Mena rolled away from the wall and grumbled softly in her sleep. In her dream, it felt like someone was staring at her…Staring at her…Her eyes flew open and she let out a yell.
"Uric!" Mena hit him with her pillow. Uric's eyes had been inches from her face, and the light from the moon had made them seem even brighter than normal. He rocked back from her blow, but when she made to throw the pillow at him, he came forward and caught her arm. She stared at him. She had never seen Uric defend himself. "What do you want Uric?" she asked softly, noticing for the first time the worry in his eyes. Uric glanced around the room, as if he expected someone to be listening.
"Simon's missing," he said. "I've searched the castle. He's not here." Mena yawned.
"You can't have looked everywhere. I'm sure he'll turn up," she said, trying to get him to go away. She didn't need to be up all night searching for Simon when he would probably turn up in the Common Room tomorrow. Uric just shook his head.
"Will you help me look, Mena?" he asked. She stifled a groan.
"Isn't there some sort of spell you can use to find him?" she asked in the vain hope that there was. Uric got that faraway look in his eyes he always had when he was thinking about something, and Mena almost fell asleep waiting for him to give her an answer.
"Yes," he answered eventually, surprising her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of Simon's stunted feathers. He walked over to the window, and Mena followed, her curiosity making her forget her fatigue. The Hufflepuff girl's dormitories actually faced out over one of the main courtyards of Hogwarts, giving them a view of the castle on all sides. The moon was very bright, and it looked like it was full.
Uric placed the feather carefully on the ledge and pointed his wand at it. "Locus aperio." A jet of blue light shot out of the wand and hit the feather, making it glow. The feather hovered above the ledge, and Uric reached out to open the window, sending a blast of cool air towards them. The glowing feather spun around once or twice than shot out the window. They both squeezed forward to see where it went. It headed across the courtyard and through an arch to the left. Mena glanced at Uric. He was frowning.
"Simon's not in the castle," he said, still staring out at the arch.
"Alright, where is he?"
"Out there. I have to find him. He might be hurt." He sounded really worried. Mena realized that she wasn't going to get anymore sleep tonight. She sighed.
"Let me get dressed Uric and then we'll go look." A thought occurred to her. If she was going to lose sleep, than why shouldn't Louis suffer as well? "We can search a lot faster with three people. Do you know how to get to Louis at this time of night?" It would require them getting into the Slytherin dungeons, but she wouldn't be surprised if Uric knew a way. Uric seemed to like the idea, and nodded, though he was still staring out the window. She grabbed his arm, and shoved him towards the doorway. "Go get him then and meet me in the Common Room."
*****
Uric stumbled into the Slytherin Common Room, the wall almost closing upon him. It had taken a bit of convincing to get it to open in the first place and now it just wanted him to leave. He hoped it would let him out again later.
Absently noting the lack of plants in the common room, he chose a random doorway and headed through. A loud snore greeted him. For a second, he stopped to wonder just what sort of creature would make that noise while sleeping and almost went to investigate, but the creatures under the sheets were too big to be Louis so he moved onward. He checked three more dormitories before he found the one he was looking for. Louis' face was directly in the moonlight from the small head sized window, making him seem even more pale than usual.
Uric approached cautiously. Louis lay on his back and didn't even appear to be breathing. After considering for awhile, Uric transfigured Louis' blanket into a large bouquet of flowers and waited. Louis slowly opened his eyes and focused on the ceiling above him. His hand tightened about the flowers as he frowned. He turned his head to the side to reveal Uric, than looked back at the flowers.
"I should have known," he said as he sat up.
"Simon's missing," said Uric. "He's not in the castle and we have to find him before he gets hurt." Louis decided this must be serious. Uric had stayed on a serious topic for two full sentences. He tossed the bouquet back on his bed, and went to pull on his robes.
"Let's go find him then."
