The Casting Stone

by Thing1

4/10: And in then end....

12. The Casting Stone 12

The Casting Stone 12

Oooo – full moon tonight, and right here in the window. Combine that with Art Bell being back on & I'm ready to go…! Well, this was actually going to be done sooner, but I got distracted when we pulled all our pictures from our Egypt trip out to have a look & six hours later we realized that we better get to bed if we expected to say one single coherent word the next day. What can I say – Egypt is the most amazing place and we're almost there….

We've actually now made our own version of Sirius' map to keep track of everything (sadly of course it just sits there and does not have the ability to terrify silly Muggles like, oh, this one rather boorish classmate of my boyfriend who said he was too old for the 'Gryffindor House Team' Quidditch cap he sports these days. Please! He's on his paediatrics turn and the kids think he's awesome. ). It's just amazing what med. students will do to take a brain break. Three grown men, a large sheet of paper, an atlas & some magic markers. They were just a little too into it if you ask me, but it was entertaining to watch and oddly sweet.

A/N: It's been a while, I think, since I thanked all of the fantastic people who give me such nice reviews & good ideas of things to bring out in these fics (can't answer all the questions, though –it would take away from where this is going….). You inspire me, and I thank you!!!

And a restatement of the disclaimer: Please, these are JK Rowling's glorious characters for the most part. I have no part of them, and gain nothing from them but joy, which has no price.

Remus et al. go to explore the temple they have come across on the hidden island. There they meet the 'caretaker' of the place, and get a history lesson they never would have imagined. Jack is not done with by a long shot, and, at last, they see Peter – but only for a few moments.

***

Katie woke Remus up after dark, and told him to follow her in low tones. They walked back up to the edge of the palm forest where Sirius and Harry stood, looking down the mountain.

"Remus. Look."

Remus looked down the mountain to the temple on the valley floor. The path leading into the temple had been lit with fires, and a soft glow came from the now open front doors. The entrance to the temple was in fact a sunken avenue lined with about 20 statues of jackals, carved from what appeared to be the same highly polished black stone of the statue of Set Remus had seen in his dream. They were lying down, their heads raised and staring at each other across the pathway in an almost regal fashion. They shone silently in the firelight, their thin flanks and sharp angles made more pronounced by the flames.

"Those fires just came on, and the doors seemed to open themselves. We haven't seen anything all afternoon, any of us, although we can tell we're certainly not alone here," explained Harry, quietly. "We didn't go down there, of course, but we've seen no movement at all until the fires flared up. We had another look at Peter's letter to see if there were any hints. There is reference to a dark stronghold that is the key for passing into the place where the Stone is held. We are assuming that this is it, if in fact this is where the Spelldoors are concentrated, although there is no mention of its location. There was also a brief note that there is a 'caretaker' that guards the stronghold. So far no sign of any wizard, or witch. Draco and Liz are just going down there right now to have a quick perimeter check, but not to go inside. Draco demanded he be allowed to go, because the place is so dark. Seemed pointless to argue with him and he and Liz really are the best to send down there first."

Remus nodded, and looked down the path. He could just make out Draco and Liz's blonde hair in the moonlight as they slowly descended into the valley. Sirius looked at him, the strain on his face betraying the fact he was not happy at all sending Liz off on her own with Draco. But he knows better than to argue with her.

"Moony, once they reach the bottom, we'll follow them down. Katie and Harry will search the other side of the temple and you and I will go inside. I can read the spells in there, and I need you to keep an eye out for me. Okay?"

"Okay. Harry, Katie, be very careful and keep an eye out for those Spelldoors. We'll all meet up again at the entrance to the avenue there. Don't go down it; it looks like those are statues but after our run-in with the sphinxes on the mainland, I'll wager that those are probably real as well. And there are a lot more of them."

"Worry-wort," whispered Katie, giving him a small kiss on the cheek, and smiling. Remus just smiled back at her and nodded emphatically. They all turned their attention back to Liz and Draco. It took them some time to get down to the valley floor and approach the temple, but nothing happened to them as they went. They stopped at the entrance of the avenue and seemed to be studying the statues for a few moments, then had a brief conversation. Remus saw Draco take his wand and point it at the ground for a moment, before he and Liz started off around the far side of the temple and vanished from sight.

