CHAPTER XVIII

The adrenaline rushing through his veins before the task started was well familiar by now. 

James rolled his neck slightly from side to side, closing his eyes for a second. Robbing a dragon. Was it too insane to say he had always wanted to try that? 

His neck cracked slightly with a satisfying pop, and James blinked his eyes open. Next to him, Sirius’ eyes were glinting, as if he heard what he was thinking and agreed. 

Was there greater luck in the world than having a best friend who could not only understand what you were thinking, but also shared the same thought? James didn’t believe so. The corner of Sirius’ lips curled a little before he turned away, idly flipping his wand.

James found himself following the trajectory as it glided through the air, something fond curling in his chest. It was strangely mesmerising. Easily catching it again, Sirius deftly twirled the wand around his fingers before he sent it flying once more. 

The sound of the horn suddenly pierced his ears. James startled so bad he almost flinched. He managed to look away just as Sirius’ head tilted in his direction.

“Ready?”

Clearing his throat slightly, James gave a hasty nod. “Of course.” 

At least now that they were talking, it wasn’t weird he was looking again, but he found it suddenly hard to meet Sirius’ eyes. “Lead the way.”

Sirius shrugged easily and stepped forward. The small trodden path before them disappeared into the forest, swallowed by the surrounding trees and wild bushes. It was clear they were meant to follow it, at least for now.

Somewhere to the side, a bird sang a short tune. The quiet around reminded James of the Forbidden Forests after their Full Moons. Gone was the nearby chatter as the students gathered on the Quidditch stands to watch the last task, the excited murmurs and the wild conversations. Madam Bellgrade had led them far through the forest, the rest of the Headmasters doing the same for the remaining two teams, each heading in an entirely different direction. 

The likelihood was that they weren’t that far off from each other, but it still felt like he and Sirius were the only humans in this forest right now. Everything around them was quiet in a way only a sprawling forest could be. Devoid of any human sound, yet filled with small rustles of leaves in the wind, the tranquil rushing of a small stream, the quiet padding of tiny steps as one of the forest animals ran past.

Maybe it was the Prongs in him, or maybe James had always felt this way, he wasn’t sure anymore. But something in him breathed easier out here, under the wide branches above. Even knowing the danger they were about to face.

James easily fell into step next to Sirius, carefully scanning their surroundings as they walked for anything unusual. The forest continued to look calm and safe, but neither of them were foolish enough to actually believe it.

Even on a normal day, James knew better than to completely underestimate the Forbidden Forest, and there was nothing ordinary about today – except maybe the fact that he and Sirius were about to get into trouble, again. Was this them seeking trouble or trouble seeking them? James wasn’t sure. Maybe a bit of both.

His eyes snagged on a nearby splash of yellow among the greens. A patch of small flowers, their amber petals already in full bloom. And a few paces off to the side, a glimpse of purple, the trumpet-shaped blossoms of lungwort scattered among the wild grass.

Another twist of the road revealed even more life, stray groups of stark white sprawling over long roots, light pink mayflowers and soft-yellow primroses peeking through between the grass. 

It was a bit strange. James didn’t recall seeing that many flowers growing on the Hogwarts’ hills yet, the spring was still young. Yet the forest bloomed, as if warmed by two suns at once.

“Done admiring flowers?” Sirius’ dry voice cut through the air.

James snapped his head forward, realising Sirius was waiting, looking amused. He was holding a particularly nasty bit of foliage to the side so it wouldn’t bounce immediately back and slap James right into his unsuspecting face.

“They’re kind of pretty, you have to admit that,” James said, partly sheepishly, and gratefully took hold of the branch before it could do any damage.

“The only thing I have to admit is I might let the bush smack you next time,” Sirius threatened, though the way his fingers lightly grazed James’ when he let go of the branch told a different story.

The forest was pushing closer to them now, more and more foliage obscuring the way forward, the path they’d been following turning into little more than a small imprint of flattened down grass.

