Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other awesome things you may recognize in this spiffylicious story.
A/N I: This chapter is dedicated to all of you fine readers! And also to my son – who is turning nine years old in just a few hours. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
A/N II: I apologize for the very long wait. I cannot guarantee that it won't happen again. However, to make up for the insane wait time, here is an extra-long chapter just for you guys!
The Rarest Type of Seer
Chapter 8
In Dreams
Harry tumbled through the floo into his private office. He never did get the hang of fire place travel and aside from port-keys, it was still probably his least favorite way to go. It had been a long day at work and most of his staff was down to a skeleton crew right now. Ginny had left one of the smaller lamps on for him and he shut it off making his way out into the darkened hallway. He knew his wife despised his late nights at the office just as much as he did. He despised them even more when he had to work them over the holidays, especially when his daughter was visiting.
However, it was his duty to the wizarding world to keep it as safe as he possibly could. He knew that Lily had not come home just because her mother had asked her too. Sure, that probably had a lot to do with it, but Lily was not a child of whim. When she did something, there was always a purpose or a reason for it. Now all he had to do was figure out exactly what it was his daughter was up to – and she was always up to something.
He figured that whatever it was, it probably had to do with that group she and Cham were talking about a couple weeks ago. The 'Lux Lucis Effrego'. As oblivious as his wife and closest friends liked to claim that he was, he was made youngest head auror for a reason – and it was not because of his wizarding world status. Harry had taken his seeking skills and turned them into fine-tuned attention to details. He had not missed the look that passed between Lily and Cham when the 'Lux Lucis Effrego' had been brought up at dinner when they first arrived. Nor had he missed how the two girls skimmed over the topic and changed the subject as quickly as they could. He also did not miss his niece paling in color.
The whole situation had been troubling him for days, so he did dome research and what little bit he found on the group was even stranger than anything Luna Scamander, herself could come up with.
'Bleh,' was what he thought of it right now. He would worry more about it after Christmas was over.
He walked down the darkened hallway only to stop just in front of Lily's parlour. Though they were distant and vague at best, he had fond memories of this room. Harry knew that at one point in time many years ago, his mother sat in this very parlour and played with him. (He liked to believe that this was the reason that the room had taken such a strong liking to his daughter.)
There was a small fire cackling in the grate, which the black-haired man thought was quite odd. Ginny would never allow a fire to go unattended in the house, even if the room was sentient. As he made his way toward the fire to put it out, he sighed tiredly and made a mental note to get after Lily in the morning about this.
The fire gave a merry pop and a shuffling sound caught his ear. Harry turned around quickly, wand at the ready, and stood there too dumbfounded for words. He was absolutely certain that his eyes were deceiving him. They had to be, because there was no way that Scorpius Malfoy would be dumb enough to break up with Harry's niece, and then be asleep with his daughter in her private parlour a week later.
Harry blinked. Then he took off his glasses and wiped them down with his robes, replaced them on his face and looked again. And he blinked again. That was definitely his daughter on the couch with Scorpius Malfoy. She looked serene and peaceful. It was a look that Harry had rarely ever seen on his daughter's face before.
As he stood there watching the two of them with the shadows of the fire dancing on their faces, he was taken back to some of the rare occasions when it was just he and Ginny and quietude. His life had never been easy, and although Lily had never been abused as her father had, her life had been just as difficult.
Who was he then, Harry figured tiredly, to come in and scream at the two of them. Besides, they were just sleeping, (and he had never liked seeing Rose and Scorpius together anyway.)
Merlin, he was exhausted. The savior of the wizarding world glanced one more time at the sleeping couple, he was certain that neither of them would appreciate being called a couple, and he went to bed.
~SLSLSL~
She woke up in one of the last places she wanted to be. White mist covered the ground she was laying on and she could make out the glint of a beautiful silvery full moon reflecting off of a lake that was beyond the not-so-distant wood line. This was the Black Forest, home to the Blue Lady and her nightmare creatures. (Personally, Lily liked the Blue Lady – when she wasn't threatening your life, she was very entertaining. At least she gave you warning before attempting to kill you.) She was not, however in the forest itself, but the grassy fields that connected the Realm of Dreams to the Realm of Nightmares.
