Son Of Riddle

Chapter Twenty-Three - Trapped in the forest

   James looked back at Lucy with frightened eyes. Lucy returned the gaze at her features began to change. Her nose grew forward into a snout, she released a howl of pain as her back contorted, arching forwards and lengthening. The ears already on her head grew larger and her hands and feet grew warped and became paws. Her spine lengthened and became a tail, and she had grown thick red fur all over her body. Within a minute of the transformation, she was completely a wolf, all traces of humanity gone from her jade green eyes.
  Things stayed silent and nobody moved for a few seconds. "She didn't take the potion that keeps her mind human..." James realized. The remaning humans of the quartet looked at each other, as if silently figuring out what to do. Just as Adam took a step forwards, Lucy let out an unearthly howl and lunged at him. He took out his wand, but before he could do anything, James hit him with a spell. Adam yelped as he shrank down to a small water goblet, leaving Lucy confused, sniffing and pawing at it.
  James looked at her cautiously, and she looked right back at him. She looked at him with a expression like she was deciding whether or not she knew him. He looked familiar, and yet she had never seen him before.
She must have decided he was too familiar to eat, as she let out a howl, and ran off into the forest. Benjamin looked down at her from the tree he was hiding in and let out a sigh of relief, nearly falling out of the tree in the process.
  "I'm gonna go follow her." James said. He pointed to the cup that Adam had turned into. "Take Adam and see if you can find a way back to the catsle. If you can, change Adam back and tell McGonnagle what happened." 
  Benjamin nodded and jumped out of the tree.
James turned into his animagus form and flew upwards, out of the forest, following Lucy through the trees. 
  He tailed her for a while, making sure she didn't kill anyone or do anything stupid. Finally, just like before, she found a clearing and fell asleep in it. James followed her and kept her company, like before.
  The next morning didn't go quite as smoothly as before though.
Benjamin and Adam still hadn't returned, so that either meant they had never made it out of the forest, or McGonnagle hadn't let them leave the castle.
He dearly hoped it was the latter.
James jolted awake to the sound of a twig breaking. His first thought was Benjamin and Adam, but they would have made their presence known by now. He heard the sound again and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
  They were being hunted.
He draped the robe part of his robes over Lucy, who was now human again, and went to investigate what, or who was tailing them, and why.
He dissapeared into the forest, careful not to make noise. He passed through a few lines of trees before he noticed the hoofprints. That pretty much confirmed his supricion of the culprit being the centuars, but he wanted to find them, catch them redhanded so to speak, before he went back to Lucy.
  "You've made yourself an enemy, Son of the Serpent." James heard a deep voice close behind him.
  James whipped around and saw Marceos standing behind him. He held his finger to his throat, glowing with the magic aching to get out of him.
  Marceos lips curled in a sneer. "You shouldn't have left your friend."
  "James?" James blood ran cold as he heard Lucy's voice behind him. She was pastier than usual, and very frail. It wasn't very cold, but she was shivering. She had wrapped his robe as tightly around her as she could, but it didn't seem to be helping.
  James ran forward to shield her, to warn her, to do something, but the centaurs moved too fast.
His eyes glowed crimson as the arrow hit her. He moved fast as lighting to catch her has she fell, and held her as she blacked out.
  He looked at Marceos with murder in his eyes. He used his free hand to conjure a ball of energy, like the one he used during the duel with Adam they day they first met like little lightning bolts all wrapping around each other confined to a ball shape, only this one was bigger, and blood red.
  The centaur's eyes widened as he realized what was happening. The ball hit him with the force of a truck, sending him flying backwards, setting a line of trees behind him on fire.
He wildly sent spells at the centaurs around him, mad with rage. Every centaur within a 5 yard radius from him was sent flying backwards like Marceos. 
  He took Lucy to a large oak tree and hid her in the undergrowth, not trusting his medical skills enough to pull the arrow out of her shoulder. He wrapped his robe tighter around her wound and left her, hoping she wouldn't bleed out. He left her under the tree and ran back out into the forest, looking for any other centaurs.
  An arrow that flung past his head told him he found what he was looking for. He ran towards the direction the arrow came from and found another centaur, an arrow notched in his bow. Four other centaurs circled him.
"I don't want to have to kill you." The centaur said.
  James scoffed. "You seemed pretty quick to kill me back in the village."
The centaur tossed his head, uncomfortable. "That was under Marcoes's orders. We are a peaceful people, when our lives arent being threatened."
James was getting frustrated. "Why would I be threatening your lives?" He asked. "I haven't done anything to make you think I would endanger you."
  The centaur re-aimed his arrow at James' heart. "Foolish child. One should know better than to lie when one's life is on the line." 
