Unofficial Portkey Archive

A/N: Ok, here we go. Maybe Harriet shouldn't have relaxed so much...Just so you know, this chapter and the next two all earn the NC-17 rating... Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her gracious work on this chapter.

Chapter 30: Misdirection of Intent
*****************************Near Bristol*********************************

January 11, 2016
1:25 am

What do you have? Harry whispered as he looked across a stretch of dark, abandoned rooftops towards an empty patch of air. A light snow was falling from steel-grey clouds, slowly adding to the already several-inch accumulation under foot.

The snow seemed to slow abruptly on the bit of empty air he was looking towards. Flakes that seemingly were held up of their own accord, suddenly fell off, a faint, unuttered sigh filled the back of his head. I have four vamps, the same number of weres, and six wizards around the perimeter...of course any of the vamps or weres could be magic users, it's hard to tell at this distance, Hermione replied quietly.

You alright, Mione? Harry whispered back and felt a shrug in return.

I'm cold, Harry. She smirked slightly, And horny, what are you going to do about it? She gasped silently, as a sudden rush filled her body. An invisible footprint appeared in the snow as she staggered forward, before it vanished just as fast. Damn it, Harry...you are sooo paying for that when we get home.

Gladly, Harry whispered back and she grinned, and the snowflakes dusting the shoulders and hood of her infiltration suit suddenly fell to the ground as she Apparated over the fifty yards of rooftops, broken by a ten yard gap between buildings, separating them. A brief, unnoticed sparkle bloomed as he wrapped his arm around her waist, as the suits adjusted to each other, and pulled her in close. What do you think? he asked, his demeanor changing in an instant.

Hermione nibbled on her lower lip thoughtfully, I don't know. Erig eventually gave this meet up, though he didn't fight too hard about it. But still, it's not him involved directly, only a 'friend'...

Invisibly, Hermione blinked in an odd one, two, one pattern and a field of colored dot overlaid her vision as the spellware of the suit took the feed from the encrypted locator spells on the other six agents spread out around the perimeter of the dark warehouse they were overlooking and displayed it for her. She frowned as red dots faded into existence, showing the various hostiles visible, with only a blank green box representing the warehouse, that they had been told that a transfer of stolen whole blood and other necessities was taking place in.

"Any, Bookworm," Hermione subvocalized, the communication mirrors picking up the murmur through a flat disc adhering to her throat, "Can we get someone inside the wards?"

A pause, "Negative, Bookworm," a deep male voice replied, and Hermione closed her eyes as for a moment, it reminded her of Kingsley, lost in the siege of the Ministry years ago, "I don't have anyone here, that I think can do it."

"Wait one," she replied. My turn, Love, she whispered and with a squeeze of Harry's hand she was gone. Distantly, Harry followed the faint trace of her presence in his mind, muted but not hidden as a thin, nearly invisible Acromantula silk line shot across the gap between this building and the one under surveillance. Hermione reached up and scampered down the line, moving quickly but without undue haste as she crossed to the other building, not wanting to risk Apparating across the wards.

Harry sighed in relief as her feet touched the other rooftop, and she slipped away, towards a dingy skylight set fifteen feet from the edge of the roof.

Hermione reached into a pouch riding her thigh and a thin, dark colored string emerged, the latest generation of Extendable Ear and Eyeball. She pressed the soft bead at the end to the dirty glass, and suddenly the room far below appeared in front of her, projected semi-transparently onto the back of the suit's goggles. Several, tinny voices filled her ears as she looked down on the heads of the dozen or so occupants of the room.

A large, wrapped pallet sat next to a table, that as Hermione watched, one of the darkly suited people moved toward and placed a flat, silver disc on it, and tapped it with a wand. A swirl of color bloomed next to it and the pallet vanished, as the crates stretched into to and snapped away. The vortex closed with a snap, and the wizard walked back over to an odd grouping. A tall, dark-haired man dressed in a Muggle suit that cost at least five thousand pounds was surrounded by three females, a pair of brunettes and a slightly smaller blonde, all dressed in dark leather pants under dark red silk blouses. Hermione muttered something under her breath as she recognized one of the brunettes, Harry...

Yeah, I noticed, he whispered in the back of her mind, as he watched what she was seeing through her eyes, Kendal, Sarah and Olga, I presume, along with the unlamented Clarissa...And that were next to them is most likely the Lucian bloke that we heard about. They both watched as the blonde moved closer to Kendal, and nuzzled at his neck, before she broke away with a cat-like hiss as another pair of newcomers stepped into view of Hermione's sensor.

Hello, Crendle, Harry said darkly as the balding man stopped just out of easy striking distance of the vampires, and the wizard with him nervously fingered a wand. A pair of guards, both armed with Muggle subguns moved in and out of view, mirroring their Death Eater counterparts.

"I am still unconvinced of your place in this endeavor," Kendal remarked lightly as his brides slowly took a few paces to each side, slowly moving in amongst Death Eaters that were obviously trying to hide their terror. "Clarissa," he said lovingly, as she started to run manicured blood-red nails down the front of a Death Eaters throat, "what did I tell you about playing with your food?"

The other two vampiresses giggled as she looked back, pouting, "Don't...it's not polite."

Kendal nodded and the trio of vampires paced back over to stand next to him, each of them lightly touching him in some way. He leaned over and kissed Clarissa's pale temple before he looked back to Crendle, who by now, was almost quivering. "As I was saying earlier, I will not throw away my brethren on the whims of your mistress. If she wants to kill them, she can do it herself."

"You do not want to make yourself our enemy, Kendal," Crendle snapped, as ten Death Eaters faded into view from under Concealment Charms. They all raised wands towards the four vampires and Lucian, who let loose a quiet growl, as his eyes became black pools.

The moment was broken as the sudden chatter of a subgun filled the air. "Henderson is down," an almost panicked voice cried over the mirror link, and Hermione rolled away from the window just before two of the vampires looked straight up. The quartet started to back away, Lucian pushing them behind him, as Hermione looked straight across to Harry.

