Chapter FOUR
Aeval slowly approached the cell. The runes etched into the iron bars glowed with a fierce blue light. From inside the cell came the snarls and growls of an enormous beast.
"What is that thing?" Voldemort asked drifting up beside her. He glanced along the low stone corridor. Row upon row of cells stretched as far as the eye could see. Most of the iron bars were dark, but a few glowed with the same blue light.
"This is where we keep the fallen ones," Aeval said.
"Fallen ones?" Voldemort reached out to touch the bars.
"Don't!" Aeval snapped. "Those are warded. Oberon never told me what they'd do to anything that touched them, but I'm fairly sure it's not pleasant."
Voldemort pulled his hand back. Whatever was behind the bars snarled and slammed against the door. There was a screeching sound as if the creature was dragging its claws along the metal.
"Ah," Aeval sighed sadly. "Poor Thor, he has fallen far from what he once was."
"Thor?" Voldemort raised an eyebrow. "I thought he was the god of thunder."
"He had power over thunder, but the fae aren't gods. Oberon ruled the fae for over two thousand years. Although he was a great and wise king, he was very controversial. One of his more wearisome laws stated that the fae could not accept the worship of mortals. They could come to their aid if they wanted, but they were not to accept sacrifices from them.
At the time, we all thought he was just trying to protect the humans. We believed that he was choosing the mortals over the fae. Some of our people, such as Thor disobeyed those laws. They accepted the sacrifices made to them and grew powerful. Eventually, they began absorbing the souls of their followers after their deaths and that's where everything went wrong. The act of absorbing souls corrupted them. It caused them to regress into a bestial state. Oberon took it upon himself to slay most of them, but Thor was his brother. He couldn't bring himself to kill him, so he locked him away down here."
Aeval took a large silver key from her cloak. The barrel of the key was engraved with the same runes that adorned the bars. "He's escaped several times to satisfy his need for flesh, blood, and souls. The mortals have given him a new name." She smiled cruelly. "It has been six months since the bitch moved to the mortal world. I think her guard is sufficiently lowered for me to make my move."
She slipped the key into the lock and turned it. The locks clicked open with a grating sound of long disuse. The glowing runes on the bars snapped off. As soon as they were off, the creature inside the cell shoved the door open.
Voldemort stared at what emerged from the cell. The beast was at least nine feet tall and covered in patches of red and white fur. Chains wrapped it from head to foot. They clinked as the creature moved. Its large feet were cloven like those of a goat. Large curling horns brushed the ceiling. In one clawed hand the creature held a long whip. In the other it held a large red sack.
"Hello Crampus," Aeval said. "It has been so long. How are you?"
The creature opened its mouth revealing long pointed fangs. Its hairy face worked for a few seconds.
"What do you want," it growled. Its voice was thick and guttural as if it were gurgling with rocks.
"I have a job for you, Crampus. There is someone I need dead. After all these years I thought you might enjoy some dinner."
"Who," Crampus boomed.
Aeval leaned forward, ignoring the smell of rotten meet wafting from Crampus's open mouth."
"Did you know you had a nephew?"
XXX
Lily smiled as she watched the children play in the snow. It was rare to get this much snow in Ottery ST. Catchpole according to Molly, but everyone was happy none the less. Who wouldn't be with over a foot of snow to play in near Christmas. She glanced over at Harry and Ginny who were sitting together solemnly patting snow together.
As she watched, Ginny reached out a tiny hand. A few dead branches rose from the ground and zoomed towards their pile of snow. As they moved through the air, they shifted, becoming wooden arms. Harry looked back at the house. Hearing a noise from behind her, Lily turned to see a carrot rise into the air and fly towards the door.
Lily rose and opened the door just enough for the carrot to fly through. As she watched, the carrot and the wood attached themselves to the snow. Harry glanced at more dead branches and they became legs that attached themselves to the snowman.
Ginny giggled and clapped her hands. "Incredible," Molly said from behind Lily causing her to jump.
"It is," Lily said never taking her eyes off the snowman. "I've never seen anything like it. I mean I knew that fae children were more developed, but I've never seen two infants work together like that. Not to mention their use of wandless magic."
Molly stepped up beside Lily, frowning slightly. "I wonder if we shouldn't bind Ginny's magic for a while. I'd hate for her to reveal the existence of magic to the muggles."
"Bind it," Lily said shocked. "Heavens no, we should train her. She has the potential to be the strongest witch ever born. Why stifle her growth?"
