A/N: Yep, I'm still here. Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her work on this chapter.
Chapter 14: A Window to the Past.
***************************Godric's Hollow******************************
September 19, 2015.
7:30 am
Harry grinned to himself as he walked into his bedroom, a tray hovering at his side. He paused, and gestured for the tray to loiter at the side of the bed, while he stood, watching. Hermione squirmed in her sleep, reaching for him, and muttering something as she moved enough to shrug aside the sheets covering her. Harry slipped to the bed, brushing aside the still-hovering tray and sat next to her, on the other side of the bed from where he normally slept.
For the trillionth time, his heart flopped contently as she turned towards him, still asleep, and reached unerringly for his hand. He let her take it as he slowly ran the fingers of his free hand down the side of her face, tucking rebellious strands of curly hair behind her ears. He let his fingers trace down her neck and along her side, lingering on the side of a breast before he let them trace back upwards.
Hermione opened her eyes and looked at him, Hi.
Hello, Mione, Harry said quietly as he bent down and kissed her, before twisting enough to retrieve the still obediently hovering tray. Happy Birthday, Love, he added as she sat up, and he set the tray astride her lap.
Hermione patted the bed next to her, scooting over just enough to make space for him and waited as he settled in next to her on top of the blankets. She bent her head to the side and kissed him before she took a bite of the bacon on the plate. Hermione took a drink of her juice, and set the glass down before letting her head loll over onto his shoulder. She looked down as her fingers lightly traced over his jeans, You got dressed, she pouted faintly.
Hermione looked up at him, fluttering her lashes over chocolate eyes. Harry snorted, and kissed her nose. "Trying to rob the cradle again?"
"I suppose that I could trade you in for a younger model," she retorted, banishing the tray to sit precariously across a chair. Hermione crawled out from under the covers and slipped astride his lap, sighing softly as she passed to indulge in a slow rub along him. Harry grunted quietly before he kissed her quickly. She pulled back a couple of inches to rest her brow against his.
Hermione reached up and pushed dark fringe out of his eyes, clearing the green pools she fell asleep to and woke to every day. "Happy Anniversary, Harry," Hermione breathed, "I love you...even if you are delaying my obligatory anniversary shagging."
Harry grinned. His fingers trailed down her side to slowly run down between them, and let them linger there for a moment, not moving as Hermione arched into him automatically. He let them slide back out to cup her arse, and she sighed disappointedly. "Trust me, baby," Harry said quietly, "It's much worse on my end." He took a breath, calming himself, even as Hermione's fingers slipped down between them and started to undo his jeans. "I had this...idea," he said, his voice suddenly strangled as her fingers slipped inside his jeans to find that he had not yet managed to find any boxers.
She ran her fingers lightly along him, grinning as he stood to attention, before she slowly slid down his body, to sit astride his knees. She bent down, curling on herself and paused, her face just shy of his lap and looked up with her eyes. "Uh hummm?" she murmured, as she licked her lips and slowly lowered her head.
"I...uh," Harry swallowed, distracted by a warm gust of breath south of his waistline, "thought that...if you want to, we, could, uhh...repeat that first day we were, uh..." Hermione nodded, as she let her tongue flicked out like a cat and he shuddered. "M...married."
"Sounds great," Hermione giggled, and cocked her head slightly, "What's the catch?"
"Our kids will be there..." he whispered as her tongue flicked out again, "It's...a...Hogsmeade wee...weekend."
"They'll just have to suffer, then," Hermione replied, and took a breath, "You deserve a reward for such a good idea." She let her head fall fully and Harry gasped as she started to demonstrate just how good an idea she thought that really was.
***************************Hogsmeade******************************
10:00 am
Emilia laughed as she ducked a swipe from Rain, and spun back behind Xander as the other black-haired girl glowered at her and sniffed loudly. She grabbed Justin's hand and stomped off, her nose slightly up in the air. He looked back towards the thick crowd of their friends and shrugged, hiding his grin as Rain pretended that she did not have a cat's tail pushing up the back of her short skirt. "I owed you, Rain," Emilia hollered after her.
"I think it's rather sexy, actually," Justin whispered in Rain's ear, stopping and pulling her to him. She grinned at him and leaned up to kiss him, extending one hand behind her with a single finger raised as wolf-whistles broke out from behind them. Rain rocked back onto her heels and wrapped both of her arms around Justin's right one.
