Authors Note: Thought I had better make this clear. This story is Ginny/Harry/Hermione/Neville/Luna/Ron with Ginny and Ron having a bother/sisterish relationship. It shouldn't be too difficult to work out which members of the Wolf Pack are which.
2: New World, New Home
"Ray?"
The young man groaned and fought his way back to consciousness, "What happened?"
Nua and Mia were leaning over him and could see Dar standing behind them.
"You fell out of the portal and then there was an explosion. We woke up here. It's some kind of prison."
"How nice."
"We've also found the first problem with this plan." Nua seemed vaguely amused.
Ray raised an eyebrow and waited.
"We don't speak the language here and the people here can't speak ours."
"Can't Jen do her trick?"
"None of them will let her touch them for long enough. I think they're all sensors in here."
Ray grunted again and looked around. Jen and Naz were standing facing a tall, bald black man with a gold earring in one ear. They seemed to be trying to work out a method of communication.
"Kingsley Shacklebolt." He said, pointed to himself.
"Naz." The redhead responded also pointed towards himself. "Jen." He pointed to the blonde beside him.
The black man nodded.
An hour or more had passed. Naz, Jen and Kingsley had reached the point where the Wolf Pack knew they were being held prisoner by someone called Lord Voldemort and that they had appeared on the grounds of his current base. Kingsley and two of the other prisoners were part of this world's law enforcement agency and had been captured the day before. And everyone there could do 'magic'. Ray, Mia and Dar were sitting with their back to the wall. Nua was standing beside them watching the trio. It was both disconcerting and entertaining. Twenty minutes work seemed to have resulted in Kingsley being willing to let Jen do a reading on him. They needed the language and this was the fastest way to get it.
Everyone else it the room watched with varying degrees of interest as the two people sat facing each other. Jen smiled encouragingly and reached out, putting hand down onto Kingsley's wrist. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she began to shiver. The big man began to draw back from her in surprise, but slight pressure on his shoulder from Naz made him stop and he looked at the other man. Naz smiled and nodded to Jen. Kingsley turned his attention back to her.
It was like a trickle of freezing cold water going through his mind, something he had never felt before. Like all aurors Kingsley had been trained in basic occulmuncy, but this was nothing like it. Then it was over. Jen opened her eyes and blinked before looking shyly at him, "Tha… thank uo… you."
A wave of muttering greeted this as the other people in the room shifted uneasily. Jen stood up and pulled the black man up, grinning as she did so, then she turned to Naz and put her hands onto his cheeks. After a few moments she drew away and he nodded. She repeated this with each of the others.
Ray tilted his head back; going over the information he had been given. It wasn't just the language and customs that Jen assimilated, but also the person's understanding of the nature of their world. It had been a useful method of getting information back when they had been one of the most feared weapons in the demon's army. They could only hope that it would be enough to let them make a place for themselves in this world. Kingsley was watching them, a strange look in his eyes as he followed first Jen's actions and then the stammered sentences as the Wolf Pack began to make the language work for them.
"Impressive." He said.
Ray nodded, climbing to his feet with easy grace, "Very. My name is Ray." He named the others before saying, "Jen has many unique talents."
"I've never seen anyone do anything like that before. Where are you from?" Kinsley watched Naz and Jen fall back to the others. Ray was obviously the leader. Suddenly the brown haired girl still leaning against the wall, let out a stream of words in a foreign language. Ray replied and the shock his head. The girl, Mia, he though, nodded once sharply and motioned to Dar. They made their way over to the door.
"What are they doing?"
"This is a… prison?"
He nodded.
"We do not like being in prison, so we plan to leave. You can come with us if you like."
"You think you can just walk out the door, boy?" one of the other's identified as an auror snapped, "The death eaters will tear you to pieces."
"Death Eaters?"
"Voldemort's troops." Kingsley explained, "You really think you can break out?"
Ray smirked and flipped his hood up, "I have never found the cell that can hold us." The rest of the Wolf Pack moved over to join Mia and Dar, flicking their hoods up as they did so.
