TOY SOLDIERS
CHAPTER ELEVEN-JAMES' MESSAGE
We dug more and uncovered Emmeline's body that was tied to the tree. Her whole body was frozen. Bits of ice and snow clung to her hair and face. Her eyes were closed.
"Poor Emmeline," Lily whispered, digging her face into the black dogs' neck.
Sirius turned around and licked Lily's face as if to comfort her.
"Looks like she's been this way for months," Remus said.
"That's impossible," I said. "Someone would've surely found her by now no?"
"Not if they didn't even know she was missing," Remus said gravely. "Not if they saw her walking around the castle."
I knew what he meant.
"God she's frozen," Lily said hugging her robe tighter around her body. "What a horrible death."
"I thought you said there was someone pointing something at her forehead?" Remus asked turning his eyes onto me. "Do you have an idea what it might've been?"
"There was," I said not taking my eyes off of Emmeline. "And it looked like a bow and arrow…unless…"
My voice trailed off.
"Unless what?" Lily asked turning her eyes onto me. Even the black dog had his head raised and was watching me.
"Unless that was just to scare her," I replied swallowing. "To tease and torment her."
They were silent.
"Should we go to Dumbledore?" Lily asked shivering.
"I think we should," Remus said keeping his eyes on me. "What do you think Hillary?"
I nodded. "Yeah, we definitely should go this time,"
Sirius barked and bounded through the snow in front of us. Suddenly, something grabbed my ankle.
I fell forward and landed face down in the snow. I went to push myself up onto my elbows, but then whatever had my ankle, began pulling me through the snow. I screamed.
REMUS.
Something was pulling Hillary through the snow. She was screaming. Sirius took off after her and clamped his jaws around the sleeve of her robe and began pulling. Whatever had her ankle, somehow let go and Sirius managed to pull her through the snow again to where we were.
"Hillary? Are you okay? What happened?" Lily demanded.
"Thanks, Sirius," Hillary said giving the black dog a kiss on the nose as she stood up and brushed the snow off the front of her robe and uniform. "Something grabbed my ankle and tried to drag me toward the lake."
Hillary shivered. There was still snow clinging to her curly hair.
"Remus, look at her ankle," Lily said as a twinge of panic filled her voice. Remus came over to me and crouched down in front of me. Sirius stood against my leg as I lifted it up and put it on Remus' thigh. He carefully pulled down the knee sock. My ankle looked like something had taken a bite into it.
"Can you walk on it?" he asked looking up at me.
He replaced the sock and I lowered my foot.
It hurt.
"It hurts to walk on it," I said gingerly putting weight on the ankle. I cringed. "Ow."
"We'll help you back to the castle," Remus said as he and Lily put each an arm around me and helped me walk back to the castle.
Sirius barked and ran around us in a circle as if challenging whatever attacked me to show again.
Once inside the castle, they helped me to Madam Elkin. She put a special bandage around it with a salve and asked me what on earth attacked me in the snow that we couldn't see it.
"I have no idea. Do the teeth marks resemble and clue?" Lily asked.
Madam Elkin scratched her head. "Well, the only thing I remember studying in magical medicine with teeth like that is a Wovnus,"
Wovnus' were creatures about the size of a cat but had long snouts like a crocodile and had spikes along their spines. Their tails were long and used like whips. On their four feet were long claws. They had a mild poison if scratched.
"I put the Bennes salve on that," Madam Elkin said. "That would take care of any poison…incase it was a Wovnus or anything stronger."
I nodded. I put my foot down and it felt surprisingly better.
"Thanks. It feels better now,"
Madam Elkin nodded and left the hospital wing.
Remus, Lily, Sirius, who had changed back before we hit the castle, and I left the hospital wing. I was able to walk on it now with no problem.
"I can't believe we couldn't see what attacked you," Remus said shaking his head. "It was probably using the snow as cover."
"But what I don't understand is what was it?" Sirius asked tilting his head.
"I don't know," I said. "But whatever it was, I hope we never see or experience it again."
We headed to our classes.
First we had History of Magic with Professor Stanton. Sirius was sitting next to me with Remus on my left and Lily on his left.