*****
The unicorn snorted gently at them, and they saw the Maiden yawn a moment before the portrait opened. They stepped into the Hufflepuff common room. Louis stopped to look around at the slithering plants, but Uric ignored them. He walked across the room, carefully avoiding the intertwined vines and jumped on top of the couch Mena was currently dozing upon. She shrieked as he lost his balance and fell on top of her.
"Get off me!" She pushed him onto the carpet. Louis joined them after a moment, the light dusting of pink on his robes revealing an encounter with one of the spitting flowers that Uric disliked so much. Uric stood up and straightened his robes.
"Let's go find Simon," he said and kept nodding his head until Mena got up to leave. Louis held out a hand to stop them.
"Wait! First, how did he get out?" he asked. Uric stopped, and gave him a puzzled look.
"Get out?" Uric repeated, and Louis was sure that the question hadn't even occurred to him.
"He didn't just open the cage himself," said Louis scathingly. "You did have him in his cage didn't you?" Uric sometimes wandered around the castle with Simon on his shoulder, but Uric was smart enough to keep the bird-lizard in a cage when they weren't out wandering. However, Louis was sure Uric would have known where Simon was if he had just lost him within the castle. Uric nodded his head.
"Yes, and he had to open it himself. The door was open when I woke up." Uric was proud of Simon for that. Even he had trouble opening the door to Simon's cage sometimes. Louis frowned.
"Was there anything else unusual, Uric? Think hard. This is important," he said, hoping that Uric was in the proper mood to answer his question. They waited awhile while Uric closed his eyes and searched his memory. Suddenly, Uric grinned and reached into his pocket. He offered a piece of parchment to Louis.
"There was this," he said proudly. Louis unrolled the small piece of parchment and read it out loud.
"This is for Hallowe'en." He sent a questioning glance Mena's way. "Wasn't that when you two saw Varys in the Dancing Trousers?" Mena's eyes widened. She called Varys a rather harsh name that made Louis grin and Uric give her a puzzled look.
"What does that mean?" he asked, and Louis covered his hand with his mouth and pretended to cough so that Uric didn't see him laughing. Mena just gave them both an annoyed look.
"Don't you see?" she said earnestly. "This means that Varys stole Simon and let him lose outside of the castle. He probably knows you can't leave the castle and is trying to get you in trouble." Uric frowned.
"That's very mean. Simon and I never hurt him."
"Somehow, I don't think he agrees with you," said Louis. Mena began to head towards the door. She turned to look at them when they didn't follow.
"Come on," she said. "With luck Simon stayed near the castle and we'll find him easily." The two boys followed.
"Sure," muttered Louis as he walked. "And later Mrs. Kurze will start handing out sweets and name Uric as the future head boy."
"Will she?" asked Uric. Louis just shook his head.
*****
The three of them crept out the main doors and down the steps. They stopped at the bottom, and Uric pointed straight at the Forbidden Forest. It looked very dark against the starlit sky.
"Are we sure we should be doing this?" said Mena nervously. "I'm sure one of the professors could find Simon. We can show them the note." Louis nodded his head in agreement.
"Those masked wizards could still be out there, Uric. You're not supposed to leave the castle," he said. Uric got a determined look on his face.
"I'm going to find Simon. He might be hurt in the forest. I can't leave him alone there tonight." Uric sounded desperate but determined. He began walking towards the forest. Louis sent a questioning look towards Mena. She looked scared, but still turned to follow Uric. Louis watched them walk for a few moments, than sighed and followed. He was going to regret this.
They entered the forest with no trouble and Uric cast a lumos spell when it became too hard to see underneath the thick cover of trees. The forest was quiet around them, and Mena and Louis kept casting glances around them wondering what was out there watching. Uric walked ahead of them humming quietly, oblivious to the silence and the occasional glowing pair of eyes that regarded them. Suddenly, an orange creature bounded in between them and let out a plaintive yowl. The three of them froze.
"Beckett!" said Uric happily.
"Dasha," said Louis in a much darker tone. They were going to be caught if they stayed here. "Run!" They all ran as fast as they could towards the inner depths of the forest, though Uric couldn't figure out why they were running. It didn't matter. They were definitely heading towards Simon. He could feel it. Beckett kept pace with them for awhile, then fell behind.
