Fanfiction

Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 53

There was no escaping getting wet. As much as Sirius didn't want to get sick again, it was much easier to wade in the channels than to tiptoe around the elf paths. The water wasn't as cold as the lake had been, and even though his feet were numb he was able to stand it. Lorelei dealt with the temperature a little better. Cured or not, it seemed some of her vampiric traits remained and she tried not to be too upset about it. She could certainly hear better than he could and led them on, following a sound she thought was Esme.

They passed a pile of bodies. Some were small enough to be elves. Some weren't. In some places the water ran red and when they look through the grates they saw cups around the fountain. Hot and cold running blood, Sirius thought. Kill the servants, throw them in the water works, and drink out of the fountains until it diluted. He wondered which lucky house elf would be left alive to clean the bodies out once they rotted too much to be tasty. Maybe vampires didn't think that far ahead. Or maybe they didn't care.

Once they were done here, they could just leave and it could be weeks or months before anyone noticed that the reclusive Nalicus were gone. No one would know but himself and Lorelei, and if they died here too, who would be the wiser? He glanced back at Lorelei to see if the blood was affecting her. Wouldn't it be wonderful if she had some sort of relapse and turned on him? He tried not to think about that.

The heaped corpses made her look away and she made a small sound as the bloody water turned her white cuffs a sickly pink. Other than that, she seemed as composed as could be expected. Finally, a sound reached Sirius' ears and he paused to listen. A voice was singing. It didn't sound like Esme's, but every now and then it seemed like her voice would join in the song before trailing off. Lorelei was hurrying now. Even if she wasn't anxious to get to Esme, Sirius thought, she wanted this job over and done with so she could get home.

"Is it her?" he asked and she held up her hand to silence him. He strained his ears to hear it better. If it hadn't been for the stink, he would've changed to Padfoot for the dog's more sensitive hearing. Since a dog's more sensitive sense of smell would have drowned out most of the other senses, he decided to do the best he could with what he was born with. From somewhere in the dark, gushing tunnels he could make out words.

I'm looking for comfort
That I can take
From someone else
But after all
I know there is no one
That can save me, save me from myself
You were the only one

"It's her," Lorelei breathed. "I know the song. She played that album until the whole family was sick of it."

"What is it?" he asked. "I've never heard it."

"It's a Muggle singer she likes. Billy Joel. How she got it to play down here, I really don't know." Lorelei began to pick her way toward the sound.

"Why would she be singing here?" he wondered aloud and she shook her head.

"Maybe she's cracked," she said coldly. "It happens. It almost happened to me. Vampires are traumatic. . . " She broke off at his stare.

"Sing back to her," he said. "See if she answers."

"I don't dare! They'll hear me! They'll know we're here. . . " The same flustered fearfulness he had seen when he had asked her about her plan came back over her.

"They haven't heard HER," he said. "And you do sound a lot alike."

"He knows me. My voice." Her hands had begun to shake and she clenched them into fists. "He'll know it's me. I can't." Brohm again, he thought, watching her tremble in a way all the cold water in winter couldn't cause. She doesn't even like to say his name in this place, as if the sound of it would summon him up. They were both silent for a moment and then another verse came drifting up.

Oh, what has it cost you
I almost lost you
A long, long time ago
Oh, you should have told me
But you had to bleed to know

Lorelei look of fear became pained.

"Just try it. Whatever your plan was." Sirius said. "I'll protect you." He knew exactly what she'd think of that offer and sure enough, she made a sound that might have been a scornful laugh if she wasn't trying so hard to be quiet.

"I. . . didn't think I'd have to do it with anyone watching. . . " she whispered.

"What?" Sirius couldn't resist teasing her a little. "Do you have to be naked or something?"

"No!" she sputtered before realizing that he was kidding. "It's just. . . something from when we were children. We. . . were in a theater group."

"I know," he said. "So?"

"Esme could never miss a line. No matter how randomly a line would work it's way into conversation, she'd pipe up with the next one. I thought if I could. . . sing my old part, she'd answer with hers. . . the way she used to. . . ."

"So why so shy?" he asked. "You were a performer. Surely I'm no worse than an audience of parents."

"It's hard for me to sing now. . . " She rested her hand against her bite scar. "That, that was before my voice. . . matured. Now that the power is there, I have to be careful. And. . . since this happened. . . " She rubbed the scar and pulled her hand away. "It's. . . just hard. . . "

No, I didn't start it
You're broken hearted
From a long, long time ago
Oh, the way you hold me
Is all that I need to know

Lorelei turned away before he could argue and started to wade toward the singing again. Not knowing what else to do, Sirius followed. The water was getting slightly warmer and less red. There was the faintest of lights up ahead, showing that the tunnel they were in was round and not even the elf paths went this far.

Lorelei slowed her pace, and the gentle slosh of her movements faded. She could easily be a predator, Sirius thought, watching her progress become silent. She just doesn't want anything that might be there to hear her. Imagine if she was hunting something instead of avoiding them. We should be grateful she's chosen to remain as human as she can.

He did his best to move quietly too. The speed of the water had increased, but he couldn't hear any splashing. Ahead of him, Lorelei became a dark silhouette against the dim glow. She peered out of the tunnel and then turned and gestured for him to join her.

When he reached her side, he found himself staring into an even deeper pit. The water around them poured straight down into it. He couldn't imagine how deep it must be if they couldn't hear the water hitting the bottom. Lorelei was pointing again and when he followed her stare, saw where the light was coming from.

There was a door built into the wall. It was slightly ajar and the music and the light as coming from inside. There was no ledge or stair to get to it. The only way in was magic. Sirius took a breath to cast Esme's levitation spell, but Lorelei put a cold finger to his lips to stop him.

All your past sins
Are since past
You should be sleeping
It's all right
Sleep tight
Through the long night with me
With me

She leaned a little further out of their tunnel and looked up. He saw her expression become puzzled, but she leaned back and nodded to him.

"Nothing to hear us," she said, whispering anyway.

"What's up there?" he asked, leaning forward for a look.

"I can't imagine what madman built this house," she murmured. In the weak light, Sirius could barely see the ceiling above them. But then, a ripple of movement made him jump and he squinted closer. It was water! Water pooling on the ceiling! It left an odd feeling of vertigo.

Out of curiosity, he pulled a chunk of mossy mold from the side of the tunnel and held it in his open hand. It flew up to the ceiling to splash there.

"So, did we come out upside down?" he wondered aloud, only half-joking.

"The door is right side up," Lorelei nodded towards their goal again. "And the water is still flowing downwards. How are you at summoning spells?"

"I can do most of the basic elements," he told her. "Though it's been awhile since I tried fire or lightning."

"With all this water, you shouldn't have any trouble with a Hydraqua spell then," she readied herself, pulling her long sleeves out of the way. "Just try to pull a sheet of water up level with us."

Sirius shrugged and used Esme's ring to perform the summoning. The water around them snaked outwards instead of pouring down. Threads of water also came twining down from the pool above them. I had been a LONG time since he'd had to do such precise magic and he couldn't bring it up as level as he would've liked. Lorelei didn't comment though.

"Pull the edges up," she told him. "Make a tunnel so we won't fall."

He did his best. The water did form a rough tube shape. As soon as the mass of water came close to forming a bridge, she cast a spell that froze it all solid. The new water pouring out around them sloshed on it and made an ominous cracking sound.

"It won't hold long," Sirius realized.

"It won't hold us both," Lorelei added. "Hurry!" And then with a flick of her wrist, she became a white barn owl. It flitted across the chasm and landed gingerly on the doorknob, looking back at him. He turned into a dog since that shape was lighter and stepped nervously onto the ice. His paw promptly slid out from under him and he landed heavily on his chest. The whole bridge crunched.

The owl made a worried sound and fluttered at him. No less frantic, he almost jumped back into the tunnel he'd come from, but decided that it was as far forward as it was back. Scrabbling with all four paws and desperate to get off the ice before it crumbled, he fell twice more and cut his chin on a jagged piece of cold the second time.

Finally, he was close enough to just throw himself at the door. It swung open easily and he lay panting on the nice, sturdy stone floor. I should have just levitated, he thought shakily. Lorelei became a woman again and he shifted back too. One of her bracelet feathers was missing, he noticed. When his gaze flicked back to her, though, he found her staring at him keenly.

"What?" he asked, and then felt something warm drip onto his hand. His chin was bleeding. He didn't know what the sight of his blood would do to her, and was relieved that she seemed as rigid as ever.

"They may smell it on you," was all she said. "Hold still." She touched her wand to his chin and the pain stung like glass for a moment before it faded altogether. She wiped the blood from him with her handkerchief, which she then made disappear. Fine. As long as he didn't catch her sucking on it later, he wouldn't care.

*All song lyrics are by Billy Joel. The two songs are You Were The One, and Through The Long Night With You.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 52

One more visit to the infirmary was required before Madam Pomfrey would take Hermione from the sick list. Ron and Harry waited outside the infirmary to avoid the smell of the tonic being given to a Bantling who'd been poisoned by a Slytherin who'd had quite enough.

"I thought the bite was all healed," Harry sighed. He slumped against the wall with his hands in his pockets. Ron mimicked the pose and shrugged.

"It took so many healing spells to close it that they're afraid something was canceling the magic," he said, speaking softly even though there was no one in the hall with them. "They're afraid that might mean she was touched by the Morthahg."

"What??" Harry stood sharply to stare at his friend. Ron shrugged again.

"Hermione's ok, so I'm not worried about that," he said. "She's still the best student in class and she says she feels fine."

"She never said anything about that," Harry said. "How do you know all this?"

"I came with her on her last visit," Ron explained. "You were looking for Snuffles, remember? I heard Madam Pomfrey talking to some of the other staff and they were worried about it."

Harry stared even harder. He couldn't believe he'd missed that much, or that Ron hadn't told him about it before now.

"They weren't upset," Ron added, as if hoping to calm him. "It's just weird. I was thinking it could be something like a Slider."

"I guess it could. . . " Harry admitted. "I'm still thinking about that thing we saw on the Map. Snuffles said that Tanner thought that whatever it was really was Rosie, but then it attacked him."

"But the Map didn't say Rosie," Ron added. "And the Map isn't supposed to be wrong…"

"The Map showed something that looked like more than one name, right?" Harry leaned in and lowered his voice again. "But Hermione said that there was no one out there but Raye and the black wolf."

"So…" Ron looked thoughtful. "It it wasn't Rosie. . . "

"Maybe it wasn't JUST Rosie," Harry said. "Remember the Bind? Maybe is was Rosie and Brohm, the same way it was Ficus and Brohm for awhile. . . " Ron had heard that story in great detail and nodded enthusiastically. Harry kept thinking out loud.

"Brohm became part of Ficus when Ficus died. . . Maybe, maybe when he took Ficus' body, he took some of his Slider-powers with him! That way, if Brohm was still the Bind, and the Bind was in Rosie, she might have some Slider-ness under the surface! So when she bit Hermione, the Slider part wouldn't let the bite heal up right away."

"Weird," Ron said again, but he looked impressed. Harry was rather proud of that theory too. Then, the door slid open and Hermione stepped out into the hall. She looked so pale and angry that both boys froze.

"What?" Ron asked, concern shrill in his voice. "What happened? What did they say?"

"Raye is back," Hermione snarled. Relief splashed over them like water and then trickled into confusion.

"What?" Harry took a step towards the infirmary door. "She's in there RIGHT NOW??" Hermione held up a hand to stop him.

"I need some air," she said. "Come walk with me." She looked so likely to bite someone that they didn't dare refuse. She took both their arms and towed them both resolutely outside. It was stingingly cold, so she changed her mind and steered them back into another lower hallway. Ron and Harry traded looks over her lowered head, but neither spoke until she had found a place warm and secluded enough to settle in.

"Ok," Harry dislodged his arm and heaved himself up to sit in a windowsill. "What happened?" Hermione sighed and sat down on a bit of architecture. The walk had calmed her down. Ron leaned on a wall next to her.

"Apparently, she just came scampering up to the front door this morning," Hermione said. "They were all fussing over her and she was lapping it up like it was cream and she was a cat and butter wouldn't melt in her mouth."

"Butter?" Ron asked.

