Ancient Prophesy

Chapter 17

King of Oak and Summer Lord,

glimpsed along the tables feasting...

Arthur, shining 'mid the hoard

Of Dragon Red, and mirth unceasing.

He needed sleep...the paperwork was a bloody nightmare...the paperwork could wait. All but the form he had put aside for the dozenth time.

He should have stayed in St. Mungo's. They had wanted to keep him over night, but he had left to see Jacques' family, to tell them how sorry he was.

He needed food. Picking up the form for the thirteenth time, he stared at it. Pinching thumb and forefinger together on the bridge of his nose, he closed his eyes to the words on the paper, harsh and white in his hand. Official Notice of Death. When was the last time he had closed his eyes? Yesterday? The day before that? Hell, he didn't even know where to go to rest. Not like he had a place to call his own. Jacques had questioned him about it once. "Weasley, don't you have a home?"

He and Harry had talked about getting a flat in London or even Edinburgh. Teenage dreams, he thought sadly. Oh wait, he was a teenager. Sarcasm aside, he knew Harry needed to be at Hogwarts. They both knew that, and it didn't seem right to get his first place without Harry there to share it.

He needed Hermione. Hermione had gotten a flat in London, close to Diagon Alley, but he wouldn't stay there. That wouldn't be right, either. Not now, not with all that was going on around them. For now, being an Auror came first, and he loved Hermione too much to give her anything other than one hundred percent. The Burrow then. He'd wash up there and then find Moody. They'd have a new assignment and he'd catch a rest then.

Opening his eyes, he reached for his eagle quill and wet the tip with ink from a silver well, both a gift from Hermione when he had made Auror of the 'First Class.' No one had gone through the training as fast as he had, but then again, the training period had been shortened and he had had a lot of experience prior to his acceptance. Jacques had had a year's more training then he, and it hadn't made a difference.

Cause of Death : Dementor attack. Date & Time: Friday, 23rd October, 1:15 am. No, that wasn't right. Then it would have been a Saturday. What time was it now--six, seven a.m.? Sighing heavily, he closed his eyes again and wondered if it really mattered. He needed this to be over.

~*~

Hermione stopped precisely where she was, eyes wide as she stared at Ron. She entered the room, and then leaned weakly against the wall, waves of relief washing over her. Ron's head was in his hands and his eyes were closed. His red hair, normally shiny, reflecting amber, russet and copper, stood on end-- singed black on one half of his head.

The blood couldn't be all his, it just couldn't be, Hermione thought. She could see through torn robes where his shoulder had been lacerated and then mended by the medics, a new scar shining white in the artificial light of the Ministry office. Hermione tried to speak, but nothing more than a small squeak escaped her lips.

Even that quiet of a sound caused Ron to react; his instincts, raw and razor sharp from the evening's battle, threw him to the floor behind his desk, wand drawn before he had even opened his eyes.

The string of profanity that escaped Ron's lips caused Hermione to cringe and then she burst into tears as she watched him lay on the cold slate, pain and fatigue written all over his body. Several men came rushing into the office, but she paid them no attention as she knelt down beside Ron and threw her arms around his shoulders as he made to get up.

"Ow, oww, ouch! Hermione, careful! Please," he said, pushing her off him with his uninjured arm. She just wanted to help him up, but it was John Levine who reached down first and offered Ron a hand.

"Ron, I'll finish up. Get outta here. Let Hermione take you back to her place and get some rest. Moody should have made you stay at St. Mungo's. You need a break. We all need one."

"No, I need to finish Jacques' death certificate," Ron said, shaking his head stubbornly. He bent and kissed the top of Hermione's head. He couldn't bring himself to hold her right now, though he needed to badly. "Go home, love, I'm fine." He looked over to his partner and smiled weekly. "As soon as we change assignments, John, I'll catch a few zzz's."

"No you won't Weasley, you're off until Monday. Moody's orders," he added, seeing the look of anger boil up on to his partner's face.

"I'm fine!" Ron bellowed, his face changing from drained and pale to a mottled, frustrated red. He turned away from John and Hermione and flung himself down onto his desk chair, once more picking up the quill and death certificate. "I've got work to finish."

"Dumbledore showed up not more than half an hour ago, mate, and you were asleep at your desk. Dumbledore told us to let you sleep, then make you take a day or two, to recover."

"And since when does he give us orders?" Ron spat out, embarrassed at being caught asleep by Dumbledore.

"Since he requested our presence at Hogwarts. He wants a guard of Aurors, twenty-four/seven, on location, starting this morning; and he doesn't want Potter to know who did this to you. So go get some sleep, man."

"Ron?" Hermione said, pulling the quill from his fingers. "Your mother said the Dementors attacked the group. A Dementor didn't do that," she whispered, pointing the dripping quill at the white, ten-inch scar across his shoulder and collarbone.

"Evidently they're traveling with their own contingent of Death Eaters, now," he said weakly, without looking up to meet Hermione's eyes.

Reaching up a broad hand, he massaged his forehead. It was a gesture all too familiar to Hermione. One Harry employed when he didn't want to talk, yet badly needed to.

"One of the men who attacked us was Peter Pettigrew. That's what Ron doesn't want to say," Levine said, acknowledging Hermione's unasked question. "He hit Ron with that Slasher. If Ron had been a second slower the curse would have decapitated him."

"Oh, Ron," Hermione sighed.

But before she could continue, Ron stood and started pacing again, shooting Levine a look that clearly told him he had just been labeled a traitor. "Don't start, Hermione; just go home," Ron said as he moved away from her. He knew she'd reach out to him and he couldn't stand that right now, covered in blood, filth, and the stench of Dementors.

"Why? So you can storm around here angry with yourself and everyone unfortunate enough to cross your path?" she huffed. "It's not your fault, Ron, any more than it's Moody's fault with Crouch or..." she paused long enough to catch a breath, "...let's go back to the beginning. Do you blame Sirius? He let Wormtail escape all those years ago. Place blame where it belongs Ron, with Pettigrew and Pettigrew alone. Do I wish Crookshanks had eaten him? Yes! But you don't see me blaming myself for stopping him, do you?"

That was enough to stop Ron's pacing. Crookshanks...Hogwarts...Harry. Eyes suddenly attentive, he rounded on Levine. "Why does Dumbledore want Aurors at school? Snape found out something last night, didn't he?"

"Snape almost died last night, Ron. According to the information Dumbledore had, Voldemort tried to kill Snape for refusing to bring him the young woman we met in Percy's office. Raven? Seems the Dark Lord is interested in her for reasons Dumbledore's not sharing."

"Tried to kill him? He didn't succeed? Damn."

"Ron!" Hermione chastised. "You know Professor Snape is working with The Order."

"And you know what he did to Harry last month!" Ron growled furiously.

"Saved his life," Hermione answered calmly. "And we shouldn't be having this conversation here," she hissed, ruffling up like an angry goose. "I've warded this office against any listening spells and Moody practically goes over it hourly, but there are ways around it, as you two should know."

She was right of course. She was always right, and Ron didn't know whether to throw her out on her beautiful arse or shut her up with a hard kiss to the lips. The best course of action with Hermione was to change the subject.

"So we're being pulled to baby-sit Raven. Lovely, just lovely," Ron glowered. "God, I don't want that woman any where near Harry or Hogwarts. As far as I'm concerned she and Snape can both go to hell."

"We've been asked to watch Harry, too," Levine added.

Ron's heart gave a terrible lurch, and he felt suddenly sicker than he had before. "Harry can take care of himself, mate. I'd just make it worse on him, he doesn't need me."

Hermione saw all too clearly through the statement. Harry had passed through hell and back to find Ron, to bring him safely home last June. There was so much Ron hadn't forgiven himself for. For being taken in the first place, then tortured. For being placed under Imperius. He never could fight Imperius like Harry could, and it frightened her to death. Ron had been forced by Death Eaters to take them to Harry who had refused the safety of the Dursley's, choosing instead to stay with Sirius and Lupin, to work with the Order after graduation. But the plan hadn't worked. Ron wasn't Harry's Secret Keeper, as they had been led to believe, and Ron had, instead, led them aimlessly through London, oblivious to what he was doing--pawn to both the Order and Voldemort's Death Eaters. Only afterward had Harry agreed to return to Hogwarts, once more a prisoner to the protection the school offered him.

"Ron," Hermione said soothingly. "They took Harry that way too, there's nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone here knows how hard it is to fight Imperius. And what they've learned to use is worse yet. Dumbledore had me search out the possible curse they used to take Harry. To find out how they linked with one another. What they used on Harry was more than Imperius, Ron. It was Dark Magic at its worst. You've learned so much, done so much for the cause, you have nothing to feel guilty for."

Ron stared at Hermione, his frustration with her building by the second. "Reading about it can't explain it to you, Hermione. You're stripped bare, completely open and vulnerable. They're in you. Making you do things, and you feel it happening...you're powerless to stop it!" he bellowed, sweeping his arm across his desk, scattering the papers to the floor. "You have no control, nothing to stop you from killing the people you love. That was their plan you know, for me to kill Harry! He doesn't need me, he needs some one who can keep his friends alive." Ron stooped and snatched the fallen death notice from the floor slamming it down upon his desk. "Alive, Hermione."

"Ron, Rocheleau was caught with his guard down," Levine spoke up. "Exactly what both you and Moody warned him against daily. You did all you could; don't blame yourself."

"Dumbledore and Harry need you Ron, and so do I," Hermione answered him. "Please come home with me and sleep."

It took Hermione several moments to register what she had said, and about one moment longer for Ron. His blue eyes looked down at her and a soft glow rose to his ears to match the angry red of his cheeks. He started to answer her, but found he was unable to string a coherent sentence together and merely stammered, much to the delight of Levine.

"Damn, Weasley, with an offer like that how could you say no?" Levine said, looking Hermione up and down appraisingly. "If I'd known a simple proposition was all it took to shut you up, I'd have offered to sleep with you myself. "

"Ron! I didn't mean it that way," Hermione sputtered. "You need to rest!" A deep crimson had flushed across her face as well, and Levine laughed out loud at the sight of the two of them.

"Just take him home, Hermione, and put him to bed. Ron, I'll see you 7 a.m. Monday morning in Dumbledore's office."

~*~

The wind blew gently across Raven's face and gave warning with a sent of ripeness and death borne upon the breeze, the breath of winter. She inhaled deeply and continued to walk slowly behind the group, eyes alert as always for anything useful. A frosty dawn mist had just begun to burn off, and she pulled the cloak she wore--Harry's cloak--closer around her. She breathed in the intriguing scent of him lingering on the soft wool, fighting the chill that last night's revelations had set into her. She should have worn hers for a walk through the woods, she noted, as she brushed pine needles and small webs, wet with dew, from it; but this one smelt like Harry, and she felt safe in it. As if a cloak could protect her now, she thought with cynicism.

It was the perfect time of the year for most medicinal plants--for medicine, the older and tougher the plant the better--and she stooped once again to gather several heads of henbane. Numerous seasons of fighting off insects and disease ensured a higher concentration of the working components in both roots and stems. With many plants, it was the flower, fruit or seed that yielded a useful substance, and while winter was on the air, the first hard frost had not yet killed those plants gone to seed. She knew Snape only had one cluster of henbane left in his stores and she gathered as many as she could before moving on to rejoin the group.

Snape, stopping a few paces ahead, had turned, watching her as she approached. Every time she stopped, so did he, and it was starting to annoy her. He hadn't been invited along on this little expedition, yet here he was. He hadn't said a word to her--for that matter, he hadn't said much to anyone. This morning she had entered the supply shed for the greenhouses and there he stood, drawn and pale, a rucksack over one shoulder, a small spade in his hand.

Raven watched Snape right back, making no secret of it. She knew watching Snape's every move irritated him as much as his constant watching irritated her, but she took a certain perverse pleasure in toying with him. Almost like their first weeks in class together. She knew she should feel sorry for him. She was exhausted from last night and could only imagine how he felt, but her sympathy was wearing thin at the moment. After all, Snape had been the one who'd gone tattling to Voldemort in the first place with information about her.

"Grab the borage behind you, on the left, Severus. I'll make you a tea with it tonight to help you sleep."

