In the depths of the Dark Forest there were whisperings, plotting and
secrets.
'But, Saiph, it's his first year. Who knows how many have gone uncelebrated before?'
'No, Kelyn, it's far too risky, you know that. If it hadn't been I'd have taken us all back in long ago. I don't want any harm to come to you, my dear, you're far too precious to us for us to lose you.
The pale wolf looked beseechingly up at her leader before one of the half wolves stepped forward. 'If she is set on going then I will accompany her for protection.'
'And so will I.'
Kelyn beamed gratefully at her two pack brothers before turning back to her white leader. 'Please, Saiph, Ice and Shadow will be with me. I won't get into trouble, I promise.'
Saiph smiled at his youngest adopted daughter, 'There's really no point me arguing, is there?'
'Not really.'
'Then enjoy yourselves, and please be careful. And while you're there take this for him.'
Kelyn leapt on the huge white wolf an almost knocked him over, 'You crafty old wolf, you knew we were going all along!'
'What can I say, it's my job!'
* * * * *
In her dungeon Storm was watching the tempest roll in from the southeast. The rolling, boiling clouds blotting out the stars and blotting out her rational thoughts. Tonight her mind was filled with rage and thoughts of retribution. There was something to be done before she enjoyed the pleasures of nature.
Her breathing was fast and shallow and lightning flickered across her bright blue eyes as she worked herself up into a frenzy. She allowed it to remove any traces of doubt or uncertainty and she knew precisely what she had to do. And likely as not there'd be blood on her maw before the night was out.
* * * * *
The day started normally enough for Lupin. Few remembered his birthday and, as he didn't shout it about, he was grateful for the greetings he did receive. But when he found Diana in his chambers that evening with a blindfold in her hand and her tail in full view claiming that she had a 'surprise' for him he couldn't help being a bit excited.
She led him through benighted corridors and hallways, though all was black to him, until he completely lost his bearings. He felt decidedly odd as he walked along one part, almost as if a thousand eyes were watching him and judging him, but it soon passed. Obviously Di felt it too as she stopped for a brief moment before leading him on a few more paces. She put her hand up to the blindfold and whispered in his ear, 'Happy Birthday, Moony, and welcome to the Hall of Dreams.'
It didn't take Remus's eyes long to adjust to the dim light of the room. The few candles that were lit gave off a light as faint as the moon and stars, but still enough to see by.
The room itself was cosy and comfortable. Overstuffed sofas and armchairs now saggy and worn from long years of use, shelves lined with books on lycanthropy and animal spirituality, stuffed heads of proud kills decorating the walls, along with a multitude of paintings and keepsakes cluttering every available space. There was more than a few years of history in this place, but it was the inhabitants that surprised him the most.
Seated in their favourite places were six smiling faces and he didn't know which he was most amazed to see, or perhaps it was the combination of them all together that seemed most unusual.
Raq introduced them, 'Kelyn I believe you know, our jaundiced friend over there is Ice, Mr tall and skinny is Shadow, long-haired hippy prat with the guitar is Moss, spiky fiend is Bracken and posh git is Lateo.'
'And we love you too, Raq,' Moss said dryly, raising a glass of suspicious looking clear liquid, 'Happy Birthday, Moony, and welcome to the merry band of Lupuscans.'
'Lupuscans? You, and Lucy, and Justin?'
'Moss, Bracken and Lateo here, Moon-boy. You're one of us now, Lupus says so.'
'Who?'
'Lupus. Our founder and mentor. If you haven't met her already no doubt you will soon, but not tonight. She's had less toleration for noise since she died, and we plan on making this a night to remember. Don't worry, we won't be heard, the Hall of Dreams is quite secure. Drink?'
For the first time Remus noticed the array of instruments among the gathering – Moss had a guitar, Bracken a violin and Ice a wide, shallow drum and beater. Moss tuned his guitar and looked over at the pale wolf.
'Kel, do you want to start us off? Any requests from the birthday boy?'
It seemed odd to Moony to hear one of his students address him so informally, but it seemed so right and so easy that he just shook his head and took a long draught of what tasted like gin as Moss, formerly known as Jason, strummed out some chords and settled into a steady rhythm with Ice keeping the pace on his drum.
Kelyn's voice was as clear as a morning lark's and as smooth as glass, but it seemed to fit the face that it was coming out of perfectly. Her posture and movements were unashamedly sexy and provocative, but absolutely natural and graceful. She felt every word that she sang and it made the performance more real.
Bracken and Shadow added perfect harmonisation during the chorus, but they did not attempt to overpower her for they know they had no chance. Others rapped the arm of the chairs or their thighs as they listened to the smooth tones of 'Black Velvet'.
