Uric the Oddball and the Wild Hunt

Uric watched the bird carefully. It had a drab, brown body, but its wings were edged in a brilliant green. Every time it flapped its wings, the sun caught on the green feathers and burned a glowing 'v' onto his retina. Uric flipped over on his broom and watched the bird flap a few more times. The upside down 'v's reminded him of a row of mountains on a map, or perhaps a forest. He craned his neck to view the Forbidden Forest far below and in front of him. It looked as dark and mysterious as it usually did.

He hadn't seen the woman since that night, nor had he seen the masked wizards. Dasha hadn't allowed him back in the forest again, not even to water Mr. Oak and his friends. He had served out his last two detentions in or around her cottage. The fog had disappeared, as had all signs of the masked wizards themselves. Dasha had returned his shoes and socks the next day all the while muttering about muggles and ploughing. Uric wondered if ploughing had to do with growing dirt. Perhaps he should write his parents again and ask.

"What are you doing?" said a voice. The bird soared away from him and Uric looked further up. Mena was hovering above him on her own broom. The edge of her robes were just brushing the top of his broomstick.

"Watching the birdy," he answered, though he noticed it was flying further and further away.

"You just had to watch it upside down, didn't you?" she asked. Mena didn't sound as annoyed as usual, but she loved to fly and it would take more than Uric's usual antics to put her in a bad mood. "Madame Bocce has been calling for you for the past ten minutes. You better get down there before she remembers to take away points." Madame Bocce was the youngest of the Hogwart's teachers. She tended to forget that she was a professor now, not a student, much less that she could take or give away points.

Uric nodded his head at Mena, than told his broom to go down. It dropped like someone had cut the strings holding it up and Mena screamed. Uric frowned from his upside down place on the broom. His body felt strange, like his stomach had been left somewhere up above. He decided he would be more comfortable falling while he was right side up and tried to roll over. The broom continued to fall, but now it was spinning him around like a corkscrew.

He could hear Mena and the others yelling, while far away the bird shrieked. The sensations in his stomach increased and Uric screwed up his face in concentration. He wanted to stop.

"Ugh," grunted a voice above him. The sensations stopped. Uric opened his eyes and saw that he was hovering less than a foot above the ground. Someone shoved him roughly off the broom. He sprawled on the ground and saw Mena sitting on her own broom, one hand still on the handle of his now empty broom.

"Don't you ever do that again!" she yelled at him, pushing her hair angrily out of her face. She took a few breathes, ignoring the others approaching on their brooms or on foot. "Flying takes concentration, Uric. You can't just tell the broom what to do and expect it to do it without your help," she said in a slightly calmer tone. The rest of the class caught up with them.

"That was some fantastic flying, Mena," said Jasper. The rest of the class voiced their agreement though the Slytherins were markedly silent. Mena looked pleased at the compliments and forgot to continue yelling at Uric. Louis flew over to Uric unnoticed and helped him to his feet.

"You do a nice impersonation of a rock. Good thing Mena decided to catch you before she yelled at you," he said, and he would have continued, but Madame Bocce hurried over. Louis broke away, and quickly rejoined the rest of the class.

"Are you alright, Uric?" said Madame Bocce anxiously. Her curly black hair stood up in a halo around her head, framing the distressed look on her face. Uric took a moment to examine himself. He bent over and stared at his feet.

"Are you alright?" he asked his toes in a loud voice. A few of the class began snickering, but Uric was listening to his toes, not them. He looked back up at Madame Bocce and smiled.

"They say they're alright and I am as well." She was staring at him.

"That's...good Uric." She took an involuntary step backward, than seemed to come to herself. "Mrs. Kurze has summoned you to her office. You're to go immediately." Uric nodded. A cloud passed quickly over the sun. Uric gazed up at the sky for a moment, than over at the castle. He seemed to come to a decision and turned around so that his back was facing towards Hogwarts. With a practiced ease, he walked backwards towards Hogwarts, not even noticing when the entire flying class fell silent to watch him go.

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*****

Headmistress Kurze's office was right where Uric thought he had left it. He walked up to the gargoyle and started petting and talking to it. After a few minutes, the gargoyle moved aside and Uric looked up to see the Headmistress standing on the bottom step of a staircase looking disapprovingly down upon him.

"The gargoyle, Mr. Beaufolle, is not named Snuggly or any other name you would care to give him. It has been nearly half an hour since I sent for you, and I suspect you have spent the majority of that time chatting with this statue." She gestured disdainfully at the gargoyle and Uric frowned. Poor Snuggly.

