Chapter 15

• Escape •

Gwyl was stuck once more in the office where he'd spent his last several nights. There was now a bed in the corner and a small dresser. A plate of food was sitting, untouched, just inside the invisible barrier that had been erected around him.

Even though he was starved Gwyl refused to eat, he had approached every plate that had been placed inside his barrier and all of them had smelled funny, felt funny, like magic.

Since the attempted escape everything had been different. Gwyl had awoken in another room, in another place, with a weird lady watching him. She had raised her wand-stick at him and he'd tasted the magic as it flew towards him. Everything had spring to life all at once, like the air was suddenly different, livelier. Afraid, he'd scooted back against the wall only to find that it to was alive.

A day had passed since that moment, when night had come he'd been brought back to this place, though he wasn't sure why. He knew it was Albus's room, but he didn't understand why he had to be kept in it, and why he couldn't stay in the room he'd been in.

It didn't matter though, he was stuck either way. The escape had been botched because he didn't know where he was going and he was stuck imprisoned and eventually going to his aunt and uncles again. There was one good thing about the escape, if it could be considered good. The werewolf never left the room for more than a few minutes at a time. He had even been sleeping until a few moments before, sitting directly across from Gwyl.

"You're not eating," the werewolf said. Gwyl looked around to make sure that no one else was present and then looked back at the werewolf, shaking his head.

"Magic," he said quietly, but nothing more. He knew it, just like he knew the walls were magic and the air, and the paintings. He could even feel people that were magic now, and it had all happened since he'd woken up after the escape.

"How do you know?" Remus asked, moving forward, slowly and cautiously. He'd gotten Gwyl to speak and didn't want to scare him into silence again. He motioned quietly towards the food and reached in through the small hole in the invisible cage, extracting the food.

When the wand-stick was raised Gwyl growled involuntarily and Remus lowered it, backing up slightly. "I'm not going to use it on you," he said, slowly raising it again. "I'm just checking the food for magic," he explained. Gwyl didn't do anything that was normally perceivable, but Remus could feel him change his attitude just slightly and continued to bring his wand up. After he used several different spells on the food he looked back to Gwyl.

"They're to help you feel better," he explained quietly. "You got hurt pretty bad when you went on that rampage through the castle. It's a good thing you didn't do anything that was unfixable, though a few students will have to be obliviated because what they saw was too much for them to cope with."

Then, very carefully he slid the plate back into the barrier. Gwyl wouldn't accept it though, there was no way he was going to eat it.

"What if I try it first?" Remus asked, trying to keep some sort of conversation, or even a connection, going.

Looking down at the food Gwyl thought for a moment before shaking his head. He was hungry, but he wasn't about to eat anything with magic in it.

"What if I get some food without magic?" the werewolf asked.

This time Gwyl thought harder. If he was going to escape he knew he'd need food, he could already feel himself weakening. He wasn't sure exactly how long it had been since he'd eaten. He did know it had been at least four days though some more time had passed, he was sure of it. "I'll call an elf to get something brought here, something freshly cooked without magic."

"Not cook," Gwyl replied immediately.

Remus stared for a minute, but nodded. "Pacey…" he said softly, pausing for a second before continuing again. "Pacey we need you for a moment."

A little creature appeared instantly next to Remus and Gwyl scrambled backwards, startled. There was little more than a soft pop to announce that it had even come. "Don't be afraid," Remus said, seeing Gwyl's surprise as fear. "It's a house-elf, they do it all the time."

"Anny." Gwyl said, pointing at the little creature. It was not the same one he'd encountered before, but it was very, very similar.

The little elf shook his head and looked at Gwyl curiously. "He is Anny's charge from the other night. She is baking her feet because she is not knowing not to help him."

Remus looked at the little elf sternly. "Tell her she'll do no such thing. Anny did what she thought was right, and from what I understand she did help Harr… Gwyl… from getting injured too much more."

