Evanesco

Evanesco

Chapter 10

In Which There Be Monsters

It was dark again by the time they stopped. They hadn't yet reached the edge of the trees, which seemed to go on forever. Harry thought that this woodland might be even bigger than the Forbidden Forest, but he was sure they would reach something soon, some sign of human life.

Neville and Malfoy flopped down immediately onto the brush, stretching their sore legs and breathing heavily. "Finally," groaned Malfoy. "We must have walked miles."

"About four, probably," said Harry, looking around the spot. He didn't know what he was checking for, but he was too nervous to sit down yet.

"Come off it. It's got to be at least a hundred."

"I don't think there's a forest in the world that's a hundred miles long," said Neville.

"Then we've been going round in circles," moaned Malfoy.

"Stop complaining," said Harry. "I've been following the sun - we've done a straight line."

Malfoy stared at him. "Since when were you so woodsy?"

Harry glared. "I'm not. It's common sense."

"Well," said Malfoy, stretching. "I don't suppose you have common sense enough to light a fire?"

Silence.

"Thought not."

"Won't they be able to see a fire?" said Neville, meaning the Death Eaters, "Or the smoke, at least?"

"Not if they're still in the forest," said Malfoy. "And we'll freeze otherwise."

Harry sat down. "None of us has a wand," he pointed out. "How do you suggest we light one?"

Malfoy shrugged. "Do it without a wand."

"How?"

"I don't know, just... point at it." Harry and Neville stared at him. "Come on," said Malfoy. "Are we wizards or what?"

Harry did not have a very good feeling about this, but he helped the two of them gather twigs and brush and throw it in a pile, clearing the area around it to make a wide dirt ring, to stop it spreading.

To stop what spreading? Harry thought.

"Ok," said Malfoy, and pointed at the pile of sticks. "Incendio!"

Nothing happened.

"Try it with the wand movement," said Neville, demonstrating a flick with his own arm and pointing. "Incendio!" Nothing.

"Incendio!" said Malfoy again, flapping his arm. "Ok, now I feel stupid," he said, lowering his hand. "You try."

"It won't work," said Harry.

"Sure it won't," said Malfoy. "Come on, Potter. Somehow you always manage to do everything."

Harry knew this was an insult, not a compliment. Still, it couldn't hurt to try, so he pointed. "Incendio!"

Silence.

"Told you it wouldn't work," said Harry.

"Try again," said Neville.

"Incendio!"

Nothing visible happened, but Harry felt something pop behind his eyes. Suddenly there was a black film on the edge of his vision, closing in fast. From far away, he heard someone yelling. They found us, he thought, but for some reason he didn't really care anymore. When the black walls met in the middle, he couldn't hear it anymore.

O0o0O

Draco watched Harry collapse with amusement.

"Harry!" shouted Neville, pulling the prone form onto its back. "Harry!"

"I think we broke him," said Malfoy, leaning over to get a better look.

"Shut up or help, Mal-Tobias."

Draco glared, but was about to get up and help Neville manoeuvre Harry's limbs into a more comfortable position when he saw something flicker within the pile of twigs and leaves. "Whoa - hey!" he shouted.

"What now?"

Draco tentatively pushed aside some of the sturdier sticks to reveal smoke, and a small flame. The leaves underneath had caught fire. He laughed. "Potter did it!"

"Yeah, and nearly killed himself in the process," Neville growled, checking Harry's pulse. He sighed in relief when he felt it. "He's ok - I think. He just overdid it."

"Well if he was going to overdo it, he should have started a massive bonfire, not this pathetic thing," Draco mocked, trying to feed the flame with more leaves, and then sticks. "Ooh, I set a leaf on fire - thump."

"Shut up," said Neville, but he joined in the fire-building. Before long they could warm their hands on it. It made a little too much smoke for Neville's comfort, but they couldn't really help that.

"Good thing it's summer," said Draco. "God knows what the weather's like here in the winter."

"Maybe this is winter," said Neville.

"I really doubt we've made it all the way to Australia, Longbottom," said Draco. But he found it hard to sound certain.

When Harry finally came around, Neville was asleep and 'Tobias' was lying stretched out in front of the fire. It was pitch dark in the trees all around them - only the fire's flickering light illuminated their faces. "What...what happened?" he yawned.

Draco turned over. "Congrats, Potter," he said. "You've lived up to the do-it-all persona once again."

Harry stared at the fire. "I didn't do that!"

"No," Draco grinned. "You made a flicker. Luckily, flickers grow. Now all you have to do is pass out every night and we're set."

Harry glowered. "Not likely," he said. "Next time you can do the passing out."

