Uric the Oddball and the Wild Hunt

"You can't hand this in, Uric," said Mena, thrusting a parchment under Uric's nose. He looked up from where he had been attempting to bore a hole in the table with his eyes. He had been trying for the past half hour, though he really wasn't sure if Madame Dilwen, the librarian, would approve. She had already told him off once for giving his History of Magic textbook legs. He had tried to explain that it was his book and that it just wanted to roam free, but she didn't seem to be listening.

"Pardon?" he said looking at Mena with a puzzled expression. They were in the library doing some essays that were due the next day, though Louis was the only one who was really working at the moment. Mena was executing her self appointed duty to edit Uric's papers and make sure nothing too strange made it through to the professors. Uric was just trying to figure out if Madame Dilwen would mind him giving his text book arms instead.

"Your Transfiguration essay," said Mena, speaking slowly in the hopes that Uric would understand. "The first part of it is okay, but then..." She trailed off. Uric was just giving her a polite but blank smile, and she had to resist the urge to hit him over the head with his own essay. She took a deep breath. "Listen to this, 'Transforming a human being into an inanimate object is considered one of the hardest forms of transfiguration second to self transfiguration. I tried turning myself into a badger yesterday, but although the other badgers didn't say anything, I think they could tell I wasn't one. Maybe I will try a bird tomorrow.'" Mena stopped reading to stare pointedly at him.

"It wasn't a good example?" asked Uric, trying to figure out what had been wrong with the essay. Louis looked up from his own writing, a smile on his face.

"I think you should let him hand it in, Mena. Professor Leonard would appreciate his attempt at research." Mena scowled at him.

"We'd be lucky if he thought it was a joke," she said, and dropped the parchment in front of Uric. "Use an example from a book, not your own experience." Uric frowned at her, then down at the parchment. He thought the badger transformation was his best point.

"Here," said Louis, passing a small vial over to him. "You can use my ink eraser potion. Just be careful not to get it on your fingers. It'll erase them too." Uric was giving the potion a delighted look and Louis wondered if he wasn't making a mistake.

"Excuse me," said a voice. Louis looked up. It was a Gryffindor. It took him a moment to recognize which particular Gryffindor. Alexander Lupin. The golden hair and pale skin gave him away.

"Someone wants you, Uric," said Louis, keeping his voice casual. Alexis had declared Alexander a person non grata to the other first-year Slytherins along with all the other first-year Gryffindors. Louis didn't think he would treat his brother that way, no matter what house he landed in, but then, Louis was an only child. Alexander shook his head at Uric when he looked up from playing with the eraser potion.

"I don't want to talk to you," he said firmly, than coloured when Uric frowned at him. "I mean, I do want to talk to you, just not at the moment. I need to talk to Louis." Louis winced. This was not going to be good. Uric went back to the potion.

"Yes?" Louis said, keeping his eyes focused on a place somewhere beyond Uric's left shoulder. Alexis ignored him most of the time, for all he was from a highly influential family, but if word got out that he was chatting with her brother...

"You're a Slytherin," said Alexander. Louis rolled his eyes.

"Yes, and I have black hair. Can we stop stating the obvious here?"

"I need you to talk to Alexis for me," said Alexander in a rush, as if he were afraid Louis was going to turn him away if he didn't speak fast enough. Louis was certainly tempted to.

"Why?" he asked instead.

"She won't talk to me. Over the holidays, she wouldn't even acknowledge me as her brother. Well, except in front of our parents. With them she was all sweet and polite like she usually is." Mena snorted rather loudly from across the table and Louis glanced at her. He had forgotten she was there.

"Alexis is never sweet and polite," said Mena pointedly. "You're better off without her anyway." Alexander shrugged.

"She's my sister, and it wasn't always this bad. She's just very good at getting what she wants." He focused back on Louis. "Will you talk to her for me?"

"No. Send her an owl, or a howler if you prefer."

"But why won't you?" asked Alexander desperately. Louis could feel his quill bending in his hands and forced himself to relax his grip.

"Have you seen Seraph Cazher lately?" he asked. Alexander looked puzzled.

