A Frightful Fiend

A moment later he found himself standing next to Lupin in a cold and dark night on the edge of a forest in the middle of nowhere. Everything around him looked exactly like the place he'd seen in the painting. The night was quiet and the air was fresh and humid like right after a thunderstorm. This clearly wasn't just a painted landscape – it was real.

"The book," Lupin said impatiently, took it from his hand and quickly thumbed through the pages while Severus put on his coat; it was even colder here than he'd have expected. But it wasn't the cold weather that almost made him shiver; it was an iciness that seemed to come from inside of him, wrapping around him and taking hold of him.

"Well, there seems to be something new here," Lupin muttered, looking down at the formerly empty pages.

"What does it say?" Severus asked, not sure if he even wanted to know.

Lupin cleared his throat and began to read in a low voice. "Like one, that on a lonesome road, doth walk in fear and dread, and having once turned round walks on, and turns no more his head; because he knows, a frightful fiend, doth close behind him tread[i]. From the dark recesses of the unconscious mind he cometh, he lurks in fear, he haunts his nightmares; he leaves him no place to run and hide."

"Anything else?" Severus asked. "Something that might perhaps make some sense for a change?"

"Only this," Lupin replied and showed him the drawing of a distorted monstrous grimace beneath the lines he'd just read. "But still no hint on how we're supposed to get away again from where ever here might be."

"I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get there," Severus muttered, took a look around and came to the conclusion that right now they had only two directions to choose from of which neither looked very inviting. "So which way would your lupine senses suggest?" he asked. "The mighty woods or the lowlands?"

"The house should be located on the other side of the forest and since I have no idea where else we could start searching – the woods. Let's just follow that path," Lupin replied and stuffed the book into the inside pocket of his jacket. Just as he was about to set into motion, he noticed a piece of paper on the ground that had obviously fallen out of the book and reached down to pick it up. He unfolded it and frowned when he read the few lines on the yellowed parchment.

"Are you coming once you're done digging in the dirt?" Severus, who'd already reached the first trees by now, called back to him.

"Yeah...," Lupin muttered. With a wave of his hand he conjured up a blue glowing orb to light their way and then followed him.

"I found something," Lupin said and held out the folded piece of parchment to him as soon as he'd caught up with him . "Seems to be yours."

Severus didn't care whatever he might have found, was rather sure that it didn't belong to him and didn't want to have it anyway; nonetheless he took the parchment from him and started walking again. "Get going, I don't want to spend the whole night out here," he said while unfolding the paper.

When he saw what was written on it he came to a sudden halt again. He felt a cold shiver running down his spine as he stood there and read it one more time. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Permission for Hogsmeade Visits. Once more he checked the date next to the signature. It just wasn't possible; he himself had thrown that piece of paper into the fire and watched it burn, years ago. Decades, actually.

"Where did you get that from?" he whispered and looked up at Lupin again.

"Must have slipped out of the book," Lupin replied.

"There was nothing in that book; we both know that," Snape said angrily. "So where did you get that from?"

Lupin smiled nervously. "I'm telling you, it must have been inside that book. I found it on the ground right where I'd been standing," he said calmly.

Severus hesitated for a moment but then he put the piece of paper into his pocket and walked on.

For a while none of them spoke, Severus still busy enough with trying to figure out where that old piece of parchment could have come from and Lupin convinced that right now it was probably wiser to just keep his mouth shut.

A dense layer of white fog covered the ground and rose up into the darkness surrounding them, making it hard to see any further ahead than a few steps despite the glowing orb of light hovering in front of them. They had already left dozens of rows of neatly aligned trees behind, the fog kept getting worse and Severus was quite sure that it wouldn't be long before he'd run straight into a tree.

"Wait a second," Lupin said.

"Wait for what?" Severus snarled.

"Shhh," Lupin tried to make him be silent and turned his head as if listening for something. "Do you hear that?"

"I hear nothing at all," he replied.

