A Storm Descends On Hogwarts

Chapter 2 Fly Away

Cold Wind to Valhalla

And ride with us young bonny lass ---
with the angels of the night.
Crack wind clatter --- flesh rein bite on an out-size
unicorn.
Rough-shod winging sky blue flight on a cold wind
to Valhalla.
And join with us please --- Valkyrie maidens cry
above the cold wind to Valhalla.

Jethro Tull

“At this point one may note that men must be either pampered or annihilated. They avenge light offenses; they cannot avenge severe ones; hence the harm one does a man must be such as to obliviate any fear of revenge.”

Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince
Chapter 3


Gavin sat wedged in a crevice between two walls of rocks his wand in hand. I must be insane letting her talk me into this. Lena will have my hide. He was stationed a half mile from the Prentice’s cave near the mouth of yet another of one of these tunnels where lava had once flowed through leaving the landscape pocketed with tube caves. He marveled at the land. It’s as though a giant earthworm had dipped in and out of the earth leaving behind these giant castings. He checked the Exaudio spell they had cast to keep in touch.

“How’s it look over there?” he asked.

“Quiet for the moment...They are out there. I can feel them. They are disturbing the normal pattern for this area.” Prentice’s voice was low in his ear.

“I still never understand how you do that,” he said a little enviously.

“What, be able to sense my enemies or my prey?” Prentice chuckled low. “You only have to subject yourself to a tyrannical Native American shaman for two years, live on the technological level of a cave man, no magic allowed except hunting magic and become part of a wolf pack. Not really all that hard.”

“You never told me he changed you into a wolf!” exclaimed Gavin softly.

“Ah... now you see, he didn’t. I had to earn my way in the pack in human form. It was a task infinitely more difficult to convince the wolves to accept a strange looking, slow, weaker being into their pack.”

“How did you do it?” his voice tinged with respect.

“I became a puppy. A cub.”

“What?”

“I had to start out with the status of a cub, a baby. I had to act like a puppy. What many do not realize is that wolves have a strict ordered society. They have a hierarchy from the Alpha male and female to the Omega male and female. Cubs, though, have a special status. If they beg for food they must be fed by any member of the pack, Alpha or Omega. Cubs must be protected. The legend of Romulus and Remus being adopted by a wolf is most likely true. There is a story of a shaman walking into a pack of wolves and leaving his own two year old son with them for a couple of months. The wolves fed and took care of him. He watched from a distance of course. He retrieved the boy and the boy grew up to become the tribe’s next shaman. He retained the ability to talk with the wolves and could find game when all other hunters of the tribe failed.”

“Where did you hear that story?” Gavin’s skeptical expression was nearly visible to Prentice from the tone of his voice alone.

“Charlie Whitefeather, my shaman and mentor. The boy was his grandfather on his mother’s side.” Prentice grinned broadly into the dark predawn sky, Gavin’s stunned silence reverberating in the cold air.

“Enough chatter, Gavin; you are putting out too much signal. Use a Disillusion spell. I am not sure what their full capacity is as hunters but my estimate is that it is close to mine. Only the unfamiliarity of the country gives me the edge over them. I need them to focus on me. Remember when you hear the engines roar, that is your signal.”

“Right.” Gavin performed the Disillusion Charm and shivered slightly as the cold spread and encompassed his body. He glanced into the black maw of the cave before him where the dragon waited. Prentice had chosen her cave to be close to the dragon’s lair. For now, the dragon lay trapped in the cave; held there by the spells that Prentice set. He wasn’t stunned though, and Gavin could hear him stirring in the darkness, restless and ill content.

No, I’d say downright pissed off. Murderous even. Yes, patiently, premeditatedly, murderous. No wonder she was glad to have help with this.

“Gavin?”

“Yes.”

“They are coming in. They are at the edge of the maze now. The illusion just activated,” Prentice whispered.

“Don’t let them circle around and close off your escape route out the other side of the cave,” Gavin counseled. “One or two may hold back and circle around to see if the others flush you from the ground.”

“I’m keeping wary.”

The silence stretched interminably. Even the dragon ceased its restless shifting. The blood pulsing in Gavin’s ear made him realize he was holding his breath. Slowly, silently, he let it out. The sky was graying rapidly. Already, it was taking on a hint of blue and the fainter stars fading away.

How soon now? Will the sun be up in time?

A scream pierced the air. “Prentice?”

“Fine here. Only six of the expected nine have made it into the cave. Hopefully, the other three were lost in the maze. Two of them hit the trap. One’s momentum broke his own leg. The others have taken cover.” Prentice grinned nastily at the Jaguar men below her. There were six and two were up to their shins in the trap. The screamer’s leg was at an impossible angle and the point of the bone pressed tight against the inside of the skin. The other pointed a flint knife at the trap and cast a spell of his own language.

Oh, please be your version of Finite Incantantum.

