DISCLAIMER WITHSTANDING! Want to see some pix of myself, my sister (Jester Fraser) of Iktomi and, when I get around to it, other people in the stories? Then go to:

http://www.geocities.com/quidditch_champ_raven/Cotoye_Iktomi.html

Check it out…

A Smoking Coyote, a Shadow and Traitors

          It was the last weekend at Hogwarts; Harry, Ron, Hermione, Degas, Galileo, Binx, Jak, Remus and Sirius (recently declared innocent by the Ministry) were all at Hogsmead sitting outside the Shrieking Shack drinking their last bottles of butter beer.

          "I can't believe that I actually am Head Boy," Ron muttered. "Mum was so happy when she found out at the beginning of the school year last year."

          Hermione looked up at him and smiled. "Your mum must've been really happy!"

          "So," Harry smiled at them. "Everyone in your family thus far has been Head Boy?"

          Ron nodded. "And Ginny is expected to be Head Girl next year."

          "So what is everyone going to do now?" Degas asked looking at Hermione who had broken up with her.

          "Well, I am going to go visit Bill in America, I heard that working for Gringotts is actually very fun."

          "Well," Hermione smiled. "I am going to go work for the Ministry, Fudge came to me the other day and said that there might be a job open that I could do that involved a lot of knowledge. He said it was a surprise but he couldn't wait to tell me."

          "What about you Harry?" Binx asked.

          "Well, I was thinking about going to work for the Ministry, Voldemort is still out there and until he is dead, I have to keep my eye out for him."

          Just then an angel walked out of the Three Broomsticks. Ron squinted and gasped, nearly choking on his butter beer.

          "Ron!" Hermione gasped. "Are you all right?"

          Ron jumped up and ran off. Everyone watched as he and the angel hugged and kissed.

          "Rene?" Degas asked.

          Hermione and Harry nodded.

          "It's amazing how small this world is." Binx smiled. "What do you think will happen between them two?"

          Ron and Rene came walking back up. "I just proposed and she said yes!" Ron shouted happily. Everyone cheered.

          "This calls for a celebration!" Sirius jumped. "Drinks on me at the Leaky Cauldron!"

          They all jumped up and ran off. They were running down High Street when Harry stopped suddenly and starred at a gap between two buildings. A gray-brown coyote was standing on its hind legs smoking a cigarette. It seemed to be talking to a shadow leaning against a wall that was out of Harry's view. The Coyote looked over at Harry, his paw on the other side of his muzzle as if it was telling Harry a secret. It stuck out its tongue and winked. Harry jumped and blinked but the Coyote and shadow were gone.

          "What's wrong Harry?" Sirius asked running back to him.

          "I saw a coyote, it was smoking a cigarette and it winked at me!" Harry exclaimed.

          Sirius shrugged and pulled him godson onward to the Leaky Cauldron.

          It was a hard night of solid drinking and celebrating. They were staggering around High Street making their way back to the castle when two people came running through the street. Harry instantly snapped out of his drunkenness and pointed to the forms.

          "It's that Coyote!"

          The forms turned around, Harry's breath caught in his throat. The two figures laughed and ran off. Harry collapsed to his knees in disbelief.

          "Harry!" Ginny was running toward him. She threw her arms around his neck.

          "Please, not now Ginny, I am really drunk." Harry said holding his head. "What are you doing out here anyways? You should be in bed. It's midnight."

          "Actually it is two in the morning." Ginny said. "And Professor Dumbledore sent me out here personally to make sure you all made it home tonight." Ginny helped him to his feet. The others were way ahead of them still staggering. "What happened? You looked scared one moment, went white as a sheet then collapsed. The others are too drunk, they didn't even see you."

          "I thought I saw something."

          "What?"

          Harry looked around but didn't see the shadow or the Coyote anywhere. "Nothing."

          "Humph," Ginny let him go and he nearly fell to the ground. "I know that we have only been going out a few months but you never seem to tell me anything!" she threw her hands over her head and stormed off.