The night progressed with lots of talking and even more singing. All took their turn and the mood ranged from love songs, to comic songs and plenty of Irish drinking songs as they swigged Raven's Dark Forest Gin. Moony couldn't believe he'd missed all this fun over the years, and as he looked at the smiling faces around him he saw the truth of the Lupuscan way, especially when Bracken and Raq were doing an absurd dance to the accompaniment of Moss, Ice and Shadow, their tails swinging around, although Bracken's was false. He felt as though he had a family again.
* * * * *
Harry couldn't sleep. He wanted to know if Storm was all right and if she'd found a way outside. He put on his invisibility cloak and went out of Gryffindor tower. He was lost in his own thoughts when a noise caught his attention. It sounded like outraged screaming. Harry turned towards the noise and hurried even more quickly when he realised that they were coming from Snape's private chambers. He hoped that Storm hadn't been so stupid, but his fears were realised when he got there. Snape's chambers looked like a tornado had hit them, and in a way it had. Drawers were turned out, everything was scattered all over the floor and nothing seemed to have been left untouched.
Snape had been out at a meeting and wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed, but he'd heard Storm before he saw her. He flung open his door to reveal the rith ransacking his living chambers with untold fury. She had her back to him and didn't even notice his entrance as she tore the room apart with her bare, blunt claws. Thinking that a student had shut her in as a practical joke, Snape had called out to her to tell her to get out, but her expression frightened him. Her whole body had stiffened at his voice and she'd turned slowly and deliberately with her lips drawn right off her sparkling teeth and pure menace in her storm-hued eyes. Binding her quickly before she could pounce, Snape found that he had nothing but contempt for the creature, and his sarcastic words were easily overheard by Harry as he watched Storm struggling wildly against the bonds that snaked around her entire body.
'Oh dear, it seems that we've overstretched ourself, haven't we?'
The rith just stared at him with a look of frenzy and madness that Harry had never seen before in her usually calm eyes. Even at the last storm she hadn't been this bad. Harry wondered why she hated Snape so much – sure he was mean, but he didn't deserve this relentless persecution. She was foaming at the mouth and snarling like a rabid dog, but then again Snape himself didn't look much better.
'I'll see you finished for this, wolf. You've made a big mistake in crossing me. Now, let me see...'
With a look of malicious pleasure, Snape began examining the odious contents of his private collection of potion ingredients. He picked out certain ones and explained their properties to Storm, who looked slightly bored. Her blind rage had distilled into something infinitely more frightening, like a volcano waiting silently to erupt, yet Snape appeared to take this lull as terror and not the brooding violence it truly was.
With painful slowness Snape blended and mixed the ingredients while the rith watched with deadly calm eyes.
A loud roar of thunder woke Harry out of his trance and it was only now that he realised how much danger Snape had put himself in. He had a ticking time-bomb in front of him, and he was winding her up with every second that passed, and every second the storm grew closer and all the rith wanted to do now was to get out there before it passed. Harry was torn between helping Snape, for which he would receive no thanks and probably a detention, or watching his least favourite teacher get his come-uppance for once.
Snape made his own decision.
He advanced on the bound rith with obvious intimidation and sadistic pleasure in his dark eyes and a smoking potion in his hands. He placed the foul-smelling concoction on his private desk and picked up a slim knife with a needle sharp point, 'But first...' he mused.
Harry watch in unconcealed horror as Snape ran the blade sickeningly slowly over Storm's face, down her throat, through the thick fur and onto her upper arm. He clipped the hair away gently before plunging the steel through her flesh.
The rith barely winced, which is more than could be said for Harry, but he noticed a definite catch in her breath interrupting the constant low snarl. Snape removed the knife and immediately blood began to bead on the surface of her skin, but it wasn't the normal deep red colour, the storms influence had turned it silver making it the even rarer commodity of storm- blood or liquid lightning. With fiendish delight he placed a phial beneath the stream to collect the prized fluid.
After a little while the stream steadied and stopped, Snape's phial almost full of Storm's valuable blood. He held it up to the candlelight and examined it carefully before placing it in a small locked cupboard where he kept only his most costly ingredients that were not for student use. Rith blood was obviously far more worthwhile outside the rith than in it to Snape.
Storm's eyes had never left Snape's once, and now they held a curious triumph that puzzled the Potions Master. He turned his attention back to the brew, which had turned a poisonous shade of yellow and was still belching thick green smoke at regular intervals. He waved the putrid concoction under the rith's sensitive nose.
Her whole snout wrinkled in disgust as the foul odour pervaded every scent receptor. She sneezed to expel the stench from her delicate nostrils – and managed to spill half the potion on the floor with the force of it.
Snape cut Storm's muzzle bonds before she managed to find a way to spill the rest. He foolishly believed that she was too frightened to resist in any way. Unfortunately for someone, Harry couldn't quite work out who, he was wrong.
Storm lunged like a striking cobra and clamped her jaws on his wrist with a sickening crunch. Snape grunted and his face contorted with pain as his blood began to dribble down her chin. She shook his hand like a hideous white rat, preventing Snape from going for his wand and Harry knew in a spilt-second what he had to do.