As soon as they disappeared from view, Sirius took off down the path, followed closely by Katie. Harry smiled at Remus and shook his head a little, and then they too started down the mountain. As they got closer, Remus was taken aback by the sheer size of the temple. It had seemed large enough at the top of the hill, but as they came up to it, the real magnitude of the architectural scale became evident.

"Sirius, are all Egyptian temples this big?"

Sirius nodded.

"Incredible," added Katie very softly. Remus was glad to see Sirius give her a small smile, as he was not looking forward to having to put up with an overly grumpy Sirius on top of everything else.

They reached the edge of the avenue and looked at the ground where Draco had cast his spell. There was a short note and an incantation scorched on the dirt.

This spell should handle these chaps. See you soon.

Carpa manus vestrum spiritus

"Oh, very nice, Draco", grumbled Sirius.

"Padfoot…."

"Sorry. Dark magic is not my forte, no matter what the Ministry says," he said with a grin.

Harry gave a small laugh and motioned for Katie to follow him as they started to go around the opposite side of the temple from where Liz and Draco had gone.

"Harry! Keep a close eye out for rats, won't you?"

"Got it."

Sirius and Remus stood at the entrance to the avenue and looked down the rows of jackals to the doors. There was no option for getting into the temple but walking down to the doorway, as the doors were actually quite small and set back into the temple's gigantic pylon, so they could not be accessed without stepping onto the path.

"Let's see what we have here, shall we?"

Remus raised his wand and said the incantation. Nothing happened for a moment, then in an instant 40 eyes opened and 20 heads snapped around to look at them. Remus took a deep breath and stepped forward onto the flagstone causeway. The jackals blinked, but didn't move. Remus moved forward slowly, keeping an eye on the jackals, but they only watched him calmly. Sirius came up to walk next to him, also keeping a close eye on the statues. They seemed more interested in Remus, however, and regarded him with a dark intensity as they kept moving forward towards the doors.

They stopped on the threshold and looked back at the jackals, who were all gazing at them silently. Remus inspected the one closest to him. They were certainly made of stone, but had a very real and living presence. He suspected that they were each inhabited by a spirit of some sort, rather than being living creatures like the sphinxes, who only seemed to be of stone when they were at rest. The jackal looked into his eyes, but didn't move or speak at all.

"Well, the incantation seems to have worked, at least."

Sirius nodded. "Should we release them, now that we're past them?"

"Better not just yet." He started when the jackal he was looking at gave a slow blink at that comment, and then turned his head back to the front. At that, all of the jackals turned back and resumed their former positions. Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"Or perhaps that spell did nothing and they just let us in here."

"A possibility, of course. Shall we?"

They checked the doorway for curses, but finding none moved forward into the small corridor that led through the pylon and into the first chamber. The soft glow coming from the inside of the temple brightened, and Remus could see that there were gigantic torches lit in the room ahead of them along the edges of the pathway, although beyond this chamber he saw only darkness.

They entered the chamber and stopped for a moment to gaze at the astonishing sight of the room. It was gigantic, and filled with huge columns covered in brightly painted carvings from the floor to the ceiling. As Remus strained to look up, he could just see the roof high above them in the light from the torches, and it too was covered in hieroglyphics. The carvings on the columns were a mix of human and semi-human figures, fantastic looking creatures, and endless rows of the ornate pictorial writing. The capitals on the columns were large circular shapes with a diamond-themed geometric pattern on them in bright blues and yellows.

"Sirius? What is all of this?"

Sirius was busy studying the column he stood next to. "This is all pretty standard stuff, but that's not surprising at the entrance to the place. This is a protection spell, but it's to protect those who come here to 'worship' if you will, not keep out anyone. This is a curse that promises hellfire and brimstone on anyone who harms anything here. But these are all just written, not cast; that's the difference. Basically it's a spell book, carved up here for easy reference and use by the living occupants of the place. Why I'm always so amused to read Muggle dissertations on 'mummy curses', you know. They seem to think that the written spell can cause harm. Of course, they can read them out loud all they like; they still can't make them work. I'm not going to read any of this out loud, if it's all the same to you, as who knows what might happen. If Muggles are getting killed opening tombs, it's more likely from rocks falling on them or from breathing in ancient mould and getting infections than from anything else", he said with a little disgusted grunt.

