Beltane
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Well, there was something that just stuck out about the name Foley, like I said, and I was looking for any records of someone with the last name in the library but I couldn't find any. So I started looking in the history books and I found it," Hermione said. "Juliet Amaretto Foley was the Alpha Female of the Minsk Black Furies who went to trial for massacring fifty people who had ventured into their forest," she said. "And I came to the conclusion that the girl who was mailing you must be a werewolf to know Hippolyta Foley who is the Alpha Female of some Black Fury tribe--"
"You've been reading my letters?" Harry asked.
"Wait until I'm finished," Hermione said. "So then I was looking up current werewolves but no Foleys, no Habergibbs and no Potters came up on the list which made me redirect the whole thing entirely. I started looking up everything related to werewolves and I found that a lot of werewolves refer to their breed as Garou, and I also found the twelve tribes of Garou,"
"You just found all of this now?" Ron asked.
"No, it's been a work in progress. But that's not the point. Harry, tell me the twelve tribes of werewolves," she said. Harry avoided looking at her directly.
"I don't know," he said.
"Friends don't lie, Harry," Hermione said slowly. There was another uncomfortable silence before Harry gave in.
"Thirteen," he said. "Fianna, Bone Gnawers, Get of Fenris, Black Furies, Uktena, Wendigo, Red Talons, Glass Walkers, Silver Fangs, Silent Striders, Children of Gaia, Shadow Lords, and," he ticked them off on his fingers, "Stargazers,"
"And the person who founded the Stargazers?" Hermione asked.
"Klaital Starcatcher," Harry said.
"So you're a werewolf?" Ron asked with a look of horror on his face."Where's your tribe?" Hermione asked.
"In the forbidden forest," Harry said. "And they've been... walking around school a bit too," Hermione eyed him warily.
"So you've been living the the forbidden forest?" she asked.
"Yes," Harry said.
"Do you eat," Ron gulped, "humans?"
"That's true, don't werewolves like eating humans?" Hermione asked. Harry shuddered.
"You'd have to have gone mad to want to eat a human," he said. "They're disgusting. Once the Alpha male of the Red Talons brought some dead Muggles to a moot, and me and Felan had a taste and they tasted," he shuddered again. "I never want to eat one again,"
"So you've eaten humans before?" Ron asked. "Can you eat Malfoy?"
"Sorry, no," Harry said. "You cannot tell anybody about this either," he said.
"Well we have to tell Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said. "And you're not even registered, you really should be--"
"Dumbledore already knows," Harry said. "And I don't even know what 'registered' means, Hermione,"
"He already knows and he let you come to school?" Ron asked in disbelief.
"It's not like it's a big problem," Harry said. "So once a month I get a bit furry is all. Not like I'm going to hurt anybody,"
"But you might," Hermione said. "When you're... when you're in wolf form--"
"Chronos," Harry corrected. Hermione hesitated.
"Right," she said. "Well, when you're like that-- you can't control what you're doing. You could eat someone and not even realize it what you did in the morning,"
"Except I wouldn't eat a person because they taste disgusting," Harry said. "But, please do not tell anyone," he said. Ron shrugged.
"Just as long as you don't attack me," he said. Harry looked towards Hermione who had her arms crossed and a defiant look on her face.
"Fine, but you have to get registered," she said.
"But if he gets registered than everyone will know that he's a werewolf!" Ron said. "And he won't be able to go to Hogwarts and he'll have no life!" Hermione sighed.
"Fine, he doesn't have to then!" she said. "Now if you excuse me, I need to go do more research," She turned around and opened the door.
"Well isn't this an interesting conversation?" Hermione gasped and Ron almost fell off of the bed.
"Fi?" Harry asked. "What are you doing here?" he asked. Fi handed him a large vial full of the potion.
"It came right after you left," she said darkly. "Right disturbed my dinner,"
"Harry, she knows?" Ron asked. Harry sighed.
"Forgot to introduce you," he said. "Ron, Hermione, this is Fiona, she's a werewolf too; Fi, this is Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger,"
"We've met," Fi said. She turned back to Harry. "I've got to go, see you... whenever,"
"Bye," Harry said. Fi left through the door and shut it behind her.
