Chapter 29: The Lion and the Toad
I'm in love with Rose Evans. That is all.
Paws thundered heavily upon the ground, kicking up dust as they moved. Heavy pants wafted through alert ears, echoing in the quiet forest. Blue-grey eyes narrowed in the darkness, reflecting the occasional moonlight that pierced through the trees and briefly turning them silver. The lion's large body veered sharply around a tree, skidding on the ground and prompting him to unsheathe his claws so as to better grip the ground.
He had been running at full speed for ten minutes now, and his muscles screamed at him to rest. Every breath sent a sharp pain through his chest and he began to feel darkness closing in on him. He slowed his pace to a slow trot before he simply gave up and flopped onto the ground mid-walk. His tongue hung from his jaws as he panted heavily, drinking in the delicious air and wincing slightly as it pierced his warm insides.
I didn't even get to say goodbye to my friends... to Luna... The lion lamented, his chest heaving up and down rapidly as darkness swarmed his vision. I wonder... how far is it to Grimmauld Place? He pondered, closing his eyes. It'll be nice to see my family again...
It felt to him as though he was awakening mere minutes later. He opened a single eye, blinking it slowly when he saw a small shape sitting on his muzzle. It looked dusky brown with a smattering of red and gold across its chest. The lion blinked the bleariness away from his eyes which then widened in amazement as he recognized the shape.
Fievel! He purred, sitting up abruptly. The mouse gave an indignant squeak as he was almost thrown off. He held tight to the lion's muzzle, pulling himself up to sit on his nose. The lion gave a flick of his tail, opening his jaws slightly as though smiling. Fievel gave another squeak, this time one of delight as he hugged the lion's face. The lion rose to his paws, prompting the mouse to run up his face and perch himself atop the lion's head, hiding in his luxurious mane.
The lion gave a wide yawn, significantly more cheered now that he knew he wasn't alone. He stuck his tongue out, tasting the air before looking upward at the sunlight streaming through the dense canopy. If it's that bright... it must be nearly lunch. He decided before turning off to his right. He followed his nose and the familiar paths he had ran before for quite some time before he came upon the familiar inlet. He paused at the treeline, scenting the air for signs of danger before he strode forward and bent his head to drink deeply from the water, both to slake his thirst and to take the edge off the hunger rumbling in his belly.
He sat back, staring off in the direction he knew the castle lay. Surprisingly, he didn't really feel much desire to return to it, though he did feel the need to at least see how his friends and girlfriend were doing. He heaved a heavy sigh, eyes flicking up slightly when he felt Fievel give him a comforting pat on the head. His eyes darted back to the water, spotting glints of silver darting about just below its usually smooth surface. He had only just realized they were fish when his paw swung out instinctively, scooping a fish out of the water and tossing it upon the shore.
He stared at the creature, watching it flop pathetically on the rocky shore. A grumbling in his stomach prompted him to dive forward, taking the fish in his jaws and crunching down on it. He heard several cracks and snaps and felt warm liquid enter his mouth. Far from being repulsed, the taste made him salivate, and he crunched down harder, chewing the fish until he was able to pull the whole thing in his mouth and swallow it whole.
He licked the blood from his muzzle, part of him feeling quite perturbed that he was able to snuff out this small life without an ounce of guilt. He reminded himself that he was a lion – a predator, top of the food chain. They ate bigger animals than fish all the time, it was simply the circle of life. He nodded firmly to himself, almost launching Fievel from his head as he did so. He blinked apologetically at his little friend before allowing him to get resituated.
The lion caught and ate a few more fish before departing from the inlet, more full than he had been when he had awoken that morning. He trotted into the forest with an easy, loping gait, giving a low, growling hum as he went. He greeted the familiar herd of unicorns as he passed them and paused when he saw a group of thestrals gathered around a fresh carcass. He took a few pawsteps toward it before turning away in mild disgust upon noticing it was a deer. Despite being a lion, eating a deer just didn't sit right with them. Neither did eating a bird, for that matter. Or a rabbit. He hummed, recalling a silver hare hopping around a room.
