Fanfiction

Blood Ties--11-12

Title: Blood Ties--Chapters 11-12
Author: Aurea Chicory
Rating: PG

Summary: Things have come to a head, and Sirius decides that he isn't waiting for explanations anymore. When Lorelei proves uncooperative, he heads out to search for the elusive Esme alone. The Trio begin to unearth information on ichlings, but in the process discover the Potionsmaster curled up and under some sort of quasi-psychophysical attack. The mystery deepens, and the questions need answering. And the Morthahg's attacks begin...

Art by Aurea

It was painful just to watch Snape try to read the Mayhem Manual. Eventually, McGonagall and Pomfrey busied themselves with other things so they wouldn't have to watch. Snape barely heard them as they moved around behind him. Madame Pince wasn't as easily ignored. She was constantly at his elbow or looming over his shoulder. She probably would have climbed up his back if her pointed shoes had been able.

His irritation with her was tripled by the trouble he was having with the book. The pages twisted and the print blurred, sending sharp pains through his head. The illustrations whispered to him. A cold sweat sprang up on his face and his hands began to tremble. Pince's nose shoved itself over his shoulder again and he almost screamed.

"Irma!" he snapped, barely able to keep his voice below a shout. "Will you get away from me?" McGonagall and Pomfrey agreed, reminding the Librarian that she had left the library unattended for nearly twenty minutes now. Torn between getting the Mayhem Manual from Snape and the thought of what a horde of unruly students might do to her shelving system, Pince started for the door. She hesitated and turned back to Snape, who had suddenly and miraculously stumbled upon the right page.

He read over the whole procedure feverishly, reading it aloud. McGonagall paused for a moment and then began copying his words down on the apron Pomfrey had lent her for their cleaning. As soon as he had read the whole passage, Snape slammed the book shut, making all three witches jump. He flung the Manual at Pince with enough force to double her over when she caught it. She seemed ready to give him an earful, but he looked so crazed and furious that she only stormed away with a snort.

"Are you all right, Severus?" McGonagall asked, reaching for him.

"No!" he snapped again and then he seemed to realize that Lorelei was gone. He peered around the room wildly for a moment and then his eyes fell on McGonagall's apron. She quickly slipped it off and handed it to him. Without another word, he flew from the room, leaving the door swinging open and disappearing down the corridor in a flutter of black. Left behind, the puddle of blood tried to keep up. McGonagall and Pomfrey watched it trickle after the Potionsmaster and then turned to each other.

"What do you see in that man?" Pomfrey asked, annoyed. McGonagall shook her head with a little sigh.

***************

Meanwhile, Snape was reading over the hastily scribbled-on apron as he went sweeping towards the dungeons. A tearing jolt of pain burst from his spine, stopping him in his tracks. He gasped and the pain slowly faded. Thinking perhaps that it was another side affect of the Mayhem Manual, he moved on more carefully. A few moments later, a racking agony tore through his bones, sending him to the floor.

He was still there when Ron, Harry, and Hermione left the library and were heading to the woods again. They came upon the Potionsmaster huddled in the floor, an ink-stained garment of some sort clenched in his hand. They stopped short when they saw him. He had collapsed to his knees and elbows. They could hear his bones creaking, as if he was being crushed by some invisible force. Hermione was the first to approach him, creeping up to him like he was a wild animal that might turn on her.

"Professor?" she asked meekly. Snape raised his head to peer at her through the strands of hair in his eyes. His face was contorted, the muscles being pulled tight. A convulsion went through him, making his muscles ripple. As much as he disliked the Potionsmaster, Harry found himself aghast. It was amazing to him that Snape didn't scream. The tearing, popping sounds coming from his body were evidence enough that whatever was happening to him was awful.

"Stay with him!" Hermione said and she ran back down the hall for help. Ron and Harry looked at each other and then at the suffering professor. They inched forward, reluctant to touch him. At his best, Snape would not have appreciated being handled by the two of them and they knew it. It was horribly awkward to stand there and watch him hurt without making some attempt to help him, though.

"Do you suppose it's the Crucio Curse?" Ron whispered, his eyes wide. Harry shook his head. In his experience, that curse involved more thrashing and wailing. Snape made an odd choking sound, either from a new wave of pain or disgust at their ignorance. The boys knelt on either side of him, both nervously laying hands on his shoulders.

"If...if we were to lift you," Harry began. "Could you stand?" Snape sucked in a hissing breath around his teeth. It was Madame Pomfrey's voice that answered, as she came hurrying around the corner with Hermione and McGonagall in tow.

"Don't try to move him," she said, conjuring up one of her floating stretchers. "Leave this to me..."

"You just found him like this?" McGonagall asked, staring as the shuddering Potionsmaster was bundled up and floated back towards the infirmary. Hermione nodded, also watching Madame Pomfrey disappear with him. "Well...you children need to get ready for dinner," McGonagall said, getting hold of herself. "Hurry along now." The three children quickly scuttled away, grabbing up scarves for the chill weather outside.

"Maybe it was Madame Pince who cursed him," Harry said suddenly, thinking out loud. "She did look like she'd been eating broken glass when she got back into the library with that book Snape took."

"And you wanted me to just carry that book out," Hermione said, raising an eyebrow at Ron. He shrugged sheepishly as they jogged outside. The sun was creeping behind the shadows of the forest, throwing a red sheen over the grounds. It was even colder than before and a mist had already gathered around the trees as they went back to where they had last seen Sirius. Even the mist looked bloody in the red haze.

"So what would an ichling have to do with all this?" Harry asked, nodding to the parchment in Hermione's hand.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I knew it had something to do with magically created creatures, but this whole business about making dopplegangers and things is a little beyond me."

"Something beyond Hermione?" echoed Ron with a look of disbelief. "Something she doesn't understand? Isn't that one of the signs of the end of the world?" Harry chuckled and Hermione gave them both a half-hearted glare. They crept back into the woods and began to call for Sirius. They tried Snuffles and Fumbles, but got no answer. The mist wrapped itself around them, fading to a dull silver as the sun slipped further out of sight. The cold sank in with new enthusiasm, making their teeth chatter as they called.

From far away in the forest, a wolf howl answered their cries. Harry's first flash of hope died out as he realized it wasn't Sirius. He checked the sky quickly and was relieved that the rising moon wasn't full. The lonely howl had startled Ron and he was peering into the thick mist more fearfully.

"We'll never find him in this," he said uneasily. The three of them unconsciously looked back to where the lights from Hogwarts could still be seen above the treetops. "And dinner is starting soon..."

"But Sirius said this was important," Harry argued.

"We won't do him any good getting lost," Hermione told them. "I'll leave a trail so we can find our way back." She tapped her wand on a nearby tree and left a glowing ball of light on it like a radioactive plum. Harry cast lumos to give them some light and they first thing they saw was a football-sized spider making its way across the path in front of them. Ron went green. As soon as it was out of sight, they went on their way again.

"I wish I was an animagus," Harry sighed after a few moments of silence became oppressive. "Something with wings, like an owl or falcon. Then, I could fly up and find him easily."

"Even without wings," Ron said. "Just having animal sight or sense of smell would make it easier . What would you be, Hermione?"

"I'd have to think about it," she said, stopping to leave another glowing mark. The mist was now so thick Harry expected there to be resistance when they walked through it. They walked close together, their shoulders touching. A wind had picked up and the cold was bitter. They had balled their hands up inside their sleeves, and were wishing they had remembered their gloves as well, when the sound of movement ahead of them made them stop.

"S-snuffles?" Harry called, catching himself just in case. A fresh slap of stinging wind whipped across his face, making his eyes water and his scar tingle. He felt Hermione shiver next to him. As they watched, a snow leopard appeared in the mist and took a cautious step towards them. The huge white dog North materialized out of the mist beside it. Before their eyes the leopard became Professor Lorelei Zephyr.

"You're an animagus??" Ron asked in disbelief. She frowned at him.

"Hardly," she said holding up one arm. Around her wrist was bracelet carved from something that looked like ivory. The claw of some large cat dangled from it like a charm. Harry saw a look of understanding dawn on Hermione's face.

"Why are you following me?" Zephyr asked next, narrowing her eyes at them dangerously.

"We aren't," Harry tried to think of an answer that wouldn't reveal Sirius to the strange professor. He caught sight of North, sniffing at the edge of Ron's robe. "We're looking for my dog."

"The black one?" she asked, and Harry nodded. "I passed its tracks that way” she said, pointing back towards Hogwarts.

"Why are you out here, ma'am?" he asked next. Her eyes narrowed again.

"I'm looking for someone too," she said. "You should get back to the castle while there's still some light." And with that she was gone, becoming the snow leopard and vanishing with North back into the mist. They stood there for a moment, trying to pick her out again, but she was gone.

"Do you suppose she's after the same person we are?" Hermione asked quietly. "Do you think she knows?"

‘Did you notice that she wasn't red-faced or shivering?" snapped Ron. "Like she didn't feel the cold?"

"Maybe we should go back," Hermione said, cutting off Harry before he could argue. "Harry! We'll never find him on our own. You were right...We need wings. We'll go back to Hogwarts and send an owl. Hedwig will find him much faster than we will."

Harry had to admit that she had a point. Ron looked half-frozen and was giving him a pleading look. Finally, he nodded and they begin to follow Hermione's markers back towards the castle. Then, it was as if they had suddenly walked into a place where the air was being sucked away from them. The mist was pulled away from them in sheets. Ahead of them, a large orange glow could be seen through the haze.

"That's not one of your markers is it?" whispered Ron. Hermione just shook her head. Harry had the feeling that his scar should be hurting, but all he felt was the cold. They waited a moment, the only sound their shivering.

Slowly, the morthahg came through the trees. It was a few yards ahead of them, a glowing orange pestilent cloud. It took shape for a moment, taking the form of a massive, many-horned bison. As they cowered, it slowly changed again, becoming more dragon-like. The three children stood frozen and terrified as it passed. Its shape dwindled, becoming a blanket of fiery little mice scurrying along. They melted back into the poisonous colored mist that blew along the ground as the natural silver mist cleared to avoid it.

"Let's go," Hermione squeaked as soon as it was out of sight. "Let's hurry." Harry had a sudden image of what would happen if the morthahg engulfed them. It destroyed magic, the Elmskills had said...Would it just burn them away like acid, leaving nothing behind? Or would it just destroy the magic in them, leaving them muggles with wooden sticks in their hands? Either thought was horrible.
"Harry," Ron whispered. "We SHOULD go back..."

"Sirius is out there," Harry said. "So is Professor Zephyr. We should warn them, at least."

Ron and Hermione looked at each other in despair, but then they nodded too. Though obviously terrified, they agreed. They both took one of his arms, sharing heat and support, and walked forward into the mist again.

*************

Chapter 12

The sun was barely visible when Tanner led Sirius to a cliff of rocks. It was bitingly cold. He was glad to see a very small campfire there, just a handful of flames, kept out of the wind by a crouched figure. The figure stood up, showing itself to be a small woman. And this is Rosie, Sirius thought, squinting at her in the dimming light. Rosie was short, dark, and pretty, with a cloud of black hair around her face in a dark halo. The firelight reflected off her eyes with an eerie green glow, like a cat's. She gave Sirius no more than a glance and then looked at Tanner, who jumped up on her like a friendly dog, going as far as to lick her face.

"Stop it," she told him. "Who's your friend?"

"Any friend of Esme's is a friend of mine," Tanner replied, shifting back to his ragged human shape. He still snuggled her, wrapping his arms around her neck. Rosie shoved him off and turned to look at Sirius. With her back to the flames, her eyes returned to a natural brown.

"Who are you?" she asked. Sirius shifted back to his true form, which put him over a head taller than her. Unfazed, she tilted her head back, keeping her eyes on him. It was easy to see what Esme had meant when she had said that the key to recognizing shapechangers was in their eyes. With Tanner, his scent marked him as inhuman, but the real give-away were his mismatched eyes, the normal blue eye and the feral yellow one. With Rosie, both eyes were pools of wildness.

"A mute?" she asked coldly when he didn't answer right away.

"No," snapped Sirius, annoyed. Tanner chuckled, sitting on a rock and stretching his bare feet to the weak fire.

"Rosie, posie, puddin' and pie," he said, earning a sour glare from her. "Prettiest thing under the sky. Sharp of tongue and hard of heart, it's her face that sets her apart."

"Lovely," she snarled. "I needed warriors and I get a mad poet and a mute."

"She's really very nice," Tanner whispered loudly to Sirius.

"She hides it well," he answered, crossing his arms over his chest. The cold was making him shiver without his fur. Tanner nodded, grinning. Rosie growled audibly as she turned to face them again.

"Hear me," she said, staring grimly at Sirius. "I owe the Zephyr family nothing. The Orderkeeper is the one I want and so long as you don't get in my way, I won't let the sun into your black hide. Understood?"

"What she means by that is that she will never admit that she needed help once in her life and Esme was the one who gave it to her," Tanner piped up. Rosie turned on him in fury. He cowered, but went on talking. "She covers that up with her dislike for The-One-Who-Must-Have-Order and if one of us gets between her and him she'll tear so many holes in us, we won't be able to cast shadows!"

