Saturday morning, Tia's flat


Fauna had already had coffee this morning, and she fidgeted with the strap of her weekend bag as she waited next to the fireplace in Tia's flat. She wore lightweight, loose-fitting trousers in a palm leaf print, and a bright tank top, and platform sandals she still wobbled in, and a massive hat, and she looked like most Brits did when they were dressed to go on holiday - cheerily clueless.

Fauna beamed at Tia when she moved into the living room, even though she'd just seen her a minute ago, but now she was ready, ready-ready, for their weekend trip. On the weekend. To get away for a whole weekend!

"You look pretty. I like your sunglasses."

Her smile widened shyly. Honestly, she liked everything about her. Tia was surprising her with a trip someplace warm, and Fauna had tried her best not to pester her for details, though she'd daydreamed about it all month. She'd put a lot of thought into which clothes to bring, picking out her best swimsuit, and cutest sleepwear (and going on a bit of shopping spree when she'd realized everything she owned was Not Cute), and her only pair of shorts, and a pair of jeans just in case, and a dress just in case, and a nice top, and her cutest old top, and about a million bottles of sunscreen.

They could both use a fun holiday. January had been stressful. February had been better, up until Valentine's Day, when Fauna had been given another reason not to trust chocolates.[1]

Luck was on their side. Fauna extended a hand to her, looking at her fondly.

"You have to give me a clue, you know, if we're going to say the name of the place together," she teased.

1.	For the darling

             "You look pretty. I like your sunglasses."

"Thanks!" Adrestia laughed, pushing up her ridiculous to wink at the other witch and strike a fanciful pose. It was vacation time! An itty bitty very much needed vacation for the both of them; they simply had to take advantage of how (relatively) quiet February had been so far.  Full moon come and gone, nobody horribly mauled or dead or kidnapped?? Merlin help them, they might not have another chance!

She shifted the weight of her neoprene duffel and took Fauna's offered hand with a soft smile. Tia had opted for a cute, low-key outfit - a pair of black linen dungarees with a bright magenta tankini top underneath, to match with her neon pink pool sandals. She thought they looked pretty damn cute together.

"Alright alright," the older witch surrendered, leaning in for a quick kiss as if though that was the payment taken for revealing their destination. "We're going to... Tioman Island!" she lowered her sunglasses back over her eyes, grinning. "Totally chill magical resort, I've heard amazing things ."

Sunbathing? Diving with sea creatures? Staying in their room all morning, breakfast in bed? Yes, please. "Come on," she squeezed her girlfriend's hand excitedly. "Three... two...one..."

Tioman Island? No idea where that was! But it was an island, and it was warm, and Tia had picked it out, and Fauna was sure it was perfect.

"I'm so excited," she murmured.

Tia looked incredibly cute, all the way down to her pink sandals. They were ready to go.

Fauna adjusted her weekend bag on her shoulder, and placed her hand in Tia's hand as they tossed the floo powder into the fireplace and stepped into the flames.

"Tioman Island!"

Green fire flared, and then crackled like static, and then crackled some more, and the images of other locales whooshed by...

And they kept on whooshing by.

And the fire kept on crackling.

Fauna held Tia's hand tighter, her stomach regretting the coffee she'd had. After what felt like ages, they stumbled out of the fireplace and onto a dusty stone floor.

"Oof!" She braced herself and tried to keep Tia upright. Her floppy hat flopped right off her head.

Behind them, the fire sputtered out. For a moment, there was only silence. An ominous smoke rose from the ashes, filling the dusty air with the smell of regret and bad decisions.

Fauna coughed, and cleared her throat.

"Oh no."

Fauna blinked around the ramshackle place. Chairs hung upside down off the tables, a bar stood empty at the front, and the only light in the cold room came from the dim gray sunlight filtering through the dusty, drafty windows.

"Hello?" She called out.

The pub smelled of old ale and whatever stain was on a nearby table.

Fauna turned to look at the fireplace, waving the smoke away. She'd never seen a floo look so utterly dead. Where had it taken them? Where were the happy crowds, the brightly colored drinks with little umbrellas, the beach and the sunshine and the warmth?

She hurried to the closest window, and peered through the dusty glass. Cliffs in the distance jutted against a gray, cloudy sky and into a dark, rolling sea.

Fauna looked back at Tia, her blue eyes wide.

"I think we're going to need another fireplace."

Floo, while not her favourite form of travel, always gave Adrestia a nostalgic sensation. A childhood and adolescence peppered with showers of soot, the scent of smoky ash, tongues of vivid green flame. While she expected a long journey to where they were headed, something in her gut told her things weren't right - something that didn't match with her young memories of floo trips.