The floor liquefied and erupted around them, forming rough fingers that closed around the two and dragged them down into the floor only to solidify smooth again. Prentice slipped back into the cave passage and sprinted along the magically smoothed floor for the rear exit. A bright flash of red streaked by her head. Instinctively, she ducked just as a green beam flashed over her head. Her own knife already out, she returned fire on the Jaguar man ahead of her, who had sprung out from behind one of the stalagmite formations in the cave.

“Avada Kedavra!” The green light shot straight to his head and he crumpled. A trill of song burst out and the red flash winged past her toward the exit. Sprinting, she hurried to keep up.

“Prentice! Are you all right!” Gavin’s voice buzzed her ear.

“Yeah, some huge red bird just saved my life!”

“The Phoenix? I had forgotten all about him.” Gavin, looked at the sky, blue now and the stars fled away. The sparse clouds blushed pink in anticipation of the sun. “Are you there yet? The sun is about a minute away.”

“ Yes. Oh, hell!”

“What is it, Prentice?”

“The Jaguar priest sabotaged my transport. Don’t worry. I can fix it. Airplane Reparo”

From his position in the crevice, Gavin heard the roar of an engine. He turned to the cave before him and with his knife made a slashing motion as he spoke the words to dismiss the holding wards. Then he cast another spell at the dark hole. Chrysanthemum explosions fired through the cave illuminating a large blue dragon. The engines gunned and out of the earth rose a small blue dragon, green light beams chasing after.

The large blue roared and boiled out of his cave, furious at the invasion of his territory. From the place where the small dragon appeared, four angry shouting men sprung out of the ground. The large blue sprung aloft after the strangely roaring small dragon. The four men flattened to the ground to keep from becoming alternate targets. The sun streamed over the horizon, gilding everything with blinding light. The large dragon was swiftly overtaking the odd smaller dragon, which didn’t seem to flap its wings.

“He’s closing Prentice. He’s almost on you!” said Gavin. “Fifty yards, forty, thirty! He’s going to breathe!”

“I’m ready, see you at the rendezvous point.” She pulled at a chain at her neck and a necklace with a simple oval charm appeared from her shirt collar. Grasping the chain she slid her fingers down it’s length until they were just above the charm. Looking in the mirror she had mounted in her ultralight plane that mimicked a blue dragon she saw the beginnings of the flame from the gullet of her pursuer.

”One, two.” She slid her fingers around the charm and squeezed hard. “THREE!” She felt the familiar tug at her navel as the portkey pulled her out just ahead of the flames and the world took a spin.

She hit the ground feet and knees together and rolled over her shoulder two or three times for she was still moving from the momentum of the plane. She sprawled to a stop and for a moment or two the earth spun around before settling into its normal place. A soft whoosh sounded and she twisted around to see Gavin silhouetted by the sun.

“Lugh’s Luck, you made it!” he exclaimed stepping forward to help her from the ground.

“It is as you have often said, ‘Sometimes luck is enough if your courage holds.’” she replied with a smile taking his hand up. “Of course, it never hurts to plan extensively.”

“The ultralight plane. Where did you ever think of that?” he asked brushing the dirt from her back.

“Stole the idea from a Muggle movie I saw. They were trying to teach an orphaned flock of Canadian geese to migrate and they had this ultralight plane specially built to look like a huge Canadian goose. So I looked carefully at the credits to find the name of the company who made the plane, looked them up and ordered one that looked like a dragon.” She smiled at his look of astonishment.

“That was purely a Muggle device?” he asked incredulous.

“Well mostly, it is inconvenient to get fuel out here in the wilderness. So, I enchanted it to run on magic. The engine sounds are only sound effects in case I was seen by Muggles with it.” She sighed deeply, “I am going to miss flying it. It was more fun than a broom. It was like being a dragon.” She looked off at the horizon from where they had come. “Well did it look real? Do you think I convinced them I’m dead?”

“Oh, it looked real. The dragon toasted it, then snatched the burning wreckage out of the air and shredded it. In fact, I was a bit worried myself,” he admitted.

“Ah, there was no need, not with this as my port key,” she held up the charm for him to see.

“Saint Christopher,” he laughed giving her arm a shove. “I see you were hedging your bets.”

“Always, Gavin, always.” She took him by the arm and turned him toward three, giant, stark white pillars of rock that towered above them. Not raised by man these megaliths, but Natures own hand carved the surrealistic, stately madonnas. “Come I have my supplies and possessions cached here. We can put together some breakfast and talk about this teaching job. Then I can lay a card spread and see what they hold.” A brilliant flash of red swooped ahead of them. “And just where did that Phoenix come from?”

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

Harry turned the pages of the Daily Prophet slowly, reading carefully so that he didn’t miss any detail. At least all of the derogatory remarks about him seemed to have disappeared. There was news of the Azkaban prisoners. Their trial dates were being set and would be announced publicly soon. The article went on and on about the trial and how closely the Aurors were guarding them.

Oh yes, go on about the Aurors and the prisoners, but totally fail to mention that their are dozens of missing Dementors roaming about!

