The Marauders: Year Seven Part One

Muggles Don't Just Disappear

"She knows," Ned's voice rang down the hall as he limped forward, walking as quickly as his gait would allow him to, trying to ignore the sharp pains racing up his spine with every step, "She heard us!"

Remus's face paled as the Professor neared and the words sunk in. "But if she knows - she'll tell the whole village. They'll all know what we are. They'll --"

"They'll come for us, yes," Ned limped by, "They'll come for us with all of their superstition and hatred and --"

"But the castle -- the university --" Remus's eyes were pooling as he scrambled, also limping, to catch up to Ned.

Neither of the werewolves were going to keep up with the running girl - but --

"Watch out!" Lily cried, and she ran up behind the pair of them, shooing them out of the way and racing to open the door as out of the library came careening a big shaggy black dog and a stag, the dog far ahead as the stag's hooves slid awkwardly on the floor of the castle. They ran down the hall, past Ned and Remus and out the doors Lily had just finished shoving open, down the stairs... 

The dog barked as he raced ahead. He could see the branches still moving in the brush at the edge of the trees and he ran for it as hard as he could. The stag caught up a moment later, able to catch his footing on the mossy dirt, he sprang along side the dog and then past him, leaping clear over the brush and into the trees of the forest as Remus, Ned, and Lily watched from the stone steps with held breath.

The dog breathed the scent of the woman in the air, from the moss and he leaves, and the stag sprang over logs and ducked under branches, his antlers plowing down the way for him as he shook his head. The dog snuffed the ground and barked and turned, following the scent, and the stag followed the dog, honking quietly in his snout. Birds flew up through the trees, disturbed by the rush, their wings flapping and carrying them up out of the trees, and a fox peered at them from the thick of it as the dog finally stopped running and rustled about the leaves and needles.

The scent was gone.

Pop!

"What the fucking hell?" Sirius said, looking around as another Pop! sounded and James stood where the stag had been, his antlers still sucking back up into his scalp. "I - how --? Where is she?"

"I lost the scent, too," James said, and they spun about - they were in the midst of a thicket, a tiny clearing barely large enough to have held both their animagus forms. The brush around them wasn't thick enough for the woman to be hiding in, and the trees were narrow little things, replanted within the last decade or so, impossible to be hiding behind. Sirius spun and stared off in all directions. "It's like she ruddy disappeared," James said, panting.

Sirius was breathing heavily, too. "Could she be a witch?" he asked, looking at James. "Do you reckon she disapparated?"

James shook his head, "I don't think she is... Remus didn't say she's a witch."

Sirius's eyes searched the trees. "Well what the fuck then?"

"I don't know," James replied.

"MUGGLES DON'T JUST DISAPPEAR!" Sirius shouted.

James looked around, too, but there was no one to be seen.

Back at the castle, they all sat around the one long table in the dining hall. Ned stared blankly at the wall, his features weary and worn. Remus sipped a cup of aconite tea while Sirius leaned against him, his head on Remus's shoulder, and James and Lily sat opposite one another, awkwardly, James biting his lip and studying the tips of his fingers while Lily's eyes traveled over the paintings on the walls - a huge, moving triptych of the aurora borealis, painted on black canvas so that the green and pinks of it shone bright.