Throwing off his cloak, he opened a window on the other side of the corridor and ran into the living quarters, wand drawn. He yelled at the rith, 'Storm! Storm! ELHAZ!'
That last shout did it. Some of the madness in the rith's eyes faded at the sound of her old name, and Harry's voice. Harry pushed the door wide and stood well out of the way, leaving Storm's path clear as he cast a spell to remove her bonds. With a slightly regretful look at Snape, but a more powerful longing for the tempest, the cobalt rith let go of Snape and ran, leaping out of the window and sliding down roof and off rain-slicked projectory with the grace of a cat before racing like the wind across the grounds.
Snape sat on a chair looking rather pale and clutching his bleeding limb. Harry tore a piece off his pyjama shirt and wrapped it tightly around the bloody gash, staunching the flow.
'You ought to see Madam Pomfrey, I think she's cracked a bone.'
'What are you doing out of bed, Potter?'
'Saving your life. She would have killed you on a night like this.'
'Get back to bed before I give you a detention.'
'Thank you too, sir,' sarcasm dripped from every word.
Harry couldn't believe that man's lack of gratitude. He turned on his heel and stalked out of the room back to Gryffindor Tower. Maybe he shouldn't have saved Snape's life after all, but he convinced himself that he did it for Storm's sake rather than Snape's.
Snape almost immediately dissolved into shakes. The shock hit him worse than anything, it was like his worst nightmare coming true. Harry was right, the rith would have killed him, it probably could have as well. It was just as well that Harry was there, but he hadn't even thanked the boy. Snape tried to pull himself together so he could go down to the classroom and take some of the healing potions he kept there for emergencies.
* * * * *
Remus's party was just coming to an end. All were thoroughly inebriated and telling everyone how much they loved each other and how much they meant it. Surprisingly it was Raq who was the worst and kept dissolving into fits of giggles. With a last rendition of 'The Wild Rover' accompanied by a lot of out of tune banging, the gathering started to disperse.
Blowing out the candles, the Lupuscans staggered up to what appeared to be a blank wall. Lateo went through first, completely disappearing through the wall as if it wasn't there. Bracken and Moss followed, supporting each other, then the three Forest wolves and finally Moony and Raq. Raq tripped and fell through the portal, landing in a giggling heap on the other side. Moony stepped through and looked back to see the Wolven Door.
'It really is a door, then,' he thought as he picked Raq up and half- carried the giggling woman up to his chambers, thanking anyone who was listening that his mate was not a big girl.
* * * * *
Kelyn, Shadow and Ice were also making their way through the passageways laughing and whispering about the night they had had. Ice heard the footsteps first, being slightly less drunk than the others. He stopped them quickly with frantic shushings.
Snape was on his way back from the dungeons when he heard what sounded like someone trying to be quiet but making a complete mess of it. His arm was not completely healed, he'd have to make another batch of the potion in the morning, but the pain was gone. He advanced stealthily on the miscreants and got the shock of his life when he cam face to face with them. One was a pale grey wolf, another looked like a man but had wolf-like ears and his whole lower body was covered in yellowy fur, the third was a man he recognised from when he was a student, 'Jones!'
'Leg it!' The half-wolf yelled, and the man he recognised changed shape into a grey and red wolf and ran with the others. Snape gave chase, emboldened by the fact that he knew one of them and none stood their ground.
Taking a more roundabout route, Kelyn led them to the opening above the main entrance. Then disaster struck.
Careless from her headlong flight, Kelyn stumbled and tumbled down the stairs with an anguished howl. She landed at the bottom in a crumpled heap. Ice and Shadow ran after her and knelt down beside her.
'I... I can't get up!' she whimpered.
Ice could easily see that one of her legs was broken and that she was in a great deal of pain. He stroked her head soothingly, but his ears pricked at the sound of pursuit.
'Shadow, go back home, tell Saiph what's happened.'
'What about you?'
'I'll look after Kelyn, she needs someone to stay with her and I'm not leaving her.'
Shadow looked at the fierce determination in Ice's eyes and nodded his consent before taking off at full pelt towards the Forest.
Snape could see that something had gone wrong with the wolves' escape. One was panting and whimpering at the bottom of the stairs and one other was standing protectively over her. Robbie Jones was nowhere to be seen. Now that he looked more closely he could see that the half-wolf was even more disfigured than he thought – his face pushed outwards in the manner of a snout and his legs were bent into a canine shape, he even walked on his toes. The hideous creature snarled at him. He heard footsteps behind him.
'What on earth's going on, Severus?' Minerva McGonagall enquired. 'I was woken up by sounds of a chase.'
'We have a wolf problem in the castle, Minerva. There was another one, an animagus, I recognised him immediately.'
'Who was it?'
'Robert Jones. He only left three years ago, I believe. If you could fetch Albus, I think I can hold these two at bay. I don't think the grey one's going anywhere.'