"Anyway, the columns are carved to represent lotus blossoms; this is a stylistic representation of the papyrus thicket where all life started; where matter rose out of chaos and formed the world. I'll bet you that this room has exactly 126 of these columns; 7 rows of 9 on each side. Seven is the number of process and growth, nine is the number of the 'Ennead', which is responsible for bringing the universe into being and sustaining it. Numerology has a major place in Egyptian magic; keep that in mind, because if you ever have to figure out something based on numbers, you can bet that there's a complex and highly symbolic math problem behind it."

Sirius peered into the near total darkness of the next chamber. "This is the entranceway, or the start of the journey, the start of life itself. Everything, everyone came from this place before they travelled forward. As we get deeper in here, the mysteries of the deity this place is dedicated to will start to be represented in both the architecture and the spells. Since we're dealing with Set…."

"I should go first?" asked Remus with a grin.

Sirius did smile, but shook his head. "No, you clot. We need to stick together. Set did some rather nasty things. Killing and dismembering his own brother topping that list."

"That I do know; the legend of Osiris."

"Quite. Do let me know if you get the sudden urge to render me limb from limb, wont you?"

"Certainly! Shall we?"

Sirius and Remus slowly walked forward into the next chamber, their eyes adjusting to the low light of a single torch glowing softly in the centre of the room. This room was devoid of the bright colours of the entrance hall, and had only 12 smaller columns rising to a flat ceiling. This ceiling was pained deep blue and covered with gold stars. Remus vaguely remembered that this was a standard motif seen mainly in tombs in Egypt. The other colours in the room were red and black with gold details. The main detail on the wall, which was carved in a large band that went along all four walls of the room, was a relief showing running jackals. They were painted black, with their eyes, ears and claws detailed in gold. Remus felt uncomfortable looking at them, and went instead to look at the doorway on the far side of the room. There were solid gold doors that were shut and, Remus noted, charmed tightly shut. Sirius made a small noise to get his attention, and he followed him to the other far corner of the room. There were identical doors here, also firmly shut.

"Any ideas?"

Sirius shook his head, so Remus raised his wand and, stepping away from the door a good distance, tried an opening spell. It had no effect, though the torchlight flickered a bit, suggesting that the doors had simply deflected the magic cast at them. Remus tried again, using an older spell. This time, the doors shook a little, but stayed firmly shut. Interesting; perhaps if Sirius and I do this together we can get them open. Remus looked over at Sirius, but before he said anything they both heard a sound come from the other side of the door.

A low noise seemed to come to life in the still and musty air around them, which grew slowly in intensity and pitch before falling off to a whisper and suddenly vanishing altogether. Remus and Sirius looked at each other again.

"Well that sounded familiar."

Despite the situation Remus gave a small chuckle, and nodded.

"Shush and get ready, I think it might…."

The doors at both sides of the room flew open and the low noise they had heard before became a violent scream as a powerful wind blew through the chamber. The torch was almost immediately extinguished and it became pitch black. Remus tried to reach over to grab Sirius, not wanting to get separated from him in the darkness, but he was suddenly overcome with an intense cold that seemed to chill him to the very core, and he found he was unable to move. Worse, it became clear that there was another very dark and very powerful living presence with them now. Time seemed to vanish as Remus lost all awareness of where he was and what he was doing, unable to put a coherent thought together, and unable to hear anything save the terrifying howling of the wind.

***

Remus suddenly became aware of his surroundings once more to find he was propped up in an old folding chair made of plaited leather and some wood he did not recognize. He was no longer cold, and the wind and the noise had vanished. Remus was seated a few feet from a large enchanted fire that burned with an almost inaudible hiss in an ornate pit in the floor. Geometric mosaics in brilliant turquoise, lapis blue and deep red decorated the circumference of the fire pit, as well as another band of intricate and tiny hieroglyphics. One of those I finally recognize; Set. The room they were in was too large for the light coming from the fire to reach the edges of the chamber, and there was a heavy stillness to the place made all the more unsettling by the fact that Remus could hear nothing save the fire. Even the massive and ornate columns around them vanished into the darkness, so tall that their capitals were not even visible.

