Facing Danger
Chapter 40: A Matter of Pride (Arc 6)
By Anne B. Walsh
Eight Warriors spread out over the vastness of the harbor cavern, peering into shadows with the aid of lit wands and fireballs which bobbed over heads. Draco, declaring himself fully recovered after a leisurely lunch, had brought his broomstick along, and was circling high above the rest, occasionally swooping down to examine something more closely.
Hermione knelt beside one of the long, striped markings on the floor, running her fingers along it. "Pahoehoe," she said aloud.
"Pa what-ee what-ee?" said Ron.
Hermione laughed. "Pahoehoe," she repeated. "It comes from the Hawaiian language, it means this kind of rock with long lines that make it look like rope. But I thought it only happened in volcanic rock, when very hot and thin lava cooled."
"Volcanic?" said Neville, frowning. "There aren’t any volcanoes around here."
"Maybe there were, when this cavern was made." Hermione stood up and dusted off her hands. "Or maybe it means something else. Harry!"
Harry turned around from where he was looking at a section of wall. "Yeah?"
"Could you melt a piece of the rock in here without burning us all to death?"
"Is that a challenge?"
"No. And I don’t actually need you to do it," Hermione added quickly. "Just... could you?"
Harry placed a hand on the wall and concentrated. "I think so," he said. "I’d want to practice first, to be sure I could channel that much heat that precisely, but yeah, I could melt this. Why?"
Luna slid a foot across the floor. "It’s smooth," she remarked. "The other room and the passages have much rougher floors. This almost looks polished."
"Except for these places." Meghan started to walk along one of the markings Hermione had been examining, heel to toe with a dancer’s precision. The rest of the Pride moved out of her way. "Some of them are by themselves, and others join up with different ones."
"Everybody get against the walls," Draco called from above. "I see something!" He dived and landed neatly next to Hermione. "Think you can come up?" he asked, holding out a hand diffidently. "It’s your area too."
Hermione took the hand, pressed it once, and mounted the broom behind her twin without hesitation. Ron watched them take off with a fond smile on his face that lasted until Ginny elbowed him in the ribs. "Pay attention," she hissed.
"To what?"
"I don’t know! Something other than how Hermione’s arse looks from below!"
"I wasn’t looking at her—her rear end!"
"Oh, like hell you weren’t!"
Above, Hermione squeaked once and began to laugh. Draco was grinning as he brought the broom down again. "Good spotting, Pearl," he said, hugging his little sister. "I wouldn’t have thought to look at the way the lines joined up without you."
"What’s so special about the way the lines join up?" Ron asked, rubbing the place Ginny’s elbow had impacted.
"Runes," said Hermione, recovering her breath. "They form runes. Someone put them there on purpose."
"I thought you said they happened naturally when melted rock cooled," said Ginny. "How could someone craft runes out of melted rock?"
No sooner had she finished the last word than her eyes widened, and she turned to look at Harry. So did the rest of the Pride.
Harry shrugged. "Like I said, I’d have to practice. But I don’t see any reason why not."
"And we haven’t even told you what they say," said Draco, digging in his pocket. "You remember we were a little worried about this place, we thought it might be haunted or dangerous?"
Seven cautious nods.
"If it’s haunted, it’s only by good spirits," said Hermione. "And the people who made this place would have sealed it off if it were dangerous."
"How do you know?" Neville asked.
"Because we know them," said Draco. "Personally." He unrolled the scroll he’d found and accepted the quill Ginny was holding out to him, then scrawled down several runes. "This is what it says from up there. The top line is the rune for small with a personal-name modifier, the middle one is a past-tense being verb, and the bottom is a near-distance location indicator."
"In English, please?" said Ron.
Hermione grinned. "It says," she announced, "‘Paul Was Here.’"
Laughter echoed around the cavern for a good five minutes.
"I can just see him doing that, too," said Harry, wiping his eyes. "He’d climb up... there." He pointed to a ledge most of the way to the ceiling, opposite the entrance. "And melt the rock in lines, and let them flow just a little so they’d be obvious before he cooled them off again."
"And Maura would get on his case for it." Ginny planted her hands on her hips and mimicked the voice of Gryffindor’s daughter. "Dad! Paul’s playing with fire again!"
"In the best tradition of big sisters everywhere," said Hermione, smiling fondly. "So are we agreed, then? This is where we’ll build our Sanctuary?"
"I can’t think of a better place." Harry leaned back on his hands. "All in favor?"
