In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, within the Amazon village, Hannah was enjoying a relaxed day with the young girls of the tribe—at least until she felt a pair of arms wrap around her silhouette from behind. The embrace possessed an exceedingly intimate nature.
"Red?!" she exclaimed, her cheeks flushing crimson. Only one individual in this village was capable of such audacity, endowed moreover with such masculine hands. "Please, not here in the presence of the whole tribe," she pleaded in a whisper heavy with shyness.
Hannah knew my appetites perfectly and, considering the days we had spent apart, she harbored the fear that I would pounce on her like a predator. Around her, the native women she had been playing with contemplated the scene with a mixture of embarrassment and nervousness. It had cost the young Hufflepuff a monumental effort to get the village inhabitants to start interacting with her with relative normalcy; after all, she carried the weight of being the heroine of the jungle, the maiden of the prophecy... and the consort of the foreign demon who weeks prior had plunged the entire community into an orgia, a vortex of depravation and absolute frenzy. Consequently, the young women were internally torn between retreating at a slow pace or beginning to strip off their clothes.
"Relax, I didn't come for that... Though if that is your wish, we can clear the schedule," I replied in a playful tone.
Registering that my hands were tracing her body firmly but devoid of the carnal urgency of past occasions, she relaxed. Hannah had a marked apprehension that the image she left in this civilization would be reduced solely to lust.
Turning on her heels, she looped her arms around my neck, returning the hug with an endearing warmth. Despite her reluctance to trigger another filthy orgie, our desires for each other were genuine.
"You've returned," Hannah articulated, flavoring her words with a coquettish undertone that betrayed just how much she had resented my absence.
"That's right. And the time has come to leave... together..." I assured her with a firm kiss upon her lips.
"So soon?" she inquired with a hint of bewilderment. She had grown accustomed to the primitive and wild existence of the Amazon to such a degree that the prospect of returning felt alien to her. What's more, a subtle fear began to nest in her chest; the temporal interval had been so vast that she doubted her own abilities to readapt to the conventional dynamics of her old life.
"Yes, our prolonged absence has caused considerable alarm for many. Imagine Neville's level of consternation, confined in Castelobruxo in absolute solitude... Well, in the company of Malena, which represents a threat to his integrity and purity. Think also of the repercussions for your family. It's time to go back," I spoke to her affectionately.
"Humm... Alright," she consented shyly, resting in the crook of my neck while inhaling my scent. Despite the logical nervousness of the return, a part of herself yearned to present herself to the outside world and exhibit the magnitude of her evolution. She had changed a lot and wanted to show it. Besides, she harbored the unshakeable certainty that with me by her side, nothing could go wrong, so she didn't stress too much in the end.
Thus, we headed to the center of the settlement to begin the farewell. Although we possessed the methods to return to the village at any moment, rendering a definitive goodbye unnecessary, the ceremonial formalities were necessary for the Amazons and Hannah.
The ceremony was far from the extravagance of the previous festivities—presumably because the community was still convalescing from the exhaustion of our last great celebration—but the entire village gathered to show their respects and present us with various regional gifts. Hannah was on the verge of tears when the council of elders prostrated themselves before her, only to stand up and hold her in an embrace imbued with eternal gratitude for the salvation of their people. Despite her experiences already making her equivalent to an adult woman, she was still a sentimental girl. With me, however, the interaction was drastically different: they confined themselves to kneeling with their foreheads to the ground, not daring to touch me. The memory of the collective delirium remained latent in their collective memory; to them, I transcended the simple condition of a mortal.
With the sober parting rites completed, Niara and a select vanguard group prepared to escort us on the return journey to the vicinity of the academy. Although we possessed the means to cover the distance instantaneously, the trek on foot was fundamental to give consistency to the official narrative of "having gotten lost in the density of the forest," while additionally granting Hannah the opportunity to assimilate her detachment from the jungle.
...
In Castelobruxo, the panorama was ostensibly far from festive. Since the disappearance of the foreign students had been reported, along with the subsequent ones during their search, coupled with the absolute cessation of communications with the Amazon tribes and the anomalies plaguing the thicket, the institutional atmosphere had become highly oppressive.
The headmaster of the South American academy found himself subjected to intolerable government pressure. The entirety of the academic expeditions had been suspended by ministerial decree, and the total uncertainty regarding the students' fate had deprived him of sleep for weeks. To make matters worse, the ministerial offices were experiencing their own turbulence; dark factions had operated from the shadows, altering the balances of power, and though things seemed to have returned to a tense calm, certain high-ranking commanders already guarded highly disturbing reports about the real nature of the events.
It was a day marked by that very institutional rigidity. That afternoon, the headmaster was to appear before the student and magical community to deliver an official obituary in memory of the missing learners. Although prudence suggested that decreeing their deaths was premature, his deep knowledge regarding the relentless rigor of the jungle in recent times left no room for ambiguity: whoever did not emerge from the undergrowth in a short timeframe had only one fateful outcome. The dignitary exhaled a sigh full of frustration, questioning how he would manage not only the imminent foreign diplomatic claims but the dark times looming on the horizon.
