Chapter One: Back to Hogwarts


Sirius Potter sat in the entry way of the house, tapping his foot in frustration. It was like this every year; he was ready to leave two hours early and his sisters were running around trying to get things together until finally they would leave twenty minutes late. Right now there was still an hour to go, but he had had three years experience in this kind of thing and he knew what to expect.

Sirius wasn’t a normal kid, of course; he was a wizard like his father and all of his siblings. For that he was incredibly grateful; he couldn’t imagine a life without magic. He had had it all his life, though he hadn’t been supposed to use it until he got to Hogwarts. He had been incredibly excited to go to school that first year; his older sister, Lillian, had told him all about her first year, and how much fun everything had been, and how much she had learned. She had shown him her wand, and he had watched in jealousy as she cast several spells with it. Most children wouldn’t be allowed to cast spells out of school until they turned seventeen, but the Potter House was an exception. Lillian and Sirius had overheard a private conversation between their mother and father discussing the wards on the house, and had learned that useful tidbit; magic done at the Potter House couldn’t be detected by anyone, not even the Ministry. Their father had set the wards himself, and no one could doubt that the famous Harry Potter would know what he was doing. Since then, Lillian had taught Sirius a large portion of what she learned, first before he even went to school, and then during the summer breaks in between. Lillian was one of the best students in her year, and she claimed showing him what she learned helped her remember everything. Sirius was just as happy to learn at first, since he was ahead of everyone when he got to school every year. The Ravenclaw students hated him, and he reveled in it; Ravenclaw had won the Quidditch Cup for the last four years in a row, and Gryffindor needed whatever it could get to rub into their smug faces.

This year would be different, Sirius thought fiercely. This year, with Lillian as the Quidditch Captian, they would win for sure. Of course, James had been the Ravenclaw Captain for two years, but everyone in the family knew that Lillian was better at Quidditch. And no one doubted that Sirius was the best Beater in the school. He had absolutely no fear of the Bludger, but he made sure his opponents did; last year he had knocked James off of his broom twice in one match. James had still caught the snitch in the end, but he had been flying none too steady by then. His parents were both baffled as to how he came by his stature; both of them had been small for their age when they were Fourth Years, but Sirius was only four inches shorter than his father was currently, and Harry was not a small man.

Sirius’ thoughts were interrupted as James came down the stairs dragging his trunk; Lillian and Sirius hadn’t yet revealed their discovery of the ability to perform underage magic to any of their siblings; that was why Sirius was always ready two hours early. Levitating your trunk instead of carrying it was just plain easier.

It was readily apparent that they were brothers; both had their father’s uncontrollable black hair and piercing green eyes, though James’ were hidden somewhat behind his glasses. What wasn’t as easy to see was that Sirius was the younger brother; he was a good couple inches taller, and much more muscular. James was small, though he was just as much of an athlete as Sirius; being small and quick made it easier to be a good Seaker.

“I see you’re up early as usual,” James said with a grin, as he pinned on a Head Boy’s Badge crookedly under his Captain’s badge, which was perfectly straight and polished until it shone.

Sirius couldn’t help but grin; just because James was a Ravenclaw and his bitterest Quidditch enemy, they were still brothers, and you couldn’t share a room with someone your whole life without being close. “I can’t keep the moral high ground when I start complaining if I’m just as late as they are. Head Boy, huh? Wow. Just when were you planning on telling Mum and Dad? Or the rest of us, for that matter”

James shrugged as he sat down on his trunk next to Sirius. “I dunno… Mum would make a big deal out of it, and Dad would be happy, but then Mum would tell Fred and George, and then the Weasleys would have advance notice… you know?”

Sirius nodded in understanding; Jack, Lee, Chris, and Brian, the Weasley quadruplets, whom everyone referred to as ‘the Weasleys,’ as though Hogwarts wasn’t full of Weasleys at this point. Sirius grinned ruefully, thinking how he had enough cousins at the school that it seemed like the whole student body was composed of relatives, and most of the staff were family friends. Anyway, the quadruplets were worse than their father and uncle had ever been, as far as keeping the rules went, and they would be murder on anyone in the extended family showing even a Prefect’s Badge. In fact, they had made Angelique, Bill and Fleur’s daughter, cry in front of the whole school just last year after she had been made a Prefect. That had caused some tension at the last family reunion, as Sirius recalled.

“Well, you know they’re going to see it from a mile away, and have some kind of ‘Welcome-to-Being-Head-Boy-Prank’ ready to go for you within five minutes of that.”

James nodded wearily. “They’ll have their fun, and if I’m not seriously injured and don’t make a big deal out of it, then they’ll get on with their lives and I can live in peace. That’s the way it was after I made Prefect.” He sounded fervently hopefull.

Sirius smiled before changing the subject. “What do you think of your chances for Quidditch this year?”

By agreement they never spoke of Quidditch until the school year started, since it would inevitably lead to some kind of argument; everyone had been shocked when a Potter, especially the firstborn Potter, ended up in Ravenclaw, but Harry and Ginny had made it clear to all of their children that they would be loved and treated equally no matter the circumstances, and after breaking up James’ and Sirius’ first fight over inter-House rivalry, he had given them a talking-to that neither ever forgot. They had always been close, and became determined not to let anything get in the way of that. Of course, Sirius was closer to Lillian, but everyone understood that, and James wasn’t the kind of person to get jealous over anything.

“Well…” James began, with a smug gleam beginning to shine in his eye, “I have to say that you have a tighter bunch of players. Every last one of you is a Potter or a Weasley, and that has to count for something. Good genes there, no doubt about it. But my players have been together as a team longer, and we have a better history for practicing. Your last Captain wasn’t the greatest strategist, though I daresay that won’t be much of a problem for you anymore…”

Sirius nodded emphatically. “Lillian is going to have the team whipped into shape in no time, and then you Ravenclaws are going to get what’s coming to you.”

“No doubt,” James said with a grin that plainly said that only victory was coming to them. “What about Slytherin this year? I hear that there are going to be several new players this year, and a new Captain, and you know they’ve never played fair.”

“Slytherin?” Sirius exclaimed in disbelief, “They haven’t put together a decent team since Dad was in school. Yeah, they may cause more injuries than any other team, but they hardly ever win. As well be afraid of Hufflepuff!”

Both of them laughed at the thought of Hufflepuff presenting a challenge.

“If the two of you have that attitude,” came Lillian’s voice from above them, “then you’ll deserve it when Hufflepuff finally beats you.”

Lillian was shorter than both of them, almost tiny, though she had the same hair and eyes as the two of them. She always complained about the hair, and could rarely do more with it than pulling it back into a pony tail. Even so, she was considered one of the most attractive girls in school, and Sirius had been sent to the Headmaster’s office more than a few times for pummeling some guy who said things he shouldn’t say in Sirius’ hearing. His defensiveness exasperated her; he knew she could take care of herself, but he still wasn’t about to let any dirty-minded teenage wizards get away with saying anything about her.

“Come on, sis,” James said evenly, “We all know that the Hufflepuff game is nothing more than a chance to rack up points for the tournament standings. Even they know it; I overheard one of their Captain’s pep-talks last year, and he went on and on about making sure they didn’t lose by too much, and didn’t say a word about trying to win.”

“Well, they have a new Captain this year, too,” she retorted, then paused and grinned. “I don’t think it’ll make much difference for their chances, but you should always take any opponent seriously. That’s what Dad says.”

Sirius grinned. Their father had always been willing to teach them things about Quidditch; up until a little more than two years ago, he had been the flying instructor and Quidditch referee at Hogwarts, before he moved onto another career, his current one. All of them were still a little embarrassed about that, but he was happy, and Mum supported him, so they knew they couldn’t say anything. They would just wait for him to move on to another career like he always did. Still, all of the Potters who cared for the game had been taught Quidditch and broomstick flying as soon as they could talk and walk, although the former wasn’t really necessary to Dad’s point of view.

“You’re down here early this year,” Sirius commented with a smile for his sister, and she responded with a grin of her own before she kicked the trunk out from under him. He barely caught himself from falling face first onto the tile floor.

“I can’t let you have the ‘moral high ground’ every year,” she said innocently as she offered him a hand back up.

Sirius took it, but then tried to kick her legs out from under her. He was fast, but she merely hopped over his legs and dropped his hand, smiling. He never could pull anything over on her.

“Is Muriel coming?” James asked, ignoring their antics. “And where is your trunk?”

“She’s coming, and both of our trunks are in the bus already,” Lillian said with a smirk. “Dad put them in before he left, so when he gets back, hopefully the two of you won’t keep us waiting for too long.”

Just then Muriel was bounding down the stairs, practically jumping with excitement; it was her first year, and she had been anxious to go to school for the past several years. She had fairer skin than the rest of them, and freckles covered her face and arms. She had her mother’s eyes, but Harry’s hair like the rest of them. Hers was cut short, and she didn’t bother trying to fix it; she was a bit of a tomboy and cared more about flying and playing with pets than doing her hair.

“What are we waiting for,” she asked with exasperation on finding them all sitting near the stairs.

“Dad’s not here yet,” Sirius said irritably. He hated being late.

“He’ll be here in a few minutes,” came their mother’s voice from down the hall. She had fed all of them breakfast a while before, and was busy with their other younger siblings now.

As if to prove her point, their father came in through the front door. “Come on, kids, the bus is ready to go!”

Harry was still in his prime; his hair had hardly any gray and his eyes were full of laughter. He was wearing a worn and ragged purple uniform that was the source of no small amount of embarrassment and exasperation for his children.

As they left the house, James and Sirius pulling their trunks along, another man met them at the door to the bus.

“Welcome to the Knight Bus,” he said, “Transportation for…”

“Come on, Stan, they know the drill! Let’s get moving!” Harry interrupted in a shout as he wordlessly and wandlessly levitated the trunks onto the bus before boarding himself.

His children barely managed to find seats before Harry stamped on the gas pedal, hard. The purple triple-decker shot off with a bang while Harry laughed in exhilaration.

***

Sirius sat in a compartment on the train with Lillian, talking happily about the Quidditch season, and what they would be doing as a team for training. The last Gryffindor team Captain hadn’t ever gotten them onto a good practice regimen, and Lillian fully intended to correct that error.

After a while, Sirius left to go change his into robes, while Lillian remained to do the same. After he had changed, Sirius began making his way back to the compartment, but was stopped by the opening of a compartment to his side.

“Ah, I thought I recognized that heavy tread,” Thomas Nott said, his deep set eyes glowing with hatred that fought with contempt for dominance on his face.

At least he’s alone, Sirius thought with relief, and no small amount of satisfaction. He readied his wand by his side; it was yew, 13 inches long, and had a phoenix feather core, just like his father’s. He was quick, quicker than his size would indicate, and Nott was no match for him and both of them knew it. They had met in the first year, and had hated each other from the moment they first saw each other. One was the grandson of a Death Eater, and the other the son of the man who had destroyed their Dark Lord. Moreover, Nott’s grandfather had died in prison afterwards, and their family bore an implacable hatred for any and all of the Potters. Still, Nott had learned the hard way that he needed his cronies before he could stand up to Sirius; unfortunately the boy seemed to have cronies in no short supply.

“Is there anything in particular you were looking to say, Nott, or did we say enough at the end of last year?” Sirius asked, his voice casual, but his grin tight.

Nott’s eyes narrowed; Sirius had made Nott regret saying things about his sister, not even bothering with his wand. His fists were enough. And he’d done it in front of everyone, before the teachers could intervene.

“You should have been born a Muggle,” Nott spat, “since you seem to enjoy fighting like one.”

Sirius’ scathing reply was cut short when the opposite compartment door burst open and three more students leaped onto him. He didn’t even have a chance to yell as he was pushed into Nott’s compartment, the door shut behind him. His wand was taken from him and a silencing charm was cast, just before a thick, ham-like fist punched his stomach viciously. He doubled over, only supported by the two boys holding his arms. Crabbe and Goyle, he saw with distaste as he finally regained his breath and straightened to look around him. The fourth boy was Damian Zabini, the biggest one there, and rumored to be the new Slytherin Quidditch Captain. Sirius noted the badge on the large boy’s chest and saw that he was. He was larger than any of them, more than a match for them physically, but there were four of them, and his wand was in Nott’s hands and his arms were behind his back. A thrill of fear coursed through him, but he forced his features to remain deadly calm. Showing fear would only give them what they wanted.

“Not so tough now, are you, Potter,” Nott said with a gleeful grin as he toyed with Sirius’ wand. “I decided over the summer that you needed to be taught a lesson for what you did to me, and I’ve had some time to think about it. So after we get done with you here, we’re going to go and find your sister.”

White-hot rage filled Sirius at the thought of the Slytherins going after his sister. By then, of course, he would be in no condition to come to her aid, and James wouldn’t know what was going on since he always spent the train ride with his fellow Ravenclaws. He couldn’t let it happen… The first cutting spell hit him unexpectedly, slicing a deep furrow in his cheek that left blood spattering around him. The second hit his arm, just as the pain from the first registered. Nott had no chance for a third.

He threw back his head, bellowing like a mad bull, not even thinking of the fact that due to the Silencing charm he shouldn’t be able to yell, and pulled his arms away from the two thick boys who held them, throwing them against the wall in the process. Damian was already swinging his heavy fist again, but Sirius caught that hand and threw it back with enough force to knock the boy down. He turned back to Nott, and found himself looking at the point of his own wand, held by the sneering boy. The others were getting up and pulling out their own wands, and Nott began casting a stunning spell.

Time slowed down. Sirius felt his rage grow even hotter, and thought he could feel the heat of that fire on his face. He thought he saw the look on Nott’s face change from confident contempt to fear and then a shockwave of magical energy, centering on and emanating from Sirius swept through the room. Nott was thrown back against the wall, unconscious, and the other three slumped to the ground as well, knocked out.

Sirius’ rage left him instantly as he looked around in astonishment and fear. He had been able to do magic without a wand before, and even without speaking, though not like his father. This, however, was beyond anything he had ever done, and it scared him. He was certain he did not want anyone to see what he had done without a wand, and he knew that his yell was going to attention quickly. Reclaiming his wand, he quickly inflicted a few bruises onto the other boy’s faces to make sure that it looked just like a normal fight; he doubted that they would remember what had happened exactly, and they would have to accept that he had just beaten them up. As he finished and straightened, he looked up as the door opened to reveal curious students.

There was nothing for it of course; before more than ten minutes passed, everyone on the train knew that Sirius Potter had fought four other wizards and won. Everyone knew that he had beaten them up pretty badly, and that they were still unconscious. His siblings joined him before long, James with a rueful grin and a shake of his head, while Lillian gasped and conjured bandages, scolding him for fighting while cleaning his cuts. Muriel came in a little later, wide-eyed, demanding to know if Sirius had really fought off ten Slytherin Seventh-years with his bare hands. James shook his head in exasperation and told her that it had only been four, and that Sirius used his wand as well.

Sirius didn’t bother to correct him; he was only half listening to the others, ignoring the stinging pain of having the cuts washed out.

What happened? he asked himself over and over again. How did I do what I just did? He remembered the Silencing charm now, and he could vaguely recall a feeling of throwing something off before he had begun shouting. And the magic… he had been able to do wandless magic as a child, like almost all of his siblings, but all of them had outgrown the childish unfocused manifestations of magical ability soon after getting their wands. Sirius’ experience had almost never been unfocused, and he could do most of what he could do with a wand without one, even still. He knew his father could as well, but Harry always talked about having all of the knowledge of Albus Dumbledore passed on to him, and Sirius knew that nothing like that had happened to him. Besides, he had learned everything he could do… mostly. Sometimes, when he was learning something he was sure was new, he had the feeling that he was only being reminded of it, and he almost never needed to be shown something more than once before he could do it himself. No one else knew that of course; after getting strange looks from his teachers in his first year and learning that everyone else couldn’t learn that way, he had hidden his abilities from everyone, even Lillian. He really enjoyed the time they spent together every summer, with her showing him the next year’s magical curriculum, and he wasn’t about to spoil that, even if he had moved beyond what she could teach him a long time earlier. He had a burning desire to learn, to test his abilities; having Harry Potter for a father had given him a thirst to prove himself, though even with all he could do it seemed doubtful he would ever live up to his father’s name. Despite that, he was content to be the best in his year, and hide the fact that he was much better than that.

He sighed again and shifted, earning further scolding from his sister. He did not look forward to the disciplinary action he knew he would be facing very near to the moment he arrived at Hogwarts.


Okay, so I was finally convinced by all of my readers from Harry Potter and the Mind’s Eye to do a sequel… Well, mostly I was just sitting and thinking and ideas started popping into my head, and then I was writing, and this is what happened. I hope everyone who wanted more finds this: review and let me know that you have and what you think!

Chapter Two: Consequences











Sirius’ problems were far from over when they pulled up to Hogsmeade Station. He was still immersed in his thoughts, and walked quietly behind his siblings as he made his way out of the train. Just as he was stepping out, something hit him hard in the back and he went careening out of the train to land on his face, opening the cut there again and scraping both his face and his hands as well.







Sirius was back on his feet in an instant, pain not even registering as he turned back to the door. A Slytherin seventh-year stood there, lowering his foot, with a sneer on his face. He was a large boy, about as tall as Sirius, though most of his weight seemed centered around his midsection. Still he looked to be itching for a fight, and Sirius was very much in the mood to oblige him.







“So how many Weasleys and Potters did it take for you to take down Nott, Potter? Did you bring the whole family? From what I can see, you couldn’t fight a first year and win. Sorry about that… accident… though. These stairs are frightfully easy to trip on.”







Sirius shook blood off of his face and readied his wand. Disarm him, and then beat him to a pulp with my fists, he said to himself as he planned what he would do.







James saw what was happening, and also saw the angry crowd gathering around as well. Slytherins were glaring at Sirius and his siblings, while a crowd of Weasleys were gathering around them, fingering wands and muttering to themselves as well. The Weasleys were edging closer to Sirius, all four of them grinning at the chance for mayhem they were about to take part in.







“That’s enough, McFarren,” James said loudly. “I saw that ‘accident’ of yours very well, and your Head of House will be hearing about it from me. The rest of you need to get on the carriages. Now!”







It looked like McFarren was about to cause more trouble, but just then a loud familiar voice began calling out.







“Firs’ years, this way. Come on, now, firs’ years! Hey! What’s goin’ on here? Sirius, yer a mess! What happened to yeh?” Hagrid’s big voice boomed.







Hagrid hadn’t changed much at all over the years; there was still not a trace of gray in his hair, and he still seemed too big to be allowed. Sirius grinned up at him as the Slytherins hastily went about their business. A crowd of uncertain-looking first years were gathering around Hagrid as well, including Muriel.







“Sirius beat up four Slytherins by himself,” Muriel informed Hagrid in a matter-of-fact tone. “And then another one kicked him down the stairs and he was going to beat up that one too, but James stopped them.” She sounded disappointed in James.







“I stopped a riot,” James said with a grimace, “and you should all be glad I did. I think Headmaster Shacklebolt would have little choice but to expel Sirius for starting a civil war at Hogwarts.”







After McGonagall left Hogwarts for the Ministry, she had petitioned the Board of Governors to make Kingsley Shacklebolt the new Headmaster, especially after Professor Flitwick turned down the post. The Charms professor just wanted to teach, and McGonagall had not wanted Professor Slughorn to be the Headmaster. Shacklebolt had shown a real flare for administration, and everyone agreed he was a good choice, though he demanded attention to the rules and had little sympathy for those who broke them, even if they were family friends.







Sirius lowered his head sorrowfully. “I’m sorry, James, you know I am. But Nott and his friends jumped me, what was I supposed to do? And I didn’t ask to be kicked down the stairs.”







“Well, you should make sure you don’t have any more reason to be in fights,” Lillian said curtly. “Save your energy for the Quidditch Pitch. You’re going to get a detention or two from this as it is, and I won’t stand for you missing practices because you couldn’t pass up the chance to bully some Slytherin when you know better.”







Hagrid was chuckling to himself by this time, and Sirius thought he heard something like “just like their parents” before Hagrid was leading the first years to the boats, throwing back a final admonition to stay out of trouble and to have Madame Pomfrey look at his cuts as soon as he got there.







Sirius got into a carriage with Lillian and James and they were soon on their way to the Sorting Feast.







Of course by the time they reached the Great Hall, students who had left earlier had carried the tales of what had happened ahead of them, and a large number of those students were Slytherins, including Nott himself, and his companions. So it was no surprise that they found Aunt Hermione, or Professor Weasley as she insisted they call her at school, waiting for them with a very stern look on her face. Sirius could help but think that sometimes it didn’t help to have family connections at school; Hermione was strict by nature, and more likely to expect a lot more from family. As Head of Gryffindor House, she had a lot of family to expect a lot from. Some of her run-ins with the quadruplets had become legendary, though it was not the twins who came out on top. They avoided her completely now, whenever they had any kind of mischief planned.







“Sirius Alastor Potter, what have you gotten yourself into this time,” Hermione said in a low, stern voice. “I’ve heard it from no less than two dozen students that you have been starting fights, and by the look of you, they seem to be right.”







Sirius didn’t think it was fair that Aunt Hermione always referred to them familiarly when she wouldn’t allow them to do the same with her. He wasn’t about to say anything of the sort now, though. Harry and Ginny didn’t raise idiots.







“He didn’t start any fights,” Lillian interrupted angrily, and Sirius fought to hide a grateful smile, nodding instead. “Nott and his goons jumped Sirius when he was walking back to our compartment. Sirius just finished the fight, that’s all.”







Hermione looked to James for confirmation, and both Lillian and Sirius flushed with irritation. She should know very well by now that we don’t lie, Sirius thought angrily, at least, not to family.







“They’re telling the truth,” James said. “And Timothy McFarren kicked Sirius off the train and gave him most of those scrapes. Do you want to speak with Slughorn, or shall I?”







“That's Professor Slughorn, and I think I will,” Hermione said slowly, her anger shifting away from her niece and nephews and towards several Slytherin students. “And I’m going to have to speak with a good many of the students about telling lies. Sirius, you will receive detention for this; I know you don’t normally start these fights, but I saw Mr. Nott and his friends, and I’m sure you were more rough than you needed to be just to stop the fight. Don’t argue, you know you did, and you know I know it.”







Sirius’ mouth closed on the argument he had been about to make, as she smiled down at him tightly, before frowning and looking at his face. She muttered to herself as she began casting healing charms, and cleaning off the blood.







“That first one is going to leave a slight scar” she muttered as she finished.







“I’ve had worse,” Sirius said, uncaringly. “Anyway, girls like guys with scars.”







Lillian rolled her eyes. “You aren’t good looking enough for a scar, Sirius.”







Sirius said nothing, though he grinned at her. They both knew that he had plenty of admiring girls to choose from, from all four houses, though the Slytherin girls were quiet about it.







Hermione paused for a moment and then sent James and Lillian off to the feast.







“Come to my office, Sirius,” she said quietly as she began walking down the hall.







“What about the feast? I wanted to see Muriel get sorted,” he protested, though he was already following her.







“I can’t imagine Muriel being anything but a Gryffindor,” Hermione said dismissively. “And we need to talk.”







After a brief walk they arrived at Hermione’s office, and Sirius sat down in front of her desk while she sat behind it. Everything in the office was perfectly clean and tidy, and there wasn’t a speck of dust to be found anywhere.







“Dobby?” Hermione said to the air, and there was a crack as the House Elf appeared, his large green eyes brightening at the sight of Sirius.







“What can Dobby do for Professor Weasley and the son of the noble Harry Potter?” Dobby asked with a bow.







“Can you bring us some food from the feast, please?” Hermione asked politely. Hermione’s goals for House Elf rights had never changed, but once she and Remus Lupin had finally gotten the Ministry to change its policies and give non-humans more rights, the House Elves of Hogwarts had used those rights and wrote a petition to the Board of Governors asking them to see that Hermione stopped trying to free them all. Hermione had had no choice but to give up on S.P.E.W. after that.







As they began eating the excellent food Dobby brought them, Hermione’s attention came back to Sirius.







“You know it has to look like you’re getting disciplined more than you are, don’t you?” she asked finally.







He nodded slowly; there had been a large number of complaints about preferential treatment for Weasleys and Potters, and they increased as the years went on. If a Potter screws up, Sirius thought, he has to pay double what anyone else would… or at least look like it.







“You are probably the most gifted student in this school right now as well, Sirius.” Sirius sat up in surprise that she would say that right out, but she kept going. “And I don’t want to see you become nothing more than a bully. You have incredible power, and your memory and ability to learn are nothing short of astounding. A lot of the students here, including some of the older ones, and almost all of the younger ones, admire and look up to you. We need you to set a good example for them; look at James, he’s responsible. Try and take a leaf out of his book. Or Lillian; she’s been trying to keep you in line since you got here.” Hermione trailed off, and seemed to steal herself. Sirius braced himself for what he knew was coming.







“I’m sending an owl to your parents,” she said finally, and Sirius grimaced. This would be the earliest in the school year that they would get a disciplinary owl from Hogwarts, and they were never happy about it. With all of the stories Sirius had heard from their days at school, it seemed like they shouldn’t have anything to say, but they also seemed to think that the Potters needed to set a good example, and his mum had all kinds of crazy notions about ‘good parenting,’ so he knew that he could expect a scathing rebuke through the mail, if his dad didn’t come to Hogwarts himself.







“I wish I didn’t have to do this, Sirius, but it seems like you get in more fights every year. You’ve got a chip on your shoulder that’s bigger than you are, and that’s saying something. I know you didn’t start this one, directly, but I also know that you did start the one that led to Nott wanting revenge. You need to calm down, or you might find yourself expelled one of these days. Your family name can’t protect you forever.”







Sirius found himself growing angrier as she continued, and the last part pushed him over the edge.







“I don’t WANT my family name to protect me,” he shouted. He didn’t remember standing, but he was on his feet, and suddenly realizing that he was bigger than his aunt. “All my life, I’ve been held to an impossible standard. I have to live up to James, Lillian, and my dad, and it can’t be done! I’m my own person! I wish people would stop looking at me as Harry Potter’s son and see me for myself.”







He felt a small bit of the heat on his face that he remembered from when he had stunned all four of the Slytherins in the compartment, and forced himself to calm down.







“If there’s nothing else, Professor, can I go now?”







Hermione had sat through the shouting completely unfazed, and was now regarding him coolly.







“I suppose you may,” she said finally. “I will let you know when you are to serve detention and with whom, and I expect you to stay out of trouble. Run along now.”







***







After Sirius left, Hermione sat for a short while, thinking about what had just happened. It was obvious that Sirius was troubled by something beyond just unreasonable expectations, but she also knew she would never get him to talk. Maybe Harry should come down and talk to him, she thought.







The oddest thing was that she could have sworn Sirius’ eyes had lit up with fire when he was shouting, though it had been so brief that she wasn’t certain it had happened at all. She got up slowly and began writing the letters. She knew she had to send two; if Harry got the news by himself, he would try and handle it himself, and Ginny was the same way. And both would be too easy on Sirius because they were both lenient by nature; but for some reason, they tended to discipline very well when they worked together, most likely because they would then talk about it and decide what would be best for the child. It made her grin, thinking about them; Sirius’ eyes were already out of her mind.







***







Sirius walked down the hallway angrily. Your family name can’t protect you forever. The words kept going through his head, over and over until he nearly shook with rage. Realizing that almost any Slytherin he saw within the next few minutes would get blasted just for being there, Sirius headed straight for the Gryffindor common room. When he got there, he remembered that he hadn’t been told the password, and couldn’t get in yet. He sat down in the hallway, and rested his head back against the wall.







He knew very well that Aunt Hermione was right; he couldn’t get into any more fights. He didn’t understand why, but his temper was getting worse all the time. He didn’t want to really hurt anyone, and he didn’t want to be known for a short temper. I’ll stay out of trouble this year completely, he thought firmly, knowing that he couldn’t keep that resolution at all.







“Sirius?” came a tentative voice from down the hall, and he looked up in surprise.







Samantha Harris stood looking at him tentatively from down the hall. She was a Gryffindor, and in her fifth year, like his sister. They had spent a lot of time together last year since she and Lillian were good friends, and Sirius had grown to like her, though he would never admit that to her or Lillian.







“What do you want?” and he cursed himself as she flinched at his hard tone.







Just when I decide I’m going to watch my temper… he thought, kicking himself mentally.







She didn’t leave though.







“I thought you might like someone to talk to,” she said quietly. “When you didn’t come in when Professor Weasley came back, I figured you would have come here. The password is ‘Cygnus.’”







The fat lady opened the painting as the girl said the password, and Sirius gratefully let her lead him into the common room towards two of the comfortable chairs by the fire.







She wanted to know everything that had happened of course, but Sirius found himself telling her all about it; he barely managed to stop himself before telling her exactly how he had ended the fight. He wasn’t ready to give away everything, just for a pretty face. And Samantha was pretty; she was tall and had long dark brown hair with light blue eyes, and she always seemed to be smiling. Sirius liked her smile.







“You really should stay out of trouble,” she said gravely after he finished telling her about his visit with his aunt. “The Weasleys are already talking about following you ‘into battle’ against the Slytherins, and I think most of the house would join you.”







“Would you?” he asked impulsively, and his face reddened immediately.







“I don’t know, Sirius, I guess that depends on whether you had a good reason or not. I’m not much of a dueler, anyway; Potions seems to be my best subject, these days. Do you want me to make you a Calming Draught?” she asked innocently.







Sirius couldn’t help but laugh, though he thought he might have cursed anyone else for saying that.







Sirius spent the rest of the evening talking with Samantha until the other students came back. Muriel had been sorted into Gryffindor and seemed to have taken charge of the rest of the first year students, making friends with all of them at once. Sirius grinned as he watched her. She was friends with everyone, and nobody could dislike her for long.







Lillian joined him and Samantha for a while, before all of them headed to bed. Sirius shared his room with the quadruplets, who were also fourth years. Brian was waiting for him as he came up the stairs.







“Fine way to start a year, Sirius,” he said reproachfully. “Then you had to ruin it all by letting that brother of yours stop the fun.”







“I’m not sorry about that at all,” Sirius said with a grin. “I’ve already gotten all the trouble I want from this, and Aunt Hermione wrote letters to my parents.”







“Ah, that brings back memories…” Lee said wistfully from his bed.







“Reminds me of the first howler mum and dad sent us,” Chris chimed in.







“I think it lasted over ten minutes,” Jack said thoughtfully. “It’s really too bad you can’t save howlers.”







“That would be a great keepsake,” Brian finished.







“That’s all beside the point, though” Chris said suddenly, and all four of them looked at Sirius sharply.







“Did you get them?” Lee asked, and all of them waited anxiously for the answer.







Sirius didn’t answer at first, instead walking over to his trunk and opening it with a wave of his wand. Another silent wave summoned a paper-wrapped bundle out of the trunk and into his arms. By now all of the Weasleys mouths were open in silent anticipation. Sirius opened the bundle, and pulled out a scrap of parchment before tossing the rest of the bundle to the quadruplets. Jack caught it and pulled out the diaphanous cloak inside.







“I got them,” Sirius answered with a broad grin. “The Marauders will live again!”







Sirius spread out the Marauder’s Map, while Jack held up Harry’s Invisibility Cloak; all of them were laughing jubilantly.

Chapter Three: Marauders








Sirius and the Weasleys didn’t perpetrate any mayhem that week; preparations were still necessary. Professor Lupin had told them stories about the Marauders, telling them all about the night-time wanderings in the forest and the surrounding areas. Since they had been second-years, the five of them had been working on making the Animagus transformation themselves, and they were determined to finally make it this year. Sirius had been dismayed at first to find that there was something he couldn’t do after reading about it once, but then he had grown to love the challenge it presented. It would be much more satisfying when they succeeded. Instead, they spent the week studying the Marauder’s Map and familiarizing themselves with the hidden passages of the castle, and exploring with the Invisibility Cloak, though only two of them could fit at one time; they took it in turns and described everything they saw to the others.





The morning after the Sorting Feast, Sirius had gotten a letter from his parents, which he read with increasing guilt as Hedwig stared at him sternly. They acknowledged that the fight wasn’t his fault, except for how forcefully he ended it, but they also agreed with Hermione that he had started the fight that led to this one, and they also insisted that he needed to set a better example. And finally, his father said that he would be coming to Hogwarts to talk to Sirius and see if he could help him “calm down.” Sirius didn’t know what that meant, but he was sure he was just going to be sat down and yelled at for a while, like always seemed to happen.





Nott and his friends had laughed at him while he read the letter; everyone recognized his father’s owl, and they knew what was in the letter. It was all Sirius could do to keep himself from cursing the lot of them, but he was determined that any trouble he got into wouldn’t include fighting. Pranks, on the other hand, had never been part of any bargain, and if done correctly, would be untraceable. At least no one would be able to prove anything.





Nott, however, was not to be their first target; McFarren had earned himself that right. The Weasleys agreed that Sirius had already taught the other four enough of a lesson, but McFarren seemed to have gotten away with kicking Sirius down the stairs completely. Granted, Slughorn had chastised him forcefully, and word had spread that he was serving detention every night for the first week, but that was hardly adequate punishment at all. The Weasleys also insisted they needed to “initiate” James, but Sirius insisted that he didn’t want to know anything about it, and told them in no uncertain terms to keep it fairly tame.





Classes were getting harder for all of the students around him, but Sirius had no trouble with any of the lessons; he had gone through the spell-work curriculum completely by the second day, on his own of course, and spent his time in class making notes and creating his own spells and charms, though Hermione demanded complete attention in her class, and Professor Lupin wasn’t that far off; both tried to make their classes interesting enough that Sirius didn’t have too much trouble listening.





Potions was always an interesting class; Professor Slughorn, Head of Slytherin House or not, had always seemed to have a fondness for Potters and Weasleys. Their connections, both in business and the Ministry were too tempting to pass up. Harry had been somewhat of a disappointment for Slughorn, since he hadn’t gone on to the Ministry or professional Quidditch after defeating Voldemort. Still, Harry was quite famous, and his children were showing a great deal of promise. Sirius found he really enjoyed potions; he couldn’t really brew all of the potions by himself since he didn’t have all the materials, and so the classes were often new and exciting. He always seemed to brew them correctly, and always received top marks; Slughorn was sure that he had the combined talents of his father and his grandmother.





Care of Magical creatures was another class he really enjoyed; Hagrid had calmed down more and more over the years, and there were far fewer disastrously dangerous creatures causing mayhem, but Hagrid never gave up his love for interesting creatures, and with Grawp assisting him, he could control animals that he could not have before. And he had learned from the past; students were very carefully monitored around the Hippogriffs and Thestrals, lest some inattentive student cost the animals their lives.





The only class he didn’t do as well in was History of Magic, since the subject just didn’t come to him as naturally. It gave him an opportunity to actually study, so he still did fairly well, even if Binns was the most boring teacher he had.





His detention was served with Argus Filch; the old caretaker was older yet and even more grumpy. He disliked Potters almost as much as the Slytherins, and sometimes it seemed like Mrs. Norris followed one or another of them constantly. Sirius and the Weasleys had some plans for them as well. The detention wasn’t all that bad really; he was set to cleaning floors near the doors where all of the students had tracked in mud from the rain they had been having all week. He wasn’t allowed to use his wand, but for Sirius that didn’t mean he couldn’t use magic, and he had been watching his mother use household cleaning spells all his life.





As he walked into his dormitory room directly after finishing his detention, preparations were being made for the evening’s activities. Brian and Lee were wrapping up a bundle of what looked like bed-sheets, while Chris was examining the Marauder’s Map. Jack was sitting on his bed looking pale, and shivering occasionally.





“What’s wrong with him?” Sirius asked, pointing a thumb over at Jack.





“He got picked to test our Slythering Sheets,” Brian answered with a shake of his head. “He volunteered, really. Anyway, they were more frightening than we thought they would be. They seemed pretty real.”





“Did they hurt him?” Sirius asked with concern.





“No, I’m alright,” Jack answered with a scowl, glaring at both of them. “I just didn’t expect them to be like that. And they grab onto you and won’t let you go. I wouldn’t have gotten out without help. It was a little creepy.”





“Good,” Sirius said with a grin, remembering how smug McFarren’s face had been after he’d kicked Sirius off the train. “I think a little psychological instability is exactly what McFarren needs.”





Not for nothing were the quadruplets the children of one of the owners of the most successful joke shop in the Wizarding world. They had all discovered earlier that if they used Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes items in their pranks that they were automatically suspected first. They didn’t like to use the items available to the public, since those were often used by the other would-be pranksters in the school, and they liked originality. They couldn’t use experimental things, because no one else but them could get them; that left making their own items, such as the Slythering Sheets. The general idea was that they look like normal sheets, designed to look just like the sheets in the Slytherin dormitories. After the subject had been lying in the bed for forty five minutes, which they all agreed was enough for the subject to be asleep and maximize the startling effect, the sheets would transform into a large number of very large snakes, which would hiss threateningly and wrap around the victim. They weren’t supposed to hurt anyone, just scare them as close to death as possible. Once the victim was freed from the snakes they would immediately turn back into sheets, normally ready for re-use, but this time they were making sure the spells ceased to work completely after one use. No point in handing the Slytherins a weapon they could use against the Gryffindors.





Another nice thing about inventing their own materials was the money. Fred and George would pay anyone for a good idea, and they protected their sources. Their children had used a false name and a school owl several times to send in ideas and collect money their parents didn’t know about. It made for a profitable business for all of them, including Fred and George.





All five of them went to bed with everything in place. Then, Saturday morning, while almost everyone else was at breakfast, Sirius and Jack put on the cloak and made their way down to the dungeons where the Slytherin dormitories were located. They waited for a while, and entered the Slytherin common room when a couple of Slytherin first years left on their way to the Great Hall. The Marauder’s Map would tell them the password, of course, but they didn’t want to make any noise. The common room was empty and they had no trouble making their way to the dormitory they knew McFarren was in from their study of the Map, from which they also knew which bed was his. As they had planned, the house elves had already been through to make the beds, and it was the work of only a few moments to switch the sheets and leave. They made their way quickly back to their own dormitory to drop off the Map and the cloak, and went to join the rest of the new Marauder’s down in the Great Hall.





“You’re late for breakfast today,” Lillian said suspiciously as she piled a plate with eggs and bacon before handing it to him.





“I slept late,” Sirius said defensively as he dug into the welcome food.





Lillian rolled her eyes. She knew when he was lying, and he knew she knew. She leaned in closer, lowering her voice.





“I assume I’ll know what it is when it happens?”





Sirius only grinned, the twinkle in his eye more than enough of an answer. Lillian shook her head and laughed softly.





“You’ll never stay out of trouble, will you? Especially as long as you’ve got these louts,” she nodded to the quadruplets, “egging you on and following your lead.”





The Weasleys all smiled proudly at what they considered a compliment, and continued eating their own meal.





“Well, I hope you did get enough sleep,” she told all of them, “because our first Quidditch practice is today. I know it’s early, but we’re going to need all of the practice we can get, and we need a new Keeper and a new Beater.”





Jack, Brian, and Lee were the Gryffindor Chasers, and were very good; they seemed to know what the others were thinking, and worked very well as a team. Chris had decided on auditioning for the position of commentator, and had gotten the job, though he had been warned several times on what he could and could not say. He generally attended practices with the rest of the team, observing plays and giving advice to the Captain. The previous Captain had ignored much of the advice, but Lillian was less likely to need it.





Sirius was excited about the tryouts. He wanted a more dedicated Beater to work with as well, and if they could find a new Keeper that had any talent at all… things would be looking good for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Of course, Lillian and Sirius had been keeping their eyes open at the Quidditch games at the Weasley family reunions, which weren’t formal reunions at all, since they happened so often. But there was always Quidditch, and a lot of them liked to play. There were a few possibilities; Ron Weasley Jr., Ron and Hermione’s only son, after two daughters, seemed to do well at the Keeper position. His dad had taught him to play, and he seemed confident as well. He was only a Second year, but that just meant he could play for a long time, and would most likely get better the more he played. As for a Beater, they had their eye on Greg Harris, Samantha’s brother, and a third year. He was big for his age, though not anything like Sirius, and he flew well. They had heard he did well as a Beater, and were anxious to see how he did in practice.





His breakfast eaten, Sirius threw down his fork and got to his feet, already anxious to get to the Pitch.





“What are we waiting for, then? Let’s go play!” he shouted, as he walked quickly out of the hall. Lillian followed him, laughing, while the quadruplets started eating faster, trying to finish and follow.