"Aye!" chorused the Pride. And though the echoes seemed to hold more voices than had originally spoken, they were friendly, so no one minded.
Too much.
Harry detained Luna in the entrance chamber as Neville and Meghan led the way out to the harbor. "Draco went over a bit odd in here earlier," he said quietly. "Is there something..."
Luna nodded. "There is a presence," she said, her eyes drifting out of focus. "A presence, and the shadow of a presence."
"Beg pardon?" Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Ginny tactfully herding Draco and Hermione out of earshot, but hanging back herself. Ron had also remained, and was keeping a dubious watch on the sealed entrance to the mausoleum.
"The spirit who touched Draco is still here," Luna clarified. "He’s watching. It’s what he does. There are also traces of another spirit. She’s gone now, but she must have been here a very long time."
"Like being buried here?" Ron suggested.
"That might do it, yes," said Luna complacently.
"But if she were a ghost, wouldn’t she still be around?" Harry asked. "I thought ghosts lasted forever, because they were afraid of whatever comes next."
Ron snapped his fingers. "There’s something that’s like a ghost but different. Starts with R..."
"Revenant," said Ginny, half a heartbeat before Harry’s mind produced the word on its own. "I don’t remember exactly how it’s different, though. Hermione would know."
"It’s somebody who decided their cause was so important they weren’t going to let anything stop them from seeing it through, not even death," Ron said. "Once whatever they’re waiting for happens, they can go on."
Harry gave Ron a strange look. Ron shrugged. "A couple Cannons fans decided to try sacrificing themselves back in the 70’s," he said. "Obviously it didn’t work, but they still get the best seats at every game."
Ginny emitted several loud coughs and took off running up the passage to the harbor.
"Yes," Harry said unsteadily. "Well. So we have revenants. Or one revenant and one who... went on?" He raised his eyebrows at Luna.
"I can’t really tell," Luna said, turning her head this way and that. "But that would be a very joyous thing, don’t you think? After so long? And there aren’t any traces of that kind of joy here."
"What’d she leave for, then?" asked Ron. "If her body’s buried here, wouldn’t this be the place she’d want to stick around? Or is whatever she’s after not related to that?"
"I wish I knew." Luna leaned against the wall, closing her eyes. "And now the other one has gone away too. His traces are very faint, so I don’t think he was here long. He must be tied to somewhere else, and just came here because we did."
Harry sighed. "None of this makes any sense," he said. "Which just means it fits with the rest of our lives right now."
"We’ve got a spirit-free Sanctuary," Ron pointed out. "And we’ll work out who she was someday, and maybe that’ll tell us who took over Draco. Right now, we need to get back outside. Quidditch doesn’t practice itself."
"That’s either really profound or really stupid," said Harry, gesturing for Luna to go first through the exit tunnel.
Ron grinned. "Come on, Harry. It’s me."
"Stupid, then."
"I know you are but what am I?"
"Auntie!"
At the piping voice, Aletha looked down and smiled. "Hello, little one," she said. "What do you want?"
"Up!"
"What do we say?"
"P’ease?"
"Well. If you’re going to be polite about it." Aletha reached down and hoisted the tiny creature beside her chair onto her lap. "And what have you been doing today, young man?"
"P’ay wif Echo," her conversant replied gravely. "Auntie, what do?"
"What am I doing? I’m writing. See, I dip the quill in the ink like this, and then I write on the parchment, like this. It’s a shopping list for your mummy, so she knows what I need more of for my potions. Do you want to help me write?"
"Yes!" Miniature hands clapped in excitement. "Yes yes yes!"
"Scoot forward on my lap, then. There you are. Now, put your hand around the quill, underneath mine." Aletha guided the small fingers to an approximation of the proper grip. "Not too tight, or you’ll break it and we’ll need a new one. That’s good. Dip it in the ink, let it drip, and bring it back to the parchment. What shall we write? How about powdered limestone?"
"What do?" the other asked again, in between concentrating on helping Aletha send the quill in the proper directions.
"Powdered limestone helps potions fizz." Aletha slipped her left hand under the shirt made from discarded drapes. "Like this. Fizz fizz fizz." She tickled, eliciting a shriek of incredibly high-pitched giggles from her helper, until a loud crack in the center of the room cut them short.
"Cissus!" Winky scolded, setting her daughter Echo down beside her. "You is being a naughty elflet, you is running away from Mummy and bothering Mistress Letha!"
"I help Auntie Letha," Cissus retorted. "I stay!"
"You need to listen to your Mummy," Aletha told the elflet, setting him on the floor. "But if she says you may stay, then you may. Echo too, if she’d like."
