Darkness Supreme
Chapter four
By Lilith
A/N: 'Kay, I redid some of this chapter, trying to make it less rushed towards the end and taking out an uncharacteristic thinking thingie... I honestly don't know where that came from, I think I was doing a sleepy and bad job of foreshadowing. Anyway, changed it. Unfortunately, I will not be posting chapter 5 for some time, because of a bad case of writer's block. I am doing my best... in the meantime, you can e-mail me (though I would prefer you didn't threaten to physically harm me, Lanz does that enough for all of you combined, trust me) at LilithAD. At AOL. I can't write it all together, or my computer turns it into that annoying blue linky thing. So... you can all go read my insane fics! The one called 'Why Lilith Should Never Be Given Caffeine' is really... hyperactively weird. It's LotR, but there is a kind of Harry Potter cameo... thing... And the other is a list of hot people. I dunno, I'm random. I also don't know why I'm still writing these notes, when I should be writing chapter 5. Or attempting to write chapter 5.
Lady Win: Lol... no, I know you don't hate me! (Well, I *hoped* you didn't...) Thank you for your critique, I changed stuff on this chapter to make it run a little smoother. If you wanna review the changes, you can do so when I post chapter 5. Which I am afraid will not happen for a bit, because I have writer's block...
Taboo: I'm sorry for not updating! ::sniff:: school... and stuff... and not failing have been keeping me busy, plus my horrible writer's block. Argh. Anger.
Ohh, major score! I didn't fail ANYTHING!!! Not even French! Ooh, much happiness!
~~~
Harry looked up towards the sky. Deep blue clouds were forming, and the air was becoming heavy. He looked around at his fellow teammates. At first glance they looked fine after a good two weeks of hard flying, but Harry noticed that there were dark circles under their eyes and Hermione was having trouble with keeping her broom steady from yawning so much. Harry bit his lip, then looked at his map. A stark red line streaked though symbols that meant 'trees', 'mountains', 'muggle towns', and many others.
If we keep up at this pace, we'll reach Hogwarts in two months time, but will that be enough time to figure out how to infiltrate the place? They can't keep up at this pace, the normal missions only last two weeks... Harry frowned, and poked at the map with his wand. Another line, this one blue and more jagged than the first red one, outlined itself on the map. Harry squinted at them, then nodded to himself, satisfied. He put the map back inside his cloak.
"We're going to set camp in about an hour," he called back, keeping his voice just low enough so that they could all hear him, but his voice wouldn't echo through the trees. Various affirmatives reached his ears, and Harry sped up, hoping to gain more ground. However, about forty-five minutes later, the eight flying figures stumbled upon a nice clearing, just perfect for their purposes. Harry called a halt, and everyone dismounted and set about setting up camp. Hermione magically set up the tents, Oliver built fires, Sirius slid into dog shape and went off to hunt for some meat, Arabella got the other food out, and Ron collected kindling and logs. It was Angelina and Kate's day to do the dishes and clean up, so they simply relaxed while the others worked. Harry set up protection spells around the camp, using anti-muggle spells then moving on to the ones that would make large animals run away. After that, he moved on to the spells of brute force, that would simply gather the energy of a magical attack and use it to strengthen the shields.
"Back!" called Sirius, morphing into a human once more. He carried two rabbits in his large hands, and he was grinning widely. Kate looked at the rabbits distastefully then began to search for the dried soup that was kept in her pack.
"Ooh, rabbit, my favorite," called Oliver sarcastically. He jumped over the logs set up around the fire as benches and headed over to Kate's pack. Sirius, for all that he was old enough to be Oliver's father, made a face at Oliver for insulting his rabbits. Kate moved over so that Oliver could kneel by her pack too, and look around for the dried soup. Everyone pretended not to notice as Kate and Oliver grabbed the same package of soup, and how they blushed and jerked their fingers away from the other. Hermione chose that moment to declare that the tents were set up. Sirius began loudly humming, and pulled a knife out from his robes and began skinning the rabbits, everyone else looked carefully away from him. Sirius, who was the one of them who had had to live off the land more times than he cared to count, was the only one who was comfortable with skinning rabbits. The others busied themselves with other tasks.
