*

"It reeks here of black magic."

It's the first thing Perrie said as they were moving to the spot where Harry's scent had vanished. Liam as well as Danielle had joined them, both eager to help find the human boy.

"It reeks?" Louis asked suspiciously, squinting his eyes, "I didn't know witches had such a good nose."

"It's a figurative way of speaking," she rolled her eyes at him, then shivered while pulling a face, "I don't know. I can sense it, feel the energy crawl over my bones. It's certainly not pleasant."

"You never told me there was such thing as black magic," Zayn mentioned, nudging her to explain.

"That's because I normally don't associate with it. In our covens we only use the pure, white magic. We get our power from nature, which we only can use for good purposes. The females', witches' powers are usually focused on healing, while the males, druids usually get powers to create. It's nothing like the black magic who get their power from something entirely different, something evil. Black magic is mainly for destruction or other bad purposes."

"So you think some kind of evil witch has taken him?" Danielle presumed.

"Maybe," Perrie answered honestly, "I don't know how he or she got their powers, I only know it isn't any good. It gets worse the closer we get."

The three were silent after that. Only a couple of seconds later, Louis proclaimed that they had finally reached the right spot, the place where he can't find any trace of Harry left.

"Zayn," Louis inquired, "Do you smell something?"

As Zayn had learnt to control the change more over the months, he shifted into some kind of beta form, the only form werewolves could shift into without the full moon, and sniffed the air. His claws had appeared as well as his ears, fangs and some of his fur. He stepped a bit closer to the north before sniffing again.

"There's a very faint trace as most of it was whiped away, presumedly with the use of black magic like Perrie said. You would never be able to smell it, but with some concentration I'll can probably follow it and lead us to Harry," being in his beta form, Zayn practically growled the words.

"Then what're we waiting for," Louis said, "Lead us the way, you mighty dog."

He got a dirty look from Zayn for that, but the werewolf still used his nose to follow the faint scent. Just as Zayn had begun to move, Louis thought he could hear a heartbeat.

Someone was behind them, only a couple of metres away. He took a step in the direction of the tree where he presumed someone was hidden, but was too soon beckoned by an irritated Perrie who told Louis he was too slow and would never find Harry this way. After mentioning Harry, Louis' attention was immediately back to the purpose of their little adventure and jogged to catch up with the others. He had to get the precious boy safely and unharmed back.

*

Niall let out the breath he had been holding too long. He had been too close by being discovered by that Louis guy, almost sure that the boy- was he even just a boy- had sensed his presence. He could only be grateful for the fact that Perrie had called him over again.

And what was the deal with Perrie? Why were they talking about magic and druids like it was a realistic fact, like Perrie was a real witch. It just didn't make sense. Nothing of the events of that night made sense. The presumed kidnapping of Harry, Zayn just transforming into a hairy wolf-man, the new girl that had suddenly turned up. The list went on and on and got stranger with every new event. It was crazy.

Something strange was going on. Something that all his friends had decided to leave him out of it. But damn it, Niall wasn't going to wait and act like nothing happened. If his friend, because Harry was definitely also his friend, was in danger, he sure damn hell would try to help him. Niall would get to the bottom of this. Even if it only was to see that his friends were just playing a game and Harry was in fact still safe and sound.

So as he had made sure the others were far ahead, the blond boy got from behind the tree and started to follow them. After all, the five of them weren't particularly trying to keep silent nor hidden. It was almost difficult to not follow the trace of broken leaves and snapped branches. Niall pulled his jacket closer to his body to stay warm, took another deep breath and departured with an unseen amount of confidence burning in his eyes. He was a fearless bastard.