Throwing another quick glance at the sky, James noted the position of the sun again. It was likely it wouldn’t be long before the path would trail off completely. With a forest this dense and vast, they could end up going for hours before realising they were going in circles. 

Sirius ducked down under a tree branch obscuring their path and James followed short after, the grass rustling under their feet. Straightening up, he threw a quick glance over his shoulder, but saw nothing. 

James pursed his lips slightly. He could have sworn he had heard something.

A few minutes later, he heard it again. A high-pitched voice, giggling. James jerked to a stop, a sharp chill running up his spine.

The sound seemed to be gone as soon as it was born, as if caught and stifled by a stray breeze, but there was no doubt about it; something was following them.

His gaze swept over the treeline once more before he turned back. Whatever it was, it was good at hiding. 

Quietly, he let out a low whistle. A two-tone, similar to the ones of the birds around them. Up ahead, Sirius snapped his head to him from where he was squating, examining something by the edge of the path. 

He watched as Sirius’ eyes rapidly flitted behind him, searching, before they moved back to James. 

“You saw it?” he asked quietly when James trailed to a stop before him, rising to his feet.

James gave a small shake of his head. “Heard it. It sounded like someone laughing… ”

Sirius threw another quick look over James’ shoulder. “A lutin?”

Frowning slightly in thought, James shook his head again. Though creepily laughing in the woods was no doubt something lutins enjoyed, it couldn’t have been them. The little creatures were all famously male and though fast and agile, they were already born with a white beard to rival an old hermit.

Well, according to the books, they weren’t exactly born, but rather they tended to sprung from the ground like mushrooms after rain, but the point stood.

“No, it was a woman’s voice,” James explained, then frowned slightly. Tilted his head. Tried to replay the sound in his mind. “Or a child’s.”

Another gust of wind ran in between the trees, the leaves around whispering as one as they jostled. Sirius hummed as he dusted his hands off on his pants, his expression thoughtful.

Judging by the dirt sticking to his fingers, he must have been trying one of the tracking glyphs. A quick look behind his back confirmed it. He’d drawn a familiar rune into the exposed dirt by the large tree to the side, the gathered twigs around carefully lined up into a crude circle.

“Any luck?” James said, nodding towards the small pile. The track they’d been following filtered out into nothing barely a few steps ahead from where they stood, giving no sign where to go next; any semblance of direction would be helpful.

“Pretty sure I only spooked a rabbit,” Sirius responded lightly, though there was a regretful tint to his tone. “There’re far too many creatures for it to work properly.”

James sighed. “Thought so. Poor rabbit.”

He evaded the jab Sirius aimed at his shoulder, hiding a smirk.

It took another ten minutes before they heard the laugh again. 

They were just making their way downhill, after deciding to just head straight to the west in the direction the path seemed to be taking them most of the time.

The trees around slowly parted like an ornate curtain to reveal a large, sprawling meadow colored with different kinds of wildflowers, hues of blue, red, yellow and purple filling the vast ocean of grass before them. The giggles that echoed behind their backs as they stepped away from the cover of the tree tops were so sudden and loud, they both jerked to a stop.

Whoever it was, whatever it was, it was far closer than they had anticipated.

Wand raised, Sirius swirled around.

This time, the voice didn’t disappear right away. Instead, it seemed to rise in volume as more and more voices joined, until thrill giggles and chuckles surrounded them from all sides.

James turned around in a circle, trying his best to keep level-headed even as his neck prickled with the force of a dozen pointed stares.  

Between one of the trees, something moved. James’ attention snapped to follow the movement, quick as lightning.

A pair of bright green eyes stared at him from behind the tree trunk, ashen face pressed against the bark, blood-red hair shining brightly among the leaves around. Their gazes met. Then, her teeth flashed bone white, and she was gone.

Sirius seemed to have noticed her as well and cursed, his body tensing even further. “Rusalky. They’re everywhere.” 