"Yes!" Echo perked up immediately. "Echo stay!"
Winky sighed deeply. "Mistress is being sure?" she asked. "They is not being a bother?"
"Not at all," Aletha assured her. "I like having them around. And if they start to grate on me, I know where to find you."
"This is being true!" Winky gave a laugh of her own, bobbed a curtsey, and vanished with another loud crack. Echo ran over to her brother, grabbed his hand, and towed him into the corner of the room, babbling at such a rapid rate that Aletha wasn’t even sure all the words were English. She watched them until they were established in a game of dusting the books, then returned to her list-writing, thinking as she did.
The rapidity with which Winky’s children had been maturing since they were born in the middle of February had startled her at first, but Sirius had assured her it was normal for elflets to develop as much in a month as a human baby would in a year. "How else do you think they’re ready for service in eighteen months?" he asked, his mouth acquiring the bitter twist it only got when he was talking about his birth family and their peers. "Some of it’s natural, they’re smaller than we are so it stands to reason they grow up quicker, but some of it has to have been put on them by wizards who wanted to be able to sell them sooner and breed more of them in less time. Merlin’s sparking wand, why did I have to be descended from utter bastards?"
Aletha smiled to herself. Convincing Sirius that she didn’t mind his descent, and that he himself was only an utter bastard on the occasions when she wished him to be, had made for a very pleasant evening.
As for these two, they’re darling. She cast a glance at the elflets, Cissus now making a step with his hands so that Echo could climb up to the first shelf and dust the books on the second. Enough like humans that they help heal a little of the hurt I still have, and enough unlike that they don’t make it worse. And hard workers—the only trouble we have with them is finding work they can handle. I won’t soon forget the day they tried to wash the windows in the upstairs bedrooms!
Echo finished with her shelf and hopped nimbly to the floor. Setting aside her duster, she took up a place alongside her brother, facing the shelves. Both elflets raised their hands to shoulder level and stared at the third shelf of books with fierce concentration.
Surreptitiously, Aletha drew her wand. Just in case...
The books on the third shelf trembled, shivered, began to rise—
And shot one foot away from the shelves, then dropped like stones.
The elflets’ terrified shriek mixed with Aletha’s "Protego!" and Remus’ "What on earth—" from the hallway.
"I’ve got it!" Aletha called as the last book bounced off her Shield Charm. "No harm done, just a bit of mess!"
"A bit of mess?" said Danger, appearing in the doorway, Remus behind her. "The last time I saw a mess like this was the night Harry and Draco both acted out their nightmares. It’s all right now, little ones, come to Auntie Danger." This was to the elflets, who were clasping each other and shivering in the center of their book-free circle. "You’re not quite big enough to levitate things yet, are you?"
"We thank you for trying," Remus added, taking Cissus from Danger’s arms, which freed her to balance Echo on her hip. "It’s good that you want to help your Mummy and Daddy with their work. But you need to find some that won’t hurt you and make more mess than it cleans up."
Cissus nodded, his lip quivering. "We sorry," he said quietly. "Was an asident."
Remus’ eyes, for one instant, swirled very brown indeed. "I remember another little boy who said something like that to me once," he said as Danger covered her mouth with her free hand. "He was human, not house-elf, but it seems to me all little boys are very much the same..."
The final list of those who might participate in the spell-breaking year was in Harry’s hands less than a week after the initial discovery of Sanctuary. He was severely unsurprised to find that it was almost a verbatim roll call of the original Dumbledore’s Army. One or two late-comers, like Ryan the apricot-covered Hufflepuff, had made their way on, and a few of those who had originally been DA, like Cho and the Creevey brothers, were left out.
"Colin and Dennis are the sweetest kids alive," said Hermione when Harry questioned her choice to leave them off the list. "But having them working on Sanctuary with us would be an open invitation to homicide, and killing another member of the year definitely doesn’t count as getting along."
Meghan seconded this. "I like Dennis," she said earnestly. "Really, I do. He wouldn’t tell the secret... but everyone and her broomstick knows when he’s got a secret. Graham and Natalie aren’t like that. They won’t give us away."
Inevitably, the list was Gryffindor-heavy, featuring sixteen wearers of the red and gold, but Harry thought the other Houses had got a decent stake in the deal as well, with six each from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and four from Slytherin.
Besides, half the Gryffindors are Pride, and Pride comes before House loyalty.
It was a thought Harry would have good reason to remember.
"Morning, Harry."