***





The tryouts went fairly well, for the most part. Sirius had great fun being back on the Pitch, matching himself against the Bludgers and the opposing scrimmage teams. There were quite a few people who showed up for the tryouts and practice, but it didn’t take too long to weed out the ones that wouldn’t have a chance. Sirius was in charge of the potential Beaters himself, and had them waiting in line for their chance to chase one of the Bludgers. When they were ready, he would release the Bludger and fly next to them as they flew after it; he had instructed them to do their best to hit him with it. He carried his own Beater’s bat as well, though, and whenever one of them was good enough to hit it towards him they got the Bludger knocked back at them forcefully, so Sirius could judge their reaction. Most couldn’t manage to hit the Bludger toward him, but of those that did, he knocked two off their brooms, sent four others dodging out of the way, and sent one to the Hospital Wing with a broken nose.





When Greg Harris got his turn, however, Sirius was surprised at the force with which the Bludger was sent at him. He still knocked it back even harder, but was surprised again when Greg hit back to him once more. That was what he had been watching for; someone who could hit the Bludger any time it came at him, not just away from himself or other players, but at a target.





“Very good, Harris,” Sirius said, not bothering to hit the Bludger again; he cast a Summoning Charm with his wand instead, and got it ready for the next person to try out. “Take a seat in the bleachers; if anyone else makes the short list, we’ll have you all go again and see what happens.”





No one else made the short list, however, so Greg found himself the new Gryffindor Beater. Keeper tryouts were going much longer, so they started scrimmage matches. Chris came out of the stands and played as a chaser on one team with Lee, while Brian and Jack played the other side. Sirius played on one side while Greg played on the other, with just one Bludger released. Since she played Seeker, and they didn’t need to release the Snitch for the practice, Lillian flew above them all and watched the Keepers on both sides, telling anyone who showed promise to wait, and dismissing the others kindly. There were some who were not very good-natured about being dismissed, but it never took more than a stern glance from Lillian before they would glance nervously at Sirius and then leave. Sirius grinned as he soared out and around the field on his Cleansweep Fury; he couldn’t help it if he had a reputation, and he didn’t want to help it. Even though he had committed to stay out of fights, no one else needed to know that.





The broom he was on was fast and reliable; it had been the best broom you could buy several years ago, and it had only been outstripped by a half dozen since then. Sirius’ dad had bought twenty eight of them and donated them to Hogwarts, on the condition that no one be allowed to use a different broom during Quidditch matches. All brooms being equal, it was left to talent and talent alone to decide which team won. Of course, they had made sure each house used the same seven brooms every year, and no one but the team had access to them; they didn’t want anyone trying to set jinxes on someone else’s broom, or sabotaging the set for the next match. Sirius’ had been using his broom since he had made the team in his second year, and took very good care of it. His dad still flew his old Firebolt, which had been discontinued after two years production; Harry’s was worth a fortune, between being a fantastic broom that no one could buy anymore, and belonging to the most famous wizard of the age. Sirius wanted to keep his broom in as good condition as his father’s, and had ideas of buying the broom from the school and replacing it in the set. It had served him well, and he found he didn’t want a newer, faster one.





Just as the next two potential Keepers were getting into place, a sudden feeling of danger hit Sirius, and he looked around warily. Barely in time, he flipped his broom upside down and into a spiral, dodging the Bludger that had been expertly aimed at him, and smacking it with his bat, knocking it back the way it had come. His maneuver complete, Sirius looked to see where that was, and scowled.





A crowd of yellow-robed figures was gathered on the edge of the Pitch, brooms on their shoulders, while the one in front casually used his wand to capture the Bludger and put it back in its chest.





“Just making sure you’ve still got it, Potter,” the tall, dark haired boy said with an insolent grin, while several of the girls on both teams looked at him admiringly. Sirius thought it was insolent, anyway, even if no one else could see it.





Frank Longbottom was one of the most popular boys in the school, starting his Sixth year, and apparently the new Hufflepuff Captain. He was a Beater and, as Sirius would admit grudgingly, the best player on their team, though Sirius would hasten to add that that didn’t mean much. Sirius couldn’t stand him; his father had made some great discoveries in Herbology and Potions, earning himself a considerable fortune and great regard in the Wizarding world. His son was an arrogant pretty-boy, however, who seemed to think he was the best thing to happen to Hogwarts since Dumbledore. Of course, he would never say that to anyone else; everyone else seemed to agree with him.





Lillian had confronted Sirius about his dislike for the boy several times, claiming that Frank was good natured and down-to-earth, that he was friends with everyone, including, as Frank thought, with Sirius. Sirius couldn’t even come up with specific reasons to dislike him, and thus, Lillian would say, Sirius was just jealous. Sirius hated the thought of being jealous of Frank, and denied it forcefully, but couldn’t help but wonder if it was true.





“Why don’t you come up here, Longbottom, and we’ll see who still has anything,” Sirius shouted back waving his bat and forcing a smile.





“No thanks,” Frank said while holding up his hands in denial. “I just wanted to demonstrate to my new team members what kind of reflexes they need to develop, and to show them what they’ll be up against. We have the Pitch booked for when you’re done, though… how much longer will you be?”





Sirius flew off, only somewhat mollified, as Lillian answered Frank’s question; he did have good reflexes, and the Hufflepuffs would do well to emulate him.





Later, as they left the Pitch, Sirius walked past the Hufflepuffs with Greg, the other boy still grinning at being chosen for the team. Ron Jr. had made the Keeper spot, as they had thought, leaving Greg the only one on the team who wasn’t a Weasley or a Potter, though that didn’t seem to bother him. He had beaten out a couple of Weasleys to get his spot.





“Good practice, Potter, and you too, Harris. I can see my team has a lot of work to do,” Frank said with a seemingly genuine smile, while holding out his hand.





Greg shook the hand happily, proud at the compliment paid by such a popular student, while Sirius smiled, once more forcing the expression; it just didn’t seem to want to come naturally around the other boy. Maybe he was just jealous, though he certainly didn’t feel like there was anything to be jealous of; even if he was, though, he still didn’t like him.





***





Timothy McFarren laughed as he entered his dormitory with his roommates. It had been a good day, with most of the time spent in the company of several pretty Slytherin girls of impeccable breeding who seemed to like the way he had stood up to Sirius Potter. He wasn’t the only one who thought the whole lot of the Potters and Weasleys, half-bloods and blood traitors all, needed to be taught a lesson. They walked around like they owned the school, and didn’t show any kind of proper Wizarding pride. Timothy’s popularity in his own house had skyrocketed, and he wasn’t opposed to taking advantage of it. Slughorn had been far from pleased, but the McFarren family was very well respected and connected, and Slughorn had let him off a lot easier than everyone else in the school believed.





As he finally leaned back in his bed, McFarren thought about upping his popularity even further. All it had taken was kicking the younger Potter off the train to get where he was, and Sirius seemed to have gotten into more trouble than he had, though that was at least partially from beating up Nott and his friends. Perhaps Nott would join him in making some trouble for the other Potter, the head boy. His last thoughts before dropping off to sleep would have made James sweat if he’d known about them.





His first thought on waking up, as three huge pythons closed about his chest and constricted his breath, was that he was still dreaming. That didn’t make what was happening any less frightening. Other snakes were coiled around his arms and legs, including one giant snake that appeared to be at least twenty feet long. He began screaming as rattlesnakes began rattling, and two hissing cobras spread their hoods in front of his face. He realized that it wasn’t a dream as his roommates jumped out of their beds in alarm, all shouting for someone to do something, but all unwilling to get closer to the snakes themselves. McFarren paid them hardly any attention, as he struggled and screamed frantically.





***





Sirius and the Weasleys rolled around on the floor, laughing hysterically as they looked at the Marauder’s Map. They could only see the small labeled dots, and they couldn’t hear any of the mayhem that was going on, but they knew what was happening. The dot labeled ‘Timothy McFarren’ was moving erratically in the center of a growing circle of other dots, though none of them moved closer.





“Is it hard to get out of the Sheets?” Sirius asked between laughing.





“McFarren won’t be able to do it by himself,” Jack answered.





“But once someone else gets involved, they should turn back into regular sheets,” Brian finished.





Sure enough, a dot labeled ‘Professor Slughorn’ showed up and the commotion seemed to die down, though Slughorn’s dot moved with McFarren’s toward the hospital wing after the others were leaving.





Still, laughing, Sirius and his cousins climbed into their beds, preparing to pretend sleep if they were suspected first and someone came to find them. Although the former was likely, the latter was not; no evidence would lead to them beyond motive, and no one in Gryffindor liked McFarren, so motive wouldn’t be enough to get them this time.





“That was a good start,” Chris said later as they had all begun actually drifting off.





“It will take some doing to top it,” Lee agreed, shifting on his bed.





“That will be half the fun,” Sirius said, and all of them shared one final laugh before drifting off to sleep.





***





A cloaked figure moved silently, though quickly, through the trees. The deeper parts of the Dark Forest were no place to be at night, but it would be worse not to show up. That would lead to retribution that would likely end his life, and besides that, he wanted the rewards promised him; years spent cringing and crawling before the scum of the earth was going to be exchanged with power over best of society. He had been promised.





“Master?” he called out softly, reaching the spot where he had been instructed to go.





He heard nothing until the soft voice answered directly behind him, the breath of the one speaking brushing against the skin of his neck.





“You have spies in place?” the voice asked.





He didn’t bother to turn around; he was already shaking badly, and looking into his master’s face would only make it worse.





“I… I do,” he answered, swallowing.





“And you weren’t too obvious?” the voice asked again, making him shiver further. The voice was soft and deep, and filled with anger, hate, and a palpable sense of power.





“No one would ever suspect…” he began, before being cut off.





“And you keep watch on their father?”





“Of course,” he said in a whine. He knew what the price of failure was.





“He’s the only one who can stop me,” the voice said slowly, and with growing anger, “and so he must die. But he must die in the manner I have chosen; the price must be paid.”





“Of course, my Lord,” he said frantically. “Everything will be just as you’ve planned.”





“As it must,” the voice said, and now there was a hint of dismissal in its tone. “Let the others know that they must be ready.”





He sat waiting for more, some sound, some sign, but heard and felt nothing. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity he looked around and found himself alone in the small clearing. Still shaking, he wiped his face with a dirty handkerchief before Apparating away with a loud ‘Pop.’








A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. Now the mystery begins!

Chapter Four: Reactions, Expected and Unexpected


The next morning Sirius and the Weasleys ate breakfast as usual, their long experience at looking innocent serving them well. Only Lillian gave him odd looks, proving once again that he couldn’t hide anything from her.

Finally he leaned over and whispered, “I’m sure you’ll find out not too long from now.”

His words were punctuated by a commotion from the entry to the Great Hall. Students were pointing and laughing, and a figure was moving through the crowd towards the Gryffindor table. The figure turned out to be a crazed looking McFarren, his eyes wild and his hair unkempt. He was still dressed in his pajamas, making him seem even more deranged.

He walked right up to Sirius.

“I know it was you, Potter, don’t try to deny it!” he shouted, and a crowd gathered for what they assumed would be a great fight.

“Deny what, McFarren?” Sirius said with a blank look on his face.

McFarren’s features contorted with rage, but he backed down slightly as he looked behind Sirius; the Weasleys were all sitting quietly at the table watching.

“I’ll make you pay for it, Potter, believe me,” McFarren finally said in a whisper, too quietly for anyone but Sirius to hear. “And I know just how to do it. You Potters are all the same; all I have to do is make your family suffer,” and McFarren’s eyes flickered towards Lillian, “and you’ll know whose fault it was.”

Sirius knew the other boy was trying to goad him into a fight; anyone who knew anything about Sirius would know that any kind of threat to his family would be inviting a fist to the mouth. Sirius fought down the urge to oblige those expectations and smiled. It was a hard smile, but a smile nonetheless.

“You don’t have what it takes to do anything to anyone in my family,” Sirius said calmly, but also loud enough for all around him to hear. “Any one of them could take you in any kind of a fair fight. Or would you try and sneak up behind them and kick them down the stairs? That would be just like you, coward.”

There was laughter throughout the crowd as McFarren’s fury grew. He began yelling and ranting, saying things about the Potter family that were making Sirius’ teeth grind. Sirius kept his temper in check, barely, and kept his smile in place. Then McFarren started talking about his mum, and Sirius’ smile vanished instantly.

“Nobody talks about my mother that way,” Sirius said in a quiet voice.

“What are you going to do about it?” McFarren asked smugly, certain that he was about to get the fight he wanted. As long as Sirius threw the first punch, most of the blame would go to him.

“Nothing,” said a voice behind McFarren, and he turned to find James Potter, his face livid, looking at him.

“I suppose the mighty Head-Boy is going to stop him then,” McFarren said, not quite willing to give up.

James, at least two inches shorter and thirty pounds lighter than McFarren, moved so quickly that even though everyone was watching it took them several moments to realize that he had punched McFarren in the nose, sending the other boy toppling to the floor with blood steaming out of both nostrils. Sirius was stunned.

“Nobody talks about our mother that way,” James said firmly before turning around and walking away.

He didn’t get far before Hermione was there, and very soon all three of them had detentions. Sirius didn’t think it was fair, since he hadn’t done anything.

When he said so, Hermione took him aside and hissed “Don’t think that I don’t know exactly who pulled that prank last night, Sirius. If I could prove it, you’d be in a whole lot more trouble.”

Sirius kept his mouth shut after that; there was no point in giving her enough reason to find the proof. The worst part, as far as Sirius and James were concerned, was that their detention would be served that day, with their father.

Harry had been coming to talk to Sirius about his fighting, and now, at Hermione’s request, he was going to talk to both of them. And he had taught at Hogwarts before, so he knew about giving a horrible detention, as all of his kids knew.

James and Sirius both sat in the empty Transfiguration class, waiting for their father to show up.

“That was a pretty wicked punch,” Sirius said finally, not looking up.

“Well, I have watched you for a few years now. It would be a shame if I never picked up anything,” James said with a grin that quickly faded. “I think I know how you feel, though, after experiencing that. I couldn’t help it; once he started saying those things, I couldn’t hold back. Is that what it’s like for you?”

Before Sirius could reply, Harry strode into the room, the door banging shut behind him. His face was calm, but stern, and both of his sons braced themselves for the telling off they knew was coming.

Instead, however, Harry calmly sat down next to them.

“What happened?” he asked simply, and waited.

James and Sirius exchanged surprised glances, and then James started explaining what had happened in the Great Hall, including exactly what McFarren had said about their family and their mother in particular, and finishing by pointing out that Sirius hadn’t done anything.

Harry’s lips tightened at hearing what had been said. “Why didn’t you hit him, Sirius?” he asked finally.

Sirius opened and closed his mouth a few times in surprise, before replying. “I promised Aunt Hermione that I wouldn’t get into any more fights.”

“Well, I won’t condone fighting, but I won’t be angry with my kids for doing exactly what I would have done,” he said finally. “But I know from talking to Hermione that you did something to provoke the boy, Sirius. What did you do?”

Harry was looking intently at him, and Sirius closed off his mind before answering. “Nothing big,” he said evasively. “I called him a coward in front of the entire school.”

That should ring true, since it was, and satisfy his father’s Legilimency. Harry knew when he was being lied to, but Sirius had learned how to tell the truth without telling the whole truth. Plus, he could use Occlumency if he needed to, though he hated lying to his family.


His dad seemed to accept what he was saying, though, and didn’t push the issue.

“Well, we have a few hours of detention to serve together,” Harry said finally. “How about some dueling practice?”

His sons grinned and pulled out their wands, while Harry cleared back some desks with a wave of his hand.

For the next several hours they fought back and forth, James and Sirius fighting their dad together, while he showed them several new spells, and helped them with non-verbal spells and wandless magic. James was showing a good bit of talent in both, though Sirius knew he could do better. He still didn’t want anyone to see how good he was.

Finally, Harry called for them to stop, and all three of them sat down breathing heavily.

“That was fun,” Harry said. “I should come up here and do this more often.”

“That would be brilliant,” James said, agreeing.

“Well, we’ll have to see what time I can get off from driving the bus. James, why don’t you go and get your sisters so I can say goodbye to them too.”

As James left, Sirius felt a momentary panic rise up, certain he was going to be in trouble now; Harry always kept punishments private, saying anything was between him and the child being punished.

“I had planned on doing this alone with you, Sirius, to help you work out some aggression,” Harry said. “Your mother and I were getting worried about your inability to keep the rules, but I don’t think we realized what’s been going on, completely. James told me about McFarren kicking you off the train in a letter, and I know that it was Nott that started the fight earlier this year. If you could keep yourself from fighting even after what McFarren said about your mother, I think you’re doing just fine. I don’t really approve of the pranks, either, but since I can’t prove anything…” Harry trailed off and smiled.

Sirius was gaping at his father in shock. The last thing he had expected from his father was understanding. Adults never understood what was going on. Harry read his son’s face accurately and smiled.

“Don’t be too surprised,” he said, laughing, “I ended up in detention lots of times when I didn’t deserve it, and lots of times when I did. I know what it’s like. And I’m glad to see you’re doing better with the fighting.”

Sirius couldn’t think of anything to say as his father hugged him. Then all of his siblings were back, and Harry was saying goodbye to them too.

Sirius couldn’t help feeling that his family couldn’t be cooler.

***

When Sirius entered the dormitory that night, all of the quadruplets were waiting for him with solemn faces.

“What happened?” Jack asked slowly, as though fearing the answer.

“Are our Marauding days over already?” Chris added, as though he were already sure of the answer.

“We had dueling practice,” Sirius answered smugly, “and I think we need to start planning how to top our last adventure with Nott as our target.”

All of the Weasleys mouths dropped open in shock.

“You have the coolest dad ever,” Brian said in awe.

“I know,” Sirius answered, then grew more serious. “I think we need to keep an eye on McFarren with the Map, though. He threatened my brother and sisters, and I don’t want him to get away with anything.”

“That should be fun in and of itself,” Lee said with a grin.

***

Sure enough, for the next few weeks McFarren could be spotted on the Map, waiting where one of Sirius’ siblings would pass, or waiting near the Gryffindor table. And whenever he was, he would have Sirius or one of the Weasleys tap him on the shoulder and ask him what he was up to, or have one of them walk by with a cold glare. He began to get jumpy about it, too, much to their delight. Lee summed it up for all of them; “Paranoia suits him.”

Finally it seemed like he gave up, and they congratulated themselves on a job well done. They were busy, between classes and constant Quidditch practices, and keeping an eye on McFarren as well was stretching their time, so it was good that he gave up. They had decided to wait for a big prank against Nott and his cronies until after the first Quidditch match, deciding that they wanted the Slytherins defeat to be completely fair.

The morning of the match, Sirius gathered his four cousins around him.

“The Slytherins are going to be up to something here,” he told them. “They’ll be aiming for Lillian, so keep an eye on her.”

“Quidditch has always been a great medium for revenge,” Jack said happily.




A/N: Okay, so this chapter didn't end very well, at least in my opinion, but a lot of what I wanted to do in this chapter needs to wait until the next chapter. I'm sorry, because that also makes this chapter short. Sometimes I don't know what's going to happen until I write it, and this was one of those times. The next chapter will be longer, and have a much more exciting cliffhanger.

Chapter Five: A First Glimpse of Evil


Sirius wiped sweat from his eyes as he scanned the Pitch, watching the Bludger and deciding where he should intercept it. The match was going reasonably well for Gryffindor; they were up sixty points, and Sirius had almost no doubt that Lillian would catch the Snitch before the Slytherin Seeker, who appeared to be tailing Lillian everywhere she went. The only problem, as seemed always to be the case, was how dirty the game was getting. The Slytherins were determined to cause as many injuries as they could, if they couldn’t win, and all of the Weasley chasers were sporting minor cuts and bruises. Sirius and Greg were returning as good as the Slytherins gave, in their way, but legally, and that left them at a disadvantage.

Sirius intercepted the Bludger as he’d planned and knocked it towards one of the Slytherin Beaters. He was good, and knocked it right back, which Sirius had been planning on. Instead of hitting the Bludger again, he rolled beneath his broomstick and let the Bludger fly past him and into the Slytherin Chaser he had seen coming. The crowd roared with laughter and applause as the Chaser dropped the ball and Lee caught it up, zooming back towards the Slytherin goal posts. Sirius followed, waving at the crowd to a fresh wave of cheers.

“And Sirius Potter tricks the Slytherin Beater into Bludgering his own team-mate, allowing the devilishly good-looking Lee Weasley to take possession of the Quaffle!” Chris said, his voice booming out over the Pitch. For a wonder, Hermione said nothing about the show of favoritism. She must be upset about the way the Slytherins are playing too, Sirius thought dryly.

Sirius stayed next to Lee as he wove through the Slytherin players toward the goal posts; he had to knock back a Bludger three times, sending the furious Slytherin Beaters dodging out of the way. As two of the Slytherin Chasers caught up to try and steal the Quaffle, Sirius signaled Greg urgently. The other Beater responded quickly, hitting a Bludger towards Sirius, who had the right angle to hit it at one of the Chasers. He managed a square hit, and though the other player managed to stay on her broom, she spiraled out of control down to the ground. The other chaser, expecting to have a second person to distract Lee, was dodged easily. Lee made a great pass to Jack, who was waiting on the goal post farthest from the Keeper, Damian Zabini, and the next goal was scored.

Sirius swung away while the Quaffle was being put back into play in Slytherin possession, marking where Lillian was still looking for the Snitch, and finding the two Bludgers instantly. One was being pelted at Brian, who dodged at the last minute, and Greg was knocking the other away from Lillian. The Slytherins had been aiming for Lillian more than they would have normally, as far as Sirius could tell, but so far nothing had happened that made Sirius think they were trying to do anything more than improve their chances for winning. Sirius was still sure they would use the Quidditch match as a chance to get their revenge, and he was ready to stop it at all costs.

Sirius was just getting ready to go after the first one to herd it towards the action, when a shouted warning from Lee caused him to turn and dive. The hurled Beater’s bat must have been aimed poorly to begin with, however, because it connected with Sirius’ face despite the dive. Sirius saw stars for a few moments, and had to shake his head to clear his mind, sending drops of blood flying in both directions. As his vision cleared, he barely realized he was hurtling towards the ground in time to stop himself. He leveled off and headed back into the air, his ears ringing with both the impact and his rage. The Beater who had thrown the bat was watching him smugly, barely acknowledging the telling off he was getting from the referee. Hermione was on her feet as well, sternly chastising Chris, who must have said something particularly inappropriate by his chagrined expression. Sirius spat out blood and shook his head again, though that worsened the headache that was developing. Lillian was looking at him questioningly and he gave her a thumbs up and a determined smile, and she waved, acknowledging that he didn’t need a time out. Gryffindor got a penalty shot, which Lee made easily, and the game was back on.

Sirius was sure he had a concussion, and assumed his nose was broken as well. His headache was getting worse, and his aim was being thrown off when his vision would start swimming again occasionally. Still, he managed to hold his own, and the crowd was cheering him on wildly.

An hour later, the match still wasn’t over, Lillian still hadn’t been attacked in an untoward manner, and Sirius was starting to feel weak. The score was still in favor of the Gryffindors, though now only by forty. Still, Lillian hardly ever missed the Snitch, and against the Slytherin Chaser, who still hadn’t made a move for herself, it wasn’t likely she would miss this one. And then suddenly, while Sirius was flying above Lillian, knocking a Bludger away from her, the Snitch appeared. Lillian shot off in quick pursuit, with the Slytherin Chaser hard on her heels. Sirius kept pace above them, determined to keep anything away from his sister. Lillian was within a foot of the Snitch when he noticed both of the Slytherin Beaters closing in, one directly below him, both about to hit Bludgers in front of them. They were close enough to Lillian that it would be difficult for them to miss, and Sirius was not in the best position to stop them, though he knew he had to try.

Gritting his teeth, Sirius leapt off of his broom. Time seemed to slow down as he fell toward the Beater below him, landing astride the broom behind the startled boy, and hitting the Bludger before the other had a chance, feeling intensely grateful for the top-of-the-line cushioning charm built into the Cleansweep Fury. The Bludger careened into the Slytherin Chaser while Sirius guided the unwilling broomstick he was on into the path of the second Bludger, hit by the second Beater. Sirius had intended on having the Slytherin in front of him knocked off the broom, but hadn’t counted on the other boy fighting him so hard for control. He barely had time to curse before he was knocked from the broom instead, the impact from the Bludger knocking him out before he could hit the ground.

***

“That was an impressive stunt,” the voice hissed, and the man cowered at the hate that filled the voice.

“My Lord?” he asked meekly, not trusting himself to agree or disagree. Either one could get him killed.

“I want you to stir things up a bit,” the voice said after a short pause. “Build some public ill-will against the Potters. This Quidditch match should give you all the opportunity you need.”

“Yes, my Lord,” the man said, knowing just how to take advantage of the whole situation, not just the Quidditch match.

***

Sirius woke up in the hospital wing feeling comfortable and drowsy, lying back in a bed. He could hear his teammates around him, joking and laughing about the match, and he knew he must not be badly injured. He opened his eyes gingerly, expecting the sudden light to start the headache up again, but it didn’t. He felt fine.

“Did we win?” he croaked, before reaching for the water on the table next to his bed.

“Of course we did, Sirius,” Brian said with a laugh. “Lillian had caught the Snitch right before you got yourself knocked out.”

“It’s kind of funny, really,” Jack said with amusement in his voice. “You going to all that trouble to keep her from getting hit, and it wasn’t even necessary.” Everyone laughed, including Lillian.

“Leave off,” she told them good naturedly. “Even if we had already won, I would rather it were Sirius hit by the Bludger than me. I think he likes it.”

Sirius joined in the laughter this time.

“Did anyone catch my broom,” he asked, remembering that he hadn’t been on his own broom the last he remembered.

“Right here,” Chris said while holding it up. “It flew straight at the top box, and I think it would have hit Aunt Hermione if Professor Lupin hadn’t summoned it. Too bad.” All four of the Weasleys shook their heads in disappointment while Ron Jr. let out an indignant “Hey!”

“Sirius?” another voice called, and Sirius turned to see Muriel coming into the room, grinning.

“Hi, sis,” he said with a smile.

“That was wicked, Sirius. Everyone’s talking about the way you jumped off your broom. Have you seen James? He was supposed to meet me here,” she said in a rush.

“He hasn’t been here that I’ve seen,” Sirius said, and looked at Lillian. She shook her head as well.

“He’s probably off doing some Head Boy thing,” Jack said dismissively, but Sirius was growing a little concerned. James would have come straight to the hospital wing unless there was a very good reason not to.

“Maybe we should go find him,” he said uneasily, just as Madame Pomfrey bustled up.

“You won’t be going anywhere until I say you can,” she said sternly, and began checking him over.

His teammates laughed and went off to find James themselves, sure that they would find him before Sirius would be cleared to leave.

Sure enough, Sirius was sentenced to the rest of the day in bed, and the others were back well before the day was over, though their faces were somber as they levitated James’ battered body in front of them.

***

The Great Hall was humming with excited chatter as students talked about the exciting Quidditch game they’d witnessed that morning. The Slytherin table was more subdued, though a knot was clustered around McFarren who was talking loudly about how all of Sirius’ exploits were probably on accident.

“I mean, he fell off of his broom! It was luck that he landed on the other one, and an accident that got him knocked out. If he’d done it on purpose, would he have been hit by the Bludger? That’s the only reason Gryffindor ever wins; luck,” he finished, to nods from everyone around him.

“Look, here he comes now,” McFarren went on, pointing at Sirius, who had just entered the room and was walking toward them. “It looks like the blow to his head is still giving him trouble.” The Slytherins laughed; Sirius was wearing the hospital pajamas, and looked a little crazy.

Sirius was almost to them. “Hey Potter…” McFarren began, but was cut off as Sirius hit him in the face, knocking him back off of his bench. No one had time to react before Sirius had picked him up again by the collar of his robes and was punching him repeatedly in the face.

“How does that feel?” Sirius shouted, his eyes blazing. He got in one last punch before he jerked back and away from McFarren as though he’d been shocked.

Hermione stood in the aisle between the tables, her wand raised and her face white with anger.

“Sirius Potter, what is the meaning of this?” she said in a quiet voice. Slytherins who had been watching the fight with open mouths were now finding excuses to leave. No one wanted to be around when Professor Weasley started using that tone.

“He almost killed James,” Sirius said, glaring daggers at both Hermione and McFarren, who was starting to coming to his senses, wiping at the blood running down his face.

“I didn’t do anything to James,” McFarren denied loudly.

“Liar!” Sirius shouted, before running after him again. Hermione raised her wand and cast a full-body bind, but Sirius merely turned to look at her. There was no doubt this time; his eyes were glowing with actual fire. The spell bounced off of him without doing anything. He turned back towards McFarren and had him pinned up against the wall again. McFarren was cowering in the face of his fiery gaze, whimpering with fear. Hermione tried again, but the spell merely bounced off again, and Sirius didn’t even turn her way.

“I’ll make you pay for what you did, McFarren,” Sirius shouted; by now the entire student body was watching in awe. Then Sirius noticed the flames that were growing on his hands, causing McFarrens robes to smoke and blacken. Sirius was so shocked that he dropped McFarren to stare at his hands. The flames vanished, and Sirius looked up in confusion, just before two stunning spells, from Flitwick and Hermione, hit him squarely in the chest.

***

Lillian watched in horror at the scene before them. The Gryffindor Quidditch team had followed Sirius, after James had been stabilized and taken care of, though they hadn’t been able to keep up. They arrived to see Sirius holding McFarren against the wall, with fire flaring in his eyes and on his hands and arms, while Hermione repeatedly tried to stop him with different spells. Finally, she called Flitwick, who stopped staring in shock and joined her, and both of the cast stunners at Sirius. Only Sirius had already dropped McFarren and was staring at his hands in shock, the flames gone, before he collapsed at the force of the two spells.

Hermione, her eyes wide, though still furious, turned to McFarren and said in a dangerous voice, “Now what is the meaning of this?”

McFarren was so stunned himself, that it took him several moments to speak. Lillian and the Weasleys ran up to tell Hermione what had happened.

“We found James, after the Quidditch match, and he’d been beaten up really badly,” Lillian said with tears in her eyes. “McFarren had threatened to attack James and I to get back at Sirius, and Sirius was sure McFarren had done it. We tried to stop him, but he was too fast.”

Hermione’s eyes had narrowed in anger at hearing about James, and she turned back to McFarren.

“Is this true?” she asked simply.

“No!” McFarren shouted. “I mean… I did threaten them… but I didn’t do anything! I’ve been with people all day who can back me up.”

“You lying…” Lillian shouted, trying to run at him; Chris and Lee caught her and held her back, though they looked like they were about ready to charge themselves.

“He’s not lying, as far as I can tell,” Hermione said quietly. Lillian’s mouth fell open in shock. Harry had taught Hermione Legilimency and she had become very good at it; almost no one could lie to her without her knowing it, and it was absurd to think that McFarren could be one of those few.

“Enough of this,” a deep angry voice interrupted, and Headmaster Shacklebolt strode into the center of the discussion. He was very imposing, and no one dared say a word.

“Professor Weasley, I want you to take McFarren and find these witnesses who were supposedly with him all day and find out for sure. Professor Flitwick, will you kindly escort Miss Potter back to the hospital wing, and take Mr. Potter with you as well. As soon as all three of them are awake, I want to see them in my office. The rest of you will go about your business.”

This last part was directed at the room at large, and all of the students quickly turned back to their food, though no many were eating. Within a minute, a low buzz of excited talk had sprung up as everyone discussed what they had just seen. At the Slytherin table, bets were being placed as to whether or not the Potters would be expelled.

In that same minute, Professor Flitwick was levitating Sirius down the hall while trying to comfort Lillian. The Weasley quadruplets had left with the rest of the team for the Gryffindor common room. When they got to the hospital wing, Muriel looked up from James’ bedside, tears running down her face, and a fresh bout of sobbing took her as she saw Sirius being levitated to the bed next to James.

“I don’t understand,” she sobbed, “what’s going on?”

Lillian put her arms around her sister, though she didn’t try to answer. If McFarren had been telling the truth, she had no idea what was going on either, and she didn’t like that one bit.

***

“First, I want to hear from James,” Shacklebolt said sternly. “Do you have any idea who did this to you?”

James, Lillian, and Sirius were all together in the Headmaster’s office, James looking battered, but not nearly as bad as he had been before, and Sirius had dark circles under his eyes. It took him almost six hours before he could be woken up from being hit by two stunners simultaneously.

“I really don’t know,” James said honestly, with a nervous look at Sirius. “I was walking down the corridor towards the hospital wing, and I think I was stunned, because I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up in a lot of pain.”

“And Sirius, you assumed that it was Mr. McFarren that did this?” Shacklbolt asked.

“He threatened both James and Lillian,” Sirius said heatedly. “I still think it was him.”

“He was with other students all day, and several of the ones who vouched for him were not Slytherins, so they would have no reason to back him up if it wasn’t true,” Shacklebolt said patiently… again.

“Maybe he got someone else to do it for him,” Lillian offered.

“We’ve thought of that, and Professor Weasley has interviewed most of the Slytherin students, and even some others. What was done to James was very serious and we want to get to the bottom of it. But what you did to McFarren, Mr. Potter, given the circumstances, is almost equally serious. Moreover, I want to know how you were able to shake off repeated spells from Professor Weasley, and why you had fire coming out of your eyes.”

Sirius had nothing to say to all of this, so he merely kept his gaze at his feet, while Lillian and James looked at their brother in concern. Or fear, Sirius thought bitterly.

“Very well,” Shacklebolt said with a sigh. “Mr. Potter, I’m giving you nightly detentions with Professor Weasley for the next week. She’s going to work with you to try and find out what is going on with your magical powers. And it won’t be pleasant. Furthermore, if you are caught fighting just one more time after this, I’m going to ban you from playing Quidditch.”

Sirius’ mouth dropped open in shock, and Lillian looked to be on the point of arguing.

“And if that doesn’t stop this behavior, Mr. Potter, I will be forced to expel you.”

Sirius was dumbstruck. He’d been threatened by Hermione with this before, but it had never been serious.

Shacklebolt sighed and rubbed his eyes. “You know that I think very highly of your father, and your family, Mr. Potter, and I would really prefer that matters not make that necessary. Please see that they don’t.”

Sirius nodded numbly. Lillian was equally shocked.

“Mr. Potter,” Shacklebolt went on, turning to James, “I am sorry about this attack. I’ve already spoken with your father and mother about it, and I want to reassure you, as I did them, that we will find out who was responsible.”

James nodded soberly.

“Until we do find out who was responsible, I would ask the three of you not to accuse anyone else, and also to leave the investigation to the staff. And…” Shacklebolt hesitated. “And please be careful. This seems aimed at your family in particular, and there is no shortage of people here who have reason to hate you. Keep an eye on each other, and on your younger sister. And if you need to defend yourself or your family, Mr. Potter,” he said turning back to Sirius, “I will not punish you for that.”

With that, he dismissed them all, and they all made their way soberly back to the Gryffindor common room. There didn’t seem to be anything to say.

***

Three days later, Sirius was stalking angrily down the hall. His detentions with Hermione were awful. She seemed to believe that the spikes in his power came when he was angry, so she spent the entire time trying to make him mad. She was very good at it, and he generally spent the time feeling as furious as he thought he could be, but there was still no change.

Truthfully, Sirius felt like destroying something, but the threats he had received in the Headmaster’s office were never far from his mind. Being banned from Quidditch seemed even worse than being expelled, though he knew his parents wouldn’t see it that way. He was going to stay out of trouble this time.

That was the last thought in his head as he rounded the corner and found himself staring at the body of Timothy McFarren, lying in the hall with blank eyes staring into space.

He heard a squeak of surprise and horror behind him turned to find Professor Flitwick staring at him in shock. He opened his mouth to deny that he had done anything, but Flitwick, perhaps remembering how difficult it had been to stop him in the Great Hall, stunned him instantly.


A/N: Okay, THIS is my idea of a better cliffhanger, and a better chapter in general. And... I'm not one to complain about reviews or anything, but it seems like the reviews have fizzled a bit over the last couple of chapters. I'll keep posting as quick as usual and everything, but it doesn't take much to give a review, the box is right below this message. Plus, if you have good ideas, I'd love to hear about them; this book isn't finished by any means, and I would able and happy to incorporate anything that doesn't violate my major plot points. Okay, I'll stop whining now. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Six: Murder


When Sirius woke up he found himself seated in the Headmaster’s office, though no one else was present. As his last waking memories slowly filtered back to him, he realized that he was probably being held pending some kind of investigation. There was no place more secure than this office; Sirius had heard about his father’s ability to open any door in Hogwarts without passwords or keys, but so far he had been unable to duplicate that.

He slumped back in his chair, despair filling him. At the least he would probably be banned from Quidditch, and, depending how badly McFarren had been hurt, maybe even expelled. Unless someone actually believes that I had nothing to do with that, he thought bitterly. He knew there was little chance of that, given the rivalry that had arisen, but maybe the fact that he had been with Hermione so soon beforehand would help him.

Sirius wanted to get out, to escape. He had no desire to face his parents with this, though on second thought his father had been exceptionally understanding the last time. Still, this was much more serious; running away was sounding better and better. His thoughts turned inward. I want to escape, his mind shouted. He felt something shifting inside of him, something hot, something that needed to shift, but before it could complete its course, a voice interrupted him, causing himself to come to his senses in a sudden wave of confusion.

“I don’t believe I could count the number of times I’ve had Potters in this office for some kind of trouble, but I’ve never seen one of them try to light himself on fire to escape it.” The voice came from the portrait of Albus Dumbledore who was blinking down at him from behind his half-moon spectacles with a kindly expression on his face. “It is far better to bear up and face whatever’s coming, Sirius.”

“I wasn’t trying to light myself on fire,” Sirius said flatly. What was I doing?

“If you insist, Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore said with a smile. “We shall ignore the flames bursting from you skin as we shall ignore your smoking robes.”

Sirius looked down quickly to discover hat his robes were smoking in several places.

“Regardless,” Dumbledore went on, “I thought it might interest you to know that I had been observing you from a portrait in Professor Weasley’s office, and followed you afterward. I must say I find your behavior recently to be fascinating, after all. And I witnessed you come upon the body of the unfortunate young Mr. McFarren, so the Headmaster knows that you are innocent in this matter.”

There was a slight emphasis on ‘in this matter,’ that went along with a slight smile and rising of eyebrows that Sirius chose to ignore.

“The testimony of a Portrait isn’t admissible legal evidence, sir,” Sirius said glumly instead.

“That is true, but my testimony has led to the Headmaster seeking other evidence in this matter that should be able to clear you. This is a dreadful business,” Dumbledore went on, the smile fading and a sincerely sorrowful expression replacing it. “Headmaster Dippet was never the same after he had to deal with the death of a student during his tenure at Hogwarts.”

“Death?” Sirius asked quietly while the blood drained from his face. “I… I didn’t like him, but…”

“Yes, I know, Sirius,” Dumbledore said soothingly. “Like your father, you have no shortage of enemies, but you never wish the worst upon them. It is a trait I have always found admirable in your family. Still, now you see just how serious this situation is.”

“I need to get out of here,” Sirius groaned. Forget being expelled, they’ll probably throw me in Azkaban. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me the password?”

“Of course not, Sirius,” Dumbledore said in surprise. “I told you, they are looking for the real perpetrator of this horrible crime, and if you were to run now, that would be like admitting your guilt as far as the Aurors are concerned.”

Just then the door burst open, and Headmaster Shacklebolt came in with Sirius’ uncle, Ron Weasley. The Auror and the former Auror were deep in conversation, and didn’t notice that Sirius was awake right away. Professor Dumbledore suddenly appeared to be asleep again.

“We know it wasn’t him, and Harry would destroy us both if you expelled him. Give me more time, and I’ll find out who’s responsible,” Ron was saying to some unknown comment.

“I don’t have more time,” Shacklebolt said in a frustrated tone. “I had to inform the McFarrens that their son was dead immediately, and they want someone to blame. Harry has to understand that.”

“I’m sure Harry will understand that,” Ron answered, “But Harry would argue that justice is the answer, not arbitrary punishment. And I would agree with him.”

Kingsley’s glance finally drifted towards Sirius, whom he noticed was sitting upright and listening intently and fearfully.

“Sirius,” he said in an even tone, “I’m glad to see you are awake. What do you know about this incident?”