"I don't need help sleeping."

"Really? I'd think you would."

Snape didn't flinch at the remark, but Raven felt much better for making it. Walking around him, she deftly stripped the seedpods and leaves away from the plant stem and walked on ahead of him to join Professor Lupin.

Raven had been even more surprised when Remus Lupin had walked into the shed. She had shaken his hand in greeting, and then seeing the look on Snape's face, had pulled him in for a hug, thanking Lupin for bringing her trunk up to the school. The hug had been enough to cause Snape to leave the shed and Raven had childishly stuck her tongue out at his retreating backside, much to Lupin's amusement.

"Professor Sprout asked me along to keep an eye on things. I didn't think she meant you two," he had added, a look of contemplation on his face.

Before she could answer, quarrelling voices outside the shed had attracted their attention and the three of them walked out to find Snape toe to toe with a man Raven did not know.

"I refuse to believe he gave you orders to stay on the grounds," Snape had said through clenched teeth.

A thin gash of a mouth turned up into a smile and played across the jagged, disfigured face of the man as he had answered Snape back. "Auror's privilege, Snape. Dumbledore wants us to keep an eye on...things."

As the greenhouse party approached the two men, the conversation had stopped and Alastor Moody, looking at her as if she was a ghost from the past, had spoken a greeting directed at her just as harshly as he had spoken to Snape.

Moody's normal eye had narrowed considerably while addressing her, his magical eye swiveling around and focusing squarely upon Snape... a shocking move she had found quite disgusting. A sudden gust of wind blew up, lashing hair and robes around face and legs, the effect only adding to the ominous look of the man. Shaking his gray and grizzled hair out of his face, Moody had turned to Lupin and spoken so quietly that she had almost missed the comment. "Yeah, you're right Lupin, spittin' image."

Before Raven could question him about knowing her mum, Snape had interrupted them. "I hardly feel your presence is needed with us in the forest Moody; after all, I'd hate for you to...crouch... down by a deep hole and end up stuck in it for ten months."

"You must be an incredible potions student, Raven," Lupin remarked, interrupting her thoughts, and bringing her back to their forest surroundings. He threw a searching look at her from the corner of his eye and waited for a response.

"Oh? Why's that?"

Lupin licked his lips and paused looking to see if Madam Sprout was within listening distance of them. She was at least twenty feet ahead of the party so he continued, trying to think of a delicate way to continue his questioning. "I've known Severus for over twenty years and I've met very few people who have the nerve to call him by his first name. And that crack about his not sleeping at night, he didn't say a word back to you--that's not like Severus. You must be a very special apprentice to be worthy of such privilege."

"I wouldn't say that, really. Truth is he just never told me what to call him. That, and I know it frosts his balls when I do it in class. Not that they could get any colder but..."

Raven stopped as Lupin burst out laughing and turned to look at Severus Snape. Walking several paces behind them, Snape continued forward, and without stopping or commenting, pushed his way between the two of them.

"Dumbledore was right about you," Lupin answered, still chuckling both at Raven's words and Snape's response. He knew Severus had heard Raven.

"What? Typical vulgar American?" Raven asked.

"No. Dumbledore thinks it will be good for Severus to work with someone as an equal."

"I'm hardly his equal," Raven snorted.

"I don't mean academically. No. I mean intellectually," he added. "Someone who challenges him, socially, morally even on a personal level, and then won't back down from his responses. Your tongue's as sharp as his."

"His tongue is forked."

"Be that as it may," Lupin answered, continuing forward in Snape's wake, "...he does allow you a certain...ah...shall I say--leeway--in respect to the student/professor relationship. I find that curious. Why would he treat you differently?"

"You were at school with him, also? With him and my mum, I mean." Raven looked at Lupin and shrugged her shoulders. "He's said things about her. I think they may have been friends."

Lupin's brow rose, but he said nothing as she continued.

"I remember what Ron Weasley said when we were at lunch; that Severus was at Ravenglass when Death Eaters tried to murder Mum the first time. I don't know, I think Severus might actually feel guilty about it and I'm petty enough to take advantage of that fact. I shouldn't, I know, but I can't help it."

Raven bent and pulled several lady's slipper roots from the ground. Shaking the dirt from them, she stood and held them out for Lupin to see. "I hate pulling their roots," she said, a note of sadness in her voice. "Destroys the whole plant. They've a beautiful flower in the spring, but you need the whole root for the properties to work. If the end justifies the means..." She shrugged in defeat and looked over to where Snape had knelt down and watched as he pulled several fall crocus bulbs from the ground and placed them into the bag at his side.

Looking back to Lupin, she spoke matter-of-factly. "He suffers from migraines, you know? I finally convinced him to try a decoction for migraines I prepare with slipper root. He was quite...pleased...with me when it worked. I think I almost made him smile." She shrugged again, and put the roots in her bag, then turned and looked straight into Severus Snape's attentive gaze. She knew he was watching her again.

~*~

The light coming through the window curtain shone brightly throughout the room, and Ron realized it must now be close to mid-day. Reaching out, he moved aside the confusion of brown hair in his face and tucked it under his chin, snuggling deeper under the covers and closer to the body next to his. How had she covered them up?

Hermione had insisted Ron come back to her flat, wash and eat. He had barely touched his breakfast, too tired and nauseous from the potions they had forced him to drink at St. Mungo's. Lying that he had eaten earlier, he had stumbled to her bed and collapsed face down onto the pillow, his long legs dangling limply over the end.

It never stopped surprising Ron how comfortable sleeping next to Hermione Granger was. The first time he had awakened with her in his arms, her body the perfect companion to his, he had wondered why they hadn't done it sooner. Now, he just wondered why it had been so long since he found himself like this.

Not that they had been intimate; he didn't even remember Hermione joining him in bed, just a relaxed, peaceful feeling of being held and cared for. He was so tired of being responsible. Life had been so much easier when all he had to worry about was whether or not Hermione would give him her history notes.

The fact that Hermione had joined him in bed tickled him to death. Most likely his narrow escape from death was the reason for it. He'd have words with Moody for bringing his parents to St. Mungo's. And he'd have words with his mother for involving Hermione.

Hermione had supported him in his decision to become an Auror, but she hadn't liked it, and the last thing he wanted to do was cause her more worry. She worried enough for all of them, but then she knew just what was at stake.

When Dumbledore suggested Hermione take the job offered to her at the Ministry, she had hesitated at first, wanting to help the Order directly. Hermione understood the importance of information and it hadn't taken Dumbledore long to convince her that a position within the Ministry could provide the Order exactly that. It also hadn't taken Hermione long to ingratiate herself to those in the know.

Researching spells for the Ministry gave Hermione access to materials she had only ever dreamed of seeing. Hermione used that information to her advantage and to the advantage of the Order. Very little took place within the Ministry that Hermione didn't have knowledge of, thanks to several special spells created exclusively for that purpose by her. God he was proud of her.

"Would you like some lunch?"

Hermione's quiet voice interrupted his thoughts, and Ron nuzzled the top of her head, placing a long kiss on its crown. "I thought you were asleep."

"You're thinking too loudly for me to sleep," she answered, snuggling closer to him.

"I'm not hungry, can we just stay here all day?"

"You're thinking and you're not hungry. Now I am worried."

~*~

"It's just a little bit further, now," Professor Sprout huffed out, pushing aside several branches and gathering the fungus growing in the dark shadow of the limbs. "I found this glen about two years ago, but with everything going on, I really haven't had much time to inventory what it contains."

She pushed ahead, leaving the small group behind her as they continued gathering plants, seeds, roots and berries, moving slowly through the thick growth of the Forbidden Forest. Lupin and Raven had continued to chat between themselves, Raven pointing out plants she and her mother had used, while Lupin introduced her to some of the smaller wildlife residing in the forest.

Several Bowtruckles had swiped viciously at Raven when she attempted to gather berries from a large rowan tree and Lupin, with a strength and speed that startled her, had scaled the tree and snatched the wood creature from the upper limbs.

"Charlie asked me to keep an eye out for one," Lupin said, as he leapt agilely down to the ground, the Bowtruckle secured firmly under one arm. Pulling his wand, he stunned the gangly, long-limbed creature and held it out for Raven to approach.

"He won't scratch now, Raven. They feed on wood lice and larvae living under the bark of their tree. They will live off the same tree all their life if left undisturbed."

"Well...uh...don't disturb it then, the poor thing. What does Charlie need it for? He's got enough magical creatures to play with. How would you like to be stunned and locked up in a cage?" Raven said reproachfully, the disapproval clear in her tone.

"The Ministry tried to. Unfortunately it didn't last."

Both Raven and Lupin turned in unison to look at Snape, leaning indifferently against a tree. It was the first he had spoken to the group since entering the forest.

"Really, Severus, must you be so snarky? What has he ever done to you?" Raven asked.

"Besides try to eat me?" Snape answered in a deadpan voice.

Lupin leveled his glacial gray eyes coolly at Severus and continued. "Speaking of which, I believe the Wolfsbane potion should be ready on Tuesday? The full moon is on the 31^st this month. The fact it falls on Halloween will cause us more difficulty if the Werewolf Capture Unit have their way. The proposal this year is to round us all up and cage us for the evening."

"They can't do that!" Raven said incredulously. "What right do they have to lock someone up just because...just because..." She looked back and forth between Lupin and Snape, not knowing how to politely say 'because you're a werewolf'.

Remus interrupted Raven before she could finish. "They can and they have, Raven. I've assured the Minister that those of us who are registered will have a full course of the potion administered prior to the 31st. Their concern lays in the fact that Halloween increases the number of individuals out at night, especially Muggle children. That, and the fact that werewolves have been used on the last six full moons to attack wizarding communities." Feral eyes blinked once, then held her gaze. "Not all of us choose to control the wolf within, Raven."

"And who takes responsibility for a missed dose, Lupin?" Snape spat. "Or are you promising the Minister you will tame them all for him?"

"I need potion enough for fifteen, Severus. As agreed. And as agreed, I take responsibility for the distribution and administration. You are not involved."

"But I am involved. As is Raven. She assisted in the potion and will continue to do so. It will be ready for measured dosing as soon as the pig's heart, cat's claw and nettle are added. The nettle I just picked, the other two ingredients will be purchased tomorrow in Knockturn alley. See to it, Lupin, that what I am doing...what we are doing," he added, looking directly at Raven, "does not attract Ministry attention. Should the need arise, I trust Raven to blend the formula properly, but the supplies will need to be purchased for her. I do not want her involved with Mr. Borgin, Lupin. "

The potion she and Snape had made the night before suddenly made sense to Raven--Wolfsbane potion. "It's not enough poison if you ask me," he had said to her. "I see," Raven interrupted. "And to think I always believed Dracula and the Wolf man were suppose to be friends. That foul concoction you had us making yesterday is for him and the werewolves at Canis? Not enough poison--eh, Severus?" Throwing her hands up she walked a few paces from the men, snatched at a stick on the ground and threw it as hard as she could away from her, disgusted with both of them and the world which they represented.

Both men watched her but made no comment.

"Wolfsbane is a very difficult potion, Severus," Lupin finally said, ignoring Raven's question. "Are you sure you feel the need to place such responsibility on her?"

"She is quite capable of duplicating any potion I show her."

Lupin turned to stare at the young woman by his side, a look of both surprise and admiration on his face.

"I just love it when I'm talked about like I'm not here," Raven said, pursing her lips into a thin line and resisting the urge to stomp her foot at the two of them. "Severus, there is no way I'm ready to finish that potion on my own. I can't. Even if I wanted to--I don't know how."

"You have much to learn about the properties of magical additives," he said levelly.

"I knew the compliment was too good to be true. "

"However," Snape interrupted, "...you are more then capable of reproducing a potion once I have shown you how. I will of course show you how to complete it. If left to your own devices, I've no doubt that the Ministry would have fifteen fully transformed werewolves on their hands. Or worse."

Raven could see a dangerous spark kindle in Lupin's eyes, but he spoke calmly:

"You of all people, Severus, should know the price we will pay if a full transformation should..."

"Of course I do. You've made it perfectly clear to me."