The last few words were shrieked as Rosie lunged at him, becoming a wolf in mid-leap. She was black, with a gray pattern over her lower back and tail. To Sirius' shock she tackled Tanner and sank her teeth into his throat.

"I give! I give! Uncle!" Tanner yelped, his breath coming out in clouds.. Rosie gave him a shake, but released him. Snarling, she stalked away, clicking her fangs and swishing her tail. Tanner sat up again. He wiped away the blood on his neck and turned back to Sirius, who was trying not to stare as he saw the puncture holes heal up before his eyes.

"Esme," Sirius said finally, tearing his eyes away from it. "She's a Zephyr?" He remembered that she had told Snape the box was sealed with a blood seal that only a relative of Ms. Zephyr could open. Tanner was chuckling again though.

"She's more like a hurricane," he said, eyes twinkling. He rubbed his hand together to warm them. "A tsunami! Destroying coastal villages and all semblance of sanity in her path."

"Don't make it worse," sighed Sirius. "I've had all I can take of figuring that woman out."

"Oh, she's a Zephyr all right," Tanner added. The ragged shapeshifter was suddenly looking out over the rocks. A growl was heard from Rosie, somewhere in the dark. Tanner raised his voice to carry over the chill wind. "Just like her pretty twin."

Sirius turned to follow his gaze to where Lorelei emerged from the mist. She eyed Rosie carefully as the black wolf circled her. North bristled at the professor's side, trying to keep an eye on Rosie without leaving her. Sirius got to his feet. His emotions were finally as numb as his ears. This new information didn't leave him with any sense of relief or surprise. The Elmskill Defense teacher came a few steps closer and stopped, tucking her hands into the sleeves of her robe.

"Why didn't you just say Esme was your sister?" he asked her. She met his eyes and didn't move.

"Because she was denounced, disowned, and almost mercifully forgotten by everyone but me," she said. "After she brought about my ‘accident' she was disgraced. And then she disappeared. Our parents got word that she was running with some dark wizards on the west coast, but they didn't give up on her until we found out that she had given up magic and was living as a Muggle."

"Why would she do that?" Sirius asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a red blur as Tanner shifted to a wolf and joined Rosie in their circling. North growled, unable to stay block both of them at once.

"Why would she do that?" Sirius asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a red blur as Tanner shifted to a wolf and joined Rosie in their circling. North growled, unable to block both of them at once.

"How should I know?" she answered coolly. "I've only seen her once since she tricked me into a vampire's ball. At midnight the masks came off, and I was the only one without fangs. But you'd know all about pranks gone wrong, wouldn't you, Mr. Black? "

Sirius all but bristled. A bolt of panic shot through him that she knew his name. Lorelei made no sign that she was enjoying the affect that she had caused.

"I know the official story. I was curious about the boy and did some research while that mad nurse kept me in the infirmary. It seems you outsmarted yourself there, sir. Of course, the story can't be entirely true or the child would not be so fond of you and the Headmaster here wouldn't be covering your tracks."

"The whole truth is hard to come by around here," Sirius growled. He advanced a step on the woman. "I've been trying to dig it up for days now. What do you know about the Morthahg?" Her mask-like face seemed to stiffen even more. "Why is YOUR Headmaster so anxious to be sure that no one thinks it was you that summoned it unless there was some evidence that you had?"

..... Rosie was suddenly human again. "If it was you that released that thing," she said. "I'll kill you, no matter your kinship to Esme."

..... "I didn't!" Lorelei hissed. "A blood-sealed item was used to summon it up and the item was sealed to my family's blood. The only other kin I have on this shore is Esme. Ask her who released it." Rosie narrowed her eyes, but didn't reply.

..... "You believe your sister would do such a thing?," Sirius said, making them break their staredown to look at him.

..... "Do you believe I am wrong?" she asked, turning on him with her arms crossed. Behind her, Rosie became a wolf again and resumed circling them.

..... "What about the vials?" he reminded her. "If Esme gave up magic than why was she hunting vampires? She killed five of them for you. Or at least for your cure. That means nothing to you?" Lorelei's face shut like a door. Sirius continued, relentless. "Or is that why you're angry? Perhaps you grew fond of your masters while you were a pet."

..... "How dare you," she hissed, seeming to swell with fury.

..... "If you don't have answers you're no use to me," he told her. "That's all I want from the sister you seem to hate so much."

....."I do hate her," she said, more softly. "Almost as much as I miss her." A strange emotion flickered in her eyes, then vanished. "I've followed her trail here. She owes me some answers, too."

North quickly made a snapping lunge at Tanner, who had come too close to Lorelei. The red wolf danced away on his hind paws, disappearing into the mist and the emerging again as a human. North yelped in surprise, retreating to Lorelei's side. Lorelei herself blinked, taken aback.

"Shall we continue the hunt then?" purred Rosie, also reappearing as a human. "Lead the way, cat, and we will follow."

"I can't shapechange again," Lorelei admitted after a pause. She held up the bracelet to show them. "It's only good for three changes until it's recharged."

"We'll have to go slowly then," the contempt in Rosie's voice was plain. She and Tanner shifted back to wolves and started off into the mist. Sirius went after them. He decided to stay in human form despite the cold. Lorelei and North fell into step beside him. She fiddled with the bracelet some and noticed him watching her.

"The Zephyrs are known for making magical items," she said. "It's the family business."

"You made it then?" he asked, motioning at her wrist. She nodded, pulling her sleeve back over it.

"Esme's better at it than me," she said. "She has a gift for Personalification, but there isn't as much call for it in the States now. People don't care for inanimate objects telling them what to do anymore. She has a knack for it though. She made this horrible quilt when she was just a kid and it was better than any babysitter."

"I've seen it," Sirius sighed, shaking his head. He shivered as a sharp gust of wind cut through his robes and put his hands in his pockets. An electric buzz went through his fingers as they brushed past something. He pulled it out and found Esme's rings. Too bad it isn't that heat ball she had in the cave, he sighed, but it gave him an idea. After a moment of thought, he slipped one onto his little finger. An unfamiliar tingle stung in his knuckles, then faded out.

..... Sirius cast a warmth spell and felt a wave of toasty air surround him. His breath still came out as steam in the cold, but he felt no more chill. Lorelei was having trouble going. Her wound was bothering her and she clutched at her chest. North had placed himself between her and Sirius and was eyeing the woman worriedly.

..... The wolves led them through the rocks and back into the trees. The mist was still thick and the ground was gnarled with tree roots and sharp with slivers of rock. Sirius would have changed to Padfoot for easier going, but Lorelei was having too much trouble for him to desert her. She stumbled every third step, but no sound of pain or complaint escaped her. He took her by one arm to help steady her. She braced her free hand against North and the dog did his best to help her, all the while keeping a careful eye on Sirius.

..... Rosie and Tanner were barely visible ahead of them, running along almost soundlessly. After a long stumbling way, the two wolves stopped at a huge rock, half covered in withered moss. Near the ground on the far side of it was embedded an iron ring, Rosie sniffed it carefully and shifted to her human form.

..... "It was here," she said. "And Esme too, but both scents are cold." She took hold of the ring and gave it an experimental tug. The whole face of the rock moved, making her drop it in surprise. It slid back into position with a low grating noise.

..... "Don't know your own strength, sweetness?" Tanner asked, also shifting back. She shook her head and took the ring again. She pulled more gently and the rock lifted again, as if it weighed nothing. Beneath it, a flight of stone stairs disappeared into blackness below.

..... "It's not even magic," Lorelei said, her voice raspy in the quiet. She pointed to something hidden in the moss. "It's set up in hinges. The stone is probably hollow."

..... "Who'd go to the trouble?" Sirius wondered aloud. Rosie sank forward onto her hands and transformed again. She crept forward cautiously onto the stairs. Tanner edged forward too, setting a bare foot carefully on the first step. He sniffed noisily, tossing back his shaggy hair so his yellow eye could peer into the darkness. "This isn't old..." he said, sounding unsure of it. "The dirt still smells disturbed." Rosie was out of sight down the stairs so he shifted and followed. Sirius took a deep breath and stepped down after them. He heard an uneasy growl from North, but then Lorelei came behind him.

..... The ceiling was low and tree roots dangled from it. After a few yards, the dirt tunnel became a water-worn stone cave. There was no light at first, but as his eyes adjusted he could make out the weakest of lights further down the corridor. It was warmer underground, out of the wind and mist, or at least Sirius thought so until he stepped into an ankle-deep puddle of icy water. He gasped before he could catch himself, and then forced himself to keep walking. He moved slowly so he wouldn't splash any more of the frigid stuff.

..... It was amazing how cold feet could chill the whole body, he thought as his teeth started to chatter. Ahead of him, he realized he could make out the lean silhouette of Tanner as the wolf paused to look upwards. The cave opened out into a large chamber. It was at least thirty feet to the ceiling, which was a surprise to Sirius as he hadn't thought they were that deep underground.

The dim light was coming from a small swarm of glowing creatures. One drifted close enough to Sirius for him to get a decent look at it. It looked like a big-eyed freshwater shrimp with tiny oval wings moving at a blur. Its body was transparent, but it generated a pale green light. They brightened the room enough for him to see Rosie and Tanner sniffing at something on the ground. Drawing nearer, he saw that it was Esme's trenchcoat.

..... There was no sign of violence, it looked like she had left the coat carelessly. The only reason he could think of for her to do that when it was so cold was to leave a clue for someone to find. Did she know they were following then? An idea dawned on him and knelt to go through the coat's pockets. The first thing he found was the battered cup. He set it aside and kept looking.

..... It turned out that Esme kept everything in her pockets. He found a coil of wire, lockpicks, an orange, three different knives, a small mirror, her blue jay quill pen, her green robe, needles and thread, fish hooks, magnets, an umbrella, a purple toothbrush, several maps of different places, and three packs of Muggle chewing gum.

..... Some less practical items were a shark's tooth necklace, all kinds of mismatched earrings, a Peter Gabriel tape, pages torn from phone books and magazines, half a bag of gummy worms, and a postcard from Thailand. (To: E, Having a great time! The bugs are very big, but the food is wonderful. We're riding elephants on a jungle tour tomorrow. M. is upset because some monkeys stole his sunglasses. He's also developed a horrible snake phobia. I think he's having fun though. Love, B.) Finally though, he found what he was looking for; the magic compass. He stood up with it and found Lorelei holding the cup.

..... "More of your family's work?" he asked her.

..... "Mine actually," she said, turning it in her hands. " I made it for her long camping trips." He nodded and cupped the compass in his hands as he had seen Esme do. Lorelei brightened when she saw it.

..... "Say what you want to find first." she said, standing closer. "Then the spell."

....."Esme," Sirius said at once. The wolves were watching with interest now. "Compasstos." It began to spin in his hands and a beam shot off into the dark. Rosie followed it first, Tanner on her heels. Sirius started to go too, but then Lorelei cried out and fell. She clawed at the wound on her chest, face contorted with pain.

"What?" he asked her, trying to pull her back to her feet. "What is it?" North began to bark wildly, acting panicked. A vicious orange glow began to light the far side of the chamber.

..... "Morthahg!" she gasped. "I can't..." Sirius grabbed her up as best as he was able and ran. The compass hovered over him, still trying to point the way. The glow built behind them, bright enough to cast his shadow out in front of him. Outside the chamber, the cave narrowed again and an outspur of rock created a nook big enough for him to stuff Lorelei into. He wedged himself in next to her and tried to crouch down.

North piled in over top of him, landing heavily on his mistress, who squeaked with pain. The big dog licked her face in apology and they all waited. Sirius hadn't seen the Morthahg before, but he could feel a cold dread at the thing's presence. Even in the still cave, it felt as if the air was being pulled from him, sucked back towards the advancing orange light. He peeked around the rock to see the thing as it approached.

..... It was a fiery cloud, twisting into shapes as it moved. The floating glowers went out like candles as it passed them. Sirius saw their fragile little bodies dissolve into ash. His eyes begin to sting in their sockets and he cowered back against North and Lorelei. He clenched his eyes shut, but the vision of the Morthahg seemed to burn through his eyelids. He could see it clearly, even through the rock.

..... Slowly as a cloud, the Morthahg passed them. Its very presence seemed to repel them. Sirius felt Lorelei convulse against his back and his own guts jerked. North howled miserably, as affected as they were. Overhead, a tendril of the Morthahg caught the enchanted compass. It dropped, bouncing off Sirius' shoulder and rolling to the floor. There was a long twenty seconds of heat and pain and then the thing disappeared down the tunnel.

.....Sirius recovered slowly. Something trickled down his chin and he wiped at it, tasting blood. He had bitten his lip. Lorelei was still a huddled mess. North cowered beside her, barely visible now that the glowers were dead. Sirius cast Lumos with Esme's ring and it glowed enough for him to pick up the compass. It was a normal compass, suspended in a glass orb. It didn't respond to any spell he tried on it and so he set it down again. He wondered what had happened to the wolves.