"Exactly," Lupin said. "Nothing at all. It's just too silent."

"We're the only people here, what did you expect?"

"Birds, grasshoppers, flies – anything I usually hear. But there's absolutely nothing here, there's not even a breeze in the trees."

"It's a painting, genius," Severus said. "That's why."

Lupin nodded slowly. "A Muggle painting; it's not alive," he said in a whisper and glanced around. "This whole world is dead."

"I for one prefer it that way," Severus said and started walking along the overgrown trail again. "At least we shouldn't get any unexpected company."

"I surely hope not," Lupin muttered to himself. "Now what do you think about that book?" he asked. "Where could it have come from?"

"I don't know," Severus replied.

"Who could have sent it to Harry? I suppose if it had anything to do with You-Know-Who then you'd know about it, wouldn't you?"

"I don't know," Severus said once more.

"But you're suspecting someone, aren't you?" Lupin inquired. "There's something you didn't say in front of the others."

"If you're so keen on knowing," Severus replied. "I simply think it's a bit suspicious that this Dobberstein-woman, who's said to be very skilled regarding everything that has to do with Dark Magic, shows up out of nowhere and then Potter suddenly gets his hands on that book and disappears."

"Well, yes; aside from the fact that she actually arrived after Harry's birthday," Lupin replied. "As far as we know he already had the book by then."

"Nonetheless."

"You're only saying that because you don't like her," Lupin said. "I for one think she's quite nice."

"Do you," Severus muttered.

"You didn't even give her a chance; you just don't like her because you're jealous."

"I'm what?"

"It's pretty obvious, actually," Lupin said. "You're jealous whenever Minerva only talks to her. And I'm not the only one who thinks so."

Severus just shook his head at him, wondering why Lupin obviously had nothing better to do than to gossip about him with the rest of the staff. And he wasn't jealous. He didn't care what McGonagall did or who she talked to and it was none of his business anyway. And even if so, that would definitely have been none of Lupin's business.

"It's so annoying having to walk all the way," Lupin changed the subject instead of keeping quiet. "If we knew where we're going we could simply apparate there." He quickly turned his head to the left to peer into the darkness, convinced he'd seen something moving, but if there ever had been something, it was definitely gone now. "Or if we'd taken along brooms we could've been flying instead of walking."

Severus sighed inaudibly. "Yes," he said slowly. "We could if we had, but since we haven't I suppose we can put an end to this conversation now."

"Well, sorry," Lupin muttered, looking down at the dense white fog swirling around his feet. "I'm only trying to..." He hadn't been watching where he was going so he was a little surprised when a branch of one of the large pinetrees flicked into his face. He jumped to the side, bumped into Snape, stumbled and found himself on his knees on the forest floor a second later.

"That was just a tree," Severus said, looking down at Lupin blankly. "You're not always so jumpy I hope?"

"No," Lupin replied as he got up from the ground again. "Not always. It's just..." he glanced around and then shook his head. "This place is really giving me the creeps; there's something not quite right here. And I think we're not alone."

"Well, hopefully Potter's somewhere around here as well," Severus replied.

"I think there's something following us," Lupin said.

"You're being paranoid; there's no one else here," Severus said, sounding very convinced although he actually had his doubts; ever since they'd entered the forest he hadn't been able to shake off the feeling that there really was someone watching them. He'd blamed it on the fact that he was tired but by now he couldn't deny that he too wasn't feeling very comfortable here.

"Well, speaking of being paranoid..." Lupin said defiantly. "Why did that Hogsmeade permission form upset you like that?"

Severus just started walking again, not wanting to put up with him.

"You should know better than to think you could hide that from me," Lupin said. "I'll always know when you're nervous, even if you're trying not to let it show. I can sense it, I can hear your heartbeat, your breathing; there's nothing you can do about that."

"I watched that piece of paper burn to ashes quite a few years ago, I suppose that's why I was a bit surprised to find it here," Severus replied calmly.

