Chapter Three: Trapped
Mistress Sutherson outranked Keavy Faoiltiarna and the Caolaidhes by about fifteen ranks. Which meant, Harry and Fi were left to rot, after Fi's horrible excuse (that is, when she finally made one up) for almost killing a Sutherson girl.
"What was acid doing in punch anyways?" Harry asked himself. But it was a little late for that question. They had already been locked away in Harry's and Felan's room, the cave entrance was all sealed up with bricks with the exception of a small cat-flap, where food was pushed in two times a day.
"They'll have to let us out sometime, Harry. When Alpha comes back, he'll outrank Sutherson for sure, then she'll have to let us out." Odyn, the Alpha Leader, was currently seven miles away in the Black Fury camp, where he was settling the trial of (the werewolf family) Jensen vs. Salene and Maxine (or... ex-Maxine) Tringle.
"That trial'll take months, years even with Lysippe and her birds involved," Harry grumbled.
"But, on the other hand, I am getting out of Philodox training," Fi said. "So, that's good for me," Fi's Philodox training was the training that prepared her for her Rite of Passage, determined upon what phase of the moon she was born under. Harry had Theurge training, so he wasn't sure what Philodox training require. Theurge training though, entailed hours of attempting to look into the spirit world using different combinations of methods and long, boring meditations.
The cat-flap rattled and two plates of vegetables were pushed in. Harry heard Fi make a noise of disgust as he went and grabbed the plates.
"Be happy, they could be not feeding us at all," he said, passing her a plate. Fi looked at the plate and cringed.
"You do realize that they're giving us the rejected foods?" she asked. Harry shrugged. He ate all of his vegetables anyways (he had let Hedwig go right before they sealed them in) and pushed the plate aside. Living with the tribe, he had never really gone hungry at all because there were plenty of things around to eat, but right now, he felt particularily starving.
"So, say this happens," Fi started. "Odyn comes back, and Sutherson challenges him for Alpha-- because we all know she's one power-hungry bitch-- and she wins. She keeps us locked in here for the rest of our lives, what are the Hogwarts people going to do if you're unable to go back?" she asked. Harry knew, somehow, that she wasn't asking this question to be annoying this time.
"I dunno," he said. "Dumbledore can't do very much to get me out without offending somebody. I guess we'll just have to see in a few days time. Unless, you can find a way to get through that cat-flap," Harry suggested. Fi shook her head.
"I'm too big, but that's not a bad idea," she said.
"What?" Harry asked. She shook her head again.
"You, sleep, I'll figure it out." But it didn't look like she was figuring anything out at all, it looked like she was examining her hair closely. Harry closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep. Supposing that Fi did figure out a way to get out, he would need his energy.
Harry dreamed that he was in a house of mirrors, every where he turned there would be at least ten of him looking back at him. He dragged his left hand along the mirrors to find the way out. He'd finally made it, there was a staircase reflecting off of all of the mirrors. He ran to the staircase and found himself swimming in a pool of red stuff. Blood. He tried to swim, but his arms just flailed helplessly and he kept breathing in blood, which burned as it went down his throat thickly. All around the pool were Baobhan Sith, with their long blonde hair, tall, skeletal bodies and veined faces. A little girl was on the edge, grinning demonically.
"Do it again! Do it again!" she shrieked. All of the Baobhan Sith were laughing at him, and pointing their long, skeletal fingers at him. Some were drinking from the pool, their hands were extended into the blood, blissful smiles were on their faces. Harry tried to talk, but he couldn't, his throat felt like it was on fire.
"Put him out of his misery, Maggy!" one Baobhan Sith yelled. Another pulled Harry out of the water and pulled off the gloves on her hands with her sharp teeth. Harry's breath quickened as he saw her hand seem to grow more veins at the fingertips as she lowered it towards his face and long claws grew from the fingernails. He tried to pull away, but she had a vice like grip on his neck.
"No... no... don't," he tried to say.
"Don't what?" Harry opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the crescent moon above him. He hopped to his feet quickly.
"Where am I?" he asked.
"I got us out," Fi said proudly. "All it took was a little... lice. Torra's so stupid." Harry took a deep breath.
"Where. Am. I?" he repeated.
"Where does it look like you are?" Fi asked. "We're outside, waiting for Felan. He said he had something to tell you,"
"How did you get me out while I was still sleeping?" Harry asked. Fi shrugged.
"You do take sleep pretty seriously for a werewolf." She had only just finished the sentence when Felan came sprinting in, looking very unsettled. He pointed at Harry.
"You," he panted. "Your friend-- has..." he took a few more breaths, "really, really red hair, right?" he asked.
"That's Ron, yeah," Harry said. "What about him, is he here?" Felan shook his head and swallowed.
"You'd better see this. Fi, you stay,"
"What, why?" she blurted.