Sitting up, she shook the grogginess from her head. The Nightmare realm was probably the most dangerous place, (though Cham had told her about a much deeper, scarier part). 'Speaking of Cham, just where exactly is she?' Lily wondered. This was not a trip that she could have made on her own. To enter a dream through your sub-conscious was one thing, but to enter the realm itself – well, it just couldn't be done without a realm-walker. And Cham was the only one that Lily personally knew that did not have a vendetta against her.
The air surrounding the area where she was sitting suddenly got quiet. The frogs stopped croaking, the nightingale stopped singing, and the owls stopped hooting. Even the little glow worms and lightning bugs stopped flashing their lights. Lily stood up as quickly and quietly as she could, and hissed as a sudden jolt of pain shot through her ankle.
She ignored that and tried to figure out exactly why everything had gone so eerily silent. The full moon's extra brightness gave her a clear view of everything that was out there. The field was wide open, and riddled with lush grass and wild flowers. She could see the Silver Mountains in the east, rising up over the horizon, but not close enough for her to get to. Far to the north (very far to the north), was where the Fae people hid themselves away from all of civilization. Then there was the Wastelands of Oblivion in the west. None of these places were very optional for protection at this point in time. The only place that had any kind of protection from whatever evil may be lurking was the forest. She really did not want to go there.
She heard it then. It was a faint howling sound that was quickly joined by more howling. It was enough for her to know why everything had gone silent. She looked up at the full moon, thinking that it was no longer as beautiful as she originally thought.
Those howls were not the howls of regular wolves, nor were they the howls of werewolves. No – these were merely dogs. Great big wolf – like dogs. They were the height of a Great Dane, with the mass and teeth of a tiger, and the speed of a cheetah. These dogs belonged to the Hunter, and it was the night of the full moon.
Right. She was screwed.
She calculated her options: A) make a mad dash to the trees, hope and pray to every deity that is out there that those beasts don't pick up her scent, and take her chances with the nightmares within the Black Forest, or B) stay here in the middle of the open fields and become dinner.
The howling became louder. She decided to take her chances with the nightmares. She had done it before; she figured she could do it again.
She ignored the pain in her ankle as she made a mad dash for the tree-line. She really wished she knew just how in Merlin's name she came to be here.
It had been a long time since the Potter girl had visited the Black Forest, and she remembered swearing quite vehemently, that she was never coming back again. It wasn't called the Black Forest for nothing. During the brightest hours of the day, it was almost dark as night, and in the night-time hours, well – Lily liked to compare it to a black hole. She moved as swiftly as she could through the forest, all the while keeping a keen ear out for the Hunter and his dogs. The tallest trees that she knew of grew up around the lake in the center. Cham had told her once that if she ever got lost in here, those trees would be the safest. "Lily," she said, "if you can climb high enough up those trees, there is nothing in this forest that can hurt you. The higher you go, the closer you are to the light. And light is the most feared thing in any nightmare.
She could feel eyes on her as she moved, and it took everything she had within her to hold her fear in check. It was not wise to allow the creatures of this forest to sense any fear. Another howl came from behind her and then some crashing through the underbrush. The hunt was getting closer. (And if she didn't know any better, they had picked up her scent.) She squeaked and ignored Cham's obnoxious voice in her head that was making fun of her for doing so, and ran even harder and faster towards the moon-lit lake. Her ankle was killing her by this point. Tears were running down her cheeks from the pain and she felt like she was about to collapse from the intensity of the pain.
Lily kept glancing behind her to make sure that the Hunter's dogs had not gotten any closer, but she really could not see anything through the darkness and her teary eyes. She turned back around just in enough time to slam right into a warm body, taking them both down and twisting her ankle all over again.
~SLSLSL~
He blinked as he slowly woke up, his eyes adjusting to the darkness as he came to. Whispered voices carried on the back of the wind as it blew through the trees, and he gasped, barely containing a groan as he sat up with a jerk. 'Just where in the heck am I?' He was lying on a very wet ground and there was something large and rough next to his cheek. There was very little light filtering from the moon through the trees, and everything was cast into shadows, making for a very creepy atmosphere.
