Credit for this chapter goes, again, to the wonderful and talented Kanathia! Go give her some love.

Crepsley had been in very odd situations throughout his very long life. The rag tag group he found himself part of at the moment wasn't the strangest one he'd ever encountered, but it certainly ranked high on his mental list. The raggedy man… Sirius, as he had been repeatedly asked to call him, had told him that he would show him to Evra once they'd escorted the short balding man to the castle. Crepsley hadn't wanted to trust the man, as he'd obviously already bailed on Evra, but he saw little else he could do. So he skirted the rear of the group and listened in on their 'private' conversations. If they could call them that. The only one of them who seemed to be talking low enough to warrant it being called anything but public was the bushy haired girl.

She was hissing into the red haired boy's ear and shooting looks back in both Crepsley's and Sirius' directions. He supposed Sirius was garnering attention simply for having pulled the third child off to the side of the group a bit as they walked. Crepsley could hear the two talking about the boy's parents. It wasn't a particularly thrilling conversation to listen in on, and he supposed it was hardly his business anyway, so he turned his attention to the other two children. The girl was helping the boy who had an injured leg, who in turn was tied to the pudgy man that smelt of fear. Their 'prisoner' of sorts.

"He doesn't seem bloodthirsty." He heard the young girl hiss to the boy who shot another furtive glance in Crepsley's direction.

"Don't let him fool you. I'm sure he's just waiting for the right time to strike." The boy replied even lower than the girl.

Crepsley couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face as he realized what their impromptu conversation was about. The boy was tied to a supposed mass murderer from what he'd gathered and still the two were more worried about Larten than the man. Human nature was such an odd thing.

The girl had mentioned Darren though. Perhaps she knew where the infernal wizards were keeping him. Though, from what he had ascertained the entire group was composed of wizards sans himself. Perhaps that should have been concerning, but at the moment he was too preoccupied with the thought that he was closer to rescuing his assistant than he'd been in months.
He could see the relief on all of their faces as they made it into a large room filled with roots. To one side, Crepsley could see a hole through which the sky was visible barely visible through a heavy cover of clouds. Were they on the other side of those thrice damned wards now? They'd certainly walked far enough.

"I'll go first and keep the tree still for all of you." The werewolf, Lupin, offered.
Crepsley shifted curiously to see as best he could through the hole. What sort of tree needed to be stilled for others?

He didn't have to wait long to find out.

The others hobbled and trudged their way out of the hole and Larten followed last, sure to be quick in case the offer hadn't extended to him. But Lupin still had his hand pressed firmly against a knot in the tree when he extricated himself from the roots. The werewolf offered him a bland smile before removing his hand and ushering the children and floating man away from the tree. They'd barely cleared ten meters when the tree seemed to resume movement. It shuddered and Crepsley watched it with intense interest for a moment before it seemed to decide to act like a tree again. It stilled entirely, save for the leaves that fluttered in a light breeze.

The group had settled for a moment to allow the red haired boy a rest, as his face was ashen from the exertion of getting this far.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like me to conjure a stretcher?" Lupin offered, frowning. The concern he felt for the child was obvious.

The boy shook his head with determination. He turned a heated glare on the bound man at Lupin's side.

"We should keep moving then. The sooner we get to Madam Pom…" Lupin stopped mid sentence, staring straight ahead eerily.

"The moon!" The girl cried in distress.

All eyes went to the sky to see the moon, which had cleared its cloud covering and shone bright and full. If possible, the red haired boy paled further.

Sirius rushed forward and grasped the man by the shoulders as he grabbed his own head and moaned in pain. "Remus! Did you take your potion tonight?!" Sirius cried out, voice high and strained.

The group was backing away except for the man tied to Lupin, who looked decidedly uncomfortable with his current position.
Bones began to snap in the man's body. Lupin's magic had apparently been holding a lot of things together as all at once his ability to control the spells he'd cast snapped. The man who had been levitating crashed to the ground and began to stir, the binds holding the red haired boy's leg stabled began to unravel, much to his pained surprise, and the rope holding the murderer to Lupin snapped.

There was a moment of undecided action as everyone froze. Then the small glade became a flurry of movement. Lupin's transformation, nearing completion, had left the man being held back by Sirius.

Crepsley looked uncertainly from the werewolf to the children and back again. Sirius shifted into his dog form and tried to fight Lupin back. He succeeded for a few precious minutes, until Lupin got a good swing in and Black went flying. The sound as he crashed into the ground made Crepsley wince with sympathy.
He watched as Lupin stalked forward, teeth bared. The dark haired boy was suddenly at his side, pelting the mindless werewolf with rocks in an effort to draw his attention away from Sirius. Unfortunately, that meant his attention was drawn back towards the children, the ones Sirius had been trying to protect in the first place.

