Chapter 9: The Missing Children

Sirius dropped the bone he was holding, in horror. 'What is this place?'

'We knew something was happening to the town's children…'

'Did Burnblade and his wolves do this?'

'It doesn't make sense - he left England, was run out of his own pack - because he wasn't willing to specifically target children. Why would he do this? Now? Here?'

'In case any of his new wolves got the same big ideas Greyback got.'

But Remus shook his head. 'He said he hadn't taken any children. When you asked about it, he looked … offended. I don't think this was him.'

'Then what?'

The creepy, eldritch chuckle sounded again, bouncing from tree to tree and then echoing around the glade of graves. Remus raised his wand and looked around. 'That - whatever that is.'

The sound came again - and once again they twisted this way and that trying to find the source of the noise. 'I think there's more than one of them,' Sirius said.

There was a rustle from in the bushes - and then the pitter patter of little, running feet. 'There! This way!' and Remus grabbed hold of Sirius and began to tug him along - following after the footsteps. And then he heard a noise - a sort of hollow blowing sound, followed by something whistling through the air.

He turned - and, a moment later, flinched as something stung his arm. He looked down - there was a dart sticking out of it, piercing his robes and buried deep within his skin. Everything seemed to go blurry, the trees started to swim before his eyes and he staggered.

'Moony! Moony!' Sirius' voice was sharp, but distant. He struggled to focus on it, to pull himself out of the encroaching blackness and head back towards Padfoot. But everything felt heavy and he just wanted to … he didn't think his legs could support him anymore - he just needed to …

And then he felt another sting - as something was ripped from his arm. And then a hard hand seemed to come out of nowhere and slap him across the face.

'Ow!' but the blackness had started to recede.

'Sorry, Moony!' The hand smacked him again.

His eyes began to focus. He actually saw it coming this time - a flesh coloured blur before it made contact and his cheeks began to sting. 'Alright - alright - I'm awake, stop hitting me!'

'Are you sure you're OK?' Sirius peered anxiously into his eyes.

'Yes - what happened.'

'You were hit by this.' He held up a little wooden dart, with red feathers on one end. He sniffed the tip of it. 'It's been laced with something.' He sniffed again, 'valerian root.'

Remus blinked and gasped - and willed himself out of the grogginess. 'That's powerful stuff.'

'It can be - but this is only a little dart. And you're a fully grown man, and not a small one at that.'

He looked back at the clearing, at all the little bones left to rot and turn to mulch. 'But if I was a child…'

'It would have knocked you out for sure.'

'And I'd be helpless.'

They heard the strange laughter again, 'and then they would come for you,' Sirius said grimly.

'We need to stop them.'

'I'll say.'

The pitter patter of little feet scurried past them - unseen - once more and then came the sound again, the hollow blowing and then the whistling - but they were ready this time. 'Protego!' they both yelled.

The dart hit against their shield charm, rebounded in another direction - and then came the sound of a strangled, high pitched yelp.

'It hit something,' Remus said.

'Let's go see.'

Still with their wands aloft, their tips lit up - but ready to hex anything that moved - they made their way cautiously into the underbrush. After a minute of searching they came across something small and unconscious.

It was about three feet high, with brown skin - vaguely humanoid, but it wore no clothes and had long fingers and feet - finished off with sharp nails, and it's head was shaped like an oversized walnut. 'What is it?' Sirius asked, sounding disgusted. He nudged the … thing with his foot.

'It's an erkling,' Remus said, heavily. He recognised it at once - he had taught his fourth years all about them not two months ago.

'What's that?'

'A type of elf. But wicked - a horrid little thing. Not at all like a house elf.'

'And let me guess … They eat children?'

'They do.' His voice was heavy - and so was his heart. 'Their laughter - it sounded creepy to us, but it's enticing to children. They follow it and then … Erkling's can speak as well. They sing songs - make the children follow them that way. They lure them into their dens and then … But this doesn't make sense.'

'Why not?'