Scorpius sat up slowly trying to push the disorientation and fogginess out of his mind. He remembered quite clearly going to sleep in Lily's parlour – and now… he was here. The Malfoy heir was quite sure that he had been here before; (he recognized the wild scent of this place), he just couldn't quite put his finger on when. Pushing these thoughts aside, he looked around wondering if Lily was going to be a part of this particular dream. He hadn't had very many dreams of her, but whenever he did – they were always very…interesting. Not finding his object of interest, the blonde stood up slowly and decided to try to get an idea of where he was.
He was sitting in a very small clearing. Trees and underbrush were everywhere the eye could see and there was no visible path out. He could hear water trickling nearby and he followed the sound to a hidden stream that was nestled in between two very steep land banks. The moon glowed brightly off the water, but Scorpius noted that there were still trees that grew near enough that a person could hide in the shadows. There was a log raft that was sitting on the bank of the stream as if waiting just for him.
Shrugging his shoulders, he figured he would just go with what the dream gave him to get out of the creepy clearing. He was certain that he wasn't in the right place anyway. So deciding, he made his way down to the river raft. The second his body was completely on the raft, it started to move, as if there was an invisible force plowing it through the water.
Scorpius didn't know how long he had been on that raft before it finally moved over toward the bank of the river. It could have been mere minutes, or it could have been days, but it felt like forever. The entire time he sat there on that raft, he could not shake the feeling that he was being followed. There was an intense feeling of malice in the air, and he had his guard up the entire time.
Finally the raft started moving to the bank of the stream. The land was not so steep here and there was a bit less foliage also. However, the air was filled with ten times the tension and danger that it had been when he had been floating along on the little stream. He took note to be more cautious and instantly walked head first into a tree that he knew for a fact had not been standing there seconds before.
Instant giggling caught the blonde man's attention and he looked around to see two small creatures no higher than his knee laughing at him. Their skin was brown, leathery, and wrinkled all over. They had the tails of a monkey, the ears of a bat, and the wizened eyes of an old head-master. He hoped that they were not out to hurt him in any way as he had no means to truly defend himself. (Scorpius only now realized that he happened to be wand- less.) Then again, they were laughing rather joyfully, obviously at him, but at least the laughter was not malicious.
He shook his head, which protested in pain, and glared at the new creatures balefully. A million different questions went through his mind at once, but the one that popped out of his mouth was, "What type pof creatures are you?"
The giggling stopped instantly. One of them hissed and bared their pointy teeth. Scorpius flinched back in automatic response. He really didn't mean to offend, but he was getting rather tired of this particular dream and was beginning to just want to wake up, but something was holding him here, and he needed to find out what it was.
"The better question, Dreamwalker, would be – what are you doing here?" The voice that answered him was deep and rumbling and sinister. He felt the air cool at least ten degrees as this new creature made his presence known. The two small creatures had scampered into the bushes and hid themselves away. For his part, Scorpius remained outwardly calm, though he was shaking with fear inside.
"I'm not really sure," he replied warily to the query. "But there is something I'm supposed to be doing here. I just don't know what it is…," he trailed off. "Do you think you could help me?"
"This place is not safe for your kind, Dreamwalker," the creature answered. "However, as I am bound by certain promises, I will offer my assistance to you. But only until you have safely retrieved what you have come to get. This place is dangerous, especially tonight." The dark creature, (which Scorpius still had not actually seen), muttered this last part under his breath.
'What's so special about tonight that makes it so dangerous,' he wondered. But the shadow creature, as Scorpius had deemed him in his head, had already started moving on.
"Come young Dreamwalker!" the creature commanded, and Scorpius took note of the steel in the creature's voice and started moving his feet. "Bring your nargle friends as well. They have better eyes in the darkness of the forest than any other creature here."
At first Scorpius was confused. 'Just what in Merlin's name was a 'nargle'?' Luna had spoken of nargles before, but just like everything else that she spoke of, he dismissed as part of her craziness. Then he heard more giggling and he turned around to see the little brown creatures grinning up at him. He really wanted to wake up.
