The sound of James‘s footsteps echoed throughout the forest as his steps crushed various dry branches strewn across the dark forest floor. The little bit of moon that had been out had been concealed by the thick clouds, causing the ground to transform into a vast expanse of endless black. Darkness swallowed up Lily and James as they wandered deeper and deeper into the heart of the forest.
James grunted as he struggled over a large fallen pine tree. He hurriedly pushed one of the jagged branches out of his face causing it to swing back and nearly whack Lily off her feet.
“Potter! Watch where you’re putting that thing!” Lily whispered furiously as she stood up from the crouched position she had been forced into by ducking the branch.
“Sorry Water Lily,” James replied in a hushed tone, barely glancing over his shoulder to check and see if Lily was okay. His eyes were locked in front of him as the mysterious wisps of hollow laughter continued to travel just out of eyesight.
His stubborn chase had weaved him and Lily deeper into the maze of the thousands of trees. As soon as James thought he had finally caught up to the uncanny voices, they would suddenly quiet down then reverberate again from a significantly farther distance. Their taunting echoes of laughter would steadily grow louder every time they moved farther up.
“Potter, this is hopeless! Let them go, we’ll tell Dumbledore in the morning!” Lily pleaded frustratingly behind James. The hollow voices ruptured into peals of shrill but hushed laughter, as James accidentally tripped and fell over an uprooted tree bark. Lily groaned and helped him regain his posture.
“Maybe you’re right,” James mumbled, straightening and brushing off his robes. “Yeah…it would be better to go to Dumbledore than wander around in here all night,” he said with a somewhat disappointed face as he stared down at the ground.
Lily’s tense expression relaxed.
“Thank you for listening to sense, Potter. Now, let’s g-”
“Wait!” James abruptly cut her off mid-sentence. He stared intensely close at a section of the trees off to the left of where he and Lily were standing. As he looked closer, he spotted what was clearly the hem of a white cloak slowly and silently waving in the chilly wind.
“Do you see that, Evans?” James whispered excitedly, as he pulled himself and Lily behind a gigantic tree and peered out from behind it.
Lily frowned. James’s stubbornness to follow these creepy voices was causing only more trouble for them. She irritably pushed James aside and peeked through the rough branches of the tree. Sure enough, she could see part of a white cloak billowing in slow motion just out of sight. She exchanged glances with James as he stepped up behind her.
“Let’s go,” James said taking an eager step forward.
“No! Wai-” but Lily didn’t have a chance to finish her sentence, for the white cloak had begun to drift towards them.
Both James and Lily stood glued to the spot. Their legs seemed to have forgotten how to move upon the moment the cloak had begun to slowly glide towards the tree to where they were hiding behind.
Another white cloak suddenly appeared from behind another jagged tree and moved smoothly across the rough ground to accompany the first cloak. Both began to glide past the branches towards Lily and James. Strangely, the quietly waving hems of the cloaks didn’t catch on to a single jagged branch.
They came with their backs faced towards them, so that neither Lily nor James could catch a glimpse of their faces. For some reason, Lily didn’t have the least bit of curiosity to see their faces. They came slowly and silently, like a heavy mist being blown away by the wind. They came to an abrupt halt in front of Lily and James. It was then that Lily finally noticed something that nearly made her faint.
The cloaks had no feet.
She broke out into a cold sweat and looked at James, whose face had turned pallid and was staring at the spot where the feet of the cloaks were supposed to be.
They barely had time to take in their second breath when both cloaks simultaneously spun around to reveal their front view. It took a couple of milliseconds for Lily to register what she was seeing. Besides lacking feet, these cloaks also lacked faces. In fact, there was no one wearing the cloaks. They were simply hovering above the ground like ghosts. But they couldn’t be ghosts. They weren’t transparent…
“Relahsio!” James screamed, whipping his wand out from his robes with trembling fingers. The spell hit both cloaks where their hearts should have been, and both fell limply to the forest floor. James stared down at the cloaks, breathing rapidly, his breath coming out in large puffs of white mist in the cold night air. It was as if the cloaks had never been standing.
