A/N: If you don't know what an ocelot is... you should! (i.e. go look it up!)
Oh, and in my story, werewolves look like actual wolves! Not that manky, spastic creature that was in the movie...
Chapter 7
***
"I miss you Aleks"
Arielle's whisper was swept away on the winds. Whistling eerily through branches and leaves, the winds left Hogwarts behind as they travelled out across London and over the seas towards Europe. With them they brought a cool change, enveloping the continent in the first cool night.
As the winds approached the Schwarzwald of Germany they grew stronger. They whistled through branches, throwing leaves in the air and creating whirlwinds on the forest floor. The source of their excitement seemed to stem from a clearing in the forest which led to the open mouth of a cave.
Illuminated by the dying light of a campfire, a youth stood in the entrance to the cave. His bright, ocean blue eyes were directed to the sky, reflecting the twinkling stars, while his red lips parted and curved in a smile. The winds appeared to dance around him as he spread his arms out wide, welcoming them. Despite the chill there were no goosebumps springing up across his tanned skin, and no pink tinge on his cheeks. He remained an image of perfection, his freckled face lit in an expression of radiant happiness.
"I miss you too Arielle," he whispered, his words carried away on the winds.
However, the winds soon dispersed, continuing on their journey, leaving a heavy stillness behind in the clearing. Wrapping his cloak back around his body the boy moved back towards the dying coals of the fire. Seating himself gracefully on the dirt floor of the cave he withdrew a thin, dark brown wand and waited.
It was a sudden movement across the surrounding grass that caught his attention. A small white rabbit found itself precariously close to the fire, before it stopped, stunned, staring right into those brilliant, blue eyes. Narrowing his eyes, the boy focussed,
"Leglimens" he whispered.
Diving through the cloudy nothingness of the rabbit's inconsequential thoughts he clamped onto the more substantial memory of the rabbit's warren. Still inside the rabbit's mind he whispered "Semita", wrapping the memory up in the tracking spell, then casting "Obliviate!"
The rabbit stared at him blankly, the Obliviate clearly having worked; it now had no idea where to go. Still concentrating, the boy then reached back into the rabbit's mind, finding the Obliviate and breaking it, releasing the memory. He then waited. The rabbit stared at him. Nothing.
The boy sighed in frustration as the rabbit, coming to its senses, bolted away, a white streak against the dark green of the grass.
"Still no luck, Aleks?" asked a deep voice from behind
The boy jumped from the floor, throwing up a shield charm as he twisted around in one fluid movement to locate the owner of the voice. Having been in deep concentration he hadn't heard the older male approach. The owner of the deep voice chuckled, "Steady there you twitchy little rabbit." Sighing in relief, a rueful grin spread across Aleks's face as he brushed a strand of light brown hair out of his face.
"I swear Ben, if I enter one more rabbit's mind, I'm going to become a mindless fur ball, good for nothing but eating lettuce and digging holes!"
The older male, Ben, grinned good-naturedly also seating himself by the fire. His dark brown eyes crackled with mirth at Aleks's outburst. "No worries, there's some fresh hay and a nice warm hut out the back."
"Urgh," wandlessly Aleks conjured a pillow and threw it at Ben, who easily caught it and put it behind his head as he lay down on the cave floor. Aleks gave Ben a rather irritated look. Ben raised his eyebrows.
"Seriously! I just don't know what we're doing wrong!" Aleks complained, "We must be missing something."
Ben frowned, shaking his head "It should be possible, there must be a way to track an Obliviate and make sure it's not broken"
Aleks stilled, a thoughtful expression crossing his features. Ben watched him, knowing that he was thinking an idea through. "Tracking!" he finally whispered. Ben frowned.
"Tracking!" he repeated looking at Ben, his blue eyes wide, "We've been trying to track an Obliviate!"
Ben swiftly caught on, sitting up with the realisation, "But an Obliviate is unchanging by nature and so can't be tracked!"
"Alarm charms!" Aleks burst out, grinning from ear to ear.
Ben took in a deep breath, "Of course!" He too allowed a wide smile to brighten his face.
The younger boy could barely contain his excitement "May I?" his eyes conveying his intentions to the older male.
Ben could feel his pulse racing as he nodded his consent, this might just work...
He was distracted, however as he felt another presence enter his mind. The younger boy breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the highly organised and intelligent mind of his comrade. Do you have any idea how wonderfully organised you mind is? He thought, Well, came Ben's reply, the last ten times you told me might have given me some idea... the thought drifted off. Ben could feel the younger boy sticking his tongue out at him from within his mind and chuckled.
Unknown to him, Ben's mind was like an exquisite art gallery, clean marble floors and white-walled corridors, leading to memories organised into collections of wizard pictures - the figures within them moving - depicting a particular memory. Aleks waded slowly through Ben's mind, steering clear of the corridors where the walls became dark and the floor turned a steely grey. Those corridors held memories neither of them cared to relive. He focussed instead on his favourite picture in the whole gallery.