Gwyl didn't understand what was happening, nor did he care to, but he did find the elf fascinating. Now that he was stuck and had more time to examine the creature he was sure that they were once human, or something like it. They may not smell human, but they did look very similar, like very small people. The problem was that some of their features were different, their enlarged eyes and pointed ears, even their clothing. Neither the elf Gwyl had run into before, nor this elf wore little more than a bad with holes in it.

"Pacey will you get some food, something raw and with no magical additives, for our friend here, he doesn't like magical food or anything cooked."

The little elf simply nodded and then disappeared again, this time with a much louder pop. Gwyl stared, transfixed at the spot where the elf had stood moments before. "It's called apparating," Remus explained. "It's what you did to get away from your aunt and uncle."

At the mention of his Uncle a deep rumble came from Gwyl's throat. Remus stepped back, finding his seat and staring quietly at Gwyl, a thought filled look on his face. Pacey appeared again, this time inside the barrier that held Gwyl. He left the food in front of a very startled Gwyl before disappearing again. The food, which was uncooked and unmagicked, was good enough for Gwyl and he ripped through it, filling his stomach and the severe hunger.

"That's better," The werewolf said once Gwyl had devoured all of the food. He'd watched quietly the whole time, not sure if it would be proper to interrupt, but not that Gwyl was done he wanted to continue talking, to coax Gwyl out of his shell.

"Why don't you want to stay?" Remus asked, getting straight to the point.

Gwyl stared for a long moment before moving back into the shadows. Remus sighed, thinking he'd lost the connection, but then Gwyl spoke. "Want to go home."

"But your home isn't the forest. It's hundreds of kilometers away."

Growling Gwyl moved back into the light, trying to make his point. "Not ever go back there," he spat and then slunk back into his corner. "Not home, cage – like here."

The door opened and Albus walked in, looking a little too morose for Remus who wasn't feeling quite the best either. Neither noticed the spider that had made its way in through the door, following Albus. Gwyl noticed though, he always noticed. What was interesting to him was that the moment the spider entered it immediately headed towards him. It wasn't a small spider, in fact it was almost the size of Gwyl's fist, but the two humans seemed to be concerned with other things.

An hour later, when Gwyl was alone for a few moments he spoke to the spider that'd stayed with him in the shadows. "Help coming?" he asked, still slightly agitated from earlier, but feeling hope that someone might be coming to help. The little spider danced back and forth on Gwyl's palm, signaling Gwyl was right. He smiled.

"School big," he growled decidedly. "Find easy way in and out before help."

The spider danced again and then hopped from Gwyl's hand, scurrying off. Gwyl leaned against the wall and listened to the soft humming of the castle, falling asleep much more content than he'd been the whole time he was held captive.

–:–

"This must be taken care of right away!" a voice said, waking Gwyl from his slumber. A very portly man in an extremely odd looking set of clothes was sitting in front of the desk and talking to Albus. "I have heard from several sources that this Demon has been captured and brought to the school. You must understand the risks you've taken by doing such a thing."

Gwyl growled, he wasn't sure how the man had not seen him, but he wasn't one to sit around and let people talk about him without knowing he was present. The portly man shifted in his seat and Albus glanced in Gwyl's direction, but there was no more notice than that.

"And then..." the man blustered. "Then I hear that the creature got loose and took on the shape of a naked boy, running around terrorizing the school. You must let the wizards in the Magical Creatures department do their job, they know exactly how to deal with this sort of thing. They told me that one of the worst things that could have happened was the Demon being imprisoned; it will anger the Demon and cause all sorts of problems. Due to the xxx nature of the thing we're dealing with it really does need to be handled by some one more…capable."

"Are you implying Minister, that I am not capable of handling a demon by myself?" Albus asked, Gwyl could feel the presence of the man fill the entire room, as if small tentacles were reaching out and wrapping around everything, including the man that Albus called Minister.

