" Are you sure this will work?" Charlie asked.
Rosie shook her head her red hair curling under her ears. " How should I know? We've never done it but I researched it and yea this seems like the best way to get to Low Hollow."
What Rosie had found was pure genius as far as Charlie and Potter were concerned. There had been several ways they had tried to look into to get to the village but most of them involved knowing the place they were going or being seen arriving. Rosie had pulled out all the old maps she could find about Low Hollow. It had been a town of about 2,258 wizards and witches. Now the population was much less and the town was generally agreed to belong to shape shifters of many kinds. A close by school was used by the Nosferatu sometimes called night walkers.
The town however was what Rosie had focused on. More importantly the floo fireplaces. They couldn't show up in the middle of the town for that way lay a lot of trouble. However she had traced every single fire place from the time the town was built till now and she had found 3 unused but still active fireplaces they could use. All three were in rundown abandoned shacks. With Potter's invisibility cloak they could use the floo system to get to the edge of the town in the forests.
So the spell they intended to use against Fenrir was ready, Charlie had made sure to get all the ingredients together. Transportation figured out, all three students had managed to get out of going home. Now they were trying to figure out what to do with any information Fenrir could give them.
" What if he tells you your father's dead Charlie? " Potter said worriedly rubbing his nose.
Charlie stiffened a moment then shrugged " Then I want his body. Me and my mum deserve that."
" What if he's a prisoner?" Rosie said poking at the fire in the commons room.
" We save him." Charlie said simply. He looked around " We'll make Fenrir help us. Surely whatever has my dad won't be a match for Fenrir. He's not just a shifter he's a wizard."
"Use the Floo to go home and leave Fenrir and his wife...or whatever you would call her...an Alpha female maybe?" Charlie frowned a moment.
" No Alpha are nominated. Whoever is the strongest wins the title. I'm not sure what you would call this but it still sounds unnatural." Rosie said thoughtfully. " I can hardly find anything about it except here and it binds the kind of shape shifters who mate for life and will leave the pack to travel alone to die without them and actually there's alot of animals that live that way both on land and sea. It's kind of romantic."
She became aware the boys were looking at her oddly.
" Well it is!" She said defensively
They laughed at her teasing her a moment then went back to trying to get a plan down that would keep them as safe as possible for this very unsafe undertaking. She brought up what was bothering her the most.
" Yet there doesn't seem to be any reason why you would have to force a bonding on two people..I mean two creatures, who are going to bond anyway right? It makes more sense to break a bond between two people..things. I just can't figure out why anyone would force a bond that's supposed to happen naturally anyway. There must be a reason right? "
" You're talking to yourself." Potter said around a mouth full of pudding.
" I can't help it I always talk to myself about things I don't understand you know that." Rosie leaned forward and picked up a pastry.
Charlie took the opportunity to fill his plate again. It amused his friends that he seemed to eat more then anyone yet stayed so thin.
" Plus if it's a good thing...even if it does give someone leverage over them why wouldn't shape shifters who have this...this connection ...try harder to find each other? Why avoid it if it's so important? That's a good question." Rosie thoughtfully took a bite of her pastry.
Charlie paused in his eating " Maybe they don't know about it. Hagrid did say most people including shape shifters don't believe the ' One ' actually exists and I mean that makes sense right? People fall in love all the time more then once. My mum was actually going to marry someone else when she met my dad so maybe that's why they don't look or deal with it."
" It is still romantic though." Potter said grinning at Rosie. She chuckled. " Well it is imagine loving someone so much you can't live without them."
" Love has nothing to do with it." A voice made them jerk guiltily and turn to face another third year student. His name was Micheal and he was a bit odd. He was the son of the teacher of divination.
" We were just talking about...uh.." Charlie glanced at Rosie who jumped in. " A love spell. So romantic don't you think? "
Micheal smiled at them sadly. " I know what your talking about. You need to learn to shield your minds. The One really isn't something you should meddle in. It isn't a love spell."
He turned to walk away.
" Oh wait!" Rosie said. Micheal turned his light green eyes on her and waited still smiling that little smile.
" What do you know about , you know, ' The One'?"
Micheal shrugged. " It's not a love spell. It's a bonding. You said it was romantic to love someone so much you couldn't live without them but what if two bonded as one hated each other? They'd be trapped together. Or what if they weren't physically compatible? A shape shifter that lives on land could get bonded to one who lives in water so where would they live? One or the other might die trying to stay close to the other one." Micheal shrugged. " It's all well and good to talk about love but if love was the issue then why would two beings need to be bonded at all?"
Charlie's lips had flattened out and he exchanged glances with Potter and Rosie.
Micheal turned to walk away " I mean I guess if you have good reason to do it then none of that really matters it's just probably more of a trap then a love match is all I'm saying. Charlie Professor Abba just found out her book on shape shifters is missing you really ought to return it now while she's out of her classroom."
It took Charlie a moment before what Micheal had said sink in. He groaned. " Rats! The book is in my room! I have to go get it!"
" I'll come!" Potter scarfed down the last bite of his pudding and hopped up.
" Me too.: Rosie said getting up and hurrying after them.
Luckily thanks to forewarning they managed to sneak the book back into the class room of professor Abba with some time to spare. The went to the commons rooms and sat around the fire glumly.
" That's that. We can't do this." Rosie said.
Charlie stayed silent.
" We could really hurt someone." Potter added giving Charlie a quick glance.
" We could...unless there IS a way to break the spell." Charlie said thoughtfully.
" Oh no." Rosie shook her head " Everything we've looked in on it says it's not breakable except through death."
" Yea but how much information is actually on it?" Charlie argued " My dad told me theres a reverse spell to everything even death we just havn't found them all yet."
Rosie shook her head " Tonights the full moon and we have one day left before we have to be back to classes. That's not enough time to find a counter spell!"
" What if we don't cast a binding spell and it happens naturally? Couldn't it be broken then? " Charlie asked sitting back.
Rosie opened her mouth then closed it.
Potter leaned forward and raked the coals of the fire. " We still have to find a counter spell."
Rosie shook her head again. " I'm not doing it!"