"Muggle expression," Harry said with a little grin. "It means she was cool and collected. Not flustered at all."

"And she runs up to hug me!" Hermione continued, outraged. "Cooing like a pigeon! About how sorry she was that I was hurt, and how she simply couldn't remember a thing. . . " She imitated Raye's accent so well that both boys couldn't help but grin.

"Don't tell me anyone actually believed all that," Harry begged. Hermione tossed her hair angrily and propped her chin up on her fists.

"They're relieved that she's back, of course, and acting normal again," she told them. "I know Professor McGonagall is suspicious. I saw how she looked at her."

"So, what did Raye say when she wasn't acting like a cat and a pigeon?" Ron asked. Hermione fell back into the drawling accent and spoke in an irritating sing-song.

"That it was like a dream! Like being lost in the fog! That she woke up in this scary old house and heard voices and was so afraid that she ran!" Hermione dropped the accent and snorted softly to herself.

"What house?" asked Harry, wondering again where Sirius had gone to.

"She doesn't remember," Hermione sneered. Then her expression lightened a little. "Professor Snape isn't buying it either. He told her he knows of a trance-inducing potion that might unlock her subconscious so she could tell them more. Raye didn't care for that at all, I can tell you."

"Hah! At least he has someone else to threaten with that kind of thing now," Harry chuckled.

"What are they going to do?" Ron asked. She shrugged. "Well, are YOU ok? No more infirmary visits for you?"

"I'm fine," she told him, managing a real smile. She tilted her head to show the bite. "See? The scar is barely visible now."

"What should WE do?" Harry said, more to himself than them. Ron rubbed his own neck in sympathy for Hermione and she chuckled at them both.

"With both McGonagall and Snape on her case, Raye won't get away with anything," she said. "What did you have in mind?"

"I wish Snuffles was here," Harry said. "Do you think Tanner would be able to tell us anything about Raye? If he could, I don't know, sniff her or something?"

"I'm not sure ‘up to no good' has a smell," Hermione said. "But it couldn't hurt. . . He might even like the company."

"Let's go see him then," Harry hopped down from the windowsill, glad for any action at this point. The other two got up as well. There was time before the next class.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 51

Inside the house, all was very, very still. They had felt their way through the cold cellar to the stairs that led to the kitchen. The large room was dingy and the fire on the huge hearth had gone out. There was a faint smell of burnt oatmeal and wet ashes. A much stronger scent of death hung over it. He looked around for the source and was heading for the door. Lorelei's hand touched Padfoot's shoulder hesitantly and he shifted to Sirius without standing up.

"Shouldn't there be someone here?" she asked. "Servants? House elves?" He snorted a little and rose up on his haunches.

"With a horde of peckish vampires in residence?" He said. "If they're smart, they ran for it days ago. And if not. . . " He tossed his head towards the corner. Lorelei followed his gaze to the slumped body of a house elf stacked on the pile of firewood. Her eyes narrowed.

"Monsters," she said. Her voice was hardly more than a whisper. She was obviously terrified and Sirius felt a touch of fear too. The sun was now lighting up the windows though, so he tried to shake it off. Fear was contagious. He stood up all the way and peered out the door into the next room. It was empty and with Lorelei close on his heels, he led the way to the main hall.

It didn't look terrible. Someone had been trying to keep it clean. Maybe there was a house elf or two still kicking. There was a fountain trickling to itself. It was arranged to flow down either side of the grand staircase into two shallow pools. The water was dingy and dark, and Sirius didn't want to think about what might be living in it.

"Where would Esme be?" he wondered aloud. He led the way up the stairs and down some narrow hallways. They passed through a maze of small rooms and corridors. The Nalicus family had divided their huge house into a beehive of chambers and doorways. God help any of them born claustrophobic, Sirius thought as they went. Big sweeping rooms to show off company in and these little mole holes to live in.

The small chambers were lavishly decorated though. Expensive hangings and carpets were still arranged over beautifully carved hardwoods. Every little knickknack was made of something rare and precious. Most of them had a large or small fountain in them, though most were dry. There were also numerous potted plants in various stages of wilt and all sorts of breeze ways and fireplaces as well.

"All four elements," Lorelei realized aloud. Sirius looked at her questioningly and she pointed. "Fireplaces to contain fire, fountains to contain water, all these windows and breezeways to let air in, and pots of earth everywhere. Someone was trying to achieve some sort of balance."

"Hunh," said Sirius, looking around. "Maybe Messalina." It was her turn to look inquiring and he pointed at one of the large paintings of the family that also seemed to be in most of the larger rooms. "The girl in the back." Lorelei nodded and they went on. There was no sign of vampires, or indeed, of anyone. Lorelei began pulling open drapes as they went, spilling morning sunshine into the old rooms.

"Where would they keep her?" Sirius muttered as time passed with nothing but more empty rooms. "I wish we had her compass. Can you make a new one?"

"It would take weeks to do it right," Lorelei sighed. She was as stressed and tense as he was. Her hand was clutched to her chest and at first he thought her burn was bothering her again, but then realized she was holding a little pouch strung around her neck. Maybe it was a anti-vampire talisman.

"Before, you said you might know a way to lure her to you," he remembered. "Can you do that now?"

"Oh," she looked taken aback. "No. I. . . I can't do that here." He started to argue and then she added. "And it won't work if she's contained. Let me. . . try something else first. I can send out some shadow hounds." She seemed to hesitate. "But you'll have to guard me. I'll be. . . helpless for a moment." Sirius blinked at that.

"When did you get so brave?" he asked. "Not only to come into a vampires house but to be 'helpless' inside it."

Lorelei did't answer. She took a deep breath and stepped back. Her shadow darkened into a much deeper blackness. She held out her hands and spoke the words to a spell Sirius had never heard. Her shadow moved and writhed, but her own body was motionless. Five black shapes sprang from it, taking the form of jackal-like dogs. In another flash, they streaked away, silent as shadows themselves. Lorelei remained motionless. Her eyes were closed and her mouth hung slightly open.

Sirius spoke to her softly and when she didn't answer, touched one of her outstretched arms. She didn't respond to that either. A long moment ticked by as the sunlight outside got steadily brighter. There was sensation of motion in the room as the shadow hounds returned. They flowed back into the shapeless patch of dark at Lorelei's feet and she swayed unsteadily. Sirius moved to help her and she stepped away before he could touch her.

"I know where she was," she said, rubbing her eyes as if they burned. "Something was there, something was blocking me. I couldn't make out where she went from there, but I could hear her. . . almost."

"Which way then?" Sirius asked.

"I. . . I think. . . " she looked around to get whatever bearings the hounds had brought her. "This way. . . There should be stairs.." And there was. They crept down carefully, knowing that the farther they went from the light, the more likely it was they would meet vampires. The stairs ended in the room Fred and George had described. There was a huge fountain that emptied into a large pit/drain. The water was red. Lorelei crept closer, a knuckle pressed to her lips. Sirius stopped when he got close enough to see a body floating in the main cistern. Lorelei ignored it to peer down into the pit.

"This is where I lost her. I can hear her, I think," she said, her own voice almost too faint to be heard over the water. "I can see a ledge. . . It must be for the house elves to clean the drains out."

Sirius joined her at the rim to look into the pit as well. The water disappeared into the dark and he could only barely see a ledge winding around the pit walls like a spiral staircase. He couldn't hear a thing, but assumed Lorelei's vampire-sharpened senses were keener than his. When she didn't move, he crouched down to slide over the rim until his feet hit the ledge. He eased his weight onto it carefully. It seemed sturdy enough, even though it was barely wide enough for a man his size to stand on.

"Are you coming?" he asked Lorelei as he began to creep his way down. She didn't answer, but dropped next to him. One hand clung to the wall and she gripped his shoulder with the other. Her hand was cold and surprisingly strong. It was getting harder not to feel sorry for her. She made no complaint, but it was more and more obvious that she was scared out of her wits. He could hear her breath hissing around her teeth. He had to take a deep breath to steady his own nerves. He covered her hand with his and began to walk.

"Maybe you should lead," he said. "If your eyes are better than mine in the dark."

"Please don't speak," she gasped. "I can FEEL things listening. . . " Sirius thought she was being paranoid, but decided he couldn't blame her. He led the way down, stepping as carefully as he could on the tiny stairs and trying to keep from being splashed by the fountain. The spray was icy cold and soon his hair was dripping with it.

The temperature dropped more the further they went down. Sirius had begun to shiver, and they had to slow their pace as the ledge became icy. Sirius slipped once and might have fallen if Lorelei's iron grip hadn't anchored him. After that, he became Padfoot for better footing and Lorelei took the lead.

Finally, they reached the bottom. Sirius had never seen waterworks like this in any magical house he'd ever been to. There were pipes and grates everywhere with sluggish water churning through all of it. More elf-sized catwalks crisscrossed over waterways. There was a pump in t he middle of it, chugging away to force the water to all the fountains still running. Lorelei lit a tiny light spell, just a match-sized flicker in her hand. She held it high to throw weak light over the weird tunnels and Padfoot did a quick exploration of the place. His paws were easier to guide over the small stairs and ladders.

He found he could see into some of the rooms from grates and drains. The house elves must've LOVED this, he thought. I certainly would have! From down here you can see and eavesdrop to your heart's content! The trouble that must've caused. . . The Master's elves spying on his wife and children and their respective elves spying on him and all of it squirming like a nest of vipers under the surface.

As soon as the word 'viper' skipped through his head, he caught sight of something that very nearly made him growl. Through a grate, he could see a girl asleep on an old velvet sofa. It was Raye. She didn't look injured and she was alive. He could see her blouse rise and fall with her steady breathing. As he watched, she shifted in her sleep and one arm slid to dangle off the sofa.

A hand touched his shoulder gently enough that it didn't startle him. Lorelei had crept up behind him. The light was now in her clenched fist so that no one would see it through the grate. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of Raye.

"I dont see a bite," she murmured. Sirius nodded before he remembered that it was too dark to see him. He made sure his feet were braced and there was room to shift before becoming human again.

"We can come back for her later," he whispered. "We can't get to her from here anyway."

"She may be killed by then!" Lorelei gasped. It wasn't really a protest, he realized. Just a statement.

"She may be a traitor anyway," he said, trying to keep the growl out of his voice. "And if so, I may kill her myself." She didn't answer that, but she opened her palm again and they moved on.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 50

It was early morning when Sirius crept through the mist to a huge and imposing wrought iron fence. It was over nine feet high and the bars were twisted into elegant, somewhat sinister shapes. It would have been easy to climb if the groundskeepers hadn't kept a razor-edged spell on it that made it too sharp to lay hands on.

As it was, Sirius trotted around the perimeter to a place where a huge bush of black roses had engulfed part of the the fence. Briared tendrils swayed gently without a breeze and a few of them reached for him as he passed. Vampire roses, he thought with a grim internal chuckle. If they got hold of him, they'd bury their thorns in him and drink his blood until he was dry. Then, the blooms would be red for a few days before they'd fade to black and be hungry again. His mother had always admired the Nalicus gardens. He had been forced to tag along with his brother and trot politely up and down the paths as the Lady Nalicus had advised his mother on how to grow the ghastly things.

It had been good for something though. There was a gate in the back, hidden by some harmless ivy, that the garden staff was allowed to use. There weren't any dangerous plants there, because after losing two or three groundskeepers to one shrub or another, the Nalisuses had been forced to allow them a safe point of escape.

The House of Nalicus wasn't what it had been in those days. They had been very wealthy and made little secret that dark magic had played a part in that. The Lord Nalicus hadn't been willing to show deference to anyone, much less a half-blood like Voldemort, and had been killed by Deatheaters. His wife had accepted this turn of events a little too well, and devoted her attention to her carnivorous garden until her death. Rumor held that she was buried beneath her favorite tree in the garden and her voice could still be heard from the leaves when the wind blew. Of her five children, one had left the country to avoid Aurors, one had died in Azkaban, and one had simply married into another family and faded from sight. The oldest two were still in the manor, Gilles and Messalina Nalicus.

No one had seen Messalina in years. Her brother had explained that she had taken the same obsession with vicious plants as their mother had and had lost all interest in other humans. Sirius could only dimly remember Messalina. At the Christmas ball he remembered she had been a few years older than him and hadn't joined the children's games. She hadn't been as pretty as her other sister, and had faded rather easily into the background. Sirius could only recall her smiling once.