James had to act fast before he did somethng he'd later regret. "Alright" He said quickly. "...Tell me then, how could I be recruiting more death eaters? I've been at school the whole year. You all seem to trust Hagrid, ask him."
  "Do not drag Hagrid into this." The centaur warned. "We owe a great deal to him."
"If you trust Hagrid so much, why shouldn't you trust me? Hagrid trusts me."
  The centaur hesitated for a moment. James knew he was making progress, he just couldn't afford to stop.
"I don't want a new dark lord to rise any more than you do. My father was cruel. I can help find this new dark lord, wherever he is, and stop him."
"Don't be a fool Xenys!" A female centaur hissed from behind him. "The boy's usung persuasion magic. Kill him now, before you lose your chance."
The centaur's expression hardened, and he readied his arrow.
James pivoted out of the way right as the centuar let his arrow fly, hitting the tree behind him. He shot a spell at the centaur leaving him frozen in place. The spell wasn't a petrification spell, but rather a spell that trapped the centaur in his own mind, reliving his worst memories and fears.
The female centaur from before charged him, and James jumped, catching a tree branch and he pulled himself into the tree just as the centaur slashed at him with her sword.
  Two other centaurs shot at him with arrows, and he said a silent incantation to create a small barrier around him as he figured out his next move. The barrier wouldn't last long, so he had to think fast. He looked around at his surroundings. He didn't have a lot of space to work with if he wanted to keep the centaurs away from Lucy, so he couldn't transform into his animagus form.
He couldn't send more energy balls or he would cause a massive forest fire, and that would not be good for anyone.
As he was racking his brain for a less dangerous spell, he heard a crash come from further in the forest. It couldn't have been reinforcements from the centuars, as the centaurs were also looking at the place where the crash came from.
James took the second the centaurs were distracted to get himself out of the tree. Sure, a tree was a great place to be when fighting centaurs, but he did not like feeling trapped, and he was most certainly trapped in that tree. 
"He's getting away you fools!" A centuar screamed. James took that as his cue to run. He ran, exprecting for the centuars to chase him, but oddly enough, they didn't. James looked back, confused. Why weren't they following him?
  The centaurs were all frozen as they were, confused and infuruated expressions on their faces. James cautiously walked over and tentatively touched one to make sure it was actually frozen. Better than frozen, it was...stone? The centaurs had turned to stone. He hadn't done that...he didn't  think.
  Just then he heard a yelp of pain coming from the direction he had heard the crashing noise. James carefully walked over to see if this unknown attacker was freind or foe.
  He almost laughed in relief when he saw both Adam and Benjamin near the base of a tree, Adam looking at Benjamin with an annoyed expression on his face, Benjamin rubbing his shoulder.
  "You weren't sopposed to turn them to stone, you were sopposed to petrify them!" Adam was saying.
"I just fell out of a tree man, cut me some slack! Magic is hard." Benjamin defended.
James couldn't hold his laughter anymore, and both Benjamin and Adam jumped, startled, then started laughing right alongside James, though for different reasons. 
  "How did you do that?" James asked benjamin. He knew there was a spell for turning things to stone, it was just very difficult.
  Benjamin shrugged. "I don't know, it just happened."
"Unfortunately." Adam grumbled. "How are we gonna explain this to Hagrid? Or the rest of the people who'll come into the forest and see a group of stone centaurs? There's no bloody countercurse!"
  "Hey bro, at least I got them." Benjamin said.
James put his hand on Adam's shoulder, still laughing. "There is a countercurse, don't worry."  He said. "I'll erase thier memories and send them back to the village."
  James walked back to the centaurs and mumbled the memory wipe spell. He returned them back to their original state, leaving them completely confused.
  James hid while Adam made up an explaination. He didn't want the whole thing with Marceos to happen again. 
He breathed a sigh of relief as the centaurs trotted away. "I told them they got hit with a stray spell while hunting." Adam told him.
"I don't know why they got so mad though." Benjamin said, confused.  "It would have been a simple mistake, no need for them to threaten our lives! jeez."
  "Centaurs are proud creatures." Adam explained. "The don't like having something taken from them, and they don't like needing help."
"Speaking of help," Benjamin said. "Where's Lucy?"
James paled. In the heat of battle he had forgotten about her. "They shot her with an arrow." He said grimly. "We need to get her to help."
  James led them to the oak tree he had hidden her in the undergrowth of, and gingerly pulled her out. His robe was still fully wrapped around her, but the blood from her shoulder had soaked through it and she was freezing cold and still unconsious.
  James stepped back a few paces and turned into his animagus form, becoming a small dragon, about the size of Hagrid's hut.
