A/N: A darkness of the heart. Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her work on this chapter.
Chapter 24: Hell Hath No Fury
****************************Hogwarts***********************************
3:20 am
The Slytherin Dungeons were barely lit this late at night, but none of that mattered to the ghost slipping along the walls, looking down the corridors to find them seemingly in a perpetual green-tinged twilight. A kneazle paused as she passed, unseen, and scented the air. Finding nothing, it continued on its nocturnal rounds, to report to its master.
The ghost stopped at a tall, thin portrait of a rather wicked looking thin man, with a long, pointed black goatee, and perpetual sneer. He was sleeping in a green and silver armchair, a thick book lying unheeded on his lap.
A small box appeared from nowhere on the floor underneath the portrait and with the touch of a wand, of which only the very tip was visible, the box shook. A thin, yellow mist slowly rose from it, engulfing the portrait. The occupant seemed to go into an even deeper sleep as the frame opened like a doorway with an almost inaudible squeak, victim to a Marauders Master Key. Before now, this device had only seen the light of day, relatively speaking, in the hands of the Potters' black ops teams.
The box vanished again, slipped back into an invisible pocket, and the portrait closed without a sound.
.....................
A thick, oaken door opened slowly on a dark room hidden deep beneath the bowels of Hogwarts. A tiny pellet flew in through the cracked door, even as it slipped closed again, and exploded into a fall of greenish mist with a faint POP. The gas slowly spread, falling over the four beds clustered around the periphery of the room. A minute, then two passed before the door opened once more, just enough to let a small woman pass, though none seemed to.
Bancroft, sleeping with a ferocity almost unheard of for one who was in fact, alive, in his bed nearest the door, shook slightly as if something or someone shoved on his shoulder. He did not so much as grunt in response, and a faint, satisfied noise came from nowhere. A floorboard creaked, and stopped suddenly. A minute passed with no response from the occupants of the room, before a patch of air wavered, and Virginia appeared, her hair falling down in a short tail, over the black of her suit.
She moved quickly through the rest of the room, to stop at the bed in the very back. The curtains were closed, and with a quick jerk, her wand pointing and already lit red, she ripped them open. A faint, dark sound escaped as she witnessed the occupants of the bed, curled together, with a head of impossibly red hair spread over a pale chest.
She grimaced at the sight; it had been a persistent rumor that the pair had been shagging since their fourth year, a decision unheard of in the other houses, mostly due to the possible consequences. But to Virginia, at this moment, the thought that either of them would be willing to use the black version of a Contraceptive Charm-that worked just fine, even if the male was under sixteen, it just had other, drawbacks, most notably the need to sacrifice an animal and other things, to establish the ward-was not terribly surprising.
A quick headshake shook off the thought and Virginia slowly peeled back the sheet, and scowled as she found both of them nude, with a faint whiff lofting to her nose telling her just what they had been doing. She flicked her wand, and with a quick Switching Spell, Parker was dressed, in a t-shirt and boxers anyway.
Another wand flick and he rose into the air, shaking off Maraisah and letting her flop to the bed, totally unaware that her 'boyfriend' was floating two feet above her. A tap and he faded away, leaving an almost invisible outline. Virginia pulled her hood back up and vanished, and slowly the faint outline moved towards the door, as the sheets and curtains reset themselves.
The door closed again and all was still once more.
*****************Laughing House, 10 km south of Ottery St. Catchpole***********
December 3, 2015
5:25 am
Fred Weasley had never embraced the existence of the hours between midnight and eight AM willingly unless in the company of a good bottle of Firewhisky, or in the arms of his wife, unless, of course, profit could be exchanged for his lack of sleep. He yawned mightily as he padded down the stairs to his hidden lab, cradling a mug of Columbian Roast that his family's house-elf, Ringer, had handed him without a word as Fred had reached the bottom of the stairs from the upstairs bedrooms.
Fred took another sip and idly reminded himself to give Ringer another raise, and waved his hand in the air, setting the Illumination Orbs about the basement to full power. He slowly headed through his workshop, pausing to play with a device or gadget here and there. He picked up a Fanged Frisbee and flung it the length of the basement, watching as it deployed its blades in mid-flight before ripping a target in the image of Delores Umbridge in half.