Soon the rabbits were cooked, and everyone besides Oliver and Kate was eating the warm meat. Those two were eating the dried soup, which had been mixed with boiling water to moisten the noodles and to absorb the powdered flavoring.
"Genius of those muggles, really," said Oliver, looking at the package of the soup in wonder. "Ramen. Who would have ever thought of this in our world?" Kate snorted, then laughed. Oliver grinned at her, then they both remembered they were supposed to be angry at the other, and looked away.
Angelina leaned back against the log, her dinner already finished, and looked up at the treetops. She could vaguely see the stars through the leaves... They were twinkling. The skies had cleared since the earlier, and now the night was crisp and cold.
"Angelina?" She turned to Harry, who was looking at her oddly.
"Yeah?"
"We can do the dishes now," Kate told her, still trying to avoid looking at Oliver. Angelina nodded and got up. Kate collected the dishes while Angelina performed the water summoning spell into a hole that had been dug in the ground. It had been Sealed into place, which prevented any of the dirt from mixing with the water. Kate dumped the dishes in, and she and Angelina set up the quick self-washing spells they had been taught. The others sprawled on their backs, looking up at the barely visible stars Angelina had been looking at.
"Hermione?" Ron asked quietly, but loud enough so the others could hear.
"Yes?"
"What's the position of the stars that V-V-V... You-Know-Who needs for his ritual?"
"Well... I'm not exactly sure."
"Do you know what ritual he's going to do?" Kate asked softly. She had sprawled herself near the fire, long limbs flung out about her, her long legs lying across Angelina's.
"Er... well, not exactly," Hermione admitted.
"What?!" Angelina sat up, surprised. "You mean Severus didn't tell you?"
"It's... sort of an improvised ritual," Hermione defended. "There really isn't any precedent. What we do know," here her tone reminded Harry very much of the late Percy Weasley, "is that if we interrupt the ritual, that is, if he is forced to stop the ritual, You-Know-Who will be killed. Then, once we destroy his wand, he will be gone forever." There was silence around the campfire, which a few minutes later was broken by Sirius' snores. There was quiet laughter from everyone, and Ron kicked Sirius in the back of the head.
"Wha-?!" Sirius woke with a start, looking around sleepily. Everyone laughed, and Harry got up, yawning.
"I'm going to sleep," he said. Sirius got up quickly and followed him. Ever since the journey began, Sirius had made a point of always staying near Harry, like a bodyguard. In the huge ten-man tent, Sirius had moved into one of the rooms next to Harry's, so he could protect him.
"Least I can do for your parents," he said gruffly when Harry had asked him why he bothered.
"See you in the morning, Harry," Hermione called from her place on the ground. Her head rested on Ron's shoulder, and his arm wrapped around her loosely. They looked comfortable and happy. Harry's heart sank as he thought what he was forcing them all into...
"Harry?" It was Sirius. "You gonna go inside, or just stand in the doorway all night?"
"Sorry," Harry mumbled, and ducked into the tent, followed closely by his godfather.
Angelina watched them go.
"Huh. Harry's gotten rather introspective," she commented, sticking her hands close to the fire to warm them. Kate shrugged.
"We've all changed," she said. "We haven't been with more than three other people at a time for God knows how long. Except for the week where we're back at SH [Subspace Hideout], we pretty much just have our Mission Teams."
"True," Oliver piped up. "But then again, it could be a blessing we're all out so much."
"How's that?" Angelina asked. Kate had gone curiously silent.
"If we're cooped up at SH for too long, we'll all start ripping each other's throats out."
"True," Kate said. Oliver fell silent awkwardly. There was a sudden giggle from Hermione and Ron's side of the fire, and then a shushing noise. The three looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
"Hey," Angelina said suddenly. "Where's Arabella?"