"She's in a mood," Ron said.
"She's got only three," Harry said. "Super-angry, super-depressed, and super-happydrunk,"
"Harry!" Hermione snapped. "I'm sure she's just very tired, and perhaps a bit grouchy,"
"No, really, she's almost always like this these days. Just wait until Beltane and the Spring Fever's caught," Harry said.
"Beltane?" Hermione asked with interest.
"Oh no," Harry said. "It's a holiday, one of those crazy things that apparently only Fianna do--"
"I know what it is!" Hermione said. "But you celebrate it?"
"Of course we do," Harry said. "There's grub and strawberries by the crate and flowers--- mountains of flowers-- and alcohol and sometimes other tribes and... other stuff," Harry said. "It's not until May anyways,"
"Can I go?" Hermione asked.
"What?" Harry and Ron asked.
"Well it'd be great to see how the werewolf nation celebrates celtic holidays," Hermione said. "I've never really seen a werewolf up close but--" Harry gestured to himself. "So I have, but--"
"You're insane," Harry said. "But, yeah all right. I guess you can go,"
"What?" Ron asked.
"But you cannot do anything stupid," Harry said.
"I promise," Hermione said.
---------------
Over the next few months, several odd things happened around Hogwarts. Some of them horrible, but most just odd.
Firstly, Harry began to see Marlaina walking around a lot more, but she never spoke to him. In fact, she right ignored him a few times. Other times she saw him and started walking the other way.
A few days after that, a series of robberies occured. Several robes, vests, trousers and trainers were reported missing in Gryffindor tower. Harry found a pair of Nikes gone from his own trunk. McGonagall warned the students that whoever was doing this would be punished unless they came forward with their loot. No one came forward.
Several students reported fights, but when a teacher went to see, there was nothing there. These students got detentions and points off.
It was rumored that it was simply a large influx of new ghosts; slightly violent, fun-loving wraiths that snipped people's hair off and played with the cats. And then the bad things started to happen, all of the owls went missing, and somebody started messing with the portraits. The best thing out of all of this, was that someone ransacked Snape's office and classroom, forcing all of the students to skip Potions for two weeks as he tried to get everything in order again.
And then Harry figured out why.
Marlaina was running a touring business. He figured it out when he saw her leading a small pack of cubs and cliaths from different tribes into the dungeons. He had a feeling she had the whole school memorized like the back of her hand, because she never seemed to get lost. The business was running quite a profit too. Cubs were trading excess food, animals, little sisters and clothing for a chance to see a real live magic school. And in return, Harry learned from Felan that each of them took a jellied eye home from the dungeons (which would explain why Snape was walking around white faced for so long).
Harry found himself spending most of his free time following the tour group and making sure they stayed out of trouble or a teacher didn't run into them. He'd even gotten Ron roped into babysitting the unruly Garou with him. When he saw many of the girls (including Marlaina) making what could only be described as 'googly eyes' at Ron, he decided it was time for Ron to take a break (lest he get attacked by one of the girls, Harry'd seen it happen before). Then he employed Hermione to help him keep them in line, but soon he was alone again as Hermione got tired of the girls fawning over her hair.
Fi didn't come around Hogwarts much anymore, Harry assumed it was because of her leg and Felan confirmed that ("Mafalda says that she says that hopping on one leg for a few miles, is not fun,") and as it got closer and closer to Beltane, the mysterious robbings started again and there were larger and larger crowds following Marlaina. This made more and more teachers turn their heads when the crowd passed by. Harry eventually told Marlaina to take the crowds around a night only.
"No!" she said. "People don't want to see an empty magic school, they want to see the magic people," she said.
"Come on, can't you please change it to night time?" Harry asked.
"For what?" Marlaina asked.
"We're packmates, Marlaina. You should do this out of the kindness of your heart," Harry said.
"Tough luck, Potter. What's in it for me?" Marlaina asked. Harry thought for a moment.
"Access to the kitchens--"
"We already know where they are," Marlaina said. Harry thought some more.
"Access to the Gryffindor dormitory?" he asked.
"Hm..." Marlaina thought for a moment. "That's good, but won't people notice?"
"You're herding a crowd around, I think they've already noticed," Harry said. Marlaina stuck out her tongue.
