Ouroboros || harry potter

Chapter Fifteen

(Harry)

Warmth flowed up his hand as he patted the poplar in greeting and entered the grove. Salazar released his breath with a soft sigh as the heavy, magically saturated air settled over him and the grove became visible with its ancient trees rising up out of the darkness. His shoulders relaxed and his eyes closed for a moment. The earth's magic sang as it flowed through him and back to the earth, tethering him and connecting him to the world in a way so few people ever experienced.

A slight nudge from Godric had him continue into the grove. This was the first of the groves he had visited and it was the grove Godric had awoken in. It seemed only right that it would be the grove they celebrated Samhain at. That it was whole and protected was even more reason to choose it over the others.

Moonlight glowed down through the giant trees. The poplars and rowans were bare of leaves and the oaks had only brown ones clinging stubbornly. Most of the grove's floor was covered in the dried brown husks of the rest. Purple heather peeked out from those leafy piles and junipers almost glowed with their branches heavy with blue-purple berries. The yew was covered in its own red berries and the Scottish pines rose like sentries into the night sky.

Orange eyes shined out at him from an oak branch.

"Omorose?"

The eyes vanished to only reappear on the ground. A very pregnant kneazle stalked out of the dark towards them. She looked up at Salazar, lion tail high in the air, and churriped in greeting. Her pendant rested on her chest still but something more dangled from the chain. Salazar knelt and offered her a hand which she rubbed her face against. He lifted the chain and tilted his head as he regarded the new additions curiously. An acorn and a small bundle of feathers dangled alongside the pendant. He didn't think she had this last he had seen her, though he had been thoroughly distracted.

Salazar rolled the acorn between his fingers and felt a small pool of magic at the center. A whisper of wild nature, a hunt through forests, protective acceptance, and precognition answered his probing touch. "Playing nice with the centaurs, are we?" he asked his black feline.

"Her name's Omorose, then?" Godric asked as he knelt and offered his own hand to the kneazle. She lifted her nose to the air and turned away from the Gryffindor.

Salazar shifted his satchel hanging at his side and scooped up the large, pregnant feline. "Yes. Omorose." She looked at him with her eyes reflecting orange in the moonlight. Salazar tilted his head at Godric. "Meet Godric. He's going to be around from now on."

She looked back at Godric, entirely unimpressed with that fact.

Godric snorted. "So no snake? Always figured you'd eventually get a snake."

"Scotland is a terrible place to have a snake," Salazar countered with a faint scowl, knowing they've had this conversation multiple times before in their past life. It really wasn't going to change, no matter how many times Godric brought it up. (Salazar was certain his brother only did because it was amusing for him.) "The poor thing would just freeze to death...and whine about the cold the entire time."

His brother looked entirely too amused by it all.

Salazar huffed and stalked over to the ancient yew. He knelt a few feet from the tree, settled Omorose on his lap with one hand stroking her to keep her content, and pulled his satchel around to dig through it, handing Godric stones he had collected from the loch's shore. Godric took each rounded stone and set it on the ground, forming a circle.

Omorose took the opportunity to spring from Salazar's lap and vanished into the juniper bushes, her belly swaying as she ran as best she could. Salazar watched her leave, shaking his head at her.