..... "Back again?" Esme's voice said. He froze, spinning toward the sound. It came from the direction the Morthahg had gone and he ran to it, leaving Lorelei to North's care. Some kind of commotion broke out and a familiar snarl echoed from somewhere. The tunnel branched out into several. Without the compass' beam, he had no idea which way to go.

..... The slap of feet on the stone floor made him turn again, just as someone plowed into from the dark. He fell backwards, grabbing onto whoever it was. They landed on the damp floor and tussled briefly until they recognized each other. It was Esme, cold and out of breath. She hugged him fiercely before he could speak, squeezing the breath out of him.

..... "I need my rings," she said, snatching it off his finger and quickly starting to go through his pockets for the other one.

..... "Is that all you have to say?" he sputtered, pulling her to her feet. He handed her the second ring before she could tear his clothes off.

..... "I'm glad you're all right," she said. "But I don't have much time!"

..... "Your sister is here looking for you," he told her. and she eyed him more coldly.

..... "Tell her she needs to take another vial within 24 hours," she said, slipping her rings back on. He caught her chin to make her look at him.

..... "Rosie and Tanner are here, too," he said. She took his wrist to pull his hand away.

..... "Don't let Rosie fight him," she whispered, glancing over her shoulder. "Tanner will back you if behave sensibly."

..... "Fight who?" he demanded. "I need some sort of explanation!"

..... "I have two more days," she reminded him. "And then everything, I promise. But you'll be killed outright if you're seen with me now. Take care of those idiots for me, Lorey included." She started to go, but he grabbed her arm again.

..... "Your friend the Potionsmaster may need some care, too." she added, pulling free. "You're needed elsewhere, sweety." She smooched the end of his nose and ran off back into the blackness. The sound of the wolves fighting could still be heard from another tunnel. Torn between finding them and following Esme, Sirius nearly screamed when Lorelei grabbed him. She lit her wand and peered at him hopefully.

..... "I heard her," she said. "Where is she?"

..... "Help me find the wolves," he replied. "Send your dog to track them." She looked like she wanted to argue but sighed and knelt beside North. She murmured to the white dog and his tail fanned the air gently. He dropped his nose to the ground and circled. When he picked up the scent, he trotted down a corridor to the right. Lorelei and Sirius followed. Glancing back, Sirius saw the faintest glimmer of green. Perhaps one of the glowers had survived then. Insignificant as it was, it gave him hope.

Please Review

Blood Ties-9-10

Title: Blood Ties--Chapters 9-10
Author: Aurea Chicory
Rating: PG

Summary: Lorelei Zephyr, the DADA teacher of Elmskill, is under suspicion of being a vampire. By a zealous student anyway. The truth is far more complicated than that, and Sirius finds his head spinning with all the roads that seem to lead from Esme back to Lorelei. When a mysterious creature called an ichling materializes inside of the school, Dumbledore finds doubt gnawing at him about the school's strong, ancient defenses. Has the Morthahg come? And when the shapeshifters, Tanner and Rosie, appear, Sirius realizes that Esme's in over her head, and the Thump and Click Man means to destroy. But is his target Esme, Lorelei, or Hogwarts?

Art by Serena Done for Chapter 9, and Aurea for Chapter 10

Author's Note: As usual, I have borrowed vampire lore from a wide range of places, most noticably in this chapter from the Masquerade roleplaying game. Irrelevant Author's Note: Tanner is a basically Turbo, a werewolf character I made for a World of Darkness fanfic. Few of you, if any, will have read it, so it really doesn't matter. But it's a fun fact nonetheless.

Chapter 9

In the sudden silence, ears still ringing, Sirius was nearly flattened as a door flew open to his left and Madame Pomfrey burst from it like a juggernaut in a ruffled apron.

"What is it??" she demanded. "Who's hurt?" Then, without even pausing to hear an answer, she was off like a shot down a corridor. Dumbledore followed and Sirius fell into step with him. The other teachers were puzzled, but returned to their classrooms to answer the buzz of questions that they could all hear rising from behind the doors. Apparently, with Pomfrey and Dumbledore on the move, they were satisfied that the situation was in hand.

It seemed Madame Pomfrey had an innate sense for locating an injury, because she never wavered from her sprint towards the dungeons. Just as Sirius became positive that she was heading for Snape's chambers, the Potionmaster himself rounded a corner and came running for them. A look of actual relief flickered over his pale face, making an odd change from his usual glare. But then, the Potionmaster noticed that Madame Pomfrey wasn't alone. His eyes fell on Sirius and a much more familiar expression twisted his face.

"You!" he spat in sudden recognition. Anything else he might've said was cut off, as Pomfrey seized him by an arm as she went by and dragged him bodily back down the stairs he had just come up. In the lower dungeon, they found Lorelei Zephyr convulsed on the floor. Madame Pomfrey released Snape and ran to the woman's side, just as her body twisted in an arc that should have broken her back. Lorelei's face opened in a silent scream and black blood gushed from her eyes, nose, and mouth.

Madame Pomfrey gasped, but held a suddenly produced bucket up under Lorelei's chin. She moved to hold the woman's white hair back, acting as if this was no worse than the stomach flu.

"That's it," she crooned gently. "Get it all out. It'll be all right."

"What happened?" Dumbledore asked. Snape pulled his eyes from Lorelei, shot Sirius a half-second's worth of a glare, and forced himself to look at Dumbledore.

"She drank the potion we made for her," he said. Sirius was surprised to see the dour professor was putting on a convincing show of worry. "Just like always. "

"Uh-oh," Sirius said aloud, remembering the day before. "Esme! I saw her by that distillery you were using." He saw Snape's features go from concerned to bloodthirsty, but before the Potionmaster could respond, he was interrupted again.

"ESME!??!" shrieked Lorelei from the floor. "ESME IS HERE????" They all turned to stare at her. She was heaving from the effort of breathing and her face was streaked black and red, but it looked angry. Sirius was struck suddenly by the thought that under the wept blood, she looked like Esme. A statue of Esme, he corrected mentally, carved from white marble by someone who'd only seen her angry. He shook that thought away. The crazy woman didn't even have to be there to distract him! It was just that Lorelei looked to be the same age and size, he decided.

"She's here for you, isn't she?" he asked her. Lorelei seemed to choke. Madame Pomfrey held the bucket up again quickly, but was shrugged off. The pale woman slowly pulled herself up to a sitting position. Her eyes had leaped into flame and bored straight into his own. Snape was looking a bit envious of the eye contact they had blistering between them, but then he gasped.

"They aren't red any more!" he said, kneeling quickly beside Lorelei. She stared at him and he lifted her chin in his hand to peer into her face. "Lorelei, your eyes are violet!"

"W-what?" she raised a hand to her face, but was of course unable to see them. Madame Pomfrey leaned over to see and gasped as well.

"They are, dear!" she cried and went fumbling in her pocket to pull out a compact shaped like a frog's head. She snapped it open and held it up in front of Lorelei's face. "Look!" She seemed to recoil from it for a moment, but then blinked at hr own reflection. Sirius and Dumbledore had crowded close to see too, and sure enough, the once-crimson eyes were now a dark purple.

"They…they're supposed to be blue," Lorelei said weakly. "Why would they. . . ?"

"Whatever Esme did to the potion changed it," Sirius said and she looked back at him. The chill was gone. Maybe her anger had been all that gave her strength. Without it, she seemed dazed and feeble. She swayed and Snape lowered her down to lay on the floor. Madame Pomfrey went back to wiping away the last of the blood.

"What could Esme have done to the potion?" she wondered softly. Snape glares back at Sirius.

"What do you know about this?" he asked, accusation plain in his voice.

"I met Esme in the woods," Sirius said. He was looking at Lorelei. "How does she know you?"

Lorelei began to laugh softly. It was awful to listen to. She sounded closer to tears than to laughter. She tilted her head to look back at him. The anger flared back again in her face, but this time there was sadness too.

"She did this to me," she said, touching the small scar on her throat. "It's her fault." For nearly an entire second, the thought that it made sense that Esme was a vampire shot through Sirius' brain. But vampires didn't eat peanut butter or pretzels and when they had first met, it had been outside in broad daylight.

"Well, what did she do to you with the potion?" he asked next, beginning to get tired of Lorelei's misery. "It didn't kill you, obviously." Both she and Snape looked at him angrily, but then Dumbledore cut in.

"If anything, madam," the headmaster said kindly. "You are looking better than I've ever seen you." That brought them all up short.

"Who IS this Esme person?" Snape finally asked. Sirius told him and the Potionmaster's eyebrows raised. "That delivery witch? I remember seeing her. I thought that she looked very much like you, Lorelei." Sirius felt a moment's surprise that Esme's resemblance to Lorelei wasn't just in his own mind, but the pale woman sputtered again.

"I am NOTHING like that-that—" Unable to find a word that properly expressed her emotion, or perhaps just one that could be said aloud in company, Lorelei fell silent.

"But you do know her," Sirius pressed. "Who is she? What does she want with you?" Lorelei only shook her head. Madame Pomfrey patted her shoulder in a comforting manner. Sirius wanted to shake her. He might have if the nurse and Snape hadn't both been giving him dark looks. He hoped his hands weren't trembling. All his questions could be answered, if she knew who Esme was and what she was trying to deliver. Why did people insist on being difficult??

"She was bringing you something," he said through his clenched teeth. "Do you know what it was?"

"I haven't seen her in years," Lorelei gestured at her throat. "Not since this happened. Ten years ago, almost. I have no idea what she wants."

"But whatever she put in your potion seems to have done you good," Snape interrupted. "Could she. . . have found a cure?" Lorelei whipped around as if he'd slapped her. Her jaw dropped for a moment as if considering this. Sirius felt a headache coming on. He found himself annoyed that Snape had thought of it first. He didn't know Esme well enough to know if she was the sort who'd spend 10 years looking for a cure for a condition she been the cause of. He wanted to think so. He was developing a liking for her.

Ah, but you liked Peter too, a suspicious voice in his head said. And you knew him for a lot longer and had much more reason to trust him. He still betrayed you. So, he tried to harden his heart again. There was still the ichling to think of, and that unknown master of hers. He wasn't sure what am ichling really was, but if it troubled Dumbledore, it couldn't be good. In the floor, Lorelei had begun to cry. It was horrible, somehow, to see the proud, cold woman sobbing pitifully.

"The only thing for it is to locate Esme and find out for ourselves," sighed Dumbledore. "But I doubt she's still at Hogwarts." Snape had stood back up and was giving Sirius a looking over.

"Is that your blood on your sleeve?" he asked suddenly. Sirius glanced down at his robe and saw that there was a dried splatter of rusty blood on his cuff.

"No," he said. "That's from Esme, when we fought in the bath room." Snape raised an oily eyebrow at that and the corner of his lips curled up as well.
"Then we can find her," the Potionmaster almost purred. He spun around and walked over to a shelf filled with bottles.

"You have a plan then, Severus?" Dumbledore asked. Snape made a vaguely affirmative noise and began mixing things. There was a soft puffing noise and then the dungeon was filled with the strong smell of scorched grease. Madame Pomfrey rose to her feet and nodded towards Lorelei.

"I've put her to sleep," she said in a whisper. "I'll just take her back to the infirmary and let her rest off the shock." Dumbledore nodded and held the door open as Madame Pomfrey magicked up a floating stretcher and levitated Lorelei gently out. Snape didn't seem to notice their going and only minute or two later, carried over a steaming beaker of something green. Sirius blanched from him, as much from the smell of the potion as from the sharp-looking pair of tweezers that were suddenly jabbed toward his arm.

"Oh, please," Snape sneered, plucking at the blood stain with the tweezers. "If I was going to stab you, it would be somewhere vital." He extracted a fleck of dried blood and dropped it into the potion. Sirius didn't reply to that, mainly because Dumbledore was watching them. They traded glares though, and both stepped away from each other quickly. Dumbledore sighed softly, but sounded more amused than upset. The potion turned red and began to bubble.

Snape waved his wand over it, chanting a spell Sirius had never heard of. The potion bubbled even more fiercely and began to climb out of the beaker like a living thing. Sirius and Dumbledore quickly got out of its way as it slithered around the floor. It divided into two caterpillar-like puddles, one set off under the door and out into the hall. The other followed Snape, no matter how he moved.

"That's odd," he muttered, but then shooed them off after the escaping puddle. "It's heading back toward its source. Follow it to the woman." He had to sidestep quickly to avoid the other one pooling under his feet. Sirius took off after the active one. It was halfway up the stairs. He quickly became Padfoot so he wouldn't have to be caught without Dumbledore, who had stayed behind with Snape. To his relief, the oozing puddle picked up speed once it reached the top of the stairs and went spilling down the hall.

He followed it at a trot. He found himself wondering why the other half of it was after Snape. Unless the Potionmaster had some of Esme's blood on him too, it didn't make much sense. But how could that be if he hadn't encountered her before? And why wouldn't Lorelei tell them what she knew?? Granted the woman had been through something traumatic with the altered potion, but it shouldn't have kept her from being more helpful. His train of thought was cut off as the puddle ducked under another door. He nosed it open quickly and followed into a drafty hallway. There was a single door at the very end.

