She whispered

by Lucas Chesterton

  It came after another one of her Disarming spells had achieved nothing but stir up the blanket of snow beside him. Jack saw from the get-go that it would come off badly, and he didn’t even bother to dodge it. He grinned lazily at the stirred-up gust of snow, muttered something that sounded like ‘Very impressive’ and turned away.

  Now!

  Elena swiftly raised her wand, hissed the incantation and threw the spell at his back. The wave of magical energy that issued from the tip of her wand was strong and focussed. It would hit him hard and already a satisfied smile played around her mouth.

  However, Jack’ battle instincts were as acute as ever. He felt the wave coming at him even without looking, and he wheeled around as swiftly and elegantly as a dancer. With a very short but effective jerk of his wand, he caught her spell and instinctively threw it back at her. That was when she noticed how good it really was because the rebound lifted her off her feet once more and sent her flying high, high into the air. She pedalled her legs desperately, her arms got caught in the fluttering folds of her cloak, and when she thudded to the ground her fall was softened by a cushion of undergrowth. Her wand slipped out of her hand, and she saw it out of the corners of her eyes, spiralling high above her and being swallowed by the darkness of the woods.

  ‘Damn it!’ she swore as she struggled out of the bushes that pricked her arms. She knew she was in for a new round of snarky comments because he had told her a thousand times over to never let go of her wand if she wasn’t exactly disarmed, to grip it even when seriously hurt and how this must become a reflex which, in his mind, she hadn’t mastered nearly well enough.

  She came to her feet, looked around herself and realized that she was in the forest. Through the trees, she could still see the snowy plane gleaming. Gosh, that spell had been good! Although it had been turned on her, she couldn’t help feeling a glowing satisfaction. Once she hit it, she hit it really well!

  ‘Elena?!’ Jack’ voice sounded far away.

  ‘I’m here!’ she cried. ‘But without my wand’, she thought and stared in the direction where it had been flying into the forest. Maybe she could find it before Jack found her? Quickly, she stumbled over ice-encrusted needles and roots towards where she assumed her wand must have fallen. The thickness of the forest enclosed her. She was well aware that it bore the sinister name Forbidden Forest and was off-limits to Hogwarts students. It didn’t impress her much, though. After all, she was with her teacher who was probably the most powerful wizard in the country by now! Eagerly, she scanned the ground, parted bushes and lifted snowy fern in search, confident that Jack would be with her any second.

  Suddenly, with her eyes still glued to the ground, Elena felt a presence. She looked up. In front of her stood a dark figure. It looked distinctly human. Elena narrowed her eyes, for better vision. ‘Hi’, she whispered, but there was a catch in her voice.

  The figure came closer. It moved strangely, as if limping. Elena saw wiry curly hair, then she was able to discern features. With a jolt, she realized that a man was standing in front of her, a man wearing a grin and ��� no clothes at all. Yes, he was completely and utterly naked, and in the moonlight sneaking through the dense branches of the trees, she saw its bluish gleam.

  Something about the face seemed familiar. Out of nowhere, she remembered a holiday in Greece with her parents, museums, excavation sites, painted vases with lewd scenes, involving serenely smiling nymphs and ��� creatures like this. Creatures with goatees and horns on their heads. And this one had a third horn, further down, and it was much larger than the two horns of the head combined. Her eyes widened in disbelief and, eventually, horror.

  ‘JACK!’ Elena screamed at the top of her voice. She stumbled backwards, bumped into a body. More naked skin, smooth and cold, another grin, another huge horn. Again, she screamed and the sound rang shrilly through the forest as the two creatures closed in on her, touching her with ice-cold hands …

  It was in this moment that Daysen broke through the bushes, wand raised. He shouted an angry incantation and two white jets zoomed over Elena’s head. She heard a grunt, then another one, and a second later the two naked figures fell to the ground, as heavy as two sacks of potatoes, and lay still. Elena stood and stared while Jack came to her side. She felt his hand on her shoulder, gripping it, turning her to him.

  ‘Are you alright?’ he muttered under his breath.

  ‘Yeah.’ Her eyes were on the two figures on the ground. ‘Satyrs!’ she hissed. ‘I read about this in the Prophet!’