Minerva hurried off after a quick curious glance at the scene at the bottom of the stairs. Ice laid down beside Kelyn to stop her getting cold from shock and licked her comfortingly between the ears. Snape shuddered involuntarily at the sight. Dumbledore was not long in coming.
'Minerva tells me we have wolves in the castle.'
'That one fell down the stairs, it must be injured otherwise they'd all be gone by now. An animagus was with them – Robert Jones.'
'So Minerva tells me. We must have produced more illegal animagi in this school than any other in the world,' Dumbledore did not seem very disturbed by the revelation and started to make his way down the stairs.
'What are you doing, Albus, they're dangerous!'
Dumbledore looked up at the Potions Master, 'What do you suggest we do, Severus, kill them? At least not until I have found out why they are here.'
'But they're dangerous, dumb animals!'
'Minerva tells me she quiet clearly heard one of the animals shout "Leg it" and it wasn't the voice she remembered Jones having. But trying cannot harm.' Ice had stood up and was standing protectively over Kelyn again. Dumbledore spread his arms wide in a peaceful gesture, 'I mean you no harm. I only wish to help you. I think your friend is injured.'
Ice nodded at Dumbledore.
'My name is Albus, who are you?' Dumbledore spoke slowly as if addressing a child. He was surprised when the wolf answered him in a strong kiwi accent, but staccato sentences.
'I'm Ice, this is Kelyn. She's broken her leg. She needs help. She can't stand.'
'I will get someone to heal her. Where are you from, Ice?'
Ice nodded his head towards the door, 'Forest.'
'Where originally?'
'New Zealand, South Island.'
'Minerva, will you please fetch Poppy so she can look at Kelyn's leg?' Professor McGonagall nodded and left Albus to his strange conversation.
'I don't like him,' Ice pointed to Snape, 'If he hadn't chased us Kelyn wouldn't be hurt.'
'Why were you in the castle?'
'I've never been here before. I was curious. Kelyn said she'd come with me, so did Shadow.'
'Shadow? You mean Robert?'
'No, I mean Shadow. I don't know anyone called Robert.'
'You shouldn't have been in here.'
'We meant no harm to anyone. If we hadn't been chased we'd have left and no one would have ever known we were here.'
'Did you come in here during the lunar eclipse?'
'I did not.'
'But did any of your pack?'
'My alpha did. That one there was hurting a brother.' He pointed to Snape again, 'We look after all wolves on our territory.'
'That wolf was a werewolf.'
'I know. Most of our pack are. We live how we please and cause no harm. We have heard that one howling before. A wolf should not be alone, especially not on a red moon. It is not natural. We only wanted to help and are sorry for any grief caused.'
At his feet Kelyn whined and Ice looked down at her and gave a small comforting growl.
'Kelyn is frightened, and she has good right to be. Humans have never done anything but harm to wolves.'
'Is she your sister?'
'No, she is my beloved. I will not leave her while she lives.'
Kelyn's eyes sparkled at this new revelation and she laid her head on Ice's digigrade feet with a peaceful sigh. It was at this moment that Madam Pomfrey scurried into the entrance hall. With barely a second glance at her patient, or her protector, she knelt down beside the pale wolf and examined her all over. Kelyn winced as the witch's expert hands ran over the broken bone.
'There's a clean break here, and also a couple of minor fractures. Hold her still, will you?'
Ice bent down and held her head, whilst whispering wolfish words of love and comfort into her pricked ear. Kelyn grimaced as Poppy's magic went to work, but the pain was soon gone.
'There, that's going to be stiff for a little while so she needs rest. If that's all, Albus, I have other patients to attend to.'
Dumbledore smiled at Madam Pomfrey's brisk manner, and her lack of astonishment of her unusual patient. He supposed after so many years of working at the school she had seen it all, including working with Remus when he was at school.
Kelyn stood rather shakily on her newly mended leg and was pleased to find no pain. Ice smiled at the Headmaster.
'Many thanks to you, sir. Our healer could have mended her bones, but it would have taken a lot more time and there would have been no guarantee of success. She will now be able to hunt with the rest of the pack after she has rested. We shall leave now.'
Ice and Kelyn began to walk out of the door with Dumbledore accompanying them. Snape was furious that once again the wolves running the halls of Hogwarts had gone unpunished. He followed the trio outside and saw the white wolf that had attacked him standing on the lawns a short distance from the doors. Kelyn ran over to him and he embraced the fair wolf warmly. He nodded to Ice before turning to Dumbledore.
The master of the school and the lord of the woods kept eye contact for a short while before Saiph bowed in a gesture of respect and thanks and turned to lead his wayward wolves back to the safety of the trees where the rest of the pack was waiting.
Dumbledore smiled at the ally that was now in his debt and walked back into the school. He wanted to talk with Snape about the meeting and the wound that he saw on his arm, but Severus had already gone.