Minister waved his hands back and forth. "No, no, no," he said quickly, looking paler from the magic that was being set loose inside the room. Gwyl didn't like it either, but the man seemed to be an idiot, and he liked idiot's less. "You must understand Albus that these are very delicate things we're dealing with, very delicate indeed. What if the papers should hear that the Demon is indeed imprisoned here? There will be another frenzy like that incident last year with the Snap fellow."

"Severus Snape handled that with excellent restrain I believe, and the matter was cleared up quite quickly."

"He threatened to poison Rita Skeeter if she didn't write a retraction article!"

"Yes, but he didn't just poison her, he gave her a chance to redeem herself, even if only a little."

"That's not the point!" The portly man shouted. Gwyl growled again involuntarily. "I have to question him regarding the disappearance of one Astria Tonks. Her parents have come to believe she's still alive even after all this time, thanks to your incessant reassurances that they are right I have to continue to investigate the matter."

"I believe her name is Astraea Minister," Albus said quietly, and it looked as if he were about to chuckle.

"There have been four wounded Aurors since we started the search in the forest! And now we have to deal with the confederation of wizards because there has been a confirmed case of Acromantula in the forest. This forest will be under even more protection than before. This matter is really getting out of hand. Why can you not just hand the Demon over?"

"The guest has already been questioned involving the missing girl and I believe that if Astraea is still alive she is elsewhere. Though we were unable to get a straight answer and Severus had quite a time trying to get any answer at all." Albus said with a laugh. "Your information is incorrect anyway minister, we are no longer holding the demon captive. In fact, I believe the demon you would like to speak with is still in the forest."

"But…" sputtered Minister and Gwyl growled. He didn't want the Minister man to go after Stray; she might not be able to fend off his magic even if she could probably kill him in a fair fight.

"I'm sorry Minister but you never spoke to me about what should happen if I captured the Demon," Albus said quite calmly. Gwyl growled in anger. This man wanted to talk to him and even though the man seemed like an idiot he could also be the way to getting back to the forest.

–:–

Remus was there, trying to think of some way to get through the walls that Gwyl had built up around himself, and continued to find nothing but dead ends. "Would you like to know about werewolves?" Remus asked quietly.

Gwyl perked up immediately, he was stuck and knew even though help was coming there was nothing that he could do about it now so it was best to be silent or listen to Remus talk about werewolves, because they were a subject Gwyl was more than a little interested in.

Seeing the interest in the subject Remus smiled. "Lycanthropy, which is the formal name of the disease of being a werewolf, has been around for a very long time. No one is quite sure where it started or how, it simply exists, like magic exists. Through the ages most people believed that Werewolves were some sort of demon, a being possessed by one at least. It has only been a few hundred years since even wizards discovered it was nothing more than a monthly product of a magical anomaly. Some believe it was a curse gone bad that has since been mutated and passed on through the blood."

Remus looked up to find Gwyl staring at him at him. "Right…" Remus said shaking his head. "It's really quite simple. What it's narrowed down to is that people have been studying werewolf bites for centuries and other than the fact that they carry the genetic information to make others transform they can figure nothing out."

"During the full moon every month," Remus said, trying to word the explanation easier. "Anyone infect with lycanthropy – that is anyone who is a werewolf, changes into a wolf for one night of the month. During the time that they are in this form the person is no longer in control, rather the primal mind of the wolf takes over. It has been rumored that alpha's can control themselves, but as I have never met a true alpha, there is no way of knowing if that information is true. There are lots of rumors dealing with alphas. There is one only one that is definitely true, an alpha werewolf can change form when ever he chooses. That information has been documented by the ministry when they were fighting werewolves hundreds of years ago.

"Humans can be wolves?" Gwyl asked, more interested. "When they want?"