James tightened the hold on his wand. The surrounding laughter was making his head spin. He’d never met a Rusalka before, but all the tomes have been clear. ‘Mischievous and vengeful, do not engage.’

Souls of prematurely dead girls, most often drowned, they tended to appear close to wide streams and lakes, often in untamed forests. They were mostly native to central and eastern Europe, but little enclaves have sprung all over the world since the late Middle Ages.

Their laughter was one sign, but James had only now realised they’d missed the most obvious one. Rusalky were connected to the forest and its moisture. It was no coincidence the spring had already progressed so far here, or that they hadn’t seen a single dead or fallen tree since coming here.

“They’ve left an open way to the meadow,” Sirius said lowly, his eyes not straying away from the trees. “I’m almost insulted, it couldn’t be a more obvious trap.”

“I don’t think we have a choice,” James replied darkly. 

If the books were to be trusted, Rusalky seldom tried to attack intruders outright, instead preferring to trick their minds into leading themselves out of the forest or to their own doom, whichever came first.

That, however, didn’t mean they weren’t capable of brute force. According to a particularly nasty story Professor Bins once told them, Rusalky once tore his great-great uncle apart after he cut down one of their trees. 

Most of the time though, they preferred to play.

Sirius let out a frustrated breath, but nodded. “Fine, into the lion’s den then.” 

Together, they slowly backed into the clearing, not letting their eyes off the trees for even a second. Within one step and next, James reached out blindly to the side until his fingers wrapped around Sirius’ wrist. 

Clearly surprised, Sirius’ arm jerked slightly in his, his posture stiffening even further, as if he wanted nothing more than to snap his attention to James but knew he couldn’t.

“I'm not going to be tricked into separating from you,” James explained in a hushed voice.

“Separate,” the Rusalky chanted, “separate, separate.”

A quiet curse tore from James’ lips. He glimpsed another flash of red between the trees, his ears already ringing faintly from the unceasing laughter.

Finally, he felt as the overgrown weeds brushed past his calves. The warmth of the sun hit the backs of their necks as the tree tops above gave way to vast sky, and with another step into the clearing, the laughter faded away.

Distantly, James knew he should have been worried, but for a second, he couldn’t feel anything but relief that the constant noise buzzing in his ears and at the back of his skull had finally disappeared. 

He weakened his hold on Sirius slightly, but didn’t dare to let go yet. As far as he was concerned, the worst was yet to come.

Another step, and their backs collided with something solid.

Sirius turned around first, a disbelieving, humourless laugh passing his lips. “A wall? You have to be kidding me.”

James took a step back the way they came from, cracking his neck as he stared at the whole expanse of the stone wall now towering over them. The Rusalky weren’t even trying to be subtle now, were they? It looked like the front wall of a castle, complete with a large portcullis, its length spanning as far as the eye could see to each side. 

It felt surreal, to experience magic like this first hand. Though they had faced many creatures in Defense Against the Dark Arts over the last few years, James had never experienced someone toying with his mind before, not on this scale.

Unable to tame his curiosity, he reached out. When his fingers bumped into the firm, rough surface of the nearest stone, James let out a soft breath. He could swear the wall was as real as any of the trees around, as real as him or Sirius.

The details were impressive. The wethered state of the stone, the tiny scratches, the overgrown ivy weaving around the gate; it looked as if the structure stood here for ages, connected with the meadow down to its very roots. 

Unmoving. Eternal. 

Maybe it wouldn’t actually be so bad, James thought distractedly. To stand here, next to the still stone and trees, to let the falling rain simply cascade over him while the days and nights spill together into one–

“James?” Sirius’ voice suddenly pierced his ears. He sounded as if it wasn’t the first time he had tried calling him. 

Fingers squeezed his, and James blinked rapidly, pulling his gaze away from the wall as Sirius leaned in closer. “Come on, Prongs, can you hear me?”

“...Yeah.” James frowned slightly, his mind coming back into focus.