'Well - they're child killers - I'm sure you can imagine they have a very high danger classification among beasts. They're ranked nearly as high as werewolves. They're supposed to be very strictly controlled. Their numbers are meant to be falling rapidly. The German Ministry …'

'Has dropped the quaffle,' Sirius interrupted. 'Because somehow these grim little bastards have started breeding again. And feeding again. And the townspeople of Baden Zauberer are too busy blaming the werewolves to report the problem and get it sorted. Well, look where their bigotry has got them - an elf infestation and dead children.'

Remus gave him a troubled look. 'Well - now we know, we need to put a stop to it. No one's bigotry should result in their children getting eaten. That's not fair.'

But Sirius snorted, 'I don't see why not.'

'Because that's what happened to me. I paid the price for my father's bigotry. And I'll pay it every day for the rest of my life. It isn't fair when children are made to pay for the prejudices of their parents.'

'Oh. Right.' He looked contrite.

'If there are any children alive, or any children out there who haven't been lured in yet - we save them for their own sake. Even if it would help for their parents to learn a short, sharp lesson, we can't let this happen to the children.'

'I know. You're right. Of course you are. You always are. So - what do we do with this?' He nudged the erkling with the toe of his boot again. 'Kill it?'

'I suppose we better had.' They stared down at the small figure.

'Have you - have you ever killed anything sentient before?'

'No.'

'Me neither.'

'We did nearly kill Peter that time,' Remus said.

'True. And this thing is a child killer.'

'If we just leave it - it will kill again.'

'Together then?'

'I think so.'

They both raised their wands - pointed it directly at the unconscious erkling - glanced at each other, nodded their encouragement and then yelled 'avada kedavra!' Remus closed his eyes as he cast the spell, but it wasn't enough to block out the flash of green light that suddenly lit up the forest.

When he opened them again, the erkling was still lying there, completely unmarked. It looked no different to how it had looked before … except its chest was no longer rising and falling. He looked at Sirius, and saw that the other man's hands were shaking.

'How do Death Eaters do this?' Sirius asked. 'That - that thing wasn't human. It killed children and still …' he shuddered. 'Killing it in cold blood like that, while it was defenceless... How can anyone do this to other people? Again and again?'

'I don't know … I don't want to know. Maybe if we knew - maybe we could do it too.'

'Peter killed all those muggles. Twelve of them.'

'I know.'

'He did it to frame me - to save himself. He did it with his wand behind his back … do you - do you think he ever killed anyone like this? In cold blood - looking straight at them? Took aim and just…?'

'I don't know.'

'Peter's a coward. Surely he would never look a man in the face and kill him?'

'He looked James in the face and betrayed him. He looked you in the face and betrayed you. He would have done the same to me if it had ever proven necessary.'

'You know - it's been nearly thirteen years. I've been the only person who knew the truth for thirteen years and still - I still don't understand it. Can't quite believe it. I thought Peter loved James. I think back to us all - at school - and … I still can't quite believe it has come to this. After all these years.'

'Was it easier when you thought I was the spy?' Remus asked, trying to keep the tremor from his voice.

But Sirius shook his head. 'No,' he said. 'No that wasn't easier. That hurt … it hurt more than I thought anything could hurt. Thinking you were betraying us, making myself hate you. But it at least made a sort of sense.'

'Because of what I am.'

'No! ' And he sounded fierce all of a sudden. '...and yes. I knew you were good, Moony. I always knew you were the best of all of us. And everything was so unfair - to you. The whole world… I never thought it was because you were a werewolf - that it was some innate badness that came with your condition. I just thought ...Peter was so worthless and had nothing to gain by joining Voldemort. But you would be brave enough to join him - and would have a place by his side. I understand why other werewolves fought for him. It isn't because of what they are - it's because of how they're treated. Voldemort offered them something better - and that is to the wizarding world's eternal shame. That someone so evil offered a better life to … anyone . But I should have remembered - that it's our choices who make us who we are. And that everyday you chose to be better than the rest of us… and that there was no reason you would ever stop making that choice. If I'd just remembered that … we could have saved a whole lot of trouble. I could have seen Peter for what he was. But now - here we are and we need to stop him.'

'We do - but we can't do that until we've sorted…' he looked down at the dead erkling at his feet and looked away again, 'until we've sorted this. There's more than one of them. And there may be some children trapped somewhere. We have to find them. Help them.'

