Moonlight Encounters (Alys and Lukas only)

Alys should have known the thrice darned kitty was cleverer than her the moment she had set eyes on that little bundle of fur in cabin 17. Earlier, after the witch had finished her dinner and was almost halfway to the entrance of Muhe, she had spotted Ava's little cat slinking around a corner and a cheeky idea had formed in her mind. The blonde still had no idea where the Risiko common room was and had figured that was where Kai was headed. With nothing more than giving Ava a surprise by appearing by her common room, the blonde had started following.

But Kai had not made for her owner's common room. She had led Alys on a fine dance all over the fort like building, going up and down the stone staircase with the boundless energy only a kitten could possess. And just as the witch was about to give up, the cat had slunk out the main door. Just then, Alys had noticed that it was snowing. Torn between going to get her coat first or simply nipping out to get the kitty before it froze, the witch finally gritted her teeth and stepped out amid the flakes.

But by then, Kai had disappeared. Thankfully, her little paw prints had not. Less thankfully, the seemed to be leading to the Black Forest.

Alys cast the shadowy forest a hesitant look, shivering in the snow. Rules wise, the forest was not off limits. At least, there were no rules about it that she had seen. Logic wise, it was scary. The girl had heard howls coming through her window some nights and really didn't want to find out who or what was responsible for them.

But Kai came first. And if the witch moved fast, she would probably be able to catch up to the kitten at the edge of the forest and no one would be harmed. Straightening her posture and steadying her breathing, the witch set out of the dark fringe of the Black Forest of Durmstrang.

The sky was pretty clear tonight. The stars twinkled in a rhythm around the half moon. Lukas was sat by one of the many small ponds that have been magically kept unfrozen in the magic forest. He lay flat on the snow and in his arms was, a grey eyed snow wolf, Rudolf. His only friend and companion.

He preferred to sit by the ocean and gaze in the night but he will have to make do with the little pond for now. As he watched the celestial drama unfold he couldn't stop thinking about his first few days at school. All the trouble he has come into and the only common factor of all the troubles, apart from his temper, had been that girl. He had to do something about her before she got him into more troubles.

Suddenly Rudolf got up and started barking. Lukas thought at first to calm him down but then he thought Rudy might have sensed somebody to play with so he let him go and wander on his own while he continued his train of thoughts.

The blonde's eyes grew big as she entered the shadow of the forest. Only to try and find the kitty faster, she tried to assure herself, not out of fear. Kai was nowhere to be seen and the witch took a few more steps into the forest, making sure to remember to keep to the thin excuse of a trail near the edge.

"Kai," she called softly, knowing that loud sounds might invite more trouble than she would be able to deal with. The girl glanced up at the stars and sent a prayer skywards for the kitten to hear her and come running. Of course it didn't work, when had Kai or the heavens listened to her.

"Here kitty, kitty," she tried again, raising her voice above a whisper. "Don't you want to get out off the cold?"

Either the kitten really wasn't all that fussed about the steadily falling snowflakes or didn't hear the witch calling because no reply came. Not as much as a faint meow. And before Alys knew it, she was deep enough in the forest to have lost sight off the clearing. A sudden panic gripped her heart and for a moment, she wanted to rush back but common sense told her that rushing wouldn't do anyone any good.

Just as she was gathering her wits however, she heard it. A soft mewl from a kitten followed by a slight growl. The witch turned at the sound, one hand automatically on her wand even though she couldn't do much but shoot sparks from it. Sarcastically, she wondered which color would be more effective against a vicious, bloodthirsty monster, red or green.

And that was when she saw them, the pair of light grey eyes, glittering like shiny hard moonstones in the darkness in front of her. The witch opened her mouth and let out a scream.

When he first heard the faint noise he just thought they were in his head but then he heard a scream and he got up in a flash. He changed into his animagus form that of a golden-brown wolf. He howled, hoping to scare away the girl who screamed and made a dash into the forest.

He rushed towards the source of the scream. From the smell he deduced that Rudy was there as well with another animal, a cat. He was furious. Maybe Lukas was biased as he blamed just the cat and the girl who screamed for ruining the only peaceful time he ever had in the whole day.

He reached there quickly. Observing from the thicket of the trees and catching up on his breath he saw long legs and that mess of a cat Kai. His anger rose to a whole new level because the girl had scared Rudy as he gritted his teeth and barked at the girl.

Lukas was almost tempted to rip the girl's limb or two but decided to just scare her for now. He jumped out of the woods right in front of Alys and growled. Once he was sure that the girl had lost all her wits he decided to run after her and torment her nightmares for a few days.