WWW surprisingly still sold an inordinate number of the cardboard cutouts with bright red bull's-eyes over the toad's forehead and heart, even after she had had been in Azkaban for years. The accountants expected an upsurge in the product's sales after her release in a few months.
He laughed at the thought and walked into the final room at the end of the basement, where his truly special toys where kept and worked on. He looked to the side as he entered, to examine a man-portable version of the wand-cannon he and his brother had demonstrated to the Ministry earlier this year, and he turned back to the main wall, towards the mannequin that was holding the day's star attraction for the showing at the Ministry in a few hours and froze.
It was gone.
The suit had been an outgrowth of the various shield hats and cloaks, and vanishing hats from their school days. Harry had commented once, to George, that while the invisibility cloaks worked well, they tended to catch on things, not the best situation for an infiltration into some villain's lair. Besides the obvious, the invisibility, the suit also masked heat and scent, the primary markers for guard beasts, and could partially mask auras. Strength and speed enhancing charms circled the limbs, though the current suit was actually the second prototype, the first had overloaded when Hermione put it on this summer and fully powered up.
Fred had adjusted the charms to give less of a multiplier after that, so as currently, most users could expect about a five-fold increase in speed and a touch more than that in strength. The suit had protective capabilities slightly better than the current shield cloaks, but could only stand a few moderate hits before the magical charge was depleted.
He walked over to the workbench set on one wall and touched his wand to a mirror set on one wall, and muttered a sentence, that included several nonsense words, obviously passwords.
A swirling moiré filled the mirror for a minute until a dimly-lit ragged mop of black hair filled the image. It pulled back slightly to frame Harry's tired visage and Harry yawned. Hermione could be seen sitting up in the background, holding a sheet to her chest, Harry looked back at her, and then back to the mirror, "What, Fred...are you calling to let me know that you'd like to be a toad until Christmas...because it can be arranged."
"The suit is gone," Fred cut him off; he glanced towards flaming letters superimposed over Harry's image at the bottom of the mirror. "The only fully functional one that is..."
Instantly, Harry snapped fully awake, "How..."
"I think..." Fred took a breath, "my daughter has it."
Hermione leaned around Harry, pushing into the image. "Where is she now...and why would she take it even?" she asked even as she was looking to Harry, and a flicker of a conversation passed between them, almost visible on the air. "Something's wrong..."
****************************Head's Suite********************************
5:40 am
Blue eyes snapped open as a low buzzing sound drove back the utter silence of the Head's suite. She looked over to her left at a soft groaning response, and rolled her eyes, before blowing a lock of hair of chestnut curls out of her eyes. The buzz sounded again, shaking the small bedside table, and she groaned as well.
"Anna..." Nathan muttered sleepily, "another ten minutes..."
She rolled over onto her stomach, reaching blindly for the mirror as it buzzed again, and cursed as it fell from the table to land open on the floor next to the bed. She hung her head over the edge, only to find her own face, more or less, looking back at her except for chocolate eyes replacing her own. Anna reached up and pushed her hair back, "What, Hermione?" she snapped peevishly.
Hermione waited a moment, "Sis...you might want to remember to cover up or answer the call in voice only next time."
Anastasia looked down, and scooted back onto the bed, "What, Hermione?" she repeated in a more measured tone, jumping slightly and looking back as Nathan started to walk his fingers along her leg.
"Have you seen, Virginia?" Hermione went on, with a faint edge, which Anna immediately noticed.
"Um..." she replied slowly, "Not at the moment....why do you ask?"
Hermione took a breath as her eyes narrowed imperceptibly; they flicked back to someone standing out of sight of the mirror, presumably Harry, and back at her sister. "What is going on, Anastasia?"
"What do you mean?"
Hermione looked back to Harry again, "Harry and I will be there by breakfast, I have a feeling that there is a bit of explaining to be undertaken. By very possibly more than one person."
Anastasia sighed as Hermione vanished from the mirror, and rolled onto her back, staring up at the blank canopy of the bed. She looked over at Nathan, to find him asleep once more. She lifted her left hand above her face, catching the light of the single candle in the facets of the square diamond, set on a platinum band she had worn there since Halloween. No one else knew, not even Draco who had helped Nathan pick out the ring, nor Emilia or the rest, or even her own sister, they had wanted to tell their families at Christmas.