"Let's go, honey," she said, leading him down the street, towards the main part of the town. A sparkling line reached after her, and the tail rapidly shrunk back into her. Anastasia slipped her wand back into a small of the back sheath and rolled her eyes.
"All she had to do was fully transform to her cat form and back," Anastasia said with a slight shake of her head. She leaned against Nathan as he wrapped his arm around her waist, and ran his fingers along the bare skin of her waist, exposed under the short shirt she was wearing over her jeans. "It's not like she wasn't one since she got her period..."
"EW..." a half dozen boys, who had already faced dark wizards, werewolves and other dark foes, cringed.
The girls shared a quick eyeroll before they broke, heading rapidly towards the town, pulling on their male counterparts and leading them down the main high street. Almost immediately Abigail pulled on Elliot's hand, tugging him towards the entrance to Honeydukes and he followed, his eyes already on a display of Fudgy Feldersnaps in the window.
Behind them, lagging behind Xander and Emilia, Nathan and Anastasia, and Rain and Justin, Harriet was walking slowly, her eyes wide and staring. Sirius stopped as Bob and some tiny, blonde Hufflepuff that he was dating this week, passed by on the way to the Three Broomsticks. She giggled as he murmured something in her ear and squirmed under his arm around her shoulder. "What's wrong, Harriet?" Sirius asked, turning to her, a faint glimmer of concern in his eyes.
She frowned and shrugged, "Hogsmeade was mostly destroyed in the other place...only a few people still lived there. There is so much...life here, all these people." She looked around, "It's odd...I suppose," she slipped her hands into the pockets of her jeans, hunching her shoulders, "Can you show me around...all of these places are rubble in the other place." Harriet looked after Emilia and the others, who were laughing, most of them ensconced in their significant other's arms.
"Sure," Sirius said automatically, as if the very thought that he would not was unconscionable. "What do you want to see?"
"I don't know," Harriet replied with a shrug, she looked down the street to find Emilia snogging Xander in the street in front of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, a set of automatically triggered Whizbangs were exploding unheeded over their heads, spelling out, "Snog Alert...Get a Room," and other telling phrases. "Em is going to be busy, I suppose."
"Are you hungry?" Sirius asked, shrugging.
"Not really," Harriet shrugged, and watched as several third years scampered out of Honeydukes with bags of treats, and ran giggling towards the Three Broomsticks, turning just in time to miss plowing over their Head Students as they paused in the doorway to examine each other's oral hygiene. "I never got a chance to go to the Twins' shop in Diagon Alley...maybe we could go there?" she asked almost timidly. Sirius nodded and started towards the shop halfway down the street.
He stopped after several paces and looked back, and waved her forward. Harriet graced him with a faint grin and hurried up to his side. They walked in silence down the street, stopping before the entrance to the store. Sirius opened the door for her and waited as she passed through, before following.
Immediately they ducked as a pair of fluorescent orange bats swooped through the air, and exploded into confetti, dusting Harriet's hair with tiny gold flakes. "OI, HARRIET, SIRIUS," George's voice boomed from across the room as he moved out from behind a babbling bunch of baboons-also known as this year's third year Gryffindor class-and walked to the door. The third years continued to jostle each other at the counter, as they tried to pay for their purchases. The counter worker, a young witch that neither Sirius nor Harriet knew, gave George a glare before returning to the maelstrom that was the first Hogsmeade weekend at the shop. "How is my favorite niece?" he asked as he swept Harriet into a hug and swung her around.
"Uncle George," Harriet started.
"I'm Fred..."
"No, you're George," Harriet said with assertion and looked at him, "am I really your favorite niece?"
"At the very least, you are my favorite here," he replied with a grin, she smiled at him, and then he looked over at Sirius, "You are treating my niece right, aren't you, Sirius?"
"Umm, I guess," Sirius replied, slightly confused. He half spun to the side as another student pushed though with an armload of Grab-Bag-Surprises, and a muttered, "Sorry." Sirius followed the Slytherin fifth year with a faint glower that did not go unnoticed by the tallest redhead in the room, as the student had bumped Harriet as well. "I was showing Harriet around." Harriet gave a small, agreeing nod and took an unconscious step to Sirius' side, close enough that no one would push through easily.
"Excellent," George replied with a faint twinkle in his eye, "in that case, follow me, I have a couple of things that I'd love to show family." He laughed quietly, as he held aside a curtain marked "Staff Only" and ushered them through.