On and on they walked through the forest. The trees and underbrush got thicker in some places and thinned out in others. He felt as if he was being led on a merry chase for no other reason than his subconscious wanted to have fun. He tried to come up with reasons why he would be having such a strange dream, especially since it was such a rarity that he dreamed at all. The clarity of the dream was so strong that he just didn't know what to think. On occasion he would come out of his thoughts and try to question the shadow creature about what it was he was supposed to be retrieving or why the creature kept calling him 'Dreamwalker'.
The creature was very good at turning everything into a riddle.
He sighed in relief when they stopped rather abruptly, and then groaned when he realized that they were still deep in the forest. They were in another clearing; very different from the one that he had woke up in. Just beyond the tree-line, a fire burned bright and strong. Its shadows danced off of the rocky cliffs behind it. Scorpius could barely make out a hole in the face of the rock, and he came to the conclusion that it was some kind of cave.
Two women sat around the fire. Well, one of them was sitting. Her head was in her hands as if she was in a deep thought, while the other seemed as if she were dancing gleefully around the fire.
"This is as far as I can take you, Dreamwalker," the shadow creature said. There was a note of fear or derision in his voice, (Scorpius really couldn't tell which), as the creature stared out at the beings in front of him. "Before I go, I will leave you with this piece of advice." The shadow creature waited for Scorpius to give him his full attention. Once he had it, the creature continued, "DO NOT let them," he motioned with his shadowy head towards the fire and the beings around it, "catch you! If they do, things could turn out very badly, and not just for my world, but for yours also."
"I don't understand what you're…" Before he could even finish his thought, however, the shadow creature was gone.
Scorpius sighed in frustration. He had no idea what was going on or why he was even here. And wasn't this just a stupid dream anyway? He pinched himself. Hard. He was surprised to note that it hurt and a small red welt was appearing where he had abused his skin. 'Well isn't that just grand?' he asked himself. Now he really wanted to know where he was and how he got here, though he still clung to some small hope that this was all some crazy and insane dream cast over him
So lost in thought was he, that at first he didn't even pay attention to what was going on just past the tree line. The sound of raised voices caught his attention and as silently as he possibly could he went over to the trees to find out what was going on. Curiosity was going to be the death of him yet. He was absolutely sure of it.
"All we need is the heart and the jewel. We have everything else," the one that had been dancing around the fire said. Her voice crackled with an edge of anticipation. She looked young, though she could have been any age. The words that she used seemed to be of the 'Olde English' variety.
"There is no way you will be able to get away with this. If Maorigan finds out –" the girl that sat upon the log in front of the fire seemed to be younger than the dancer, and though bravely speaking, there was an undercurrent of fear that was clear to anyone that was listening.
The older woman made a hissing sound that came from the back of her throat, and Scorpius flinched in fright at the sound. Even the small nargles seemed to be afraid as they jumped back from the pure evil of the sound. "She will not find out," dancer girl said malevolently. The younger cringed in her seat. "She has hidden herself away in the forsaken North. She and her crows have left this part and 'retired' as those measly humans call it. Had she stayed, she might have been able to come into a glorious reign when all of this is over. But, alas –," The speaker made a quiet 'tsk –ing' sound and then laughed in clear and unadulterated evil glee.
And then stopped. As a matter of fact, everything seemed to stop. Out on the winds came the sound of a howl so intense and so frightening, that not only did the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, but Scorpius could swear that the hair at the very tips of his head was standing on end.
"The hunter is out tonight?" He heard one of the girls (most likely the younger) ask in confusion.
"Well, it is a full moon tonight," was the reply.
Scorpius looked at the sky. It wasn't a full moon, but he was certain that it would be the next evening. He didn't know much about folk-lore, but he knew enough to know that on the 'three' nights of the full moon, a person was not to be outside.
"But the hunter has not been out since Maorigan went to the North," said the confused voice once again.
He was not sure, but he could swear that the other girl shrugged at her companion before she answered. "Perhaps he was bored and decided to do something. Danu knows, I'm tired of watching him sulk!"
