The Ultimatum

It was cold and the little sunlight that had found its way through the thick sheet out clouds was slowly shrinking out of sight. Nightfall was creeping around every corner and groups of Hogwarts students were traipsing back to the castle after filling their bags with sweets, fresh ink and secret bottles of fire whiskey. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary apart from nothing about this setting was ordinary. Sleet was beginning to fall and stray students who’d gotten lost from their friends were attempting to battle through the now quickly falling snow.

A group of shadows kept their camouflage as they scuttled between the alleyways lingering and having a trip jinx ready for the next student to pass. They didn’t care who they got they just needed students. Third years, sixth years, Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, smart or stupid. None of it matter just as long as this checked the primary criteria: they had to be students, a little more than four at least.

One by one the stray students fell like dominos as they passed an alleyway, alone and out of sight form the main street lights. One by one their stunned bodies were dragged through the snow into the alley and one by one they were taken up to a cave in a nearby mountain that overlooked Hogsmede. They wouldn’t stay there for long, no doubt people would realise the students went missing on a Hogsmede trip and people would be looking around the area. They would be moved, when the time was right, they would be hidden and held captive.

A large man with a thick neck and muscles the size of Texas paced back and forth in the cave admiring the handy work of his inferiors. A row of six unconscious students buckled and chained to the stone wall. One or two were beginning to stir but that wasn’t an issue, their wands had been taken – snapped – and their hands weren’t free. There was no escaping, sure they could scream and shout but if they did there was a simply solution: rip out their vocal cords.

The scene changed in a whirl of wind and snow. The students were no longer in a cave, they’d been moved before the occasional auror or villager could venture close to cave. Hogwarts knew the students had been missing, the villagers knew that the students had gone missing and evidently the ministry. Unsurprisingly the Daily Prophet hadn’t reported the disappearances. A witch called Pansy Parkinson-Nott had taken over all press related to Hogwarts and she wanted to keep this quiet, under wraps. Not many knew why, in fact only a handful baring the dark mark knew she didn’t want to shine dark like of the new Headmistress, appointed by Robert Lupin. The wizarding world needed to see that Lupin’s decision was a good decision and students’ vanishing right under her nose wasn’t exactly promising.

The students were in what appeared to be underground. A dungeon or sewer of some sort, or was it a basement in a grand house? Wherever they were the scene wasn’t pleasing. Grime was sketched across the cold bricks and the occasional rat scuttled across the legs of the students before nibbling the little food they’d been given. The food wasn’t a lot but it stopped the starvation.
Footsteps thundered from somewhere above and were followed by four large shadows emerging into the room. The Professor hadn’t done her task, she hadn’t managed to lure Khaat Lupin from her secure place and as promised it was time to die.

A slash of a wand, the screaming of students and the soft thump of a third years body echoed around the dingy floor. One had fallen. Mary had three more days before the next, maybe two, the werewolves were getting hungrier.

Her round face was damp as tears glistened in the morning light that had woken Mary from her dream. It had been horrific, yet so clear. Her dream hadn’t been an ordinary dream, for she had them every night, no. This dream had depth, something to be interpreted. If the professor had seen the dream from her own eyes, her own perspective then perhaps she would have thought nonetheless, a nightmare, nothing out of the ordinary for the seer. However she had looked down at the scene which meant only one thing: a premonition. Most seers didn’t remember their premonitions, Mary being one, and this was the case today. Wiping her tears away Mary rolled over and closed her eyes, entering into a dreamless sleep until her clock would cuckoo on the wall telling her it was seven o’ clock and the witch had lessons to soon teach.

***

A week had passed since Sunday evening when Mary had experienced a premonition. Since the night it had gone from her mind, forgotten, discarded in the fire like a crumpled piece of parchment. However little was Mary aware the horror of her dream was about to return to her. Memory was a funny thing, some things stuck, some things were forgotten then there were those memories that appeared forgotten, lost beneath the rubble of every day recollections biding their time before they’d return to the forefront of consciousness.

For Mary that moment had been in the staffroom on Monday evening after dinner. Katrina-Carlotta had gathered all the staff there for a meeting, a warning of caution. Students had vanished over the weekend whilst in Hogsmede. Six students to be exact. Nobody knew where they were, nor why they would have vanished as neither of the six students were known to be ‘friends’, two were possible acquaintances but still that gave no reason for them to run off together. A handful of teachers suggested it may be due to the marriage law, to evade it. This suggestion was eliminated seeing as four of the six were under the age of sixteen. The head of houses had gone off to interview each student in their house, most of them would no doubt say they knew nothing but one could only hope that the tiniest clue would further their investigation. Of course the Ministry would be alerted but Du Hunt had made it clear that the Professors were not to speak to anybody about this incident whilst she wrote to an ‘acquaintance’ at the Daily Prophet and ask them to not publish any report about their missing students.