"Morning, Lee." Harry scratched at an itchy spot on the back of his hand. "How’s Maya?"
Lee smothered a yawn. "Twitchy. She knows in her mind that she has two days between that opening ceremony next week and the full moon, so she shouldn’t be showing any signs of her transformation that night, but she’s still worried she will, and the worry is making her worse." He leaned in. "Listen, Harry, I wanted to talk to you about that. Maya, and her transformation, and... things. You know. Are you free after lunch?"
"Sure, but—"
"Thanks! Gotta run! Bye!" Lee shot out the door of the Great Hall as though Harry had lit the back of his robes on fire.
Harry blinked a few times and stamped his foot against the floor, verifying for his own sanity’s sake that he wasn’t dreaming. "Even for us," he said aloud, "that was odd."
"There’s a good reason for that," said Draco, taking another helping of bacon. "Lee isn’t us."
Luna speared a piece of toast with her quill, smiling. Harry indulged in a small nervous swallow as he saw the smile. It was the sort that went with the words "Are you sure?"
And from the resident Seer, you take that a little differently than you do from anyone else...
"Let me know if I’m out of line." Lee’s hands sawed at the air, trying to convey the ideas that were so clear to him and so hard to put into the words that would get them across to Harry. "But I’ve never really understood what you have going, Pack and Pride and those things. I hear the words, I know you’re close with your family, and you and Ron and Ginny and everyone have something special going on, but what is it, really? How did it start?"
"Finally, a question I can answer!" Harry wiped his brow in pretend relief. "It started as a joke. Look at us, we’re a werewolf and a dog Animagus, let’s call ourselves the Pack, har har, funny. And sleeping out together started because some of us would have terrible nightmares and need to know other people were there, right there, not down the hall or in the next room but there."
Lee was nodding, his brow wrinkled as though he were fitting Harry’s words into his own thoughts. Harry pressed on. "Everything else just grew from that. From that need to know that there are people around you, people who care about you and will do things for you when you need them done, just like you’ll do things for them when they need things done. If that makes sense."
"It does. Loads." Lee leaned against the wall. "Maya isn’t as good as she could be," he said. "Matter of fact, she’s pretty badly off. She hides it well, but she’s scared to death of herself, and of me."
"You? I thought you loved her."
"I did—I do—" A brief laugh. "There’s the problem. Every time I make some tiny mistake like that, Maya takes it as proof that I don’t love her, that I only asked her to marry me out of pity, that I’ll turn around one day and either send her away or just leave."
"Some of that’s the werewolf curse," Harry pointed out, thinking of den-night stories of a man in black and a woman in white, alone together in a Great Hall greater than the one he saw every day. "It makes people think things like that, that they’re freaks and monsters and can’t ever be loved."
"I don’t care." Lee’s voice was as harsh as it ever was criticizing the Slytherin Quidditch players for their dirty strategies. "Maya hasn’t changed, and everyone except her knows it. She’s still the girl I fell in love with, and she is the girl I’m going to marry, and that bloody curse better get out of my way or it’s getting chased down and knocked off its bloody broomstick!" He dropped unconsciously into his carrying announcer tones for the last portion.
"Curses have broomsticks?" Harry asked, hoping to break the tension.
Lee grinned. "Yeah, didn’t you know? Little teeny invisible ones so they can fly around and make everyone’s lives miserable." He twisted a dreadlock around one finger. "All right, enough of that. Harry, I’ve got an idea about how to help Maya." Lee’s expression was a mixture of determination and trepidation that Harry hoped he could reproduce at a party sometime. "She’s got wolf in her now. I can’t change that. What I can do is make the wolf happy. Give it some of the things it wants. I guess you could say... tame it."
A snort of laughter got out of Harry despite all his efforts to the contrary. "Not you," he choked, flapping a hand at Lee. "Go on. Not you. Something else."
"You’re sure you don’t need a drink?"
"I’m fine." Harry pulled himself together. "So you think Maya’s wolf side is trying to hurt her and you want to try and stop it by making it more comfortable."
"Right." Lee nodded. "And what I’ve got in mind would also be good for Maya the person who feels everyone will leave her. If she had something solid to depend on, something more than just empty words, maybe she wouldn’t be so afraid."
"And the less afraid she is, the less hold the curse has on her." Harry doodled a spiral in midair with flame. "What’re you thinking of?"
Lee explained.
"I like it," Harry said when Lee was done. "But you’ve got your terminology wrong."
"I do?" Lee looked confused. "What’m I saying that I shouldn’t?"