Sirius gulped once before telling exactly what had happened, while Dumbledore nodded encouragingly from over Shacklebolt’s shoulder. Ron also tried to smile at him, but the smile was forced.

“I swear I didn’t do anything,” Sirius finished lamely, cursing his inability to say anything more convincing.

“I know that you’re innocent, Sirius, but you have to understand that our only witness cannot testify in the Wizengamot,” Shacklebolt said regretfully. “I’m afraid that I have no choice but to suspend you from Hogwarts, temporarily of course, and put you in the custody of the Aurors until the real culprit is found.”

Sirius felt numb except for a bout of nausea growing in the pit of his stomach. Before he could say anything, however, the door burst open and Harry Potter strode in, eyes flashing furiously.

“That will not be happening!” Harry said without preamble, placing himself squarely next to his son. Ginny followed after him, looking worried but determined as she walked over and gave Sirius a hug.

“Harry,” Kingsley said, frustration and resignation heavy in his deep voice. “If I thought there was some way to secure my office…”

“Don’t try to change the subject, Kingsley,” Harry snarled. He turned to Sirius. “Did you do anything to warrant suspension and being turned over to the Aurors?”

Sirius felt his father’s formidable presence in his mind and surrendered his defenses.

“No,” he said quietly, but fiercely, as he allowed his father to view everything that happened, knowing what was coming.

“Very well, then,” Harry said with a grim smile. “As a registered Legilimens, I can testify that he has done nothing.”

“Come on, Harry,” Ron interrupted. “You know that your familial connection would call that testimony into suspicion, and an alibi corroborated through Ligilimency is never sufficient evidence to warrant release of a suspect with this much evidence against him. We need something more substantial.”

“My lawyers are already at the Ministry, Ron, and you know I have enough power, political and otherwise, to get my way. I feel badly for the McFarrens, and if you want help with the investigation I’d be happy to take my badge back, but you are not going to punish my son for something that he hasn’t done.” Harry’s voice softened considerably, though he was far from gentle as he continued. “I haven’t yet authorized my lawyers to call into question the policy of having my son stunned first for questioning later.”

There was a long pause in the office as Shacklebolt dropped his head in frustration.

“That was ill-advised, Harry, but Sirius had thrown off several spells before, from Professor Weasley no less, when he was in the process of beating the stuffing out of the same student. Professor Flitwick did what he deemed necessary; don’t ruin his career over it,” he said reasonably.

“I’ll do whatever I feel is necessary,” Harry said firmly, then seemed to hesitate before continuing. “I am on the Board of Directors, you know.”

Sirius looked at his father in shock; he’d never revealed that to any of his kids.

Kingsley looked as if he had been dealt a low blow.

“You’ll have me removed if I don’t comply?” he asked finally.

“You know I can, Kingsley, and if you’re willing to punish a student who did nothing, I think it’s necessary.”

Kingsley sighed in defeat. “I can’t stop word of what happened from getting to the papers, and they’re going to have a field day with it…. but you win. Sirius won’t be punished.”

“I have to keep him under surveillance, however,” Ron interrupted. “We have procedure to follow, as you should remember.”

“That’s fine, Ron,” Harry said, conceding now in good grace. “And I meant what I said about joining up again.”

Ron hesitated before declining the offer. “It’s too close to home for you; I’ve already been given warnings since he’s my nephew. You wouldn’t be allowed near the case, and I don’t think we have anything else available right now that would interest you more than driving the bus.” This last part was said with considerable amusement.

Harry smiled. “Probably not, though I’m sure your office appreciates the tips I give every now and again. I do learn things.”

“That you do, Harry,” Ron answered, and then frowned. “Well, I have reports to file. This will cause something of an uproar at the Ministry, no matter how soon we can find who really did it. And I want to see Hermione before I go.”

He and Harry shook hands and he hugged Ginny, before leaving the office.

Harry hesitated. “I know this was underhanded of me, Kingsley, but you know as well as I do that punishing Sirius would not be justice.”

“It would have been temporary, Harry, and it would have saved me, the school, and Sirius a lot of trouble. He’ll have to watch out for the other Slytherins now, because no matter what happens, they’ll think he’s guilty. And I’m not sure how the other houses will react either.”

“Suspending him would make him look much worse…” Harry said calmly. “I really think this is best.”

“I trust your judgment, Harry,” Kingsley said, finally smiling. “And since you’ll get your fair share of the media chaos that’s about to ensue, I’ll forgive you.”

The two men shook hands, before Harry and Ginny hustled Sirius out of the office.

***

Their first stop upon leaving was an empty classroom, and Sirius found himself seated and facing his parents, who studied him while looking unusually somber.

After a moment of silence, Sirius grew uncomfortable.

“I really didn’t do anything,” he said finally, looking at both of them.

“We know, Sirius,” Ginny said finally. “We’re not going to accuse you of anything; we need to give you some advice, and tell you some things. I think he can handle it.” This last part was aimed at Harry, who nodded slowly, though he appeared surprised that Ginny had said so.

“Very well,” he said. “Sirius, Headmaster Shacklebolt was right about how much trouble you are going to face from the other students. I know exactly what it’s like to be thought of as a vicious killer by all but a few students in the school, and it isn’t fun. Truthfully, if it was just you we had to worry about, we’d have let Shacklebolt have his way and taken you home right now.”

Sirius was confused. “So…?”

“We need you to stay and look after your brother and sisters,” Ginny said finally. “We know you hold back on how much you can do with your magic, and we know you’ve been practicing at home since you were nine. Just because the Ministry can’t detect anything at our house doesn’t mean we can’t.”

“And we know that you are more capable in a fight than any of your siblings,” Harry said. “Something is happening… something big. Mundungus tells me that the entire Wizarding underworld is moving, and a lot of the old Death Eaters who got out of punishment are a lot more arrogant these days. And I feel… hatred… being directed at our family. I don’t know how I can sense it, but all of this together tells me that something bad is happening. I’m going to try and find out what it is, but in the meantime, I need you to make sure that you and your brother and sisters are safe.” Harry’s eyes twinkled briefly. “Use the Marauder’s Map and the Cloak to make sure no one is here that shouldn’t be. And let me take care of them if there is.”

Sirius reddened at finding that his father had discovered his possessions missing. As he tried to stammer an apology, his father waved the theft away.

“I was only looking for the Map, because I wanted to check it while I was here,” he said. “I think some ‘constant vigilance’ on your part will be better, anyway.”

After a little discussion, his parents bid him farewell, and he found himself heading back to Gryffindor Tower. Maybe I should have wanted to go home, he thought, as he considered the responsibility that his parents had placed on him. He also dreaded what he knew he would be facing the next morning.

***

Murder at Hogwarts! Only Suspect Wandering Free

Many students at Hogwarts have jokingly said that the children of Harry Potter, the savior of the Wizarding World and beloved Knight Bus driver, could get away with murder. Is that what is happening right now? Sirius Potter, third child in the Potter family, was found next to the dead body of a bitter rival, but no disciplinary action has been taken.
“We know it was him,” Thomas Nott, a fourth-year Slytherin reported. “He threatened McFarren repeatedly in front of the entire school. His dad must have gotten him off the hook.”
“There is no direct evidence linking Sirius Potter to the crime,” Ron Weasley, Senior Auror in charge of the investigation told the Daily Prophet in a Press Conference yesterday. This same Ron Weasley is also Sirius Potter’s uncle, which leads this journalist to question his involvement in the investigation.
While Harry Potter is reasonably one of the most well-respected Wizards of the age, due to his defeat of the Dark Wizard Voldemort, should his children be allowed to commit heinous crimes themselves?

The article went on for some time, calling Sirius’ parents ‘indulgent’ and he and his siblings ‘spoiled.’ Sirius watched as James scowled while reading more. No one who had been raised by Harry and Ginny Potter would ever call themselves spoiled; Harry and Ginny had believed that children needed to be taught the value of work, and spending money was not often given.

Still, the students of Hogwarts had grown tired of watching Potters and Weasleys excel at everything; if they were being favored, their recognition for their actions wasn’t real, and everyone else could feel better at themselves. The Slytherin table was filled with people glaring at the Gryffindor table, and Sirius in particular. James was the only one whom the Ravenclaws would speak with, and the Hufflepuffs merely looked frightened of everyone.

Sirius had been taunted repeatedly by an angry Thomas Nott.

“Am I next, Potter? Is everyone that crosses you in some way going to end up dead?” That was the least of what he got.

Still, the Weasleys were loyal, of course, and so were the rest of the Gryffindors. The quadruplets had agreed to help Sirius keep watch on the Marauder’s map, grimly declaring their intention to clear Sirius and catch the real culprit.

Though his parents had told him otherwise, Sirius fully intended to do just that. If someone was trying to harm his family, they were going to find Sirius Potter standing in their way.

***

“Very good,” the voice said, filled with malicious glee as it laughed at the article in the Daily Prophet. “Better than I could have expected. You have done very well, and you will be rewarded, both now and when I come to my full power.”

A heavy bag clinked to the ground in front of him, and the man fought the urge to grab it eagerly and spill out the gold inside. Instead, he casually bent over and picked it up, putting it into his pocket unopened. It had been heavy, though.

“Th-Thank you, my lord,” he said, shaking with relief.

“And your contact inside? He will not be suspected?” The voice was filled with challenge.

“N-No, my lord,” he said, shaking his head, “he will not be suspected. He’s a student, you see…”

“Good,” the voice said as it cut him off. “Then everything is proceeding exactly the way it must.”

The dark forest echoed with the voice’s insane cackling.


A/N: I'd like to thank everyone that left reviews for the last chapter, and I hope you'll all like this chapter as well.

Chapter Seven: Anguis


The first attack was aimed at Muriel; Jack, who had been watching the Marauder’s Map, ran into a hallway to stop the Slytherin first years from pushing her around and shouting at her. He cast several stinging hexes and had the Slytherins running in terror in less than thirty seconds, while Muriel hugged him tightly, weepingly asking why they would attack her. Sirius had wanted to teach them all a lesson, but the first year Gryffindors had quick wits and Muriel was their hero. They also carried a grudge; Muriel didn’t go anywhere after that without several other Gryffindor students with her, and for about two weeks, the hospital wing was filled with first year Slytherins who had suffered magical “accidents” in the hallways.

James caught less than the rest of them, being a Ravenclaw and Head Boy, but he was being forced report more and more students to their teachers for their behavior, and students from every house began to grow angrier at him because he was fair. Gryffindors were sent to detention as often as anyone else, and that made them wonder whose side he was on, while the Slytherins just hated him because he was a Potter. Eventually, several of his Ravenclaw friends started accompanying him around the halls as well.

Lillian was starting to get into more fights than Sirius had been getting in before his warning, and Hermione and Headmaster Shacklebolt were none too pleased about it. Half of the fights were self-defense; she was attacked in the hallways more often than the rest of them, and she refused to let anyone protect her. She always won, and whoever tried always regretted it. The other half of the time, however, she was attacking Slytherins who spoke negatively about her family; she had put a group of four Ravenclaws in the hospital wing when she overheard them talking about Sirius being a murderer. She was more on edge than ever, and took a lot of her aggression out on the Quidditch team; practices were more grueling and the team was worked harder than ever. And she was serving detentions almost as often as Sirius, who was still in detention with Hermione three nights out of five.

Sirius hadn’t been involved in a single altercation since the death of McFarren. He’d been attacked in the halls as well, but merely shielded himself and kept walking. The other students were powerless to penetrate the shield, and he found that he enjoyed their frustration immensely. They wanted to get him to fight back, to prove that he was an unhinged, homicidal lunatic, but his steady temper was denying their goals. The quadruplets had begun pranking in earnest, keeping tally of the students that gave the Potters and the Weasleys trouble and making sure that they got their just payback. Sirius helped with a lot of the planning, but they all agreed that he had better not actually be involved in carrying anything out.

All in all, the relationships between the houses were deteriorating quickly, and Sirius had found nothing that could point to the identity of the real murderer, and, judging by his increasingly frustrated frown, Ron Weasley and the Aurors hadn’t either. Ron could be seen roaming the hallways at any given time, watching the interplay between students carefully, and questioning students from each house, but his efforts failed to show any results.

***

Sirius walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts and took his usual seat, while the Slytherins all glared at him and several of them threw bits of paper and garbage at him. He merely raised his shield as usual and ignored them, but their contemptuous treatment of him was really starting to get onto his nerves.

“That’s enough of that, twenty points from Slytherin and detention to the next person to through anything in my class,” Professor Lupin said in a sharp voice as he entered the room.

“Everyone please close your books and come to the front of the room; we’ll have a practical lesson today,” he told them. When everyone was gathered at the front of the room he waved his wand, causing the desks to stack themselves at the sides of the room, leaving a large open space.

“We’ve had plenty of practice in dueling against a single opponent, but in the real world you would more likely find yourself facing several enemies while having friends fight beside you. So today, we will divide into groups of four, and duel in teams of two. I want a Gryffindor and a Slytherin in each pair.”

This brought on a chorus of grumbling, but after shouting a bit and taking away several points from each house, Professor Lupin had them all divided into groups just the way he wanted them. This is how Sirius found himself glaring at Nott as the two of them stood across from Crabbe and Brian, who were also glaring at each other.

“Now, I’m perfectly aware of the recent rivalry that has grown up between the houses,” Professor Lupin began, walking around the room with his hands behind his back. “And I plainly don’t care. If any of you go on to become Aurors or work for the Ministry, or practically no matter what you do, you will be forced to work with people you don’t like. If you are paired with someone you don’t like right now, so much the better; it will give you the opportunity to learn some life lessons, and perhaps even build up some respect and trust in the absence of goodwill. Begin.”

Sirius spared one more glare at Nott before advancing on Brian and Crabbe, determined to take Brian out first since he was decidedly the more dangerous of the two. Surprisingly, Nott kept pace next to him. As spells began to volley back and forth, Sirius began to relax; Nott appeared to be playing by the rules and Sirius had a competitive streak that had him itching to win, even with a teammate like Nott.

Brian suddenly launched a massive Reductor Curse that would have plowed over both Sirius and Nott; Sirius raised a powerful shield large enough to cover both of them, and then blacked out as something hit him hard in the back of the head.

When he woke up he found himself staring into the concerned face of Professor Lupin, and felt a fairly substantial pool of blood growing around his head. He groggily sat up and put a hand to the deep gash before Professor Lupin moved his hand aside and conjured bandages around the wound.

“Sirius, what happened?” he asked, concerned for his student.

“I was just learning a life lesson, Professor,” Sirius said with clenched teeth, his words slightly slurred. “Never trust a Slytherin. Ever.”

Lupin’s eyes widened as he turned around. “Mr. Nott, did you do this?”

“I missed Crabbe, sir, it was an accident,” Nott said arrogantly with a look that plainly said ‘I did it and you can’t do anything about it.’

Lupin’s expression grew severe; he turned to several students who were standing wide-eyed around Sirius and who had been closest to the duel.

“Did anyone here see anything?” he asked.

Predictably, all of the Gryffindors described how Nott had taken advantage of Sirius being distracted and deliberately aiming at the back of Sirius’ head, while all of the Slytherins adamantly denied that they had seen anything intentional.

Remus shook his head in frustration; “This class is over,” he said finally. “I want a twenty-four inch essay from each of you on the history of perjury, and the punishments handed out by the Wizengamot for that crime for the last seventy years, due when we meet next. Get out.”

Professor Lupin bent back to Sirius and helped him up to his feet, ignoring protests and moans about the homework.

“Come on, I’ll take you to the hospital wing,” he said glumly.

Sirius couldn’t remember ever seeing his favorite Professor quite so upset.

“It really was him, Professor,” he said in a tight voice. “I wasn’t even remotely close to any angle he had on Crabbe.”

“I know!” Lupin snapped, “But I can’t really do anything since I didn’t see it myself and half of my class hates you enough to lie about it.”

Sirius couldn’t think of anything to say to this and stayed silent, trying instead to ignore the growing ache in his head.

“I’m sorry, Sirius,” Lupin said after a while. “It’s just that things are starting to get out of hand. The Headmaster is seriously considering confiscating all of the student’s wands between classes. And the Aurors are no closer to finding the real murderer.”

“I know, sir,” Sirius said, shaking his head and then instantly regretting it. “I don’t particularly enjoy having my family threatened and attacked for something I supposedly did, either, but I have been trying to keep things from escalating further.”

“I know you have, and so does the Headmaster,” Remus said softly, “and we all appreciate the efforts you’ve been making. Here you are, then. I’m sorry this happened to you in my class and I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything about it.”

They had arrived at the hospital wing, where Lupin left him in Madame Pomfrey’s reliable care; the old hospital matron grumbled about Potters who couldn’t stay out of the hospital and then gave Sirius several foul-tasting potions and ordered him to stay in bed for the rest of the day.

As Sirius lay back, left with nothing to do but think, he concentrated once again on the strange feelings and power surges he had been experiencing. In the Headmaster’s office, before Dumbledore had interrupted him, he had felt like there was some kind of transformation taking place, as though something inside of him was finally breaking free. Would that transformation complete itself eventually no matter what he did, and would it be a good thing? He decided he wanted to know what was happening, and, no matter the consequences, find out what was inside of him.

He closed his eyes began concentrating again, not on anger, or escape, but on the feeling of that transformation the times when it had come closest. He felt the fire this time, not as a palpable heat, but as a wave coursing over his body. He needed to go farther; he began pouring magical energy into what was happening, not knowing what he was doing, but somehow confident that it would work.

His experiment was interrupted, however, when he heard the door unlatch. Quickly he ceased his efforts and felt the flames immediately die. He looked around and discovered that several hours must have past, because it was dark outside, and his hospital pajamas and bedclothes were charred black. He waved his wand quickly to repair them, and looked up to see Lillian sneaking into the room.

“What are you doing here?” he asked in a harsh whisper.

“I came to see how you were doing, and don’t talk to me that way,” she said snappishly. She didn’t look happy at all.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in a kinder whisper as she came and sat down at the foot of his bead.

“I’m just getting tired of all the hostility,” she said quietly, “and I thought I might spend some time with someone who I thought wouldn’t be so hostile. Things are getting out of hand, Sirius… what’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know,” Sirius whispered, “I’m sure the Aurors will find whoever it was that really killed McFarren, and then things will get back to normal.”

“I don’t think so, Sirius,” she said in despair. “The Slytherins hate us because of who we are, and that won’t change just because the excuse they have now will be proved wrong. They’ll find a new one, and it will keep going. Even the Ravenclaws don’t like us now, and if they weren’t so busy being frightened out of their wits, the Hufflepuffs would too.”

She couldn’t help the quiet laugh that escaped her as she mentioned the fearful Hufflepuffs, and Sirius chuckled along with her.

“Maybe if we let the other teams win at Quidditch they won’t hate us so much,” Sirius suggested with a sly grin.

Lillian punched him in the shoulder, laughing as he winced. “That’s not even an option. Instead, let’s beat them all so severely at Quidditch that we become their heroes and then they won’t hate us so much.”

“That idea does sound better,” Sirius admitted. “Seriously though, I think you should stop fighting them so much. You’re getting in a lot of trouble, and mum and dad are going to blame me if you get expelled for picking up my behavior. And you might find that the Slytherins pay less attention to you when they find that they can’t get you to react to them.”

“You’re right, of course,” Lillian said with a sigh, “but it’s incredibly disturbing to hear you be the voice of reason. That used to be my job.”

“Well, you lost it when…”

Sirius’ reply was cut off, however, as the hospital doors started opening again. Lillian ducked back behind Sirius’ bed and Sirius lay back, pretending to be asleep, though he kept his eyes open enough to see what was going on. He was surprised to see several figures in dark robes entering the room, making an even dozen by the time they stopped coming. He recognized Slytherin robes, and several of them looked familiar enough that he knew they were older students from that house.

Sirius sat up, and Lillian stood next to him, looking around angrily.

“What are you doing here?” she asked angrily, her wand out, though not yet raised.

“We’re paying a night-time visit to our dear friend here,” came the shrill voice of Amy Parkinson, and Sirius could see Lillian tense. The two were far from friends.

“And during this visit,” the deeper voice of Damian Zabini chimed in, “we’re going to show Sirius how it feels to have a bunch of snakes in bed with him, since that was what he did to McFarren.”

Zabini cast a quick disarming charm on Lillian, who wasn’t quite expecting it, and then all of the Slytherin students began casting spells, each conjuring a snake that slithered forward toward the two Potters.

Sirius and Lillian, far from being terrified as the other students had expected, threw back their heads and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Nott’s voice asked suspiciously. Several of the snakes were getting very close, and they looked quite frightening as far as he could see.

“You don’t know your Potter family history very well, do you?” Sirius asked with a smirk.

Lillian merely began hissing back at the snakes and all of them stopped except for one that slithered onto her outstretched arm, curling around it and allowing her to stroke its kite-shaped head.

“We like snakes,” she said finally, as the Slytherins stared in shock. “We talk to them, and they listen.”

“Not very bright of you at all,” Sirius said sadly, while shaking his head. He then hissed several words in Parseltongue and the snakes all turned around and began slithering back towards the witch or wizard that had conjured them.

The Slytherin students were backing away nervously now, but Sirius decided they weren’t nervous enough.

Lifting his hand, Sirius shouted “Anguis!” and suddenly light flared from all of the Slytherin student’s wands, and dozens more snakes shot out of them and onto the floor. Screaming, the Slytherins began racing from the room, dodging snakes that nipped at their heels; the snakes weren’t actually trying to hurt them, just herd them out. Sirius, partially numb with disbelief at what had just happened, wordlessly summoned back Lillian’s wand. Lillian was just staring at him when he tried to give it back.

“Did you just use their wands for your spell?” she asked finally.

“Umm… I didn’t mean to. I meant to use my hand, but it was like there was a power surge or something,” he said, not quite believing it himself.

There was a long pause.

“Wow,” Lillian said, shaking her head in disbelief. “That could be really cool if you could do it on purpose and wordlessly; the Slytherins in your classes would never be able to cast the right spells.”

Sirius was somewhat dumbfounded that Lillian would see the prank applications of something before he did, and just stared at her. She shook her head again, and patted his shoulder.

“Well, I’m going to bed,” she said, getting to her feet and using her wand to begin vanishing the snakes that were still littering the ground and hissing contentedly. When they were all gone, she looked back.

“I think there is going to be a fresh batch of rumors in the morning, but I doubt anyone will believe the truth. At the very least, our Parseltongue abilities are going to get out. I think it was worth it, though.” This last bit was said with a laugh, as Lillian left the room.

Sirius watched her leave in disbelief; she had seen him do something that should be impossible, but had taken it in stride and accepted it better than he had himself. One thing was for certain; he needed some time alone so that he could discover what it was that was happening to him.

Chapter Eight: Rebirth of the Phoenix


Sirius sat alone in the Room of Requirement, the room completely empty except for the large comfortable armchair he sat in. He had his eyes closed and was concentrating once again, seeking for that hidden power that lay somewhere within him. He had been at it for hours, though it was unlikely that anyone would notice he was gone; it was a Saturday and Quidditch practice was over. He didn’t have any other obligations that day, and since he had gotten to the Room of Requirement first, no one else would be able to get in without knowing what he needed, and he felt that the chances of that were slim indeed. The Room of Requirement had become fairly well-known since Sirius’ dad had been at the school. Enough of the members of the DA had had kids and told them about the room that there seemed to students waiting to use it all the time, either for specific study-related purposes, or purposes relating to mischief and rule-breaking such as the quadruplets and Sirius were accustomed to using it for.

At various points in his current meditation, Sirius had felt the flames start to immerge, but he had yet to fully connect with them. He knew that if he just tried hard enough, and kept anything from distracting him, that he would be able to tap that power and let it run its course, leading him to its purpose and nature. Unfortunately, his thoughts were tending towards distraction.

Earlier that day, while making his way toward the Room of Requirement in fact, he had run into several Slytherin girls taunting and harassing Samantha as she tried to make her way through the hall. While he was watching, but before they noticed him, two of the girls blocked Samantha’s way while another cast a stinging hex that caught Samantha in the back. The Gryffindor girl gasped in pain, but instead of bursting into tears, as Sirius had expected, she drew her wand and watched them calmly, though her eyes were blazing and the Slytherin girls stepped back despite themselves. Still, no bullies ever like feeling intimidated, as Sirius well knew, and it would have been only moments before more hexes were flying. Sirius made his presence known by casting several disarming spells in quick succession. The speechless Slytherins stared at him in fear as he held a handful of their wands in one hand, and his own wand in the other.

“This is hardly the kind of lady-like behavior I’ve come to expect from the pure-blood nobility of Slytherin house,” Sirius said, his voice laden with sarcasm at all the right spots, making his comment as shaming as possible.

“I’m sure their mothers are very proud,” Samantha added with a grin, toying with her own wand as if deciding whether or not to use it. “After all, this is exactly the kind of behavior that would have attracted their Death Eater husbands.”

A couple of the Slytherin girls, the ones that Sirius had been fairly sure had crushes on him, looked as though they wanted to protest, but they remained silent, no doubt intimidated by the young Gryffindor they had decided was a murderer. It was also certain they had heard the new rumors about the Dark Potters who talked with snakes.

“Well, let’s leave these aspiring bullies to their business,” Sirius said, holding out his hand. “I’m sure they’ll find a couple of first years somewhere that will be intimidated by them so that they can feel good about themselves again.”

Samantha looked momentarily surprised, but she took his hand and followed him back down the hallway, pausing only for Sirius to throw the handful of wands contemptuously to the floor.

After they had gone a short way, Samantha turned and watched him for a short while before speaking.

“I could have handled them myself, I think, but… thanks,” she said, noticing with pleasure that he had still not let go of her hand. As if that were a cue, however, Sirius suddenly seemed to realize the same thing and dropped her hand quickly, his face turning red. She barely managed to keep herself from laughing at his embarrassment, though she was slightly disappointed.

“It was nothing,” he said, only stammering slightly. “I mean, I saw that you seemed to have things in control, but there were a lot of them, and I didn’t want you to get hit by any more stinging hexes.”

Samantha ruefully rubbed her back and nodded. Sirius noticed what she was doing and waved his wand, causing the stinging sensation to cease. She looked at him in surprise.

“I learned that one from watching Madame Pomfrey when I was a second-year,” he said with a smug grin on his face. “Can I walk you to wherever you’re going?”

Samantha smiled. “Sure, I was just heading back to the common room.”

She grabbed his hand again, and together they began walking, while Sirius told her the very amusing tale about how he had learned to counter stinging hexes. He enjoyed telling stories; perhaps that was why he got in so much trouble. His exploits always gave him great stories to tell.

When they arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady, Sirius stopped and, as if suddenly realizing that he still held her hand, blushed. Samantha noticed his discomfort and laughed.

“You know, you aren’t nearly as tough as you think you are, Sirius,” she said, though the way she said it had it coming out as more of a compliment than an insult, and Sirius couldn’t understand why.

Before he could figure out what she was talking about, she kissed his cheek and ran into the Gryffindor common room, laughing as she went. Sirius stared after her for a few moments and then shook his head before turning around and heading back towards the Room of Requirement.

And Sirius had been there ever since, trying to concentrate while thoughts of Samantha kept him from his meditation. What does she know about how tough I am? he asked himself for the fifth time. What did she mean by that? He also couldn’t get the memory of her kissing him on the cheek out of her mind; although lots of girls had been interested in him since the year before, he had always mostly ignored them. He would smile roguishly and watch them sigh, and laugh about it later with his friends. He had certainly never kissed any of them, and none had ever kissed him, even on the cheek. Did that mean something, or was it just friendly? He decided he really wanted to find out, but he also knew that he really needed to find out what was going on with his powers.

With that last thought, he was finally able to clear his mind. He took a deep breath as he felt the reservoir of power that he had glimpsed and touched before. Reaching within himself, he pulled at the power, and felt it spring to life. As though it had a mind of its own, the power began to work in him, changing him. Music like none he had ever heard began to fill his head, but it was familiar in its way, as though a friend long departed had returned. The song swept aside the last of his resistance, and he felt a fierce burst of flame engulf his whole body. The fire was hot, yet not painful; it seemed to be comforting more than anything else. As the flame died down, Sirius suddenly realized that he was no longer himself.

He felt different in almost every way; his senses were sharper and his limbs felt more powerful, but he felt smaller as well. This room needs a mirror, he thought, knowing what would happen. A large mirror appeared on one of the walls, and Sirius turned toward it. What he saw filled him with shock and caused him to cry out in alarm.

Of course, instead of a shout or a scream, what came out was a song of alarm, beautiful yet imbued with the feeling of fear. He was staring at a phoenix, and he realized that somehow, the phoenix was him.

Sirius now recognized the course the change had taken; he had accomplished the Animagus transformation, but in a way that shouldn’t have been possible. First, he had not chosen or decided what best suited him and what he most wanted to be, and without that conviction the change shouldn’t have been possible. Second, it was supposed to be impossible to turn into a magical creature such as a phoenix as part of the Animagus transformation. Sirius had read practically every volume the Hogwarts Library had on the subject, and all of them agreed on this count.

Sirius’ initial shock and disbelief quickly faded, however, as he looked at himself in the mirror. He raised his wings and stretched, watching himself the whole time, making sure his reflection matched exactly what he was doing. He suddenly had an incredible urge to fly, so he took off. He had wanted the room to be large, and there was enough space that he was able to flap his way around, ungainly at first, but then with more finesse as he got the hang of it. Remembering what he had heard about phoenixes from his father, he swooped down and picked up the large chair up in his talons, and found that lifting it was easy. Landing in front of the mirror, he tried something else his father had told him about; sure enough, if he concentrated hard enough, his reflection disappeared, making himself completely invisible. This is too good, he thought with awe, as he imagined how easy it would be to terrorize the Slytherins now. If I can figure out how to teleport like dad says Fawkes was always able to, I can sneak up to Nott, grab him, and teleport him to thirty feet above the lake before letting him go.

That thought was too rich to let the mystery of teleportation wait any longer for being unraveled. Sirius decided that teleporting to outside the castle, preferably a good distance from the building, would be the best way to avoid reappearing inside of a wall.

He filled his head with the picture of being outside the castle, a hundred feet in the air, and willed himself to be there. He couldn’t explain what he did, but it wasn’t like Apparating; he’d been able to do that since the year before, and this felt different. There was no pressure, just a flash of heat, and then a falling sensation. He quickly opened his eyes and spread his wings letting himself soar over the wide expanse of the lake, discovering that it was very late and that he had been concentrating for hours before he made the transformation. He sang out in elation, and began practicing what he had learned. He discovered that he could make himself invisible and keep the flames from transporting himself invisible too. And he discovered that moving through the castle was easy, since he could feel where the walls were and where he wanted to go. He couldn’t explain how he could do all of what he was doing, but decided he didn’t care. Transporting himself back to his dormitory, he changed back into himself with a flash of flame, and called out to his cousins.

“I did it! Wake up! I made the Animagus transformation!” He couldn’t keep the elation out of his voice, and couldn’t wait for their astonishment and praise.

Instead however, as the quadruplets groggily opened their eyes and looked at him, all four of them started laughing. Hysterically.

“What’s so funny?” Sirius demanded, irritated by this unexpected response.

None of them could stop laughing, but Lee was able to wave his wand and transfigure a trunk into a stand mirror; since Hermione was the only person who could control the quadruplets, transfiguration had become their best subject. This thought was lost on Sirius, however, as he stared at himself in the mirror and discovered that there was a new mystery to solve; had his clothes been consumed in the fire of transforming, or had them been left behind when he transformed? Judging by the complete lack of hair on his entire body, eyebrows included, Sirius was inclined to believe it was the fire.

***

As he wandered through the halls that night, the servant of the new Dark Lord reveled in the chaos he had caused. By destroying one pretentious Slytherin, who might have been a rival anyway, if he’d been able to grow up and join the Death Eaters, he had been able to set in motion the events that would condemn the Potters to oblivion. His master would destroy them all, and then he would be awarded with power beyond his imagination. Such was what had been promised, and such was what he was determined to receive.

A slight noise interrupted his thoughts, and he turned quickly, catching sight of a Ravenclaw fifth year trying to duck out of sight.

“Hold it there,” he shouted. “What are you doing out of bed?”

The Ravenclaw looked a little belligerent at being caught, and huffed.

“That’s none of your business, is it?”

“As a school Prefect, it is my business, and your head of house will be hearing about this. Now, back to your dormitory.”

He watched as the Ravenclaw sullenly left down the hallway. He had new orders now; another strike, not necessarily aimed at the Gryffindors or the Slytherins, just something to stir up terror, and Sirius Potter would be the first suspect anyway. The decision of whether or not to kill his victim had been left up to him, as well, and he reveled in the creative leeway that left him. Perhaps another beating, like the one he had given to James Potter? Or maybe something a little more terrifying… Deciding on a plan would be almost as fun as carrying it out.

***

Sirius quickly conjured himself a robe while the Weasleys kept laughing, and set about trying to make his hair grow back. It seemed to be a Potter legacy to be able to grow back the hair on his head, and with a little concentration that was all taken care of. His eyebrows were another matter; finally Brian cast a hair growing spell and took care of that as well.

By that time the quadruplets were all done laughing, though an occasional chuckle still rolled through the group.

“So, you finally got the transformation?” Jack asked.

Sirius brightened immediately. “Yeah! It’s a little different, but I did it!”

“That’s great, Sirius!” Chris said honestly. “Now we can finally tell you that we’ve been able to do it for a couple of months.”

“What?” Sirius asked, confused.

“Well, we didn’t want you to feel bad,” Lee began.

“So we’ve been waiting for you to be able to do it before we have any big Animagus-related adventures,” Brian continued.

“I mean, we have been out and around a few times,” Chris admitted.

“But we haven’t done anything spectacular… yet,” Jack finished. “So what do you transform into, and how did that lead you appear in the dormitory completely naked?”

“You guys did it first, you show me first,” Sirius said, slightly disgruntled that they had beaten him to it, but not willing to admit it.

The Weasleys looked at each other briefly before all four of them transformed into identical small creatures with reddish-brown fur. They lined up and sketched a very amusing bow in unison, before they transformed back to themselves.

“We are the pinnacle in family pride,” Brian intoned.

“The triumph of a life devoted to living up to our father’s legacy of mischief,” Jack continued.

“We are, in fact…”Chris said.

“The Weasley weasels,” Lee finished with a smile.

“You guys are weasels?” Sirius asked, incredulously, “What on earth could you have wanted more than anything else that made all four of you turn into Weasels?”

“Hey, the weasel is a very misunderstood creature,” Lee said in a hurt tone.

“They’re vicious predators, particularly good at killing chickens,” Chris said thoughtfully.

“And we love chicken,” Jack added with a grin. “The term “weaseling out of things” came from how hard they are to catch, and we hardly ever get caught… except by Aunt Hermione.”

“Besides, we’re small enough to go almost anywhere without being seen, and we can cause all kinds of mayhem, thus perpetuating the brilliance that made Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes a household name,” Brian said grandly.

“Besides, what could be more appropriate than a Weasley weasel?” Lee asked.

Their logic was undeniable, and Sirius found himself appreciating the amount of mischief they would be able to perpetrate, especially combining their abilities with his.

“So what do you transform into, then?” Brian asked.

Sirius responded by changing back into the phoenix in a flash of fire, concentrating very hard on not harming his clothes or hair, and greatly enjoyed the looks of complete astonishment on their faces as he transported himself across the room, turned invisible and reappeared, and started singing challengingly. He turned back into himself, concentrating once again on preserving his modesty, and was delighted to find that he still had his hair and the robe, although the latter was still a little singed.

“Isn’t that supposed to be impossible?” Lee asked, still somewhat shocked.

“That does explain the fire that’s been shooting out of you from time to time,” Jack said.

“I thought it was impossible too, and I wasn’t even trying to make the Animagus transformation when I did it. I can do everything a real phoenix can do, though, which means I could carry all four of you, while making all of us invisible, and transport to anywhere in the castle, or the world for that matter, though I would want to practice before I did anything too far,” Sirius explained quickly.

“This is going to be fantastic,” Chris said with a growing smile.

***

For the next few days, Sirius practiced his abilities as a phoenix and made several more interesting discoveries. First, the amount of power he could pour into his magic had increased dramatically, meaning he had to cut back on almost everything he did. He also found that he could transform, transport, and transform again so quickly that it appeared that he had merely transported as a human wreathed in fire.

He made several forays carrying the Weasleys, keeping all of them invisible and transporting them to various places in the castle. When they transformed into weasels, it worked very well to carry one in each foot, and have the other two riding on his back. In this way they were able to explore further into the Dark Forest than they had ever gone before; they still hadn’t gone all that far, but they had found where the centaur herd slept and had seen the edge of the lair of the huge spiders that Ron had told all of them about on numerous occasions, and they thought that those were fairly grand adventures.

Finally, though, Sirius decided that he wanted to tell someone else about his transformation, to see if he could find out how he could possibly have become what he was. For information of that kind, he really only had two choices, and talking to his father about it didn’t appeal as much, since he would likely be asked to register legally.

Sirius transported himself to the Headmaster’s Office at a very late hour, after checking the Marauder’s Map carefully to be sure that Kingsley Shacklebolt was in bed. He made himself visible and turned to see the very astonished face of Dumbledore’s portrait.

“Fawkes?” he asked, blinking behind his glasses in bewilderment.

Sirius transformed back into himself and sat facing the painting, causing Dumbledore’s eyes to widen further.

“No, it’s me,” he said simply.

“That shouldn’t be possible, but I suppose you are a Potter, so I shouldn’t be surprised. How have you done this? You looked just like Fawkes.”

“I don’t know how I did it,” Sirius said honestly. “I’d been trying to do the Animagus transformation for quite some time, but I wasn’t trying to do it when I turned into the phoenix. And why shouldn’t I look just like Fawkes? Don’t all phoenixes look pretty much the same?”

“All phoenixes look similar, Sirius, but no two of them are exactly alike. Yet you manage to look exactly like Fawkes when you transform into something you shouldn’t be able to transform into,” Dumbledore explained, and then paused comprehension dawned on him.

“You’ve figured something out, sir?” Sirius asked, watching the old Headmaster’s face carefully.

“Perhaps, Sirius… this would only be a theory, mind you, but maybe it makes sense to you as well. When Fawkes sacrificed himself to save your father, it was something that had never been done before; to do it, I believe Fawkes had to give the essence of his being to your father, and this power may have been transferred to you.”

“Does that mean I’m turning into Fawkes himself?” Sirius asked, confused. “And why wouldn’t James and Lillian be phoenixes as well?”

“Not all magical abilities are passed down in a family, Sirius,” the Headmaster said calmly. “And your father has never manifested the abilities you’re showing now either. I believe that you, solely, have inherited this gift, but I don’t believe it will change you into Fawkes himself. Fawkes gave up his life, yet there is something within the phoenixes that makes them immortal. It cannot die, so it is reborn again in you. I imagine that someday you will have a child that has the power reborn in him as well, and thus that immortality would continue.”

“What if I never have kids?” Sirius asked curiously, intrigued by the whole idea. “Would that make me immortal?”

“I don’t believe you will live forever, I’m afraid,” Dumbledore said with a chuckle, “and I don’t believe giving up the opportunity of having a family would be worth it, anyway. Remember, this is only a theory; this truly has never happened before.”

“It makes some sense, though, which is more than what I’ve had until now,” Sirius said with a smile.

“So what do you plan on doing with your new abilities?” Dumbledore asked wisely, a shrewd look in his eyes.

“Er…” Sirius began, not sure he wanted to tell the portrait about his ideas so far.

“I know you well enough, Sirius, from the many chats we’ve had over the years during the vast amount of time you have spent in this office, to know that you are going to use this gift for a good deal of mischief. I wouldn’t even attempt to discourage you; I’ve been accounted as a very wise wizard, so I know that it wouldn’t work. I would encourage you, however, to consider how you are going to use this power. This is the legacy of Fawkes’ sacrifice, and I think that should mean something more than just a few paltry pranks. You now have the power to make a difference, and you know very well that something needs to be done about the current situation in the school. Even when your father was here, the houses were not this divided. The Headmaster is doing his best, but the students will have to make an effort as well, and others will follow your lead.”

Sirius grew more and more uncomfortable as the portrait went on. Responsibility had never been his strong suit, and though he had been trying not to get in any fights, he certainly hadn’t made any efforts of reconciliation. Could I do that? Reconcile with the Slytherins? The very idea seemed ludicrous. Unless I find the real murderer, it would never work. Maybe that’s what I need to do, then.