On the main street of the Wizarding town, still the only totally Wizarding village in Britain, though technically once could call Godric's Hollow totally Wizarding as well these days, another pair walked along the High Street. In appearance, if one did not know better, they could have been graduates only a few years out of Hogwarts. Their dress was the same, more or less, as many of the students. The young woman was in worn, low-riding jeans and a black top that let an inch or so of skin show above her hips, and the young man in jeans and a dark grey shirt with a small, subdued lion logo on one side of his chest. It was their walk, the slight predatory lilt to their movements that distinguished them more than anything, the total confidence that was unconsciously displayed in contrast to the occasionally tentative steps of the majority of the crowd.
They paused in their slow progress down the street, and she giggled as wandering hands found her bum for an instant before she spun and pulled him back against the outer wall of Gladrags, and his head down to hers. He murmured something against her lips and she laughed, before darting one hand into the front pocket of his jeans to grab several Galleons. "Is that all I am, your walking, talking purse?" Harry teased quietly.
"No," she kissed his nose, "you also do an outstanding job standing in for that little toy that Tonks got me for my birthday last year when it runs out of charge." She laughed as he lunged at her, and let herself be pulled back.
"I do, huh?"
"Adequate," she murmured, meeting his eyes over the tops of his glasses, which were fallen to the tip of his nose and fogged up with her breath. She sighed quietly and let her head drop to his shoulder as long fingers traced patterns on the small of her back. I love you, Harry, she added silently, and kissed his neck.
Eighteen years, Hermione. She bit her lip and nodded against his shoulder. Have I thanked you lately for keeping me sane, all these years?
She pulled back and reached up, brushing his fringe back from his scar, before she lifted slightly on her toes to kiss it, It's twenty four, Harry...I should have finished that sentence first year.
Harry chucked softly and took her hand, stepping back, "What do we need the cash for, Mione?" He held the door open for her, letting her into Gladrags, with an unthinking casual ease, as if he knew where she would step before she did. Hermione shrugged and stopped before a table of ties and started rummaging through them, occasionally holding one up to him.
"You need a new tie, you caught that last one on fire," she replied as she held up a deep blue one to him, shook her head, and set it back on the table.
"That was not my fault," Harry objected mildly and dropped his head slightly at a look from her, "Alright, a little, but how was I to know that he breathed fire?"
Hermione smirked and kissed him, before holding up a black silk tie with a faint green shimmer, from tiny threads woven through the weave. "This will do," she said as she took it to the counter, and paid. A causal flick of her wrist vanished it with a POP, and she returned to her husband who was watching the proceedings with thinly veiled amusement. She looked down at her watch as she held the door for him, letting him slide out into the bustling street. Her hand found his as he stopped to wave idly at Abigail, who reached up, a ways up for her, and rapped Elliot on the side of the head. He looked down at her, and then over at Harry and Hermione, before he waved as well.
Where are our kids? Harry muttered as they started towards the bookshop, a brief contented memory of the first time they had gone in their after their wedding, flicking across their minds. Hermione looked over at him, Yes, I still love your arse...in every way you could take that statement.
She grinned, and let him let her into the bookstore. Immediately, as if she were really trying to repeat history, Hermione started to climb a tall ladder to the loft where rare and valuable tomes were kept. Harry leaned against a bookshelf and idly compared the fit of her jeans to another pair eighteen years ago, and found no noticeable difference to his discerning eye. Yep, still do.
I'm glad, though, honestly, I do believe that you are a touch biased, Hermione replied, letting her mind mesh with his as she started to look though books to find one on magical signature recognition. Em's outside near the Three Broomsticks, with Rain and Xander, Sirius and...Harriet are nearly at the...Shrieking Shack.
Oh really, Harry replied and looked up at her from the floor below, watching as the emerald glow faded from her eyes as she pulled back her magic to be replaced with a knowing glint. Sirius is being a good...host, I suppose.
They are just friends, Harry, Hermione replied as she found A Field Guide to Tracking and Containment, and tucked it under her arm. She looked to each side, and found no one looking at her, before she vaulted the loft railing, dropping the ten feet easily, and walking up to Harry.
We were friends, Mione.
You still are my best friend, Harry.
