Sorry for the terribly long absence!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Chapter 14: Death of the Forest

"Derek," Stiles sang, landing on Derek's bed heavily. He'd been gone from the bed for no more than twenty minutes, if that, and somehow he was dressed, bright eyed and bushy tailed. "Do you know what day it is?"

Derek glared at him unenthusiastically. "Saturday?" he grumbled under the edge of his comforter.

"Yes! And do you know what happens on Saturday?" he asked brightly, grinning ever wider.

"People actually sleep in?" Derek replied.

Stiles pursed his lips, unimpressed. "Well, that. Stop being a smartass. Do you know what people who actually like doing shit do on the weekends?"

Sighing, Derek asked, "What?"

Grinning, Stiles jumped to his feet, throwing his arms into the air. "Dancing!" he cried, "I'm going to teach you guys how to swing!"

"No, you are not," Derek shot back, rolling away from Stiles, pulling the covers back over his head.

"Oh, yes I am," Stiles grunted, rolling him out of his comforter burrito and onto the cold, unforgiving stones.

"I hate you."

"Love you too, sweetie."

…..

"What in the holy fuck are you and Martin doing? And what is this horrendous music you have playing?" Cora snarled, her long hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, irritation written in the vodka induced bags beneath her eyes, similar to the way Derek was watching them.

Laura watched with a wide grin, attempting to move to the music, but her body was inadapt for the movements that went with the rhythm.

Lydia, her painted and glossed mouth pursed in a vicious smile, her lean muscles flexing, tried to throw Stiles into a wall, jerking hard at his wrists. He pulled back just as hard, pulling her into his side. They went back and forth, hard and endangering and enthusiastic.

Coming to a halt at the end of the song, chests heaving, they grinned at each other. "It's swing music. I told you, I'm going to teach you how to swing. Lydia's going to help me. I learned how to from my mom." His smile dropped for the barest of a moment before replacing itself in an instant.

"I am now, am I?" Lydia wondered, raising an eyebrow, but there was no refusal in her expression. She planted her hands on her hips, looking over the trio before turning her eyes back to her dance partner.

"Yes," Stiles confirmed with a short nod. "Swing is actually a really athletic dance, but that shouldn't be a problem for the three of you. It's not supposed to be violent like the way Lydia and I were dancing, but… Anyway, it's supposed to be fun and difficult and challenging, but mostly fun because you get to throw people, safely when they're not us though. I don't know if you know what I mean by throwing, but it does not literally mean throwing. It's like throwing them around your body, pulling them through your legs. So don't actually throw each other."

Cora's doubt and consternation cleared from her face. "Oh, hell yeah, I am so there." She jerked her T-shirt over her head, revealing a sports bra beneath. "Let's go, Stilinski. I'm going to show you how much of a pansy you are."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not Jackson," Stiles shot back as they crashed into each other, ignoring the eye roll turned his way. He took the lead, refusing to allow Cora the lead to hurt them because she most definitely would with too much leeway. He guided her into the dance effortlessly, demonstrating the dance to her without words.

Shrugging, Laura and Lydia grabbed each other's hands, Lydia instructing under her breath, going at a sane pace compared to their counterparts. Cora and Stiles were harsh, fighting tooth and nail for lead.

"All four of you are stupid. Well, three of you," Derek corrected quickly at Lydia's raised eyebrow. If he wasn't careful, he'd end up with an extra limb, or possibly a missing one. Despite the clearly false rumors, Ravenclaw could be a very vengeful group of bookworms, their smarts making them all the more dangerous

"But it's so much fun!" Stiles shouted over the song, a bite of pain to his words as he switched partners, Cora jerking on his arms as she took Lydia's hand. He took Laura's hand with something close to fear. She would not let him take the lead so easily.

Laura laughed, releasing Stiles' hands before they could even get started. She shoved Derek towards him, sitting on the arm of one of the many couches with a grin. "Dance! Be merry! Do something for once. Don't hurt him tiger." She shot the last at Stiles, grinning widely.

Grinning right back, Stiles pressed a quick kiss to Derek's frowning lips before snatching up his rather unwilling hands. He was a surprisingly patient teacher. Unlike his savage teaching with Cora, or his vicious dancing with Lydia, he took his time with Derek. He felt out the flexibility and strength of Derek's body in a way he hadn't really gotten to in all their dances before. Really, he was reveling mostly in the feel of Derek's body against his, their hands locked together.

It helped that Derek was learning fast. He took the lead from Stiles in one fell swoop, plucking it from his fingers and making it his own.

