Chapter XXIII: Misgivings
The following morning dawned cold and wet, in total contrast to the idyllic weather they had had the fortune to enjoy, despite the troubles brought on by the journey. Despite the accumulated tiredness, several souls were up, very focused on a striking discussion of events...
"Uniting with Kamm?" Hermione was pacing in a circle, with her brow furrowed and her hand clasped on her chin. "He's our enemy!"
"Is it a warning?" Ginny ventured from her desk, looking up at Hermione for a second amidst the report she was writing.
"What kind of warning would it be?" Hermione said, but then reconsidered. "On second thought, it does sound like one..."
"Do you know," Luna intervened in her usually dreamy tone, "that Unspeakable could be right."
"There's no proof, Luna," Ginny explained patiently. "We can't just go on a hunch."
"It does sound incredible," Hermione admitted before she sat down. Her expression did not lose its stern look.
"If we were to even investigate such a notion," Ginny pulled her hair back with her hands, "where do we start?
"We need to brew this potion before we worry about anything else," Luna brought the womanly crowd back down to earth. "We can worry about these speculations after we get Regulus sorted out."
There was common agreement around that position. Hermione mentally chastised herself for getting distracted with the mysterious message from the Unspeakables and immediately grabbed the Potions manual that was lying under her knee. She flipped it open to the page she had marked earlier.
Ginny had an interesting expression on her face, a cross between curiosity, guilt and internal contempt for neglecting the fortunes of her son.
"I will deal with what that message might mean," Luna said completely calmly, as if she did not realize the effect of her earlier words on the women around her.
Hermione started cutting up the stalks on her board after she set the brass cauldron on the magical fire.
"We have to brew this potion for three days," Ginny read the instructions off the parchment. "Three days before the next full moon."
"When is the next full moon?"
"Precisely on time," Luna consulted the calendar on the wall. "Three days."
**
Regulus had been following the brewing process with heightened interest, asking question often about how many lace fly wings went in every two hours and whether the dragon blood had to be boiled before it was put in the potion. Andromeda finally had to drag him away so that Hermione, Ginny and Luna could work in peace to get it ready on time.
"Can you believe it?" he was asking her rhetorically, "No more little furry problem!"
"I know, I know," she kept repeating to placate his enthusiasm. "Now we can make out on every full moon in peace."
"Or even better - " he gave her that smile he reserved just for her; she blushed involuntarily.
"Point is, it will be a relief," she drove the point home. "I want you back the way you were."
"I want me that way too."
"Aren't you worried about whoever's after you?"
The sudden change of topic caught him off guard. "Who?"
"Remember, those Unspeakables?
"Oh," he remembered. "Yeah."
"Aren't you afraid?" she sounded a shade more apprehensive this time.
"No," he shook his head.
"I don't want to lose you."
"You won't lose me," he embraced her around the waist. "We'll grow old and die together when we're a hundred and fifty."
"I hope so," she offered a shy smile, but did not look convinced.
"Is that all you've been thinking about these last few days?"
"Yes," she admitted. "I can't get the sight of those two out of my head."
"Watching them burn isn't pleasant, I agree," Regulus remarked dryly.
"It gives me nightmares," Andromeda shivered unwillingly. "That's why I worry."
"Why didn't you say anything!" he exclaimed.
"Well," she looked away, "they've gotten more frequent as of late."
He looked at her on his own turn, a mixture of concern and anger. "You should have said something!"
"I know, I know," she did look admonished. "But you're more important now!"
"I'm not any more important than anyone here," he told her sternly. "I'll talk to my mum about making dreamless sleep potion, maybe it will help you cope."
"I think I would appreciate that," she smiled shyly. "Thank you."
"And don't hide anything from me again."
"I promise."
"Do you remember that alien?" she asked him after a short pause.
"Yeah," he nodded. "Conversely, I dream about him."
"You do?"
"Like you, more often than before. At first I thought he - she - was just my imagination."
"What are your dreams like?"
"Not nightmares," he said. "They' are kind of strange and disconnected. Like these scenes that don't make any sense when you string them together."
"Can you give me an example?" she sounded intrigued.
