Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Twenty Nine: The Pack

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It had taken Remus less than five minutes to loose Sirius, sneak upstairs, grab the cloak with a silent apology to the ever-so-generous James Potter, and then sneak out of the common room. Remus thought he felt someone's eyes on him but when he turned around, cloak shoved in his knapsack he found that all his friends were preoccupied with dancing and figured he must have been imagining it. As soon as he exited the common room, ignoring the Fat Lady's chastisement, he threw the cloak over him and exited the castle as swiftly as he could without letting his footsteps echo on the tile. Upon reaching the grounds of Hogwarts the enchanting song of the woods left his eyes burning and his chest feeling tight. He ran down the big hill, nearly tripping as he sprinted to the Forbidden Forest with tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Warrior of might and beauty. The stars welcome you. The trees weep. Nature beckons you to rest on her bosom. Sprint headlong into the heavens, Silverstream."

He struggled to make out more words than that, or more accurately translate the images and sensations into coherent words. No, no Silverstream couldn't die! Remus hugged the knapsack tightly, the vile of medicine inside. He had to save Silverstream, he had to! 

Remus glanced guiltily back to the castle but the howls, even those he couldn't translate physically seemed to be pulling him. He didn't hesitate any more and stepped into the woods which still felt...wrong. Only the wolves' beautiful song allowed him to focus on following the howls. He was terrified the calling would stop, at which point he would have to decide if he dared howl back. Would he dare unleash the instincts that were screaming at him to join in the song? It was his place, it was his pack? It was...Remus shook his head, pressing a hand to his cheek both to wipe away the tears and to remind himself he was a human...more or less.

He alternated between walking and running, hardly noticing the forest around him under the safety of his invisibility cloak. After what felt like no time at all and simultaneously days, Remus burst through some underbrush, falling onto all fours at an odd clearing in the middle of the woods. The gap from the thick foliage resembled a meadow and seemed to be something pulled straight out of a fairy tale. 

Remus gaped at the bioluminescent flowers that covered the small field. He was now taking in the nature around him and he turned this way and that, finding he was encircled by trees that seemed to be swaying slightly to the tune of the howls. The leaves were being lit up by fireflies or something like it, twinkling colours blinking off and on. The werewolf let out heaving breaths, chest aching from more than the journey. His head was beginning to pulse, struggling to take in everything and the significance it help. Ten wolves were circling a wolf lying in the middle whose body, based on what little Remus could see, seemed to be covered in a thin blanket of moss.

As he fumbled with the cloak, the song that had not ceased since he first heard it on the balcony eons ago, stopped abruptly. He felt his mouth go dry, feeling eyes that were not at all friendly fall on him. Remus had not been aware of the nymphs but he could sense rather than see the shy creatures blending into the trees, their sudden hostility unmistakably trained on him.

"Peace, tree sisters, he is one of us," replied a wolf whose muzzle was completely grey. Even though Remus had never seen the creature before a part of him felt as if he had known this wolf, all these wolves, his whole life. What was wrong with him?

"We are a part of you, brother," the older wolf addressed him in his head.

"Human brother," Skipper yipped, ignoring the severe look from whom Remus could only assume was the young wolf's mum.