Professor Stanton droned on about the 1200 Iyhup Rebellion. They were sort of like a cross between goblins and house elves. Apparently, they were promised a piece of land north of Wales and the owner turned around and denied them the land. They turned around and started a rebellion, killing the landowners' family.
They were nasty little things and luckily hardly any exist today.
I began day dreaming.
Just about Remus mostly and what would happen to us when we graduated Hogwarts. Would we stay together? Would we separate and he find someone else and possibly start a family with her?
These questions bothered me greatly. I knew I had to talk to him at some point and express my concerns.
Suddenly, as I looked toward the classroom entranceway, I spied James again standing there.
I sat up straighter and glued my eyes to the entranceway.
"Hillary? What…?" Sirius asked leaning close and following my gaze. "Holy crap."
"You see him too?" I whispered.
"Hell yeah," Sirius whispered.
Remus followed our gaze.
"James," he whispered.
"Do you see him?" Lily asked leaning into Sirius.
"We all can," I said. "I wonder if the rest of the students can."
"Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, Miss Evans and Miss Willis…may I ask what is so interesting at the entranceway?" Professor Stanton asked putting her hands on her hips and frowning.
"Guess that answered your question," Sirius grinned.
"Um, sorry Professor…we were just listening to you intently," Lily said smiling sweetly.
Professor Stanton frowned still, but went back to teaching.
"What does he want?" I mused quietly.
"I hope we find out soon or else the teachers will think we're totally bonkers," Lily muttered.
Then, James disappeared.
We went back to our lesson.
During the break before we had Transfiguration with Professor Androse and then Charms, the four of us decided to head to the library to do some reading.
Remus and Sirius sat across from Lily and I.
Remus was across from me and Sirius was across from Lily.
We were pouring over books to see if there was a creature known today that had those kinds of teeth marks on my ankle.
The library was quiet except for a few first years nervously reading a few books. They copied down information in them and looked like they'd snap at any moment if disturbed.
"When we were young, innocent and carefree," Sirius began.
Lily snorted. "When were you ever like that?"
Sirius gave her a dirty and smug look before continuing. "As I was saying, when we were young, innocent and carefree during our first year, were we ever that nervous?"
"I know I was," I admitted. "Remember? It was before I met you guys. I was so terrified that I wouldn't make it to fifth."
"That's right. You met us in the third year," Sirius mused. "What a playful little scamp I was."
At this, Lily actually let out half choke and half laugh. "You are still that way. What made you think you actually changed?"
Remus and I grinned.
Sirius jabbed Lily in the arm.
"Keep it up or I'll tinkle on your leg like I tried to do with Remus," Sirius warned.
"Do it and I swear I'll personally cut off Mr. Bling Bling," Lily narrowed her eyes. But her lip twitched.
Remus and I stifled snorts of laughter.
"Come on…we need to get back to work," I said chuckling but then cleared my throat when Madam Pince gave us a stern look.
Suddenly, I saw Lily's expression.
"What's wrong?" Sirius asked.
We were watching her.
"I think I might have found what attacked Hillary," she said in a small voice.
She turned the book around and there was a picture of the creature with the description on the side.
It was in a book called Mythical, Legendary and Reality Creatures. This one was filed under Mythical.
It was called the Mogador. It looked like a cross between a cheetah and a sabre-toothed cat from the dinosaur age. The canines were four inches long and over lapped the bottom jaw exactly like the sabre-toothed cat but breathed fire as well.
It weighed about 100 pounds, had cheetah speed of 60 mph in the open. The fur was spotted and coarse and it was about 7" at the shoulder. It would basically reach our hips.
But what made my hair stand up, was what the article said as I read it aloud:
"The Mogador is really a shape shifter. The animal is just one of its many shapes it takes. There's no specific shape documented which makes it one of the most difficult creatures to write about. It could take the form of anyone and anything. It was easily adapted to different environments. It also gathered information on its victims. It mainly hunted young witches. The pure blood from these witches gave it immortality and strength. It is not easily killed by normal spells. The only way to kill a Mogador is steel. Once of its powers is to take the form of a spirit and inhabit another human being, possessing him or her.