She sighed again, and turned the ring to the inside of her palm, activating the charm that hid it. She flopped her head to the slide and reached up, grabbing a pillow, and swatting Nathan with it. He groaned. "Get up," she said, rolling over to kiss his ear before standing and pacing to the window overlooking the grounds. She stretched and Nathan whistled from the bed, silencing at a look as she pulled on knickers and jeans from the pile on the floor, before pulling an overly large black commando sweater over her head. "The shit has hit the fan."
He looked at her quizzically, and she sighed, "Hermione and Harry are on their way, and Virginia is somehow involved...no, I don't know how, I'm going to go check up on her. Meet me in the Gryffindor Common Room, as soon as you get dressed...and go get Em and Xander out of his room."
"Alright," he replied, accepting a quick kiss and watching as she left quickly. The slam of the door leading to the Gryffindor Common Room reached his ears a minute later and he sighed, rolling out of bed and delving for clothes on the floor, sighing as he belatedly realized that the sweater that Anastasia had put on; was his.
******************************Hogwarts*********************************
5:55 am
Deep within the depths of Hogwarts, even with the increase in attendance that the school was undergoing there were still classrooms, and even entire floors in certain wings and towers that were unused, waiting for the eventual day when the castle would be fully utilized.
Far down one of those corridors on the fifth floor, a floor down from the seldom-used landing platform on the roof of the Northwest tower, a single classroom was occupied. Piles of desks had been swept away from the center of the room, directly under a spiked iron chandelier that was still filled with beeswax candles, unlike the retrofitted parts of the castle, which might have gas lights or even Illumination Orbs.
A small woman, as the Weasley women tended to be, sat cross-legged on the Professor's desk, the hood of the skin-tight black suit tossed back, to let slightly sweaty hair fall like blood over her shoulders. The zipper was down slightly, letting in the cool air of the castle, exposing sweaty skin. She frowned as she drew her wand from her leg sheath and flicked it at the crumpled man in boxers and a torn t-shirt.
Ropes shot out from her wand and instantly cords bound him at ankles and wrists, pulling him spread-eagled. She flicked her wand again, and he groaned, and his eyes opened.
"Wha...what..." his head snapped around until he found Virginia, "What are you doing, you little slag?"
She ignored him as she slipped from the desk. She slowly paced around several of the closely-packed desks at the edge of the room, to look outside at the darkness. Warm breath fogged the window and she slowly drew a name in the condensation before she wiped it away and turned back to him. "I'm going to see if Slytherins really do have red blood."
A swish of a wand, and a thin line of blood appeared on his cheek. His eyes widened as he stared at her speechless, even beyond the sudden burst of pain. "You...bitch..."
She smiled darkly and knelt next to him, patting his cheek. His eyes flickered to her partially unzipped top, and she zipped it, quickly, as a fresh flare of anger crossed her eyes. She patted his cut cheek, "I hope you liked what you saw...it'll be the last, you'll see."
"Wasn't much, explains why you..."
A fist snapped out, augmented by the magic in the suit, and he grunted and tried to curl into a ball only to be stopped by the ropes around his wrists and ankles. He coughed and tried to snarl a response, only to be stymied by lack the seeming lack of air. "Why I what?" Virginia asked sweetly, "Why I sleep with a girl?" She stood and kicked him, he cried out and she took a step back. "Is that why you hurt her?" she snapped, and kicked at him again, to his fortune almost totally missing him in her anger.
"She never hurt you, you Son of a Bitch," Virginia went on, her voice rising, her eyes flashing as she started to pace. Her wand jabbed at the ropes and they tightened, lifting him from the floor and stretching him out. He cried out, and she spun on her heel, "She just wanted to get her OWLs and NEWTs and be a Creatures Healer...She didn't give a shit what you sick freaks did in your cave."
Parker fought his bonds again, "I knew there was a reason why she liked you...AHHH" he screamed as she closed quickly and kicked him, this time not missing. Her wand flashed and his lips sealed even as she leapt backwards, the tip of her wand lighting with a silvery light...