The strange drowsiness he felt just a moment before was gone as fog in the wind, but in its place he could feel a growing headache. He shook his head, harshly, as he could expel the thoughts with the motion alone. “Damn it, sorry. The damned touch got to me. ”

He let out a loaded sigh, running his hand through his hair. “How are we even able to touch something that should be only in our minds? This doesn’t make any bloody sense. It shouldn’t make any sense.”

Sirius stared at him for a moment, expression conflicted. 

“It doesn’t,” he said after a moment, and then his hand was moving up to squeeze James’ shoulder. “Think about the imperfections. Don’t let it become real.”

James nodded, grateful for the grounding touch even as the bitter taste of failure filled his mouth. He couldn’t believe he had been tricked so easily. Damn it, he was supposed to be smarter than this. 

Sirius’ gaze stayed on him for a moment longer before he let his arm fall away. It would be foolish to reach for him right away, so James didn’t.

“Alright,” he said instead, glaring at the towering stone. Now that he was focusing on it, he could see the places where the lines of the stone didn’t match, faint but there. That, of course, didn’t guarantee that the clarity would last. Even as he looked, the lines have started to blur again. “Let’s get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“Yeah, no complaints here.”

It took them a few tries of attempting to open the gate, before they realised there was no use in following logic. What stood before them was a gate with no way to open it. One that was never meant to be opened. 

Seeing no other option, they settled on climbing over it. It was a shame they had no rope or vines to hold onto, but neither of them wanted to risk the Rusalky’s ire by cutting off something in their forest to transfigure it. Not to mention that it was unlikely they would be even able to find something of any use for the spell; the time spent searching would be only time wasted.

Either way, doing any damage to the nature around them was sure to equal a death sentence. At least they’d cast a spell on their hands to make them stick to the stones better, but the incantation was never meant to be used in such extreme conditions. Their fingers were barely finding support on the rough stone and in-between the cracks as they worked their way up.

James wasn’t surprised people had gone mad when traversing through woods littered with Rusalky. He himself was beginning to feel a little mad already. 

Trying to hold onto a thought that a wall wasn’t real all while having to climb over it and therefore always subconsciously thinking it had to be at least a little bit real was probably the most bizarre experience he has had so far, and he has fought two werewolves, one of them on the regular. Their careful rise over the wall and back therefore required a lot of curses and mumbling.

“Not real,” James muttered as he dangled his feet up in the air, searching until he found another safe spot to stand on. Out of curiosity, and what his mum would no doubt call low self-preservation skills, he looked down under his feet, judging the distance. They were probably around a third of the way down on the other side of the wall. He had gotten well enough at gauging fall distance over the years on the Quidditch team and the space below them still promised a nasty fall with multiple broken bones. How charming.

They’re watching, he reminded himself as he moved further downwards, hands digging into the cold stone. It didn’t matter that the stone felt real under the tips of his fingers, or that he could still feel the faint sting from where his hip had collided with the block of stone when climbing over the ramparts. It felt real, but it wasn’t, not entirely. They were being tested, played with.

Not real, he chanted in his head again.

When their feet finally touched the grass, James felt a wave of relief. Next to him, Sirius dusted off his hands, then glared over his shoulder as if he could topple the wall with the force of his gaze alone.

“Let’s hope it didn’t slow us down too much,” James said, sighing slightly. He resisted the urge to dust off his hands as well; he couldn’t afford to fall under the Rusalky’s spell again. Instead he took out his wand again, just in case they were any other creatures lurking around.

“We were fast enough, considering the fall,” Sirius said, inclining his head slightly as he stared up at the wall, expression thoughtful. “Could have been worse.”

“Worse? ” James repeated with disbelief. “How?”

At that, Sirius finally shifted his gaze away from the stone. A small smirk pulled at the corner of his lips. “Could have been a taller wall.”

“ Taller–” James spluttered incredulously, then shoved Sirius to the shoulder. “Don’t go giving them ideas.” 