The rest of the paper just sounded like drivel to Harry. The weather witches and wizards were carrying on about the hotter than normal temperatures for the second year in a row. He was furious and with a growl pitched it across the room, pages scattering as it went. He flung himself full length on the bed crushing his pillow to his chest eyes clenched tight. Hedwig hooted and rattled his cage. Harry sighed.

“Damn useful as you are Hedwig, you no good when it comes to being hugged,” his voice cracked. He looked at the strangle hold he had on his pillow. Of course it probably for the best. I doubt that Crookshanks would put up being squeezed like this. He tossed it on the floor in disgust sat up and picked up the Quibbler from the end table. For some reason, Luna Lovegood had started sending it to him.

“If I am going to read drivel, Hedwig,” his voice dragged through the tightness in his chest, “I might as well read honest drivel.” Hedwig rattled her cage door. Harry grimaced apologetically, “When it’s dark I’ll let you out to hunt. I can’t have anyone seeing you leave here.”

He looked through the sensational headlines. There had been an alleged sighting of the Crumple-horn Kornack in India. One writer was making allegations that the Ministry was covering up for an illegal experimental breeding project gone wrong. There was a picture of a fire breathing chicken and a burning barn that accompanied the article. There also was a new feature, an advice column written by someone called Auntie M.

Harry turned the page and what greeted his eyes chilled him to the bone. The headlines read: WEREWOLF ATTACK FOILED BY BRACELET. Harry seemed to be having trouble catching his breath. He glanced at his wall calendar with the days past X-ed out. The full moon was only two days past.

Harry whipped out some parchment and his quill and ink and scrawled a desperate note,

“Professor Lupin,
Are you all right? I read about a werewolf attack in the Quibbler. I am sure it isn’t you but I ...”

Here Harry floundered. He set his quill down and elbows on his desk sank his head into his hands, his fingers threading through his perpetually tousled hair. His heart clutched with fear for Remus but he didn’t know how to say what he felt with out sounding like an idiot. Last summer he had worried in silence, convinced himself that his fears were groundless and stupid. Fat lot of good that did. Sirius is gone, largely because I didnn’t have the spine to speak up sooner about the strange dreams plaguing me.

The quill gripped tightly in Harry’s hand continued its scratchy voyage across the parchment.

......need to hear from you.

Harry

The unusually hot sun beat unmercifully on the semi brown front lawn. Uncle Vernon had been sneaking out late at night to water it against the edict until the drought grew so bad that the policemen began to hand out tickets to anyone creeping around watering their lawns. The air hung with a constant tinge of dust in it that kept your throat dry and rough no matter how much water you drank. Tempers were running high and people were snapping at each other over the most trivial causes.

Harry hadn’t exactly been walking lightly around the Dursleys, but neither was he being confrontational. There existed an uneasy detante. Dudley glared at him from time to time, but for the most part he was being ignored by them which suited him fine. Today Uncle Vernon had taken Dudley in to London with him. He thought about his note to Professor Lupin waiting in his bedroom until dark when he could send it off with Hedwig. Harry tugged at a particularitly stubborn weed in Aunt Petunia’s flower garden when he felt eyes upon him. Starting he looked up, surprised to see Aunt Petunia at the door with a peculiar expression twisted on her face.

“Yes?” he had said calming his racing heart back to its normal speed. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her eyes darting to one side then the other, and made vague gestures with one hand, the other clamped tightly across her mid-section.

“Um, Have you....,”she trailed off for a moment. “I mean, is everything.... all right?” she mumbled almost shyly. Her eyes darted nervously around everywhere but to Harry.

The wheels in Harry’s head had to take a few turns before he realized what she was really asking. He shoved his glasses back up his nose and stammered a response. “Well, um..., I haven’t heard anything yet that can be pinned to..” he had started to say Voldemort’s name but saw his aunts eyes fly wide in panic and modified his words, “...His activities.” She had nodded tersely and mumbled, “Thanks,” before darting back into the house

Harry had sat on the hard dry ground for a long time after that, the limp mangled weed forgotten in his hand .

When darkness had finally claimed the houses, a soft pale fluttering excaped from Harry’s window and was swallowed into the warm night.

Authors notes: The idea for the ultralight plane as well as the title is from the Disney movie, Fly Away Home. In that movie there is an ultralight plane built to look like a giant Canadian goose. It would be not be a big deal to make one look like a dragon.

Alira Storm puts a twist on Niccolo’s quote at the begining. She directs it at herself but cheats to make them only think she is dead.

The Jaguar preist/wizards are pulled from real life. The legends in South America speak of them as evil shapeshifters whom the majority of whom the populace lived in fear. Indeed to this day most rural people and many city people from Mexico and southward do not speak the Jaguar’s name, especially in the jungle. It is like “calling the devil”. Intrestingly, they were the deadly eneimies of the preists of Quezteqoatl, the Feathered Serpent.

‘Sometimes luck is enough if your courage holds.’ is from the movie The 13th Warrior