"This is Claudia Shifford live from The Sanctuary in Bosnia for Sky News. As you can hear, the Croatians are still occasionally shelling the UN protected area. However since the events last month when a mysterious woman built the longhouse you see behind me, not one attack has been made on this area. Five minutes ago, a woman the locals are calling Airmed appeared with a young girl wearing a veil. The most amazing thing is that she seems to have appeared in response to prayers made by the local people. We are about to go inside, where UN doctors from France are observing her use of herbs to make medicines that seem to have miraculous properties."
The cameraman follows the reporter through the door into the dim interior of the long house. The camera itself catches a few words of English from Airmed before she notices it and switches to Celtic. Without even skipping a beat, the Serbian who is translating for the French doctors continues translating.
As they watch, Airmed unwraps the bandage from around the thigh of a young girl. What is revealed is a horrendous burn with a jagged cut in the centre of it.
Speaking softly Claudia speaks into her microphone, "What the doctors are saying is that the girl is lucky to be alive. The cut was made by shrapnel from an artillery shell, and the burns were from the core? They are now recommending that the leg be amputated before infection sets in. Airmed seems to be disagreeing, and is laying her hands over the wound. Oh my God, the burns are starting to disappear. Are you seeing this in the studio? We are witnessing a miracle live on TV. Thank Jesus for sending this woman."
Airmed snarls something to the person translating, who stops what they're doing and comes over to reporter, "Excuse, English worse French. Airmed say she Celtic not Christian, and no-god religion not have, um, affect on this."
As the man walks away, Claudia whispers, "Oh merciful lady. Please tell me you can get someone to translate that properly. The two doctors are now arguing about what they just saw, while Airmed is talking to the girl in the veil. The translator is nodding along, and by the looks of things, asking some of his own questions. The girl that has just been healed is now being hugged by her parents."
The picture of the scene moves to the top corner and the news caster appears on screen with a couple of men.
"Welcome back, I have here with me Dr Hilary Jones, and translator Travis Williams from the British Diplomatic corps. As a last-minute guest, we have the preeminent expert on Celtic culture and language, Dr Morgana Danann joining us by telephone."
Everyone says hello.
"Dr Danann, have you seen the broadcast thus far?"
"I have indeed Dermot, and I have to say I never thought to hear that language outside my lectures."
"That is excellent news. First of all, Dr Jones, what do you make of that injury?"
"That young girl is lucky to be alive, there are major blood vessels flowing through that part of the leg, and if the shrapnel hadn't hit bone it's likely she'd have died in minutes."
"Mr Williams, what were the doctors saying about the injury?"
"First of all, they praised the family for wrapping it tightly, saying that it's probably the only reason she survived to get here. Then they tell Airmed that the leg is a lost cause, and the girl should be airlifted to a hospital, where she can have it amputated. I couldn't tell you what her reply was, though maybe Dr Danann could?"
"Dermot, would it be possible to hear the response again?"
"We are still live, so I'm not sure. No, the team is saying they can't do that right now, and maintain the live feed."
"I will do my best but bear in mind that I am not a native speaker. She says something like, 'It's a good, nice, clear, thing that she is, her ancestor is, or possibly she descends from, Danu. That could also mean 'of the tribe of'. Um, she is then giving reassurance to the child. Then, to the girl in the veil I think she says something like, 'Watch what I'm doing' and 'look outside'? I think the girl is family, possibly a daughter based on the language being used."
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but we're returning to the live feed. Please stay on the line."
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"Where is it, it has to be here somewhere."
"Who's that, I can hear you, you know."
Marianne stills as a hat on a shelf starts to talk, it seemed to be such a simple idea, have a look around the headmaster's office when everyone is in class and the headmaster is out. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valour, she slips back into the mist.
"Did any of you hear that?" The portraits around the room all grumble in the negative, "Well, I know I wasn't imagining it, as I don't have an imagination."
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The sorting hat sits on Minerva's head during one of the at least weekly outings it now gets.
"I have to ask, have we decided to get rid of the Hufflepuff first years?"
