While Severus and the other first years are busy waiting in the woods, the Greyback twins share an extraordinary experience
They opened their eyes and found themselves standing on top of gently rolling waves under a magnificently bright starlit night sky. Colorful galaxies and nebulas swirled dizzyingly close above them, amorphous and profoundly lovely. It was a breathtaking view of the cosmos the likes of which made mortals tremble and feel small and powerless, and that was astronomically impossible to view from anywhere on their own home planet. Wherever they were had a different smell in the air and water, clean but sharp and unfamiliar.
They were Elsewhere.
Despite the seemingly infinite field of stars stretched out before them, the most impressive sight were the enormous female figures standing before them. No, not standing… hovering? Levitating, really. Beauties all three, and adorned in identical flowing diaphanous white gowns, they couldn't have been more different in physical appearance.
One had a soft pale face like moonbeams with sleepy dreamy eyes, and between the pieces of long blonde hair that framed her face they could see that her forehead bore a shining silver mark of a perfect circle.
Another had a fey puckish face that promised trouble, and her brown hair was tied back in a practical braid that left her mark clearly visible - it was a circle that was half silver and half gold.
The last one hurt to look at for too long, as her face seemed to shift before their very eyes, growing younger and older back and forth over and over again and never settling. Her hair changed as well from red pigtails to auburn ringlets and then to a severe grey bun. Her youthful face was smiling and joyful, and her elderly face was stern and utterly unamused. She was a picture of contrasts, and her forehead bore a smudgy black circle that looked like it had been drawn with an ash covered thumb.
The three beings floated in midair above the surface of the waves the two of them were standing on. And speaking of which, just how in Helga's green garden were they doing that?? The children clasped each other's hands as they realized they were standing on top of very dark and deep ocean waters, and Harry let out a yelp when he saw a pitch black silhouette of something monstrously huge swimming not that far below them. Their heart rates spiked and panic rose like bile in their throats.
"You are safe here" a calm voice whispered in their ears like the way a gentle evening breeze rustles through your hair.
"This is not your first time here" a mischievous voice called past them like a hooting owl swooping in flight to catch a vole.
"You believe that you came here as three, but truly you are four who should be two. So too your eyes see before you three, but truly we are five who should be one," echoed a voice that filled the space around them with the overlaying ambients sounds of tall grasses swishing and branches shaking and leaves rustling and a storm beginning to pick up.
What?
All three voices spoke at once then in perfect frightening unison "We shall help you to transform, and then you shall help us to transform. Then we nine shall be three," they commanded in a voice that crashed upon them like a great rolling wave leaving the water and moving over land. The sound of whipping wind and droning coastal warning sirens came with it, and it carried the smell of torrential rain and pungent sea salt. It had a weight to it that nearly bowled them over, and they struggled to remain standing. The two children trembled where they stood, and clutched at each other in fear.
Amalthea's many layered voice echoed out like a church choir "Mother goddesses please, you overwhelm them! They do not yet know that they know you, they must be reminded gently. They are but babes still," she cried in their defense. Hermione's hand clenched her brother's tightly, squeezing like a vice grip as she realized exactly who they were receiving an audience with. Without a second thought she pulled him with her to their knees, and bent her head low until it touched the waters. She felt him do the same next to her and breathed a sigh of relief.
A robustly talkative child at the best of times, she stayed resolutely silent, refusing to dishonor her people's literal deities with her tendency to ramble nonsense. The two of them stayed silent for many minutes, patiently waiting to be given further instructions by someone who actually knew what was going on. She was immensely grateful that Amalthea had cut in when she had, because she'd had a thousand questions about the way the goddesses greeted them that she'd have surely thoughtlessly asked if she hadn't been more alert.
In retrospect it should have been obvious who they were from the first moment she laid eyes on them. The golden haired dreamer was the Lady Selene of the full moon, the fey child was Lady Artemis of the half moon, and the shifting triple aspect woman could only have been Lady Hekate of the dark moon, oldest and wisest of them all and the patron deity of magic itself. Hermione had spent her entire childhood learning to pray and give thanks to these beings, beings Ófnir had taught her that guarded and guided her in all elements of her life as a werewolf. Now that she was before them they were radiant in their towering splendor, but she could not for the life of her remember a single word of the highly ceremonial language one was supposed to use if ever addressing them.