"Fine," she said. "It's a deal. I'll have the Ragabash cliaths do Blur of the Milky eye and the others do as well as they can,"
"Blur of the Milky Eye?" Harry asked.
"It's an invisibility thing," Marlaina said. "Didn't Felan tell you? He's a Ragabash, he ought to have learned it by now," So that's how he'd been getting around school...
"What other things can a Ragabash do?" Harry asked.
"At Felan's level? Practically nothin'. Um.. Blur of the Milky Eye, Open Seal, Scent of Running Water-- that's how they hide their scents-- and Blissful Ignorance, like Blur of the Milky Eye but they have to stay still," Marlaina said.
"Hm..." Harry said. "Thanks,"
"Do you want to know about Philodoxes now?" Marlaina asked. Harry shook his head.
"Fi's out of order,""But Mafalda isn't," Marlaina said. "Anyways, I've got to go stop them from making a mess of that office again, toodles!" Marlaina started off in the direction of the dungeons.
------------------
"Get another one!"
"No!"
"Get another one!"
"No!"
"Get--"
"No!" Fi snapped. "I'm not getting any more holes in my head for your cheap thrills!" she growled.
"Sorry," Dee Philips said. "...Just one more, another one in the belly button?" she asked.
"NO!"
"Come on, you're the only one who can actually withstand the pain," Charlotte wheedled.
"No!" Fi grabbed one of the bottles of brandy off of the table and drank out of it. "Now leave me alone!"
"Belly button!" Dee said.
"How about an eyebrow?" Charlotte asked. Fi shook her head. It had been two days since Dee Philips, Charlotte and a few Black Fury cliaths had discovered that she was about the only girl who wouldn't flinch when she got an eyebrow piercing. So they pressured her into getting more and more piercings; currently she had four in each ear, two in her bottom lip, three in her right eyebrow, one in her nose, and two in her belly button.
She walked to her cave and drew back the curtain across the entrance. What was inside almost made her drop the bottle of brandy (almost, but she got ahold of herself). Seven girls, all decked out in Black Fury gear, were sitting in a circle braiding each other's hair and talking. The other seven Foley sisters (there were also four more Foley brothers, but no one spoke of them ever since they became eunuchs), ranging from the oldest (in her early thirties) to the youngest at fifteen they were Titania, Hippolyta, Hermia, Helena, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed (in Fi's opinion, Marlaina got the good name). One of the sisters looked up at Fi and stopped braiding her sister's long, curly dark-red hair.
"Fiona!" she said. The other sisters looked up and there were surprised cries of "Fiona!" all around. Fi tried to move but her feet seemed glued to the spot.
"Hi... Mustardseed," Fi said, managing a weak wave. She really wished that they would get out of her room; even if it had once belonged to all eight sisters (including Marlaina), once Moth and Cobweb moved out, Mustardseed and Marlaina moved into a smaller one, making this one available. But that didn't matter, because it was hers now.
"We're going to be here until after Beltane, so we'd thought we'd use the old territory again, is that okay?" she asked kindly. Fi nodded quickly and stepped back.
"I'll... just... get new room," she squeaked, and ran the other way. She stopped at one cavemouth and went inside. Fi slumped down against the wall and grabbed a small green plastic soldier off of the wooden box. She looked at it for a while from all angles. "Hey, this is mine!"
"Fi?" Felan asked, coming in with a bowl in his hands.
"I'm going to be sleeping here for a while," Fi said. "Okay?" Felan shrugged.
"So we're all right?" he asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Fi said.
"You forgot what you were mad at me for?" Felan asked.
"Almost certainly," Fi said. Felan looked at her face carefully.
"Why do you have so many rings in your face?" he asked.
"Long story," Fi said.
"I have time," Felan said. He leaned over and sniffed her. "And... why do you smell like rubbing alcohol?"
--------------------
Harry was still in disbelief as he woke up on May first and got dressed. Hermione and Ron, coming to Beltane? It was mad. Now, not only did he need an excuse, he had to make one up for the other two. He quickly got dressed and woke Ron up.
"Why do we have to go this early?" Ron asked. Harry checked his watch.
"It's eight," he said.
"It's Saturday," Ron said.