'But, Saiph, it's his first year. Who knows how many have gone uncelebrated before?'
'No, Kelyn, it's far too risky, you know that. If it hadn't been I'd have taken us all back in long ago. I don't want any harm to come to you, my dear, you're far too precious to us for us to lose you.
The pale wolf looked beseechingly up at her leader before one of the half wolves stepped forward. 'If she is set on going then I will accompany her for protection.'
'And so will I.'
Kelyn beamed gratefully at her two pack brothers before turning back to her white leader. 'Please, Saiph, Ice and Shadow will be with me. I won't get into trouble, I promise.'
Saiph smiled at his youngest adopted daughter, 'There's really no point me arguing, is there?'
'Not really.'
'Then enjoy yourselves, and please be careful. And while you're there take this for him.'
Kelyn leapt on the huge white wolf an almost knocked him over, 'You crafty old wolf, you knew we were going all along!'
'What can I say, it's my job!'
* * * * *
In her dungeon Storm was watching the tempest roll in from the southeast. The rolling, boiling clouds blotting out the stars and blotting out her rational thoughts. Tonight her mind was filled with rage and thoughts of retribution. There was something to be done before she enjoyed the pleasures of nature.
Her breathing was fast and shallow and lightning flickered across her bright blue eyes as she worked herself up into a frenzy. She allowed it to remove any traces of doubt or uncertainty and she knew precisely what she had to do. And likely as not there'd be blood on her maw before the night was out.
* * * * *
The day started normally enough for Lupin. Few remembered his birthday and, as he didn't shout it about, he was grateful for the greetings he did receive. But when he found Diana in his chambers that evening with a blindfold in her hand and her tail in full view claiming that she had a 'surprise' for him he couldn't help being a bit excited.
She led him through benighted corridors and hallways, though all was black to him, until he completely lost his bearings. He felt decidedly odd as he walked along one part, almost as if a thousand eyes were watching him and judging him, but it soon passed. Obviously Di felt it too as she stopped for a brief moment before leading him on a few more paces. She put her hand up to the blindfold and whispered in his ear, 'Happy Birthday, Moony, and welcome to the Hall of Dreams.'
It didn't take Remus's eyes long to adjust to the dim light of the room. The few candles that were lit gave off a light as faint as the moon and stars, but still enough to see by.
The room itself was cosy and comfortable. Overstuffed sofas and armchairs now saggy and worn from long years of use, shelves lined with books on lycanthropy and animal spirituality, stuffed heads of proud kills decorating the walls, along with a multitude of paintings and keepsakes cluttering every available space. There was more than a few years of history in this place, but it was the inhabitants that surprised him the most.
Seated in their favourite places were six smiling faces and he didn't know which he was most amazed to see, or perhaps it was the combination of them all together that seemed most unusual.
Raq introduced them, 'Kelyn I believe you know, our jaundiced friend over there is Ice, Mr tall and skinny is Shadow, long-haired hippy prat with the guitar is Moss, spiky fiend is Bracken and posh git is Lateo.'
'And we love you too, Raq,' Moss said dryly, raising a glass of suspicious looking clear liquid, 'Happy Birthday, Moony, and welcome to the merry band of Lupuscans.'
'Lupuscans? You, and Lucy, and Justin?'
'Moss, Bracken and Lateo here, Moon-boy. You're one of us now, Lupus says so.'
'Who?'
'Lupus. Our founder and mentor. If you haven't met her already no doubt you will soon, but not tonight. She's had less toleration for noise since she died, and we plan on making this a night to remember. Don't worry, we won't be heard, the Hall of Dreams is quite secure. Drink?'
For the first time Remus noticed the array of instruments among the gathering – Moss had a guitar, Bracken a violin and Ice a wide, shallow drum and beater. Moss tuned his guitar and looked over at the pale wolf.
'Kel, do you want to start us off? Any requests from the birthday boy?'
It seemed odd to Moony to hear one of his students address him so informally, but it seemed so right and so easy that he just shook his head and took a long draught of what tasted like gin as Moss, formerly known as Jason, strummed out some chords and settled into a steady rhythm with Ice keeping the pace on his drum.
Kelyn's voice was as clear as a morning lark's and as smooth as glass, but it seemed to fit the face that it was coming out of perfectly. Her posture and movements were unashamedly sexy and provocative, but absolutely natural and graceful. She felt every word that she sang and it made the performance more real.
Bracken and Shadow added perfect harmonisation during the chorus, but they did not attempt to overpower her for they know they had no chance. Others rapped the arm of the chairs or their thighs as they listened to the smooth tones of 'Black Velvet'.