Sirius lifted his hands in surrender, grinning. The smile only widened when he noticed James attempting to hide an answering grin on his own face. “Fine, fine. Let’s go, before they put another wall before us.”

That was a sobering thought. Quickly leaving the wall behind, they made their way forward. The meadow seemed to be never-ending. It stretched far and wide beyond them, only interrupted by a few lone trees that served as homes to wayward birds.

They had just passed two entwined birches when a strange, distant singing echoed in from somewhere to their right. 

Without hesitation, James immediately slapped his hands over his ears. Weird singing in the woods? Never a good thing. 

He turned his head, seeing Sirius had done the same. Without needing to agree, they waited for a moment to make sure the sound was not getting any closer. In an open space like this, there was no chance of casting a successful silencing spell. If the sound came any closer, it was likely they’d have to run. And fast.

Luckily, with his hands firmly over his ears, he couldn’t hear the singing anymore. Carefully but swiftly, they made their way forward, continuing to follow the sun westward. After they passed a few steps, James slowly lifted his hands. 

For one tense beat of his heart, he worried he’d hear the melody again, but the forest was silent. Slowly, James let out a quiet breath. For once, it seemed they were lucky. There were more dangerous songs to overhear.

The meadow finally seemed to come to its end, the amount of trees around them growing once more as they stepped further back into the forest. Absent-mindedly, James rubbed at his temple. The headache from before still hadn’t left, and now that there wasn’t any immediate danger, he was once again becoming more aware of it. Though dull, it was annoyingly persistent.

As they walked, the trees above them continued to sway in the wind, leaves rustling and creating a long, drawn-out echo. The wind was gaining on strength, the sky above quickly growing clouded.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Sirius suddenly said, coming to a stop so suddenly James almost collided with his back.

“What?” he intoned, steading himself. A quick look behind Sirius’ shoulder revealed a large blossoming tree on top of a slowly rising hill. Many of its white petals swirled around them like hundreds of fireflies, dancing to the rhythm of the still-rising wind. James would be amazed, if it weren’t for one little problem.

“We’ve already seen it,” he voiced out loud.

Sirius gave a nod, his eyes calculating as they ran over their surroundings. 

“Let’s try this way,” he suggested after a moment, pointing to their left. James took a quick look at the sky, noting the faint outline of the sound among the clouds, then nodded. 

Within the next five minutes, they ended right back at the tree. Sirius let out a frustrated breath of air through his teeth.

“Over here then,” James said, inclining his head towards the opposite side. South. 

They walked uphill, then down, wading through a group of large bushes, a few stray twigs snagging on their clothes. Then, just as the trees parted and the earth started to level, white blossoms came into view again.

The curses left their mouths in near unison. 

Sirius strode forward without sparing the bark another glance, and James quickly followed. Nothing. Quicker this time, they rounded a large rock and were met with a familiar hill, and an even more familiar tree. They were back at the beginning.

A faint laughter echoed somewhere in the distance. Sirius’ face darkened quicker than a stormy sky, his expression grim. As soon as he marched forward, the same laugh sounded from another direction, then somewhere behind them before it disappeared, like fresh dew in the morning.

Clenching his fists, Sirius narrowed his eyes. “Cowards. All of them.”

James only nodded sharply, because he was too busy gritting his teeth too strongly to voice anything. His blood was boiling with frustration for being played like this. For not seeing through the Rusalky’s tricks.

He swayed slightly on his feet, looking around as he crossed his arms. Think, he told himself firmly, think.There has to be a way out of this, just as there was at the wall.You just have to find it.

The wind picked up again, cold and biting. James drummed his fingers against his arm, mind whirling.

“Well,” he started slowly, “if we can’t go forward without ending up here again…”

He shrugged, smiling slightly as realisation dawned on Sirius’ face.

“...maybe we have to go back,” Sirius finished and James nodded. 

“Exactly.”