"The red-headed girl? She's in the hospital wing. A Potion's accident right?" he hazarded a guess. Louis nodded his head.

"Yes, a Potion's accident set by your sister because Seraph has the equal misfortune of being exceptionally pretty as well as acid tongued. She never knows when to stop and went a bit too far." He paused to let the knowledge sink in. "You would probably get along well with her," said Louis speculatively. Alexander looked angrily at him.

"I'm Alexis' brother. She wouldn't treat me like that." Louis noticed that he didn't deny that Alexis would do something like that to Seraph.

"You're a Gryffindor," said Louis.

"Now who's pointing out the obvious?" said Alexander triumphantly. Louis rolled his eyes.

"It's not obvious if one of us doesn't get the point." Louis turned away from the boy and attempted to focus on his Herbology assignment, willing Alexander to leave and knowing that the boy was frowning at his back. He was distracted when he realized that Uric had erased half of the table during their discussion.

"You're really scared of Alexis aren't you?" asked Mena from across the remains of the table. Louis risked a quick glance behind him and saw that Alexander was gone.

"Not scared, just wary. Alexis can make my life for the next seven years horrible, just like she's doing right now to Seraph," he said by way of explanation. Mena got a gleam in her eye that Louis had learned to dread over the Christmas holidays.

"Why don't you make her life a bit miserable then? I have a great plan." She seemed very confident.

"I'm sure it is," said Louis and attempted to change the subject. "You know Madame Dilwen is going to kill you, Uric." Uric looked up from where he was selectively erasing parts of the table to create a rather accurate self-portrait. Uric opened his mouth to say something, but Mena spoke first.

"All we need are a few ingredients and Uric's potion brewing expertise. What do you think, Uric?"

"Do you think it's possible for floors to be ticklish? They'd be tickled every time we walk on them, but how would they laugh? Maybe when the floors shake it's when they're actually laughing. Oh, and what happens when we run, or when we dance?" Louis almost explained to Uric that the floors of Hogwarts didn't shake (well, most of them) and were not ticklish, but realized it would do no good. Mena however gave him a triumphant look.

"See? He agrees," she said. Louis rolled his eyes.

"Since when has babble about floors qualified as agreement?" he asked.

"Since we met Uric," she said and Louis was hard pressed to disagree with her.

They left the library a little later, after discussing the details of the plan. It would take a few days to brew the potion, but none of the ingredients were unusual enough to require their special attainment. The potion was hard to brew true, but Uric was capable of making it, even if they did have to agree to go 'laughing floor' hunting with him so that he would concentrate enough to brew it.

A few hours later, Madame Dilwen wondered where half of one of her tables had gotten to and why what was left looked like someone she knew.

*****

Three days later, they put Mena's plan, with a bit of modification by Louis, into motion. The halls were crowded when the classes changed and it was not an uncommon sight to see Alexis standing outside one of the classrooms, chatting happily with a professor and twirling a strand of hair around her finger. Uric couldn't figure out why he had been told to watch her, but he did, standing in the middle of the corridor and making the students pass around him.

Professor Leonard went back into his classroom, and Alexis began to walk towards Uric. He looked away from her and began to concentrate very hard like Mena and Louis had asked him to. He chanted to himself very softly and clutched his wand tightly. The pressure in the corridor changed slightly and the students began giving the air around them funny looks. There was a breath of wind that brought with it a fresh smell and small clouds began to form above Uric's head. He kept chanting, but backed up towards one wall.

The small clouds joined up to form big ones and soon the whole ceiling was a roiling mass of dark storm clouds. The students were already panicking and attempting to get out of the crowded but narrow corridor when the rain began. It came down in a torrent, soaking the students through their robes. And then the lightening started.

The shrieks were beginning to bother Uric and he grimaced as someone kicked his shin in an attempt to get past. A flash of lightening sent little white glowing shapes dancing across his eyes, which is why he missed Louis casually pouring a potion through a makeshift colander onto Alexis' head.

Professor Leonard was able to push past the students and out of the classroom. With a few words he banished the storm, and the layer of water on the floor. However, he couldn't do much about drying so many students and sent most of them to their common rooms to change while he informed the Headmistress.

