Word Count: 2,891
Former Word Count: 2,766
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What Might Be Called a Monster
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[September 2, 1994: About 120 kilometres from the Altair Institute of Magic]
"I don't get why mum thought this would be such a great idea!" Ron complained, stopping in the middle of the trail. They hadn't made it far at all, and through it all Ron had vocally protested the hike, even as he trudged along after the other three.
"Don't get upset with me, mate!" Terry protested, I'm not particularly enjoying our trek through the forest much either, not to mention the lack of warmth or —you know— food, because someone has decided that he couldn't possibly share his dozens of sandwiches with us! Not to mention, on top of that, that someone is acting like a total prat!"
"I'm not a prat!" Ron shouted, "And you should eat your own sandwiches! Mum made these for me and 'Mione—" "That's not my name!" "—not for you, so you can find your own food!"
"Seriously, Ron?" Terry blurted, "Why are— you were so much less of a bastard first year."
"What did you—!"
"Look, how about this," Justin interjected desperately. Ron looked close to pulling his wand, and Terry didn't seem to be backing down any time soon. "What if we trade? I have candy, I'll trade it for sandwiches.
It took a moment before Ron turned his glare from Terry to Justin, and Justin offered him a strained little half-smile. "I mean, candy, right? Sounds tastier than sandwiches," the Hufflepuff goaded.
"Right. Sandwiches for candy," Ron repeated thoughtfully. "Sounds good to me—"
"Ronald Weasley!" Hermione scolded, "Don't give him your food—"
"Hermione!" Ron mimicked, "It's candy, and he's asking for these stupid sandwiches anyways—"
"That doesn't mean you should—"
"—I just want candy—"
"—sandwiches are healthier! You can't just—"
"—well candy is tastier—"
The two other boys shared a frustrated glance, and with a half-shrug, Terry traded his candy for Ron's sandwiches. They'd notice eventually, he figured, gesturing for Justin to follow him. "I think we're better off without 'em," Terry whispered. The two snuck down the trail, ignoring the increasingly vehement argument.
"I can't believe they're arguing about sandwiches of all things," Justin said to Terry's laughter.
"I'm not surprised. Surely you've heard the rumors about the things they fight about? I feel bad for Az, really, she had to deal with them the last few years."
"Fair enough," Justin agreed. "Hey, you think if we walked enough, we'd be able to catch up to Az's group?"
"You ask, as if they aren't likely already there," Terry joked. "There's no way we're catching up, even if we sprint the whole way."
"Fair, fair." Justin hummed, "D'you think they'll realize we left any time soon?"
"With how that argument was going?" Terry asked. "No way. Not for at least thirty minutes."
They walked down the worn path, Terry leading confidently with no idea where he was going. They were less prepared than Azalea and Luna had been, certainly, but Terry made some effort to at least go outside every once and a while. They were both in decent enough shape, but 200 kilometers in three days? There was no way.
"You regretting this yet?" Justin asked.
"No, I don't think so," Terry said thoughtfully. "I'm not stoked about the hike but… I can't help but think it's a better test than sticking a talking hat on someone's head, y'know? This isn't meant to be an 'easy school' everyone's admitted to like Hogwarts."
"I hadn't thought of that," Justin said. "This better be worth it."
/ Oh, I'm almost hurt! / one of the lurking students commented. / Do you think it counts as a cruel and unusual punishment to leave someone with the two lovebirds? /
/ That was mocking, right? They are not a good couple. /
/ We're talking about the red-head and the book one, right? /
/ Weasley and Granger, yes. /
/ Yeah, that's a disaster waiting to happen if I've ever seen one. /
/ We're off track. /
/ We are never on track. Seven drachma Weasley and Granger don't make it to Altair. /
/ That bet is barely worth an obol, who are you kidding? /
/ You, obviously. /
/ Seven obol bird-brain's group never catches up? /
/ Who— /
/ Malfoy, right? He's still so upset about his poor little face. There's no way the other blond didn't heal it that way on purpose. /
/ "The other blond," really? They're all blond. /
/ They are not, are you colorblind? /
/ No, she's just an idiot. /
/ Stay on track. Malfoy's too much of a coward to split off on his own, and the other two —excluding the other annoying blond one— seem fairly smart. The two smart one's will end up being the sole reason they get there. You know what, I'll take your seven obol bet. /
/ Thank the gods, I'll be up seven obol when they fail. /
...
[September 2, 1994: About 80 kilometers from the Altair Institute of Magic]
After the people had attacked them, the four girls had a good bit of peace and quiet. Whenever the random magical beasts got a little too close for their liking, Luna jumped around flailing her arms and shouting, which worked surprisingly well. At one point, they'd run into a wide meadow full of vibrant pink and purple flowers, and the utter delight Luna radiated was more than worth putting up with the younger girl braiding flowers into their hair.