"GO!" he snapped and vanished.

Hermione took a breath and rolled sharply to her right, her eyes flaring to life as she called her powers to her, even as she crashed through the skylight. She faded back into view in midair as her active powers overwhelmed the suit's abilities, and landed in the midst of a shower of glass in a half crouch.

She spun to the right as a green jet snapped at her, and snapped back a glowing blue ball of plasma. Flipping sideways, she dodged under a pair of desperately-aimed cutting curses, and snapped her wand sideways, sending a purple wave out to cut a pair of Death Eaters off at the ankles.

She grunted as a steel fist crashed into her leg and bounced off, as the built-in Shielding Charms took a Bludgeoning Curse and diffused it. A brownish jet snapped back, and another target crashed to the floor, even as the door to her right exploded into splinters that showered down around her.

Harry stepped through the doorway, his sword dripping, and MOVED, spinning to the right as a lycan raised a pulse rifle. The line of silver darts shattered the stained wood behind where his head had been a moment earlier. Harry vanished and reappeared next to the were, and sliced up and right, and dodged to the side just as a head and shoulder tumbled to the filthy concrete floor just ahead of the half-transformed body. He gathered himself as the looked towards the far end of the building, just in time to watch a Portkey bloom and vanish, taking away Kendal and his harem.

A beat later, Harry felt the odd, twisting sensation as anti-Portkey wards took affect, just a heartbeat too slowly. FUCK, he snapped and spun to the side out of a pair of curses, and snapped a pair of Stunners back in return, sending a wizard tumbling to the ground to spasm uncontrollably.

Harry...

Yeah, Love, he replied distractedly as he reached out with his magic, tagging the eight remaining Death Eaters and four lycans to a span of inches.

The wizards are yours; Hermione said as she sheathed her wand on her thigh and drew the pistol riding just behind it. She reached out, her magic intertwining more closely with Harry, and nodded, once.

Time seemed to stretch as she rolled out from cover and the pistol coughed four times, the rounds flaring silver-white as they struck a pair of lycans, sending the silver nitrate loads deep into their bodies. They fell away, shaking in their death throes, even as a wave of fire crashed over her head, sending three dark wizards and a witch halfway through an inner wall.

A dark spreading hole appeared in the forehead of another lycan as if with a thought, and Hermione pivoted right, taking the last one in the throat letting her pistol drop away as her wand leapt to her hand and she spun away into nothingness.

Three Reductor bolts shattered the crates immediately behind where she had just been as Harry stepped from the air, sending a pair of silver lines crashing back, to vaporize fist-sized holes through dark robes. A flick of a hand sent another through a window into the night beyond and all was suddenly quiet.

Behind a large, ten-foot-high pile of crates marked as containing an assortment of toys, Crendle Jacobson shook, his wand held next to his sweating brow in trembling fingers. He started to move, and froze as the very tip of a wand bore in on the soft spot behind his right ear. "Hello, Crendle," Hermione's voice said from nowhere and a red flash lit the dim room.

A sweaty, tightly plaited head of chestnut hair appeared a beat later, followed by the rest of her, as the skintight suit faded into view. She looked over, as Harry joined her in visibility, pausing to kiss her cheek as he passed, headed back outdoors to check on the rest. Hermione sat on a crate, and half-unzipped the top of the suit, letting the fastener fall down far enough to partially display the scar marking her chest.

Harry gave her a tired smile a minute later as he returned, stunned Cradle again for good measure, and sat down next to her on the crate. Her head flopped over onto his shoulder automatically, and just her eyes cut upward towards his, What happened, Harry?

A sigh. Henderson...tripped over one of the Lycans that had stepped into an alley to take a piss...She hit him with a ripper, just as he got her with a burst...her armor caught some of it, but she took a hit a round through her side. She's already PK'ed to St. Mungo's.

Hermione looked down at the Death Eater, and cocked her head as she was reminded of another, We got...one.

Bullocks. She looked up, her eyes hard as she watched the remainder of the perimeter team move in through the door. A couple of them met her eyes sheepishly, as they fanned out without a word to her or Harry and started to examine the wreckage, biological and inorganic of the night's revelry.

Hermione slowly stood and flung out a hand, summoning the still slightly twitching Death Eater that Harry had stunned possibly a hair too much and dropped the body unceremoniously on top of Crendle. "Juliet," Hermione called and a young Auror with straight brown hair hanging down over her back looked over, "We are going to take these two back to the Ministry, I assume that you have this in hand?"

She glanced over at a blonde wizard her age, "Yes, Ma'am, we do."

"Brilliant," Hermione said without a trace of sarcasm.

Harry finished placing a silver sphere on the pair and stood. Instantly, it grew tentacles that knotted tightly around the pair of Death Eaters, flashed blue twice and yanked them away through time and space to a cell deep below the Ministry. Harry reached over and took her hand, pausing to interlace their fingers and flicked them away after the pair, vanishing them from the ruins of the warehouse without a sound.

That is until the remaining Aurors let loose one continual breath, that they had not been cognizant of holding. Harry, Remus, Tonks, all of them were known for having a talent, when the occasion warranted it, for administering highly accurate verbal recountings of ones failures since the time you left Hogwarts.

Hermione's tended to go back, when she was properly motivated, to the time your father's sperm met your mother's egg.

***********************Godric's Hollow******************************

4:35 am.

Soft, warm rain fell down on Hermione as she stood limply in the huge, black marble shower set in her master suite. The room had been copied nearly exactly from the expansive bathroom that her and Harry had shared during that last desperate year at Hogwarts. A huge, matching black marble tub sat next to the shower, with a dozen colored taps around it, and Hermione often enjoyed a long bath, but tonight she was half asleep under the gentle omni-directional spray of the shower.

She took a long breath and leaned forward to let her forehead rest on the cool, glassy stone of the walls, and sighed. Her hair hung wetly in a nearly straight, nearly black curtain down her back almost to her waist. She didn't look up as she heard the frosted sliding glass door slip open behind her and close once more.

