Spirit Animals
Chapter 10
Spirit Animals
They had decided to go riding today, perhaps do a bit of hunting while they were at it. Robb had attempted to find Hermione and Harry to see if they wished to join them, but the stable hands had already informed them the two had set off earlier that day, so he held out the hope that he would find his friends somewhere in the forest.
They had followed the trail of their horses and eventually found them tied up against some trees. Yet the two teenagers were nowhere to be found.
"Perhaps they went to be alone somewhere," Theon suggested wickedly. Robb glowered at the Stark’s ward angrily.
"Harry and Hermione don't have a relationship like that," Robb said angrily, sounding a bit too defensive. "Theirs is purely friendship."
"Two perfectly attractive people nearly of age who are just friends," Theon laughed. "That's a fine joke, Stark."
"Why's that so impossible?" Jon asked, perfectly bewildered. "Hermione's just friends with all of us."
"Then why is she and Harry always sneaking off into the forest to be alone?"
"They're looking for ingredients that the maester needs as well as other things," Robb said defensively, though he was also convincing himself as well. "Not everything involves tumbling around in the hay, Greyjoy."
"Besides, if they had a relationship like that, why would they need to keep it a secret?" Jon added. "They could just get married and be done with it."
Robb felt a jolt of anger at his brother's contribution to that statement, as it had only made him feel even worse with the imagery.
"Well let's see if they're around," Theon announced, sliding off his mount. The three teenage boys set off, tying their own horses with the two others and setting off in the woods in different directions.
Robb searched the tree line, tracking a small pair of footprints in the dirt that could possibly have been Hermione's. A few times it seemed like he'd lost them when something like the prints belonging to a huge animal crossed their path. It was big and deep like a bear's, but the shape was all wrong. Was that… a wolf print? The size of it was massive. Far too big for a regular-sized wolf. Then... could it be... a direwolf? Robb's thoughts immediately turned to the wolf attack that had left Hermione bedridden for the better part of two long, agonizing months and his heart leapt in his throat.
His pace quickened as he followed the tracks, hoping beyond hope that neither of his friends (but especially not Hermione) encountered the animal. He came to a clearing in the trees and paused before exiting the underbrush when an extraordinary sight stopped him short.
A black stag stood in the sunny glade, pawing the ground beneath it curiously. It was a handsome animal, with jet black fur, particularly thick around his neck. Its antlers weren't too large but still big by antler size, indicating the buck was still young, but even for its youth it gave off an aura of grandness. For a long moment, Robb forgot entirely about Hermione or Harry as his eyes took in the sight of the regal creature. He felt his bow at his side and wondered if he would be able to make the shot before alerting the animal. As he unsheathed an arrow, movement drew his attention and his breathing caught in his throat.
A large tawny brown wolf padded calmly into the clearing. To his utter amazement, the stag didn't flee. Instead, he faced the wolf curiously and bobbed his head as if nodding in acknowledgement towards the predator. Robb's breathing caught in his throat as he watched it growing nearer to the stag and he was able to clearly compare the sizes of the two animals. Now, either the stag was very small or the wolf was very large, abnormally large in fact. Then it dawned on him. That wasn’t just any wolf. That thing was huge, much larger than any regular wolf, which could only mean it was a direwolf.
Robb blinked several times, amazed at the revelation. A direwolf hadn’t been spotted alive beyond the Wall for over a hundred years. He felt an enormous burst of pride at the very sight of it and the additional knowledge that he was the one to witness it himself. He kept quiet, as he watched on for what would happen next.
The direwolf approached the other animal to sniff in greeting and clearly wasn’t intending to attack, as would have been expected. Instead, after a momentary pause, they both did quite the opposite. From where Robb stood, it looked as if the two began to play. Yes. That's what it was.
The wolf neared the stag and nuzzled it gently, going so far as to even lick it. The stag shook its head in response and leapt in the air, landing on its hooves and bobbing slightly, egging its opposite to join him. As a response, the direwolf crouched low and barked spiritedly. Soon enough, the two were bounding in the glade, kicking their legs up and rambunctiously chasing each other.
Robb couldn't stop looking at them. There was a strange kind of excitement he felt with the sight, as if seeing this was something not just anyone would ever have the privilege to see.