"It’s not too bad," Harry reassured him. "It’s just you’ve got the words back to front. What you’re working on is a group of friends, all around the same age, but what you’re saying is a family with parents and kids. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me."
"Well, eventually..." Lee wiggled his eyebrows. "We are getting married, you know."
"Mind, pants, out," Harry commanded, jerking his finger upwards. "Even more, mind, Maya’s pants, out. There’s time for that. Do you know who you want to ask?"
Lee pulled a scrap of parchment from his pocket. "Well, I’ve got a little list..."
"And they’ll none of them be missed, right?"
"What?"
"Never mind."
Maya nibbled half-heartedly at a sausage, wishing it weren’t quite so well cooked. It was the last day of April, and her cravings were starting to get to her.
It’s the fourth time I’ve been through this, I should be used to it by now, but it still surprises me when I wake up and want to run for miles and miles. Or when I have to fight to keep myself from biting people who annoy me. And it doesn’t help that everybody around me knows what I’m feeling, and they’re walking on eggs to keep me calm. The only thing worse would be if the rest of the school knew about me.
Of course, if the rest of the school knew about me, there would be so many parents complaining that I’d never be allowed to stay.
She sank her teeth into the sausage, imagining it for one second to be an amalgam of everything wrong with her life, then deliberately pushed her thoughts into happier channels. I have so much to be thankful for. Lee, Aunt Voni and Uncle Par, Graham and Bernie, the DA and all my friends, and now I’m part of this special group that’s working to make a safe place for Muggleborns and break an ancient spell.
Her lips drew back in a grin. And the only reason we’re trying to break that spell is to keep the bad purebloods from using it to find out who they can kill. That’s all. It’s not because we found out that the Ministry’s ability to perform the Trace is intimately tied up with it or anything like that, oh no, of course not. Not one little bit.
Gulping down her bite of sausage, Maya made a face as her unpleasant thoughts returned. "Nasty potion at the end of the week," she said aloud. "And oh, does it hurt when it happens."
But I have that potion—thank you, Professor Snape, and aren’t those four words I never thought I would say—so I don’t have to feel my mind slipping away from me. I won’t ever be a beast who’d kill her own best friends, just a very sore and tired me-wolf. And Lee comes along every single time and gives me back rubs until the pain goes away, and then helps me calm down enough to get some sleep...
"Good morning, beautiful," said the voice she was thinking of, as strong hands closed on her shoulders.
"Mmm." Maya leaned into the rubbing. "You can keep doing that for about a year or so. I’ll tell you when I’ve had enough."
Lee laughed. "You ready for your surprise tonight?" he asked, leaning down to kiss the top of her head.
"This had better be some surprise," Maya warned. "With the way you’ve been talking it up, I’m expecting it’s at least as good as, oh, a new broomstick."
"It’s better."
Maya affected exaggerated surprise. "Better than a new broomstick? Really? Is that possible?"
"Just barely. But I think I’ve done it." Lee puffed out his chest for a moment before returning to his massaging of her back. "You’ll have to tell me how you like it when you see it."
"And when will that be?"
"Tonight. At the... thing." He twitched his head significantly downwards. "You know."
Maya nodded, her mind racing. What in the world did you get me or do for me that has to do with the construction of a Sanctuary?
And why do I suddenly feel I’m about to get far, far more than I bargained for?
Harry stood near the entrance to the Sanctuary cavern, listening to the rise and fall of the water in the well cave, trying to let it calm him. It’s no big deal, he tried to tell himself. It’s just another step in the war. Another part of our campaign. Nothing’s going to happen that doesn’t happen every day.
But his nerves weren’t listening. You don’t start a spell-breaking year every day, they yammered. You don’t ask thirty-two people to keep faith with each other every day. You don’t tell strangers all about—
That thought got grabbed in the jaws of Wolf, shaken hard, and sat down upon. These are not strangers. These are friends, people we know, people we trust. Good people. They’ll do the right thing.
I hope.
Looking for a new topic, Harry hit upon his own life, everything that was going well and not so well. A finger-wiggle melted two columns into the wall, and he started marking up points on each side.
Good: I’ve got a fair chance of passing my O.W.L.s. Bad: I probably won’t get the grade I need to go on to N.E.W.T. Potions, and I have to have that for Auror apprenticeship. Good: Professor McGonagall’s said she’ll talk to Professor Snape about relaxing his rules in this instance. Bad: Grumpy wouldn’t relax his rules for me if I were the last student in the castle. Harry shrugged. Study a little harder on Potions and worry about it when it happens. Moving on.