He found the spot he had collapsed earlier that morning and flopped down upon it, lifting a paw and beginning to groom between his toes. He gave a wide yawn when he was finished and laid his head upon his paws, sighing in contentment as he felt Fievel curl into a ball atop his head. He closed his eyes, his chest rising and falling slowly as he drifted off to sleep.
Squeaking next to his ear awakened him many hours later, prompting him to pick his head up and look around wildly. Fievel squeaked a few more times before he pointed off in a direction off to his left. He flicked his ear as he heard three distinct sets of footsteps, opening his jaws to allow the scents of these new intruders to hit the roof of his mouth. The first two, he was mildly unsurprised to find. The third, however, elicited a loud snarl from him and sent him scrambling to his paws.
He dashed toward the three, feeling Fievel hanging on for dear life. The voices of the people became clearer as he approached them. The ground beneath his paws rumbled as though a herd of many-hoofed animals was running across it, headed in the same direction as the lion's soon-to-be prey. He heard his prey's high-pitched voice announcing herself to the herd.
"I am Dolores Umbridge!" she shrieked in a terrified voice. "Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic and Headmistress and -"
She cut off abruptly into a loud scream that was drowned out by an even louder roar. The lion pounced out from the trees, paws outstretched as he knocked her to the ground, her wand flying from her hand. The lion pinned her there, enjoying the sight of her struggling and screaming for help, looking wildly around her as she looked for any assistance to come.
"Potter!" she shouted, looking at the teens behind the lion. "Granger! Please! Save me!"
She gave another terrified scream as the lion put his muzzle closer to her face, his nose touching hers. He opened his jaws, eliciting another horrified scream from her that was drowned out as the lion gave another loud roar, exposing all his sharp, pointed teeth and sending flecks of saliva and blood over her face. He stared at her with an intense feeling of satisfaction before he turned his head to his left, eyeing the centaurs that all stood with their bows pointed at him.
He stepped off Umbridge, grabbing her wand off the ground in his jaws and setting it on the ground before the centaurs. He stared at them before nodding at them, watching with a feeling of relief as their leader gestured for them to lower their bows. The chestnut-bodied centaur walked toward him, hand outstretched before he rested it upon the lion's head. Fievel poked his head out, squeaking lightly as he sniffed the centaur's fingers and retreated back into the lion's mane.
The centaur withdrew his hand before stooping down to pick up the wand the lion had laid at his hooves. He stared at the wand in idle fascination before snapping it like a twig, much to the lion's satisfaction. The woman gave a loud wail of despair, cutting off abruptly when the lion turned back to her and roared loudly. She shivered on the ground, terrified as the lion stalked toward her.
He snapped at her idly before approaching the two teens and standing in front of them. Harry and Hermione stared at him with a mixture of awe and relief before the lion laid down, allowing them to clamber onto his back. He rose to his paws, giving the centaurs a nod and releasing another roar at Umbridge before he took off through the trees in the direction of the castle. When they were some distance away from Umbridge and the centaurs, Harry finally spoke.
"Leo," he said, voice full of nerves and worry. "We have to get to the Department of Mysteries – Voldemort's got Sirius!"
The lion stopped abruptly, almost sending Harry and Hermione toppling from his back. He turned his head to face the two, eyes alight in intrigue, fear, worry, and anger. He flicked his ear, waiting for an explanation.
"I had a vision – Voldemort's torturing Sirius for the prophecy!" Harry told him swiftly. "I tried firecalling the Den and Grimmauld, but Kreacher said he wasn't there! Uncle Cas and Remus didn't come when I called either! We have to hurry and save Sirius!"
"We need to get back up to the castle!" Hermione argued.
"By the time we've done that, Sirius'll probably be dead!" Harry shot back.
"Well, we can't do anything without wands," said Hermione hopelessly. "Anyway, Harry, how exactly were you planning to get all the way to London?"
"Yeah, we were just wondering that," said a familiar voice from just up ahead.