The night progressed with lots of talking and even more singing. All took their turn and the mood ranged from love songs, to comic songs and plenty of Irish drinking songs as they swigged Raven's Dark Forest Gin. Moony couldn't believe he'd missed all this fun over the years, and as he looked at the smiling faces around him he saw the truth of the Lupuscan way, especially when Bracken and Raq were doing an absurd dance to the accompaniment of Moss, Ice and Shadow, their tails swinging around, although Bracken's was false. He felt as though he had a family again.
* * * * *
Harry couldn't sleep. He wanted to know if Storm was all right and if she'd found a way outside. He put on his invisibility cloak and went out of Gryffindor tower. He was lost in his own thoughts when a noise caught his attention. It sounded like outraged screaming. Harry turned towards the noise and hurried even more quickly when he realised that they were coming from Snape's private chambers. He hoped that Storm hadn't been so stupid, but his fears were realised when he got there. Snape's chambers looked like a tornado had hit them, and in a way it had. Drawers were turned out, everything was scattered all over the floor and nothing seemed to have been left untouched.
Snape had been out at a meeting and wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed, but he'd heard Storm before he saw her. He flung open his door to reveal the rith ransacking his living chambers with untold fury. She had her back to him and didn't even notice his entrance as she tore the room apart with her bare, blunt claws. Thinking that a student had shut her in as a practical joke, Snape had called out to her to tell her to get out, but her expression frightened him. Her whole body had stiffened at his voice and she'd turned slowly and deliberately with her lips drawn right off her sparkling teeth and pure menace in her storm-hued eyes. Binding her quickly before she could pounce, Snape found that he had nothing but contempt for the creature, and his sarcastic words were easily overheard by Harry as he watched Storm struggling wildly against the bonds that snaked around her entire body.
'Oh dear, it seems that we've overstretched ourself, haven't we?'
The rith just stared at him with a look of frenzy and madness that Harry had never seen before in her usually calm eyes. Even at the last storm she hadn't been this bad. Harry wondered why she hated Snape so much – sure he was mean, but he didn't deserve this relentless persecution. She was foaming at the mouth and snarling like a rabid dog, but then again Snape himself didn't look much better.
'I'll see you finished for this, wolf. You've made a big mistake in crossing me. Now, let me see...'
With a look of malicious pleasure, Snape began examining the odious contents of his private collection of potion ingredients. He picked out certain ones and explained their properties to Storm, who looked slightly bored. Her blind rage had distilled into something infinitely more frightening, like a volcano waiting silently to erupt, yet Snape appeared to take this lull as terror and not the brooding violence it truly was.
With painful slowness Snape blended and mixed the ingredients while the rith watched with deadly calm eyes.
A loud roar of thunder woke Harry out of his trance and it was only now that he realised how much danger Snape had put himself in. He had a ticking time-bomb in front of him, and he was winding her up with every second that passed, and every second the storm grew closer and all the rith wanted to do now was to get out there before it passed. Harry was torn between helping Snape, for which he would receive no thanks and probably a detention, or watching his least favourite teacher get his come-uppance for once.
Snape made his own decision.
He advanced on the bound rith with obvious intimidation and sadistic pleasure in his dark eyes and a smoking potion in his hands. He placed the foul-smelling concoction on his private desk and picked up a slim knife with a needle sharp point, 'But first...' he mused.
Harry watch in unconcealed horror as Snape ran the blade sickeningly slowly over Storm's face, down her throat, through the thick fur and onto her upper arm. He clipped the hair away gently before plunging the steel through her flesh.
The rith barely winced, which is more than could be said for Harry, but he noticed a definite catch in her breath interrupting the constant low snarl. Snape removed the knife and immediately blood began to bead on the surface of her skin, but it wasn't the normal deep red colour, the storms influence had turned it silver making it the even rarer commodity of storm- blood or liquid lightning. With fiendish delight he placed a phial beneath the stream to collect the prized fluid.
After a little while the stream steadied and stopped, Snape's phial almost full of Storm's valuable blood. He held it up to the candlelight and examined it carefully before placing it in a small locked cupboard where he kept only his most costly ingredients that were not for student use. Rith blood was obviously far more worthwhile outside the rith than in it to Snape.
Storm's eyes had never left Snape's once, and now they held a curious triumph that puzzled the Potions Master. He turned his attention back to the brew, which had turned a poisonous shade of yellow and was still belching thick green smoke at regular intervals. He waved the putrid concoction under the rith's sensitive nose.
Her whole snout wrinkled in disgust as the foul odour pervaded every scent receptor. She sneezed to expel the stench from her delicate nostrils – and managed to spill half the potion on the floor with the force of it.
Snape cut Storm's muzzle bonds before she managed to find a way to spill the rest. He foolishly believed that she was too frightened to resist in any way. Unfortunately for someone, Harry couldn't quite work out who, he was wrong.
Storm lunged like a striking cobra and clamped her jaws on his wrist with a sickening crunch. Snape grunted and his face contorted with pain as his blood began to dribble down her chin. She shook his hand like a hideous white rat, preventing Snape from going for his wand and Harry knew in a spilt-second what he had to do.