"But the statute of secrecy," Molly said worriedly.
Lily placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry," she said soothingly. "There are three of us here and Harry's been doing magic like this for months. I'm sure we can contain anything those two do."
"They do seem close, don't they," Molly said smiling at the two babies who were now making the snowman walk across the yard.
Before Lily could answer, she saw a flicker of movement behind her. Turning her head, her eyes widened.
"Oberon," she whispered.
"Sweat dripped from his blue hair and ran down his transparent face. His gold eyes were wide and filled with panic. "Lily," he gasped. "You have to get the children inside now."
"But Oberon, how are you…?"
"There's no time. You have to get the children inside before he gets here."
"Before who gets here, I don't understand."
There was a deafening roar from outside. Lily spun back to the window and screamed.
A towering creature stood in the snow. Its horns gleamed in the winter sunlight, black eyes were fixed unblinkingly on Harry.
"Boy," it bellowed, shaking the burrow on its foundations.
"What is that thing?" Molly shrieked, rushing towards the door.
"Crampus," Oberon answered.
There was a crack and Arthur appeared. "What's going on," he panted. "All the hands on that watch you two made me just started pointing to Mortal peril."
"We're being attacked," Lily answered as she rushed out the door.
Crampus was just reaching for Harry when Lily shifted into her wolf hybrid form and tackled him to the ground. Her massive jaws closed on Crampus's arm and ripped a chunk of flesh away. Blood spurted from the wound. Crampus howled and hurled her off.
Lily flew through the air, landing in a crouch a few feet away. Snarling, she rushed Crampus again, her claws scoring several deep cuts across its chest.
More blood flowed from the cuts soaking its fur.
Crampus snarled again and swung at her. Lily dodged the strike nimbly and closed her jaws on its extended arm. Twisting her head violently, there was a wet snapping sound.
Crampus jerked its arm back, letting out a roar of agony. Lily could see bone sticking out of its forearm. Before she could react, she was sailing through the air again. She smashed into the side of The Burrow and sprawled on the ground, stunned.
"Ghoul," Arthur shouted.
Something flew passed Lily and smashed into the beast, driving them both to the ground. Crampus roared in thwarted rage and tried to sink its fangs into the creature, but wherever it snapped, the ghoul was simply not there.
A bony fist smashed into its face, bloodying its nose and sending several teeth flying. The ghoul drew back its head and slammed it's forehead into Crampus's newly broken nose.
Crampus howled in agony. It grabbed the ghoul and hurled it at the burrow as it had done with Lily.
Lily leapt up, catching the ghoul and placing it gently on the ground.
Crampus growled and stumbled to its feet. As they watched, all the injuries that had been inflicted on it began to heal. Its smashed nose straightened, the cuts on its chest healed, and its teeth grew back.
Snarling, Lily leapt at Crampus again only to have it flip her over its head.
She landed hard on her back. Her head struck a rock and she lay there, dazed. She felt the fur receding. Her face shifted, the muzzle retracting. Within seconds, she'd returned to her human form. Groaning, she managed to climb painfully to her feet.
"Well," she muttered. "No one ever said this would be easy." Flinging out a hand, Lily sent five killing curses at Crampus's face.
The barrage of green light engulfed Crampus. When it faded, Crampus let out a warbling sound. It took Lily a second to realize it was laughing at her.
It took a single step forward and howled in pain. Looking down, Lily saw that Harry and Ginny's snowman had launched itself at Crampus, plunging its wooden arms into the back of Crampus's legs. Smoke wafted from the wounds and the smell of burning hair filled the air.
Crampus shook itself violently, but the snowman hung on stubbornly. It dug its wooden arms in deeper, the sharp twig-like fingers severing the tendons in Crampus's legs.
Crampus fell flat on its face, howling in pain. The place where the wood went into its legs was charred black, as if it had been stabbed with a white hot poker. There was a soft crunching sound behind her. Turning, Lily saw a familiar hilt in the shape of a wolf sticking out of the snow. Grabbing the sword, Lily rushed Crampus just as the beast snapped the arms off the snowman. With a grunt, Crampus drug itself out from the pile of snow and crawled towards Lily.
Lily raised the sword above her head. The runes along the blade glowed fiercely in the winter sun. At sight of the sword, Crampus froze. It began to crawl backwards frantically. Taking one large step forward, Lily brought the sword down on Crampus's neck.
The sword sliced through the thick neck like a hot knife through melting candlewax. Crampus's head rolled away from its body. The beast twitched a few times and lay still. Panting, Lily lowered the sword and stared down at the ground.
