Whew, chapter 15! And it's a long'un, too! As always, nothing belongs to me except most of the characters, this plot, a clearing in a forest, and most of the free world's hopes and dreams. Bwa ha ha.
Oh, my? Do I smell a hint of finally-getting-to-the-climax? Maybe it's just that cinnomin roll I had earlier.
"Was sleepin'," Penny Savage muttered, blinking her dark eyes dazedly. She slowly propped herself up on an elbow and looked calmly at Chessie for a minute.
"You look familiar. Have we met?" she said a little clearer, running a tanned hand through her light brown hair. Chessie decided to play stupid.
"I don't think so," She lied. Well, technically we haven't met, she thought as she and Burt gauged the strength of the bars on the cage, but your father arrested mine once, and we chatted out in the hall at the trial. That was when she was only seven or so and Penny had been home on vacation mid-Hogwarts, years ago now. But for practical purposes, no, they hadn't met.
"Burt," Chessie said softly, deep in thought. "Would these bars be much of a problem for you?"
Marjorie frowned sharply. "Isn't that a bit…unwise?"
"No," Chessie said decisively. "It is not 'a bit unwise'. It's flat out stupid. There's a difference. But Greyback's going to pretty much murder me regardless, so I may as well have a last little bit of fun. Burt, yank these bloody bars clean out!"
She backed up to where Marjorie was standing in the background, and Penny scooted to the far side of her cage and clung to it, watching the behemoth Burt approach and study the cage a little more with a critical eye. He stood in thought for a moment, then smoothly braced a thick leg against a few of the bars while grabbing another in one large fist, and yanked.
The bar flew out of his hand and clear across the clearing. It landed with a resounding 'shlop' in a swampy patch of foliage. Burt straightened up slowly while Chessie blinked a few times and Marjorie slowly closed her mouth, which was hanging open.
"Um," Chessie said. She snapped back and looked at Penny, who'd squeezed with ease through the space created by Burt and stood there awkwardly by his large hairy bicep. She was tall, Chessie could tell, and in- was in- great shape before being shut up in a cage for weeks. But then, next to Burt everyone was small.
"Now what?" Penny asked quietly, folding her arms across her chest.
"Now you all return to the camp and I keep walking. Daisy and Wat are coming with me this time. So let's go." Chessie said, slowly finding the path they'd came on and starting up it.
"Coming with you where?" Penny's inner Auror perked up. Marjorie snorted a little as they started briskly walking back through the damp woods.
"She goes and talks to an Auror, telling them or him or her everything of any value concerning us. All of us."
"So who are…what were their names…Daisy and Wat?"
Chessie cut in before Marjorie could speak again.
"They're children. Two of many, all werewolves like us. Daisy's eleven and Wat's ten, and they're the eldest. The Auror I talk to is having problems believing me."
"Who's the Auror? Wait, why are you even talking to Aurors? You're a spy, aren't you?" Penny guessed. Chessie had expected that, in a way. Stupid Aurorss don't live very long, and from the information Tonks had given her, Penny had been an Auror for six years and was from a line of Aurors several generations long. It was only a matter of time before she got answers to all her questions, which was part of the reason Chessie, a cheater from a long line of con artists, criminals, and general sleazeballs, wanted her on her side. Penny was fine. Mentally, at least. That had been a lingering concern of Chessie's- after two months with only Greyback for company, had she gone crazy? No, fortunately.
Technically, if she were to turn Penny over to Tonks, she would be done. Marjorie said something.
"Huh?" Chessie mumbled, narrowly missing a stray tree branch.
"You can go home now, can't you? You can leave all this behind." She waved a skinny arm at the soaking wet wilderness surrounding them.
"She can?" Penny asked, using Burt for support as she forced unused sore muscles to start working after a several-week vacation.
"I…can," Chessie said as they hit the edge of the clearing and paused. "But…I don't think I truly can. Not yet."
In one corner, the other large werewolves like Burt were hauling logs and splitting them. The fire, rapidly approaching bonfire height so it wouldn't go out in the rain, was manned by a few haggard-looking wolves. Others were around doing various almost-chores, and in the corner near Daisy's dying wildflower patch, Bartender and the children were huddled up.
"Why not?" Burt asked from behind Chessie. She ignored him, looking around. Things were almost organized. Decent shelters had started going up, and nonperishable foods were accumulating for the coming winter. It almost resembled a normal civilization, a far cry from before Chessie's arrival. Marjorie smiled.
"You have such a sobbing, bleeding heart."
Chessie rolled her golden eyes and started leading them to the fire.
"My heart bleeds not. And if it does, I'm wiping it on you. I could have stuck with rich hot guys, you know."
"She's trying to make me feel guilty," Marjorie said out of the corner of her mouth to Penny, who looked extremely confused. "Notice how it's not working."
"Go…do things," Chessie retorted absently, watching Daisy and Wat slop over in the marshy field to join her. Daisy's oversized shirt clung to her thin frame, and Wat's clothes sagged on him from the weight of the rain and mud. Marjorie led Burt, who was by now carrying Penny like a fragile doll, over to the fire for warmth in the cold rain.
Chessie didn't even pause in her step from one group of werewolves to another; Marjorie and Burt fell out and Daisy and Wat fell in gracefully, as though this happened often. As they reached the edge of the clearing, startled voices around the fire signaled Marjorie's telling of what Chessie had done and where Penny had appeared from.
Chessie didn't really care, she was already preoccupied with an ominous thought- what if Greyback took this as a challenge to his authority as pack leader? Of course he would. He wouldn't just beat the living daylights out of her, he'd murder here. She went from being silly and trivial in his eyes to annoying a few months ago, and had crossed from annoying to a potential problem a few weeks ago. This would definitely put her on his threat list. Bloody hell.