"Anyone who wants to come be ready to move. Jen?"
The blonde nodded once and then seemed to fade through the door. Everyone waited impatiently for her return.
Standing beside Ray, Kinsley considered the young man. He couldn't be more then twenty five. None of them could, but they had the battle-hardened reflexes of those who had fought long and hard and the scars he could see lent weight to it. They were also unnaturally in tune with each other; as if they had spent so long together that they no longer knew how to react to other people, "Where will you go?"
"I do not know yet. Find a forest somewhere and set up camp. Some of the others have a… theory… they need to chase, so I think we will focus on that next."
"A forest?"
"We have neither the desire nor the ability to live near others, Kingsley. We just want to be left alone."
Kingsley licked his lips as he considered. Would they go for it? "I know somewhere you could try."
Ray refocused his attention on the other man as he continued, "The Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?"
"It's a school… for magic users. There's a massive forest on the grounds. Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster would probably be willing to work out a deal with you to let you stay there and have access to the school as well."
"Why?"
"Dumbledore is the only person Voldemort fears. He sees Hogwarts as a symbol of … resistance I guess, against him. Eventually he's going to have to take the school. If you're even half as good as your earlier comments make it sounds you'd be an asset. Protect the school and have the benefits of someone with Dumbledore's power backing you."
Ray grunted and nodded, but before he could say anything, Jen reappeared. He glided forward and they fell back into speaking the language they were raised with. Jen outlined the basic layout of the prison, included the important information of the exit and where their weapons were.
A few minutes later, they formed a loose semi-circle around the door with Nua in the middle. At a gesture from Ray, Nua raised a hand and the door blew of its hinges in a rush of fire. The Wolf Pack were through it before anyone else in the room had time to react. Jen, Dar and Ray set of at a loping run towards the weapons store. Nua took up her position at the door and watched as Mia and Naz began to make their way towards the stairs leading upwards. When the smoked cleared she put a finger to her lips and motioned the others to stay where they were. Kingsley frowned but helped her maintained order.
Further down the hall, Dar pulled a startled death eater into the shadows of the corridor and broke his neck with a quick jerk. Jen seemed to dance between them, gliding around, never quite where they struck, her hands and feet dealing pain and death in equal measure. Ray brought up the rear, killing any who survived the passing of the Ghost Dancer and the Shadow Lord.
The armoury door burst open at a wave of concentrated power from Ray and they moved quickly to gather up their weapons. Ray stopped suddenly, looked at a box filled with sticks. Grabbing it up, he shrugged at the look from Dar and said, switching back to their language, "One of them belongs to Kingsley."
"What are they?"
"No idea."
Jen and Dar shared a look, but followed Ray as he made his way back towards the cell and dropped the box just outside. The other prisoners fell on the box like ravenous wolves making Nua join Jen, Dar and Ray in rising in eyebrow.
Seeing their expressions, one of the prisoners said, "You've never seen wands before?"
Ray shrugged, unwilling to expose how ignorant there were of this world and told them to hurry up. Naz reappeared, taking his weapons off of Dar quickly before hurrying away. A few minutes later Mia joined them long enough to retrieve hers before heading back the way she came after talking quickly with Ray. Dar and Jen followed her.
Once they were out of sight, Ray turned to Kingsley, "The others will clear the path ahead of us. Keep close and keep quiet and we will escape without a problem."
Kingsley nodded and motioned to the two other aurors to help with crowd control. They moved forward, Nua falling in behind them and then dropping back. They moved quickly and quietly, as Ray had said up the stairs and down the corridor without seeing another living thing. Every once in a while, they would pass a body, some of whom had been killed quickly and other had been ripped to pieces. Kingsley narrowed his eyes as the identity of one mutilated corpse was given away the long blonde hair. The Wolf Pack were as good as they had indicated, but they were also brutal. Maybe too brutal to be of use to the light.
