ice machines

“It'll be warm,” Gideon is promising a shivering Lily, while James and Marlene follow, talking quietly, the words ‘safe’ and ‘leave’ and ‘hopefully’ just about making it to Remus. But Gideon hushes them for the walk with an uneasy glance to the trees so they struggle through the snow two by two by Remus in a tense silence interrupted only by harsh breathing and chattering teeth. Through the tops of the trees and gathering clouds, he can just about make out the two tall twin mountains watching over them in the distance. He wonders if Walburga and Sirius are home.

Thankfully Gideon doesn't take them far before pausing beside a massive tree with a proud look. Remus cranes his neck upwards, but its branches disappear among the others of the forest, with no sign of an end and its great roots come up past his waist. He feels slightly breathless at only the thought of how long it has been growing here. Gideon catches his wondering look.

“This is an old forest, second oldest in Hogwarts, some trees are older than this age - in here.” He disappears in between two of the giant roots and Lily follows him without hesitation. Remus grabs James's arm before he can too, and Marlene pauses to look back at them curiously.

“Could either of you find your way back to the lamppost from here?”

James hesitates and glances at Marlene who shakes her head slowly, worrying creasing both their foreheads.

“Me neither,” admits Remus, he had tried to keep the walk in mind but the snow covered forest looked the same from all angles. They all hesitate in grim acknowledgement before Marlene uneasily shrugs it off and ducks into the tree. James sighs before following her. Remus sends a small prayer to a Lord he barely believes in for patience before he follows.

            James

Remus’ words are still ringing in James’ ears as he awkwardly shuffles through the tree roots, almost getting his shoulders stuck once or twice, worry worming its way into his head as he considers that they are in fact quite lost. What awaits them inside, however, strikes this clear from his mind out of delighted surprise. The narrow tunnel lets them into a surprisingly large room that looks straight out of children's picture book. The roof is low enough that they have to hunch but everything else is not what he would expect in the slightest from a fox den after the age of four or five. They're in a kitchen with a stove and a kettle and a table and food.

The table even is neatly set – including a loaf of what looks like fresh, homemade bread - for three and the warm, welcoming space smells amazing, a good sign for the meal ahead. James hadn’t realized how hungry he is, and his stomach makes an embarrassing growling sound he hopes no one heard, glancing at Lily with a blush rise to his cheeks. She looks almost equally charmed but worry still stretches her forehead and her eyes dart around the room like she’s expecting – or hoping – her Mary to come out. Beside her, Marlene’s mouth is fully open as she takes the sight in and James can’t help the slight smile that brings out of him.

“Oh! Gideon, you’re back – good I was – what’s this, guests?” The fox who had been pulling things out of the oven - why do foxes need an oven? - spins towards them with a hassled look. “What have I said about- oh!“

“Molly - this is Lily,” Gideon says carefully, “Mary's Lily.”

“Oh!” Molly looks frozen for a moment before bursting back into movement, “Ohh quite! Why, well what an honor – where are my manners? Your Majesty.” And to James’ shock, she bows. Or he thinks she does, it is a little hard to tell, given that she’s a fox. Comfortingly, Lily also looks startled, so he’s right to be confused, but before she gets the chance to react, Molly is moving and talking again.

“Arthur! Arthur! Well, I - well I never, Arthur - oh there you are.” A third fox emerges from one of the tunnels (hallways?) out of the kitchen. “Arthur - this is Lily.”

“Lily? Well lovely to meet you, lovely. Will you be staying for supper?” asks Arthur mildly, with a distracted but pleasant look towards them. Molly sighs.

“Mary’s Lily, Arthur – with her friends, all three of them.”

The fox immediately looks more alert, his ears pricking up as he turns back to them.

“Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve?”

“Yes, we’re human,” says Lily as Gideon disappears down the same corridor Arthur had come from. “And this is Marlene, and James – and Remus.” Arthur peers curiously at them all one by one while Molly looks almost giddy before his gaze lands on Remus who squirms slightly as it turns decidedly more assessing as he looks the other boy up and down. James waits for him to say something but when he doesn’t Molly speaks up again instead.