He and one of her younger brothers had been roughhousing and had knocked over a tall iron candle holder into a large mirror. The smash had been spectacular, and glass had rained down on the floor like sharp hailstones. The lit candles hit the floor as well, splattering red wax over the mess. The Nalicus boy (Sirius couldn't remember his name) had screamed with such horror, that Sirius thought he'd been burned. Messalina appeared in the doorway and as soon as she saw the broken mirror, her face had split into a look of delight.

'It was HIM!' the boy had screamed, pointing desperately at Sirius. 'I tried to stop him!' Sirius had been about to argue, but Messalina, a tall girl in a long gray dress had only waved a hand. A blue stone in her ring had flashed and her wand had appeared. She restored the mirror with a flick and was setting the candle holder back up when a house elf had rushed in.

'What was that noise?' the elf had asked, a bit sharply Sirius had thought, for one speaking to the lord's daughter.

'We were playing,' Messalina told him. 'And I knocked this over.' Her brother had cowered. Sirius had been looking closer at the mirror to see what all the fuss was about. The elf saw him and lunged to block his view of it.

'Miss should know better,' it snarled at her. 'Too many breakables here for playing.'

'Run tell my father I knocked over a candle,' Messalina had said. 'I dare you.' And with that, she swept out. The house elf glared at Sirius until the other boy pulled on his arm and led him from the room.

Just another happy wizard household, Sirius thought a little bitterly. He wondered what had happened to the boy he had played with. He was either dead or fleeing Aurors in some far corner of the world. Had they been in Azkaban at the same time? It didn't matter now. It was too long ago. The gorgeous manor was now dark and unkept, and the gardens had grown wild. The powerful family was now nothing but an eccentric and feared old man and his recluse sister, locked away in their old home like two paranoid snails in the same shell.

He came to the gate and found it locked, and the lock rusted solid. The dirt underneath was loose under a blanket of dead leaves, so it only took a minute or two to scrape his way underneath. Once inside, he found himself on a path thick with dead leaves and overgrown plants. He had no idea which plants were still dangerous, or what else might be here that he didn't know about. He'd have to run the gauntlet just to get to the house, and it was there that the real danger would start.

Sunrise was turning the mist to the east a golden coral color. He hadn't seen Lorelei since they had spoken, but her dread of Brohm had prompted him to wait until morning. With any luck, the vampires would all be asleep. Maybe all he would have to do would be to sneak in, find Esme, and sneak out with her. And maybe McGonagall will dance naked on the roof of Hagrid's cabin on New Year's Eve, Sirius thought, rolling his eyes at his own optimism.

He had come this far, and he would keep going. He was risking a lot for Esme, and he realized that. Maybe he was tired of losing friends, though he wasn't sure that Esme could be safely called a friend. I'll be hers then, he told himself, setting off in a careful dogtrot towards the house. Would she do this for me? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I'm not even doing this for her. Maybe I'm just here so I don't have to hide in Harry's dorm anymore and watch the Map for hope. Maybe I'd rather risk my life on some stupid adventure than wait for something to happen.

Something slithered in the grass nearby and he jumped from his maybes back to alertness.The grass was too tall for him to tell what it was, but it seemed to be heading away. Hopefully, it was just some snake he'd startled. To be safe, he quickened his pace, leaping over a fallen branch, and running to a clearer spot ahead. He paused there, and checked to be sure nothing had followed him. All was still around him. He turned and found himself facing a huge, gnarled tree. It still had leaves, but they were a dead, dirty red, and hung on their branches as if the faintest breath of air would send them spinning away. Clutched in its roots was a black marble tombstone.

So, the rumors are true about that much, Sirius mused. I don't hear any voices though. He glanced up into the branches and was shocked into biting his own tongue. Tiny clusters of bones were hung from the branches. With his hackles bristling, he recognized them for what they were. His family had mounted house elf heads from the walls, but it seemed the Nalicus clan hung the whole body out in the garden. Or maybe the house elves had hung themselves, he thought, shuddering. With the lord gone and their lady dead, maybe they had just strung themselves up like hams over her grave.

He turned his back on the macabre place and started for the house again. He had brought the invisibility cloak that Fred and George had stolen, but wasn't going to use it yet. The plants were his main concern now and they didn't have eyes to see him with anyway. He passed a fountain that was clogged with leaves and the moss growing at its base rippled under his feet. He ran from that and had the ground open up under him into a pit lined with stone-like teeth. If he'd been in human form, he would've fallen, but four paws scrabbling madly in the loose dirt kept him from losing his balance. The stone teeth snapped hopefully, but finding nothing, closed again.

Badly shaken this time, Sirius took a moment to recover. He hadn't been expecting that. When his heart beat calmed down a bit, he crept on, much more cautiously this time. Another rose bush reached for him, but he saw that coming and dodged away. Another rustle in the trees made him cringe, but it was only a pair of squirrells chasing each other. How had anything survived in this garden? he thought, watching them scamper. But as he looked closer, he saw that the branches had all grown together into a cage. There were a few birds trapped inside too, but they squatted miserable on their perchs and didn't even blink when the squirrells trampled over them. They'd been in there a long time.

Why have an aviary when you can grow one? Sirius thought. He wondered if the tree could actually catch things itself and add them to its collection. He gave it wide berth to be safe. Here and there, he saw other bones scattered in the grass, too small to be really worrisome, but it made him nervous just the same. Something fluttered over his head and he lunged away, but saw only an owl's shape against the brightening sky. It was gone quickly and he ran the rest of the way to the manor before anything else could happen.

Crouched against the stone wall, he gathered his thoughts. The night of the Christmas party he had left the main hall before the carols started so he wouldn't have to sing. He had gone to the kitchen for more dessert and there had been a cellar door to one side. Keeping close to the wall, Sirius circled the house until he came to the outer cellar entrance. There was a lock on it as big as his head. Wonderful.

This one wasn't rusted liked the garden gate was, and the wood was still too intact to break or gnaw through, even if he had the time. One of the hinges looked a little bit loose. He wondered if he could work it free without shapeshifting. If there was someone awake in the house, a dog pawing at the cellar door wasn't nearly the threat that a human trying to break a hinge was.

'Can you not cast an unlock spell in that form?' The voice was soft, but it still startled him out of his skin. He was halfway up the wall behind him before he realized who it was. Lorelei was crouched on the gutter above him like an especially beautiful gargoyle. As he gasped and tried to get his heart going again, she dropped lightly as a dancer to stand beside him. A tap of her wand opened the lock and a flick of her wrist opened the door. Two white owl feathers were hanging from an ivory bracelet she was wearing.

The open door was just a black hole into the ground. She stood there looking down into it with her usual unreadable expression. Adrenaline was still screaming through Sirius' body, but anger at being so startled was beginning to seep in with it. He shifted to his human form so he could snarl at her in a way she could understand.

'What. The. HELL. Are YOU. Doing. HERE??' He managed to keep his voice low as well, but it wasn't easy. His eyes flicked over the windows to make sure no one had come to see them and then back to her. She was still peering into the darkness

'I don't know.' she said, not looking at him.

'Where's North?' he asked next, trying to unclench his teeth.

'Hidden,' she said. Finally, her red eyes made their way to meet his. The fear in them chilled the anger from him. 'What now?' she asked. Her voice was breathless and faint. Sirius sucked in a heavy sigh and released it. A change in plan couldn't hurt when there was no plan.

'Just follow me and be ready.' he said, and he dropped back to all fours as a dog and went down the cold stairs into the dark.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 49

Lorelei's head was in such a whirl she hardly noticed where she put her feet. She felt pretty sure that Tanner had meant Rosie had been the one who hated her, but she couldn't help but wonder if he might've been talking about Esme. And why should that be upsetting, she asked herself. I don't even know Esme anymore. Why care what a stranger thinks of you? Because we used to be sisters, she thought with a pang. We used to play in the woods and the water together, when we were children. Esme had begged so hard to be allowed to have a familiar, but North came to me on his own. . .

"Do you think he mistook you for Esme?" Sirius' voice seemed to come from so away that it took a moment for the words to register. That hadn't occurred to her. She turned and was almost surprised to find him at her elbow. She blinked to clear the reverie from her mind.

"You think. . . he might blame Esme for what happened to Rosie?"she asked. He shrugged and she forced her scattered thoughts to focus on that possibility. "I. . . don't know. . . If it was reversed, I know that Rosie would blame Esme if something happened to Tanner. But. . . but that doesn't mean anything now! Tanner's no help to you. What's your new plan for getting into a manor filled with vampires?"

"Surely a teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts would know how to deal with vampires. . . "he spoke it like a challenge. That tone of voice would have had James leaping for a chance to try. Lorelei was not so easily swayed. Her red eyes narrowed at him.

"I was in a house full of vampires for a year,"she said coldly. "You will not get me back inside another one unless you have one hell of a good plan. Airtight. Fool-proof. Anything less is a waste of our lives."

"You really are afraid of vampires aren't you?"he couldn't help but taunt her a little. He had no real plan and wasn't especially worried about that part.

"If you were smart enough, you'd be afraid too,"Lorelei said. "How afraid of them do you think Esme is?"Power unleashed itself in her voice again and her scorn lashed him with almost physical pain. It was hard to even look at her. He felt as stupid and contemptible as she thought he was. She seemed to grow bigger, like an offended goddess. The urge to cower was very strong, but he shook it off and turned away so she w

ouldn't see how badly she'd rattled him.

"She was never so afraid that she didn't try to help you!"he snarled over his shoulder. "How many castles and tombs did she go into by herself? She might've been as scared as you are, but at least she took action anyway! For someone she loved. For you. " Lorelei went quiet. If it was possible for her to be anymore pale she might have gone a shade whiter. Her aura of anger and contempt was gone, leaving only a downcast-looking woman draped in black.

"And is that what you think you're doing?"she asked. This time her voice was flat and monotone. "Do you love my sister?" Sirius let that question flow over him. He answered the way Esme probably would have.

"Do you?" Lorelei was silent. He turned around again enough to look her in the eye and found that she had retreated behind her sunglasses. Her expression meant nothing to him.

"She's my sister."she said finally. The unspoken question ‘What is she to YOU?' floated under the words. Sirius heard them there, but didn't feel he owed her any explanations. Let her force an answer out of him the way she had Tanner if she was so curious. Then, he would also have a reason to go for her scarred throat.

"She never stopped looking for you,"he said, twisting the knife. "And even after she found you and every one blamed her for what had happened, all she cared about was putting it right. She found a cure and she spent ten years fighting monsters to get it for you. While you were being fussed over and worried for, she was tracking down vampires and bribing Headmasters to make sure you were taken care of."

Lorelei seemed to twitch a bit at this. He wondered briefly if she had known about that. It had to sting the pride, to find out that Ficus had been paid in magical items to overlook her abnormalities. Then again, she was a cynical and intelligent woman, she may very well have suspected.

"I don't need you to come,"he said as calmly as he was able. "I got out of Azkaban. I can get into the Nalicus Estate. Unless you feel some compulsion to act in this matter, there's no need for you to be involved."

That was said for the sole purpose of angering Lorelei, but she didn't seem to react to it. The black glasses hid her eyes and her face might as well have been carved from cold stone. A low whine came from North, and Sirius glanced at the dog. It seemed troubled, looking over its shoulder and back up to Lorelei. It occurred to him that the familiar could be responding to whatever emotions Lorelei had locked behind her mask. Assuming such emotions exist at all, he though, a bit sourly. Still, perhaps it would be easier to read the dog than the woman.

They stood silent for a moment. Sirius noticed that her dark glasses didn't show his reflection. He waited for her to speak or move or slap him cross-eyed. He glanced back at North and this time the dog just looked dejected. Was Lorelei crestfallen as well? Wanting to do something, but too proud to fall in with his lack-of-plan? He turned away again and started down the hallway, expecting her to follow. It was her voice, though, that came down the corridor after him.

"If I am not completely cured,"she said. "Brohm will still have sway over me."

"What?"Sirius stopped to look back at her. "You mean he can control you?"