Another reason, left unspoken, that she couldn't just leave- if he couldn't take his rage out on her, he'd take it out on one of the wolves who was openly for her as a new leader. Even if the only reason many of the wolves supported her was because she made sure there was one halfway acceptable meal every day. Food was a powerful motivator when there was barely enough to go around. And the kids- things had been bad before Chessie had arrived to the point that they all had little…quirks. Carrot started hyperventilating if left alone for more than a few moments. Hope would huddle and cry whenever a male came near her. Wat has a phobia of being touched. If Chessie were to leave or was killed, they'd be unprotected. Bartender and Marjorie, the only other adult female werewolves in the pack, would be next. Female werewolves were a hindrance most of the time anyway. Have sex and one might get pregnant and possibly provide yet another mouth to feed, and there wasn't enough food for that. And since Marjorie and Bartender- to Chessie's knowledge- hadn't done anything with any of the male wolves since they fell in with her, the rift between the rapidly dividing pack was growing deeper.
She needed a plan fast.
She was a dead woman walking.
Nothing earth-shattering had occurred out in the real world. Most of the wizarding world was glued to their Daily Prophets or starting Christmasa shopping early, in desperate need of a reason to smile. Tonks didn't look very well, but the bags under her eyes were the same size as Chessie's. Aurors were running double and triple shifts, rounding up Death Eaters. Greyback had been spotted near some northern England town Chessie had never heard of that morning, which gave Chessie a sense of temporary relief. She would live for a few more days then, enough time to form a plan. The massive werewolf execution Scrimegoer kept calling for was put on hold after word leaked out that some trick had been pulled that Voldemort hadn't been expecting and suddenly Potter's side of the war had the upper hand ("And I heard this from a very reliable source- Potter himself- so it's true regardless of what you may hear or read. We're finally winning").
As their meeting grew on and Daisy and Wat started getting restless in their hiding spot, Tonks' expression at Chessie's news darkened while Chessie's lightened at Tonks'. Rose was taking a dance class now, which she was loving, and the twins and Verity were rapidly getting even richer. Lupin was still unemployed, but he'd moved into Tonks' flat (or so she said with a sly smile). They exchanged some stories, and then finally Tonks threw her arms in the air in frustration.
"Alright, I give in. You said there were kids. Prove it."
Chessie glanced at an unusually plump bush not far away, and Daisy and Wat slowly untangled themselves from it and emerged. Daisy looked curiously at Tonks.
"I like your hair. It's pink." She said pleasantly. Tonks paused for a minute, then smiled crookedly.
"Thanks," she said. Wat half-hid behind Chessie, watching Tonks from around Chessie's elbow warily. He didn't say anything.
"I'm Daisy," Daisy said, "I'm psychic."
"Really," Tonks said in the tone of someone talking to someone mentally unstable. The way Daisy usually behaved, it was believable. But so far she hadn't said anything that was definitely something only a psychic could know, so Chessie was inclined to humor her but not take her seriously until she knew for certain what was true. Tonks, being an Auror, was trained to act the same way.
As they chatted, Daisy speaking freely of her wildflowers and her 'family'- which consisted of the other kids, Bartender, and Chessie- Chessie sat down on an exposed tree root. Wat stood close enough that they were almost touching, but not quite.
"She's not going to attack you," she said softly. He studied her with deep brown eyes the same color as Hope's. They actually were together often, Wat and Hope. A thought formed in her mind.
"You and Hope…are you related in any way, by chance?" she said slowly, watching his reaction. A fleeting smile crossed his young face for a second before he realized he was letting down his guard in front of a stranger (who wasn't even paying attention to him).
"Yes," he said in his pre-pubescent gravelly voice. The disfiguring scar on the side of his face and ear that had turned much of the hair on that side of his head grey ran down over his collarbone. Chessie had learned this one day when Bartender had attempted to wash some clothes and had to pin him down and rip it off. He'd gone and hid, but not after giving everyone a picture-perfect deer-in-headlights look and getting extremely defensive.
Chessie thought she was beginning to understand why he had that horrible scar. Hope was family….
"How are you two related?" she asked.
"'S my little sister. I wasn't supposed to be awake."
Burn Merlin, Chessie thought as how Wat came to be so scarred played through her head. She could see it- somewhere, somehow, a younger muggle Hope was playing outside at night so she wouldn't wake her parents. They were tired, but she wasn't. But Wat, if he was as protective then as he is now, probably woke up and went to find her. Somehow Greyback entes the scene, charges towards Hope, but Wat tries to protect her and gets positively mauled in the process. Greyback's exhausted, so he only takes a small bite of Hope and bails, leaving the two muggle siblings bleeding in the yard while Mom and Dad slept. That does help to explain why Hope's scars from getting bitten were so insignificant looking.
Chessie studied Wat as he got distracted from her by Tonks' laughter. Apparently Daisy was telling a story. The scars on the boy's face and body were definitely deep enough to fit the scenario, but Chessie just couldn't understand why someone would practically throw themselves away for a family member. She knew she'd been raised self-centrically and as an only child of two moderately long lines of Slytherins, she was biased. But there was a new question burning in her overworked brain now.
"Wat, was it worth it? Living like this, starving and freezing, getting hurt. Watching Hope get hurt? Is family really worth all that?"
She felt sort of stupid for asking a ten year old a question whose answer she should probably already know until Wat turned and looked straight at her with older eyes than a child should ever possess.
"It's always worth it." He sounded surprised at his own conviction. Chessie suddenly understood what she had to do, and how short a time she had to do it in.