The first shock that ran through her was the sudden cold. Tia gasped, stumbling and kept from falling only by the grace of Fauna's good instincts.

Her eyes adjusted to the dark as she caught balance and looked around. Definitely nowhere near Tioman. So quiet, so desolate. It felt deader even than mum and dad's quiet suburbia. Adrestia took off her sunglasses, stock still while the other witch went to the window. What was this? An accident? Or something more? She forced herself to breath in slowly.

No, this had to be an accident. And she was with Fauna, with an Auror. "I think we're going to need another fireplace."

She glanced at the dead hearth, then back at Fauna. Right. They had to get out of here. "Of course this would happen to us," she sighed, wrapping her arms around herself - slowly becoming aware of her freezing toes, the little shiver of her shoulders. "If we're going out to find one we should... um. Costume change?"

Tia drew her wand out, transfiguring her sandals first - neon pink hiking sneakers - and then her dungarees into a denim boiler suit. Much better. She looked ridiculous, obviously, but they were past being worred about ridiculous.

"Right, good idea," Fauna blushed, having rummaged around in her bag first, only to glance up and spot Tia skillfully transfiguring an outfit.

"Do you need an extra layer?" She gave her a slight, flirty smile and held out her hoodie, which just so happened to be (totally purposefully) her pink hoodie that she'd let Tia borrow during the party back in August.

Fauna started transfiguring her outfit as well. Her printed palm leaf trousers became warm overalls, and her tank top grew sleeves (but shrank in the torso, Merlin help her), and her platform sandals became lumpy, bumpy boots, and she had no mittens. No gloves, no scarf. All her cozy knitwear was at home.

Fauna picked her floppy hat off the floor and transfigured it into a very fuzzy, very prickly yellow cloak that fanned out around her shoulders.

She glanced down at herself and snorted out a laugh. Good point, Tia. Why did this happen to them?

They'd heard reports from the transportation department at the Ministry that the floo system had been acting up this week, but Fauna had assumed they would have fixed it by now.

Before they left, she took a quick look around the pub. The other doors were locked, and only dusty glasses were stacked behind the bar. The front door was locked too, and had a few wards on it, which were easy enough to disarm.

Looking around gave Fauna something something concrete to check, before any major worry caught up to her. Still, she opened the door with her wand in hand, and walked out with some trepidation.

"Ugh!" Fauna's hair whipped around her face.

Just the wind. Just the cold, biting wind.

Another layer! Tia accepted the familiar hoodie, smiling to herself in spite of their circumstances - because the hoodie reminded her of when they had first met, and that crazy sleepover. It also reminded her that this was just a delay; they could get their holiday on later, whether it was in Tioman or on her couch in Hiraeth. As long as there was an Adrestia and a Fauna everything would be fine.

Cosy and unfashionable, she followed the other witch out of the abandoned pub and into the freezing cold. Fuck! Tia adjusted the duffel bag on her shoulder and wrapped her arms around herself, hair flying whichever way it wanted. Were they in... Scotland? Wales?

She studied maps, this shouldn't be so hard!

The rocky earth, peppered with sparse green, rolled clumsily down on the side closer to the pub; a high cliff fell away to the sea beyond. Her heart sank a little as she drew her wand and cast a charm to fix Fauna's locks in place, and then her own dark hair. "I think we're on one of the northern islands," she spoke over the cold wind.

Her gaze pulled away from the cliffs, towards where the earth climbed higher until it reached a distant plateau upon which she could discern the shape of a castle against the grey sky. Not a massive one, but bigger than your average fort.

"Looks like we know where we're going!" Tia exclaimed, grinning at Fauna in an attempt to be chipper under the circumstances.

"I think you're right," Fauna shivered. It was just their luck to end up on a remote northern island in the middle of February. Maybe there was a lighthouse somewhere nearby, or a house with gracious owners and a functioning floo. They needed a floo to go over the sea.

Fauna greatly appreciated Tia's handy hair charm, and waved a charm of her own to warm the air around them a bit. They were full of charm and charms, these two witches. They knew all manner of ways to pretend the world wasn't cold.

Fauna smiled back at Tia, though her smile faded quickly as she got a good look at the castle. A castle! A creepy castle. All the strange things that had happened this year ran in a loop in her mind. Valentine's Day, that day in the park in January when she'd spotted Skylos, those few weeks she'd lost her magic, and even the relative quietness of February's full moon raised her suspicions. 