An investigation by Mr. Kurze declared the storm a freak incident of the kind that was all too common in a castle of Hogwarts' age and level of magical intensity.

*****

The next day, the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins were leaving Charms. Most of them were in a bad mood after attempting a particularly difficult sleeping charm. A few of them were dozing on their friend's shoulders as an after effect. Alexis strode ahead of them, and those who were dozing were awakened abruptly by a horrendous wail.

Uric stared in confusion with the rest of the class as all their lose possessions - quills, books, sweets and other handy objects including one very confused owl - began to swirl in a growing mayhem about Alexis. More and more things were attracted to her from all over the school and the class was forced to duck as random objects came flying through the corridors to dance around their chosen mistress.

It grew so bad that Uric could no longer see Alexis through the maelstrom, though he could hear her yelling in fury. She was attempting to curse the objects away, but they didn't seem to want to leave. Uric watched carefully in the hopes of seeing a badger. He was disappointed, though he did see a portrait of Helga Hufflepuff fly by. The rest of the class alternated between gaping at their flying belongings or sniggering uncontrollably at the mess Alexis had gotten herself into.

Professor Thacher attempted to end the spell, but nothing he cast had any effect. A student was sent to fetch the Headmistress, and she tried to end the spell as well. However, soon after she arrived the storm of objects died down and Alexis was revealed standing in a bare patch of corridor. Miscellaneous objects piled all around her to form a wall that was blasted away by a sweep of Mrs. Kurze's wand.

Alexis face was red, her hair was dishevelled and her robes were askew, but she looked unhurt. No one laughed, though that was mostly because she was sending a disoriented but very angry glare their way. Alexis was led away to the infirmary to assure her good health and the students were told to disperse by a very cross looking Mrs. Kurze.

As soon as they were out of sight, the class started talking. Everyone was at a loss to explain what had happened, but they had to agree it was the most exciting and/or amusing thing they had seen in a long time. Uric had forgotten about the incident by lunch time, though the rest of the school hadn't. It was what everyone talked about for the rest of the day. Uric didn't mind, though he did wonder why Mena kept smiling and breaking into giggles for no reason.

Mr. Kurze was once again forced to conclude that Alexis' experience was just another of the vagaries of living in such a magically endowed place as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

*****

Uric sat up in his bed and promptly banged his head. It took him a moment to realize that this was because he was comfortably ensconced under the bed. Rubbing his forehead, he rolled out from under the bed. The 'sleep under the bed to make sure the pudding didn't get under there' idea probably hadn't been one of his best. After all, if he was under the bed, what was to stop the pudding from getting on top of the bed? He froze in a crouch and glanced warily at the empty mattress beside him. No pudding. Though there was a piece of parchment. Uric started to breath again.

He brushed the dust off of himself, than pulled on some trousers and a loose jumper. He picked up his robe, turned it upside down so the sleeves trailed on the floor and attempted to put it on. He was able to get his legs into the sleeves but he couldn't seem to find a reason for the large hole in between them. After much thought, he finally gave up and pulled the robe on over his head since he hadn't bothered to undo the clasp the day before. As an afterthought, he picked up the piece of parchment on his bed and stuffed it in his pocket.

Everything was ready for the day, except...Simon! Uric walked over to the head of his bed where his bird-lizard's cage usually lay. The cage was still there, but the cloth covering it had fallen to the floor and the door was ajar. Simon was gone.

*****

Mena rolled away from the wall and grumbled softly in her sleep. In her dream, it felt like someone was staring at her...Staring at her...Her eyes flew open and she let out a yell.

"Uric!" Mena hit him with her pillow. Uric's eyes had been inches from her face, and the light from the moon had made them seem even brighter than normal. He rocked back from her blow, but when she made to throw the pillow at him, he came forward and caught her arm. She stared at him. She had never seen Uric defend himself. "What do you want Uric?" she asked softly, noticing for the first time the worry in his eyes. Uric glanced around the room, as if he expected someone to be listening.

"Simon's missing," he said. "I've searched the castle. He's not here." Mena yawned.

"You can't have looked everywhere. I'm sure he'll turn up," she said, trying to get him to go away. She didn't need to be up all night searching for Simon when he would probably turn up in the Common Room tomorrow. Uric just shook his head.