Smiling, she felt his eyes on her, a nearly tangible, warm feeling as his gaze slowly passed up and down her body. She licked her lips as he slid up behind her and wrapped one arm around her belly. He didn't tell us anything did he? she whispered tiredly as Harry started to rub her belly just below her navel.

No. He brushed aside her hair with his nose to allow him access to her neck, The usual Fidelius and brain fry combination, Bella doesn't trust anyone, I guess. He's a vegetable now.

Hermione nodded and let her head fall back onto his shoulder. Harry slowly let his fingertips stroke down her right side, tracing each rib and the side of her breast before passing down her hipbone and onto the outside of her thigh. She hissed loudly and he let his eyes trace down to examine the long black and blue bruise along one quadriceps.

Are you alight, Mione?

I'm fine, baby, she breathed back, another louder gasp followed as magic literally sparkled from his fingertips and the bruise faded as if it were a week old instead of only three hours. She took a deep breath, and worked her bum back as she spooned into him, idly moving her rear until he groaned in her ear.

I don't want to talk work, Harry muttered and she nodded once, even as brown eyes darkened, almost going black before lighting from within with an emerald light as his fingertips slowly traced over the top of her thigh. She shivered and let her legs fall open slightly as the very tips of his fingers slid up the slick skin of her inner thigh and started to trace over her lower lips.

Her breathing hitched as a single finger slid slowly home, then after a slight knowing pause, a second, and started to move in and out causing her hips to start to rock back into his legs and forward again. D...damn, she whispered and her breathing started to race, as his fingers started to move in her faster.

Hermione let one hand come up and back from the wall, leaving the other to support her as she turned her head and kissed him, before her neck seemed to loose the ability to hold her head upright. A soft, whimpering mew started to slip from her lips, as she rocked harder, starting to buck into his hand, only to whimper louder as she found herself behind held back by his other hand on her hip.

Like that? he whispered and she nodded quickly without moving her head from his shoulder. A grin and he let his thumb start to explore higher, even as his fingers continued to move, starting to race to match her speeding pulse.

A soft moan that might be his name and Hermione shuddered as she felt her world start to swirl and dance as colored lights bloomed behind closed lids. Her legs started to tremble as she bucked against his hand, and cried out once more as she convulsed backwards, her entire body quivering like a taught bowstring before collapsing back into his arms as she crashed.

Hey, she 'heard' a minute later as he continued to stoke her lightly, easing her back down to a more normal plane of existence, you still in there? he laughed, and she nodded once, eventually, before she managed to find enough energy to raise her lips to his, sucking in his tongue before she let her head drop away.

"I think I'll k...keep you," she whispered as she slowly turned around in his arms and leaned up to kiss him once more.

"I'm sure our children will appreciate that," Harry replied, kissing her nose, as he reached up to brush her wet bangs from her eyes. He paused and watched beads of water collect on dark eyelashes, before they slowly fell away, slipping down her face to join thin streams trickling down her neck and between her breasts. "I love you, you know."

She worried her lower lip, and just nodded, even as she took his hands in hers and walked them backwards until her back touched the cool marble. Looking down she watched as her hand slowly wrapped around him and started to move up and down, causing a faint grunt at each end. She gave him a squeeze and looked back up into his eyes, which were glowing faintly to match hers, though it did not matter really, as she used the contact to hold him in place as she licked her lips.

She let go and threw both arms around his neck, jumping upwards at the same time to end with her legs wrapped around his waist, trusting him to catch her without a flicker of a doubt. Harry pushed her back, using the wall to hold her up as she reached down and under her bum with one hand and grabbed him again before she lifted herself higher and positioned him before sinking back down with a long, drawn-out sigh.

Emerald-glowing eyes fluttered closed as she tightened her arms around his neck and held on as he started to drive up into her, causing her to lift several inches and fall along the smooth wall with a soft squeak with every thrust.

Harry groaned as she started to nibble along his neck, and using her arms to boost herself higher with each move before settling down hard. He groaned her name, the word becoming a soft, continuous mantra, as she ground her core into him at the bottom, sending a spike of fire along both sets of nerves.

Hermione whimpered, nearly crying, as each bounce touched her already burning core to his, grinding into him, before she gained a second's respite, only to have her nerves overloaded once more.

Speeding up further as Hermione's nerves started to overlay his own, his vision narrowing only to her face as she grabbed his hair and pulled him back to her, kissing him almost desperately as she slipped her tongue home, letting it move in a gentle counterpoint to his movements into her.

A slow roiling boil started to build once more in her belly, just above where they were joined, and Hermione gasped, "Oh...God...Harrry." She shook her head, hard, flinging water from her eyes and kissed him again, as she fought to try to move even closer, fighting to meet him before she lost touch with reality once more.

"M...Miiooneeee," he sputtered, as his back tightened, even as he felt his mind slipping forward, tangling around the bright star that ruled his life. She forced her eyes open, meeting his and he felt himself vanish into her as the familiar sensation of his soul joining with hers pulled him away from his body.

Distantly, a soft cry of a phoenix filled their minds as his muscles tightened further, his legs started to shake, I'm...

Please, she whispered and he let go as if commanded, bucking irregularly into her and filling her with a new welcome warmth, that was somehow much, much warmer than the water still falling on her head. She followed a heartbeat later, as the wave of fire racing along his nerves crashed through her body, tripping her over the edge to convulse frantically around him, milking him for several long, heart-stopping moments. She fell around him; resting her head on top of his she wrapped her arms around him even tighter, pulling his head into her chest as they both panted heavily, the warm water still falling down in soft sheets over them both.

Stroking soaked black locks; Hermione slowly came back to herself, feeling it as Harry's pulse slowed in time with hers, beat for beat, and breath for breath until her faded vision returned. With nearly the last of her strength, she lifted herself off him to slide down his front to the tile floor of the shower. She swayed on her feet and leaned forward into him, resting for another moment, before taking his hand without a word and leading him from the shower.

