Mage

By Cataclysmic

Chapter 12

Argenteil lingered on the edge of the forest, not daring to move out from the cover the canopy of tree's provided. The forest was patrolled of course, but not nearly as well as the grounds, even under the cover of darkness he would immediately be noticed if he ventured from the safety of the trees. Such was the benefit of such open ground around a dwelling he supposed, but even if he escaped the notice of the castles human sentinels he would not escape the notice of the magical.

Absently he rubbed the large scar which ran from elbow to the webbing between his fingers, a reminder of the foolishness of his youth when he believed he could fool the magical sentinels of this fortress of wizards.

It was standard practice for his kind to come and observe, be aware of the goings on of this castle, and others like it. To study the wizards who had long been a bane on their kind.

The wizard schools were by far the easiest to observe not encased within large settlements of humans as their governments were.

Although those were observed as well.

It had taken many months for Argenteil to track the magic user thus far; whoever or whatever had entered their world was an adept shielder of their essence.

But finally he had tracked down the origin of the power shift.

He had seen the young man earlier, walking across the grounds from the hut of the caretaker. The power flowing from the individual, though he was shielded, the flow of power off the individual was unmistakeable.

But he had not dared approach. Not yet.

It was not common for his kind to associate with humans, even powerful humans such as this one.

This man was to be an exception, by order of the leaders of his kind he was to contact this individual and bring him to audience before their kind.

The power shift had been significant, and he had no doubt that other magical creatures would have felt it, depending on how attuned they were of course. The others would be looking for him, it was imperative he bring him before his liege lord and lady before any of the others found him.

This was not the first power shift, and certainly, he was sure it would not be the last.

There was however one significant difference with this power shift.

Never before had the arrival of one from another world completely changed the future of another...

Destiny had shifted her plans due to this human, for the first time ever prophecy was invalid, the centaurs could no longer read the stars and his kind was left on the same boat as humans, without the foreknowledge that had protected his kind for millennia.

Remus sighed as he glanced over at his research partner. It had taken a surprisingly long time for him to realise he was not the only one researching the alternate universe theory.

Hermione Granger, a brilliant young witch whose counterpart had apparently come through the portal with the alternate Harry Potter was determined to find the answer to the same question he was. Or rather to take it one step further and actually achieve breachment between realities if it was actually possible.

Though Remus was not actually interested in taking his investigation quite that far, he found that research speed had increased exponentially after he joined forces with the brilliant young witch.

They were close to a breakthrough, he knew it.

Apparently the impostors knew it as well, increasingly they were coming to the library to drag his research partner out of the library for some 'fun'.

They had tried to take him as well at first, but some underlying current of his annoyance must have made it self clear to the pair because they no longer attempted to drag him along on their forced outings.

They were concerned as well; it was obvious from both their facial expressions and their scents.

They were close and the impostors knew it.

They were trying to delay the inevitable, but he would find the truth.

It had taken some digging, or rather creative watching, but Argenteil had finally figured out who the man was claiming to be, and where the one who induced the power shift had slotted himself into society.

He was actually surprised that he had not heard of or traced the path to this individual earlier.

It was an inexcusable oversight that he had never before thought to consult a wizard newspaper.

Though understandable. It was not often that the wizards actually noticed something of importance. It was all he could do to wade his way through the unimportant nonsense whenever he got hold of one of these papers. He certainly didn't go out of his way to track them down.

His mission just got considerably more difficult.

After all, even wizards would notice the disappearance of the Minister of Magic's alternate universe son.

He knew he was being followed, he could practically feel the eyes following him through the darkness.

He did not turn to look however; he knew it was pointless he would not be able to see anything through the darkness.

He gave off no sign that he knew he was being followed, he could hear the footsteps off to the side, near the forest. It was practically impossible not to hear them in fact; they were walking on the dry leaves that had fallen from the trees on the edge of the forest.

He was on his way back to Hogwarts after going down to Hogsmeade to pick up a book for Hermione. He had stopped off at the Three Broomsticks on his way back and had been dragged into celebrating with Hagrid, Professor Kincaid of Muggle Studies and Professor Vector of Arithmancy.

What they had been celebrating though he really wasn't sure, and by the time he had arrived in the pub they were too far gone to know either.

Slowly and carefully Harry slowed his pace until whoever was watching him was only three feet to his left.

Amateur.

He would never have let someone he was watching get this close to his location.

With a quick steady grace Harry stepped forward and shot his arm out into the brush.

And came into contact with a neck.

A thin adolescent neck, in fact.

Pulling his arm, and inadvertently his captive, back toward himself he examined his prey.

'Damn' he thought, he had caught a student out after hours. What made it worse was the fact the boy was a Slytherin.

He would have to make a late night visit to Snape.

'Oh Joy' he thought sarcastically, 'Why couldn't I just ignore him.'