"Will you help me look, Mena?" he asked. She stifled a groan.

"Isn't there some sort of spell you can use to find him?" she asked in the vain hope that there was. Uric got that faraway look in his eyes he always had when he was thinking about something, and Mena almost fell asleep waiting for him to give her an answer.

"Yes," he answered eventually, surprising her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of Simon's stunted feathers. He walked over to the window, and Mena followed, her curiosity making her forget her fatigue. The Hufflepuff girl's dormitories actually faced out over one of the main courtyards of Hogwarts, giving them a view of the castle on all sides. The moon was very bright, and it looked like it was full.

Uric placed the feather carefully on the ledge and pointed his wand at it. "Locus aperio." A jet of blue light shot out of the wand and hit the feather, making it glow. The feather hovered above the ledge, and Uric reached out to open the window, sending a blast of cool air towards them. The glowing feather spun around once or twice than shot out the window. They both squeezed forward to see where it went. It headed across the courtyard and through an arch to the left. Mena glanced at Uric. He was frowning.

"Simon's not in the castle," he said, still staring out at the arch.

"Alright, where is he?"

"Out there. I have to find him. He might be hurt." He sounded really worried. Mena realized that she wasn't going to get anymore sleep tonight. She sighed.

"Let me get dressed Uric and then we'll go look." A thought occurred to her. If she was going to lose sleep, than why shouldn't Louis suffer as well? "We can search a lot faster with three people. Do you know how to get to Louis at this time of night?" It would require them getting into the Slytherin dungeons, but she wouldn't be surprised if Uric knew a way. Uric seemed to like the idea, and nodded, though he was still staring out the window. She grabbed his arm, and shoved him towards the doorway. "Go get him then and meet me in the Common Room."

*****

Uric stumbled into the Slytherin Common Room, the wall almost closing upon him. It had taken a bit of convincing to get it to open in the first place and now it just wanted him to leave. He hoped it would let him out again later.

Absently noting the lack of plants in the common room, he chose a random doorway and headed through. A loud snore greeted him. For a second, he stopped to wonder just what sort of creature would make that noise while sleeping and almost went to investigate, but the creatures under the sheets were too big to be Louis so he moved onward. He checked three more dormitories before he found the one he was looking for. Louis' face was directly in the moonlight from the small head sized window, making him seem even more pale than usual.

Uric approached cautiously. Louis lay on his back and didn't even appear to be breathing. After considering for awhile, Uric transfigured Louis' blanket into a large bouquet of flowers and waited. Louis slowly opened his eyes and focused on the ceiling above him. His hand tightened about the flowers as he frowned. He turned his head to the side to reveal Uric, than looked back at the flowers.

"I should have known," he said as he sat up.

"Simon's missing," said Uric. "He's not in the castle and we have to find him before he gets hurt." Louis decided this must be serious. Uric had stayed on a serious topic for two full sentences. He tossed the bouquet back on his bed, and went to pull on his robes.

"Let's go find him then."

*****

The unicorn snorted gently at them, and they saw the Maiden yawn a moment before the portrait opened. They stepped into the Hufflepuff common room. Louis stopped to look around at the slithering plants, but Uric ignored them. He walked across the room, carefully avoiding the intertwined vines and jumped on top of the couch Mena was currently dozing upon. She shrieked as he lost his balance and fell on top of her.

"Get off me!" She pushed him onto the carpet. Louis joined them after a moment, the light dusting of pink on his robes revealing an encounter with one of the spitting flowers that Uric disliked so much. Uric stood up and straightened his robes.

"Let's go find Simon," he said and kept nodding his head until Mena got up to leave. Louis held out a hand to stop them.

"Wait! First, how did he get out?" he asked. Uric stopped, and gave him a puzzled look.

"Get out?" Uric repeated, and Louis was sure that the question hadn't even occurred to him.

"He didn't just open the cage himself," said Louis scathingly. "You did have him in his cage didn't you?" Uric sometimes wandered around the castle with Simon on his shoulder, but Uric was smart enough to keep the bird-lizard in a cage when they weren't out wandering. However, Louis was sure Uric would have known where Simon was if he had just lost him within the castle. Uric nodded his head.