After the meeting Mary had waited, staring wet eyed at the door as each member of staff left leaving her alone. Her dream was coming back to her, the students trapped in a cave after one by one being stunned in Hogsmede. The sound of screams and a rat scuttling across unwashed trouser legs burned on the inside of her skull. Raising a hand to her throat Mary collapsed into a chair and felt the tears leak. She was used to crying; in fact crying took up seventy percent of her day. Unlike most days Mary didn’t halt the tears, wipe them away with a tissue she simply let them fall.

Was this her fault? Had she made a prophecy and caused this to happen? Surely not, surely it had simply been a dream? No. Mary was a seer, the majority of her prophecies she hadn’t remembered – that always made her cry – but now she remembered one because she’d experienced it in a dream. Mary knew where they were, she knew that if they didn’t find the students one by one they would die and did she have something to do with that? Mary wasn’t sure but something was telling her she was involved. She was the one who needed to find the students in order to save them. Her Grandmother had always taught her not to let her predictions drive her behavior, to allow them to fall into place. Mary didn’t care, she was loyal, protective, and friendly and right now she needed to find the courage to do this alone. Closing her eyes Mary focused on what she’d seen, where the cave was and how to get there.

Twenty minutes later Mary was battling the wind up a hill that overlooked the village of Hogsmede, the tears being blown away from her cheeks. Then she saw it, the cave. Mary hoped it wasn’t too late, she knew that the students would be there, she needed to find out what she had to do – Mary was sure it was only her who could free the students but what exactly Mary had to do she couldn’t extract from her dream.

‘Hello.’ Mary said, stepping into the cave and hearing her own soft, teary voice echo around the walls. The cave was empty. The students had been moved. She was too late… Or was she? A figure stirred in the shadows before stepping into Mary’s wand light.

James knew she would eventually come. It wasn’t as if she had a choice. Her reputation had preceeded her in his pack. The students in his pack had not seen her as having an iron will. Not by any means. She was a bit of a wilted flower, by all accounts. She could turn on the waterworks at the mere suggestion of a drop of a hat. She seemed to need no other reason.  She was the perfect patsy. He’d had the pack watch her for a bit. That had been necessary in order to orchestrate this anyway.

He wouldn’t have been surprised if she hadn’t showed up but, honestly, if she hadn’t come voluntarily, he expected that one of the other school staffers would have somehow strongarmed her into mustering up. His keen senses had heard her sniffling before she’d gotten into the cave well.  He’d held the pack members that he’d brought along off at a distance.  The cave was not the den for the pack but it was easily protected and strategically fairly impervious.  A good meeting place.

“Bring your tissues, did you?” James asked, walking out of the shadows. His height, at over 7 foot tall, towered over hers. It looked a bit one sided already. Not that it bothered him. He figured it bothered her, and that was fine with him.  “Bad form, you know. Tears in front of your enemy leaves you vulnerable. Gives you a distinct disadvantage.  I might see that as a good thing—if I considered you a threat. But the fact that you could find this little spot proves your worth to me. Well done, so far as it goes.

“The kiddies will stay alive if you do precisely as I tell you. I won’t promise the clichéd unharmed business.  They are on borrowed time where that is concerned. But if you are a skilled seer, then all should be well, depending upon how accurate you are. You will be expanding your skills, I’m betting.  I’m going to allow you to elevate divination from Halloween parlor tricks to a legitimate skill.

“From now on, if you want those kids—and any other wee ones I decide to take—to live, you work for me,” he cast her a sinister smile and then laughed. “Disobey, and they die. Be accurate, and they live. Screw it up, and they die. And so do you. Should be simple enough, don’t you think?”

Mary couldn't take this in. Who was this guy and why had she somehow been drawn into his life? Why did she have to have such a power, why couldn't she have just been ordinary. Plain ol' Mary. Life would have been so much easier that way. Of course she'd loved her power, at first, she felt good at something for once but being a seer was more trouble than it was worth. Forgetting she saw things, seeing horrible things and evidently being pulled into a sticky situation.

How on earth was she supposed to connect to Khaat Lupin, unless Khaat too was a seer? Even so that wasn't an easy task, it had only been recorded fewer than a dozen times in history and even then only the most talented of seers had been able to perform such an act. For starters Mary hadn't personally met Miss Lupin, she didn't know her aura, her personality or where on earth she was. What if she was protected by some magical enchantment would Mary's ability be able to bypass that?

Flailing her arms, tears now steadily streaming down her face Mary rushed over to James clutching his chest.

'Please, please don't do this! Please just set them free and nobody gets hurt!' She begged, her words barely understandable beneath the sniveling. 'Please! I've never done that before, I dont know if I can, please I beg of you! Show mercy!'