"Well," he looked at the ceiling and strained his memory to remember. "There was one dream, where he was talking to a few Unspeakables in front of a fireplace, but I couldn't figure out what they were saying. And then he was in a field, all alone, staring at something in the distance. I couldn't see what, it was just a horizon and nothing more."
"Are they visions? Like my dad had when he was young?"
"Am I a Seer, are you asking?" he cocked a smile. "You know Seers are a bunch of bullocks."
"No, no," she shook her head. "Don't you remember the visions my dad had of Voldemort when he was at Hogwarts - the ones I told you about? More like that."
He pondered the idea. "You're right, but at least they made sense. He was in Voldemort's head when that happened, but I'm not in anybody's head. If these dreams made any sense, there would be some kind of sequence, don't you think?"
"I guess," she agreed. "Still, the fact that you dream disconnected dreams more often says something...why don't you start a dream diary?"
"I'm not that sentimental about the things I dream," he smiled. "But see, a Pensieve is not a bad idea to keep track with."
"That works too!"
"Maybe you should do the same," he told her pointedly.
"I'm going to," she said enthusiastically. "You know I hate nightmares. Why torture myself?"
"Because if they are visions like you say," he told her, "who knows what could be in there."
"I like that you agree with me on that," she smiled again. "I feel better already."
"Is what I do, mademoiselle," he bowed comically. "Now, how about we go see what the rest of the gang is up to?"
They did not have to wait long to find out. Attracted by the sounds of spellfire, they found Holly and Jane locked in combat, while Otto and Albus observed carefully, with Albus even taking notes on a pad he was holding.
"What's going on, mate?" Regulus snuck up alongside Otto. "Practicing?"
"Practicing," he affirmed. "In the last couple of encounters, if it weren't for our parents, we'd be caught with our pants down."
"What are you talking about?" Regulus protested. "We held our own against that alien."
"He didn't want to hurt us, don't you remember?"
"You felt that too?"
"Everyone felt it," Otto nodded. "So we essentially stood up to nothing."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive...that encounter went through my mind a hundred times. I think I know what I felt."
"Well," Regulus looked at the duelling pair. "How about you and I give it a go next?"
**
The potion was ready.
Regulus looked out at the full moon, paced around the room in a circle and looked out the window again.
"How does it go again?"
"You take the potion the moment you start feeling the change happening," Albus read off the parchment on the table.
"That's right," Ginny said. "Did you take the Wolfsbane potion?"
"I did," Regulus said with full conviction for the umpteenth time. "Should I take another flask, just to be sure?"
"No!" Hermione protested. "An overdose can put you in a coma and kill you."
"I was joking," he laughed nervously.
"This is no time for jokes, son," Draco told him sternly. "Now stay focused, and let us know when the change starts to happen!"
"Yes, dad," Regulus nodded and glanced out the window again. The full moon was more visible through the clouds now...
"The moment it clears," Harry put in his own contribution, "be ready. Else it won't work."
"That is enough pressure, Harry, thank you," Hermione snapped at him. "Now, be quiet."
He did not say another word.
The minutes ticked by uncomfortably. Suddenly, he felt the unpleasant lurch at his navel. "It's starting!" a gasp escaped his lips.
"Hurry!"
Ginny handed Draco the flask with the potion, measured out precisely to the right amount. Harry and Ron seized Regulus by each arm and held his fast to minimize the convulsions. Draco pushed his head back to open his airway and it that split second, poured the potion down his throat. Gasping and coughing, Regulus swallowed.
"Let him go!"
Harry and Ron released him. Regulus was quickly covered in fur, the snout and fangs appeared, his arms and legs lengthened into the powerful limbs of the werewolf, murderous claws appeared in place of his fingers...a roar escaped him, the yellow eyes looked fixedly ahead, then glazed over and he fell unconscious on his side.
Andromeda, usually reserved and slightly haughty, stood in shock over the affair. Her hands covered her mouth and her eyes were wide. Otto was timely in putting a comforting arm around her shoulders, because she unconsciously leaned into him.
"Well, that's it," Ginny said. "Now we wait."