He was shocked to look down and see that Padfoot was lying next to the chair he was in, unmoving. Did Sirius do that? Was he forced to transform? I didn't think you could force an animagus to transform into the animal, just back. Unless it's the residual effects of a revealing spell I don't know? Remus had had no opportunity to see their attacker – or attackers – but oddly enough, neither he nor Sirius were bound. He slipped down to the floor to get a closer look at Padfoot, casting another look into the darkness, even though he was quite certain that they were in fact alone. Probably a holding spell just beyond the light. Where are the others? Is it safe to assume that they're still outside and free if they're not in here?

Remus looked at Padfoot closely, but he seemed unharmed. He rubbed Padfoot's shoulder, seeing if maybe he could coax him to wake up. Padfoot shifted slightly, but did not wake. Concerned and still confused, but relieved that Sirius at least seemed unharmed, Remus stood up to see if he could possibly make anything else out in the room. He walked around to the other side of the fire and was surprised to see a small table there, made of the same wood as the chair. As he looked at it, a pitcher and a glass suddenly popped up, as well as a small plate of fruit, and, lastly, a rolled parchment scroll appeared nearest to him. Remus carefully picked up the scroll and unrolled it. It was blank at first glance, and then a message suddenly started writing itself slowly across the page.

Good Evening.

I will be with you shortly – I am attending to something else at the moment.

We will discuss why my island seems to have become so popular as of late.

Please, help yourself to the food and drink.

-D.

Remus glanced at the table, but didn't move to touch the food and drink. Who knows what that might lead to…. But he was startled again to see that there, behind the pitcher, his and Sirius' wands had also been placed on the table. Remus slowly reached forward and, hesitating only for a moment, picked them up. Nothing extraordinary happened. He stood there a few moments, waiting, but still only silence. He hastily tucked Sirius' wand into his pocket, then set out to see if a spell circle was in fact even holding them as he had first assumed. Remus decided to see if his wand even worked with a simple spell.

"Lumos!"

His wand responded perfectly well, felt perfectly normal. Should I be relieved or nervous? Either we are not intruders here, and there is no need to keep our wands from us, or whoever is here could care less if we had them. Neither thought is particularly comforting…. Remus wondered briefly where Katie was, then pushed that from his mind as it would only make him distracted and upset, and instead stepped slowly forward into the room, watching the floor for spells. There was no holding spell about them, and he quickly discovered why. There were no doors to be seen anywhere in the entire room.

Remus finished his search, but couldn't even find evidence of a hidden door. With a sigh, he returned to the centre of the room and decided he should concentrate on trying to wake Sirius up and see why he was transformed. He was happy to see, as he came back to the fire pit, that Padfoot was in fact awake and sitting up. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could speak, he felt his voice die in his throat, as his blood suddenly boiled. Werewolf.

He looked over to see, seated on another chair, an older man who watched him with a vaguely lazy expression as he ate one of the pieces of fruit that had been on the table. It wasn't readily evident exactly how old he was, but Remus felt a rush of energy from him that suggested he was a very old wolf indeed. His face was rugged and seemed worn, and the familiar dark circles most werewolves had under their eyes were evident, even larger than Remus'. His hair was short and curly; once it might have been black but now it was salt-and-pepper coloured, and seemed very coarse. His eyes, Remus noted in a detached fashion, were the same rich brown as Katie's and Malcolm's, but held none of Katie's warmth or Malcolm's eager curiosity. Seen too much.

He stood up as Remus came to a halt at the far side of the fire and absently tossed the remainder of his fruit into the fire, where it vanished instantly, and gave Remus a small cold smile. He wasn't tall, only about five foot and four inches, but he had an intense aura of great strength and darkness. He wore plain black robes that seemed to be made of linen, and were lined with a small detail of gold. This must be the caretaker?

"Well, young one," he said in a firm voice and an accent that Remus couldn't place, "What are you doing here?"