Someone laid a shaky hand on James’s shoulder, causing him to jump a foot in the air. He quickly turned around to find Lily’s eyes, wide with fear, staring at him.
“I think that that was enough excitement for one night, don’t you?” she asked in a trembling voice.
“Yeah,” James answered in a wavering tone. But even as he said this, he noticed something strange happening to the cloaks lying on the floor. A drop of what looked eerily like blood had appeared on the shoulders of the white cloaks. The drop spread slowly across the spotless cloth in small fluid rivers until both cloaks were drenched in the blood.
“James. Is that…blood?” Lily trembled, grabbing James’s arm. She could feel her own blood draining from her face as the sweet but repulsive smell of blood filled her senses.
“I-I-I don’t know,” he replied in an equally petrified voice.
He had barely said this, when a guttural growl sounded from behind a nearby tree. James quickly stepped in front of Lily, putting himself between whatever horrors that lay behind the tree and Lily.
“James, wha-what was that?”
James didn’t answer. His voice was stuck somewhere in the depths of his throat. All he could do was tighten his grip on his wand and stare at the tree from where the chilling sound had come from.
Suddenly, long lethal-looking black darts shot out from behind the tree, narrowly missing the two.
“Duck!” James screamed, as a second round of spiked darts blasted out from the back of the tree, followed by another raspy growl. He pulled himself and Lily flat onto the ground as the deadly darts zinged past them and thudded into the nearby trees. James and Lily quickly scrambled back onto their feet, spinning around with their wands out to face the tree.
For a few seconds, everything was silent. Lily and James stood rigidly with their wands out, prepared to take on whatever was in store for them. Both were breathing rapidly, their breathes combining to rise up into small clouds of smoke, white in the pitch darkness.
Lily had begun to loosen her grip on her wand when something large, red, and hairy swiftly pounced out from behind the tree. Lily and James flung themselves to the ground once again to escape the monster. Still lying flat on the forest floor, Lily lifted her head and caught sight of the thing before it made for her. With a sickening jolt of realization, she knew what it was.
“It’s, it’s a Manticore!”
Lily’s mind flashed back to her third year when her Professor had lectured about this hideous beast. Although it had a reddish body of a lion complete with a tail lined with deadly spikes, the Manticore had the face of a human. However, its human face was more inhuman than its grotesque body, for its enormous jaws were set with three rows of razor-sharp teeth which it used to rip its favorite prey to pieces- humans. Lily had never once dreamed that she might fall prey to this monstrous creature.
Lily had no time to react as the Manticore sprang at her. She didn’t even have a chance to scream. All she had time to see was the Manticore running in what seemed like slow motion towards her. She saw it raise its blood-red paws and saw its steel claws. It grinned as it was about to slash her to pieces.
This must be Death’s smile.
Lily closed her lovely green eyes.
Its claws were mere centimeters from Lily’s face, when a large animal suddenly jumped magnificently through the air and bowled the Manticore over. The monster led out a chilling shriek and flopped onto the ground. It seemed bewildered but quickly regained its stance and slowly turned on all fours to face an enormous silver stag.
The stag’s coat seemed to glitter and light up the night, like a single flame of hope in a cold and hollow chamber of darkness. As Lily gazed at this gorgeous creature, she realized that she had seen him before. In fact, she had known him her whole life.
“James.”
Prongs immediately cantered over to Lily and stood protectively over her. The Manticore crouched down and eyed them beadily. Its ghastly face grinned to reveal all of its many rows of teeth.
It suddenly leaped towards them. But Prongs was ready. He caught it by his antlers and forcefully threw it aside once more. It toppled to the ground and lay still. Prongs cautiously walked over to the body on the floor.