Sirius met the eyes of Dumbledore’s portrait and saw the wise old wizard’s slight smile. He smiled back, knowing that even without saying anything, his commitment to the school was known. He would do his part.

Later that night, Sirius was getting ready to go to sleep and was viewing the Marauder’s Map to make sure nothing out of the ordinary was going on. To his surprise, he saw three Hufflepuff students in a line in one of the hallways, standing completely still. He had never actually spoken to the students, but he knew their names, and had no idea why they would be sitting in the hallway this late at night. Curious, he transformed and transported himself to the hallway, keeping himself invisible. What he saw made him want to retch. Panicking, he transported himself to Ron and Hermione’s apartment in the teacher’s quarters. He couldn’t be the one who found the students, but he couldn’t do nothing. He found his aunt and uncle asleep in their bed, and made himself visible, singing out in urgency and alarm. Ron was awake instantly, his wand aimed at the phoenix so quickly that Sirius stopped singing in his shock; apparently Auror training imparted good reflexes. Hermione was awake the instant later, and looking at him in surprise.

“Fawkes?” she asked in disbelief.

Sirius began singing again, turning so that his tail feathers were readily accessible.

“I think he wants us to grab on,” Hermione said, doubt evident in her voice.

“How do we know where he’s going to take us?” Ron asked suspiciously.

“We don’t, that’s the point of him taking us there,” Hermione said in exasperation.

“He could be leading us into a trap,” Ron insisted.

“He looks like Fawkes, and even if he isn’t, have you ever known of a bad phoenix?” she said, crossing her arms and looking at Ron angrily.

“Fawkes is dead, and this could be something else disguised as a phoenix,” Ron retorted, lowering his wand.

Sirius couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He’d heard his parents talk about Ron and Hermione’s arguing, but he’d never seen it. He cried out loudly in impatience, reminding them that he was there.

“I’m going with him,” Hermione said, worry plain in her voice now. “It sounds important.”

“You’re not going without me,” Ron said, giving in as he recognized, finally, the futility of his argument.

Both of them grabbed onto Sirius’ tail feathers, and he wasted no time in transporting them to the hallway. The Hufflepuff students still lay where they had been, each of them covered in lacerations that oozed blood, bruises standing out vividly on their pale faces. On the wall above each of the heads were mounted flags, one each for Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw.

“Merlin’s beard!” Ron exclaimed, as he dropped to his knees besides one of the students, casting the basic healing charms he knew from Auror training in an effort to keep the child alive while his wife worked on the worst wounded of the three.

Sirius watched in desperation as his relatives worked, somehow feeling the life forces of the students sputter and diminish, leaking away with the blood flowing from their wounds. Inspiration struck suddenly; swooping down to the floor, Sirius stood beside the body of the student who hadn’t yet received any attention, bending his head towards the worst of the child’s wounds and tried to summon tears. Given the extent of the damage he saw in front of him, it wasn’t hard. Large pearly drops fell into the wound, and it immediately began closing. Sirius didn’t pause as he moved from wound to wound, closing the worst of them, and leaving the ones that weren’t life threatening. He moved on to the student Ron was treating, next, and then finally made it to the last one. When he finished, he felt drained and exhausted, but he knew all three of the students would live.

Singing out a farewell, Sirius let himself vanish in a burst of flames, reappearing in his bed back in human form. He smiled at the good he had been able to accomplish before dropping off into a deep sleep.


A/N: I'm sorry I took so long to update; this was a more difficult, albeit more fun, chapter to write. I hope you all enjoy it, and I hope you'll let me know if you do.

Chapter Nine: Distraction








Sirius hadn’t been asleep long, when Ron stormed into the dormitory, slamming the door into the wall.





“Wake up, boys,” he said loudly, startling the Weasleys out of their beds.





“What’s going on?” Lee asked groggily, rubbing his eyes.





“There’s been another attack, and I need to know exactly where Sirius was yesterday; as the only suspect last time there was an attack here, Sirius is the first suspect this time. I want to hear if there was any time between eight in the evening and two in the morning that he was alone or can’t be accounted for, and I’ll be questioning the four of you one by one to make sure the stories match up. You first, Lee,” Ron answered; by the way he spoke it was clear he was speaking as an Auror and not as their uncle.





The Weasleys had been with him for most of that time, until around one in the morning when he had gone off to talk to Dumbledore, but they wouldn’t have known he’d left his bed, so they could testify in his behalf. The only problem was that they had been out in the Forbidden Forest, and using their illegal Animagus abilities on top of that; they needed an alibi that wouldn’t get them into all kinds of trouble, and they hadn’t taken the opportunity to cook up a likely story that they could all repeat back exactly the same way.





Luckily, they had an old standby plan for such an event; Hermione had started questioning them separately after various pranks to see if they would slip up, and they hadn’t had much warning for those situations either. Closing his eyes, Sirius sat back and used Legilimency to show his friends a plausible evening’s worth of events; they had been studying, which led to playing Wizard’s chess and Exploding Snap, until they had had to stay up late to finish their homework, and all of them had been asleep ever since. The idea of using Legilimency this way had come from Brian, and it had kept Sirius in practice with the ability.





One by one they were led out and questioned, until Sirius was left waiting alone in the dormitory. He knew the Weasleys would stick to the story, and he wasn’t too worried. If it came down to it, he could prove to his uncle that he had been the phoenix that helped save the victims, but he was sure he didn’t want to tell anyone else about what he could do. Dumbledore’s portrait had proven himself surprisingly good at keeping confidences as Sirius had learned over the years, and the Weasley quadruplets would keep his secrets as well as he kept theirs, so there were no worries there. There was just no reason to get anyone else involved with that yet.





Finally, Ron entered the room again, a relieved expression on his face.





“Well, Sirius, it looks like you have a rock-solid alibi, and witnesses that will vouch for you. If there was any doubt about your whereabouts last night, I’d have to take you into custody, and not even Harry could keep you in school. As it is, I think security at Hogwarts is about to be tripled, so try to stay out of trouble.”





Ron turned to leave, but Sirius called after him.





“Don’t you have any idea who did it, though?” he asked, not liking this turn of events. Increased security would likely cause the culprit to go to ground instead of catching him, and Sirius told his uncle so.





Ron hesitated before answering, obviously debating on how much to say.





“Since I’ve been with the Aurors, Sirius, I’ve only been involved in tracking down one sociopathic killer. He was an old ex-Death Eater that went crazy, but he was still smart enough to give us a hard time, and all he wanted was chaos, the kind that comes with killing people. I don’t think the person responsible for what’s been going on is much different, so I think you can be certain they’ll strike again, no matter the security measures we take. It will be a matter of pride for him.” Ron paused for a minute, thinking about what he had said, before nodding. “Yes, I think we can be certain he’ll strike again.”





***





Ron was absolutely right about security. For the next week, the students couldn’t go anywhere without seeing Aurors patrolling the halls, and keeping an eye on everything. Ron still appeared to be in charge of the investigation, and could often be seen coordinating patrols and taking reports, though Nymphadora Lupin, the Head Auror who still preferred to be called Tonks, was seen talking to him several times, so everyone knew things were serious.





Sirius couldn’t go more than five feet down a hall without passing an Auror; the seventh time it happened, Sirius tried a very subtle bit of Legilimency and was pleased to discover that if the Auror knew Occlumency he didn’t bother keeping his shield up around children. He was less pleased to discover that Aurors were being placed specifically to watch him, showing that the Ministry was still suspicious about him, or at least they were making sure no one could say they weren’t fully exploring all of the options. Either way, it was exceptionally annoying; he had no doubt that he could lose them by becoming invisible, but then they would search for him and assume he was off committing heinous crimes.





Sirius found out how serious the investigation was on the fourth day after the attack. The three Hufflepuff students had been released from the hospital wing that day and everyone in the Great Hall wanted to ask them questions and find out what had happened first hand, and all three of them seemed to be enjoying the attention. One of them, however, kept drawing Sirius’ attention. She was a fifth year student that did fairly well in her classes, though Sirius only knew her by reputation. Something about her seemed wrong, and Sirius became determined to find out what it was. As he stared at her from across the Great Hall, he started getting impressions from her; cunning, maturity, and experience, mainly. Those were things he certainly wouldn’t expect to feel from any student at Hogwarts, and he started to get excited, thinking he may have found the culprit masquerading as a student. Quickly, he probed at the girls mind, hoping to find some evidence before running to find the Aurors, which wouldn’t be hard since he could see three of them in the room. Instead, however, Sirius was pushed out of the girl’s mind instantly and forcefully, and the girl started looking around suspiciously. Sirius tried to cover his shock and appear as though he hadn’t been staring at her, but he saw her look at him from the corner of his eye and caught the slight smile. Then someone began pushing into his mind, and there was little doubt who it was. Sirius might have been concerned, but he found that it wasn’t difficult at all to keep her out. The girl must have known she wouldn’t get in, so she changed the way she was using the Legilimency.





Wotcher, Sirius, a familiar voice said in his head, and Sirius’ eyes bulged. He’d never done this before, but he’d felt what she had done, and was able to repeat it.





Tonks? he asked, thinking he recognized the voice.





You catch on quick, just like your father. And you have a very impressive Occlumency shield, too. I don’t think I should be surprised you noticed, but I don’t suppose you’d tell me how you knew something was up? Is my nose crooked?





You felt wrong, not like a student, Sirius answered, still amazed at this form of communication, and shocked to find the Head Auror doing what appeared to be undercover work. It proved that this was the biggest case the Aurors were working on. I don’t think I can explain it any better than that, and I don’t think anyone else will notice. Undercover, right? Have you found anything? And how are we talking like this?





Tonks laughed in his mind. You can do it, but you don’t know how? I thought your father showed you; he’s the one that taught me, and it took me two years to be able to answer back to him. It’s just a slight difference in the way the Legilimency works; instead of trying to break in, you just try to communicate. And yes, I’m undercover, and no I haven’t found anything. As long as you don’t say anything, I still might have a chance. It looks like someone else wants a word with you, though, so I’ll leave you to your business, and watch whose mind you try breaking into in the future.





Sirius looked away from her to see Samantha looking at him thoughtfully, her lips pursed in a peculiar manner.





“You know, if you fancy Shannon I can try and set the two of you up,” she said finally. “We’re in the same Herbology class, you know.”





Sirius felt his face immediately flush scarlet, an embarrassing trait that he had been repeatedly sorry for inheriting from his mother.





“It’s not like that at all!” he stammered, trying to think of something to say to convince her.





“You’ve been staring at her for the last several minutes, Sirius,” she said, lifting her eyebrows. Sirius almost felt like she was testing him, though he couldn’t say why. “Why don’t you ask her to go to Hogsmeade with you this weekend; the Aurors are still letting us go.”





Everything crashed into Sirius at once. The way she was standing with her arms folded, the expression on her face, and what she was saying could only mean one thing; she was jealous! For some reason that made Sirius feel very good.





“Actually, I was wondering if you would go with me,” Sirius said. He was feeling brave since deciding she was jealous over him, but he was still completely shocked with himself for being so forward.





Samantha was apparently surprised as well, judging by the way her eyes widened. Still, she smiled, and Sirius was reminded how pretty she was.





“I’d like that,” she said, unfolding her arms. “Where shall I meet you?”





“How about in the common room, so we can walk there together?” Sirius asked.





Her smile broadened. “Ok, it’s a date then,” she said, before leaving the room.





“A date?” Sirius said quietly, his smile fading. I’m going on a date!





Nice one, Sirius! Tonks said in his head, congratulating him. Harry will love hearing about this!





Sirius said nothing as he picked up his things and left the room, though he couldn’t help the smile from growing back. He’d never been on a date before, and he was nervous, but he was really excited about it, too.





***





“I’m telling you, Harry, it was Fawkes! It looked just like him!” Hermione said for the second time. “Even Ron thinks it was Fawkes, now.”





“I’m telling you, Hermione, that’s impossible! I felt Fawkes die! It must be some other phoenix,” Harry said crossly, pouring some tea for Hermione before sitting down in his favorite chair in the living room.





Hermione had come over to tell Harry about the latest incident, and Harry and Ginny had invited her to stay for tea while the younger children were all down for a nap. That actually meant they were just playing quietly, but their parents were content to let that count.





“I looked it up, Harry,” Hermione answered. “No two phoenixes look alike, and this one looked exactly like Fawkes.”





“Why couldn’t it have been Fawkes, Harry?” Ginny asked reasonably. “Phoenixes aren’t supposed to be able to die permanently; maybe he’s just been doing other things until now, when he felt that he was needed again.” Harry looked a little angry about the whole situation, which didn’t make much sense to her.





“If Fawkes were alive, he’d have come back to me,” he said finally.





“Are you jealous, Harry?” Ginny asked, incredulously.





“No!” Harry said quickly. “Fawkes and I were friends, even more than friends. We were connected mentally. I would feel it if he came back. I’m glad that there’s a phoenix at Hogwarts that is watching over things again, but I’m sure it wasn’t Fawkes. And it’s been a long time, Hermione, so you can’t be positive that it wasn’t slightly different.”





“I suppose so, Harry,” Hermione said reluctantly.





“If it’s not Fawkes, though, why is there a phoenix at Hogwarts?” Ginny asked quietly.





“I don’t know,” Harry said, just as quiet now. “But hopefully it can help.”





***





“The security is too tight, my lord,” he said, his voice shaking in fear at having to tell his master that his wishes weren’t plausible. “It would be impossible to strike again without getting caught.”





“My plans are never impossible!” the voice hissed. “I will prepare a distraction for the Aurors; a small demonstration that will remind them that they have problems outside of Hogwarts. In the aftermath, when the Aurors are forced to be elsewhere, I want another strike. And I want someone dead this time!”





“Of course, my lord,” he stammered, bowing. “Of course. It will be as you say.”





“It always is,” the voice said, with a low chuckle.





***





Sirius tried to ignore the teasing he caught from the Weasleys as he prepared for his date at Hogsmeade, but a lot of it was making him nervous.





“Where are you going to go?” Brian asked, laughing.





“I don’t know,” Sirius said, ceasing his pacing and looking up in alarm. “Don’t you think she’ll know where she wants to go?”





“Girls like guys to be decisive, Sirius,” Lee said with a grin. “She’ll want you to decide.”





That didn’t fit with what Sirius had seen from his mum, or any of his aunts for that matter; if they wanted to go somewhere, they seemed to tell their husbands so, and then they would be taken there.





“I guess we’ll decide together,” he said finally, giving up on his hair and sitting down to pull on his shoes. “I’m leaving, and I don’t see any point in taking advice from a bunch of guys who have never been on dates themselves.”





That seemed to shut the Weasleys up fast enough, and Sirius managed a smug grin as he left the dormitory. The grin faded as he swallowed nervously, before squaring his shoulders and making his way downstairs. Nothing would spoil his day.





Samantha was waiting for him, and her easy manner had him smiling in seconds. Before he knew it, they were on their way to the village, holding hands once again.





Three hours later, Sirius was still having a grand time. They had visited all of the fun shops, bought a large load of candy, and looked at all of the new products from Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes, which had taken over Zonko’s years earlier. Now, they were stopping for lunch at the Three Broomsticks, and arguing good naturedly over what the most exciting new Weasley product was.





“I tell you, Sirius, the screaming bookmarks are the best; can you imagine someone opening their book in the middle of class and having it scream at them? They’d fall out of their desk,” Samantha said around a swallow of butterbeer.





“I still think the latest fireworks are better,” Sirius countered with a smile. “The whole class would fall out of their desks if you could manage to light one.”





“Not even your friends, the Weasleys, are that brave,” Samantha said with a laugh.





Sirius was getting ready to answer when a resounding boom echoed through the room, rattling mugs and bottles, and causing people to look up in surprise. The noise continued, and before long they could here screams echoing outside.





“Stay here,” Sirius said quickly before rushing outside with a few other older wizards all of whom had their wands drawn.





Nothing could have prepared Sirius for what he saw; Dementors glided through the streets while the unmistakable forms of Inferi stumbled among them. People were running in every direction, but laughing figures in hooded robes with white masks were among them casting curses at everyone they could reach. Above everything, the Dark Mark cast its sickly green glow, chilling Sirius to the bone. He ran back inside and grabbed Samantha by the hand and pulled her towards the door.





“We need to get out of here,” he said urgently. “They’ll be coming into the stores before long. We need to get back to the school.”





Samantha’s questions were cut off as they got outside and she could see what was going on herself. They ran down the street, towards Hogwarts, until Sirius caught sight of several Dementors clustered around a group of second year students. The children were crying, having no idea what to do, and no one was going to their aid.





Without thinking, Sirius stopped and waved his wand.





“Expecto Patronum!” he shouted, and watched as his hawk Patronus shot out and drove the Dementors away. He rushed over to the students with Samantha, and he was pleased to see that she didn’t panic at all, but rather immediately began comforting the students, trying to get them to run towards the school with them. Before they could get them moving, however, a group of the Inferi arrived, causing the children to break down hysterically again. Luckily, however, Sirius had been instructed by his father on how to get rid of an Inferius, and since his transformation he had grown very good at fire spells.





Raising his hand, Sirius wordlessly cast one of those spells. Anyone watching would have seen Sirius’ arm catch fire and send it hurtling into the Inferi, incinerating them instantly. The students were stunned into silence, as they looked at him, and he could see hope shining in some of their eyes, even despite the lingering effects of the Dementors. Suddenly, Sirius realized that he could really make a difference, and that he had no choice but to try. He met Samantha’s eyes.





“I have to go back,” he said simply.





“Let me come with you, then,” she said stubbornly.





“Someone has to take these kids back to the castle,” Sirius said in exasperation.





Samantha hesitated before nodding.





“Alright, but as soon as they’re up there I’m coming back,” she said firmly.





Sirius nodded, but only because he knew that once students got back to the castle, the teachers would never let them come back. What he didn’t expect was for her to grab onto his arm as he was leaving and pull him back before kissing him full on the mouth. It didn’t last long, but Sirius still found himself weak-kneed afterwards.





“Take care of yourself,” she said fiercely, before gathering the students and herding them up the road.





Sirius shook himself before rushing back into the village, not even noticing the smile that grew on his face as he drove Dementors away from their victims and cremated Inferi. Before long, the townspeople began to notice that they would be safe where he was and the Death Eaters noticed that there was someone who wasn’t running. Sirius found himself in a duel with several wizards that left him dodging Cruciatus and Imperius curses, while he tried desperately to stun his attackers, while shielding a group of frightened villagers. Using all of his skills, he was able to hold them back, but he knew that he couldn’t keep it up forever.





Then, suddenly, Lillian was at one side and James was on the other, while the Weasley quadruplets peaked out of an alley that allowed them to open up a crossfire against their opponents.





“Need a hand?” James asked, and began volleying curses at the Death Eaters rapidly; he didn’t have Sirius’ power or control, but he was quick and had an excellent aim.





“Trying to be a one-wizard army again, I see,” Lillian said jokingly, as she also joined in. She wasn’t quite as good at dueling as James, but she had learned the Bat-Bogey Hex from her mother, and she was very good at that.





It seemed for a few moments that the students would win, as Sirius was able to stun three of the Death Eaters in quick succession, but then the Death Eaters upped the ante. The first jet of green light ricocheted harmlessly off of a wall, but it signaled a change in tactics that all of the students found terrifying, especially when the second caught one of the villagers full in the chest. He died instantly, a shocked expression on his face as his body crumpled to the ground.





Sirius’ shock was such that he let his guard down and was hit by an Imperius curse, and immediately the shock left him, replaced by a feeling of deep contentment.





Curse the students next to you, a voice said in his mind, and Sirius felt a compelling need to obey. But the students next to him were his family.





“NO!” he shouted, throwing the force pushing down on his mind back with a huge push. He felt a surge of power within himself, and watched as the Death Eater that had cast the Imperius curse fell over clutching his own head.





Despite successfully throwing off the Imperius curse, however, Sirius had stood unmoving for too long, and a Cruciatus curse came next. Sirius bent down, screaming as he experienced pain unlike anything he had ever felt, while his siblings frantically tried to distract the Death Eater who was holding the curse on him. Then, distantly, Sirius heard one of the quadruplets screaming the same way, and he knew they were in trouble as well. Closing off his mind against the pain, Sirius staggered to his feet, holding back the screams that still wanted to burst out. Struggling back into the battle, Sirius was finally able to stun his attacker, and also manage to shield Lillian from a nasty cutting hex that she hadn’t seen coming. As the pain faded, Sirius began to move forward to help the Weasleys. Then the cry started up, the same from both sides, said with either fear and loathing or hope and triumph.





“It’s Harry Potter!” they cried.





True enough, Sirius was shocked to see his father leading a small group of witches and wizards into the fray, managing to look fearsome with his flashing green eyes despite the ragged Knight Bus uniform he was still wearing. With him were Fred and George Weasley, Stan Shunpike in his own purple uniform and looking as though he didn’t quite know what was going on, and a half-dozen Aurors from the detail at the school. From sounds coming from the other side of the town, Sirius assumed his Uncle Ron was somewhere down there with more Aurors and fighting as well. Sirius joined the fight again, though there was little need; his dad demolished the Death Eaters, and had the lot of them Apparating away in fear in only a few minutes.





As the fighting ceased, Harry sought out his kids, and gathered them around, making sure all of them were okay. Sirius was still aching from his time under the Cruciatus curse, but decided he’d felt worse after Quidditch accidents, and felt that if he kept telling himself so, his body might actually believe him. Chris Weasley was feeling similar aches and pains, but seemed to be alright as well.





"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked his father in disbelief.





"Fred and George have a very effective security system set up at all of their shops, and they knew something was going on immediately. They called me, since I'm a part owner, and Ron, since they knew he was close, and we met up and charged the Death Eaters from both sides of the town, so fewer would escape. I don't know how well that worked, but it looks like we caught a fair few," Harry answered with a grin that didn't quite hide his concern for his children and nephews.





“I’m proud of you, kids,” Harry said, as several of the townspeople began reporting what had happened to the Aurors, telling how Sirius and his siblings had stood up to the Death Eaters alone. “But your mother would be very upset with me if I didn’t say something about leaving adult matters to the adults.” A twinkle grew in Harry’s eye. “Sometimes, though, adults don’t know up from down, and it takes younger people to do what’s right. I’m very proud of all of you.”





Fred and George both echoed that sentiment, while Fred paid special attention to Chris, making sure his son was okay.


After that, Sirius was taken with Chris to the hospital wing, to make sure there wasn’t any lasting damage, while the rest of the students were escorted back to the castle. Harry stayed with Sirius until he was settled in a bed and they were alone before speaking.





“I’m sorry your date ended this way,” he said, smiling, “but Tonks said the girl seems to really like you, so I guess she’ll forgive you. Were you enjoying yourself?”





Sirius grinned and took a few moments to tell his father about his date before Harry changed the subject.





“Have you found anything on the map, Sirius? Anything out of the ordinary?”





“I’ve kept a close watch out, and the Weasleys have been helping, but we haven’t seen anything, and I know we looked before the last attack without seeing anyone out of the ordinary,” Sirius said, the frustration evident in his voice.





“It’s not up to you to solve all of the problems here, Sirius, so don’t feel bad. I want you to consider that the person might be another student though, which would explain why you haven’t seen anyone else. If that’s the case, finding out who it is will be even harder. With the Death Eaters coming back, the Ministry probably won’t be able to spare as many Aurors, either, so this could be a dangerous situation at Hogwarts. Take care, okay?”





Sirius promised his father that he would be careful, and Harry left to go say goodbye to the rest of his kids, leaving Sirius to worry about what he had heard.





***





It was late, but Samantha was determined to see Sirius in the hospital wing. The students from Hogwarts had been surprisingly lucky during the attack; other than Sirius and Chris there weren't any others in the hospital wing, since most students had either remained hiding in the shops, or had run or been escorted back to the school in good order, mostly due to the quick thinking of older students like Samantha or the Prefects.



Samantha was sure Sirius would have known that they wouldn’t let her go back to the town after helping the second year students back, and she wanted to call him on it. She also wanted to find out how he felt about her; every time she thought about that kiss, her face flushed in embarrassment. She hadn’t been thinking at the time, and had no idea if he thought she was being too forward or not, and she really didn’t want to scare him away. She could tell that he was somewhat shy under his tough exterior, and she found that quality to be very endearing.





Still, she was somewhat upset with him for having the nerve to get hurt after she had told him to take care of himself. Lillian had told her it wasn’t serious, though, after looking at her for several moments with a very shrewd expression. She had smiled about it, and Samantha knew she approved; Lillian had known that she liked Sirius since the year before, and they had talked about it at length, as best friends do.





Boys complicate everything, she thought, as she rounded the last corner that would take her to the hospital wing. Then she screamed as the shadowy figure jumped out at her, and then pain consumed consciousness.

Chapter Ten: Attacks and Plots


Sirius and Chris both heard the scream in the hall outside the hospital wing, and both leaped out of their beds, wands raised. They were both feeling much better, and had only been kept in the hospital wing for observation anyway.

Sirius blasted the doors open to the sight of Samantha Harris’ body lying still on the ground while a wizard, his back to Sirius, continued to kick her savagely. Sirius became so furious that he found it hard to think; his wand and magic forgotten, he stepped up behind the wizard and grabbed onto his robes, before hurling him as far away from Samantha as possible. His magic must not have been entirely forgotten to his subconscious mind, because the wizard was flung almost a dozen paces down the dark hallway before slamming into a wall and slumping to the ground.

Sirius’ first attentions were for Samantha, as he bent down to see what had been done to her. Her bruises were already beginning to stand out, and Sirius knew she needed better help than he could provide. As he was getting up to find Madame Pomfrey, however, a shout from Chris brought him back to his more immediate problems.

Chris had rushed forward to capture the dark wizard, but he had recovered quickly from his meeting with the corridor wall, and a duel had commenced. Chris was doing very well, but had been winged by a cutting curse, and had cried out in pain. Sirius rushed to join the fight, certain that this was the person who had murdered McFarren, and injured the others. Sirius found that he still couldn’t see the person’s face, due to some kind of charm that wreathed the wizard in shadows, and his dress was the innocuously plain black school robe worn by every student, and there was no identifying house patch or insignia.

As Sirius joined the fight, apparently the wizard decided he was outmatched, and turned to run down the hall; Sirius and Chris were both astonished to see him change as he ran, bending down to run on all fours, faster than either could run in pursuit, though they still tried, volleying stunning spells ahead of them. As they reached a corner they got only a glimpse of black fur, long claws, and sharp teeth, before the apparition was gone.

“The map, Sirius!” Chris shouted. “Get the map and find out who he is!”

Sirius hesitated, unsure.

“I’ll take care of Samantha! Hurry!” Chris urged, while running back down the hallway towards Samantha and Madame Pomfrey.

Sirius teleported to his dormitory and ignored the sleepy inquiries of the other three Weasleys as he rummaged through his trunk before whipping out the map and unfolding it as quickly as possible, cursing the precious moments he was wasting.

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,” he said in a rush, and began looking frantically around the map, looking for any signs of movement where there shouldn’t be. He was heartened to see Madame Pomfrey next to Samantha and Chris, but forced himself to keep looking for the dark wizard. He thought he saw a flicker of movement outside of the castle on the boundary of the map next to the Forbidden Forest, but the label, if there was one, was gone before he could read it. And unfortunately, he could find no other trace of anyone where they shouldn’t be.

Furious, he slammed his fist down.

“Sirius?” Lee asked with concern. All three of the Weasleys present were wide awake now, and staring at him in apprehension.

“Watch the map,” Sirius snapped, getting up and handing the map to Lee. “The guy who killed McFarren might have run into the forest, so keep an eye for anyone coming back. I have to get back to the hospital wing, I’ll explain later.”

Ignoring their protests and questions, Sirius vanished in a flash of fire.

He reappeared a short distance from the hospital wing, but far enough that he wouldn’t be seen by Madame Pomfrey. Running down the hallway, he skidded to a halt next to the hospital matron, Chris, and Samantha’s motionless body. Chris looked at him questioningly, and he shook his head quickly to forestall the question. He noticed that Madame Pomfrey had fixed the cut in Chris’ arm, and had already taken care of all of Samantha’s bruises.

“Will she be okay?” Sirius asked quickly, somewhat panicked. He would have figured that Madame Pomfrey would have woken her up by now if she could.

Madame Pomfrey hesitated before answering. “I believe so, Potter. I’m not certain what she was cursed with, and though Mr. Weasley says she was beaten severely, I’m starting to believe that that was merely for the visual effects. I haven’t been able to wake her up yet, but I’m certain that once I get her into a bed and try a few more things that she’ll be alright.

Sirius didn’t like this answer at all, and was about to pursue the matter when Ron and Kingsley Shacklebolt strode into the hallway.

“I just got your message, Poppy. How is she?” the Headmaster said in his deep reassuring voice.

“She would be better, Headmaster, if she were in a bed, and not lying on the floor,” Madame Pomfrey said sternly, suiting her words by levitating Samantha into the hospital wing. Sirius and Chris made as though to follow, but the Headmaster and Ron held them back.

“Just a minute, boys,” Ron said in his Auror voice. “We need to know exactly what happened here tonight.”

Chris and Sirius took turns telling what had happened, only omitting that Sirius had left to look at the map, and saying instead that he had continued chasing after the dark wizard, while Chris, who was injured anyway, had gone back to make sure Samantha was taken care of. When they finished telling what they had seen, the Headmaster and the Auror shared a perplexed glance.

“Shadow cloak,” the Headmaster said, finally. “I haven’t seen one of those in ages.”

“They don’t make them anymore,” Ron agreed. “The Ministry shut down the shop three years ago; I helped serve the papers. And they only made a few dozen, most of which got confiscated.”

“What are you talking about?” Sirius asked, not following the conversation.

“The shadows, Sirius,” Ron explained. “A small shop in Knockturn Alley started making what they called shadow cloaks, but sold them secretly since there isn’t any purpose to them beyond concealing your identity. The Ministry found out, and we raided their store. They’d only managed to sell a half dozen or so, and we confiscated their entire stock otherwise. We have suspicions about who had bought them, and if we can find out for sure, we might be able to tell if there are any connections to any students here. I don’t like the idea that we have a student with sociopathic tendencies here, though, not at all.”

“Indeed,” the Headmaster said slowly. “And he’s a student that’s powerful enough that he could stand up to two very promising duelers, and smart enough to figure out the Animagus transformation. You didn’t manage to see what kind of animal he transformed into?”

“No sir,” Sirius said regretfully. “It didn’t look friendly, though.”

The Headmaster chuckled briefly, though there was little mirth in it. “I somehow doubt that this person would transform into anything friendly. Now, I imagine you would like to go and see Miss Harris. I understand that the two of you were on a date yesterday, Sirius.”

Does everyone know? Sirius thought incredulously, but wisely remained silent. He nodded and left with Chris following, leaving the two adults behind. Before they were completely out of earshot, they could hear the low murmurs of a heated argument getting started, but ignored it. As he entered the hospital wing, Sirius’ attention was once again completely focused on Samantha. She lay in one of the hospital beds, looking pale and seemingly motionless, while Madame Pomfrey sat next to her with several large books, scanning their contents in obvious frustration.

“Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley,” she said without looking up, “I believe you have both demonstrated that you are well enough to leave the hospital this evening, and you can go back to your rooms now.”

“I’d rather stay,” Sirius said anxiously, determined to find out what had happened to Samantha.

Madame Pomfrey regarded him shrewdly for a moment before nodding curtly.

“Very well, you may stay,” she said quickly, shutting the volume in front of her. “I need to Floo St. Mungos; this isn’t like anything I’ve ever dealt with, and I’d like to get a specialist out here to see if she needs to be moved there. But once I get back, you will return to your room and get some sleep.”

Madame Pomfrey left without another word, and Sirius and Chris went to go stand by Samantha’s bed.

“I’m sorry, Sirius,” Chris said uncomfortably. “I know you like her…”

“It’s okay,” Sirius said, hardly feeling like it was okay at all. “You got Madame Pomfrey as quick as anyone could. She’ll be okay. I need you to go tell the others what happened. I saw a flicker of something at the edge of the grounds, next to the forest, and they’re watching in case anything comes back, but they don’t really know why. I’ll stay here until Madame Pomfrey gets back.”

Chris looked at him doubtfully for a few moments before nodding and leaving the room. Sirius watched him go before turning back to the girl that had been so confusing to him for the past several days.

“This isn’t fair,” he whispered to her as quietly as he could. “I have no idea what you think of me, really, and I’m not sure how I feel either. You have to be okay, so we can figure it all out.”

He took her hand, not knowing what else to do, and sat with her until Madame Pomfrey came bustling back in with Aunt Hermione and an older wizard in green robes. Sirius backed up and tried to appear as innocuous as possible, but he was still spotted and told firmly that it was time for him to go. Aunt Hermione appeared sympathetic, but refused to concede to his pleas to remain. So Sirius walked out of the room and down the hall until he was certain he was alone, before transforming, becoming invisible and transporting back to the hospital wing.

“…never seen anything like it,” the healer was saying, shaking his head as he examined Samantha carefully. “I can feel traces of at least three spells cast almost all at once; a Cruciatus curse, a stunning spell, and some kind of protection spell; I believe whoever did this wanted her alive for as long as possible. Regardless, we can’t know the full effects of all of these spells together. And there may be more that I can’t detect yet. I don’t know that we can do much better for her at St. Mungos, Poppy. If you think her attacker may strike again, I recommend you have her moved there. Otherwise, I will continue to check on her progress every day while she remains here. I believe having friends around may help her as well, and having her here would facilitate that. Your thoughts, Mrs. Weasley?”

“I agree,” she said quietly. She appeared to be thinking very carefully. “I believe we can give her enough protection to keep her here and…” She trailed off, as though uncertain she wanted to say more.

“You want her as bait,” Madame Pomfrey said into the silence, glaring at the transfiguration Professor. “I heartily protest. The safety of the students should be your first concern, Professor, not…”

“It’s the student’s safety she’s concerned about,” Ron Weasley said as he walked in with the Headmaster. “We’ve still got excellent security here, even with most of the Aurors called back to hunt Death Eaters, and she would be completely safe. But we need to find the person responsible as quickly as possible. There is no doubt in my mind that the killer intended to murder Samantha, and only Sirius and Chris intervening kept that from happening. The killer will be frustrated, and more likely to make a mistake; this will be the best chance of catching him.”

Sirius’ insides froze as he heard his uncle say that Samantha’s attacker had intended to kill her. Was she in danger because she was with me, he wondered, or was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time? He was distracted from this line of thought as the conversation changed course.

“So Sirius Potter is no longer a suspect?” the healer asked, clearly unaware of the situation much beyond what he could have read in the papers.

“Sirius would never have been allowed to stay in school if we had had any doubts,” the Headmaster said diplomatically. “Unfortunately, his family name makes for exciting news, and the Daily Prophet has always been more interested in catchy headlines than facts. All three of the older Potter children, and four of their cousins were involved in fighting the Death Eaters yesterday, and as you heard, Sirius Potter and Chris Weasley undoubtedly saved this girl from death this evening.”

“No doubt,” the healer laughed, as he realized what the paper had been doing. “I recall they did the same thing to his father, in a manner of speaking, back when he was a student. Dark times, they were, dark times indeed.” The healer had ceased laughing. “I hope times aren’t growing as dark now.”

The other teachers echoed his sentiments, before they all left except for Madame Pomfrey, who remained with her patient. Ron paused to say that there would be guards with invisibility cloaks placed just inside the doors, and then the hospital wing was quiet.

Hopefully people will start to think I’m innocent, now, Sirius thought to himself, as he took one last regretful look at the girl he couldn’t stop thinking about, and teleported back to his room.

***

Over the next few days, despite almost constant watchfulness, no one came back from the forest, so they were forced to conclude that the killer had never left, since no one was reported missing from classes. The house rivalry actually did die down some, as Sirius’ hopes were partially realized. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were convinced that Sirius wouldn’t have attacked the girl he so obviously liked, though Sirius was still perplexed as to how everyone in the whole school seemed to know that they had become an item when he and Samantha didn’t even know for sure yet. Only the Slytherins maintained that Sirius was the killer, pointing out that no one who could talk to snakes could be anything but evil, and concocting a ridiculous story about Samantha snubbing Sirius, who attacked her in a cold blooded rage, and then got caught in the act. He’d escaped justice by inventing a story about some other wizard, who conveniently couldn’t be recognized, and one of his Weasley cronies predictably backed up his web of lies. The first time Sirius heard that story, in class with the Slytherins, who made no attempt at discussing the situation quietly, he almost forgot his goals of not getting into trouble. Only the timely intervention of Professor Flitwick saved the Slytherins from being set on fire.

Samantha remained unconscious, despite everything that Hermione, Madame Pomfrey, and the St. Mungos healers tried. She just didn’t respond to any of their treatments, though her condition was completely stable and she showed no signs of weakening further. Her parents were in to see her every day, and her mother stayed with her for up to ten hours at a time, making it extremely awkward for Sirius to try and visit. He did visit, however; he just made sure he came with Greg, Samantha’s brother and the other Beater on the Gryffindor team, or with Lillian. Still, Mrs. Harris had taken an interest in him the second she heard his name, saying something about having heard so much about him from Greg and Samantha, and watching him with an oddly intent look every time he got close to Samantha’s bed. It was very disconcerting. Sirius also came after hours, though he came as a phoenix, and made sure he was always invisible. He found that he could see through the invisibility cloaks of the Auror guards in the hospital wing, and while he was heartened that they were there, he harbored no doubts that they would not be happy to see him there.

All in all, Sirius was becoming more and more anxious to find the killer; if he could find out exactly what curses Samantha had been hit with, and in what order, and every other detail that they didn’t yet know, the healers might be able to wake her up.

“We need to go into the forest again,” Sirius told the Weasleys finally, on the third night after Samantha had been attacked. “He might have run there, and we just missed him coming back, or it might have been someone else. I’m sure I saw something. If there’s someone hiding there, it could be our ticket to solving this mess.”

“When do we leave?” Chris asked grimly; having seen the killer for himself, he was anxious to rid the school of the threat. All of them were justifiably uncomfortable with the fact that the boy next to them in class might be a lunatic murderer.

“And how far in are we willing to go?” Brian put in. “We’ve never gone that far, and the Forbidden Forest is huge.”

“We’ll go as far as it takes,” Sirius answered, and we’ll go Friday night, after dinner, so we can be back before the Quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff on Saturday. No one will know we’re gone.”

***

“I’m telling you, Harry, our children are in danger!” Ginny said, not quite shouting, but not far from it. “I know Sirius can handle himself, and so can Lillian and James, but what about Muriel? She’s just a first year! We need to take a more active role in getting rid of the problem. Why aren’t you at Hogwarts?”

“I learn more about what’s going on in the underworld as the Knight Bus driver than I ever did working as an Auror,” Harry said calmly. He knew better than trying to calm her down; she was an incredibly protective mother, and he had always appreciated that about her. “I’m getting rumors that could help the Aurors track down the Death Eaters, and we both know the Death Eater attack and the attack at Hogwarts are related, even if the Ministry is blind. The timing was too perfect. If we can get one, we’ll get the other.”

“That’s fine, Harry, and I know you’ll get to the bottom of that eventually, but I’m not just going to sit idly by while our children are in danger. I’m going to Hogwarts,” she stated firmly.

Harry hadn’t been expecting this at all. “What about the rest of our children?” he spluttered.

“I already talked to Mum; she’ll watch them while I’m there, and I’ll only go during the day. Besides, it sounds like Sirius will need some parental advice about relationships soon, and I think I’m a bit more qualified for that than you are. Knowing Potter males, he’s probably decided that it was his fault that the girl was attacked, and has decided to be noble by ending his relationship in the interest of protecting her,” Ginny said, though she was speaking in a much kinder tone toward the end, and her eyes sparkled in amusement.

Harry laughed. “I hope I’ve taught our children not to be as stupid as their old man, but genetics may get the best of him. Still, we don’t know if they are even together. Rumors aren’t worth much, as you should well know.”

“Come on, Harry. Lillian is absolutely certain that they really like each other, and Lillian knows Sirius better than anyone, and Samantha is one of her best friends; if Lillian thinks something is going on, then something is going on.”

“What will you do at Hogwarts?” Harry asked, changing the subject slightly. “They’ve still got several Aurors there, so you don’t need to guard the corridors, and there aren’t any teaching positions open, or they would have called. Kingsley is always trying to get one of us to teach something or other.”