"Yes, and he had to open it himself. The door was open when I woke up." Uric was proud of Simon for that. Even he had trouble opening the door to Simon's cage sometimes. Louis frowned.

"Was there anything else unusual, Uric? Think hard. This is important," he said, hoping that Uric was in the proper mood to answer his question. They waited awhile while Uric closed his eyes and searched his memory. Suddenly, Uric grinned and reached into his pocket. He offered a piece of parchment to Louis.

"There was this," he said proudly. Louis unrolled the small piece of parchment and read it out loud.

"This is for Hallowe'en." He sent a questioning glance Mena's way. "Wasn't that when you two saw Varys in the Dancing Trousers?" Mena's eyes widened. She called Varys a rather harsh name that made Louis grin and Uric give her a puzzled look.

"What does that mean?" he asked, and Louis covered his hand with his mouth and pretended to cough so that Uric didn't see him laughing. Mena just gave them both an annoyed look.

"Don't you see?" she said earnestly. "This means that Varys stole Simon and let him lose outside of the castle. He probably knows you can't leave the castle and is trying to get you in trouble." Uric frowned.

"That's very mean. Simon and I never hurt him."

"Somehow, I don't think he agrees with you," said Louis. Mena began to head towards the door. She turned to look at them when they didn't follow.

"Come on," she said. "With luck Simon stayed near the castle and we'll find him easily." The two boys followed.

"Sure," muttered Louis as he walked. "And later Mrs. Kurze will start handing out sweets and name Uric as the future head boy."

"Will she?" asked Uric. Louis just shook his head.

*****

The three of them crept out the main doors and down the steps. They stopped at the bottom, and Uric pointed straight at the Forbidden Forest. It looked very dark against the starlit sky.

"Are we sure we should be doing this?" said Mena nervously. "I'm sure one of the professors could find Simon. We can show them the note." Louis nodded his head in agreement.

"Those masked wizards could still be out there, Uric. You're not supposed to leave the castle," he said. Uric got a determined look on his face.

"I'm going to find Simon. He might be hurt in the forest. I can't leave him alone there tonight." Uric sounded desperate but determined. He began walking towards the forest. Louis sent a questioning look towards Mena. She looked scared, but still turned to follow Uric. Louis watched them walk for a few moments, than sighed and followed. He was going to regret this.

They entered the forest with no trouble and Uric cast a lumos spell when it became too hard to see underneath the thick cover of trees. The forest was quiet around them, and Mena and Louis kept casting glances around them wondering what was out there watching. Uric walked ahead of them humming quietly, oblivious to the silence and the occasional glowing pair of eyes that regarded them. Suddenly, an orange creature bounded in between them and let out a plaintive yowl. The three of them froze.

"Beckett!" said Uric happily.

"Dasha," said Louis in a much darker tone. They were going to be caught if they stayed here. "Run!" They all ran as fast as they could towards the inner depths of the forest, though Uric couldn't figure out why they were running. It didn't matter. They were definitely heading towards Simon. He could feel it. Beckett kept pace with them for awhile, then fell behind.

The three of them stumbled into the clearing and paused. The brilliant moonlight illuminated a scene right out of their textbooks. Centaurs were scattered about the glade. They were in various states of repose, yet each one of them had his or her eyes focused completely on the heavens.

Mena and Louis were more than a bit hesitant to disturb the centaurs at their meditations, but Uric had no such reservations. He walked boldly up to the nearest centaur, a young man with a dappled brown coat, and asked the only question on his mind.

"Excuse me. Have you seen Simon? He's my bird-lizard and he seems to have gotten a bit lost." The centaur did not even look at him, but gazed with great intensity at the sky. Uric stared at him for a moment, but finally gave up and looked at the sky as well. He looked for a long time, and Louis was about to call him back when he spoke.

"The Wild Hunt rides tonight," he said in a voice that sounded much older then an eleven-year olds. As one, the head's of the centaurs turned to focus on the human in their midst. Mena and Louis backed up, frightened by the intensity of the centaur's eyes, for all that they were focused on Uric.

