Revealment

The animal spirits met the next day in the infirmary, since Pomfrey refused to let Tamsin out of her sight. Not that the cat cared particularly much. Warm bed, she got fed. . .what did she have to complain about?

Jack stared at her nervously and Tamsin grinned a long slow grin full of teeth and predatory menace. He made a small noise of nervous fear, a sort of twitter. Vulpe patted his leg comfortingly. He jumped into the air, displacing his chair on to the ground with a clatter. The fox uttered a small sigh.

“Calm down, Jack, she’s not going to eat you.”

“Not in the you’re thinking of, birdie.” Tamsin grin got wider. “Sweet little thing, aint’cha? Mmmhmm. . .wanna get my claws deep tight in you and make you moan.”

“Can you act like you’re not on heat, please?” Vulpe snapped.

Nuala growled at the cat and shifted slightly closer to Malgaunt. He licked her face softly, reassuring her. “I don’t want no stinking cat, my whitefurred one. You’re all I want and need, my mate my own. . .”

“Touching as this is,’ Tamsin purred. “Let’s get down to business.” She swung her legs out of bed and strutted over to where Pomfrey had put Sirius. He was still in a coma. She straddled him and leant down to sniff his face, moving her hips slightly. “Well, he’s cute at least. If only he didn’t stink ever so faintly of canine. . .bite me, puppies, bite me hard. Yeah, I thought so. Mrrrrooowwwrrr. . .” Nuala, Malgaunt and Vulpe stared at her in confusion as she stretched upwards then went over backwards, placing her hands flat on the bed. “Hmm, yeah. I might give up this thing about not bedding dogs if he’s really as big as he feels.” She squirmed slightly.

“As I said before, please do try to act like you’re not on heat!” Vulpe said.

“I’m not. Won’t be for another century. I just like to fuck.” Tamsin smiled at Vulpe and rocked her hips over Sirius. “Often. A lot. In the bed, against the wall, anywhere anyplace at all. . . “

“Oh, for Fafnir’s sake, get off him, you slut of a feline,” Nuala growled.

“You should worry I’ll move onto your cherished Alpha, bitch.” Tamsin ran her eye over Malgaunt and he showed his teeth in a snarl. “He looks. . .strong. Able to last a while.”

“Detestable little splay-legs!” Nuala hissed, rising up from her seat and tail lashing angrily about her feet. Malgaunt pulled her back down and Tamsin giggled.

“Pretty, we’re so pretty, we’re so pretty, a-vacant!” Tamsin half spoke, half sang the fragments of Sex Pistols lyrics in a harsh Cockney accent a la Sid Vicious. “I’m so pretty. Mmmhmm. Pretty little me. So, who’s this I’ve got between my legs?”

“A wizard named Sirius Black,” Vulpe sighed, settling back on her chair. It was useless to do anything when Tamsin got like this. She knew from experience. Jack still looked like he was about to fly out a window and the wolves were snarling with insulted anger. Damn the cat. The door opened and Tamsin’s head swiveled, before she pounced.

“Oof!” Ginny crashed to the floor with a squirming, purring felinely aspected woman on top of her. Tamsin licked up her cheek and nuzzled her neck, a steady buzz of pleasure emanating from her chest and up through her body.

“Cute little flame, of cousin blood. Hmmhmm. . .so sweet, like toffee apple sugar and just as red.” Ginny froze under Tamsin and looked around wildly for help. The wolves were no help, they were laughing too hard. Vulpe was much the same. Jack was inching towards a window now Tamsin was occupied with something else, and Sirius was unconscious.

“Someone get her off!”

“But you don’t want me to go, oh no, little flame. . .what, first time? Hmm, sweet.” Tamsin licked Ginny’s neck and the girl squeaked, then yelped as Tamsin’s hand slid up her leg. She kicked wildly, trying to get the cat off her. “Meow, sweet girl. Tasty.” Draco reached down and pulled Tamsin off and she attached herself to him instead, jumping and wrapping her legs around his waist. “Hey, it’s the fox’s wild child! So, Ice, want to get warm?”

“You alright?” Draco asked softly, looking at Ginny. She got up off the floor and fixed her skirt, nodding.

“Shocked, little surprised. . .by the pouncing and the jumping. And the licking. And the touching. Actually, rather freaked out by the touching and the licking. And she purred.” Ginny put her head in her hands for a moment, then looked up. Tamsin was giggling at her.

“Why, I’m just a kitten, kitten cat. Put me down,” she ordered Draco and he let go. She put her feet back on the floor and stalked towards Jack again. He made a noise of frightened protest and ran away, out the Infirmary door. Draco grabbed Tamsin’s arm before she could follow and forcibly put her in a seat. “Hey!”