“Taken care of, Harry,” Ginny said, waving her hand dismissively. “Madame Pince is planning on retiring next year, and I’m going to be training as her replacement.”

“When were you going to tell me about this?” Harry asked, starting to get a little upset.

“How long had you been planning on quitting the flying lessons and Quidditch referee job to drive the Knight Bus? You told me two days before you started,” Ginny pointed out. “Besides, you go off and get a new job ever third year; I decided that it was time for me to do something for myself, and we agreed that we would stay in England for as long as our children are in school. Since we don’t have any under the age of three,” she paused and looked at him sternly, “and we aren’t having any more, seven is enough! Mum has been wanting more time with her grandchildren, so I decided that this would be good for me, especially when it gives me the chance to protect my children from a murderer.”

Harry stared at her for a few moments as she stood there calmly, giving him time to digest what she had told him. Finally, he wrapped his arms around her.

“I love you,” he said simply, “and I have no doubt that you’ll do well there. I do have one objection, though.”

“What’s that?” she said, stiffening slightly in his arms.

“I think we ought to have at least a few more,” Harry said, his tone completely serious. “Ten is a much nicer number than seven, after all.”

Ginny laughed, knowing that he would accept what she was doing and support her; he always did.

***

“Crucio!” the voice called, and the man fell to the ground in agony, writhing in the throes of the Unforgivable curse.

When the curse was lifted, the man struggled to his knees, shaking uncontrollably.


“Master… I swear… it was not my fault…” he said between huge gulping breaths, as he tried futilely to regain some composure.

“It was your agent in Hogwarts that was compromised, so the fault is yours. If you wish to avoid further punishment, you will instill in your agent a greater desire to adhere to my plan. When you delivered the boy to me, you promised that he would do exactly as he was told. I expect what I was promised, no more.”

The man did not argue, showing he had some sense.

“Now, the contention between the houses has lessened, and that is unacceptable,” the voice continued. “I want it back where it was. You will use the upcoming Quidditch match; it worked before, and it will work again. Go!”

The man said nothing as he scrambled to his feet and staggered off towards the school, weaving around the towering trees that grew thick this deep in the forest.

***

“Crucio!” the man said mercilessly, and the student before him fell helplessly to the ground.

“Master!” he cried piteously, “Master… please… I’m sorry…”

Ignoring the boy’s moans, the man waited a few moments and then lifted the curse.

“Now,” he said, feeling powerful and in control, “you will be sure to follow orders exactly this time, and spare us both this kind of pain.”

“Master, I swear,” the boy moaned, “it was not my fault! Sirius heard the girl cry out, and I had to get away!”

“You want to make me happy don’t you?” the man asked.

“Yes,” the boy said fervently.

“You want to kill more of the students?”

“I…” the boy seemed momentarily confused, narrowing his eyes in concentration.

“Crucio!” the man said again, disliking hesitation. This boy had been very carefully modeled into a perfect killing machine, and hesitation was not a good sign.

“Yes!” the boy shouted between screams. “I want to kill them! I hate them! I like to kill them!”

“Yes,” the man answered, lifting the curse. “You like it, and it will make it so you have no more pain.”

“No more pain,” the boy echoed in a whimper, his mind so twisted by the torture that he believed what he was being told. He enjoyed the violence now; it was fun. Somewhere, some part of him protested against that thought, but the man made sure that the protesting parts of him were screaming in pain instead for the next several hours.


A/N: Well, here’s chapter ten, and things are getting a little more serious, a little darker, and we’re learning a bit more, but just a bit, about our antagonists. Please review and let me know what you’re thinking!

Chapter Eleven: The Dark Forest


Sirius and the Weasleys left just after curfew on Friday night, teleporting with Sirius to the border near Hagrid’s hut, trying their best not to wake the groundskeeper. Lee put on the invisibility cloak and set off, while Brian and Jack turned into weasels and began pacing him, slinking along, completely out of sight. Sirius carried Chris in his talons, with the idea that he might see something Sirius missed while flying ahead.

Sirius had flown over the forest at length, but the trees were so large and so close that anything could be going on inside and he would never be able to tell above the canopy. Now, they were going inside, trying to be ready for anything; the Weasleys would switch off wearing the cloak, since they had decided that it was best if one of them had a wand ready at all times, but could still remain hidden.

All of them had been in the Dark Forest several times; they explored and enjoyed the thrill of doing something forbidden, but they had never ventured too far in. Now, they were purposefully setting off into a place that they knew would be very dangerous, and none of them were very comfortable with that knowledge.

After an hour of wandering, the forest began to seem even more foreboding. The trees leaned in closer, their branches gnarled and twisted into grasping appendages, and the air grew close and still, seeming too quiet for a living forest. The silence would grow ominous, and just when one of them would be near to shouting just to hear something, noise would burst out of the forest like a Weasley’s Whizbang firecracker. It was usually something unpleasant, as well, a squeal and a snap that told of some kind of predator earning a meal. Their tension grew.

Chris was under the cloak when the first Acromantula attacked. He saw it coming, as did Sirius and the others since it stood as tall as they did and covered more ground with its eight legs, and he froze, thinking to let it wander past and to resume the search once it was gone. The giant spider, however, seemed to see right through the cloak, and Sirius realized, a second before it attacked, that it was hunting by smell.

Sirius transported to right in front of Chris, letting himself become visible and blinding the spider as it approached. The Acromantula shied back, momentarily blinded, while Brian, who had been in Sirius’ talons, transformed back into himself and cast a powerful Reductor Curse directly into the spider’s face. Sirius had also turned back into himself, and cast a fire spell that reduced the battered arachnid to ashes.

“Honestly, Sirius, could you for once stop to think before you light something on fire?” Lee asked, having resumed his usual and joining the rest of them. Jack followed shortly afterwards.

“That was an Acromantula! Not only could we sell the venom and make a fortune, we could use the stuff ourselves. And you go and burn it right up,” Brian said, shaking his head.

“I think there is plenty to go around,” Sirius said, looking out into the darkness; all of them had been blinded briefly by the flames, and his eyes were just now adjusting once more to the darkness.

The quadruplets were soon able to see exactly what he meant; they were now surrounded by at least two dozen of the giant spiders, though it was hard to get an accurate count since each of them had so many legs. The spiders were wary now, after seeing the first spider die, but apparently they were more interested in eating than calculating odds since they attacked soon after being seen.

“Get ready to grab onto me!” Sirius shouted while casting several spells out into the night. The Weasleys nodded, and crowded close, each facing out in a different direction. When they were close enough, each laid a hand on Sirius, who transformed and transported them away.

“That was ridiculous,” Jack snapped, as they reappeared much closer to Hogwarts, the forest quiet and still around them. “They should have hunted those things down and gotten rid of them years ago. You’ve heard Ron’s stories; it’s Hagrid’s fault.”

“Maybe I should just search alone,” Sirius said doubtfully, not really feeling like he wanted to be alone while deep in the forest, even if he could fly and be invisible.

“And leave us to tell where you went before disappearing forever?” Chris said incredulously.

“We know your mother; no thanks,” Lee said with an exaggerated grimace.

“Well, I don’t think there’s anything in that particular part of the forest,” Brian declared as if Sirius hadn’t spoken. “I say we pick a different direction and go from their.”

They all agreed that that was the best plan and set off again, even more nervous than before.

***

“Well, that should be enough training today,” Madame Pince said with a kind smile. “You are doing very well; I always thought you were a wonderful student, you know, and you’ll be able to handle the whole library in no time.”

Ginny was very surprised, since she remembered being chased out of the library no less than eight times. She had been asked to start training after the student’s curfew so she wouldn’t be bothered, and she had discovered that Madame Pince was actually very nice, and very friendly… to adults anyway. She still insisted that Ginny absolutely had to maintain a firm hand with the students or risk losing control completely. It was very amusing to Ginny now, since she was no longer a student, but she had already decided to be a little more understanding than the old librarian.

“Well I certainly hope so,” Ginny said ruefully, “There’s so much more to learn than I expected.”

Hogwarts had made a policy of sending owls to the Potter home with any new job openings or positions, even of a temporary nature, since Harry was qualified for almost anything and was often looking for something new to try. Ginny was also a fully qualified witch, having completed her schooling at Hogwarts with excellent OWLS and NEWTS and going on to various different training programs, such as the Healer program at St. Mungo’s. She had always spent more time in the home with the kids, where healing knowledge was more than just helpful, but she had tried a few different careers herself while following Harry around the world. She had answered the owl sent to Harry about the library opening, thinking to get herself into Hogwarts to protect her children while not having to worry about too much work-related stress. Madame Pince had spent the entire evening showing her just how large the library was, and how complicated. Still, she was confident she could get things worked out and do a good job, and Kingsley knew that she wouldn’t be staying for too long, so there weren’t any unreasonable demands on her time; she enjoyed the opportunities she had to work in the various things she had done, but she also recognized how much of a difference she was able to make in her children’s lives if she was at home to watch over them. Once all of them were in Hogwarts she fully intended to start a serious career, but until then she was happy with the various side jobs such as the one she was starting now.

“You’ll do very well, dear,” Madame Pince said again.

“Well, I think I’ll head home for the evening, then,” Ginny said with a smile, grabbing her bag and walking towards the door. “Have a good night, Madame Pince!”

She was on her way out when she decided to stop by Gryffindor tower. After all, the entire reason she was there was to help her children, and Sirius had the Marauder’s Map, and no one was likely to be watching it while they were supposed to be asleep. She could make it to the common room and summon the map without waking her son and nephews and then check to see if the ruthless killer was on the move. There were still Aurors at various points in the castle, but there was no way that they would see everything.

Her mind set, Ginny turned around and headed for a stairway.

***

They were deeper into the forest than they had ever been, having skirted the area of the forest infested by spiders, and pushing on for another hour or so. No one had spoken in some time; the silence had grown oppressive, and the trees loomed over them like skeletal wraiths while a thick chilly mist oozed through the gaps between the trees, rendering their own feet invisible. It was definitely not a friendly place.

Sirius was feeling the effects of their surroundings more than the others; he was sweating despite the chill, while an incredible sense of foreboding filled his mind until he could hardly think. Of one thing he was absolutely certain; something in this forest hated him, and it was getting closer.

As he concluded this thought, sound erupted in the distance startling him severely; he actually forgot to keep flapping his wings, and tumbled to the forest floor, and landing on top of Brian, who let out an indignant squeak before turning back into himself, while Sirius did the same.

The sound went on for perhaps fifteen seconds, a keening wail that had a metallic edge to it like Sirius had never heard before.

“What was that?” Jack asked fearfully, joining the rest of the group. Everyone had changed transformed back into themselves and Lee had removed the invisibility cloak.

Sirius was still feeling the same apprehension as before, and since being startled by the sound his heart had been beating as though it wanted to jump out of his chest and he was on the verge of hyperventilating. It was making it difficult for him to shout and tell the others to flee; he could see by their faces that panic was permeating through all of them, and he knew it wasn’t just a premonition.

Before he could gather himself enough to speak, he saw the black shape materialize in the darkness, as though shadows had grown together and taken on form. It was human-shaped, but that was all Sirius could see. The panic increased, and Sirius felt himself become immobilized by the fear.

Before the Weasleys could see what he was looking at, they were also panicking, looking around in terror, frantically trying to find the presence that was so threatening. Four rapid stunning spells rushing out of the darkness ended their searching, and all four of them were on the ground. A fifth followed immediately, hitting Sirius squarely in the chest.

Sirius was not stunned; seeing the spells and discovering that it was a wizard in the forest, likely wearing a shadow cloak and possibly the murderer at Hogwarts, combined with the realization that the fear must be caused by some kind of spell or enchantment as well, had made him angry. Seeing his cousins stunned had made him furious. The stunner didn’t affect him at all, just as the one from Hermione hadn’t done anything the time he had been threatening McFarren.

Leaping to his feet, he sent a wordless stunner of his own out at the approaching figure, followed immediately by a Reductor Curse from his free hand. The phantom reacted instantly, moving with a feral grace and speed that amazed Sirius. It dodged the first spell with ease, hardly seeming to move at all, and then vanished as the second hit right where it was standing. It reappeared behind Sirius, but Sirius had recognized the Apparation and had already assumed he would be attacked from a new angle. He dove to the side, rolling into a crouch and already casting his next spell.

The disarming curse hit him hard, pulling his wand away to be absorbed by the shadow, and leaving him too surprised to move. Time slowed as Sirius saw his death approaching; the shadow seemed to be laughing silently as it raised its wand.

“Avada…” the voice was a harsh whisper, like a file rasping across a gravestone, but it never finished the deadly curse.

The wail that had startled Sirius so much before returned, causing the shadow to stop and look away. A second later there was a brilliant flash of light as something big burst out of the forest and planted itself between Sirius and his antagonist. Sirius had a glimpse of a very old car, almost rusted out but with patches of blue paint still visible, before the shadow cast a powerful curse that caused the car to explode, silencing its horn forever.

All of dad’s stories are true, Sirius thought with wonder, while acting quicker than he would have thought possible. With one hand he summoned his wand, while he used the other to summon his cousins. As they came flying through the air towards him he caught the wand, almost surprised it had gotten away from its captor, and let the Weasleys fall at his feet, happy to see that the invisibility cloak was still clutched in Lee’s motionless hands. Making sure they were all touching him in some way, Sirius ignored the wreckage of the car being blasted away in both directions as the shadow continued its advance and transported all of them back to the area behind Hagrid’s hut.

***

The black shape stood motionless as it observed the spot from which its prey had just vanished, perplexed and somewhat angry, though not too concerned.

It had thought to increase the panic by letting Sirius Potter be found dead, killed with his own wand, while the one of the Weasleys would be found holding it, all of them stunned and unconscious around him. It wasn’t necessary to its plan, though; the world would be panicking before long.

It had been trailing the one under the cloak for some time, utilizing some of its special talents to produce the fear he had wanted his prey to feel before meeting his end. Then that wail had distracted him, and he had looked back to find four more students that he hadn’t detected, which had concerned him enough that he had attacked immediately. Now that he had seen them vanish, he knew that they must be able to Apparate, even though they were all underage; it was the only explanation for how they had gotten there and how they had escaped. Still, he didn’t like being surprised.

“I’ll be the one to surprise them, soon enough,” the voice rasped out into the darkness. “I’ll make them all pay, and then no one will be able to stop me.”

***

Sirius had woken his cousins up immediately and told them all about what he had seen and what had happened.

“This is crazy,” Chris muttered. “We’re in over our heads; shouldn’t we tell Uncle Ron about this?”

“We still haven’t learned anything,” Brian protested, “We don’t know exactly where it’s hiding and we don’t know what it was. We’ll get in trouble for nothing.”

Chris nodded glumly; none of them were willing to go to the authorities without enough proof that helping to solve the mystery would get them out of being in trouble.

“I don’t think we should go into the forest again,” Sirius stated quietly.

“Oh, brilliant suggestion, Sirius,” Lee said in a bland voice. “While we’re pointing out the obvious, I also recommend we don’t jump off the Astronomy tower.”

Sirius was about to retort, when Jack interrupted in a shocked and terrified whisper; “It’s your mom!”

Sirius looked and saw his mother exit the castle, coming right for them, her fiery red hair standing out in the darkness. By her quick stride, he could tell she was angry.

“Hide,” Chris whispered frantically, but Sirius overrode him.

“It won’t do any good,” he said, trying to brace himself for the confrontation he knew he couldn’t escape. “She’s got the Map.”



A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, everyone! I'm sorry this was a few days getting submitted, but I was in Spain for the week for work, and the internet connection I had wasn't the most reliable. It was a whole lot of fun, though, let me tell you! Keep up the reviewing, and I hope you like this chapter. It's a transitional one, so nothing TOO major happens, but things are going to be picking up!

Chapter Twelve: Ravenclaw Quidditch


Sirius waited with his cousins in terrified silence until his mother had marched right up to them and stopped, hands on her hips, and a furious expression on her face. For a moment no one said anything, which caused Sirius and the Weasleys even more discomfort.

“Mum, I can explain…” Sirius said finally, realizing that since it was his mum, he would have to be the spokesman. Truthfully, he had no idea how he was going to explain; the truth seemed like a good idea on one hand, but on the other, he knew how furious his mother would be at their recklessness.

“I think I have an idea of what’s going on here,” Ginny said quietly, though with discernable anger. Jack and Chris both took unintentional steps back, and Lee was rubbing his arms as though he was cold. Brian just stood looking down at his feet. “I went to the Gryffindor common room and summoned the Map, thinking to see what was happening in Hogwarts while you were all sleeping. And then, on closer inspection of the map, the only thing I could find that was out of place was the four of you not being on the school grounds. And then, just as I was about to Floo your father and let him know that his son and nephews were missing, the four of you appear on the edge of the Map, obviously coming from the Forbidden Forest. So tell me if I’m wrong. The four of you, probably acting on information from the last attack that you didn’t tell anyone else about, decided that something was going on out in the Forest, and instead of calling adults who are trained to deal with this kind of thing, you four decided you could all handle it by yourselves.”

Sirius sat for a moment, trying to figure out a way to make what she was describing sound better. He was glad she hadn’t called his dad, since he was in enough trouble as it was. Still, he knew his dad would hear about it; Ginny and Harry didn’t keep anything from each other.

“What did you find out there?” Ginny asked, her voice softening slightly as she examined her son and nephews. They had obviously been badly frightened by something besides her.

Sirius began telling exactly what had happened, since he knew it was useless to do anything else, and tried to ignore his mum’s mouth tightening as he told how close they had come to getting killed.

“Well, I think I can tell a few people about what you saw without getting you into more trouble,” Ginny said calmly once he was done. “Harry and Ron, and Ron will tell Hermione, maybe some others. Don’t think you’re getting away with this without getting in trouble, though. I see that some restrictions need to be put in place.”

Ginny flicked her wand and the Invisibility Cloak flew out of Lee’s hand and into Ginny’s. “You obviously aren’t responsible enough to have this. And if I hear of any of you leaving the grounds again, you can bet I’ll turn you into the Headmaster myself.”

Sirius knew she was serious, but still felt a little disgruntled over the loss of the cloak. Wisely, though, he said nothing.

“Now, I want you to get back to your common room. If you get caught out of bed, you’re on your own, and the detention will serve you right. You can keep the Map,” she added as Sirius was walking by, handing him the old, folded piece of parchment, “and I expect you to continue to keep your eyes on things, but come to me or Ron or Hermione if you suspect something in the future.”

Sirius gratefully took the Map back and was about to follow the quadruplets, who were already on their way back to the castle, when his mum grabbed him into a tight hug.

“I love you, Sirius,” she said firmly. “Try and remember how your father and I would feel if you got yourself killed. And you and I need to talk about this young lady I keep hearing about, but that can wait until tomorrow.”

Sirius, already feeling bad about the grief he was constantly putting his parents through, felt a jolt of fear as his mum mentioned Samantha. What does she know, and what does she want to talk about?

Sirius hugged Ginny back and then proceeded toward the castle with yet another worry occupying his mind.

***

Of course, getting back to their room wasn’t difficult; as soon as they were out of sight from Ginny, Sirius transported all of them directly there.

“I think we got off a lot easier than we could have,” Lee said first, breaking the silence as each climbed into their bed.

“Yeah,” Brian agreed, “Aunt Ginny isn’t so bad, even if she is really scary when she’s angry.”

“Still, she was going too far, taking the cloak,” Jack put in grumpily.

“I’m going to sleep,” Sirius announced before turning over. “I want to make it to the Quidditch match tomorrow.”

***

Harry watched with pride as James flew circles around the Hufflepuff Seeker, constantly managing to put himself in the other’s field of vision while giving himself ample opportunity to spot the Snitch himself. The distraction tactics were James’ specialty; he would quickly infuriate his opponent and remain completely calm himself. The other Seeker would be making mistake after mistake while James would be methodically hunting for the Snitch. Harry was proud to admit that his son was a better Seeker than he had been, and though James didn’t know it, several professional teams had their eye on him, waiting patiently for him to graduate.

“Hufflepuff has put together a really strong front this year,” Ginny said beside him, pulling his attention back to the rest of the game.

She was right; Hufflepuff was actually ten points ahead, though the lead had been passed back and forth throughout the game. Frank Longbottom had been a good choice for Captain; he led his team confidently, and they obviously trusted him. Harry couldn’t remember Hufflepuff doing so well since Cedric Diggory had captained the team.

“Yeah, Ravenclaw will have to step it up a notch or two, or James will have to catch the Snitch, soon,” Harry answered with a smile. After all he had done in his life, there was almost nothing that pleased him more than a good game of Quidditch, though he’d still rather play than watch.

“I think Ravenclaw may finally be unseated as the champions this year,” Neville Longbottom said good-naturedly from behind Harry.

Harry turned back and smiled at his old friend. “There’s a slight chance at least,” he said back, “though I think it’s even odds as to whether Gryffindor or Hufflepuff takes it away. And James and the Ravenclaws will fight them to the bitter end. All in all, I think I’m going to come to the rest of the games.”

Neville laughed and nodded, and then went back to watching his son launch a Bludger that startled the Ravenclaw Chaser into dropping the Quaffle, which was quickly scooped up by a Hufflepuff Chaser.

Harry went back to watching the Seekers, keeping an eye on his own son, completely unprepared for what would happen next.

It started with a Bludger aimed at James; James saw it coming and turned to dodge it, and ran headlong into the Hufflepuff Seeker who had just started speeding off in the same direction. They collided with a gut wrenching crash, just before the Bludger hit James in the shoulder with an audible crack. Harry was on his feet now, clutching his wife in horror while she had both hands cupped over her mouth. The two Seekers fell into the stands, knocking several other students down and injuring many of them, though Harry had no idea how bad anything was.

Something made him turn his head, and his lungs stopped working. A phoenix was flying toward the stands where James had landed, and it looked like Fawkes, just as Hermione had described. Tentatively, Harry reached out with his mind, as he had done so many years ago, and connected immediately. The rush of emotions and feelings from the phoenix almost overwhelmed him, though he knew immediately it wasn’t Fawkes. The mind he felt was familiar, but he couldn’t imagine how, since Fawkes was the only phoenix he’d ever met. Brushing his surprise aside, Harry expressed to the phoenix his urgent need to be down with his son. Obviously surprised, the phoenix almost fell from the air before vanishing and reappearing at Harry’s side. Harry didn’t waste a second, grabbing the phoenix’s tail feathers with one hand and tightening his grip on his wife with the other. In a flash of flame, he was at his injured son’s side. Ginny let out a slight squeak at finding herself transported across the Pitch, but immediately regained her composure and rushed to her son’s side.

Harry joined her, and was shocked by what he found. His son was unconscious, lying in a growing pool of blood, his broken broomstick and the other Seeker, also unconscious, lying on top of him. Harry levitated the other Seeker off of his son while Ginny began searching frantically for the source of all of the blood.

Ginny looked up at Harry in horror as she rolled James over and found the gaping wound, deep, and running down a good portion of James’ back. There was no way it could have been caused by the collision in the air; Harry could feel the residues of magic around the wound, and knew his son had been cursed.

Cursing himself, Harry bent down to try and close the wound, fearing he was already too late. Then the phoenix, which had been watching from behind his shoulder, landed next to James and began shedding tears into the wound. Harry felt a thrill of hope, and then reassurance as the wound closed quickly. James was breathing normally, and despite what looked like a broken collar bone Harry knew he would be okay. Ginny was also crying in relief, holding her injured son close. The phoenix sang out in reassurance, and the hauntingly familiar sound made Harry’s heart leap. The last time he had heard the song of the phoenix, he had been given a second chance at life, a chance to live a life of hope and love instead of the life of misery he’d experienced while locked in the Mind’s Eye with Voldemort. Now a phoenix had saved his son, and he couldn’t help but feel that it was a wonderful thing to have phoenix song ringing in his ears once more. The phoenix lingered a moment more and vanished.

***

Sirius raced around the corner in the stands, let past the guards only because his parents and brother and sisters were there, and joined the rest of his family. Lillian looked up in surprise.

“Sirius! I thought you would have gotten here first, since you left so fast after the accident. Are you alright?” she asked.

Sirius had been there first, of course, but wasn’t about to talk about that. He was just out of breath since he’d had to transport to somewhere where no one would see him appear out of nowhere, and then he’d had to run.

“I… I got caught in the crowd,” he said shakily. “How’s James?”

James was actually awake, and Sirius heaved a sigh of relief on seeing him so; it hadn’t looked good when he had seen him earlier. James was pale, and only Ginny’s arm around him kept him sitting up.

“What happened?” he asked in a mumble, looking around himself in a daze.

“Relax, son,” Harry said calmly, though his eyes betrayed the anger he felt. Someone had attacked his son in the middle of a Quidditch match, with hundreds of people watching, and no one had seen what had happened. “You’re all right. We’ll have you in the hospital wing in a few moments.”

Sirius was exhausted and frustrated, a combination that gave him a very short temper, and he was seething inside. He had been watching avidly as the second Hufflepuff Beater had hit the Bludger right at James; he would have done the same thing himself. He had watched closely, and had seen nothing of the curse that hit James in the back. It could have come from any of a hundred different people in the stands, and there had been such an uproar after the collision, whoever had done it could easily have gotten away.

Muriel suddenly threw her arms around him, crying, and Sirius was reminded how difficult her first year at Hogwarts had been. He hugged her back, though neither said anything. Harry looked at him in gratitude for helping comfort his daughter.

Ron came up just then and handed Ginny a piece of James’ broken broomstick.

“I just got the Portkey authorized, it’ll take you right to the hospital wing,” he said. Ginny nodded gratefully before taking the Portkey and vanishing with James.

“Found anything?” Harry asked shortly.

Ron looked uncomfortable. “Yeah, but we need your help. We’ve found the motive, if not the suspect. James was just a distraction; we found another pair of students at the entrance back into the castle from the Quidditch pitch. They look pretty bad, but their alive. They’re in some kind of trap, though, and we can’t get them down. We think it was meant to kill them when the first people went back to the castle, but since Aurors got their first, we were able to keep anyone from triggering it. Will you see if you can get them down?”

Harry nodded, and turned to his children. “Go to your common room and wait there. Hermione will go and get you as soon as you can go see James.”

Sirius and Lillian would have protested, but they both knew it would do no good. Lillian put an arm around Muriel and all three headed back to the common room, where Sirius immediately went to his room. The Weasleys were already there, looking troubled.

“Sirius!” Lee shouted on his arrival, “Finally! Will you tell us what’s going on?”

“We got sent here after James went down, and no one has said anything since,” Jack added.

“Hurry, there’s not much time,” Sirius said quickly, explaining the situation. “Grab on.”

Sirius transformed and all four of the Weasleys grabbed his tail feathers before he transported them to the Hogwarts entrance where the Aurors and his dad were trying to save the two students. The Weasleys transformed and hid quickly, their weasel forms allowing them to avoid detection easily, and freeing Sirius from keeping them invisible in case he needed to help his dad in some way.

The situation was grim. Both students were first years, a boy and a girl, and both looked battered and bruised. The girl was crying, and the boy looked like he had been. They were floating in the air to either side of the doorway, arms pinned to their sides, and neither made a sound. If the Aurors hadn’t been more observant, someone could have triggered the lethal spell without even realizing they were there.

Sirius watched with fascination as his father moved close to the students, examining the spell that was wrapped around them and muttering to himself. After a few moments, he began deftly waving his wand and muttering spells that Sirius couldn’t hear, but Sirius could feel the power emanating from his father while the dark magic weakened. Suddenly there was a flash of light and the spell was gone. The children began to fall to the ground, but Harry threw out his hands, catching both of them in levitation spells. Aurors were waiting for each of them, and they were given Calming Draughts before being rushed to the Hospital Wing to make sure they were alright. Sirius watched in pride as Ron went up to his father and clapped him on the back.

“Good work, Harry!” he said with a relieved grin. “I knew if anyone could unravel that thing, you could. Can you tell who cast it?”

“No,” Harry answered in frustration. “It’s fairly complicated, but not so much that I can’t think of over a dozen of the Death Eaters still out there who could do it.”

“Don’t worry, Harry, we’ll get to the bottom of this,” Ron said reassuringly.

“I hope so,” Harry answered, “and before anyone else in my family is hurt.”

***

As Sirius walked into the Hospital Wing, he noticed several things that were different; first, there were several more occupied beds, but given the events earlier in the day, that wasn’t unexpected. What was unexpected, and somewhat disconcerting, was the sight of Samantha’s mother Mrs. Harris and his mum talking as if they were old friends. He also noticed that not only was James awake and talking to Muriel, apparently about the match judging by gestures and Muriel’s giggles, but Samantha was awake as well, and talking with Lillian. She looked a little pale, but she was smiling and laughing, and Sirius felt as though butterflies were clamoring for escape from within his stomach.

He would later deny that he had run over to her, but that’s what everyone else saw. He did remember throwing his arms around her and being excited that she hugged him back.

“Are you okay?” he asked, “Do you remember what happened?”

“I feel fine, though it’s weird to wake up more than a week after what I remember last. I was coming to the Hospital Wing to see you, and then I remember a shadow, and that’s it,” she answered, letting a twinkle grow in her eye. “They tell me you threw whoever was attacking me thirty feet down the hall.”

“It was more like ten,” Sirius said, embarrassed. “You were coming to see me?”

“I wanted to talk to you about…” Samantha began before looking up and going silent. Sirius was surprised to see that she was blushing before he noticed that their mothers had joined them.

“Sirius,” Mrs. Harris greeted him, smiling. “I’m sorry she woke up while you were away; I didn’t think that would happen, given the amount of time you’ve spent in here.”

Samantha looked up at him with a smile, while he tried to avoid her gaze.

“Mrs. Harris and I were just talking about the Christmas Holidays coming up, and she’s invited us all to have dinner with them a few days before Christmas. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Sirius was both mortified and excited all at once, but as he looked back at Samantha and saw her smiling at him, he couldn’t help but grin back.

“Yeah, that’s great!” he said, meaning it whole-heartedly.


A/N: I’m really, really, really, and so on, sorry that this has taken so long. Everything seemed to pile up on me all at once, between work and school and spending time with my wife and everything else. Work got really busy after my trip to Spain, which was fantastic, if busy. It was my first time in Europe, and I liked it a lot. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to make it to Great Britain too. Anyway, I promise I’ll do my best to keep things going fast from now until the end of the story. Thanks for continuing to read!

Chapter Thirteen: Holidays


Samantha got out of the Hospital Wing the next day, much to her delight. She was incredibly behind in her classes, and that definitely caused a lot of stress, but she’d never spent more than a few hours in the Hospital Wing before, and it was time for this trip to end. Her mum had stayed with her until the previous night, along with Mrs. Potter and Sirius, and she couldn’t help but smile at the memory; both women had been subtly teasing Sirius almost the whole time, and if Samantha’s guess was correct, he’d caught less than half of it.

She made her way carefully to the Great Hall, since she had mercifully been released before lunch instead of after, and was pleased to see Sirius look up and wave her over. He’d been in fairly serious conversation with one of the Weasley quadruplets, but he got up and left after giving Sirius a teasing smirk. She didn’t know which one he was, since they were almost impossible to tell apart; it was almost a surprise to see one without the other four.

“Want to join me for lunch?” Sirius asked, not quite meeting her eyes.

“It’s more than halfway through the lunch hour; aren’t you done already?” she asked incredulously.

“I thought you might be getting out soon, so I waited just in case,” he answered, finally looking up with a smile.

“I’d love to, then,” she said, sitting down next to him.

They both loaded plates and began eating, Sirius filling her in on all of the news and gossip that hadn’t been important enough to talk about the night before, when she’d been told all about the Quidditch attack.

“Oh, and we just found out that they aren’t canceling Quidditch after all,” Sirius finished, before taking the last bite of his sandwich.

“Really?” Samantha exclaimed, “That will make Greg happy; he’s been worried.”

“He’s not the only one,” Sirius said. “I guess there’s going to be a rematch for Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but no one knows when because they want to do it without giving anyone advance warning. During the holidays they’re supposed to work out some kind of security for the rest of the year.”

“Hopefully nothing else will happen then…” Samantha said hopefully before changing the subject. “So I was on my way to the Hospital Wing to talk to you before,” she began, not sure how to go on. The Hogsmeade trip was quite a while ago; what if he doesn’t even remember? she thought suddenly.

“Yeah,” Sirius said, his face falling slightly, “and that almost got you killed. I’m really sorry… I guess being around my family is dangerous right now.” He looked so glum that Samantha wanted to laugh. He thinks I won’t want to be around him any more, she realized. He likes me!

“Actually, I don’t really care about that,” Samantha said seriously, and Sirius looked up in disbelief.

“You don’t?” he asked hopefully.

“No, actually I just wanted to talk about what happened in Hogsmeade… you know, when you sent me off with the kids, and I didn’t want to go…” she said hesitantly.

“Oh… yeah…” Sirius said with a silly grin that once again had Samantha on the verge of laughter.

“So what do you think of us?” Samantha asked finally, getting to the point.

“Us?” Sirius asked, before realization dawned on him. “Oh.”

He could tell something more was expected.

“Um, would you… I mean… will you be my…” he stammered.

“Yes?” Samantha asked, wanting him to say it.

“Girlfriend?” Sirius finished asking, looking into her eyes.

Her response was to smile and pull him in for another kiss.

***

“If it looked like Fawkes, but it wasn’t Fawkes, what does that mean?” Ginny asked, eating the late dinner Harry had made for her. It had been a late night at the school, and she had been starving when she got home.

“I don’t know,” Harry answered quietly, holding their sleeping three-year-old daughter. She’d spent the day playing at Grandma Weasley’s house, but had begged to stay up until her mother got home. She’d fallen asleep within minutes; Molly Weasley had unrivaled experience at wearing a child out in preparation for bed.

“Maybe I’m not remembering what Fawkes looked like very well and this one is different. I know I remember Fawkes’ mind, though, and this one wasn’t him,” Harry continued.

“Well, whatever it’s doing around here, I’m grateful; I think James would have been in the Hospital Wing for another week at least if it hadn’t sped up the healing process,” Ginny stated fervently.

“I won’t argue with you there,” Harry said with a wistful smile. “I wonder why I was able to connect with it like I did, though… and it was familiar, too.”

Ginny smiled as she finished her meal and took the sleeping child from her husband. “I guess you’ll have to put your keen ‘mystery-solving-hero’ abilities towards solving the whole thing.”

“First I have to solve the mystery of who is threatening the lives of our children; until I figure that out, I’m willing to let the phoenix continue saving them,” Harry answered soberly.

“You’ll figure it out,” Ginny reassured. “At least we know they’ll be safe over the holidays. Voldemort himself wouldn’t have been able to get into our house.”

***

“I am reasonably satisfied with your efforts, this time,” the voice said, and the man sagged with relief. He’d been very concerned that the lack of dead students might lead to another turn under the Cruciatus Curse.

“What should our next goal be?” the man asked cautiously.

“I want another attack on the Potter family,” the voice answered, dripping with hatred.

“Who is willing to fight Harry Potter?” the man asked incredulously before he could think better of it.

“Anyone who doesn’t want to face my wrath!” the voice shouted, causing the man to cower in fear. “Just get me the information to make it possible, or you’ll be leading the charge!”

The man stammered his assurances that his master’s will would be done, all the while thinking how difficult this task would be.

***

For Sirius, the weeks since the Quidditch match had flown by. Ravenclaw had barely managed to beat Hufflepuff in the Quidditch rematch, and only because James caught the Snitch. There hadn’t been any incidents at the rematch, or at all since, though tension was still high at the school. Sirius realized that since his dad and the Aurors had taken care of the first-years at the school entrance and apparently altered their memories, since no one else had heard anything about that, the tension was probably a lot less than it would have been otherwise. Classes had never been hard for him, and the homework was simple, though teachers were keeping a very tight reign on their classes as the holidays approached. The weather had turned cold, and the first snow had fallen, and snowball fights had become the favorite between-class activity. Mostly, Sirius spent a lot of time with Samantha, finding her company to be more pleasant than anything else. His vigilance hadn’t wavered, and he and the Weasleys still spent a lot of time discussing how to find the killer, as well as how to prank Slytherins without being caught, but he found that his temper wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been in the past. Samantha helped him keep his cool when it would have been difficult otherwise. This was definitely a good thing, since the Slytherins all still hated him and took every opportunity they could get to make his life miserable.

Now, as Sirius surveyed his room one last time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything, he was just looking forward to the holidays. He was really looking forward to seeing Samantha when his family would join hers for dinner, and he was also looking forward to the Weasley family Christmas party, which would start Christmas Eve morning and last for the next two days; no one knew how to celebrate Christmas like the Weasleys.

***

“My mum keeps talking about how much of an honor it will be to have the famous Potter family over for dinner,” Samantha said with a smile as she and Sirius played another round of Exploding Snap. “I think she’s worried.”

“You met my parents. Do you think they’re scary?” Sirius asked with a disbelieving smile.

“I don’t know…” Samantha said, blushing slightly. “Your dad’s kind of intimidating, you know, the man who killed the Darkest Wizard in history and all.”

“He’s the Knight Bus Driver! How can he be intimidating?” Sirius asked.

“That just makes him more intimidating because he’s eccentric,” Samantha explained reasonably.

“He’d like that,” Sirius laughed, “hearing himself called ‘eccentric’ would make his day, I think.”

“Well, I’ll tell my dad to call him that when you come over for dinner, then,” Samantha said with a laugh.

“You’re having the Potters over for dinner?” the very unwelcome voice of Thomas Nott asked incredulously from the doorway, the hulking forms of Crabbe and Goyle visible behind him.

“Well, I guess filthy half-bloods are most comfortable with more filthy half-bloods,” Nott continued, moving into the compartment.

“What are you doing here?” Sirius asked angrily, unwilling to listen to anyone speak to Samantha that way.

“I’m just trying to be a good citizen and warn a fellow student that associating with the Potters is a good way to end up dead,” Nott answered nonchalantly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Samantha asked angrily, rising to her feet. Sirius followed her quickly, determined to be between her and any confrontation.

“It means that one of these days, the whole Potter family will get what’s coming to them,” Nott said, his voice low and filled with contempt. “Your dad may have killed the last Dark Lord, but the next one will take care of him, and the rest of his family for good measure.”

“Is there a problem here?” a deep voice asked from the door. Frank Longbottom stood with his arms crossed next to James, who looked ready to attack Nott at any moment.

“Shove off, Longbottom; this isn’t your business…” Nott began arrogantly, but was cut off as Frank grabbed his collar and lifted him off the ground.

“I’m really tired of the threats and negative feelings you’re causing. Why don’t you be a good little boy and run along,” Frank said in a patient tone. He set Nott down, and the Slytherin seemed to weigh the odds before deciding that his cronies were outclassed.

“You’ll be sorry too, Longbottom,” he mumbled angrily before shouldering his way out.

“Thanks, Frank,” James said gratefully, “though I think we could’ve cursed him for good measure.”

“Any time,” Frank answered with a smile as he made his own way out. “The Longbottoms will always side with the Potters, as my dad keeps reminding me.”

Sirius watched the boy leave. “When did you start hanging around with pretty-boy Longbottom?” he asked his brother.

“We were in the prefect’s meeting,” James said with a grin. “You still don’t like him?”

“I don’t know if I could,” Sirius answered.

“Why not, Sirius?” Samantha asked.

“You’d never believe Sirius Potter, Quidditch Star and brilliant wizard, would be jealous of Frank Longbottom’s extreme popularity, but that’s what’s going on,” James answered with an exaggerated sigh and shake of the head.

“Shove off,” Sirius grumbled as Samantha turned back to him with a look of utter disbelief. “I just don’t like him.”

“Well, anyway, Lillian sent me to find you; we’ve got a compartment with Muriel, and she insisted there was room for the two of you as well,” James said, as he strode to the compartment door.

“Alright then,” Sirius said, and he and Samantha followed James out.

***

William Harris opened the door with a smile. “And this must be the famous Potter family I keep hearing about. Welcome to my home,” he said as he ushered the large group into the entry.

“Thank you for inviting us,” Harry said as he shook the man’s hand. “It’s all my son has been talking about for days.”

“Ah, and this must be the one Samantha keeps talking about, then,” Mr. Harris said good-naturedly, turning to James. “I really get the feeling she fancies you.”

“I hope not,” James said with a laugh, to Mr. Harris’ confusion. “Sirius wouldn’t like that at all.”