If he'd gotten the chance, Stiles would have fought with everything he had to take the lead back. As Laura would have it though, she neatly tore the pair apart as you would an orange, and inserted herself as Derek's partner, flashing wicked canines.

Stiles sat down heavily on a couch, watching the two sets dance around each other, one perfectly in rhythm with the music and the other two tugging too aggressively at the lead to care.

Stiles and Lydia were dosing on the couch, leaning heavily against each other, when twin cried startled them awake. Quickly following, the sound of cracking stone and shattering wood filled the common room.

Blinking awake, groaning irately, the pair glared at the trio.

Laura had her hands pressed over her mouth, surprised laughter shaking her shoulders. Derek sat on the floor against the wall, rubbing the back of his head. The wall behind him had a sizable crack and indent now decorating it. Cora, dazed, but unharmed, lay on a pile of splintered wood that used to be a coffee table, surrounded by miraculously unbroken lanterns. They were meant for something the seventh years were planning for the end of the year, and the seventh years had obviously taken precautions for their safety.

Laughter still on her lips, Laura looked to the still sleepy pair. "I accidentally threw them too hard."

"You're not supposed to literally throw them," Lydia sighed.

"Never, I am never dancing with you," Stiles told her, shaking his head in disbelief.

From the stairwell, Malia stared at the five, no amusement on her face. "You are all really fucking loud, I hope you know that. Now, I'm going back to bed before you start explaining to me what the hell this all is." Turning on a heel, she disappeared up the stairs.

…..

"Come on, Derek. It'll be fun," Stiles coaxed pleadingly. He was stretched out along Derek's torso, chin resting on his sternum, amber eyes staring up into the blue-green-hazel eyes, or whatever they were. He fought the urge to climb up further and steal a kiss.

"You wouldn't be able to keep up, plus you'd pass out before I would even be getting tired," Derek told him, trying to ignore the insults and chattering filling the common room around them. It was movie night, but it wasn't exactly movie time, so the Slytherin common room was packed to the gills with students who didn't know how to whisper.

Someone wolf-whistled followed by a, "Just kiss already!"

Rolling his eyes, Stiles shouted, "Go get a sex life of your own, Ethan! Doesn't Danny have his bed open for you? Go fuck him for the love of everyone else's sanity!"

"I already did that today!" Ethan shouted back.

"Then stop being a hormonal teenager!" Sighing, Stiles looked back to Derek. "Sorry, you were saying?"

"There's no reason to go for a run. Plus, it's nearly after curfew now," Derek pointed out.

Stiles frowned, poking out his bottom lip in a childish pout. "That's never stopped us before, and anyway, I'd ride my broom. I'm not stupid enough to try and keep up with your six minute mile and a half." His voice dropped to a whisper, "Plus, it's the full moon tonight. You're going to be restless no matter what I do."

"You shouldn't be saying that with so many people around," Derek told him, glaring around at the surrounding mass of idiots.

Stiles grinned. "That's why I'm whispered. If it's a problem, let's go outside into the Forbidden Forest. Come on." He pushed himself off of Derek, dragging him to his feet. "Let's go. Let's go." With a flick of his wand, the projector booted up and the credits began rolling.

Without as much hesitation as he'd been spouting, Derek allowed Stiles to pull him away from their couch.

…..

Stiles let out a scream of joy, racing through the silent, still trees. The moon shone bright and full through the high, high leaves, painting the forest floor with splotches of moonlight. Derek's eyes flashed blue in the night, reveling in the freedom the forest provided him. No student, at least no sane student, would venture into the Forbidden Forest after dark, providing them with an amount of privacy that could be found nowhere in the castle.

Skidding to a halt, sending dry leaves into the air around him, Derek threw back his head, howling for his mistress. Flying in a circle around him, Stiles laughed, letting off his own less than stellar howl.

A howl answered theirs, long, high and keening. A howl of pain, agony. A howl calling for help. It was a howl that sounded vaguely familiar to Stiles' tone deaf ears.

Derek's eyes grew wide with horror. "Laura!" he shouted, taking off at a dead sprint, digging his bare feet into the ground beneath him, pushing himself forward with all his strength. As he rushed through the forest, darting around menacing pools of darkness, through patches of moonlight, he answered her call.

