Chapter Four

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“ What do you mean, we are not alone?” Severus sneered skeptically.

“ Exactly as I told you,” Harry replied, “ We're not the only people here.”

“ I think we gathered that, Harry,” Remus said patiently, “ But what brought you to that conclusion?”

Harry raised one eyebrow at the werewolf and gestured to the patterns of stones all around them.

“ So are you telling me they arranged themselves, Remus?” he said sarcastically, “ Or did they materialise out of thin air? Maybe the aliens left them here as markers for landing their flying saucers!”

“ Do you think that's true?” Ron asked in alarm, gaining him a whack on the back of the head from his girlfriend.

“ Of course there are no aliens, Ron, he was just being sarcastic.”

“ Oh,” the redhead replied, blushing in embarrassment.

“ That still doesn't explain them, though,” Ginny pointed out, “ Now can we stop fighting for just a minute and work this out? I for one would like an explanation.”

“ Let's discuss it over breakfast,” Glen suggested, and was met with nods all around. The group made their way over to the remnants of the fire and began to build it up again. Autumn was setting in early, a probable result of a lack of global warming, leaving the morning air rather chilled. As soon as the fire was restarted and the adults had thrown a number of logs onto it, Glen opened his backpack and extracted a frying pan, some bacon and a dozen eggs. They hadn't brought much food with them, just enough to last them for a few days while they got themselves established. The deer meat from the night before wasn't suitable for breakfast, and Glen thought they would all appreciate a cooked breakfast after the events of the morning. As soon as the food was on the fire cooking away, the conversation turned back to the rocks.

“ So, any sensible suggestions?” Remus asked.

“ If it was aliens, we'd best ask Snivellus,” Sirius said with a malicious smirk, “ After all, I always said he wasn't from this planet.”

“ You wound me, Black,” Sev sneered, “ It's refreshing to see your insults haven't improved with age. Not that a Gryffindor would have the intellect to come up with an insult if his life depended on it. Too much bone in their heads and not enough brain…”

“ Why you…” Sirius raged, leaping at the Potions Master. Fortunately Harry had been watching the proceedings closely and managed to stun the animagus before he reached the Slytherin.

“ Alright you two, cut it out,” he growled, “ We're not going to get anywhere with you two at each other's throats.”

“ And you hoped they'd learn to get along…” Ron muttered, causing his brother in law to glare at him. He quickly shut up.

“ One day,” Harry said angrily, “ Less, even. Nineteen hours we've been here, and we're already falling apart. We have to live together for at least three years, and you're fighting after less than a day. I must say, I am severely disappointed in you both.”

“ He started it,” Severus whined, pointing at Sirius.

“ I don't care who started it, Sev, I'm finishing it. Now, we have a situation on our hands, and I intend to deal with it. If you plan on bickering all the time, go and do it somewhere else. I'm not standing for it.”

The two adults had the good grace to look ashamed. After glaring at each other for a minute, they both nodded and moved to opposite ends of the group and promptly ignored each other's presence. By this time the breakfast was cooked, and Glen served them all. The group fell into an uncomfortable silence as they each devoured their food and thought about the problem at hand. Once they were finished, Ginny cleared her throat.

“ I think now that we've all calmed down, we might be prepared to deal with this like grown ups. I suggest we assume, until we have evidence to the contrary, that the rocks were placed there by some kind of people. Yesterday, when we were in the forest hunting, we felt as if we were being watched, but couldn't see anyone. I don't know it that's significant, but if there really were people watching us, it would explain the incident to some extent. Maybe they spotted us yesterday and are warning us in some primitive way that we are not welcome here.”

“ That sounds reasonable,” Hermione agreed, “ After all, we could be violating private land, or a burial ground, or sacred place of some sort. We have no way of knowing.”

“ So, let us assume there are `people' here,” Sev said, “ Do we have any idea what sort of people they are? Muggle or magical humans? Magical creatures of some kind? Any suggestions?”

“ I doubt they are Muggles,” Harry said, “ When we were in the forest, I couldn't smell them. I know I'm not a full vampire, but my nose is pretty sensitive. They didn't have a scent, or if they did they know how to hide it. I couldn't hear them either. Remus, you might want to look into it. Your wolf senses may be able to pick up something I couldn't.”

“ I'll go into the woods later and have a look around,” the werewolf agreed.

“ Good. I also don't think they were vampires. I would have known if they were.”

“ How about elves?” Ron suggested.

“ It's possible,” the Boy-Who-Lived agreed, “ They would certainly be around in this time. The break with the humans won't happen for many years.”

“ So we know they're not Muggles or vampires,” Glen recapped, “ Anything else?”

“ They must be sentient,” Severus pointed out, “ Or they wouldn't be arranging rocks or making warnings. They must have some sort of intelligence.”

“ I think we should let it rest for today, and see if anything else happens,” Harry concluded, “ We should scout out the area and see if there's anything else suspicious, and come back to camp. I suggest we don't stay here for more than a week, though. You never know what's going to happen if they take exception to our presence and decide to attack.”