It shut off behind them as they passed through a warm, tingling field, mostly drying them, and leaving only their hair damp. She slipped through the door to the bedroom, and crawled into bed, not bothering with the covers as Harry dropped next to her.

Hermione rolled into him and yawned tiredly, her eyes barely keeping open as Harry traced his fingers down her side. She yawned again and looked up into his eyes, Thank you, Harry.

At your service, M'lady, Harry replied and kissed the top of her head, waiting as she worked her legs between his to settle her entire weight on him, like a soft warm blanket.

She yawned again, as she slowly started to drift away, letting her mind wrap closely into his once more, before kissed his throat, letting her lips read his pulse, and slid off into sleep without a word.

*****************************Hogwarts***********************************
January 11, 2016
4:30 pm

Em tossed her hair back absently, blinking as she fought it out of her eyes and looked over at her brother, who was nose deep into an article in the Quibbler. She rolled her eyes as she reached over to grab him, pulling him out of the way just in time to miss a colliding with a rampant pack of second years, intent on getting to the Great Hall, where the newest sensation, Professor Weasley, was giving a demonstration, along with Professor Flitwick, on defensive dueling.

Ron, after he had settled into his new job, had found himself the object of admiration for dozens of young girls. Much to his consternation, they had been known to express, loudly, their admiration for his...dreamy good looks as they sat in front seats in his class, ones that they had often fought for.

Emilia's mother found it rather hilarious for some reason.

"What are you so bloody interested in?" Emilia asked; shaking her head as Sirius almost ran into a suit of armor.

"Harriet gave it to me," Sirius muttered and held up a copy of the Quibbler. He blushed slightly as he tilted the cover slightly to show a heading stating, "The Youngest Potter, Our Newest Hero?"

A picture of him blinking up from the cover greeted his sister and she laughed loudly. "Since when are you believing your press?"

He shrugged, "I'm not, Harriet liked the picture...the article is actually pretty good, talks about Mum and Dad...correctly for once."

"Well it is the Quibbler," Emilia replied with a shrug. She frowned as she heard something, and stopped as she turned towards a hallway. "Did you hear Harriet?" she asked, frowning, "didn't she say that she was going to go take a nap?"

"Yeah," Sirius replied slowly, even as he heard a breathy laugh come from the corridor that Emilia was looking towards, a laugh that he had heard last night right before they finally forced themselves apart to return to their beds. He looked up as Emilia gasped quietly and jumped backwards out of sight, and grabbing onto him.

"Um, Sirius," she whispered, fisting her hand in his robes and keeping him from looking around the corner. A flicker of power lit her eyes, and faded with a sigh as he pulled away from her, to step around the corner.

He bit off a sharp breath as he found Harriet, pressed closely against Will Arnold, a seventh-year Hufflepuff boy, with dark hair and light blue eyes, eyes that he had been known to use to make sure that his bed was not cool on weekends. Her shirt was untucked, half covering up the red-trimmed school skirt she was wearing and her tie was loosened to the top of her breasts, matching the three or four undone buttons.

A soft giggle escaped her, as his lips descended to her neck, and Sirius watched as a hand vanished under her shirt. "Will," she breathed, her gasp just loud enough to carry, as his other hand slipped down, slowly running up her leg and pushing up her skirt on the side facing Sirius and Emilia.

"Sirius," Emilia whispered, her face white.

He took a deep breath and shook his head, stepping backwards out of sight in the hall, with his sister following him.

A faint smirk danced under grey eyes as Harriet looked over out of the corner of her eye and returned her attentions to the attentive Hufflepuff. She took his hand and led him off, down the corridor in the opposite direction from where Sirius and Emilia were still covering.

"Siri-"

Sirius shook his head, cutting her off as he turned in the direction of Gryffindor Tower, nearly breaking into a sprint. Smythe yelled at them as they streaked past, taking the moving steps two at a time as they climbed towards the seventh-floor entrance of the tower.

He barely paused to give the password and slipped into the room before the painting could even halfway open. The Common Room was deserted as he dropped onto the tattered couch closest to the fireplace and sighed, dropping his glasses beside him on the seat as he scrubbed at suddenly tired eyes.

Emilia slowly sank into a seat across from him, shaking slightly as she thought back to what she had seen, "Sirius, I..." She froze as a soft sound came from the girls' stairs and she snapped her head up to find Harriet slipping down them barefoot, in battered jeans at least two sizes too large for her that were threatening to slip off her hips and a dark grey Gryffindor team sweatshirt, that Emilia knew was Sirius', as were the jeans.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking?" she snapped at the redhead, causing Harriet, who had been on a beeline for the still silent Sirius to look up at her with a befuddled, exhausted expression.

"That I sleep better next to Sirius," Harriet answered almost matter-of-factly, except for the yawn interspersed with her words. She continued on to drop next to Sirius, and he wrapped an arm around her automatically, before she slid down to rest her head on his lap.

"I meant snogging that jackarse Arnold," Emilia growled, and glared up at Sirius, "Aren't you going to say anything? You are her boyfriend."

Harriet sat up abruptly and tears bloomed in her eyes, "Sirius..."

He shook his head and reached over, grabbing her, and with a faint grunt, pulled her into his lap. He kissed her forehead, before cradling her head against his shoulder, "Em's an idiot, love," he murmured in her ear before looking back up at his sister. "She's been here the whole time, Emilia, I'd thank you not to accuse her of something she did not do."

"But..."

"Did you bother to feel for her, Em?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow, and Emilia paled suddenly, and slowly shook her head.

"Merlin, Sirius...Harriet, I'm sorry...but why did we just sprint the entire length of the bloody castle, if you knew she was up here?"

"I was afraid that it was something to get to her," Sirius replied softly, as he let a hand slip up under the hem of Harriet's sweatshirt to rub along her side. He smirked slightly, and met Em's eyes, "Besides, she makes different noises than that..."

