Were And Wing,
Chapter 4
As promised, after dinner Raislen got Remus and Morig settled in the library of WestCraven manor with quill and parchment along with any books on magical creatures that may be helpful. Remus had to admit the man's book collection was vastly impressive to say the least. Morig and Remus sat up late into the night. He told her of every magical creature that they could find in the forest while making a list of all those intelligent enough to have a conversation with them.
He'd placed question marks beside the ones he wasn't even sure they could locate. Some were only rumored to be in the forest, while others were surely there but very illusive by nature. When the list was complete, Remus found himself frowning down at it dubiously. What if they couldn't convince any of these creatures to help?
Following his gaze, Morig read the list aloud.
"Hippogriff,
Centaur,
Unicorn,
Acromantula,
Thestral,
Dryad,
Pixy.
I wanna start with the centaurs," she declared.
"They're useful on a few different levels and I think I can roll with them. Then again if we start with the spiders, they won't try to eat us while we're talking to the centaurs."
Remus chuckled. He missed being amused. With all of his friends dead, he'd felt more than once that he may never be truly light hearted again. Morig amused him in ways similar to James and Sirius, but where they could be careless, reckless and at times, were he honest, even needlessly cruel, Morig's vibe was all honest and at times raw animal instinct of the sort he was never at ease with in himself.
"I doubt the Acromantulas will tangle with the centaurs, so if you'd like to begin with the centaurs, that should be fine," he said.
"Good then. Should we head out bright and early? With the sun up they can't be distracted by the stars."
Remus grinned.
"Good thought."
He yawned.
"Guess we'd better get some sleep then."
"You're right next door to my room, so I'll show you," she said as he rose and pocketed the list he'd composed of all the magical creatures in the Forbidden Forest.
He slept far better than he expected, considering he was under the roof of Snape's nearest and dearest chums. The room was large and furnished in sturdy elegant mahogany wood with thick carpets and heavy curtains over the wide windows that gave him a sense of privacy which allowed him to truly relax.
The bed was soft and he let it carry him away into a deep nearly dreamless sleep. Nearly dreamless because there was one brief dream of he and Morig having a playful water fight in a pond while trying to talk to Merpeople.
When he woke, that had him thinking that they should talk to the Merpeople about helping as well. If Voldemort won, they would certainly wish they had, after all. Of course to effectively talk with them, he and Morig would need to implement a charm for breathing under water as well as a language translation charm to do so.
Could Morig even swim? Remus hurriedly dressed for the day with this particular question on his mind. He was just running a brush through his hair when a soft tap came at his bedroom door. Upon opening it, he gave a pleased and relieved smile to see that it was only Morig rather than one of Severus's friends or their extremely bright elf.
"Hi," Morig greeted with a cheerful smile.
"I was just stopping to see if you were awake before heading down to breakfast."
"Great," Remus said as he exited the room.
"I wouldn't feel right wandering about this place on my own," he admitted.
"I suppose if you hadn't come along I'd still have to, but this is far nicer."
Morig chuckled. Remus assumed as she didn't ask, she must be somewhat aware of the situation between he and Severus's friends. Normally that would be concerning, but it didn't seem to change the way she felt about him.
"Can you swim," he asked, mind returning to the Merpeople.
She shrugged.
"A little. Are we doing that with the centaurs?"
Lupin chuckled.
"No. At least I don't think so. It's not currently in the plan at any rate."
As they descended the stairs, he told her of his idea to add the Merpeople to their list of potentially helpful creatures.
"You didn't tell me about them last night," she said, arching her brows.
"That's because they're not in the forest, so I didn't think of it," he said.
"But they're close enough and who knows what they may know that we could use if they were inclined to help. Asking is free at any rate."
"It's a pity there are no sirens here, they could really help," Morig said enthusiastically.
"They could sing Volde-fuck into smashing his head in on some rocks or something, or drowning if we could get him near the water. Sirens are nearly as bad ass as harpies," she informed as they entered the dining room.
