III

Severus had walked out onto the center of the lake, too preoccupied to really be paying much attention to the surroundings. They had done what little they could to search overnight, but the Dark Forest was, after all, dark; filling with plenty of nooks and caves and all sorts of dreary places any sort of creature might find to hide in. Not to mention there was little guarantee that she was still there, but where else would she be? Severus thoughtfully gazed between his toes at the water below.

"Incredible! I suppose you did this?" said an unmistakable voice, and Severus looked up to see Harry walking over the crystal surface.

"Tonks' idea, actually, but Hermione and I helped her implement it," Severus said simply.

"I thought it was ice at first. I hope the Kraken aren't under there," Harry said with a slight grin.

"I hardly forgot them. Sagittari removed them into the underwater caverns. I assume your presence here means that Thomas knows what's going on?"

"He's at the Pig's Pannage grilling Aurelius as we speak, considering he chose Aurelius…in his words, 'for the very fact that he was not inclined to listen to any sort of feminine persuasion.'" Harry said, mimicking the Enforcement Minister's voice with a grin.

"I believe it was a backfired attempt at trying to get Andrew back in Thomas' good graces," Severus said expressionlessly. "I have asked them to leave the matter alone, but as usual they chose not to take my advice. The situation gets worse every time they want to make things better…Thomas isn't likely to see their true intentions."

"Of course not, he's a Craw," Harry said, Severus merely nodding without the slightest change in expression. "Actually, I was sent here to fetch you. He wants to see you about this situation."

"Let's take the Forest route," Severus said, immediately turning to walk off. "Perhaps with you along I may notice something that I otherwise might have missed." Harry paused a moment to think about his wording, but decided to simply shake his head and catch up, resisting to urge to overcompensate for the strange surface.

As they reached the other side and stepped back onto normal ground, the scolding cry of Descartes met their ears. Severus immediately spotted him in a low tree, the branches bowing from the weight. The Headmaster let out a sigh of complete annoyance.

"I told you it was safe to go over the lake. You could have reported in when you were done," Severus said. "Well? Anything unusual?" But Descartes merely stared balefully at him and then back at the lake.

"Perhaps you would have been better off sending Rasputin to search the Forest," Harry suggested, only half-joking.

"Descartes may have a brain the size and consistency of a dried apple, but he is a predator that understands different smells. He should have detected something unusual."

"Perhaps we're going about this the wrong way," Harry said. "Perhaps instead of protecting the lake it could have better served as bait…"

"I'm hardly going to draw such a creature towards the school, summer or not," Severus said firmly.

"Well, it's hard to say where she is, isn't it?" Harry pointed out.

"Yes, but at least she's disarmed," Severus said curtly back. "May I remind you there are Muggle farms on the other side of the forest?"

"Well, if she did anything to them, I'd think we'd find out where she was real quick," Harry said, earning a dirty look from Severus as they stepped onto the forest path. Above them, Descartes hopped from branch to branch to serve as another set of eyes, although he seemed more interested in the local rodent population than he was anything else, and every now and then, Severus would pause as if to listen and then proceed as if he hadn't stopped at all. It got to be so often, however that even Harry was beginning to get impatient with it, as well as the intense silence the two of them had fallen into, especially since he had something else on his mind.

At the brook, Severus took a sharp turn off the path to follow it, picking his way through until he paused again. But this time, Harry saw something; a lone Unicorn getting a drink upstream. The beast turned a thoughtful eye towards them, but after a simple tail swish melted back into the trees.

"She must not be anywhere near here," Severus said, nodding in the direction of the Unicorn.

"For all we know she may have already left," Harry agreed. "No power, and with enemies all about. I'd think she'd have headed for the coast by now."

"On foot?" Severus said dubiously, but then shrugged. "To be perfectly frank, I couldn't care less where she goes so long as it isn't here. But nothing seems out of place…none of the inhabitants seem out of sorts at all…short of the centaurs complaining about all the wizards in the Forest searching about. I also don't think Pali would allow a solitary Unicorn out if he felt the herd was in any danger."

"Perhaps we should head to the Pannage then?" Harry suggested. Severus was about to nod when he took a good look around.

"Where is Descartes?" he wondered out loud.

"He was just on that branch a moment ago," Harry said thoughtfully. "Maybe he went ahead to the inn? I left Farynor there."

"No, he wouldn't have left this Forest without my leave," Severus said, glancing around with a frown.

Harry decided not to comment. It was rather common knowledge to anyone who knew Severus that Descartes was not well known for obeying direct orders, no matter how much time the Headmaster spent with the bird. Although, Harry had to admit, Severus had done a fantastic job curbing the bird's voracious tastes for meat, despite worries by many that the bird might find a taste for human blood. It was at that point that Harry froze in his tracks, a sinking feeling hitting his gut and a curious chill piercing through him.

"Severus, would Descartes be attracted by a corpse?" Severus turned and stared at him, and Harry instantly knew that the same feeling that had just hit him had hit Severus as well. Immediately, Severus whipped out a pair of tiny bronze whistle and blew on it, letting out a note that neither he nor Harry could hear.

"Descartes!" he barked right afterwards, taking a few steps back towards the last spot they had seen him with Harry coming up close behind. He blew the whistle again, hoping to hear his bird's protest, but instead heard an instantly familiar voice in the distance followed by the sound of someone trying to work their way through the brush.

"Would you please stop blowing that thing? Once is quite enough, thank you!" Jennifer said as she appeared cutting back onto the path.

"Jennifer! Help me find Descartes!" Severus said. "Harry, you head forward a bit, I'll head back, and you call him from here."

"It's good to see you too, I'm fine, thanks," Jennifer said briskly, but did as she was asked, despite having no idea why she was looking. "You ought to be careful! A Siren can probably hear that as well, you know," she called after him when he blew the whistle again. But this time, all three of them heard a distant caw, and Severus took off towards it with Harry and Jennifer hurrying behind, slipping down the embankment and across a section where a layer of mud from the surrounding Forest had collapsed into the brook, creating a makeshift dam.

"Wait there," Severus said as he inspected the dam, casting a spell on himself before he attempted to cross. "Descartes?" A querulous but agitated caw came then, and close enough that Severus could easily follow. A moment later, all was quiet, and Harry sighed impatiently.

"Severus?" Harry called out. "We're coming over."

"Don't touch or step on anything," he warned, and Jennifer decided to wade through the water side of the slide, pulling herself up the slope. "I don't think you need worry about the Siren hearing the whistle, Jennifer," Severus said evenly, offering her a hand up.

"So she is dead then?" Harry said, clamoring up beside them.

"Moreover, the corpse is still cold," Severus said with a nod. "She hasn't been dead all that long." As Harry went up to take a look, Jennifer began to follow after. Severus' hands immediately went up, pulling her back. "This isn't our business now, Jennifer."

"Well, if you weren't going to get involved, why did you call me home then?" Jennifer challenged him. Before he could think up a suitable reply, Harry reappeared out of the brush with a very solemn look on his face.

"I suppose I'm going to have to quarantine the area. I would suggest while you're doing that you may consider sending up a flare," Harry put in before pushing back towards the victim.

"Yes, it seems this is no longer a case of a missing prisoner, but a case of murder," Severus said.

"And we're not getting involved?" Jennifer asked again in a low voice. Severus simply cast a flare from his wand in reply.