"Professor Stewart talked to Snuggly and the door opened," he said, doing his best to explain himself. He kept his eyes firmly on the floor however, since she was glaring at him again. When she spoke, it was with a controlled fury.

"If you had read the notice in the entrance hall like you were told to at the beginning of the year, you would have known that taping three times on Sn-" Her glare increased in intensity if that was possible. "the gargoyle with your wand and saying your name, would have informed me of your presence, allowing me to let you in." Uric continued to stare at the bare stones beneath his feet, his mind working furiously. The stones in this corridor were made up of hexagons, while the ones in the corridor outside the potion's dungeon were made up of rectangles. Hexagon's and squares formed a pattern at the top of the astronomy tower. There were strange 's' shaped stones in some of the south corridors, while the entrance hall was lined with triangular stones. Yet in all his wanderings of Hogwarts, he'd never found circular stones. He was sure this meant something, but...He realized Professor Kurze was speaking to him.

"I'm sorry?" he said and she stared hard at him for a moment.

"Apology accepted. Don't let it happen again." She turned and went up the steps. Uric stared after her for a moment, trying to comprehend what had happened, than shrugged and followed her up. He stepped on every third step and only on the right side of each without conscious thought.

Headmistress Kurze walked across her plush carpet and sat down in her customary chair. When Uric reached the top of the stairs, she motioned for him to sit in a chair in front of her desk. Misunderstanding the gesture, Uric walked up to her desk and examined it thoroughly. He seemed to remember a pretty glass ball had been there last time. Nothing was to be seen, however, except for a single piece of parchment. He reached out to pick it up and her hand came down on it with a loud thump.

"May I see it, ma'am?" he asked, remembering his manners. She regarded him for a moment, than took her hand away. Uric gave her a smile, than sat down. Luckily, there was a chair behind him.

"I called you here because I have received a letter from your father, the same one which you hold in your hand." Uric looked at his hand, than looked at his other one. Sure enough, there was a piece of parchment in it. It was amazing what his hands would do when he wasn't looking.

"What did Father say?" he asked. His hands moved to fold the parchment in half. Professor Kurze looked offended.

"He seems to think that I have not been taking your safety into consideration."

"Safety?"

"Your so-called encounter in the forest," she practically sneered. "I had Dasha comb the forest. There is no proof of your mysterious assailants or your helper." She took a deep breath to calm herself. "Be that as it may, your father has heard of the incident and requested that I take measures to prevent a recurrence. Out of respect for his position, I have decided to accede to his wishes. Therefore, from this day forth, you are not to set foot outside of Hogwarts without the presence of a competent wizard or witch. This includes visiting Dasha and detentions. I shall be informing all the professors of your situation..." she continued to speak, but no longer had Uric's attention. He wondered why they called it butterbeer. It certainly didn't taste like butter, and he should know, he had eaten a whole bowl of butter once. It did taste a bit like butter on fresh bread though. Perhaps that was what it was made of?

"Is that clear, Mr. Beaufolle? Mr. Beaufolle? Uric!" Uric's hazel eyes focused on her. His hands continued to fold the parchment. "Have you heard anything I've said?" she demanded. The steel was back in her voice and he was aware of her glare again.

"Yes, ma'am. I'm not to leave the castle." She relaxed a fraction.

"You must learn to look like you're paying attention, Mr. Beaufolle. I want you to make an effort at it." She gave him a rather cold smile of encouragement. Uric didn't know what she was talking about, but gave her the answer that seemed to have worked before.

"Yes, ma'am." She nodded approvingly.

"Very good. That will be all," she said. Uric continued to sit in the chair, and the slight smile slipped from her face. "You are free to go, Mr. Beaufolle." Her teeth were clenched. Uric watched her curiously. The Headmistress was a strange woman and he would have liked to watch her more, but it was nearing lunch time and Uric had planned a massive foray against the turnips for noon. He stood up, placed the parchment on the desk and left the office. Headmistress Kurze sat rigid in her chair, staring in a mixture of disgust and wonder at the folded creature of parchment that was ambling gently across her desk, making snuffling noises as it went.

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*****

 The Christmas holidays came quickly and Uric didn't even notice that he was confined to the castle. Professor Stewart was forced to come up with a new type of detention for him and had taken to assigning him to help other teachers with their more dangerous projects. This worked until the professors started refusing to even consider giving Uric detention, which is why Uric found himself helping Mr. Kurze repair portraits early in the morning of the first day of the holidays.

