Author's Note: Hello! I have decided to rewrite this. I just don't like it anymore. It was too Mary Sue. :( Okay, well, enjoy the new version.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Unspoken Secrets

Chapter One: Captured

A young girl sat on a cliff overlooking the ocean and watched as the sun set. The clouds were changing slowly changing colors, from yellow, to orange, to a soft, purplish-pink.

She smiled slightly as it slid below the horizon the stars became brighter. Familiar constellations stood out, including Leo and Canis Major. Her favorite star, Sirius, the Dog Star, shone brighter than ever as she gathered up her things.

She idly kicked a stone over the edge and watched as it fell down to the dark depths below, disappearing into the churning water.

The path through the forest was dark and gloomy, but she had walked it many times and knew that there was nothing to fear. She would remember to pick up her feet in a particularly rocky area and to duck whenever the branches were low.

It was not long before she had reached the other end and was looking out over a deserted town. The buildings were few and close together, with only a few old houses. Legends told of how the town was haunted by spirits and ghosts, but that only profited the girl, for this is where she lived, and where she had lived for many years.

She jogged down to the old Victorian house where she usually slept. For years she had been building it up, using wood form the forest while all of the other things she needed were in the other houses or the old drug store.

She climbed the stairs to the wrap-around porch, making sure that she did not step on any rotted areas, and swung open the old screen door. A slight breeze blew through the house.

She stopped and looked around, but she did not see or hear anything. She proceeded to the kitchen and put her things on the counter. The kitchen was the room she had worked hardest on and it had paid off. The wooden walls and floor shone with a polish she had found in the attic and the counters gleamed in the moonlight.

Breathing in the smell of the fresh ocean breeze, she smiled. Unconsciously, her ears perked up and she heard a soft creak from the hallway. Ducking behind the island, she held her breath.

The door opened and somebody stepped inside. They walked around until the girl thought she might have to move to stay hidden, but there the footsteps stopped. She kept holding her breath, waiting for the right moment.

She could see a pair of shiny black shoes moving closer. Mentally reprimanding herself for doing something so stupid, she grabbed the stranger's ankles and pulled hard. They lost their balance and fell. She jumped to her feet and ran down the hall. A tall man in a hooded cloak stepped in front of her and pulled out a stick of wood, pointing is directly at her heart.

Without thinking she reached out, grabbed the stick, and broke it over her knee before turning into a separate room. She threw open the window and climbed through, dropping the seven feet to the ground and taking off at a sprint towards the path in the woods.

It was pitch black in the trees as she ran, pushing leaves and branches out of her way. She could hear the crunching of the men's feet as the chased her and silent tears fell down her face.

'Who are they and what so they want with me?' she frantically wondered as she ran out towards the cliff where she had been earlier.

There was shouting from behind her and she knew that there was nowhere to run. They would catch her, but what did that really mean? She didn't know who they were and what they wanted from her, so she couldn't be sure it would be bad. Maybe they were just some people passing through.

'But what was with the cloaks and the stick?'

She turned just as the men came out of the forest. With nowhere to run, she simply stood there and gazed at them as the one closest to her took out a stick from his pocket and pointed it at her. After a moment of curiosity, a bright red light issued from the stick in his hand and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

O O

Something cold and wet hit the girl's face as she snapped her eyes open, but she immediately regretted this as a sharp pain shot through her skull.

Water dripped from her face as she peered into the face of her captor, but all she saw was a black mask. Cold grey eyes glared down at her through the slits.

Her thoughts blurred together and she couldn't string together a sentence. She didn't know where she was, why she was here, or who had taken her. She didn't know anything at the moment, not even her name. Everything was a haze in her mind.

The man leaned down and hauled her to her feet. The sudden movement caused her to feel light-headed and dizzy as he led her to another room.

It seemed to be a cell of some sort, with stone walls, ceiling, and floor. There were no windows.

"Stay here, and stay quiet," the man hissed as he threw her to the ground, closed the door, and locked it.

The girl shrank into the shadows, staying quiet as told. Who knew what these people could do to her if she tried to escape.

Using all of her concentration, she tried to piece together the last things she remembered. There were men in her house.. Men in cloaks with some sort of sticks... they attacked her and she ran to the cliff. One of them pulled out another stick and a red light shot out of it.

Her mind became more awake and her senses sharpened as sat and thought.

It seemed hours before the men came back. They set down a piece of bread and some water before leaving again. She greedily grabbed at it and ate it down, still pondering why she was there.

She slept that night on the cold stone floor, trying to salvage some kind of comfortable position, but her attempts were in vain. She couldn't sleep that night, or any other night that she stayed in that horrid place.