"Sleeping," came a muffled voice. The three peered around, then looked up, to see Arabella lying on a tree limb that jutted out over the fire. She had a pillow and a blanket up on the thick branch, and looked perfectly content.
"Um..." Angelina seemed at a loss for words.
"Why?" Kate asked, trying to hold back her laughter.
"'Cause," Arabella replied. She grinned sleepily down at the three of them.
"You are so weird." Arabella raised an eyebrow at Kate's assessment of her character.
"Probably, yeah," she replied. Another giggle from the other side of the fire made Arabella sigh. "You have no idea how lucky you three are," she said. "You can't see what they're doing."
"Do we want to?" Oliver asked.
"They're making up for about ten years of denial," Arabella replied. A muffled "Hey!" that sounded like Ron's voice reached their ears, and Hermione stood up, hair ruffled and lip gloss smeared.
"I'm going to bed," she said with as much dignity as one could muster when they have just been caught making out with their boyfriend. There were assorted giggles from the three lounging by the fire as Hermione walked into the tent, and Ron scuttled very quickly after her. The snorts of laughter from the three by the fire were only increased by Ron's loud "Stuff a sock in it!" and Hermione's response of "Ron!"
"Oh, that was priceless!" Kate snorted, rolling on the ground, overcome by a fit of laughter. Angelina was pounding the ground with her fist, and Oliver wiped tears from his eyes as his body shook with laughter. Angelina noted with increased amusement that Kate had rolled so that she and Oliver were facing each other on the ground. Their faces were very close, and for a moment, they both stopped laughing and stared at the other. Angelina looked up at the stars and pointedly cleared her throat. She heard Arabella giggle as Kate and Oliver moved away from each other so quickly one might have thought the other had been subject to the Curse of the Bogies.
"I'm going to bed," Angelina yawned. Tonight was the first night the group had been so relaxed. It was probably because they'd actually made camp during the daytime and gotten a good meal. She pitied Kate and Oliver—they both didn't eat red meat, so they'd had to stick with the muggle Ramen stuff.
"Night," Kate and Oliver said. There was a muffled noise from Arabella's "bed" that was probably a "Good night," so Angelina wished her sweet dreams and stooped into the tent and into her room. She slumped into her bed, and was asleep almost instantly.
"—MAYBE IF YOU WEREN'T SO DAMN PIGHEADED—"
"PIGHEADED?! ME?! TALK ABOUT THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK!"
"WHY YOU... YOU... ARGH!" Angelina opened her eyes to the sounds of Kate and Oliver outside the tent. She rolled over in an attempt to go back to sleep, but it was useless.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!? WHY CAN'T YOU BEHAVE LIKE A NORMAL HUMAN BEING FOR ONCE!?"
Ron and Hermione woke in their separate room and stumbled outside to find Kate and Oliver about ten inches away from each other, screaming.
"Kind of reminds you of us, doesn't it?" Ron asked. Hermione nodded.
"Oh, the memories of you screaming at me, of me calling you a bloody prat, of you accusing me of fraternizing with the enemy—"
"I've got an idea, Hermione, why don't you shut up?" Ron said jokingly, swatting her head. She mock-sniffed and went to go get the fire started, careful to walk around Kate and Oliver's argument.
"WILL YOU STOP AND THINK A MINUTE!?" Oliver yelled, grabbing Kate's shoulders. She jerked out of his hands angrily.
"DON'T TOUCH ME, YOU PATHETIC WANKER!"
"Well this is a lovely start to the day," Harry said from behind Ron. "Is this a real argument, or is it just a lover's spat?"
"Lover's spat," Ron replied as Arabella sat up yawning on her branch. She suddenly cocked her head to one side, eyes widening. She pulled out her wand and muttered something, and in a puff of smoke she was dressed.
"SHUT UP!" she yelled, throwing her pillow at Oliver. It hit him squarely in the face, and he stepped back a pace, startled. Kate whirled around, ready to insult Arabella, when she noticed the expression on the woman's face.