"But he made it abundantly clear that he would not hunt again until the day he felt his sister's magic pulse through our lands again, or his mother made her presence known."
There was silence in the clearing for a moment. All that could be heard was the cackling of the fire. Then the older woman, who was kneeling in front of the fire, stood up quickly with a sinister smile on her lips. "Perhaps a mortal child has found her way to our realm, and our esteemed hunter has decided to go for a look-see," she said.
She started to walk slowly around the fire, looking at the ground intently. The nargles who had sensed the danger that was within this woman had been pulling on Scorpius's arm for quite some time now, but he had been quite readily ignoring them. However their insistent nagging and the sudden change in the demeanor of the woman made the Malfoy scion more alert than he already had been.
As she reached the other side of the fire, directly across from where Scorpius was hiding in the bushes and the tree-line, the woman looked up. Right into Scorpius wide grey eyes.
"Well, well, I think we have company, Sister," she said and began making her way over to the bushes.
He scrambled back and made a mad dash out of that particular clearing. By the time the woman got over to where she had seen the grey eyes shining out at her, there was nothing to find. But she smelled the scent of fear, and knew that a young mortal had heard everything that had been said. It was of no matter to her though. Her plans would come to fruition and the young man would play his part well. She was sure of it.
~SLSLSL~
Scorpius ran with no exact idea of where he was going. The nargles, he realized with a little bit of surprise were keeping very good pace with him. He felt somewhat safer with them by his side. Although he was not sure why since he was not sure what kind of protection they could provide.
He looked back one more time to see if the woman from the clearing had followed him. She was nowhere to be seen though, and this gave him a great sense of relief. That is, until he slammed into something very hard and yet very soft at the same time.
The wind had been knocked out of him when he fell to the ground and he was having a very hard time catching his breath. From below him, he heard a soft moan, and he felt small human like hands push at his chest trying to get him to move.
He scrambled off as quickly as he could and did his best to get a good look at the second thing that he had run face first into tonight. In the moonlight that streamed brokenly through the trees, he could make out pearly white skin, midnight black hair, and eyes the color of dark green.
Lily.
The situation was so incredibly surreal to him. He pinched himself. Again. Harder than he did last time and it still hurt.
"This is not a dream, Scorpius," Lily said through gritted teeth.
His response was quick and sardonic – "A guy can wish, right?"
Lily did not seem amused. "You can wish all you want, but it's not going to get us out of here." She looked at him contemplatively for a moment, and he stirred uncomfortably under her intense gaze. "How did you get here?" she asked him suddenly.
At a loss for words, all he could say was "huh?" 'Very eloquent indeed.' He was beginning to feel like he was always at a loss for words around her. Even in dreams that were apparently reality. How did that even work exactly….?
She continued to stare at him as if trying to find some secret into his soul. The scrutiny was making him feel nervous and even more on edge than he had been to begin with. She shifted her gaze more directly to his and he couldn't help but to get almost lost in the moonlight and her very deep green eyes. 'Since when did I become a poet?' he asked himself. He swore he saw her turn just a little pink before she looked away from him and to the surrounding area.
Before he could dwell anymore on that, she asked him again, "How did you get here, Scorpius?"
"I don't know," he said honestly. "One minute I was asleep on the couch in that parlour of yours," he continued, deliberately leaving out the part that she had been with him when he fell asleep, "and the next I was waking up in a tiny little clearing with only a stream and a river raft as a way out."
Lily looked at him again. There was something different about him, his aura was off somehow, and she needed to figure out what it was. She felt as if their very survival depended on it. Especially since she knew the hunter and his dogs would be along soon.
"So, you took the little raft down river – and then what?"
"The raft pulled over onto a bank and I got off." If he thought it was odd that she didn't ask him about how the raft seemed to know to pull over he made no mention of it. She seemed to be mulling over this piece of information.
Anticipating her next question, he interrupted her by saying, "when I climbed up into the trees, I met these two little nargles," at the mention of them, the little nargles made themselves known to Lily and started dancing around where she still sat on the ground, "and a shadow creature that led me to another clearing and then he left."