Remus laughed. "There are other ways of doing it, but yet, humans can become wolves in this way. You have to understand that becoming a werewolf is neither fun nor pleasant. The transformation itself is painful, sometimes extremely painful. Since you have no control over the beast within you must hide in the forest so that you do not harm other people. Many werewolves have been killed because of the inability to control the urges to attack people. The ministry even has a group of Aurors that specialize in tracking down and stopping Werewolves. Generally the werewolves do not live once they are captured."

"How change?" Gwyl asked, somehow having missed the explanation that had been given.

"When a person changes into wolf form they are highly contagious… anyone that is given an open wound – anything that bleeds – receives the disease. Within a months time the person will become a werewolf."

Gwyl nodded and was content. Though Remus tried to continue the conversation Gwyl had heard enough to know all he needed to know. The next time he encountered a werewolf he'd make sure to get in a fight with it.

–:–

Not long after, at the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest a small spider made its way into the trees. A dark haired demon was waiting for it. Taking it into its hand, the demon rushed through the forest like the wind, a guard following close behind on the ground.

Depositing the spider next to one of its older brothers Stray, the demon waited.

"He has been found," the large spider said, it's pincers clicking slowly. It stopped again, listening to something that not even Stray could hear. "It is in a hidden room, but it is easy to find…" the spider continued.

When Stray had first come to them for help she was a bit scared of them, but they had proven to be extremely cooperative in helping get Gwyl back. They did refuse to help her raid the castle though, because of a prior promise that Aragog, their father, had made. The huge spiders, as large as elephants, made good allies, because they had smaller brothers and sisters which could find Gwyl easily.

Several more hours passed and the Wolf-Demon Stray was found perched near the edge of the forest conversing with two centaurs. "He'll not be relinquished easily," the elder of the two said. "They seem to think he's one of them and so they'll protect him at much cost to."

Stray nodded and looked to the smaller of the two who was trying to keep a guarded face, but emotion continued to leak through. "Don't worry," Stray assured the little centaur. "Gwyl is coming back with me."

Dia, the centaur, nodded and with the best resolve possible neighed.

"Here," the second, older centaur said named Shepaud, pulling a sack from the belt he wore. "Take these."

Stray dropped down to them and took the sack, removing its contents.

"The neck-collars are for protection," Shepaud explained, pointing out the matching jeweled necklaces that were in Stray's hand. "They're supposed to help protect you from getting trapped. One's for you and one's for Gwyl."

The monkey on Stray's shoulder chattered, examining the necklace for itself and holding it up proudly. Stray growled at it and the monkey returned the necklace to the big which she attached to her belt. Guinevere slipped out of the darkness and Stray smiled. It was almost time.

"Take care," Shepaud said as Stray ascended into the trees.

Stray didn't answer, but she did glance back one last time as the two centaurs disappeared behind her. They had offered to help, but she hadn't accepted, they were too loud on stone and she would need silence for at least part of the mission.

The pack was ready, waiting at the edge of the forest as near to the castle as possible. Stray had come to the conclusion that the easiest way into the castle, and the safest, was through the side door in the mornings. People exited early every morning, before the castle woke completely, and they would have the element of surprise behind them.

A quick snort and a growl signaled the pack into silence and Stray climbed further into the trees to rest next to Lancelot. Silver was the only one staying awake so she could signal when someone was approaching the door and awaken the rest of the pack. She had better sense about it as Stray had found out a few days prior.

A snort awoke Stray, Guinevere and Lancelot waited for her to move before moving themselves, dropping to the ground with her. Galahad wasn't far behind them; he'd been sleeping a little higher up though. The monkey's appeared into the trees and Stray stared at them, they weren't initially a part of her plan, but they seemed to be willing to help and ever wanting to. She raised her arm and one of them swung down to her, taking a seat on her shoulder as if commanded to.

The others followed the first, but stayed at the lowest branches of the trees. Only a few had overcome the fear of the leopards that followed Stray around. They didn't mind the wolves though.