My point exactly, he retorted and took her book from her, combining it with A Flash of Steel, by Wendel Pointiguard and setting the pair on the counter. Harry signed an account chit, and briefly reflected on why they had a direct account with every bookstore in magical England, but did not with most of the clothiers. He tapped the books with his wand they disappeared with a POP, to end up on the Library table at Godric's Hollow. "Hungry?"
"Sure," Hermione took his hand again as they moved out into the street, and meandered towards the Three Broomsticks. She stopped for a moment and perched on a thick railing that was still used to tether magical steeds. A pegasi sniffed at her and returned to a bag of oats tied to the post. "Come here, Harry."
He smirked faintly as he nudged aside her knees to step between then. He leaned in, and felt her sigh contently as she let his tongue dance with hers. Long fingers slowly threaded through her hair, holding her to him, even as her own hands, started to run along the hem of his shirt, to sneak up the back. "MUM, DAD," an exasperated groan cut across the street and Hermione languidly pulled back slightly from Harry, and pulled his head down to her shoulder, as she let her eyes cut over to her right, where she could see, standing in the street and obviously headed for the Three Broomsticks as they, themselves had been, her daughter wearing a faintly mortified look.
Behind Emilia, who was clutching Xander's hand rather tightly, Rain was laughing, covering her face with her hands, "Hello, Emilia," Hermione said brightly, even as Harry laughed silently into the skin of her neck.
"Mum," Emilia repeated, exasperatedly, "you and Dad are..."
"Hungry," Harry finished for her, and stood back from Hermione. He lifted her off the rail with his hands on her hips, before turning and sliding his arm around her waist, "we were just going to the Three Broomsticks, would you like to join your old, decrepit parents?" He looked past Emilia to Rain and Justin, the rest having wandered off, "You would be welcome as well."
Rain looked at Emilia; then at Justin, "We would be honored." She gave Harry a small curtsey and he laughed. Emilia sighed quietly and rolled her eyes, before following her parents and her friends into the Wizarding pub.
Harry led Hermione to a corner booth and scooted in, waiting as Hermione slipped in next to him. She dropped her head to his shoulder, and Emilia dropped into the bench aside from them. The rest of the kids slipped in next to them. A moment later Elliot and Abby came in the door, with Shin following her, and lugging a Honeydukes sack as big as she was.
Hermione looked around the table, finding almost every kid that spent at least some of their summer at Godric's Hollow, "Are you lot having a good time?" Emilia gave her a small smirking roll of her eyes, and then marked a tally in the air.
"It's great," Shin replied from her seat next to Abigail. Abigail looked over at her, and her hair rapidly changed color from bright chartreuse, to a blue-black, matching her friend's. Blue eyes darkened to black, as she reverted to her 'native' form.
"Wotcher," Abigail, added, wrapping both arms around Elliot's arm, "It's been terrific. It's so nice..." Elliot blushed faintly as she looked up at him, and Harry snorted faintly.
"What are you doing in town, Mum, Dad?" Emilia asked.
"We are celebrating our Anniversary, Em..." Hermione said, and looked up at Harry, a soft look crossing her eyes for a beat.
"And your mother's birthday," Harry added pointedly, turning and kissing her cheek. Emilia's eyes glanced to Harry and she gave him a small, slightly abashed look. She stood from her seat at the end of the bench and moved to her mother.
"Happy birthday, Mum," Emilia said quietly, throwing her arms around Hermione and kissing her cheek. Hermione nodded and kissed her back, pausing to run her fingers through her daughter's hair. "I'm sorry," she whispered in Hermione's ear.
"I understand, dear," Hermione muttered back, kissing the top of her hair and letting her go. "Can I talk to you?" Emilia nodded, and waited as Hermione shared a quick, silent conversation with Harry, even as she glanced back at Xander. Emilia followed Hermione back outside, and stopped next to the door, moving out to the side. Hermione looked over at her daughter, "How are you doing, Em?"
Emilia shrugged, "I'm sneaking into the boys dorm every night, Mum," she admitted with a shrug. "Dumbledore never gave us this 'grand solution' he was supposed to."
"He's like that, Em...never wants to give a solution. Makes you find your own," Hermione replied, watching as several older students, probably sixth or seventh years, that she did not recognize walked past, chattering loudly amongst themselves. "You know that your dad and I will support you, what ever it takes, even if your dad has to be 'Lord Gryffindor' to the Hogwarts' Governors."
"I know, Mum," she looked sideways at her mother, "What would you and Dad have done?"