It helped that it gave them the time to sit and eat an actual lunch, and give their feet a rest from the walking. They took a moment to check their feet for blisters once again, reapply the Lovegood Expedition Charms, as Hannah had named them. They really just kept the girls from cooking themselves in the sun, getting covered in bug bites, and getting covered in all the little scratches that came with hiking.
When they finally stood to move along, it was with the weariness of having hiked a full day previous. They'd long since grown tired of even looking at the sights while hiking, so they'd tried to find new ways to entertain themselves.
"I spy with my little eye something green," Susan said tiredly.
Azalea groaned in commiseration. "Let me guess, it's a plant!"
"Wow! You got it! I can't do this anymore."
"We could sing?" Hannah suggested without thinking, though she immediately looked regretful as Luna immediately blurted out an old magical nursery rhyme.
"Fly, fly, fly your broom, swiftly through the sky!" the Ravenclaw belted. "Merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream."
"Wait, that doesn't even rhyme correctly," Azalea pointed out. "Stream and dream rhyme, that's the whole point—"
"Shush!"
The songs devolved from there, staying on the nursery rhyme track and switching quickly to wizard pop songs (which was… only the Weird Sisters, Azalea realized). Pop songs turned to folk songs until Hannah started off with an old fairy tale about the Wizard with the Hopping Pot, then myths and stories and all sorts of tall tales as they wandered down the winding path.
The trail they were on was hardly different than the past dozen kilometers. It still had the shadowy trees with little creatures lurking inside. It hadn't brightened enough for them to walk without a hovering white light, and the forest floor was just damp enough and covered in sodden leaves that their steps made little noise.
Every bend in the path had Hannah checking her compass, worriedly looking in the direction of the needle, a path that never seemed to overlap with the way the trail turned.
"We aren't going the right way," Hannah pointed out, her voice quivering ever so slightly. "We have to—"
The loud snap of a branch nearby cut her off, and she froze as she looked at Azalea in dread. The group of four pulled their wands simultaneously, quickly moving so they each faced different directions ready to defend the others.
"I swear, Azalea," Susan hissed threateningly, "If your stupid luck catches us again, I'm cursing you into the next century."
Azalea scoffed quietly, though she flicked her wand with a muttered "Revelio."
Susan and Azalea's joking manner was all that reassured Hannah. Their calm confidence as they cast all the detection and defensive spells they knew was a break in the tense atmosphere, even as down the trail strange lights bounded across.
"Oh, no!" Luna exclaimed loudly, making the other three twitch in alarm and tense. "I think the heliopaths have lost their pets."
"Luna, really?" Hannah asked. Azalea flinched as her unvoiced thought was said aloud, and she guiltily brushed her hand against the other girl's shoulder in reassurance.
In the stifling silence that followed, the girls watched the lights bounce over the trail in brilliant trails. They were too distant and blocked by trees to discern any details, but they were getting bigger, and closer, all bursts of brilliant colored light rushing through the darker trees. They weren't close enough to worry about until they were in front of them.
"What the—" Susan exclaimed as a flaming ball flew past her face, burning shapes raining past them. They were faintly animalistic, forms shifting from a flying ball of fire to sleek feline forms and back with no discernible rhythm.
The fire-cats streamed across the trail, indifferent to the four girls watching their spectacle. Occasionally, one would lunge as if it would collide with them until it burst into smoke an inch from their face. The brilliant cats bounded freely and mischievously around the humans in their midst, leaving nothing but themselves in flame.
The fire-cats raced with purpose into the trees, and their flickering light illuminated the trees in an orange glow.
"They're running away!" Hannah realized, and suddenly they were wary again, this time of whatever could scare cats made of fire itself.
Even as they prepared once again for a possible fight, hundreds of fiery cats leaped across the path, leaving the heavy scent of smoke and ash permeating the air with a thick haze and the sound of a thousand fires crackling. Hannah's face was flush with joy and heat from the fire-cats passing, her worry quashed as a wet howl echoed through the trees.
From the treeline came also hounds, sleek beasts made from water and ice, their coats reflecting and absorbing the light of their flaming counterparts. They howled and barked, jaws gnashing at the feet of the cats, and each time they caught their prey both vanished into clouds of steam.
Azalea's mouth hung just open enough for Hannah to notice, and with rosy cheeks the girl began to laugh loud, belly-deep laughs that echoed in the muted forest.
"They— they're kamikaze animals!" she guffawed. "Or— or they have to be like—" she gasped for breath between each word, and soon enough Azalea and Susan joined in her joy. "There are so many of them! I've never even seen this many normal cats and dogs at one time!" Hannah laughed, arms clutching her stomach as she doubled over in laughter.
As the other three laughed loudly, their agitation and stress from the past days washing away, Luna stared bemused after the rapidly vanishing forms with a dreamy expression.
"I think that the Altair Institute of Magic might have a heliopath infestation" Luna commented seriously. "Maybe I should write to daddy about it?"
The completely serious question just made the other girls laugh harder. "Should we— should we be worried about those?" Susan asked, clutching Hannah's shoulder in an attempt to not fall over.