Silver growled again and Stray's attention focused forward. It was later in the morning than usual, but it was still early and Stray didn't think all the humans would be awake yet. She growled to the leopards hoping they understood her well enough. While she didn't have Gwyl's sense of the wolves yet she seemed to get along with the leopards just fine, even though she didn't understand everything they did just yet.

The side door swung open and Stray launched herself forward as fast as possible. The door only stayed open for a few seconds and she needed to slip in during that time. The student who had opened the door stared, his throat dry, as the pack descended upon him. Stray was the first, knocking him into the wall hard enough to knock him unconscious before he could utter a word. The whole pack slipped in through the open door, along with several monkeys, some who'd taken to riding the wolves.

The students who'd woken early enough to see the sight were completely transfixed. Most of them saw what could only be interpreted as a nightmare as the odd mix of beasts poured through the hallways, trampling anyone or anything that was in the way. Stray barked order in the lead, keeping the majority of the pack with her as they headed through the castle. It was a long run, but spiders continued to appear and disappear ahead of her, helping her along her path.

Not one single person resisted, though it was simply because most of them had fainted away or hidden in the side halls as the pack passed by. The monkey on Stray's shoulder, who'd managed to keep its grip the whole time, chattered away to the others who were having an exquisite time riding the wolves.

Several small spiders showed up on a statue that had been described to Stray and she stopped there, looking at the stone eyes. "Terribly twisted toffee," she repeated as the large spider in the forest had instructed. The gargoyle statue moved to the side and Stray looked either direction, insuring no one had risen against them, before sweeping up the steps to rescue Gwyl.

Inside Gwyl was wide awake, waiting for Stray. He could feel and hear here from within the room and he was full of energy, even though it was only from the single plate of food he'd eaten. Remus had disappeared earlier in the night and not returned, so he was alone at the moment, which suited him just fine. All he had to do was break down the invisible wall and he was sure Stray could help with that.

When Stray came rushing through the door she ran to Gwyl in happiness, only to be repelled by the invisible wall. Gwyl was grinning through it, but hoping that Stray had some other means of breaking it down as she threw herself against it a second time. Instead of doing it a third time she stopped and sniffed the wall, placing her hands against it to feel it.

"Magic," Gwyl said throatily, growling a hello to the other wolves who'd come up the stairs with Stray. Even more wolves flooded the room as Stray continued to examine the wall until the room was packed with wolves. The leopards seemed to take their spots as guards of the door and the monkeys ran around the room, examining everything.

Stray stared helplessly at the invisible wall, unsure about what she could do. She had ridden to the rescue only to find that she couldn't get Gwyl out of the prison he was in. Angrily she looked around the room for something that might be able to break the wall, but she didn't recognize more of the instruments.

While the wolves for restless Gwyl simply sat, waiting. He noticed the necklace and the second belt that Stray wore and motioned towards them, hoping they might help. Stray shook her head, the second belt was Dia's, a sheath that was made to hold all the dirks that she'd let Stray borrow to help free Gwyl. But it occurred to her that the necklace, while it was supposed to protect them from being captured, might help. It was also magic.

Quickly she reached into the sack that Shepaud had given her and extracted the second necklace. Not sure what to do with it she japed it, jewel first, into the wall. There was a sucking sound, as if something were sucking the wind from around them, and the wall seemed to shiver into visibility and then disappear again. However it no longer seemed to be present at all. Gwyl leaped through, hugging and rolling around on the ground with Stray playfully, and happy.

He growled as he stood again, moving first to the desk and taking back the knife that had been taken from him when he'd escaped.

The gargoyle moved below, the grinding sound easily heard from the office above. Gwyl growled fiercely, wondering who it was, he wouldn't allow them to capture him a third time; he'd die fighting them off.

"Put it on," Stray said, shoving the collar into his hand. "It goes around your neck like mine. Shepaud said it would help protect you from magic."