It could also live in water for a few weeks at a time. Winter is its strongest time of year as it hibernates all summer long gathering strength to wake up when the temperature drops. It could kill up to 3 witches for food and other animals."
"So what we're dealing with isn't a spirit but a creature?" Remus asked looking stunned.
"Obviously. That means that what we saw earlier with Emmeline and Eric was just one of its forms," I said. "It had to appear like it was stalking me when it was really hunting me and playing with my mind and fears…and it must've stayed in the water for weeks."
"Okay…but what about finding Emmeline dead…frozen?" Lily asked.
"Wait…there's more," I said.
"Another thing about the Mogador is that it kills the person it takes the form of. Very rarely does it let the person live. The only time it will let the person live is if the person isn't human at all. Werewolves have been the only known survivors when they have an encounter with a Mogador and occasionally Animagus' depending on the animal the witch or wizard takes form. If the person they set out to kill is still alive, they will continue to try to get their trophy,"
"Um, okay that explains everything. Including why Remus is still alive," Sirius said. "But what about the fire? No creature could be that intelligent enough to start a fire…could it?"
I swallowed. "Sorry…there's still more,"
Remus chuckled and Sirius just sat with an amused expression on his face.
"Finish the rest of the story, mommy," Sirius said mockingly.
"Mogador's are extremely intelligent. They are problem solving intelligent and can also think about their next move to hunting. In the 1300's, around 2000 young witches were killed. All that remained of them was bone and cloth. The flesh and blood drained from their bodies. They actually breathe fire like a dragon but it's more controlled. They can start fires discreetly without anyone seeing them. That's what makes this creature so deadly and unstoppable."
"That's it," I said grinning at Sirius.
"So that's why no one really saw what exactly started the fire," Remus mused. "But you said you saw a dark shape in the entranceway right?"
I nodded.
"That could've been it," Lily said shivering.
"But why me? Why is it hunting me?" I asked closing the book.
"That we don't know," Remus said.
"Maybe it likes your scent," Sirius said.
At first I thought he was joking and was about to tell him off when I saw that he was being serious.
"But how could one still exist today? I thought they went extinct?" Lily asked. "The book says they went extinct around the 1600's."
"I don't know," Remus said quietly. "But if we are dealing with a Mogador, I say we tell Dumbledore and get as much help as we can. I don't think we can defeat this thing on our own."
"Right," Lily said nodding.
Suddenly, the library got extremely cold. So cold that our breaths came out in puffs of steam in front of us.
"What on earth?" Lily asked looking around stunned.
Madam Pince had left the library for a moment. Suddenly, a white stag appeared in the center of the library.
"James?" Lily asked wide eyed.
The stag walked over to our table before it vanished and James appeared.
"James?" Lily repeated looking completely shocked.
"Yeah," James said softly. "I'm here to give you a message…it's really a warning though."
"A warning?" Remus asked.
"That thing that attacked Hillary earlier was in fact a Mogador," James continued. "It's hunting her. I suggest that you four leave."
"Leave? Hogwarts?" Lily asked incredulously. "James, that's impossible. We're in our sixth year. We've got N.E.W.T.S coming up and all kinds of exams. Where do you suggest we go?"
"You missed on vital part in that book," James said gesturing to the book where we got the information out of.
"You left the ending out," Sirius said grinning but he looked nervous and rattled.
"What part?" Remus asked.
"The Mogador can track its prey up to 3 miles," James replied. "So I suggest staying in London, or with Remus in his house in Manchester."
"B-but why is this thing after me?" I cried. "I did nothing!"
"Maybe it had something to do with your ancestors wiping out the 'species' if you will," James said. "That's when the Mogador usually hunt for revenge."
"My ancestors?" I asked shocked. "But mum said we came from here. Born and bred here."
"I suggest talking with your parents. I've already appeared to Dumbledore. He will be contacting you shortly," James said.
"We miss you, pal," Sirius said looking choked up.
Lily's eyes filled with tears.
"Me too,"
"I miss you all too," James said softly putting a hand on the side of Lily's face. "But I'll be watching you."
With that, he vanished and the coldness vanished as well.