Then it was destroyed when something shot from the clearing and struck the ground hard where the wolf's head had been a split second while it was rolling in the grass. At the sight of the weapon, the two animals leapt up and sprinted out of the clearing.
Robb's head snapped in the direction the arrow had flown and he spotted Theon (because of course Theon would be the one to ruin it) walking into the clearing with his bow and arrow brandished, ready to give chase.
"NO!" Robb shouted holding a hand up to halt his next arrow. Theon must not have heard him or ignored his outcry and fired a second arrow right as the wolf's tail disappeared into the trees. Angrily, Robb marched over to the pirate.
"Why did you do that?!" Robb demanded, irritated beyond belief that the idiot would interrupt such a fascinating moment.
"It was a direwolf and a stag." Theon said it like he was explaining that the sky was blue to a child. "We still wanted to go hunting and they were two perfect targets. I don't understand why you wouldn't take advantage of a better opportunity."
"They were playing with one another! It was interesting!"
"Interesting? You sound like Hermione."
Robb didn't like how Theon made that sound like an insult. "Regardless, were you not paying attention! They were acting completely unnatural and I wanted to watch what they were going to do. You didn't have to ruin it by trying to kill them."
"What difference would it have made? If every hunter stopped to watch the wildlife, their family would go hungry."
"Robb! Theon!"
The two turned to see Jon walking into the glade, accompanied by Hermione and Harry. The two looked somewhat winded, as if they had run a good distance to get there just moments prior.
"Where have you two been?" Rob asked.
"I found them some ways off," Jon explained. "They were… um…"
"We were looking for mushrooms," Hermione explained quickly. "We… uh… we heard a noise and thought it was a… bear."
"But then it turned out to be a great big wolf," Harry added, casting a quick glance at his friend. "So… still scary, but we're fine… thanks."
"Oh yes!" Robb jolted, for the time he had been watching the stag and the wolf interacting, he had completely forgotten about his two friends who were already out there. "Sorry, I bet we saw the same one then. But it wasn't just a wolf! I bet you anything that was a direwolf. It was huge after all! There was also a great black stag with it as well. Did you see it, too?"
The two exchanged a look and Jon seemed to be refusing to meet either of their gazes.
"No. We didn't," Harry said slowly. "Just the wolf."
Robb looked from one to the other. Something… weird was going on between the three of them.
When he exchanged a look with Theon however, the pirate gave him a sly, knowing smile. A sudden sinking dread filled Robb's stomach at that moment and his head snapped back to his friends.
There was something that had happened between those two, and Jon, his brother, who was avidly avoiding eye-contact with him, knew what it was. It was possible he had even caught the two of them in whatever inexplicable act the two were refusing to discuss in front of them.
Robb felt like he was panicking as Theon's earlier suspicions about the two entered his mind.
No. Oh gods no. Please don't tell him their idiot hostage was right for once. Of all things in the whole world, this was one thing that he did not want to be true in the least.
Robb rode ahead of their procession the whole way back to the castle with Theon riding aside him and their other three companions taking up the rear. Occasionally the Stark heir couldn't contain the glances he kept casting back at the three who lagged behind and spoke to one another in hushed voices. He couldn't hear any of what was spoken, but based on Jon's expression he seemed rather excited about something as he kept egging them into conversation. From the other two's body language, they seemed to be very guarded about their topic and gestured to him a few times to let the matter rest momentarily.
Robb was aching to demand answers out of the two himself, but he couldn't help the consistent twinge of betrayal he felt. It was perfectly plain to everyone that he fancied Hermione, and though she hadn't initially acknowledged his feelings, he would have thought she may have sensed something by now. But he also couldn't deny the connection she and Harry held for one another. They came from the same place and with their magic they shared a unique bond, not to mention they understood each other in a way no one from their home ever really could. But surely, they weren't… he just meant… they had repeatedly told them their attachment was like a sibling relationship… not romantic in the slightest. Unless of course they meant siblings in the way the Targaryens meant siblings.
No. No, that couldn't possibly be true. Theon was an idiot. There was nothing going on between the two of them except friendship. Nothing.
He'd put it out of his mind, for now. Until he was certain, he'd wait for proper explanations for their behavior.