"Then why Raven? Why now," Lupin asked, his voice all the more forceful for it's softness. "Until this potion the only cures for lycanthropy were worse than the illness--eviscerate the victim with a silver knife, or skin werewolf alive by the light of the full moon and stake the remains out in the sunlight for the next week until the carcass dissolves. I won't go back to that mentality Severus. I won't let Voldemort use us as weapons to do his bidding. I won't."

In the shadows of the forest Lupin's eyes glowed a greenish gray, drilling directly into Severus Snape's own black look. It was the gaze of a wolf.

Snape, with a brusque, dismissive gesture turned away from Lupin and locked his own dark eyes with Raven. "What I have to offer and what the enemy wants has changed considerably, Lupin. There may come a time when Raven will be the only one available to keep the wolves in sheep's clothing."

~*~

"So you found nothing."

"No, Ron. I found everything you asked me to. It's just not what you wanted to hear," Hermione said.

"They must have left some trail. If Ezmarelda Ravenclaw went to the States with a young child she would have needed to use a portkey...or broom...or something. You can't Apparate with a child."

"Ron, you can't fly across the Atlantic on a broom either," Hermione sighed with frustration. It was mid-afternoon and the two of them sat eating a small lunch over the notes and papers she had gathered for Ron. He had read through them twice and still sat arguing with her over the findings.

"Then Raven's who she says she is," Ron said with a note of defeat in his voice. "I don't know if this helps matters or makes things worse. Dumbledore must have realized Raven was a White Witch the moment she got through Hogwarts' wards. And this is a picture of her mother?" Ron asked, picking up a reproduction of a Muggle newspaper, The Augusta Correspondent. "Looks a bit like Raven in the eyes, but that's about it."

"They took the surname Klause," Hermione added, pulling out several official looking forms from St. Mungo's. "The only way I found them was by looking into proprietors of alternate medicinal remedies--Ginny mentioned something about Raven and Ezmarelda using Mandrakes for a fertility compound--that put me onto orders for dried Mandrake sent to the States. Hogwarts and St. Mungo's are the only two sites authorized to handle Mandrakes...so that much took no time at all. But then I had to trace all dried Mandrake purchases for the last 15 years and found one recurring name...Elizabeth O' Connor. Then, I traced her shipping information to the States and..."

"What's Ginny know about Raven?" Ron interrupted, looking up from the papers in his hand, a scowl clear on his face.

Hermione deflated a little. She should have known Ron would care less how much time this project had taken her. "From what Ginny writes," Hermione continued, "Raven has helped her and several others in seventh year with Snape's lessons, plus half the third year Divination students pay her to draw up their Astrology and Ephemeris charts. Ginny claims Raven's better at it than Trelawney, and that with the fee Raven charges, she'll need a vault in Gringotts soon. Trelawney's the only instructor who refuses to tutor her now. Raven is with Snape most of the day during classes, and then she has an evening schedule where she is tutored by the remainder of the faculty. Ginny knows who Raven is, Ron, I'm sure of it based on the questions she asked me about Ravenglass and Godric's Hollow."

"Nosy little git." Ron mumbled through a bite of his sandwich. "I'll have a word with her about staying out of this."

"No you won't, Ron. She's just as involved as the rest of us. And when has Ginny listened to you, anyway?" Hermione smiled at the look Ron threw at her over the papers he had picked back up and continued:

"You have the article on Baxter State Park? I found the only solid reference to an Ezmarelda Klause in that article, and Raven's not even mentioned. Just the fact that Ezmarelda has a daughter and returned once a year to a cabin on Wassataquotk Lake Island for the past 17 years."

"This is in the state of Maine, you said," Ron questioned, shuffling through the pile of papers and reaching for the maps Hermione had produced for him. He knew Hermione never did an incomplete job of any thing, and this was no exception. He also knew she was miffed at him for interrupting her a moment ago, but she was so cute the way she pursed her lips at him whenever he did so that he couldn't help but to do it often. She might not have wanted to look into Raven's history, but she had done a bang up job of it regardless. He would thank her in his own way...later. She had even gone as far as to research everything she could on White Witches and had compiled a family tree of the Ravenclaw lineage ending with Raven...father unknown.

"Mt. Katahdin, Maine," Hermione answered him. "One of the highest mountains on the East coast of the States and the start of the Appalachian Trail."

Ron's look was vacant and Hermione knew she would need to explain further. "Muggles like to hike through nature, Ron. You know, backpack? The Appalachian Trail is one of the more famous hiking trails available for them to use. Parts of it are very remote. Some parts of Baxter State Park can't even be reached with automobiles. Wassataquotk Lake Island is only accessible by canoe. " She paused and handed Ron a park pamphlet with the dates and timetables of spring and summer activities.

"According to my sources, the park ranger, a man named Robin Twelftree, didn't want a young woman with a child barely able to walk canoeing onto the island and staying alone at the cabins, but she went anyway. He found himself checking up on her every day and struck up a friendship with her. Every spring, Ezmarelda would come and stay at the cabins and gather plants and seeds for her shop. Several years later the same park ranger talked her into lecturing at a workshop called Mother Nature's Pantry. She showed hikers and campers edible and medicinal plants they could use if they found themselves lost or stranded. Did it for him every year for the last 12 years."

Ron held up his hand like a student, teasing her.

"Stop it, Ron."

"But Professor Granger, what does this have to do with Raven?"

"Not much," Hermione answered truthfully, ignoring his behavior. "Raven's not mentioned by name in the article, only Ezmarelda. It continues on about the family living in New York where mother and daughter together run a natural herbal shop called Cedarwood and Sage Advice. Here's the address." She slid a slip of paper across the table and shrugged. "With that address, I managed to get copies of Raven's school yearbook and playbills. A Raven Klause graduated last year with top academic and dramatic honors and planned on attending Cambridge in the fall. That's her in the yearbook photo," Hermione said pointing to an open book beside Ron. "She's smart and pretty," she added, looking at Ron, who had started scowling again.

"Humph..." Ron snorted. "Yes, yes she is."

"There is nothing wrong with Harry taking notice of a woman, Ron."

"A woman, no," he answered, an unyielding look on his face. "But a White Witch who had drinks with Draco Malfoy and keeps Severus Snape company, that bears watching."

~*~

Emptying another palm full of the shriveled berries into a small drawstring pouch, Severus tied it shut and placed it in his rucksack with the other berry samples they had gathered. Raven had found him the elderberries and he was quite pleased with the fact she had. Of course, he would never admit that fact to her, he thought, as he watched Raven struggling to reach the last of the berries left in the tree branches. He didn't realize an elderberry tree grew in this location of the forest and obtaining berries at this point in his plan was crucial. No one walked this area of the forest much, and when he had last come through here, he was on his way to find Raven after she had portkeyed out from his classroom. Realizing he was a father had distracted him somewhat to the surroundings, a distraction he found himself drawn more and more into. He knew the group was close to their glen and found himself trying to maneuver the four of them away from it.

"I wish the leaves were still green. They reduce skin irritations better than hydrocortisone any day," Raven spoke out loud to no one in particular, but Ezmarelda's highland lilt whispered in her words, and Severus knew with out a doubt whom had taught her that.

"Must you?" Looking up at Raven, Severus couldn't help but see Ezmarelda in her. Of course it didn't help that Raven spoke to him while sitting virtually in the middle of the small tree from which she had had been picking. He couldn't keep Ezmarelda out of trees.

"Yes. It's easier," she answered, as she stretched out almost to the point of falling. "...easier to reach the rest of the berries. They're just...about...gone this late in the season." Sitting back with her last handful, she grinned down at him.

Raven's voice filtered into his conscious thoughts, and Snape realized he had not heard what she had said. His face must have show this, for she repeated herself and added, "I'd also like to get some of the flowers in the spring, they do wonders used as an astringent for your complexion."

"Madame Pomfrey can handle matters of complexion," he snapped at her, angry with himself that she had caught him thinking of Ezmarelda. "I have another use in mind for the elderberries. Dried or not, they can be used in one of the draughts I had you reading about in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts. We have just gathered the yew, rowan and nightshade. Tell me, what can we make with them?"

"Leave the poisons and your nasty animal parts out, add meadwort and elderflower and it makes a wicked Elderberry wine," she giggled as she hung from her hands and then dropped lightly to the ground before him.

"You're thinking like a Muggle, Raven."

"There's nothing wrong with Muggles, Severus."

Lupin smiled at the by play between the two and moved to join Professor Sprout, who was up to her elbows in muck, tugging at a large tuber growing in a small brackish water hole with all her might.

Raven watched him move away and continued. "The more disreputable of our wizard brethren would call it Faylinn's Draught of Oblivion. Elderberry, yew, rowan and nightshade. The rowan and nightshade will only dissolve their essence in oil. The others are water-based...one ounce each of the oil based, in five ounces of borage oil. Sorry," she recanted, "you use Erumpent oil from its horn, which makes the whole potion a Class B tradable? Ministry controlled in other words."

"Yes, continue."

"Store in a cool dark place for two weeks, shaking daily..."

Snape raised a single black brow at her and Raven snorted with impatience.

"Not too hard, it will explode because of the Erumpent oil. Then strain. Add the elderberry and yew. Six parts tadpole tails, three parts puffer fish eyes...God who first sampled such a vile ingredient?" she said with a genuine shiver.

Snape's brows contracted downward and Raven continued before he could rebuke her. "...two amanita mushrooms stewed on the night of a new moon with one cup shredded wild lettuce with 87 fenugreek seeds--do they have to be from King Tut's tomb?" she asked, trying not to smile. She was showing off her herbal lore and he knew it.

He scowled, ready to rebuke her, but then paused as the possibilities entered his mind. "No. But the potential there would be worth exploring," he said contemplatively. "Continue."

"Cook down to a syrup and serve with a smile."

"Antidote?" He snapped, ignoring the self-satisfied grin that had finally infected her face.

Raven frowned as he burst her bubble. She hadn't read that far in the text, but met his demanding gaze. "I don't know."

"If you know the ingredients, then you should know the antidotes. Try." His voice brooked no argument.

"Milk thistle, burdock, sandalwood..." She paused a moment, closing her eyes, trying to recall an antidote to the poison found in puffer fish, but couldn't. "I don't know if the eye of the puffer would need counteracting," she admitted.

"You will have the answer for me first thing tomorrow, I trust? As well as how the antidote is prepared."

"Sunday!?"

He continued to stare.

"Yes, sir."

"The use?" He questioned.

"Mind altering, but non-hallucinogenic," Raven answered confidently. "The draught renders the drinker into a catatonic state. They will do anything they are told without contemplation or hesitation. Man the FDA would have a cow--it's the wizard world equivalent to Muggle GHB...only much more lethal."

"I am unfamiliar with...GHB," Severus responded, "but I trust it is as illegal as Faylinn's Draught."

"Just as illegal, but much easier to obtain."

"And that, Raven, is why we make our own."

About to question him further, Raven stopped mid-breath, her attention drawn to Lupin standing several feet away from them. His whole posture had changed. He stiffened, taking a deep breath. Turning his head slowly side to side, he orientated to the wind and then stopped, staring to the left of Raven and Snape.

"Raven, slowly move behind Professor Snape...please."

In less than a second, Snape's wand was in his hand and he was moving between Raven and whatever it was that Lupin had scented.

"Put your wand away, Severus."

"I'll do no such thing."

"Put it away, Severus. Now."

Every muscle in Lupin's body stiffened, and for an instant, the wolf looked out of his eyes. It was a look Snape saw and understood. Slowly he lowered his wand and folded his arms into the sleeves of his robe, holding the wand such that it became undetected in the folds.

Professor Sprout gave a little gasp of fright as Lupin suddenly came alive with startling swiftness. With several soundless strides, he had closed the distance between himself and Snape and Raven. Stopping in front of them he stood still, yet to Raven he appeared almost to quiver with the intensity of his concentration.

She heard them before she saw them. Five large figures moved through the underbrush and branches of the surrounding forest. The Palomino Appaloosa caught her attention first. His golden coat camouflaged beautifully with the autumn undergrowth, but his size, at least eighteen hands Raven guessed, was overwhelming to someone who had never seen a centaur up close. Power and beauty melded together into one creature. His four massive companions moved to flank him, two on each side, menacingly notching arrows on their bows as they did so. Raven took a quick step back and found herself treading on Professor Sprout's toes.