Though there were no footsteps or splashes of water to hear she sensed something massive coming closer to her, but she didn't dare lift her head. What was she supposed to say to these immortal and infallible beings? An exhale that almost might have been a chuckle left the nose of whoever stood in front of her, and unable to bear the curiosity she glanced up for the briefest second. To her absolute shock Lady Artemis' face was upside down barely two inches away from her own, and she was fully bent over at the waist with her braid hanging down and the end of it dipping into the water.
"Don't you hide those lovely silver eyes from me, my dearest child. I helped make them!" She said fondly, her voice like a swiftly hopping rabbit running towards it's burrow. She was not just a goddess of the moon after all, but ruled over the hunt as well as all the many wild creatures that ran in the woods - and that included herself she supposed. "Did you really?" she was unable to stop herself from asking fascinatedly, and felt a hot wash of instant mortification shudder down her spine all the way to her toes.
The woman before her only laughed loud and free "Yes indeed I did! Your sire's sire is a scoundrel and a schemer, and he thinks he's arranged all these many disparate pieces of his little puzzle together all on his own. He gives himself credit for the wonder that you are, but little does he know that I am the one who molded your form as it took shape in your mother's womb. 'Twas I who lovingly crafted your muzzle and paws and tail, your eyes and your ears and your nose. I again still who taught your tiny spirit to howl so it would be ready to run when you first transformed by my sister's light. A wolf of the woods you are, and thus of my domain and dominion you forever have been and shall be. He may call you his when he needs you, but you were mine first and will be mine always, darling daughter," she said tenderly, her voice sounding beautifully like a pack howl. Not just any pack - hers. She could hear her father's voice in it and her brother's and even her own.
"Thank you, My Lady. The gift you've given me is precious. Is that why I was unable to give it to my brother? Surely no mortal teeth alone can recreate what your divine hands have so masterfully crafted," she said as humbly as she knew how, her head raised like the goddess had requested and her eyes searching desperately for answers. She was easily able to see the fierce and furious expression that overcame her goddess's face, and for a moment she was terrified she had displeased her.
But then the woman twisted her frown into grimacing smile and laid a large cool hand on the top of her head "Your brother is part of why you are here before us. You should have been able to give him the gift I gave you. You should be able to give everyone you wish the same gift that I have given you, it was my foremost intention of your very design. You are to be a great bringer of change for your kind, it is why we have touched and blessed you so. Amalthea spoke truly when she called you our little champion. Yet despite all our considerable efforts, another has interfered to thwart your grandsire's scheming and has threatened our plans in their doing so."
"This interloper has done something unspeakable that has broken your brother's wolf soul, the divine form I crafted for him myself as I did for you. You are not yet ready for us to speak of it further, but know that he only barely survived the brutal assault in his infancy, and your wolf soul claiming his human soul is the only thing that has kept him alive for these ten years since. Your two human bodies with your inextricable human souls share your single wolf soul. It is very strong, but it is only able to fully run free as it was made to do so in your body. It merely shows itself as a pale echo of you in his body during the nights when our light is at it's most powerful."
The two children, still holding hands tightly, looked into each other's eyes then and could see it finally for the heartbreaking truth that it was. Their inseparable closeness was a handicap, a crutch to ease a devastating wound. He had been terribly crippled, and she had propped him up as best she could. Together they had limped along unknowingly all this time, thinking they were fine and well. Hermione felt a boiling rage like she had never felt before rise in her chest and flush her cheeks pink "Who, My Lady? Who would dare do this to him? By what right did they infringe upon your grand design?" She cried, her voice a hair's breadth from demanding. Her animal instinct still choked back her mindless fury to remain respectful to her goddess, even though she was on the verge of losing control. Tears lined her eyes and threatened to fall, and she fiercely wiped them away on the back of her wrist.