Good: The DA grows every meeting. Bad: I don’t know every member personally any more, and there’s always a chance we have spies. Make that a certainty—Voldemort’s going to want to know what we’re up to. Good: I know there have to be spies, so I can try to find out who they are. Bad: I might not succeed.
Good: Hermione keeps getting better. Bad: She still has relapses. Like the one when Krum wrote back last week with the information we need to start the year, and said he’ll come visit sometime this summer with the books we need to tweak the spells. Wonder why it affected her like that? Probably just because he’s male and she hasn’t seen him in a while.
Good: Occlumency lessons are on hold until after O.W.L.s. Bad: I’m still going to have Occlumency lessons. Worse: With Professor Grumpy. Worst of all: He’s certain to use my not getting into his N.E.W.T. class to get me angry.
Harry glared at the wall, beside his oversized tally marks for the last two points. What right does he have to hate me the way he does? What right does he have to make my life miserable? It’s not fair—
He snorted with laughter. "If life were fair, I wouldn’t have this," he reminded himself aloud, running a finger across his scar. "I’d have my dad and mum still. Moony and Danger would have Fox as their own, and a couple more besides. Hermione wouldn’t be shy of every boy she sees and she’d still have her own parents, Meghan would be our age instead of younger, Marcus would’ve been a whole lot older and he’d never have died..."
"Playing the ‘if only’ game?" Ginny asked from behind him.
"Mm-hmm." Harry smoothed his fringe back down over his scar.
"Where do I fit in?"
He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her close. "Just exactly where you are. Right along with Ron and all your other brothers not objecting too much."
"They all knew it would happen eventually." She nuzzled at the side of his neck. "They’re just grateful it’s someone they know and like. But they do have one complaint about you."
"Oh? What’s that?"
Ginny grinned. "They can’t threaten you properly. You’re not afraid of them."
Harry snickered. "I’m so sorry that I cannot oblige them in that," he said in the grand manner Padfoot sometimes used when he was telling a story about purebloods. "But no threats will be necessary, for I could never harm you." He looked down at the freckled face surrounded by its red mane and felt the familiar but still thrilling heat-tight-shudder in his chest. "If anyone else tried... I’m not sure what I’d do, but they wouldn’t like it. If they could like anything anymore."
"Don’t, Harry, please, don’t talk like that." Ginny removed herself from his embrace with a shiver. "I don’t want you to kill. Hurt them, yes, but killing—" She shook her head convulsively. "I don’t want you to do anything that would make you more like Voldemort. You can’t help being connected with him, but there’s no reason to make the connection any stronger than it has to be." She reached for his hand and held it, her fingers cold to his touch. "No killing for my sake unless there’s no other way. Please. Promise me."
"I promise. No killing unless I have to." Harry laid his free hand on his heart, then caught her other one in it and conjured fire around them for warmth. "But if it’s your life or theirs..."
"That’s different and you know it."
The discussion of how exactly it was different lasted until the first arrivals of their non-Pride yearmates, which ended all talk about anything except the ritual they were about to undergo.
Maya trailed her fingers along the rough stone of the tunnel wall as she followed Lee towards the cavern. The wolf part of her nature approved of this as a safe den to which to bring cubs. It was hidden, secret, secure.
And we’re going to make it even better.
They were among the last to arrive, having waited for Graham and the Moon sisters at the Slytherin dorm until nearly midnight, which was the time they were supposed to begin the ritual. Entering the big cavern, Selena stared upwards in wonder, then arched her back and groaned. "You’re getting to be a pain, you know that?" she said to her belly, which had resumed its natural swollen contours in the harbor cave when she had taken her Concealing Charm off. "And there’s still three months to go..."
"Having second thoughts?" Roger asked, having threaded through the crowd to her side.
"About what?" Selena looked alarmed as soon as the words had left her lips. "No, I mean, of course not, don’t be silly. What is there to have second thoughts about?"
Maya chuckled. "She gets funnier every day," she said, turning to look at Lee. "Don’t you think—what’s wrong?" Lee’s face was strained, the way he’d looked in the years when Slytherin was winning every Cup going. "Are you all right?"
"What?" Lee jumped. "Yes. I’m fine. Just... thinking about this." His waved hand took in the cavern, the murmuring people, and the enormity of the thing they planned to do. "It sounds like a Bard’s tale. A bunch of half-trained kids like us, cutting You-Know-Who off from being able to tell magically who is and isn’t acceptable by his twisted standards, and destroying the Ministry’s ability to do a Trace or lay a Taboo, all at the same time? It’s too good to be true."