“Please – please do sit down and make yourselves comfortable, we would’ve better prepared if we had known you were coming – imagine, humans! Here!”

“I’m sorry,” James offers, “For the lack of warning – four is a lot to-“

“Oh, nonsense,” Molly replies immediately, “It’s an honor, really – and you poor things look half frozen – is it snowing again?”

“About to start back up,” replies Gideon, his voice muffled as he reappears with something carefully packaged in cloth in his mouth, that he gently sets beside Lily with a knowing look.

“Godric,” sighs Molly, “Well, it’ll cover your tracks at least hopefully – please, dears, sit down – get them some blankets, would you Arthur?” Gideon hums in response with a concerned look to the entrance and Arthur goes, presumably, in search of blankets.

The four of them sit down around the table under Molly’s insistence, which requires some awkward movements to fit themselves in the small space – James has never regretted being tall so much, although Remus, who sits closest to the door, is clearly the one suffering the most, settling into an uncomfortable looking position to fit his long legs under him, clearing giving up on getting them to fit under the table and settling for sitting near it. Despite the awkwardness of it, the struggle to arrange their limbs breaks some of the tension as they laugh between themselves. Once settled, Lily pulls the cloth away from the package she’d been given and gasps.

“Oh! Her kettle!”

And out of the packaging she pulls the ugliest kettle James has ever seen in his life.

“Yes,” says Gideon gravely, “I saved it from the wreck – knew she’d want me to take it.”

“It’s broken,” Remus points out, earning him a slightly aggravated look although James thinks he has a point. This kettle looks like it’s spent more time broken than not, with repatched cracks and holes almost covering it, but it is also very cleanly split into two halves.

“She loves this kettle,” sniffs Lily, “Its fixable, right?”

Molly chuckles.

“That kettle has survived worse than this.”  Looks like it, James can admit. He wonders if it’s any good as a kettle or just for sentimental value.

“Is this your proof?” Marlene asks with a look exchanged with Remus, “That you’re Mary’s friend?”  Gideon nods. “Oh.”

“You don’t have anything else?” James asks uneasily, before diplomatically adding, “ – its just that we’ve just learnt that humans aren’t very welcome here and we’ve only just met.”

“Unfortunately not,” says Gideon, “She wasn’t a part of the resistance.”

“Only a friend of hers would know to take this kettle,” says Lily, still staring at the kettle.

“Resistance?” mutters Marlene and James shrugs uneasily.

“What has happened to her?” demands Lily, looking up, “You said you’d explain.”

“Here,” says Molly, bringing over the food from the stove and nudging Gideon to help her, “Eat and we’ll talk, we’ll tell you everything we know.” Arthur arrives with blankets just as she starts to dish the food out and James smiles at them both gratefully, eagerly replacing his coat with a blanket around his shoulders and pulling his plate towards him, mouth watering.

“Mary has been arrested for treason,” says Arthur, settling beside Molly as James bites into the best roast potato of his life, “Which means she’s been taken to the Queens palace and …” He hesitates glancing at Gideon and Molly neither of whom are meeting Lily’s desperate eyes and James’ stomach sinks.

“What?” asks Lily, “Means what?”

“The punishment for treason is stone,” says Molly gently. “Without the right to a trial.”

“Stone?”

“The witch – the queen will have turned her to stone.” James’s potatoes don’t taste so go anymore.

“Into stone?” repeats Marlene looking grotesquely curious and the foxes nod.

“But…” says Lily, “But we can turn her back, right?”  The foxes hesitate.

“I’m going to be honest with you,” says Arthur, “We don’t know – it hasn’t been done before, but there’s hope. There’s a lot of hope, actually. Between you four arriving and Dumbledore’s return –“

“Dumbledore?” asks Marlene.

“You don’t – you don’t know who Dumbledore is?” Gideon rears back in shock.

“Well we’ve only just arrived,” James defends, stabbing a potato with his fork.

“He’s a lion,” interrupts Arthur with a look at his fellow fox, “And a sorcerer. He’s the witch-queens biggest rival – and our biggest hope, after you lot of course.”

“What do you mean? How are we your biggest hope?” asks Lily with a frown.