"There's more to that," Lupin said. "What's so special about it? It's from our third year. As far as I can recall that was the only year you ever went to Hogsmeade, wasn't it?"

"If you're saying so," Severus muttered.

"You always said you didn't care for those trips though rumour had it you'd been banned from Hogsmeade visits."

Don't worry, I didn't forget you and your friends teasing me about that.

"It was true, wasn't it?" Lupin asked. "Why?"

"What do you care about that?"

Lupin shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, I've just been wondering about it," he said.

"Keep wondering; it's none of your business."

"I remember very well that you weren't the perfect student either. You too used to bend and break some of the rules; but you must have done something really bad to be banned from all Hogsmeade visits."

"Just stop it, Lupin," Severus said, meaning it.

Lupin must have noticed that he was serious about it so he decided to let the matter rest for now and walked on in silence.

Severus thought that Lupin's decision to finally shut up was probably the best idea he'd had all night. This whole affair would have been annoying enough already without his company; it was cold, he was tired and he was convinced that the darkness surrounding them kept growing more intense as every step they took led them deeper into the woods.

This whole place with the mighty trees looming over them, the giant shadows stretching out on the ground like phantoms and the fog rising up into the air looked strangely familiar to him. But the resemblance these woods bore to the Forbidden Forest was only superficial. What it truly reminded him of was all those places children visited in their nightmares; all those dark, eerie and unreal places full of dread and fear.

But unfortunately this wasn't just a nightmare. Lupin's constant talking was proof enough of that because Severus was sure his own mind wouldn't have been capable of creating a dream filled with such an amount of annoyingly insignificant chatter.

But now that Lupin had finally given up trying to start a conversation with him Severus was also beginning to understand what he'd meant when he'd said that it was just too silent here. The only sound there was were their footsteps on the forest floor and the silence made the one prominent emotion he'd been feeling even more intense – fear. He knew fear, he'd seen it many times before and he now realised that fear was the feeling that had been following him ever since they'd entered this forest, patiently stalking him, waiting to strike. He acknowledged its presence, but he wasn't going to be afraid; he'd given up on being afraid ages ago after finding out that it only disrupted his ability to concentrate and focus.

Suddenly he heard something, something that sounded like a whisper, barely audible and seeming to come from very far away. He threw a quick glance at Lupin who was walking in front of him and didn't look as if he'd noticed anything so he decided that he'd probably only imagined it.

Severus.

He winced at the sudden sound and whirled around, reaching for his wand; he was sure he'd heard someone whispering his name. Someone who'd been standing only a few steps behind him.

"What is it?" Lupin asked.

"Nothing," he replied quickly.

Lupin shrugged, walked on and Severus followed him. He just wanted to get out of this forest as quickly as possible – there was something he really didn't like about this place.

Into the fire.

Severus stopped walking again and peered into the darkness to his right.

You can throw it into the fire straight away.

Now the whispering voice seemed to have come from his left but there too was nothing but darkness.

"Severus?" Lupin asked.

"I just thought I'd heard something."

"I didn't hear anything," Lupin replied. "What did you hear?"

Severus glanced around once more and listened into the darkness but there was no movement and no sound at all. Slowly he shook his head. "I probably only imagined it."

"I never thought you were the type to easily start imagining things."

"Let's walk on, I think it would be best if we got out of here soon," Severus said.

"Now that's finally something we agree on."

They hadn't made it far before Lupin came to a halt again.

"Don't you notice something?" he asked.

"For example?"

"For example that we've been here before."

"That's impossible. We've been following the path all the time."

"I wouldn't want to deny that. Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure that this is the same tree I ran into half an hour ago."

"Then perhaps your way through the forest wasn't the best choice after all," Severus replied.

"Oh, I see; you only let me choose the way so you could blame me should we get lost, didn't you?" Lupin asked.

"Of course. And that's not all; actually I was hoping we'd get ourselves killed and would be damned to roam this world as ghosts so I could spend the rest of eternity telling you that it's all your fault."