Lily laughed at the silliness of the nargles, her smile reaching all the way to her eyes, and making Scorpius's breath hitch in his chest. She glanced up at him again quickly and then looked away muttering to herself, "I still don't understand how you got here."
"Dreamwalker! Dreamwalker! Dreamwalker!" The nargles started chanting.
"WHAT!?"
Scorpius looked away sheepishly. "That's what the shadow creature kept calling me," he answered uncomfortably. He did not understand what a 'dreamwalker' was exactly, but he was not comfortable with the title, nor was he comfortable with the horror that was etched across Lily's beautiful face.
"No. No. Nonononono. This can't be happening. YOU!" She yelled, scrambling up and wincing in pain at her ankle. "You're not supposed to be a dreamwalker! You're supposed to be my brother's annoying best friend who ignores me and pretends that I don't exist!"
She had moved closer to him in her rant and was now standing inches from his face. She slammed her small fist into his chest as she ranted about the unfairness of it all, and he, for the most part, allowed her to yell, even though he still had no idea what in the hell she was going on about.
As she carried on muttering about 'stupid wizards hiding certain powers' (Scorpius took offense to that, as he knew she was talking about him,) and 'dumb fae who think they can do whatever they want'; he took note of the way she favored one leg over the other. There were very real tears in her eyes, and he had no idea if they were from the pain in her foot that she was obviously trying to hide form him, or from her anger about him supposedly being a dreamwalker.
"Are you even listening to me!?" She practically screeched.
"I –" was all he got out of his mouth before they heard the howl of one of the hunter's dogs.
"Oh. Merlin." Lily said, looking up at Scorpius with very real fear in her eyes. She shuddered and hugged herself causing Scorpius to want to put his arms around her and hold her tight.
"We're doomed, Scorpius," she said quietly, forgetting her previous anger in light of this much heavier predicament. "Unless…" She looked around where they were standing and he watched in complete awe as she limped her way around to the different trees placing her hand lightly on it. Nothing happened with the first five or six trees that she touched, and her eyes got very wide as she heard the hunter coming closer to where they were hidden. The seventh tree that she touched, to Scorpius's utter amazement, turned a light gold under Lily's soft touch.
She turned toward him with a tremulous, but determined look. "We can do one of three things here, Malfoy." He nodded to let her know that he was listening, even though he inwardly winced at her use of his last name.
"We can climb this tree to the very top and hope and pray that the hunter doesn't decide to wait us out, which he will," she said with the last part with such force that Scorpius wondered how she knew exactly what the hunter would do.
"I guess that's not an option then," he was surprised to hear that his voice did not waver. "What else?"
Her eyes narrowed at him dangerously and flashed with repressed anger. Quietly, as if trying to hold in her frustration, which she was, she said, "you could try to figure out how to make that dreamwalker magic of yours work and get us the heck out of here."
He ran his hand through his hair in frustration, the only outward sign of what he was feeling. Taking a deep breath he said, "Lily. How can I figure out how to use a type of magic that you claim I have, when I didn't even know that I had it. AND! I don't even know what a dreamwalker is!?"
Lily bristled visibly at his tone but Scorpius didn't care. He was tired of being accused of being something that he just knew he wasn't. "What's the third option, Lily?" He asked before she could make some rebuttal. He could hear the dogs rushing through the woods, and from the sounds of it, they were getting closer. The nargles were cowering low under some bushes.
The Potter girl paused. Her fast refute died on her tongue at his question. She shook her head and her hair fell into her face. If Scorpius had not known any better, he would have sworn that Lily Potter was embarrassed.
"The third option, Lily? What is it? We don't have a lot of time here," he said earnestly.
"You can invoke…." she muttered.
"What?"
She sighed, in frustration, or embarrassment, he wasn't sure. In a louder voice she said, "You can invoke your right to hunt as a Dreamwalker in this realm. You would be safe from the hunter as he would see you as a comrade and not as a foe."
"And you," he couldn't help but ask. "How would that help to keep you safe from the hunter?" He was pretty sure he knew the answer, but he wanted to hear her actually say it. Some little voice in his head told him that it was kind of cruel to draw it out of her like that, but she was so aloof all the time, that it was like a balm to his prickled pride to see her even slightly embarrassed.
