Day One

The girl was only pretending to sleep. The lion could tell from the shift in her breathing and her careful eye movements under slitted lids. She didn't want the hunter to know she was awake. The lion knew what she looked like when she was really sleeping, having taken on the task of watching her most of the night before: rigid muscles, face tense, her whole body shaking as she fought against something in her dreams. Now, she was just acting. The hunter bought it, though. He'd been watching her for a long time in silence.

The lion tired of waiting. He rose from where he lay curled up near the door, stretched, and clawed at the floor for a few seconds before strolling over to the girl. He butted his head against hers, rubbing his cold nose against her face until she swatted at him and sat up. She opened her eyes and fixed him with a dark, glittering glare. The lion sprinted toward the hunter and received a head scratch before sprawling on his lap.

The girl - Dark Eyes, he decided - watched the hunter like she expected him to lunge at her. She was on the floor in front of the bed, and he sat against the wall near the door, his legs crossed. The lion draped himself across the bony lap and purred. It was a long moment before either of them spoke.

"I'm sorry." The hunter sounded tired. "I… I shouldn't have done that. I'm not so good with knowing how to react anymore. I was in prison for so long. It made me… Well, you saw it." The hunter scratched behind the lion's ear. He purred louder.

"I uh, brought you some blankets and a jug of water," he continued. "And a bucket. For... well. You'll figure it out."

Dark Eyes stared at him, not blinking, not making a sound. She seemed to be holding her breath.

"You could sleep on the bed, you know. Instead of under it. I know it's a bit wonky, but it's got to be better than the floor."

Still silent.

The hunter spoke again. "Are… are you all right?"

"I want to leave." Her voice had an edge. The lion swished his tail at the sound. He didn't understand what people said most of the time, but he could tell when an interaction was going well. This one was not going well. His ears flicked forward and he watched the exchange with half-closed eyes.

"That's not a good idea."

"I won't tell anyone about you. I'll go back to the forest."

He didn't answer. He stroked the lion.

"Please." Her voice made the lion swish harder. "Please let me go."

The hunter sighed. "No."

The lion did not like the tension. He leapt from the lap and began to groom himself to calm the prickling to his skin. The hunter tried to ask her something, but Dark Eyes stopped responding. She turned away from them and stared at the wall.

The lion couldn't tell what it was about her that made the hunter so frustrated. It was something about her face, her posture, the way she wouldn't look at him... It disturbed the hunter, and he got angry. He stormed out after a few minutes and the lion slipped out behind him. He watched, tail swishing, as the hunter locked the door.

"Bloody nutter," he growled as he threw the bolt.

The lion thought that was a bit rich. The man constantly complained about having been locked up unjustly. If he was the one held in the room against his will, he would have acted worse. He would have used his teeth on his jailer instead of the silent treatment.

Day Two

The next time that the hunter opened the door, the lion was surprised to see the dark-eyed girl was gone. In her place there was a deer, standing in the shadows of the corner of the room. A twitch of his nose, a quick sniff of the air, explained it. So she was another like the hunter, like that Rat. For a moment, the lion considered that this was an unusual coincidence. He'd gone his whole life without ever meeting a witch or wizard who could change forms on a whim, and then he met three in a matter of months. It made him wonder at the nature of fate and destiny, and the possibility of there being no such thing as free will.

His pondering was interrupted by loud curses as the hunter stepped in a pile of droppings just inside the doorway. He glared at Dark Eyes, shaking shit off his shoe. The lion doubted that the pile's placement had been accidental.

The hunter pushed the bucket he was carrying toward the girl, aggravated. "I brought you a fresh bucket, but I don't suppose you'll be needing it."

The deer limped toward the far corner of the room as they made their way inside. Her eyes were always on the hunter.

"You're hurt," The hunter said, frowning.

She didn't respond. The hunter set down the bucket and the package of food - well away from the droppings near the door - and moved toward her. She backed up a pace. He held up his hands.

"I'm not going to - Let me have a look. Maybe I can help."

She hesitated, then stepped forward again.

"I think this will work better if you shift back." He waited, his hands still in the air.

In an instant, the deer transformed into Dark Eyes' lithe form. She looked uncertain as the hunter as he moved toward her. He reached out, ignoring her wide eyes and her shrinking from him, and grasped her shoulder firmly.

"It's this one, right?"

She winced, and then nodded. The lion could see the cloud of magic leave his hand and swirl around the girl's shoulder and arm before it settled into the her. He'd been able to see magic since he was a cub. It was always present around the magical people, always showing up in their everyday movements. A quick shimmer, like sunlight reflecting, when a witch had a spark of inspiration. The soft bloom in the aura of a wizard who laid eyes on the person he loved. He could tell how powerful a given witch or wizard was just by watching them go about their lives.

The hunter's magic was intense and overwhelming. It stirred around him constantly. That's what had attracted the lion to him in the first place. Even when he'd looked for everything like an ordinary dog, it came off of him in waves that the lion could ignore. The hunter was a very powerful wizard, even if he did have trouble controlling the powers - only since prison, he said. And he was loads better with his wand, he said.

It took him a few clumsy attempts to heal her, but the lion could tell the dark-eyed girl felt some relief. She relaxed, stretching her arm and shaking her hand out.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

The hunter stepped back and looked her up and down. The lion wound around his legs, purring, pleased that the humans were behaving well with one another.