"Remus, why have you brought wizards into the Forest?" the middle centaur spoke in a firm, commanding voice.

"You forget, Chiron, I too am a wizard."

"You are of the Forest as much as we, Remus; Gaea's child has nothing to fear from you."

"And She has nothing to fear from my companions, either," Lupin said, reassuringly.

"Bane would believe otherwise," the centaur responded, pawing the moss beneath his amber hoofs, tail flicking in anger. "The time draws nearer each day. Pegasus runs hard through the sky, flying over the waters of Pisces. Aries leads them in a conjunction with the planet Mars, a double harbinger of war. Mars we have watched for eight years now. The element of Fire has united with Water, but it is the Earth sign, Virgo, who must join them both in her struggle with Aquarius, element of Air. This troubles us most."

All five of the centaurs rippled their flanks in agitation, Chiron's foreleg pawing the air with anger. "We set ourselves against he who was born in the house of Aquarius, Remus, even if it means following Firenze down the path of humans."

Raven felt her chest pulling for breath. She had stopped breathing as she followed the words the centaur spoke. The constellation Pegasus was now high in the October sky with both the star Aries before it and the planet Mars running through it. She had charted them last Wednesday in Astronomy. And she knew as well the astrological elements of which Chiron spoke: Fire--Harry as Leo born on the Cusp of July; Water-- Ron as the Pisces of March; Air--February, Voldemort the sign of Aquarius and lastly herself--September and Virgo, nature and Earth. Sections of the whole picture began to slide into place; facts she had failed to connect before. Birth dates, conception dates, and astrological signs...they made up the elements upon which the eight Sabbats of the Year were often imposed. Solar feast days Helga Hufflepuff would have been sure to celebrate.

She could see the information Dumbledore had given her as clearly as if she held it in her hands; his notes, Ministry notes, Aquarian Tarot cards, her own personal information finally filling in the missing quarter. Harry born on Lammas...Ron, Ostara...Voldemort, Brigid...and her own birth upon the feast of Mabon, the Autumn Equinox. A Sabbat Wheel layered upon the four-fold division of the Zodiac. This was a fortune-teller's nightmare.

As Raven gulped for air she must have swayed, for the next thing she knew Snape was reaching out to support her. His firm touch under her elbow was enough to jar her into reality again and she pulled away from him, angry with herself for reacting so. Chiron watched her now, and she knew she was pale and looked down from his gaze.

When will I learn to control my reactions, Raven thought with despair, as the massive centaur moved to stand over her. By sheer effort of will, Raven raised her eyes to look up at Chiron. Snape, still next to her, allowed his wand arm to drop down, clearly showing what he held.

"Severus," Lupin growled.

Severus ignored him, and continued to stand at the ready by Raven's side.

Chiron turned to looked at Snape while the four guards behind him raised and drew their bowstrings taut. Chiron stamped his back hoof in anger, his hindquarters rippling in agitation, but he motioned his companions to stand down. "Our lupine brother is welcomed here, Severus, as once you were. There was a time when you tended to Gaea's beauty and shared in her pleasures. By honoring her, she provided you with her bountiful gifts. Or does the ill wind that took you still drive you before it?"

"Don't you voyeurs have anything better to do than spy on humans or count the night stars?" Snape spat out, turning a shade of red that surprised those standing around him.

Chiron sounded out with a great horselaugh at Snape's question. Even the centaurs behind him let loose with deep chuckles that reverberated in their chests.

"Who is the woman-child you protect?" Chiron asked, staring down once more at Raven.

Uncertain which name to give, she looked to Snape, who offered no response for her. "Raven, Raven Klause," she finally answered, using the name with which she felt most comfortable. Then she continued, throwing caution to the wind: "Virgo, born the night of Mabon. Sun position 8 degrees, 16 minutes of Leo. Moon 26 degrees, 9 minutes of Pisces. Mars position 11 degrees, 56 minutes of Aquarius. I can continue if you want, it's all there. They all line up. The Four Houses of which you speak form into a Hard Aspect when placed on a Composite Chart."

The undercurrent of tension immediately returned. Two of the centaurs turned full circle as their equine instincts reacted to Raven's words. Lupin and Sprout both stared dumbfounded, uncertain what to make of her cryptic statement. Only Severus Snape stood stoically beside her, neither looking at her nor reacting to her words.

The dapple-grey closest to Lupin reared and snorted out: "Born under Virgo, born under Mabon's Hunter's moon... the Raven shall fly with Pegasus to hold Mars in her arms. It has begun, Chiron. It has finally begun."

~*~

Raven drifted through the Hogwarts corridors alone. The day was darkening and suggestions of red and gold, a Gryffindor sunset as Harry had called it, mottled the stone floor through the paned windows to her left. Her lengthening shadow trailed behind her, a distorted presence following along as she walked. Her shoes made no sound as she padded lightly, so that she glided like a ghost, unnoticed. This last month with Snape had taught her that trick.

It had been an exhausting week. Perhaps it was her imagination, but Snape had been strangely subdued during lessons all week. He had only spoken during Potions when directions were imperative, and to her attuned eye, he appeared distracted--something most unusual for Severus Snape. She wondered if his encounter with Voldemort had cost him more than her eyes could see.

Charms and Transfiguration had both been a bit too much for her, draining her mentally and physically alike. Repeatedly, her powers had deflected little Flitwick's attempts to use an Entrancing Enchantment on her, but controlling her own charms proved much more of a challenge. She could find no in between; either the spell failed completely, or became so overpowering, that she often did damage to objects around her--including Flitwick--as she deflected the spells he cast at her time and time again. McGonagall, with single-minded determination, had set out to instruct her on how to successfully use a Cross-Species Switch without destroying the poor creature in a shower of sparks and flame.

Only her defense training with Harry showed any promise. Spells, hexes and the like, which would otherwise drain Raven of her energy, in fact manifested themselves as intended. A tickling charm left both she and Harry breathless with laughter, while a hover charm left her sputtering in mock fury to be let down. Harry had taken full advantage of the situation, watching her kick long legs in the air above his head. He had done it intentionally, and Raven smiled inwardly as she thought of his childish attempt to look up her robes. Defense classes added to her busy schedule, yet they allowed her time alone with Harry. Time she thoroughly enjoyed. Time not interrupted by Ronald Weasley.

The man was a bothersome, nosy, intrusive...third wheel. In the week he had been at Hogwarts, Raven had twice considered poisoning him. Snape had explained to her about Dumbledore's purpose for bringing Aurors onto the grounds of Hogwarts. Neither she nor Snape agreed with the idea, but both had agreed that between Moody and Weasley, poisoning wasn't such a far-fetched notion.

"I swear, one more snide remark from that red-headed baboon and I'm slipping senna and fennel into his next meal. Dobby would do it for me, I know he would."

"Come, Raven, giving Weasley a tummy ache," Snape had answered her snidely, with a hint of smile on his face, "would hardly rid us of their constant scrutiny. I have forty-three poisons available to choose from. Certainly you can find a more creative use for your talents utilizing one of them?"

He had walked to a small locked cabinet at the back of the workroom where for several hours they had finished the preparation and measuring of 15 bottles of Wolfsbane Potion. Opening it, he had withdrawn three vials and turned to her with a smile so evil it still made her laugh a day later.

"Some things more to my liking. For Moody perhaps--ptomaine, henbane and jimson weed?"

"Jesus, Severus, I just want to get Weasley out of my shadow for a few moments, not kill him. But let's see...I have no reason to get rid of Moody, and you have no cause to be rid of Weasley. Hmm...is reasonable doubt a British concept?" she had joked back, enjoying a camaraderie Severus rarely allowed.

"No, and they'd blame both on me. I promised to poison every one of the Weasleys at one point or another. "

Raven hoped Ron would watch the grounds rather than attend the feast tonight. She was severely lacking sleep and found herself dreading the Halloween gathering to which she was heading. Harry informed her of his need to sit at the head table and Raven felt out of place sitting at any of the house tables. Not that she could sit with Harry anyway. Hopefully, she could find Ginny and beg a seat with her. Ginny couldn't help it if Ron was her brother.

To hear the students talk, all the evening consisted of was food and more food. For a Halloween celebration at a school for witchcraft, she had at least expected a few black cats and bats hung in the halls, but found nothing as she approached the stairwell leading down to the Entrance Hall.

Spotting Ginny, Raven called over the throng of people outside the closed doors of the Great Hall. One by one, heads turned in her direction as she descended the stairs to join Ginny.

"It's the red robe isn't it?" Raven grumbled in Ginny's ear. "I stand out like a sore thumb."

"Oh, poo," Ginny said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "We need a scarlet woman around here to wake things up. Just ignore them all," she snorted for good measure, then turned to stare down the few Slytherins who had continued to watch Raven with haughty disdain.

"I knew no one planned on wearing a costume," Raven said "but I didn't realize they'd have school robes on. So Muggles really came-up with the costume thing?" she questioned again, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Yep," Ginny answered. "According to Binns, the Fairies and Leprechauns are to blame. Samhain is one of the two spirit-nights they celebrate each year. The Wee Folke become very active, pulling pranks on unsuspecting Muggles. It used to be that travelling after dark was not advised. Muggles dressed in white--like ghosts, they thought--wore disguises made of straw, or dressed as the opposite gender in order to fool the nature spirits. Most Muggles would stay in after dark with friends and neighbours sharing food and drink. A lot of the student celebration is done down in Hogsmeade starting early in the day. This is just a wind down. But from what I've been told, Dumbledore wanted a more traditional celebration tonight. Something keeping with what the founders would have celebrated. I wish you could have gone with us, today," Ginny added. "I don't know why Snape insisted on you staying up here. Ron could have just as easily gone with you if it was an issue of protection," she added, lowering her voice. "If you ask me he just wanted to aggravate you."

"No. Snape has his reasons," Raven answered Ginny quietly. "And Ron wanted to try one more time to talk Charlie out of training Harry on the dragons. Ron and Norbert have a bit of a history, I've been told. Not a good one," she added, trying her best not to smile.

"Yes." Ginny responded, the displeasure clear in her voice. "I know. Plus, I saw Harry and Charlie from Trelawney's window Monday. I can't believe Harry agreed to go up. Harry has no room to call you reckless," she huffed. "I've got half a mind to owl Mum and tell her what Charlie's up to. It's bad enough he rides those beasts, but now he's gotten Harry's inquisitiveness going and there's just no stopping Harry Potter when it comes to flying."

"Harry doesn't get to do much he likes these days, does he?" Raven added, a wistful expression on her face. "I watched them both for a while. Charlie's quite the show off. Harry seemed to enjoy himself, though." Raven smiled again at Ginny and then felt herself flush as she though of Harry astride the massive dragon called Smaug, a reaction Ginny noticed.

"They did make quite a sight, didn't they?" Ginny asked Raven. She arched her russet brows high and looked inquisitively at her friend. "I know Charlie is quite taken with you. I'm sure the thought of riding you has crossed his mind but...no wings, so..."

"Ginny!"

She giggled gleefully at Raven's scandalized look then sobered, adding: "I suspect with Harry the feelings for you go a bit deeper. He told Ron there was nothing going on between you. Harry guards his emotions when he's with you in public, but when he talks to you, he's never looked like that at anyone...no matter what he tells Ron, there's something more there."

"What makes you say that?" Raven asked. She had been very careful not to draw attention to she and Harry. He wanted it that way. He had asked her for her own safety to distance herself from him while at school, and so far she thought she had.

"Ron." Ginny said flatly. "He's very protective of Harry, and they had quite a row about you Monday night. I'd shown up to see Ron, and Harry was already there. Harry doesn't speak out much, but he was giving Ron what for over him asking Hermione to find out if you were who you said you were.

"Oh, do tell. Just who does Ron think I am?" Raven challenged. "And they had no business talking in front of you!" she added as an after thought. As soon as the words left her mouth Raven regretted it. Ginny had been nothing but a friend to her these last months and she, as much as anyone, deserved to know what was going on. Raven hadn't even told Harry of Voldemort's plans for her. She couldn't add that burden to him.