At six Mr. Kurze walked into the room and found the portraits all crowded in a circle around Uric. They were yelling and screaming at each other while Uric watched happily, his head turning from side to side as he focused on each speaker. Mr. Kurze sighed. He should have known better to go on a patrol of the corridors while Uric was up and about.

"Uric!" he yelled. The portraits fell markedly silent. Uric turned and grinned cheerfully at him.

"Yes, Sir?" Mr. Kurze remembered the issue at hand.

"Have you been out of this room?" he asked.

"Yes," Uric answered, though he looked confused. Mr. Kurze was about to reprimand the boy when he realized what Uric meant.

"I mean, have you been out of this room since I left it?"

"No, Sir."

"And has anyone else been in this room?"

"Other than the portraits?" asked the boy in an innocent tone.

"Portraits aren't people Uric and neither are statues. Don't think that I haven't heard an earful about your little chat with the gargoyle." He had heard more than an earful unfortunately. His wife was not one to be trifled with. "Has anyone been in here?" Uric shook his head.

"No, Sir," he answered. Mr. Kurze sighed, and decided to make one last stab at trying to get information out of Uric.

"You wouldn't happen to know how someone broke into my office and stole that invisibility cloak I took off of you?"

"Alohomora, a common unlocking spell can be used on nearly all locked contrivances. One must take account of the additional barrier spells that a more suspicious wizard or witch might place around an object or room. In that case-"

"Yes, thank you, Uric," said Mr. Kurze. He was sure that somewhere up in the library, there was a book with the exact words that Uric had just parroted at him. "If the portraits are done, than you can go. You wouldn't want to miss your carriage." He surveyed the room unseeing, until he noticed the tug on his robes. Uric was looking up at him, an earnest look on his face.

"If fruit were sentient, which fruit do you think would be their king? I like cherries, but they're too small. Maybe they could be foot soldiers. How about a banana as king? Are we allowed to have bent kings?" Mr. Kurze started chuckling, than progressed into full laughter at the puzzled look the boy was giving him. "Excuse me, but-," Uric started to ask, but Mr. Kurze waved the question away.

"Go get ready to leave, Uric," said Mr. Kurze in between his chuckles. Uric shrugged and walked out of the room. The portraits started yelling again.

*****

Louis was in the middle of buttering a crumpet when Mena sat down next to him. Mrs. Kurze had deemed it inefficient to have four tables set out for less than thirty students, so they were all eating breakfast at one main table. Louis had chosen a seat as far away from everyone else as possible. Trust Mena to ignore the clear sign that he wanted to be left alone. He took a bite of the crumpet, than swallowed before addressing her.

"Good morning, Mena. To what do I owe the honour of your presence?" He could see her glaring at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Why weren't you there this morning to say goodbye to Uric?" she asked.

"Because saying goodbye to Uric would have meant saying goodbye to everyone," he stated flatly.

"That's not good enough." She started haphazardly cutting up a sausage.

"It's going to have to be," he said.

"You're always so worried about your image, about what other people think about you," she complained.

"And you're not, Miss I-want-to-be-in-Gryffindor?" She coloured and hit him. The pumpkin juice in his hand sloshed over the side of the cup and onto his hand and the table.

"That's not the same!"

"Of course it's not," agreed Louis, if only to keep the peace. He searched around for a napkin, than finally used his sleeve. "So what do you want to do today?" She frowned at him.

"Do?" she said. Louis rolled his eyes.

"The holidays start today, so unless you want to get an early start on your homework, we have the day free."

"What? You don't mind spending time with a Hufflepuff, and a muggle-born to boot?" she asked.

"Not when no one else is around to see my shame." He had meant it as a joke, but Mena got this sad look on her face when he said it. He sighed. "Look, Mena. If I didn't want to spend time with you or Uric, I wouldn't. You're my," he hesitated a moment before saying it. "Friends." Mena grinned happily at him and he grinned back, though it was more in amusement at the large smear of honey that had somehow found its way to her cheek.

"Let's go flying then," she said, and Louis rolled his eyes. How had he known she was going to say that?

*****

Mena and Louis wandered out of the Great Hall. They were stuffed from the huge amount of food that had been available at the Christmas feast. Afterwards, Professor's Bear, Kerman, Thacher, Leonard and Wright had surprised the hall by providing some entertainment. Louis had to admit that they did sing rather well together. He just wished that Mena wasn't still going on about it.