Selene spoke this time, her voice like the sighing groan of someone bedding down after a long day "Calm yourself, daughter. My sister said she would not speak of it and so she shall not. None of us shall. You are too young and too vulnerable in this moment to hear it. You will be told what you need to know when you are ready to know it. We must now focus instead on your healing in the time we have before this night is through. While it is not intact, the shattered pieces of your brother's wolf soul are still alive within him. It was on the brink of death after his attack, but your wolf soul's presence has kept it stable all these years. Focus now children, find your wolf souls within. Bring them to the surface without transforming. Manifest them before you. My son, you must search deep for yours. The wolf soul you know as your own is in fact your sister's. Set hers aside and look beneath it, ever deeper. Deep below. Breathe, focus, surface, manifest," she instructed helpfully.
Hermione was able to do it almost instantaneously, and like a layer of dust pulling away from her skin into a visible cloud it left her body and took shape before her. She knew this creature well - it was herself. She had ran and barked and played as it her entire life. Without a second of hesitation she threw her arms up around its neck and hugged it soundly. She pulled back and they looked into each other's eyes, one set grey the other silver, knowing the same thoughts and sharing the same memories. She swore she could feel the water underneath the paw pads of the giant wolf before her, and the tail happily swishing back and forth. She closed her eyes and pressed her face deep into the ruff of her own soft warm fur.
Next to her, Harry was having a significantly less easy time. His core understanding of himself was shaken, and he had never felt worse. His hands were clammy and his vision blurred as he forced himself deeper and deeper down into his own mind and heart trying to find his wolf. Was it even there still? What if the goddess was wrong? That thought stopped his spiraling negativity in its tracks. He might be wrong at times, and Hermione might be wrong at times, and even their father might be wrong at times, but their goddesses could not be. They were the very moon itself, they saw all. They knew and understood all. If they said his wolf was there, hurting but still within him, then it was there!
With his heart beating wildly in his chest, he finally touched on something painful and sickly feeling deep within. Something wrong that shouldn't be the way it was. He reached for it and felt that it was in pieces like Selene had said. As best as he was able, he gathered them all and tried to lift himself back out the way he came. They were heavy and grew heavier still as he tried to lift them, but he felt his sister's hand on his back, and heard her voice telling him he could do it. He powered through the ache and the weight and felt himself cross a barrier, like breaching the surface of the ocean. When he opened his eyes he was gasping for breath and there was a small and very sick looking black wolf on the water in front of him, panting as shallowly as he was. With every struggling breath it took the air leaving its lungs whistled and wheezed.
Their eyes connected and he realized they were the exact same shade of green as his. It really was his wolf, it was him! He crawled over to it, feeling suddenly too exhausted to even stand and walk, and laid his hand on its head. He slowly stroked its fur, and was reminded of all the times he'd seen his sister shift so effortlessly and desperately wished he could do the same. He should have been able to, this wolf had been inside him all along and it was capable of it. Tears welled up in his eyes and freely rolled down his cheeks as he thought of how hurt it had been for so long. It was a miracle it was even still alive.
All three of their female deities came over to his wolf, and the one that had frightened him most finally spoke again with a voice like a lifetime's worth of backbreakingly hard work "The worst part is behind you now, dear boy. Let us heal him now," she said, patting his shoulder and pushing up the flowing sleeves of her gauzy white gown. She smiled grimly, but he was comforted by it. He moved out of the way and crawled back over to rest his head on his sister's lap "You did so well," she whispered, running her fingers through his hair.
It was a shocking sight, and he almost wanted to look away or throw up or both. He had once heard one of the older wolves who had been a muggle in their previous life describe the practice of orthopedic surgery. They had said that it was sometimes referred to as a less elegant form of carpentry - that the muggle surgeons used saws and drills in their operating rooms and fixed bones back together with metal screws and nails if they had to. Something similar could be said for how the goddesses melded back together the pieces of his wolf soul. It was viscerally disturbing to watch, and the noises made him feel nauseous. He knew that magical and divine elements he couldn't possibly understand must be at play.
As terrible as it was to see and hear happen in front of him, once their work was finished the creature that rose afterwards looked healthy and whole. Its fur was glossy and its eyes were bright and alert. It trotted experimentally on legs and paws that were steady and solid. It stood as tall and magnificent as his sister's wolf, and the two great beasts nuzzled each other's noses and chomped on the ends of each other's tails and zoomed in circles around each other wildly.