Ron came into sight, with Ginny, Neville, Draco, and Luna hurrying along behind him. All of them looked a little the worse for wear — several long scratches were running the length of Ginny's cheek, a large purple lump was swelling above Neville's right eye, Ron's lip was bleeding and Draco looked as though his nose had been broken — but all were looking rather pleased with themselves.
Neville and Ginny stared apprehensively at the lion as Harry and Hermione clambered off him. Luna, however, walked right up to the lion and stroked his face, receiving a low, rumbling purr in response.
"Hello, Leo," she said in her usual dreamy tone.
Ginny and Neville stared at the lion in shock as it changed back into Leo Black, who looked dishevelled but unharmed for the most part. He pulled Luna into a hug, gripping her tight before turning to everyone else and giving curt nods. He waited for Ron to hand Harry and Hermione back their wands before he finally spoke.
"I know we all have questions, but we don't have time to answer them," he said, finding himself quite curious as to what had happened in the day he had been gone. "From what I understand, Sirius is in trouble and we have to rescue him. If you don't want to help, now's the time to leave."
No one moved, much to his satisfaction.
"That's all well and good," Draco drawled. "But how the hell are we supposed to get to the Ministry from here? We can't Apparate and Flooing is out of the question for obvious reasons."
"Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?" said Luna in the closest thing to a matter-of-fact voice Leo had ever heard her use.
"Brilliant idea," Draco rolled his eyes. "Except not everyone has a broomstick or can fly."
"There are other ways of flying than with broomsticks," said Luna serenely.
"I s'pose we're going to ride on the back of the Kacky Snorgle or whatever it is?" Ron demanded.
"The Crumple-Horned Snorkack can't fly," said Luna in a dignified voice, "but thestrals can." She turned to look at Leo. "Call them, they'll come to you."
Leo nodded before frowning as he looked over the others.
"You lot look a right mess..." he stated before turning to Draco. "Fly up to Gryffindor Tower, to my dorm room. If you look in my trunk you should find loads of Strengthening Solution I nicked during Snape's lesson. Bring it and anything else that might be useful."
Draco nodded before turning into his Animagus form and taking off with a loud screech, leaving a stunned Ginny and Neville to stare at the spot he had once been. Leo discarded his robes, vest, and tie before reaching upward to the top of his head. Fievel climbed off his head and onto his hand with a small squeak, running up his arm and across his shoulder before clambering down to nestle in his breast pocket. He moved his hands to cup around his mouth before letting loose a shriek not dissimilar to the one Hagrid once used.
"Tenebrus!" Leo called loudly. "Raelen! Faetin! Phrixan! We need your help!" He paused to look at everyone staring at him and shrugged. "Those are the fastest thestrals in the herd. Reckon we could use a little speed if we're in a rush to get to London..."
Neville raised a hand and Leo nodded at him.
"Why only four?" he frowned. "There're eight of us."
"Because only four of us can see them and not everyone can fly well," Leo answered. "I figure we'd divide into pairs – someone who can fly and someone who can see them on each thestral. Luna will be with Ron, Neville with Draco, me with Hermione, and Ginny with Harry. Any objections?"
He received several head shakes. Everyone turned their gaze upward at the sound of a loud screech, watching as a white hawk with black wings wheeled down through the dense branches toward them. The hawk turned into Draco as he landed, only stumbling slightly as he did so. He reached into the pocket of his robes, procuring several tiny turquoise flasks and handing them out to everyone. Leo took his, noting that Draco's nose appeared to have been fixed.
Everyone eyed the flasks apprehensively until Leo tapped his with his wand, returning it to its normal size. He uncapped and drank it, licking his lips before grimacing at the taste and making a face. A feeling of strength flooded through his body, making him feel more invigorated than he had in weeks. He gave a thumbs up to everyone before watching as they re-enlarged their flasks and downed them. They all made various faces of disgust before their expressions brightened.