The three of them stumbled into the clearing and paused. The brilliant moonlight illuminated a scene right out of their textbooks. Centaurs were scattered about the glade. They were in various states of repose, yet each one of them had his or her eyes focused completely on the heavens.
Mena and Louis were more than a bit hesitant to disturb the centaurs at their meditations, but Uric had no such reservations. He walked boldly up to the nearest centaur, a young man with a dappled brown coat, and asked the only question on his mind.
"Excuse me. Have you seen Simon? He's my bird-lizard and he seems to have gotten a bit lost." The centaur did not even look at him, but gazed with great intensity at the sky. Uric stared at him for a moment, but finally gave up and looked at the sky as well. He looked for a long time, and Louis was about to call him back when he spoke.
"The Wild Hunt rides tonight," he said in a voice that sounded much older then an eleven-year olds. As one, the head's of the centaurs turned to focus on the human in their midst. Mena and Louis backed up, frightened by the intensity of the centaur's eyes, for all that they were focused on Uric.
"The Hounds of Hell are loosed," intoned a black centaur. A shiver ran up Mena's spine.
"The Master rides the pack," said a pretty beige centaur in a low voice.
"Woe to the Hunted," said a chestnut coloured one.
"Woe to the Hunter," said another.
"Death rides tonight," said the centaur closest to Uric. Louis and Mena exchanged a look. They needed to get out of this forest right now. Simon would have to take care of himself. They moved to grab Uric, but he moved so he was standing in the middle of the clearing.
"Yes. I know all that," he said, dismissing the centaur's predictions out of hand, and sounding a bit annoyed about the entire performance. Both Mena and Louis were gaping at him. "What I want to know is where Simon is." The centaurs stared at him, than turned to look at the heavens again. Mena let out the breath she had been holding.
Uric was still standing in the middle of the clearing; his eyes back on the skies. Mena bit her lip, than reluctantly walked into the clearing. She could be brave, even if she wasn't in Gryffindor. After a moment, Louis followed her. The centaurs continued to ignore them.
"Reminds me of my family," muttered Louis. Mena ignored him and focused on Uric.
"Come on, Uric. They're obviously not helping. We need to get out of the forest. Simon will be okay for the night." She put her hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her and she shut her mouth.
It was his eyes that stopped her. No longer did they hold that benign befuddlement that was Uric's usual state. Instead, they were terribly bright, the hazel glowing gold in the moonlight and very, very aware.
"Uric?" said a flustered Louis from behind her. A cloud passed over the moon and when it was gone the light had faded from Uric's eyes. He stared at his friends for a moment.
"Why do you think it's called Hogwarts if hogs don't get warts?" he asked. Mena resisted the urge to hit him, while Louis was staring at him incredulously.
"Did you hear anything Mena said before? Or what the centaurs said for that matter?" he asked. For a second they thought Uric was going to say no, but he smiled brightly at them.
"Yes. We need to get out of here. I heard. But you can't get out of an area where the Wild Hunt has been declared. It said so in the Book of Wild Magic," he said in a matter of fact tone.
"And did you know this before you convinced us to go running into the forest in search of your stupid pet?" Mena asked furiously. Uric was taken aback.
"Simon's not stupid…I don't think I knew."
"You don't think you knew?!" She moved to hit him. Louis held her back.
"Mena stop it. Uric's mind doesn't work like ours and you know it," he said.
"And that's an excuse for getting us killed?" she exclaimed loudly. The centaurs didn't seem to notice. Louis actually pulled her aside. Uric watched them go with a puzzled expression, but was perfectly content to watch a beetle scuttle across the grass at his feet.
Meanwhile, at the edge of the clearing Louis was very careful to stand out of Uric's sight behind one of the centaurs. "I've been thinking about this a lot Mena, and I think I have an explanation."
"For what?" she asked.