"He's not going to die, is he?" Andromeda found her voice again, a shy, timid version of its usual assertive identity.
"No, no," Ginny assured her quickly. "He'll sleep it off for a while, then he will wake up and everything will be as normal as before."
"No more transformations at every full moon?"
"None, I promise."
**
Andromeda could not sleep that night. Her mind was busy imagining everything bad that could happen to Regulus. The threat of the Unspeakables, the alien encounter, his werewolf side, the impacts of the potion on his well-being...
She turned face down in the pillow and let her frustrations out. She felt the fabric beneath her get wet from her tears. Forming an unconscious fist, she hit the bed beside the pillow repeatedly. She had had enough of the injustice - this quiet threat, always pursuing them, the dangerous trip to the opposite end of Europe for a simple potion, the fact that Regulus did not complain once and took it even more stoically than her - it added up inside her, to the point where she could no longer tolerate it. The tears flowed more freely, but she did not care. Her quiet sobbing was also muffled by the pillow.
She wanted Jane and Holly there, to confide her pain in them. The weight was growing beyond what she wanted to bear. The mere thought of losing Regulus gave her nightmares sometimes. She was terrified in her sleep, frozen, stiff, and full of anticipation and fear. Only when he embraced her in his arms on the nights they were together, did it ever go away. Her being was tied with his - without him, she felt insecure, hanging, without stability or a foundation onto which she could step.
That was love. She was utterly, fundamentally, wholly in love with him. That's why she feared so much. The realization hit her for the umpteenth time.
Andromeda stood up, rubbing the tears away from her face. She took a deep breath to steady herself. The red eyes were sure to give her away. Maybe she would just sit down here for a while, let her heart slow down, give her time to regain her composure and then go out again.
Someone knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" her voice was still shaky.
"It's me," came a familiar voice that caused her to smile a little in spite of her condition.
"Come in."
The door opened, and Jane walked in. "Have you been crying?!"
"A little," Andromeda admitted and looked down. "It's nothing."
"Regulus is still sleeping," Jane told her. "But I think your nothing is a little bit of a something."
"Sit down," Andromeda patted the bed beside her.
"Sure," Jane intentionally sounded more complacent to ease Andromeda into opening up.
"What's happening in Regulus?"
"Nothing, really," Jane said. "He's in the couch by the fire, still very much a werewolf. His dad is watching him."
"Good, then," Andromeda felt significantly more relieved.
"Now tell me, what's going on with you?"
"Nothing," Andromeda repeated. Another tear involuntarily rolled down her cheek.
"I'm your friend," Jane replied.
"It's Regulus."
"Ah?"
"Everything that's happened - the trip, the attacks, him being a werewolf."
"It feels overwhelming."
"Yeah, you know?"
"Trust me," Jane nodded. "Granted, my boyfriend doesn't have a furry little problem, but he tells me about it...not easy when your best friend has the ability to unknowingly rip you apart. It definitely is a huge risk."
"Well, I won't say you don't have an idea," Andromeda cracked a small smile.
"He will be back to normal before you know it," Jane embraced her friend. "That will be one thing you can take off your list of worries. Then we just go to back living in mortal danger and fighting for our lives on a daily basis!"
"Sounds perfect," Andromeda returned the embrace. "What do you think will happen next?"
"I don't know," Jane replied, "but I do know that we will have to go to class."
"Do you remember in the news, when Dursmtrang got attacked and destroyed?"
"I recall that, yeah," Jane affirmed with a nod.
"What if Hogwarts gets attacked?"
"We do have the magical protections around the school - nothing gets through those."
"Not even what that alien has to throw at it?"
"I'm sure of it. That school is over a thousand years old, I'm sure it has survived other dark wizards and ambitious alien attacks."
"There's nothing in Hogwarts: A History to suggest it. I even asked Hermione."
"D'you have any idea how much information is not in that book?" Jane cocked an eyebrow. "For all you know, that book might be wrong and I could be right!"
"I guess you're right," Andromeda embraced her friend tighter. "Just paranoid me."
"It's fine. But you know, we will kick some dark wizard arse and that alien's behind to the miserable planet he came from!"