Arabella was frowning in concentration. She had one hand up to her ear and was biting her lip worriedly. Suddenly she waved her wand, and in a puff of cherry blossoms she was standing on the ground.
"Dementors!" she hissed.
The word had the desired affect. Everyone began running around trying to get everything packed away. No one had any desire to fight the Dementors.
Hermione waved her wand, and in a puff was dressed for the day. She used her magic to take the tent down, and it quickly rolled itself up and stuffed itself back in Hermione's pack. Kate, with a flick of her wand, put the fire out, and with a few hisses of "Accio!" managed to get the food, dishes and silverware into her pack. Oliver scattered the logs around the campsite and made it look as if the only ones who had slept there were animals. Angelina dispersed the water in the washing pit and undid the dirt-holding spell, then in a puff of cherry blossoms was dressed. A few hisses of "Accio!" and eight packs flew through the air to their owners, who pulled them on quickly and grabbed their broomsticks.
"It's too late," Sirius hissed. "They're too close. We're going to have to fight them." Sirius was right. As he spoke, the air grew colder, and depressing thoughts began weighing on the minds of the eight fighters. Harry drew his wand.
"Mount your broomsticks," he whispered. "Everyone who knows the Patronus Charm, get your wands out. Everyone who doesn't, get your wands out anyway, and concentrate on the happiest moment you can think of and yell 'Expecto Patronum'." Harry looked at everyone individually. "Got that?"
"Got it," everyone murmured.
"I'm going to keep the shields up as long as possible. Everyone, mount your brooms. The Patronus charm can go through the shields, so once the Dementors come into sight, use the charm. Once the shields go down, everyone follow Sirius except Ron, Hermione and Angelina. You three stay with me, we're going to perform Dementor's Bane." Harry tugged a strand of hair away from his face and held his wand out in front of him, sweating. Everyone could now clearly hear the ruthless crash of the Dementors as they ploughed through the foliage, hissing. The eight figures stood silent and still, eyes narrowed until Arabella caught sight of a gray robe.
"Expecto patronum!" she yelled, and a huge silver wildcat spurted from the end of her wand. The wildcat leapt through the shields and stood between the Dementors, which had now fully appeared, and the eight Resistance fighters.
"Expecto patronum!"
"Expecto patronum!" A stag and a feral looking dog joined Arabella's wildcat, Sirius and Harry's contribution. The Dementors stopped moving forwards, hissing in anger at the three animals that barred their way.
"Expecto patronum!" Hermione yelled, concentrating on the moment Ron told her he loved her. A silvery gray blob burst from her wand, and sort of hovered in between the other three animals. Harry's shields suddenly flickered, and went down.
"Go!" Harry yelled. Hermione's weak Patronus flickered and went out as she stopped the spell. Sirius, Oliver, Kate and Arabella raced away on their brooms, their respective Patronus's vanishing in blinks of light. "Get ready!" Harry said, as the Dementors began to inch forwards, sensing that there was only one charm left blocking them. Ron, Hermione and Angelina began to mutter the start to the spells under their breath. As their wands began to glow an angry blue, Harry's Patronus blinked and went out. He leapt back out of the way and began to mutter. The Dementors, sensing that their prey was unprotected, lunged forwards with hisses of glee. Harry's wand began to glow...
The Dementors reached out with their hands, pulling back their hoods...
"Dementorus Bane!" screamed Hermione. There was a crack of blue light, and one of the Dementors stumbled, blinked and vanished. The one next to it began to flicker blue, and it fell to the ground, writhing in agony.
"Dementorus Bane!" Ron and Angelina yelled at the same time. Two more of the Dementors vanished, so that there were two left standing, and one writhing on the ground.
"Dementorus... Bane!" Harry gasped out. One of the standing Dementors vanished, and the other paused, confused. It sensed it's companions were no longer there.