Alys felt the blood freeze in her very veins as the huge beast made an appearance, its eyes a startling, haunting and chilling blue. Looking into its eyes, the witch was sure this was what death looked like. She tried to move but all her muscles seemed to be paralyzed with fear, her gaze hypnotically captivated by the animal in front of her.

Move Alys, or that thing will rip you to shreds, a voice in her head warned but the blonde was still locked in place, frozen in front of the beast like a scene from a horrible tableau. The wind whistled through the forest, blowing through her golden, snow dusted curls to play with the moon-dappled fur on the wolf-like creature's back and the girl could only stare helplessly as the thing neared her, its fangs bared and its smooth body silent and deadly in the night.

It was little Kai who broke the spell. Just as the wolf was close enough for her to touch, the kitten let out a loud meow and jolted Alys back to her senses and the witch took to her feet, her heart pounding crazily in her chest. She couldn't hear him but from the sounds of the shrubbery, she knew the thing was following her. It would until it got what it wanted.

Trying not to give way to panicking, the witch kept running, unknowingly getting even further into the shadows of the Black Forest.

He was rather enjoying this little game quite a lot. He must have really scared long legs as she ran without looking back even once. She was heading directly for the Twin Ponds, now that should be interesting...

He doubled his pace and as he neared her Lukas leapt in her direction with his right paw outstretched. Cutting through her clothes, he gave her a mildly deep wound but pretty painful none the else.

He slacked his pace as they were now near the Twin Ponds and watched the girl vanish ahead. She didn't loose her balance but she screamed pretty loudly much to his pleasure and slowed down.He was satisfied for now. He and Rudy howled their victory.

As soon as Alys had completely vanished, Lukas changed back to his real form and sent Rudy over to the Pond. He hadn't felt such a rush and a sense of freedom in a long time. Disrupting his peace wasn't too bad of a thing to do after all, thought Lukas as he savored the moment and slowly made way to Alys.

It took the blonde a minute to realize the high pitched sound ringing through the shadows was in fact her own scream of terror as the monster leaped at her, highlighted fantastically against the starry sky one moment and breathing hotly against her skin the next. Before she could as much as blink in response, a dark gash became apparent on her shoulder, blood seeping through the tear in her blouse

Maybe this is why they make them red, she thought hysterically, waiting for claws to scratch her face, for the feel of teeth on her throat. Alys closed her eyes, too afraid to look death in the face.

She lay there for some time, not moving, wondering if that was what the beast wanted. Finally, when the the cold hard ground started sending pins and needles up her back, she got up. There was no sign of the monster and she took a few shaky steps towards what looked to be a tiny clearing.

Even in her terrified state, she could make out the pale moon reflected in a pond. It would have appeared more beautiful, she imagined, if she hadn't just almost been ripped apart. She was never entirely sure what compelled her to do it but the witch sunk to her knees beside the glittering body of water, testing the temperature in the pond with her fingers first. It was cold but far from freezing and it felt good to the touch. Instinctively, she brought some of it to her wound.

It stung but only for a while. Afterwords, it left a soothing trail as she witch carefully washed away what blood she could see. Her shoulder and sleeve was wet and torn but the cut wasn't hurting anymore. And the pond really was beautiful in the soft glow of the moon.

Alys closed her eyes, the exhaustion of the night catching up with her as she knelt by the pond, her blonde hair splayed messily about her head and her uniform blouse torn from shoulder to elbow. There would probably be a scar and she would have to see the healer to get it checked but right now, she was just going to sit by this pond and not think.

Because the moment that she did, the wolf would be there again. And in all of Annika's Muggle stories, the girl always died.

The Twin Ponds were in a shape of the numerical eight there was only a little piece of land separating the two ponds in the middle which was covered with many kinds of flowers some of which are very rare to find and even grown elsewhere. Both the sides of the Twin Ponds looked the exact same. If you had been standing in the middle for a bit more time then you would have lots of trouble deciding which direction you actually came from. The only way to know was the position of the sun or the moon. And if you happen to get lost here on a very cloudy or moonless night then your stars must have run out of luck... The Twin Ponds was a beautiful trap for a bad day...

This was Lukas's favorite place in the whole of Durmstrang. As he neared the clearing he heard Rudolf bark and some mumbling from Alys. Rudolf had done his job, he had ruined the girl's moment.