Sirius grumbled to himself. He was getting angry because it was better than being worried. His one consolation was that none of this seemed to have anything to do with Harry. It all seemed to revolve around the Elmskill newcomers. And Esme, where or whatever she was. He was worried for her too, he realized. And why is that? he asked himself. Because I never could resist trouble. And if that woman is anything, it's T-R-O-U-B-L-E. She needs a shirt that says that across the front.

The puddle led him to the door, and he opened it, expecting another room. It was actually a small coat closet. Esme's scent was there, but she certainly wasn't. The puddle flowed to the back wall and seemed puzzled. It paced back and forth and then began to spread up the wall, as if feeling for a secret door. After a moment, it seemed to give up and sank back down into a pool at the bottom. Sirius looked around and listened carefully for anyone nearby and then shifted back to his human self. He tested the back wall too, even casting a magic revealing spell to look for an enchanted passageway, but nothing showed itself.

Trust Esme to leave a riddle behind, he thought, looking around for any clue in the closet. The only thing in there at all was a very old leather riding robe. It was the kind of thing one's grandmother would have worn broom-riding in the fall. It was dull green under the thin layer of mold growing over it. Sirius carefully took it down, feeling the ancient seams crumble a bit. One of the sleeves had something stuffed into it.

He peeked in carefully, giving it a slight shake to see if it would move. It could be anything after all, an infant boggart, a nest of mice, one of the Weasely twins' magical bombs. Nothing happened though, so he reached in even more carefully and pulled out a box. It was the package for Lorelei that Esme had been trying to deliver. The only thing different about it was that the magic seal on the front was broken. He looked at it for a long moment, then opened it.

Inside were five lead vials like she has shown him before, and a folded sheet of paper. The seal on the first vial was also broken. Each of the vials had a name written on them, just below the stopper. The empty one said GASTON. The others were VANESSA, OPAL, NATHIEL, and BROHM. It didn't make any sense to Sirius. He took the paper next and unfolded it. It appeared to have been ripped from a book. There was a picture of a man with bat wings suspended by ropes in the middle of a large room. The man was held upside down and spread out by his wrists, ankles, and wings.

As Sirius watched, the image thrashed and bared its fangs. Illustrated wizards with spears were draining blood from its chest. It was a gruesome picture, made worse by the barely audible shrieks of the drawn vampire, if that's what it was. He pulled his eyes from it to read the words below the image. They said: "The taint of the vampire is carried in its blood. A victim may be altered by the creature's bite, but will not become a true vampire itself until it has been given or forced to take some of the original monster's blood. So, each new vampire carries in its undead veins a trace of the original vampire in its particular bloodline.

"This cannot be eradicated, unless the victim can absorb the living blood of each of its ‘ancestors', thereby cleansing the world of that ‘family' and itself of the taint. Not surprisingly, this is difficult, as the original's blood gets weaker the more generations that are ‘born' from it. This means that each vampire will be weaker than their maker, and therefore unable to defeat their makers for the lifeblood that will release them."

He stared at it, feeling things fall into place in his head. He folded the paper back up and closed the box with a snap. He turned to head back and froze when he realized Snape was standing silently at the other end of the hall. They glared at each other, more than twenty years of bad blood simmering below the surface. Snape was holding a wand. They could very well have a wizard's battle on the spot, Sirius thought. Surely the Potionmaster had more sense than that, though. Still, the silence was frigid.

"You were right," Sirius said to distract him from any thoughts of violence. Indeed, he blinked in surprise for nearly a whole second before getting control of himself.

"Oh?" Snape asked coldly, beginning to walk towards him. Sirius held up the box. Snape recognized it too and his dark eyes narrowed.

"It's her cure," Sirius went on. "The blood of the vampires who attacked her." Snape looked at him sharply.

"What would you know about it?" he sneered, but his eyes returned to the box. The gleam in them had suddenly turned fierce. Sirius put it in his own pocket with a snort and walked past the Potionmaster to head back to Dumbledore.
"I may not be the expert you are on Dark Magic," he growled. The corner of Snape's eye twitched, interpreting that as the insult it was. "But I didn't spend ALL my time in Defense class passing notes with your name on them to Brenda Berryball."

The expression that crossed Snape's face when he heard that would have been well worth any battle that they might have had. Sirius hurried out the door and down the steps with a grin on his face.

"WHAT???" he heard Snape scream and bit his lip to keep from laughing. The Potionmaster's footsteps came running after him, but he refused to turn around. Brenda had been a timid little witch, from a Muggle family. She had her share of magical ability, but none of the stomach for it. She wept all through Potions class when she had to cut up newt livers. She had fallen apart completely when confronted with the task of feeding whole chickens to an orphaned baby griffin in Care of Magical Creatures. She lived in fear of her Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

The constant onslaught of love notes from such a grim and dark wizard as young Snape had very nearly sent the poor girl to pieces. Snape had never shown so much as a flicker of interest in her or any other witch that Sirius knew of. That was why it had been so hilarious. Lupin had finally made him stop when he had found Brenda crying her eyes out in Herbology.

"-immature and asinine!" Snape's hissing had come into hearing range behind him. He could practically feel the Potionmaster's eyes singeing the back of his head. The second puddle of blood was still tagging along behind him.

"I thought you two would have made a cute pair," Sirius added, just to stir him up more. Snape made a strangled noise of outrage.

"She killed herself, you know," he snapped. "Or perhaps Azkaban didn't forward you the obituary." Sirius glanced back at him quickly, his good humor vanishing. Snape gave him back a look of pure venom. "It's true. She dressed herself for her funeral, drank enough poison to wipe out all of Hogsmead, and lay down on her bed to die. Seems she'd been miserable most of her life. Isn't that just a laugh riot?"

The last few words carried enough angry contempt to blister skin. A pang of guilt twisted in Sirius' stomach. He quelled it as quickly as possible. Snape was still giving him the basilisk treatment.

"I hadn't heard," he admitted. "Poor woman. I knew she was squeamish, but I never thought she was truly that unhappy." It was Snape's turn to snort and then they had arrived back at the dungeon. Dumbledore was still there, as was McGonagall. Sirius braced himself for any comment from her, but she only nodded briskly at him. No one had informed her that he wasn't Cyrus, the Headmaster's nephew yet then. Good.

"Did you find her?" she asked and he explained about the blood being thwarted at the back of the closet. "But how can that be? Are you sure there was no secret door?"

"I cast a reveal spell and didn't see one," he shrugged.

"You should have let me look," grumbled Snape. McGonagall looked to Dumbledore, who was tapping his chin and looking at the ceiling. After a moment, he sighed and looked at them all.

"The only way for powerful teleportation spells to be cast inside Hogwarts, considering the wards we have against such things," he said. "Would be to cancel out the enchantments used in the first place."

"But!" gasped McGonagall. "Those enchantments are ancient and are reinforced all the time! How could that happen?"

"The Morthahg," Sirius said, wondering again if Esme was host to the thing.

"No!" she snapped. "If the Morthahg was here it would spread like wildfire and destroy every enchantment! Not just a certain patch of one!"

"What if it was being controlled?" he countered. "If someone could contain it-"

"You can't contain a Morthahg!" she threw her hands into the air. "It's hate and fear in a tangible form! It isn't a ghost. It doesn't have anything like a mind to be controlled!" They might have argued it further, but Snape stepped back into the conversation.

"Take Lorelei's box to her," he told Sirius. "She knows this more about this than the rest of us right now, and might be able to tell us something." This was agreed upon and they all begin to walk towards the infirmary. McGonagall crept to Sirius' side.

"Don't you worry," she whispered. "Your fiancee will be just fine." She patted his arm comfortingly and picked up her pace to move up beside Dumbledore. Sirius rolled his eyes behind her back, but was glad that she was still in the dark. They went into the infirmary and found Madame Pomfrey fussing over Lorelei's pillows. Lorelei, herself, was looking annoyed at being mothered over.

"I know what happened to the potion," Sirius told her immediately. He pulled the box out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Some vampire blood was added to it." Lorelei looked baffled, but took the box and opened it. She pulled aside the piece of paper and stared in disbelief at the labeled vials. Her hands trembled as she picked up the empty one.

"Gaston. . . " she said softly. There was no emotion in her tone. She might have been commenting on the time. Still holding it, she shook the paper open and read it over quickly. Her hands begin to shake harder. Snape stepped to her side and took the paper from her to read it himself. Lorelei didn't seem to notice he was there. Her weird eyes seemed unfocused. "She killed Gaston."

"And Vanessa and Opal and Nathiel and Brohm," cut in Sirius, nodding at the other vials. "What is this all about Ms. Zephyr? Enlighten us, if you will."

"This is a page from The Mayhem Manual," Snape said suddenly, interrupting.

"You would know that," snapped Sirius uneasily. "So what?" The Mayhem Manual was a guide to all the worst-case scenarios in the magical world. Unfortunately, it was widely studied by Dark Wizards for inspiration. Legend had it that its author was a warlock who had gone around capturing all sorts of creatures, centaurs, vampires, werewolves, as well as human wizards and witches to perform experiments on. The results were documented in the manual.

"So there's a copy in the Library's private section," the Potionmaster snarled back. "Who knows what this fiancee of yours actually did to the potion? If it is a cure, it is best to know exactly how to go about it before we do anything. It wouldn't be in the manual at all if it couldn't go horribly wrong!" That was a good point and Sirius had to admit it. Snape hurried off to fetch the book, still clutching the torn page. The little puddle glided along after him, forgotten. The click of the door closing behind him made Lorelei jump.

"But. . . I thought the girl was a Muggle," McGonagall said, puzzled. "What would she be doing tinkering with potions and, and vampires?"

"There's more to this than we told you," Sirius told her quickly to keep Dumbledore from explaining. McGonagall fixed her best professor glare on him and he managed a weak smile. "I don't know how much to tell you that won't compromise her situation further," he added. Her eyes narrowed and for a moment, she looked very much like her cat form.

"Very well," she said, a hint of ice in her voice. "But I do expect an explanation, and it seems the sooner we find this Esme the better."

"Esme!" Lorelei gasped, snapping back into focus. ‘Where is she?" She looked wildly around the room, as if expecting to see the other woman lurking in a corner.

"The thump and click man has taken her," Sirius said. That didn't make sense to Lorelei either, judging by the confused look on her face. But then the pale professor shook her head and tried to climb out of bed.

"I need to find her," she said, more to herself than to them. She shrugged off Madame Pomfrey and took her wand from a nearby table. "I need to know. . . " With a flick and word, she summoned up a black robe over the gown she was in.

"You should wait for Professor Snape!" Pomfrey cautioned. "He's going to make your cure as soon as we're sure how!"

"I'm sick of waiting!" Sirius snapped. "I'll go find her."

"Not by yourself!" cried McGonagall.

"Yes, by myself!" he nearly shouted. "Get her cured, and figure out the Morthahg if you want to do something!" And with that he tore out of the infirmary. His patience was gone and with it his caution. He transformed into Padfoot and ran out to Hagrid's rabbit hutch. Fang loped out to challenge him, barking madly. Sirius bared his teeth and the boarhound fell over himself getting back to the porch. That done, Sirius searched the rabbit hutch for any of the ichling's scent. It was there, cold and greasy among the warm, fuzzy scents of the surviving rabbits.

If the unnamed master and the thump and click man were the same, then the ichling would have returned to him after feeding. Since the beast could fly for a small distance with its shaggy wings, tracking it would be difficult, but anything was better than waiting around any longer. He followed the trail for a short stretch and then it stopped. Sirius looked around, imagining the ichling taking to the air and flapping to where? He sniffed the garden fence and found nothing. Raising on his hind legs, he caught a whiff of the creature on Hagrid's gutter.

This would take awhile, he thought, but it was activity. There was a scent trail on the ground for about three feet before it vanished again. He searched in a ten foot radius of the spot and found the scent again. The hunt was on again.

**********

Chapter 10

Harry and Ron had gone to meet Hermione in the library and found her hidden behind a stack of books at her favorite table. They sat down across from her and waited for her to put down the leatherbound ‘Guide to the Notable Dead, Vol. 11'. Most of the books did deal with monsters or ghosts.

"Either I missed an assignment in Defense class," sighed Ron. "Or she's reading them all by section now."

"Oh, don't be silly," said Hermione, finally lowering the book to look at them. "I was just looking up some stuff on vampires to see if Raye knows what she's talking about."

"Does she?" asked Harry.

"No," was the answer. "From what she's told me, it sounds like she's studied more Muggle folklore than actual vampire studies. And I don't know what that hunter she was writing was telling her!"

"Maybe it wasn't a real vampire hunter," suggested Ron. "Just somebody like Lockhart, all talk." Before Hermione could answer that, Snape burst into the library. Everyone inside looked up and Madam Pince appeared to lecture whoever had caused such a disturbance. Snape nearly bowled her over as he marched straight back to the Private section. Madame Pince fell into step right on his heels.