A young girl was dancing in a field of yellow canola flowers, her dark brown hair flowing gracefully around her as the sun reflected off her pale skin. She was wearing a bright pink, summer dress and her face was lit with an expression of such happiness and freedom. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement as she called back to Ben, "Come on Ben! It's beautiful out here!" The much younger Ben in the memory glanced up at ominous dark grey clouds in the distance before focussing on the girl again, "It's going to rain soon!"
True to his words, thunder crackled overhead as a sprinkling of rain began to mix with the rays of the sun. "Sunshower! The girl cried joyfully, running even further into the field.
"Arielle!" Ben cried, running after her. Catching up with her he swept her up in his arms, her laughter ringing in his ears. Spinning her around, they collapsed onto the flowers, the girl landing lightly on top of Ben. Sitting up, he pulled her into his lap.
"Look Ben, a rainbow!" Ben smiled at the perfect arch of brilliant colours reflected in the girl's silver eyes. Stroking her wet hair as she cuddled into his chest they sat there, in the open field, for hours, not caring that they were soaked to the skin.
How old was she? The question interrupted Ben's thoughts as he remembered there was someone else in his mind. She was just over eight, he thought fondly. Aleks sighed; it was such a beautiful memory. He wished he had such wonderful memories from his early childhood.
Shaking that thought off, he turned back to the task at hand. Choosing a less important memory – a snapshot of the sky earlier that night – he placed it under the strongest alarm charm he knew. He then cast Obliviate on it, withdrawing from Ben's mind.
Ben opened his eyes, his mind feeling slightly foggy. "Done?"
"Done," Aleks concentrated, "now does it work?"
His pulse was racing and his wand a little unsteady as he muttered the counter curse under his breath. They waited silently. Nothing.
They both sighed. "Hang on a moment," bright blue eyes stared intently into dark brown, "think back to the sky this evening" Ben didn't question his younger companion as he did what he was told.
"Ow!" Aleks covered his ears with his hands, at the same time knowing the action was futile. The alarm sounded loud and strong inside his head. Surprisingly when he removed his hands from his ears, there was a look of triumph in his features.
"I've got it! For real!" Ben was compliant as Aleks, once again entered his mind, this time casting the Obliviate charm first then placing the alarm charm on top of the Obliviate. Looking over his handiwork he glared at the all-too-obvious alarm charm. However unfazed, he began to work on an illusion; covering the alarm charm and making it appear that the memory was only shrouded in an Obliviate. He smirked with satisfaction; illusions were his specialty.
Finally withdrawing from Ben's mind Aleks sat back heavily. "This is it?" Ben questioned
"This is it. If this doesn't work..."
Ben shrugged, "No sense in worrying about that yet" His dark brown eyes were intense with anticipation.
Aleks once again raised his wand, looking deep into Ben's eyes. "Memor!"
Alarms sounded in Aleks's head as the counter curse smashed the Obliviate. Eyes streaming from the combination of the alarms ringing in his head and the euphoria that had spread through him at the realisation of his success he raised his eyes to Ben's and gave a single nod.
He laughed as he was crushed in Ben's massive bear hug. It was a while before either of them calmed down enough to speak. "Finally!" he growled, "Now we can go get that bastard!"
Evan Rosier. The name left a sour taste in his mouth. Of course, Aleks supposed, that was a side effect of having someone try to kill you. Ever since that night he and Ben had been hunting Rosier, not because of the attempt on Aleks's life, but because while trying to kill him, Rosier had, unwittingly, discovered Aleks's deepest and darkest secret.
Thankfully, however, the Dark Lord's followers were not renowned for their intelligence; Rosier had not understood what he had seen, or its implications, and that was currently the only thing protecting Aleks. Though, hopefully, they would now be able to hide these memories all together, and leave behind an alarm to warn them if the memories were ever uncovered.
Aleks grinned, his blue eyes flashing as they reflected the flickering flames of the camp-fire. Tomorrow was the day, and then if everything went to plan, they would be heading to Hogwarts and he could see Arielle again.
***
Hermione watched as Edouard transformed on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Anyone watching would likely believe they were seeing a werewolf transformation, but Edouard, in fact, was not a werewolf.
No, Edouard was the child of a werewolf, one of the only two werewolf children in existence, to Hermione's knowledge. He felt the pull of the full moon, but he was not bound by the curse. As a result, though, it was only natural for his animagus form to be a large and powerful, sandy-brown wolf.
Hermione flinched as the Edouard in wolf form gave a long, loud howl.
"Oh hush Edouard," Arielle reprimanded, "Do you want to wake the whole castle?" Giving an irritated roll of her eyes Arielle leapt gracefully into her lithe cheetah form.