          Harry starred after her, when she stormed off she reminded him of Hermione in those first years at Hogwarts. He smiled, laughed lightly and chased after her. He threw his arms over her shoulder and kissed her. "Sorry about that, do I really never tell you anything?"

          She glared at him sidelong. "You always seem to recoil, and you were the one to ask me out!"

          He stopped and hugged her. "I'm sorry Ginny." He sputtered. "I'll tell you when I am sober again."

          She put her arms around his waist to support him. "All right, you promise?"

          Harry hiccupped. "Yeah, I promise."

          "So that's what I saw." Harry said eating a bit of chocolate.

          "A coyote, smoking cigarette, winked at you?" Ginny asked. "Harry, coyotes don't smoke and they certainly don't wink at people."

          "I don't know Ginny," Hermione pointed out. "You never know, I mean, Iktomi was a descend of a god right? He was the trickster in the Oglala Sioux culture, maybe Coyote is a god from another culture." Hermione shrugged. "Muggles have a lot of that you know, cultures and beliefs."

          "Religion?" Ron asked. "Is it like religion?"

          "Yes." Hermione nodded.

          "But religious gods aren't suppose to be real, they are just stories." Ginny said with a frustrated look.

          Harry shrugged and looked around. Breakfast was almost over; exams should be arriving any moment now. Just then the owls flew in overhead baring the exam results. Ron jumped up and kissed Rene over and over in his happiness. Harry smiled and kissed Ginny and Hermione simply put her results away and smiled to herself. Degas, Galileo, Jak and Binx stood up and walked away. Remus and Sirius walked over Hermione, Harry and Ron to congratulate them.

          "I'm going to go to the bathroom real quick." Rene said and left. Ron watched her out of the door and out of sight, and then he looked back at his friends and cheered again.

          A quarter of an hour later a black raven soared into the hall and dropped a letter in Ron's hands. Ron read it and in a fury crumpled it up and ran out of the hall. Hermione and Harry looked at each other then read the letter.

          "Oh no Harry," Hermione sighed. "What now?"

          Harry glared at the letter. "We need to find her."

          Ronald Weasley:

              I have your love… come out, come out, where ever you are.

                            Voldemort

          Hermione and Harry ran out after Ron. Degas and the others stopped them.

          "What's the matter?" Binx asked. "Why was Ron running?"

          "He looked pissed." Jak said. "What's up?"

          Hermione tossed the letter to Degas, blew a kiss at her and they continued to run off. They examined the letter and ran off as well.

          Ron was in his room when Harry and Hermione came running in. He wasn't in his normal robes; he was wearing jeans, a white shirt and a vest over it. His hair, which was now long enough to barely scrap his neck, was now pulled back into a ponytail. He pulled on his gloves and glared over at his friends.

          "You can't stop me! Rene is my fiancée and I cannot allow Voldemort to keep her."

          Harry and Hermione pulled off their robes; they were wearing good fighting clothes underneath. Harry wore black jeans tucked into boots with a black tang top; Hermione had on black spandex under a think black material that ruffled and seemed to disappear, her shirt was black tang top and she pulled on black, fingerless gloves.

          "If you are going," Hermione said. "So are we."

          Ron nodded. "Thank you." He said. They transformed into black birds and flew off.

          "But they don't even have enough power to defeat Voldemort." Jak said. "They'll die surely!"

          "Will you help us, please?" Binx begged on bended knee.

          "We have wringed you before," Degas said shamefully. "And I am very sorry that I did! This is Harry Potter we are talking. Three innocent young lives that will die if you do not help, please help, you are the only chance we got."

          "HOW DARE YOU!" the coyote snapped. "YOU WHO NEARLY KILLED-"

          "And I am deeply sorry."

          Coyote and the shadow talked. Coyote nodded. "We will help you then. Go, and we will find you later."

          Galileo, Degas, Jak and Binx bowed and ran off.

          "You know you are making a huge mistake helping these people, you know that right?"

          Iktomi stepped out of his shadow and smiled. "Did I ever tell you that I loved Rene at one time?"