"The Hounds of Hell are loosed," intoned a black centaur. A shiver ran up Mena's spine.

"The Master rides the pack," said a pretty beige centaur in a low voice.

"Woe to the Hunted," said a chestnut coloured one.

"Woe to the Hunter," said another.

"Death rides tonight," said the centaur closest to Uric. Louis and Mena exchanged a look. They needed to get out of this forest right now. Simon would have to take care of himself. They moved to grab Uric, but he moved so he was standing in the middle of the clearing.

"Yes. I know all that," he said, dismissing the centaur's predictions out of hand, and sounding a bit annoyed about the entire performance. Both Mena and Louis were gaping at him. "What I want to know is where Simon is." The centaurs stared at him, than turned to look at the heavens again. Mena let out the breath she had been holding.

Uric was still standing in the middle of the clearing; his eyes back on the skies. Mena bit her lip, than reluctantly walked into the clearing. She could be brave, even if she wasn't in Gryffindor. After a moment, Louis followed her. The centaurs continued to ignore them.

"Reminds me of my family," muttered Louis. Mena ignored him and focused on Uric.

"Come on, Uric. They're obviously not helping. We need to get out of the forest. Simon will be okay for the night." She put her hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her and she shut her mouth.

It was his eyes that stopped her. No longer did they hold that benign befuddlement that was Uric's usual state. Instead, they were terribly bright, the hazel glowing gold in the moonlight and very, very aware.

"Uric?" said a flustered Louis from behind her. A cloud passed over the moon and when it was gone the light had faded from Uric's eyes. He stared at his friends for a moment.

"Why do you think it's called Hogwarts if hogs don't get warts?" he asked. Mena resisted the urge to hit him, while Louis was staring at him incredulously.

"Did you hear anything Mena said before? Or what the centaurs said for that matter?" he asked. For a second they thought Uric was going to say no, but he smiled brightly at them.

"Yes. We need to get out of here. I heard. But you can't get out of an area where the Wild Hunt has been declared. It said so in the Book of Wild Magic," he said in a matter of fact tone.

"And did you know this before you convinced us to go running into the forest in search of your stupid pet?" Mena asked furiously. Uric was taken aback.

"Simon's not stupid...I don't think I knew."

"You don't think you knew?!" She moved to hit him. Louis held her back.

"Mena stop it. Uric's mind doesn't work like ours and you know it," he said.

"And that's an excuse for getting us killed?" she exclaimed loudly. The centaurs didn't seem to notice. Louis actually pulled her aside. Uric watched them go with a puzzled expression, but was perfectly content to watch a beetle scuttle across the grass at his feet.

Meanwhile, at the edge of the clearing Louis was very careful to stand out of Uric's sight behind one of the centaurs. "I've been thinking about this a lot Mena, and I think I have an explanation."

"For what?" she asked.

"For why Uric is so, for lack of a better word, odd." Mena looked sceptical but allowed him to continue. "He's a genius, Mena. You've seen the way he remembers everything and always knows the answers, if you can get him to concentrate." She nodded reluctantly. "But he's not just a genius academically. He's a genius magically as well, and that I think, is what did him in. He uses magic constantly, without thought. You saw the way he banished the Baron at Christmas."

"Okay. I get it. He's brilliant and talented. So is Varys Nachleen," she said scathingly. Louis actually smiled.

"But Varys isn't connected to the world like Uric is. I suspect the reason he is so out of it all the time is that his mind is dealing with the world on so many different levels. It puts his conscious mind into a sort of hold while it deals with the more important things. Tonight just confirmed my suspicions. For a second there, Uric was giving our world his full attention." He sounded very pleased with himself. Mena shook her head.

"You know what I think of your theory?"

"What?" said Louis, knowing he was in for it.

"It's a load of -" A deep howl split the night, followed by another and another on top of it. The howls echoed through the woods making something deep within the young wizards shudder. Uric walked around the centaur they had been hiding behind.

"That's a lot of doggies isn't it?" he said cheerfully

"Somehow I don't think they're here to play fetch Uric," said Louis, his voice quavering slightly in spite of himself. Another howl split the night.

The hunt was on.