“So… you’re Sirius?” Mr. Harris asked, turning to Sirius, and noting that he was taller and more muscular than James by a fair margin. “The younger son?”

“Sirius got the size genes,” James said with a smirk. “I got the intelligence genes.”

Everyone laughed before Mr. Harris motioned them further into the house. “The rest of my family is waiting in the dining room. Why don’t we join them?”

Sirius was quick to move into the dining room, eager to see Samantha again. Everyone else followed behind, and soon they were all enjoying the wonderful meal. Besides Greg and Samantha, there were two more Harris children, both near the age of two Harry and Ginny’s younger children, and soon they were all friends.

“So what do you do, Mr. Harris?” Ginny asked Mr. Harris politely.

“William, please. I own a restaurant here in town,” he said happily, passing dishes across the table. “I’m a Muggle, of course, so I had no idea any of this magic world existed until I met Helen, and she didn’t say anything until after we were married, so that was quite a shock for me, let me tell you.”

Mr. Harris soon had the whole table laughing through his story of meeting his wife and his first experiences with magic.

Sirius was smiling at Samantha and thinking of how much fun the rest of the evening was going to be when they heard the sound of the front door being blasted off of its hinges.

“What the…?” Mr. Harris began, standing up suddenly.

Harry however, was instantly aware of what was going on.

“Get the children out!” he shouted at Ginny, before rushing towards the entry.

Ginny wasted no time in gathering together the young children and the Harris family, and was motioning for Sirius and his older siblings to join them while she readied a Portkey.

“I’m helping dad,” Sirius said stubbornly and rushed from the room. James and Lillian followed him before their mother could stop them. Ginny sighed angrily before the lot of them vanished.

Sirius was surprised to find his dad, struggling to hold his own against the milling masses of masked witches and wizards. There were at least twenty of them, and it seemed as though they had blown the front wall of the house away.

Sirius hurled himself into the fight, furious at the Death Eater’s interruption of what he had been looking forward to for so long. He heard Lillian and James shouting curses at his side and smiled grimly; no one could stand against the Potter family.

His confidence was shaken, however, when Lillian was hit by a stunning spell and fell beside him; suddenly Sirius couldn’t move about anymore, forced to defend his sister. Harry, seeing their plight, redoubled his efforts, and the stunned bodies of Death Eaters were piling up around him as he made his way towards them, though it seemed as though their numbers were growing rather than shrinking. James was struggling to keep away from the dangerous spells that were hurling all about him and wasn’t having much luck launching an offensive attack.

Harry finally made it to them and woke Lillian up with a wave of his hand.

“Start pulling back towards the kitchen,” he told them quietly, all the while continuing the five duels he was carrying on at once. Sirius helped his still-disoriented sister towards the door, keeping a powerful shield up between her and the Death Eaters, while James remained right at their dad’s side.

As they continued their retreat, the Death Eaters began Apparating away, and Sirius realized that they were no longer alone. He could hear his mum’s voice shouting curses along with his Uncle Ron and several others, and realized that the battle would soon be over. Triumphantly, he launched himself back into the fight, hoping to help drive the rest of them off. He was surprised however, when a stray Reductor Curse knocked him to the side, away from his family, and causing him to drop his wand as he hit his head on a wall. When the stars cleared, he looked up into the death’s head mask of a Death Eater, the wicked grin clearly visible behind it as the wizard raised his wand.

A/N: Okay, so I really don’t like this chapter; it seems jumpy to me, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do with it. A lot of stuff didn’t quite happen the way I wanted it to, and things I didn’t plan on ended up happening instead, though I doubt anyone would notice that issue, since none of you can read my mind… (at least you’d better not be able to.) Anyway, I hope you all like the chapter anyway; things should get better since my outline is more detailed for the next several chapters. Thanks!

Chapter Fourteen: Eye of the Storm


Sirius looked up in fear as the Death Eater standing over him began casting his spell, too dazed to do anything but flinch and shut his eyes in horror. Instead of pain or death, however, Sirius heard an audible thud as the Death Eater hit the ground. Opening his eyes, Sirius saw the Death Eater lying unconscious in front of him and the extended hand of Mr. Harris, offering to help him up. Sirius looked around and saw that the fight was indeed over, with Ginny and Harry standing in the blasted doorway while Ron and the other Aurors went about magically binding the Death Eaters. Sirius took the proffered hand and was pulled easily to his feet, while Mr. Harris gave him a big grin.

“Thought you could use a bit of help there,” the big man offered, pointedly examining his bruised knuckles. “The fellow didn’t even realize he was the last one here.”

Sirius’ respect for the man grew as he realized that Mr. Harris had charged into the fight with only his fists against the Death Eater’s magic. He also found himself even more intimidated as he stammered his thanks.

“Are you alright, Sirius?” his mother demanded then, storming over. “Will you children ever learn to listen to me? Next time I say we’re leaving you had better listen.”

Sirius was about to protest, but thought better of it and merely nodded. That act saved him from further conversation with his mum, since she turned to Mr. Harris instead.

“I’m so sorry about your house,” she said sincerely, surveying the damage. “I’m sure Harry and I can put it all to rights in no time, and Harry would be glad to put up a few wards to keep them from coming back.”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Mr. Harris responded good-naturedly. “I’ve seen my wife fix up worse. I’m just glad everyone is safe. You should be proud of you children; they really know how to take care of themselves.”

“Don’t encourage them,” Ginny said sternly, though she smiled while she said it. “Would you like to come over to our house to finish dinner?”

“That would be nice,” Mr. Harris responded with a smile. “I assume that’s where we left the others?”

Ginny started to answer but became distracted as another Auror Apparated at Ron’s side and began whispering fiercely. Ron nodded curtly and began shouting orders, and most of the Aurors Disapparated, leaving only a few to deal with the prisoners. Ron and Harry both moved towards Ginny to talk, followed by James and Lillian.

“There’s another attack going on,” Ron told them quickly, “and I need to get there. Will you come with us, Harry?”

Harry looked at Ginny who waved her hand dismissively with a smile. “Go on, you need the exercise; sitting in the driver’s seat of a bus all day hasn’t exactly done wonders for your physique.”

Harry blushed, but ignored the laughter as he and Ron both Apparated away.

***

The Potter and Harris families did enjoy the rest of their evening at the Potter House, and even spent part of the evening playing a game of Quidditch in the back yard, to the delight of Greg and Samantha who weren’t used to being able to fly around without worrying about who was watching. Mr. Harris hadn’t had much experience with Quidditch and enjoyed watching the match while his wife explained the rules for the thousandth time.

Finally, after a Ministry owl left a letter informing them that the damage to the Harris home had been repaired and protective wards had been put in place, Mr. and Mrs. Harris gathered their family together and told them it was time to go. Sirius and Samantha said a quick goodbye, out of their parents’ sight of course, and then they were gone, the day having been more exciting than any of them had expected.

Harry didn’t return until late that night, after all of the children had been sent to bed. Sirius was determined to hear what had happened, though, and turned into the phoenix to make himself invisible and able to listen in on his parents’ conversation.

“There were fifteen attacks today, total,” Harry was telling Ginny while she magically summoned and warmed a quick meal for him. Sirius could tell his dad was exhausted. “No one was killed, but there are plenty of people in St. Mungo’s. The entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement was called out, and Arthur wasn’t happy, believe me.”

“They attacked Muggles?” Ginny asked, guessing why her dad would be angry.

“There was that, though most of the attacks were on prominent mixed families like the Harris household, but he was really upset when they attacked the Burrow,” Harry said with a grin.

“Those poor Death Eaters,” Ginny said with a laugh that showed how much she really sympathized.

“Yeah. The Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes home security system really is as effective as they advertise. The Magical Reversal Squad didn’t even know where to begin to go about turning them back. Fred and George showed up immediately of course, but they just stood there laughing. Your dad was just upset about the principle of the thing, of course, and then Minerva showed up after the last attack and was pretty short with him about getting to the bottom of who is behind the Death Eater resurgence. It’s all a big mess; I’m sure they’re going to decide to keep fewer Aurors at Hogwarts because of this.”

“So do you think this attack was on us or on Mr. and Mrs. Harris?” Ginny asked shrewdly. She knew very well that whenever Death Eaters were concerned the Potter family was a prime target.

“I have to assume it was aimed at the Harris family,” Harry said with a shrug. “How many people knew we were going to be there?”

Thomas Nott knew, Sirius thought angrily before deciding he’d heard enough and transporting himself back to his bed.


***

The train ride back from the holidays was a bittersweet event. Everyone was sad that their break was over and they had to return from school, but at the same time, the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw would be taking place within two weeks, weather permitting. That was the topic of choice between Harry and James as they played a furious game of Exploding Snap with Lillian and Samantha, who merely rolled their eyes at the boys’ displays of ego.

“I’m telling you, James, your Beaters aren’t good enough to stop us,” Sirius said for the third time. “You may have a good set of Chasers, but that won’t protect them from the Bludgers.”

“I think history speaks for itself,” James argued back calmly. “Ravenclaw has won for the last several years in a row, and we haven’t grown at all complacent, as everyone would like to believe.”

“Well, everything else aside, the extra hundred and fifty points from catching the Snitch will give us the victory,” Sirius said confidently with a proud look at his sister. Lillian said nothing, but smiled as she winked back at Sirius. James rolled his eyes, but truthfully he was nervous; he and Lillian were very evenly matched as Seekers.

“Well, another half-blood party waiting to be crashed,” Nott said from the doorway to their compartment, prompting grimaces and rolling eyes all around the small room.

“I hear that your families didn’t have such a good time at the little dinner party…” Nott began again, but found himself pinned up against the wall outside of the compartment, his feet dangling below him. He had barely even noticed Sirius move.

“I know how the Death Eaters knew to attack us there,” Sirius said in a deadly whisper, and Nott, still startled by the sudden motion, was too nervous to say anything back. “When I can prove it, you’d best be running,” Sirius finished, and then calmly set Nott down and turned back to his family and girlfriend, all of whom were looking at him in shock.

“The balance of power is shifting, Potter,” Nott snarled, finally finding his tongue. “It won’t be me who’s running before too long, mark my words.”

Sirius turned around yet again and suddenly jumped forward as though to grab Nott again, and laughed along with his friends when Nott retreated at run.

“Wound pretty tight, today, eh Sirius?” Samantha said soothingly when he sat back down. None of the others had heard what he had said to Nott, and no one knew of Sirius’ suspicions.

“Maybe,” Sirius said with an easygoing smile. “I think it’s more because the train is the only place I can get away with putting him in his place.” Every laughed in agreement.

***

Sirius laughed aloud as he hit a Bludger, not at the Chaser he had such a great shot at, but at the Ravenclaw Beater that had just hit the other Bludger at Lillian. His aim was true, though to the other Beater’s credit he did get his bat partially raised; instead of being knocked off his broom, the Bludger smashed his fingers and caused him to drop his bat, taking him out of play for the time it would take him to go and get it.

The game was going quite well for Gryffindor, considering that Ravenclaw was the reigning champion. The Weasleys had been outdoing themselves and had managed twenty goals, and appeared on their way to another. Ravenclaw was close behind with one hundred and seventy points, and they had been gaining steadily for the last half hour after Gryffindor took an early lead. Both Keepers were also doing very well, and considering the number of shots taken, it had been a very low scoring game.

Twice already, the Snitch had appeared near James while Lillian was at the other end of the field, and both times, only the Gryffindor Beaters had stopped James from ending the game to his own team’s favor. The first time, Greg had put a Bludger squarely between James’ shoulder blades, distracting him enough to lose sight of the Snitch, and the second time, Sirius had struck the Snitch itself with his Bludger, though he had actually been aiming for James; it was a very long shot after all.

Sirius was a blur as he flew about following the Bludgers, taking advantage of the other Beater’s distracting and causing enough havoc to allow the Weasleys to score twice more.

Suddenly, James and Lillian shot off at the same time, and Sirius caught sight of the Snitch halfway between them. It was an even bet as they began chasing the diminutive gold ball around the stadium, each straining for any bit of advantage they could find. Sirius began racing toward the action, determined to put James off his course again. Halfway there, however, Sirius instinctively let himself fall below his broom, and felt the Bludger pass by overhead; the Ravenclaw Beater had finally gotten his bat back and apparently wanted a bit of revenge. Sirius was proud of his instinctive roll, until he realized his mistake. The Bludger, having passed him, was now heading strait for where Lillian would be if the Snitch didn’t change trajectory in a big way.

Sirius was off again like an arrow, determined to catch the Bludger before it caught his sister. The speed of the Comet Fury was very impressive, and Sirius closed the distance rapidly, reaching out with his bat to gain as much as he could. Finally, barely a few feet from his sister, Sirius waved his bat in front of him weakly, his outstretched arm preventing him from putting any power behind the swing. The tip of the bat barely connected, but it did manage to change the Bludger’s course just enough to whiz by Lillian and collide with James’ instead.

Sirius caught his brother well before he hit the ground, all to the cheers of the crowd as Lillian held up the Snitch victoriously. James wasn’t seriously hurt, as his grumbling attested to, and the Gryffindors were now in the lead for Quidditch cup for the first time in many years. Moreover, the murdering student at Hogwarts hadn’t made any sort of appearance during the entire two weeks since school had started back up. Sirius caught sight of Samantha cheering him on from the stands and suddenly decided things were definitely looking up.


A/N: Hey look, everyone! No cliffhanger! I know, I know, this is hardly characteristic of my usual style, but every now and again there must come a time for some change. Don’t worry, I fully intend to be back to my evil (but not evil evil) self in the next chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter Fifteen: Deceivers Deceived


Jeanette Weasley tossed her white-blonde hair as she pranced down the hallway, eager to return to the Ravenclaw common room where she could share her news. As the third daughter of Bill and Fleur Weasley, Jeanette sometimes felt like just another Weasley in a castle full of them. Granted, she was the most attractive one in the school since her older sisters had finished already, but her seventh year should be the most exciting and memorable, and not for having a psychotic murderer lose in the school. Finally, things were going her way; after months of vying for his attention, Frank Longbottom had finally noticed her; she had been studying late in the library, hoping he would look up and notice her brushing her beautiful hair away from her face as she held an attractively contemplative expression over her book. She hadn’t actually expected him to get up and join her, much less spend an hour talking to her and finally asking her to go to the next Hogsmeade weekend with him. Of course, as the most popular boy in the school, she certainly deserved him. Now it was late, certainly past curfew, but she was practically floating as she imagined the unbelieving shrieks of her dorm-mates as she revealed her news. Her distracting thoughts kept her from noticing one of the shadows in the hallway detach from the wall and loom in front of her. She didn’t even know something was wrong before she fell to the floor, unconscious.

***

“Sirius, we’ve got trouble!” Lee shouted as he grabbed his wand. He had been watching the Marauder’s Map for the last hour, and had just seen a second student join Jeanette in the corridor.

Sirius was at his side in a flash, examining the map in excitement and apprehension, the other three Weasleys following close behind. Sirius’ mouth dropped open in shock when he read the label next to his cousin’s.

“I guess that shouldn’t be as much of a surprise as it is, but I wouldn’t have thought it of him,” Jack said disbelievingly.

They all grabbed onto Sirius as quick as they could, and were in the hallway in the next instant.

Sirius immediately threw a stunning spell, though it was deflected as Thomas Nott threw up a shield and began hurling curses of his own. Brian went immediately to see to Jeanette while the rest of his brothers joined Sirius in fighting Nott. He did uncharacteristically well, better than the others had ever seen him, but to Sirius and Chris, who had battled the shadowed student in the hallway, it was merely confusing. In a manner of seconds, Nott lay in an unconscious heap on the floor, stunned simultaneously by both Chris and Jack.

“She’s just stunned,” Brian informed them then, to everyone’s relief. “Maybe he was just trying to pull some kind of prank.”

“I don’t believe that,” Sirius said viciously, though he doubted that Nott was the same student he had encountered before, and he told his cousins so.

“Yeah, he was pretty pathetic compared to the other guy,” Chris agreed. “What do we do now?”

They all jumped in surprise when another voice joined them. “What are you lot doing here? What’s going on?”

Tonks walked into the hallway with her usual confidence, though her scowl was definitely intimidating.

“We just caught Nott attacking Jeanette,” Brian said quickly. “We showed up and he fought us, so we had to stun him.”

“He attacked…” Tonks began, but the implications quickly became apparent and she wasted no further time.

“Incarcerous!” she shouted, sending ropes shooting from her wand that wrapped firmly around Nott’s body. “Ennervate!”

Nott, standing between two of the Weasleys, immediately looked around in disgust. “Get away from me immediately, you filthy blood traitors.”

“What were you doing here tonight, Mr. Nott,” Tonks interrupted harshly. “You were caught attacking another student, and the way things are right now, that certainly doesn’t look good for you. What were you planning on doing?”

No one was expecting the answer they got. “I was planning on leaving her mangled corpse for her traitorous family to find,” Nott said with a self-satisfied sneer. “It seems that people aren’t going to believe that Sirius is the murderer anymore, so I might as well enjoy killing the mudbloods and blood traitors instead of wasting my time with the likes of Timothy McFarren. You have no idea how satisfying it was to beat the stuffing out of that idiot of a Head Boy…”

“Silencio!” Tonks said, understanding that Nott was going to get himself killed if he kept talking, judging by the murderous looks her was getting from the other students present.

“We need to take this to the Headmaster,” Tonks said decisively, and the others were quick to agree. “Brian, take Jeanette to the hospital wing and then join us at the Headmaster’s Office. The rest of you, follow me.”

It turned out that the Headmaster wasn’t in his office, so Tonks left Sirius and the others watching Nott while she went to find him. Brian joined them well before Tonks got back, and they sat discussing the situation while Nott glared at them furiously, still unable to speak.

“Why would he just admit it?” Lee asked, receiving only looks as confused as his own in response. “He could have just said he was pulling a prank and since Jeanette was only stunned we couldn’t have proved anything.”

“There’s definitely something wrong with all of this,” Sirius agreed. “But I really don’t think we should say anything else in front of Nott.”

Sirius had been studying the shifty-eyed Slytherin intently and there was something odd about him, though Sirius couldn’t put his finger on it.

Finally, Tonks returned with Headmaster Shacklebolt and Ron and Hermione Weasley as well. Ron immediately took hold of Nott and all of them were ushered into the Headmaster’s Office, where Nott was placed on a chair in the middle of the room and questioned in detail. Once again, he was all too willing to explain that he had been behind everything, and even launched into detailed descriptions of how he had carried out the attacks.

While everyone else in the room soon scowled angrily at the young Slytherin, Sirius was still not convinced. He reached out tentatively with his Legilimency, taking care to make sure Nott wasn’t aware of his intrusion. It was subtle at first, but the deeper Sirius got, the more he could sense another presence in Nott’s mind. Suddenly Sirius was completely inside Nott’s mind, and he could hear the other voice.

“Tell them how you did it,” a sly voice intoned over and over again, and Sirius realized then that Nott’s mind was not currently his own.

He looked around at the adults in the room, suddenly suspicious and wary of any possible deception, Polyjuice Potion foremost among them. The quadruplets were easy to trust; he’d been with them all evening and he knew their minds well enough that he would have known instantly if one of them were a fraud. Tonks was his first suspicion, since she had shown up before the others. Distracted as she was, however, she was an easy target for his Legilimency and he knew at once that she wasn’t the source of the voice. Sirius quickly confirmed that no one in the room was anything other than they appeared to be, and came to the only available conclusion.

He’s under the Imperius Curse, he said to himself, though his elation at figuring this out was short lived; they were no closer to finding the real murderer. Still, Sirius kept his mouth shut, determined not to say anything while Nott could hear him.

Finally, Nott’s incredibly incriminating confession wound to a close, and everyone paused for a while, looking at him in shock while he looked around the room smugly, obviously not ashamed of his actions in the slightest.

“Well, it is certainly satisfying to know who is responsible,” Shacklebolt said sternly after a moment. “Now, how did the five of you know he was attacking again?”

Sirius wasn’t about to let his cousins say anything while Nott could here.

“Stupify!” he shouted quickly, before any of the others could answer, taking some satisfaction in watching Nott slump forward in the chair, completely unconscious.

“Sirius?!” several of the adults shouted in unison, shocked at what he had done.

“Come on, Sirius,” Lee said angrily, “We all wanted to curse him, but any of us could have done a lot better than just stunning him.”

“He’s under the Imperius Curse,” Sirius said, ignoring their surprise. “He’s being ordered to take the blame, but it wasn’t him. Nott wasn’t the one Chris and I battled before, and quite frankly I don’t think he’s brave enough to try anything like this, and he’s certainly not smart enough to keep from getting caught.”

“How could you possibly know that, Sirius?” Ron asked quickly.

“He used Legilimency, Ron. He’s just like Harry was at the beginning of our seventh year; he knows entirely too much for his own good,” Hermione said wryly. “I imagine it was you who was in and out of my mind before I could stop you?”

Sirius’ guilty look was answer enough, and the adults all looked at Sirius with new respect; Hermione was renowned as one of the most powerful Legilimens and her Occlumency was just as strong. If Sirius was getting in, even if Hermione was distracted, he was better than any had given him credit for, despite the fact that they had been very generous with their credit.

“So we don’t truly know anything,” Shacklebolt said quickly, and everyone’s heart dropped again. They had all wanted to believe Nott.

“But whoever the murderer is, they’re convinced we think it’s Nott now. We can make a show out of declaring we know who it is, and keeping Nott out of school for the next several weeks. Then we can make a show out of letting our guard down and possibly flush out the real killer,” Sirius said quickly, outlining the plan he had come up with once he knew that Nott was actually innocent.

The Weasley quadruplets nodded enthusiastically, though Ron, Tonks, and Shacklebolt looked on in awe.

“We’ll be keeping an opening for you in the Auror department, Sirius. Until then, I like this plan,” Tonks said wholeheartedly, causing Sirius to blush in embarrassment.

“He’d do as well as his dad, I think,” Ron agreed.

“Well, you’ll have to take Nott, then,” Hermione told Tonks quickly. “Since he’s innocent, he’ll need to be kept up on his studies, and in the interest of his safety, we need to get him free from the Curse.”

“We have a room in the Department of Mysteries that will cut him off from any external influence,” Ron said quickly. “I think we’ll be able to pull it all off without letting our unsuspecting deceiver know we’re on to his game.”

“I still want to know how you knew that Nott was attacking your cousin,” Shacklebolt said quickly, interrupting more plans. “It seems very surprising that you always seem to know where the trouble is going to be.”

Sirius looked at his four companions, and took comfort in the fact that none of them would talk either.

Ron was watching carefully, though, and surmised the truth.

“They’ve got the Marauder’s Map,” he said shrewdly, and Sirius barely kept from wincing.

“Harry wouldn’t give them the Map,” Hermione said dismissively.

“Just like he was going to turn it in instead of keeping it himself?” Ron asked with a laugh.

“I just don’t think Harry would give them the Map, Ron. They’re only fourth years. It would be irresponsible to give it to them. You’ll be saying he gave them his invisibility cloak next,” Hermione retorted.

“Maybe he did,” Ron responded, getting upset that she was dismissing his ideas. “He was a first year when he got the cloak, and a third year when he got the Map. Besides, Sirius could have just taken it without asking. Harry hasn’t used either in years.”

“What is this map we’re talking about?” Shacklebolt asked before Ron and Hermione could start one of their famous arguments.

“It’s a map of Hogwarts that shows every single passageway and every single person on the grounds all of the time,” Hermione explained. “Harry’s dad made it with Professor Lupin and Sirius Black when they were in school, and Fred and George found it and gave it to Harry when he was in school.”

“Why haven’t you gotten it from Harry before now,” Shacklebolt asked in shock. “We could have had Aurors watching it for anything out of the ordinary, and possibly have taken care of this whole business by now.”

Sirius and his cousins were all desperate to be out of the office by that time.

“We probably should have gone to Harry for the Map, but he hasn’t used it in so long that I’d forgotten about it. Besides, I’m still betting they’ve got it,” Ron said honestly. “Otherwise, how would they have known about the attack?”

Sirius could see that it was useless to deny it, since they’d find out anyway if they asked his dad; Harry would tell Ron and Hermione the truth.

“We do have it, and we have been watching it practically all of the time,” Sirius said defensively.

“We need that map,” Tonks said, turning to Sirius and the Weasleys. “We can keep better watch on it than you can, if for no other reason than the fact that there are more than five Aurors.”

Sirius knew that he was a better choice for keeping the Map because of his ability to be anywhere in the castle in an instant, but certainly didn’t want to say so.

“We’ve done fine so far,” Lee argued in Sirius’ place. “Nott was probably going to kill Jeanette to prove he was guilty, but we got there before anything could happen. I think we proved that we can handle the responsibility.”

Sirius winced as the argument got dangerously close to details he didn’t want the adults asking about, but thankfully no one thought about how they would have gotten there so fast.

“Will you give us the Map willingly?” Shacklebolt asked Sirius after a moment of thought.

“No,” Sirius admitted apologetically. Hermione looked like she wanted to start scolding him, and Ron was covering his grin with his hand. Tonks was already starting to argue, but the Headmaster cut her off.

“I can’t exactly force them to give it to us, since Harry would probably take exception to it, and they have done well, so far. I propose we make a compromise; if you will keep an eye on the Map when you are able, you can give the Map to your Uncle during the times you can’t, such as at a Quidditch match. And in the future, if anything happens, I want you to find an Auror instead of rushing off to deal with it yourself.”

Sirius was surprised and more than a little suspicious that the Headmaster would give in so fast, but was quick to take the deal. It would be nice to have someone watching for anything during the Quidditch matches. In short order, Sirius and his cousins were sent back to their rooms, leaving the adults to finish planning.

Ginny and Harry were summoned as well, to discuss Sirius’ growing powers and the use of the Map, as well as to make sure they approved of Sirius’ involvement.

“Sirius certainly is confidant, isn’t he,” Ginny said after being told of what had taken place.

“I wonder where he gets that from,” Ron said under his breath, while Hermione spoke over him.

“I can’t believe you let him have the Map,” she scolded her friends. “I’m sure they’ve used it for their pranks, and there’s no telling how much trouble they could get into with it.”

“It seems like they’ve been using it for a lot more than just pranks,” Harry pointed out quickly. “And there’s more to Sirius than meets the eye; his powers have been growing for years, and they aren’t showing any signs of stopping. A little responsibility will be good for him.”

“And he’s clever,” Tonks put in. “His plan is a very good one; it’s better than anything else we’ve had up until now.”

“He’s got good genes,” Ginny said smugly, while squeezing Harry’s arm. “Still, I think we should be watching him as closely as possible. Maybe that should be my job, since I’ll be here at the school and Madame Pince doesn’t keep me that busy. And I can watch them from a distance using my Animagus transformation.”

They all agreed on that plan readily, since none of them were completely comfortable with the amount of responsibility that Sirius and the Weasleys were taking upon themselves. Worse, none of them could think of a way to keep them away from the danger.

***

“They believe they have the culprit, my lord,” the man said, groveling for his master’s praise.

“Very good,” the voice said quietly. “Your minion will remain quiet until the final Quidditch match of the year, and then strike once more to show the Wizarding World how inept their Ministry really is. In the ensuing panic we can finally carry out my plan.”

“You’re ready, my lord?” the man asked excitedly.

“Yes, I’m ready. Everything is in place; once the Quidditch match is over we will see the end of the Potters and everyone else who has sided with them. Without their champion, the world will bow before me.”

***

The minion the men in the forest spoke of was pacing in his common room, anxiously trying to think of what was going on in his life. At times he felt like he was waking up from a dream and didn’t know where he was, and at other times he found himself contemplating the most horrible things. Above all, the memory of a commanding voice and unspeakable pain occasionally caused him to tremble in terror. He had followed their orders, he knew, and he had enjoyed it because they had told him to enjoy it. He had no choice, as he reminded himself over and over again; he had to do what he was told, or the pain would come back.

Even with the threat of more of the horrible pain, he sometimes found himself wondering what he was doing betraying everything he had been taught to believe.

Chapter Sixteen: The Quidditch Cup


Two weeks after the school was told that Thomas Nott was the killer, everyone was still buzzing about what had happened. Even the Slytherins were convinced that it had been him, and one couldn’t go more than a few feet in any of the hallways without hearing something awful being said about him. Sirius was the recipient of numerous apologies, though every time someone said they were wrong about him and shook his hand he was reminded that the person they all hated now was innocent.

“He deserves to be humbled, Sirius,” Jack said, trying to comfort him.

“You said yourself that it was almost certainly him who tipped off the Death Eaters during the Christmas Holiday,” Brian added.

“I know, but no one deserves to be hated by the entire school,” Sirius shot back. “I mean, at least the rest of the Slytherins still like each other even though everyone else hates them. And I always had family to stick by me. Nott doesn’t have a friend left in the entire castle.”

“Well, he’s not in the castle, and by the time he comes back everyone will know it wasn’t really him,” Lee said with finality. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about. Quidditch is tomorrow, and if we don’t beat Hufflepuff, they’ll get the Quidditch Cup. Any plans?”

Despite being beaten by Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff had managed to beat Slytherin by more than twice as many points as either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor had managed to beat Ravenclaw by a fair margin. If Hufflepuff managed to beat Gryffindor with more than a seventy point lead, they would take the coveted Quidditch Cup right out from Gryffindor’s nose.

“I can’t believe they’ve managed to pull ahead of Ravenclaw like that,” Chris put it. “Ravenclaw has won for the last several years running, and now they’re not even in the running anymore. What does James think about that?”

Sirius laughed. “Just don’t say anything about it to him or any of the other Ravenclaws. He really wanted to win during his last year here at Hogwarts and now he doesn’t have a chance. He hasn’t smiled since Hufflepuff slaughtered Slytherin.”

“Well, what’s our strategy for not being in their shoes?” Lee asked, eager to ensure Gryffindor’s victory.

“Just make sure they don’t score as much as you three,” Sirius said with a confident grin. “Greg and I will take care of their Seeker and make sure Lillian has the cover she needs to catch the Snitch. What else do we need?”

***

Panicking, the student paced back and forth in the empty classroom. He’d been visited by his tormentor once again, and had been tortured for more than an hour to encourage him not to fail. He was to attack once again at the Quidditch match, and he had been told in no uncertain terms that someone was to die.

He had already made the preparations; one of the Hufflepuff Chasers was under the Imperius Curse awaiting his orders, and her broomstick had been sharpened to a wicked point and enchanted to look completely normal. All he needed to do was order her to ram someone, anyone, and their death would be guaranteed. The poison coating the tip of the broomstick would see to it, and also make certain that everyone would know it was no accident.

He had made the preparations because he had no choice, but now the decision of a target was making him have second thoughts. When he had been tortured, he’d felt more aware than before, as if the pain had woken him up. Now he desperately wanted some way out of the horrible mission he had been given. Even as he determined that he would not go through with it, he trembled with the memory of the pain and found himself once again considering possible targets.

“Come on, the game’s about to start!” another student yelled to him before grabbing his broom and hurrying to the front of the changing tent.

Sighing, the student straightened his yellow Quidditch robes and made his way out as well, hiding his panic behind a confident smile. What am I going to do?

***

From the time the whistle blew, everyone watching knew that it would be a close game. The Gryffindor players were playing at their finest, but unfortunately, so were the Hufflepuffs. Lee managed the first goal, but from then on, the two teams traded the lead back and forth six times in the next ten minutes. The Weasleys were working together as a team flawlessly, but one of the Hufflepuff chasers in particular, Harriet Weatherby, was playing with a single minded determination that shocked everyone who saw her. It was as though she was being driven to win, and after the first twenty minutes, she had scored seventy out of Hufflepuff’s one hundred and ten points.

Sirius had managed a nice shot with a Bludger to the Hufflepuff Keeper’s face fairly early on in the game, but Frank Longbottom had followed it with a shot at Ron Weasley Jr. that had left the Gryffindor Keeper favoring one arm. With both Keepers injured, it was promising to be a very high-scoring game.

Sirius was trying to be everywhere at once, but found himself limited to staying close to his sister who was being targeted almost exclusively by the Hufflepuff Beaters; they knew as well as Sirius that whoever caught the Snitch in this game would be the winner, since they were so closely match by points. Sirius was taking the offensive as often as possible, but he had assigned Greg the task of going after the other team’s Seeker while he kept Lillian safe.

Another hour later, with the scores in the two hundred range, both teams were starting to tire. Sirius and Greg had been unmerciful with the Bludgers, and many of the Hufflepuffs were sporting large bruises, but Frank Longbottom and the other Hufflepuff Beater had proven just as effective. Chris looked especially ragged, having been knocked off his broom fifteen feet from the ground. He had managed to shake the worst of the fall off and climb back on, but there was no doubt he was in a good deal of pain. Sirius was just starting to hope that someone would call a time-out so they could regroup and form a new strategy when Lillian caught sight of the Snitch; Sirius raced off to follow her, determined to keep her safe until she caught it.

***

The Death Eaters had been particularly creative when they chose the tool they would use to terrorize Hogwarts. They had captured him while he was walking through a remote forest looking for plant specimens for his father, which he did fairly often. They had initially placed him under the Imperius Curse so that he would return daily for his training; they knew that the Imperius Curse would eventually be detected in the school, and it would be impossible to send someone in his place using Polijuice Potion, since the school had ways of discovering that as well, ever since a Death Eater had impersonated Mad-Eye Moody so many years earlier. Instead, they planned on “training” the student they captured, torturing him until he would do anything to be free of the pain, and convincing him that he truly wanted to do as they had ordered. Once they had accomplished that, they had trained him in dueling and Dark Magic, and had even managed to guide him through the Animagus transformation. He had become their perfectly crafted weapon, and had performed very well. Moreover, they had chosen someone that would be completely above suspicion. After all, what Potter would ever be suspicious of a Longbottom? Still, they never would have thought that his true personality would start to overcome his conditioning.

***

Frank watched as Lillian shot off after the Snitch, and knew that the game would be over soon. It was now or never; it needed to happen right as the game ended, as everyone in the stands began to either celebrate or groan in defeat, to ensure the shock was as great as possible. He had even selected his target. Remus Lupin, beloved friend of the Potters, devoted husband to the Head Auror, and favorite teacher to many of the students at Hogwarts, sat prominently in one of the top boxes. It would be easy; all Frank would have to do would be to mentally command Harriet to attack and it would be over. He could even convince himself that he was innocent, that it hadn’t been him that had actually done it. Still, he hesitated; would he be able to live with himself if he did this? Would they find him again and inflict even more pain than before if he failed? He hesitated even longer, and then it was too late. Sirius, having seen his rival distracted, even distraught for some reason, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eliminate the biggest obstacle that stood in the way of Gryffindor’s victory. The Bludger hit squarely on the side of Frank’s head, knocking him unconscious even before he fell off his broom.

***

Sirius watched in satisfaction as Frank fell to the soft ground below, satisfaction that grew as Lillian finally held up the Golden Snitch in triumph. That satisfaction quickly turned to confusion and then horror; the rest of the team was flying towards them, already celebrating, when Harriet, the Hufflepuff Chaser, went out of control. For no reason Sirius could see, she started flying in an erratically descending spiral that would obviously take her to the ground in a painful manner. Greg was lifting his Beater’s bat high in elation when he flew into Harriet’s path, and Sirius watched in horror as the broom impossibly went through Greg’s leg instead of deflecting off of it. As it emerged from the front of Greg’s leg, though, Sirius was quick to see that the broomstick wasn’t rounded like it should have been, but was sharpened to a point like a wooden stake. Even as Greg screamed in shock and pain, Sirius quickly cast a levitation spell and eased the tangled students to the ground and rushed over, hoping to be able to help his younger friend.

As he came closer, Sirius realized the horrible extent of Greg’s injuries. The broomstick had pushed all the way through Greg’s thigh, and remained lodged there, preventing the wound from bleeding freely. What was horrifying was the look on Greg’s face as he struggled to breathe. Sirius was only momentarily confused, before he pulled more of the torn fabric of the boy’s Quidditch uniform away from the wound and discovered the flesh around the wound quickly turning black.

Poison, Sirius thought bleakly, wondering how he would be able to turn into a Phoenix and save his friend without giving himself away. He would have to do it, he knew; it was Greg’s only hope, and he couldn’t just let him die. He was about to make the transformation when suddenly Ron and Hermione were kneeling beside the boy as well.

“He’s been poisoned,” Sirius said urgently, to a nod from Hermione.

He watched in relief as his Aunt produced a small black object that she quickly shoved into Greg’s mouth. Greg’s breathing instantly came easier and the blackness faded from the flesh around the boy’s wound.

“A bezoar?” Ron asked incredulously. “How could you have possibly known you would need one?”

“I’ve carried one with me ever since you got poisoned during our…” Hermione started, before trailing off as her face turned red.

“Sixth year?” Ron asked, a smile growing on his face. “On the advice of the Half Blood Prince you were so anxious to discredit? Wait till I tell Harry,” he chortled.

“You’ll do no such thing, Ronald,” Hermione snapped, before turning back to Greg. “Vanish the broom, and I’ll heal him before it starts bleeding too much.”

Before long, Greg was merely unconscious, his leg mostly healed, while the rest of the Gryffindor team was gathered around them on the field. There was pandemonium in the stands, and the other teachers were struggling to regain order.

“We need to get him to the Hospital wing,” Hermione said, looking around in dismay. “Then we’ll have to help restore order to the school. Did you find anything on the map?”

Ron looked up from Harriet, who appeared to be unharmed, though she continued to stare blankly at the sky.

“There was nothing suspicious,” Ron answered, obviously frustrated. “This one is under the Imperius Curse as well, though it doesn’t look like she’s getting any orders at the moment. Whoever it is, they’re probably too busy running to tell her to do anything else.”

Just then Ginny rushed over to join the rest of them.

“Frank is still unconscious, but he’ll be okay,” she informed them, causing them to look over to where Frank’s body was being levitated off the field. Ron and Hermione did the same for both Harriet and Greg, leaving the Gryffindor team standing dejected on the field.

“Why can’t we just play a game of Quidditch without something horrible happening,” Lillian said glumly, still holding the struggling Snitch.

“Doesn’t really feel like we won, does it?” Lee said, more of a statement than a question.

Sirius caught sight of Samantha running toward them then, tears running down her face.

“Is Greg okay?” she asked Sirius as he stopped her; it was obvious she wanted to run after her brother.

“He’ll be fine,” Sirius told her soothingly, wrapping his arms around her. He had no intention whatsoever of telling her the details of her brother’s injuries.

“Why does this keep happening?” Samantha asked, crying into Sirius’ shoulder.

“I don’t know,” Sirius said honestly and unhappily. “I don’t know.”

***

Later that night, Frank lay in his bed in the hospital wing, staring at the ceiling. He hadn’t done it. He had beaten back his conditioning long enough to prevent the worst from happening. Granted, he did feel bad for Greg Harris, but he knew that it had been an accidental collision that had led to the boy’s injury. If he had given in and ordered Harriet to go after Professor Lupin, she would have hit him squarely in the chest, and there would have been no chance for him then. Thanks to Sirius’ Bludger, Frank had been saved from making that choice. His confidence in himself was growing, and he began to feel like he might finally be able to rid himself of his tormentors. Next time, he assured himself, he wouldn’t just hesitate, he would finally say no.


A/N: I’m really sorry this took so long, but I had finals to finish. Christmas break is here, so even if I can’t post chapters for a while, I hope to have the next several done before the queue opens up again. Merry Christmas!

Chapter Seventeen: The Gathering


“Crucio!” the voice shouted angrily, and the man fell back to the ground for the third time, screaming in agony that seemed to last forever.

When the spell was finally lifted, the man lay twitching on the ground, waiting for the next round.

“I think of myself as a fair master,” the voice said, its anger suddenly replaced by a friendly, understanding tone. “I asked only that someone be killed at the last Quidditch match, which should have been simple. Your student friend was playing in the game and was perfectly positioned to carry out his mission.” The voice went cold once more. “Why did he fail? Is he not as obedient as you have led me to believe?”

The man struggled to rise to his knees, though he kept his eyes averted from his master’s shadowy form. “Master, I swear, the conditioning was working. It’s possible that it could be wearing off, since we’ve had so few opportunities to train him once school started. I’m sure he’ll be performing properly after tonight.” The tone of the man’s voice promised pain unimaginable for the poor wretch.

“Very well,” the voice said suddenly, tired of wasting its time while those he truly wished to cause pain remained free. “I have decided to move ahead with my plan. Do you have the numbers you need?”