"And just what do you mean by barging in here?" they heard her whisper loudly as they disappeared into the other room.

"I wonder what he wants in the Private section," Hermione mused.

"Probably going to research the most difficult potion of all time to give us before Christmas break," sighed Ron.

"Speaking of which," added Hermione, glaring at him. "Have you done your part of the Tongues Potion research?"

"Almost," Ron grumbled, his face falling.

"Really?" Hermione pressed and Ron turned a little red.

"Well, I have the book anyway," he admitted. Hermione made an annoyed sound in her throat, but a shriek from Madam Pince saved Ron from further criticism.

"That page is torn!" the librarian ranted. "Severus Snape! You of ALL people should know better than to manhandle my-"

"It's not from one of your books and I'm not the one who ripped it!" Snape yelled back. "Leave off!"

The students were treated to a rare sight, as Snape came sweeping back into the main Library, carrying a huge old book. Madam Pince came after him like a harpy. They were practically shouting at each other as they went through aisles; Snape insisting that he had not damaged any books and that he would not damage the one he was carrying, and Pince wailing that he wasn't going anywhere until she could put an anti-ripping spell on it. They disappeared out the door and down the hallway.

There was a moment of silence and then Ron snickered. That set everyone off and the whole library burst into laughter. Still giggling, they waited for Hermione to pack her satchel and then went out to the Griffyndor common room. There was a fire burning and Neville was there. He had managed to find Trevor the toad and they sat together in one of the armchairs by the fire.

"Hi," Neville said cheerfully. It appeared his good luck had been holding up. They took seats of their own around the fire. Hermione immediately started to grill Ron on his research progress and the redhead grudgingly went to get the book in question. Harry found himself watching Neville's bracelet.

It didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary. The silver eye was just a button. Trevor sat in Neville's lap, looking as dour as Snape at his worst. Neville was flipping through a book on rare lichens. He was probably still trying to perfect his sleep potion. He had gotten the lumps out of it by last class, but it was still more gray than purple.

Ron returned with the book, just as Padma and Lavender came in from outside. Raye was with them and they were all rosy-cheeked from the chill. The day had grown frosty. Raye seemed downcast and hurried up to the girls' dorms.

"What's wrong with her?" asked Ron. Lavender looked sympathetic.

"Her messenger owl has been missing for weeks now," she said. "She's worried about it. Oh yeah, and something's up with your dog." Harry sat up suddenly.

"What? Where is he?" he asked. Padma chuckled.

"We saw him running in circles out on the grounds." she told him. "He took off for the lake when we started to go see him."

Harry stood up and went to get his heavy robe and scarf. He didn't know what Sirius was up to, but wanted to help if he could.

"I'd better go check on him," he said. Ron offered to go with him at once and dropped the book on the table by Hermione. She rolled her eyes, but agreed to come too. They all bundled up and trotted out into the cold afternoon.

The sky was gray and a chill wind whipped up around them as they went. Harry led the way to the lake, looking around for any sign of Sirius. He wondered if Sirius knew about Buckbeak. Hagrid had taken them to see the recuperating hippogriff, and the shed wasn't too far from where they were.

But then, Hermione gasped and grabbed his arm. She pointed to a rustle in the trees and they hurried over to find Sirius as Padfoot, running in a wide circle with his nose to the ground. He raised his head to stare at them for a moment and then went back to circling.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked. "What are you doing?" After a moment of silence, Sirius reverted to his human form.

"I don't have time to explain it all," he said quickly. ‘I have to find this trail and find the thump and click man."

"What can we do?" Harry asked, baffled. Sirius shook his head irritably. He looked like he was about to shoo them off, but then he stopped.

"Find out what an ichling is and why one would want blood," he said. "Sorry, but I have to find this before the trail gets any colder." He became a dog again and went back to sniffing the ground.

"Ever hear of an ichling?" Ron asked Hermione. She seemed to be thinking.

"I remember something about something," she said after a moment. "Something about wizard-made familiars."

"Like those monkey cats Professor Binns told us about?" asked Harry. Hermione started back to the castle and with a final glance at Sirius, Harry followed.

"No," she said. "Giving cats hands to make them more helpful in a laboratory was a total failure, and even then it was only tampering with a species. The completely wizard-made familiars were made from scratch. They weren't altered animals. They were made from magic and I think they were outlawed after Muggles started noticing them."

‘So, we're going back to the library?" asked Ron, with a note of resignation.
"At least I know where to look," she told them. "With luck Madam Pince won't have put my books away yet."

*********

Madam Pince was in fact still hovering over Snape as he flipped through the huge book in the infirmary. Lorelei was pacing the floor behind them, the click of her bootheels on the floor as regular as a ticking clock. Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall talked in hushed voices.

The Mayhem Manual was a difficult read, especially with Madam Pince grabbing at it every few moments. The book was cold to the touch and the print seemed to writhe on the pages. Even more eerie was the fact that the pages would change if you looked away from them. Snape looked away once to tell Pince to shove off, and when he looked back, the page that had described the basics of captive werewolf breeding was now a full-color, squirming diagram of the internal organs of a crucified house elf.

With the torn page in one hand and flipping through the manual with the other, Snape tried to find any extra information. He could all but feel Madam Pince's breath on his neck and it didn't help his concentration any.

"I can't take this," Lorelei snapped suddenly. "I have to talk to Esme." She turned and stalked over to the door, followed by Madame Pomfrey.

"Are you sure you should, dear?" the nurse-witch asked.

"It's bad enough that poor boy is tearing around by himself without you putting yourself in danger too!" said McGonagall, putting her hands on her hips. Snape sputtered and half turned to glare at her over his shoulder.

"Poor boy?" he echoed. "Do you mean to tell me that you don't recognize him?"

"He's the Headmaster's nephew!" she replied, then paused as he turned an interesting shade of purple. "What?" He grumbled something unintelligible and kicked at Madam Pince to keep her back when she yelled that he was being too rough with her book. The puddle of blood potion had pooled under his left heel and moved with him like a small shadow. He appeared to have forgotten about it.

Lorelei looked at him and then at the three women. Her aura of chilled detachment was back in full force. She didn't need red eyes to stare down Madame Pomfrey. There was a long moment of icy silence and then she turned on heel and left the room.

***********

Ron and Hermione and Harry were in mid-argument over whether to take a book from the library without telling the absent Madame Pince, when Lorelei swept by them. The Elmskill teacher was robed completely in black and was wearing her dark sunglasses again. With the black robes and her white hair billowing around her, she was a formidable sight. They were silent as she went by and then fell to bickering again.

"Who knows what hex has been put on each book?" Hermione insisted. "I'm not taking it anywhere until it's checked out! Just give me a moment to read it!"

"But if it's important, we need to get the information to him quickly!" argued Harry. She gave him a very level look and opened the book to read through it. Ron and Harry traded despairing looks and dropped into chairs with weary sighs.

Outside, Sirius had managed to track the ichling another fifteen yards. The cold day was barely felt through his fur, but every breath sent clouds of mist into the air. A sense of urgency kept him going, but suddenly a soft chuckle brought him up short. He looked around carefully, trying to pick up a scent. Then, from down wind, a man seemed to appear out of a windswept pile of leaves.

The stranger looked like a scarecrow, thin and ragged and wearing a widebrimmed hat. He sauntered up to Sirius, making almost no sound in the dead leaves. Sirius eyed him uneasily, all the more so because he had not had any idea that this person was nearby. Now that he was no longer downwind, the definite smell of animal hit Sirius.

Sirius felt a warning growl began to ripple in his throat, uneasy in the face of this stranger. The scent didn't match him, it was too wild and feral to be anything in human shape. The man pushed his hat back and looked Sirius in the eye, and the black dog realized that he had one blue eye and the other was gold.

"Just relax there," the stranger said. "I'm no threat to you." Sirius backed away, unnerved. The scarecrow man chuckled and sat down in the leaves with a crunch. He was skin and bones under a long, military-green coat that had seen better days. Under that, he wore a few layers of grubby t-shirts and pair of battered blue jeans with the knees out. Surprising in the cold, he was barefoot.

"You probably didn't want me to see that shapechange, did you buddy?" he asked. Sirius froze, ready to bolt, but then the stranger shapeshifted into a thin, straggly wolf with a rusty red-gold pelt and back again.

"My name's Tanner," he said. "And I know where the little flying furball went." Sirius stared at him, mind in a whirl. Tanner seemed more than willing to wait for him to make some move, so after a minute of thinking, Sirius shifted back to his human form. Tanner grinned at him, a thatch of copper red hair falling over the gold eye.

"You know about the ichling?" Sirius asked carefully. Tanner shrugged.

"If an ichling looks like this," said Tanner, pulling out what was immediately recognizable as another page from the Mayhem Manual. "Then yeah." The picture was of a leering, hissing creature much like the one he'd seen in the bathroom with Esme.

"So did you guys just rip the whole book up or something?" he asked. Tanner nodded, looking serious for the first time.

"We had to," he said. "The pages will only keep the same information if you rip them out. Otherwise they just keep showing you something worse. That's why so many dark mage types go screwy. Now come on, you're in the calvary now."

Tanner jumped to his feet in one smooth movement and strolled back into the trees. Sirius hesitated, but followed him.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, still keeping an eye on the ragged stranger. "Who are you?"

"A mutual friend got word to me about a week ago," Tanner said. "Seems she's in over her head."

"Esme," realized Sirius. "And you are one of the shapeshifters she was telling me about..."

"Ain't she a doll?" Tanner chuckled. "We're the calvary, like I said, coming to the rescue when things get bad."

"We?"

"Me, Rosie, and now you," Tanner went on. "Rosie has been tracking the itchy thing, so we catch up with her and go on from there."

"Is she an animagus, too?" Sirius asked. Tanner looked at him sideways again.

"Neither of us are," he said. "We're shapechangers. It's what happens when werewolves marry."

"But..." Sirius was taken aback. After the week he'd had, that fact that he wasn't completely numb to all surprise, was amazing in itself. "The moon...is not up."

"And it wouldn't be full even if it was," sighed Tanner. "Most werewolves get that way from being bitten by another one. It's a curse. However, if cursed creatures band together, their offspring are born with the werecreature in their blood. We aren't limited by the curse of our parents. We can change whenever we want."

"So you keep your human senses?" Sirius was now eyeing the thin man with more caution. Tanner was still good-natured, though.

"I wouldn't say ‘human'" Tanner mused.

"Well, what's wrong with Esme, then?" Sirius wanted to know. "The taint on her."

"She and Rosie would never tell me," Tanner admitted. Sirius felt his jaw clench with frustration. "I assumed it was a female problem and left it at that. Oh, and your hair is changing color, man. Is that normal?"

"What?" Sirius pulled a strand up to his eyes. The chestnut red was fading to its natural black. As he watched, it became longer and stringier, returning to his usual unkempt mane.

"The spell is wearing off," he realized. "Or the spellcaster is losing power." Concern flickered on the scrawny shapechanger's face.

"Then we'd best hurry," he said and in a twinkling, he returned to the red wolf form. With a snap of teeth, he shot off through the bushes. Having no better plan, Sirius became Padfoot and charged after him.

Please Review

Blood Ties--7-8

Title: Blood Ties--Chapters 7-8
Author: Aurea Chicory
Rating: PG

Summary: Harry and Sirius are getting closer to discovering Esme's secret, and Sirius vows to do whatever it takes to get answers out of her and protect Harry. When they stumble upon Snape making a complicated potion with Madam Pomfrey, more questions are raised. Especially when they discover who the potion is for, and the fact that Snape's blood is one of the primary ingredients!

Art by Aurea http://www.angelfire.com/wy/sirius/main.html

Author's Note: I have borrowed all kinds of vampire lore for this. The devout may recognize elements from The Lost Boys and the World of Darkness and then again, there's stuff I just made up.

Chapter 7

Harry woke up with both of his legs painfully asleep. Sirius was snoozing across the foot of his bed and had pinned both his ankles flat. Thousands of little needle jabs made him wince as he pulled his legs free. They were numb and useless, so he grumbled as he rubbed some life back in them. Sirius woke up suddenly and looked around wildly for a moment before remembering where he was. Harry fumbled for his glasses and they blinked at each other groggily. Harry broke into a grin first.

"Good morning," he said and Sirius nodded, stretching. All the tearing around Sirius had done the night before had worn him out. He still had the faintest itch in the back of his throat, but one little cough was all it took to get rid of it.

"What are you going to do today?" Harry asked him, getting up to look for some clothes. "We have classes all day. Do you want to stay here or run around on your own?" Sirius considered. He was still tired, but there was a lot he needed to do. He needed to locate Esme, talk to Dumbledore, and maybe sneak a visit to Buckbeak to see how the poor creature was recovering. On the other hand, he needed to avoid Snape and Mrs. Norris and it would be a dark day for Harry if either saw the boy with the mutt who’d given them such a run the night before. He sighed and made himself comfortable on the bed again.