It meant a twisted sort of sense. In a world where gates were never meant to be opened, only scaled, and where trees were only meant to be planted but never wither, moving back when you wanted to go forward seemed as reasonable as it could be.

Except then, after they walked downhill and rounded a large oak tree, they walked right back to the bottom of the hill they were cursing before. The swaying branches of the white tree looked almost as if they were shaking with amusement.

James felt his slowly-rising want to punch the tree suddenly double. The wave of disappointment that rolled over him made his steps falter. He was wrong. He swallowed heavily, the back of his throat constricting with frustration.

Next to him, Sirius stood still for a moment, staring at the tree. His hair moved wildly around him in the wind, ever so often hitting him in the face and obscuring his vision, but he didn’t seem to care. “That doesn’t make any sense,” he finally said, voice tight with frustration.

James clenched his jaw. He knew, he had said the same words back at the wall, what felt like hours ago. How long was it really? And how long has it been since the horn had sounded, signalising the start of the Task? Judging by the sky, it couldn’t have been that long ago, but then who was to say the Rusalky couldn’t manipulate even that? 

Maybe it was just a childish notion, to think that something as constant as the sun couldn’t be obscured as well. But then what was the limit? Each illusion had to have a solution, an answer on how to escape it. The Rusalky wanted to amuse themselves, to take revenge for them stepping onto their land, and there was no fun in an illusion that was unbreakable. They wanted that thrill of them solving it, of watching them fail at trying different things. The gate couldn’t be opened, but it could be climbed over. The tree before them couldn’t be passed but it could…. it could be what?

He watched absently as Sirius started to pace, frustration rolling off him in waves. James could only stare at the tree, his mind whirling. There had to be something they’d missed. Going back made sense, it should have worked.

One of the blossoms fell on the ground next to his feet, joining the rest. Mind whirling, James crouched down, peering at the small flower. Something about it was strange, slightly off.

His brows furrowed. It looked too perfect, he realised a beat later. Each of the petals seemed to be the exact same shape. The exact same stark white.

He glanced back at the tree, hair getting into his eyes as the wind continued to rise, another swarm of the petals breezing past him.

An idea took hold in his mind, one that he was more sure of with every passing second. There was the reason they continued to move in circles even after they had been sure they had solved the riddle. 

The tree wasn’t real.

“It worked,” James rasped out, staring at the ground for a moment longer. “It worked,” he repeated louder as he lifted his head. “We’re out. The tree’s fake.”

Finally hearing him, Sirius stopped his pacing, turning to him with widened eyes. “What?”

“Going back instead of forward must have worked,” James offered quickly, “or we somehow made it out of there on pure luck alone, I don’t know. I think they piled another illusion on top of the original one. As soon as we left the loop, they put this bloody thing here, to make us think we never left. But we did.” 

“This tree,” – he gestured towards the offender, Sirius’ gaze following the motion – “this particular tree isn’t real. It was only here to confuse us and make us walk back, fall into the circles again.”

Understanding filled Sirius’ face, his tense shoulders loosening ever so slightly. “They’re smarter than I thought,” he admitted after a moment, the words carrying a tint of reluctance.

“I think it might be a blessing they only keep to their forests,” James replied, pressing his hands onto his knees as he straightened up from his squat. “And I bloody well hope we’re as close to the border of their territory as possible. I’m done with their mind tricks.”

Sirius’ face clouded as he nodded. “I believe we gave them more than enough entertainment already,” he said lowly.

Scratching at the back of his neck, James looked around. The tree not being real was one thing, but there was still the fact they had no idea which way the dragon’s cave could be. The vegetation around was so lush there was not even a hint of a path around. It looked like humans haven’t walked through here in ages.

“I feel uneasy sticking here for too long,” he admitted after a long moment, sighing as he turned, “but how the hell are we going to find the right way forward?”

The slight frown on Sirius’ face betrayed he had no answer either. As if sensing their mood, the wind picked again with vengeance, cold droplets of water slowly raining from the sky.