  ‘Yes. They made it to Scotland’, Daysen, too, stared at the unconscious figures in distaste, ‘I’ll be damned.’

  ‘I lost my wand’, Elena confessed plaintively.

  But he merely waved an impatient hand. ‘Wouldn’t have helped you without the proper spell’, he murmured. ‘I was going to teach you ��� later.’

  ‘What are they doing here, anyway?’ Tension and relief made her blabber. ‘This is not their climate! See how their skin is frozen blue?’

  ‘Well, that’s probably why they wanted a little ��� warmth’, Jack commented coolly.

  Elena stared at him. ‘Don’t make fun about that!’

  He looked up, glum and a little embarrassed. ‘I didn’t mean to ���’

  ‘What are we going to do about them?’ she demanded heatedly. ‘We can’t leave them lying here, can we? They might wake up and go at the students ���’

  ‘Of course we can’t leave them here’, Daysen muttered and it was obvious that he was going through the options in his mind. ‘Actually, this is quite a crisis. I have to deal with it right away, alert the headmistress.’

  Elena watched with worried eyes as he came to a decision, raised his wand and, after a tiny moment of hesitation, intoned ‘Expecto Patronum!’

  A blue jet erupted from the tip of his wand, developing into a slender and elegant doe that blinked at Jack with its beautiful large eyes and then galloped away through the forest, into the direction where Daysen sent it with another curt wave of his wand. When the doe was gone, he turned around to Elena, his eyes on the ground. Once more, he looked a bit embarrassed.

  ‘What now?’ Elena asked eagerly.

  ‘We wait’, he replied, still not meeting her eyes. ‘Finding your wand would be a good idea, as well.’ Again, he raised his and muttered ‘Accio baculum Elenae’. Quite nearby, a bush rustled and spat out Elena’s wand which Daysen caught in his hand and passed to her. She was still trembling with adrenaline.

  ‘This is unbelievable!’ she muttered. ‘Those creatures shouldn’t be here! What would they have done if you hadn’t come?’

  Jack looked stricken. ‘Do I have to spell that out for you?’

  ‘Gosh!’ She shuddered. ‘And with these huge ���’

  ‘I know.’ His lips were a thin twitching line.

  For almost a minute, they stood without a word, neither of them knowing what to say. Eventually, Daysen overcame his embarrassment by going into teaching mode and explaining to her the only effective spell to rout satyrs. She only listened with half an ear, trying hard to control her trembling hand.

  Eventually, they heard someone coming closer. Heavy footsteps crunched the forest ground and in the next moment, another figure broke through the bushes. Elena’s eyes widened yet again, since the person who came to meet them was without doubt the hugest man she had ever seen. His robes looked like a family tent and he had a huge mane of scraggly hair with matching beard. He panted as he came towards them.

  ‘Professer!’ he breathed, ‘I saw your Patronus. Is somethin’ the matter?’ He had a broad Scottish accent.

  ‘I guess you could say that’, Daysen replied coolly and pointed to the ground, before he turned to Elena. ‘This is Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper. ��� Ms Horwath.’

  ‘Hi there’, Elena piped up shyly.

  ‘Ma’am.’ Hagrid looked at her curiously, then turned his attention to the two unmoving figures lying on a thin blanket of snow.
‘So they’re here!’ he stated, sounding a little excited.

  ‘Yes, they’re here. Which means that we cannot put off our search of the Forbidden Forest one minute longer.’ Jack had clearly found his equilibrium again and was back to bossy.

  ‘I’ve ne’er seen one of those!’ Hagrid issued as he inspected the unconscious satyrs. ‘Blimey, they look exactly like in the books ���’ For some reason, he sounded like a matron cooing over a cute little baby.

  ‘Curb your enthusiasm, Hagrid’, snarled Daysen. ‘We have to alert McGonagall right now.’ He turned to Elena. ‘And we have to break this off, I’m afraid.’ He fidgeted a little. ‘I’m going to take you home.’

  ‘Not necessary’, Elena said quickly. ‘I can Apparate now, remember?’