Larten surveyed the situation quickly even as the menacing creature bared down on them all. At some point, the man they had been escorting had run off. The children were petrified and even if they weren't they had an injured one among them. In reality, they were basically powerless in such a situation against a creature of magic. The black haired man the others had levitated earlier was just barely coming to. He had an inner struggle. These people were wizards. They were the ones who had spirited Darren away in the first place… but they were also children.

He made his decision. Crepsley lunged forward hitting the werewolf and driving it off course. He paused only long enough in his attempts to divert the wolf to see the dark haired kid run off in the direction he'd seen Black fly earlier. Then he went back to ramming the werewolf before running slowly in an effort to lead the beast away from the downed children. He hoped he wouldn't cross paths with the one that had just run into the forest himself.

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"You are lost."

Evra nearly bolted up a tree when the voice sounded behind him. He turned and found himself facing a semi familiar figure. He nodded to the half horse man. "I've been in a lot of forests, but this one's…"

"Different." Andiamus finished for him. "It's the magic in the air. It clouds the senses of lesser beings."

Evra wasn't sure if he should be offended or agree.

"The castle is to the East, but the stars say that your destination is not yet determined."

Evra stared back at the centaur in confusion. "What does that mean? Darren's at the castle, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"Then that's where I'm going!"

"Perhaps."

Evra was growing frustrated. "Which way's East?" he asked in a huff, brow furrowed and arms crossed.

The centaur stared down at him impassively for a long moment, so long a moment Evra began to suspect he would not tell him. Then, just as the snake boy's patience was nearing its end, Andiamus lifted an arm and pointed to Evra's left.

Evra huffed and stalked away in that general direction, not bothering to thank the annoying centaur.
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Harry had panicked when Lupin had thrown his godfather through the air like he was nothing more than a rag doll. He'd hurried after the man once he was sure his friends weren't about to become werewolf chow. And what a surprise it had been that Mr. Crepsley had helped.
He'd thought from Darren's irritated chattering about the man that he was cold hearted and ruthless, but apparently he was more than willing to put himself in danger for complete strangers. Either Darren was wrong about him or his muttering had been completely out of irritation.

Harry slipped to a stop on the stones beside Sirius, who was struggling to flip himself over.

"Sirius!" he cried, dragging the man's shoulders and helping in the process.

Sirius spluttered weakly and Harry quickly realized it had little to do with any injury Lupin might have dealt him. Around them dementors were moving in. Dozens of the demented creatures were convalescing on them. Their dense bodies began to block the moonlight.

Harry stood defensively in front of his godfather and raised his wand. He wouldn't let them take the family he'd only just found. He'd fight every one of the buggers off, wand or no wand. "Expecto Patronum!" he yelled fiercely, recollecting his first day at Hogwarts.

A bright stream of light burst from the tip of his wand and drove back the nearest of the creatures, but all too soon it flickered out and again they surged forward.

Panting heavily, Harry dug deep. "Expecto Patronum!" he cried out again, this time recalling his first meeting with Hagrid, but that spell died even more quickly than the first as the sheer number of the dementors pressed down on it.
Harry could feel his consciousness slipping. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear the familiar screams that he now knew belonged to his mother. He blinked away the haze only to realize that at some point his knees had come into contact with the cold stone. "Expecto… patro…" His shoulders hit the stone.

He was vaguely aware of the fact that if something didn't happen soon, both he and his godfather would die.
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Crepsley led Lupin as far away as he could without leaving the barriers that surrounded the school. He didn't want to have to backtrack all the way through the shrieking shack to get back on the grounds.

Once away from the humans the werewolf seemed much less temperamental. Lupin still pursued Crepsley but in much less of a rend him limb from limb way. It was almost like Crepsley was back with the wolves on a trip to Vampire Mountain.
Still, he didn't much want to have to deal with a bite from the man, whether it was serious or in jest. As soon as he saw an opening he turned on the wolf. Using brute force Crepsley heaved a tree branch around and struck Lupin on the side of his head.
The werewolf crashed into another tree with a pained cry that lasted only for another minute before he went still. Crepsley eyed the man with a frown. He'd been expecting more resistance, but apparently the man was already down for the count. Perhaps it had something to do with how sickly he'd looked before.

Crepsley dropped the tree branch and glanced around. Mission now accomplished he decided to head for the castle. That's where they'd been heading in the first place. Perhaps it was where he would find Darren. He'd never taken the chance to ask when he'd been part of the group.