"Fly!" Angelina yelled. She grabbed Harry, who was pale and shaking, and hoisted him onto her broomstick. She grabbed his broomstick in her free hand, and took off. Ron and Hermione followed closely, their wands still out. The one remaining Dementor looked confused, as it tried to decide which way to go. It finally decided that it better head back, and so, grabbing the robes of it's injured companion, it dragged the wounded Dementor along the ground as it crashed back through the foliage.
Ron and Hermione were on their brooms, following Angelina. She was being directed by a shaky Harry, whose green eyes closed for longer and longer periods of time every time he blinked. Finally he completely lost consciousness, and Angelina was forced to land.
"Quick! Get him something for revival!" She ordered Hermione, who gulped and quicky began rummaging in her overlarge pack. Angelina closed her eyes and rested her chin on the tip of her wand.
"Sirius! Sirius, come in!"
"Angelina?"
"Oh, thank heavens! Yes, it's me. We've driven the Dementors off, but Harry's used up all of his energy. I had to stop. Where are you?"
"I don't know. Keep the spell up, we'll find you. Is Harry going to be alright?"
"I think so. Hermione's got a potion that should revive him."
"Alright. Keep in contact. Can you hear us?"
"No."
"Alright, I'm going to hone in on your signal. Keep the spell up for as long as you can."
"Alright."
Hermione carefully lifted a glass beaker out of her pack, and tapped it twice with her wand, and muttered "Regosia!" under her breath. The beaker began to fill with a pinkish liquid. When it was about halfway full, Hermione tapped the beaker twice and it stopped filling. She lifted it carefully to Harry's lips, and pulled the rubber stopper off the top. Ron lifted Harry's head up, and carefully parted his lips. Hermione placed the beaker near to his mouth and poured a drop of the pink liquid down his throat. It was a clear pink color, and it looked rather like a liquid gemstone. After the first drop, Harry coughed and opened his eyes weakly. Hermione pressed the beaker to his lips and tipped it into his mouth. He quickly swallowed it all, and the color came back to his face and his eyes resumed their normal green shine. Harry sat up quickly, and looked around.
"Where are we?" He asked, puzzled. Hermione and Ron both shrugged.
"Angelina's in contact with Sirius, I think she's trying to tell him where we are," said Ron. Harry glanced over at Angelina, who had her wand pressed against her chin and had a look of concentration on her face. A sudden crashing noise was heard from the forest, and the three jumped up, startled. Angelina blinked and pulled her wand away from her chin.
"We're over here!" she yelled loudly, jumping up and down and waving her arms. "Over here! Hi! Sirius!" Ron, Hermione and Harry looked at her like she was crazy. There was a whooshing noise, and Harry yelled in fright. A shower of angry red and gold sparks shot out of his wand.
"Ow!" The sparks stopped. Oliver stood there, hands in front of his face. His broomstick lay on the ground beside him.
"Ah. Oops," was all Harry could think to say. Kate, Sirius and Arabella flew out of the trees and landed next to Oliver. Kate took one look at him and started cracking up. Oliver removed his hands from in front of his face. His hair was blackened and sticking up, and there was soot all over his face. Kate laughed so hard she accidentally tripped over a large root and fell right into him, landing on top of him as they hit the ground. Oliver looked embarrassed, and Kate simply rolled off of him, still laughing. Arabella giggled into her palm, Sirius looked away with the corners of his mouth twitching, Ron buried his face in Hermione's shoulder, Angelina shook her head in disbelief, and Harry looked guilty. Oliver got up, and Hermione quickly aimed her want at him and trilled something under her breath. The soot that streaked Oliver's face vanished, his hair returned to its normal light brown color, but it still stuck up wildly in every direction. Kate stopped laughing and wiped the tears of her cheeks. She lay on the ground for a moment, then got up, still occasionally snorting with laughter. Oliver glared at her.
"Sorry, Oliver," Harry said guiltily. Oliver shook his head.
"It's alright, Harry," he said. Kate looked at him, and Oliver glared back at her. She dissolved back into laughter. Oliver shook his head, their previous argument apparently forgotten.