"Do you doubt Harry, then? Or maybe I should say, do you doubt Hermione?" Maya craned her neck and located the fifth year, directing a few of the earlier arrivals in drawing runes on the walls with their wands. "If she says we can do it, then we can."
"You’re right." Lee drew her close and kissed her lightly on the lips. "You’re always right. How do you do that?"
"Natural feminine superiority," Maya said in the loftiest tone she could achieve with his hand creeping towards her chest. "And you’d better stop that or I’ll bite you, see if I don’t."
Lee stuck out his tongue at her. She snapped her teeth at it, but he dodged. "Have to be faster than that," he teased. "Maybe when you finish your Animagus work, you’ll have cougar reflexes."
"Maybe." Maya sighed. "And you’ll have that disease, and be contagious when you change forms." To her initial delight but later dismay, Lee’s Animagus form was a black-furred wolf, similar to Harry’s. Harry had pulled them aside after one DA meeting to explain the ramifications of this, after swearing them both to secrecy. It had led directly to one of their nastier fights, which hadn’t been made up for two days.
Why can’t he see I’m not worth it? whispered a tiny voice in the back of Maya’s mind. Why doesn’t he just end it now, before we both get in too deep?
Maya gave her head and shoulders a little shake, like a cat shaking off water. You’re not me, she told the voice. You’re that curse. I don’t have to listen to you. Lee thinks I’m worth it. He won’t leave me.
Not until you get too hot to handle, the voice whispered back, a nasty chuckle underlying the words. Not until you miss your potion and kill someone, or turn them. Or maybe he’ll realize you’re not worth all the work of Animagus, not when it’ll just make him ill and dangerous as well...
"You’re worth a little ache now and again," Lee was saying now. Her entire mental conversation had taken place in a fraction of a second. "And why’d I be biting people in any case? Unless they’re Death Eaters, in which case they deserve it." He smiled down at her, the special smile that made her knees go weak. "I’ll aim for your dad if they break him out of Azkaban, how about."
"You’re horrible—" Maya stopped as a murmur of "Shhh" ran through the crowd. People were shifting position, moving so that everyone could see the center of the cavern, where Harry was holding up his hands for quiet.
"We all know why we’re here, so I won’t waste time," he said when everyone had found a place to stand. "It’ll take a load off everyone’s mind to know there’s a safe place for Muggles and Muggleborns to hide if they have to, and it’s to all our advantage if Voldemort can’t test people’s blood magically." He grinned. "For the record, we had no idea this would also stop the Ministry catching underage magic."
Snickers ran around the semi-circle of students.
"So here’s what I need you to do." Harry pulled a scroll from his pocket. "Raise your right hand—Fred, George, your other right, thank you—and say ‘I do’ after I read each bit. But listen to what I’m saying, everyone. This isn’t a game. If you break this oath, there are consequences. Not death, it’s no Unbreakable Vow, but you wouldn’t care for what happened." He shot a glance at his sister, standing demurely beside her twin near the end of the arc. "I understand part of it involves boils in places that make riding a broom your new least favorite thing."
Maya winced. And that’s just part of it. I don’t think I want Hermione angry with me.
"So listen carefully, and only agree if you can follow through. If not—" Harry pointed at the tunnel through which they’d come. "No hard feelings. You didn’t volunteer for this, and I won’t blame anyone who wants to leave now."
Five seconds of motionless silence.
"That’s what I thought." Harry unrolled the scroll and began reading. "Do you, students of Hogwarts gathered here, swear to show good fellowship in word and deed to each other until a year from this day, the first of May?"
"I do," rumbled from thirty-two throats. Maya found herself whispering, and forced her voice to a stronger tone. Lee spoke out clearly, as though he held his megaphone in his hand.
"Do you swear to work with the other members of this fellowship on the task we begin tonight, the task of creating a Sanctuary?"
"I do."
"Do you swear to never knowingly betray this fellowship to anyone who intends it harm, and to guard with all your might against doing so unknowingly?"
"I do."
"Do you so speak, do you so intend?"
"I do."
Harry released the bottom of the scroll, letting it roll up in his hand. "Then so let it be done," he said quietly. "To your places, please."
"Places?" Maya said under her breath, looking at Lee in confusion.
"Gryffindors to the south mark," called Ginny from the center of the cavern, pointing that way with both hands. "Ravenclaws to the north, Slytherins west, Hufflepuffs east!"