Emilia looked away, as Harriet turned puzzled eyes up to Sirius', "What, Sirius, what happened..."

"Someone that looked like you was snogging Will Arnold in the corridor leading from Charms," Emilia replied, looking between the two as Harriet slipped down to return her head to his lap.

"Oh, that wasn't me," Harriet said, waving one hand idly in the air, before tucking both of them under her ear, and turned on her side to look at Em. Sirius frowned, as he started to twist a ruby lock around one finger, only to let a faint smile fall over his lips, as Harriet kissed his leg, before continuing on, "I don't have enough power yet to project physically, I'd have to borrow some from Sirius, but then I'd be in contact with him, and I wouldn't need to borrow it as I could just snog him...Arnold's squicky, why would I want to snog him? Sirius is most excellent."

Emilia didn't answer as Harriet snuggled down further, pulling one hand out from under her head to grab onto Sirius' free hand. Nor did she notice the whitening of the redhead's knuckles as she closed her eyes, hiding the dark thoughts that dwelled there, hidden behind a lie of detachment that had been propagated for at least two generations of Lovegood women.

"I...I'm sorry, Sirius," Emilia apologized, as Harriet appeared to go to sleep, her breathing relaxing, as Sirius' hand slipped down, her side to rub the patch of skin at her hip, revealed by, at least from his perspective, rather cooperative clothing. "I should have known...It must have been-"

"Yeah," Sirius replied before her thought finished, "She and I are going to have a little talk..." He glanced down, as Harriet mumbled something in her sleep, shaking slightly before she calmed at his touch once more. "She's not been sleeping," he mentioned, "something's trying to tell her something and won't cooperate."

"I didn't know," Emilia replied, looking back up at her brother.

"How would you?" he replied tiredly, "You don't sleep in your room anymore. It's alright, Em, I understand, believe me, I do, but-"

Emilia stood slowly, looking towards the boys' stairs, "I'm going to go find Xander."

Sirius nodded as Emilia left, moving silently up the stairs, and pausing at the top to watch as he bent down and kissed Harriet's hair over one ear.

*****************************London************************************

January 12, 2016
4:10 am

Nymphadora Tonks whistled under her breath as she stepped through a gaping hole in the wall of an otherwise nondescript office building and into an open atrium, which was currently lit by several brightly glowing orbs hovering near the ceiling. An Auror looked at her oddly, taking in the combat boots and camouflage pants under a cut off Witches with Attitudes T-shirt and a black armored Dragonhide jacket. She flashed a badge at him, and he paled slightly as he realized whom he was glaring at. She paid him no mind as she stepped to the large fountain sitting in the center under a glass ceiling.

A single corpse, in the nondescript robes of a typical Ministry worker floated face down in the water, stained red with his blood. Someone had thoughtfully turned off the fountain, probably one of the response team, as they investigated, though any chance that the unknown had had was long gone along with the majority of his life's blood, if the color of the water had anything to do with it.

A Muggle security guard was sitting on a bench over to one side, the befuddled expression on his face indicative of someone under a Confundus Charm. He took a cup of coffee someone gave him and immediately slumped to the side.

"Take care of him," Tonks ordered absently to the Auror who had passed the drugged coffee, before she knelt next to the fountain.

"Who is this bloke?" she asked after watching the body float back and forth for a minute. She glanced over to the side, to the tech on call, "Any clue?"

Anabeth Ortiez, the field tech on call for tonight, shook her head, "Not yet, Tonks, we just now got all the preliminary stuff done, it took the first responders ten minutes to get that guy subdued. Kept screaming about monsters and devils." She shrugged, "A Tuesday morning, for us."

"Yeah," Tonks muttered and reached into a pocket of her armored jacket, one that she had just started wearing again, and pulled out a pair of purple nitrile gloves and pulled them on, before she reached behind her back and drew her wand. She got a nod from the tech and flicked it slowly turning over the body.

A gasp came from next to her as the body was revealed. The face was...gone, and the tips of his fingers looked burned away.

"Know him?" Tonks asked.

"No" Anabeth replied, a touch green. "Prints are gone...magically erased as was his face. We tried a quick DNA print, no joy, someone used a low-level Displacement Curse to scramble all of it...we might be able to get something from the bone marrow, that sometimes is safe, but that might take a month with the backlog like it is in the lab."

Tonks frowned and leaned forward, using one hand on the rim of the fountain to keep from falling into the stained water as she used her other gloved hand to dig through his robe pockets. "No wallet, or money pouch...Did you guys find a wand?"

"Yeah," Anabeth held up a clear plastic bag with a snapped birch rod in it. "Found it near the gap in the wall. Core's gone, so we can't print it to him, as it's one of those cheap generic imports anyway. His wound's from a spell, even though it looks like a were bite. They tried to disguise the spell traces, but we got a bit of side band off the rubble, where it must had brushed it on the way past."

Tonks nodded and straightened, peeling off her gloves and dropping them into a bag sitting next to the tech. "Send the report to me in the morning. I don't know why you called one of us in. I'm going to get home, and try to get back to sleep."

Anabeth shook her head and stood, leading Tonks over to the wall near the shattered hole in the wall. A thin sheet of brick dust fell down as she placed her hand on the edge of the bricks, and flicked her wand at another spot. A small green skull with a snake slithering in and out of the mouth glowed faintly as she blew the dust from it.

Tonks muttered something most unladylike, and looked back towards the corpse. "Exactly what did they want with him?" she mused, as she huddled in her jacket, suddenly ice cold in a breeze that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere. "Work this place up, see if you can lift enough trace to find out who was here, though I doubt it from how far they went to cover it up."

The technician nodded as Tonks sighed once more and spun, vanishing between breaths with a faint POP, of displaced air.

*******************************Hogwarts*********************************

7:45 pm

Sirius muttered a long, complicated oath under his breath in a dead language, and closed the book before him with a loud thump. His OWLs were only four months away, and while certain subjects such as Defense, Transfiguration and Charms seemed to be, and probably were almost inherited along with his eyes and hair, there were others he needed to study.

