"Why did you bring him here?"
"I needed someplace secret, and away from all my other spots."
"Okay… and then you stunned him?"
"He was desperate! The poor thing was basically whimpering with anxiety, I mean I had to do something!"
"Yes, but stunning him in our secret room?"
"Think about it, it's actually easier this way. He won't loose it in the school during the daytime, when everyone would see or get hurt. We will wait until dark, take him into the forest, and get it done there."
"Sounds good to me. I think you should take the vial, I have to do other things, you're going to have to inject it when the time is right."
"I was already counting on that."
"Good."
The two looked down at the immobile form of Nick, as he lay limp in one of the chairs. Windowless and secluded, only a fire in the single fireplace gave off any light. For some reason the lamps weren't lit. Taking their leave, the two speakers walked down the spiral staircase and out the painting at the bottom. No one ever seemed to notice when someone walked out of a painting, though some suspicion of that can be placed on Dumbledore.
"Catch you an eight then." Bethany yelled out as she headed in the direction of the courtyard.
"Alright." Caleb just kept walking, heading for the Charms corridor.
As she walked she began to hear cackling laughter amongst scattered yelps or squeals. Emerging out into the open space of the courtyard she found her sister was the one cackling while all her friends ran around holding their mouths with their hands and looking scared. Their eyes bulging, and their cheeks were turning red. Some very few of the older students had put spells on themselves and seemed to have had a mute button pressed on their backs as they spoke away without a single uttered sound.
"Hey Seamus! Come here come here! I have a question for you."
Anna practically looked angelic. Bethany, however knew the look in her eyes, she was the cause of all the strange behavior.
"That's it Seamus. So…" she grinned, "what is your secret?" her ears were connected by the brim of her grinning lips. Seamus however looked like he'd had a shotgun pointed at his head, as his eyes bulged and his cheeks turned from red to purple. Like a caldron with a pressure lid, he was bound to burst. Sure enough his hands flew away from his face and he began to divulge the answer to her question.
" I… I… IlovemadamePomfrey!" His face deflated and lightened to a peach shade of pink, but he covered his mouth again and ran away in direction of the hospital wing.
"Anna!"
"What?" she grinned, "want some butterbeer Bethany?"
"No thank you. What's the cause for all this?"
"Oh… everyone's keeping secrets from me, so I decided to… coax it out of them." She smiled sweetly. Bethany just raised her eyebrow.
"They were keeping secrets only from you?"
Anna's smile faded a little bit as she thought about the answer to the question.
"But that aside," Bethany smiled, " it was an evil trick. I'm impressed."
The two Kesler girls sat in admiration of the prank, fully enjoying the mayhem that it had caused.
- ♦ - ♦ -
Charms had been a delightful class, as always. Caleb had spent the entire class partnered with Luna, as always. When the class was over, they vanished their books back to their rooms, and then met again outside on the backside of the castle. No one else came to this side of the castle, because you had to walk the whole way around the castle to get there, unless you had a broom. Talking and walking, and enjoying the sunny day in the green grass and blooming wild flowers the two went hand in hand. Little did they know that a ways behind them came a very pleased and fulfilled Anna; She'd gotten hers from most of her friends, now she was after the unsuspecting Caleb. Though she couldn't just offer him a butterbeer, and expect him to take it, no, she had other things on her mind for him. But for now she just stalked the pair, as they enjoyed each other's company, and the sunlight on their heads.
"What secret are you hiding, Caleb?" she said softly to no one but herself, still stalking her prey. Even though they'd done nothing extremely out of the ordinary as of yet. They'd stopped and picked a few of the white and purple wild flowers from the grass, they'd grabbed rocks then watched them fly all the way down to the lake below, there was also a lot of laughing.
"And I thought you hated flirting…" He himself had told her so, but he apparently was having a good time flirting back at the moment. She recalled how giggly girls sometimes followed him, and wondered if that was what she had been referring to. Just as she was about to give up, and go back, something happened that lit her face up with glee. Anna had found his secret, and he'd simply shown it to her without any forceful potion shoved down his throat. Right there before her eyes, Luna had leaned forward and whispered into his ear, he had nodded and then transformed into the very Tiger that she'd seen on the roof with Bethany.
"Well, well, my friend… that certainly explains a lot." And she walked back without a glance back, knowing she'd gotten so many valuable things out of the day.
Caleb was thoroughly enjoying his afternoon. Everything from getting his belly rubbed, the backs of his ears scratched, to just lying in the grass basking in the sun. The things you enjoy while in transformed state are different from those you'd enjoy as a plain wizard. Luna still wouldn't make up her mind about trying to learn to be an animagus. She kept saying she wasn't sure she'd like it, and than she had other simpler things to enjoy, but it never stopped him from trying to convince her.
Soon the day had past, and supper was being served. One particular Ravenclaw was becoming ever more surly and serious as the hour drew near. He kept looking over in direction of the Slytherin table, where Bethany was eating with Paula right beside her. Adrenaline, a rush of too many thoughts going through his head at once, and the mental preparation of the serious event that was going to transpire were weighing heavily on his shoulders. Then as simple as changing from one thought to another, it was time. Bethany looked up once, and then got up and left through the hall doors, Caleb soon followed. But before he got all the way out the doors he chanced a look back at Dumbledore. His eyes were looking straight at him as he nodded. It was all that Caleb wanted to see.