The goddesses remained sitting where they had been working, and all three smiled warmly at the children and their wolves. Grabbing his sister's hand Harry strode over to them and fell to his knees once more "Thank you My Ladies, thank you!" He gushed earnestly, unable to hold back his tears. Harry wasn't normally the talker between the two of them but he felt compelled to show his gratitude. He couldn't stop smiling, and he felt the dimple in his cheek popping that his sister always poked at. He didn't even duck his head to hide it like he normally would, he was just too happy.
The Lady Artemis spoke again, her voice tired but still carrying the noise of a bugling elk on a misty morning "The hardest work is behind us now, and the rest must be done by the two of you. There are four souls among you and they must condense. The wolf and the human must merge, and then the two of you must merge. The human body can only carry so many souls. Human and wolf is too many, and human alone or wolf alone is not what I made you for. Fuse together with the wolf and become one, let the same soul be shared between your two bodies. Then do the same with each other. You are twins separated by birth and circumstance, made to be identical in all the ways that matter most by my own hand. We've taken you 95% of the way there, now finish my work," she commanded with a wry smile, as if knowing she had just given them quite the intimidating assignment.
A bit baffled but willing to try, the two of them stepped towards their giant wolves. They both took a few moments to admire his, and Hermione commented quietly that it was a lovely thing and she looked forward to running with it through the forest. He felt a surge of love and closeness to her rush through him, and held her hand tightly before they separated again. She stood before her wolf and he stood before his, and they looked at each other and shrugged before deciding to do this part on their own.
She knew her wolf already, intimately, and as she threw her arms up around its huge neck the lines between the two of them almost immediately blurred. As it had come out of her in a cloud, so too it seemed to dissolve and rush back inside of her.
Harry shook himself and turned towards the great black wolf that might as well be a stranger. Those eyes though… he had seen those eyes every day of his life in the mirror. There was something there that he knew, and that knew him in return. Those eyes had seen through his, he hadn't known it was there but it had been with him all this time. He lifted his hand to the side of its enormous cheek and it pressed its heavy head down into the touch. It snuffled and licked at the inside of his wrist, and he felt as if his very cells were starting to wiggle and wobble.
He saw himself through the eyes of the wolf, standing on shaky legs and looking a bit green around the gills. His human body looked comically small from up this high, goddesses be good but he felt enormous in this form. Form, that didn't feel like the right word anymore. This whole endeavor was supposed to be about learning that his wolf and his human were the same. He didn't have two forms, he was a single being with a single transmutable body. The wolf and the human were like the full and the dark moon, two faces of the same creature. As soon as he had that thought his wolf disappeared and he felt the space it had occupied inside his chest grow warm and feel full.
Rubbing at this sternum, he looked over and saw his sister doing the same with a soft and sappy sweet smile on her face. This part might be harder, or it might not be - he was less sure of what to expect. She wasn't just a wolf that had the same eye color as him, she was the person who had seen him and saved him, who had given him not only this tremendous gift but the gift of a family, his sister who he loved with all his heart. She let out a giggle at the serious expression on his face "Yeah, I'm not sure exactly how we're gonna do this either," she whispered a bit frantically "doesn't it take eastern monks entire lifetimes meditating on mountaintops to figure out how to do stuff like this?"
Turning back around to peek over her shoulder at the goddesses she lowered her eyes meekly "My Ladies, could you perhaps give us any sort of… guidance for this part?" She asked softly.
Like the huge yawn of an exhausted little child who had gone too long without an afternoon nap Selene spoke to her "You're most of the way there already, dearest. The two of you are very close, let the walls that remain fall down between you and exist as one. Try starting with the breath first, then the movement," she encouraged gently. Her eyes fluttered closed and her head tipped forward, and she leaned on Artemis' shoulder and let out a loud snore. The two children both pursed their lips together tightly to avoid laughing at their goddess.
