Always

Chapter Twenty Two

"Dad?"

Harry's eyes opened at the whisper in his ear and he immediately tensed for action.

"I have to use the toilet."

Relaxing and turning his head to look at Azeas in the gloomy light of the cave, Harry smiled and rubbed his son's back. "All right, let's give Maia a few more minutes."

"I'm awake," Maia whispered. "And I am not going in the bushes."

Relieved to hear a bit of the bite back in Maia's voice, Harry kissed both kids' foreheads. "Let me take a look and then we'll find us a bit of privacy." Harry extricated himself from underneath Maia and Azeas and cautiously exited the cave.

The forest was still. The dew was thick on everything as sunlight poured down from the canopy. Listening intently, Harry slowly moved out from the cave that held his children and waited for any signs of danger. The few birds that braved living in the forest twitted about in the treetops and chirped quietly. All seemed safe. After another moment of waiting, Harry moved back and gathered his children.

"All right, Az and I are going to move over there a bit," he explained to Maia. "Stay right here. I'll keep you in eyesight. When we come back, I'll—"

"Dad, please say you weren't going to tell me you were coming with me?" Maia asked as a hand came up to stop her dad's words.

Harry sighed and smiled. "Okay, okay. Just wait here and then it'll be your turn. With more privacy."

A few moments later, they were all ready to begin their walk again.

"Dad, you think we can find something to eat? Sev said that he got a lot of his potion ingredients from here. Maybe there is some food."

"Yeah, we'll keep an eye out."

"How do we even know what direction we're going in? We could be going in circles in this place." Maia looked around with a glare.

"Right now I'm following the sunlight. It's angled this way through the trees, which means the sun is in front of us. Hogwarts is east of the forest," Harry explained. "If we keep walking this way, we should be there in no time."

"But what if we get turned around?"

"The moss grows on the north sides of trees. That'll help us," Azeas pointed out.

"Very good, Az. Yeah, that should help us a lot." Harry ruffled the boy's hair and smiled. "You keep an eye on the trees for me."

"All right, Dad."

They walked in silence for nearly half an hour. Harry kept his ears and eyes trained on their surroundings, searching for any signs of their pursuers. He was trying desperately to not alert the kids to his worry, but he could already feel himself slipping. Lustrum had started and he was being pursued by a pack of Superos and his children were with him. Harry never thought that life would dump him in the middle of another nightmare. Gods, he hated this forest.

"Dad?" Azeas slipped his hand into Harry's.

Harry immediately shook his hand off.

"Oh!" He blinked and cleared his throat. Azeas was frowning in confusion. "Sorry, Az. I was concentrating on the trees and you startled me."

"Sorry." Azeas looked up at him with a crease between his brows. "Something... Is that what Lustrum feels like? Is that why Father and Sev talk about staying away from you?"

Taking a deep breath, Harry smiled. "They just don't like my attitude," he replied with a chuckle.

A sound stopped Azeas from saying anything more and made all three of them immediately stop walking. Maia grabbed Harry's arm and Azeas peered around his sister into the woods where the sound was.