“ Do you really think it'll come to that?” Ginny asked, nervous.

“ It's possible Gin. I also think we should hide some of our possessions until we move on. At any time they could try and capture us. If they were to be successful, we'd lose our things, and that would be disastrous.”

“ Agreed,” Severus said, “ It's better to be safe than sorry.”

The discussion over, they each went their separate ways, tidying the camp, rearranging their tents, hiding the most valuable of their possessions, and gathering firewood. After lunch, Severus headed off to the far side of the field to brew a collection of healing potions and Remus headed into the forest with Harry and Sirius to see if they could find anything. Unfortunately, the people were very elusive, and their combined efforts came up with nothing. By nightfall, the group was a lot edgier than they were the night before.

“ What if they attack us while we're asleep?” Ginny asked that night as she and Harry were lying in bed together. The boy pulled her into his arms and kissed her forehead tenderly.

“ Don't worry, Gin, the tents are warded on the inside, so they won't get inside. We'll be fine, and no matter what, I won't let anything happen to you.”

“ I hope you're right, Harry. I hope you're right,” she murmured before drifting off to sleep.

What seemed like minutes later, but was in fact several hours, Harry was awoken by a tingling in his nose. Groaning, he turned over and buried his head in Ginny's hair, trying to go back to sleep. The tingling was persistent, though, and as he groggily opened his eyes he noticed an odd flickering light outside the tent. With a frown, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and sat up, looking at the tent wall in confusion. It took his sleep fogged mind a few minutes to realise what he was smelling. Smoke. With a jerk of surprise that caused Ginny to stir and wake, he leapt out of the bed and pulled his robes on.

“ What's going on, Harry?” Ginny whispered sleepily from the bed.

“ There's a fire outside the tent,” her husband replied, causing her to sit up in alarm.

“ I'm going to investigate. You can stay here if you want,” he said, but Ginny was already getting out of the bed and pulling her own robes on. When they opened their tent flap, they took in the scene in horror. All around the tent, long torches had been embedded in the ground, flames rising from the tops of each of them. In the tent next to theirs, they could see Remus and Sirius emerging, the werewolf having obviously smelled the smoke as well.

“ Harry? Did you do this?” the Defence professor asked in bewilderment.

“ It wasn't us,” Harry told him, “ I'm guessing we've had another visit from the locals.”

“ Should we wake the others?” his godfather asked.

“ No, leave them, we'll tell them in the morning. Gin, bring your camera and take a few pictures. Siri, Remy, help me put the torches out. We don't want the whole camp going up in flames.”

They quickly moved to carry out their allotted tasks, the Marauders running to gather their wands and Harry grabbing a bucket of water. As soon as he saw the other two dousing the flames with their wands, he paled and ran over to them.

“ What are you doing?!” he yelled, “ We agreed not to use magic, you don't know what could happen in an unfamiliar environment!”

“ Harry, they know we're here, and they're not happy about it. I doubt using our wands now will really matter,” Remus said, dousing more of the flames. With a resigned sigh, Harry relented and waved his hand, causing water to fall from the sky and put out the fires. Once they were all safely doused, the four time travellers headed back to their tents, each putting up a number of wards around the tents before doing so. After all, if they were going to use magic, it was best to do so to protect themselves.

The morning finally came and Harry and Ginny were the first to emerge from their tent, not having been able to go back to sleep the night before after the fire incident. They immediately headed to the stream for a bath, before trying to figure out the torches. As they were the night before, the torches were embedded deep in the earth, the tops burned and charred. It didn't take long before they were joined by Hermione and Ron.

“ What on earth are these?” Hermione asked, perplexed.

“ Torches. They were burning last night. I woke up in the middle of the night and smelled smoke. When we came to investigate, these were here and burning. Remus and Sirius saw it too. We didn't see any future in waking you, as we figured they'd still be here in the morning. We've put some wards up to keep hostile forces out, but we don't know what good they'll do.”

“ You used magic?” Ron asked, alarmed, “ I thought we decided not to until we knew it was safe!”

“ The situation is appropriate, Ron,” Ginny told her brother, “ The wards may prove necessary, and we don't want to tempt fate. I have a very bad feeling about this.”

“ An `I'm a girl and my intuition is telling me there's something wrong' sort of bad feeling, or an `I'm a Seer and I know the future' sort of bad feeling?” Ron asked.

“ The Seer kind. We're missing something; I'm just not sure what.”

Not long after, the group were joined by the rest of the camp, and the story was relayed to Severus and Glen. They all agreed that warding the camp would be a good idea, and spent the rest of the day setting up as many protections as possible. By the time night rolled around once again, everyone was exhausted, and they all fell into deep, dreamless sleeps.

The morning of their fourth day was met with apprehension. If the previous two days were anything to go by, they would have a surprise waiting for them when they emerged from their tents. Hermione was the first to wake that morning, and her scream of shock quickly roused the rest of the camp. When they emerged, they looked in the direction she was facing. Just behind the ring of torches they could see a glimmer of water.