Hermione smiled faintly, "If we weren't such blind, scared idiots fifth year, and if other things hadn't happened, the next..." she sighed, "We'd have been really practiced with silencing charms, I'm sure."
"I don't need details of your sordid sex lives, Mum," Emilia objected, laughing softly despite herself. Emilia shrugged, "I need him, mum, I can get through the day without him, I mean he's there in the back of my mind, if not directly in contact. But if I try to go to sleep...I just can't even breathe..."
Hermione moved to sit down on a bench, and motioned for Emilia to join her. She waited and then pulled Emilia to her. Neither of them cared about the odd looks the pair occasionally got from random passing Hogwarts students, as Hermione paused, running her fingers through the raven version of her own hair, "When it happened with your Dad and I...honestly, I never really questioned it, it seemed so natural. Almost from the day I met him, or so it seems, that we knew what each other was thinking, could sense each other's emotions with just a look. Even I never really studied it, I just accepted it. It was only later, when we had a touch of leisure to do so that I looked into it."
Emilia cocked her head, questioningly. Hermione took a breath, "The telepathy is almost a side effect, honestly, even though it seems to sometimes be the foremost. Your magic is one, really, feeds on each other's, it builds on each others'. Your magic is tied to emotion, beyond anything that they will ever admit publicly up the hill," she waved towards Hogwarts. "As to why you can't sleep, I've been bound with your father, fully, for eighteen years, and I still can't hardly stand to be apart from him...Your souls are literally bonded, Em, when you sleep, or try to, the conscious separation, that you normally maintain during your waking hours collapses, they want to be with the other, the closer the better. It's the same thing, frankly, that happens when you make love," Emilia blushed faintly, and even Hermione paused for a beat. "From what I can tell, that is usually the final trigger for the full bonding, though your Dad and I went with the more eventful option."
Emilia smiled slightly, "Don't we always?"
"Yeah," Hermione snorted, "we do..." she stood and pulled her daughter to her feet with one hand, "we better get back and save your father." Emilia smiled and followed Hermione back into the pub, and a tiny part of her mind sighed in relief as she stepped around a tall wizard, and found Xander's eyes looking for her.
A bit over a kilometer or two away, Sirius stood next to an old, rusted barbed wire fence looking in towards a dilapidated house, its doors and windows mostly boarded over, and creaking loudly in the faint breeze off the mountains. He stepped forward and rested his hands on the top of a twisted piece of wood serving as a fencepost, before he looked over to his right.
Harriet was looking at the Shrieking Shack, her eyes wide and unblinking. He stepped from the fence as she wrapped her arms around herself and shivered in the midst of the warm, late September sunshine. She looked up slowly from the broken house, and Sirius took another step to her, before she whimpered faintly and flung her arms around him. Sirius' arms closed around her automatically, even as she continued to shiver. "Are you alright, Harriet?" Sirius asked as his hand bushed a bit of skin at her waist to find her ice cold.
"Can...can we go, Sirius?" she whispered, "I...I'll stay if you...." Sirius looked around quickly, tightened his arms around her, and they vanished with a quiet POP.
They reappeared in a secluded corner of the alley next to WWW, and Harriet looked up at him, "Thank you...there was...too much sadness there..." she stepped back a step, her back hitting lightly against the back wall of the store. "I'm sorry, Sirius," she whispered as she slid to the ground, and pulled her knees up to her chest.
"What happened?" Sirius asked, crouching down in front of her. His hand slipped out, stopping just shy of her knee, before it landed on the pavement next to him, ostensibly to steady him.
Harriet looked at him, sighed; then dropped her eyes to the ground, staring at a crumpled copy of the Prophet, where the Seeker from the Hogshead Harpies blinked out from a cover story about his infidelities. "I can see things, Sirius, sometimes...sometimes the future, or what it could be rather...and sometimes...the past....there was a lot of pain there...I could have pushed it onto you, but I'd never do that." Her eyes watered slightly at her whispered admission and Sirius swallowed heavily.
"Let's go get something to eat," he said, standing easily and reaching down to grab Harriet's hand. He pulled her to her feet, and started towards the High Street. They paused as they regained the street and looked up and down it, finding, finally, Hermione and Emilia walking back into the Three Broomsticks. Sirius let her hand drop as he started towards the pub, and looked back to find her looking at him, with an almost wistful expression. "You alright there, Harriet?" he asked.
"I'm cool," she said, jolting into motion as she moved towards the pub in his wake.