The smell of breakfast was heavy in the air and Remus's stomach rumbled.
"The nearest Sirens are in Greece as far as I am aware," he said as he and Morig headed to the seats they'd occupied at the dining table the previous night.
"Hey it could be an eventual field trip," Morig said eagerly.
Remus smiled, finding himself pleased at the idea of going away with her. She was interesting and fun, so any trip they took would surely be the same.
"Have you ever been to Greece," she asked, eyes bright on him before turning them suspiciously to the plate of breakfast already waiting at her place.
"Never," he said with a small shrug.
"I don't have a lot of money and travel can be expensive."
He spoke this as a fact. Normally he was ashamed when making such admissions, but with her it was different. Morig didn't seem to care about the things most other normal people did, even Remus's own closest friends, so somehow he didn't feel lacking, admitting to her that he had very little money. Snape's friends could be another matter, but he already knew they would never think well of him for their school days so it hardly mattered.
Speaking of Snape's friends, they were nowhere in sight, which in truth was a bit of a relief. The table was laid with his and Morig's breakfast plates along with two empty cups and a pot of coffee along with a pitcher of milk. Remus wondered what time it was. Glancing around, his eyes lit on a large grandfather clock across the room that read nine. He'd slept a little later than usual, but it seemed Morig had done as well. They'd been up quite late, though.
"Heather and Raislen must already be at work?"
Morig nodded.
"I suppose we'll just go after breakfast then," Remus asked and Morig nodded again, this time giving him a bright smile.
"This should be interesting," she said.
"It'll be an adventure for sure."
He'd not truly had an adventure since his school days, and Remus found himself smiling back.
After breakfast he apparated them directly to the Forbidden Forest. He had a general idea where the Centaurs were, but not exact specifications, so Morig offered to fly around and have a look, then return to him when she'd spotted them.
He watched in open admiration as she spread her large gray wings and took to the sky. As she flew, he couldn't help but think that she looked simply magnificent. He didn't look away until she became a small dot as the distance grew between them.
It was only then that he glanced around to make sure nothing dangerous was about. Part of him thought he'd have sensed or smelled any enemy approaching, but this forest had some nasty secrets, so who could be certain? Constant vigilance, as Mad Eye would say, he thought with a small smile. He hardly had time to think anything else before Morig was returning.
She flew quickly toward him, diving down nearly like a hawk before leveling out and landing lightly on her feet. Her long black tresses were tousled about her slender naked shoulders and her cheeks were flushed pink by the morning air rushing past them on her flight. He blinked and looked away realizing he was staring!
"They're all asleep. I wonder how we should wake them," she was saying.
"Asleep," he managed, then feeling quite stupid, he let out an exasperated sigh.
"Of course they are! They're up all night watching the stars! It only stands to reason they'd sleep all day!"
Why didn't he think of that?"
"Yes but if we come in the evening, when it's more convenient for them, they'll be distracted by the stars, so they get us now," Morig said with a grin.
"So how should we wake them?"
Remus frowned in thought.
"I have no idea," he admitted after a moment.
"Whatever we do could offend them. They're odd and no one likes being woken up."
"Fair enough, but they need to be woken up so I'll just apologize and hope they get over it," Morig said.
"I'll wake them up from the air while you wait here. They can't kick out at me from the air. Once they agree to speak to us, I'll come back and get you."
Remus nodded.
"Very well. That sounds safe. How do you plan to go about waking them?"
Morig frowned.
"I thought I'd begin with 'Hi, my friend and I were hoping to talk to you,' but perhaps I should try singing the good morning song my grandmother used to wake us with when I was a child. What do you think?"
Remus laughed.
"I doubt they'll be thrilled either way, so just do what feels right," he said.
Then after a moment of thought he added, "But if you sing well, perhaps they'd like that."
Her voice was light and pleasant, so he thought it should sound nice bursting into song.