In particular, Divination was proving a particular chore. It was not that he did not get the principles, especially since his girlfriend and her mother were both seers of a type, at least, but that the professor that Dumbledore had found, was useless. The Ministry required the class be taught, but not that competent instruction be found.

He scrubbed at his eyes, having cast his glasses to the scarred table, and sighed, leaning his head back to stare up at the vaulted ceiling, twenty feet or so away. He yawned and closed his eyes, smiling faintly as a whispered presence danced in, literally, behind him from the main part of the library.

For the most part, he spent his time at Hogwarts relatively closed up, holding his magic and senses close, though the person approaching held his attention at any time. The soft pressure of another pair of lips on his interrupted his musings a second later and he reached up to cup the back of a familiar head.

His eyes opened as the kiss broke, and Harriet moved around him to perch on the edge of the table facing him. She crossed her legs and swung them idly, smirking slightly as Sirius' eyes fell to the bare expanse of her thigh exposed between the hem of her skirt and her knee-high socks.

He forced his eyes upward, to meet hers.

She shrugged, "You can look at them all you want, Sirius."

"I...I don't want you to think that I only..."

She shook her head and leaned forward from the table, to softly kiss his nose. "I'd never think that, Sirius...though," she moved to the chair next to him, scooting it over until her leg pressed on his, not at all lightly, "I'm glad that you do think I'm nice to look at...even though I'm not."

"You are," he argued quietly, and she gave him a small smile in return, and turned to her books.

"Let's study," she said, not replying to his comment, as she pulled a thick copy of Peering into the Future from the pile on the table in front of her and opened it. She let her head flop over to the side, to rest on his shoulder, but reading at obtuse angles was inherited along with her eyes. "Now, what you have to remember, Sirius, is that what the book says, what they tell you to study is not what I do..."

In their involvement in each other, neither noticed a book slam back into place in the stacks, and a witch leave in a swirl of a blue-trimmed skirt and brown hair.

"Why not, I mean you..."

Harriet sighed, "The Ministry teaches charlatanism, while balls might give you a limited view of the future, leaves, cards...they are just guesses. They might as well be Muggles in a fair somewhere."

"Then why..."

She smiled faintly and looked up and back at him.

He just nodded. A separate thought came over his face, "Where are Em and the rest, I thought they were coming?"

Harriet looked up and to the right, a small, vague looking falling over her eyes, "Oh, I am sure that Em is...she's just not here."

Sirius looked green as Harriet flipped a page, and pointed at a diagram, "Let's go over the common tea leaf patterns, shall we?" she asked as if her comment had been about the snow falling outside.

*****************************Room of Requirement*************************

8:35pm

Emilia smiled and pushed back a strand of sweat-logged hair, as she idly twirled her sword around her fist, slowly pacing to the left around Xander as he stood in the middle of the room on the exact center of thick red mats. He held a long, bastard sword lightly in front of him in both hands, slowly turning to keep her in view at all times.

She slowly placed one bare foot in front of each other as she moved, each tread utterly precise. "You know, there is something..." she blurred forward and her sword whistled as it cut the air at his head, was blocked with a clang. She spun back to her left, sweeping her blade at his legs, only to watch him jump over the infinitely sharp steel.

Emilia hopped backwards to resume her previous place. She started to circle once more, smirking as she followed Xander's eyes to the damp vee of skin at her throat, the top four buttons of her blouse undone and the white fabric sticking to her skin. She licked her lips slowly, and watched as brown eyes flickered totally black for an instant and scanned down her body, at the short, pleated uniform skirt that ended a good six inches above her knees, and flared up as she moved quickly to occasionally expose a bright red patch of silk.

"See something you like, Love?" she murmured, just loud enough for him to hear across the three paces separating them. She continued to move, well within the distance that training showed, that an attacker with a blade or unarmed, could strike before the average Auror could draw his wand and fire a spell. Of course that did not apply to either of them.

Xander shrugged and let a soft, tuneless whistle slip through his teeth, "I dunno, I've seen better."

He dove to the side, as a wave of force shot at him, scattering books from the shelves lining the walls behind him that the room had manifested as they entered. Xander blocked a strike from her sword from the floor and pushed up and back into a somersault that ended with him on his feet.

Smiling crookedly, Emilia snorted and took a step backwards, flicking her sword through a butterfly twist, which was showy, and mostly useless against one opponent. She watched as his eyes slowly faded back to brown, and she looked around the room and back to him, not really having to look at him to know where he was at all times. "And exactly who are you referring to, Mr. Lupin?"

"Well, Mrs. Lupin," he responded, waving one hand in the air as he used the other to flicker his sword about. Ignoring her mocked laughter, he mimed thinking, "Rain is looking rather hot these days, and Harriet has a great pair of legs...And there is always Maraisah, she's always looking for a bit of entertainment."

Emilia licked her lips once more, "If you really want to catch something, be my guest." She took a deep breath and watched as his eyes fell once more, "Though your bed will be rather cold in the winter." She paused as he slowly forced his eyes upward, to meet hers, "And who ever said I was going to take your name, mine is rather more famous after all, perhaps you should take mine."

"I could," he grunted and leapt forward, swinging at her head.

She leaned back without moving her feet, to watch the blade pass over her nose.

Xander's blade shot back to the right, only to taste only air, as she flipped sideways, landing in a half spilt, with one hand splayed on the ground in front of her, and the second holding her sword inverted back along her arm. "But wouldn't that be a little pretentious?"

Emilia pushed back upright, and rolled her head on her neck, "Shall we play, then," she tossed her sword to one side, where it hovered in midair and then shot over to drop neatly into a rack on the wall. She reached down, and drew her wand from the dragonhide sheath riding her thigh.

Xander nodded and flung his sword away at the wall, it shot over and jabbed into the wood of the bookcase, and he looked back to her, as it still quivered in place.

"Nice."