"Lily," Arthur said walking up beside her. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," Lily said. "Is Harry…?"
"Molly got the kids in the house. You stopped that thing from getting anywhere near them. You saved my family, thank you."
"I think I might be the one that endangered your family," Lily said quietly. "That thing was after Harry and me."
"And if you hadn't been here, do you think you would've survived?"
Lily shook her head. "I may not have, but Harry would. I would've made sure of that."
Arthur gave Lily a quick one armed hug. "Look, my family are already known as blood-traitors because we don't follow the pure-blood ideals. If we can help you in any way, we will. We aren't going to drive you away. The Weasleys have a good amount of fae blood in our line anyway, so in a sense, you are family."
Lily wiped a tear off her cheek. "Thank you."
Arthur smiled. "Come on, let's get inside and see how the kids are doing."
XXX
Aeval stared through the mist as Crampus's corpse was covered in a thin layer of snow. She pouted and stamped her foot like a disappointed child. "Why couldn't that have been easy?"
"Did you really think it would be?" Voldemort asked.
"No, but I could hope. How was I supposed to know that blasted sword would show up?"
"I would've gotten away with it to if it wasn't for that meddling snowman and the stupid sword," Voldemort quipped.
Aeval raised an eyebrow. "I thought you hated muggles?"
"Oh I do, but did you really think I spent all my life in the Wizarding world? No, I lived among them for about twenty years after graduating Hogwarts. If I'm going to end them, I had to learn about them. I wasn't going to just attack them without knowing what they were capable of."
"And?" Aeval asked. "What did you learn?"
Voldemort waved a hand. "That is not important right now. What are you going to do about Crampus? Its body doesn't appear to be fading away and the aurors are approaching."
Aeval leaned back on her throne. She wiped a shaking hand across her face. "Even if I wanted to do something, I couldn't. Creating a hole in the gate large enough for Crampus took a lot of my strength. I'll need time before I can manipulate the world through the gates again. Even then, I doubt I could muster enough magic to teleport Crampus's body away." She paused and took a drink from the glass of water sitting on the arm of her throne.
"I was careless," she admitted. "I saw an opportunity to get rid of the cub and I jumped at it. I shall have to be more careful in the future."
"Now what?"
"Now I rest," Aeval said. "The boy will have a respite from me. You will be my next option. I will send you through the gates. Since you do not possess a body, it will be child's play to get you back to the mortal world."
Voldemort bowed. "I await your command, mistress."
XXX
The auror stared down at Crampus's corpse. "Doesn't this break some kind of law," he grumbled.
"Technically no," his partner replied. "The girl said that it was sent to kill her. When she married the fae king, she became a citizen of Faerie. If his x-wife wants her dead, there's not much we can do. She isn't protected by the Changeling law."
"So what can we do?"
"We get rid of the evidence. Who knows, we may be able to use it for potion ingredients."
"What do we tell the ministry?"
"We'll report it to Bagnold, but she's not going to do anything."
His partner raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"
"I don't know," the auror said. "I don't understand why Bagnold resents the boy so much. We've always had a good relationship with the fae. Hell, even the pure-blood fanatics like them. I don't know what changed, but I intend to find out."
XXX
"So it tried to kill the boy?" Bagnold asked sipping her tea.
"Yes ma'am," the auror said.
"Shame it didn't succeed," Bagnold growled. "That might have fixed the problem."
"Problem?" the auror asked. "What kind of problem?"
"Never you mind," Bagnold snapped. "That will be all."
The two aurors turned and left the office. As the door closed behind them, Bagnold let out a breath.
She'd been arguing with Dumbledore for the past year and a half about publishing the information about the closing of the gates of Faerie. True, she had originally agreed to publish an article the following evening, but she'd found an excuse to postpone it. Since then, Dumbledore had been pushing for her to tell the public about the gates of Faerie." Luckily, no squibs appeared to have been discovered in that time. She knew she couldn't put it off any longer. The aurors were already becoming suspicious about why a fae would try and kill another fae. It was time to swallow her pride and do what needed to be done.
"Alright, Albus, you're getting what you want," she muttered.
Picking up a handful of floo powder, she tossed it into the fire. Once the flames had turned green, she stuck her head into the fireplace. "Offices of the daily prophet," she said clearly.
XXX
The king is dead and the gates are shut:
By Jacob Black
Last night, the Daily Prophet received an urgent call from Minister of Magic, Millicent Bagnold.