"I'm really beginning to get tired of this; as you might recall – I didn't ask you to come along."

"As you might recall – I didn't want to," Severus replied. "In my opinion all this was a rather foolish idea in the first place. We stumbled in here having no idea what we were getting into; for all we knew we could both have been dead the moment we read that incantation."

"Then why did you come along? Nobody forced you to," Lupin said.

"Because Dumbledore wanted me to," Severus replied.

"Did he?" Lupin asked. "I can't recall him ordering you to or even telling you; or did I miss something? You know, the next time you could simply say 'no' and spare me your presence."

Simply say 'no'? You're truly misjudging the situation if you think I could.

Lupin turned away, took a deep breath and stared into the darkness for a moment.

"I'm sorry." Then he said, "I'm worried, I'm tired and I shouldn't have taken that out on you. You're right – it was risky, but I don't know what else we could have done. Can we move on then? I really want to get out of these woods now."

"We'll have to try a different way; I definitely don't want to walk another half an hour just to end up in the same spot again," Severus said.

"I think we shouldn't stray from the path," Lupin said.

"Why not?"

"Just because I think it isn't a good idea. Haven't you ever heard of little red riding hood?"

"The tale about the big bad wolf?"

"I don't care which way as long as it just leads out of this forest," Severus replied. "You chose to follow the path and we were running in circles. I think it's time for a different approach now. And I'll take...," he said, took a quick look around and then pointed somewhere into the darkness to his right. "...this way. Come along or don't."

Having said that he set off into the forest and Lupin hesitated only for a second before he came to the conclusion that following him was still better than standing around in the middle of the woods all on his own.

Although Severus kept hearing that strange whispering voice as they walked on he tried to pay no attention to it and didn't mention it again. He didn't waste his time on searching the darkness for whoever or whatever might be the origin of that voice anymore either and decided that he'd probably just imagined it.

Throw it into the fire. Don't you even think about ever asking me for permission. Don't you ever dare. Just you wait till I get you home.

If he couldn't have blamed it on the fact that he was extremely tired he'd probably have started worrying about his sanity. But then it wasn't the first time either; he'd imagined things before. He'd learned long ago how weak and susceptible to manipulations the human mind was and that not even he himself was an exception to that.

"What time is it?" Severus asked, hoping to be able to make Lupin start talking again – anything was better than having to hear that whispering voice all the time.

Lupin pulled out a silver pocket watch, took a quick look at it and put it back into his pocket. "It stopped working when we got here."

"How could I have expected anything different..." Severus muttered to himself.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadow and whirled around to find it gone. "Did you see that?" he asked.

"Yeah," Lupin replied softly, peering into the darkness and searching for movement. "Are you now finally going to believe me that we're not alone?"

Or perhaps we're simply both on the way to insanity now.

"I suppose if someone wanted Harry to come here that certain someone might be waiting here for him," Lupin said. "And to me that looked like a person standing there and watching us."

"But why just stand around watching instead of confronting us?" Severus asked.

"I don't know," Lupin muttered. "There," he suddenly said. "Light. I really hope that's the edge of the forest and not just another clearing."

He started walking faster and Severus followed him. A minute later they'd finally left the woods behind and found themselves facing a vast landscape with countless small grassy hills stretching out towards the horizon.



[i] from 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge


'
'
'
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you so much to all those who left a review; Snivellus aka Heather Granger, SSC, PPP, mnemosynem, lavondyss21, Anne O'Nimous, IntelEwok, AmZ, Ronnie, duj, Athena Keating-Thomas, greengirlblue, Makrillit, LinZE, Aku Maru, b7-kerravon, Magi, Nomad1.

Thank you, I really appreciate it. I'm glad to know that you're still reading and that there are some new readers as well. I'm trying to update more frequently but unfortunately I've been very busy lately so I don't have as much time for writing as I'd like to...