Hermione stopped reading; clearly the story now followed other paths.
The last two sentences she had read aloud echoed in all their ears.
What have I done?
What have I done?
"That…was horrible…" Ron breathed in shock.
"But we understand now; why he is like he is, why he's spent half a millennium hunting down Shikar, why he howls with grief like a wild beast." Hermione said sadly, flipping through Sango's skilled illustrations. She paused at the picture of the captured Inuyasha lying uncaringly still. How Sango could have brought herself to draw it was beyond her, but it had struck her to the bone.
"You were right; I feel like cheering him on, now. But I'm still afraid of him, and I'm not embarrassed to admit it."
"But Ron is right. We are right in the middle of this. You especially, Harry. I know you're not fond of hearing it, but you are his bait to lure Shikar here."
"Shikar may not return, now," Ron figured, 'being as Inuyasha blew his cover when he attacked the illusion of Shikar. They knew each other's faces; Shikar obviously didn't want to confront him, or he would have before, or would have that evening. It's been five hundred years. That's a lot of potential death-matches that haven't happened."
"True. But he's Voldemort's ally," Harry pointed out, shooting Ron's theory into the ground and ignoring his whimper. "And Voldemort does not like failure. He'll discipline Shikar, then send him back, with threats of greater punishment for future slip-ups. Despite the potential, well, definite, threat to his underling. Besides, if Shikar's all that powerful, Voldemort-shut up, Ron- may by now appreciate the chance to get rid of a potential threat to his authority."
"I never thought of that. And if we're airing out-on-a-limb theories, how's this for one? Do we even know for sure that Shikar's that powerful? Apparently no one's seen but one demonstration of his power. And like you pointed out, Ron, he turned and ran rather to confront Inuyasha. Couldn't it all be hot air?"
"Hermione, that is the most ridiculous, risky theory I've ever heard," Ron fidgeted. Sometime during their discussion they had risen and ambled over towards the Forbidden Forest, and they were now actually somewhat close to its outskirts. "If you're right, we're home free. If you're wrong, we're dead meat. To prove your theory, there's a fifty-fifty chance we're dead meat. That's too many 'dead meat'-s in the odds for my liking."
"You would be, as you so aptly put it, dead meat," someone broke in. the voice was familiar, though it was now colder and harsher. The threesome whirled around, startled. Standing in the fringe of trees that designated the fringe of the Forbidden Forest was the half-demon they'd last seen in hot pursuit of Shikar, arms folded with his hands hidden in the voluminous sleeves of his cloak. He was watching them-and, obviously, listening to- them with an air of complete scorn, tempered by simple indifference.
"Inuyasha," Harry said. It wasn't a question or a greeting so much as a simple indication of surprise.
"Nick talks too much. As much as you hate it, you're wrong. Shikar has all the power you've heard of, and probably more."
"What do you mean, more?"
Inuyasha's cold eyes focused on Ron, who'd asked.
"Shikar's a high-ranking demon, like me. No demon with any sense shows all his skills in one fight. And he's eluded me for an eternity. Clearly he's more than he seems."
"You're only half a demon," Hermione, stickler for facts, corrected.
He shifted his gaze to her. "I heard some familiar names not long back; that's why I got up and came over here. I had forgotten Sango kept a diary, but evidently someone translated it. Sango was a perfectionist about details."
Hermione gulped, clearly knowing where he was going with this.
"My blood's never made a difference. It's one of the advantages of a Demon Lord for a father. Shut up," he concluded abruptly.
"Sorry," she apologized.
"You." His hands emerged from his sleeves. One long, sharp-clawed, index finger snapped out at Harry. The other fiddled absently with the beaded collar he wore about his neck. "Shikar's coming back. Not for a while, but he's coming back. When that does happen, be warned. Don't make the mistake of thinking that- even though my warning's a little late- because you are, at the moment, valuable alive makes any difference once he's here. Once Shikar is here- and he will come himself next time- you are of no use whatsoever. So don't go looking for my protection when Shikar next shows up. Once he's here, it doesn't matter if you're alive or dead."
"So you're saying that my safety's not your problem. And how did you know I was thinking that?"
"A month or so around your way of thinking is enough to teach me exactly how you think. And get used to the protection issue, whelp, it ain't gonna change." Inuyasha vanished as abruptly as he had come.