“Yes, my lord,” the man said eagerly, practically groveling in his relief at being spared further torture. “You have more Death Eaters than ever, since they’ve been reassured that you will remove Harry Potter personally. Without a champion, the Wizarding world will be ours.”

“And are you prepared to do your part?” the voice asked forcefully. “Are you ready to do what is necessary for our plan to succeed?”

“Yes, master,” the man said proudly, finally daring to lift up his head. “He will never suspect a thing.”

“Be sure that he doesn’t,” the voice answered. “Your place at my side has always been because of your position, and not for any amount of talent. If you succeed, that place will be assured for as long as you live, but if you fail… well, I suppose the conditions are the same, except that you won’t live long.”

The voice laughed while the man paled visibly. He was scared, of course; no one would dare take a threat from the Dark Lord lightly, but he was confident even so. No one would suspect him until it was too late.

***

Fred rubbed his eyes wearily as he sat behind his huge desk in his large and well-appointed office at the top of Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes headquarters. The office was almost a second home for him, since he spent so much time here. A private Floo connection to his house kept him accessible for his wife and children, and he always Apparated home for lunch and dinner. He was pulling a late night, though, trying to balance the company books and total the profits for the year. It was a tedious task for sure, but Fred found that he enjoyed it; the insane amounts of money they made always brought a smile to his face.

“Still balancing the books?” George asked from the doorway that connected their offices, leaning against the jam and looking positively smug.

“Yeah,” Fred answered cautiously, knowing George was excited about something. “What are you on about?”

“You know those Slythering Sheets we just finished preparing for production? We’ve taken them through the primary market research phase, and they showed top ratings. I think it’ll be another best-seller,” George declared with a satisfied wink.

“That will make another nice check for my boys,” Fred said with a satisfied smile. “I hope they’re saving at least some of the money they’re making.”

Fred and George were deeply amused by the quadruplets’ efforts to keep their father and uncle in the dark about who was inventing so many successful products. Fred and George kept quiet about knowing, figuring the intrigue would only fuel their creativity.

“The only question I see is whether we let them finish school before offering them a job,” George answered happily. “We had better make the offer soon, or they might decide to open their own store. I don’t know if we could handle the competition.”

“They’ve got more loyalty to the family brand than that,” Fred said in a huff. “Besides, if I tried to let them out of school early, Jacquelyn would kill me.”

“That she would,” George answered seriously.

Any further response was cut off as the entire wall at the front of Fred’s office, including the front door, exploded into the room, knocking the twins back and to the floor. They also heard a similar explosion from George’s office, and realized quickly they were under attack. Both were hit dozens of times with bits of wood and plaster shrapnel, and the numerous cuts and scrapes had them looking very injured indeed, though neither was actually badly hurt.

“Do you think someone’s upset that we’ve been opening up so many new markets, lately? Maybe it’s a competitor in the US; those guys are all crazy,” George shouted as he leaped to his feet and drew his wand. Security at headquarters was very tight, and George found himself quite worried about the dozen witches and wizards who should have been on duty even this late at night.

“I don’t think so,” Fred answered grimly, also on his feet with his wand ready.

Masked Death Eaters swarmed into the room as the dust began clearing, and a furious battle ensued. Even outnumbered, Fred and George had always been more than proficient duelers, and practically everything in the office was enchanted one way or another. Spells that should have connected to them ended up bouncing back at the Death Eaters, and every so often one of the twins would trigger a spell and something else in the office would explode in a cloud of brightly colored smoke. They worked perfectly as a team, as they always had, and soon had eight of the Death Eaters unconscious on the floor, but the sheer numbers of the Death Eaters soon had them completely surrounded.

“Stop!” one of the Death Eaters shouted, and Fred and George found themselves facing more than a dozen raised wands, though no one was casting spells. They decided to see what the Death Eater had to say, and merely held their wands at the ready as well.

“I believe we have an infestation, Fred,” George remarked flippantly, looking around in disgust.

“I think Pesky Pixie Pest Control is still open, shall we give them a call?” Fred asked back, sounding completely unconcerned, though inwardly both of them were desperately wondering how they were going to get out of this mess.

“Lockhart is such a pain to deal with, though,” George answered with a sigh. “I think Hermione and Neville should have left him without his memory. He was more fun that way.”

“Silence!” the Death Eater who had spoken earlier shouted. “I have been instructed to capture the two of you alive, and I think you realize that we have the means to do that. If you come quietly, I won’t use that Floo connection over there. I was given no orders about your families remaining alive.”

Fred’s eyes narrowed dangerously for a moment before he spoke. “I don’t think you deserve an easy capture, and threatening my family won’t help. My wife would tear the lot of you to pieces.”

Fred and George immediately began launching spells again, taking two more of the Death Eaters out before they realized their threat wasn’t going to work.

“I’ll bring his wife back then,” the Death Eater snarled, grabbing a handful of Floo Powder and throwing it into the fire. “Seeing her tortured should make them see differently.”

The moment he stepped into the fire there was a deafening explosion, and Fred and George laughed at their own cleverness. The Floo connections had been designed to work only for family, and anyone else would be shot back out of the fireplace like a cannon. Their mirth was cut short however, as the cocky Death Eater’s screaming body collided with both of them, knocking them down and tangling them up. Within moments the remaining Death Eaters had them Stunned, and the entire group left the building and Apparated away soon after.

***

Ginny yawned as she finally put the last book into its spot on the bookshelves. Madame Pince had had a rough day, throwing at least a dozen students out of the library for unruly behavior, and Ginny had offered to finish up for the evening. Surprisingly, the old librarian had agreed, and Ginny had been learning just how much more she needed to learn before she could run the library by herself. Granted, she probably wouldn’t be the Librarian for more than another year or two, but she needed to learn everything before Madame Pince left so that she could train her own replacement.

Ginny made her way through the library one last time, making sure it was empty, before finally locking the door and heading toward her room. She could have gone home, but Harry was working a late shift on the Knight Bus, and wouldn’t be home until late anyway, so she planned on staying at Hogwarts and getting an early start in the library the next morning.

“What have we here?” she asked suddenly, as she came upon a book lying open, face down, in the hallway. “Hmmm… ‘Quidditch Through the Ages, property of Hogwarts Library,’” she read out loud before bending down to pick up the book. Sometimes students were just so irresponsible, she thought, when she suddenly felt a familiar tugging from behind her navel and vanished, book and all.

***

Ron sat on the bed, carefully watching the Marauder’s Map for anything suspicious, and absently eating from a huge box of Every Flavor Beans. Sirius and the quadruplets hadn’t yet gotten the map back after the last Quidditch match, and Ron hadn’t pressed them, deciding they could use a rest from the responsibility. Hermione was sitting over at her desk reviewing her lesson plans for the next month and making any changes she saw necessary; she always had her lesson plans finished through the year before school ever started, but she was also correcting them throughout the entire year as her perfectionist attitude would allow nothing less.

Suddenly, Ron saw three things that looked completely out of place on the Map, and turned toward Hermione.

“Ginny just vanished from off the Map!” he said in shock.

“That’s impossible,” Hermione said, blinking back at him in surprise.

“I’m telling you, I saw…” Ron began angrily before Hermione interrupted him.

“I believe you, Ron, really. I was just saying that it shouldn’t be possible. Was there anything else around her, any clue as to what happened? I think we’d better get to the Headmaster’s office,” Hermione said, annoyed at Ron for getting defensive, and then growing worried the more she thought of the implications of Ginny disappearing. “Should we get Harry?”

“There’s one other thing,” Ron said, his concerned look turning to confusion. “Did Crabbe and Goyle both name their children after themselves?”

“I can never remember their first names, Ron,” Hermione said sharply. “Why?”

“They’re both right outside our door for some reason,” Ron said tellingly while pulling out his wand.

Even knowing they were out there, Ron and Hermione weren’t ready for what happened next. Their door flew open and a glass vial was thrown into the room where it broke on the stone floor, immediately sending up great clouds of purple smoke. Ron acted immediately, vanishing the Marauder’s Map and sending it to Sirius, the first person he thought of, or so he hoped; he’d never been the best at those sorts of spells.

Already feeling drowsy, Ron shouted in anger and began casting spells through the doorway; Hermione was already asleep on the floor, and the sight of her lying helpless drove him beyond his own sudden exhaustion. His reflexes were so dulled from the potion, however, that he wasn’t able to dodge or deflect the stunning spell that was casually sent his way.

***

Samantha was exhausted, sitting next to her brother in the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey had declared him to be out of danger, but he still hadn’t woken up. Sirius had stayed with her for a long time, but had gone off to talk to his older siblings, and Samantha hadn’t been ready to leave. Now, though, she was ready for bed. She gave her brother’s hand one final squeeze and got up. As she neared the door, though, someone else opened it from the other side. Fighting back her sudden fear, since she had been attacked outside the hospital wing once before, Samantha was surprised and relieved to see Sirius’ sister, Muriel, peeking through.

“Hi Samantha,” the younger girl said softly. “How’s Greg doing?”

“He’s fine,” Samantha said with a tired smile, “I’m sure he’ll be awake soon. What are you doing here?”

“I heard Sirius tell Lillian and James you were down here by yourself, and I thought you might like the company,” Muriel said, grinning back.

“Well, I’m heading back now. Would you like to walk with me?” Samantha asked.

“Sure,” Muriel answered, happy to be accepted by the older student.

The two chatted amiably as they headed down the corridors together, and both jumped in surprise as an unexpected voice interrupted them halfway to the Gryffindor common room.

“You two shouldn’t be out of your common room this late at night,” Frank Longbottom said as he came closer from an intersecting hallway.

Samantha was surprised at how haggard he looked, as though he hadn’t slept in days.

“We were just coming from the hospital wing, Frank,” she explained. “We’re just heading back to the common room now.”

Frank just shook his head in resignation. “I’m sorry, Samantha; you weren’t supposed to be involved.”

Both girls looked at the older boy in confusion. Both were stunned before they knew what was going on, and Frank put his wand away with a sigh, still shaking his head.


A/N: I hope everyone had a merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Chapter Eighteen: Fallen Champion





“I don’t see what we can do that hasn’t already been done, Sirius,” James said quietly. “The school is full of Aurors, and the teachers have been doing everything they can.”



“Everything they can, and Sirius has come closer to actually catching whoever it is than any of the others. What are you asking, Sirius?” Lillian asked.



“I just feel like we need to do more than they’re doing right now. We have a veritable army of Weasleys here, so we should be able to cover more ground than the Aurors, and we know the students better, so we could spot anything suspicious where they couldn’t,” Sirius reasoned.



Sirius was trying to convince his siblings to become more active in the fight against whatever was going on; as far as he was concerned, the adults had had their chance and it was now time for someone else to step in. They had invited James into the Gryffindor common room for their discussion, which wasn’t all that uncommon among the Potter family.



“This is exactly like when Dad was in school,” he added. “Everyone else either didn’t believe him or couldn’t handle the problem. Now it’s up to us.”



James was just starting to answer back, negatively if the look on his face was any indication, when the Marauder’s Map popped into existence right in front of Sirius’ face.



“What the…?” James said instead, looking at Sirius with a raised eyebrow.



“Is that dad’s map?” Lillian asked with interest; all of the Potter children had heard all kinds of stories about that map.



Sirius had left the map in Ron’s possession, and was as surprised as either of his siblings. He noticed quickly that the map hadn’t been cleared, and that struck him as the kind of carelessness he wouldn’t expect from his uncle. Sirius gave a very quick explanation of why he had the map and where it should have been before appearing like it had before opening the map and looking for his aunt and uncle. They were nowhere to be found.



“This isn’t good,” Sirius muttered.



“What?” James asked, somewhat disgruntled about not being involved with the map in the first place.



“Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione aren’t on the map,” Sirius said, starting to grow worried as he scanned further. “Neither is mum. What do we do?”



All three of them looked at each other in concern; the adults not appearing on the map was not in itself all too worrisome, since Ron was very fond of taking his wife to the Three Broomsticks, and Ginny had gone with them several times. Still, the way the map had just appeared was very atypical; Ron was very serious about his job, and wasn’t about to risk letting just anyone know about the map.



Their thoughts on the matter were interrupted as Ron Jr. opened the common room door.



“Frank is outside,” he said casually as he came in. “He said he wants to talk to the three of you.”



“Alright, well, let him in then,” Lillian said with a wave of her hand, while Sirius scowled slightly. He still didn’t like the arrogant Hufflepuff.



***



Harry blew out a sigh as he looked at his watch once more. Stan was late again, and here Harry was, parked outside the Leaky Cauldron waiting to get started on the night’s run.



His glance at his watch furrowed his brow even further, however; Stan was never this late.



“I hope nothing has happened to him,” Harry muttered to himself in concern.



Things had been getting even more dangerous in the dark streets and alleys of the Wizarding world. Mundungus had told Harry that there were more Death Eaters around than ever before, and that they were pushing for more recruits. Harry was starting to get worried that the evil organization would try and strike at him again, either directly or through people he knew and cared about. Stan, by working with Harry, was definitely a target.



Harry started to get up, deciding it was time to look for his friend, when the door at the back of the bus opened. Quickly, Harry turned, ready for anything, though he quickly relaxed.



“Oh,” he said in relief mixed with embarrassment. “It’s you.”



“Stupify!” was the unexpected answer, and Harry fell to the ground without even having a chance to be surprised.



***



The Dark Lord cackled with glee as each new figure was brought into the large circle and chained with enchanted manacles to the post that formed the perimeter. He welcomed each by name, and took the time to personally administer the antidote to the sleeping potion that Ron and Hermione had been given, and spent some very pleasurable time using the Cruciatus Curse on the Weasley twins.



“How enjoyable this is,” he hissed as Ginny appeared with her Portkey. She was overwhelmed before she could resist and was soon chained beside the others. “How positively delightful. I can’t wait until all of our guests arrive; this will be quite a party.”



“What do you want with us, you maniac?” Ginny snarled, greatly concerned by the haggard looks on her brother’s faces; the only things holding the twins up were their chains.



“Maniac? I?” the dark, hooded figure asked with feigned innocence. “I am merely bringing together the people from my past that played such a significant role in creating my future. Don’t worry, we won’t have long to wait, I am sure.”



As he spoke, three masked Death Eaters carried in the unconscious forms of Muriel and Samantha.



“No!” Ginny screamed upon seeing her daughter. “This is obviously not about our families! Let them go and we’ll do whatever you want!”



“This has everything to do with family!” the man shouted back in a sudden rage, striding over to Ginny and slapping her hard across the face. “Don’t presume anything! You’ll do whatever I want in any case. Silencio!



“And who is this?” the Dark Lord asked calmly, pointing to Samantha. “She is neither Potter nor Weasley. Explain!” He obviously wasn’t pleased.



Ginny could tell by the man’s sudden changes in mood that he was not quite sane, and her fear only increased.



“She was with the Potter girl here, my lord,” one of the Death Eaters said quickly. “She’s also Sirius Potter’s girlfriend.”



“Ahhhhh… Yes, well, I wouldn’t want the young couple separated for long,” the dark wizard mused. With a wave of his hand, another of the posts appeared and Samantha and Muriel were chained as well by Death Eaters obviously relieved at escaping from punishment.



Then Harry appeared, unconscious and levitating in front of yet another masked Death Eater. The Dark Lord howled with glee as Harry was carefully chained, and then woken up.



Harry shook his head, trying to remember how he had come to be captured, but the images just wouldn’t form. All he knew was that he had been betrayed, and badly.



“Our guest of honor arrives!” the shadowy figured gloated. “I knew you would be too stupid to realize the truth of what was happening. The savior of the Wizarding world, and here he is, helpless and in chains.”



“Hardly helpless,” Harry said grimly, and suddenly sparks shot from Harry’s hands and chains. Harry’s confidant expression changed quickly to one of pain as the magic reversed and coursed back through him.



“Ah, yes. You thought we had forgotten that you need no wand to perform your magic. These manacles are very special, you see. They prevent you from performing any magic whatsoever, and they make the attempt quite painful, as I’m sure you have discovered.



Harry’s panic was obviously full and genuine, as he looked around and discovered his family, including his daughter and wife, chained around him.



“What do you want?” he asked, trying hard to stifle his fear.



“What do I want?” the dark wizard screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. “I want you to suffer horribly and completely, and then I want you to die!”



Once again, the terrifying rage was over instantly, replaced by complete calm.



“The Potter line will cease completely, you know. Your other children at Hogwarts will be here shortly, and you will reveal the location of the younger ones before you die, rest assured of that. And the Weasleys will follow shortly after, I’m afraid,” the man said, swinging his head to regard Ron and Hermione, and then Fred and George. “You will know such pain as you have caused me, and it will break you utterly.”



***



Brian Weasley was fast asleep when he heard a pop over his bed that woke him up quickly. He opened his eyes in time to see a flap of parchment float down over his head, and he sat up quickly pulling it off and looking at it in surprise.



“The Marauder’s Map?” he asked himself, recognizing the parchment quickly.



“What’s going on?” Jack asked sleepily.



“Someone say something?” Lee asked, popping up from his bed as well.



I need you! Sirius’ disembodied voice shouted, startling all four of them.



“Did all of you hear that too, or am I just crazy?” Chris asked in concern, looking around at his brothers. Without answering, all three of them leapt from their beds and started dressing, and Chris wasn’t far behind.





A/N: Okay, I should have posted this a while ago, and I'm sorry. I'll really try to do better. Also, I'm sorry about the length. Lots of you keep telling me to write longer chapters, but then I'm writing and come across this spot where the chapter ends itself. I don't intend for it to happen, but it does. Thus, you see, it's out of my control. I am the slave to the work, not the other way around, so don't bug me about it. I PROMISE the next chapter will be much longer, and filled with interesting revelations and lots of action. Thanks!





P.S. I finally answered all of the reviews, if anyone wanted to see what I had to say about them. It really means a lot to me that you all take the time to write reviews, and I want you to know that I always answer all of them... eventually. =)

Chapter Nineteen: Confessions


Sirius sat quietly while Frank entered the room and sat down nervously. Something was obviously troubling the popular Hufflepuff; he was fidgeting in a way Sirius had never seen before.

“What do you need, Frank?” James asked with a friendly smile.

“I…” Frank started and then trailed off. The look in his eyes was pure panic, and Sirius suddenly got the idea that this might actually be important.

Frank closed his eyes as though steeling himself for something deeply unpleasant.

“It was me,” he said finally, his voice filled with despair. “I didn’t want to do it, but they hurt me until I couldn’t help but do what they said.”

It all came out so fast that none of the Potters had any idea what he was talking about.

“What did you do?” Lillian asked, kindness and concern both evident in her voice.

“I killed McFarren and beat up James and Samantha, and told the Death Eaters where to find you at Christmas,” Frank confessed, and as he did so his despair deepened, though the relief at telling others was clearly evident as well.

If the play of emotions across Frank’s hadn’t been so obvious and so sincere, Sirius would never have believed it. As it was, he couldn’t think of anything to say.

James recovered first and asked, “Why haven’t you said anything sooner?” Surprisingly, there wasn’t the slightest bit of anger in James’ voice. Instead, there was a mixture of pity and understanding that had Frank looking up at him in shock. The Hufflepuff’s eyes filled with tears at the acceptance in his friend’s voice, and told them quickly how he had come to be controlled by the Death Eaters. Sirius’ blood was boiling by the time the story was told, but he was also growing suspicious.

“Why are you telling us now?” he asked pointedly, ignoring his siblings’ surprise at his apparent insensitivity. “And why are you telling us and not the Aurors, or Professor Shacklebolt?”

“I did something else…” Frank said, shrinking back from Sirius, and refusing to meet the eyes of either James or Lillian. “Something horrible. I had to do it, they made me, but then I felt so bad about it… and I finally beat it back! I’m finally doing something they told me not to do!”

“What did you do?” Sirius asked, his voice hard.

“I helped them kidnap Muriel and Samantha,” Frank said in anguish. “They’re after your whole family, but I know where they are. I can help you get them back, I swear I will!”

“Why didn’t you tell the Aurors?” James asked, looking his friend straight in the eye, demanding an answer.

“They would just arrest me, and I wouldn’t be able to help get them back. I have to, don’t you see? I have to prove that I can fight them! If… If you want to go to the Aurors, I’ll understand… but you’ve fought the Death Eaters before, and I thought… I thought you’d let me go with you.”

James searched his friend’s face, and apparently found what he was looking for. “Where are they, and how do we get there?”

Sirius felt his heart drop; the story and the emotions all sounded true and real, and he could see that both of his siblings believed Frank completely, and would go along with everything. For some reason, his long-time distrust of the boy remained even after his confession, and Sirius was in no mood to dismiss it. Still, with his aunt, uncle, and mother gone from the castle, there didn’t seem to be any other options. As Lillian and James discussed what they were going to do to get Muriel and Samantha back, however, Sirius decided there was no way he was going anywhere without backup.

Sirius surreptitiously vanished the Marauder’s Map, sending it up to the quadruplets, and then used Leglimency to contact them.

“I need you!” he told them, straining to maintain a connection because of the distance. “Find me on the map and follow me in your Animagus forms.”

Once he got a positive response from them, he turned back to the conversation at hand to find everyone staring at him.

“What?” he asked, pretending he hadn’t been listening.

“I just asked if there was anything you needed or if we could leave now,” James said, sounding a touch exasperated.

“I’m ready,” Sirius answered seriously before turning to Frank. “And nothing had better happen to Muriel and Samantha before we get there.”

Frank paled, but nodded. All of them took up their wands and left the room, determined to rescue the two girls before anything else happened.

***

Lee ran swiftly through the forest, easily keeping up with the Potters and Frank despite their larger stride. He and his brothers had easily avoided detection, though Sirius knew very well that they were there. They were heading deep into the Dark Forest, surprisingly not far from where Sirius and the Weasleys had ventured the last time they had been searching for the murderer.

“How much farther?” James asked as he peered through the thick foliage ahead. The Weasley weasels couldn’t see very far ahead themselves, this far into the forest.

Frank’s answer surprised them all. “I think this is far enough,” he said calmy before firing a stunning spell straight at Sirius. At the same time, three more Death Eaters jumped out of the undergrowth and stunned James and Lillian. The two older Potters fell unconscious without a word, and Sirius would have followed them had he not witnessed the attack before unconsciousness could claim him. The vileness of the betrayal jarred him to his bones, igniting a fury that helped him refuse to succumb to Frank’s spell.

Sirius’ eyes were literally blazing when he turned and faced Frank. He barely noticed the flame rising from his arms as he knocked Frank back a half-dozen paces with a well aimed blow before turning back to face the other Death Eaters. Unfortunately, the three who had jumped out first had been joined by many more, and they were still coming.

Shouting wordlessly, Sirius hurled himself into their midst, intending to get close enough that they wouldn’t be as effective with their wands while he could beat them with his fists; wizards were notoriously poor at fighting without magic. Just before he reached them, four of the Death Eaters fell to the first volley of curses from the Weasleys, who had transformed back into themselves and were springing an ambush of their own. That was the last of the Weasleys that Sirius saw for the next several moments as he became surrounded by swirling black cloaks and skull-shaped masks. For a few seconds he enjoyed smashing those masks into the faces behind them, before feeling a sharp blow to his back that momentarily slowed his reflexes and weakened his muscles. He turned, meaning to end the threat, when he saw that Frank was back in the fight and showing every bit as much talent as he had when he was a cloaked shadow the night he had attacked Samantha, despite his obviously broken nose from being hit by Sirius. Brian had intercepted him after he had cast the Stunner that had bounced off of Sirius’ back, but Brian was barely managing to hold his own. The other Weasleys were also completely occupied fighting Death Eaters, as their numbers had grown to what appeared to be almost two dozen. Sirius glanced down at his unconscious brother and sister in anguish, knowing what he had to do.

Calling out an order of retreat in his mind, Sirius picked up one of the Death Eaters in front of him and hurled the writhing body into the most tightly packed mass of wizards he could see. The move bought him only a few seconds, but he and the Weasleys moved with a coordination that could only come with their unique mental connection facilitated by Sirius. They all ran in the same direction, sprinting into the forest in a direction opposite from where the Death Eaters had attacked. Frank and the masked wizards were behind them in an instant, but the quadruplets all managed to get a hand on Sirius and then they were gone.

***

“Ah, the last of our guests are here,” the dark wizard said with satisfaction as Frank led the Death Eaters carrying James and Lillian into the ring. Harry noticed quickly that the Death Eaters were looking very much the worse for wear, and despite his panic he couldn’t help but feel a flash of pride in is children at the amount of damage that had been done. When he recognized Frank, however, all other thoughts flew from his mind. A Longbottom had betrayed them. This will kill Neville, he thought sadly, too disappointed to be angry with the boy.

“Where is the third child?” the Dark Lord asked, and Harry’s head whipped back around to see that Sirius was, in fact, missing. His heart started beating fast with unexpected hope and he caught his wife’s eyes across the circle and shared a small grim smile with her as the evil wizard began shouting insanely at his followers.

“The Weasley quadruplets followed us,” Frank was saying quickly, cringing away from the dark specter looming over him. “They managed to help Sirius get away; there was nothing I could do, I swear!”

“You!” the dark wizard shouted, pointing at another masked Death Eater that had helped bring in Harry. “This is your tool, you deal with it!”

The Death Eater was quick to tear off his mask and run up to the cowering student. “You’ll pay for this,” the familiar voice shouted before putting the boy under the Cruciatus Curse. The screams were almost lost to Harry as he stared in shock at the man before him and the details of his own capture came back to him clearly.

“Stan?” he asked in shock and then anger as the curse continued even longer. “Stan, what are you doing?!”

The angry Death Eater finally released the boy from his curse, leaving Frank in a crumpled, twitching heap as he turned a hateful and triumphant glare on Harry.

“Yes, that’s right, it’s me!” Stan Shunpike shouted, though his voice was much different from its usual uncultured and uneducated accent and vocabulary. “It was so wonderful to have such a great advocate, let me tell you. If the great Harry Potter says a man is innocent, then by all means, he must be innocent. I’ve endured your condescension for so long it makes me sick, but it’s worth it to finally have you where you belong; facing your death from a pure-blood’s wand.”

The import of Stan’s words left Harry shaking with guilt and rage. He’d been so adamant over Stan’s innocence, and had personally seen to his release. His refusal to work with the Ministry on the grounds of an innocent man being wrongfully imprisoned came back hauntingly, and Harry found that he couldn’t trust himself to even give a response.

“That’s enough, Mr. Shunpike,” the Dark Lord interrupted before his servant could go on. “Let’s not forget the failure of your little pet.” The shadowed visage turned to observe the trembling boy who was finally starting to gather himself up off the ground. “Leave the sniveling wretch where he is; he’ll receive a more than adequate lesson on my power before the night is through. Take thirty Death Eaters with you; find the Potter brat and his Weasley allies and kill them.”

“NO!” Ginny shouted, straining at her bonds. Fred was similarly struggling and swearing viciously, while everyone else around the circle, including the newly awakened James and Lillian listened in shock. Harry’s eyes were still narrowed in hatred focusing on Stan, who was obviously eager to gather the wizards together and escape from the piercing gaze.

The dark wizard turned to regard his prisoners for a moment before turning back to Stan who was almost ready to leave.

“I shall need proof of your accomplishments,” the voice hissed with taunting pleasure. “Bring me their heads, and leave their bodies on the edge of the school grounds.”

At this pronouncement, Ginny collapsed against her post, sobbing hysterically while Fred went silent, staring into space with a dazed expression. Harry looked at his crying wife hopelessly; he had great faith in his son’s abilities, but he knew the five young students would be no match for a score and a half of determined and evil adult wizards. He could only hope that Sirius would go to Kingsley or the Aurors instead of trying to come to his family’s rescue.

***

When Sirius and the Weasleys had vanished and escaped the Death Eaters previously, they hadn’t actually gone anywhere. Sirius had merely transformed into the phoenix, and had made himself and his cousins invisible before lifting them up into the air where the Death Eaters couldn’t accidentally run into them. As soon as the Death Eaters left to gather up James and Lillian and head off into the forest, the quadruplets had transformed and followed them on the ground while Sirius did the same from the air.

They had all been shocked when they found so many members of their family captive to a madman, and had witnessed Frank’s merciless torture. Sirius suspected that all of Frank’s story had been true, with the exception of being free from the Death Eater’s commands, and he found himself feeling sorry for the boy even after what he had done. Still, his first priority would be to save his family. He heard his father’s former friend and coworker ordered to go out on their dark errand, and decided the first step in rescuing his family would be the elimination of thirty of the gathered Death Eaters. With that many removed from the picture, his family would only be outnumbered three to one when he went to free them. Those were odds that Sirius felt confident his father, mother, aunt, and uncles could handle.

Reaching out with his mind, Sirius called out to his cousins and the group set out after the men charged with their deaths.

They followed them for a long while as the men slowly made their way back towards the school, and Sirius was desperately thinking about a way to incapacitate the lot of them at once without having to engage in a full-blown fight that he and the Weasleys would be sorely pressed to survive, much less win. As the Death Eaters entered one particularly large field, a plan started formulating in Sirius’ mind that would have brought a broad grin to his face had he been possessed of a mouth instead of a beak. A quick set of instructions to the Weasleys had them sharing his mirth and all was ready.

As the Death Eaters reached them center of the field, several things happened all at once. The four Weasley quadruplets each transformed back into themselves, one standing in each direction surrounding the large group of Death Eaters. Before the evil wizards even had a chance to register surprise, the quadruplets had created a magical shield that created a shimmering dome over the shocked crowd. At that same moment, Sirius appeared in the middle of the group in a flash of fire and cast a furiously large fire spell that filled the dome to the brim with bright hot flames. The flames consumed the oxygen in the dome in an instant and was of so brief a duration that the only damage the Death Eaters sustained was the loss of their hair and eyebrows along with unnaturally red faces and smoldering robes. This only fueled their ire as they began casting retaliatory spells at Sirius, but Sirius wisely didn’t stay to fight; rather he transported himself to the outside of the dome and added his own magical strength to that of his cousins maintaining the dome. The Death Eaters tried desperately to escape their magical prison, but they were weakening quickly, and some had already collapsed as they futilely tried to breath in the oxygen-depleted air. In the course of a single minute, all of the back-cloaked men had collapsed, and Sirius and the Weasleys released the dome and began disarming and binding the entire group. They finished just as some of the Death Eaters began to come around.

Sirius incinerated the stack of thirty-one wands they had captured before turning to one of the Death Eaters in particular.

“Stan Shunpike,” he said murderously as the man groggily looked up at him. The Death Eater’s confusion receded rapidly, replaced by fear.

“They made me do it, Sirius,” the man said quickly, trying to cover his involvement since he had no idea that Sirius had seen everything before. “Set me free and I’ll help you rescue your family!”

“I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t take your head back to your master, before I ram it down his throat,” Sirius said through gritted teeth.

Stan realized that Sirius wasn’t going to buy into his innocence, and his manner changed instantly to cold, condescending malice.

“You’ll never defeat the Dark Lord,” he stated heatedly. “He’ll kill your family and then he’ll turn his attentions on you. Without your daddy watching over you, you’ll be dead within a few minutes. Then the entire Wizarding world will belong to my master.”

Stan finished with a proudly defiant sneer that clearly told Sirius that he could kill Stan and it would still be hopeless. Sirius didn’t buy it.

“Tell me, Stan,” he began, idly toying with his wand, “what will your great master do when he finds that you betrayed him and facilitated the escape of his prisoners?”

“What are you talking about? I would never betray my master!” Stan said heatedly.

“Not consciously, I’m sure,” Sirius agreed, before casting a spell of animation over one of the Death Eaters who was still asleep. The man’s body climbed to his feet and began to dance comically around the clearing. “Still, once you are unconscious there’s no telling what you might do. I imagine your master isn’t one to wait for an explanation,” Sirius finished coldly. He let realization and fear fill Stan’s expression as the high-kicking Death Eater pranced around them, and then stunned the man who had betrayed his family.

“That was well done,” Chris said cheerfully, as the animated Death Eater collapsed again. “I’ve never seen anyone pirouette quite so gracefully; if he didn’t have to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban, I’d say he has a future in ballet.”

“Maybe they’ll put on a show for the other inmates,” Lee said thoughtfully.

“Indeed,” Brian said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “With the right choreography, the Dancing Death Eaters could create quite a sensation. I’m sure they’d be booked at prisons around the world.”

Sirius couldn’t help but laugh, though he sobered quickly. “Let’s make sure we’ve got all of these Death Eaters well and truly unconscious. We’ve got family to save.”



A/N: Well, here it is. This chapter really is twice as long as the last one, but I'm sure it still won't be quite enough to satisfy everyone. (I do that on purpose) I hope everyone is still enjoying the story, and look forward to the next chapter coming even faster. (My wife is getting impatient with me) =)

Chapter Twenty: Draconic Motives


The Dark wizard approached Harry slowly, drawing his gaze away from the departing group of Death Eaters and Stan Shunpike.

“Such hatred is not becoming of the Wizarding world’s great champion,” the shadowy figure said quietly. “Besides, it is wasted on him. He is a useful servant, but more for his connections to you than for any powers of intellect. You shall soon have cause to hate me far more than him. Once the head of your son is brought to us, I will proceed to kill each of your family members until you will beg me to allow you to join them. Then I will oblige you.”

“Why?” Harry asked in a hoarse whisper. In all his life he had never been so scared; when he’d fought Voldemort he hadn’t known how much he had to lose until he was trapped in the Mind’s Eye, and by the time he was free his victory had been achieved. Now he knew exactly what he had to lose; they were staring at him with confidence at that moment, sure that their father would be able to find a way to save them. Ginny looked dazed still coming to grips with the fact that thirty dark wizards were even now trying to hunt and kill one of their children.

“Why? Because that’s what you did to me!” the Dark wizard spat angrily. “You killed my father, and you were the reason my mother died! I’m merely returning the favor!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harry said sincerely. “There has to be some mistake…”

“There is no mistake!” the shadowy figure screamed. “You tortured me into revealing my father’s location, and then you went and murdered him. I was set free on the grounds that I was too young to understand what I had done at the time, but my mother found out what I had done, and when it led to my father’s death she lost the will to live. She wasted away, refusing even to speak to me! I swore that my family would be avenged, and I have spent my life preparing for this moment. How sweet this vengeance will be, believe me.”

Harry’s eyes slowly widened in recognition; only one person fit this twisted description.

“Then you’re…” he began slowly.

“Draco Malfoy,” the evil man stated before throwing back the hood of the Shadow Cloak. The face that was revealed was familiar; pointed features, pale skin and hair, and an arrogance that surpassed belief. There was no mistaking the older version of Harry’s boyhood nemesis, and yet there were differences. In the place of the arrogant sneer of old was a cold, deadened expression, as if no emotion would alter his calm visage. At the same time, his eyes belied that thought with their burning intensity; a harsh, cruel light of hatred burned bright and hot. In all, Draco Malfoy appeared to be insane.

“I did not kill your father, Draco,” Harry said calmly, while everyone else was still trying to get over the shock. “Voldemort killed him with a carelessly thrown curse. He didn’t care about his followers and laughed at me when I suggested he’d killed one of his favorites.”

“Don’t lie to me, Potter!” Malfoy shrieked, stalking up to Harry and backhanding him viciously across the face. Harry’s head snapped back with the force of the blow and his children cried out at seeing their father hurt. Harry shook his head and spat out blood, trying to clear his vision.

“You haven’t changed at all, Malfoy,” Ginny said venomously. “Your still the cowardly little ferret we knew in school; you don’t even have the guts to face any of us on fair grounds. At least Voldemort was willing to prove that he was the greatest by trying to destroy his enemies in duels.”

Harry felt a surge of hope; Ginny was obviously trying to shame Malfoy into a duel, and he knew her and her skills well enough to know that she wouldn’t lose to the likes of Draco Malfoy, even if the rat-faced Slytherin had spent all of the intervening years in hate-filled training.

Malfoy was looking at Ginny with the same deadened expression and then stalked forward. Without another word, Malfoy balled up his fist and punched Ginny in the face, knocking her head back into the post. Hermione called out in alarm, and all of the Weasley men were shouting in anger. The Potter children were stunned, and Lillian, Muriel, and Samantha were crying at what was being done. Harry’s reaction was far different; like a man possessed he lunged against his chains, furiously trying to get at the man who would dare to harm Ginny. He hit the limit of his bonds and kept moving; slowly, inexorably, he began to pull the stake that he was chained to out of the ground. Malfoy paid him no heed at first, intent on answering Ginny.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for the opportunity to teach you filthy blood-traitors a lesson. Voldemort is dead! I will not repeat his mistakes; he could have killed all of you any number of times, but he had to prove that he was the better wizard. In the end, his foolishness led to his downfall. If I kill you then I prove that I am the better wizard. I don’t have to do it honorably, and truthfully I don’t care to.”

Malfoy finally noticed Harry’s Herculean efforts to get to him, and merely laughed. It was a terrifying sight, truthfully, for the mirth touched nothing but his eyes; he didn’t even attempt to smile.

“I think some of the wind should be taken from Mr. Potters sails. You and you,” Malfoy said, pointing to two of the many Death Eaters left waiting outside of the circle, “make sure he doesn’t have so much excess energy.”

The two Death Eaters began to beat Harry savagely, punching and kicking the famous wizard they had been taught to hate until he couldn’t even stand on his own. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Harry and those who cared for him, the two dark wizards were called off.

“You see, I’ve grown more conservative over the years. Sometimes it is more fun to do things by hand rather than to use magic. Still, let us see if I can’t improve on their efforts.”

Harry lost track of what was going on, remaining conscious only because he refused to let himself pass out while his family was in danger. By the time he could think again, he was bleeding from a dozen minor cutting hexes and both of his legs were broken. He ached everywhere from his time under the Cruciatus curse, and he was having trouble focusing on anything around him.

“The Wizarding world’s mighty champion doesn’t appear so great now, does he?” Malfoy said softly, his voice edged with glee. In a whisper that no one but Harry could hear, he added, “That’s what I’m going to do to the others before I kill them. Don’t worry, I’ll let you watch.”

That brought Harry’s mind fully back to the present, and he looked around the circle at his loved-ones. All of them had tears in their eyes at the torture they had just seen Harry put through. Fred and George looked positively murderous in their impotent rage, while Ron and Hermione seemed to be trying to draw strength from each other. Ginny’s eyes held love and sympathy, and worst of all, resignation. She had accepted that they were all going to die.

The look in his wife’s eyes, combined with the sounds of his sobbing children and Samantha pushed Harry into action, into the use of a spell so powerful that no magical chains would be able to stop it. Harry focused entirely on his family, willing all of his anger and hatred out of his mind, as he reached into the very core of his being to draw out all not only the entirety of his magical powers, but his life force as well. This was the spell that had defeated Voldemort; a construct of love and a soul willingly given to a greater purpose, a sacrifice that would destroy evil, but only if done completely without malice. As Harry reached for this power, an orb of incredibly white light grew in his hands, filling the clearing with its comforting glow.

Malfoy began shouting in consternation, and tried casting several spells at Harry, all to no avail. No one in the circle but Ginny knew what this magic was or what it would do; she was the only one Harry had told about it. Harry couldn’t help one last look into his wife’s eyes, knowing that this magic would claim his life. She was looking at him with sorrow and love, knowing that his sacrifice would buy their children’s lives. She gave him one final tremulous smile, as though wishing him goodbye. Then her eyes focused past him and a look of utter horror came over her face. Harry couldn’t help but turn and look and the sight that he beheld filled him with such anger that the magic building between his hands dissipated instantly. The Death Eaters sent after his son had returned.

Harry collapsed against his chains, his body overcome by pain, his strength, both physical and emotional, spent. Stan Shunpike walked into the clearing with four shorter Death Eaters, leaving the rest of the group outside of the ring. Each of the five wizards carried a large round object which they casually tossed to the ground.

Ginny and Fred both screamed for their children, while everyone else stared in shock. The heads came rolling to a rest, and Harry found himself looking into his son’s face, which was, impossibly, grinning happily. Harry’s brow furrowed in confusion, which was only deepened when the face winked at him. Then a familiar voice spoke in his mind.

Dad? the voice asked through the mental communication of a phoenix.

***

Sirius and the quadruplets worked quickly, making sure all of the Death Eaters were unconscious and then animating as many of them as possible. They found they could only control fifteen of them at once, and so they left the rest of them tied up and stunned.