A blue bolt snapped from the doorway, sending her wand tumbling off into the corner of the room. She glanced over just in time to catch a bit of motion as Sirius dove from the doorway, tackling her to the ground. They hit the ground tumbling and she flung him away, halfway across the room, as the Strength Enhancing Charms kicked in.
She stood, looked for her wand, and a thick red beam ripped across from the doorway to hit her in the side. It overloaded the Shielding Charms with a cascade of yellow lightning and Virginia collapsed as if her strings had been cut. Emilia nodded to her brother, taking a breath as her eyes slowly faded from the emerald suns they had been as her and her brother sprinted the length of the castle, following the trail of the Marauder's' Map before Virginia could kill Parker.
Sirius sat up, shaking his head slightly but none the worse for wear. He stood and walked over to Virginia and checked on her, before summoning the redhead's wand. Sirius looked back at his sister, who glanced down at Parker. He started to twist in his bindings and fight the Silencing Charm.
She stunned him contemptuously, and vanished the ropes. "Now what?" Sirius shrugged and sat on a desk.
"It depends," a new voice said, one quite like Emilia's own, and both of the Potter siblings looked to the door. Hermione walked into the room, stepped over the unconscious Slytherin and knelt next to Virginia. Hermione felt her forehead and looked back over her shoulder at Emilia, "Overcharged stunner?" she asked, frowning.
"I had to, Mummy," Emilia replied with a faint hint of desperation in her voice, "She was going to..."
Hermione held up her hand and Virginia's wand shot to her, a touch of an ivy-wood shaft to Virginia's and, "Yeah, she was," Hermione confirmed, "or at least hurt him." Hermione looked at her watch and looked around where they were, she started to open her mouth, but closed it as she thought better. She took a breath, "What do you two think we should do?"
Emilia looked at her brother and back, "You're asking us...you're here, Dad's here, I guess."
"Up in the tower with Anna, yes," Hermione confirmed, "What do you think we should do, do you want an open war with Slytherin, or?"
"Yes," Sirius replied immediately and both Potter women looked to him, and he sighed, shrugging, "but that wouldn't be the best course of action, would it?"
"It can be," Hermione replied vaguely, "what are your goals? I can tell you that Albus will not allow such a thing, despite whatever feelings he has on the matter. He's can't allow that to happen, he would not be able to hide the events. You would be going in direct opposition to him."
"If we did...would you and Dad support us?" Emilia asked softly. She shared a look with her brother, as Hermione brushed Virginia's hair out of her eyes, absently pulling out a tangle she found there from the hood out the suit.
Hermione looked up at them, she gnawed her lip for a moment, "Of course, if that's what you chose."
Emilia sighed and shook her head, "Obliviate him, Mum, you get Virginia back to the Tower, and wandbrain and I will take care of him."
Hermione nodded, smiling absently as she pointed her wand towards Parker's head, "Obliviate."
*************************Headmaster's Office******************************
7:10 am
In the end, Hermione Granger nee Potter was never one for much toleration of prevarication. Even with her chosen profession, it grated on her, cutting against her very foundation of knowledge and truth. It was one thing, of course, to keep one's knowledge and plans from the enemy. It was another, to keep such things from one's friends.
It was in that vein that she strode into Dumbledore's office, her temper and magic tightly leashed as she stepped through the heavy oak door, not bothering to even pretend to use the griffin knocker. She stalked around the various small tables and shelves holding a plethora of silver instruments to stop in front of Dumbledore's desk and perch on the arm of the chair that Harry was already occupying, sipping from a mug of rather strong coffee.
Harry slowly lifted his other hand, resting it on the thin stripe of skin that showed at the small of her back, right over the crossed hilts of her daggers. His fingers slowly rubbed there in a small circle, and she glanced down at him, a faint flicker of affection showing in her eyes fleetingly before she looked back up at the rest of the room. The pair of them sat silent, watching Dumbledore as he looked back at them over steepled fingers, his ice-blue eyes only faintly twinkling.