Sirius nodded. 'Yes - alright.' He too stared down at the creature they had just killed in cold blood. 'I just don't understand how Peter could ever do this - to people.'

...

With their wands still raised, they headed further into the undergrowth. The trees became thicker, the grass became longer, the sky was blotted out overhead by the densely packed branches.

They heard another rustle in the bushes - and then a chuckle - and then the pitter patter of the scurrying feet.

'This way - let's follow it,' and they dashed off after the noises, barging their way through the forest, stumbling through the thickets until: 'there - see?' Sirius grabbed Remus' arm and pointed.

A small, brown figure was standing by the mouth of a cave, it's long fingers were in its mouth - as if it were chewing it's fingernails. It saw them coming - chuckled - and fled into the dark of the opening.

'It knows we're following it,' Remus said. 'It got a good look at us - it knows we're not children, it must know we have wands.'

'Well if the little bugger wants to take us on…'

'It's an elf, Sirius. We need to be careful - they have powerful magic of their own. We don't know how many are down there and if we underestimate their threat then…'

'Two more skeletons for the boneyard?'

'To put it mildly.'

'Well - come on, stay alert. And if anything moves - hex first and ask questions later.'

Cautiously, they crept forward - their senses on high alert, their wands raised and readied - and followed the erkling into the cave mouth.

It was dark inside - which immediately put them at a disadvantage. In order to be able to see they needed to keep their wands lit, but that told the dark creatures - who called the cave home - exactly where they were. Meanwhile, the erklings themselves could lurk in the shadows.

They heard the chuckling again - bouncing off the cave walls and echoing all around them - as menacing and peculiar as ever.

And then something came skittering right out of the darkness - long fingernails clacking as it ran straight towards them. 'Stupefy!' they both yelled. The erkling gave a startled yell and collapsed to the ground. They went over and looked at it.

'I suppose we should finish it off,' Sirius said, his voice was heavy.

Remus glanced at him, saw the look in his eyes in the wandlight - a haunted look. 'I'll do it,' he said, 'you cover me, stand guard.'

Sirius nodded - a tremor ran across his face, as if he was trying not to look relieved, and then his eyes took to searching the corners and crevices of the cave. Meanwhile, Remus pointed his wand - took a deep breath - and muttered the killing curse.

There was a flash of bright, green light - and then the stupefied erkling had stopped breathing. 'Let's keep going,' Remus said, working to hide the tremble in his own voice. His hand was likewise shaking - and he was glad Sirius could not see that in the dark.

They followed the path downwards, the cave grew darker with every step. Pebbles crunched under foot - at least, they hoped they were pebbles … the clearing scattered with the bones of children was still fresh in their mind.

'We're going down - deeper into the earth,' Sirius hissed, after a while.

'I know.'

'We haven't seen an erkling in a while - in too long.'

'Maybe there was only two of …'

He cut himself off as he heard a sound - a distant wailing. 'You hear that?'

'That's not erkling laughter,' Sirius said.

'No.' It was higher pitched - and it wasn't laughter at all. It sounded distressed - as if, whatever creature was making it was in a great deal of torment. The further they walked, the louder the voice became - and then others joined in - and after a long while, words became discernible within the wails.

'Hilfe! Mami! Hilfe! Rette mich! Bitte!'

'Lass uns gehen. Bitte - lass uns gehen.'

'Ich will meine mama!'

'Children!' Sirius said, 'it's little kids - there are more kids down there! Come on.'

He began to run - and Remus followed him; down the twisty, dark path; tripping over the stones underfoot, until eventually they came out in what appeared to be a large, underground cavern. A river ran through the middle of it - and scores of erklings were scurrying around, squatting by the banks and drinking the water - or standing at the rock face … chuckling … where the children from the village were all chained to the stony walls, crying out for their mothers.

The two men stood frozen in the entrance way for a moment, staring in horror. 'We can't kill all of these!' Remus breathed, 'there are too many.'

And then an erkling - larger than most, and uglier - which had been crouched down by the underground riverbed, looked up, cried out and pointed a sharp taloned finger at them.