“Maybe he won’t notice that not as many came back if most of them hang back a bit,” Lee suggested hopefully while donning one of the black Death Eater robes.

“We’ll have to distract him from that,” Chris answered, adjusting his new mask.

“We’ll bring back the heads he wanted,” Sirius told them as he watched them getting ready. Sirius was the only one not going dressed as a Death Eater, since he would be able to talk to his dad as the phoenix. Instead he was working on transfiguring a bunch of rocks into heads.

Jack came over and watched him work, shaking his head in disgust at the tormented looks on the transfigured heads. “That is really gruesome, Sirius. You want your mother to see that?”

“What am I supposed to do?” Sirius asked curiously.

“Put a little Weasley flair on it,” Brian suggested, and waved his wand at the head that bore his resemblance. The features altered slowly until the eyes were wide and the cheeks puffed up with the tongue sticking out.

Everyone burst into laughter at the sight; it was exactly the kind of face that someone would make to get a baby to laugh.

“That dark wizard will never notice, and it might get everyone else ready for the fight,” Lee reasoned, looking at Sirius hopefully.

“Alright,” Sirius said, thinking what he wanted his own head to look like. All of the Weasleys were using their own vast repertoires of humorous faces, and there didn’t seem to be any way Sirius could match them. Finally he decided on the cheeriest grin imaginable, and was delighted with just how incongruous it looked.

“Very delightful,” Brian said in admiration.

“Okay, let’s get back and bust up the Death Eater party,” Sirius said, motioning for the others to get ready. “Wait for the signal and send our little marionettes charging into the other Death Eaters. That will buy us some time from them. You guys try and get everyone free while I try and distract the Dark wizard until you can get more of the adults free. Then everything else should take care of itself, right?”

“I would imagine so,” Jack said confidently.

“I imagine everyone will feel pretty angry about being tricked into this, so they’ll be ready to get some payback,” Chris added.

“Alright then,” Sirius said with as much confidence as he could muster. “Let’s go.”

The procession moved off with Sirius flying ahead, staying invisible to make sure their plan wasn’t given away. It was far from a perfect plan, but the surprise element would give them a huge advantage.

Sirius flew to the clearing and perched high in a tree on the very edge. What he saw was incredible.

His father looked like he had been beaten and tortured extensively; he was bleeding from a dozen different wounds and his legs were bent at odd angles, leaving him leaning against the post to which he was chained to stay upright. At the same time, his dad’s head was held high and power like Sirius had never seen before gathered between his hands. It was incredible, and Sirius felt certain that his dad would end the conflict before he could even get involved. Then the masked quadruplets and the animated Stan Shunpike marched into the clearing and Harry seemed to deflate, and the magical energy he had gathered dissipated quickly, as the heads rolled to a stop on the ground.

Sirius groaned, thinking that their timing couldn’t have been worse; they’d distracted his dad right when he was about to do something.

Sirius felt his dad’s confusion as one of the Weasleys triggered the winking charm on the transfigured heads. The dark lord seemed to be laughing triumphantly at the sight of his new trophies, so Sirius used his mental connection to his father to speak.

Dad? Are you okay? he asked in concern.

Sirius? What is going on? How are you talking to me like this? Harry asked in return.

It’s too long of a story to tell right now, Sirius said quickly, seeing that the Dark Wizard was winding down with his triumphant gloating. I learned the Animagus transformation, but it didn’t work the way it was supposed to and now I can change into a phoenix. In a minute or two, we’re going to create a diversion and start a huge row. The quadruplets will set all of you free. Will you be able to fight?

I’ll manage, Harry said in amazement and gratitude, before preparing himself for the ordeal to come. No matter what happens, son, I want you to know that I’m proud of you. I love you.

I love you too, dad, Sirius said, touched at his father’s pride and determined not to let his family down.

***

Harry heard his son’s parting words in his mind just before Malfoy slapped him and shouted, “Pay attention to me, Potter! I want you to see what I am about to do! I want you to see everyone you love destroyed because of your own actions so many years ago!”

Malfoy slapped Harry once more to make certain he had his attention before stalking around the circle, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

“Who shall be first? These two imbeciles that tortured me into giving up my family?” he asked, looking vengefully at Fred and George. The twins merely stared at him angrily, determined not to give him the least amount of satisfaction.

“No,” Malfoy said, shaking his head, “I think I will make the biggest impact if I start with the children. Yes, I’ll start with the deceased Sirius’ girlfriend and work my way down, oldest to youngest.”

James held his head high, despite the fear in his eyes. Lillian was trying to comfort both Samantha and Muriel who appeared to be too dazed to respond to the situation.

Malfoy began stalking forward, lifting his wand, when the music came out of the night. All of the adults present knew it for what it was; the song of a phoenix. The hauntingly beautiful, trilling melody filled the Weasleys and Potters with hope and confidence, and the Death Eaters around the clearing began looking around in fear. Malfoy, his eyes narrowed in hatred at the sound, looked around in the sky trying to locate its source. The music seemed to echo around the clearing, however, making it impossible to determine where it was coming from.

Then the four shorter Death Eaters raised their arms as one and the fifteen Death Eaters behind them and Stan Shunpike beside them rushed over to the rest of the Death Eaters, punching and kicking their shocked comrades. At the same time Sirius became visible in a blaze of fire and streaked into battle against the Dark Lord.


A/N: Here it is, much faster than usual of late. I would have gone even faster yet, but as much as my wife wants me to finish the story, I'm sure she wants a well planned Valentine's Day even more. (That's why it's done now) =) I hope you all enjoy it, because there won't be many more chapters!

A/N: I’m putting my author’s note first because it seemed really inappropriate to do it at the end. I just wanted to say that this isn’t the last chapter, and I hope you all appreciate how fast it got written! Enjoy and review!

Chapter Twenty One: Legacy of Sacrifice


Sirius flew into battle intending to hit the Dark wizard with enough force to take him out of the fight instantly. His hopes were shattered, however, when Malfoy raised a shield that deflected him very effectively.

Maybe I should have hit him before becoming visible, he thought as he careened back into the forest. He was unhurt and transformed back into himself before running back into the fight, eyes blazing.

Things weren’t going quite as well as they had all hoped; Sirius found himself facing his family’s captor alone and without the element of surprise, while the Weasleys appeared to be having trouble getting anyone free from the chains. The Death Eater puppets were being dealt with swiftly since they didn’t have wands; Malfoy had casually flicked a bludgeoning hex at Stan before he’d even reached the others, and now Stan lay unmoving on the floor of the clearing.

Trying to buy more time from the large group of Death Eaters, Sirius raised his wand and shouted, “Anguis!” Dozens of snakes shot from his wand and Lillian, still chained to a post, began speaking to them in Parseltongue, urging them into battle. Sirius knew the experienced Death Eaters would make short work of the snakes, but hopefully it would take them some time.

Sirius quickly turned his attention back to the Dark wizard, determined to buy his cousins the time they needed to get the others free. He had to swallow his fear as the deadened expression twisted slowly into a smile; it was not a friendly expression.

“Very clever, Sirius,” the evil man rasped. “I’ll give you credit for creativity and bravery. But you’re a fool! Now your family will be able to watch you die instead of learning of it later. And die you will, make no mistake about that.”

“There won’t be any dead Potters today,” Sirius said through gritted teeth, holding himself ready for whatever would come next. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Avada Kadavra! Malfoy shouted, and a jet of green light rushed toward Sirius. He heard his mother scream, but ignored it as he employed a surprise of his own. Sirius vanished in a flash of fire and reappeared behind Malfoy, firing a stunning spell of his own. Malfoy reacted faster than he would have believed possible, however, easily dodging the spell and firing another at Sirius. Still, the Death Eater who had been standing behind Sirius was dead from Malfoy’s own spell, and the new Dark Lord was eyeing Sirius with a new, wary respect.

“Very well,” he said calmly. “It will be a duel worthy of my talents. I hope you die well.”

They began fighting fiercely, volleying curses back and forth with an intensity that Sirius had never experienced before in any of his previous magical battles. Yet despite his inexperience, he found that he was holding his own, and elation filled him.

I can do this, he thought in wonder, I can live up to my name!

***

Chris tried to ignore the amazing duel being fought in front of him as he sought to free his own father from his chains. Lee was working on Uncle George, Brian had Ron, and Jack was trying to free Ginny. They had decided to go for the best duelers first, but had decided against setting Uncle Harry free first since he didn’t even appear capable of standing.

The chains, however, were proving more difficult than they had expected. They seemed to absorb magic, and they couldn’t be cut, blasted, or warped by any of the spells he had tried so far.

“Try picking the lock,” Fred said urgently, seeing that nothing else was working.

Nodding, Chris pulled out the lock pick his father had taught him to use and inserted it into the keyhole, only to jerk his hand back with an oath. The small metal tool had melted inside the keyhole and burned his fingers.

“Okay, it looks like the keyhole is warded,” Fred said apologetically.

“I wonder if the chain itself is warded for more than magic…” Chris thought aloud, before bursting into action. Anything was worth a shot at this point.

Grateful at having a Muggle grandfather on his mother’s side, Chris conjured a tool he remembered from his grandfather’s toolbox. He grabbed the hack saw and began pulling it across the chain experimentally, fully expecting to be blasted in the attempt. To his surprise, nothing happened, and the saw left a tiny score in the metal.

Grinning, Chris shouted, “Hacksaws!” and magically animated the saw so that it would cut on its own, faster than any human arm could move it. His brothers had seen what he had done and were quick to follow suit. Chris left that saw working and conjured one to start working on Aunt Hermione’s chains as well. He had barely gotten it moving when he felt a heavy blow land on his right shoulder, knocking him to the ground. Dazed, he reached back and felt the open wound that was bleeding freely, amazed that a cutting charm would feel more like a bludgeoning hex.

“I guess the Death Eaters are done being distracted,” he mumbled, beginning to feel dizzy from the loss of blood.

He looked up to see one of the masked wizards standing above him, wand raised in triumph. Chris closed his eyes as he waited for the killing curse, but heard a muffled “clang” instead and opened his eyes to see his dad standing above him, his hands still manacled but the chains cut and dangling below him. The Death Eater’s eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed, revealing the bloody lump on the back of his head where Fred had hit him with his own chains.

Fred quickly grabbed the fallen Death Eater’s wand and rushed to his son, quickly casting a spell that would close the wound. He and George had learned all kinds of healing spells in the years they’d spent researching their products on themselves, and he was certainly glad for it now.

“Stay out of sight, son. You’ve done a great job, but you’re out of this fight,” Fred said quickly, squeezing his son’s shoulder and rising just in time to deflect a curse and fire one of his own. Apparently the enchanted chains couldn’t hold back magic now that they had been severed.

Chris watched his father leap into the fight against the large group of Death Eaters and was gratified to see Uncle George follow right after him, and Ron and Hermione as well. They would need all the help they could get against the overwhelming odds before them.

Chris suddenly wondered why none of the adults were running to help Sirius and turned to see how his cousin was doing. His eyes widened in shock at the spectacle before him; both wizards were moving incredibly fast, and flashes of light flickered around them in a dizzying array of colors from all of the spells they were casting, and sparks flew from curses being deflected off of shields. Every so often a there would be a burst of flames as Sirius would vanish to dodge a curse and reappear somewhere else. Chris realized quickly that none of the other adults felt like they could do any better than Sirius was doing, and Chris knew that he would only get in the way if he tried to help. Even protective Ginny was more concerned with keeping the Death Eaters away from her other children and Samantha, who were all still chained. Chris knew the only person there who was skilled enough to help Sirius defeat the Dark wizard was Harry, and Lee was just getting him free.

Confidant that his Uncle Harry would find a way to win that fight, even with all of his injuries, Chris transformed into a weasel and ran off into the thick of the fight. His dad had said to stay out of sight, but there were more than enough ankles to bite in this row, and he was going to do his part.

***

Frank Longbottom was still lying in the circle, forgotten by literally everyone around him as he tried to get over the aches and twitches that accompanied such severe use of the Cruciatus Curse. He hadn’t wanted to follow orders this time, had fought it in his mind until he could fight it no more. In the end, the fear of further pain had won out, and he had had no choice but to follow orders.

As he lay there trembling, he couldn’t help but watch the duel unfolding around him in awe. Sirius was holding his own against the Dark Lord, and fighting for what he believed to be right; he wasn’t held back by the mental chains that had been so painstakingly tortured into Frank’s mind. Frank found himself hoping desperately that Sirius and his family would win and free him from his captors. Then he saw Stan wake up and pull a gleaming knife from his belt. The wizard who had broken him crept up on Frank’s only hope of freedom, and Frank felt despair keenly, because Sirius could spare no attention from his current duel.

He had done what they wanted, to the best of his abilities, and still they had hurt him, Frank realized suddenly. It was the promise of further pain that led him to follow their orders, and he realized then that no matter how well he followed them there would always be more torture in the end. It was that thought, and the realization that he couldn’t leave others to fight his battles for him, that galvanized Frank into action. He employed his Animagus transformation, becoming a great black panther, a killing machine with glowing eyes, and leaped on his tormentor. Stan was dead in an instant, and Frank felt the elation that came with the knowledge that he had truly broken away from his tormentors.

I’m free! he thought joyfully, as he turned and bounded into the ranks of Death Eaters, biting and slashing with his claws. Now was the time for vengeance.

***

Harry slumped to the ground as the chains that were the only things keeping him upright were severed by the rasping hacksaw. He had been horrified when he’d seen Stan about to stab his son in the back, and equally thrilled to see Frank turn against his masters. Calling his magic to his hands in an instant, Harry was reassured that he would be able to do some good in the battle going on around him. Ginny and Hermione were in a dueling frenzy as they fought off the Death Eaters who dared to get close to her children. One of the quadruplets, and Harry was too tired to even think about figuring out which one it was, was just getting around to freeing his cousins, and all of the others seem to have joined the battle. Harry was as amazed as any of the others as he saw his son fighting the much older and more experienced Draco Malfoy. To Malfoy’s obvious frustration, Sirius was holding him completely at bay. Harry knew that he could win the battle, if he were at his full strength and able to walk, but in his current state, Harry knew he would have to find a perfect opening and destroy Malfoy decisively. Harry watched the battle closely, occasionally sending out a quick stunning spell to help a family member in trouble, but mostly paying careful attention to the duel his son was fighting against evil.

***

Sirius gritted his teeth as his confidence began to wane; he was giving the fight everything he had, but he could not seem to do any better than a stalemate. Moreover, he was growing tired while his opponent didn’t seem to be having any trouble at all. His extensive use of magic throughout the day was definitely catching up to him.

Sirius tried desperately to think of something, anything, he could do to end the fight before he grew too tired to continue the lightning fast duel. Even so, before he could come up with anything helpful, he made the mistake of dodging one hex and moving into the path of another that had been placed for just such a chance. Sirius and Malfoy had both been using this technique throughout the fight, but this was the first time Sirius hadn’t been able to see far enough ahead to avoid being hit. The cutting hex tore into his wand arm and he dropped his wand and screamed in agony as he fell to the ground.

Then Malfoy was standing over him triumphantly, the wicked gleam in his eyes attesting to the fact that Sirius would not live long.

Sirius wasn’t about to give up, despite the blood flowing freely from the deep wound just above his right elbow. Sirius waved his hands and sent three rapid-fire stunners straight into Malfoy’s face. He parried all three effortlessly, and lifted his wand for the killing curse.

Sirius heard a loud shout from across the clearing and saw Malfoy suddenly flying through the air away from him. He looked to where the blasting curse had come from and saw his dad, whose eyes were flashing furiously as he levitated himself into the fight, his broken legs dangling uselessly below him.

Malfoy was not out of the fight either, however; he was coming to his feet, wand back in hand, and was waving his hands in a complicated spell. Sirius couldn’t hear the incantation, but he was absolutely certain he didn’t want it finished.

Groaning, Sirius climbed to his feet and rushed to his father’s side while both rushed Malfoy with the unspoken agreement that they would overwhelm him together and end the fight. Unfortunately, just as they got close enough to begin casting spells, Malfoy finished his incantation. Sirius raised a heavy shield over himself and his dad, determined to block whatever was coming, but he certainly wasn’t expecting what happened.

Blue light flared in different spots around the clearing, and it took Sirius a moment to realize that the light was emanating from the manacles still attached to the former prisoners and from the corresponding chains still attached to the posts.

“Dad!” Sirius shouted, turning to his father in terror. Harry met his gaze sorrowfully, knowing what would happen next.

As though pulled by a magnet, Sirius’ parents, siblings, girlfriend, aunt, and uncles flew through the air, each painfully impacting with the post they had been chained to previously. The chains fused back together, and they suddenly found themselves right where they started. Three of the Weasley quadruplets were still fighting, and though the prisoners had been very effective during their brief hiatus from captivity, there were still more than a dozen Death Eaters still standing. Sirius didn’t have time to wonder where his fourth cousin was, as he found himself fighting Malfoy once again, only this time he was wounded and exhausted, and the pale man seemed to have even more energy in the wake of his successful spell.

Sirius used one hand to close the wound in his arm as he continued to throw spells with the other, but it wasn’t long before he was knocked to the ground, senseless.

***

Chris watched in terror as first Sirius, and then all three of his brothers, were brutally subdued. Lee would need to spend some time in the hospital wing, and he would need to get there soon. At least Brian and Jack appeared to be merely stunned, but Chris wasn’t willing to bet their lives on that.

Chris’ heart shot up into his weasel throat as he realized that he was the only person left in any kind of position to continue fighting. He felt fear fill him even as he began planning how to proceed. It was absolutely imperative that he not be seen.

***

Sirius’ first realization upon coming to his senses was that he hurt! The second realization was that he was being lifted from the ground by his unruly black hair, and that didn’t feel much better.

He moaned in pain as Malfoy hauled him to his feet and slapped him roughly across the face several times.

“I want you awake for what I am about to show you, young Mr. Potter,” Malfoy said gleefully. “I want you to realize fully that your brave attempt at rescuing your family was a complete failure.”

Sirius was finally able to focus on Malfoy when he was hit by the Cruciatus Curse. It seemed to go on for an eternity, with pain that was even worse than Sirius’ previous experience with the torture curse. He suddenly found himself wanting to die.

***

“Sirius!” Harry and Ginny both shouted in horror as their son was blasted off his feet once again and placed under the Cruciatus Curse. Harry knew there was no way he could help his son, yet still he struggled against his bonds, furious at the predicament they were in.

Harry barely heard the whispered “Silencio!” over his son’s screams, but he was very aware of the fact that he could no longer speak. He also noticed that the hacksaw that was quickly working through his chains was making absolutely no noise. He looked around and quickly spotted Chris Weasley crouching behind Ginny’s post, setting a silent saw going on her chains as well. Harry watched in amazement as Chris gave him a wink and a very forced smile before changing into a weasel and sneaking back off into the darkness.

Harry just shook his head in wonder and waited anxiously to be free once more. He only hoped he was in time to save his son.

***

Finally the curse was lifted and Sirius lay on the ground, unable to comprehend that the pain was gone.

“You filthy blood-traitor Potters are all alike,” Malfoy said coldly as he pulled Sirius roughly to his feet once more. “So determined to help save the world and completely blind to the fact that the world doesn’t deserve it!”

A bone-breaking charm hit Sirius’ left arm a moment after another cutting charm reopened the wound on his right, once again knocking him to the ground. Sirius, more dazed than ever, looked towards his mum. Feeling detached from the situation, he noticed that she appeared to be sobbing and screaming, and yet he could hear nothing.

Something must have happened to my hearing, he thought dispassionately, while shaking his head to try and clear his thoughts. That didn’t help, he groaned inwardly.

Sirius tried to smile at his mother, the best he could do by way of reassurance, but he was pulled to his feet once more and held there by one of the remaining Death Eaters while Malfoy looked at him with unrestrained hatred.

“You truly are a remarkable wizard, Mr. Potter. Your power and abilities are staggering, and there’s no telling what you might accomplish if you could be convinced to abandon the hopeless Potter cause of self-sacrifice and so-called nobility. I won’t bother asking you to join me, however; you would answer with some noble drivel about good and evil and refuse, and quite frankly I really want to kill you.”

Sirius was hit with another round of curses that left him with a broken nose, bruised ribs, and several more deep cuts, though this time the Death Eater behind him held him on his feet. In his near delirious state, though, one word that Malfoy had spoken remained lodged in his mind.

Sacrifice? he asked himself, trying to remember what was significant about that word.

“Sacrifice?” he asked out loud, hoping the strange man in front of him might help him understand.

“Yes, Potter, sacrifice. You sacrifice yourselves for the good of a world that will only spit in your face in return. The only way to truly accomplish anything is to take what you want by force! Power is the only thing that people truly respect…”

Malfoy continued to rant on, but Sirius knew that the man didn’t have the answer. He continued trying to figure it out, but his thoughts were interrupted once more, when Malfoy began saying things that brought Sirius partially out of his stupor.

“… and that’s why I am going to kill you and the rest of your family. There will be no one left who will be foolish enough to stand in my way. But first, my boy, I’m going to demonstrate what your noble ideals truly bring you.”

The evil man turned his burning eyes to Samantha, who was crying uncontrollably. Sirius smiled at her, remembering all the moments they had shared together, and wanting to comfort her.

“I will allow you watch me kill your special friend, here,” Malfoy said quietly, motioning the Death Eater holding Sirius to drag the boy closer. “And then I will allow your family to watch me kill you.”

Sirius had ceased listening the moment Malfoy declared his intention to kill Samantha. His head had cleared instantly, and the memory he had been trying to contemplate came to him with perfect clarity. This is the legacy of Fawkes’ sacrifice, and I think that should mean something more than just a few paltry pranks, Dumbledore’s portrait had told him, and Sirius suddenly felt that he knew what that legacy truly meant. As he looked into Samantha’s tear filled eyes, he knew that self-sacrifice truly was a legacy of the Potter family; his grandparents had given up their lives to save their son, who had in turn given up his life to defeat Voldemort and save the rest of the Wizarding world. Fawkes had saved his father’s life at the cost of his own, and passed on incredible power to Sirius in the process, and Sirius realized that his moment had come. The realization brought him strength, and fear left him, despite the fact that he knew he was about to die.

“It’s our legacy,” Sirius said quietly, but the power in his voice made it audible to everyone in the clearing.

“What are you talking about, Potter?” Malfoy asked, eyes narrowed in hatred as he lifted his wand.

“Our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for a greater purpose is where our power comes from,” Sirius said, his voice ringing through the clearing as power began coursing through his body. “That’s why you’ll never be able to defeat us.”

With these finally words, Sirius summoned all of the power he had left within his body. Flames shot from out from his skin, and the Death Eater holding him back shrieked in agony as he released Sirius to look at his horribly burned hands. Sirius managed to stay on his feet on his own as he faced Malfoy, who was already casting spells. Cutting hexes and bludgeoning charms merely bounced off of him as Sirius advanced on the new Dark Lord, determined to end the battle this very moment.

***

Harry’s hands came free as Sirius began his charge on Malfoy, and he saw Ginny pull free from her chains as well. Dispelling the silencing charm with a wave of his hand, Harry hobbled forward.

“No, Sirius!” he shouted hoarsely, seeing what was happening. Harry had once forced his body beyond its magical abilities to save Ginny’s life when Wormtail had dropped part of the castle into the lake, and it had nearly cost him his life. He could see the light pouring from Sirius’ body, despite it being partially hidden beneath the flames, and he knew his son was doing the same thing.

Chris must have been watching for Harry and Ginny to break free, because he suddenly transformed back into himself in the midst of the remaining group of Death Eaters, stunning three of them before they recovered from the shock of seeing him there. The rest were quick to begin to fight him, but Ginny, realizing that Harry had the best chance of saving their son, rushed to her nephew’s aid.

Harry began levitating himself once more, knowing his legs wouldn’t move him close enough in time. Still, Malfoy was already muttering the words of the killing curse, and Harry knew it wouldn’t bounce off of his son like the other spells.

Harry’s scream for his son was cut off as Sirius vanished and reappeared directly in front of Malfoy, his flaming hands closing around the Dark wizard’s wrists.

“This ends now,” Sirius said over Malfoy’s screams of pain.

Harry was suddenly thrown back as a ball of fire came into being around his son and Malfoy with a heat wave so intense that Harry was suddenly sweating over his entire body.

“Sirius!” he screamed futilely, looking up as the flames continued to burn. Shouting his rage and frustration, Harry turned and hurled several curses into the midst of the five Death Eaters still fighting his wife and nephew. An instant later, none of them were still standing. Ginny rushed to his side, demanding to know what Sirius was doing. Harry just shook his head mournfully.


I love you all, a familiar voice said clearly and sadly in everyone’s minds, and then the flames grew higher still before finally dying away.

In the center of the five foot ring of charred earth lay only a pile of ashes.

Chapter Twenty Two: Hummingbird’s Wings


Ginny dropped to her knees beside her husband as tears began streaming down her face. Sirius was gone.

Ginny looked around the clearing at her devastated family; there were no dry eyes, despite the fact that they were now out of danger. Ginny reminded herself that only moments before she had been sure that she was about to die, along with all of her family, and Sirius had saved all of them from that. This logic was poor comfort, but it moved her to action for the well-being of the rest of her children.

Ginny moved to Harry’s side and cast the healing spells necessary to set and mend his broken legs. Harry looked up in surprise at the interruption of his mourning for his son.

“We have other children that need to be anywhere but here, and practically everyone is wounded,” Ginny said in a whisper, not trusting herself to speak any louder.

Harry nodded immediately and began hobbling about the clearing as he joined a tearful Chris Weasley in setting all of the others free. Hermione went immediately to Lee who appeared to be the worst injured among the quadruplets, while Fred and George went to awaken the other two. No one had escaped the fight unscathed, but their injuries were mostly forgotten in their grief. Ron busied himself binding and disarming the unconscious Death Eaters, and he was none too gentle about it.

Ginny and Harry made sure they were there when their children got free, giving each of them hugs of comfort. Sirius had been a friend and protector to all of them, even James, though James would deny that, and all of them were shocked that he was gone. Ginny made a point of giving Samantha the same attention; Sirius had acted when she had been threatened, and Ginny made sure that Samantha knew it wasn’t her fault.

“Ron?” Harry asked hoarsely, after offering what comfort he could to his children. “Would you run back to the school and get us some help?”

Both men knew that Ginny, by transforming into a falcon, could get to the school and back the fastest, but neither were willing to take her away from her children.

“Alright, Harry, but you should come see this first,” Ron said quietly. He led Harry over to the far side of the clearing where Frank Longbottom’s body had been respectfully covered.

“I found him next to several Death Eaters that were all pretty mangled,” Ron whispered. “I didn’t think the kids would want to know about it just yet, but someone will have to tell Neville.”

“I’ll tell him,” Harry said in a deadened voice, not looking forward to that meeting. “At least I can tell him his boy died a hero; he saved Sirius’ life by taking out Stan.”

“Maybe we can arrange a medal or something from the Ministry as well,” Ron said. “It’s not much, but it’s something.”

Ron squeezed Harry’s shoulder before turning into a lion and running quickly into the forest, disappearing quickly into the night.

Harry stood there a moment, staring off into space after his friend had vanished, trying to understand a new sensation tickling at his mind.

“Harry?” Ginny asked, wanting Harry to come back to his children.

Harry turned to her, and shook his head slowly, needing time to concentrate. Ginny waited a long moment before speaking again.

“Harry, what…?” she asked and then stopped in confusion as a slow smile began growing over Harry’s face.

Harry turned and ran as fast as his sore legs would let him, and began digging through the ashes quickly before getting to his feet, something small held delicately in his hands. Ginny’s hand went to her mouth in shock as she realized that it was a baby phoenix. Even as Harry carried the tiny bird towards her, sparks of light began lifting off of it.

“Is that the phoenix?” Ginny asked, still not knowing about Sirius’ transformation.

“It’s Sirius,” Harry said in a choked voice.

At first, Ginny thought the strain had driven Harry mad, but before she could say anything, the sparks grew into a soft white light that gradually faded. As it did, the baby phoenix slowly transformed into a human infant that Ginny recognized instantly.

“Sirius,” she whispered, rushing to her husband’s side and taking the baby from him and holding it close. Everyone in the clearing was looking on in shock at the tiny baby with green eyes and a full head of messy black hair. The baby began crying loudly, and Ginny laughed as she cried.

“I remember that cry,” she said quietly.

“Is that Sirius?” Lillian asked, looking at baby in interest.

“He’s alive,” Harry said quietly, as everyone gathered around. “Somehow, he’s alive.”

***

Samantha paced around the hospital wing, not knowing what to do with herself. Every time she went to sleep she had nightmares of her time in the clearing and Sirius dying. When she woke up, she had the bittersweet knowledge that Sirius was alive, but he was no less lost to her.

Madame Pomfrey had declared everyone fit to leave the hospital wing less than a week after the battle in the clearing. Lee had been the worst injured of everyone, besides Harry, and hadn’t been able to talk his way out of his hospital bed after a couple of days like Harry had. She had almost regretted her decision, since that meant that the other three Weasley quadruplets had stayed with their brother almost constantly.

Samantha had been there with James, Lillian, and Muriel when Chris told his brothers about Sirius’ final battle. They were all shocked and grateful at the lengths Sirius had gone to save them all, but they were all still very sad; while Madame Pomfrey had declared Sirius healthy, she had been unable to think of any way to return him to his proper age.

Now she was wandering around the school as had become her habit, and found herself next to the Headmaster’s office just as Neville Longbottom, one of the more respected wizards in England, came out of the office. It was obvious he had been crying, but he still took the time to smile at her as he walked off down the hallway.

“It’s not an easy thing to lose a son,” a voice said behind her, and she turned to find Harry Potter looking down at her with a sad smile.

“He just barely found out?” Samantha asked incredulously; it had been several days since the battle.

“He was traveling in South America looking for some rare plant or other. We couldn’t reach him until recently, and I wanted to talk to him about it in person. He’s a close friend,” Harry said in explanation.

“Did you tell him everything?” Samantha wanted to know. After all, Frank had been the Death Eater’s tool before finally turning on them.

“Yes, I told him everything,” Harry said with an understanding smile. “The torture that Frank went through before he finally turned on the Death Eaters just makes what he did all the more heroic, and Neville understood. Still, most of Frank’s involvement won’t be public knowledge, since many people would twist the story to make it more controversial.”

“How is Sirius?” Samantha asked before blushing and looking away as her voice broke.

“He’s doing well,” Harry said with a sad laugh. “I know a lot of women who would kill for the chance to turn their grown up boys into babies again, and Ginny is really enjoying it. We all miss him, you know.”

Samantha looked up and saw compassion in Harry’s eyes.

“Don’t worry. Everything will work out the way it needs to,” Harry said gently. “You’ll see.”

Samantha suddenly found herself believing Harry despite all of her misgivings and smiled before running off.

Harry watched her go before limping back into the Headmaster’s office; his wounds were mostly healed, but Harry had learned long ago that severely broken bones took a long time to stop hurting, even with magic.

“You’re sure his memories would be intact?” he asked his old mentor.

“His rebirth can only be explained by the death and rebirth of a phoenix,” Dumbledore’s portrait said once again. “Fawkes’ always remembered everything from his previous lives, and it stands to reason that Sirius would remember too. There are all kinds of variables that make this uncertain, though.”

“Like the fact that nothing like this has ever happened before?” Harry asked pointedly.

“There is that. Also, we don’t know how he turned back into a human as an infant phoenix, or why he couldn’t turn back into a phoenix now,” the portrait said with a smile. “Besides, everything is reversible if it doesn’t work out.”

“Why don’t you try telling that to Ginny?” Harry said with a sardonic grin.

“Well, I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Dumbledore said hastily. “I am just a portrait, after all, and I don’t have the real Dumbledore’s courage.”

“I have a feeling that the real Dumbledore wouldn’t have been willing to do this either,” Harry mused.

“You could be right,” the painting said, eyes twinkling above half-moon spectacles. “He was accounted as a very wise wizard.”

***

Ginny looked down at Sirius’ sleeping form, thinking of how much fun it had been to be able to pull out the various baby accessories such as the bed, clothes, and toys, and thinking that it would be hard to put it all back. Still, Harry had convinced her.

“I’ve gotten used to having a baby around again,” she said wistfully as she watched Sirius move in his sleep.

“There is a solution for that, you know,” Harry said with a grin as he put his arms around her.

Harry was waiting for his implied suggestion to be turned down, as similar suggestions had been for the past couple of years.

“Alright, Mr. Potter,” Ginny said, turning to her husband with an answering smile, knowing she was surprising him. “But this time I mean it; eight kids is where we stop.”

Harry shook his head ruefully. “That’s what you said after six. I still think ten is a better number.”

“Dream on, Harry,” Ginny laughed, before sobering as she turned back to her sleeping son.

“I hope it works,” she said as she gently took Sirius from the bed.

She took hold of the Portkey that Harry held out to her, and the three of them vanished, reappearing in the Department of Mysteries.

“It’s not often you get Ministry permission to play with time,” Minerva McGonagall, Minister for Magic, said with a smile as she welcomed some of her favorite former students. “But how can we say no to Harry Potter?”

“I think you should be doing this for Sirius alone,” Harry said seriously. “He saved all of our lives, and stopped Malfoy before he could do any more damage.”

“Yes, we do owe Sirius a lot, and we hope to be able to offer him our deepest thanks in just a few moments. Are you sure about this?”

“Yes,” Ginny answered before Harry could. “Sirius would want it.”

“Besides, if it works for a Death Eater’s head, it should work for Sirius too, right?” Harry added.

“Then let’s begin,” McGonagall said with a nod and a wave to two of the Unmentionables that were waiting.

“I hope it works,” Ginny said again as her son was taken from her and carried towards a large crystal bell jar in which a small hummingbird was sinking towards the bottom, slowly growing younger as it did. She reached over and held her husband as her son was placed inside the jar; his tiny body began rising gracefully toward the top along with the hummingbird, whose wings were beginning to flutter as it grew to maturity once more.


A/N:I got rid of the joke at the beginning since it wasn't as fun if you didn't have to wait for the chapter. Sorry to everyone who got really scared because of it (I made it seem like Sirius was dead) I just couldn't help it/ Enjoy the rest of the book!

Chapter Twenty Three: Back to Normal


“May I have you attention please?” Headmaster Shacklebolt said loudly at the front of the Great Hall.

The noise died down quickly, as the students anxiously awaited the explanation that had been promised to them. A week before they had been told that the murderer had been caught, and Thomas Nott had been returned to school, still slightly dazed from his time under the Imperius, but boiling mad over being made a public scapegoat for the crimes committed at the school. Worse, even his fellow Slytherins had believed it. Still, details of the battle were in great demand, and rumors were flying. Everyone knew that the Potters had been involved, and Sirius was still missing. Most people thought that Voldemort had come back and Harry had had to kill him all over again. At least half of the school thought Sirius was dead, though there were several more different ideas as to where he was. The Slytherins, most likely led by Nott, were convinced that Sirius had been working with the Death Eaters and was even now in Azkaban. Now, everyone had been promised they would learn the true details.

“This has been a very sad year,” Shacklebolt began slowly. “We’ve seen injury and death here at Hogwarts, and suspicion and distrust has been the result. I am proud to tell you that the true culprits were found and have been brought to justice. This much you know already. What you don’t know, is that all of this was done by a student here at Hogwarts, who very nearly died at the hands of Draco Malfoy, the true perpetrator of the crimes this year. We’d like to welcome Sirius Potter back to school now, for the first time since his defeat of the Dark Wizard.”

The Headmaster waved his wand and the doors to the Great Hall opened, revealing a very sheepish Sirius Potter, who appeared once again to be his proper age.

The Gryffindors were instantly on their feet cheering wildly, Samantha, his siblings, and the Weasley quadruplets foremost among them. Sirius was most surprised, however, to see that the students at the other tables were almost as enthusiastic as his own house. Even the Slytherins, with the notable exception of Thomas Nott, had risen respectfully to their feet and were offering polite applause.

Sirius took his place at the Gryffindor table next to Samantha, who grabbed his hand and squeezed like she would never let go. Sirius grinned at her and received a radiant smile in return, and he suddenly felt as though things were finally as they should be.

“We also must mourn the loss of yet another student who gave his life to save Sirius,” the Headmaster continued after the applause had died down. “Frank Longbottom was known by many of you to be one of the most dedicated students at Hogwarts, whose talent and charisma led him to become a leader in his own house and throughout the school. I’m told that the Minister for Magic is considering awarding Mr. Potter and Mr. Longbottom the Order of Merlin for their heroic deeds, and I wish to honor both for their efforts for this school.”

The students all observed a moment of silence for Frank; even the Potters, who had been betrayed by the brainwashed Hufflepuff, realized that without his help Sirius would never have triumphed over Malfoy. Frank’s final act in overcoming his captors was inspiring, even if most of the Wizarding World would never know the full story.

Afterwards, during the feast, Samantha turned to him with shining eyes and whispered, “I thought you were lost to me forever. What happened?”

“Well,” Sirius began carefully, since he was not allowed to say much about the Department of Mysteries, “my parents got permission from the Minister to use something in the Department of Mysteries that was able to move me forward in time to put me back to the way I was before.”

“That doesn’t make any sense at all,” Lee said with a laugh before Samantha could say anything.

“Move forward to put you back?” Jack repeated, “Sounds like your brain’s still a bit muddled.”

“It’s probably the Order of Merlin thing,” Brian said sagely. “It’s gone straight to his head. Besides, he never would have made it without us; where’s our recognition?”

“Recognition?” Christ laughed, “we’ll be lucky if the Ministry doesn’t try to prosecute us for using magic off of the school grounds.”

Sirius, whose face was slightly red with embarrassment at this point, interrupted.

“You’re all getting commendations from the Ministry,” Sirius said with a sly smile. “There’s going to be a big formal ceremony with lots of reporters and speeches and everything.”

The quadruplets all looked at him with horrified expressions, none of them able to respond to this latest news.

“I insisted you get credit for your actions, of course,” Sirius continued. “They wanted it to be just for me, but I convinced them that there were more heroes than just me.”

“You’ll pay for this one, Potter,” Jack grumbled while his brothers moaned. All of them hated anything to do with the word ‘formal.’

“How did you survive in the first place?” Samantha asked, still clutching Sirius’ hand.

“Well, before I was reborn, I had been able to transform myself into a phoenix,” Sirius explained. “Dumbledore’s portrait thought it had something to do with the way a phoenix brought my dad back to life after he defeated Vodlemort. I guess I was reborn just like a phoenix, but then the power was gone.”

Sirius looked somewhat mournful at this last statement, and his cousins were aghast.

“No more transporting anywhere at Hogwarts?” Chris asked in despair.

“No more invisibility?” Lee asked in the same tone.

“Well, it couldn’t last forever, I guess,” Sirius said with a sigh.

“I’m glad it lasted for as long as it did,” Samantha said happily. “Since that’s how you’re alive now.”

“I’m not sure it was worth it…” Brian started, but a sharp glare from Samantha shut him up quickly, much to everyone’s amusement.

***

Later that evening, in his room with the quadruplets, they were discussing their newest plans for pulling pranks on the Slytherins. Since the crisis was over, all of them were in complete agreement that the school needed cheering up, and the Weasleys were all secretly thinking that if they got in enough trouble they might cancel the award ceremony.

“I don’t see how we’ll get into the Slytherin common room,” Lee said dejectedly as their plans hit a snag.

“I could always transport us in,” Sirius offered casually, acting as if that was nothing unusual.

“But you said that…” Chris began with wide eyes.

“As far as the adults know,” Sirius stated, “My ability to transform into a phoenix was lost when I was reborn.”

The quadruplets’ eyes all lit up with hope.

“Now they won’t assume that I’m guilty when pranks are taking place in impossible locations,” Sirius finished, a mischievous grin forming as he spoke.

I did my part, Sirius thought to himself as they gathered the necessary materials for their planned activities. I think I can have some fun with my powers now without feeling too guilty about it.

With that final thought, Sirius and his cousins vanished in a burst of flames.


A/N: Alright, that's the end of my story! I'm very grateful to everyone who has reviewed so far, and I hope everyone will let me know what they think of the finished product. I also want to thank my wife for her support and proofreading. I am starting my own novel now, which I hope to publish. I promise to let everyone know if that happens or not, but don't expect it to be too soon. Also, I don't think I'm done with fanfiction, so check back every now and again! Thank you all, and I promise I will keep answering all of the reviews!