Shadows like Fire

Mikey and his brothers were no strangers to the word “weird,” so when they found the dog—which Mikey had named “The Fangster”—all they did was agree to investigate it further and to keep an eye on things. They would also have to find a new place to train, at least for a few weeks. Filch would no doubt be hanging around the trophy room for a while.

While Donnie focused on figuring out how they got to this world, Leo focused on where and how they would train, and Raph focused on what Fluffy was doing in the school, Mikey focused his talents elsewhere. Today was a special day, and Mikey had special plants.

At breakfast, Mikey approached the Gryffindor table, making sure to steer clear of Raph. 

Fred and George waved at him as he approached, and Mikey beamed. 

“Hey, dudes!” he said. “I need your help.”

The twins grinned.

Five minutes later, they were standing in front of the large picture of fruit near the Hufflepuff common room. Mikey had passed the picture every day, but never paused to truly look at it.

“Prepare to be amazed,” George said theatrically. Fred approached the picture and tickled the large pear in the middle. It giggled, and Mikey watched in astonishment as it morphed into a green door handle.

“Welcome… to the Hogwarts kitchen!” Fred said. Mikey stepped into the room, a large smile on his face.

The kitchen was huge, the ceiling impossibly high. There were five tables, identical to the ones in the Great Hall above. Dozens of pots and pans were heaped around the walls, and a large brick fireplace roared with flames across the room. But the most notable thing, Mikey thought, were the hundreds of little eyes staring at him, Fred, and George.

“House elves,” George explained as Mikey looked on in wonder. The elves quickly recovered from their shock and scurried around the kitchen, getting back to work. “They do most of the cooking around here.”

“All of the cooking,” Fred corrected. He turned to Mikey. “That was all you needed, right, mate?”

Mikey nodded. “Yup! I can take it from here.” He hesitated for a moment. “But if you could do me a favor and not mention this to any of my brothers, that’d be awesome.” 

Fred and George put their hands over their hearts. “We solemnly swear it,” they said unanimously. 

Mikey grinned. “Thanks, dudes.”

“Anytime, mate,” George said, walking over to one of the counters and taking two pastries from a dish. He tossed one to Fred. “Well, we’ve got someplace to be, don’t we? Wouldn’t want to be late. See you around, Mike.”

Mikey waited until he was sure they’d left before turning to the house elves. He tapped one lightly on the shoulder. “Excuse me?” he said, but started when it jumped three feet in the air. It landed, flinching, and Mikey winced. “Whoa, sorry, dude, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said. “It’s just that—well—I have a favor to ask, if you don’t mind.”

For the second time since he’d reached the kitchen, all of the house elves stared at him.

Saturday lunches in the Great Hall were always an informal affair, with students scurrying in and out of the room when they felt like it. Today was no exception, but that didn’t stop Donnie from being annoyed when Mikey wasn’t in there. He sighed, but caught sight of a few familiar Gryffindors and headed over their way.

“Hello, Donatello,” Hermione said when she saw him approaching. She seemed to be in mid-conversation with Harry and Ron. The former looked as though he was about to fall asleep right at the table, with deep bags under his eyes. The latter looked incredibly infuriated, scowling not-so-subtly at Hermione. Next to them, Fred and George were laughing with some other friends, but stopped when they saw Donnie.

“Hi,” Donnie said. He didn’t really know anyone at the table that well—sometimes he’d see Hermione in the library, or pass Harry and Ron in the hallway, but other than exchanging a few pleasantries, he hardly spoke to the Gryffindors.

Hardly spoke to anyone, really, apart from his brothers.

Shoving the thought aside, Donnie asked, “Have any of you seen Mikey? He was supposed to meet with me earlier, but he never showed.” That was the polite way of putting it. Donnie and Mikey were supposed to do a study session in the library earlier, but after twenty minutes of waiting, then thirty, then an hour, Donnie had gotten up and stormed around the castle.

But that had been hours ago, and as time passed, Donnie’s anger had faded into worry.

Harry shook his head apologetically. “No, we haven’t,” he said. “But if I see him, I’ll let you know.”

“Thank you,” Donnie said. He walked away, brows furrowing. Harry had been oddly quiet, and Ron was staring at him funnily. And maybe it was just Donnie’s imagination, but he could have sworn there’d been something like suspicion in Hermione’s eyes when she’d looked at him.

Deciding he’d have to speak to Leo about it later, Donnie made his way out of the Great Hall and paused. Where could Mikey be? He’d already checked the grounds and the Quidditch pitch and had asked the majority of Mikey’s friends, but all had proven useless.

A thought dawned on Donnie then, and his eyes widened. Dumbledore had said something about the forest being off-limits to the students, and that the rule would be strictly enforced to any student caught wandering in it. But when had Mikey ever followed rules?