"Do you want to go or not?" Harry asked.
"Fine," Ron said. "This better be worth it,"
"It will," Harry said. "But we have to go over some rules when we're going," he said, looking through his trunk for his invisibility cloak.
---------------
"Owowowowow," Fi took out the nosering and threw against the wall, it landed in a pile where the eyebrow rings were also laying. "Okay, now for the belly button," she lifted her shirt and looked at her bruised stomach. "Maybe later," she said. But... what was it that Black Fury girl had said about not taking them out for six weeks?...
"Fi," Felan said running into the cave. "Want to go hunting?" he asked.
"Nah," Fi said, gesturing to her face. "I've got some work to do," she said.
"You sure?" Felan asked. "Trey said he found a really cool place to hunt for sheep," he said.
"I'm sure," Fi said.
"Come on, it's Beltane. Don't you know what that means?" Felan asked. Fi thought for a moment, then it hit her.
"NOT IN YOUR LIFE!" she yelled.
"Not that," Felan said. "Keep your mind out of the grubhole," he said. "Beltane means we young folk get a chance to act as stupid as we like, and they'll blame it on spring fever," he said. Fi rolled her eyes.
"Felan, if you were any stupider you'd be a leech," she said. Felan sighed.
"Do you want to go hunting or not?" he asked.
"Fine," Fi said. "I guess I can," she said.
"Great," Felan said. "Wait here though," he ran somewhere while Fi poked at where the nosering had been. Felan came back with a bag full of raw, bloody meat. He threw it to her. "All of the girls have to put this on," he said. Fi looked at the bag.
"Exactly what kind of sheep are we talking about here?" she asked, getting up.
"The ones that hunt with dogs," Felan said with a smile.
"Ah, humans," Fi said. "Sorry, I'm not into getting shot again,"
"You were shot at, you were not shot," Felan corrected.
"I think I'll wait until Harry gets here," she said, giving the zip-lock bag back.
"Please?" Felan asked. Suddenly, he stopped and sniffed the air. "Do you smell what I do?" Fi sniffed the air.
"Anxiety, fear, light giddiness?" she asked sarcastically.
"No," Felan said. "Food,"
"Of course," Fi said. "That would be the only thing you-- Hey!" Felan raced out of the cave and to the fire where they were roasting a large deer.
"Hi, Felan," Torra walked over to him. She handed him a bag. "Get some grubs,"
"Damn," Felan said. Fi laughed from where she was standing.
"She got you," she said. Someone tapped her on the shoulder and Fi turned around to see Felan's mother holding a tubberware container.
"You've got ant duty, Fiona," she said."But it's Beltane!" Fi protested. She put a hand to her head. "And I'm feeling a bit... sicky,"
"Nice try," Mrs. Caolaidhe said. "There ought to be some by where Felan's getting his grubs, you can follow him," she said.
"Bollocks," Fi said, taking the plastic container.
"No cursing, thank you," Mrs. Caolaidhe walked away as Fi went up to Felan.
"You got lucky," she growled. Felan howled with laughter. A few minutes later, Felan was pushing over a rotting log. Several multi-colored, wormy larvae were squirming around. Fi gulped. "I don't see any ants," she said quickly. Felan grabbed her arm before she could run.
"There they are," he said, pointing to a trail of red ants.
"I'm not picking up fire ants, stupid," she said.
"Just get them," Felan said, sticking his hand into the wormy mess and putting the grubs into the bag. Fi rocked on her feet for a few seconds, before looking up. She walked somewhere a few feet off and grabbed up a snake.
"Hey, Felan! Look!" she said, showing him the snake.
"Fi put that down," Felan said. Fi shook her head and looked at the snake.
"I think I'll keep it," she said, with a smile. "To eat," Felan shook his head.
"Have we switched roles here?" he asked as Fi got out her pocket knife. "Put it down!" he said.
"No!" Fi said.
"Yes!" Felan said.
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"I thought I heard you two," said a voice. They both turned around to see Harry standing with Hermione and Ron.
"Harry!" Fi yelled. "Erm... with boy and frizzy girl,"
"Harry, can you get Fi to not eat the snake?" Felan asked.
"Shut up, rabbit-boy," Fi said.