They rounded another corner and the door was ahead of them, held open by Dar on one side and Naz on the other, both leaning lazily against them. The spring sunshine caught the latter's hair and set it almost on fire. Kingsley blinked, he was sure he had seen something like that before. Neither of them held any weapons, but he remembered the way the cloaks had concealed everything, making them almost invisible it the dim light of the cell. He couldn't quite stop the shiver that ran through him.
Outside, they hurried towards the perimeter, the Wolf Pack ranging ahead and behind of them, keeping them safe as they raced to the edge of the anti-apparition wards. Once there, they disappeared one by one until only Kingsley and a handful of teens remained. Mia watched them, surprise in her eyes. Ray stopped beside the bald auror and looked back at the fortress they had escaped. "Where is this 'Hogwarts'?"
Flashing blindingly white teeth at them, he asked, "Do you trust me?"
Ray shrugged in response, "We will, in this."
Grinning even wider, he conjured a rope with a flick of his wand and then held it out, "Everyone hold on."
With a quick glance at Ray, the Wolf Pack joined the other's holding the rope. A couple of mumbled words later and another wave of the wand, they felt a sharp jerk behind their navels and they were pulled forward.
They landed just outside a castle, the Wolf Pack falling away even as they reappeared and hands disappearing under the cloaks to grip what Kingsley could only assume were weapons. "It's alright" Kingsley yelled, holding his hands up, "It's called a portkey. This is Hogwarts."
The six seemed only to relax for a moment before the door slammed open and three people emerged. For a second Kingsley thought Severus Snape was going to do something stupid… like try to curse them. Remembering the mutilated remains of the Death Eaters, Kingsley had already opened his mouth to speak when the old man in the middle spoke, "Kingsley! You escaped! Are you hurt? What happened?"
"More like we were rescued, Albus. Allow me to introduce our rescuers to you."
"This is Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts." He said in the vague direction of Ray and Mia. "To his left is Severus Snape, Potions Professor and the lady to his right is Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and Transfiguration Professor." He hoped they would take the hint when he introduced them first. The Wolf Pack began to relax a little as the bald man continued, "This is Ray, Mia, Nua, Naz, Jen and Dar. They were captured earlier today."
"Do any of you need medial attention?"
Ray shook his head, frowning slightly at the brush he felt against his mind. He immediately blocked his thoughts off and made a hand signal to the others, who complied instantly with the command to raise their shields. He then turned to face Severus Snape and cocked his head slightly, waiting for an explanation. The greasy man just sneered at them.
"Jen." The command was snapped out and one of the figures behind Ray stepped forward. Dumbledore tried to say something, but the Wolf Pack ignored him. Suddenly, Snape fell to his knees, screaming as his held his head. It lasted barely a second before 'Jen' stepped back and snapped out a few sentences in another language.
Ray nodded and turned to Kingsley, "We do not think these are the kind of people we wish to be associated with, Kingsley. Thank you for the offer." He turned then and the others moved with him, walking away.
Kingsley looked at Snape, "What did you do?"
"Nothing" he spat.
"For some reason, I find that very hard to believe." The auror said.
Twenty minutes later, a quick check on the wards told Dumbledore that the strange people who had come in with Kingsley were gone. Madam Pomfrey had check Kingsley and the other students over for injuries and had reluctantly let most of them go. Now the auror stood beside the fire in the Headmaster's office while they waited for the few remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix to show up. Snape was seated in a corner, glaring at him. When everyone was there, Dumbledore looked at Kingsley, "Well?"
"You know I was captured along with most of my team yesterday? This morning the Death Eaters brought in six young adults dressed in some pretty weird clothing that had 'appeared' on Malfoy Manor grounds in an explosion. They were unconscious."
"Were they alright?" Molly Weasley gasped.