The Minister informed us that King Oberon, Lord of Faerie is now dead and his death has closed the gates of Faerie. Questioning the Minister further, this reporter learned that Oberon himself closed the gates of Faerie using a spell that activated upon his death.
Why would he do that? You may ask. Haven't the fae and the wizards been on good terms? Well, readers, the reason is simple.
It appears that Oberon has had a son. That's right, Faerie has an heir. However, what should be a joyous occasion for all has turned into a disaster. It appears that Aeval wanted to kill the child and in order to protect him, Oberon closed the gates of Faerie.
What does this mean for the wizards? Is our pact with the fae broken? Will Squibs begin resurfacing now that we do not have the fae to strengthen Wizarding bloodlines? Only time will tell.
Rest assured that this reporter will keep you posted on any new developments that we are made aware of.
XXX
Lily let the paper drop from her fingers. "Bloody hell," she muttered. "How could this get any worse? Now everyone knows that Harry is the reason the gates are shut."
"Don't worry," Molly said soothingly. "I'm sure they won't blame an innocent baby for the gates being closed. Besides, Harry wasn't mentioned by name. It'll be fine."
"I wouldn't be so sure," Arthur grunted. "Wizards have a tendency not to think rationally when they panic." Of course, that really applies to most people. It's not going to be hard to figure out who Harry's Father is. There are pictures of Oberon everywhere and how many wizard children have blue hair?" He ran a hand through his thinning hair. "Lily, do you know if the fae had a deal like that with all Wizarding countries?"
Lily shook her head. "I know a similar deal was in place with the Americans, but in that situation they weren't taking Squibs. They took Muggle-borns."
Molly's eyes widened. "What? Why would they do that?"
"You've read about the laws the Americans passed. With everything that happened, I can't say I blame them. The fae were concerned that they might mistreat the Muggle-borns. They couldn't come in and take all of them of course, and they knew better than to ask the parents of the children, so they selected Muggle-borns with some sort of genetic disorder. Once they'd found those Muggle-borns, they simply switched the children. That gave them a reason to guard all the Muggle-borns as if they were their own. It was a loophole built into the Changeling law to insure that all magical children were protected."
"Genetic disorders?" Arthur asked looking confused.
Lily nodded. "The fae don't go around stealing children for no reason. They need magic in order to breed, so they mainly have dealings with wizards and shifters, but occasionally they'll find a Muggle-born that has a fatal illness or disease. When that happens, they invoke the Changeling law and switch the children out. The sick Muggle-born is taken back to Faerie to be healed and the stunted fae child is left in its place."
"You said the fae were very selective on their choice of parents," Molly said. "What if the parents are unsuitable?"
Lily shrugged. "You have to understand that children, all children are sacred to the fae. If they watch a family and discover that the parents are unsuitable, they will steal the child and not leave a changeling."
"But what if only one parent is unsuitable?" Molly asked horrified.
"The fae believe that if they are willing to allow the child to be abused then they shouldn't be parents."
"But that's barbaric. Who are they to decide who has children and who doesn't?"
Arthur spoke up. "I assume they only do this with the Muggle-born or the shifters?"
"Or the gifted," Lily said. "If the child has any magic at all, the fae will watch them."
"It's not perfect, but at least they've protected the secret of magic."
"Arthur," Molly said shocked.
"I'll admit it's not right, but it works and at least the children are given good homes. I do wish the fae watched all the children and not just those with magic, but I recognize that would be impossible."
"What happens to the children that are in Faerie?" Molly asked. "It must be difficult for humans to grown up among the fae."
"For the most part, the fae breed true," Lily said. "That is because the children that are taken to Faerie eventually become Fae. The race of fae depends on the parents that took the child in. This insures that there is no prejudice while giving fresh blood to the fae lines." She glanced at Arthur. "It appears we got off topic. Why did you ask about other countries and the Changeling Law?"
"I was wondering if you would have problems if you moved to another country."
"Probably," Lily said. "With the gates closed, the Changeling law has been suspended." She sighed and rubbed a hand down her face. "I'll admit it. Oberon may have overreacted a bit."
Molly patted her hand. "Maybe, but he was just trying to protect his son from Aeval."
Lily smiled tightly. "You may be right, but now I've got to protect him from the wizards.' She grimaced. "If it isn't one thing it's another."
Arthur leaned forward. "It'll be alright. We'll help keep Harry safe. I'm sure everyone will come around eventually.'
"I hope so," Lily said softly. "I really hope so.'