"Which way is Hogwarts from here?" asked Sirius, getting everyone back on track. Kate stopped laughing, and Arabella took her hand away from her face, which had been stifling the snorting giggles she'd been having. Harry pulled out his map and tapped it. A large green dot appeared on the map, on top of the jagged blue line that marked their path. Hr frowned.
"We must've gotten a lot farther than I thought," he said. "It's only about a month away, if we travel at the same pace we've been going." Sirius nodded and mounted his broom. "We'd better get going if we want to make it out of England today," Harry concluded, mounting his broom as well. Everyone sighed, and swung their legs over their brooms. With hard kicks to the ground, the eight fighters were off, following Harry once more.
A month and a half later, rain poured down upon the hills and forests surrounding Hogwarts. The castle loomed in the distance, an impressive structure in the clouds. Harry, Oliver, Sirius and Arabella were pressed into the muddy ground, squinting up at the castle.
"I hate seeing it like this," said Arabella with a sigh. Harry, Oliver and Sirius made noises of agreement. Hogwart's once simply impressive and large structure had been warped into twisting towers that reached up towards the sky like gnarled fingers. It was the first structure Lord Voldemort had taken over since his return to power, and he had warped it, making the once powerful school castle into a building of evil. The Pens, which were the place where Lord Voldemort kept his prisoners, was located in the dungeons of the old castle. It was now a terrible sight to behold.
The eight fighters had ridden hard to get there, and had made it in a month and a half, due to the interference of a troublesome giant. They were currently looking for a little place to hole up in, to devise a strategy and to wait out the rainstorm. They had a month and a half to discover a weak spot in Lord Voldemort's defenses, and sneak in on the night of his ritual. Hermione had discovered some vital facts about the ritual.
"He's going to need to be alone. Though he trusts his Death Eaters, he knows there is a traitor among them, and cannot have any of them be near while he becomes invincible."
Harry frowned, and bit his lip. This was definitely going to be hard. In fact, if he wasn't with the group he was with, he would have said it was impossible.
"There!" Harry was brought back to his current situation with the sound of Oliver's voice. "See those little caves? I used to hide in them when Filch was chasing me or the Weasley twins. They lead into the dungeons, but through a hidden passageway in the rock. No one knew about it." From the look on Sirius' face, the Marauders hadn't known about it either, Harry guessed. "We can hole up there and devise a plan."
"Good idea," Harry muttered. "Let's get back to the others." The four began to wriggle down the hill, as to avoid being seen by anyone using Crystalgazing to spot them. Crystalgazing was a new form of Divination, only it dealt with the present, not the past of future. It let someone with the gift look through bird's eye view on any scene happening anywhere in the world. Of course, you had to have a certain amount of power to look far away, and you couldn't hear what the people were saying, but it was a good method, partly because you could see people with Invisibility Cloaks. So, this close to the castle, where the crystalgazer wouldn't have to have a lot of power, the rebels were being extremely careful.
Once they were under the cover of the trees, Arabella pouted.
"Look at these robes! This mud'll never come off!" She complained, sighing dramatically. The three men sighed. They had gotten used to Arabella's eccentric habits. She really couldn't care less about the state of her robes, but she needed something to take her mind of their dire position, and so she worried about her clothes.
"Come on, then," Harry said, trying to wipe some mud off his face. Since his hands were covered in the stuff as well, though, he soon realized trying to get cleaned up was a wasted effort and stopped trying. He led the three others off into the forest, towards the four other members of their group. Sirius was right behind him, followed closely by Oliver. Arabella was somewhat behind, since she was still trying to get mud off her robes.
"What the hell?!" Harry turned quickly and gulped. A rather large and intimidating centaur was dangling Arabella by her ankle. "Will you get off?" the woman yelled angrily. "That is so annoying, if I wanted someone to dangle me upside down I'd ask the Weasley twins! This is just plain rude! What on earth do you think you're doing?" The centaur seemed a bit taken aback by the short woman glaring at him fiercely, hands on her hips, and very much behaving like he was a small child who had done something wrong. Harry stepped forwards uncertainly.