Gwyl fumbled with the collar, trying to figure it out while Stray barked orders to the wolves. He paused to watch her for a moment, smiling happily. He knew she could be dominant, and he'd hoped one day to help her accomplish it, but she'd done it without him, which pleased him even more. He truly hadn't expected her to be so dominant so fast, but it didn't bother him in the least.

The men were talking and Gwyl could overhear them as he struggled again to put on his necklace, not quite sure how it went on. "It's the oddest thing," one man said and Gwyl recognized him as a small squeaky man he'd only seen just briefly the day before. "They can't have just disappeared. And it's not an attack on the students either, the school would have alerted us."

"I believe that it's another person come to save Harry from us. We can rest assured that they'll make it here sooner or later and it is better to make sure he is secured," the old man named Albus replied back. "I don't know who this Wolf-Demon is that's leading them, but there has to be some relation, the students who we've woken describe him with black hair and green eyes just like Harry, though some think it's a girl too. It must be the second demon that Severus told me about earlier in the week, I doubted its existence until now."

Gwyl smirked as he waited patiently, still fumbling with the collar; Stray was a Wolf-Demon now too. "They come now," Gwyl whispered moments before the door opened. He'd been listening to people come and go for the last three days and he knew how long it took someone to enter. The clasp finally connected and the collar snapped securely around his neck. He felt something pass through him, like a sharp wave of pain and then he opened his eyes to face his captors.

There was a startled gasp and the door started to close again, but the leopards leapt forward and crashed all of the humans to the ground. Gwyl wanted to hurt them, make them pay, but he was bruised still from whatever had happened to him when he was asleep, and the energy he'd received from the food was quickly leaving.

The wolves trampled the captors as Gwyl and Stray both dashed over them, leaping down the moving stairs and running out of the passage. A small body of students had started to assemble near by and most of them screamed as the gargoyle opened to reveal a sea of animals with their teeth bared. Gwyl howled as they slipped out of the room and into the hallways. He was almost free again and he was loving it.

Most of the students didn't even try to resist, they dove out of the way. In the dozen minutes since the wolves had ransacked the castle the first time, word was already spreading of them. No one wanted to be under their feet as they passed. A few of the braver students raised their wand-sticks only to have themselves either bowled down or to have the wand plucked from their hands by a chattering monkey, all of which seemed to find an intense fascination with the wand-sticks.

While Gwyl had not learned any of the monkey speech he'd seen that they were quite smart and it only took a single time to show the monkey that sat on his shoulder that he wanted the wand-sticks before it was running about in front of them taking wands and giving them to Gwyl or Stray. The few bits of magic that were actually cast did not even faze the two as they flowed through the castle. Their path changed twice by stairs that moved, and Gwyl almost jumped from one staircase, but he stopped because the wolves were with him and he wouldn't let them be captured because of his urge to flee.

The spiders showed them the way though, they made little dots down the paths to show that it was the right path, there were thousands of the little beasts that had infested the castle, and all of them intent on helping the pack escape.

The front door was their eventual exit, but it was blocked by several older humans, a few of which Gwyl recognized. He didn't stop at all, he just kept on running at them. None of the humans seemed to expect this and though a few of them got off curses, all of their wands were stripped in a matter of moments between the pack.

The outside called to Gwyl and he bound through the door, heaving a breath of the crisp air, and howling. The whole pack moved quickly towards the forest, but were cut off by the oddest things. Several of the students caught him off guard by attacking from above, on long sticks of wood that were flying in the air. When they got too close Gwyl and the rest of the pack attacked, knocking all of them from the sticks and relieving them of their wands, and on one boy's case, his hand.

Interested as he was in the flying sticks, Gwyl continued forward into the forest, wanting to be free rather than learning about the flying sticks. Spiders were waiting not far beyond the edge of the forest, dozens of them, all the size of large cars. They dropped around behind the fleeing back, weaving long thin strands of web across the front of the forest as a barrier to slow the pursuers.

Stray turned one last time as the castle died behind them and let out a long ear splitting howl into the air.

•