Hermione pushed back against the hand of the only person in the world, at least that was at Hogwarts, besides possibly Poppy, that she was not at least partially annoyed with, if not outright furious at. She licked her lips, and glanced over at Minerva and Neville as they stood silently to one side, and then over to the other, at Draco as he leaned on a window sill, with the stained glass casting odd colored patterns over his pale hair. She shook off the sudden reminder of Lucius in his stance; Draco had paid too much to be compared to his father, despite what he had done to them when he was a teenager, and licked her lips.
"Why, exactly," Hermione began, slowly looking at each of them in turn, "are Harry and I only now hearing from any of you about the events here?" Hermione carefully did not mention the notice earlier in the year from her sister about the attack on Chastity; she had already discussed not receiving any notice of the later incidents with the Head Girl. "Why we had not heard of the attack on Harriet, nor of the attack on Kristina, which started the events leading to this morning's little...incident."
"By rights I should demand Virginia's expulsion, at least," Draco growled, "She broke into my house..."
"Draco," Hermione hissed, "you are the very last person in the whole bloody universe who should talk."
"It was an internal Hogwarts matter, Hermione," Dumbledore said reassuringly, to meet a redoubling of her glare.
"Last time I looked," she looked down at Harry, then at the Sorting Hat sitting quiescent on a shelf behind Dumbledore's desk, directly under a portrait of Phineas Nigellus, "my husband was Lord Gryffindor, which would make me Lady Gryffindor...by right of conquest, if we want to play that game, Lord Slytherin as well...It seems that we would have an, intrinsic, interest in Hogwarts affairs...Putting aside the whole point that it was our children who were involved in this."
"There has always been a bit of rough and tumble between Slytherin and Gryffindor," Neville put in, and Hermione slowly turned to look at him, her eyebrow crooking.
She visibly paused, "Because you and Parvati are friends, I'm not going to remind you how asinine that comment just was, Neville," Hermione retorted and he nodded, conceding the point. She looked back to Dumbledore, "Especially in light of the fact that at the start of the term, the train was attacked. Nor in light of the fact that at least one of the Slytherins involved in the various altercations has a father that is even now in Azkaban awaiting trial on several charges. The very one, in fact, which Virginia seems to think attacked her girlfriend."
Both of the Potters noticed that no one was terribly surprised about that revelation.
McGonagall cleared her throat, and Hermione twisted to look at her, leaning into the hand that Harry was steadying her with. "Hermione," Minerva said, looking over to Dumbledore and back, "I hate to say this, but even so, Virginia can not get off scot-free, she did break into Slytherin to kidnap him, and was going to-"
"Minerva," Hermione interrupted with deadly calm, "she did not do anything that I would not have done in a similar situation, if it were Harry who was still in the Hospital Wing...In fact, I seriously doubt that his assailants would have lasted this long. I would guess that it took her an hour or two to work up to what she did do to him."
"Sirius and Emilia have left Mr. Parker in a place where it will be assumed that he was the victim of a prank gone bad," Harry put in, as Hermione huffed softly and slid down from the arm of the chair to half sit on his lap in the oversized chair. "In that the Slytherins will not be able to retaliate except with a prank, in fear of crossing the line into open conflict. And they will not be able to accuse the Gryffindors of the same, especially with Mr. Parker's memory modified, which it would have had to been anyway as the infiltration suit, at the very least, is on the Official Secrets List."
"Indeed," Dumbledore looked over at McGonagall, "it would be best to put this to rest..."
"No," Harry said flatly, "It would be best to put the fear of God and Merlin into certain members of Draco's house...but to the degree that it would require to get them to actually stop their schemes would be...messy."
Hermione nodded, leaning her head back against his shoulder as she covered her mouth, letting a small yawn escape.
They had been on an hour of sleep when Fred called them, and for less than pleasurable purposes. A team of Death Eaters had attacked a small village in Glasdonberry, most likely in retaliation for the arrest of Cassandra Greene, a suspected Death Eater from the last war, after a witness had come forward with testimony of her involvement in several mysterious Muggle deaths last year.