"I forgot he knew everything Nick did," Harry muttered, staring after him, although there was nothing to indicate which way he'd gone.
"That was weird," Ron breathed. "He is really, really, not normal."
"No duh, Ron," Hermione scolded him. "We got off really easy there, you know. He's a little bit touchy about his human blood. I can't believe I said that. But we're still valuable to him, and I think- though these are pure speculation- that this was one of his saner moments, and that he was happy to hear those names again. The memories may be painful on some level, but they were his friends, the only ones he's ever had, probably."
"We're not going to see him again for a while," Harry speculated, still scanning the forest. "Not until Shikar comes back."
"Who cares?" Ron asked rhetorically.
"Probably no one. Hermione, are you going to lend that book to Nick? He'd be interested, I know."
She shook her head. "Professor Dumbledore wanted it, remember?"
"Oh yeah, forgot."
"I'd better go give it to him before I forget. Thanks for reminding me." She headed back up to the castle. Rather than be left alone by the Forest- even its outskirts were dangerous- Ron and Harry followed her.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Two weeks passed without trouble. Nick returned to class by the very first Monday, and brushed off his sojourn in the hospital wing with a fluff story of an accident. He added that he didn't want to talk about it, because it was too embarrassing.
"That stupid, huh?" Seamus chuckled.
"You have no idea," Nick replied fervently.
Indeed he did not.
It seemed that nothing would happen, current-disaster-wise, any time soon. Those who knew of his presence all but forgot the demon lurking (probably quite literally) somewhere in the Forest. Though it occasionally revisited the back of his mind, Harry managed to set aside the recent crisis. Still, the situation returned to his awareness more than once. Mainly it was just in idle curiosity about what was going to happen next, but the most abrupt reminder occurred during a dream he had one night.
He had been in the middle of something completely stupid, something involving chairs, a staircase, and a dancing cake from the evening's dinner. In his dream, he turned his back on the entry hall, where he had been watching the confection do its dance, and set out across the grounds in the darkness. As he went on, the dream became less and less ridiculous, and more and more cold and wet. All too soon, he approached the Forest. By that time, he was fairly sure that this was no dream, and the fact that he could think that, as he'd never been able to do that in an ordinary dream, only confirmed it.
Bother, he said in his dream, still not in control of his feet. Ok, who's behind this?
'Behind this' is a cruel term for it, an unfamiliar girl's voice protested. I just wanted to talk with you, and this is the best way I could work out.
His feet stopped of their own accord, and set themselves firmly into the ground, clearly quite happy about getting there.
(Author's Note: Ignore that too. I'm trying to make it seem still vaguely dreamlike, and phrases like that will continue to crop up. Call it my sense of whimsy. Le'letha.)
She began to materialize in front of him, growing from a flicker in the air to a semi-solid representation of a teenage girl by degrees. Harry waited patiently, not that he had a choice. His feet had pretty much established their own independent nation by now. Luckily, he was used to talking with ghosts, as this girl pretty obviously was one.
When she had finished becoming visible, a fact only evident by the indication of no further changes occurring, she locked her grey-brown eyes with his hazel ones. He was beginning to recognize her.
I wanted to talk with you before whatever's going to happen does just that. I'd far rather talk in the waking world, but I'm not there anymore. You'd figured that out already, hadn't you? she accused.
Yes. I recognize you. What did you want to say?
I wanted to say, look out. Things are coming to a head, and before long, a clash is bound to occur. The warning's in vain, because you won't remember this, but it was worth a shot. N-
Whatever the ghost had been trying to say, it was cut off when she abruptly vanished. Harry's dream renewed its nonsense act promptly.
As it turned out, she'd been right. He had no memory of the part of his dream with her in it, although he did remember the dancing cake. Isn't the human mind wonderful?
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
One evening, Friday evening, Harry, accompanied, unsurprisingly, by Ron and Hermione, wandered out onto the grounds after dinner. As it was late in the year, it'd gotten dark quite early, and there were already seemingly millions of stars. However, it was nearing winter, and that meant that it was getting quite cold outside. The three of them were nearly the only ones out there. Although they'd been assigned homework by their Astronomy teacher homework consisting of free-time stargazing, few people were taking the opportunity to do it now.
"Brr…" Hermione muttered to herself as she stared up at the sky. "I wouldn't be surprised if it snows this weekend."
"Not cloudy enough though," Ron disagreed. "It's just cold."