"You're a... you're a liability," Felan retorted. Harry could practically hear the Fi trying to think of something to say. Finally, she huffed.
"Fine," she said. "But if I'm such a liability, then I know exactly where you're going."
"Where are we going?" Harry asked, when him and Felan had already walked about a mile from their original place.
"Aubine's territory," Felan replied.
"Baobhan Sith territory?" Harry exclaimed. "Have you gone mad? They'll kill us."
"And if they don't, Alpha will-- yes, I know all of this. But Alpha's the one that sent us over,"
"Us?" Harry asked. "You and..."
"Bryon and Charlie. We're on a recon thing, see if any of the leeches are feeding off of the humans,"
"Anything yet?" Harry asked. Felan grinned.
"Oh yeah, Salene and Maxine Tringle. The two girls on trial, fed off of six humans in two days, they're definitely going to the execution line for this. But, y'know, since they are women and that's Lysippe's territory... it's going to take a few months," Felan said. He stopped at a tree. "Here,"
"Here what?" Harry asked. Felan looked up, Harry looked up. "We climb?" he asked. Felan nodded.
"Come on then," Felan said, he started climbing up the tree, almost monkey like. Harry followed. When they were at the top, Harry saw that on the branches, various binoculars and bags were hung. Felan expressed slight concern over where Bryon and Charlie were, then he shrugged and handed binoculars to Harry and took a pair for himself.
"How much did these cost?" Harry asked. Felan shrugged.
"I dunno, we stole them," he said. Since actual money was scarce in the tribe, most of the cubs were habitual pickpockets and thiefs; which was how they got most of the stuff they had. Harry had once (and only once!) stolen a blue hooded sweatshirt to wear when it was cold. On the other hand, he knew Charlie's sister Charlotte had once stolen a diamond engagement ring and a purse.
"What am I supposed to be looking for?" Harry asked, peering through the binoculars.
"No, over here," Felan climbed onto the vines and slid down to another tree, hitting it with a small 'thump!'. Harry followed him.
"Where do I look?" Harry asked again.
"Ten o'clock," Felan said. Harry turned towards where Felan directed and saw them. Blonde, blue-eyed girls dancing around three redheads.
"There're three?" Harry croaked. "How come you didn't tell me there're three?" he asked.
"Because I didn't want to worry you," Felan said. "They've been here for about a half hour. You know the drill, first they'll tire them out, then they'll feed. How long do you think they've got?" he asked.
"About three hours," Harry said. "At most. I need to get them,"
"No!" Felan stopped Harry from leaping from the tree. "Those are not just any girls, and we're disobeying at least thirteen rules just by being on their territory. They know the law,"
"Isn't it our priority to make sure that they don't eat the outsiders though?" Harry asked. Felan shook his head.
"The Sith have a clause; they can eat anything that comes onto their territory, including you." He corrected. Harry gulped.
"So, you've got some sort of plan then, right? You didn't just bring me up here to watch my best friend die?"
"I thought I was your best friend," Felan said suspiciously.
"You are, it's just... you know, you're like different best friends." Harry squeaked. This answer seemed to be fine to Felan, because he looked back through the binoculars.
"Wait, what's she doing?" he turned a knob on the binoculars and stood up. The slight breeze that had been blowing turned more into a typhoon-like wind, and rain started pouring in torrents from the sky.
"Felan, is this normal?" Harry asked. "This... apocalypse-type weather?"
"N-Not at all," Felan said. "We'd better go, now," they both dropped the binoculars and jumped from the tree. Harry stumbled a bit after he hit the ground (he was still very new to this jumping from high places thing), but soon caught up to Felan's pace of running. Soon after, he started hearing wild screeching sounds, like bats.
"We have to run to Black Fury territory, it's nearest!" Felan yelled. "They wouldn't dare do anything to us there!" But what will the Black Furies do? the small, nagging voice in the back of Harry's head asked. "Just keep running!" Harry ignored the voice and kept running.
The Black Fury territory was about half a mile ahead, Harry could see the tall maroon colored tents among the trees. They were home free.
Then, Harry wasn't sure how it happened. He knew it happened very quickly though. They were surrounded by the tall, willowy figures of the Baobhan Sith. They seemed to appear out of nowhere; but it was hard for Harry to acknowledge anything except for the fact that one of them was holding Ron up by the neck.
"Stop!" she ordered. Harry stopped. Felan eventually stopped when he realized they were vastly outnumbered.
"Let him go!" Harry demanded; but it didn't come out quite as loud or demandish as he would have liked. They stood that way for a few seconds, the rain pouring down onto them, and Ron being held up by the neck, quite unconcious. "Let him go!" Harry said again, this time louder. The Sith girl stared down at him with an amused expression.