"However," Hermione went on reluctantly, her temper blunted more by the arm around her waist than anything else, even as a small part of her cringed inside at the knowledge that Harry was repressing his own anger, even though it was not, could not be, held deep enough for her to not feel it. "However," she repeated, "there is a codicil...Our sprogs know the value of restraint...Merlin knows that we've spent a long time teaching it to them..." Hermione swallowed faintly at some bleak memory, "But, if one of their friends...or loved ones get hurt, there will be no place in this castle for the guilty to hide, and the non-guilty might get hurt."
"It is not their place to-" McGonagall sputtered, only to be interrupted by Hermione's soft, growl.
"Don't," she replied flatly, as she sensed Harry unable to speak, or rather not trusting his voice at the moment. "You and the rest treated us like...mushrooms..." Neville and Draco both fought sudden coughing fits, "I'm not treating my own like that." She slowly levered herself out of the chair, a glance and a shared nod, and Harry followed her as they both headed towards the door, "What are you going to do when it's Elliot going after one of them when they go after Abby, Neville? Or when Justin decides that he doesn't give a...damn about who his dad is, when some wanker is good enough to get Rain, Draco?"
Both Draco and Neville frowned, shrugging, as Hermione placed her hand on the door knob, "Harry and I are going to go check up on our kids, and I'm going to go talk to Virginia...I assume that you know that she's punishing herself more than you could, now that she's calmed down."
Hermione stepped through the door and headed down the ever-circling stairs, and Harry looked back towards the Hogwarts' Staff, still standing around Dumbledore's desk, "Albus...please, I understand why you are trying to keep this discrete, and you're right for the most part...but please don't force my children into opposition with the staff...You did that with Hermione and I when we were their age, and this time...I guarantee that they will have backup." Harry looked at Neville pointedly and left, closing the door behind him with a soft thump.
Neville closed his eyes, and took a breath; he turned to Dumbledore, "He's right...You can sack me if you want, Albus...but he's right." He pushed off from the wall and headed for the door, I'll be in the Hospital Wing if you need me, to check on one of my Lions..." He stopped at the doorway, "Draco...Shut your house down, if another of them cross the line, they won't have to worry about my Lions...they'll worry about me."
******************************Norway***********************************
"What word, of the efforts at Hogwarts?" a dark, silky, almost serpent-like voice asked from beneath a hood, as he and a pair of other similarly clad beings walked down a nearly abandoned hallway, stepping over bits of ice on the ancient, stone floor.
Xavier Hamilton looked over, his breath forming white clouds in the ever-present cold of winter above the artic circle, "My daughter reports some success, M'Lord, at least with the ones on the periphery...She begs forgiveness that she has not been able to affect the Potter's brats...directly."
"And?"
Xavier looked past his master to Crandle Jacobson, who's face held a slight sneer. Xavier sighed, almost inaudibly, "She also fears that...Antares, will soon out live his usefulness. She reports that he was blamed for her latest strike, though it was only against one of the Gryffindor slags...I think she was a particular friend of one of the Weasleys if I remember correctly...She begs permission to act more covertly, she fears that Antares may be compromised."
Crandle snorted, "His father is useless, rotting in a Ministry Cell, it would be no loss."
"Silence, Crandle," the still unnamed one hissed and turned to Xavier, stopping and looking at him from under the depths of his hood. "Your daughter is shagging him, yes?"
Xavier nodded reluctantly, "Yes, Sire."
A faint laugh, and the Dark One started off again, the heels of his boots clacking softly against the frosted flagstones. The other two fell in line with him. "It is to be expected, a sense of...attachment, but do not let it get in her way. My predecessor once put his efforts onto another student...She must take care that she does not disappoint as he did. She will be rewarded if we succeed, but only death awaits her if we do not."
Xavier nodded heavily.
"Now what of the other efforts?"
"She is being watched...we will have resources in place to retrieve her when the time is right..."
He laughed quietly, "And how did your daughter manage to accomplish that?"
Xavier snorted, "She seduced a Hufflepuff, let him think she was going to leave Antares for him, and then Obliviated him afterwards."
"Excellent, now we only await the proper time, and place."
************************Hospital Wing**********************************
8:30 pm
Maraisah looked over across the infirmary, and sneered at the group sitting around a bed at the furthest corner of the room as possibly could be had. She slowly bent forward from the chair she was sitting at, and kissed Antares, running her fingers along his cheek as she sat up and stood. "I will be back, luv..."