There was a loud bang - and Sirius swore, and his wand was knocked from his hand… It flew through the air and then landed on the ground, several feet away - the light on the tip of it going out and leaving everything suddenly much darker.

'Get them!' the erkling yelled in a squawky voice. All the others turned to look - and then they flew - literally flew - straight at the two men. Talons outstretched.

'Protego,' Remus yelled, casting a shield charm in front of both of them.

The small elfish creatures bounced off the shield - shrieking - and tumbled to the floor.

'Get the kids!' Sirius yelled.

'What are you going to -'

'But Sirius had vanished - to be replaced by Padfoot - and the great, bear-like black dog was bounding over the fallen erklings, ripping into them like rats.

Remus stumbled away, headed for the children.

'Hilfe hilfe!' they all cried.

'I'm going to - I'm going to help,' he panted. He raised his wand and yelled 'evanesco' at the chains holding the nearest child - the oldest one. Then he pointed his wand in the other direction, 'accio Sirius' wand!'

Sirius' wand flew in a high arc and Remus snatched it from the air. He thrust it into the hands of the child - a boy of about ten. 'Magic?' he asked, checking.

The boy nodded.

'Help me - do the rest. The spell is evanesco.' He vanished the chains of another child, to demonstrate - and then nodded at the boy. The boy nodded back, and ran through the cavern, vanishing the chains of the other children with Sirius' wand.

Meanwhile Sirius was in a tussle with a whole pack of erklings. His muzzle was shredded - bright red standing out against the black, where the claws of the elves had torn into him. He was growling and snapping and biting, but he was getting buried beneath the sheer mass of them.

Remus hurried back to him, 'relashio,' he cried - and some of the elves were flung off the dog. 'Stupefy! Stupefy!'

Now there were a few less to contend with, Padfoot struggled back to his feet and pounced on the others.

One of them looked up - saw Remus - and pointed it's finger at him. But Remus was ready, recognising the move from before. And before his wand could be taken, he had cast another shield charm.

The erkling got to its feet and ran at him, shrieking - it's undulating cries bouncing off the walls, magnified ten times. Its hands stretched out, its claws were ready to shred...

'Immobulus,' Remus yelled - and the erkling froze where it was. Remus hurried off back to the boy, to help him finish freeing the children.

Padfoot kept on fighting - kept grabbing hold of erklings with his teeth and then hurling them at the walls - so they slammed into the cliff face with wild cries of pain and then hit the ground, falling still.

Once all the children were free - Remus grabbed hold of the hand of the littlest and began to tow it towards the exit. 'This way,' he called. Though they didn't seem to understand his words.

'Hier entlang! ' the oldest boy called out - translating - and they all followed in a pack. There were maybe fifteen of them - and they ranged in age from the four year old girl Remus had a tight hold of, to the ten year old boy clutching Sirius' wand.

But the erklings had spotted their food supply was on the move - and were none to happy about it. The ones still standing abandoned Padfoot and ran straight at the group of fleeing chlldren - who all cried out in terror.

'Stupefy!' Remus called again - firing red sparks out of his wand, casting jinx after jinx as fast as he could, and thrusting the children behind him with his other arm.

Beside him, the ten year old boy raised his borrowed wand, watched Remus - and then copied him. 'Stupefy!'

Red sparks flew from the tip. He didn't succeed in knocking the erkling unconscious, but he did manage to knock it off his feet.

'Good!' Remus shouted to him, 'that was really great. Try again - you have to mean it. Stupefy! ' He took out another rampaging erkling.

'Stupefy!' the boy called out, sounding more determined than ever. And this time the erkling fell down, passed out cold. The boy looked delighted. 'Stupefy! Stupefy Stupefy!'

The whole time, they had been backing towards the exit; the younger children shielded behind Remus and the boy. As they got back to the entrance to the cavern, Padfoot gave a great growl - picked the largest erkling up by the scruff of its neck and tossed it, screaming, into the underground river - and then bounded after the group.

He transformed back into a man - and the boy handed his wand back to him.