  ‘You shouldn’t let the young lady walk ter the spot by ‘erself, Professer’, Hagrid said. ‘Not with them creatures around. ��� Don’t worry, I’ll take care of those two.’

  ”Take care’ as in ‘lock them up’, not as in ‘take them to your hut and pamper them’, mind you.’ There was a nasty edge to Jack’ words; he did not appear to like this Hagrid very much.

  ‘Sure thing, Professer’, Hagrid mumbled.

  ‘Meet you at McGonagall’s then? And don’t forget to wake up Filius.’

  ‘I will. I mean, I won’t ���’

  ‘Let’s go.’ Elena felt Jack’ fingers nudging her elbow.

  ‘Bye then’, she said in Hagrid’s direction, still a little overawed by his appearance.

  The huge man kneeling beside the satyrs looked up and gave her a grin. ‘Bye, luv.’

  Daysen frowned a little as if he took exception to Hagrid calling her ‘luv’, but he said nothing and motioned her to move. They walked out of the forest and along its rim towards the nearest Apparition spot.

  ‘I wonder how they came here’, Elena mused. ‘The satyrs.’

  ‘I have no idea’, Jack replied. ‘And I don’t like it one bit.’

  ‘What d’you mean?’

  ‘It’s all a little bit much. The hearing. People wanting to ruin my reputation. The intrusion in my office. And now satyrs.’

  ‘Surely you’re not implying that the satyrs came here to rattle you?’

  ‘They’re here to rattle something’, Daysen growled. ‘It’s like so many pieces of jigsaw puzzle that somehow don’t fit together.’

  Elena gave him a long side-glance. There were deep lines on his forehead and he was obviously thinking hard.

  They reached the Apparition spot and bade each other goodbye. ‘To be continued on the weekend?’ Jack asked.

  Was she wrong or was there an eagerness in his voice? His eyes sought hers, and again their looks caught, stuck to each other.

  ‘Alright’, said Elena, feeling a little dizzy. ‘And ��� well, thanks for not letting those creatures rape me.’

  ‘Of course not’, he mumbled, jittery again.

  She smiled at him radiantly. ‘Best of luck for your search. Take care. And good night.’

  His eyes still clung to hers. He twitched, opened his mouth, closed it. Then, with an awkward nod he said a curt ‘Good night.’

  Elena gave him another bright smile, waved her wand and a second later she had vanished.

  Jack Daysen stared at the place from where she had disappeared for a long time. Much longer than he should, really. As it was, he had to consciously shake himself into action so as not to stay glued to the spot and look like an utter fool.

  When he finally made his way up to the castle, however, his steps felt peculiarly light. The lightness was in his head, as well, making it spin a little. He moved very quickly, a sudden burst of energy driving him forward and making him feel years younger, bursting with strength.

  He entered the castle, crossed the Great Hall that lay in silence and dim light, and spurted up the moving staircase in the direction of the Headmistress’s Office. His heart pounded, he felt wide awake and he knew that the reason was not the impending search of the Forbidden Forest. What made him feel like this were the words that his mind kept repeating, as if in an endless loop.

  ‘ I think ��� no, I know ��� I have fallen in love with you.’

  In love with him.

  In love with him.

  He didn’t even know what those words meant. He wasn’t even ready to think through their implications. One thing was for sure, though: in a very, very long time, nothing had made him feel like those words did right now. They seemed to lift him up the stairs, his feet appeared to hover inches above the ground. His chest was suddenly wide, as if his ribcage had expanded.

  With a chuckle of surprise, Jack Daysen realized that at this very moment he felt quite gloriously and, in fact, almost ecstatically happy.

  Remus Lupin stood by the window, slightly parting yellowish gauze curtains and looking down on the urban London scene outside. It was a cold and drizzly afternoon, clouds hung heavily from the sky and the people that hurried along the pavement were hidden under umbrellas or shrouded in jackets with hoods. The street was slippery with grimy sludge, the snow of the night before mixing with rain, dirt and exhaust particles. It was the kind of weather that made everybody in their right mind seek warm shelter as soon as their daily business outside was done. Certainly, it would have occurred to no one to stop and wonder why in this innocuous road in the borough of Islington the house numbered thirteen followed immediately upon number eleven. Even in fair weather, this little oddity hardly registered with the Muggles living nearby anymore; they were used to it and probably considered it the result of botched city planning originating from a time when such things were not as meticulously organized as they were today. And in fact, this explanation was far more reasonable than the truth, namely that number twelve was invisible, hidden from curious eyes by complicated jinxes.