“Did Mary not tell you?” replies Arthur, clearly thrown and she shakes her head, “Well,” he sighs, “There’s a prophecy about you. About your arrival in Hogwarts.”

“A prophecy,” repeats James and he thinks of the book of knight stories his mother used to read him goodnight from with a sudden lump in his throat.

Arthur nods.

“The great prophecy of this age,” adds Gideon eagerly while James tries to swallow around the sudden feeling – he’s been doing so well all summer he can’t – “You’re going to save us,” says Gideon, shocking him out of it a bit.

“What?” says Marlene which pretty much covers James’ thoughts.

“When Adam's flesh and Eve's bones

Come to reclaim their empty thrones

Will a new age arrive…” Arthur recites, “When –“ he cuts himself off with a look at the other foxes but Lily shakes her head angrily.

“No – go on, finish it.”

“When the dead rise, will winter fall

The traitor shall answer his final call

To choose who shall survive,” he completes uneasily to silence.

“That… doesn’t sound so good,” says Marlene and James has to agree, nodding.

“It is,” says Gideon confidently, “We need a new age – and the fall of winter, you were foretold to help us.”

“A traitor was foretold,” Lily, points out, “And it sounds like its up to them, not us.”

“We’ll be the survivors,” Gideon waves her off, “We just need-“

“Prophecies are fickle things,” Arthur interrupts, “The only thing that we can say for certain is that you will bring a new age – which can only be a good thing, I promise, - as for the rest… it can mean anything.”

“So you think that… we’re here to help you what? Overthrow your queen?” asks Marlene.

“Yes,” Gideon leans forward, eyes bright and excited, “You’re here to reclaim your thrones – ones she is unrightfully usurping, even Dumbledore believes it! The eternal winter she’s trapped us in – you’re here to end it.”

“You’re proposing a war,” James hides his hands under the table to tug at them anxiously, “A war against your queen. We were sent away to avoid being caught up in a war – I’m, really, I’m so sorry but you’ve got the wrong people, we –“

“We don’t,” says Gideon, “I mean four humans, all at once? Dumbledore is building you an army as we speak! You can’t just abandon us – abandon your destiny! You-“

“Gideon,” says Molly and he stops.

“We’re only kids,” whispers Lily, “I wish we could help but I don’t think-“

“You can,” says Gideon desperately, “You can… what about Mary?”

“We should go home,” Marlene looks towards Remus.

“Yeah,” says James, “I –“

“Remus?” Mary interrupts him and he turns to the other boy who – who isn’t there.

“Wha-“

“Did he leave?” Marlene asks him panicked, head whipping around to look at the others but the clear surprise on everyone’s faces makes it very clear that no one knows. “Fuck.” She scrambles over James to go out and he follows.

They are met with a snowstorm. A pure white wall of snow, ice and wind and not a sign of Remus.

“Fuck,” repeats Marlene, sounding near tears. James stares at the blank white uncomprehendingly. Remus wouldn’t have just left, would he? Why would- he couldn’t have just gone. He had admitted to them both that he didn’t know the way back home.

He ducks and wriggles back inside to a concerned Lily and when he shakes his head, still speechless, panic blooms on her face.

“He’s gone???”

“Its snowing,” he manages.

“But – he, where would he even have gone?”

“I- I don’t –“

“Has your friend ever been to Hogwarts before?” Arthur interjects gravely, “Alone?”

“Yes,” says Lily, turning to him wide eyed.

“Did he meet anyone?”

“He said he didn’t,” she says turning to check with James, who nods.

“Are you sure?” asks Arthur insistently.

“Well, no,” admits Lily, “He was a little weird about it and then he – he lied about being here at all.” James feels sick.

“The witch got to him already,” says Arthur and the two other foxes wince but nod, “He had that look about him, no?” Gideon nods slowly.

“He kept looking towards the twin mountains on the way.”

“What are they?’ asks Lily

“Her palace,” he replies. “Her home lies just between them.”

“He didn’t eat,” adds Molly.

“He… he hasn’t all week, not really,” says James slowly.

‘What has this got to do with anything?” asks Lily desperately.