At that moment, Professor Silvia entered the office with an uncomfortable countenance, notifying him that the only exchange student who still remained there had come once again to request updates on the status of his lost classmates. The headmaster limited himself to massaging his temples; that situation had become a desolating routine, but the cycle would conclude this very afternoon. Today he would formalize the demise of both children before the world.
...
In the outer courtyard of Castelobruxo's architectural complex, a provisional wooden stage had been erected. At that hour of the afternoon, the flow of students was small; barely a few who enjoyed free hours loitered in the vicinity. The rest of the student body remained confined in classrooms and would not gather in the enclosure until twilight.
Several teachers and personnel attached to the shops on the outer perimeter coordinated the preparations. The conversations flowed in a unison murmur about what everyone knew but no one dared to verbalize openly for fear of institutional reprisals due to the spread of generalized panic.
The attendance began to increase with the arrival of more students. Pushing his way through the crowd was Neville Longbottom, whose hand remained tightly intertwined with Malena's. In parallel, the headmaster of the institution ascended the stage to exchange last-minute impressions with the faculty. The atmosphere was far from optimistic; alarming rumors were already circulating through the stone corridors regarding the jungle's anomalies and the imminent danger lurking in the thicket. There was even talk of temporarily abandoning Castelobruxo. Decreeing a preventive cessation of academic activities was not far-fetched given the circumstances.
The murmurs and agitation among the student ranks gathered in the courtyard began to escalate to critical levels. Asserting his position, the headmaster drew his wand and executed a Sonorus spell to amplify the timbre of his voice, demanding immediate silence. Although it wasn't the scheduled time to begin the convocation due to the absence of several sections, the density of the mass present threatened to overflow containment; it was imperative to give an official statement to mitigate the collective hysteria.
Aligning with a strategy of psychological containment, the dignitary inaugurated his address by adopting a slow and paternal tone, seeking to bridge the distance in order to predispose their spirits for the blow that was coming. Nevertheless, the questions he sought to evade did not long delay in emerging from the crowd.
"What is the actual status of those missing in the jungle?! The rumors dictate that there will be no survivors! What happened to Professor Mendes and the exchange students?!"
The headmaster exhaled a sigh laden with sorrow, choosing to address the harshness of the matter without rhetorical delays. Neville was in the front line of the audience; he stood as one of the most anxious to receive a verdict, yearning for a rescue report or any vestige of a good omen. Beside him, Malena, perceiving the rigidity and trembling in the boy's hands, tightened her grip and stepped closer to his shoulder in a gesture of silent comfort.
"I deeply regret to tell you that I do not have the blissful answers your hearts demand. As is public knowledge, the situation in the jungle does not manifest the docility of past periods... Not to catalog it as a completely hostile and unexplored scenario," declared the headmaster, interrupting his speech to remove his glasses and clean them with parsimony. That dramatic pause, conceived to gather the necessary fortitude, only served to increase the atmospheric tension. "The harsh reality, I fear, is that those comrades will not return to the walls of this academy. They have returned to the womb of the jungle, merging with its ancestral roots. An indescribable affliction overcomes us at their passing, but the forest has sheltered them in its definitive bosom... And even for our esteemed guests from overseas, our soil will provide a green bed where they may find rest without distinction..."
"They are alive!" bellowed an imperious voice from the epicenter of the crowd.
"Boys, I understand the rigor of mourning... But I appeal to your maturity when I ratify to you that there will be no return," the headmaster insisted, closing his eyes with affliction before the youth's rejoinders, trying to impose the logic of demise. However, a growing chorus of voices began to second the motion that the missing were alive persisted. The leader knew the variables of lethality that prevailed in the current Amazon and dismissed any statistical probability of survival after such a prolonged isolation.
"There they are! Among the trees!"
The exclamations acquired a deafening volume, forcing the headmaster to adopt a stern countenance, ignoring the insistent tugs Professor Silvia was giving to the seams of his academic robe.
"Silence! The reality is that they have perished! It is a painful transition, I know… but it does no good to deny it! I can assure you by my reputation that they are—"
"No, damn it! Look over there, they are emerging from the trees!" roared another student, pointing with an outstretched arm.
The headmaster's voice cut off abruptly. He turned his head in perfect synchrony with the rest of those present, contemplating how the foliage and vines parted to give way to a peculiar contingent. A vanguard of Amazon warriors advanced with a martial step, escorting two highly recognizable figures. The characteristics of their physiognomy dissipated any shadow of doubt. The headmaster experienced a slight wobble that nearly made him lose his balance on the platform, victim of a colossal mixture of stupor and monumental public embarrassment.
The crowd took no more than a second to break ranks and rush in a stampede toward the newcomers, surrounding us in an amalgam of cheers, incredulity, and demands for explanations.
Hannah and I suddenly found ourselves flanked by the student body, but the imposing presence of Niara and the other Amazons projected a magnetism intimidating enough to dissuade the young wizards of Castelobruxo from running us over in their enthusiasm.