          Coyote growled and slinked off. "Bastard."

          Iktomi howled with laughter. "Come off it Coyote! These are children, we should help them."

          "Hardly children, they are not Crow!"

          Iktomi laughed again. "You do this and there will be more stories of you."

          Coyote looked at Iktomi sidelong. "More stories eh?"

          Iktomi nodded.

          "All right!" he declared. "How bad can this be?"

          Iktomi shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know how bad can it be?"

          Harry, Hermione and Ron were walking around the graveyard where Harry had met Voldemort not three years ago. Now here they were no clue where Voldemort really was, not having the slightest inkling as to what they were going to do if Voldemort really did show up.

          Something snapped behind them, they wheeled around only to see a black wolf looking at them then it slinked off behind a tombstone. They looked into the sky, where under the crescent moon; a raven flew over head in the same direction as the wolf was walking. They looked at each other and then continued. Degas, Galileo, Binx and Jak approached them and were soon following them. Harry, Ron and Hermione knew this due to the fact that all seven of them could communicate through ESP.

          "Iktomi," Coyote whispered from his perch in a dying tree. "What now?"

          The wolf was scratching his ear; he was obviously enjoying it because he was leaning back and then fell over. He lay there for a little while and looked up at the raven. "I don't know Coyote; I don't know what to do all the time."

          Coyote flew down, transformed into a wolf and joined Iktomi on the ground soaking in the earth's last warmth. "Well, I suppose we have to watch them and see what happens."

          "Yeah, if Voldemort comes we'll watch, if they need our help, then we can help." Iktomi stretched and flapped his tail around. "Voldemort," he scoffed.

          Coyote yawned. "Who is this Voldemort? He sounds like a pussy."

          Iktomi looked at him. "Let's hear you say that when he comes around."

          "All right," Coyote smiled. "I'll march right up to this Voldemort and say-"

          A dark shadow fell over them as a man in cloak walked passed them. The man looked down at them eyed them for a moment before passing on.

          Iktomi and Coyote looked at the man and then at each other. They stood up and ran into the forest. They transformed into hippogriffs and flexed their wings. Coyote was a chestnut color; his golden eyes and razor sharp claws made him look handsome yet deadly as he was known to be. Iktomi was a deep blue-black color with his icy blue eyes. They looked at each other then proceeded to follow the man in a cloak.

          Harry, Ron and Hermione crept around the tombstones and kept and eye out for the Dark Lord. They rounded a corner and saw something shift by the trees. They froze and looked on as two hippogriffs emerged from the forest and followed a man in a cloak. The cloak's hood fell back; Harry gasped to see Voldemort, who looked a couple years older then the memory of Tom Riddle he saw in his second year.

          "Where's Rene?" Hermione asked.

          Ron was swelling with anger and worry.

          Rene sat in the darkness. Her eyes were covered and she was tied to a chair. She could hear the water dripping somewhere, and she was very cold. She tried to think of how she got here. All she could remember was heading to the bathroom, when she was done she was walking back when something caught her eye. She turned a corner and all went black. She couldn't remember what happened; when she came too she was sitting a damp room. This ugly fat, short, balding man was tying her to a chair, when he saw she had her eyes open he quickly covered them. But before he did, she was able to glance at a very cute man who had this look on his face. What is that look? She was still asking herself.

          "Hey… hey!"

          Rene shrieked.

          "Chill!" two hands slapped over Rene's mouth. "Stop screaming."

          Rene struggled.

          "Don't scream, promise that you won't scream and I'll remove my hands and your blindfold." Rene nodded. "All right then." The hands moved and tugged at the blindfold.

          Rene blinked several times and looked around. There was a single light coming from a tiny crack toward the ceiling. Rene looked around. "Who are you?"

          A figure moved through the small beam of light. Rene caught a figure with really short hair with four, think strands of hair braided over the left eye, which was the color of blood. It was wearing a black tang top and black and black pants that seemed to have elastic band at the bottom holding the pants to the persons mid-calf. The person was wearing weird shoes, they looked like spandex shoes, and they clung to the feet like a second skin, and the soles of the shoes was a thin layer of rubber.