Remus hesitated before responding, thinking about what to say, and the old werewolf clucked his tongue impatiently.

"Please. Neither of you are leaving until we speak."

Remus looked quickly at Padfoot, who returned his gaze for a moment before looking back at the other man. The werewolf smiled.

"Come, come, young one. Surely you have explained to your companion that we can spot an animagus easily. I have demonstrated my good faith to you by not forcing him to return." The man started to walk around the fire on the other side and came to stand near Padfoot, although Remus noted that he kept a 'safe' distance.

"Who are you then?" he murmured. "Quite a temper to you it would seem, but you are not afraid of me. That suggests that you are used to wolves, and that you two are old acquaintances." The man gave a small laugh and looked back at Remus. "No matter. I could truly care less. Why are you here?"

Remus returned his gaze evenly and answered in a quiet voice, wondering at the response he would get.

"We are here after a wizard who thinks he can find the Casting Stone."

The older werewolf gave a feral looking smile. "Does he now," he said quietly. "He will not find what he expects, I think."

Remus didn't blink, and the man gave a small chuckle.

"Alright young one, no joking matter. Very interesting; it has been a long time since anyone came here chasing that particular shadow. Very long indeed." The older man seemed to think about something for a few moments and gazed into the fire. Remus had the distinct impression that there was something in there that he could see, but that he and Sirius could not.

Remus watched him for a few seconds, then took a small step towards Padfoot, and spoke again.

"Does it actually exist?" Remus couldn't keep the astonishment out of his voice. Impossible.

The man looked up at him quietly for a few moments, his face showing an inscrutable expression, as he seemed to consider his answer to Remus' question. Then he turned and went back to sit in the chair he had come from. Remus used this opportunity to move back right next to Padfoot. The other wolf looked back at them and gave a small smile, shaking his head. After he sat back down, he looked intently at Padfoot, then turned his attention back to Remus, and started to speak again.

"Well, young one, let me tell you a few things you may not know. You and your companion there seem intelligent enough, so you should find this … entertaining? You are the first of our kind to have come here willingly for a while now. That is very, very interesting to me. Were you bit, or did you choose this?"

Remus stared at him, astonished. Choose this?

The man nodded. "Bit, it would seem. Hmmmm…."

The older wolf looked around the room again before turning back to Remus and Padfoot. "This place was built by the cult of Set thousands of years ago. However, if you have come this far, I am certain you have already ascertained this. Set was an extraordinarily powerful dark wizard, which is why the 'Muggles', I believe you call them, from his native land of Egypt adopted him as their Dark God."

"Set did not remain in Egypt his entire life, any more than other wizards remained in one place in those days. He travelled to Greece to learn their magic, particularly their divination skills which were unparalled. Set appreciated that the diviners in Greece also had a reputation for making their 'predictions' not quite what they seemed. Individuals from around the world had a number of unpleasant experiences by taking the words given to them at face value and not listening to what they were really being told." The man gave another faint smile, then continued.

"Although the cult of Set is Egyptian, and based there, it reached throughout what is now called Europe. This island was their meeting place for centuries; the Europeans would come from Nafplion, as you did I suspect, and the easterners and Africans came up from Egypt itself. The cult went underground once Alexander of Greece took over, as wizards around the world fled from him. What history fails to tell in detail is of what truly happened when Alexander 'the Great' as the Muggles call him," Remus didn't miss the sneer on the man's face as he said this, "marched forward from Macedonia and crushed everyone who stood in his path."

There was a brief pause, and the older wolf rose from his chair and started to pace, calmly, in front of the fire on his side of the fire pit as he continued.

"Alexander's father, the strong and ambitious Philip of Macedon, had surrounded himself with powerful wizards. These wizards brought with them the loyalty of the community to Philip, and eventually to Alexander. Philip was murdered before he realized his ambitions of conquest, but his son stepped forward and took up that intent himself, with fantastic success. Muggles have written volume upon volume of how astonishing Alexander's conquests were; they have no idea of the powers he gained by having the alliance of the wizards. However, it proved to be a very foolish thing for us to do, and one of the last times in history that we moved so freely and so openly with the Muggles. Once Alexander had gained control over most of this part of the world, he turned on the wizards with as brutal and as treacherous an assault as he had used to conquer his own kind. His first move was to have most of the wizards who worked with him directly slaughtered, and then he hunted the others down with astonishing ferocity, and with direct knowledge of how to best them, he was disturbingly successful in this. Thousands were rumoured to have died."