  ‘We are unreasonable’, Remus thought, ‘our whole existence is.’ Not for the first time did he ponder the fact that the main reason for the Statute of Secrecy generally working so well was that Muggles did not really want to know, that they were too scared to know, and not because wizards kept to it so religiously. It was otherwise hardly explainable why the recent turmoil of the war had generally gone unnoticed among the non-magical population. Whenever the irrational and surreal broke into cosy Muggle lives, they usually chose to ignore it. And this ignorance was the soil on which the wizarding world thrived, which enabled it to live in a parallel universe governed by its own rules.

  How long would it go on, though? It was a question Remus often tossed back and forth in his lonely hours, of which there were many. The way he saw it, there were two possibilities: either, the Muggle world would continue on its present course, becoming ever more rational, technocratic and logical, hence turning further away from anything metaphysical and driving the magical world ever more into the shadows; or the Muggle world might eventually stumble upon magic in a way that made ignoring it impossible, for instance through science, and it was anybody’s guess what would happen then. Certainly, Muggles today were more prepared than ever to embrace magic since they had lost it from their everyday lives. However, there was no critical mass yet. Fear of anything that didn’t fit the rules of logic and ‘normality’ was too strong, and denying it recommended itself as the most reasonable solution.

  ‘But as long as this goes on, the wizarding world can never be a peaceful one’, Remus thought while he watched a woman in a mac pushing a pram up the curb and balancing a huge umbrella in the process, ‘because it is denied one of the most basic human needs: to go out and conquer the world.’ It was no use saying that it was better not to do that anyway, as it usually turned out destructive; there would always be a strong desire in any social group for freedom and doing as it pleased and not having to hide itself. He understood that the Statute of Secrecy was only an ill-fitting lid for a can squirming with worms. Any problems that might arise in the future would always be a result of this situation; always had been; and the way he saw it, it was happening right now.
>
  Remus shook himself. Philosophical considerations were always a sure sign that he was getting maudlin. No wonder, perhaps, given the general state, but not to be indulged in, either. If he was going to become a misanthropist, it would not be a whiny one. At that moment, too ��� right on cue ��� he spotted a black-clad figure crossing the street below and walking through what had become quite a downpour at an even pace. The curious thing was that this person carried a black umbrella, but didn’t bother to open it. However, Remus Lupin guessed that it was only a hastily transfigured broom and he grinned to himself. So even Jack Daysen made mistakes.

  A few moments later, he heard noises downstairs that announced someone’s arrival. Voices, one of them silky, the other one a hoarse snarl ��� old Kreacher was still the unofficial master of the house and as charming as ever. Remus stepped out of the sitting room onto the landing. A crackling noise could be heard from downstairs. Remus knew well what it was ��� the sound of layers of dust rising from the floorboards, assembling into a bearded ghostly shape, accompanied by a low-pitched wail.

  ‘Yeah, kill yourself already!’ the silky voice growled.

  Remus chuckled. What an idea of Alastor Moody to install a dusty ghost to scare Daysen! The man must have had a good laugh the first time he’d seen it. ‘Up here!’ Lupin called out and peeked over the banister. A black-and-white face looked up, rendered mask-like by the eerie glow of the old chandelier in the hallway. It wore a very familiar sour expression.

  ‘Couldn’t be bothered to put that thing away, could you?’

  ‘Actually, it’s quite a good scarecrow’, Remus replied amiably.

  Jack Daysen scoffed and glided up the stairs, soundless, as if still the quiet spy that hid in dark corners and eavesdropped. He wore a look of arrogant curiosity which implied that Lupin might be wasting his time. He also had deep rings under his eyes.

  ‘Long night?’ Remus said instead of a ‘How do you do’, knowing that Daysen wasn’t much into formalities, either.