"I can't wait," the smile on the saddened girl's face grew somewhat wider. "Things will be ok in the end."
"Just as they always turn out."
"Thank you, Jane."
"Don't mention it, it is what friends do. How about we go back to the living room now?"
"Sure, I think I would like that."
**
"Sir, they were not able to kill the boy in Greece."
Kamm was pacing nervously back and forth while Jones sat on the chair against the wall, wearing a self-satisfied smirk. "I told you, didn't I, Herr?"
"What happened to them?" he asked angrily.
"Captured and killed, Sir."
"Is that why I keep you imbeciles around? To botch every mission I send you on? How could you fail to kill one sixteen year old boy?"
"The Order is with him, Sir."
"I don't care about the Order! You had extraterrestrial help on your side!"
"It was impossible, Sir."
"Tell me, how is it impossible!!" Kamm spat in his servant's face.
"We do not control the aliens' power, Sir. As such, we cannot affect the outcome we want from them."
"I will have a word with him about this."
"Yes, Sir."
"Jones," Kamm turned to his fist lieutenant. "In the meanwhile, take this fool, assign him to the next possible suicide mission and appoint a more competent overseer of missions. I trust you can do this?"
"Why not just kill him here and now?"
"As much as I like the idea, I cannot afford to be short of hands when there is important work to be done."
"Git, now!" Kamm shouted at the unfortunate subordinate, as he nearly scurried out of the chamber. "Jones, you stay a moment."
The second-in-command stopped mid-stride. "Yes?"
"Anu was missing, right before our little fiasco. Where was he?"
"I don't know," Jones shook his head. "Likely attending something he found important?"
"What could be more important than our cause?"
"We have to remember that we do not have control over his actions, or those of his subordinates," Jones said uneasily. "We have entered into a treaty with him, but that's about it. What he does on his own is not up to us."
"Didn't we agree on sharing information completely?"
"Only as far as cooperation on our objectives is concerned; beyond that, no."
"They might not be holding up their end of the deal," Kamm said suspiciously.
"The attack that destroyed Durmstrang was their doing," Jones reminded him. "We could have never pulled that off."
"It's not impossible," Kamm told him. "Durmstrang was not necessarily the best protected school."
"But it was beyond our means to wreak this degree of destruction, and it did send a powerful message."
"That's undeniable. But I still don't have complete trust in our allies."
"Understandable," Jones nodded in agreement, "but for now we don't have a choice, but to trust them. I am sure they would have killed the boy, had we asked them to do it."
"Fine, then. Now go deal with the idiocy I have to put up with several times a day and come back to report what you have done."
"Of course."
With that, Jones left the chamber and Kamm was left alone with his thoughts.
Herr Kamm.
The vision of his name in his mind's eye startled him. He turned around quickly, and saw Anu's tall, cloaked figure behind him.
"Lord Anu," Kamm paid him the due respect. "What brings you here?"
Your mission in Osiria failed.
"You mean the boy? Minor setback," Kamm waved him off.
He is a very powerful individual.
"How do you know that? Were you there?"
Yes.
"When?"
We encountered one another in the mountains. It was not difficult to sense.
"How did you know where he was?"
I cannot tell you that, Herr Kamm.
"We have an agreement, Lord Anu. Where is he now?"
He is back in these lands. Recovering, seemingly.
"I will have to confirm that with my own intelligence. But, thank you."
As per out agreement, I will divulge any information that will aid your cause. Is there progress on your Hogwars Plan?
"As a matter of fact, yes. It has changed. We are not going to destroy the school. It is too valuable for the information it holds."
I have ordered an attack to commence as soon as I give the command. Do I understand you correctly?
"Yes," Kamm nodded affirmatively. "There will be no attack. But, there will be a takeover when I am ready with my preparations. Your support will still be essential at that point."
Very well.
"Is there anything else you wanted?"
No, Herr Kamm. I will leave you now.
"Goodbye."
Anu slowly dissipated in thin air, becoming more transparent until he completely vanished; on his own turn, Kamm could not help but feel increasingly uneasy about the alliance.
They could destroy things he could not only dream about destroying. They had too much power. How long could it possibly last?
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