Now all they had to do was wait for the thestrals. They only had to wait a few minutes before four thestrals came cantering through the trees toward them. Leo filled Draco in on the flight arrangements as he helped Hermione onto the back of Tenebrus. He rushed to help Luna onto Phrixan before showing Ron where to put his feet so he could climb on in front of her. Neville and Draco clambered onto Faetin without much issue and Harry and Ginny were already on Raelan by the time Leo clambered upon Tenebrus.
"This is mad," Ron said faintly, moving his free hand gingerly up and down his thestral's neck. "Mad... if I could just see it —"
"Personally, I'd rather not, Weasley," Draco scoffed.
"Everyone ready?" Leo asked, receiving nods in return. "All right then: London Ministry of Magic, visitor's entrance, please!"
For a moment Tenebrus did nothing at all. Then, with a sweeping movement that nearly unseated him, the wings on either side extended, the thestral crouched slowly and then rocketed upward so fast and so steeply that Leo had to clench his arms and legs tightly around Tenebrus to avoid sliding backwards over its bony rump. Hermione shrieked loudly and gripped his waist tightly as they burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soared out into a bloodred sunset.
Tenebrus streaked over the castle, its wide wings hardly beating. The cooling air was slapping Leo's face; eyes screwed up against the rushing wind, he looked around and saw his companions soaring along behind him, each of them bent as low as possible into the neck of their thestral to protect themselves from its slipstream.
They were over the Hogwarts grounds, they had passed Hogsmeade. Mountains and gullies streamed by below them, a blur of grey, green, and brown. They passed over more villages, then a winding road on which a single car was beetling its way home through the hills...
"This is bizarre!" Ron yelled.
Twilight fell: The sky turned to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars, and soon it was only the lights of Muggle towns that gave them any clue of how far from the ground they were or how very fast they were travelling. Tenebrus turned his head to look at Leo and gave a small huff, receiving a nod in return before he faced forward again.
"We'll be landing in five minutes!" Leo called out to his friends.
A sense of nervous anxiety rippled through Leo as Tenebrus and the other thestrals angled down sharply toward the many bright orange lights that made up London. Worry for Sirius gnawed at him, and he refused to let himself think about him. If he did, he'd consider all the possibilities: that he was alive, dead, or – even worse – currently being tortured. Leo shook his head, a look of grim determination on his face. This is just another adventure, Leo. Sirius is fine – he probably won't even be there! We'll have broken into the Ministry for nothing and we'll all have a good laugh about it later. He told himself firmly.
Quite suddenly, it seemed, they were hurtling toward the pavement. Leo gripped Tenebrus with every last ounce of his strength, braced for a sudden impact, but the thestral touched the dark ground as lightly as a shadow and Leo slid from his back, helping Hermione down as he looked around at the street where the overflowing dumpster still stood a short way from the vandalized telephone box, both drained of colour in the flat orange glare of the streetlights.
Ron landed a short way away and toppled immediately off his thestral onto the pavement. "Never again," he said, struggling to his feet. He made as though to stride away from his thestral, but, unable to see it, collided with its hindquarters and almost fell over again. "Never, ever again... that was the worst —"
Leo ran over immediately to help Luna down, watching as Harry, Draco, and their companions landed on the ground and dismounted more gracefully than Ron had. Leo did a quick headcount before nodding and leading them over to the telephone booth, wondering how they would all fit. They all squished together, leaving Leo to struggle to input the numbers into the rotary.
As it whirred back into place the cool female voice sounded inside the box, "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."
"Leo Black, Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood," Leo said as quickly as possible, "Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, and Neville Longbottom. We're here to save the day."
"Thank you," said the cool female voice. "Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."
Eight badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins usually appeared. Leo scooped them up, intrigued to see his name on the topmost one with the word Hero just underneath it. Briefly skimming through the badges, he saw everyone else's read the same – just with different names. Well, it's good to be recognized. Leo mused as he affixed his badge to the pocket of his shirt, making sure he didn't accidentally stab Fievel as he did so.
"Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium."