"I see," said Harry, kneeling to tie his shoes. The other boys were also shuffling around at that point. There was a crash as Vahn’s cot bolted as soon as he got out of it. Whatever force of magic that made the cots so active had not given them any concept of sight and they always ran full speed until they collided with something too big to knock over. In this case it was Jonah, who knocked it away with an exasperated sound.

Vahn and Jonah had liked dogs and had assumed Sirius was a familiar of Harry's. One of the other two boys sharing their dorm had allergies and had spent a good while complaining about invisible dander, which Sirius was pretty sure he didn't have. The fourth boy had paid him no attention and spent most of the time with his nose in a book., for which Sirius was grateful. Harry promised to bring him some breakfast and trotted out the door. Sirius heaved a sigh and settled down some heavy thinking.

‘See ya, Fumbles," Ron called and then he was gone, too. The redhead caught up with Harry on the stairs and they waited in the common room for Hermione to show up. She was unusually late and bleary-eyed when she did arrive. Crookshanks was with her, now sporting a belled collar that he was obviously unhappy about. The large cat slunk out of sight with a faint tinkle.

"Up late reading?" Ron asked Hermione, grinning. She gave him an annoyed look and yawned before she could answer.

"NO," she grouched. "That Raye is getting on my last nerve. I have never heard so much about so little, even in Professor Binns' class."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, a little surprised, but relieved that someone else could bear witness to the strange girl's quirks. Hermione rolled her eyes and swung her knapsack over her shoulder.

"She got caught sneaking out last night and Snape caught her," she told them. They both grimaced. "He took her straight to Professor McGonagall, of course, and she got a chewing out that we all heard, but it didn't sink in. She was all but dancing when she came back to bed and kept us all up for hours afterward, blathering on about how she finally has proof and giggling like a ninny. She's supposed to report to her Headmaster today about it, but even that didn't phase her."

" I told you she was crazy," Harry sighed, a little amused. Ron grinned and nudged him in the ribs with his elbow.

"The pretty ones usually are," he said, keeping an eye on Hermione's reaction. "And Raye is darn near adorable." A touch of flame lit in Hermione's tired eyes, but she only snorted. Unfortunately, Draco Malfoy was going by at that moment.

"Part horse are you, Granger?" he sneered in passing. Hermione whirled to face him, blocking his path. She swung one hand around as if to slap him and he began to flinch. She stopped it an inch from his nose, though, and held it there.

"It's been awhile since you've had a close look at the back of my hand," she told him. "Hasn't it?"

Ron and Harry traded arch looks with each other. Of the three of them, Hermione was the only one to have connected with Draco in public. Goyle and Crabbe also gave each other slightly frantic looks from under their heavy brows. They always seemed at loss at how to deal with Hermione. Apparently the Handbook for Young Goons and Thugs didn't cover how to deal with brainiac girl classmates.

It was funny watching the gears in Malfoy's head spin. They could see the terrible need to make a horse remark about Hermione's teeth thrash in Malfoy's eyes. They could see the reflection of Hermione's open hand in them. Crabbe shifted, and Harry tensed to block his way. A dark memory of seeing the hooded fathers of Crabbe and Goyle bowing to the newborn Dark Lord flickered in his head . Hot anger flared in him and he moved to glare Crabbe in the eye. Ron looked at him in surprise. The silence felt thick.

"What are you doing with my girl, Malfoy?" a loud voice snapped. They all jumped and turned to look at Zachory, the Bantling student. He was giving Draco a look that promised pain. It was a bewildering change to see him looking so angry after their first impression of him when he had annoyed Chloe. His arrival had shattered the standoff, though. Harry glanced at Hermione who was looking as startled as they all did.

"He bothering you, babe?" Zachory asked her, putting an arm around her shoulders. She sputtered at him, probably too torn between confusion and anger to say anything coherent. "Now look here, Malfoy! If all your talk of having your pick of the Hogwarts girls is true you don't need to hassle mine! Unless you're LOOKING for a thrashing and you specifically want one from ME!"

They now had quite a crowd. Zachory was taller than Malfoy and a year or two older, but he was also too slim to be very threatening. They might've looked something alike if Zachory hadn't been so deliberately ragged. He was not quite as pale as Draco and his blond hair was in a smooth mane around his shoulders. He had a hoop earring and under his robes, his jeans had artistic holes in the knees. Draco looked as neat and pressed as usual. They stared each other in the eye for another tense moment, but then Malfoy recovered and made a face.

"Until you can be serious, Farfield," he sneered again. "Keep your mouth shut around me." He turned to go and Zachory laughed out loud. The hostility dissolved from him in the blink of an eye, leaving him with the same grin they has seen when Chloe has first called him over. Since Draco was already gone through the puzzled crowd, Zachory stole another quick peck on the cheek from Hermione. She glared at him and he released her to bow elegantly.

"Forgive me," he told her, still bent over. "You were handling that beautifully, but my white knight instincts took over."

"Hrmph!" said Hermione. "Well, keep them to yourself from now on."

"I'll make the effort," he replied, looking at her through his bangs with a smile best described as impish. She sniffed and walked off with a toss of her head. Ron and Harry fell into step behind her and caught her glancing back at Zachory. Harry noticed Ron wasn't too pleased with this, and pointed out Raye to distract him as they went into the Great Hall.

"We can't sit there or she'll talk us to death about the vampire conspiracy," he whispered. "Come on Hermione, there's seats over here." At that moment, gasps and screams erupted from the students closest to the door. They all looked up to see a great black thing bobbing over their heads like a malformed balloon. The Elmskill students seems more amused than startled, which made Harry peer closer at the thing. It was more or less round, but it had a head and a pair of tyrannosaur-like arms sticking out of it. It chuckled as it bounced along, sailing over their heads.

As it passed, Harry saw a pointed face at one end and a pair of pointed boots at the other. He guessed that it had to be the Madame Yaga he'd heard about, the Elmskill Potionsmistress. She looked well into her 80s, and her hair was a shock-white tangled mane around her sharp face. She had jet black skin and as she laughed, they saw that she had black teeth as well. She greeted some of the Elmskill students kindly enough though, and had one give her a push towards the faculty table.

"There has got to be a hag in that woman's family tree," Ron whispered to Harry. Hermione heard him and she was drawing breath to express disapproval on such judgments when Hedwig swooped down with an envelope and a folded piece of brown paper for Harry. The brown paper had Hagrid's handwriting on it, but the envelope only had Harry's name in green ink. After a moment, he unfolded Hagrid's message first and read it aloud:

"To Harry, I have good news for you. Bring Ron and Hermione down when you get a chance after class. Don't tell anyone! Hagrid"

"I wonder what he's got planned for us now," sighed Ron. "Teaching manticore cubs to take a treat from our lips, maybe?"

"We aren't done with the vulpipedes yet," Hermione reminded him. "Who's the other from?"

"Dumbledore," Harry said , scanning the note. It was pretty much the same message as from Hagrid except that it wanted just him and Sirius right after breakfast. As they had Potions with Slytherin and the Bantlings, it would be a relief to miss as much of that as possible. Ron and Hermione were still waiting for more, so he added. "He wants to see me about ‘Fumbles'." They both nodded wisely and started to eat.

As soon as Harry had polished off his breakfast, he filled another plate for Sirius and went back up the dorm. Sirius was there, still snoring softly on Harry's pillow. He awoke with a jerk and happily scarfed down the food while Harry told him about Dumbledore's note. Sirius nodded and hopped down after giving the plate a last lick. They walked quietly down to Dumbledore's office, Sirius padding like a giant shadow at Harry's heels.

To their surprise, a cloaked figure stood by the door. It looked enough like a Dementer to make Sirius freeze in his tracks. Panic and hate sang through him and he was distantly aware that all the hair on his back was standing up. Harry heard him gasp and looked quickly back at him. There was no dread in the air, however, so Sirius calmed himself as quickly as he could. The figure turned to them as well, and a low voice they both recognized floated out of it.

"We meet again, young man. If I had known you were famous, I wouldn't have expected you to handle North."

"Good morning, Ms. Zephyr," Harry said softly. He had a feeling that she was testing him, and there was something about her that commanded courtesy anyway. Maybe hanging around Snape had given her a biased view of him, but he wasn't about to have two teachers hassling him everytime he saw them. "I didn't realize I was that famous either, but thank you. I like dogs, so North was no trouble at all. Are you here to speak to the Headmaster too?"

He managed to meet her eyes, green against the red, and to his surprise, a faint smile touched her lips. It turned bitter in the next second and she turned her head away from him again. Harry walked carefully up to her. Sirius was doing his best to stay out of sight behind his godson's thin legs. It wasn't working too well. He felt Lorelei's eyes pass over him once, and thankfully they didn't return. It unnerved him to feel the chill in her gaze from inside a hood that hid her face.

"No," she said suddenly, answering Harry's last question. "I am being spoken OF to the Headmaster. "

"Raye?" he asked in a fit of daring. Something was compelling him to speak to the forbidding woman, no matter what reason he had to be leery of her. Maybe being so near Dumbledore gave him some bravado. Ms. Zephyr only chuckled, a cold, unamused sound.

"So you've met the young Auror-to-be? That girl will have you jumping at shadows if you pay her any attention." Ms. Zephyr sighed. "Heaven forbid she ever have a class with your Professor Moody. There could be some sort of explosion." Harry couldn't help but laugh a little at that. He muffled it in his hand and she looked at him more keenly.

"Everyone tries not to laugh around me," she told him. Her tone was easier now, as if she was getting used to speaking to him. "Am I so horrible?"

"Oh no," Harry was relaxing more too. "You just seem...sorry, a bit, well-" At that moment, the office doors swung open and the Elmskill Heandmaster Ficus swept out. His tall black cane smacked the floor right in front of Harry with a ringing sound. Both Harry and Sirius jumped. Ficus seemed as startled to see them and recoiled a fraction before spotting Ms. Zephyr on the other side of the doorway.

"Blast it, woman!" He snapped, his voice raspy. He had a smoker's voice, and the faint smell of cigarettes hung around him. " I spend an hour swearing up and down that you're the model of white magic and virtue and then you go around dressed as a ghoul? You had better not be wearing those awful glasses. Take off that hood!"

"The light hurts my eyes," she said softly. Harry could sense her distaste at being told what to do. He was a little aghast himself at how the Headmaster was fussing at a grown woman like a cranky governess.

"The dark hurts your reputation," the old man barked back. He took her arm and began leading her away. "And eyes can be healed. Take off that hood and wear something lighter. . . perhaps not red, under the circumstances. . . Rose, then, or yellow!" They disappeared around a corner. Harry blinked after them a moment, then turned to find Dumbledore at his elbow, smiling in vague way.

"Never a dull moment," the Headmaster said, looking down at him. "Won't you two come in?" They followed him back inside and the door clicked shut behind them. Dumbledore offered them both a chair. Harry sat down and after a moment of hesitation, Sirius returned to his human form and sat in the other. He was clean and healthier looking than before, but his eyes were restless and burning again. He gave Harry a flash of a grin, but then focused on Dumbledore like a hawk.

Dumbledore appeared not to notice. He steepled his fingers and looked at them with that same odd smile. "Strange things are most definitely afoot," he said very calmly. "What brings you here, Sirius?"

"I've been in the Forest," Sirius replied. "With Buckbeak. He was hurt by something and I had to bring him here. . . I had help. I met a woman in the Forest and she helped me bring him here. She's here too, somewhere. I caught up with her once, but she got away from me. I. . . think she might be dangerous. I could smell it in her. It's there, right under the skin. I can't explain and I don't know it for a fact. She's done no harm to ME or anyone else that I've seen, but I. . . I don't know what to do about her. " He spit it all out in a rush. Telling Dumbledore was a relief. There was so much he didn't know and it was frustrating. He had lived by his wits for so long he hated being puzzled.

"She gave Neville a bracelet," Harry added. "It blinks and it's been a good luck charm. So far." he added, glancing at Sirius.

"That would explain why poor Argus is in such a state," Dumbledore sighed. They both stared and he tapped his brow with his finger. "Mrs. Norris knows her business. She's no ordinary cat and like any good familiar, she lets her master know what's going on. Her kittens should be quite remarkable. A strange witch cavorting about the corridors? I suppose it explains why that apple fritter I left out disappeared."

"That would be her," snorted Sirius, rolling his eyes. A reluctant grin split his face again. " I've caught her stealing snacks from the teachers' desks already."

"What do you intend to do?" Dumbledore asked suddenly.

"Protect Harry," Sirius replied, grin vanishing. "He's the only family I have left." Harry opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again, embarrassed. He could feel himself blushing and had to very careful not to look at Sirius. On one hand, he didn't think he needed to be protected as he had beaten The Dark Lord no less than four times by himself. On the other hand, he'd never had a family he remembered either, and it was sort of a nice feeling to be looked after for once. A loud knock at the door startled Sirius back into his dog form and Dumbledore sighed again, this time sounding truly weary.

"That will be the Magical Malady representative," he said, getting back to his feet. "Headmaster Ficus was perhaps TOO adamant. Oh well, Harry, you'd best get to class. Perhaps Sirius should wait in your dorm."