Harry just crooked his eyebrow at his wife, as the pair slipped into the Three Broomsticks, and looked around. She shrugged, a soft twinkle dancing in the corner of her eye before she hid it and waved the pair over. Rosmerta caught her eye and sent a barmaid over with a pair of butterbeers, that she set down on the table before Sirius and Harriet could even get across the room in the crowded bar. "Hi, Mum," Sirius said with only the faintest trace of wariness in his voice. "Thanks, Ellie," he added almost absently to the eighteen-year-old girl that Rosmerta had delivering drinks these days. She gave him a winsome smile and head back towards the bar. Emilia hid a grin at the faint trace of annoyance that seemed to dance in grey eyes for just a fleeting beat.
Emilia pushed at Xander, scooting him over to clear a space for the pair, and waited as Harriet sat next to her, "Where have you two been?" she asked, speaking a touch louder to clear the noise of the pub. Hermione's hand flashed and the noise suddenly muted, and Emilia went on in a more normal tone, "We've been all around the village..."
Sirius took a drink and turned his head, to regard his sister, "Since you lot were so involved in examining each other's tonsils, we looked around a bit..."
"I asked Sirius to show me around," Harriet put in, her words stepping over the tail of Sirius', "It's so, different, than it was there." A faint frown, "Though I should have..."
"Should have asked if we could look up at the caves," Sirius interjected, and Harriet looked over at him, her eyes widening a trace. She almost jumped at the hand that slipped down and grabbed her knee under the table, but kept from visibly reacting as he went on. "We thought about going up to the Shack, but that's pretty boring, really."
He's lying, Hermione muttered to Harry, even as she nodded to her son's comments. He's protecting her.
You aren't Legilimencing our kids are you, Hermione? Harry replied quietly.
I'm his mother, Harry, Hermione shot back and sent the impression of a shrug across their link, Sorry, Baby...something happened, though. She nodded, "Be careful if you do, some of those aren't the most stable."
"Alright, Mum," Sirius sighed, and Hermione smiled contently, waving to the bar girl to order their food.
***************************Black Manor********************************
1:11 am
A blank stretch of wall, damp and with greenish splotches of mold and a few darker stains, shuddered in place in the center of the expansive catacombs under the former Malfoy Manor. A soft, groaning sound cut the air as the stones making up the wall jumped out of the way to form a rough doorway. The movement of the stones revealed a black tunnel, and a single cloaked figure moved into the dimly lit room.
The figure moved quickly towards the opposite wall, covered from floor to ceiling with wooden racks holding innumerable bottles of various vintages, many of which were older than any of the current occupants of the house. The witch moved to the very end of the rack and reached down, grabbing and twisting a dusty bottle of a rather poor vintage, a Monte Blanc 1912 that no one would drink if they had a choice. A faint click came from behind the wall, and the witch moved to the other side and reached up, stretching to turn another bottle of the same vintage.
She took a step back as the center of the rack pivoted outwards towards her, and a shimmering field flickered and vanished. A blank granite wall was left behind, inscribed with a series of sickly-green runes set in a horseshoe. She stepped to the wall and reached into the depths of her robe, extracting a dark wand. She ran the tip along the palm of her left hand, giggling faintly as dark pools of red bubbled up around the tip.
She leaned forward and smeared a long trace of blood in the center of the horseshoe and stepped back. The smear of blood oozed, evaporating back into the wall, and nothing happed for a moment. The runes turned a bright red and the bit of wall outlined by them shimmered and vanished.
Hanging in the hole revealed by the vanished wall, lit by a sourceless red light, a long dagger hovered point down. The guard was made of three serpents, twisted together with their open, fanged mouths forming the pommel. Their tails came down to form a Gordian knot at the base of the blade. The blade itself was the darkest black, serrated and double edged, and coming to a double point like a snake's tongue.
The intruder pulled a long, wood box from her robes and pulled the dagger from its resting spot, and setting it in the box. She giggled again, darkly, before she stepped back and let the wine rack return to its former location. A moment later she slipped out the entrance and it collapsed back as it had been, leaving no trace of her presence, nor of what she had taken.
A/N There you go, next chapter, the darkness comes home. For those that don't recognize the chapter title, it's the title of the first "H/Hr" song from the movies, the one where she finds him after he overhears McGonagall, Fudge and Rosmerta talking about Sirius betraying Harry's Parents.