“ What the…” Sirius said as he went forward to investigate, “ It looks like a river.”

“ But there wasn't one there yesterday,” Glen said, a hint of fear in his voice.

“ Glen's right,” Ginny agreed, “ Yesterday was flaming torches, the day before was rocks. That sort of thing can be explained away as the locals warning us to leave. Rivers are a little harder to make suddenly appear.”

“ Yes, they must have some magical capabilities to do that. Muggles could do the other things, but not this,” Harry said, walking along the edge of the river, following it all the way around the camp until he arrived back where it started.

“ Erm…guys, this isn't a river,” he said.

“ What is it then?” Severus snapped, his nerves beginning to fray.

“ It's a moat. It surrounds the camp, and if you look carefully at the location, you'll see that it goes just around the edge of the wards, on the outside. Whatever is causing this mustn't be able to get in, so they're trying to make sure we won't get out.”

“ I don't get it,” Sirius said, “ I mean, we're not doing any harm. We haven't threatened them in any way…”

“ Siri, we're assuming we're dealing with a primitive culture,” Remus explained, “ They're bound to be superstitious and wary of strangers. It's likely this won't stop until we move on.”

“ When are we leaving then? I don't think we should hang around here for too much longer,” Ron asked.

“ We'll leave in the morning,” Harry decided, “ After all, they obviously can't get through the wards. We'll plan our next course of action today, and head out tomorrow.”

“ Good idea,” Hermione agreed, “ I for one will not be sad to see the back of this place.”

The rest of the day was spent gathered around the fire, the maps of Britain and Europe spread out in front of them. None of them wanted to stay any longer than they had to, and they thought heading for Europe would be the best choice. After all, it was their most likely chance of successfully finding civilisation. As autumn was setting in, and winter would be upon them before they knew it, it was also a wise idea to head south. If they couldn't find a more permanent structure to pass the coldest months in, then heading for warmer climes was the most sensible decision.

Eventually they had settled on a plan. They would pack up at first light and start flying south. Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny would be using their animagus forms, as they thought it would be the fastest way to travel. Portkeys were still not an option, and apparition was impossible without knowing where you were going. It would also become tiring very quickly. Glen was to be riding Ron's broom, while Sirius flew Harry's. Severus would ride on Harry's back and Remus on Ron's. Fawkes, of course, could fly himself, and would have the bags attached to his legs for him to carry. Phoenixes, of course, were known to be able to carry great weights.

That evening, the camp members were more than a little tense. Despite knowing they would be leaving in the morning, they were concerned about what the locals would try that night. They felt relatively safe inside their wards, but there was still a niggling doubt in their minds. After all, they didn't know what sort of powers the natives may have. If they could make a moat appear around their camp without waking anybody up, they had to be powerful wizards.

As the sun rose on the fifth day, all eight time travellers left their tents and let out a collective sigh of relief. Nothing had changed. After packing up their belongings quickly and eating a small breakfast, they prepared to leave. Harry shrank their bags with a wave of his hand and conjured a small sack. Filling it with the shrunken items, he attached it to Fawkes' leg. The phoenix let out a trill and rubbed his head on Harry's cheek.

“ Are we ready?” he asked the others, to which he received nods of acknowledgement, punctuated by a loud gasp.

“ Look!” Glen yelled, pointing at the sky. Everyone followed the direction he was pointing, and yelled in shock at what they were seeing. A tornado was descending from the sky, heading in their direction.

“ That's impossible!” Hermione yelped, “ We don't get tornados in Britain! At least not that large!”

“ Just because we don't get them that often, doesn't mean it's impossible,” Severus growled back, getting into a defencive position. The others quickly followed suit.

“ What do we do?” Sirius yelled over the noise of the wind.

“ Strengthen the wards,” Harry called back, moving his hands rapidly in an impressive display of spell casting. Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Glen and Severus quickly followed suit, until their hands were moving in a synchronised dance of power. The Marauders watched in amazement as the wards around them began to become visible.

“ Wow,” Remus gasped, awestruck. He had seen the others cast wandless magic before, but he had never expected them to be so coordinated in a spell of protection.

Eventually, the tornado seemed to dissipate, and the others stopped the magic.

“ Well, thank Merlin that's over,” Ron gasped.

“ Indeed,” Sev agreed, resting his hands on his knees and bending over in an effort to catch his breath.

“ This isn't normal,” Hermione stated. Silence descended over the group as they contemplated what had been happening to them. As they did, Harry felt a familiar melding of minds.

Harry, look at the evidence, Dumbledore's voice said in his head.

I am, I'm not seeing it, he replied.

The rocks, the fire, the water and the air, Dumbledore said, What does that give you?

Harry thought it over for a minute before his eyes widened in realisation.

“ Guys, do you know what this means?”

“ What?” Ginny asked.

“ The Locals are Elementals.”