"Firenze?" he asked, hesitantly. The centaur looked up from his captive suddenly, and stared at Harry with electric blue eyes.
"Harry Potter?" he asked slowly, brushing strands of white blonde hair streaked with dirt out of his eyes.
"Yes," Harry replied. "It's you?" Firenze nodded, looking amazed.
"Potter, what are you doing here? This place is not safe for you," he said, dropping Arabella. She landed with a thump in some bushes, and stumbled to her feet muttering "No, don't worry about me, I'm fine, getting dropped on my head was just what I needed, thanks..."
"Excuse me," Sirius asked sarcastically, "but who are you, and what are you doing here?" Harry winced and tried to shush his overly protective godfather, but Firenze seemed amused by Sirius' overprotective behavior.
"I am Firenze," he said, bowing elegantly and slightly mockingly. "As for what I am doing here, I live here."
"You live here. In the Forbidden Forest. Right next to You-Know-Who's castle," Sirius stated, disbelieving. Firenze simply nodded to each statement, as though it was perfectly believeable. Sirius shook his head and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "Centaurs." Firenze looked at Harry.
"I suppose you are here to face the Dark Lord," he said, frowning at Harry. Harry nodded, not saying anything. "If you need help," he said slowly, as though he might regret this later, "I may be able to do something. To help you." Harry looked at the centaur.
"Well," he said slowly, "If you could organize a meeting? With all the centaurs? So I could speak to them, ask them for help?" Firenze let out a sardonic snort, which might have been a laugh under happier circumstances.
"I can try, but if you remember, centaurs are not the easiest creatures to convince," Frienze responded. "If you come by around noon tomorrow, I believe they will listen to what you have to say. I cannot promise that they will actually do anything." Harry nodded, as though he had expected that answer.
"Thank you, Firenze," he said meaningfully. "Can you pick up the Telepathy spell?"
"The what?" asked Firenze, confused.
"The spell where I think something at you, and you hear my voice in your head."
"Oh." Firenze nodded. "Yes, I will be able to hear you. Centaurs call that spell by another name."
"Good. I will contact you when I get into the forest, and you will take me to the other centaurs?" Firenze replied with an affirmative, and the four continued on their way with a hasty farewell to the centaur. Arabella was still complaining about being dropped on her head when they reached the makeshift campsite that the other four were staying at.
"Everyone get your packs and your invisibility cloaks on," Harry ordered as he strode towards the small fire. The four sleepy figures around it scurried about, yanking on packs and pairing up. Harry aimed his wand at the smoky fire and extinguished it, then used a wind spell to scatter the ashes. "The cloaks won't help with anyone Crystalgazing, but anyone simply looking out won't be able to see us." At Harry's hand gesture, which quickly disappeared into the folds of the cloak, they quickly hurried to the edge of the forest. The caves were pointed out to everyone, and they made their way up the rocky and muddy hill into the cool, dry caves.
"Phew!" Arabella said, throwing off her and Sirius' cloak. "So, we're finally here."
"Everyone, get settled," Harry instructed. "We can build a small fire to warm up and dry off, but after that it goes out. We need to get some rest for tomorrow." Everyone made an affirmative noise, and got their stuff out. After a hurried meal, they all got into their sleeping bags, with hardly any banter or bickering. After all, it was going to be a long day.
Much, much longer than any of them suspected.
~~~
A/N: I'm still sorry about the cliffhanger, which I couldn't change. Just to let you all know, the next few chapters will probably be a little depressing, because for no reason that I can see, I have gotten a little depressed lately. It's nothing that won't go away sooner or later, but my mood seems to have a huge affect on my fics. So, there's that, love you all for reading this!
--Lilith
"Look at your children
See their faces in golden rays
Don't kid yourself they belong to you
They're the start of a coming race
The earth is a bitch
We've finished our news
Homo Sapiens have outgrown their use
All the strangers came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay" –David Bowie