Throwing off his cloak, he opened a window on the other side of the corridor and ran into the living quarters, wand drawn. He yelled at the rith, 'Storm! Storm! ELHAZ!'
That last shout did it. Some of the madness in the rith's eyes faded at the sound of her old name, and Harry's voice. Harry pushed the door wide and stood well out of the way, leaving Storm's path clear as he cast a spell to remove her bonds. With a slightly regretful look at Snape, but a more powerful longing for the tempest, the cobalt rith let go of Snape and ran, leaping out of the window and sliding down roof and off rain-slicked projectory with the grace of a cat before racing like the wind across the grounds.
Snape sat on a chair looking rather pale and clutching his bleeding limb. Harry tore a piece off his pyjama shirt and wrapped it tightly around the bloody gash, staunching the flow.
'You ought to see Madam Pomfrey, I think she's cracked a bone.'
'What are you doing out of bed, Potter?'
'Saving your life. She would have killed you on a night like this.'
'Get back to bed before I give you a detention.'
'Thank you too, sir,' sarcasm dripped from every word.
Harry couldn't believe that man's lack of gratitude. He turned on his heel and stalked out of the room back to Gryffindor Tower. Maybe he shouldn't have saved Snape's life after all, but he convinced himself that he did it for Storm's sake rather than Snape's.
Snape almost immediately dissolved into shakes. The shock hit him worse than anything, it was like his worst nightmare coming true. Harry was right, the rith would have killed him, it probably could have as well. It was just as well that Harry was there, but he hadn't even thanked the boy. Snape tried to pull himself together so he could go down to the classroom and take some of the healing potions he kept there for emergencies.
* * * * *
Remus's party was just coming to an end. All were thoroughly inebriated and telling everyone how much they loved each other and how much they meant it. Surprisingly it was Raq who was the worst and kept dissolving into fits of giggles. With a last rendition of 'The Wild Rover' accompanied by a lot of out of tune banging, the gathering started to disperse.
Blowing out the candles, the Lupuscans staggered up to what appeared to be a blank wall. Lateo went through first, completely disappearing through the wall as if it wasn't there. Bracken and Moss followed, supporting each other, then the three Forest wolves and finally Moony and Raq. Raq tripped and fell through the portal, landing in a giggling heap on the other side. Moony stepped through and looked back to see the Wolven Door.
'It really is a door, then,' he thought as he picked Raq up and half- carried the giggling woman up to his chambers, thanking anyone who was listening that his mate was not a big girl.
* * * * *
Kelyn, Shadow and Ice were also making their way through the passageways laughing and whispering about the night they had had. Ice heard the footsteps first, being slightly less drunk than the others. He stopped them quickly with frantic shushings.
Snape was on his way back from the dungeons when he heard what sounded like someone trying to be quiet but making a complete mess of it. His arm was not completely healed, he'd have to make another batch of the potion in the morning, but the pain was gone. He advanced stealthily on the miscreants and got the shock of his life when he cam face to face with them. One was a pale grey wolf, another looked like a man but had wolf-like ears and his whole lower body was covered in yellowy fur, the third was a man he recognised from when he was a student, 'Jones!'
'Leg it!' The half-wolf yelled, and the man he recognised changed shape into a grey and red wolf and ran with the others. Snape gave chase, emboldened by the fact that he knew one of them and none stood their ground.
Taking a more roundabout route, Kelyn led them to the opening above the main entrance. Then disaster struck.
Careless from her headlong flight, Kelyn stumbled and tumbled down the stairs with an anguished howl. She landed at the bottom in a crumpled heap. Ice and Shadow ran after her and knelt down beside her.
'I... I can't get up!' she whimpered.
Ice could easily see that one of her legs was broken and that she was in a great deal of pain. He stroked her head soothingly, but his ears pricked at the sound of pursuit.
'Shadow, go back home, tell Saiph what's happened.'
'What about you?'
'I'll look after Kelyn, she needs someone to stay with her and I'm not leaving her.'
Shadow looked at the fierce determination in Ice's eyes and nodded his consent before taking off at full pelt towards the Forest.
Snape could see that something had gone wrong with the wolves' escape. One was panting and whimpering at the bottom of the stairs and one other was standing protectively over her. Robbie Jones was nowhere to be seen. Now that he looked more closely he could see that the half-wolf was even more disfigured than he thought – his face pushed outwards in the manner of a snout and his legs were bent into a canine shape, he even walked on his toes. The hideous creature snarled at him. He heard footsteps behind him.
'What on earth's going on, Severus?' Minerva McGonagall enquired. 'I was woken up by sounds of a chase.'
'We have a wolf problem in the castle, Minerva. There was another one, an animagus, I recognised him immediately.'
'Who was it?'
'Robert Jones. He only left three years ago, I believe. If you could fetch Albus, I think I can hold these two at bay. I don't think the grey one's going anywhere.'