"What's that?" Harry asked uneasily. A patch of darkness blotted out some stars, leaving a small hole in the night sky.
"What's what?"
"Look! There! And it's moving…"
The void was indeed moving; indeed coming closer. As it approached, growing larger and more distinct, it took on the shape of a vaguely spherical 'bubble' of darkness. Rapidly, it soared almost overhead, revealing that it was in reality a bubble, albeit black as pitch, and just as ominous.
Common sense would dictate immediate flight, probably screaming bloody murder. Unfortunately, the trio found themselves held in place by an unknown force.
The bubble hovered for a moment, then abruptly began to descend, collapsing to earth not at all far away. It disintegrated into a smear of shadow on the lawn. From its crash point, a figure rose, all too familiar.
"Shikar," Hermione muttered.
"Yup. He's back," Ron agreed, under his breath.
Shikar moved towards them with the same smooth pace as before. As he approached closer and closer, they could see that nasty marks festooned his lizard-like skin. Evidently his punishment had been…severe for failing in his original strike.
Silently, but angrily, the demon strode toward them. His hands, which had been clenched into fists, sprang open with an ominous shhllk noise, like that of a blade being drawn.
"I will not retreat this time," he hissed. "This time, you're mine!"
Abruptly, he stumbled, nearly falling flat on his face. Blood dripped from his shoulder, staining the ground.
"What the…" he snarled, reaching up to touch his wounded shoulder. He held up his hand in front of him, looking at the blood that covered it, then shifted his gaze to the open lawn.
"I'm glad you're back, it saves me the effort of going after you," Inuyasha said more happily than they'd ever heard him before. His eyes, however, were completely insane.
"You…I killed you!"
"You can't do anything right, can you? Can't even finish off a long-dead half-breed."
Shikar's face grew dark. "Long-dead?"
"I died five hundred years ago…when you murdered her!" Inuyasha shouted, springing into the air. Shikar met him in midair, and they collided hard.
Unnoticed, Harry, Ron, and Hermione found that they could move again. However, their fascination with the battle and their sympathy for Inuyasha kept them exactly where they were.
Shikar fell to earth with a wince, landing awkwardly on his side, favoring a shredded left arm. However, he'd been using the other one with painful accuracy.
Inuyasha picked himself up without even a twitch, though the pain from his wounds must have been extreme. Baring sharp fangs in an inhuman grin, he sprang into motion, hurtling towards the lizard-demon lying wounded on the ground.
Shikar lashed out hard, catching him full-on and hurling him away. As the half-demon struggled back to his feet, spitting blood, Shikar fled across the grounds at a remarkable pace for one so wounded, leaving a dark trail of blood.
Inuyasha muttered something the audience of three did not understand, but it sounded extremely foul. Despite his injuries, he dashed off in hot pursuit.
They didn't discuss it; they didn't have to. Without debate or second thoughts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed, running as fast as they could to keep up with him. In the darkness, they could barely see him; he was remarkably quick on his feet, and he had quite a head start.
Suddenly, Shikar's voice could be heard, shrieking something definitely unintelligible. A huge, ominous rumbling sound, like that of the very earth shifting, began in response to his summons. The ground shook, nearly knocking the three to the ground. They stopped short in order to keep their balance, and stared in astonishment.
Shikar stood with arms raised, chanting in a monotonous half-growl, half-whine. His fingers twitched, and the earth beneath him twitched in accompaniment. Before their eyes, a section of ground rose to impossible heights and roiled like a boiling pot. It twisted itself into a sheer cliff, and seemed to turn to stone.
Though this takes a little while to describe, it was in fact really in the space between two heartbeats that the earth began to move in response to Shikar, and that half an instant later, he was gone, fleeing desperately into the darkness of the cave that had remained at its base.
The literally earth-shaking events of the last second didn't even faze Inuyasha for a nanosecond. Not even pausing to be sure of his footing, he headed down into the bowels of the earth after his mortal enemy.
"For the record, this is a bad idea, and we will regret it," Hermione mentioned, taking a deep breath.
"Not another deep dark hole," Ron moaned. "Why is it always a deep dark hole?"
"We'll figure that out later. Come on!"
They followed hunter and hunted into the aforementioned deep dark hole, knowing that they could do little but watch in a death-match five hundred years in the brewing, but feeling compelled to see this out to its inevitable conclusion- the death of one of them- or both.