"But you do it so well," Draco sniggered.

Harry glanced upwards at the moon. "Anyway," said Draco. "I've been on first watch for about three hours now, so you can take second."

"Watch?" Harry asked, still a little befuddled.

"To warn us if anyone comes, stupid," said Draco. "What happened to all that 'common sense' you had earlier?"

This woke Harry up a bit. "Fine," he said. Draco rolled over and went to sleep.

Harry woke Neville when he could no longer keep his eyes open, kicked off his shoes and curled up in a pile of leaves. Neville managed ten minutes before he fell back to sleep.

O0o0O

A sunbeam hit Harry's eyes like a laser. He groaned and lifted a hand to shield his eyes. Seconds later he sat up, ignoring the pain as he stared around. The fire had burned down to a pile of black ashes, and the sun was high in the sky. He swore and stood up, kicked dirt and brush of over the blackened area and shouted. "Get up! Come on!"

Neville and Draco sat up slowly, rubbing their eyes. "What?" moaned Draco.

"What do you think? It's noon!"

Neville was suddenly wide awake, looking horrified. "Oh god, Harry - I'm sorry - I must have fallen asleep..."

"Doesn't matter," said Harry, grabbing his shoes and jamming them on. He was angry, but he knew he didn't have time to take it out on Neville. "What matters is that we get moving, now, before we're ambushed."

He looked over at Draco. Toby, he reminded himself. If he messed up and used the boy's real name in a fight, they were done for. He was an annoying bastard, but he did know how to fight, and probably wouldn't stop at using Dark Arts. Not that any of them had wands, but Harry made a mental note to try and get information out of him when there was time.

They walked briskly for a few miles, before falling back into the tired, slouching walk they had acquired the previous day. Harry knew there was nothing he could do about it - despite their rest none of them were fit for a day-long sprint. One of them would get sick if they didn't eat soon, and Harry thought it would probably be him. Tobias had been privy to the Death Eater's supplies, and Neville had some extra energy in his padding. Harry hadn't exactly been fattened up before starting this whole endeavour.

It got dark quickly. It was a warm night, even Draco didn't suggest that they try fire again. Harry offered to take first watch.

He was deep in Occlumency practice when he heard a growl. He opened his eyes and found himself staring through the trees at a pair of glowing, yellowy eyes. The creature growled again.

"Crap," Harry whispered. "Neville! Mal -Tobias!"

They stirred when he reached over with his foot and kicked them. "Ow," Neville moaned.

"Shut up," Harry murmured. "We have to run."

"Why?"

They turned to look in the direction he was staring.

"What's that?" Draco hissed.

"A wolf?" whispered Neville.

"If it is, it's a really big one," Harry whispered back. "Let's go."

The wolf took a step forward, into the moonlight. Foam dripped from its fangs, which looked too big for its long . Harry, although looking away from the thing went against his every instinct, looked up at the moon. It was full. "RUN!"

He could hear Neville behind him as he sprinted, vaguely aware of his stomach rumbling, but too anxious that the thing was right on his heels to care. He heard a scream, and, with supreme force of willpower, stopped and turned.

Neville was right behind him, but that was all. Harry swore. "Where's Malfoy?"

Neville looked back. Harry heard another scream, and this time he recognised the voice. "Oh crap - it's got him!"

"Well - we've got to go help him!"

Harry grabbed his arm and looked and raised his eyebrows, pointedly. "That was a werewolf."

"What? How do you know?"

"Hello - full moon, larger-than-life wolf in the middle of nowhere, all by itself..."

"That doesn't mean it's a -"

"Neville, I've seen a werewolf, and that was one. There's no way we can fight it, unless you happen to be an Animagus."

"Er... I don't think so."

"Right then."

"So what kills a werewolf?"

Harry's mind went blank. His half-finished essay on werewolves he'd written in third year seemed so very long ago. "Um... other werewolves?" he suggested

"I really hope not," said Neville, shuddering.

"Er - silver?"

"Do I look like I'm carrying around the contents of the dining room dinner set?"

"All right, you come up with something then."

Neville looked away. "Concentrate," he muttered. Then he looked back up at Harry, excited. "Fire!"

"Right, because fire kills everything," Harry remembered. Then he realised what Neville was suggesting he do. "But I can't!"

"Harry, you have to." Neville jumped slightly and grabbed a thin branch of a tree just above his head. It cracked, so he tugged, and it broke.

"I'll pass out, what good will that be?"

"Harry! Just - do - it."

Harry sighed in desperation, but incanted: "Incendio." Nothing happened. He heard a howl, short and triumphant.

"You're not trying hard enough!"