Shocked to stillness for the space of a heartbeat, enough time for Derek to disappear from his sight, Stiles listened to the agonized howl ring in his ears. A scream, high and piercing, sounded in the night, overshadowing both wolves. That scream was startlingly familiar, like the howl had been, only this time he could pick out exactly who it belonged to. "Lydia!" he called, finally broken from his spell.

It took Stiles only a moment to catch up to Derek, his wand already sparking in his readied palm. A spell was forming at the edge of his mind, dangerous, explosive. He trailed after Derek, knowing he would hone in on the pair in a matter of moments.

Another scream, higher than before, more terrified, rang deafeningly through the air, Laura's name on its edges. Another howl answered, cut off only halfway through.

"Laura!" Derek screamed, his cry more of a howl. He nearly tripped over Lydia's body as they flew between a pair of trees.

Jumping from his broom without even slowing, wand flying from his hand as he landed, Stiles scrambled towards her. "Lydia! Oh god, Lydia!" Stiles shouted desperately, his eyes wide, his mind frantic. Even from where he crouched, he could see the steady gush of liquid from his wand's tip. Where the liquid spilled, smoke rose in thick, noxious plumes.

Lydia's side was a bloody mass of torn flesh. Thick, crimson liquid poured over Stiles fingers as he pressed his palms into her side, attempting to stem the flow. He could feel her pulse through her side, quick as a mouse's breath, light as a feather's touch. His eyes were so focused on her, he didn't see the other body not thirty paces away.

A low, keening whine broke Stiles from his frantic check of the girl before him. Hands still pressed to her side, he turned slowly to find Derek crouched over the other body. The whine came again, broken by a more human sob.

"Derek?" Stiles questioned tentatively, afraid to approach this raw, choking creature as much as he was afraid to leave Lydia's side.

A howl turned scream rolled from Derek's body, tears coursing down his cheeks. His body rippled with the effort to remain human, the more animal part of him forcing its way to the surface. He burst from his clothing, a long black muzzle rising to the sky to sing his sorrows. Leaving the tatters of his clothing behind, wand still sticking out of his back pocket, Derek darted into the forest, digging his paws into the soft dirt, throwing himself forward into darkness.

Laura's dead eyes stared back at Stiles, her pale, naked skin gleaming in the moonlight. Her throat had been torn open, her blood painting her body crimson. A rainbow circled off her skin, emitted by what smelt like gasoline. The worst part, though, was the cauterized ends of her body where she'd been torn in half at the waist, the skin blackened and burnt.

Stiles had never thought of himself as all that young. He'd always felt older than all the others somehow. In that moment, as his scream rose high and thin in the night, he seemed painfully aware of the fact that he was merely fifteen-years-old.

…..

Hours later, after Stiles had sent up distress flares and they'd found the bodies, after Lydia had been taken to the Hospital Wing for Madame McCall to work her magic, and the Ministry had come to collect Laura's body for the few hours they would need it, Derek stumbled into his dorm. He was shivering, body fighting to remain human. Sweat slicked down his body, his skin pale and naked. Dirt crowded the space beneath his nails and coated the pads of his hands and feet.

He finds Stiles, eyes haunted and blank, hair still damp from a shower that did him no good, sitting in Derek's bed, knees pulled up to his chin, arms wrapped around them. Scott lay at his side, a frown curving down his lips, his body tense in unsettling dreams headed for nightmares.

"Stiles," Derek whispered miserably, falling to his knees at the bedside, his legs unable to hold his sorrow any longer.

Stiles' eyes turned to him, slow as molasses. "She's dead," he whispered, voice hoarse from screaming, "And Lydia might die too. Why? Why did this happen? Who could do this?"

"I don't know," Derek tells him truthfully, his own voice rough, still animalistic, "I don't know."

"They took her body. The Ministry. They said they would try to find clues. They're imbeciles. They won't find anything they'll understand." For a moment, Stiles' voice had become harsh with spitting hatred. "Just like when my mother died. They should have left her here. They had no right."

Derek's eyes flashed crimson before fading back to hazel. "No, they didn't. Let's hope they are too stupid to realize…"

With a nod, Stiles took Derek's face in his hands, kissing him softly, urgently. He slid almost silently from the bed, pulling Derek towards the showers.

Originally, this was supposed to be like twice as long, but I waited too long to write it, so this is what happened. I gleaned several plot points from this though, so here's to hoping the next will actually be back to regular length. Also, sorry I've been gone for two months. I didn't forget about this, I just… had no motivation to write the next chapter. Actually, I had no motivation to write at all. Lately though, I've been writing all the time. My imagination is slowly being revived. See you next chapter!