A Storm Descends On Hogwarts

*****************

Echoes In The Dark (Hensley)
recorded by Uriah Heep

I have heard the echoes in the dark
Dim and distant voices of the past
And I've seen so far into the night
And lingered in the land of no light

The day of darkness comes to ev'ry man
And lingers while he reaches out his hand
And he can not know how it will end
Till he finds out if he has a friend

****************

Prologue

She ran through the tropical undergrowth drawing ragged gasps of air. The air hung so heavy with moisture that it felt like breathing water alone. God what I’d give for gills right now. She stopped a moment and held her hand up to the other two people that ran with her. They halted beside her and all tried to quiet their breath in order to hear. The birds and insects that had ceased their noise when they came running through took up their voices again.

“Do you think we lost them?” said the hard breathing woman with the gash in her hairline trickling congealing blood past her ear and down her neck.

“Maybe, Renee... I don’t think for long though... This is their jungle.” said the toll young sandy haired man between lungfulls of air. He leaned forward propping his hands on his knees. “This is their territory... We violated it. ..They will probably track us .... as far as it takes to kill us .... to keep their secret safe.”

His arm bore marks like a huge cat scratch from the shoulder to elbow. Blood was dripping steadily to the forrest floor. “You’re hurt Sam. Here, let me help.” She stepped forward and ripped off the bottom half of his T-shirt and slid it over his head. She pulled out a roll of duct tape from the one remaining back pack that she carried, and between the cloth and the tape bound up the wound. She whispered a phrase under her breath before releasing his arm.

“There now you won’t leave a trail of blood for them to follow. Quick, we have to move now before we lose whatever lead we have.”

They moved off through the brush. She felt eyes burning holes in her shoulder blades. If we can only make the river and the boat. If we can get there we might stand a chance. The coarse vegetation stung her face arms and legs. Suddenly, the forrest noises ceased. “RUN!” she screamed. They pelted through the brush. The crashing sounds of pursuit drew closer.

“Go ahead, go ahead!” she pushed them past her. She pulled a large thin sharply pointed knife from its scabbard on her belt and pointed behind her where the brush was waving furiously. “Inferno!” she cried not without some irony. Burning the rain forrest was what she had come here to stop and here she was setting it afire. With a resounding WHOMP, a tree exploded into flame spraying fire everywhere.

She turned and ran toward the river. Almost there. Then the screams began. She skidded to a stop when she broke the undergrowth. Two jaguars were ripping the Renee's body apart in a vicious tug of war. Sam hung limply over the arm of being that was somewhere in-between a man and a jaguar. A gaping hole in his chest drew her eyes to the jaguar/man’s other hand. The red quivering flesh still pulsed.

“Avada Kedavra!” she cried with all her being. A green light sprang from her dagger and burst upon jaguar/man’s chest. He fell with Sam’s body, the heart flying from his hand rolling over and over across the ground.

The other two dropped the woman’s body and sprang forward. “Avada Kedavra!”. One of the jaguars crumpled. She twisted to avoid the second’s attack but one of the claws caught her left shoulder. She screamed as the claws sunk in. Her left hand grasped the jaguar’s throat. They fell together. A dark tide of emotion rose in her. Jamming her knife to the hilt into the cat’s abdomen she screamed with a hot fury, “Crucio!” It screamed and thrashed, raking her thigh from hip to knee. She rolled away her leg and shoulder burning like fire. Something rose up inside of her, violent, primitive and formless. She pointed the blade again and roared pure sound. The jaguar heaved and collapsed into boneless jelly.

She drug herself to a tree and pull herself up on her good leg. Already the healing charm in her tattoo was doing its work. She looked at her friend’s torn bodies. They had hoped to do so much! All ashes now. She shook with exhaustion and shock. More growls and crashing sounded in the jungle. The wind blew the smell of the burning jungle. “No time to come apart, Alira.” she spoke aloud to herself to keep focused. “Maintain!....... Maintain!....... Maintain!” She levitated the bodies of her friends to the boat then climbed in. The plume of smoke rose from the trees as the boat drifted downstream then picked up speed.

••••••••••••••••