"They were fine, once they woke up. They didn't speak any language I recognised though, but with nothing else to do, I tried talking to two of them, Naz and Jen. After about twenty minutes, they managed to get through that Jen wanted to touch me. I agreed and then she did something… I've never felt anything like it before, but somehow… she learned the language just from that touch was able to communicate it to the others. Ray bluntly said they were going to break out and then sent Jen on ahead. She walked through the door and reappeared a few minutes later, I assume with the layout of the building. Next thing, Nua blows the door open using pure fire and Ray, Dar and Jen head off in once direction. Mia and Naz head off in the other and Nua stands there and tells us to stay put."
"And of course you did." Snape sneered at him.
"It was their show and they'd done okay until then" Kingsley shrugged, "Anyway, Dar, Jen and Ray appeared again with our wands and what I assume were their weapons. They didn't know what wands were though…" he paused for a moment before continuing, "Naz and Mia came back as well, took their weapons and then Ray sent them all on ahead and led us out."
"You didn't see any death eaters on the way?" Moody asked.
"Yeah, we saw what was left of them. Some of them looked like they had been ripped apart. I identified Malfoy Senior from his hair."
They were silent for a moment before Snape said, "Why did you bring them here?"
"I asked what they were going to do now. Ray said, find a forest somewhere and set up camp. I suggested the Forbidden Forest. I thought they would be a useful addition to the defences, until Snape did whatever it was that made them leave."
"I didn't do anything!"
"Severus?"
"What?"
"Did you try to read them?"
Snape's answering glare was answer enough.
"They are trained then in occulmuncy."
"It wasn't occulmuncy." Snape said, frowning, "It wasn't like anything I've ever felt before. It was like they weren't there at all."
"You said that 'Jen' walked through the door?" Moody said.
Kingsley nodded, "I've never seen anything like that before. Whoever they are, Albus, they would be invaluable to us. Just what little I seen of them, they are incredible fighters, fiercely loyal, driven, focused and from the weapons, trained in more fighter styles then the Unspeakables. Whatever Jen got out of Snape was enough to put them off us for good."
"Do you think they might side with Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked, the twinkle dying in his eyes.
"I don't think so. I got the impression they weren't enamoured by being put in prison by him." Kingsley replied.
Dumbledore nodded and then hesitated a moment before saying, "Try to get in touch with them, Kingsley. Tell them that Severus apologies and we are willing to respect their privacy. I would like to talk to them."
"I'll see what I can do."
"How old are they?" Molly Weasley asked suddenly.
"Mid twenties, I'd say. It's difficult to tell under the scars."
"Oh."
Far enough to the north that Dumbledore wouldn't think to look, Dar and Naz wove branches together to form a shelter in the centre of the thicket while. At the centre of the thicket, Nua carefully burned away the undergrowth to create ac comfortable area for them to rest in. Nearby Ray and Jen wove a complicated series of what Kingsley's memories told them were called wards in this world. They didn't speak. There was no need.
In a surprisingly short time, their packs were stowed and a small cook fire was burning. Ray and Nua prepared a meal while Jen retrieved water from a nearby stream and Naz and Dar scouted the area and used their own unique abilities to reinforce the wards. When they came back with Mia who had been out outwards guard at the edge of the forest they had selected, Ray served the meal and they curled up comfortably in a loose pile. "Why did that man upset you so much, Jen?" Mia asked softly.
"He is touched by pain and death. It has seeped into his core. He is cruel and evil and useless to everyone, yet he is allowed to teach children. He is a betrayer who has not yet decided who to betray."
Dar winced and exchanged looks with Naz, before turning to Ray, "What do we do tomorrow?"
"Kingsley is one of this worlds police. Dar, you and Nua will go south and try to find him. Mia and Jen will go into the nearby town and try to get more information on the society and see if they can find a library. Naz will go with them and try to get come maps, and then return here to me. We will try to work out where to go next. This forest isn't large enough to support us for long." Ray said.
The others nodded in agreement and the settled down to rest.
Well that's another chapter done, of what I think may be my most unpopular fic. Not sure if it's just worse then the others or not as many people are giving it a chance.
So, Review Please...