"I thought your leg was broken?" Harry said.
"It healed," Fi said. "What are you doing here? With...them?"
"Ron and Hermione wanted to come to Beltane," Harry said.
"Humans?" Fi hissed. "There are going to be lupus there!"
"And possibly Red Talons," Felan said. "And you know how they are,"
"But as far as anyone else knows, they're kinfolk," Harry said.
"You know Torra's going to put them to work," Fi said. "Or Mrs. Caolaidhe, she gave ant duty. As a matter of fact," she looked at Hermione. "Would you like to help me with my chores?"
"NO!" Felan yelled. "Harry, are you absolutely sure that nothing will go wrong?" he asked.
"Almost sure," Harry said. "They're already wizards so the Delirium won't matter,"
"This is risky," Felan said. "Especially with the Black Furies around and... oh no,"
"What?" Harry asked.
"The Foley sisters are here," Fi said. "And they've all got a thing for red hair,"
"What?" Ron squeaked.
"Don't worry," Harry said. "We'll just, keep you away from them,"
"I think it would be quite funny," Fi said. "Also, he looks a lot taller than... how old are you?" she asked.
"Twelve," Ron said.
"Well, you're tall like Mustardseed, and Mustardseed is the tallest considering they're all pint-sized," Fi said.
"It's true," Felan said. "They'd be after him like the a cat after a mouse," he turned to Fi. "And Marlaina's not pint sized,""That's because you are too," Fi said. "Rabbit-Marlaina-lover-boy,"
"I thought we were beyond that!" Felan said.
"Never!" Fi said."Enough!" Harry said. He pointed to Fi. "You, go do your ant duty," she growled and walked away. "Felan, I'll go talk to Alpha Male about this. Can you get them to the caves without the Foley sisters seeing them?" he asked.
"Almost certainly," Felan said. "But I'm afraid not without a few of the Black Fury girls seeing her," he nodded to Hermione.
"Doesn't matter," Harry said. "Just get them to your cave," he said. Felan nodded. Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. "This is about the sanest way we can get you through," he said. "You all right with this?"
"Yes," Hermione said.
"Yeah," Ron said. "And, who are the Foley sisters?" he asked.
"No one," Harry said. "But if you see any girls in big packs, run."
"Got it," Ron said. Fi came back with the plastic container full of ants, and the snake wrapped around her arm.
"H-harry," she said. "It's cutting off my circulation," Harry rolled his eyes, he grabbed the snake off of her arm and threw it over his shoulder.
"Happy?" he asked. Fi nodded.
"Now what are we doing again?" she asked.
"You and Felan are going to take--"
"Fuzzy and Foley-bait to Felan's den, I've got it," she said.
"Are you ever going to say their names?" Harry whispered. Fi looked over his shoulder at the two humans.
"Weasel-boy and Sheep-girl," she said. "That's their names to me,"
"It's better than Rotten fish-girl," Harry said. "If that's they're names, then what's your name for me?" he asked.
"I haven't thought one up yet," Fi said. "Unlike others I have met, you don't exactly act like a rabbit, a weasel or a sheep," she said. "And even if I had an animal for you, I wouldn't tell you if you asked like that," she said. Harry narrowed his eyes.
"Fine," he said. "I'm going to see Odyn about them," he said. Fi waved as Harry ran off to Odyn's cave. She turned to Felan.
"What're we going to do with them?" she asked. Felan shrugged.
"You take the girl, I'll take the boy," he said.
"But the Black Furies are more apt to talk to me than you, and they'll see her... I'll take the Weasel-boy," Fi said."Stop calling me that!" Ron said.
"Weasel-boy, weasel-boy, weasel, weasel, weasel-boy!" Fi said.
"Oh this is fun," Felan said. He nodded to Hermione. "Come on, we'd better get going, they're taking out the May Pole right now and if you want to see it..."
"We'll go the other way around," Fi said. "By the hollow tree, towards the pond," she said.
"Great," Felan said. "Come on, Hermione, right?" Hermione nodded.
"And your name is?"
"Felan, Felan Caolaidhe," Felan said.
"Of the Shadowlord Caolaidhes?" Hermione asked.