Turning back to each other they knelt as close as they could and tried breathing as one. Quite a while passed and nothing happened. They then tried alternating their breathing, him breathing out while she breathed in and vice versa, and it felt more like they were getting somewhere with that method. While carefully alternating their breathing they mirrored each other, lifting and flexing their hands and making shapes and gestures. Because they were facing each other they tried mirroring perfectly - his right hand came up and waved around, her left hand did the same. After a short while they were in nearly perfect synchronicity, and they realized they had accidentally let their breathing sync back up against as well.
They started over their alternating breathing, and tried reverse mirroring each other this time. Still facing each other, he raised and waved his left hand and she raised and waved her left hand. It felt like they were beginning to vibrate in the same way they had when they were condensing their human and wolf souls. That seemed like a positive sign, so they stood and turned so their backs were to each other and began to make bigger gestures and movements in perfect opposition. He moved to his left, she moved to her left, they moved in the exact same way at the exact same time but in perfectly different directions.
Like a jolt of electricity they were suddenly seeing though each others eyes and predicting and replicating each others movement perfectly. Still facing away from each other, they performed complex movements and gestures in exact synchronicity. With Harry's mind for pattern recognition and Hermione's photographic memory, they mentally zipped through the pages of a recent physics article Remus had assigned them to read for homework a few months ago. They pulled up the verbatim definition they were looking for and it was confirmed their suspicions: the phenomenon that occurs when a duet of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in such a way that the energetic state of each particle of the group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, including when the particles are separated by a large distance.
They realized in an instant that what they had done was successfully quantum entangle with each other - they had rendered themselves a permanently inseparable whole. It felt a bit like they had just broken the universe, and they realized they were having that thought together at the same time in their mind and fell down laughing together. The part of their mind that was used to being Harry wondered if it was always going to be like this, muddled together and mixed up and wondered how they'd ever talk to anyone else again without looking and sounding like a complete nutter. The part that was used to being Hermione thought they'd probably be able to turn it off and on again if they really wanted to, but she liked the feel of it for now. The part that was Harry like it too, but very much didn't want to get dragged away to some sort of wizarding insane asylum. The part that was Hermione thought that was quite funny.
Do you think we can
Yeah
Do you wanna
…Yeah, duh
This is gonna be
Hilarious if we don't get stuck that way
Their minds still fully amalgamated into one thought engine, they mentally walked through a reversal of the process they'd used to blend themselves together. It was agony separating even slightly even for only a second after being together, but after that split second it took to stretch their component parts far enough apart to inhabit their own bodies again the sensation passed. Even continuing to maintain a partial connection with each other mentally, being in separate bodies again left them both simultaneously feeling hollow and profoundly lonely and with blistering headaches. They had done it though, they realized with ridiculous grins when they opened their eyes. She looked at herself through his eyes and he looked at himself through her eyes. They had swapped bodies. The trouble they could get up to like this would be the stuff of legends.
She looked down at his hands, flexing them and popping his claws out expertly. With her voice he called foul "Extremely lame that the first time my body did that was with you behind the wheel, I can't believe you stole my wolf's thunder like that," he whined petulantly. "Sorry but it's my goddess-given right to pop a claw whenever a claw needs to be popped," she reasoned. He scrunched up her face in disgust "Gross, don't call it that you're making me sound like a masher!" He hissed. She laughed mercilessly "Pop a claw, pop a claw, pop a claw," she chanted with all the relish of an older child taking delight in horrifying a younger sibling.
"I'm begging you to listen to the words you're saying with my mouth," he pleaded desperately. She considered it, and realizing that it did in fact sound like a disgustingly filthy euphemism she schinked his claws back in "And it's your goddess-given right as the younger brother to ruin my fun I guess," she grumbled. It occurred to them both at approximately the same time that as fun as this was they hadn't thought it through very well. The moment they made eye contact again they were back in that space where they were the same. Condensed. Amalgamated. Merged and combined. It had been funny though, they shared the thought together fondly.
Their goddesses addressed them again then.