The arc broke up and reformed in clots of people, each standing by one of the runes Maya’d seen Hermione masterminding earlier. "East begins," Ginny continued, sketching a purple arrow in the air with a number 1 next to it. "North goes second. West third, south last. The incantation is Revelo astra, and you tap the rune when you say it. Be sure to make it nice and clear, or we won’t have a good view!" She hurried to a place near the end of the Gryffindor’s line, next to Harry.
"A good view?" Lindsey Jordan asked from her place beside her brother. "Of what?"
"Astra," Lee murmured. "Ad astra, per aspera. Means through work, to..."
"Revelo astra!" cried six voices in unison before he could finish, and six streamers of black shot up the wall to the Gryffindors’ right, blending into a coherent mass as they touched the ceiling, then acquiring tiny dots of sparkling white.
"Stars," Dean Thomas breathed, staring upwards. "The stars. It’s like the Great Hall, this place, or it will be—we’ll be able to see the stars—"
"Revelo astra!" came the cry from the Ravenclaws, and another six ribbons of black added their blotch to the ceiling. The Slytherins went next, Maya beaming with pride at Graham’s strong voice as he cast his part of the spell, and then it was their turn.
Lee raised his left hand above his head, closing his fingers one at a time. Maya watched, her wand against the wall and her heart in her mouth. If we get this wrong... if we muff it up, after every other House did so well...
The last finger vanished.
"Revelo astra!" The shout could have come from one enormous set of lungs, and the lines of black which flowed up the wall covered the portions of the ceiling which were still stone effortlessly. Cries of delight and wonder greeted the clear and starry night now visible, and Maya felt a rush of pride. Gryffindor had performed its part to perfection, and the Sanctuary was well started.
"Before we go," Harry said, stepping back out to the center of the cavern. "We’re using this place, this Sanctuary, as one sign of our fellowship. But it shouldn’t be the only one. Say hello to other members of the year in the hallway, even if—especially if—they’re in another House. We need every friendship we have if we’re going to win this war. Get to know people, remember their birthdays, or any other day that might be special to them. And come to their celebrations." He turned to look towards Maya and Lee. "Like the one we’re about to have now."
About to have? What is he talking about?
Lee swallowed once, then joined Harry at the focus of all eyes. "You know who I am," he said, turning to bring everyone into his range of vision as the Slytherins split down the middle, Graham and Blaise joining the Gryffindors, Selena and Artemis the Ravenclaws. "You know who I’m with. And you know what happened to her. What I want to do tonight is make sure she knows that she’ll never be alone."
He held out his hand to Maya, the entreaty clear in his eyes. Her feet moved towards him before she knew what they were doing, and she had no choice but to go with them. He pulled her against his side and looked from one end of the cavern to the other, and slowly other people began to come forward as well. Graham, hand in hand with Natalie—Lindz, Dean walking beside her—from the other direction, Selena with Roger’s hands on her shoulders—
"What is this?" Maya whispered, staring at her friends as they formed a circle with her and Lee. "What’s going on?"
"We’re making a Pride," Lee answered in a carrying tone. "Swearing to take care of each other, no matter what. Hands in!"
Numbly, Maya thrust her right hand into the center of the circle, along with everyone else. Lee began to recite, and they all repeated after him, line by line:
"I swear to you, I swear to all,
"That I will come if you should call:
"If you have need, I will be there;
"By hand and wand and
life I swear."
Then everyone was cheering, and Lee was kissing her, and Roger was kissing Selena, which was a slightly more awkward proposition, and Lee had to let her go to laugh at the convolutions their friends were getting into. She grabbed him by the arm and hoisted herself up to his ear.
"I will bite you for springing this on me," she hissed.
"Is there somebody who’s part of it you don’t trust with your life?" he asked, grinning at her.
"No, but I don’t like surprises. So I’m going to bite you." She fastened her teeth gently around his robed shoulder, then took them away. "There. You’re bitten."
Lee put on a high, fluttery voice and fanned himself with his hand. "Oh no, oh no, a werewolf has bitten me. Whatever should I do?"
Maya laughed, feeling her spirits rise higher than she would have believed possible an hour earlier. "Get used to it?"
"Sounds like a plan." He stopped her from retorting to this in the usual fashion of boyfriends.
Life, Maya thought dreamily before she stopped thinking altogether, was very good.
Um... surprise? Yeah, there’s not a whole lot I can say here except hope you enjoyed it and I’ll do my best to produce more soon. Hope I haven’t scared everyone away with my ridiculous lag times.