Bethany was levitating Nick, down from the room when Caleb arrived just outside of the secret stairway. They proceeded into the courtyard and then outside of the castle, as everyone was at supper there were no interruptions or questions to be raised. Looking at the stars Bethany was completely thankful her sister had been too busy with her scheme, to have noticed Nick's absence. But then again he always disappeared for three days during any given month. In the shadows they went, covered by the darkness of the night, and the few sparse clouds that crossed over the moon from time to time. Into the woods they went, brushing aside the trees, till they came to a clearing. With the moon glowing behind some clouds directly above, and the darkness of the forest all around, this would be the ideal place to perform the cure.
"Put him down… wake him. I'll be hiding ready to take on his demon if it should arise."
"Ok" Bethany let Nick's body down on a flat rock in the center of the clearing. She wished for some manacles, but there weren't any. Hopefully they wouldn't need them. She couldn't hear him any more, but she knew Caleb was watching from nearby, so she held up her want, "Ennervate."
Nick's eyes, fluttered open; he looked like a person who was up all night that was awoken before they should have been awake.
"What the…" he looked at the glow of the moon behind the clouds above him, and then over to where Bethany was observing him, only a few feet away, "… Bethany?"
"Sorry Nick. But it was the only way to get you here without risking other people getting hurt. And to ensure your cooperation, believe it or not we're here to help you."
"You… you don't know what you're doing." He stammered, clutching his stomach, as the moon started to come out from behind the clouds.
"On the contrary, we know exactly what we're doing. Curing you." She held her wand pointed at him, and pulled out a vial from her cloak. Nick's eyes watched the vile, as he did so they began to glow orange with a hidden rage. His voice lost its kind and gentle nature, and became rasp and rough as if with disease.
"Run… run away while you still can! I feel, it burning into me…" he began to twitch and jerk, his eyes wildly riveting every which way, then finally as if his inner will was defeated, his face slowly turned sky ward, and his eyes gazed upon the enormous silver orb. The worried grin turned into a snarl, hair began to grow thickly from his skin. A curse would have been more desirable than the transformation that he was being suffered to, by fate.
Bethany transfigured the vial into a syringe, and waited for the opportune moment. Now hairy and disfigured into a new form, Nick rolled off the stone. Finally the twitching stopped, the form of what used to be Nick now rose to its hind legs, to its full horrific height and howled. Long and shrill was his call to the moon. Then down to earth, he turned to the now shaking Bethany, and slowly advanced on her. Without warning, without any hint or foreshadowing he lunged at Bethany, his jaws wide and sharp. But the orange blur that flew by from behind her, met him in mid air. Their claws cutting, swiping, and teeth bared, they fought and wrestled each other, slowly moving away from Bethany. Several rounds of one being on top of the other, a bash to a head against a rock, a tree limb shoved into another's eye, and they met again in the middle, on the stone. The opportunity came, and the orange Hobbes tripped the beast and flung himself heavily onto its back and pinned him to the stone with his claws. It bit at its captor, and tried to free itself but it was useless. Bethany had not moved a muscle closer, and the tiger roared at her, and she finally found her nerve and threw the syringe, needle first at the beast. It struck right on target, but the cure was still inside the cylinder.
"Hobbes! Kick it! Kick the syringe!"
Dodging a swipe from the fighting beast beneath him, Hobbes hit the syringe hard with his hind foot. Immediately the beast exploded into a howl of pain and furry, but it was too late. A cure, the cure was now running through his body and quickly spreading. However the beast within still was at large, with an extra burst of strength that equaled the magical he flung Hobbes into a tree, and lunged out of the woods in direction of the precipice over the lake. Hobbes soon followed suit bounding in long strides after him. This was near the place where Caleb and Luna had had their beautiful evening, the cliff that hung over the lake had rocks at it's base, and then water. Howling in pain, but still determined, the hairy beast sprinted over the field of flowers. It reached the edge of the grass, crying out to the moon one last time, and leaped into space. A moment in which everything stood still; Hobbes in mid stride, the beast leaping through the air, and Bethany crying out from far behind, it was then that unbeknownst to all the involved that three pairs of eyes watched the scene unfold. Even as Hobbes leaped over the edge in pursuit of the falling Nick, the eyes recorded the fall, air rushing by his face, Hobbes grabbed Nick around the waist with a pair of claw open paws, and vanished into a puff of smoke. The eyes searched in unison almost for where they may have gone. Only one pair of eyes caught sight of where they appeared. Kneeling next to the human face of Nick, Caleb held his head. Blue-white sparks flew from his wand into Nick's chest, and his face was lit up for but a few moments, revealing concerned concentration.
"Well done." Whispered the lips bellow the eyes that watched from the dark tower window. The other two pairs of eyes looked at each other, and disappeared into the darkness both knowing that what they had witnessed should never be revealed.
Nick's eyelids were beginning to move, but before they opened he heard a whisper in his ear.
"Be free."
His eyes flew open, and his pupils flew wide to gather any light they could in the darkness around him. In his bed covers, safe within the castle, Nick sat up and looked for the voice that had whispered to him. But there were not but curtains to greet him. Dawn came, and the light began to come into the window as everyone began to wake and head to breakfast. Nick reached the hall just outside the painting of the fat lady, and realized he felt better, than he ever had before in his life. Even when the familiar feeling of being watched came over him, he was wearing a smile. It was going to be a great day.