to something." Harry told Viktor at lunch that day.
"I am certain she is. And she has been up to it for some time. This scares me." Viktor replied honestly.
Harry groaned. For the tenth time that week he cursed Sirius and Remus for confiscating the map they had created with Peter and his dad. Apparently figuring out how to recreate the map was a rite of passage. Harry viewed it as an educational opportunity. An unfair one! The mysteries of what the hell happened to Moody during their debaucherous night, along with the other month-long mysteries, would be a lot easier with that piece of parchment on hand. But noooo, Sirius wanted them to progress as Marauders. To advance as wizards - and witch. Fucking mentors. why did they have to be so helpful long term but detrimental short-term?
That Friday after class ended the Marauders hiked down to Hogsmeade for an evening o birthday gift shopping. With Luna's birthday in just a few days they devoted this trip to finding something nice for her, putting off the other upcoming birthdays for some other time. They were all legally adults, and could come down any evening they so chose, so why do today what can be done tomorrow?
They tried the sweet and joke shops first, but nothing in either store seemed creative enough or personable enough to get for the truly strange young lady. Cedric, haing known the girl her whole life due to his house being right down the street from hers, suggested an old thrift store near the shrieking Shack. It was dusty and sold mostly second hand goods of the Muggle variety, but it turned out to be a treasure trove.
Harry found an old raggedy Anne which he then transfigured into an actual rag, still maintaining her shape and color. Then he applied a little charm so it would revert back and form between being a rag doll and a doll rag. He felt very proud of the creation. Cedric got a firby the local toy store enchanted to turn into a slimy green monster if fed after a certain time of day.
Fleur, however, returned from the stacks holding a pale toy giraffe, one whose spots were well worn and smudged from being played with so thoroughly in its long life.
"I did not expect to find something like this here. I gave mine to Gabrielle years ago, or else I could probably mail home to have it sent. But it wouldn't arrive in time anyways. Do you think this Moon girl will like it?"
"A giraffe?"
"Not a just a giraffe!" Fleur said defensively. "It's Sophie."
Harry and Cedric shrugged.
"Do you not have Sophie the Giraffe here?"
They both shrugged again.
"Uncultured swine!" She huffed as she held the toy giraffe close to her chest.
Viktor returned then with a garden gnome. The kind with a red pointy hat, not the magical pests infesting Molly's garden. Glued to it's right hand was an omni-lingual dictionary - handy! -, glued to his left was a copy of Aristotle's Rhetoric, and glued to his face was a pair of thick glasses.
"What's up with the gnome, Viktor?" Harry dared to ask.
"This is Gnome Chomsky. Linguist and philosopher." Viktor explained with a grin.( A/N:)
You win this round Viktor. You win this round.
The quartet, sufficiently ladened with professionally packaged birthday presents, returned to Hogwarts on foot. It was a rare warm and sunny day so they decided to forego the usual carriages that ferried students to and from the castle. And it was turning out to be a beautiful evening with a sunset lighting up the clouds in pink and orange.
Harry had tried several times to hold Fleur's hand during the trip, but she kept brushing him off with the excuse that it would be inconsiderate to Viktor and Cedric, who were both having girl troubles of their own. Harry didn't understand this reasoning, as neither had been particularly shy about being lovey dovey with their girlfriends when he and Fleur were out of sorts due to her uterus expressing displeasure at the lack of a fertilized egg. So yeah, something was definitely up with her. He'd just have to wait to find out what.
But he couldn't dwell on the latest hurdle to his relationship now as they then reached the marker indicating they were halfway home. It was there that their path was blocked by a creature Harry couldn't fathom sneaking up on them. Yet somehow it had.
It had eight long, hairy legs and two razor sharp pincers attached to a body the size of a double decker. Harry would have mistaken her for Aragog in the dim light of the setting sun if it weren't for her functioning and lively eyes. And were it not for Hagrid telling him all about the female acromantula who birthed Aragog's many children, and paid the price for it by being nearly eaten alive and losing half of her abdomen in the process. Surviving only due to Hagrid's intervention and the miracle of magical potions to provide nutrition to those unable to digest their normal food.
"Mosag I presume?" Harry greeted who could only be Aragog's wife.
"Greetings, friend of Hagrid." Mosag said. "We come seeking your aid, and the aid of the Marauders."
Harry glossed right over the fact that the acromantula "queen" knew what a Marauder was, let alone that they were such things, and zeroed right in on the most interesting word in her sentance.
"We?" Harry asked.
"Hello." Came a strong, masculine voice from the woods to the side.
They turned to it and out of the treeline stepped a familiar centaur with flaming red hair. Ronin? He would have expected Fenrir. Things must be serious.
"I reckon it's dark enough out that we can sneak back in when the time comes." Cedric offered.
Indeed. And since they were all "adults" - in Harry's case thanks to the Goblet declaring him such and the Minister of Magic himself confirming it -they didn't have to be back at school before curfew anyways. Let alone alert Filch to cross them off the roll call for returning students.
"Lead the way." Harry commanded the two magical citizens of the forbidden forest.
And so, as night fell on Scotland Harry, Fleur, Cedric and Viktor were lead into the forbidden forest by two strange guides.
"What in the world do you think we did to them on, you know, that night?" Cedric whispered to him as they went.
"I reckon we're about to find out." Harry answered.
Notes:
A/N: This joke shamelessly stolen from TheRussianBadger's video "Built Different. Built Stupid \ Left 4 Dead 2". He makes good comedy. Watch his stuff.
I was focusing entirely on writing Magic Knows No Boundaries but those we Believe In for the last year, these last few months of hiatus notwithstanding. But now I'm going back to trying and update four of my favorite stories week after week with the goal of 1 update for each every month. Marauding Champions, Blood-Soaked Succession, Magic Knows No Boundaries But Those We Believe in and of course, Harry Potter and the Marauding Champions.
And now that I have a consistent work and study schedule with a 30 minute slot daily devoted solely to writing fics I have no excuse. Not that I had any excuse before, sans laziness.
Reviews:
Zeromaru Chaos Mode wrote:
the hilarity of thing is i legit JUST saw that video not two days before reading this story.
...did...did Moody get around to testing the Imperius in this timeline? cause if so...has Harry never told Sirius he can throw that off? ...has Harry never told anyone his lack of MAJOR reaction to Veela Allure at the World Cup?
...i feel like there's missing communication here.
i mean potions still exist of course but...
Response:
Indeed. Lack of communication is the cause of most problems in the Harry Potter unvierse. I have a long-winded joke about just that loaded into the chamber ready to fire when a scene allows for it.
ColdOnePaul wrote
I got an alert for the next chapter (ch. 11) but when I clicked on the link, it came up as broken. Was it pulled or was it a FFN hiccup?
Response:
Must have been a hiccup.
ZaynaKai Wrote:
Great story so far! Can't wait to see their reactions when she wakes up. :D
It's been a while since I've used it, but I can't seem to connect on discord. Help. lol
Response:
It might be the outdated link. Try the one on my profile and DM me if it doesn't work. I did not see this review until I typed this chapter. Sorry for leaving you hanging for... wow, an entire year.