Minerva hurried off after a quick curious glance at the scene at the bottom of the stairs. Ice laid down beside Kelyn to stop her getting cold from shock and licked her comfortingly between the ears. Snape shuddered involuntarily at the sight. Dumbledore was not long in coming.
'Minerva tells me we have wolves in the castle.'
'That one fell down the stairs, it must be injured otherwise they'd all be gone by now. An animagus was with them – Robert Jones.'
'So Minerva tells me. We must have produced more illegal animagi in this school than any other in the world,' Dumbledore did not seem very disturbed by the revelation and started to make his way down the stairs.
'What are you doing, Albus, they're dangerous!'
Dumbledore looked up at the Potions Master, 'What do you suggest we do, Severus, kill them? At least not until I have found out why they are here.'
'But they're dangerous, dumb animals!'
'Minerva tells me she quiet clearly heard one of the animals shout "Leg it" and it wasn't the voice she remembered Jones having. But trying cannot harm.' Ice had stood up and was standing protectively over Kelyn again. Dumbledore spread his arms wide in a peaceful gesture, 'I mean you no harm. I only wish to help you. I think your friend is injured.'
Ice nodded at Dumbledore.
'My name is Albus, who are you?' Dumbledore spoke slowly as if addressing a child. He was surprised when the wolf answered him in a strong kiwi accent, but staccato sentences.
'I'm Ice, this is Kelyn. She's broken her leg. She needs help. She can't stand.'
'I will get someone to heal her. Where are you from, Ice?'
Ice nodded his head towards the door, 'Forest.'
'Where originally?'
'New Zealand, South Island.'
'Minerva, will you please fetch Poppy so she can look at Kelyn's leg?' Professor McGonagall nodded and left Albus to his strange conversation.
'I don't like him,' Ice pointed to Snape, 'If he hadn't chased us Kelyn wouldn't be hurt.'
'Why were you in the castle?'
'I've never been here before. I was curious. Kelyn said she'd come with me, so did Shadow.'
'Shadow? You mean Robert?'
'No, I mean Shadow. I don't know anyone called Robert.'
'You shouldn't have been in here.'
'We meant no harm to anyone. If we hadn't been chased we'd have left and no one would have ever known we were here.'
'Did you come in here during the lunar eclipse?'
'I did not.'
'But did any of your pack?'
'My alpha did. That one there was hurting a brother.' He pointed to Snape again, 'We look after all wolves on our territory.'
'That wolf was a werewolf.'
'I know. Most of our pack are. We live how we please and cause no harm. We have heard that one howling before. A wolf should not be alone, especially not on a red moon. It is not natural. We only wanted to help and are sorry for any grief caused.'
At his feet Kelyn whined and Ice looked down at her and gave a small comforting growl.
'Kelyn is frightened, and she has good right to be. Humans have never done anything but harm to wolves.'
'Is she your sister?'
'No, she is my beloved. I will not leave her while she lives.'
Kelyn's eyes sparkled at this new revelation and she laid her head on Ice's digigrade feet with a peaceful sigh. It was at this moment that Madam Pomfrey scurried into the entrance hall. With barely a second glance at her patient, or her protector, she knelt down beside the pale wolf and examined her all over. Kelyn winced as the witch's expert hands ran over the broken bone.
'There's a clean break here, and also a couple of minor fractures. Hold her still, will you?'
Ice bent down and held her head, whilst whispering wolfish words of love and comfort into her pricked ear. Kelyn grimaced as Poppy's magic went to work, but the pain was soon gone.
'There, that's going to be stiff for a little while so she needs rest. If that's all, Albus, I have other patients to attend to.'
Dumbledore smiled at Madam Pomfrey's brisk manner, and her lack of astonishment of her unusual patient. He supposed after so many years of working at the school she had seen it all, including working with Remus when he was at school.
Kelyn stood rather shakily on her newly mended leg and was pleased to find no pain. Ice smiled at the Headmaster.
'Many thanks to you, sir. Our healer could have mended her bones, but it would have taken a lot more time and there would have been no guarantee of success. She will now be able to hunt with the rest of the pack after she has rested. We shall leave now.'
Ice and Kelyn began to walk out of the door with Dumbledore accompanying them. Snape was furious that once again the wolves running the halls of Hogwarts had gone unpunished. He followed the trio outside and saw the white wolf that had attacked him standing on the lawns a short distance from the doors. Kelyn ran over to him and he embraced the fair wolf warmly. He nodded to Ice before turning to Dumbledore.
The master of the school and the lord of the woods kept eye contact for a short while before Saiph bowed in a gesture of respect and thanks and turned to lead his wayward wolves back to the safety of the trees where the rest of the pack was waiting.
Dumbledore smiled at the ally that was now in his debt and walked back into the school. He wanted to talk with Snape about the meeting and the wound that he saw on his arm, but Severus had already gone.