They both nodded unhappily and trudged out. A matronly-looking woman with a horribly fat black rat on her shoulder was standing at the door when they passed. The rat was wearing a jeweled collar that said Ophelia. Dumbledore greeted her and she stepped up to wave a scroll at him while nodding politely at Harry. The rat just grunted. The door shut again, leaving Harry and his godfather alone again.

"Well, I'll take you back through the painting before I go to Potions," Harry sighed. "Unless you'd like to trade? I'll stay in the room all day and you can go explain why my sleeping potion isn't the right color." Sirius snorted a woofing kind of laugh, and looked at the boy fondly. The Fat Lady painting swung open with the new password, rhododendron, and they parted ways. Sirius, heavy with thought, climbed the stairs. Just as reluctant, Harry turned to go down the corridor to the dungeons.

By the time he got there, the class was in an uproar. It was easy to slip to the table with Ron, Hermione, and Jonah unnoticed. He saw that Vahn and Lavender Brown were now sitting together nearby. Hermione quickly passed him a sheet of paper and pointed quickly to the number three. It said ‘Discuss alternatives to powdered blood in an antidote to The Seventh Venom.' He didn't know what the ‘The Seventh Venom' was but he was pretty sure no one near him was discussing it.

Jonah was doodling on the back of his parchment. Hermione was bickering with Ron over something. Neville was waving his paper in a frantic way at Seamus who was flirting with Raye, who was ignoring him. Every student in the crowded room was yakking away. A little incredulous, Harry peeked over a few heads to see what Snape was doing. The Potionsmaster was paying no attention to the class that Harry could see. He was scribbling away on a stack of papers. He still looked like Death eating a cracker.

"What's going on?" he whispered to Ron, who shrugged, obviously not caring. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry watched Snape stand up and elbowed his friend to shut up.

"Eponine Attwater!" Snape nearly shouted. The chatter faded and a Kyllonen girl stood up carefully. Snape handed her one of the papers in his stack. "Read it aloud, if you would." Puzzled, the girl looked at the paper, then blushed a bit. She shifted her feet and Snape snapped at her without ever looking up from what he was doing. "Read it aloud, if you CAN, Miss Attwater."

"In the interests of Self-Improvement: For asinine chatter better-suited to a primate house than a classroom, you are assigned the research and preparation of a Deodorant Potion. "she said, blushing darker. The class was now silent, while everyone eyed the stack in Snape's hands. Eponine was sent back to her seat and Snape read out the next name.

"Lavender Brown!" was next and her sentence was to make a cure for nausea, ‘in the event her so-called ‘charms' should develop further.' Hermione winced as Lavender went back to her seat in tears.

"He's going alphabetically," whispered Ron. "With a class this big, he'll never get to Ws before class is over!" He clasped his hands together in prayer. Jonah (who's last name was Yansley) smirked a bit too, but it didn't stop them from watching in tense silence. One by one the students were called up to read aloud their assignments. Hermione's turn came and she took a deep breath to brace herself.

"Hermione Granger and Ron Weaselly!" Snape spat. Ron paled. He and Hermione looked at each other in blind panic, then slowly walked up to the glowering Potionsmaster. He handed Ron the paper. Ron handed it quickly to Hermione without looking at it. Hermione raised her chin and read it aloud with as much dignity as could be expected of her.

"In the interests of Self-Improvement: For bickering like an old married couple of magpies who can't agree on which end the egg comes out of, a joint project. Research and prepare a Tongues Tonic. Supply three types of birds to test it on."

Harry couldn't help but think that their insult wasn't as bad as some, but then changed his mind when he saw the raised eyebrows and expressions on his classmates. Ron and Hermione were in for some teasing later. They came back to their seats and the assignments continued.

"What the heck is a Tongues Tonic anyway?" Ron asked in a whisper. Hermione looked at him as if he was hopeless.

"Later," she hissed back.

"Drew McCaven!" roared Snape.

"Ma'am?" Drew replied sweetly. His fellow Bantlings managed to keep straight faces. The rest of the room found themselves frozen in various rictuses of horror and amusement. The sudden stillness in the room was eerie. Snape tilted his head just enough that the full impact of his best baleful glare hit the poor boy in the eye. Drew stood, ready to walk up. He looked calm from the front, but Harry saw a trickle of sweat on the back of his neck. The look he was getting from Snape should've blasted him to ashes.

"See me after class," Snape said softly. Drew nodded and sat down. The list went on. Eventually, Harry was called up too. As he had missed the first part of his class, Snape didn't have much on him. His assignment was to make Dragon's Breath Potion, ‘to keep back his hordes of adoring fans.' At close range, he noticed that Snape's hands appeared to tremble from the weight of the paper.

The rest of the class went by quickly. Jonah was assigned an ink removing potion somewhere towards the end and then the class was over. There was the usual scuffling to leave. Ron and Hermione got into another argument before they were out the door and Harry was too frazzled to care. Raye fell into step beside him as they left. He tried not to flinch noticeably.

‘I need to talk to you," she said quietly. "Will you sit with me at lunch?" Harry looked at her carefully. There was an unpleasant gleam of obsession in her eye and he groped for an excuse.

"I have to take care of my dog," he said, a little to quickly. "I'm supposed to take him out to, uh, Hagrid's to be checked out."

"Then I'll go with you," she said, giving him a smile that was mostly steel. "This is important." she added as he started to protest again. When he didn't have a ready reply to that, she went on ahead of him with a smug toss of her braid. Harry felt his teeth grind. He stomped towards the Griffyndor tower, following the sound of Ron calling Hermione a know-it-all. He left them in the common room and went up to throw his backpack on his bed.

Sirius was there, laying with his head on his paws. He didn't move when Harry came in, just wagged his tail a bit. Harry looked at him curiously. There was a keen glint in his godfather's doggy face too. There was a scrap of paper under one paw. Sirius was holding as still as if he was trying to be calm. Neville and Vahn had come up with Harry, so he couldn't speak to Sirius as he wanted to. He carefully picked up the paper and glanced at it and then back at Sirius, who was staring holes into his head. All the note said was: "I have a plan."

*************

Chapter 8

Harry looked at the sentence and then back at his godfather. Padfoot was staring at him with an intensity he hadn't had since that night in the Shrieking Shack with Peter Pettigrew. Thinking quickly, he glanced over at the other boys in the room and then met Sirius' burning eyes again.

"I have class until noon," he whispered. "And then Raye has snagged me to talk some more at lunch and then I have class until afternoon and then Hagrid wants to see me and I've got Quiddich practice later on. What do you want me to do?"

Sirius growled softly to himself, then shook his head, making his ears flap. It was probably for the best. Harry didn't need to be involved too much anyway. The big dog got up and nudged Harry towards the door. Go on, he thought at him. Harry looked at him with some confusion, but went on out to class. Sirius paced around the room until the other boys left and found a window to stare out of while his brain hummed with plans.

He was now wondering if Esme was an animagus as well. He was sure he had heard the flap of wings when she had escaped from him before. He supposed it could have been the flap of her coattails, but there was other things besides that. She had identified him easily enough, saying that she had dealt with shapechangers before. She had also said that there were no vampires at Hogwarts, but had never denied being a vampire hunter. He knew some vampires could change shape, so maybe that was what she meant. He mulled it over in his head until lunchtime, when Ron brought him a bowl.

"Harry's stuck in a corner with Raye and hasn't been able to escape," Ron told him. "He said to tell you that he has Defense after lunch and then we go out to the greenhouses. Then we're all going down to see Hagrid. Do you want me to let you out of the tower?"

Eating noisily, Sirius nodded. He suspected he was going to have to work on his table manners once he was able to come out of hiding. There just wasn't a dainty way to eat clam chowder without hands or utensils or shape-able lips. Someone, probably Hermione, had added a breadstick, so he chomped that down and looked expectantly at Ron. The redhead looked a trifle disgusted, but picked up the now spotless bowl and lead the way out.

Sirius spent the rest of that day on the grounds, sniffing around Hagrid's place for scent of Buckbeak and trying to avoid North. The white dog was Ms. Zephyr's and Snape was her shadow these days, and he wanted to stay clear of all three of them. He hid in the pumpkin patch again when Hagrid stomped out of the woods with Fang and a big sack over his shoulder. Hagrid set his crossbow by the door and set out a bowl of water for Fang before grabbing the sack again and heading off towards the lake. Following him was easily done, as Fang was too busy slurping water to notice Sirius go by and Hagrid himself was humming cheerily to himself.

"Weasels and hares, weasels and hares," the groundskeeper sang softly. "A whole squirming sack of weasels and hares!" The big guy certainly seemed happy. Maybe it was feeding day for the giant squid. Sirius trotted after him in the underbrush and then they came up to a large shed that hadn't been there a few days ago. It reeked of Buckbeak and Sirius felt his spirits lift as a shrill squawk came from the inside as Hagrid opened the door. The hippogriff was alive then! And healthy enough to raise a commotion.

"There's my handsome boy!" Hagrid was crooning. "Look what I've brought ya!" Then followed some horrible, crunching, squelching noises that Sirius recognized all too well as hippogriff feeding sounds. He snuck up to the door and peeked in. Buckbeak lay out on a thick bed of hay as Hagrid tossed him a dead hare from the sack. His gray body was swathed in bandages around his middle and he made no effort to get up, so he wasn't up to full health. His eyes were as bright and fierce as ever, despite it.

Suddenly, Buckbeak noticed him and made a softer chirping sound of recognition. Hagrid wasn't paying attention, being too absorbed in picking the fattest weasel to offer next. Sirius wagged his tail at the hippogriff who stretched out his neck to chirp at him. Sirius hurried out of sight before Hagrid looked up and hid himself in the bushes. He would wait for Hagrid to leave and then go into visit Buckbeak properly.

It took nearly two hours for Hagrid to feed and brush and play with the hippogriff, all the while cooing to him like he was a human baby instead of the huge creature he was. As impatient as he was, Sirius had to acknowledge that neglect was out of the question. Buckbeak was being taken good care of. Finally though, Hagrid reappeared with the empty sack and a final goodbye, latched the door and went off whistling some drinking tune Sirius thought he recognized. He shifted quickly back to his human form and stepped inside the shed. Buckbeak perked up and tried to get to his feet, but Sirius shushed him and made him lay still. Buckbeak shoved his head against Sirius' chest and he sank his hands into the feathers to scratch his neck

"I was worried about you, featherbag," he said fondly. "It's not the same hiding out and sneaking around without you." Buckbeak chewed on the leather belt he still wore around his neck and Sirius only flinched a little when the sharp beak closed near his throat. "I can't stay long, buddy, but I'll be back when I can, OK?" Buckbeak chirped at him again. With a final pat, Sirius stepped back and shifted back to Padfoot. He let himself out and knocked the latch back into place with his nose before heading back towards the castle.

He spent the rest of the afternoon milling around the grounds, being petted by many of the girl students. It wasn't until after dinner that he caught up with Harry and Ron again. They were waiting for Hermione when Sirius came padding up to them. A moment later, Hermione came trotting over.

"I got that summerflax from Professor Sprout," she was saying. "Oh hello, S-Fumbles. . . Are you guys ready to go see Hagrid?" Sirius fastened his eyes meaningfully at Harry, who blinked at him before catching on.

"You guys go ahead, I'll meet you down there," he said. Ron and Hermione nodded and went on. Sirius ducked into some shadows and shapechanged once again. "What is it? "Harry asked. "What's your plan?"

"That plan is over," Sirius whispered back. "I need to get some answers out of Esme before I know what to do. I know how to find her. If she's after the Zephyr woman I just need to shadow her until she makes an appearance, Getting the truth out of her is another thing though. . . "

"Snape has a Truth potion," Harry remembered. "He threatened me with it before, when he thought I'd stolen something out of his office. . . Veritaserum, I think he called it. If you could get some-."

"Then I could get a straight answer out of that woman," Sirius finished. "All right, we'll try. If you can distract Snape, I'll get inside and find it."
"It might be easier to make our own," Harry said, with a sinking feeling. Sirius grinned at him a little apologetically.

"Probably, but we need it in a hurry," he said. "Let's go." He quickly shifted back to Padfoot and they quickly made their way down to the dungeons. Unfortunately for their scheme, Madame Pomfrey was there as well as Snape. They were in the middle of what was obviously a powerful portion. Snape made some gesture over a bubbling beaker with his wand and it glowed silver, releasing a rainy day scent into the air. Madame Pomfrey stood by to hand him a spoonful of a green powder.

It would have been a death wish to interrupt him now, so they waited quietly in the shadows for a likely moment. Sirius was annoyed that he had spent most of the day waiting on people to finish things. Harry was just hoping the flickers of light wouldn't reflect from his glasses and give them away. He was also trying to come up with a good reason to speak to Snape afterwards. A new flash of light made them both refocus on Snape who was now holding a small, curved knife.

"I do object to this part," Madame Pomfrey said softly. Her pleasant face clouded over, but Snape paid no attention. Very carefully, he cut his own wrist and collected the spurting blood in a little bowl. "That's enough," Pomfrey said after a few seconds.