"If I am not cured,"she said again. "He can command me to die and my heart will simply stop. He is that powerful. You mock my fear of him, but you don't know. Dementors may be worse than vampires, but they affect everyone. How brave would you be if a Dementor was only interested in YOU? No one else. What if there was something about your happinesses that it wanted more than anyone else's? What if it took enough of your soul to leave you alive, but not enough to ever quite be able to be warm and happy again?"

"Stop,"Sirius begged. "I get it. With vampires it's personal." Her voice had caught on her last statement and he had the uncomfortable feeling that Lorelei was close to saying something she'd never admitted before, and he didn't want to be the one to hear it. It wasn't meant for him and he had no idea what he could say to comfort her that wouldn't make things much worse.

"You don't get it at all,"she said, but to his cowardly relief, turned away from him to walk to a nearby window.

"Consider this then,"he said, anxious to change the subject. "What if. . . ."He let the word drag until she looked at him again. "You ARE cured? What could he do to you then?" The two black lenses stared holes through him.

"He could start over again from the beginning,"she said after a long silence. Her fingers lifted to cover the bite scar on her throat. "Another bite, another cell. . . Providing he doesn't kill or ghoul me right away."

"I give up,"Sirius turned away again. "If you think of something helpful, let me know."

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 48

Lorelei met Sirius at a run in the hallway. She was leaving Dumbledore's office with a worried expression. North was at her heels.

"I know," he said before she could speak.

"You don't!" she snapped back."Brohm has taken a new form!! He's free again!"

"So what?? Don't you even care about Esme?"

"Of course I do! We're going to get her aren't we? But who know what he's done to her or what he has in mind for me or-"

"He probably loves it that you're still so frightened of him," Sirius growled. She stopped in her tracks and stared at him. He didn't have to see her eyes to feel the intensity of her glare.

"You don't understand," she said finally.

"I have 13 years of being locked in darkness to your one," he told her flatly."You won't get much sympathy from me. Vampires can't be worse than Dementors." He turned away from her and started off again, not caring if she came or not. There was a pause and then the sound of her shoes on the floor behind him, followed by the softer padding of dog paws.

"Where are you going?" she asked, keeping her voice down as they passed some classrooms.

"I remember Nalicus," he said."When I was a boy, we went to his house one Christmas for a holiday ball. I know where his manor is."

"And you think he'll just let you in??" she scoffed.

"I think that with a houseful of vampires, Nalicus is already dead. Maybe undead." He let that thought sink in."I've never hunted vampires before, but I know who has. . . "

Lorelei didn't understand until he turned into the infirmary and threw open the door. Tanner sat there, in one piece again, but dazed and distraught. He had fresh scratches on his arms and face and he had some mittens fastened on his hands. He was playing with a small doll someone (probably Hagrid) had left for him. He didn't look up when Sirius and Lorelei burst in on him, but he did began to speak.

"Rosie-posie. . . " he sang, seemingly more to himself than them."She's gone now. . . .gonegonegone. . . "

"She tried to kill you," Sirius said, coming to the bedside. Tanner's head tilted towards him slightly, but the werewolf's odd eyes stayed on the doll.

"Oh no," Tanner said, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips."She tried to kill YOU. I was just bait."

Sirius didn't know what to say to that. Behind him, Lorelei crossed her arms over her chest and waited. She made no effort to come closer. Sirius looked again at the toy in Tanner's hands and realized it looked a little like Lorelei too. It had white yarn hair and pink buttons for eyes and was wearing a red smock. Tanner made it walk across the hills and valleys his bedsheets made with a tiny chuckle.

"Why would Rosie kill me, Tanner?" Sirius asked finally.

"As bait. For bigger things." Tanner said. Lorelei shifted slightly and the small sound got Tanner's attention the way Sirius hadn't. Something lit up in his yellow eye. It was weird to see a different personality in each of the werewolf's eyes. The blue eye just seemed sad and confused. The yellow one looked crazed.

"The One-Who-Must-Have-Order isn't who we thought," Tanner went on. His blue eye narrowed at Lorelei."We thought it was Ficus, but he died and the trouble remains. Then it was Brohm, Esme said, and he died. Then maybe it was the Morthahg itself, but how can I kill what I can't get my teeth into?" Sirius decided to try again.

"What happened to Rosie," he asked. Tanner's eyes lowered back to his mittened hands.

"She's gone," he said again.

"What made her leave?" Lorelei asked suddenly. Both men turned to look at her and this time, even Tanner's blue eye looked hostile. An odd sound came from the mittens, as if they were being cut from the inside. It made North's hackles bristle.

"They warned us," Tanner said in a low, threatening voice."So many rules for magical creatures. So many questions asked." There was a long pause while he stared Lorelei down. She didn't flinch and after a moment, he went on."I don't like to lie," he said more softly."When they ask, I like to be able to say no. No, I didn't. It wasn't me."

"He keeps saying that," Sirius glanced at Lorelei."What's he talking about?"

"American werewolves have to check in at the Cursed Being and Neutral Monster Board once a season," she said. Her tone was very neutral as well, but he could feel the chill underneath."One of the things they have to do is testify under oath and truth spell that they haven't attacked any humans or consumed their flesh. There have been. . . incidents. . . If it is determined that the creature HAS harmed a human than they are required to undergo treatment to try to regain their humanity."

"What happens if they can't?"

"What do you think?"

"You didn't eat Ficus did you?" Sirius asked Tanner. The werewolf flinched.

"Not me. Never me. Don't eat the meat, they said. You're not really a monster until you do the bad thing." He blinked at them owlishly through the hair in his face."And I haven't. It wasn't me."

"Was it Rosie?" Sirius was beginning to lose patience with him. Lorelei glanced at Sirius, not sure what he was getting at. Tanner looked awkward.

"I didn't see. I know she bit him. . . We BOTH bit him. . . " He looked around as if afraid of who might be listening."But, but Rosie knows the rules. She. . . she only broke them once and that was a long time ago. . . " His voice trailed off as Lorelei pinned him with a glare. She had let her shades slide down her nose and was giving him a look that should've set him on fire.

"I haven't forgotten that either," she said. His yellow eye fixed on her.

"Rosie isn't bad," Tanner said, his voice becoming very calm and clear."Never bad." She glared at him a little longer and his composure began to crumble.

"He's out of his mind," Sirius said to break the stand-off between them."The shock of having the pack turn on him has unhinged him. We won't get anything out of him."

"Let me try," Lorelei finally stepped into arms reach of the bed. Tanner shrank back a little bit. Sirius almost did.

"What are you going to do?" he asked. Tanner nervously began to chew on the doll's head. Lorelei took her shades off and sat down on the edge of the bed. Tanner looked at Sirius pleadingly, but then focused on Lorelei.

"Put your fingers in your ears, Mr. Black," she said. Sirius was sure he should feel like arguing, but something in her tone wouldn't allow it. Baffled, he obeyed. She nodded at him and turned back to Tanner.

"Tanner," she said and even through his plugged ears, Sirius felt a ripple of power in her voice. There was a strange compulsion in it and when she called Tanner's name again, it was stronger. The toy fell from Tanner's mouth and his teeth snapped together with a click that only Lorelei could hear.

"Remember, and tell me," she said."What happened the night Ficus died?" Her voice could've changed the flow of tides in the ocean. When she chose to use it, Lorelei had the kind of voice that could lure sailors to their doom or birds from the trees or stars from the sky. What little of it Sirius could hear through his own fingers had him vaguely wishing that she would speak directly to him so he could unblock his ears and hear it at it's full strength. Another part of him, though, was pretty sure that was a very bad idea. Tanner didn't stand a chance against it. He shuddered, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"I. . . I chased the ichling.." he stammered."And,and,and while I was gone. . . Rosie. . . and the others! They, they ate the old man. . . When I got back, she didn't recognize me. . . " His voice broke. Tears began to brim in his eyes."She isn't Rosie anymore! She won't shapechange! She's just a wolf now. . . And she HATES me!!"

Tanner's despair overwhelmed him in a high-pitched wail. Saying the words had broken the dam. He screamed out an animal cry and began weeping into his mittens. Lorelei was taken aback by the outburst and looked to Sirius for help. He pulled out his fingers and put a wary hand on Tanner's arm. A sobbed chorus of ‘she hates me, she hates me' could still be heard from inside his hands.

"Why would she hate you?" he asked, hoping to calm the creature down.

"I couldn't fight her," Tanner wailed."It hurt too bad! Oh, Rosieeeeeeee. . . " Lorelei stood up to inch away from him again, but the movement made Tanner's head snap up. His grieved expression turned nasty.

"This is YOUR fault!!" he screamed at her."She always hated you! Always! ALWAYS!!" He lunged at her, claws ripping through the mittens. His incisors, already too sharp to be human, lengthened into fangs as his jawbone realigned. Lorelei stumbled back, even as North leaped to block Tanner from her. Sirius grabbed Lorelei and they fled the room. He ducked behind her as Madame Pomfrey appeared, holding a tray of bottles and bowls.

"Oh dear," she said."He's upset." She hurried inside and threw North out.

"She can handle him?" Sirius wondered aloud. There was a loud and heavy thud and then silence. While Sirius and Lorelei stared in horror, Madame Pomfrey can bustling out again. The tray was now empty and had a large dent in it. With an exasperated sigh, the infirmary witch tucked the tray under her arm and hurried off again.

"That's one method, I suppose. . . " Sirius muttered. Lorelei was looking frozen. It was hard to be sure how she was feeling as pale as she looked. He was surprised that she would be so affected though.

"Do you think he mistook you for Esme?" he asked. Lorelei took a deep breath, then turned and hurried away down the hall. Sirius followed.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 47

Dinner that night had been wonderful and all were lounging about the common room afterwards. Harry was reading. Hermione and Ron were just beginning to snipe at each other over something when there was an explosion of green smoke and soot from the fireplace. It was Floo Powder and Fred and George Weaselly both came reeling out of it. Fred was obviously hurt. His face was clenched into a rictus of pain and George was holding him up. Everyone in the common room was on their feet and shouting an instant later.

Harry rushed forward with the others. He saw Hermione head for the door, likely going for help. He and Ron tried to see what was wrong with Fred. McGonagall burst into the room with Hermione in her wake. In the commotion, George shoved something into Ron’s hands before he and Fred were hurried away. Baffled and worried about his brother, Ron started to follow but McGonagall told him to stay put.

"I don't know what your brothers have done this time," she told him. "But until we know for sure I want every one to stay in the house." Then she was gone in a swish of her cloak and Ron was left to peer forlornly down the hall. Then his eyes fell to the bundle George had given him. It seemed to be a strange-colored cloak, wadded into a ball. He and Harry caught each other's eye and quickly went up to their room. Sirius was there as well. The noise had woken him and he got up to see what the excitement was. Once inside the room, they unrolled the fabric. A familiar shimmer went over it.

"It's an invisibility cloak," Ron whispered. Harry nodded, his eyes wide.

"It isn't mine though," he said. "This one is much bigger. Where did they get it?" Ron began to shrug and suddenly they could hear a muffled voice from inside the cloak's folds. Startled, he gave it a shake and one of the twins' doll heads rolled out. It was one of their voice throwers and Dumbledore's voice was speaking through the doll's open mouth. His voice was as grim and serious as Harry had ever heard it, and both boys leaned in close to hear.

"Your brother is in the infirmary, George," the headmaster said. "His injury is obviously cursed. Even if Madame Pomfrey can regenerate the rest of his arm, he may never have full use of it again. I want you to tell me what happened. Where did you come in contact with such Dark magic?"

There was a pause. Ron's eyes were wide and worried. Then, George's voice came meekly from the doll.

"...Last summer," he said. "We heard Dad talk about a raid the Ministry made on a suspected Dark wizard named Nalicus...He said he had been sure that he had seen a copy of "Illusionary Arts and Practices" before Nalicus showed up and ordered them all out. ...We...wanted to find it for him..." There was another pause. Harry could picture Dumbledore's piercing stare, then George went on. ". . . and we had read that there some spells in it that allow you to set illusions in inanimate objects. . . so, we uh, borrowed an invisibility cloak from Filch's closet and used some Floo Powder to get to Knockturn Alley. From there, we used the cloak to get in.