Though she was glad that Tia was here with her, being optimistic and helpful, she'd feel entirely differently if this turned out to be a set-up.

Fauna shook her head.

"It's a good thing we brought these fashionable hiking boots," she joked lamely, and started up the narrow path towards the rocky plateau.

They helped each other here and there, each step bringing them a little higher, a little closer to the gray, crumbling castle with the arched windows.

There were no power lines and no signage that indicated any muggle presence. Fauna spotted what might be a few small houses in the distance in the lower fields. No lights, though. No sheep grazing on the greenery.

Seabirds circled the rocky shore and cliffs. Fauna ignored their noise, peering up at the top tower of the castle where a ray of sunlight glinted against the glass window.

"Is that a light up-" Fauna pointed.

SCREEEEECH!

A gull flew right by her ear, making her duck.

"Ok, well," Fauna let out a breathless chuckle. "I'm going to pretend that there's a light on, and that the chimney means there's a floo."

They'd solve this quickly, wouldn't they? The case of the isolated island and the castle that looked like it came out of a dream or a song.

When they climbed up the steps to the entrance, Fauna caught her breath, glancing over the iron bands and studs on the massive wooden doors. Each vertical band fanned out in points, making four points at the bottom and one at the top. While the door was closed, the bands fitted together like wings.

Not a gull. Not an owl. But a...

"A bat?" Fauna hesitated, her hand raised to knock.

She turned to Tia, her fist still poised in the air.

The door creaked open.

The climb up was mostly in silence - it was arduous, and the winds made it difficult to have a smooth to-and-fro chat. Adrestia appreciated the silence and a chance to think about what was happening; there were castles peppered all around the United Kingdom and she knew most of them from her work, yet she didn't recognise this one. But it was old, quite old. Was it classified? Restricted?

There were only so many reasons things didn't show up in her cartography work. A screeching seagull brought her out from her thoughts and she ducked as well, shooting Fauna an incredulous look. "I'm going to pretend that there's a light on, and that the chimney means there's a floo."

"Let's," she agreed and pulled a face, hoping that their walk up here had not been in vain.

The castle doors, when they did get to it, surprised her even further. They were huge, in fairly usable condition. She couldn't recognise the pattern of the bolts. Adrestia lingered at the top of the entrance steps as Fauna proceeded forward - but followed after a moment, cautious. Something didn't feel right about all this.

            "A bat?" her girlfriend said, causing Tia raise her eyebrows. Bat?

Even as they exchanged this look, however, the doors began to swing open. Tia grabbed Fauna's wrist with a jump, pulling her back so that they weren't in the way. They were opening, yes, but only to reveal an interior of near total darkness and... her stomach lurched. A sound. It was a sound she recognised: somebody was howling. Faint at first, and then louder, echoing in chambers unseen.

A werewolf was howling. "Fauna," her panicked eyes turned to the other witch.

M for language


Fauna jumped back, stumbling into Tia, who had quickly pulled her away. Before Fauna could reassure her, before Fauna could even peer into the dark foyer, the sound reached them, making the hair on her arms stand up.

A howl.

One she'd heard in January, in Virgil's vision of death.

One she'd heard in December, over the restless animals at the zoo.

One that had invaded her dreams from time to time, since the Ides of March.

A werewolf?

A werewolf!

No, a direwolf, set loose while the sun was shining.

Fauna met Tia's panicked gaze. A direwolf? No, no, they were on holiday, it didn't make sense, the full moon had come and gone...

Her stomach lurched. She drew in a breath.

"Nope."

Fauna waved her wand, slamming the doors shut.

She waved her wand, slamming the doors shut.

She waved her wand a third time, trying to slam the doors shut.

The iron hinges creaked in protest, but wouldn't budge. The doors remained open. Howling cut through the air, growing louder from within.

"Well, fuck this."

Her voice shook slightly. While she was used to feeling scared and soldiering through it, she didn't wish this on anyone, least of all Tia.

She glanced around, remembering the few houses she'd spotted in the distance as they'd climbed up to the plateau.

"Let's apparate to the start of the trail. We can try one of the houses, or go back to the pub," Fauna spoke fast.

They could secure a place. Look for a floo, a portkey, anything...

She held out her hand, her wand ready.

A clipped, chirping noise punctuated the distant howl. The flapping of wings reached Fauna's ears just before a black swarm tumbled out of the castle, diving and swirling around them.

Gulls from hell?