"Who would have thought they could sing like that? I wonder why they don't do it more often," she gushed.

"We do. It's just usually in private," said a friendly voice behind them. They turned to look.

"Hello, Professor Kerman," said Mena. "Merry Christmas." The professor smiled at her.

"Merry Christmas to you both. Where's Uric? I seem to always find you together."

"Uric went home for Christmas, Professor Kerman," suggested Mena. She sounded doubtful of the professor's memory.

"I met him at his carriage this morning. I would hope he's still here."

"Where is he then, Professor?" asked Louis. Kerman unconsciously stroked his goatee before answering.

"I escorted him to Hufflepuff after I picked him up. You should have run into him there." Louis looked over at Mena. She met his eyes and shook her head.

"He isn't there Professor and he wasn't at the feast," Louis said.

"I'm sure he's alright. You know how that boy is. Wandering about the castle all the time. If he weren't such a good student, I'd be worried about him." He gave them a small smile that was meant to be reassuring. Louis, deciding they would get no more information from him, made his apologies and walked off in the opposite direction Kerman had been going. Mena had to run to catch up with him.

"He is right about Uric wandering the castle all the time," Mena pointed out.

"But he loves to eat, well at least to play with what he eats. You don't really think he would miss the feast on purpose, do you?" Mena shook her head.

"Not on purpose. But that's the trouble with him. He never does anything on purpose," she said with a shrug. They walked in silence for awhile until Mena spoke again. "We can search for him, but he knows the castle much better than we do. It'll just be luck if we find him." Louis stopped walking abruptly.

"It won't be luck," he said excitedly. "All we need to do is think like Uric!" Mena gave him a doubtful look.

"You're already beginning to think like him, if you think that will work," she said. Louis ran his hand through his hair.

"It will work. Uric always ends up in the strangest and most out of the way places in Hogwarts, at least according to Mr. Kurze he does."

"You've been talking to Mr. Kurze?" Mena sounded incredulous.

"I overheard him in the corridors one day." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"You must "overhear" a lot of people sometimes." Louis shrugged.

"Sometimes." He changed the subject. "All I can think of is that room on the third floor with fuzzy walls. You know anywhere else he might go?" Mena considered it.

"We can always check the rooms he showed me on Hallowe'en and he likes to wander the dungeons a lot. I think Mr. Kurze told him to stay out of there, so of course, he keeps accidentally wandering down there," she said.

"Do you have any idea how big the dungeons are? Just the other day, a second-year Slytherin got lost on her way to the Common Room and ended up stuck in a room full of sentient feather beds for over a day," he said.

"You're exaggerating," said Mena stubbornly. Louis sighed, and headed for the dungeons.

"Only half the time."

*****

Uric sat on top of the book shelf, his arms curled around his legs, while he stared pensively at the opposite wall. There was a painting of a fruit bowl there, and every once and awhile, the apple would turn to look at him. He wondered what it would be like to be a fruit. Probably about as much fun as being a vegetable he decided, only more people liked fruit than vegetables.

"You do not belong here," said a sombre voice beside him. Uric didn't move. Had that pear just winked at him? The voice tried again. "It is forbidden to enter in here. This room belongs to me." The temperature of the room dropped and the lights flickered. Uric wondered why the fruit were all in a bowl together anyway. Something hazy appeared in front of him. Uric leant forward slightly in order to see the painting better. Did they like spending their lives in a bowl, or would they prefer being made into a nice pie? "Uric Beaufolle!" roared a voice. The lights went out and the room was lit by a blue glow. Uric frowned at the ghost in front of him. He wanted to see the fruit.

"Hello, Mr. Bloody Baron," he said politely, despite his annoyance. "Could you turn the lights back on? I want to see the fruit." The ghost glared at him, and Uric could see the sparkle of the silvery blood stains on his collar.

"This room is mine. It has been sealed since I died." His voice deepened to a roar and a strange wind picked up. "YOU WILL LEAVE!" Uric shivered in the strange wind, than frowned furiously at the ghost. He was being very rude. All Uric wanted to do was look at the fruit.

"No," he said. "Go away!" For a second the ghost stared incredulously at him. Then his already transparent body began to fade away. The Baron tried to scream, but his voice sounded very far away. His eyes were the last thing to go. Once they disappeared the lights came back on and the room suddenly felt warmer.