          "Go back into the light please." Rene pleaded.

          "Why should I?" the person asked. "I let you catch more then a glimpse of me."

          "Who are you?" Rene sighed. "Why are you here? Did you come here to kill me?"

          The person laughed. "Kill you? Well, sort of, yeah."

          Rene gasped. "Why did you bring me here!"

          "Calm down!" the person shouted. "What do you want to know?"

          "Who are you?"

          "I am who I am, my name is Stitch."

          "What are you?"

          "I am… a warrior."

          "So you are male."

          "No, I am female." Stitch laughed. "Did I look like a man?"

          "I didn't get to see you very long."

          Stitch was shifting then finally moved back into the light.

          Rene starred at her. Stitch's hair was black with silver and copper streaks in it. Her eyes were the color of blood with silver rims and her tanned skin was flawless. She looked around and walked back to Rene.

          "Are you happy now?"

          "Why are you here?"

          "I'm here to pay back a debt." She said and tore the ropes off of Rene and pulled her to her feet. "You have to be quiet from here on out. I sort of have to… uh… kind of kill you."

          Rene quickly pulled away and tried to scream. But Stitch grabbed her and clamped her hand over Rene's mouth and pinned her to the ground.

          "Shut up!" Stitch growled. "Look, it isn't real death!" Stitch held out a little vile full of blue juice. "It is a potion, it'll make you merely look dead." Stitch got up and pulled Rene up again. "You can't leave this place unless you are dead. That is the spell Voldemort put on this place."

          "What?" Rene gasped.

          Stitch stretched. "Voldemort cursed this place, the only way you can leave is if you are dead. This vile is my own special potion, I made it, and I discovered it. It is a mix of witchcraft potions and my own medicine." She handed it to Rene. "I call it Dove's Blood."

          "It resembles nothing like blood." Rene said looking at it.

          "I know, but when you take it you are going to go to sleep and then you are going to dream about doves and blood." Stitch shrugged. "I don't know why, I am trying to work that out. But it doesn't matter, this will make your heart slow down to twenty beats a minute and it will stay like that for about a day. Are you willing to take it and get out of here semi-alive?"

          Rene whimpered and looked around. "What if I stay here?"

          Stitch growled and raised her hands. "What the fuck do you think!" Stitch barked. "If you stay here then you have a chance to live and actually get to marry Ron!"

          "How did you know I was going to marry Ron?"

          Stitch bit her tongue and slapped the vile into Rene's hand. "Just take it and let me get you out of here."

          Rene looked at her, eyed the vile then downed it quickly. "How long until it kicks-" Rene fell into Stitch's arms.

          "Oh, it is instant." Stitch pulled Rene's body over her shoulders. "And one more thing, you might be close to death but you can hear me, right? You can also see everything that happens. And by the time this is over, you may hate me."

          Rene looked dead, but her mind was racing with worries and possibilities.

          Stitch pulled a lighter out of her pocket and lit it. She looked around then walked toward a wall and climbed up a rope.

          Degas was whispering something to Galileo and Binx when Ron crept away from them and toward the Voldemort.

          "Um, Iktomi, does this mean we intervene?" Coyote asked eyeing Iktomi.

          "Um… okay, let's look at this, Voldemort is walking toward them, they are talking, Ron is walking toward Voldemort…"

          "So we intervene?"

          Iktomi looked at Degas who was now looking around for Ron. Iktomi shook his head. "No, not yet." Iktomi lay down and covered himself with his wings.

          "Are you sure?"

          "This isn't immediate danger."

          "Eh," Coyote shrugged and joined him in another little nap.

          Stitch was in the trees watching two hippogriffs sleep, a young man approach a Dark Lord, and six other people. Stitch glared at Degas, Jak, Binx and Galileo who were glaring at Ron. Stitch looked over at Rene who was propped against the tree behind a few leaves of the branches. Stitch smiled at her.