Fauna ducked and reached out, her hand grazing the sleeve of Tia's sweater. A tiny little face with pointed ears squeaked at her, biting at her hand.

The bats - the bats from hell! - circled Tia, picking at her hair and her clothes.

Something - something else from hell! - grabbed Fauna, pulling her into the foyer.

The doors of the castle slammed shut, with Fauna inside.

Leaving Tia on the outside. With the bats.

Everything happened so quickly, though Adrestia absolutely and 110% agreed with her girlfriend to begin with: "Well, fuck this."

That was shortly before the bats. How had Fauna known there were going to be bats? Were they vampire bats? What, no, it was the middle of the morning! And there were so many of them, swarming and diving like a single entity dead-set on doing Merlin knew what to the two witches at the door. Fauna reached to grab her and then--

Tia screamed, shrilly, her vision suddenly nothing but leathery wings and snatches of the sky. They were on her! Their little bat feet and claws scratching lightly at her hoodie, her face, and she heard the castle door slam shut; shut over the sight of Fauna's face. She drew her wand, running along the castle wall instead of down the steps, throwing out a spell.

The wind picked up around her - going in circles and circles around her, a cyclone spell that caught the bats into its treacherously violent air currents while Tia made a dash. She could feel blood trickling down her forehead; her clothes had protected the rest of her.

What. The. Hell.

When her lungs burned so badly she couldn't keep running, the werewolf came to a halt and whipped around. The bats were gone, dispersed. It was just her and the great indifferent Northern sky and the castle looming high. And inside the castle, Fauna. Tia leaned against the stone wall, catching her breath.

She had two options: get out of here and bring back help, or go inside and help Fauna herself. These weren't really options. Who knew what was inside. Adrestia looked around, now walking slowly along the grassy knoll that surrounded the walls of the castle, looking at the windows. Right. One of these... she doubled back, staring up, until she found a large arched window that was closer to the front doors than others.

It was boarded up, though she made quick work of those and thanks the gods for the rock climbing phase last month. "I'm coming, Fauna," Tia sighed to herself, reaching up with a jump to grab a hold of the ledge.

The door shut, plunging her into darkness. Fauna whirled, pushing against whatever had just grabbed her. The rough, brittle fabric of her yellow cloak tore. A faint, muffled scream sounded from outside.

None of the bats had flown in with her. Nothing but air met her hands. Something tangled with her arm and she punched it, then realized - oh. It was just her weekend bag.

"Lumos!"

Her wand blazed with light as she turned and turned again, her heart in her throat.

Empty. The foyer was empty. Cobwebs draped across the corners and covered the ceiling. The chill in the air bit at her nose and cheeks, and a moldy, damp smell emanated from the stones, but at least there was no wind.

There was no one attacking her, either.

In the silence, Fauna caught her breath.

"Tia!"

She tried to open the front door, first with shaking hands, then with her wand. It wouldn't budge.

The howling had stopped. Why had it stopped? Was the real threat outside? Fauna swore, her mind leaping to the worst conclusions. If this weren't an accident or a ridiculous floo system glitch, then someone must have known Tia's plans for the weekend, and transported them both here, to this secluded island. Someone must be singling Tia out from the safehouse incident last month, or targeting Tia because of her closeness to Fauna, or targeting Fauna and separating her from Tia. Someone had set up a spooky castle to stage an attack, counting on the two witches to investigate it. Counting on bats to swarm them? Howling to lure them?

It didn't add up.

One of the doors in the foyer swung open, brightening the foyer with light.

Awwwwooooooo!

Fauna flinched at the noise. She took a moment to adjust her bag across her back. In the doorway, a piece of her ripped yellow cloak fell.

Her wand raised, she peeked into the hall.

Floating candles hovered in a long dining hall. Brightly colored banners and paintings covered the lower walls, and above the paintings, sunlight streamed through the rows of arched windows. In the middle of the hall, between several long tables, a fire crackled in the huge fireplace.

She stood in shock for a long moment. The howling came from beyond and above the hall, not within it.

Fauna went to the fireplace, drawn by the promise of warmth and the possibility of a functioning floo.

As soon as she reached it, the howling faded. The candles and fire vanished, along with the decorations on the walls and the tables Fauna had walked between.

The hall turned dark and dim, only lit by the gray light struggling through the dusty windows. Cobwebs draped across the timber ceiling.

What the hell?

Fauna stared in dismay at the boards nailed across the fireplace. She touched one of the boards. Cold.

Was any of this real? The bats, the howling, the castle itself?

Awwwoooooooo!