Minerva stops what she's doing, takes the hat off and stares at it, "No, I had them for Transfiguration earlier today. Why would you need to ask that?"
"I heard someone in the Headmaster's office earlier, so I thought I'd check the wards. To my surprise I was unable to find any of them, a few other students have gone missing too."
"Well, it should be simple enough to sort out. Would you happen to know where Professor Sprout is?"
"She's in Greenhouse 3."
It doesn't take them long to make the trek from the 3rd floor, overlooking the quidditch pitch, to the greenhouses. As there are no privacy wards over the door, Minerva slides it to one side and steps in, remembering to close it behind her. Very carefully, she makes her way into the greenhouse, taking great pains to keep away from any of the plants that even so much as twitch in her direction. Then she freezes at the sound of voices.
"I don't understand why it's not growing, I've tried every soil and fertilizer I can think of, and all they do is sprout and then die."
"Morgana gave you this? Fire garlic if I remember correctly."
"She did."
"I see what you're doing wrong then, you need volcanic sand, like the stuff the giants used to make the causeway, but crushed into sand. I seem to remember we used to use it to claim new farmland from north of what you call Ireland. We also cultivated, I think the animal is call an ashwinder now, yes ashwinder. Ashwinder orchids, though they used to grow naturally in the cracks of volcanic rocks. They cause fissures in the rocks, breaking them down into the sand that the garlic grows in. The garlic then the sand into poor quality soil by leeching the remaining fire out of it."
"Thank you, I've been tearing my hair out over this as I've only got one clove left."
"Well, do you have time to look at Marie to see if you recognise some of the plants she's producing."
"Certainly, if you'll follow me to Greenhouse 7, where I have my experimental plants, we can see what's going on."
The sound of feet on gravel startles Minerva out of her listening, but not before Professor Sprout comes out from behind a plant, "Professor McGonagall, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Uh. Oh, the sorting hat asked me about the 1st year Hufflepuffs as the wards aren't picking them up anymore."
The hat speaks up, "Also, who were you just talking to, as I could hear someone else, but I can't see anyone."
Pomona looks surprised, "Oh, well, this is Airmed Danann, and this is Marie, we were just going to Greenhouse 7 to look at something. Follow along if you want."
Minerva frowns, "Why weren't they brought in the correct way?"
"You remember Morgana? Airmed is her granddaughter, and nearly as old."
"Yes, very well. Shall we go to Greenhouse, seven wasn't it?"
As they leave, the hat grumbles, "I still have no idea who you were talking to."
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Pomona points to a clear portion of soil in the greenhouse, "Ok Marie, can you stand there and, do whatever?"
Marie smiles as she walks over to the patch of soil. Letting go of the glamours and control over her magic that have left her barely able to enter the mist, let alone do things magically more complicated, she lets out a sigh of relief. In addition to growing 6", the earth around her immediately starts to grow a variety of wild plants.
A second later the hat shouts, "Stop it! Stop it! The mana sinks are about to overload!"
Startled Marie pulls the mist around her again, hiding her magic. Though it doesn't affect the growth of the plants around her.
The hat looks around, "Oh, that was close, the wartime protections were about to activate. That would have been awkward for the next week or so. Now where did you go? I'm sure I saw you for a moment."
Around Marie the plants continue to grow as Pomona examines them carefully.
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It's already dark by the time Marie is able to escape from the examination of Pomona, the sorting hat (apparently, she's a Gryffindor), Minerva, and Airmed. Deciding to clear her head and relax as much as she can in the mortal world she starts to wander into the 'Forbidden Forest'.
When did she start to think of this as the mortal world? It's an apt description, but… Her train of thought is interrupted by the sound of a man shouting behind her. Turning she sees a huge ogre of a man silhouetted against the light from the school, waving at her. A gust of wind carries the word 'Unicorns' to her ears, so she waves back before disappearing into the forest.