Then, without warning, the Manticore sprang up, gripped Prong’s side with its claws, and sank all three rows of its teeth into Prongs’s front leg. Blood splattered across the pure body of the stag. The Manticore mercilessly flung Prongs aside and bit deeply into his other leg.
“NO!” Lily screamed. She gripped her wand and aimed. “Relashio!”
The Manticore let out another one of its monstrous shrieks as the spell hit it sharply in the hind leg, leaving a hole of oozing blood. It swiftly turned to face her. Its teeth were dripping with blood. Lily hastily stood up and prepared herself for the worst.
She would fight to the death. She was prepared to do anything. Anything to save James…
Behind the Manticore, James had transformed back to his human form. He was drenched in blood, but his pale face was set with determination. He managed to pick up his wand with trembling fingers and gave it a complicated wave. Suddenly, a large jewel encrusted sword appeared mid-air. James quickly caught it with both his arms.
It happened in a split second. The Manticore, too preoccupied with Lily, didn’t see James run up from behind. Using all of his remaining energy, James cried out as he plunged his sword deep into the monster’s neck.
The Manticore’s body seemed to tense up and struggle for a moment before it let out a final bone-chilling shriek. As James yanked out his sword, the Manticore burst into black ashes and disappeared.
James and Lily both stood still, gasping for air, and stared at the spot where the monster had disappeared for a moment, before James fell to his knees, supporting his weight on his sword. Lily immediately ran to him.
“Oh dear Merlin, oh dear Merlin…” she whispered, as she examined James’s injuries. He tried to smile. His face was rapidly loosing what little color it had left.
“All right Evans?” he grinned shakily.
“All right Evans?” Lily repeated tearfully. “You’re bleeding, and I don’t know how to stop it, and…and …you’re dying!” she sobbed. James gulped painfully.
“Dying? Why would I die?” James said, gasping for air.
“Shut up Potter! Don’t talk, it’ll drain your energy. Okay, don’t panic, don’t panic…” Lily muttered. She realized that if she didn’t keep her head, James really could die. She gave her head a quick shake and conjured some bandages with which she tenderly wrapped James’s wounds.
“That should stop some of the bleeding for now.”
She gently helped James lie down. He sank down onto the ground with a sharp gasp. Lily then carefully positioned herself on top of him to keep him warm without interrupting his breathing.
Lily had no idea where on earth they were. She was completely lost.
Alright Lily, stop panicking like some stupid child and think! You must think! Think for James!
Lily gave a short and determined sigh. She knew she couldn’t go for help and leave James in the middle of the forest, but was also too afraid to send up a help signal. It might attract even more horrors. She looked around her but saw nothing that could possibly be of any help.
Maybe I could…no, that wouldn’t work. Or maybe…no, that wouldn’t work either.
After several more minutes of failed mental plans, Lily felt even more confused and frustrated than before. At a loss for what to do, Lily stared up at the stars. Just an hour ago, she and James had been up there, flying through the night together…
Please, somebody, anybody. We need help. Any help…
There was a rustling of leaves. Lily’s head snapped around to her left and stared at the spot where the rustling had come from. She quickly whipped out her wand and aimed as the leaves of the bushes shook again. The rustling continued, then Lily heard someone shriek. Lily’s eyes widened as she heard the same voice give another scream a moment later.
“AHHH! Sirius, Sirius I’ve found them!”
Lily’s heart skipped several beats.
Could it be?
Just as this thought flashed across Lily’s mind, Alice’s round face emerged from the bushes.
“Lily! James! We’ve found you!”
A/N: I literally wrote this on a dark and stormy night at midnight. The funny thing was that something in the room next to me fell off its shelf and made me jump about two feet in the air (I get really into it when I’m writing). If you’ve never seen a picture of a manticore (yes-it’s a real legendary creature), I suggest you take a couple of seconds to search for a picture of one. It’s a pretty freaky looking thing. By the way, the white cloaks hint at who is behind all this. Okay- I think that this A/N is long enough!
PLEASE REVIEW!!!!