"Ginny, I' m sorry. It's not that I don't want to share with you; it's just safer if I don't, that's all."

"You sound like Harry now," Ginny said to Raven, in a lowered voice. Taking Raven by the hand Ginny led her away from the chattering crowd. "For years now, he has tried to push away everyone who mattered in his life. Everyone." A wistful look crossed Ginny's face and this time it was Raven's turn to notice.

"Including you?" It was a blunt question, but the intensity of her own confused emotions about Harry forced her to ask. Raven wanted so much to learn all she could about him. The truth. Not the glorified facts she had read or the gossip around the castle. Raven's feelings for Harry deepened each day she spent with him and if he and Ginny shared any history together, Raven had to know.

"Harry saved my life. He saved Ron's life. He's saved quite a few lives. That creates a bond in our world that can't be broken," she added forcefully. "But the people around him who died, they're who he dwells on most. Because of that, he doesn't allow himself to live his own life. Those of us he couldn't push away have tried our best to give him the family and friends he deserves."

It wasn't the answer Raven was looking for, but it helped. "I...I care for him too, Ginny. It's like Ron thinks I'm out to kill Harry. I'd never hurt him. I..." She stopped, unable to articulate the feelings she had within her. Even she wasn't sure if what she felt was real or the result of some spell cast a millennium before to link the blood of Gryffindor with Ravenclaw.

Ginny nodded in understanding at Raven's unfinished words. "Ron's closer to Harry than any of us. He may have grown up in a houseful of brothers, but he's closer to Harry than he ever was to Bill, Charlie or Percy. They were away at school while Ron and I were growing up. And even the twins had each other. From the moment Harry and Ron boarded the train together first year, they have been a part of each other's lives. Our family's life." She squeezed Raven's hand and pulled her closer to her. "It didn't matter I was there while they argued. I'm just the bothersome little sister they've tried to ignore for half their lives."

Moments later, the doors to the Hall opened, ending their conversation as throngs of students pushed and jostled around them.

The Great Hall looked stunning. The lights, glimmering low, cast a supernatural glow throughout the room, disappearing up into the ceiling where the clear weather outside reflected back the stars of Pegasus and Andromeda battling with the brightly shining Mars. That, and one full moon just cresting the roofline. Raven's thoughts turned to Professor Lupin, and for a moment she wondered how he and his companions fared tonight. He had come yesterday for the potion bottles and Snape had been the beast in the room rather than Lupin.

Returning her thoughts to her surroundings, she looked down at the huge shallow brass braziers that hung along the walls; the fire they held emitted a soft, autumn glow, while pumpkins floated in mid-air, their mad grins flickering from the candles in their mouths. Intricate spider webbing, sparkling as if spun of light, wound through the beams of the ceiling, dripping down to tangle in the hair of unsuspecting passers-by.

Many large, round tables replaced the usual four long house tables while the staff table stood draped in black velvet, lined down the center with golden autumn splendor. Oak leaves, sage and allspice interspersed with apples, gourds and turnips lay upon each table, plates and goblets set between them. At the very center of the celebration of the Feast of the Dead sat someone so vibrant and alive Raven's eyes immediately fell upon him. Albus Dumbledore, silver hair and sweeping beard shining in the candlelight, met her gaze and winked at her.

The tips of Dumbledore's long, thin fingers lay together and he had been resting his chin upon them gazing out at his charges as they entered the Hall. With only a slight twist of his wrist, he crooked one finger in her direction and indicated she was to join him at the head table. Offering her excuses to Ginny, Raven approached as Dumbledore stood, smiled around at the students, and opened wide his arms in welcome to the feast.

The murmur of the chatting students filling the hall ceased within seconds and Dumbledore cleared his voice, the corners of his mouth twitching up.

"A welcome to all, and an invitation to feast on this special night of Samhain, or Halloween, as many of you, my young students, call it. Tonight is a magical interval, when the mundane laws of time and space are temporarily suspended, and the thin Veil between worlds is lifted."

As if on cue, the ghosts of Hogwarts materialized around the Hall, encircling them all in a spectral glow.

"Communicating with ancestors and loved ones is easy at this time, for they journey this world on their way to the next great adventure that awaits them. It is a time to recognize this mystery and honour those going on before us. Allow me to honour them with a traditional song not heard within Hogwarts' walls since my days here as a student."

Dumbledore's rich baritone voice rose with ease throughout the Great Hall and over the heads of the students listening with polite attention. What shocked Raven most about the whole thing was the fact that she knew the song that flowed so powerfully from the Headmaster's throat, his fine voice ringing clearly around her. Gathering power and energy, it echoed around the illuminated Jack-O-Lanterns and the bountiful feast set down before them. Her thoughts turned inward and her mother's voice echoed within her as she listened to Dumbledore sing a song she had not heard since the Halloweens of childhood.

Songs that invoke memories, that breathe a life into memories long buried and forgotten, are the sweetest songs to hear, and Raven surprised herself by moving closer and joining with this memory, her own soprano voice adding counterpoint to the duet. Her clear soprano blended in harmony with Dumbledore's deep soothing voice as both sang to individuals only they could see.

"Tonight as the barrier between the two realms grows thin,
Spirits walk amongst us, once again.
They be family, friends and foes,
Pets and wildlife, fishes and crows.
But be we still mindful of the Wee Folke at play,
Elves, fey, brownies, and sidhe.

Some to trick, some to treat,
Some to purposely misguide our feet.
Stay we on the paths we know
As planting sacred apples we go.

This Feast I shall leave on my doorstep all night.
In my window one candle shall burn bright,
To help my loved ones find their way
As they travel this eve, and this night, until day.
Bless my offering, both Lady and Lord
Of breads and fruits, greens and gourd."

As their song ended the hall erupted in applause, shouts of praise coming from each table for their Headmaster and his young American guest. Professor McGonagall, looking all the while as though she would burst into tears, had stood up and was clapping the loudest.

As the applause ended Raven started to draw away, but Dumbledore stopped her. "Stay, Miss O'Connor. We may need to harmonize again; one never knows."

~*~

A short time later, most people were groaning as they pushed themselves from the tables. Headmaster Dumbledore stopped his conversation with Professor McGonagall and stood, once more drawing the attention of his students. Clapping three times, the Headmaster moved the tables aside to create a clear center area into which a legion of bats swooped. The students watched with fascination as the swirl of ebony wings moved to fill the center of the Great Hall, a mist swirling round them in their wake. From out of the mist a black draped dais appeared first, followed by numerous band instruments. Lastly, six cloaked figures appeared and began to play a loud musical number that was greeted with thunderous applause. Not only did it appear that Dumbledore had surprised the school with a band, but it also seemed to be one that the students approved of.

For a change of pace, Harry turned and watched the band begin to play. When not talking to Charlie, who had taken the seat next to him, he had been watching Raven and the interaction between her and Snape. She had only picked at her food, finally pushing it away halfway through the meal. Neither, Harry noted, appeared to want to be at the head table, but strangely enough they could often be seen, heads together, in deep conversation. Most of the feast she had either talked to Snape or had cast a distracted look at the clear, star filled sky above. He had caught her attention occasionally, and she had thrown deliciously evil sneers his way, sneers that he knew were just an act. They barely managed an hour a day together this week and he missed her something terrible. Snape followed with equally malicious stares, ones that were truly meant.

Harry, too, was feeling uncomfortable. His scar had tingled all evening and he wasn't sure why. It was nothing specific, just a strange edgy feeling. Charlie wasn't helping the feeling. He wanted nothing more than to finish eating and return to the dragon enclosure. Dumbledore had requested the camp remain active and on alert for the evening and Charlie felt his place was down with the riders rather than at the staff table. Adding to the tension, Ron had paced the Hall like a centurion guarding Caesar, pausing on each round to chat with him and Charlie. Even Ginny, he noted, had tried to get Ron to light somewhere to no avail. Finally, she had taken to lobbing small food items in Ron's direction, much to the amusement of Raven.

With the start of the music, the staff began to move off into smaller groups and Charlie found his chance to escape.

"I stopped listening to vampires play rock music long ago, Harry. Make my excuses to Dumbledore should he ask where I went." Charlie clapped Harry on the back and stood, making to leave, but was intercepted by Ron before he could take two steps.

"Oy, Charlie, Moody's just come in from outside with a message from Jared. He wanted me to tell you two of your riders have gone missing from camp."

"Missing? What do you mean missing? Who?"

"I don't know, but Levine is down there now helping to look."

Charlie bolted from the table, leaving Ron and Harry to stare after him.

"Harry?"

Startled, both Harry and Ron looked behind them to find Raven watching Charlie exit the hall.

"What is it?"

"Nothing you need to be concerned with," Ron answered her briskly.

"Harry?" She ignored Ron and looked straight into Harry's eyes. "I was there when Dumbledore suggested Charlie have the dragons ready for tonight. You and I have both read the translations and Samhain is very specifically mentioned, as are drakes. If that's not a mention of dragons, I don't know what is."

"And what makes you think your translation is the most accurate?" Ron challenged her. "From what I understand, several people within the Ministry worked on the Hufflepuff prophecy and came to different conclusions than you."

Trying to be civil, Raven took a calming breath before she answered Ron. "And from my understanding, not many people believed what Sibyll Trelawney had to say was accurate either, until the actual events of her prophecy took place. No one believed my mother alive until just a few months ago, therefore, no one has looked at Helga's prophecy in twenty years. That's the problem with prophecies, Ron; you often don't see clearly the events of which they speak until after the events have occurred. Dumbledore believes the first seven quatrains have already come to pass and the possibility is there for the eighth quatrain to occur tonight. We just don't know where."

Ron reached down to Harry's plate and grabbed the half eaten meat pasty left sitting there. Cramming it whole into his mouth, he turned to Harry. "U'm gooin' doon to hep Arlee. Commin?"

Raven threw a disgusted look at Ron and stepped next to Harry. "Can I talk to you for a minute before you and 'The Boy Wonder' dash off?" Her soft mouth pulled into a hard line as she stared at Ron in challenge.

Harry looked helpless between the two of them, uncertain what to do. So far he had avoided showing any connection to Raven in public, but an unexpected emotion sunk its teeth into his belly at the thought of her soft lips. He found himself unwilling ... unable to withdraw his gaze from hers.

"Suit yourself, mate. You know where to find me." Ron threw Raven an equally disgusted look and turned his back on her and Harry. Nodding once to Dumbledore, who had been watching them, he moved away from the head table and began winding his way out of the Great Hall.

In a voice barely above a murmur, Raven leaned in and whispered, "Meet me in greenhouse six." Then, the same lovely face that had just caused his normally quiet, sane senses to ignore his best friend hardened. Her glittering eyes had moments before looked sapphire-blue, now those same blue eyes looked frozen as ice. With a downright smug snap of her red robe, she turned, leaving him staring after her. Perfectly beguiling, that's what she was, and Harry had to force himself to look away lest everyone around him know what he was thinking.

~*~

He had only been in greenhouse six on a few occasions. Mostly full of school plants used by Snape and Madam Pomfrey, Harry hadn't had much reason to venture into it. Until now. It surprised him then, when he pushed open the door and slipped quietly inside to find a variety of blooming plants that rivaled any garden Aunt Petunia could imagine. Enough of the torches had been lit to show him the amazing variety of color and shapes that filled the glass enclosure from top to bottom. An Eden on earth, even the smells that permeated the moist hothouse air delighted him. Of all the jobs Aunt Petunia had foisted off on him, tending her flowerbeds had never really bothered him.

A flash of movement caught his attention and he moved toward the back conservatory portioned off from the front. Ignoring the pain in his head that had begun to increase in intensity, Harry walked to the plastic stripping hanging from the framework, and stood there, acting like a besotted schoolboy, edgy and uncomfortable. Thoughts materialized in his head along with the pain, but these were thoughts of pleasure. He had for so long refused to believe in concepts like affection and true love, flushes of feeling that came from the heart instead of one's male equipment. He had never fully understood why Hermione claimed to feel more than simple regard or fondness for Ron or Ron for her. He knew they loved each other, but he had no basis upon which to compare those feelings. No one had ever showed him love like that. He had allowed his intellect to rule over any physical or emotional involvements for so long that a feeling such as this he didn't know what to do with.