Remus was amazed. He knew of the history of Alexander the Great, of course, but it had never occurred to him, and he had never seen a mention of, that the wizards of his time could have been aligned with him somehow. "How did he do this?" he asked.

"Alexander kept the loyalty of one very powerful wizard, who was head of one of his most deadly armies; a dark wizard by the name of Demoncles. Demoncles shared Alexander's ambition, and working together they were almost invincible. Almost. Demoncles was a member of this brotherhood, and he wanted to find the Casting Stone. He told Alexander the legend, told Alexander that with it they would be invincible, and asked to be given Egypt, so he would be able to stay there and search. Remember, however, that by this time the legends and the origins of this cult were already ancient and obscure, and much had been lost to time. The Casting Stone was seen as a myth, as a part of the cannon only. But Demoncles believed in the existence of it without question, and went after it with terrible singleness of mind."

The man paused again, seeming to be lost in thought, before glancing back up at Remus and continuing. "Alexander did not give Egypt to Demoncles. Whether it was because he did not believe in the Stone, and wanted to keep his best general with him, or because he thought that he could find the Stone himself and betray Demoncles we do not know. Alexander gave Egypt to Ptolemy, and ordered Demoncles to return to him. Enraged that Ptolemy was given Egypt instead of him, however, Demoncles took his most trusted troops and simply disappeared into the desert."

The wolf stopped and looked at Remus. Remus thought a moment before speaking. "So they never found what they were looking for?"

The older wolf shook his head. "On the contrary, young one, all evidence suggests that they found exactly what they were looking for". The man gave a cold and predatory smile. "But I don't believe they were prepared for what they found."

There was a long silence. Padfoot leaned against Remus briefly, and then moved away again silently. Remus thought about what Sirius must mean by this, but didn't move. Finally the older wolf sighed and sat back down.

"Young one. This wizard you seek; is he small and troubled?"

"Yes."

"He has been here. I suspect he is here still; he has not made it past the doors, but I am growing tired of this. And, tonight, as he may have discovered, I will be powerless to stop him."

"Why?"

"I am only a guardian, but I am not alone. There are others here. I have tried to do this stupid man a favour, you know, keeping him out; but if he insists, there are others who would bring him forward."

This made little sense to Remus, but before he could say anything, the other man spoke again in bitter and angry tones.

"Nasty little man. He thinks he's going to get away with keeping what's mine? I know he's here; somehow he found a Spelldoor on the mainland and made it here. He hid himself very well last night, however, I can tell you. I searched every inch of this place, but could not find him."

Remus made no comment, just watched the wolf ponder that with a dark look, until he turned back to look at Remus.

"Do you know this wizard?"

"I did. A very long time ago."

"And he knew you for what you are?"

"Yes."

He smiled, but it was a deeply disturbing look. "You seem to have caused me even further inconvenience, young one, by teaching this one to hide from us so well."

The wolf moved to the edge of the fire and muttered something. Remus could see an image appear in the flames now. It seemed to be a round structure with five archways in a semi-circle.

"I believe you know what these are?"

Remus assumed that these were the primary entrances to the Spelldoors, and nodded. "Yes."

The older wolf grumbled to no one in particular. "Jack got through them on his own. Most annoying and rather tiresome, and quite unexpected."

Jack is part of this! And he was here; possibly this is the wolf who made him. Is this who he said had seen us? Is this who we need to run from? Remus had no answers to this, and decided to try and see if he could get more information from the old wolf. "Could he have been helped?" he asked, calmly.

"Possibly. There are any number of mischievous and malevolent spirits wandering around here." The man simply continued to stare into the flames, scowling.

"Such as the Servant of the Lord of the Northern Sky?"