“From Lorath, you say?” Wyman Manderly repeated, fixing Hermione with a curious gaze as she danced with Daryn Hornwood. It was the penultimate day of festivities for Robb’s sixteenth nameday. As pleased as Ned was to see his eldest son become a man, he would be heartily glad once all his guests had returned to their homes. Housing such a large number of people had put great strain on his household, but he couldn’t deny that the past few days had been a great success.
“Yes, Hermione and Harry have been my wards for over a year now,” Ned replied, spotting Harry amongst the dancers too, with Jorelle Mormont. He had sincerely wished that the festivities would pass by without Harry and Hermione attracting too much attention. However, that hope had been quickly dashed when Robb had insisted on opening the dancing on the first night (and each subsequent evening) with Hermione. At once everyone had wanted to know who this mysterious girl was.
Catelyn had been less than impressed with her son’s first choice of dance partner but as Robb was perfectly entitled to pick whomever he desired, there was very little Catelyn could do about it. Though Robb was not discourteous to the other ladies present, for he made sure to dance with any who would have him before returning to Hermione at the first opportunity. It was perfectly obvious to all of those present that Robb was entirely infatuated with her.
Ned had suspected as much for a couple of moon’s turns; he had seen the brooding looks on Robb’s face on many a man before. While Hermione was a perfectly intelligent, good-hearted, and loyal young woman, Ned had never considered her as a marriage prospect for his son. It was definitely for the best that she and Harry were due to leave for Oldtown in a matter of days. That was what he was telling Catelyn to soothe her worries anyway.
Fearing that Robb would leave Hermione with a “parting gift”, Catelyn had requested that Ned talk with their son about expected standards of honor around women. Ned wasn’t sure it was strictly necessary given the two people involved, but he was also aware that Robb and Hermione wouldn’t be the first young lovers to get carried away.
“Father, please!” Robb have objected with distinctly pink cheeks when it became clear what their conversation was about. “I would never, that is to say, I know what—”
Ned clapped his son on the shoulder, deciding to put him out of his misery, even though he found his discomfort somewhat amusing. “Peace son, I know you are a man of honor.”
Robb had been avoiding his father’s and mother’s gaze ever since, but it hadn’t kept him away from Hermione. Ned supposed that he was trying to be with her as much as possible as it was likely that soon he would never see her again.
Whether the girl in question returned Robb’s feelings or not, Ned wasn’t sure. He was in no doubt that Hermione enjoyed spending time with his son but she also seemed happy in the company of most other members of his household. That being said, it was quite plain that her heart lay in finding her way home.
“A pretty girl,” Rickard Karstark commented. He watched as her curly brown hair bounced with the rhythm of the dance. The cosmetics she had manufactured gave it a pleasing sheen and held a floral and honey fragrance to it and Ned had caught some of the visitors sniffing the air whenever she walked by. “Is she promised to anyone?”
Ned glanced warily at him, knowing that Karstark had three sons of marriageable age that had yet to be matched with prospective wives. “No,” Ned replied, taking a sip of wine. “They both leave for Oldtown shortly. Harry has been accepted to train at the Citadel.”
“And she goes with him as his wet-nurse?” Greatjon Umber boomed, his joke being met with hearty laughs by the other lords.
Ned smiled tightly, glad that Harry was unable to hear the comment; the boy was far too sensitive for his own good.
“They both have aptitude for the Citadel,” Ned admitted. “As it happens, together they invented the lever water pumps around Winterfell that you lords were so fascinated by earlier.”
“So, that is where those odd things came from,” Rickard surmised. “Where did they come up with such a thing?”
“Their old home had many inventions of the like,” Ned told them. “It’s pleased the servants enough.”
“Are they willing to release the designs?” Lord Manderly asked eagerly. But he was ignored over a different comment.
“I’m sure your family will miss their presence greatly,” Medger Cerwin said, with an amused look at the dancing. Robb had found his way back to Hermione for the third time that evening.
Ned shook his head at his son’s persistence. “Very much so,” he replied.
“Ah, but enough of this,” the Greatjon said, placing his empty tankard down noisily. “What about these direwolf rumors I’ve heard of? I nearly clouted the man who told me of them. Direwolves! Can it be true?”
“Saw the tracks myself,” Galbart Glover claimed, shouting along the table. “No mistaking them. An ordinary wolf couldn’t make prints that large.”