“It’s the Sickness, we call it,” answers Arthur, “The Witches’ Sickness. It’s a poison she gives you, makes you ill and desperate for more, you’ll do anything she asks.”

“It’s like a drug,” says Gideon, “But magic – a lot more difficult to resist, very fast acting.”

“He’s been magically poisoned,” says Lily slowly. It explains a lot, James has to admit, about his resent change in character, and she looks like she’s thinking the same thing. The foxes nod.

“He’s not there,” Marlene bursts back inside, dripping wet and covered in snow, visibly shaking, “I called and went around the tree but – he’s gone, I don’t, I don’t know which way.”

“He’s gone to the queen,” says Gideon.

“What?!!”

“Marls – they think, they think that when he was alone, here, that she found him and – and gave him this magic drug –“ James stumbles through his explanation.

“Well then we have to – we have to go after him! Right?”

“In a snowstorm?” says Gideon.

“We have to!” exclaims Marlene, “We have to stop him and, and save him.”

“We do,” James agrees. At least Remus took his coat. He hates the thought of him out in that weather alone and – he’d given him a bad coat, what a shit thing to do, now he was out there, alone, with a shit too small coat and –

“We cant abandon him,” Lily agrees, “He’s –“ She’s interrupted by an owl swooping into the room.

“They’re coming.” It collapses on top of the table, wings crumpling, gasping out each breath, “They’re coming, now – from, from the north – maybe 20 minutes? – a – a whole pack – someone saw – at Mary’s.”

If James had wanted there to be panic at the news of Remus’ disappearance, he would’ve now gotten his wish. All three foxes ears lie flat back on their heads as they stare at the owl for and for a moment everything is frozen, James barely daring to breath, his heart beating painfully against his ribs, then chaos.

“Fuck-“ Gideon rushes to the entrance and pulls down a heavy looking wooden door, bolting it closed while Arthur disappears down one of the corridors and Molly turns to the cupboards and begins removing things.

 “Wait –“ Mary grabs Gideon to stop him from bolting down the door, “Wait – what? What’s happening? What are you doing? What about Remus?”

 “Someone told the witch you were here and she’s sent people that trust me you do not want to meet – we’re leaving, and were leaving now. We’ll use the back entrance.”

“We cant protect you,” says Molly, still taking things from the cupboards and throwing them into bags. “Not here, not against them, we’ll take you somewhere safer – to Dumbledore. And Remus … there’s nothing we can do to help him now. We won’t be able to find him in the storm and we have bigger problems –“

“He won’t survive the storm,” argues James, horrified, thinking of the sharp cold outside, “And your prophecy needs all four of us.”

 “Oh don’t worry,” says Gideon grimly, “The witch will make sure he makes his way to her, getting caught with him is the only thing you can do for him now and I promise you he won’t thank you for it.”

“Dumbledore will help,” Molly promises, ”He’ll help you get him back.” Marlene steps back and numbly watches Gideon bolt the door closed.

“I’ll scout ahead of you,” the owl pulls itself painfully from the table, shaking out their wings.

“Thank you,” says Molly gratefully, receiving a nod before they fly off down the last corridor from the kitchen as Arthur emerges from the other one, dragging a bag. Gideon helps him bolt the door to it down and stap the bag onto his back while Molly straps her bag of kitchen equipment and food onto his back. James looks between Marlene and Lily and is met with the same panic, confusion, fear and hesitance he feels.

“We don’t really have a choice,” whispers Lily, “I guess? This Dumbledore needs Remus too – for their war, so we have to trust that…”

“That he’ll help us get him back,” James nods.

“That he even can,” Marlene hisses, “Are we sure Remus can even find his way safely to the witch?”

“That she’ll find him, you mean,” says Lily gravely. “And wont…” kill him, Jesus, James feels sick “… but I just, I don’t think we have a choice – we can’t help him by going into the storm ourselves, so…”

“We need to go,” Arthur calls, from where all three foxes are waiting at the last tunnel out of the room where the owl had gone. They exchange one last terrible look between them and the door that Remus had used, now shut, before following the foxes out, grabbing their coats as they go. James can’t shake the awful, sinking feeling that they’ve lost him and, at the same time, been dragged into a war.