At times, a few men would come in with their sticks and say things in a different language. These visits were feared by the girl because they often ended with her nursing bruises, cuts, scrapes, scars, and sometimes a broken limb.

This went on forever, or at least that's how it seemed to the girl. She didn't wonder anymore. She only prayed that this wouldn't be her life. She prayed that somebody would save her, but she did not have much faith in her prayers.

Except one day, after a particularly harsh visit. A vague picture of the man standing in the corner flashed before her eyes. He had pale, sallow skin and extremely greasy hair. His eyes were almost as black and cold as the cell she had been living in.

He had been the last to leave, and that was when the girl first noticed something. The door didn't click like it usually did when they left. He hadn't locked it. The corners of her mouth twitched in what she used to call a grin, but she hadn't grinned in ages.

Without a proper way to measure time, she had to wait to hear the snores of the watchman until she could risk it. As the first sound of his deep breathing drifted through the thick wooden door, she crept over to it and edged it open. Thankfully, it was well-oiled and didn't make any sound as she opened it a bit more and squeezed through it.

She quickly stole through the almost dungeon-like labyrinth that she had unknowingly been in. Surprisingly, she found some stairs rather quickly and flew up them, practically running to find the door out. Without thinking she ran right through the hallways and doors of the building, not caring if she was seen. She had to get out.

She ran through a kitchen and vaguely registered that there were four men at the table talking. They barely looked up as she flew past and ran through the door to the outside world. Fresh, clean air hit her face as she kept running. The soft grass rippled in the wind and tickled her feet slightly as she went towards the forest in the distance. Rays of red light danced around her as the people casting them cursed. The trees were getting closer and closer and until she ran right into them, breaking twigs and branches as she went.

Not daring to look back, she only increased her speed, and she kept running until the woods became too thick and she couldn't see, so she was forced to turn before she could keep running. After a while, the trees began to thin and she stopped at the edge, panting heavily from the exertion.

A few street lamps illuminated the small neighborhood full of old townhouses. Some of them had missing shutters and broken windows, but it strongly reminded the girl of her home as she ventured out of the trees. Staying to the shadows, she crept around the houses, looking for an empty one.

An all too familiar pain coursed through her body as she looked up at the full moon, slightly covered by some clouds. Her nails grew longer and sharper as hair sprouted all over her body. With a piercing howl, her body elongated and fangs grew in place of her teeth. Within seconds, she was a fully fledged werewolf.

Instinctively, she ran into the forest, a thirst to kill, to taste blood rising up in inside her. All night long she ran through the woods, clawing at the trees and dirt. As the sun peeked over the horizon, there was a loud, heavy howl filled the crisp morning air and the girl froze. She recognized that howl; she herself had issued it many times. There was another werewolf nearby.

After the painful transformation back into her human form, her clothes now dirty and torn, she cautiously stepped out of the trees and into the sunlight, slowly reaching a hand up to shield her eyes.

A tall man with light brown hair appeared out of nowhere and wearily staggered over to a decomposed fence, leaning against it with all his weight. His skin was pale and there were slight bags under his eyes. He looked exhausted.

The girl stepped back into the trees, but a loud crack resounded across the street as she stepped back onto a twig. The man jerked his head up, revealing two very bright golden eyes. She froze, immediately recognizing the color and shape of his eyes.

He, too, pulled out a stick and waved it around. For a moment, he peered at her hiding place, but he turned away and the girl breathed a sigh of relief. Little did she know that the man had seen her. As he walked back towards wherever he had come from, he quickly spun around and cast a stunning spell directly at the girl. She fell to the ground, unconscious yet again.

O O

"Well what are we going to do with her?" a woman asked fervently.

"I don't know. We will decide when she wakes up," answered a very calm male voice.

"Well, until then, when do you think she will wake up?" another male asked coolly.

"I do not know Sirius. Thought it does look like she might be coming around," the calm voice said.

The girl groggily opened her eyes and saw the blurry faces of many people around her. She instinctively jerked back and away from them. As her vision became sharper, she saw a man with pale skin; long, black hair; and deep grey eyes move closer to her. His eyes widened.

"Oh my God," he muttered, looking between her and a man sitting in the corner. Casting a glance at him, she recognized him as the man that had stunned her.

"What is it Sirius?" the woman asked worriedly.

"Her eyes... they– they look exactly like Moony's," he muttered. There was a gasp as the woman did the same movement of looking between the girl and the man in the corner.

"Sirius? If you don't mind...," the calm male voice interjected.

"Oh, of course Albus."

The man stood up and walked to the corner, trying vainly to start up a conversation with the man there, who kept staring at the girl, lost in his own thoughts.