'Lead them out,' Remus said to the boy, 'you understand? Take them up to the forest!'

The boy nodded - and gathered the children together. 'Hier entlang. Folge mir. Alles wird gut.'

There was the sound of stampeding footsteps - as the children ran back up the pathway, towards the cave mouth.

'What do we do?' Sirius asked. 'Did you send the children away so we could … kill all the erklings without them seeing?'

'No - let's just seal them inside the cavern. The German Ministry can deal with them.'

Sirius looked relieved. 'Alright - well - you take lead, you're the expert on this, Moony. You use these charms every full moon, don't you?'

'When I'm at home.' He nodded grimly. He waved his wand into the shape of a cross, 'sigillium maxima,' he muttered. 'Obstantio'

There was a crackle in the air - and then the entrance way shimmered blue. Light spread across the whole opening and began to pulse. 'That should hold them long enough for the Ministry to get here,' Remus said, 'come on - let's get back to the kids.'

...

The path twisted upward - but there was light at the end of the tunnel and when they emerged, even though they were still so deep in the forest that the branches blocked out the sky, they blinked in the sunlight - the brightness hurting their eyes. The children were gathered around the cave mouth, some had collapsed on the floor, some were crying.

'We need to get them back to the town,' Remus said. He looked for the oldest boy - who at least seemed to understand a bit of English. 'Are you all from Baden Zauberer?'

'Ja,' the boy nodded. 'You vill take us home?'

'We will take you home.' He looked back at Sirius, 'we'll need to help some of them…' He crossed over to the tiniest girl again, who was lying on the floor wailing, and picked her up. He balanced her on his hip and then reached a hand out for another small child. 'Come on,' he said, smiling encouragingly. 'We're going home - to mum.'

The child stared up at him - blinking and mistrustful.

'Er will dich nach haus bringen,' the oldest boy said. 'Damit du deine mutter sehen kannst.'

The little girl's lip began to wobble - and then she nodded, got to her feet and clung onto Remus' hand. He nodded at the boy, 'thank you.'

Sirius picked up a tiny little boy - and, like Remus, held his hand out to another child. The oldest boy helped another couple of children to their feet - and then they started struggling away from the cave.

'We should probably go a different way to the way we came,' Sirius muttered under his breath - though he needn't have bothered, most children did not seem to understand a word they said.

'What do you mean?'

'We can't walk them through that clearing - with the bones. We can't let them see what nearly happened to them... What happened to their friends.'

'You're right - but we have to keep an eye out for Torstan Burnblade and his wolves as well.'

'He won't hurt the kids.'

'No - but that doesn't mean that he won't let them go and kill us.'

'I know vere ve are goink!' The boy told them cheerfully. 'I am coming into ze forest mit mein father all ze time. We just need to follow ze … I do not know ze words - auf Deutsch sind est "die bahngleise".'

'Bahngleise?' Remus shook his head, not understanding.

'Ja - für den zug!'

'Sirius?'

'Nope.'

The boy smiled - 'I show you - zis vay.'

He led them through the forest, shepherding the smaller children along with him - although, like him, they seemed to know the way. Living so close to the forest, they must play in it often, Remus supposed - no matter what their mothers warned them about … well, about werewolves. The Black Forest was just too big and mysterious and exciting for the children to ignore - and Burnblade wouldn't attack the children outside of a full moon. It was just their bad luck they had suffered an erkling infestation.

'You really were amazing back there,' he said to the boy.

The boy grinned even wider - looking proud. 'Danke!'

'Will you be off to school soon?'

'In September - I start at Durmstrang.'

Remus and Sirius glanced at each other. 'Well - you'll be able to tell them you can already vanish and stun things. That's pretty advanced magic.'

'Vell - you are gut teacher.'

'He's heard that before,' Sirius said drily.

Remus laughed. 'What's your name?' he asked the boy.

'Wolfie - Wolfgang.'

'Oh - that's an … interesting name.'

'Mein father's patronus is ein volf. I zink mine vill be also. Ven I am trained to cast one.'

'Well - if you pick up patronuses as quickly as you did stunning that won't be very long.'

'Vat is your patronus?'

Remus didn't answer.