“Leave Jack alone. You’re a cat, he’s a bird. He’s frightened of you, and you’re loving it, pushing him to see how far he’ll go. How far he’ll let you go.” Draco looked down at her and Tamsin stared up sulkily, pouting. Ginny watched as Draco seemed almost to grow, an edge of menace filling his voice. This was a side to the Slytherin Prince she’d never seen before, always dismissing him as a spoiled brat, a cold shining star of malice and a wickedly sarcastic tongue. She’d always seen him as an extension of his father; and she was beginning to wonder if everything she’d ever thought about one Draco Malfoy had been tainted by what she had been told to expect of a Malfoy. If any had the burden of a family name, it was Draco. But this. . .”If you want a submissive, you go outside the school. You don’t stay here looking for one. And you don’t force yourself on someone who is not willing to suffer your attentions. Ever. Or I will find you, and I will make sure that you lose another of your vaulted nine lives.”

“You need me, you wouldn’t dare,” Tamsin hissed into his face, exposing brilliantly pointed fangs behind her human looking lips.

“Watch me, cat,” Draco almost whispered, then the aura of dominating power seemed to fall away again, leaving a slightly smirking teen brat in its place. “So, Weasel. Why are you here?”

~*~*~*~

Jack fled down the corridor, feet not making a sound but his frightened pants echoing around him and sending his fear soaring on batwings of ebony struts and stretched midnight skin. He ran faster, rebounding off a wall as he turned blindly, getting more confused and more panicky the longer he was trapped inside the stone walls. Out, he needed to get out. He ran into a stream of students and that was the last straw.

He collapsed against a wall, shaking and mumbling to himself, arms wrapped around his legs and shoulders hunched. A hand on his shoulder made him flinch, wide black eyes flying upwards in terror. Hermoine stared at him in almost pity, then offered him her hand.

“Need some help?”

“’Mione, leave him,” Ron sighed. “He’s probably just acting. He’s one of those people Malfoy and Snape let in.” Jack latched onto Hermoine’s hand, slim fingers wrapping around her wrist.

“Please.’ A broken little whisper. Hermoine’s eyes grabbed his as he looked up at her and she pulled him to his feet unsteadily. “I couldn’t get out. The cat. . .”

“Why, what’s wrong with a cat?” Hermoine asked gently. Ron snorted and Harry rolled his eyes slightly.

“You don’t know what I am? What we all are? Except for Vulpe’s little dragon, he’s mostly human. I think.” Jack frowned for a moment. “If he really does have dragon in his blood, it would explain a lot. . .”

“What are you?” Hermoine prompted gently, pulling him towards the Gryffindor common room, now that classes were over for the day. Dinner wouldn’t be served for a few hours, so she had time to get to the bottom of this fascinating little problem. He looked so young. . .so pale and fragile. Even Snape didn’t approach this porcelain whiteness and the deep midnight color of his hair. . .Jack looked like he would break with a harsh word. His wrist and his hand had been so slim. . .almost emaciated would be the word she would have used. And he had been light, lighter then someone half his age.

“My name is Jack. Well, that’s the short form. Long form, Jackdaw. I’m a bird.” Jack tilted his head slightly and looked at her. “Let me show you. . .” He stepped back from her for a second and closed his eyes. A shiver in the reality of what they were looking at and a jackdaw circled for a moment, black wings beating softly before he called out, a lonely, lost sound. Hermoine watched and held her hand out. Jack landed on it lightly, tilting his head and bright eyes regarding her with focus and concentration. Ron snorted.

“He could be an Animagus.” The bird shrieked at him, flapping his wings wildly before he flew off Hermione’s wrist and landed on the ground. Jack appeared in his human form again.

“Do not speak to me of them! Traitors, all! Wizards, catching the magic and binding it, holding it. So like you humans, you don’t understand something so you build cages, cages to keep it in. Keep it there so you can <I>use</I> it. Don’t dare this with me, wizard child. I’ve been around for longer then you. Have watched empires rise and fall, and you think the snake is the worst of your troubles? Blind, all wizards are so blind!” Ron gaped for a moment and Jack turned away wearily. “What’s the use? Fly, storm crow. Croak your warning heedlessly. Let the winds carry you and guide you, but what use is a Seer if no one will listen? She didn’t. . .”

“She? She who?” Hermoine pressed. Jack caught her hand and pressed the knuckles to his lips, bowing over her hand. She stared at him as he raised his eyes slightly.