The great hall flared to life again. Fauna checked the mantle, and the tables past the fireplace. No floo powder. She neared the end of the hall, where portraits in medieval garb looked down their noses at her.

One of the side doors opened, leading to a spiral staircase going up.

Fauna shook her head. She could try apparating outside. She could try just about anything else.

Awwwwooo - eeeeeee!

The howling continued above, rising in a scream.

The high-pitched, utterly human wail made Fauna tense up and shiver, a bead of sweat running down her back despite the chill.

She could apparate, or break a window, or -

The scream sounded anguished. No, no, no. It was a trap.

But it sounded so real.

Merlin, what if those bats - what if something had taken Tia up to the tower?

The door swayed, inching closed, then open.

Fauna pushed past the door and hurried up the steps. Another piece of her yellow cloak snagged and caught on the door's edge.

She left the Great Hall below.

Climbing through the large arched windows, Adrestia had found herself having to drop a good six feet down into what looked like a disused drawing room. Everything in here was dark but morning light came streaming through the gap she had made by removing some of the boards off the window. She could see snatches of empty bookshelves, a monstrous sofa set with clawed feet, worn down ornate carpets.

Portraits that stared silently down at her - magical portraits, maybe, but stubbornly quiet. She felt like if she tried to touching anything in this room, it might crumble into dust.

"Fauna?" Tia called out, cupping her hands around her mouth. Nothing. She dug a bandana out of her duffel bag and wiped the blood off her forehead before using the cloth to tie a band around her head.

Something unnatural was going on here and she didn't expect it to make it easy for the witches to find each other. Adrestia levitated her duffel bag to the window ledge before setting off to explore the rest of the castle. She pushed open the doors of the drawing room (curiously, they made no sound) and found herself in a dark passageway.

On the other side of the passage, an archway led to what she assumed was the main hall. "Fauna, can you hear m---"

            Awwwwooo - eeeeeee!

Her expression froze. What. The. Fuck. Was. That. Tia forced herself to breathe in and out, slowly, and crossed over to the main hall even as she broke out into a cold sweat. The howling was incessant. "Fauna!" she called out, trying but failing to throw her voice louder than the howling.

The foyer was empty. If Fauna had been here, she had gone elsewhere now. She approached the entrance first and kneeled to pick up a piece of bright yellow cloth. So she was here. The howling grew louder and louder just then, peaking into a shrill scream and, in frustration, Adrestia twisted around and shrieked right back at it.

"Fuck!" she screamed, frustrated, gaze sweeping the foyer until it settled on a set of doors that had been left ajar. It was probably safer to stay here.... but what if someone or something had taken Fauna?

As the howling grew louder, Fauna ran up the spiral staircase, the soles of her boots landing easily on each cleanly cut step.

"Fuck!" 

Tia? Fauna froze, straining to hear amidst the howl-screaming. She imagined the main hall still brightly lit, connected to the howling above.

The voice had sounded from below.

"Here!" Fauna shouted. The howling paused. She turned and hurried down the stairs.

"Here, I'm here!"

Her voice hit the old stone walls and faded between the cracks. It felt like she were shouting underwater, sinking beneath choppy waves and dimming sunlight. Fauna slowed her pace on the uneven steps.

She glanced down at the stairs. They had felt steady before.

Dust fell off the step she'd paused on, floating into the huge chunk of stairs that had crumbled away below. Fauna couldn't see how far it went around the spiral curve. She teetered forward, clutching the rocky wall.

A strand of her dark hair drifted down.

Fauna glanced around with wide eyes, having never expected to be more frightened by disappearing steps than by the howling that had stopped seconds ago. A howl she could trace, she could fight. She couldn't make sense of this.

Was Tia above or below?

Awwoooooo!

The howling sounded again from above. The steps beneath her feet began to straighten into clean lines once more. Just as the step below her re-formed, Fauna turned and headed up the spiraling stairs, running as fast as she could. They only had so much time.

When she reached the top, another door stood open.

Fauna tensed in the doorway, her wand readied. Though the room was dark, she could just make out a shuddering shape pacing inside. Outside the rows of windows, a swarm of bats circled in the sky, stopping short at each wailing howl.

The figure turned its head toward the doorway. Its stunted snout grew longer.

Awoooo-eeeee!

She hesitated. Of course she hesitated - they were trapped in what, by look and feel, appeared to be a haunted castle through which the howl of a tortured wolf ripped. Adrestia had only been dating Fauna for a short time but she definitely felt like she was falling into the old lesbian trope of quick commitment.