"RUDOLF! Stay.", called Lukas. Rudolf and Alys as well sucommed the command and embraced silence. Coming out of the clearing at his own pace, he looked at the scene before him, it truly looked like one of Karl Diesel's paintings. Above all he was pleased at the wound he had managed to give long legs.

He gave a warm smile to Alys and said, " Fancy seeing you here long legs!"

"Stay!" she heard a voice command but didn't bother lifting her head from her knees. She wasn't going anywhere anyway. The snow and stars looked all alike from where she was and the pond glowed still beside her, not a ripple disturbing its inky surface and perfectly reflected moon. The cold had begun to seep in her and she didn't know the way back to the fortress. But this wasn't entirely uncomfortable, no. A small part of her brain told her she might be in shock but the blonde didn't pay it any mind.

"Fancy seeing you here long legs!"

Funny, the voice that had once evoked such anger in her, had made her fear for her safety and irritated her to no end now sounded bland, unimportant. This boy was no threat, he wasn't even a nuisance.

"My name is Alys," she said calmly, not even bothering to look up at him, her gaze still fixed to the moon in the pond. She wondered idly if it was close enough to touch.

He walked up to her right, admiring the sight. It was peaceful again and he also had some fun tonight. He wasn't completely satisfied yet though. He now wanted toy with the girl. If her friends would have been here they would pampered the girl like a little baby. Taking her to the infirmary or something. Long legs was from Muhe, she was supposed to handle pain. Should be fun looking at her handle her the pain.

"I am sorry if Rudolf here scared here. You know you scared him a bit as well...", he then looked down at her,

"Anyway, what's with the wound, did you go chasing and hunting or were you the one running?", said a smirking Lukas.

Alys barely glanced at the little wolf cub at the boy's heels, wondering what to say. Should she tell him the truth? What would it matter anyway?

"There was a huge wolf," she stated flatly, relating the story as though it had happened to someone else. "It was brown and it attacked." She tried to gesture at her torn sleeve but gave up halfway. It was getting even colder now and the chily wind cutting on her exposed flesh was raising shivers. And yet Alys couldn't make herself move.

"There was only one moon then," she added helpfully, nodding at the reflection in the pond.

Alys had started shivering and it wasn't the nice kind. Lukas immediately took of his fur which had the warmify charm and put it on Alys. In a few minutes her temperature should come to normal but wound as he observed from close was deeper than he had anticipated which would need proper care if it had gotten infectious.

He for the first time looked at Alys's mesmerizing blue eyes properly. Suddenly he turned around and jumped into the pond with a big splash! It took in some time to return from the Twin Pond's divide. As he climbed out of the pond, he instructed Rudy to stay away from the furball and then bent down to face Alys.

He offered her a blue rose with a warm smile and asked, "Let's take you some place warm shall we?"

It was like being jolted out of a trance. One moment the boy was beside her, draping a cloak over her shoulders and the next, the solid moon in the pond had shattered into thousands of shimmering ripples, forcing her to close her eyes and look away. The spell of the full moon had lost its hold on her and sensation started flooding her body. Exhaustion, pain, residual fear.

She stared at the flower in his hand dumbly, unsure of what she was supposed to do with it. Only one word of his sentence registered. Warm. Slowly. the witch got to her feet, stumbling a little and prepared to follow him to "warm".

As beautiful as they may look the main reason he got them was because the blue roses of the black forest had a special fragrance which kept a person awake or at least conscious till the flower dried and died.

Seeing as Alys was too week to walk on her own, he beside her taking her right arm over his shoulder and holding her from the waist so as it make it less effortful for her to walk all the way to the infirmary.

It was a long silent walk to all the way back to the fourth floor with Rudy and the furball by their side. After leaving Alys in medic Lange's care by giving some vague reasons about her injury Lukas left for the Risiko common room entrance in hopes of finding this furball's rightful owner and also informing her about Alys's injury.

He was quite happy with the turn of events. This was his chance to somewhat change his image in the eyes of his peers. Personally it didn't matter to him one bit but in order to succeed he needed to be a good person in other's eyes and so off he went, looking for Avangeline, as a happy boy.

Alys didn't object the the rose, holding it limply in her half frozen fingers as the boy slipped hiss arms around her waist and supported her weight. She didn't even know what direction he was leading her in, all she could concentrate on walking, putting one step forwards after another. The rose smelled sweet and he smelled like the forest. A combination of crisp leaves and fresh snow. The witch inhaled little by little, feeling her senses come to life.

The warmth inside the fortress washed over her in waves and on the fourth floor, as he left her with the medic, her mind finally started to focus as color crept back in her face.