From across the table Roose Bolton spoke in his usually soft and eerie voice. “Your sons and wards saw it themselves, didn’t they? A brown one, wasn’t it? With a black stag, I heard?”
Ned nodded. “It is what they said.”
“And the wolf did not attack the stag?”
“From what my sons and wards have told me, it did not. The opposite in fact, the two seemed to—in their words—play together.”
“What do you make of it, then? An omen?” Rickard Karstark suggested.
There were various murmurs around the table by that.
“Perhaps you and the House Baratheon are due to see great fortune in the coming years?” Galbert Glover offered.
Baratheon was an old house in the Stormlands, their sigil was of a black stag with a crown on a yellow field. Ned and Robert had been wards of House Aaryn in the Eerie together in their youth. They had grown to be good friends, but sometime during adulthood they had fallen out of touch.
Glover’s declaration was met with a number of cries of skepticism from some, especially since the last time Ned and Robert spoke it had not ended very amicably, but Galbert was backed by Helman Tallhard and Medger Cerwyn. For sure, this meant something good would happen for their warden. Ned hadn’t seen the supposed direwolf himself, nor even the tracks, but with his sons assuring him they hadn’t ever seen a wolf that size and with his most experienced men claiming not to have seen the likeness of the tracks before, he was convinced by their authenticity.
“What say we ride out tomorrow to investigate, my Lord?” Rickard Karstark suggested. “Then we can settle the matter.”
“Aye, a grand idea,” Greatjon agreed, while others nodded. It was so rare for his lords to agree on anything that Ned consented at once. Besides, he was curious to see the tracks for himself. A direwolf hadn’t been sighted south of the wall for two hundred years. If there was one in the Wolfswood, then it would be a most astonishing discovery.
Ned excused himself from the table in order to warn his master-of-horse of the next morning’s ride. He spotted his wife not far away, watching the dancing intently, a frown on her face. Ned didn’t need to look at the couples to know which pair held her gaze.
Catelyn seemed to sense his presence for she turned her head slightly towards him and muttered, “He’s tenacious, I’ll give him that.”
Ned chuckled and placed a soothing hand on her arm. “What harm can come of it, my lady?” Catelyn arched an eyebrow at him but Ned shook his head. “I told you, he gave me his word.” Catelyn turned back to the pairs and the dance came to an end.
Ned watched as Robb took Hermione’s hand gently and kissed it. She laughed in response and shook her head slightly, seemingly unaware that Robb’s affection for her was most sincere.
If Robb was pained by this casual treatment, he didn’t show it but smiled widely instead.
“The day she leaves Winterfell cannot come soon enough,” his wife said lowly, just as the servants wheeled out a tall cake lined with sixteen lit candles to present to the delighted heir of Winterfell.
And despite the great fondness Ned had for both Harry and Hermione, he couldn’t help but agree. Call it infatuation, lust, or love; there was no doubt that it made men do such foolish things.
Ned was waylaid on his way to break his fast in the Great Hall the following morning by a somewhat nervous looking Harry and Hermione.
“We apologize for the earliness of the hour, my lord, but is it true that you and your lords plan to investigate the direwolf tracks in the Wolfswood today?” Hermione asked.
“It is,” Ned replied, surprised that the pair of them would be concerned with such a matter. “Do you wish to join the party?”
“No thank you, my lord,” Harry responded. “We already know that you won’t find her.”
“Her?” Ned repeated in bewilderment. “How do you know the wolf is a female?”
“Could we perhaps continue this conversation somewhere more private?” Hermione requested. “With the amount of guests Winterfell is housing at the moment there’s no telling who might be about to come round the corner.”
Ned nodded in understanding. “You would have no objections to Maester Luwin hearing what you wish to tell me?”
“None at all,” Harry replied at once
Ned motioned that they make the short journey across the castle to the Maester’s turret. He had a feeling that whatever Harry and Hermione had to tell him would be related to their magic and therefore it was imperative that they were not overheard.
There was a group of young men in the courtyard loosening arrows at a couple of targets. Robb was amongst it all while Jon watched the crowd from a distance. Robb’s arrow found the center of the target and he turned back to the other men to accept their congratulations. He spotted his father walking with Harry and Hermione and quickly excused himself. The men looked on in confusion for a few seconds before they too spotted Hermione and gave each other knowing looks and grins.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re about to discuss something important?” Robb greeted, keeping step with them.