It doesn't take long for Marie to find a nice sturdy oak tree, on the edge of a clearing, to sit against so that she can think. Idly she traces the woad patterns that go up her arms and under her clothes. Not for the first time, she wonders if she did the right thing. Not in becoming Morgana's daughter, but in the way that she forced Morgana into adopting her. When she's being honest with herself, she no longer wants to become one of Morgana's crows. She's not a warrior even though she can fight, and fight well. Picking up one of the budding flowers that have grown next to her, she pushes a little magic into it. Then she watches as the bud starts to glow with an inner light, before opening to reveal a fairy, which stretches and yawns, before flying off in search of nectar.
No, what she likes is History and nature. Things that Morgana represents in her human persona, even though as a goddess she is obviously far different. Smiling, she resolves to tell Morgana about her personal revelations once she goes home. Home, yes Morgana's realm is home.
A loud squeal of pain shatters the night followed by the thundering of hooves. Looking around, Marie pulls her spear from the mist and searches the forest with her eyes, pulling on the mist to see through the darkness. Flashes of white dart to either side of the clearing, while further in more squeals of pain echo through the trees.
As one of the flashes of white swerves toward the clearing she sets her spear, just in case whatever it is charges at her. Seconds later she only has a moment to realise that it's a bleeding unicorn, and throw the spear to one side, before it barrels into her, and bowls her over and collapses itself. Slowly, Marie stands up and shakes the fuzziness out of her head. Looking around, she staggers over to her spear and leans down to pick it up. As she does so, something darts out of the forest and slashes at her, only the brutal training from Morgana allowing her to react by skimming the mist for a moment. Carefully looking around, she tries to grab her spear again, only for something with burning red eyes, and a tattered black cloak fluttering behind it, to dart out of the shadows to slash at her with it's clawed hand.
Marie involuntarily steps back, away from the spear, even as she slips in and out of the mist again. Again and again the thing attacks her, each time driving her a little further from both her spear and the unicorn. Once she realises what it's doing, she lets go of her hold on the mist that's hiding her magic and stamps her foot on the ground in front of her. Radiating away from her footstep, almost like a shockwave, flowers sprout, grow, bud, glow and then release a fairy. Rushing ahead of this effect, her magic surges out through the forest, and the protections around Hogwarts become visible as the school draws on it's reserves to divert the magical aura around it.
Where the creature is, a hawthorn tree sprouts and tries to catch it in its thorns. Rather than face her, the creature flinches backward before fleeing into the forest, racing to get out of the fairy light.
With the threat fled, Marie rushes over to the unicorn mare and places her hand on its ribcage. Trying to remember the lessons that Airmed has been giving her on how to heal, she allows her magic to find the wounds and starts to pull them closed. As the unicorns breathing becomes less laboured, and she starts to eat the flowers that are in reach, a male voice gasps, "Cernunnos" from the edge of the clearing.
Snatching up her spear in a roll, Marie crouches with the spear pointing towards the voice. Gradually, she's able to make out the form of kneeling centaur that is struggling to hold his human body off the floor with his arms. As she stands there, the unicorn struggles to her feet and nuzzles Marie's face before limping off into the forest. Once it's gone, Marie pulls the mist around her magic again and the Centaur pushes it's human half up with relief. After a quick look around her, Marie disappears into the mist to head home.
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Peterson watches as the replica experiment spins very slowly in its mercury bath, leaving clear evidence of a change in the inference pattern being projected from the eyepiece onto a projector screen by a camera. Quickly, he switches on the video cameras they've mounted around the exhibit before shaking his assistant awake.
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"My Lord, what was that."
"Imbecile, do you not pay attention to what you read? That was probably a Forest God."
"But how?"
"Nobody knows, there have only been 6 documented cases of them, and each time the wizarding community has hunted them down while they're still weak, and killed them."
"My Lord, that wasn't weak."
"Agreed, have you prepared that letter for Dumbledore yet?"
"Yes my lord, we only need one of his hairs for the potion and we can pour it over the letter. I've set the compulsion to be, to use his broom to attend the meeting."
"Good, see that we get one of his hairs while you still have the strength to reach the stone."