She froze for a moment, and he was unsure if she would continue on. He watched her silently steel her nerves, shaking her dark hair out of her face. He could just barely make out the slight points at the tips of her ears. 'If this really was the land of the Fae, like I am beginning to think that it is, then Lily Potter could fit right in.' He mused silently.
Lily's quiet but determined voice brought him back to the task at hand. "For me to be safe, you would have to claim me as your prize."
His immediate response was, 'I can do that.' He held his tongue though. There was something about the way that she had looked away from him that bothered him. Moving closer to her, he tentatively touched her shoulder. She looked like a forlorn and wary little girl-child, and he wanted nothing more in that moment to protect her from whatever evils in the world might exist. "Hey. What is it? What's the matter with the last option? It doesn't sound too bad."
The dark haired girl made a growling sound in the back of her throat and pulled out of his grasp. She moved over to the tree that she had talked about climbing and leaned against it as casually as possible, shifting her weight off of her bad ankle. Inside she was writhing in pain. 'Words have power in this realm," she began, but she got no further than that.
The loud crashing of trees, underbrush, and leaves was all they heard before six very large wolf-looking dogs barreled through into the very clearing that they were in. The two nargles that were, for the most part completely forgotten about up until this moment shrieked and took off into the woods. Lily jumped at the sound of all of the racket and mad a beeline for Scorpius, hurting her ankle for a third time that night. The dogs ignored the nargles and surrounded the two humans.
The hunter followed the path of his animals into the clearing and stopped in front of them. He was tall and ethereally beautiful. His hair was as white as the freshest and cleanest snow, and it gleamed brightly in the moonlight. His eyes were a sharp cutting blue and all that could be seen in them was cruelty and mockery, and his face was sharp and angular.
"What have we here?" he asked them in a voice as smooth as velvet. He circled around the two of them taking notice that the girl stood slightly in front of the young man as if protecting him. The hunter grinned in malice at the thought that this child might think she could beat him at his own game.
He walked closer to them and Lily shied away from his presence. "It seems that I have finally caught up to my prey. You led me on quite the merry chase." The fae leaned into her space running his finger down her cheek. "What a pretty little thing you are," he whispered. "Jewel-keeper." Lily held in her gasp at the sound of that particular name.
She eyed him defiantly while her mind spun in circles looking for a way out. She really wished Scorpius would figure out how to use his power, or at least claim his right to the hunt; consequences be damned. 'Stupid Malfoy!'
For his part, Scorpius was not just idly standing by. He was trying to think of a way out of the situation without having to invoke his 'hunting right'. There had been something about the way she shied away from that particular option that made him consider finding a different way out.
As he thought on their current predicament, he once again came to the debate of 'is this all or dream?' If it was, he could just invoke his right, they would wake up and all would be well. Right?
By the way the hunter was ogling Lily, it was beginning to not matter if this was a dream or not. A streak of pure possessiveness shot through Scorpius as the hunter leaned down into Lily's personal space. Not wanting to examine the emotion, but also not liking the lustful look on the hunter's face, he jumped in front of Lily and grabbed the hunter's hand before he could so much as touch a strand of hair on Lily's pretty head.
The surprise that was seen on the hunter's face was gone in a millisecond, though if Scorpius had turned around, he would have seen it mirrored in Lily's face as well. However, smart boy that he was, the blonde kept his face to the enemy and his back to the girl.
The hunter let out a bark of a laugh, though the humor didn't quite reach his eyes, and his mouth curled into a snarl. "Who are you? The jewel-keeper's protector?" his voice was mocking in the most terrible of ways, his face was snarling.
"I'm not the jewel-keeper!" Lily insisted. Scorpius was certain that she would have stomped her foot if it had not been for her injury.
The hunter was surprised at the sheer audacity of the boy to challenge him in such a way. The two humans stood before him, though not quite cowering in the way that the hunter would like, he could smell their fear.