He gently picked her up in his talons and motioned for Adam and Benjamin to climb up on his back. They did, albeit hesiatntly, and James flew as fast as he could to the hospital wing.
  They landed on the roof, and James turned back into a human as they took her inside.
Madame pomfrey took her and asked the boys a million questions, most of which could be answered with "Had a run in with the centaurs."
After what seemed like a lifetime of questions, she finally let them go so she could tend to Lucy.
  They walked back and sat on the steps outside. James filled them in on all that had happened while they were looking for a way out.
Benjamin was silent and Adam had a thoughtful expression. "So...you really weren't kidding when you said you were dangerous...How did you even do that?" he asked, his expresson somewhere between thoughtful and intruiged.
  James shrugged. "Like you already know, I was trained at a very young age and one of the things I was taught was how to fight multiple people and still keep the odd in my favor."
  "I see..." Adam remained silent for a while, thinking.
Benjamin abruptly stood up. "I'm gonna head to the owlry..." He said, his expression unreadable.
James nodded, but his insides were knotted with strange emotions. What if...they were now scared of him? The only friends he'd ever had were now possibly afraid of him...well, they weren't without good reason. He had injured an entire horde of centaurs. He could have killed them if he wanted.
  He and Adam sat in silence until Madame pomfrey walked out and saw them.
"She'll be healed by tomorrow morning." She assured them.
"Is she awake?" James asked.
Madame pomfey looked at him, incredulous. "The child's been through some serious trauma, Mister Riddle, and her body's fragile as it is. She may not even wake by tomorrow."
James nodded.
  "I'll let her know you were worried for her when she wakes up." Madame pomfrey promised. "Now, off you pop, you both need rest too. I'll let Minerva know why you're absent."
  They two boys walked to their respective places of abode in silence, Adam still inside his head. 
James couldn't sleep, despite being exhausted. He wandered through the chamber of secrets, hoping and praying he hadn't just lost his only friends. He guessed the only thing he could do was keep his space from then until they decided what they thought of him.

The next day, James kept his distance from Adam and Benjamin as much as he could. The only problem was, by the time lunch rolled around, they were waiting for him at the slytherin table, earning nasty looks from the other slytherins.
'Okay...' James thought. 'If they're waiting for me, that has to be good right?'
  He tentatively walked over to them, his stomach twisting itself into knots from the anxiety.
He greeted them as he sat down.
"You ok?" Adam asked him. "You look pale. Er- paler than normal."
James laughed. "I couldn't sleep much last night." He explained.
"Me neither." Benjamin said.
Finally, James couldn't take the anxiety anymore. "So you're not afraid of me?" He asked, bluntly. He couldn't figure out a better way to ask, and bluntness had always worked in the past.
  Benjamin and Adam looked at him, confused, then started laughing. "Mate, why would we be afraid of you?" Adam asked.
"Because I injured a lot of people?"
"I mean, I'm not gonna say they didn't deserve it." Benjamin said. "They did try to kill us."
"And they did injure Lucy." Adam added.
"Speaking of which, do you think she's out?" Benjamin asked. "I was in the owlry all night, I have no idea what happened after that."
"Madame pomfrey said the chances of her being awake today are low." James said. "She'll be healed, but she won't be awake."
"Speaking of the owlry," Adam said. "Why did you go up there? You sort of just took off without saying why."
"I just needed time to process all that had just happened." Benjamin explained. "With the centaurs, the note and Lucy being injured, it's a lot to take in all at once."
"What was your deal yesterday?" James asked Adam. "You just kinda sunk into your mind, it was weird."
Adam laughed. "I was just trying to figure out how you made those energy ball things."
"Oh I see." James said, nearly laughing in relief. "I thought you were mad at me or something." 
"Nope. Just geeking."  
The three laughed, then sat in comfortable silence, until Adam turned towards James abruptly, his eyes wide.
"Firenze." He said.
Both James and Benjmain loked at him with confused expressions.
"...Sorry?" James asked.
"Firenze! The centaurs said something about this guy, Firenze, not being there and that's why Marceos was there instead of him. Hagrid looked worried but he didn't say anything, and the guard said something about him going to look for you when he was carrying me and Benjamin to the wolf pit."
James was silent for a few moments, thinking his plan through. The only way to find out more about this Firenze character was to ask around, find sources. The books in the library were all old, he couldn't trust them. McGonnagle surely wouldn't reveal any information. Their only hope was to sneak out of the castle and find him.
He looked at his friends. "Do you want to have another excursion after what just happened?" 
They nodded. "If it means clearing your name and making people stop hating you, then yes." Benjamin said.
James nodded once. "Alright then. Meet me tomorrow morning at the chamber of secrets."