The question fueled another round of uncontrollable giggles, and Azalea looked for Luna to join in, only to see her worriedly staring into the once again dark trees.
"Oh Luna," Azalea sighed, smile faltering as she moved to hug her friend. "Moonbeam, I really don't think we need to worry about heliopaths. There's all sorts of other things at Altair we should worry about, but I don't think heliopaths are one."
"What if there's a Milly Guppet?" Luna asked.
"What's a— oh, I don't want to know. I don't know if there'll be Milpy Gummets there, Lu, but we can look for them if you want?" Azalea offered.
"Milly Guppets," Luna corrected. "I hope there are. Daddy was going to take me on an expedition to find them in a few months, but if I found one here, maybe we could go Crumple-horned Snorkack hunting instead!"
Once they had all calmed down, they set off again down the trail, relaxing with every minute that passed without conflict. Four hours of peace hiking further than they ever had before left them exhausted. They hadn't slept much, and they'd almost constantly been using magic since the previous day. Those issues combined left them inattentive to their surroundings, and as the sun rose higher in the sky, awareness vanished under yawns and drowsy eyes.
There just didn't seem to be a good reason to pay attention anymore. They'd made it far —certainly over half the way in— and it was sunny and warm, with the trees providing ample enough shade, even as they vanished in empty pockets of green meadows. The high mountains on either side were finally converging in a point, and the high cliffs provided cool shade as the girls wandered near their base. The calm was only interrupted by distant shrieks and howls from dragons and all sorts of beasts, and the haze of the day wore on them.
It didn't last.
They'd just entered into a large clearing close to the cliffs where a cave gaped wide in the shadows of a rock pile. The girls gave little though, trudging along next to it with hunched backs and stumbling steps, exhausted but determined to continue for at least another hour. As soon as they'd stepped into the trees, they heard a rustling noise from behind and then a loud, bellowing roar.
"Damn." Azalea said quietly, grimacing when Hannah shot her an accusatory glare. "Potter's luck," she said helplessly.
The girls turned simultaneously to face the cave mouth, now obscured by a towering golden manticore, his muscled lion's body framed by massive bat wings that extended two times its length to either side. Its arcing scorpion's tail was a dark, reflective green, and matched with the near half-foot long canines, the manticore was a sight to behold. A terrifying one.
"Run!" Susan shouted needlessly as the girls sprinted down the trail, desperately remembering all they'd been told about manticores. Remus had explained the venom scale— born with black near-harmless tails that turned red for milder venous, then blue, blue-green, dark green, then lightest to yellow for the most venomous.
"The trees!" Azalea shouted to her companions. "Once— thick enough— can't follow!" she gasped out.
Behind them, the manticore roared its rage, pursuing them with loud crashes of its wings, legs working in tandem to propel it towards them at high speeds. It ran without concern for the trees, slamming into them and knocking them down like pins.
The girls sprinted down the path, dodging stray branches and rocks underfoot. Azalea glanced briefly backwards and shouted a warning, and without hesitation Hannah turned, wand arcing along with a shouted "Procudo!"
The overpowered spell hit the ground with a flash of silver light, sending dirt and stones flying backwards, throwing a massive wave of earth backwards into the manticore's face.
"What are their weaknesses?" Azalea shouted, glancing behind to see the manticore still pursuing them, spittle flying from its maw as it roared again.
"They were attacked on elephants!" Luna replied.
"We don't have a bloody elephant!" Susan screamed, flinging the same spell Hannah had used behind them. This time, the manticore flew through the dirt, wings throwing it in all directions.
"I'll distract it!" Azalea decided. "Drop a tree on it or something!"
Azalea twisted on her heel, throwing a blasting hex towards the beast and sprinting towards it, shouting every spell she could think of, reductor curses and blasting hexes demolishing the ground and trees nearby. All they did was destroy the ground, spells washing off of the manticore's thick fur and scales. As Azalea got nearer, the manticore's scorpion tail arched high and jabbed towards her, barely missing as Azalea dived, quickly regaining her footing and summoning a thick log into its head.
The manticore swatted it out of the air with a swipe of its tail and a furious roar, claws gouging deep trenches into the earth as it lunged toward her. Azalea only barely managed to dodge, one of the long claws shearing a thin layer of skin off her side. Azalea barely felt it, too focused on finding a way to take out the manticore.
Azalea dodged the next strike, then the next, trading spells with the massive beast as it grew more and more furious. The next strike sent her stumbling, barely catching her feet and she desperately tried something new —an illusion of a bigger beast and them disappearing— only to remember with horror that most magical beasts were unaffected by illusion.
It was with a wet squelch that the manticore's tail pierced Azalea's thigh, slamming her into the ground from the force. Azalea howled at the pain that laced its way through her body, grasping at the bleeding wound as the manticore pulled its stinger out, red blood dripping viscous from the tip. The beast roared in triumph, its celebration only interrupted by a scream and an echoing crack.
"Azalea!"
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a/n: formatting might be funky, was on mobile. lmk and I'll fix them.