And yet he recognized some very unusual feelings these days. The very feelings he had ribbed Ron about. He wondered what Raven was doing when he wasn't with her. He hated when other people were with her, mostly Snape, though Charlie was coming in a close second. Half the time when he wanted to talk to Raven his voice refused to cooperate, and when he did speak of things other than her lessons, he became tongue-tied...or was yelling at her. God, he was turning into Ron!

He had already succumbed to his carnal desire to kiss her, an incident he found difficult to attribute to anything consciously on her part. Standing wet, cold and frightened, all he could think to do was lean in to steal a kiss from her. And then later in Snape's quarters, he had done more in those stolen moments on the floor than he had done his entire life. He had held on to Raven as tightly as he could, taking from her a comfort that had never been offered him. Comfort. Not need. Given freely to him. Not taken from him.

Watching her now, there was desire. Strange feelings he could only call emotions, the side of himself he had long buried. Now he was lost to those emotions. Lost to her. They hadn't so much as held hands this long week and he was starting to feel the effects. Gathering his courage, he stepped into the back enclosure, and inhaled deeply the fragrant air around him.

Looking up from her work, Raven smiled sweetly at him. She stood looking at him from behind a large rose bush in full, fragrant bloom. "Welcome to Professor Sprout's private rose garden. Isn't it wonderful?"

Raven reached forward and drew a delicate bloom to her nose burying it deep within the blue petals. "Every chance I have to hide from Snape, I come here to work with Professor Sprout."

She had changed from her velvet robe, a crumpled work apron now covering her jeans and tee, and had let her hair down from the elegant twist she had sported at the feast. Gone from his sight less than five minutes, she had leaf bits in her hair, a smudge of dirt on her cheek, and a pruned twig clinging to her sleeve, but it didn't matter, for at that moment the vision of glorious black hair and sapphire-eyes and soft lips framed in full-bloom cerulean blue roses drew him forward.

"It's one of a kind. Madam Sprout did it without magic--potions here and there to help it along, but no magic to actually change the color. No one has ever been able to propagate a true blue rose before--special" Raven said, practically bursting with pride. "Did you know that flowers have a language all their own? Different blooms mean different things. Hydrangeas represent frigidity and heartlessness, while daffodils reflect unrequited love. Each color has a different meaning as well," she continued. "I can only imagine what a blue rose will come to mean."

"One of a kind, all right." Harry hadn't really heard what she had said. He reached out and smoothed back her hair, running his fingers through and untangling the leaves from strands like silk. He tucked it behind her ears and pulled her to him, kissing first her eyelids, then her nose, then he brushed her lips with his own, where he lingered, savoring her, feeling the delectable desire that moved between them.

Reaching down, Harry enfolded her in his arms. Raven's hands found his shoulders, then gradually crept around his neck. But he realized she wanted more--more of him--as she reached to pull his head to hers. As nice as her soft lips felt, he yearned to know a deeper kiss, felt an urgency toward he knew not what. The kiss deepened and she spread her fingers into his hair, causing him to moan and tighten his arms around her. Their bodies pressed together so closely he could feel his wand in his robe pocket pressing into her. The kiss went on, touching and probing and Harry could not have forced himself to pull away if he tried. When at last she pulled away from him, he felt her body trembling, and knew his was too. She said nothing but stared into his eyes for a moment. The power of this was far more potent than any of the beauty around them. The touch of hands, the flickering of the torches in the dimness, the scents around them--perfumed air, wet earth and wood smoke--all mesmerized him.

At the sound of voices outside the greenhouse, they jumped apart. Harry was doubly grateful for the steam-laden windows and the flurry of activity from the feast, for if anyone had looked closely through the windows...

"It's not sensible to stay in here much longer. If Snape comes looking for me..." Raven said, the flush of feelings still crimson on her ivory cheeks.

"Sensible? Nothing about you is sensible, Raven. What you do to me rattles my senses."

He moved away from the rose bush again, closer to her, so that they were only a breath apart. Just slightly shorter than Harry, Raven looked up, straight into those brilliant dark green eyes, deep, perceptive and infinitely dangerous.

"But I'm trying to be, where Snape is concerned. He demands absolute..."

Harry moved his hand to the hollow of Raven's back, curving her body into him. His other reached up and settled gently over her mouth. "Please don't talk about Snape right now. You spend way too much time down in the dungeons with him."

Reaching up, Raven removed Harry's hand from her lips but continued to hold it so that it was pressed close to her heart. "I've spent the last six weeks of my life with that man, and now you notice."

"I think the whole school noticed tonight. If you two had gotten any closer while talking, you would have been sitting in his lap."

Raven's eyes flew wide at the implication. "Harry! Severus is a brilliant man. I'm fascinated by everything he has to teach me. He's also a condescending, arrogant, demanding and maddeningly depressive individual."

"Often the fascinating is also the deadly. Ron's convinced Snape is just that, and you are his beguiling accomplice out to distract me."

Harry's voice sharpened but Raven wasn't sure if it was directed at her or Ron. "And do I distract you, Harry?" The thought worried her, yet at the same time caused her heart to race.

"Unfortunately, yes. Much more than I want to admit. Voldemort learning about you would be bad enough Raven, but if he thought for a moment that there was a connection between us, he'd use it against me."

Raven looked down, forcing a calm to remain about her, but not before her eyes betrayed her. Breaking the connection between them, Harry took a step backward.

"Raven?"

"Don't be angry with him Harry. If there had been any other way..."

"Snape?!"

"Saturday, when we found him. You have to understand, he and Dumbledore feared..."

"I understand he's put you in more danger than you realize!"

"And I understand what Voldemort has in mind, Snape's told me and we have no intention of letting it happen!"

"Brilliant. I'm so glad to hear that," he answered with sarcasm that she was unaccustomed to from Harry. "And just how do you plan on stopping him? You can scarcely stop a simple hex, let alone one cast by Voldemort." This time there was no mistaking the anger in his voice. "God, Raven. How could he?" Throwing his hands up in the air, he walked a few paces from her and snatched at a large clematis bloom dangling from the vine before him.

"Harry, give him some credit. Give me some, too. I know more than you think I do, about this prophecy at least. I've spent weeks on the damn thing; time spent with Dumbledore and Helga's journal, time spent with Severus and his knowledge of Voldemort's plans--the freakin' ghoul wants my blood."

"Snape or Voldemort?" He asked furiously.

"Harry."

"No! You haven't seen Snape with Voldemort--I have! And I'll tell you what...Ron might not be so off the mark. Why else would Snape tell Voldemort about you? I want to believe Snape's true to Dumbledore, but you haven't seen Death Eaters in action, or Snape doing Voldemort's bidding and happy for it!"

"Severus is not happy about this, Harry. Voldemort ordered him to bring me to him right away and Severus refused. Voldemort's not interested in Helga's journal anymore; he wants me for what Severus called Blood Magic."

"I know all about Blood Magic, Raven. Spare the lecture. How do you think Voldemort returned to power when he did or maybe you skipped that lesson with Binns? I'll tell you... me! My blood!" Those ghosts haunted him still. Deep inside he perceived a shaking, where memories battered him like angry waves smashing the shore. His muscles tensed with the strain of keeping his emotions under close rein.

Setting her jaw she looked directly at him. "Don't shout at me. I'm trying to understand all this, but it's not easy and your yelling doesn't help. All I know is that Voldemort wants the blood of a White Witch and Severus stalled him. Voldemort intended to kill him then and there for his refusal, but Severus convinced him he needed time to prepare the ingredients and to prepare me."

"Prepare you? How? Snape will slice into you and drain your blood. What's there to prepare?" Without thought, his hand pressed against the scar where he had been cut for the blood Voldemort required.

"There are potions. Snape is trying to find them. Antidotes that will block what Voldemort plans to use. As Ron is so fond of pointing out, I'm a White Witch. Voldemort's spells won't work on me. When he does summon Severus to bring me to him, we will have prepared it to look like I'm under Severus' control. I'm to look and act like he has some power over me with a Draught of Oblivion--Faylinn's..."

Harry turned and grabbed her by the shoulders giving her a firm shake as he spoke. "YOU ARE TO GO NOWHERE NEAR VOLDEMORT...HE DOESN'T NEED MAGIC TO HURT YOU...UNDERSTAND THAT...NOWHERE NEAR HIM."

"Harry, you're hurting me, let go." Raven pushed away from him, eyes wide with fright. She had never seen such a wild, desperate look on anyone's face before. She wanted to run from him, yet she also felt a need to hold him, to draw some of the bitterness he felt towards life away from him.

"You can't stop him...no one but me...I might make it last." Harry was pacing now, scrubbing his hands distractedly through his dark hair "Why do you think I was born?" he said, spinning around to confront her once more. "It's my duty...the dubious honor of murder."

He practically simmered with anger. Raven could see it in the glitter of his eyes, the color high on his cheeks, the tightness of his lips. She suspected the anger served to hide the pain of wounds suffered all his life. She knew from experience the wounds hardest to heal were those carved not into flesh, but into the soul. "Is that all you see yourself as Harry? A murderer?" She stared at him, seeing him for the first time through his own eyes. Hardly knowing what to say she reached out to him, but he stepped back and shook his head.

"Don't. I don't need your pity."

"Is that what you think I feel for you, Harry? Pity?"

The rattling of the windows stopped the cruel retort on his lips. Then the cracking of panes and the shattering of glass caused Harry to draw his wand as they both turned to the door at the back of the conservatory.

For a moment, both Raven and Harry stood staring, unsure of what they saw, then a squeal of frustration erupted from the beast, leaving no doubt they were watching a boar the size of a bear force its way into greenhouse number six. It was so large it was half-caught in the sturdy doorframe. The boar's hackles were erect in a ridge of coarse hair down its spine running directly between a pair of bronzed colored, feathered wings, beating irately against its brown wiry hair. The boar was struggling furiously to free his hindquarters, and Raven saw that both sides of its ribcage were bleeding from cuts made by the glass when it burst through. More blood dripped from its snout and jaw, which it must have used to fracture through the heavy glass. With a whuff! of surprise, it finally pushed through, faltered, then opened its mouth with a snarl, tusks slashing as it swung its head.

The boar turned, corkscrew tail coiled up tight against its rump, snorting round to meet a second boar as it scraped through the shattered door to join its companion. Absurdly small and dainty hooves beneath menacing bulk crunched shards of glass as they walked, turning black piggy eyes to the two stunned individuals watching them. The pair stood at least five feet at the shoulders with a weight of at least four hundred pounds or more, all behind curving yellow tusks the length of a man's forearm.

"Impedimenta!" Harry shouted the curse before the animals had a chance to approach any closer. Rather than stopping, their entire bodies, in a morphic ripple, altered--flesh into stone, stone into flesh again. With a shake of their hard rolls of flesh, they continued forward, then stopped and stood directly in front of the two stunned individuals.

Harry realized, dimly, that he recognized the two boars standing stoically before him and Raven. No matter how much he hoped he was wrong, Harry knew that the great winged boars that sat atop Hogwarts' stone entrance gates now stood before them.

"Raven, can you slowly move behind me and get to the front entrance? I don't think they will hurt us, but I'm not sure why they're here. "

As Raven moved, so too did the first boar. With a slight wiffle of its wings, the rotund pig shifted slowly forward, following her step by step, as she moved toward the plastic wall dividing the front greenhouse and its back conservatory.

"Well? Raven asked. "Now what?"

Moving right, the boar followed her; moving left, it followed her. Harry felt a small grin turn up the corner of his mouth at the absurdity of the situation.

"You said something about them protecting Hogwarts if there ever was a problem...so are we the problem?" Raven asked, clearly confused as to what she should do.

"We need to get into the castle and find out what's going on," Harry answered her, moving cautiously forward and around the second boar. "Come on." He reached out his hand and she moved toward him while the first boar followed right on her heels.

"So who do I have, Porky or Petunia?"

