PRONGSLET AND THE CERYNEIAN GUARDIAN

Chapter Forty-Six

Milo had heard enough between Persephone and Artemis before he pushed himself up to interject what he had to say on the matter. "So that means you could have helped him? You could have let him out the entire time?" Milo questioned, looking accusingly at Persephone and Hades. 

They actually didn't seem bothered by his harsh questions but rather amused that he had stepped up to them. Hades decided he was going to speak to the boy, especially since all the females had been doing the majority of the talking. However, as soon as he took a step forward, Milo took one back. The boy wasn't stupid, he might have been angry and Artemis was there to offer her protection, but he didn't want to piss off the God of the Underworld.

"I did help him," Hades informed Milo, "how do you think he managed to get out without any dementors catching up to him. My dementors have no reason to live but to feed, so when of their meals is getting away from them, they become quite frantic and their urge to hunt down that meal becomes the only thing on their mind. Sirius would not have made it out of the Azkaban tower if it was not for my doing and I did that out of the goodness of my heart."

Milo stared at the man, his dramatic tone and mannerisms definitely seemed to remind him of someone.

"So why not help him now? Why not help all of us now?" Milo turned to face all of the godly beings that were gathered. "You can obviously see that we're all in trouble, why can't you help us? Sirius is an innocent man, but now he has to suffer out here."

"Milo," Persephone called to him, "you must understand that our interaction with humans is meant to be limited. Those of us that have taken you under our protection we have already interfered plenty. There are events that must occur in order for time to continue on. We cannot change every hardship or prevent it. Sometimes these things must happen, whether we want to face them or not. They allow growth, even if it stems from pain."

"What's going to happen now then?" Milo asked. "Are you still going to alter our memories so that we don't remember this moment?"

Artemis cleared her throat and shook her head. "No, Milo, it seems Persephone was correct when she said that changes have to be made to the way we run things within our families. But this means that all the goddess and gods will have to be summoned to discuss such a thing. Once we leave here, we will not be around for quite some time for you to call upon us. Will you be able to manage that?"

"If it means bringing about good change, I can."

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Cedric was sitting on the edge of some boy's bed in Milo's dorm after the battle with Paden for the leaf had persisted much longer than he expected. The two had raced back and forth through the dorms of all the boys, startling plenty of people that were just trying to get by. While Cedric just saw it as Paden being defiant, it had pretty much turned into a game in the bowtruckle's mind, one that Paden found extremely amusing. Whenever Cedric was close to snatching him or the leaf up, Paden would dart under something where Cedric couldn't get to him. The problem was with Cedric's competitive nature kicking into overdrive he was not going to give up.

But what seemed to be hours later, the two of them were absolutely exhausted and Milo had yet to return as the two were attempting to catch their breath. He didn't end up getting the leaf from Paden, as the bowtruckle and leaf were settled on Milo's bed. The two of them were staring each other down, any fast movement from the other and the battle would start up again. Only they didn't get a chance for it to go on any further when Milo finally did return to the dorms. 

He looked beyond exhausted as he didn't even notice Cedric sitting across the way as he made his way over to his bed. "Thank you for guarding the leaf, Paden," Milo said, collecting the Mandrake Leaf and placing into one of the drawers of his nightstands. 

Cedric couldn't help but turn incredibly red as Paden looked over in his direction and narrowed his eyes.  It was definitely the bowtruckle's way of saying  "I-told-you-so." Deciding to apologise, Cedric cleared his throat but with Milo still unaware of his presence, the boy let out a shriek as he was startled. He stumbled back and ended up rolling right over one of the other beds in the room. When all of his dormmates came back, they were probably going to think that Milo had done something to all of their beds while they were gone. 

"C-C-Cedric," Milo's hand was placed on his chest where he could hear his heart pounding as he pushed himself up. "What are you doing here?"

He didn't ask it like he was offended by Cedric's presence but more along the lines of why he was just sitting there unless he was actually spending quality time with Paden.

"I'm sorry, Milo, I didn't mean to scare you," he answered, "but I saw Paden with the leaf and I know how valuable that is to you. I didn't know if he was going to eat it as a snack or something, I knew that would make you upset. But when I tried to get it away from Paden...that little bugger is fast."

Paden blew a raspberry from Milo's bed before crawling over to his owner and crawling up his leg and then up to Milo's arm to rest on the boy's shoulder. In that moment, Milo couldn't help but let out a laugh, he definitely needed one after the events of the day. 

After the god and goddesses claimed that they would have to call upon the others for a meeting to discuss changes that had to be made, they had to leave their people. Which left Milo, Sirius, and Elspeth in the forest alone. The problem was that when the dementor attack happened, Elspeth had rounded up the dementors that had been assigned by the Ministry. If anyone got the sense that there was some sort of interference, they would all find themselves in big trouble. Elspeth had to bring dementors back onto the grounds. 

Milo could see how much it was killing the woman in that moment to part from Sirius' side before he woke up, but she had to do whatever she needed to in order to keep him safe and that meant keeping everyone off his trail and tail.

He stayed with the man until Sirius finally woke up, but he definitely awoke in a panic state, trying to attack anyone around him, believing at first that he was still surrounded by dementors. But Milo was able to soothe him and calm him down, he wasn't sure how much information he was supposed to tell the man beside telling him that it was Elspeth who interfered and saved the day when it came to the dementors. That seemed to cheer the man up until he asked where she was, which Milo had to deliver the bad news and tell him that she had to return to work before anyone grew suspicious at the lack of dementors. 

Sirius didn't seem bothered by it so much, although saddened that he couldn't speak with her upon waking up. But he seemed to understand what Elspeth was doing for him and he thanked Milo for helping him, even though their hunting trip had failed miserably.

However, Milo was very fortunate that many people seemed to look out for him in the castle but as he dug into the pockets of his coat for warmth, he pulled out several lemon tarts that Bitsy the house-elf must have shoved in at one point without him knowing. So Sirius had plenty to eat for the night, a special dessert to offer him something before Milo had to leave. Milo didn't even get a chance to ask about Peter Pettigrew but seeing as there was enough information going on in that moment, it was probably best to wait.

Returning to the dorms and finding Cedric and Paden, Milo couldn't deny how much sense of comfort it brought to him in that moment. After talking to Cedric for a couple of moments, he walked over and grabbed him by the hand, leading him over to his bed. Cedric seemed more than surprised by Milo's forwardness as he found himself pushed down, however, seconds later, he couldn't help but laugh as Milo had curled up right into his side and decided to take a well-deserved nap.