Ned looked towards Harry and Hermione to see if they wanted his son present.
Hermione shrugged. “You may as well come, too. You are the heir of Winterfell and the North after all. How could we possibly refuse you?” She said with more than a hint of sarcasm. Instead of being offended, Robb laughed loudly and Ned had a feeling that there was a private jest between them.
“It’s about the other day in the forest when you saw the direwolf and the stag,” Harry explained. “Jon already sort of knows. We had intentions to tell you, too, but couldn’t find the time with all the visitors.”
Robb’s face became serious at the mention, and he stared at the two of them. “What about it?”
“We’re about to tell you, if you want to know,” Hermione reminded with a smile, while Harry called out to Jon and beckoned for him to join them as well, and soon the four of them were climbing the steps to Maester Luwin’s solar. The Maester looked surprised to see them all but didn’t raise any questions.
Everyone turned expectantly to harry and Hermione. Hermione cleared her throat. “You wanted to know, my lord, how Harry and I can be sure your search for the direwolf and black stag will be unsuccessful?” Ned nodded in confirmation. “Just try to keep calm,” Hermione advised them all. Jon was the only one who didn’t look suspicious and maybe even a little scared now.
Ned was still puzzling over her appeal for calm as he watched light brown fur sprout all over Hermione’s body. Ned couldn't remember a time when he was more taken by shock as he leapt to his feet in surprise. Robb backed away from her with yells of shock as she grew taller, and her face lengthened. She fell forwards onto hands that were now large paws with dangerous looking claws. Ned had never truly seen one before, but he was in no doubt that Hermione was now a direwolf.
“S-seven hells!” Robb stammered, eyes wide, as the wolf sat back and gazed at them all.
“A little bit more warning might have been advisable,” Maester Luwin suggested, holding his hand over his heart.
Harry and Jon looked quite amused by their reactions. “We thought it might be easier to show you. She’s quite safe,” Harry explained, seeing the wary looks on their faces. “Hermione is in complete control of what she’s doing; it’s still her inside.”
The direwolf walked calmly towards Jon who was closest and nudged her nose at his hand. He let out a nervous bark of laughter and raised his hand to tentatively pat its head. “This is unbelievable.” The wolf wagged its tail, knocking over a chair. Its size really was enormous.
“Can she understand what we’re saying?” Robb asked, as he too held out a cautious hand which the wolf promptly nuzzled.
“Every word,” Harry assured.
“Hermione was the wolf,” Ned realized, looking over at Harry. “That means you were the stag.”
Harry smiled, amused by their reactions. “Yes, I can transform into a black stag. The same one you saw that day,” he said to Robb.
Robb’s face went through a series of changes in that moment; surprise, then relief, and then horror as he clapped a hand to his head with the weight of the revelation. “It all makes sense now. But Theon—by the gods—Theon could have killed you both! I could have killed you both! We were hunting and…”
“It was a close call, to be sure,” Hermione said, transforming back into her human form. “We will be more careful from now on.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us you could be a wolf!” Robb said before turning to his half-brother accusingly, “And I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”
“I was going to, but Theon was there and then the lords showed up and I wanted to tell you with Father…”
Ned knew none of them were able to blame him for that. It had been a very busy few days and Eddard unfortunately had no time to spare for any privacy with his sons in between his duties and the festivities.
“Still, have you two been able to do this the whole time?”
Hermione laughed. “No. We learned it while here. It takes a lot of discipline and focus. There aren’t a lot of people who become animagus where we’re from.”
“Animagus?”
“It means we can turn into animals,” Harry explained.
Ned looked at Harry with that statement. Though he took them for their words, he couldn’t hold back his own fascination of this development. Even as he knew Robb and Jon had both seen him by now, he had yet to behold Harry’s “animagus” form. “I would like to see yours now, Harry.”
The boy nodded, and took the place Hermione had previously occupied. Harry’s transformation was just as fluid as his counterpart’s and in five seconds flat, a jet-black stag was standing in the maester’s turrent where the wolf had previously been. Ned was astonished. He wanted to go and touch the creature to be sure he was real, but before he could so much as get up, both Hermione and the stag’s eyes darted to the door just then and the animagus rapidly transformed back into the normal Harry form they were used to seeing.