He was a bit taken by surprise when she flung herself at him. No one did that--not of they were thinking, anyway. His female was one of the few that even dared to touch him, but Moira had more moxy than any human female. He laughed at Mist.

"You know, you're almost pretty when you're hysterical--as far as humans go," James said. "But know this--I am not human. I am, by your definitions, a magical creature. And right now, I'm on the top of the list on your ministry's dangerous creatures and on your most wanted list. You'd be wise not to trust me." He stepped away from her.

"You haven't done your homework, Professor. Tsk, tsk. That won't do at all. You're a divinations professor. I presume they hired you because you have skills, not necessarily because of your iron nerve." He flatlined the last bit of sarcasm.

"So let me brief you, then. Khaat Lupin comes from a long line of talented 'energy' workers--on both sides of her family. Her father is well known at St. Mungos for being the best they have at healing skills, and the man heals primarily by touch. Not an unknown phenomenon. People have been healing by touch for thousands of years. She inherits that from him. Along with an almost entirely fearless heart and his love for strategy of all sorts.

"Her mother's line is well known for their divination abilities. Her maternal grandmother's family goes back generations with all sots of seers and divination skills. Khaat's mother, Kate, was skilled enough, even at your age, that Albus Dumbledore saw fit to leave his pensieve to her in his will. It is said she still possesses it and the memory threads that are within its waters. It is no secret that Khaat has inherited these skills from her mother's line. I happen to know, never mind how, that those skills have saved the lives of her family on more than one occasion.

"Her experience will probably make up for your inexperience. To her detriment, she has also inherited her uncle's insatiable curiosity and spirit for adventure. She will not recognize your aura either, and she will be drawn to want to investigate who is trying to penetrate her mind. That will open the door for you. Your job is to find that weak link in her defenses and to get to her. You will bring her to me. Sooner or later, and for the sake of those students, it had better be sooner.

"You will have one almost immoveable obstacle. Her bodyguard, Marcus Belby. He never leaves her, no matter what the odds. He has spent his entire lifetime in espionage and personal protection at the highest international levels. . Her husband and her father want her protected at every cost. They wanted the best, and Belby's picked up the challenge with a vengeance. So far, he is immensely successful. You may be able to enter her mind, but in order to bring her to me, you will have to get her to want to get out from under Marcus Belby's powerful shield. I don't care how you do that. Just do it.

"I presume you need something to identify her by. This might help you." He drew out of his pocket a long lock of Khaat's blond hair--a lock he'd yanked out at the roots in one of their fights. He also had a piece of a white cashmere sweater, torn from her shoulder the night he had almost killed her.

He had crushed her shoulder that night--a wound that had, so far, still crippled her. Her left arm was paralyzed and in constant pain. Her father would be capable of healing it, but he was fighting his own health battles at the moment. It had also been the night that he had marked her as his. He had clawed her face and her throat almost beyond what even magic could do to heal it and erase. Again, it remained within her father's keen abilities alone to heal, but that was not to be right now.

"These are expensive trophies to me," he said to Mist seriously. "They are not yours to keep. I will want them back. Losing this will cost you several lives to repay--perhaps even your own."

Mary felt herself let go of Blood, stepping back slowly towards the exit as she listened to James. He couldn't be doing this, he couldn't be putting this much pressure on her it couldn't be possible. Surely she wasn't a part of this cruel, twisted game of his. Why? Why her? Why not someone with more magical skill than her? Sure she was a seer, and a relatively accomplished one, but she didn't know any defensive magic she couldn't wave her wand, have him bound by chains and then take him to the Ministry. Her magical abilities didn't extend far beyond basic charms and her talent as a seer.

Accepting the lock of hair Mary looked in shock from the blond strands to James' hungry eyes. He was a monster, a twisted monster who 'will want them back.' It was hair! This was not right, he was some sort of mental stalker no wonder the ministry wanted him locked away. If only she'd foreseen how to do that herself, or at least how it would come about. Maybe that is what she'd do first, take a trip to her crystal ball?

'I can't do this. Please you have to understand!' Mary sobbed, staring the werewolf in her eyes. 'Show mercy!' She cried, falling to the ground, the hair secured in a fist that banged the rocky floor of the cave whilst the other clutched her throat.

'I can't do this. It's, it's not right! They're people! They're people! Innocent people!' The Lupins were people. They were only human, they weren't evil, they didn't deserve a monster on their tails and surely he could try and understand that. The fact that they were under target of this monster had reduced Mary to tears.

Her watery blue eyes fell to the floor, staring at the lock of hair in her hands. If she didn't do this then more people could be injured, students who had barely lived their lives could be injured... Murdered.

'They're people.' Mary said softly. Right now she would have gave anything to not be a seer. If she wasn't a seer perhaps James wouldn't have done this in the first place, those students would be safe and he'd simply be trying to figure out another way to get to the Lupins.