“Rowena Ravenclaw. She who stole my heart and the soul of me and my magic. Loved her, I did. Loved her with all my twisted crooked thieving heart. I thought she loved me. She didn’t. All she wanted was to use me, learn from me. And when she’d done that. . .” He brought her hand up to his face again and turned it over, blew lightly across her palm. “She plucked my wing feathers and threw me into a storm. I survived. Takes more then that to kill old Jack, but it hurt, dear lady, it hurt bad.” Hermoine stared into his eyes, black mirrors reflecting her back onto herself. She couldn’t see into his eyes, they were. . .wild, inhuman. Looking into his eyes, you could believe him. So deep. . .they were caught in a tableau until Jack dropped his eyes. Harry made a move forward to get Jack away from Hermoine. Hermoine stopped him.

“If you’ve been here before. . .show me the Gryffindor common room.”

“Well, the one you’d be a-wanting for that would be the fox. She’s the one who warmed Godric’s bed. Played chess with Salazar. I haunted the skies and called to my lady love, when she was my lady of storms. I didn’t talk to them, the earthbound three. I am only a bird. . .but I can show you, lead you.” He leaned in close to Hermoine’s face, breath whispering over her lips. “Come.” He looked at Ron and Harry. “I don’t think I want to show you. So rude and impolite little boys, makes my feathers get ruffled. Suspicious and biting, you two are.”

“I’m not a boy,” Harry said. “And what do you want with Sirius? Why is he here? I thought. . .”

“That he couldn’t come back? His death was not a natural death. Like curses, not natural like a slipping away under the water or the horrified gasp as a blade runs through you or slits your throat. So!” Jack made a twist with his hand. “Magic was natural, now it isn’t. Come on, lady, my lady of the gentle hands and sweet heart. . .” He smiled at Hermoine flirtatiously and Ron growled.

“Hush, Ron!” Hermoine said. “I’d love to, Jack.” He smiled triumphantly, then turned.

“Well, come on! Don’t want to be all day about it!”

~*~*~*~

Draco sat across the bed from Ginny, one leg crossed elegantly across the other, looking bored.

“We’re here to stop the world ending.”

“What, Voldemort?” Ginny said.

“No, you silly girl,” Tamsin said. “He’s only influencing the world of wizards. He’s not part of the earth, he took himself out of it. Eventually, he’ll just go poof!”

“Like a Kansas song,” Vulpe added. “Dust in the wi-ind. . .”

“Who’s got bets on the lightning boy?” Tamsin asked.

“Got a prophecy,” Vulpe said thoughtfully.

“Whose?” Nuala asked.

“Human, but I think it’s a true one,” Vulpe said.

“And why…you?” Ginny asked.

“Why anyone?” Vulpe said. “One does not ask why the midnight called you, only why it called at all. And here you are, called as well.”

“Oh, I’m not-“

“Aren’t you?”

Ginny stared at the fox who was smiling, and got to her feet. “I have to go.”

They watched her flee, and Draco stretched in his chair. “Explain, fox.”

“Oh, she’s not for you,” Vulpe said. “So don’t fret yourself.”

~*~*~*~

Jack led Hermoine deeper into Hogwarts, occasionally humming and whistling to himself. She followed him as he flitted on ahead, feet seeming to barely touch the ground. The robe he was wearing flared as he moved, looking almost like black wings for a moment before the illusion was dispelled. “Onwards, outwards, yes, yes. Upwards! Ad astra!”

“To the stars,” Hermoine whispered to herself and Jack turned his head to smile at her.

“The stars. So bright, so pretty and so far above our concerns on this wonderful earth...no matter how many humans try to scar her beyond repairing. Madre, madre...” Jack put his hand on the stonewalls and cooed to them. “Maman, s’il te plait, ouvrez.” A groan as the rocks obeyed and shifted apart. Jack ducked inside the hollow that was revealed, and turned to look back at Hermoine. “Coming?”

“Yes...” Hermoine followed him inside. They entered a twisting passageway that turned upwards inexorably, the stone close about their heads and the floor beneath them dry. Images of feathers covered the stones, scratches in the rock and all leading upwards along the corridor like they’d been whirled upwards in a draft and then pressed into the rock to preserve their image for whoever dared the tunnel to see, forever preserved in their floating fanciness. Just a few flicks of lighter color on the wall, but that’s all that was needed to present the idea. They were...representations of feathers, a feather scaled down to occasionally a single line that still conveyed all that was needed.

“Here...” Jack turned back to help her up some stairs and then into the room. “Even Rowena...I did not take her here. This was my place, my own shelter in the midst of all this stone and imprisoned magic. This, is mine.” Hermoine shaded her eyes slightly as she emerged into a world of light and crystals, air and space.

“Oh...”

TBC...