"Nalicus was there and we followed him down to a parlor. . . It was full of vampires, all of them fish-belly pale and drinking blood out of cognac glasses. There was this fountain in the middle of the room and it emptied into a pit in the middle of the floor. Nalicus left for a minute and then came back with someone all draped up like a Dementor. He said that they were all there to witness a great honor and to celebrate the end of a common enemy. Then they brought in some guy, he looked like a Muggle, and led him over to where the hooded person was. Whoever it was in the hooded robes just sort of swept the Muggle up and. . . and. . . "

"Go on," said Dumbledore, more kindly than before.

"Bit his neck," George squeaked. "Just. . . just sucked him dry. It was so fast. You could see the life just draining out of him!. . . He screamed once. . . and me and Fred just stood there frozen. . . Then something happened. I couldn't see what because all the vampires gathered around to look. But first the Muggle guy was dead and then he woke up. It was like he was crazy-starving-mad. The vampires all sort of shrank back and the dead guy attacked the person in the hood. The robes got torn off and it was this woman.. and she just sort of stood there and let it happen! He tore into her and. . . bit into her neck. She was bleeding all over from where his claws had ripped her. Most of her shirt had been torn off, too. . . she had these long scars down her back. . . "

Sirius flinched. Biting his lip, he leaned in even closer to hear the rest.

"I. . . don't think she was very awake," George was saying. "She kind of jerked and this black stuff flowed out of all her cuts and bites and the dead guy sucked it all up. His eyes turned red and the woman just collapsed. The guy. . . I guess he was a vampire too then, he held her like a rag doll and this weird black aura flowed out around him. The other vampires all sank down to their knees and Nalicus kinda bowed a little.

"The new vampire said something like, uh, ‘I have walked the earth since ages past and only once in countless years was I taken by surprise' and he held the woman up by the scruff of her neck. And all the vampires started screaming for a taste of her. That she had dared to destroy the children of one of the oldest bloodlines, that they would eat her heart, and drink her blood til her veins collapsed, that sort of thing. . . But the new one said no. That there was something special about her because no ordinary mortal, even a magic-using one, could have come so close to killing him.

"There's life in her yet, one said, and her blood's so warm, and they reached for her, but he pulled her away before they could touch her. By then, me and Fred were just trying to find our way out. We tried to backtrack through the house, but it was like a maze, we kept getting more and more lost. We still had some Floo Powder, so we were just trying to find a fireplace. It seemed like hours! We were just running from room to room and every now and then we would hear the vampires yelling or something downstairs.

" Finally, we got to a hearth shaped like a big dragon's head. . . so it looked like the fire was burning down in it's mouth, but when we threw in the Floo Powder, its jaws slammed shut. The stone teeth bit into Fred's arm and I just sorta panicked. I grabbed his other arm and screamed Gryffindor and it brought us here. . . "

"The loss of an arm is a high price to pay for an illusions spell," Dumbledore said severely.

"Nothing is worth my brother being hurt," George said meekly.

"You're parents are on their way here, now," Dumbledore went on. "I'm afraid you may have more explaining to do. You may go straight back to your house and I'll ask you not to leave until I send for you again. On your way, please ask Ms. Zephyr to come see me."

The sound of George leaving was drowned out as Sirius jumped to his feet and started for the door.

"I'd better go to," he said.

"A rescue mission?" Harry asked.

"It will be," Sirius said and then he was gone.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 46

Something was wrong. North knew it before Lorelei did. He had jumped at her, barking. It was something she had made it very clear he was not to do. She shoved him down with a sharp command. Then, the pain hit. The Morthahg burn on her chest ignited into a searing agony. She had collapsed and been unconscious until someone tried to move her. Her eyes opened to see light streaming down around three shadows hanging over her.

"I'm all right!" she said immediately.

"You're not," came the grim answer. She was lifted carefully to her feet, and to everyone's surprise, was able to stand that way. Her chest still hurt, but it took her a moment to realize that it was because she had dug her own fingernails into the wound.

"What happened?" she asked, trying to focus on her assistants now that they were at eye level. It was Snape, and Dormire, and a Hogwarts witch with yellow eyes. The name wouldn't come to her though.

"We found you in the floor," Snape said."But something else is happening too. Dumbledore just called in everyone from outdoors." He looked at her more carefully."It's the Morthahg isn't it? You can feel it because it's close."

"It can't be," said the witch (Hooch, of course)"There are warnings set up, that would alert us if-"

"Magical warnings that wouldn't survive the Morthahg's approach," Lorelei said."It. . . could be."

"You two get her to the infirmary," Hooch said."I'll find Dumbledore and see what's going on."

And so Lorelei was bundled back up and half-carried to see Madame Pomfrey again. She tried not to be so upset about it, but she would almost have rather stayed on the floor. She was settled into her usual bed and was just about to snap at the cluster of fussing when the door swung open and hit the wall with a bang.

There was a gasp and the smell of blood and then Harry and Ron appeared, supporting Hermione between them. She was as pale as only someone with a slit throat could be. Harry and Ron were a more fearful shade of gray. Most of Hermione's torso was bare except for the blood. Her blouse and sweater had been twisted into a makeshift tourniquet around her throat. Pomfrey all but leaped at her. Everyone started talking at once.

"What Let me- Come here Lay down How could this have happened What has happened Get her into the light Let me try Stay back You two clean off Where's the Headmaster Where's the potion What is going out on Get out of the way Where were you How did this Not now Explain Why Where Who!" Only Lorelei sat silent in the commotion. She was looking at Hermione with a sudden intensity and when the bite was revealed, she only sucked in a careful breath. Snape saw it too. He looked quickly back at her. She reached for him and he helped her up.

"I'm all right now," she said, leaning close to his ear so he could hear in all the noise."And there's only one thing in Hogwarts right now that could've done that." They both looked at Hermione as Pomfrey began to heal the punctures.

Potionsmaster and Defense Teacher crept out together and went straight to Tanner's room. Sirius had just stuffed the werewolf back in his bed when the door begain to open. He dove under the bed as Padfoot and lay there cursing to himself as he recognized Snape's shoes. They were surprised to find Tanner there, and since the bite on his nose had healed in only a minute or two, he now looked as innocent as he was likely to.

"Where's Esme?" he asked before they could speak.

"How should I know?" Lorelei said. Sirius could tell she a taken aback by the question."Have you been here all evening?"

"There's a girl bleeding to death a few doors down," Snape said. His voice was cold enough to reduce a class of first years to tears."Did you attack her?"

"No," Tanner sounded sad."I wasn't there for that." There was a silence after that."Esme can fix it!" he added. There was a hint of desperation in his voice now."She knows how! Where is she? She can make them listen!"

There was a creak overhead as Tanner moved suddenly to grab Lorelei by the arms. She gasped and he gave her a shake."She's the only one that knows!" he cried. Sirius risked a peek from under the bed to see what was going on in time to see Snape blast Tanner away from Lorelei. Tanner was flung to the floor and hit hard. His yellow eye lit up and he got up to his hands and knees with a snarl.

Snape had pulled Lorelei behind himself and stood wand at the ready. Sirius saw a touch of fear in the Potionsmaster as Tanner quickly flowed into the shape of the red wolf. He remembers Remus, Sirius realized. A dark flicker of amusement lit inside him and he grinned before it occurred to him that Snape might very well hurt Tanner badly. He tensed to leap out, but North was faster.

The white dog tackled Tanner. Red and white rolled around the floor, snarling and tearing. As injured and out of touch as Tanner was, he was still a wolf. He dodged a snap from North and sank his teeth into the dog's shoulder. North yelped in pain, and the sound seemed to shock Tanner back to himself. He immediately let go and cowered down, allowing North to attack him without even trying to fight back. After a moment of that, Lorelei called North off and they left.

Sirius crept back out. Tanner's wounds were already healing up, but he trembled. Sirius couldn't tell if he was frightened or angry, though, so he approached carefully. Tanner blinked mournfully at him, but didn't speak. He looked like he'd be all right, so Sirius went sneaking off to go check on Hermione. He found Pomfrey baffled, but determinedly healing and rehealing the bite when it opened up again. It took nearly five spells to get the wounds closed and then a Regeneration Tonic to replace the lost blood.

Soon after, Hagrid came and scooped Tanner up into his arms. Pomfrey had finally decided it would be best to get Tanner out of the castle. She wanted it to be very clear that she was sure Tanner hadn't attacked anyone, but something had, and it was in the werewolf's best interest not to be around when the questions were asked. She needn't have worried.

The first word out of Hermione's mouth when her throat had been healed was"Raye". A search was conducted, but the girl was gone. Hermione's story wasn't certain. She trauma of the wound kept her from remembering it very clearly, but she was sure that she had seen Raye run out the lower door. When she had followed there had been some sort of animal that had attacked her. She was asked point blank if it had been a wolf she saw, specifically a gangly red one. She had shaken her head firmly.

"This was black," she said."And huge."

"Werewolves can become very big," Snape had pressed."Are you certain?"

"Yes," Hermione said."I saw its eyes, Professor. There was nothing human in it." He glared at her for a moment and she met his gaze coolly."I saw the werewolf that was Professor Lupin, too," she added, watching his scowl darken."This was nothing like that. This even felt different."

"You are positive, then." It wasn't really a question, but Hermione nodded anyway. After that, everyone was too busy worrying over Raye to puzzle over Tanner anymore. He was brought back to the infirmary for closer study. The students weren't told about the Morthahg presence, and after that, it didn't seem to return again. Professor McGonagall had the tearful job of writing a letter to Raye's parents and explaining her absence to Newton. The little boy took it well, but he wore his goggles all the time now. Thomas said he always did that when he was worried, as if the goggles would protect him from troubles.

Days passed with no new news. Hermione was finally released from the infirmary. The snow continued to fall. Lorelei's burn didn't seem to get any better, but her headaches had finally subsided. The students often saw her outside with North, a black shadow in the snow.

"What could Raye have been thinking?" Hermione wondered aloud. It was her first day allowed back to class, and Harry and Ron had offered to carry her things. They had regretted it soon after. Hermione's knapsack weighed only slightly less than Hermione herself.

"I knew she was going to try something," Harry muttered."As soon as we saw her that day, I knew that she had something planned. . . "

"I can't believe she didn't even try to help you," Ron said darkly."Just left you there like that."

"She's obviously not in her right mind," Hermione sighed."But we won't know for sure until we find her. I suppose she hasn't shown back up on the map?"

"No," sighed Harry. Sirius spent most of his waking hours with the map now, watching for anything coming in or out of Hogwarts.

"Who says we have to find her?" sputtered Ron."Let her rot in the woods with whatever it was that took her. She deserves it!" He looked at Hermione, then away. She smiled, slightly flattered.

"People get helped because they NEED help," she said kindly."Whether they DESERVE it or not. Oh, don't look that way. We don't know what's going on yet. Remember when we thought Sirius was the enemy?"

"We didn't sit with him everyday and ask how he was," snapped Ron."He didn't pretend to be our friends before scaring us half to death."

"And it wasn't really Raye that attacked me at all," Hermione reminded him."It was that creature. I wish I'd gotten a better look at it."

"It was close enough to bite you," Harry couldn't resist saying."How much closer a view do you need?" She made a face at him. She still wore a bandage to cover the bite. Madame Pomfrey assured her it would heal without a scar, but in the meantime, Hermione didn't want everyone staring at it. She scratched at it lightly.

"Hagrid said that it did look like a wolf bite," she said in a lower voice."But it could've been a big dog. He was afraid Snuffles had attacked me."

"What? Why?"

"Because he's big and black and very careful about who gets to pet him," Hermione said with a little smile."I said the thing I saw was big and black, and Fang is the only other dog besides North. And Fang could no more bite me than he could flap his paws and fly to France."

"Hagrid said that?" Harry started to grin despite the conversation. Hermione smiled too, then sobered.

"He's really afraid it was the other wolf," she said."The black one you saw, Harry. That's why they kept me in the infirmary so long. They wanted to wait for the full moon to be sure I didn't transform."

"And you didn't. Did you?" Ron squinted at her. She tossed her head huffily.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"I don't know," Ron peered closer."Does she seem hairier than usual to you, Harry?"

"It's her teeth I've been watching," teased Harry. She glared at them both, then handed him her library books. The weight made him stagger.