"I try," His wand filled his hand from nowhere, and he took a step back, his wand tracking up towards Emilia.

A yellowish ball of fire tore from his wand without warning, and Emilia slashed hers downward, just as the fire reached her. The fireball splashed off her shield, and she flicked hers sideways, sending a purple spiral back, even as she dove to the right, and waved her left hand at him.

Stone tendrils grew from the floor, entangling his legs. He spun his wand in a circle, and a shimmering cone surrounded him, which froze instantly into a cone of ice. It bulged outward and shattered, the shards flying past Emilia as she spun away into invisibility.

Night black eyes narrowed as he darted to the side, and waved his wand through a complicated pass. A soft snow started to fall from the ceiling, and started to collect on the red mats. He slowly looked around, his wand tracking with his eyes. He smirked faintly as a patch of snow to his left seemed to fall fractionally slower than the rest.

Xander dove forward to the floor, twisting in mid air to fling a red Stunner bolt towards the patch, as another shot past his ear.

Emilia faded into view, and closed her free hand into a fist. Instantly, the snow stopped, and a beat later, the remaining snow vanished. Her eyes flickered as she seemed to vanish, and reappear next to him. Her foot snapped up and around, and he flew backwards to crash into the wall, only to remain upright as a smaller body, at least as strong as his, pressed him inexorably into the stone wall behind him.

Emilia panted quietly, looking at him from a distance of only a few inches as she pressed Xander against the wall with her own body, her wand at his throat.

Glancing down, his eyes were fully black, and sharp canines extending past his lip.

One, then the other wand dropped to the floor beneath them, rolling away, as if guided, and she pressed him further, "Xander," she murmured, her eyes dropping to his neck, watching the pulse beat there.

He nodded fitfully, his nostrils flaring as her scent filled them.

"You know that I'm taking your name, right?"

"Yeah," a soft growl, filled his words, sending shivers down her spine, "I figured."

"Good," a susurration. Her hands slipped down to press flat to his chest, and a light tingle raced back up her nerves, as she let her eyes rise back to his and her world swirled forward, and she gasped as a second set of nerves fill her own. Her fingers fluttered on his chest, lifting and falling as he slowly caught his breath. "I didn't want there to be a doubt."

He cupped her cheek, his thumb lightly stroking her cheekbone, "There wasn't, Em." His other hand slowly slipped down, trailing down her neck to the top of her chest, pushing back the damp cotton of her shirt, trembling slightly as she overloaded his senses. He looked down as her fingers fell to the bottom of his shirt, working under it, as she pushed forward, trapping his hand between them.

She nodded once, jerkily, her own nostrils flared and her pupils became ovals for an instant, even as they lit from the outside in. Her leg worked between his, and she sighed very softly as she felt him respond to her through the several layers of fabric separating them. Emilia's head tilted back as she lifted on her toes to meet his lips, groaning as she let her lips fall open, and her eyes fluttered closed, partially masking the greenish glow from within.

Em...

Sussh...she slowly stepped back from him, reaching back behind her, and flicking a hidden catch. Her skirt slid to the floor, to pool around her ankles. She stepped out of it, languidly finishing unbuttoning her shirt, her eyes never leaving his. It fell away from her with a small shrug, only to have her bright red bra follow it to the floor.

Twisting fingers into the thin side straps of her matching knickers, she slowly slid them down her hips, bending forward at the waist to slide them all the way to the floor, and folding double in the process. She rolled upright, her eyes boring into his, even as she felt his heart start to race...matching hers beat for beat.

A soft pile of blankets and cushions appeared on the mats at her feet with a snap of light and she sank to her knees, looking up at him, as she crooked one finger at him. Come here, Xander.

10:15 pm

Harriet 's eyes were focused in the middle distance, neither seeing her path nor the dim corridor stretching out before her as she slowly moved towards Gryffindor Tower, a warm fire, and the companionship of a black-haired Chaser. He had left her twenty or so minutes ago, to go along with Bob and Dan to look over something or other for DADA. She had not really been paying attention at the time, other than to return Sirius' goodbye kiss.

She had become, more and more as she got older, adept at moving without seeing her surroundings consciously, as occasional views of events not quite here filled her mind. Of course, if she needed, she could focus on her surroundings, usually. Focusing the glimpses into a corner of her mind, a talent that many seers did not share, in fact there were very few seer lines that could do so, her mother and grandmother among them. It was the reason that such talents were actively recruited for government service, as many, not that the talent was actually common, of the available seers could barely remember to feed themselves at times, let alone engage in the moment-to-moment interactions of combat and other active endeavors.

Having a vision controlling her, at the same time a Death Eater decided to pop off a Kedavra, would not be the best for her continued existence after all.

The focus, not that many thought it was such, had a drawback in the end, however. Very few people interacted with actual seers, as the majority never attended places like Hogwarts and did not know their real interactions. Their talents did not allow them to interact with others in a cognitive manner in many cases. From the onset of puberty, when it typically began, and typically for females, most were educated at home, or by specialists. However, if her or her mother held them back too long, they tended to try to fight their way to the surface as if to demand attention. It was the reason that both of them often just let their talents flow at a low level.

Harriet stopped and her hand shot out to brace her on the wall, as a brief flicker of an image, of a green-tinged night and of blood, filled her sight and vanished just as fast. The images had been getting stronger, as of late, but there was no true vision, and frankly, she doubted she would get one. Especially as the vision seemed to be entangled with her nightmare, of Sirius lying dead and looking up at her mournfully.

The dreams and visions had come more since the attack on the train. For a short time, after she and Sirius had admitted their feelings for each other, they had receded. No doubt due to the lessened burden on her mind, but now they seemed to have returned with a vengeance.

A spike of pain shot through her body, sending her tumbling to the ground. The world suddenly became sharply focused once more, as she pulled her focus tight by force of will, unconsciously drawing on a flicker of power, whose source she did not dare think about at the instant. She rolled away quickly, just as a red bolt snapped past her ear and blew a divot into the wall behind her.