"Miss, do you have a name?" the man asked as he sat next to her. He had piercing blue eyes, half-moon spectacles, and long, flowing silver hair.

Swallowing a few times to moisten her throat, the girl answered tentatively. "Tala."

"Tala... Tala..." he repeated, rolling it on his tongue. "I believe that it means 'wolf' in American Indian, correct?" She nodded and he continued. "Well, you have a very pretty name Miss Tala. Do you have a last name?"

She shook her head slightly. "I never knew my real name."

He cocked his head. "My dear... is that a Scottish accent I hear on your tongue?" She nodded again and he smiled. "Very peculiar indeed," he muttered. "Well, I am Professor Albus Dumbledore. One of my associates"– he gestured to the man in the corner, who was still staring blankly at the wall–"found you outside and brought you into our humble abode."

He continued to smile at her, but she did not return it. For all she knew, these people could be just like the ones that had held her before.

"If you don't mind my asking, sir, how exactly did he do that to me?" she asked softly. The man with dark hair, who she assumed was called Sirius, looked at her with an air of surprise.

"This could take some time to explain. How about if I make a deal with you Miss Tala. I will tell you all that you want to know, as long as it is information you are permitted to know, if you tell me what brought you here."

She thought about it for a moment before nodding and starting her tale. "I live in an abandoned town, only going to the city for supplies when needed. For years now, I've been rebuilding some of the old, broken-down houses so that I could live in them. One day, I was out by the cliff painting, and when I came back home, there were men there. They had cloaks and carried thin wooden sticks like he used," she said, nodding her head in the man's direction. "I ran to the cliff, but they somehow knocked me unconscious.

I don't know how long I was there exactly." She paused, trying to think of how many transformations she had gone through in that wretched place. "At least nine months," she answered confidently. 'It had to have been nine months.. I had at least nine transformations...' she thought vaguely before continuing."Men would visit me in the cell I stayed in. They also used certain words to cause me pain. This went on every day until a new man came with them. He did not lock the door when he left, whether he forgot or he did it on purpose, I don't know, but I escaped, and that was last night. I was running through the woods, when–" She froze.

"When?" he prodded gently.

"No, you're going to think I've completely lost my mind. It's extremely hard to believe," she stammered. Dumbledore smiled at her encouragingly.

"Well, I have a wider range of beliefs than you might think, so please continue."

She bit the inside of her cheek and looked around. 'What else am I going to do? They took me in, be it for good reasons or foul. But not even my old captors knew about this...'

"I'm–" she let out a breath of air she had been holding. "I'm a werewolf," she said quickly and softly.

To her surprise, Dumbledore continued smiling. "Well, that must explain why Remus here heard another howl last night," he said cheerily.

Tala gawped at him. Was he really going to just accept it like that? And how would Remus know about a fellow werewolf?

Her thoughts were interrupted however, by Sirius walking towards her again. He sat by her on the bed and tentatively reached a hand out and touched her cheek.

"I suppose your captors gave you these?" he asked darkly. Tala nodded sadly and he sighed.

"Can we do something about this Albus?"

"Yes, yes, of course. I shall get someone to heal her right away."

"Sir?" she interrupted.

"Yes Tala?" Dumbledore inquired kindly.

"What are you going to do to me?" she asked in a small, frightened voice.

His eyes filled with concern as he leant down next to her. "My dear, we are not going to do anything to you except feed you, heal you, and make sure you are healthy and well once again."

A tear fell from the corner of Tala's eye, because somehow, she knew that he was sincere.

"Sirius, would you help Miss Tala to her room?"

Sirius nodded and helped Tala stand. Once there was pressure on her ankle, she crumpled. It was one of the results from the previous night, and she thought that it might be broken.

Sirius grunted as she fell, but quickly recovered as he swooped down and picked her up bridal-style, carrying her with ease down the hall. She wound her arms around his neck as they walked and he smiled down at her. They soon reached another door and he opened it with a slight kick. The room was fairly large and had bunk-beds against one wall, and an empty portrait on another.

He walked over to the bed and set her down, but she would not let go of his neck.

"I don't know your name," she stated simply. He looked her in the eye for a moment.

"Sirius Black, it's nice to meet you," he said with a warm smile.

"Tala. Sorry I can't give you anything more."

"Tala is more than enough," he said softly.

She released him and he walked to the door. "We'll get somebody in here to heal you soon Tala. But don't worry, I'll be back. I'm not that easy to get rid of," he said with a cheeky smile. He opened the door but Tala called him back.

"Sirius!"

"Yes?" he said, turning in the doorway and looking at her curiously.

"Thank you."

He froze and looked at her with his head slightly tilted. A grin slid over his lips. With a quick nod a click from the closing of the door, he was gone.