"Fine!" Harry said loudly. "Now can we move?"
The floor of the telephone box shuddered and the pavement rose up past the glass windows of the telephone box. The scavenging thestrals were sliding out of sight, blackness closed over their heads, and with a dull grinding noise they sank down into the depths of the Ministry of Magic.
A chink of soft golden light hit their feet and, widening, rose up their bodies. Leo bent his knees and held his wand as ready as he could in such cramped conditions, peering through the glass to see whether anybody was waiting for them in the Atrium, but it seemed to be completely empty. The light was dimmer than it had been by day. There were no fires burning under the mantelpieces set into the walls, but he saw as the lift slid smoothly to a halt that golden symbols continued to twist sinuously in the dark blue ceiling.
"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening," said the woman's voice.
"I'll bet," Leo grumbled.
The door burst open and Harry was the first to topple out, everyone else falling on top of him. Leo clambered off the pile and helped his friends one by one to their feet. He held a hand up for them to pause, scenting the air for any sign they weren't alone. The scents were many and steadily growing stale, though there were a few fresher ones that Leo couldn't identify. They're about an hour old... the last of the people leaving or enemies lying in wait? He considered with a small frown.
Regardless, they were the only ones in the atrium at the moment, so it was safe to move forward. He waved his hand for them to move before sprinting off past the fountain, everyone following after him. They passed by the empty security desk where Eric had once sat and passed through the golden gates to the lifts. He pressed the nearest down button and a lift clattered into sight almost immediately, the golden grilles slid apart with a great, echoing clanking, and they dashed inside. Neville stumbled slightly as he ran inside, catching himself and accidentally pressing a button on the lift. He mumbled an apology as he hurried inside and Leo pressed the button for the lowest floor. The grilles closed with a bang, and the lift began to descend, jangling and rattling. It stopped a couple of floors down.
"Level two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters, and Wizengamot Administration Services," said a cool female voice as the door opened.
Something jolted in Leo's memory, something his father had mentioned about the Improper Use of Magic office. We might never get the chance again... He dove out of the lift, receiving shouts of surprise from his friends.
"I have to take care of something, but I'll meet you lot in the Hall later," he informed them. "Stick together – don't take risks. Above all: stay alive."
The doors closed before they could say anything in response. He darted down a corridor lined with doors and windows from which moonlight filtered through. He scanned each of the doors as he ran by, dismissing each of them when they didn't read what he wanted. He turned a corner, walked through a pair of heavy oak doors, and emerged in a cluttered, open area divided into cubicles. A lopsided sign on the nearest cubicle read "Auror Headquarters".
He passed by the desks without much interest before stopping suddenly as he saw movement. It was Bellatrix Lestrange. Or, rather, it was a photo of her attached to the front of what appeared to be a very thick and heavy file. Leo stared at it curiously, his fingers itching to peruse it to see what he could learn. No time... He cursed before an idea occurred to him. He tapped the front of the file with his wand and murmured a spell, shrinking it so that it fit in the pocket of his pants.
He then rocketed past the cubicles, barging through another set of double doors before he continued down the corridor and past many more cubicles. A sign on one of them read "Improper Use of Magic Office". Bingo. Leo grinned broadly. He looked around the office curiously, wondering where he could find the object he was looking for. It detects underage magic so...
"Avis!" he shouted, pointing his wand.
With a loud 'bang', smoke burst from the tip of his wand, followed by the appearance of several red birds fluttering outward. They tweeted as they flew merrily around the cubicles, but they weren't what got Leo's attention. A deep sound like a gong reverberated throughout the office, seeming to come from one of the doors across from the cubicles. Leo walked toward it, blasting it open with his wand carelessly before looking inside.
The room was dark and empty with the exception of one thing. A large, smoke-filled glass ball stood upon an enormous plinth in the cent of the room. The smoke was red, indicating that something was amiss. It seemed to glow slightly, the light pulsating from it steadily as Leo watched it. He strode toward it, a feral grin stretching over his face.
"Hello, my pretty."