The girl grasped hold of the young man's shirt from behind. Though her eyes were wide, she reeked more of apprehension of what was to come than fear of the hunter. The boy drew her closer to him in a way that the hunter recognized quite well. He doubted, however that the boy knew what he was doing.
"Do you stake a claim to this mortal girl, human?" he asked in his cruel voice.
Scorpius opened his mouth to answer but was cut off before a word was even uttered. "HA!" the hunter exclaimed, eyes gleaming brightly. "But you cannot stake a claim, can you? You are not Fae, nor do you have any Fae magic running through your veins, nor do you belong to the hunt on this night!"
The hunter continued to rant about the unworthiness of Scorpius and as he did the air around them became more and more charged. The large dogs which were just growling and snapping were now cowering and sniveling. Not that the hunter was heeding attention to them. Lily watched in fascination as the aura around Scorpius changed from the light blue that it normally was to a very bright silver-ish color. She had only ever seen that color on one other person – or ghost – as the case may be.
With the air as charged as it was with magic, Lily made sure to stay as close to Scorpius as possible. There was a reason why the Potter girl avoided this place as much as possible, and it had everything to do with her own magic, or the lack thereof of her magic whenever she came here.
Finally Scorpius had enough of the hunter's dialogue, though why the hunter had not struck yet was anyone's guess, and the Malfoy scion spoke over him in a deadly quiet voice. The charged air stood still, though it crackled with electricity. The dogs lowered their heads to the ground in submission, and the hunter's mouth was stuck in a comical 'O' shape.
Lily would have giggled if the situation wasn't so very serious. The voice that came out of Scorpius was not his own, and shivers ran up and down the poor girl's body.
"As a Dreamwalker in this realm and the only true descendant of the Princess Rowena, I Scorpius Malfoy, stake my claim during this hunt to the mortal girl Lily Luna Potter."
Lily buried her head in the back of Scorpius's shirt and groaned. 'Oh Merlin, what have you done, Scor?' she whispered into his back as the wind kicked up and the leaves started swirling around in a mad frenzy around the clearing.
"YOU CAN NOT INVOKE THAT RIGHT! YOU DO NOT BELONG TO THIS WORLD! YOU ARE NOT THE –"
Whatever else the hunter was about to bellow neither of the two heard, due to the high winds and the sudden whirling vortex of magic. The next thing Lily knew, she was lying flat on her back looking up at a grey, cloud filled sky. The ground she was lying on was cold and wet, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was back at home, and she grinned happily with the knowledge.
Scorpius had done it! He had got them home and she would be forever grateful for that. Speaking of the Malfoy heir… She looked around her and found the blonde haired man groaning as he sat up gingerly. Lily could tell that he had not quite figured out where he was.
He blearily looked around in confusion, his eyes finally settling on the Potter girl. "Lily," he croaked. "I just had the strangest dream…" he trailed off as he took in where they were at.
"How…?" There was very real panic shown in his eyes when he looked back at her.
"You weren't dreaming Scor. It was real. You – you're…" her voice held a trace of sadness, or was it pity? Scorpius could not tell. He didn't like either though. His denial was quick and firm.
"No," he said shaking his head. "I was sleep walking or something. And you came out to get me and bring me back into the house." He was doing his best to convince himself of this and Lily sitting there on the ground with her ankle at an odd angle was not helping him in the least. As a matter of fact…."Lily – why does your ankle look like it's broken?"
She glanced down at it and then back at him. She wondered about telling him the truth of it. 'Would it break his already strained psyche? Would he be alright enough to deal with more evidence to where they were that night?'
She never got the chance to answer though. Cham came storming out the front door toward the two of them. She looked as if the hounds of hell were hot on her heels. She stopped abruptly in from of them, took one look at them both and said, "Awe HELL!"
A/N III: First, I want to thank you all so much for staying with me and putting up with the very loooong wait times between chapters. When I actually found the time to sit down and work on this, it took me the better part of two days. I am really nervous about how it turned out and I truly hope you all enjoyed it. Please make sure to leave a review and let me know what you think. I know it doesn't all make sense right now, but I promise you, it does all add up into the crazy plot that is in my head.
CHEERS!
~Jeni