บท 933: Reunion Ⅳ

The night was frigid with the sky partially covered in clouds. The night is not wholly dark as moonlight still streams down through the passing clouds. A faint popping sound is heard on the outskirts of the sleepy village of Hogsmeade. Hooded two figures emerge, the tallest in a gruff voice says, "It is late, you best head back now."

"Yes," Rowan mumbled from under her hood. "I'll return via the Shrinking Shack."

Abeforth peers up at the night sky tilting his hooded head upward. "It is a Waxing Gibbous," he referred to the bright moon hanging overhead in the starry sky. "Take care," he warned.

"Aries to Tarus," Rowan murmured glancing at the stars visible in the heavens. "The head, teeth, tongue, and arteries are affected," she thought to herself according to the lunar calendar. It was neither a good nor bad sign, but one said to affect the mind.

Aberforth folds his arms impatiently waiting for the child to leave. "Sagittarius runs before Capricornus; the traveler comes and as does the archer. I failed to understand those words, Aberforth, I am not wholly innocent," Rowan quietly said.

Aberforth paused and sharply glanced at the much smaller slender hooded figure. "A load of crock," he roughly said. "Prophecy is not engraved in stone, but rather we are the ones that forge our paths and make it ours." He paused and shooed her away with his hand. "Now go."

Rowan paused to tilt her head at Aberforth in solemn acknowledgment of his words, before hurrying away across the cobblestoned path. It was bitterly cold and the faster she hurried away the faster she returned to Hogwarts. She knew and felt Aberforth's watchful gaze upon her even when she turned the corner and out of sight.

Aberforth refrains from sighing, before moving to the Hogs Head Inn which is closed. He had been surprised by the letter he received earlier that day and even more so having heard the child was recovering from an unexpected illness from his brother. He would have refused, but the child insisted. And more so he was obliged by the fact that the child had snuck out of the castle and made her way to the inn. He could not exactly turn her away at that point but rather had taken her with him to meet with the remaining members of Ring of Shadows.

Still, Aberforth paused to glance at the Waxing Gibbous, before shaking his head. He had studied Divination in his youth, a subject which Albus always thought useless. And though Aberforth mostly disagreed with Albus, this was one of those things they both could agree on. However, unlike Albus, Aberforth did not fully disregard Divination. That which was viewed in nature, the old ways still held true and could be used to foresee that which was to come.

"Sagittarius runs before Capricornus; the traveler comes and as does the archer," Aberforth mumbled to himself under his breath. He did not fully understand the message, but he could decipher one thing at least. Danger and more than one colliding force on the field.

Aberforth's blue piercing eyes glitter with interest, before entering the Hogs Head Inn. Many could not look past the harsh exterior of Aberforth, but he was no less capable than his famous older brother, Albus Dumbledore. He had survived a duel against Gellert Grindelwald and his brother, Albus, and had not faltered under both of their attacks. There had been no winner nor loser that day except for Ariana.

The snow-covered village of Hogsmeade is peacefully quiet except for the rowdy crowd still up and about the Three Broomsticks. Most of the shops had already closed except for the grocers, who kept a later hour for employees of the Ministry of Magic, who straggled home after a long day of work. From the chimney tops smoke curls in the air hanging lazily over the town like a waving banner. Down the cobbled streets and towards the edge of town none noticed the figure, who made their way towards the haunted shack at the edge of the village. And though the shrieks and screams had not sounded for over two years now, none of the villagers dared to explore the crumbling shack.

The outside of the shack was old, worn with boarded-up windows, no working doors to allow entry or exit into the premise. Yet all it took was for Rowan to approach the Shrieking Shack, before teleporting inside the premise. The instant she appeared inside a room; she covered her nose from the thick dust.

With wary eyes, Rowan peers through the heavily dusty and disordered room. She raised her wand high to shed light upon the Shrieking Shack having cast a nonverbal light spell, 'Lumos,' since the windows were boarded up even on the inside to not allow a ray of light inside. The grimy wallpaper was peeling from the walls. There were mysterious stains all over the floor causing her to shiver with horror and vowed to take a bath the minute she got back to Hogwarts.

Every single piece of furniture was broken. Some of it was smashed to pieces as though someone had smashed it or rather a large animal had. Though some of the furniture was pointed and jagged covered in dark stains, stains that Rowan recognized as old, dried blood. Some pity rises up in her midnight indigo-colored eyes for her friend, Remus. Her poor friend, who had suffered for over a decade, but was now cured.

And even she had to admit that Remus Lupin in Potter's time at least possessed sufficient courage to not succumb to the beast instincts like Greyback had done nor commit suicide after every full moon like many werewolves. Maybe it wasn't so much as courage as the desire to live, but still, that required at least a speck of valor.

Gingerly, Rowan made her way through the Shrieking Shack and through the dusty tunnel that connected to the Whomping Willow. With care, she emerged from underneath the Whomping Willow roots. She hurriedly moves to press the knot on the tree trunk but freezes at feeling swaying branches gently touch her shoulders.

Rowan doesn't move as she feels the Whomping Willow curiously explore her hair and robes, before coming to a halt at her wrist. The trailing leaves extend and pull up her sleeve, before slowly curling around the leaf birthmark on the inside of her forearm. The leaves gently reach out and linger on the leaf birthmark, before retreating and moving higher up her shoulder.

The leafy branch slithers up her face, before coiling over her left eye looking like a serpent ready to strike. The coiled branch does not move for a long time, before warily easing away. After a moment of deliberation, the leaves gently shoved her forward.

Sensing the Whomping Willow's intentions, Rowan hurriedly moves forward and only halts just out of reach of the Whomping Willow. She stares at the tree, which its branches are swaying to under the moonlight flickering through the clouds. A flicker of a smile appears on her face as she bows and says, "Thank you, Osier," before closing her eyes and teleporting to the Prefect's Bathroom. She rightly needed a bath after her trek through the Shrieking Shack!

The Whomping Willow's branches remain merrily swaying long after Rowan's departure. It had long ago sensed that there was something more to the human female seedling. In the past, it had reached out to check potential seedlings to check, but they typically fled away with their kin out of its reach. It grew more and more frustrated each time it was evaded and tried harder the next time. Yet on this night, the female seedling came to it.

The seedling had not been able to flee, and its leaves tingled with joy. It had observed the child and found the warmth of its kind within the child, a whisper of a Dryad and life. Yet it had also found the scent of Death upon the child. The seedling was like its kin, the Hawthorn which bore life and death within its branches.

Yet unlike the seedling, there were corrupted seedlings among the countless seedlings that resided in the walls of the enchanted great stone place (Hogwarts). It did it help that the human seedling did not know their place, and as a result, were often sternly punished by the Whomping Willow.

Although it did sincerely regret one attack. It had punished a male seedling far too harshly almost removing an eye. If it had known the male seedling would become a corrupted seed, it would have strangled the corrupted seed then and there. If only, it had known, but alas. The poor seedling was only become a corrupted seedling until much later.

The Whomping Willow was the unknown silent guardian of Hogwarts. It could only watch and wait until the corrupted seedlings were within reach. Watch and wait, it would.