          "Did you know that there are traitors down there with your fiancée?"

          Rene's eyes were slightly open.

          "Yeah, they are right down there." Stitch pointed down to everyone. "They have been traitors from the start." Stitch looked down at the cemetery. "I cannot believe that you are marrying him."

          Coyote raised his head. "I heard something."

          Iktomi growled. "What?" he raised his head quickly and caught sight of a shadow moving above him. "What was that?"

          "So you heard it too?" Coyote asked.

          "No," Iktomi looked up and stood up. "I saw it."

          Coyote looked up and Iktomi dragged him to his feet.

          "Ouch! Ouch!" Coyote yelped and transformed into a mouse and settled into Iktomi's mouth. Coyote could feel Iktomi transformed, then Coyote was spit out of a black jaguars mouth.

          "Come on brother," Iktomi flexed his claws and crawled up the tree.

          "Oh, okay." Coyote whispered and transformed into a panther.

          They climbed the tree and looked around.

          "Coyote and Iktomi together," a voice laughed softly. "Two brothers together… I never thought I see the day when the two tricksters got together. Tell me, where's your other brother? For I would very much like to talk to him."

          "You mean Anubis?" Coyote asked.

          Stitch came into a little bit of light for them. "Yeah, Anubis, I need to thank him for bring me back to life… again."

          "Again?" Coyote asked.

          "Wait!" Iktomi transformed into back to his human form and he looked at Stitch straight in the eye, their noses almost touching. "I know you," Iktomi pointed to Stitch. "You're that one chick…" Iktomi snapped his fingers trying to think. "Stitch! Your name is Stitch isn't it?"

          Stitch laughed. "Yeah, yeah that's me."

          "Wasn't Ron-"

          "Look at that." Coyote pointed to the man in the cloak sneaking up on Ron.

          "Shit," Stitch muttered and vanished.

          "Hey, where'd she go?" Coyote asked.

          Stitch let out a war whoop and kicked Voldemort in the back and pulled Ron into the trees.

          "Who are you!" Ron hollered.

          "Shh!" Stitch snapped. "Stop it, you nearly walked into Voldemort!"

          "I need to get Rene back, he has her!" Ron turned to go.

          Stitch pulled him back. "I have her!" Stitch said slowly but she had fangs and was baring them.

          Ron leaned back and looked around.

          Stitch growled and walked off.

          "You look familiar." Ron said.

          Stitch stopped, looked back at him and shrugged. "We've met before, you'll remember… sooner or later."

          Ron followed Stitch into the branches and back into the forest. Stitch stopped and looked around. Iktomi and Coyote were sitting on either sides of Rene smoking a cigarette. They looked up and cheered then went back to the cigarette.

          "Iktomi!" Ron smiled. "Rene!" he frowned and ran to her. "No… is she… no, Rene!" he clutched her body.

          Stitch ripped him back. "Get off her!" she took a cigarette from Coyote and lit it. She took a long drag and looked around. "She's not dead. She took Dove's Blood, a concoction of my own mind that makes it seem as if she is dead. You know, Juliet kind of thing."

          "Juliet?" Ron sniffled.

          Stitch rolled her eyes and blew out a jet of smoke.

          There was a sharp scream behind them, they swung around in time to see Degas, Galileo, Jak and Binx tying Hermione and Harry up and dragging them toward Lord Voldemort.

          "What's going on?"

          Iktomi and Coyote watched wide-eyed.

          "I told you there were traitors down there." Iktomi said taking another long drag from the cigarette. She looked at Rene. "Remember I said when this was over, you may hate me?"

          Ron looked at Rene. "She can hear you?"

          Stitch threw down her cigarette and nodded at Iktomi and Coyote who seemed to know what she was thinking. She looked back at Ron.

          "Yeah, she can hear me all right, and she can see me." Stitch tackled Ron and tied him up. She jumped out of the tree along with Iktomi and Coyote and started to walk toward Voldermort.