She snap-kicked to her feet, and glared at the newcomer, whose wand tracked to her head...Harriet batted away another Stunner, and glared across the distance, as Naomi stepped from out of a small alcove, and started to slowly slide towards the redhead. Harriet frowned, "Please, Naomi, stop. There is no reason..."

"He is mine, I don't know how you did it; did you give him a potion? Use some odd power, what?" she snarled and slipped closer.

Harriet sighed and resheathed her wand, and stepped to the side. She pushed past Naomi, took one step, and let out a sharp yelp as a fist tangled in her ponytail and pulled her head back, and she crumpled as a small fist crashed into her kidney.

Harriet coughed in pain even as she rolled to the side, moving away from the foot that stomped for her chest. Harriet rolled again, avoiding another kick, before bounding back to her feet in one move.

Naomi growled and charged; punching at Harriet only to have her wild jab batted away.

Harriet took a breath, "What the bloody hell do you think you are doing?" She hopped backwards, avoiding a slap. She took another step back, and her back hit the wall. She grunted and Naomi managed to land an open handed slap.

"He's mine, bitch." Naomi punched at her again, only to miss and hit the impenetrable stones of the castle. She screamed in sudden pain and Harriet took a breath as she spun away from her.

"No, he's mine," Harriet reported, her eyes hardening. "He's mine," she snarled, as any trace of detachment fell away, "leave him the fuck alone."

"Shut up, slag," Naomi hissed and slapped at Harriet.

Harriet grabbed her arm and spun, flinging her into the wall, and letting out a muttered curse as she heard her shirt rip as the other girl flew past, her arms flailing. Harriet glanced down for a second, finding that most of the buttons on her school blouse had been ripped open.

She tumbled backwards into the floor in the next instant, as Naomi rebounded off the wall and tackled her. Naomi punched her in the gut, and Harriet grunted as the wind was knocked out of her. Naomi landed another punch, an inch above the first and Harriet snarled, rolling them both over and lifting up enough to snap an elbow across Naomi's jaw.

"He's mine, you whore," Harriet snapped, followed by a punch to Naomi's face. Blood polled under the other girl's left eye and Harriet rolled off her and to the side as Naomi swung back at her. Harriet waited as Naomi regained her feet, swung at her and missed as Harriet bobbed to the side.

Her right foot snapped out, collapsing Naomi's leg, and her jaw met a sharp uppercut, sending Naomi flying backwards into a suit of armor. "Leave Sirius alone, Naomi. I know what you tried to do."

Naomi started to push up on a bit of armor, it slipped away from under her hand and she crashed back to lie flat on the floor.

Harriet seemed to appear over her, "Leave him alone," Harriet said lowly, tapped her once with her foot, just hard enough to jolt her, "he's mine, I am going to marry him, have his children, and we will grow old together. Don't ever bother him again, or I won't be responsible for what happens."

Harriet spun on her heel and stalked off, wiping a trace of blood from a split lip, that she had gained somehow and did not so much as grimace as a spike of pain to show as she moved out of sight, holding her shirt together with one hand.

Naomi looked up as a female hand reached down and pulled her to her feet. She looked into a pair of blue eyes, framed under a neon-red shag as Maraisah slowly wiped a smear of blood away from her cheek with the pad of one thumb.

"We need to talk, Naomi," Maraisah said quietly, she pulled on Naomi's hand, leading her back in the direction of the Library, "Come on, let's get you fixed up."

Harriet was nearly shaking as she reached the Common Room minutes later, finding Sirius in conversation with Dan. Chastity was leaning back in his arms, following the conversation with tired eyes, obviously near nodding off to sleep.

Dan's mouth opened as Harriet approached at nearly a run, grabbed Sirius's hand and pulled him back towards the portrait hole, all without saying a word. He let her pull him along the corridor outside the tower; not bothering to mention that it was now after curfew. They moved along, dropping one floor and headed off down the sixth floor hallway.

She stopped in front of a seemingly blank stretch of wall, bordered by a pair of statues of griffins that turned and regarded them. Their glowing blue eyes went blank, and the statues became still once more. Harriet tightened her fingers in his and stepped into and through the wall, into a comfortable room filled with a battered overstuffed couch, a couple of half-filled bookshelves and a low table. A white fur rug sat before a softly blazing fire, providing the only light for this hidden study nook.

"Harriet?" Sirius asked finally, letting his confusion come forth.

Harriet shook her head and drew her wand briskly from its half-concealed holster. The tip of her wand lit with fire as she sketched a flaming protective pentagram in the air. The ward crashed into existence with a muffled boom and she let her wand drop from her hand to roll along the floor until it hit the foot of the couch.

She did not notice as she took his hand once more and pulled him to the rug in front of the fire, pulling him down to his knees on the soft rug, obviously underlayed with a thick cushioning charm.

"What's wrong, Harriet?"

"Transform," she whispered, and he crooked an eyebrow and complied without another word, transforming in place, his emerald eyes gaining cat pupils as she a tail slipped loose, his body elongated as his nose did as well. He stretched out on all fours, as his hands became paws, and in instant later, a green-eyed, night-black lion looked back at her. He laid down on the rug, looking up at her, for only a beat before she flopped down next to him, half transforming, her tufted ears slipping up from under her hair as a red and black striped tail emerged from under her skirt.

She kicked off her shoes and wrapped her arms around the huge predator, hiding her face in his fur and inhaling deeply. "I wish it was your birthday," she whispered, her left hand tangling and releasing in his mane, absently. "They are getting worse, Sirius," she finally said, "I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm scared...You won't let anyone get to me? Will you?"

A soft purr was her only response.

She nodded into his fur and closed her eyes, snuggling as close as she could as huge paws with three-inch claws tightened around her protectively.

A/N: There you go, Violence, 1 1/2 sex scenes, a cat fight...what else could you aske for...Next Chapter, which is also long, Questions answered, pledges made, research performed, and a bit of silk.

Built by Text2Html