At that comment the man simply waved a hand. "Oh, I doubt very much he would let Jack run loose. Unless he was trying to expose Jack to the wizards on the mainland so they would kill him. That makes sense; he was furious when I did what I did. But he is forbidden to touch me, so I don't really care what he thinks."

"Why is he forbidden to touch you?"

"Same reason he is forbidden to harm Jack or even you, young one. We are untouchable; we are nefer-mat."

Padfoot gave a start at this, and gave Remus a surprised glance. Remus assumed this had something to do with their being werewolves, but before he could ask what that meant, they heard the unmistakeable sounds of muffled footsteps, then a loud shriek. Remus felt his heart skip a beat as he recognized that voice. Peter.

The wolf gave a furious snarl and leapt forward with a bound, vanishing into the darkness. "That bastard is in here!"

Remus and Padfoot lost no time in following the wizard, Remus acutely aware that if they did not succeed in following him out of the room they would be trapped for quite a while. They saw the wall of the far corner shimmer and the older wolf disappear. Remus and Sirius raced forward, Remus praying that the opening was not a spell that only recognized their strange host. Miraculously, they passed thought the wall, though Remus felt every inch of it trying to close around him and trap him there. He came to a halt for an instant on the far side, just to check that Sirius was there too. Padfoot made it, and raced past him into the eerie twilight of the room they had passed into. Assuming Padfoot had Peter's scent, Remus followed without a sound.

They ran though the temple, Padfoot racing ahead of him, but saw no one. Remus simply ran behind Sirius, following him through the strange rooms and corridors. Finally the raced out of the temple doors, but came to a momentary halt as they came out onto the causeway in front of the temple. The jackals were all gone, only the stone diases on which they had lain were there now.

At the top of the causeway, Remus suddenly saw that Harry, Draco, Liz and Katie stood, staring at them. Padfoot gave a loud bark and leapt up onto the wall, racing into the darkness of the palm forest around the temple. Remus followed, pulling himself over the wall and then racing after the scent and the sounds of Sirius, running thought he night. He was aware that the others had started to follow in his wake, but didn't stop to see if they were close or not.

As he ran through the dark forest, he became aware that the odd disembodied presences he had felt in his dream when he had encountered the Servant of the Lord of the Northern Sky were once again with him. They raced alongside of him in the darkness. Though he still could not see them, he felt them and heard their cries plainly; he could almost hear their panting as they ran breakneck through the darkness with him.

Suddenly, after an eternity of running through the dense forest, Remus came into a clearing. He ran into Padfoot, who had come to a stop at the edge of the clearing, growling and barking. They both fell forward, and Remus felt a sharp pain in his side as he rolled over something sharp on the ground. Not having time to think about it, however, he stood up again and looked up….

Jack was there, grabbing at his hair and crying, seeming to twist as something unseen held him. He screamed and struggled, and Remus saw the older wolf suddenly run forward to him, trying to grab his arm. Jack turned away, however, and snarled at the other werewolf, who instantly turned to look over his shoulder with an expression of total hatred and deep malice. Remus followed his gaze, and saw Peter, standing in the centre of the archways the older wolf had shown to them.

Remus stared at Peter, who seemed equally stunned to see him. Then the older wolf suddenly turned and snarled at Peter, who raised his wand and stood his ground, facing the wolf. They all seemed to be frozen there for an endless stretch of time.

"Peter!"

Peter looked at Remus only for a moment, and Remus didn't miss the look of total terror and of fury on his face. But before anything could happen, Draco and Liz suddenly appeared next to Remus. Peter's attention was distracted for that moment, and the old wolf turned to spring at him.

Draco and Liz both threw up their hands and the old wolf was pitched backwards away from Peter heavily. At that, Peter turned and ran for the Spelldoor in the archway at the top of the circle. Remus raced after him; closer, closer…Peter threw himself forward just as Remus reached to grab him. Remus practically screamed in frustration as he felt Peter's robes slip through his fingers and he saw Peter's form vanish.

But then there was nothing else Remus could think about as he felt the Spelldoor catch him and pull him forward as well, and send him violently forward into a cold darkness.

A/N: I'll translate that little Egyptian phrase next time….but feel free to search the web yourself.