When Harry raised him arm a second time, a third scream cut the air like a knife, even from so far away. "Incendio!"

The tip of the branch burst into flames. Neville almost dropped it. "Wow!" he said. "I wasn't really expecting you to do it!"

"Thanks," said Harry. He felt dizzy, but it wasn't the same as last time. He was so confused by this point that he no longer cared, however. "Let's go."

O0o0O

When Draco tripped, his only clear thought had been, Hey - who put a tree root there? The bastards!

Fortunately, his legs seemed to have become independent from his brain, and they barrelled him forward a few more feet, causing the gigantic creature to fall short of him slightly. He kicked out, wildly, hitting it on its side and causing it to snarl.

Anger the raving beast, Malfoy, that's the way to do it! he thought, hauling himself to his feet and starting to run for his life - in the opposite direction to the way Harry and Neville had gone.

He knew it was useless - the damn thing was twice his size - but he kept stumbling blindly in the darkness, spurred on by the sheer will to live. He screamed again as the sudden weight on his back caused him to collapse.

He could feel the thing's paws on his back, its hot breath on his neck, as it howled in victory. The next thing he felt was a hot, burning pain in his arm. He screamed again, and passed out.

O0o0O

Harry yelled as loud as he could as he followed the path of the wolf holding the burning branch aloft, trying both to move as fast as possible and to watch that the branch didn't catch on any of the surrounding trees. The last thing anyone needed right now was a forest fire. He saw the werewolf up ahead and charged forward, shouting to get its attention. "Hey - wolf-face! Over here!"

The wolf looked up from the prone body of Malfoy, blood on its lips. It saw the burning branch and backed off, reluctantly. "That's right," Harry muttered. "Get the hell out, go wait for the sun to come up..."

It ran away, howling in disappointment. Neville was already at Malfoy's side.

"Harry!"

Harry looked at the burning branch. There was no way he could put it down. Instead, he walked over to his friend, cleared a small area of forest debris, and stuck the dry end of the branch into the ground. "Torch," he remarked, a little proud of himself.

"H-Harry..."

For the first time, Harry looked down at Malfoy. He swore. The boy's right arm was covered in blood near the shoulder, and patches of it were splattered on the leaves surrounding him. Neville looked as though he wanted to be sick, but didn't move. "Is he..."

Harry tentatively reached for Malfoy's good shoulder and turned him over. His face and hair were covered in dirt and blood - he certainly looked like a corpse. Harry put his fingers to Malfoy's throat. He felt a faint beating there. "Still alive," he said, looking up at Neville.

"Oh, thank Merlin." Neville reached out to touch Malfoy's good arm. "Tobias? Toby? Wake up! Toby!"

"Come on," said Harry. "His robes are ruined anyway, he won't mind if we use them for bandages." Neville helped him take off the black Death-Eater robe to reveal the black underclothes again. Harry rolled his eyes at the embroidered Slytherin insignia in the corner of the shirt. He searched for the robes for the gash in the arm - which didn't take long - and worked from there to rip off large strips, which he passed to Neville.

"What about this?" Neville asked, pointing at the sleeve of the shirt that surrounded the wound.

"I think he would mind if we took off his shirt," said Harry. "Besides, he'll freeze. Maybe... just the sleeve?"

Neville tentatively ripped the sleeve off. He didn't make a very good job of it, but it revealed the wound. It looked like just what it was, as if a huge animal had bitten a chunk out of him. "Owch, Toby," Harry whispered.

"I wish we had some alcohol or water, or something - to clean it," said Neville, looking around.

"Well I don't think you're going to find any -" Harry started, but then Neville got up. "-thing," he finished.

"Dock leaves!" Neville announced, ripping off a few.

"Huh? Do they have magical properties?"

"Of course! Even Muggles know that! They help nettle stings," he said with a smile. "But also, cleansing and protection," he added, putting them over the wound and taking some of the black bandage to wrap it into place.

"Wait till we tell him we bandaged his wounds with leaves," Harry laughed. He helped Neville finish up the bandage before covering Tobias with the rest of the ruined robe. "Now what?" he felt like he'd forgotten something.

"We sleep?" Neville yawned. "Been kind of a long night, what with one thing or another. And there's still a couple of hours till sunrise."

Sunrise. Harry's brain suddenly kicked into action. "Uh-oh," he said.

"What?"

Harry didn't answer. Instead he reached over and used his thumb to lift up one of Toby's eyelids. The pupil was dilated, the iris easily visible.

Neville moaned in fear and frustration.

The silver-grey eyes that had characterised the Malfoy line for generations were gone. In their place was a pair that was strikingly familiar. Toby's eyes had turned a deep, vivid amber.