"I think they're both boys," Harry said with a shrug, dropping his hand after she failed to take it.

Stepping through the broken door, Harry looked around and saw nothing to indicate to him there was a problem. The ache in his head told him different. The moon shimmering full and high in the sky, cast a silvery light and charcoal shadows around them as they crossed the vegetable patch and made for the castle courtyard.

Worry gnawed at the pit of Harry's belly; he knew something was coming, but was uncertain what. The wind blew sideways in a frigid gust and Harry caught a whiff of sulfur that answered all. "Raven." He stopped and looked over the sweeping lawn down toward where the dragon encampment lay hidden. "Go on into the Great Hall and tell Dumbledore I've gone down to the dragon camp to talk to Charlie." Turning, he left her standing there with one boar, the other following closely in his wake.

~*~

Raven's first impulse was to tell Harry she was coming with him, but she did as he told her, realizing the importance of letting Dumbledore know about the appearance of the two castle guardians. Moving through the archway that served as the courtyard entrance into the west side of the castle, Raven entered the doors at the end and wound her way as quick as she could to the front of the school and the Great Hall. Hurrying right behind her, hoofs clattering on the stone floors, came the school's hog.

Pushing the doors of the Great Hall partially open, Raven slipped in, hoping to go unnoticed among the crowd; but Porky had other ideas and pushed past her as she tried to shut the door on his snout. At the sight and sounds of the Hall, the pig's hackles sprang suddenly erect, his wings opened wide like a sail unfurling and he lowered his head, muscles bunched.

"Porky, no!" Raven shouted, as the boar rose several feet off the ground, flapping around to hover in front of her. Startled screams echoed around the hall as the music died out, and Raven found herself and Porky the focus of everyone's attention. Biting her lower lip in frustration, she pushed on the great rump in her way and the two moved further into the room.

The silence ended with Dumbledore's booming voice sounding out around her. "Professor McGonagall, please see that the students are moved to the interior of the castle. Professors Snape and Flitwick you will join me; Professor Vector, contact Chief Auror Croaker. Get him here."

Dumbledore strode the length of the hall and stopped in front of Raven, no twinkle in his eyes, no benign smile upon his face. His presence overwhelmed her and she stepped back, only to jump forward again as this time, two ivory tusks did the pushing.

"I had nothing to do with it--they just showed up," she said preemptively. "I mean, we were fighting, but..."

Dumbledore held up his hand to stop her. "Where is Harry, Raven?"

"He went down to the dragon paddocks. The other boar followed him. Charlie and Ron went down about twenty minutes ago."

"Severus"--Dumbledore turned to Snape--"please, see to things here. Filius, I believe undoubtedly we need to discuss matters with Mr. Weasley. I want all dragons patrolling the perimeter if he has not done so already. You and I have some wards to reinforce, as well."

Snape nodded silently, took Raven roughly by the elbow and turned her toward the door. He got no further as a rather nasty snarl rent the air directly above his head. Dropping like a stone from above, the boar placed his massive bulk between Snape and Raven, tiny hooves scrambling to keep its footing on the marble flooring.

"Well, it seems you have a pet," Severus said with a very cold voice. Not used to having his authority challenged, let alone by an animal, he stood looking directly at the boar, lips pressed in a thin line. "It follows you?"

"Evidently." Raven shrugged.

"Then come."

They followed the remainder of the students moving out of the Hall, most of whom were throwing worried glances over their shoulders at the large boar exiting behind them. Snape angled toward the stairs leading down to the Potions classroom, Raven and Porky in tow.

"I am going to lock you into the private supply room with the pig," he said, lip curling at the thought. "I have my own wards upon it, but you are to have your wand out and let no one in save myself or Dumbledore...not even Potter," he added with a sneer. "Do you understand?"

"Damn!"

Snape's head snapped around, startled at her sudden outburst.

"Oh..."

"What?" He asked his voice lowering dangerously.

"I left my wand in my robe."

"And where did you take...your...robe...off? He hissed.

"The greenhouse...Harry and I were..." But she got no further for the look on Snape's face was enough to silence her.

For a moment, neither moved or said anything.

A grunt caught their attention. Moving around them like an animated sack of concrete, the winged boar's moist snout snuffed the air, and then it trotted off down the corridor Raven had followed coming in from the greenhouses.

Pearls before swine Severus thought as the irony of the situation hit him. In a voice of forced calm Snape finally spoke, "I guess I am meant to follow the pig. I will bring your wand down to the lab as soon as I can. I trust you can enter without melting my door handles this time?

"Yes...with my wand," she answered in exasperation. "I left it, I'll get it. I don't need you to baby sit me."

"Evidently I do," he said ruthlessly, "or you wouldn't have been so careless to have left your wand behind."

"Look, you've had forty years to get used to a wand, I've had six weeks and I..."

"I am not forty!"

Raven couldn't keep the gleam of amusement from her eyes. She'd never seen Severus as vain, but the look of indignation on his face was priceless. Score one her side...though she had long since lost track of the points.

"...yet." She finished for him with a mischievous smile, and moved to follow the pig rapidly disappearing down the corridor.

~*~

"One rider is dead, sir...one stunned senseless and knocked from her mount...two are missing," Charlie answered, his insides falling like molten lead as he helped Jared lift Ancalagon's equipment and throw it upon the great beast's shoulders.

"God, no...who?" Dumbledore said.

"Stedman. Nicolena tried to help, but he was dead before she got to him. She thinks the spells came from the forest but she's not that coherent right now. With the warning Harry just gave us, we have two teams saddled and up. I've got them positioned around the locations we discussed--the two missing were to take the forest approach. Ron and Harry are over there now covering it from the ground until we get the next team up."

"Harry's at the Forest's edge?" Dumbledore asked, his voice rising to a level Charlie had never heard before. The energy around him was palpable and his eyes blazed with an intensity that attested to the great wizard's power. He was clearly displeased.

"The boar Harry showed up with sniffed out Nicolena; Ron's hoping it can find my other two riders."

Dumbledore looked over to where Professor Flitwick was working with a charm. Sleeves rolled up and feet planted firmly apart he was concentrating with all his energy on attaching a Fire Deflection spell around the Welsh Green before him.

"The Diversion Charm is still up Filius, and I've placed reinforcements around it, but I must assume the location of the camp has been found." Stepping over to Ancalagon, Dumbledore lifted his wand high in the air and proceeded to place the same spell that Flitwick had just performed on the beautiful iridescent dragon. Moving away from Jared and his mount, Dumbledore walked back to where Charlie waited and spoke. "Harry is to return to the castle. I need his help there...I don't want him on a dragon. Is that clear, Charlie?"

"Yes, sir."

"Charlie, answer me something. How many of your riders are from Gryffindor House?" Dumbledore asked.

"Six. Jared's from New Zealand, Nicolena--Holland. I'm not sure where my two Romanian riders went to school."

Charlie's information confirmed Dumbledore's worst suspicions. "I want you to move the riders from the lake and the gate to the forest position," he said.

Dumbledore could recall clearly the two quatrains of Helga's journal--wildfire to burst forth over forest; Warrior Lions on flying fire and Raven aloft upon the wings of the Boar. Tonight they would all witness the same quatrains--a thousand years forgotten. Helga's words once again appeared to speak out from across the centuries.

"Come Filius, we need to return to the castle immediately."

~*~

Ron knew for certain he wouldn't venture too far into the Forest. Not tonight at least. Not on a full moon. But they'd promised Charlie they would look for his missing riders. At this point in the game, stealth was no longer an option. He and Harry had moved quietly through the underbrush as they entered into the darkness; the pig trailing after them, however, had different ideas.

"Harry, can't you get rid of this thing?" Ron said, poking the rooting boar with the tip of his wand.

The winged brute paused in his riffling and turned two tusks at Ron. With a squeal that spoke volumes, it turned its rump to Ron and continued snorting leaves and debris on the ground.

"Just what we need, to have every pair of eyes and ears in the forest watching us."

"They're watching us anyway, Ron."

"They who?"

"Do I really need to answer that?"

"No."

"Didn't think so."

The boar grunted loudly, and stopped, dead still and dead quiet, snout high in the air. In that instant they heard it--wafting, desolate, eerie, so haunting that even the wind paused to listen.

A howl. Rising from a low wail to a long, vibrating cry that raised the hairs on the backs of both men. No mere wolf had made that cry. No ordinary wolf that is. And from the sounds of it, it was close. Too close.

"Come on Harry, this makes seven full moons in a row. You're not safe here."

Harry looked up, not quite understanding what Ron meant.

"Werewolf, Harry. We need to get you out of here."

Ron moved away from him, but Harry just stood there.

"Come on mate, we need to tell Moody. He's at the front entrance of the castle." Reaching over, he plucked at Harry's sleeve.

Harry continued to stand there, but his attention had turned skyward.

"They're coming. Listen to the trees."

"The werewolf? I don't hear any..."

"No, Ron...dragons."

A sound like a rushing train pulsed toward them. The entire forest rustled as the trees came to life in the pulling wind. Branches rushed up, and then down, and then with a sudden swoop a pressure passed over their heads, the wind in the dragon's wake nearly flattening them.

Both men set out at a dead run toward the camp, a winged boar right on their heels.

~*~

As Raven paced, so too did Porky. Severus had made her stay in the outer courtyard while he went down to the greenhouse. He had only been gone for a moment, but not knowing what was happening made her uneasy. Porky stopped fanning his wings and looked suddenly alert. Once more, he opened his feathers wide and sailed above her, his rotund mass focused in the direction of the greenhouses. With a high pitched squeal he moved back to hover next to Raven. She looked out over the moonlit grounds in the direction Porky had flown and blinked.

"My God! What are those things?" Four huge figures undulated across the sky, moving from the direction of the forest. Two more were to the right, winging on a direct path to the greenhouse and Raven realized with a sense of horror that she was watching dragons approach the school.

"Severus! --SEVERUS!" Raven cried out as loud as she could.

Without hesitation, she charged forward, leaving the safety of the courtyard, running down the slope towards the greenhouses. As she ran, she watched two dragons descend toward the earth, directly in front of the buildings. Talons flexed out and both beasts touched down, stretching their necks with a screech that chilled Raven to her marrow.

~*~

A roar like an overfed steam boiler rent the air and a dragon appeared, sweeping down, uttering a shrill screech, mouth gaping, fangs bared with a blast of fire on its tongue. There was a shattering roar, and light seared Severus' eyes. He fell back against the glass wall, covering his face while something huge and scaly rasped and grated along the gravel ground. Blinking his eyes open, he found himself facing a second dragon rearing back on its hind legs with its neck stretched out and fire in its mouth. Severus leaped aside just in time. The dragon took a breath like a bellows and lurched forward toward greenhouse number three. The generated blowtorch burst forth, shattering the glass walls like a hurricane wind. Slamming down on all fours, the dragon lumbered forward, searing a blowtorch arc across everything near him. The dragon had not oriented on him yet and he took the split second distraction to bolt away from the front three structures and head round to the back toward greenhouse number six.

Fire spread like water where the front cluster of greenhouses had stood, and a second geyser erupted right behind Severus as he plunged through the curtain of smoke and stumbled through the door of greenhouse six. Moving forward he heard the windows behind him blow out.

He lunged forward, a wracking cough seizing him as he drew a breath of smoke. A wave of hot air rolled over him and fire raced through the foliage, traveling up vines in a river of flame.

He hit the fires closest to him with as many Flame-Freezing charms as he could, lessening the heat around him. The thickening smoke choked him, barely allowing him to continue speaking. "In Vacuo!"

With a great whirl, the air around him rushed away, taking with it the billowing smoke. Unfortunately, it took most of the fresh air as well and he barely had breath left in his lungs to cast a Bubble-Head charm over him.

"Accio wand!"

Like the fire around it, Raven's red robe rushed from the back of the greenhouse pulled by the wand in its pocket. Catching it, Severus tore the wand free of the folds and used the robe to smother a blaze that had sprung up to his left.

Dimly through the bubble, Severus heard his name and turned toward the sound of it. Moving toward him from the back, sleeve over her mouth, stumbled Raven.

"I TOLD YOU TO STAY!"