'Mine's a dog,' Sirius offered - to cover the silence.

'And you turn into dog - you are animagus. Are you animagus also?' he asked Remus.

'Er - no. No I'm not.'

'Here we are -' the boy said, stopping suddenly, 'die bahngleise. These run straight back to the village.' And clearly the other children recognised them - because they were running along the side of them, crying out in delight to be so close to home.

'Train tracks!' Remus and Sirius both said at the same time.

'Ja - den zug leaves the town and comes right through ze forest.'

...

They followed the tracks for a few miles - glad to have something so easy to point them in the right direction. After about an hour or so there came a sudden clacking noise on the line. 'What's that?' Sirius asked.

'Stand back,' the boy said. He raised his voice, 'den zug - treten sie zuruck!' And the children all squealed and scuttled backwards, just as The Flying Frenchman came hurtling past them.

The two men watched it go. 'I suppose, all things considered, it's a good job we're not still on there,' Sirius said.

'We've done more good by ourselves than we would have done trapped in 22B all this time.'

'With the Ministry Hag.'

Remus shuddered. Once the last carriage was out of sight, they started walking again.

Five minutes later, and they could see the steeple of Baden Zauberer's church in the distance. Five minutes more and they were back among the cobbled streets and gabled houses.

The town seemed very quiet - almost eerie - as the large group descended on the square - chattering and laughing in very fast German.

And then there was a scream. A loud wail - and a witch in her slippers and apron came hurting across the square and seized one of the children in her arms. 'Gertie! Meine Gertie!' She showered kisses on the little girl. 'Ich dachte du warst verloren.'

And the girl squealed 'mama!' and threw her arms around her mother's neck and burst into noisy tears.

And then witches and wizards were pouring out of every house and shop and restaurant in the town - crying and pointing and rushing towards the group, snatching up their own children and holding them close - shaking Sirius' and Remus' hands and jabbering at them in words they did not understand; though they understood the tone and the tears and the smiles.

And then Wolfgang waved excitedly, 'vater, vater! Hier druben!'

And then the wizard from the cafe was right there, wrapping his arms around his son, tears leaking from his eyes. 'Mein sohn, mein sohn, mein junge!'

And then he dropped hold of Wolfgang and threw his arms around Remus - who looked startled and nearly lost his balance.

'You brought him back! Zough I cast you out, you brought my boy home. Zank you - zank you! You are gut man. Very gut man!'

Behind them, Sirius snorted derisively.

Remus gave him a look. 'It was nothing,' he said to the wizard, 'I'm happy to help. Wolfgang is … he's an exceptional young wizard. You must be very proud.'

'I am, I am - he is my pride and joy.' He was now wringing Remus' hand so hard Remus thought his fingers might fall off. 'Come come - you were here days ago - you must be starving. I get you suppe.'

He led the two heroes back to his cafe - sat them down and then bustled around bringing them steaming bowls of onion soup and rolls of black bread. Having not eaten anything since the ice cream the day before, they both fell on the food ravenously, tearing hunks of bread off and dipping it in the soup and then cramming it in their mouths.

The wizard beamed as he watched them, keeping his arm around Wolfgang's shoulders the whole time. 'Your Ministry vas in here looking for you,' he said after a while.

They both froze.

'No no - I vill not tell them you came back. You saved Wolfie, you are heroes - Helden - you can leave this place safely.'

'Thank you … and - er - once we're gone, you need to contact your own Ministry,' Remus said. 'There are erklings in the forest, that was what has been taking the children. We sealed them in a cave. Wolfgang can show them where.'

Wolfgang beamed and nodded and looked very important.

'Yes, yes - we shall get rid of zem all,' the wizard agreed. 'Oh-' he said, as if he had just remembered something. 'Ze man - ze one from the picture - ze one you vere looking for. He vas here.'

They froze again. Sirius swallowed a mouthful of black bread slowly. 'Peter was here?'

'Ja ja - not twenty minutes ago. He sat right there.' And he pointed to a table right by the window.

The two of them turned to look. It still had an empty plate on it, and a handful of silver sickles … But beyond that, there was no sign of Peter.