"Uric! Uric!" called two different voices. Uric sighed and looked around. There below him were Mena and Louis. "How in the world did you do that, Uric?" asked Louis once he was sure of Uric's attention.

"Do what?" He stared at them, a puzzled expression on his face. Mena and Louis exchanged glances. Louis decided to ask a different question.

"What are you doing here, Uric? The Baron was right. This room is forbidden, especially to non-Slytherins. For that matter, what are you doing back at school?" Uric took one last look at the fruit, than jumped off the book shelf. He landed and rolled before standing up and brushing off his Hufflepuff badge. A quick check revealed the badger was alright. He looked longingly at the fruit painting. He didn't really want to answer the question. It made him sad. "Come on Uric, why didn't you come and find us when you got back?" There was a long pause before Uric answered.

"Father sent me here. He didn't want me for Christmas." There was hurt in Uric's voice.

"That's horrible," said Mena. Louis glared at her. She should know by now that Uric's view of the world was very rarely based in reality. Uric's parents cared a lot about him and wouldn't have sent him home without a reason. It was best to get the full story before sympathizing.

"Don't worry about it, Uric," said Louis, putting his hand on Uric's shoulder. "Your father must be working hard and probably needs all his concentration so he can figure out a way of not losing his job." Both Mena and Uric frowned at him.

"My father is a respected council member," Uric said.

"Well, the entire council is in trouble. There is a coalition working for the abolition of the existing system."

"But what will they replace it with?" asked Mena.

"The Daily Prophet says they're favouring a system similar to France's organization. With ministries and such." Louis reflected that this was probably the first time he had Uric's full attention. He was actually beginning to find his friend's hazel-eyed stare unnerving. He remembered what had just happened to the Baron and suppressed a shiver.

"Who's winning then?" asked Mena, and Uric broke his stare. Louis took a deep breath and thought about her question for a moment.

"It's not that simple unfortunately. Both sides are presenting solid arguments. The Wizarding Council points out that we've had a council for over a thousand years and look how well it has turned out. The Abolition faction just turns around and points out all the mistakes the Council has made over the years. Perhaps the Abolition's best argument is the wizard's themselves. Our population has been growing, not to mention the muggle-borns who join us each year. How can a council of nine wizards be expected to control the affairs of so many people?" It almost seemed like he was asking her the question. She grew flustered at the thought, especially since she wasn't entirely sure what he was talking about. Uric was watching them both curiously.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" she asked. Louis blinked at her. She sounded very annoyed.

"It's not my fault you don't read the Daily Prophet, and what can we do about it anyway? They don't exactly consult eleven year-olds on government policy."

"They should. You'd be very good at it," she said. Louis gave her a small bow.

"Why thank you." He paused. "You, on the other hand, would be horrible at it." She glared at him for the insult, but he was pretty sure that she agreed with him. "Now Uric, what did your father say to you before he sent you back here?"

"He said goodbye."

"Nothing about why he was sending you home?" Louis asked. Uric shook his head. "How about your mother, what did she say?"

"Good bye, Uric. Make sure you do your work and keep yourself safe. You should write more often as well," he said in an uncanny imitation of his mother, though it would have been more uncanny perhaps if Louis and Mena had ever met his mother.

"Uh, right," said Louis, disconcerted by the strange tone Uric had taken. He took a moment to think. "Do you know why they sent you home?" Uric thought very hard about the question.

"Father was talking to mum," he answered slowly. "He said it wasn't safe for me to stay."

"It sounds like he wanted you to stay Uric," said Mena.

"Mum wanted me to stay," said Uric. There was still a touch of sadness in his voice.

"Like I said," said Louis. "Your father's very busy and maybe they really did send you back to keep you safe." Both Mena and Louis knew about the attack on Uric, though only because Uric had accidentally mentioned it. Louis had his suspicions about the attack, but he didn't want to mention them to the other two in case he was wrong. He agreed with Mrs. Kurze's policy of keeping Uric in the castle, though Mena seemed to take it as some sort of punishment for Uric. Louis decided to do what he usually did when the conversation was becoming awkward. He changed the subject.

"So why don't you show us your Christmas presents, Uric?"

"Okay," said Uric brightly, his earlier upset forgotten. "My cousin Grahm gave me paper!"

"That's great," said Mena half heartedly. "Paper?" she mouthed at Louis. He shrugged and followed Uric out the door.