"They're cousins," Felan said. Fi watched them leave until a ant bit her, bringing her out of her daydreaming.
"Ow," she flicked the ant off of her arm. "We'd better get going," she said.
--------------------
When Harry made it to Odyn's cave, he went inside. He hadn't been in there in a while, but everything still looked the same in the long walkway (how had the walkway gotten there?) to the center room. But no one was there.
Oh great, Harry thought, of course, it's Beltane. He's outside with everybody else! He walked back out of the cave and looked around. The May Pole was going up, there was Trey glaring at Felan, oh! There he was, talking to Hippolyta Foley! Wait, why was he talking to Hippolyta Foley? Talking wasn't exactly the right word, they were... arguing. Better not tell him about Ron and Hermione right now.
Harry looked back to where Trey was glaring at Felan. Wasn't Felan supposed to be watching Ron and Hermione? Harry's eyes scanned the crowd and he saw Hermione watching the May Pole go up. But then where were the other two? There was Marlaina, and then there was Fi talking to Marlaina. And then Marlaina shoved Fi, Fi shoved her back.
"Oh, this is good," Harry said. He ran up to where Fi tried to kick Marlaina, but Marlaina caught her leg and twisted it. And now Fi was on the floor, howling like a banshee and clutching her leg.
"Legs aren't that strong, are they Fi?" Marlaina asked. Fi set her gaze on Marlaina and Marlaina stumbled back as if she'd been hit by something. "NO FAIR!" she yelled, clutching her eyes.
"You started it!" Fi said. "Bacchantes' Rage is a Black Fury gift, isn't it?" she growled. Harry rushed over to Fi.
"Fi, where's Ron?" he asked.
"Felan's den," Fi said. "Marlaina got a little... jealous of him," she said. "Hey, help me up will you?" Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her up.
"What is it with you and getting crippled before holidays?" he asked.
"It's a gift really," Fi said. "Oh, look a pussy!" she pointed to a large gray cat. "What's it doing here?"
-------------------
A/N: So this is where the chapter ends. I'm not especially proud of this one. The next chapter is either going to be the last chapter or the next to last chapter. I'm trying to keep it under twenty and the twentieth is going to be the halfchapter/half epilogue thing. As you see, in this chapter there is no Mafalda. And in the next chapter, everything starts to wrap up. You may have noticed that the cat at the end of this chapter was, in fact, Miss Kitty from the last chapter. You don't need to remember any of the Foley sisters (with the possible exception of Marlaina), but I managed to name them all after Shakespeare characters, so I'm exceptionally happy about that.
You may have also noticed that I (regret to inform you that) am not going to put Norbert in this story. If anything, I'm going to put him in the sequel because I really hate leaving Norbert out, it's bugging me to leave him out, seeing as he's my favorite dragon dude. Although in the next chapter, they will go into the forest with Hagrid and Neville and Malfoy because that would be too much to leave out.
I'm sorry if I offended anyone with the inclusion of the holiday Beltane (and the fact that I cannot do justice to any holiday), I don't actually celebrate the holiday myself so I wouldn't know how to celebrate it.
A little note about what Harry said about Fi ("She's in a mood," Ron said. "She's got only three," Harry said. "Super-angry, super-depressed, and super-happydrunk," ): Fi was actually written in to embody the Bone Gnawer's view of how a Fianna acts (I read it somewhere), apparently they have only three emotions as listed above, as well as the fact that they love to drink (also, I don't condone underage drinking, it's no joking matter), party, and fight (even as she is a Philodox, there's going to be something in here as it goes along about her love of fighting when she's really not supposed to like fighting that much). There was this one quote from a Glass Walker's point of view about Fianna also being great in the sack, but I thought that was a little racy seeing as how they are, in fact, eleven.
A little note about Marlaina: She's an Ahroun (people who are familiar with Werewolf: The Apocalypse will understand this) and her sisters are Black Furies. I think it's natural that they'd teach their little sis how to do a few tricks (the werewolf equivelent of your big sisters teaching you how to ride the bike).
So, that being said, I must do my traditional cliche: (insert food here) AND (insert drink/other food here) TO ALL REVIEWERS! I'll ask for seventy reviews this time. Although I expect about 5, I'll ask for 70. Bye!