"What are you going to do if we don't?" Harry was suddenly reminded of exactly how many Sith there were around him, and how they were all about seven feet tall; whereas he and Felan were both a lot shorter. Harry did the only thing he could think of. He took out his wand.
There was a small collective gasp from the Sith, a few mutters and a few of them seemed to become even whiter than normal.
"He's a wizard?" One asked.
"He's an underage wizard," the one who seemed to be the leader said. She was a lot younger than Aubine, perhaps in her late teens-- but then again, they were all in their late teens or early twenties. "He can't do a thing,"
"Really? Try me," Harry dared. "You see, I have a problem with people seeking to drink the blood of my best friends,"
"And see, I have a problem with little toddler werewolves coming onto our territory," the leader said. "We should go on a talk show, shouldn't we?"
"Let him go!" Harry repeated.
"No!" the girl said. Felan looked over at Harry, obviously trying to convey some sort of message with his facial features alone. The message was pretty clear: Do something. Harry hesitated. He pointed his wand at the girl's face and did the only spell he could think of at the moment.
"Lumos Solen!" A bright light flashed from the tip of his wand and stretched towards the girl. When it touched her skin, her skin started charring immediately; she screamed and dropped Ron.
"Get him!" she screamed. The Baobhan Sith started moving all at once towards them, but Harry was quicker as he flashed his light at all of them. All of them shrunk away, and one who had gotten in Harry's direct path fell to the ground screeching loudly as her skin was enveloped in flames; she combusted in a matter of seconds.
"Nox," Harry whispered when they were all down-- most of them trying to put out small fires that had started to consume them. "C'mon, let's get Ron and go,"
"What about the other ones?" Felan asked. "The two other boys?" Harry turned towards one Baobhan Sith.
"You go get them," he ordered.
"Why should I?" she asked.
"Because if you don't, I'll kill half of your tribe," Harry pointed his wand towards the other girls, who immediately started cringing in fear. "So how about it?"
Once again, it had all happened very fast. Ron woke up within a few minutes and told Harry everything that had happened; him and his brothers, Fred and George, had come to pick him up since he hadn't been answering his letters ("We asked you to stay loads of times,") when they wandered into a glade where the Baobhan Sith captured them.
"Never, ever do that again," Harry said. "There are far worse things in the forest than vampires," he reminded Ron.
"So, do you still want to go?" Ron asked.
"Where?"
"To my home," Ron said matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, sure," Harry said immediately. "I mean-- I'd love to go. All I've got for courses this summer is writing and reading, and I'm already good at those,"
"Great, the car's just outside of the forest but... you need your bags," Ron observed. Harry thought for a moment, then an idea came to his head.
"That is no problem," he said. He turned to the head Baobhan Sith and pointed his wand at her. "You, what's your name?" he asked.
"Maggy," she grumbled.
"Maggy?" Harry repeated. There was a 'Maggy' in his dream. "Maggy, that's it?"
"Mag-noh-lee-yah," she said slowly, as if talking to a five-year-old.
"Right, I want you to go to the Fianna caves and find the only girl awake, make sure she's got a werewolf bite on her leg, and tell her to get Harry Potter's clothes and stuff them in a trunk. Then bring the trunk back, understand?" he asked. She nodded and blurred away.
Within a few minutes, both the Baobhan Sith ( one who, Harry learned, was the infamous Salene Tringle), and the one named Maggy were back. Maggy dropped Harry's bags at his feet, and Salene dropped the unconcious Fred and George at his feet.
"They're suffering from minor bloodloss, but they'll be fine in an hour," Salene reported grudgingly.
"You fed from them?" Harry squeaked.
"We weren't sure we were going to get dinner-- what with Aubine being all high and mighty about feeding off of humans," Maggy said. "We can't be picky with our putanesca these days, can we?"
"What do we do for an hour?" Ron asked.
"You wait," Salene said. "You aren't looking too healthy either, ginger. If you are smart, you'd wait until all of you are fit for traveling,"
"And, you take a look at this," Felan's voice said. He came walking up with Bryon Jensen behind him. Felan shoved a letter at Harry. "Charlie killed another owl, it had that, and we were trying to figure out who it is to." Harry looked at the back of the envelope and read it.
Miss Z. Grey
The Largest Den
The Dark Forest
Scotland
"Z. Grey?" Harry muttered. He opened the envelope and read the letter inside.
Dear Miss Grey,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted
to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
Harry looked up at Felan. "Who's Z. Grey?" they both asked.
"Grey," Ron whispered. "I know I've heard that name before." Harry looked back at the address on the envelope. Something about it...
"The largest den," he murmured.
"Who lives in the largest den?" Ron asked.
"Fi lives in the largest den," Harry said. "And this does correspond nicely with her lack of memory."
"And that's not the only thing," Felan flipped over the paper. "This is a reply, and she's not going,"