"Two more stops and then we can go to the common room," she said."If you two can manage it."

"How does she haul all this every day?" Ron gasped. Harry shrugged. He had an armload of books too.

"Imagine the upper body strength she must have," he said."All the more reason to stay on her good side."

Pretending not to hear that, Hermione led the way to the next classroom to get her make-up homework.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 45

Raye had read the third letter and begun her preparations. She had found a winter cloak in the infirmary and gone down the hallway. There had been a commotion further down so no one paid any attention to her. She had ducked down a flight of stairs and made her way down to the lower doors. It was colder there, an icy draft blew under the door. The heavy metal latch was painfully cold under her hands, and she had to wrestle with it to open the door.

A blast of cold air blew her hood back and sent her braid whipping behind it. Raye gasped and leaned out to search the darkness. As her eyes adjusted, the snow became brighter and a dark shape came sliding over the frozen ground towards her. Hope lit up in her chest. Finally! This had to be taken care of before her parents came. They wouldn't believe her. And Newton was too little. She had to protect him.

The dark shape took form and stopped just outside the outline of light from the door. The messenger was here. It was the size of a pony but she couldn't tell the shape of it very well. It didn't matter. She took a step out into the snow.

"Raye?" It was Hermione, blinking at her in the dark hall. Raye froze. She was caught. "I saw you go by... What are you doing?" Raye's mind raced for a way out and saw the creature waiting at the edge of the dark. She bolted out to it. Hermione called her again and ran after. Raye grabbed the animal's neck and it snarled, but not at her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Hermione slide to a stop in the snow.

The Gryffindor girl stood with a look of horror on her face. The messenger-beast made some sort of sound, showing it's teeth. Raye threw herself onto the creature's back. Hermione dashed forward to grab her arm.

"Come away from that thing!" Hermione cried. "Come back inside!" The creature whipped around and lunged at her. Raye was nearly thrown from its back, but she hung on. The creature bit once and laid Hermione's neck open. Raye gasped and very nearly jumped down to help her. The animal turned and ran beneath her before she could move. She looked over her shoulder and saw Hermione slump to the snow. The messenger beast howled, a long weird cry, and then the castle disappeared behind them.

Tanner had been having a fairly lucid day so far. He had eaten with a fork, he submitted to a hair brushing, and he hadn't turned into anything all day. Madame Pomfrey had just been praising him on his good behavior when she was called away. She had left the door open in her hurry and he saw several people run back and forth. A barking dog got his attention and he crept to the doorway to see. It was North, of course. The dog and the wizard who smelled like the dungeons and chemicals were helping Lorelei Zephyr up the hall. She didn't look well, and he knew seeing him would only upset her more, so he retreated back to his bed.

Then, he heard something else. It was the short, annoyed sound that Rosie made when she was trying not to bite someone. With a gleeful sound, he went galloping out to meet her. Rosie probably wouldn't come inside, even to find him. A whiff of cold, fresh air came to him and he scampered like a squirrel to follow it down the stairs and to another hallway. A howl suddenly echoed through the stone corridor, and Tanner yipped happily. That was her hunting call, and Rosie was always the cheeriest when she was hunting.

The doorway at the bottom was open and Tanner burst out of it. The snow crunched under his bare feet. He became a wolf to tear out over the frozen ground. His old wounds still hurt, but it was good to be able to run again. The wind was wrong to track Rosie by scent, but he saw her form slip away into the trees and followed. Rosie was fast and strong, but she couldn't match Tanner for speed. He caught up with her after only a moment.

She glanced at him and he was taken aback to see her carrying a girl on her back. He ran along side her, with a greeting bark, but then paused. Tanner's smile faded. Her scent was wrong. Was it even Rosie? She turned on him with a growl and bit him on the muzzle. A twisting pain sank through him, deeper than her fangs. It burned and he felt his stomach clench. All of his old injuries sprang to life. One of the deeper scars on his arm opened again and began to bleed too.

The girl on his back squealed with fright, only just noticing him. The thing that looked like Rosie lunged into to snap at him again, but Tanner danced away out of reach. Rosie snarled and ran harder, vanishing into the forest. Tanner staggered away, gagging and coughing. His blood dripped to the snow. Physical pain, heartbreak, and confusion left him weak and shaken. The bite across his nose was starting to bleed down to his lips and he spat a mouthful of it out.

He didn't know what to do. A bright spot in the night caught his eye and he made his unsteady way towards it. There was a square patch of light spilling out onto the ground from the hall behind him. A small spatter of blood was visible in it. Rosie's track were there too. There was also a human girl huddled in the snow. Tanner stared, horrified, as she make a choking sound and more blood speckled the snow.

"Ohhhhh no. . . " Tanner moaned. He crept up to Hermione and she raised her head to look at him. Her eyes were wide and tears ran down her face. She had pulled up her shirt and was twisting it tight around the wound in her neck to stop the blood. She opened her mouth and a bubble of blood burst from it. Behind him, the door flew open again. A black shape came hurtling out and two more humans followed it.

"Hermione!" screamed one of them.

"Get away from her!" the other shouted. Two wands were now pointed at him. There was a flash of red light and something hit the werewolf hard enough to send his body bouncing backwards. Tanner didn't even try to resist. He lay where he fell. The girl gasped out a noise that was almost a word.

"Don't try to talk," one of the other humans said. Tanner thought he looked familiar. "It'll be all right! Just hang on!" They scuffled around a bit and were gone. As Tanner got slowly back to his feet, he found the black dog still hovering over them.

"Will she change?" it asked him. Tanner just blinked. Padfoot snarled at him, much like Rosie had. "Did you hurt her??"

"She bit me, too!" Tanner said weakly. "And she took the girl! She didn't want me."

"Did you bite Hermione??"

"I haven't bitten anybody!" sobbed Tanner. Padfoot grabbed Tanner and shook him until he reverted to human form and cried out. Padfoot became Sirius and the two men glared at each other. On a human face, the bite on Tanner's nose was more clear. Sirius had to admit that Tanner wouldn't be able to bite himself on the nose.

"I wanted to see her," Tanner whimpered, curling into a ball. Sirius yanked him back to his feet. He felt like shaking him again. Instead, I have to lead him through a secret door and get him back to his room before anyone notices him missing, he thought, grinding his teeth. And if it's Rosie who bit Hermione, I'll have to track her down too.

The thought of Hermione becoming a werewolf wasn't a nice one. He remembered how Remus had suffered and it put an extra twitch to his snarl as he drove Tanner around to the nearest secret passage. If that happened, it would take more than a phantom pack of wolves to protect Rosie from him.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 44

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had come in from their classes and were getting ready for dinner. Hermione finished before the boys and went down to the common room to wait for them. She met Chloe there, sitting by the fireplace and shuffling a pile of letters.

"Mail from home?" she asked. Chloe shook her head so that her earrings chimed. Ron and Harry came jostling down the stairs in time to hear the answer.

"From Raye's home," Chloe said. "They sent her parents an owl about everything that's been going on and they are planning to come get her. Thomas in Weaver is taking care of Newton."

"How is Raye?" Ron asked. Chloe got up and dusted off her skirt.

"Come and see," she said. "I was just going to take these to her. Maybe if it's not just me, she'll talk." She lead them out into the hallways. Harry hesitated, but went along too. He fell into step with Ron while Hermione walked beside Chloe. The hallways were fairly empty as most of the students were getting ready for dinner.

"Do...they know what's wrong?" Harry asked carefully. He didn't know what the official story was. It was probably anything but the truth.

"They say she's in shock after a boggart scared her," Chloe shrugged. "Personally, I thought Raye was stronger than that, but maybe a strong person would have even stronger fears."

"Maybe all that vampire-hunting left a fear in her," Hermione suggested. Harry had told her and Ron the story, of course.

"Maybe," sighed Chloe, stopping at the infirmary door. "But it gives me the creeps to see her this way." She knocked on the door once and then opened it. Raye was still in her place in the corner. She sat on the edge of her bed, neatly dressed. Her braid was perfect and the bed was made. She didn't look up, even when Chloe sat down beside her.

"Good evening, Raye!" Chloe said. "I've brought you some extra visitors today." Her voice carried a forced cheerfulness, but slowly, Raye's eyes raised to look at them.

"We've missed you," Hermione said. "How are you feeling?" Raye didn't answer, but her blank expression became a touch uncertain.

"Hello, Raye," said Ron. He looked awkwardly at Harry for help.

"Hi, Raye," Harry added. There was a long silence and then Chloe opened one of the letters.

"This is from your parents," she said, unfolding a thick parchment. "Um, you can read it later if you'd rather, but they say they will try to be here for you before Christmas." Something flickered in Raye's eyes. She turned her head to look. Chloe held up the letter. "It says.... it says they are having trouble getting the portal working at home. . . " She squinted at the letter to read it more closely before remembering it wasn't her letter. "Oh! And that's why they haven't been able to come before now. You got two other letters as well. . . I don't know about that one, but this one is from Newton. He even drew you a picture. See?"

Raye glanced at the crayon drawing of her and her little brother holding hands. It was the third envelope she reached for, though. It was a plain brown envelope, with only her name written across it in block letters. She didn't open it, but kept it in her grip. After another moment of silence, she looked up and pinned Harry with her eyes. He almost flinched. Her eyes blazed, two points of flame in her expressionless face. There was mixture of obsession and rage and triumph there, and then it was gone. Her dark lashes lowered and her gaze fell to the paper in her lap.

"Newton wants to come see you after dinner," Chloe said, getting back to her feet. "And I'll be back tomorrow, ok? See you later, Raye. . . " With that, all four of them hurried out.

"How do you do that every day?" Ron asked.

"It's like visiting my great-uncle in the rest home," Hermione said. "What could have scared her that badly?"

"Maybe it's something else," Harry said. He felt a suspicion curling in his gut and didn't like it. Crazy or sane, Raye was trouble. He was sure of that much. "Have they checked her for spells yet?"

"I don't know," Chloe said. "I wonder what's wrong with the portal. Maybe that's why they haven't evacuated Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts is the safest place to be," Harry began.

"Against magic maybe," Chloe cut in. "But the Morthahg won't be stopped by it. Hogwarts will be destroyed just like Elmskill was if it attacks directly."

"Maybe," said Hermione before Harry could argue. "That wisp of the Morthahg that came through the portal when you all first arrived is what's wrong. Maybe it nullified the magic in the portal."

"I'm surprised it didn't kill your Professor," Ron added. Chloe nodded.

"Ms. Zephyr has always been strange," she said. "And things have only gotten worse since we came here. I wish we could go home. Don't think that I haven't had a great time," she added quickly as Harry's expression darkened. "I just don't like being so far from home and so close to the Morthahg."

"At least here, we have Dumbledore," Harry said. "He's the greatest wizard ever, and if anyone can keep us all safe from the Morthahg, it will be him. If there is any danger to us, he will move us somewhere safe. You can be sure of that."

"He does seem nice," Chloe admitted. "He was out talking to some of the younger kids the other day. You know, I haven't even seen our Headmaster for days now."

"Maybe he's helping with the big ritual," Ron said uneasily, glancing at Harry. No one wanted to say that Ficus was probably skipping over the countryside in a dozen different wolves. If the staff hadn't come out and said that Ficus was dead or missing, then it probably wasn't a good idea to spread the story around.

Full of such secrets, the children went into dinner. Afterwards, they went back to their rooms with some stolen food for Sirius. He was staying in his dog form most of the time, so Harry kept his bed curtains drawn and the other students had gotten used to Harry and Ron's hidden conferences. Harry was always into some kind of trouble, and Ron was directly related to Fred and George after all. A little weirdness was practically expected from them. Sneaking Hermione is wasn't as easy, but she had learned to keep her voice down and her opinions on the state of the boys' dorm to herself. Just to be safe, they still waited until the room cleared out before they went in.

They found Padfoot spread out on the bed, studying the Marauders Map with his usual intense stare. The three piled up on the bed with him and pulled the curtains closed behind them. He shifted back to Sirius and took the food from them with only a nod of thanks.

"No sign of Esme?" Harry asked. Sirius shook his head, mouth too full of potato to speak. He swallowed and waved a hand at the map.