"You...dragons...help." Was all she could cough out as she doubled over from smoke and lack of air.

"Aqua Nublia." Severus twirled his wand over his head and water began to fall around them. "Come on," he yelled, grabbing her around the waist. "There's not enough air in here for you."

Raven straightened with his support, but would not move as he pulled her toward the door.

"You foolish girl...MOVE!"

"No," she rasped out. "Plants...only ones. We...need...them." A fit of coughing seized her again and she pushed away from Severus to grab a tray of lizard-tail plants, their fronds whipping back and forth in frightened agitation.

Yanking the tray from her hands he threw it down. "I'll get what I can," he bellowed through the glass. "Now hang on to me."

Raven's legs had begun to falter again and Severus bent low placing his shoulder to Raven's waist. Pulling her up and over his back, he stood and moved away from the fire and toward the back of the greenhouse.

~*~

The sky had become a red lacework, the air crackling with fire and spell. Four drakes had entered the fray above the school, swooping down on the enemy mounts like flame-throwers from hell. The two dragons at the greenhouses lifted off, banking back round for another pass, shattering another building below them as they turned. In their path a huge tree whipped out, rooted limbs lashing at flying ones. Flames rolled down upon it, and the tree exploded, its trunk splintering in the blast. As it rocked in fury, great chunks of flame flew across the ground as if set loose from a catapult.

"Elder trees singing out in their pain," Dumbledore thought, as he turned from the terrible sight and continued with his spell work. He and Flitwick were attempting to cast a series of spells around the west wall of the castle. They intended to fortify as many of the wards as they could before the enemy fire forced them behind the safety of the castle's ancient walls. He had sent Moody and Levine to the north and east perimeters with instructions to do the same. Severus was nowhere to be seen, and Dumbledore could only hope he had Raven safely ensconced within the walls of the school. It was bad enough Harry was once more out in the middle of it.

Two enemy Hebridean Blacks battled above them against Charlie's only Horntail. Her fifty-foot range of flame was keeping them at bay while Flitwick sent volley after volley of hexes, all aimed at the riders.

A spell bolt blasted earthward, barely missing Flitwick as it blasted a crater in the stone tiles of the courtyard. Scampering back he called for Dumbledore to do the same as one of the enemy drakes broke rank and angled for the wizards on the ground.

As the dragon came at him, the downdraft of its batlike wings whipped Dumbledore's amber robes and his waist-length silver hair straight out and behind him. In his fist he clutched his wand, ready for the attack. The dragon screamed a shrill cry and dropped low for the grab. A blast of amber light tore from Dumbledore's wand, hitting the dragon at saddle level. Caught in the direct blast of the spell, the rider twisted in his saddle and slid sideways off his mount. He hung precariously by one hand, clutching desperately to the rim of the saddle. With heart-stopping calm, Dumbledore cast a second volley of light and the rider let go, plummeting to land directly in the crater he had just created.

"Good show, old man!" Flitwick cried, causing a slight upward turn of Dumbledore's grim set mouth.

But Dumbledore couldn't smile yet. The riderless dragon thrashed its wings in an effort to turn, but without its rider for direction, it banked the wrong way. Turning toward the nearest minaret, it smashed straight through it. The structure exploded in a shower of fragments and the tower upon which it rested collapsed and crumpled into rubble around the men below it.

~*~

"Put me up, Charlie. They're at the greenhouses now. With me you'll have seven riders and the advantage." Ron had stepped up next to his brother as he helped to clamp Jared's white saddle down upon the iridescent dragon scales of his Opaleye, Ancalagon. "You've had Harry up, and he said Smaug practically flies herself. You need someone up there who can fight with a wand as well as with a Dragon."

"Ron, no, you're not trained for battle," Charlie argued. "Stay on the ground and help with the defenses."

Harry had already left the group, running full out for the castle. Charlie had repeated Dumbledore's message to him and he bolted out of camp without another word.

Jared mounted Ancalagon and they lifted up, hovering as close to Smaug's enclosure as he could. The downbeat of the beast's wings spun whirls of dust into the air and the remaining dragons bellowed out in an uproar at the activity around them.

"There is little defense from a dragon on the ground," Ron shouted back. "The greenhouses will be a loss by the time we're up. From the air we have a chance to defend the school, but with missing riders you're outnumbered."

A shout interrupted them. It came from Jared in the air above them as he pointed back toward the direction of the castle. By the light of the moon it was clear what he pointed at; a dragon stabbed earthward, barely missing the quarry below. A smaller winged shape, black against the light of the moon, swooped around it, its tusks slashing at both the wings of the dragon and at its rider.

All was a confusion of beating wings and fanged faces, gleaming eyes and clutching claws. As hard as the figure on the ground tried to turn and duck downward, the dragon grasped harder and snatched at his shoulder and right arm. Robes billowed like a bullfighter's cape as the downbeat of the wings drove the man to his knees and Charlie and Ron realized at the same time just who the dragon was trying to snatch hold of.

Casting several more spells at the dragon's underbelly and wing joint, Harry ducked as the dragon began to flail at him. But this time he was in the great beast's sight. He tried to turn, to wrench himself free and throw a spell at the dragon above him, but even as he did so, he was hauled into the air. Harry was being bourne upward by one of the enemy Horntails.

"HARRY!" Ron bellowed and turned helplessly to Charlie "Charlie, I've got to help!" He yelled. "Saddle Smaug or I'll go up on her bare back."

Grabbing Smaug's equipment, Charlie swung hard and landed the saddle square on the dragon's shoulder blades. Jumping up, he locked it in place and reached down a hand to Ron.

"It's all in the legs, Ron. Just like your broom. She's a good girl and will follow any move you make. Keep her belly down and her wings wide."

Grabbing Charlie's hand, Ron swung recklessly astride the dragon, right behind Smaug's wings. Charlie then turned and ran down the length of the great beast's back. With a shouted command from Charlie, Smaug lashed her tail upward, launching him high in the air, sending him in a graceful arch over the fence to land dead center upon Norbert's back. With the power of giants and the naked beauty of polished black scale over cabled muscles, Norbert took to the air.

The ground swung away beneath Ron's feet and he clung for all he was worth. Smaug started off in a waddle that seemed quiet slow, but ate up the ground; then, she gathered herself and sprang between the two rocks marking the border of the encampment's Diversion Shield. Ron hung to a ridge fin, sheer adrenalin directing him as Smaug took flight behind Norbert bearing Charlie, Jared astride Ancalagon.

Letting loose a roar, Smaug soared up in a widening spiral. Leveling off, she drew a bead on Charlie and Norbert heading toward the two dragons engaged above the greenhouses. In a matter of seconds, they reached the battle, and Smaug went into a power dive, sweeping through the assembled dragons spraying a vivid scarlet flame at the enemy mounts. Ahead was the third dragon bearing Harry southeast toward the rocky outcrop where school met lake, Jared hot on her tail.

Blasts of spell-light tore across the black night sky, and the crisp odor of ozone filled the air. Without warning, a powerful spell hit Smaug, buffeting her backward. Ron made a desperate grab at the rim of his saddle, nearly sliding back and off the dragons back. Banking hard to her right, Smaug folded her wings and torpedoed downward and for a precipitous moment, Ron hung sideways in space, the sky and ground both tilted at frightening angles. Somehow, he managed to press his feet against his stirrups, squeeze with his knees and right himself as twenty-foot leather wings boomed open above him.

Smaug opened a great fanged mouth and bellowed her anger. She soared up in a wide banking spiral to roar out a ten-foot flame. Another dragon had appeared with a blast of fire, its rider casting a streak of spells toward them. It was all Ron could do to throw a shield charm big enough to cover their front while a furious Smaug continuing on in pursuit of the fleeing Horntail and her captive.

~*~

Twisting in the painful grasp of the claws half-embedded in his left shoulder, Harry managed to bring his right arm up and aim his wand at the underbelly of the drake carrying him rapidly away from the battle over Hogwarts. With his wand arm partially free, he cast a Diffindo spell at the wing joint where it met the dragon's torso in the hope of tearing or severing some portion of the wing.

Yelling out in pain, he watched in desperation as the boar flanked to the left of him. The furious tusks jabbed again and again at the dragon in an effort to halt its escape. The dragon screeched its frustration at the boar diving madly at it, stinging and biting it like a crazed hornet.

Jared on Ancalagon flew just feet away and the sounds of hexes and spells rang out as he exchanged wand fight with the rider controlling the beast beside him. Harry could see a second rider now in pursuit of the dragon carrying him. It looked like another Opaleye, which meant it was Smaug.

Light came again, not from wand fight but a fifteen-foot gout of glaring flame, showing a iridescent-scaled snout with flaring nostrils over pointed teeth, huge scale-ridges and opal eyes. Flitwick's Flame Deflection spell held against another assault, and the fire reflected to either side of Jared catching the winged boar in a back splash of flame. With a squeal of pain, the poor animal dropped like a rock and out of Harry's sight.

Looking back to the battle, Harry watched in horror as two more of the enemy's drakes flew up and away from the main battle around the castle to circle Smaug's unprotected back quarters, sending a fearsome volley of fire after her. Norbert joined the fray, and Harry saw at least seven dragons begin a battle for control of the air.

The drake holding Harry took a second breath like a bellow and lurched forward sending out a blazing orange wave of fire that forced Jared to bank Ancalagon hard and plummet downward. Careening around for another approach at the fleeing dragon, Jared blocked it from winging any further away. Rising with terrific speed despite her size, Ancalagon swooped upward with a rush of wings, while Jared rained a hail of hexes to the rider's front and back. Ancalagon's talons came forward and she made to grab for the rider controlling the Horntail.

Harry heard Smaug's rider yell a command and watched her plunge forward, claws poised to strike. Harry recognized the voice issuing the command and cursed at the stupidity of Ron to join the battle on dragon back. Suddenly from above, Smaug swooped down, Ron sending a cascade of hexes directly at the eyes of the dragon bearing Harry. The rider's attention was focused on Ancalagon's attack and he had not see Ron's approach. The wounds Ron inflicted were not serious, but they were sufficient to set the creature screaming and hissing.

Harry felt the grip on his shoulders loosen and he repeated another volley of spells all directed at the wing joints of the massive beast. The creature's wings seemed unaffected, but it did release its grip on Harry's arm long enough for him to tear his right arm free from the talons. All this did was twist his body around harder in mid air, driving the remaining claw deeper in a painful grip into his left shoulder.

The massive Horntail, blocked from flying forward by both Smaug and Ancalagon, turned sharply over the lake and once more headed toward the school. Wand flashing with sparks of blue and red, Jared hit the rider square on while he wheeled round. Without a sound, the rider slumped sideways and began to hurtle downward to the rocky outcrop where the lake met the base of the school. He struck the rocks and rolled downward leaving a slick black trail of blood behind him. With a small splash he disappeared beneath the moonlit waters of the lake.

As the body hurled by him, Harry swung himself back and managed to curl his legs around the trailing leg of the dragon. At least now he had a chance of clinging on should the drake decided to release her grip on him. Next he managed to shift his position so that he no longer hung from the talon imbedded in his shoulder. He felt the drake's grip weaken and readied himself for what must happen next.

As he watched, Smaug wheeled in the path of the now riderless mount and Ron bellowed out "Stupefy," aiming directly at what Harry hoped would be the dragon's eyes. Harry sent up several more slashing hexes and the Horntail screamed even more loudly. This was too much even for a dragon. She loosened her remaining grip on Harry's shoulder and he felt himself fall forward as she began to flail at him with her free talon.

Only his leg, twisted around the dragon's, prevented him from falling earthward, as the dragon's rider had just done. Harry rocked his hanging body forward and managed to get another grip on the drake's other leg, this time with his functioning right arm.

The dragon shook her leg, but Harry clung tightly, using his wounded left arm to continue with volley after volley of spells designed to shred the joint and wings of the dragon.

Bit by bit, as her injured wings beat to keep her up, the dragon began to go lower, repeatedly shaking her legs as she tried to get rid of Harry. Then suddenly, with one final convulsive shake, the angered beast managed to shake loose Harry's grip. With a feeling that all had been for naught, Harry lost his hold and began to fall.