The Village
Regulus p.o.v
We arrived at a small encampment, with houses inside the hollow trees of the swamp made of twigs and leaves. I saw small children running around but when they noticed us, they stopped to take us in along with the other villagers. A middle – aged woman walked over to us together with a male with with a mechanical eye and a limp. “Miss Pomfrey.” Emma starts “We found the avatar and his companions in the swamp, they claim to know Monk McGonagall and came here looking for an alliance.”
The woman smiled “Well if they are friends with Minerva they are more than welcome here. I am Poppy Pomfrey, I am the shaman of this village and this next to me is Alastor Moody he is our chief.” She looked around the group frowning before turning to Emma and Zabini “Where are Barty and Evan?”
“Evan and one of their group fell in the river.” Emma explained “Our first meeting wasn’t really civilianized so Barty went to retrieve them along with the avatar’s brother.”
“I still think we handled accordingly.” Zabini mutters “We couldn’t know if they were allies instead of enemies and I still don’t know if they are lying or not.”
“We are not.” James states
“I do not listen to you fire- breather.” She hissed at him.
“Zabini show some respect, that is the traitor prince you are talking too.” The chief speaks up making me raise my eyebrow at him confused.
“How did you know?” I ask him.
Moody smirks “The trees talk, the entire swamp is an echo of some kind. Sometimes whispers make it through of wanderers lost inside the swamp. I imagine our ladies told you the swamp is alive in his own way. The swamp protects us but also informs us.”
“Do you think they are high on mushrooms?” Dorcas whisper to lily who snorts.
“It all seems a bit strange”
“Well we are an very private tribe, not many people search safety inside a traitorous bog but we did. We respect it’s nature and in turn the swamp protects us, we are not your ordinary bender.” The healer answers before turning to a few other villagers “Let’s make our new friends something to eat so we can discuss their arrival.”
“Thank you for your hospitality.” Lily tells them.
The healer smiles at her “Anything for the avatar and pupil of my old friend, I can assume you’re are lily right.”
“Yes.”
“Wonderful, follow me young travellers.” She gestured for us to follow her but then Sirius and Remus entered through the clearing along with the swamp people Evan and Barty. I let out a sigh of relief when my brother and his boyfriend joined us. I hugged them both to ease my worries and scan them for any injuries.
“So are they guest or prisoners?” Barty asks slinging an arm around Zabini who shrugged it off
“Guests.”
“Very well.” Barty nods “I am exhausted, I am going to take a nap wake me when it is time for dinner.”
I watched the male weirdly as he pulled his boyfriend with him, the girls left as well leaving us with an calculating chief and the nice woman who wanted us to follow her, she was wrapped in an conversation with Lily while Dorcas catched Remus and Sirius up what happened during their absence. James took my hand in min and squeezed it reassuring before we followed Poppy.