"No," he said. "And I don't really expect there to be. The Bind has no reason to bring her back here."

"What are you looking at then?" Hermione leaned forward to look more closely. Sirius tapped a finger on a small section. The boys leaned forward to see as well, and they could see a cluster of names in the infirmary. Snape was there, as was Pomfrey, Hooch, Dormire, McGonagall, Madame Yaga, Neville Longbottom, and Lorelei.

"Something must have happened," Harry said. Sirius nodded this time, then swallowed the mouthful noisily.

"Longbottom came there first. I saw his name tear down the hallway and meet Snape's," Sirius said. "Then Neville ran the other way and Snape ran after him and then Neville turned and came back again, but Snape kept going. Neville must've been raising some sort of commotion, because Hooch and Dormire came running from this closet here."

"What were they doing in a closet?" Ron wondered aloud. He and Harry traded looks. Sirius snickered.

"The map only gives names," he said, grinning at the way Hermione was ignoring this tangent. "Not details. Everyone else just sort of poured into the infirmary and then Snape and Lorelei showed up again."

"Raye isn't there anymore," Hermione said suddenly. Harry looked closer and she was right. Of all the names milling around the infirmary, Raye's was missing. "I'm going to go see," she said, hopping up suddenly. "I wanted to ask Professor McGonagall about the portal anyway. I can look in and see if Neville is hurt or if it's something worse. I'll come back and tell you as soon as I know something."

She ducked under the red curtains and was gone. Sirius finished his dinner in only a minute or two while the boys checked over the map. After a moment, Hermione's name appeared and went floating down the drawn corridor. Sirius sat back against the headboard with a sigh and Harry looked at him more carefully.

"You look tired," he said, taking in the bloodshot eyes and drawn expression.

"I was up all night at the Door," Sirius said. "They haven't gotten the spell to work yet. The nullifite is resisting the portal magic."

"What about the World's Door?"

"Dumbledore has it."

"Have they even tried to use it?"

"Not yet."

"Why not?"

"Because only a Zephyr can use it and Lorelei hasn't been well enough to make the attempt and no one knows where Esme might go except for Tanner." Sirius rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. "And Tanner can't keep a sentence together long enough to answer anything."

"I haven't seen him since that night," Harry said. "Do you think Esme used the World's Door to escape?"

"I don't know," Sirius groaned. "It makes my head hurt, all of it."

‘There's Raye!" Ron said suddenly, pointing at the map. "Down by the halls to the quiddich fields. And Hermione has found her. There's her name there. . . . What is that?"

They all looked at something that had just appeared on the map at the door from the outside. It looked like a blur of ink. It moved like a name on the map, but the wizards couldn't read it. It looked like two or three words all scribbled on top of each other. It reached Raye about the same time as Hermione's name did. Eight inches away, Tanner's name suddenly came charging out of his room. The howl of a wolf rang out. Every name on the map froze in place at the sound.

Ron, Harry, and Sirius tangled with each other trying to get out of the bed curtains first. "Padfoot!" cried Harry, as Sirius hadn't changed shape yet as they went. In a flash, his godfather was a black dog and Ron grabbed the map, folding it messily as the three bolted from the room.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 43

The wolves didn't know that it was late November and didn't care. They knew it was cold. There was still snow falling, but only in light flurries. It was the wind that stung and burned. The new snow was whipped through the trees like cold thistledown. The old snow froze into a white shell over the ground. The wolves had hunted the Forest for a place to get out of the wind.

Rosie led them back to the tunnels where Weiss had been. There were only five left with her. There had been 20 in the beginning. She had killed three of them and driven away the rest. Now they roamed the corridors, sniffing at the weird magical scents and shying away from the magical fire that still burned in Weiss's little room. Rosie had refused to enter that room, but she had stood silent and staring in the doorway a long time.

The contents of the room were still in piles from where Harry, Sirius, and Esme had ransacked the place looking for the World's Door. The omega of Rosie's pack, a small quick wolf with dark quick eyes, crept around the pile and sniffed at a bundle of old feathers. It had been a feather duster before half of it had been torn off to be an ichling's tail. The enchanted fire popped and the wolf flinched. He jostled the pile and a few things on the top fell to the floor with a smash.

Poor Quick panicked and ran. He bolted for the door again and found Rosie there. He flattened his lean frame to squeeze past her in the doorway without touching her. She let him go. The picture of Weiss's granddaughter slid from the pile and hit the floor with a crunch that sent fracture lines spiderwebbing through the glass. The long dead little girl smiled through the broken glass at the huge wolf. Rosie's green eyes narrowed and her lips twitched into a half snarl. The fire sent up some more crackling red sparks and she finally turned away.

Quick was cowering at the far end of the tunnel with the other four wolves. They were nervous, unsure of her mood. They were hungry, but there was nothing to eat in the stone tunnels. It was a relief to be out of the wind, though. The second strongest of the pack was Gray. He watched Rosie for any hint and when she gave none, he laid down and curled up. The others followed his example, Quick piling up over them in his eagerness not to be left out. He was snarled at and knocked over, but was allowed to nestle in between Gray and the cold wall.

Rosie watched them for a moment. Gray kept a careful eye on her. In her past moods she would have easily attacked him or any of the pack for daring to settle in without her. She didn't act the way any alpha he'd known before and was certain he'd be forced to fight her eventually. So far they hadn't gone hungry for long and she'd led them to safe dens, but she had also turned on the other pack members and set them against a hippogriff. The deer that wasn't a deer had shaken them too. Something wasn't right. She'd killed his last leader and he wasn't sure he could win against her yet. So, he played the beta and waited.

Rosie felt his eyes on her. She didn't care. She could tear out his throat as easily as she had his brother's. Energy burned through her body. There would be no sleep for her, especially snuggled up with the others. She didn't like them touching her. She turned from the pack and jogged down the corridor towards the opening. She'd hunt again, for whatever it was that haunted her.

There was something she needed, Rosie was certain. Her thoughts were usually keen as her teeth, short and sharp. She didn't like having to think, to try to remember what it was that she didn't have. She tore out of the tunnels into the winter woods. Snow crunched under black paws as she sent. Steam swirled from her jaws. She stopped to snap up a small rabbit and gulped it down, but then was on the move again.

It was there, driving her on. A half memory was working through her head, like a worm eating its way free of an apple. There was something she had to find. Things would make sense then. She had tried to drown it with the taste of blood, and the howl of the wind, but it lingered. She slowed to a trot and looked back and forth through the trees. Something wasn't where it was supposed to be. She had to find that something.

What was it though? At her best, Rosie had never been patient. Frustration made her kill things. She ran harder and faster, snapping her teeth together. There was something that needed finding. She couldn't remember what it looked like or smelled like or if she had ever even known what it was. Her memory had always been clearer when she would change. She remembered that much. Her body stretched, half-trying to shift back into her human form. She stopped a second later and forgot why she had wanted to change anyway.

She had stopped in a clearing. Uncertain which way to go, she turned around a few times. Something like fear touched her feral heart then. She howled out a long call and waited with her ears perked for any reply. Her pack was far away underground and didn't answer. Rosie began to run again, desperate now for any sign of something familiar. She bolted through the underbrush without watching her feet.

What was it?? What did she want and why? She wasn't hungry, she had a safe place to sleep, and a pack to hunt with. She was the strongest among them with nothing to fear. So what did she need so badly that it wouldn't let her sleep? Her animal mind couldn't bring up any sort of vision for her to focus on. So she ran mindlessly through the woods, until the snow and the trees blurred around her.

Then the trees fell away into open ground and she slid to a stop. She had charged straight from the Forest to the grounds of Hogwarts. The castle stood like a mountain as the snow fluttered around it. Something clicked in Rosie's head. The faint voices of a Magical Creatures class walking back from Hagrid's house reached her ears. The worming thought burst into the light.

It was here. She could find it here. And she would know it when she saw it.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 42

A few days passed with no sign of Esme, the Morthahg, or the wolfpack. The Hogwarts staff took advantage of the lull to resume classes and start to prepare for the holidays. Decorations were beginning to show up all through the castle. There was a forced air of normalcy everywhere. Underneath it though, there was a tension. Hogwarts seemed in the eye of a hurricane, quiet for now, but the second half of the storm couldn't be far away.

There were two infirmaries now. An extra room had been added to keep Tanner away from the other patients. Only a few people had been told that he was a werewolf, but after Professor Lupin, no one wanted to take any chances. Hagrid had argued that it wasn’t healthy for a pack animal to be isolated. Pomfrey had insisted though. Tanner wasn't well enough to socialize, she'd claimed. When he had recovered to her satisfaction, Hagrid could keep him in his house and keep him company, but until then, Tanner stayed put.

She had begun to wonder though, if Hagrid might've been right. Most of Tanner's injuries were healing nicely. He was weak and disoriented, but the part that worried her was that he seemed to be in a world of his own. He would half-answer a question and then his words would trail off as his attention settled on something else. Or, he would ignore the question completely.

He would also shapechange randomly, without any logic that she could find. She had brought him a book to read and he had become a wolf to paw at the pages until she turned them for him. Then she brought him a soupbone and he had become human again to play with it. Poppy Pomfrey hadn't been a nurse at a school of magic for so long without having nerves of steel though. She had seen worse things than a loony shapeshifter, and wasn't able to feel any fear of the creature. It wasn't until he began to talk to himself that she became worried.

"It wasn't me," Tanner whispered. "I didn't! Didn't ever."

"What is it he's talking about?" Madame Pomfrey whispered to Lorelei. The infirmary witch had called her to the werewolf's bedside again. Lorelei wasn't happy to be there. Her last headache had been the worst yet. Her eyes were throbbing in their sockets. If she moved her head too quickly, her vision would blur and her stomach would lurch. Pomfrey's question stabbed into her ear like a rusty corkscrew.

"Why do you keep asking me?" she snapped. "I had nothing to do with the creature. He was my sister's little friend, not mine."

"So you have no idea what he could be so afraid of?" Lorelei sneered at the question and turned her eyes to where Tanner cowered. Still not strong enough to stand, he had dragged his blankets to one end of the bed and crouched there.

"Has anyone been hurt or killed by werewolves recently?" she asked after a moment. "Anyone missing? Maybe he's got a guilty conscience."

"Not that I know of," sighed Pomfrey. She looked from Lorelei to Tanner and back again. "Is he really capable of it, do you think? You know him better than I do, but he seems more silly than dangerous."

Lorelei was silent for a long moment. Then, she sighed and shook her head. The movement made her flinch.

"Tanner was never the problem," she said a little reluctantly. "It was the other one that you couldn't turn your back on. Black Rosie was the real reason people kept their doors locked. Wolves will follow the strongest and so Tanner followed her."

"Black Rosie," Pomfrey repeated. "It sounds like a pirate. If she was that dangerous why was she allowed to run free?"

"Because she was under the protection of a powerful magical family," Lorelei said after a moment of hesitation. "When she was actually accused of killing humans, there was someone to step forward and take responsibility for it."

"Good gracious," Madame Pomfrey sounded impressed. "But she never hurt your sister, did she?"

"Not that I know of," Lorelei looked at Tanner again. He was chewing on his own arm. Pomfrey ran to stop him before he could draw blood. He cowered as if he thought she would hit him, but she only magicked up some bandages to wrap his arms with.

"That should slow him down a bit," she said. She patted Tanner on the head and he smiled at her. Smiling back in spite of herself, Pomfrey made her way back to Lorelei. The pale woman had retreated into a cloud of gloom again.

"If you don't mind such a personal question," Pomfrey began. "I can't help but wonder what your sister's connection to the werewolves was...Are they really so common where you're from."

"My family lived in the mountains," Lorelei said. "There are all kinds of animals there. There is a large population of werewolves because there used to be a colony of them. A group of Muggles back in the pioneer days were hunted one by one by a werewolf. So many were bitten that they formed a whole pack of shapeshifters. Those bred among themselves and it turned out that if both parents are cursed than the children are born that way. They keep to themselves for the most part, but there are always troublemakers.

". . . My sister always wanted a familiar, but our mother wouldn't let her just pick one. Mother held that a true familiar would come to you on its own. Esme didn't seem to have much luck with animals. She would roam around the woods when we were children, just in case her familiar was out there, waiting for her somewhere. That's how she met the werewolves. I suppose they were better than nothing, from her point of view."