Donnie took off, out of the castle in a moment and across the grounds in another. If Mikey was in the Forbidden Forest, then he needed to know and needed to know now. Donnie had read about the Forbidden Forest in a book called Hogwarts: A History and knew that a large number of deadly creatures dwelled within the woods. Mikey could take care of himself—he’d proven as much in Dimension X—but Donnie didn’t want to push his little brother’s limits. 

He slowed as he reached the edge of the forest, hesitating. There was a chance that Mikey wasn’t even in the woods, that he was worrying for nothing. Maybe Mikey was in the Hufflepuff common room, sleeping or hanging out with his friends. As annoying as that would be, Donnie would much prefer it to the forest. He took a deep breath and turned around—

Only to look straight at a giant of a man.

In hindsight, Donnie probably should’ve known he was being approached, but he’d been too preoccupied in trying to figure out where his brother was. Still, it was hard to believe he hadn’t noticed.

The man was huge, easily taller than Slash had been, and he had a bushel of hair for a beard. At his side stood a large dog that Donnie thought seemed friendly enough, but its large teeth could easily tear through skin if it tried.

“What’re you doin’ by these woods?” the man asked gruffly, sounding almost angry but not quite.

Donnie paused, mind racing. “Er—”

“The Forbidden Forest is off-limits ter students, mind you. Dangerous business, those woods,” the man continued before Donnie could respond. He paused, and it took Donnie a moment to realize that he was still expected to answer.

“Uh, yes,” he said hastily, forcing a smile onto his face. “Well, I was just wondering what made it so dangerous. I've read about it in a few different books, but still don’t completely understand.”

The man’s eyes narrowed, looking Donnie up and down before breaking out into an exasperated smile. “You Ravenclaws,” he said. “Always pokin’ ‘round in places yeh shouldn’ be.” He straightened, and Donnie was finally able to put a name to his face. He was Hagrid, the gamekeeper; Donnie had heard Harry mention him in passing a few times, and had seen him at meals occasionally, but had never spoken to him before now. “You listen here,” Hagrid continued, suddenly serious. “Stick ter books in the library. These trees hold dangerous, dangerous creatures—centaurs, hippogriffs, Grimandos—” Donnie straightened, brows furrowing at the unknown word. “Unless you know what yer doin’, survivin’ in those woods will be hard, if not darn near impossible. So move along,” Hagrid finished. 

Donnie paused, but realized he would never find Mikey if Hagrid kept interrogating him. So he offered another awkward smile and turned back toward the school. He felt Hagrid’s eyes on him as he casually made his way back to the castle. Donnie entered one of the stone corridors and frowned, turning over all Hagrid had said. 

In actuality, it wasn’t much. Hagrid had listed off a few creatures—centaurs, Donnie knew, were half-man, half-horse, and he could picture a hippogriff in all of its deadly glory quite clearly. But Grimandos—those, Donnie wasn’t sure about. 

And then there was the question of where Mikey was. Leo and Raph had promised they’d search in the castle with Donnie earlier, but he hadn’t heard from them since. And as for Mikey being in the common room—some of Mikey’s friends said they’d seen him at breakfast but not since, so he could rule that out easily.

Donnie really could only think of one other place where Mikey could be, and though he hoped he was wrong, he had a feeling of dread that he couldn’t shake away. 

He kept to the shadows this time—though that was a little difficult, seeing as how it was the middle of the day—and made a large arc across the grounds. Hagrid would probably be on the lookout to make sure Donnie didn’t return to the forest, but as that was exactly what Donnie was about to do, he needed to exercise a bit of caution. 

Luckily, he made it to the forest’s edge without incident and slipped into the shade of the trees. He cursed himself for bringing nothing but his wand, which he gripped tightly in one hand. He and his brothers had been practicing all sorts of magic when they could, but after the whole trophy-room incident, they hadn’t had any luck in finding another training space. 

A twig snapped to his right, and he tensed, whirling. His hand shot to his neck, which had erupted in pain when he’d turned his head too quickly. Still, he scanned his surroundings and sighed in relief when it turned out to be a rabbit, but kept his guard up. He stayed there for a few more moments until the pain in his neck subsided, then picked up a fallen branch off the ground. It wasn’t as light as his bo staff had been, but he’d be able to make do if he needed to.

Okay, Mikey, where could you be?

Now that he really thought about it, he wasn’t sure where his brother could be. But if he’d been in the woods since breakfast, then he had a huge head start on Donnie. He grimaced, picking up his pace and looking around for the tell-tale sign of disturbance within the trees. The only nature training he and his brothers had really gotten had been at the farmhouse, but Donnie remembered enough to know how to look for the signs. 