"All things grow and all things change, even those that stay the same. Even when it is not apparent, and even when it is counterintuitive. The growth of a seed is to expand and bloom into life. The growth of a stone is to be worn down smooth and flat by water or wind or human hand. Even entities such as us must come to a point in our lives where we can no longer remain as we have forever before been. Though they may appear to be to your short lived eyes, the sun and earth and sky are not truly eternal. Someday the seas will rise and the mountains will be ground down into valleys and the stars will burn out."
"Just as the two of you are now joined together as one like you were always intended to have been, the three of us cannot remain separate forever. As we are now, a powerful geas has been placed upon us and we cannot speak the name of the one who has thwarted us. For too long have we individually existed as mere phases, when together we have the potential to be the moon itself. The brightest and most radiant celestial object in earth's night sky, the hope in the dark for human kind since you took your first stumbling upright steps."
"Unlike the two of you we know what we must do and how to do it, but lack the power. Like all divines, our strength comes from the devotion of our followers. As long as our names exist on the breath from a single mortal's lungs, we can walk the world and do our work upon it. We created you for a special purpose, and therefore you will always carry our favor. You have been devout and obedient and we are pleased with your worship, and for that we have healed you and helped you to transform into your true selves. Yet now you must do more for us still."
"We command you now, our children - go back to your lives and grow to adulthood, run and hunt and become stronger and swifter than any wolf before you has dared to dream of being, let no day pass without wearing your fur. Give tribute to us, say your prayers and thanks to us before and after every kill, spread your gifts and let your numbers swell. Find mates and bear their children and raise them to do the same as you were taught. Never let an opportunity pass to praise us where all may hear, and let our names be always upon your lips. Never again hide or deny what you are, let all know the truth of your existence and that you are blessed by our own hands."
"When we draw you here again many years from now, if you have done all these many things that we have commanded, then when you transform together and howl before us it will finally empower and awaken our own metamorphosis. We three, Selene and Artemis and Hekate, the mother the maiden and the crone, the full half and dark phases of the moon, shall amalgamate into Mani, the living embodiment of the moon himself. By that time you may already know him well, but when we transform the geas shall be broken and we may at last tell you the name of the one who plots and schemes against you. There is little we can say, but know that he is cunning and cruel, and closer than you realize. Your grand sire can help you, but alas the geas has stolen his name from our lips as well. You will know him by the color of his magic. Seek the wolf in the woods, and the snake in the school, they can tell you what you need to know, but be kind for the years have been hard on them."
And without hesitation the two fell to their knees and swore to do exactly as they were commanded.
The sea of stars above them began to swirl out of focus, and after blinking to clear their eyes, they found themselves back in Amalthea's hut in the forbidden forest. It felt like it had been years since they had been here, like they'd already lived the entire lifetime the goddesses had described in between coming and going. They imagined this was how the Pevensie children must have felt upon returning from Narnia. Harry and Hermione were different and yet the same - they were no longer quite so tightly bound as they had been in the strange celestial plane, and they both briefly wondered if it had really happened at all or if it had just been a particularly vivid hallucination.
They realized that their hands were making the same grasping motion, opening and closing mindlessly. They both had their claws out. That seemed fairly definitive, as Harry hadn't been able to do that before their… spirit journey.
Breathlessly she passed the thought to him that he should try and see if he could shift. With barely a second thought, her curiosity in his body triggered a whip-quick intuitive transformation to reflexively rush over him. One second he was a boy and the next he was a wolf as large as a horse with soft warm fur as black as pitch and wide glowing green eyes. He looked startled by his own shift, and she laughed and hugged him around his neck before thanking Amalthea and shifting and chasing him out of the hut and through the village. Circling once then twice around their friends and professor, licking their faces and yipping happily, the two made their way out into the forest and ran and played and howled and hunted the entire rest of the night.
And as they had been instructed, every howl was a grateful dedication to their goddesses. They celebrated under the light of the waxing gibbous moon, three quarters of the way to full. It was an utter triumph, the work of a lifetime accomplished. Finally they were fixed and whole, and they were one as they were always meant to be. They didn't know exactly what grand design the goddesses had in mind for them, but they were together and they were happy and for one perfect night they played to their hearts' joyous content.
The rabbits of the forbidden forest had a new set of predators to steer clear of.