"I am the Potionsmaster," he snarled back at her. "I KNOW when it is enough, thank you."

"You're as bad as she is!" Pomfrey snapped. "And when you kill yourself who will make the potion for her every day then? Give me that!" She snatched his arm and gave his wrist a light touch of her wand. It healed up in just a second. They glared at each other for a moment, but Snape backed down first. He was obviously weaker after just losing a small amount of blood. If he'd been doing this for days, Harry realized, it would explain why he'd been so feeble.

"I thought she couldn't have blood," Pomfrey said next. "That it would just make her worse."

"I won't be using the pure blood," Snape said, pouring the bowl into the top beaker of a complicated series of tubes. "I have to distill a certain element out of it. It will only take a few minutes."

"Good," Pomfrey put her hands on her hips and gave him her best ‘mother' glare. "That'll give me time to get a regeneration tonic down you. Severus! I mean it. Come with me."

"I don't nee-" he began.

"Humor me," she flared back. There was no hint of motherliness in her anymore. It was no longer a request. He was going or she'd drag him, kicking and screaming, to the infirmary. He sighed in an exasperated way, but he went. As soon as they left, Harry picked up one foot to step out into the room. Sirius suddenly yanked him back into the dark and clamped a hand over his mouth. Esme flitted into view, sliding in between them and the table. There was a clink of glass and then she was gone again. Sirius cursed and charged after her, leaving Harry alone in the dungeon.

Harry looked closer at the potion distillery, to see if anything was changed. The beaker that had held Snape's blood was now empty and the end tube was now full of a red-black fluid. It looked like she had sped the process into a few seconds. Nothing else looked different. He quickly hurried out again, not wanting to be there when Snape got back, especially alone. And if anything IS wrong with that potion, I will NEVER be safe in Snape's presence again! he thought, half-smiling. Grateful that the halls were clear, he ran out to meet Hagrid.

Meanwhile, Sirius was tearing after Esme down the dark halls. He wasn't even sure she knew he was after her. She never once looked backwards. She cut back to the Griffyndors halls, and with a swish of her coat was inside the girls' bathing room again. Sirius slid to a halt, then crept to listen at the door. For a long moment there was nothing and then came the sound of running water. He took a deep breath, and nudged the door open.

The first thing he smelled was the miasma. It was pitch black inside until a dim light spell was chanted in the adjoining tub room. He shrank against a wall and inched along one side, trying to get a glimpse of her in the mirror so he wouldn't have to step into the next room. Her reflection swept by quickly, dropping the trench coat beside the tub. Sirius crouched to leap out at her, but then she whipped her shirt off over her head.

Her back was to the mirror he was spying on her with and her underwear was not exciting, but he still found himself gasping. Five red scars slashed her from her left shoulder blade halfway to her right hip. It looked like something with claws had opened her back to the bone, and not that long ago either. It stretched her skin in an awful pattern between her shoulders. The dim light cast strange shadows over her and he was glad the running water had covered the sound of his gasp. He hardened his heart again. No matter what she'd tangled with before, he still had to get some information from her.

A sudden tapping sound made him freeze again. He saw the mirror vibrate and the reflections tremble. Esme spat out a curse that would have made McGonagall faint and jumped into the tub. Sirius crouched low to the floor as he got his second shock of the hour. A horrible goblin-like creature sprang out of the mirror and landed on the pile of Esme's clothes. It was cat-sized and covered with matted, olive-green fur, even its bat wings. It had a humanesque face, if humans had evolved without noses or lips. The lower part of its face was full of thin fangs.

"Our master is not pleased with you," it said, advancing toward the tub. Esme slapped a handful of soapy water at it and it skittered back with a hiss.

"The master's pleasure has never been my priority," Esme told it, but it continued as if she hadn't spoken.

"Not pleased at all. He asks that you be reminded of the nature of your agreement."

"Agreement?" Esme spat back, cutting it off in mid-chuckle. "If I had agreed, he wouldn't need you."

They faced each other icily, the goblin crouched on the wet floor, and Esme up to her shoulders in pink bubbles. After a second or two, she winced as if from some inner pain and held out her arm with a disgusted noise. The goblin bounded up to the side of the tub with a flap of its wings and sank its teeth into the old bandages around her wrist. Sirius' stomach felt cold. This was worse than he had thought.

He remembered her bloody wrist in the cave when they had first met. How long had this been happening? Who was this master? The first thing to come to his mind was, of course, Voldemort. The cold feeling in his stomach flipped over. If that was the case, he really had no choice, Even if she killed him here, it would alert Dumbledore to the danger. She was sloshing around angrily, one hand toweling herself off and the other trying to pull her clothes on. As always happened in such situations, the clothes she managed to drag on stuck to her, as did the wet ends of her hair. Somewhere in all this, the goblin was gone.

Sirius made another change back to his human form, took another deep breath, and lunged out at her. She let out a high-pitched "EEEK!" of fright and threw herself backwards. She slid in the water on the floor and Sirius tackled her into the towel rack. Towels went everywhere and he managed to pin her against the wall. He saw her eyes widen as she realized who he was, and while that thought was registering, he seized her bitten wrist and sank his thumb into one of the wounds. Blood spurted out and he felt something crunch under the pressure. Esme cried out again and stopped struggling. He grabbed both her middle fingers and bent them back, not enough to be really painful, but giving her a definite warning.

"I'll kill you," he panted, dragging her upright by the fingers. Blood was running down her arm to her elbow now. She wasn't able to answer, because at that moment, the door behind them flew open. Esme threw herself forward and planted a poorly aimed kiss under his nose.

"AHA!!" screamed Argus Filch from the doorway. "I caught y-Oh. Oh!. . . Uh." That pretty much described Sirius' train of thought as well. In that moment of mutual bewilderment, Esme freed her hands and stepped in between the two startled men.

"Oh, please don't tell!" she wailed at Filch, clutching her hands to her soggy chest. "His parents would never let us visit. I haven't seen him all winter! Oh please!" Filch looked as panicked as Sirius felt, especially when she burst into tears.

"Now, uh, see here," Filch began.

"Promise you won't tell??" Esme shrieked, desperately.

"Uh, But. . . but I," he said.

"You mustn't!!" Esme was well into hysteria at this point. "It'll ruin everything!! His parents! His MOTHER. . . !!!"

"What on earth is going on??" a new voice demanded and Filch stepped back to let Professor McGonagall in. Sirius was frozen. He was found. He was caught. And, he suddenly realized, his hair was the wrong color. It was an auburn brown, sleek and wet at the ends. Esme's hair was now as black and wild as his had been. It hid her face as she collapsed to cry in the floor. McGonagall gave him one sharp disapproving glare and sank down beside Esme. It was easy to guess what she was thinking. . . why was some ragamuffin wizard in the girl's bathing room, after hours, with a screaming female Muggle? Esme sounded so traumatized though that she couldn't be ignored.

"My dear," McGonagall said, patting the sobbing woman's shoulder. "What is this about??"

"We've been engaged for almost two years!" Esme wept, looking tearfully at Sirius. "His parents won't let us get married because I'm a. . . a Mupple or whatever." She sniffed miserably and McGonagall handed her a hanky. The professor's stern expression had softened a little. "We decided to meet here to get some advice from Cyrus'. . . uncle, I think?" They were both looking at him now, so he started nodding.

"And who is your uncle?" McGonagall asked, more gently. Sirius was still reeling from how sudden this whole evening had been, but was prepared to play along. There was only one person he dared show himself to right now anyway.

"Albus Dumbledore," he said, watching the look of surprise sink into her face. "He's the Headmaster. But of course you know that already! Sorry, sorry." He fidgeted, looking as nervous as Esme looked weepy. When liars work together. . . he thought unhappily. He had been prepared to kill her and now he was in her debt once again.

"Where's the dog I followed in here?" Filch asked from his post by the door. "And what happened with all the water?"

"Dog?" asked Sirius. Esme told a sniffling story about running a bath to pretend to be in if anyone came by. She had hidden her hurt arm in the trench coat. McGonagall sighed and agreed to summon Dumbledore for them as long as the removed themselves from the girl's bathroom and waited somewhere more discreet.

"What were you doing to spread towels all over?" snapped Filch, looking at the mess. Esme blushed and Sirius shuffled his feet. Once he interpreted that, Filch changed colors and stomped out muttering. McGonagall pursed her lips and marched them out into the hall. Esme took Sirius' arm and snuggled him from the side. They were presented to Dumbledore, who was in his pajamas. He looked closely at Esme, but acknowledged Sirius as his nephew.

"It seems we have a lot of things to discuss," he said, eyeing both of them sharply. "However, you both look as if you'd been through a lot. Why don't you both get some sleep and we'll sort this out in the morning." Sirius felt his jaw drop, but managed to grab it before it hit the floor. He couldn't believe Dumbledore was willing to let Esme run loose for another twelve hours without at least questioning her. He tightened his grip on her arm. Fine. He'd just have to be her warden until morning then.

While he was fuming, McGonagall had herded the pair of them to two guest chambers. Esme started to go into the one decided as hers, but Sirius gave her a light yank and pulled her into his room with him. She blushed and the professor was appalled. He would have enjoyed the scandalized look on McGonagall's face more if he hadn't been so worried. In the room, he and Esme faced each other. She met him gaze coolly, all traces of her tears gone. He opened his mouth to demand an explanation from her, but she interrupted him.

"Give me three days," she said. "and if I'm still alive, I will tell you everything. I swear it. Now come to bed, sweety. It's been a long time since I've been able to let my guard down to sleep." She promptly stripped down to undies and another of her black shirt collection. This one said FREAK in big white letters. She crawled into bed and took the biggest pillow. He took off his robe and crawled in with her to lock eyes again.

"That's not good enough," he told her. "Too much is at stake now."

"More is at stake than you know," she said, smoothing her new black hair behind her ears. She seemed genuinely upset, but he had seen her acting ability and wasn't convinced. Her eyes flickered around the room as if looking for something small and he remembered the goblin creature. Taking her arm again, he was surprised once more to see that there was a scar on her wrist, but no recent bite. He stared at it in disbelief and then something moved under her skin. It was faint as a shadow and flitted under the skin, like a living tattoo in pale ink. He gaped and she pulled her arm free. "Three days," she said again.

They both tensed as a shadow darkened the thin strip of light under their door. It paused. They looked at each other meaningfully. Someone was listening to them. Sirius shifted in the bed, still not releasing her wrist.

"You're not like other girls," he said. "I've been trying to figure out what the difference is." He meant the miasma and the way she almost winced told him she knew it.

"It comes from a life of experience," she told him, playing along. "I always seemed to attract the wrong sort before you came along. I was naive then and I was deceived more than once. Those scars are on the inside, not the outside. Is that what you meant?" They kept their eyes on the door. The shadow was still there.

"Well, scarred or not, I'm glad you're here," Sirius said. "I just wish there wasn't so much between us."

"It would be nice if there wasn't," she agreed." But some things are meant to be. I'm lucky to have you." With that, she snuggled into his neck, which made his ears burn with embarrassment. "Have faith," she added, and as far as he could tell, immediately fell asleep. He stared at her. She seemed to have aged since he had first seen her in the cave. The last few days had been hard on her, but he would have been more sympathetic if she hadn't been pinning his arm underneath her. It was already beginning to go numb.

Have faith, she had said. In three days, if she was still alive. But what did the crazy wench intend to do? That thought brought an unbidden smile to his face. Lily had never cared for the term ‘wench'. He thought Esme deserved it, though. She had been one nuisance after another to him, a constant worry in the back of his mind. But now, here she was, cuddled up to him in only a shirt and pair of panties which he thought had been covered in little smily faces. That made him a grin more like his old self and he looked at her again.

She certainly seemed to be asleep. She was limp and breathing slow and deep from her open mouth. He gave her a pinch, but all she did was twitch. He gently pulled his arm out from under her. After a moment of thought, he found her hands under the blankets and removed both of her rings. When she didn't react to that either, he was satisfied she was asleep. He dropped the rings down into his shoes and fell asleep, too.

*********

Esme was still there the next morning which he found encouraging. They dressed and went to see Dumbledore. She didn't mention the missing rings, so he didn't either. She was all smiles for Dumbledore, but annoyed Sirius by sticking to her engagement story and refusing to turn his hair back.. The Headmaster looked hard at her. Sirius wanted to ask if he could sense the miasma too, but Dumbledore suddenly asked Esme for a moment alone with his nephew. She seemed to hesitate then, but nodded and left with a promise to stay close.

"You trust her to do that?" Sirius sputtered at Dumbledore when she had gone. The Headmaster nodded absently.

"I don't want you to jump to conclusions," he said. "But things are badly out of hand. The Elmskill Morthahg was released by someone in that school, using an item that can only be used by a certain family's bloodlines. The one in question belongs to the Ms. Zephyr your betrothed is so intent on reaching."

"You think Esme released the Morthahg?" Sirius was too startled to even argue the ‘betrothed' remark. He shook his head. "I don't see it. She wasn't even able to summon up a Hydraqua.