Finally, he came across a half-broken twig and grinned. If Mikey was in the woods— he is, Donnie thought fiercely, for where else could he be?—then he’d gone this way.

Donnie broke into a jog, following the path. He frowned at the ground—all of the leaves were in clumps, as if something had been dragged lightly over them. Mikey, what were you doing? The leaves continued like that for a while, and as time passed—Donnie had been at this for an awfully long time, hadn’t he?—he grew less and less certain that he was following his brother’s trail. The leaves followed an odd pattern, the branches were only ever-so-slightly broken, and he’d been following a path a bit too long. Mikey wouldn’t have stayed on the path, opting for a better exploration than what the path itself offered. So what am I following? Donnie thought. The odd piles of leaves seemed to stretch on and on—

Until they stopped. 

Donnie reached that last pile of leaves and frowned.  They just… stopped, like whatever had caused them had disappeared from the trail. But then he saw something shining off to his left. He turned, taking small, hesitant steps toward it. Donnie sucked in a breath when he saw a puddle of… something on the ground.

A word popped into his mind, but he shook his head and tried to brush it aside. The puddle certainly didn’t look like it—it wasn’t the right color, wasn’t the same thickness. But as Donnie slowly dipped the stick into the puddle, slowly dabbed the tip of the now liquid-soaked branch, his gut clenched. 

It was blood.

He didn’t know why—or how—the thick, silvery substance in front of him—and on his hand, it was on his hand—was blood. All he knew was that it was. He tensed as a feeling of dread washed over him, like he was being watched but not quite.

He needed to get out of there. Now.

Hurriedly Donnie stood, retreating back to the path and keeping a tight grip on his wand and the branch. His mind was racing a mile a minute, too many questions to think of just one.

By the time he reached Hogwarts grounds, the sun was setting over the trees. He exhaled in relief, making sure nobody was looking before he crossed the lawn.

“Donnie!”

Was somebody calling his name? He could hardly hear anything over his heart thundering in his chest. His eyes darted back and forth, frantic.

“Donnie, bro, where’ve you been?”

Mikey’s voice caused him to stop dead in his tracks, and he saw red when his younger brother came rushing up to him in the deserted corridor. 

“Where have I been?” Donie repeated quietly. “Where have I been? Where have you been, Mikey? I’ve been looking for you EVERYWHERE!” He shouted the last part, making Mikey’s eyes widen and smile falter slightly. 

“Jeeze, Donnie, what’s got you so freaked?”

Raph walked over, arms crossed. Leo followed behind him, stifling a yawn. Concern was plastered across the eldest brother’s face.

Donnie paused, taking a deep breath. He looked at his brothers’ faces—Leo’s worried frown, Raph’s questioning glare, Mikey’s regretful expression. His heart slowed just enough for him to shake his head. 

“I—it’s nothing,” he said. “I’ll tell you guys later.” He turned to Mikey. “But really, where have you been?”

Mikey grinned mischievously, looking at each of his brothers in turn. “Follow me,” was all he said.

He led them out of the school and around the back of the castle. On the ground by the shore of the Great Lake was—

“A picnic blanket?” Leo asked skeptically.

“And…” Mikey’s smile was uncontained as he walked over to the basket on top of the checkered cloth. “Ta-da!” Leo, Raph, and Donnie’s eyes all widened. 

“Pizza?” they said at once, as the familiar aroma reached their noses.

“Yup!” Mikey said as they each took a slice. “Happy Mutation Day!”

Donnie froze, pizza raised halfway to his mouth. Leo and Raph seemed to share similar reactions.

“Mutation Day?” Donnie repeated uncertainly.

Mikey’s face fell. “Yeah,” he said. There was almost a pleading desperation as he said, “It’s today. I know we haven’t celebrated in a while, but I thought it might be fun to—well, it was a stupid idea, I guess,” he grumbled at his brothers’ stunned faces. “Sorry.”

And then they were all hugging, crushing Mikey in a tight embrace. “It’s awesome, Mike,” Raph said with a small smile. 

Leo raised his half-eaten slice of pizza in toast. “To us,” he said, giving Mikey a warm smile. “Happy Mutation Day!” 

“To Mikey,” Donnie added, and his younger brother beamed. “Thank you.”

“Where did you even get this?” Raph asked Mikey in awe, holding up his slice of pizza. 

Mikey shrugged. “A magician never reveals his secrets.”

Leo just rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around Mikey’s shoulders. Donnie started humming Happy Birthday, and soon all of them were singing it loudly, heedless of the confused glances other students sent their way.

The Hamato brothers weren’t in the Great Hall that night for dinner, nor were they seen in their dorms by their House-mates. But the next morning, those who did see them thought they looked happier than they had ever been at Hogwarts.

And they were right.