Which was a convoluted way of saying she was willing to risk her own skin to make sure the other witch wasn't, oh, you know, being kidnapped by one of her many enemies. Aurors had lots of enemies, right?

              "H... I'm ...ere!"

Tia stood at the foot of the stairwell, having gone through the door in the main hall. Now she stared up at the spiralling steps with a cold feeling in her gut. That was Fauna's voice. It didn't sound tortured or in pain. She started walking up but stopped abruptly.

There was a noise, just behind her. Tia looked over her shoulder at the passage below the stairwell, where a torch in the wall threw shadows - where the shadow of a person was close approaching. Something, maybe instinct, told her that she didn't want to meet the creature who threw this human-seeming shadow. She climbed faster.

Or at least she tried, until the steps started to go wobbly beneath her feet. Adrestia yelped in surprise, stopping herself when the steps ahead suddenly disappeared: they left nothing but a chasm of darkness spiralling around the inner wall.

Behind, the steps grew louder, climbing up to join her, little rocks skittering beneath a heavy weight.

"Fauna!" she called out, her voice sounding small and muddled as she looked down into the abyss. Just as she turned her face up, a single dark hair drifted down. Tia reached out and the light strand landed in her palm. She knew that if she raised it to her face, she would smell her girlfriend's now-familiar shampoo.

This was supposed to be a fun getaway. They were supposed to be somewhere sunny, shaking the sand off their feet and washing the sun potions off their skin in a lush, fragrant bath.

             Awoooo-eeeee!

The howl above cut through her thoughts. But it was too late, the thought of good times with Fauna had already strengthened Tia. She was about to call out again when she felt a hot breath against the back of her neck.

She screamed, stumbled, suddenly falling. In a mad scramble, the witch grabbed on to the crumbling ledge of the step and stared up in horror. Growling down at her was a mirror image of herself: but taller, wilder, dark bristly hair growing out down her neck and arms as eyes glowed the telling yellow of a werewolf turning.

"Fauna!" she shrieked, gripping the ledge tightly.

Fauna flinched at the sound of her name. In the doorway, she stared at the shape transforming in front of the window, at the ears lengthening into the points, the snout, the flash of teeth.

It let out a low growl.

Tia's voice had sounded from the stairs and there was a wolf, transforming in this tower here, and Fauna was here, and though she wished she'd never come here, though everything in her was telling her to run back down those stairs and escape together, Tia was below and Fauna was here and the wolf was there.

There was only one way for the creature to get out.

The creature lunged. She threw the first spell she could think of at it.

Obex!

The spell shimmered around the creature mid-leap. The creature landed, unfazed.

Her next two spells were faster - Homorphus, then even Riddikulus as she pictured it in her own transfigured beach outfit.

The creature bounded toward the stairs, going around her, though there was no room. Was there? Fauna instinctively lurched to the side at the last moment, gripping the wall and spinning on her heel to face the snarling thing. Fuck! She'd let it get past her. She'd let it reach Tia.

Tia was screaming. Screaming meant alive, screaming meant terrified. Fauna stood safe and invisible against the wall, just like that day in the owlery at the lakehouse, when a pentral had swept past her and down the steps as she'd held her breath.

Her shallow breaths felt more real than this room.

All three spells settled in the air. Not a creature, then. Not an animagus. Not a boggart.

"Tia, run!" She called, edging closer to the thing that hunched at the top of the steps. She raised her wand, about to try several stronger spells.

From the back, the creature's fur shifted, turning red. The bright red of a familiar robe fell in folds down its back. Its hair was dark and long on its head, and had a funny wave that looked like a comb had missed it.

Fauna touched the back of her own head, finding the wave that she could never seem to get just right.

The closer she neared, the more the thing whimpered instead of howled.

She glanced behind her at the window, watching the bats that froze mid-flight when the thing stopped howling, and the candle that flickered dimly on the mantle, and imagining the great hall growing dim and cold below.

Silencio, Fauna casted at it silently. The thing stopped making sound.

It slipped away from her, becoming a shadow on the wall, one that danced across the stones and faded into the cracks.

It wasn't over, but Fauna took a fuller breath.

She hurried to the doorway, her eyes widening at the sight of Tia clinging to the step and dangling into the abyss where the stairs were meant to be.

"Tia!" Her voice sounded dry and reedy, as if she'd been screaming, too.

"I've got you."

She waved her wand, gently levitating Tia over the crumbling stairs until she was level with the entrance to the tower.

Fauna held out her hand, reaching to pull her in.