Observing her friend, Hermione frowned. Arielle had always been admired for her slender figure, something that was somewhat hidden by their billowing school robes, but surely her ribs shouldn't be poking out like that, even in cheetah form...
Edouard let out a wolfish bark, telling Hermione to hurry up. Arielle was already trotting up ahead. Running after them Hermione disappeared as she entered the Forbidden Forest; in her place stood a bright-eyed, intelligent-looking ocelot. She was not as fast as Arielle, nor as powerful as Edouard, but Hermione's ocelot form had helped to get her out of a tight spot on more than one occasion.
Seeing her transformed, Edouard let out another bark, and together all three animagi were sprinting through the forest. Hermione didn't know how long they ran, or how far. All she knew was that she was running and nothing else mattered.
She could only hear the leaves beneath her paws, feel the wind on her face, see Arielle and Edouard up ahead and sense the darkness and solitude that enclosed them. In fact, the forest was rather empty tonight. They had not seen, nor heard from any other creatures at all.
Only now, that they had reached the depths of the forest and started to slow their mind-numbing sprint, did Hermione begin to sense another presence. Her immediate urge was to hiss and spit at the unknown presence that had her fur standing on end, but she fought the urge and maintained her silence.
They were now coming upon a clearing in the forest. Up ahead Arielle had stopped and Hermione could tell that she was feeling the presence too. She turned back to face Edouard, hissing at him. If a cheetah could wear an accusatory expression that would be Arielle's expression right now.
She glared at him as he trotted past her, unabashed, into the clearing. Hermione had a feeling that Arielle knew what this presence was. Arielle and Hermione stealthily followed Edouard and entered the clearing, only to find Edouard frolicking with another wolf. The new wolf had pitch black fur, compared to Edouard's sandy brown. This wolf was different, however; long snout, tufted tail, and when the other wolf stopped to look at her she saw its dilated pupils.
Yep, no mistaking it, she was looking at a werewolf. Thanks for the warning Edouard she thought sarcastically.
She stood stock still as the werewolf suddenly bounded over to her and Arielle. She knew it wouldn't hurt her in her animagus form, but she still had the urge to run up the nearest tree. Inquisitively, the werewolf merely sniffed them, tilting its head to one side as if surprised. It was looking straight at Hermione, and she thought she saw recognition in those deep brown eyes, but in the blink of an eye, the werewolf had bounded away again, rejoining Edouard.
Arielle let out a low hiss as the two cats trotted after the frolicking wolves. There was no mistaking what that hiss meant; Arielle was going to kill Edouard. Hermione silently agreed.
Edouard had the uncanny ability to sense when he was around a werewolf. He would have known there would be a werewolf in the forest tonight, and must have been holding out on them all day.
Hermione had to admit, though, she was having fun. The two cats chased the wolves and the wolves chased the cats. Hermione, of course, had a distinct advantage, being a tree climber, and leapt from tree to tree above their heads, much to the wolves' irritation.
It was strange, though; she didn't feel as if they were three animagi and a werewolf. Their werewolf companion seemed completely at ease in its wolf form, not at all like Lupin had been. She just wondered who on earth it could be; surely she would have figured out by now if there was a werewolf in the castle. After all, she had figured out Lupin was a werewolf only two months after he had started teaching at Hogwarts.
From her position in the tree tops, Hermione could now see the pinkish hints of dawn approaching on the horizon. Scrambling back down the tree, she mewled her warning to the others. Arielle began to lead the way out of the forest, however, Edouard nodded towards the werewolf, indicating that he would stay.
Hermione shrugged and left them. Soon she and Arielle made it to the edge of the forest, transforming back into their human selves.
"Did you know that werewolf?" Arielle immediately asked,
"No," Hermione answered, confused.
"Hmm, well it knew you"
"I know," Hermione frowned, looking troubled, "I thought I'd know though, if there were a werewolf in the castle."
Arielle shrugged, "Perhaps not if it's... one of us," she looked at Hermione, her eyes conveying a secret meaning behind the words.
Their musing was interrupted, however, by Edouard's bark-like laugh coming though the trees as he and his companion made their way out of the forest.
Hermione blinked in surprise as her honey-brown eyes locked with the dark brown eyes that had belonged to the black werewolf.
"Surprised to see me Hermione?" the werewolf grinned, "Probably not as surprised as I was to find out that you're an Unknowable."
Hmm, Hermione thought, as she and Arielle exchanged a glance, one of us after all.
***
A/N: First of all, thanks to my reviewers! You help keep this story on track!
Second, I'm starting to think of the Hermione/someone pairing... I was thinking Hermione/Draco or Hermione/Blaise... but I'm open to your requests! (just no Hermione/Harry, Hermione/Ron or Hermione/Snape as per readingdeamon's challenge)
Third, i have some fanart for this fic... check out my profile for the links