"She's a brave girl to treat a werewolf like a familiar," Pomfrey said. Lorelei looked at her coldly.

"You were the one patting him on the head," she said, nodding towards Tanner. "What if he were to snap at you? Bite you? You'd lose everything if you were to become cursed." Taken aback, Pomfrey looked at Tanner in alarm.

"Not me," he said for the hundredth time. He dug around in the blankets until he found the bone she had given him and bit into it with an unsettling crunch.

"Then again," Lorelei added sweetly. "Maybe all you would lose is a finger."

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 41

Dear 6,

I wasn't wrong. I doubted for a moment when Ficus knew so much about the letters. He said he had to be sure I was the one. But I was right. Ficus was a vampire. Zephyr still may be. She's been involved in this from the beginning. I don't know how no one's noticed. I don't know how they can keep from believing me after everything that's happened.

Or maybe they do know, and they're just not doing anything about it. They took my wand so I can't do anything, and they sent an owl to my parents. Not that I care about that. They MUST know that Ficus was a vampire or there would have been hue and cry over a missing Headmaster by now! And no one has even questioned the professors who saw the whole thing. Instead, they keep me in the infirmary and pretend that everything is normal.

I'm writing to let you know that you haven't lost me. I am not crazy. My mission hasn't changed. I'll sit and stare at the walls and pretend to be traumatized until I get my chance. All I really need is proof. My thoughts are so much clearer now. Before, everything was in a whirl. Now I can hear whole conversations going on behind my eyes. If I listen, things start making sense again.

Ficus claimed to be you, but that couldn't be. You're a vampire hunter, and he protected Zephyr for years. I don't know why yet. Maybe she has him in thrall, like she has the Hogwarts Potionsmaster. I don't know who the woman with her that night was either.

Please wrote me back. I'd like to know what you think of all this. You're the master, and I want to handle this situation properly, but I don't know how long I can afford to wait to hear from you.

Please respond quickly!

R

There was a faint rustle of folding paper in the owlery. A small barn owl flew off into the stinging wind. The slight girl he left behind didn't feel the cold. Her braid of hair whipped around her shoulders and her breath misted in the air. As silently as she had come, she turned and was gone again.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 40

North came to tell Lorelei about Tanner, and despite the hour, she forced herself up to go see. Lorelei had never been fond of the werewolves. Even the sight of Tanner's injuries didn't soften her opinion of him. He was lying pale and still under all the blood, half-wrapped in a stained blanket. Madame Pomfrey was tending him. She had laid his broken bones straight and mended them, and then started on the torn flesh. She didn't even look up as Lorelei came in.

"He'll be all right," Pomfrey said, before Lorelei even spoke. "But it will take time." She was healing a nasty gash along Tanner's jawbone.

"Least of my worries," Lorelei nearly snapped. Worry and lack of sleep and her own poor health made her sound colder than she meant to. She wasn't even sure why she had been so anxious to see the werewolf. He had always been Esme's friend, but never hers. Always grinning and winking and up to trouble and dragging Esme along into it, Lorelei couldn't help but think that Tanner hadn't gotten anything he didn't deserve.

Pomfrey made no answer to that. The infirmary witch might not have even heard her. She was too absorbed in patching up Tanner. Once all the torn skin had been repaired, she magicked his mangled clothing away and began to gently wash the blood off of him. She conjured up a basin and some warm water and washed his hair too. The amount of blood and filth in it surprised even Lorelei. Once he was clean, Madame Pomfrey magicked him into a clean nightshirt and tossed the bloodied blanket into a nearby hamper.

It was then that Hagrid came in, carrying a kettle in one huge, mittened hand. Steam rose from it and he poured something brownish green out into a shallow cup. A thick smell of wet leaves and something sharper filled the room. It made Lorelei feel a little queasy.

"I brewed some tea," Hagrid explained as Pomfrey raised an eyebrow. "From moonsbane and wolfswort and lunaweed and-"

"None of which have any healing properties that I know of…" Pomfrey interrupted. Hagrid's face fell a little.

"I've seen wolves eat it when they were feeling poorly," he insisted. "Why not werewolves?" A little smile appeared on Pomfrey's face.

"Go ahead then," she said. "If it works, I may ask you for the recipe." Hagrid nodded and carefully approached Tanner's bedside. With one hand, he lifted Tanner's shoulders so that the werewolf's head fell back against his arm. With the other, Hagrid gently poured some of the brew into Tanner's mouth, tilting him back so it would flow down his throat.

"I think he does look a little more peaceful," Pomfrey said kindly. She tucked a clean blanket around Tanner and smoothed it over him. Lorelei turned away in disgust and left before they could call her back. Her head was starting to hurt again and she was feeling shaky. She considered getting some of her own tea to steady herself.

She had never liked Rosie, either, but at least the black wolf had the good manners to keep her distance. Tanner was too touchy-feely. You couldn't get near him without being handled in some way. Even in normal conversation, he would lean in so close you had to step back to keep him from breathing on you. Esme had claimed that wolves naturally touch each other all the time. Since they don't have hands to gesture with, she had argued, they do whole body handshakes. Tanner was no different.

Lorelei was able to empathize with cursed werewolves. She knew too well how a monster's bite could change your life. The trueborn shifters though, weren't human enough for her to understand. They looked human when they acted like wolves and when they looked like wolves they could still act unsettlingly human. It was eerie, and Lorelei didn’t like it.

It didn't help that she had always suspected Tanner of being after her sister. More than once, Esme had staggered in from the night with leaves in her hair, a grin on her face, and smelling like an animal. Who knew what they had all been doing out in the woods?? Lorelei forced that thought away and cut down a hallway to see Snape. She'd get something for her headache, she decided, and then try to get some sleep.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 39

Everything went according to Sirius' plan. Harry got inside and changed clothes and then ran to tell Professor McGonagall that he had seen someone moving on the grounds from his window. She hadn't looked like she believed him, so he'd added on some details about hearing wolves barking and seeing eyes glow in the dark. He hoped he wouldn't have to repeat this one.

It worked though. McGonagall sent Filch out with a lantern and he came hurrying back after a few minutes in a cold sweat, saying there was a dead man in the grass. She alerted everyone one else and they went out to find Tanner still alive in the snow. From another window, Harry watched him being levitated inside and after a short while, Hagrid came jogging up to the castle.

They must've either realized Tanner was a werewolf or wanted to ask Hagrid what sort of animal had attacked him, Harry decided. McGonagall came hurrying back, pale and breathless. She shooed him back to bed and would only tell him that it looked as if some poor soul had gotten lost in the Forest.

Back in the room, Ron was awake and waiting for him. He had expected Ron to be peeved at being left behind while being content not to go Forest-jaunting, but he wasn't prepared for the grin on his friend's face. As soon as the lights were out again, he crept to Ron's bed to see what was going on.

"You can't tell Hermione. . ." Ron whispered and when Harry nodded, explained. "Mrs. Norris has moved the kittens three times today and now I know why. Fred and George have finished their voice-throwing things and they keep fastening one of them to the kittens. I guess Mrs. Norris doesn't like it, because she moves them every time. The thing is that they stash the OTHER voice throwers all over the place so Filch keeps following the kitten noises. He's torn through three classrooms, the library until he was thrown out, the lower level bathrooms, every closet on the third floor, and the kitchen trying to find them.

"My brothers are trying to keep him busy, I know that much...They only told me this because I caught them in the middle of planning. They were up in the corridor past Filch's office. I think they're trying to lure him away long enough to get into the Confiscation Closet..."

"What's that?" asked Harry.

"It's where Filch keeps all the stuff he takes from the students when they are caught with it," Ron shook his head as if that was obvious. "No one knows where it is but Filch, and it supposed to have three different kinds of magical locks on it, but maybe Fred and George have found it. I don't know what they want out of there, but it should be good. I have never seen those two so focused."

"Why can't I tell Hermione?"

"If she knew, she'd be on their backs about how they were interfering with the kittens' natural development or something. George would only tell me that much if I promised not to tell anybody."

"You told me."

"They knew I'd tell you. How was the Forest?" Ron actually seemed to turn a little greener in the dark. Harry tried not to chuckle.

"About like always," he said. "Only this time, wolves instead of spiders."

"I think I'd prefer the wolves..." Ron mumbled. Harry told him the rest and how they had found Tanner so badly hurt. Ron sat bug-eyed at the story and even Harry felt a chill remembering it.

"It was really weird," he admitted. "They were so big and fast and quiet...And Rosie was honestly scary...You wouldn't think someone as small and pretty as her human self is could be so huge and snarly and crazy. . . "

"And black," squeaked Ron, his eyes getting even wider.

"Well, yeah," said Harry, not expecting Ron to be that shaken. "What's wrong?" Then, a hot breath of air hit the back of his neck and he spun to see a mouthful of fangs lunge at him. The fangs clicked together in a snap an inch from his nose. Harry had clambered backwards all the way into Ron's bed when he realized it was his godfather grinning at him. In the darkness of the room, Padfoot was almost invisible except for his eyes and his teeth.

"Don't DO that!" gasped Ron. Padfoot had an ‘I couldn't resist' smirk on his canine face.

"Will you two go to sleep already?" came Neville's sleepy voice.

"Sorry," Harry called back. His heart was still hammering from the scare. "That was uncalled for," he added to Padfoot, who just hopped to the foot of his bed and curled up. Harry nodded a goodnight to Ron and climbed into bed too, being sure to kick his godfather in the ribs in the process.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 38

Later, the thing that would be the most frightening to Harry was the silence. Rosie flew over the snow, and her pack poured out of the woods on all sides. They were all huge and eerie-eyed, but they seemed to make no sound at all as they closed the short distance. The snow didn't even crunch under their feet.

Harry cast a Patronus spell and a silver stag was suddenly sprinting back at the wolves, spectral antlers lowered. Most of the wolves scattered, but Rosie tore on. The patronus dissolved and she ran through it as if it was no more tangible than a ghost.

Sirius wasted no more time. If it had been the black wolf who had done that to Tanner, she certainly wouldn't spare him. He tossed Tanner roughly onto Buckbeak's back and jumped up behind him. Buckbeak screamed and took to the air. Harry flew upwards too, even as Rosie leaped to catch him. Her teeth clicked together in empty air, the first sound that she had made.

She fell back to the snow, but landed gracefully. Her howl rose up after them, a high and chilling sound. Buckbeak screeched back, but his heart wasn't in the challenge. He flew high over the trees and headed back to Hogwarts. Sirius was having a hard time staying on his back and holding on to Tanner at the same time.

Harry couldn't get close enough to help without being hit with Buckbeak's wings, so he did his best to stay near enough to catch one of them if they should fall.

"That was weird," Harry said finally. "Do you think he'll be ok?"

"Even if he doesn't, taking him back will save us some explaining," Sirius growled, slipping a few inches and clawing his way back up to Buckbeak's shoulders. He had to grab for Tanner again and gritted his teeth. "No body is going to care about you being out late and hippogriff sightings if they have an injured stranger to fuss over."

"Why do you think they turned on him like that?" Harry tried not to look at Tanner's blood-spattered face.

"Didn't you say Hagrid told you that the wolves were doing things that wolves aren't known for doing," Sirius hooked an arm around Tanner and got smacked by a wing. "Ow...Maybe it's the Morthahg. You saw how the patronus was nullified. Maybe it has some sort of influence over the wolves."

"If the Morthahg has a hold on Rosie," Harry was thinking aloud now. "She might have attacked Tanner because he was a werewolf and not a natural wolf. The Morthahg hates magic, so it would hate werewolves too." "Could be," Sirius was glad to see the lights of Hogwarts appear over the trees. "You're faster on that thing. Go ahead and alert the infirmary that you saw something on the commons. I'll leave him by the Whomping Willow for them to find and have Buckbeak back in his enclosure before he's missed. We'll meet again in the room."

Harry nodded and sped off.

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Blood Ties by Aurea--Chapter 37

The Forbidden Forest was always worse at night. Sirius had decided that taking Buckbeak along was their best bet for protection and transportation, so they had stopped to let the hippogriff out of the stall beforehand. Harry had brought along a broom just to be safe.

They went on foot at first, not wa