He nodded and closed his eyes tiredly, the potions Poppy had him on, after he, 'fell down the stairs', were rather strong.
Maraisah bent down and kissed him again, before she walked around the bed and headed for the door, pausing just coincidentally next to the bed where Kristina was still sleeping, "I know you did this, Potter," she growled, glaring down at the head of black curls that was deep in the pages of a Muggle novel, "I don't care that he can't remember...You'll pay."
Emilia slowly looked up and shook her head at Rain; the pair of them were sitting with Kristina, while Virginia served her detention with Neville. She continued to look up, and let the faintest tendril of magic leak, "It's over, Maraisah," Emilia said softly, her eyes glittering. "Don't continue; I don't want to have to hurt you."
"Just go," Rain put in shortly, leaning forward as Kristina coughed, heavily and shook, the potions that Poppy was just now able to give her to reduce her bruising, taking effect, "You and yours have done enough."
"I'll say when it's enough," Maraisah snapped and her hand flicked to her wand, her fingers just touching it when the point of another dimpled the soft skin under her chin.
"MISS POTTER," Poppy Pomfrey snapped, stepping out of her office, and reaching for her own wand, "what is the meaning of this."
Emilia slowly lowered hers, dropping it on Kris' bed as she picked her book back up, "Miss Hamilton was just leaving, Ma'am."
"This isn't over, bitch," Maraisah growled just loudly enough for Em and Rain to hear and straightened, nodding to the medic as she left. Poppy examined the remaining Gryffindors for a moment then nodded to herself and returned to her office.
"I know," Emilia muttered to herself, looking to the now closed door.
****************************Gryffindor Tower*****************************
December 5, 2015
9:20 pm
Sirius Potter sat alone in front of the fire built in the grate, as he fitfully studied, paging slowly though a thick sheath of notes on Transfiguration. He had an exam on Tuesday, a whole four days away, but he could not seem to concentrate. He sighed and chucked the notes to the other end of the empty couch, dropping his head to his hands as an unbidden image of red hair, spilling limply over stone floor, covering a face that he no longer needed to see to know. That somehow he had never needed to see, to know.
His hands shook as his imagination insisted on showing him the rest, the dream that had kept him up the night before, her crumpled and broken body in the midst of the shattered desks where they had found Kristina. Her clothes torn nearly away and a thin pool of red spreading from her head, as he desperately shook her shoulders, the very air seemingly gone from his lungs.
"Sirius?" a quiet voice asked hesitantly from behind and to his right, and he slowly let out a breath as he turned, finding her. She frowned slightly, a sight that caused a faint unsettled sensation, and sat on the edge of the seat across from him. "Are you alright?"
He shrugged, and stretched to the side, picking his notes back up and paging through them again, not looking up at her.
Her lower lip filled her teeth, and she watched him for a moment, before reaching out across the distance, placing her hand on his notes. Sirius sighed heavily, "Do you mind, Harriet, I need to study."
She pulled her hand back quickly, as if snake bit, curling them in her lap together. "Do you need any help?" Her voice was softer than normal, and shaking almost unnoticeably...except to those who knew her better than themselves.
"No, I should do this myself," Sirius replied flatly, his eyes slowly panning along the angled, spiky writing.
"Alright," she whispered painfully and stood. She reached out again for him and stopped halfway, pulling her hands back and slipping them deep into the pockets of her loose jeans. She walked away, her eyes shimmering faintly in the light of the fire as she headed for the girls stairs. A soft whistle, and a huge white wolf lifted his head from his post, lying on the warm stones of the hearth and leapt to her side, following her up the stairs, watching as she barely avoided running into the wall.
After another minute Sirius flung his notes to the side, sending them crashing in a blizzard of loose parchments as they hit the far arm of the couch. He looked up towards the stairs where Harriet had just vanished, and stared at the empty stone archway for a long, silent minute before he stood and paced angrily up the other stairs, leaving his notes askew over the floor. I'm sorry, he whispered, though to whom he did not know, it's better this way, though, he added, morosely, as he reached the door to his room and slammed it behind him, with a thump that sounded back down to the Common Room.
A/N: There you go. S/H will be back.