"For why Uric is so, for lack of a better word, odd." Mena looked sceptical but allowed him to continue. "He's a genius, Mena. You've seen the way he remembers everything and always knows the answers, if you can get him to concentrate." She nodded reluctantly. "But he's not just a genius academically. He's a genius magically as well, and that I think, is what did him in. He uses magic constantly, without thought. You saw the way he banished the Baron at Christmas."
"Okay. I get it. He's brilliant and talented. So is Varys Nachleen," she said scathingly. Louis actually smiled.
"But Varys isn't connected to the world like Uric is. I suspect the reason he is so out of it all the time is that his mind is dealing with the world on so many different levels. It puts his conscious mind into a sort of hold while it deals with the more important things. Tonight just confirmed my suspicions. For a second there, Uric was giving our world his full attention." He sounded very pleased with himself. Mena shook her head.
"You know what I think of your theory?"
"What?" said Louis, knowing he was in for it.
"It's a load of -" A deep howl split the night, followed by another and another on top of it. The howls echoed through the woods making something deep within the young wizards shudder. Uric walked around the centaur they had been hiding behind.
"That's a lot of doggies isn't it?" he said cheerfully
"Somehow I don't think they're here to play fetch Uric," said Louis, his voice quavering slightly in spite of himself. Another howl split the night.
The hunt was on.
*****
Locus is Latin for "location" and aperio means "to reveal". I actually wanted to make the spell Greek, but it just didn't sound right. I hope you all liked this chapter as much as I do. One more essay to go…
Thank you to all my reviewers: aurielo, rabbit, mistri, thistlemeg, Em, Kath, Ozma, Gred Weasley, Tidmag, almost_innocence, gjegje, Clair, AniMourner, Minerva McTabby, Tess and Chad-Catsmeat.
Mistri: Well, according to the agenda of the Fifth Annual Leaf Conference that I just happen to have by my computer here, leaves talk about the following topics: Chlorophyll – How to Keep Yourself Looking Green and Healthy Year Round, Ban Bad Puns or Why Nobody is Allowed to 'Leaf' the Theatre and Orange-The Colour of the Season are just many of the exciting topics those leaves seem to cover.
Ozma: Nope, no one is ever going to be able to show that Alexis had a prank played on her. Mena and Louis plan well together.
Gred Weasley: The corridor storm is an advanced spell that no one would expect a normal first year to be able to perform. But Uric isn't exactly your normal first year…
Tidmag: Thanks for the tip about Pandora's Box. I would never have found it again if you hadn't pointed it out.
AniMourner: Alexis has always been manipulative, especially of her family. She just gave up on Alexander once he got sorted into Gryffindor, which is why he's finally seeing the other side of her…be that as it may, I'm sure when she was younger it wasn't all an act.
Minerva McTabby: Your ship predictions made me laugh:) Mena and Hermione share the same characteristic of being bosy, but Mena isn't really that interested in learning. She does her assignments out of loyalty to her house, but the only extra research she does is for her pranks and she certainly doesn't mind breaking the rules. You're on the right track with Louis, but I don't really plan on addressing that until the sequel. Chances are Peeves will wander into the story, though don't ask me when. Alexis treats the older Slytherin's much like she treats the teachers - she sucks up and manipulates them if she can. The ones who've noticed what she is up to, she ignores since she knows they'll be out of the school at some point. I will be going over the chapters for one more grammar sweep so thanks for the nitpicks. I didn't even realize some of those things needed to be hyphenated:) Strangely enough, I did think of the trouser question before posting that chapter. While I know that the upper crust of Britian wouldn't have been wearing trousers at the time, it seems to me that the commoners would have to be wearing either trousers, skirts or shorts as they go about their work. They probably didn't call them trousers, but if we saw someone wearing them, we would. This is of course excluding parts of Scotland (without going into the debate of when kilts actually came into use…), but I've never specified where the Dancing Trousers came from:)
Chad-Catsmeat: Not to worry, Alexander has some friends in Gryffindor. He's just confused by the way Alexis has been treating him.
Please review:)