A second later and they would have been caught by Arya who burst in unexpectedly, throwing the door opened and looking disheveled as she basically fell into the room. “I beat you!” She called down the turret, clearly out of breath.
“Maester Lu—oh,” Arya had finally looked into the room and saw all the people crowded inside. She looked guiltily at her father who was frozen in his spot, though quickly, he found his voice.
“Arya, you know better than to barge in to a closed room,” he chided, as Bran appeared over Arya’s shoulder, blowing hard.
“Sorry,” the girl said meekly. Then she eyed their positions around the room and how Harry stood in the middle as if he were about to perform something. “What are you all doing in here? Can I watch?”
“Wait outside, Arya,” Maester Luwin instructed.
“But—”
“Arya,” Ned said lowly, to stop her argument in its tracks.
His daughter let out a huff of annoyance then pushed Bran behind her and pulled the door closed noisily.
“I suppose we’ll have to leave it at that,” Luwin said. “With Arya and Bran waiting for their lesson I fear that my other questions will have to wait, for you can be quite sure that their ears are pressed solidly against the keyhole.”
Hermione nodded, then turned to Ned with a cheeky smile. “Well, enjoy your ride, my lord.”
Ned chuckled, imagining the looks on the faces of his lords if he told them that the direwolf and stag they sought was actually his two strange wards.
Robb had never felt so relieved in his whole life.
For days he'd been terrified that Hermione and Harry were in the middle of a relationship that was steadily growing more romantic, and his brother Jon was in on the secret, refusing to tell him anything about what was going on, yet finally, the true reason for their strange behaviors was revealed to all of them.
He had grilled them with questions while they walked away from the torrent, but both Harry and Hermione kept their answers open-ended, just in case someone passing by heard them.
That day in the forest was just them testing the limits of their new bodies. Hermione had explained that while they still understood things perfectly, the behaviors of their animal forms might react differently to how they behaved while they were human, but only because their anatomies were now wildly altered, which explained why they were so energetic towards one another in the forest that day.
There was both a flood of relief with the revelation along with a horrified lurch in Rob's stomach. Theon had been terrifyingly close to killing Hermione!
There was a new burst of anger he felt for the other boy and he wondered profusely why he didn't reprimand his idiot friend far more harshly.
When he brought the issue up with Hermione later as they were walking from the maester's torrent, she wasn't anywhere near as angry as he felt she should have been.
"He couldn't have known. You didn't even know," she rationalized.
"Yes, but I wouldn't have shot you at all," he responded sternly. "I wanted to watch. The way the stag and wolf were behaving, it was interesting and I'm still angry that Theon didn't even care or appreciate it. He just saw two targets and nothing more!"
Hermione sighed, and it was her sigh that said she understood him but she also understood the other side of this argument as well. "That's how a lot of people would have seen us. I hate to say it, but it is true. Not many people care about those kinds of things, especially if they've never been taught how strange it truly is."
"It shouldn't have to be taught," he argued. "Many think of direwolves as wild predators that never miss an opportunity to hunt and kill whatever crosses them, but seeing one frolic the way… the way you were with that black stag… it should have fascinated anyone. Anyone intelligent at least."
Hermione was quiet for a moment, studying a brick in the wall since she wasn’t able to look at him just then, and Robb looked up to take in the sight of her. Before he could realize what he was doing, his hand was reaching forward and taking hers gently. Her gaze snapped up at him with that gesture and he was instantly reminded of the few times he'd gotten the chance to hold that hand, the majority of those times taking place as he danced with her for his nameday celebrations.
"I'd… I'd never hurt you, Hermione," Robb vowed, quietly. "Never."
Hermione couldn't speak for a moment and he watched as her cheeks colored up, giving her face a rosy glow.
"I… I know. I'd never hurt you either. At least… never intentionally hurt you." He felt as though she almost didn't say the last part, but her honesty won out because she couldn't promise something untrue and he knew she would hate to break it, even by accident. He could respect that, but he was still a little sad that she didn't seem to understand the unspoken feelings he was trying to convey. A moment later he watched her leave, weaving between the groups of busy people in the yard as she retreated to probably work on her own tasks for the day. He turned his back to hers and left to fulfill his own duties, though the girl and the newfound discovery of her wonderful ability stayed with him all day long.