"Any other injuries you want to tell me about?"

She shook her head. "It was just my arm. And it was your fault."

"My fault?" He barked a derisive laugh, showing grey teeth. "Tell me how it was my fault that you tried to brain me with a tree branch. You're lucky you didn't lose your arm all together, you silly cow!"

She glared at him. His smile faded and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "I brought you some food."

The lion twitched his nose in the direction of the package. More bread, scrounged from the bins behind the village bakery. The lion thought this type of scavenging was beneath them. The hunter could have safely gone into the castle in his canine form to beg for scraps from the kitchen staff. When the lion told him that the castle familiars did that all the time, he'd outright refused on principle. The lion thought that was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard: refusing to be fed decent food in favor of sniffing through rubbish bins for day-old bread. He supposed that 'having principles' was one of the chief differences between their species.

Dark Eyes didn't acknowledge the food. "As lovely as this has been, I want to leave now." Her voice had an edge, the one that made the lion's skin prickle.

The hunter crossed his arms. "No. Sorry."

"Please."

"No. You can't leave, so stop asking."

"No one's looking for me, and I'm not going to tell anyone about you. I promise," she begged. "Sirius... please."

He shook his head. She stared at his implacable expression for several seconds, then shifted back into her deer form and stepped backward into the far corner. She stood stock still and watched him. He sighed and tried to talk to her, but that went about as well as the last time. He ended up storming out again in frustration.

Humans took offense at the strangest things. Another difference between their species.

He held the door open for the lion, waiting expectantly for him to follow. The lion didn't follow. He sat near Dark Eyes and looked at the hunter, tail twitching.

Slamming the door was a little over the top.

Day Three

The lion could tell that the girl's magic was weakening with her health. He could see it fading. She was growing despondent. She didn't eat or drink. The bread went stale on the floor. When she wasn't sleeping fitfully, she sat staring at the wall in silence, clutching her arms to herself. Sometimes she hunched with her eyes squeezed shut as though to block out some unpleasant sight.

It was boring. The lion wanted her to do something interesting. He nudged her, and she ignored him. He mouthed her hand in demand, nipping and drooling until she lifted it to stroke him weakly.

After a while, perhaps out of restlessness, she shifted back into a deer and paced the length of the room. It was during the pacing that she discovered she could speak with him. She was surprised by his intellect, just like the hunter had been at first. He didn't take it personally. He was used to being underestimated.

He told her things about the school, the Rat, and the hunter. She shared her misery, her fears, and her homesickness. She told him about shadows that stalked her and the nightmares. She told him a strange story of a lamp that found hidden things and a powerful wand concealed somewhere in the castle.

When she was too tired to continue, she wrapped herself in a dusty blanket and curled up under the bed frame to sleep.

The hunter came back to restock the room. He didn't wake the girl, and the lion slipped out with him when he left. They headed onto the castle grounds to watch and plot together. Nothing was amiss when they parted. The lion headed for the castle to meet his Clever Witch and check on the Rat situation. As usual, the hunter stalked the edge of the forest and watched the children play their ridiculous flying games. He said he had to keep an eye on someone important to him.

They were both protecting people they loved, and they both took that very seriously. That was why it felt so awful when things went wrong.

Day Four

The Rat was gone.

The lion spent a night in disgrace in the dormitory, unjustly accused of dispatching the horrible creature. Ironic. He would have loved to take credit for it.

The children shouted at one another and his Clever Witch cried herself to sleep. He couldn't wait to escape to the relative peace of the shack, but his relief was short-lived. When the hunter found out that the Rat was gone, he was furious. He stomped around the sitting room and kicked furniture and shouted curses. His rampaging magic made the settee upholstery explode, sending chunks of foam and the dust of the ages flying around the room.

The lion thought that as long as the hunter was occupied by his fury, he might as well do something productive. He left the shack and stalked the castle corridors, chasing shadows, searching for the little beast. He caught three mice and a sizeable cockroach that night, but the Rat was nowhere to be found.

Day Five

The hunter didn't calm down for a long time. He'd left during the night and came back late the next day, and the lion was waiting at the bedroom door for him. The hunter brought extra nice food by way of apology for losing his temper. Improbably, there were kippers and crumpets and sausage rolls that weren't even that stale. He and the hunter had a pleasant meal as Dark Eyes wrapped herself in a blanket and watched them with a blank stare. The hunter offered her some of the nosh, and she looked away. He sighed.

"I have a proposition for you, but it won't happen if you starve to death. Eat something." He shoved a sausage roll at her and she clutched it, glaring. The hunter waited until he was sure she wasn't going to chuck it at him, then continued. "I have some questions for you."

The lion's belly was pleasantly full of smoked fish. He licked his paws and cleaned his whiskers while the hunter settled on the floor near the girl. The man swung his long legs in front of him and crossed them at the ankle.

He looked at her and tipped his head in the direction of the lion. "He told me some things. About what you two talked about."

Dark Eyes didn't look at him. She picked apart the sausage roll, and the lion watched with interest as crumbs fell to the floor. "I want to leave."

The hunter paused. "Listen, I have to-"

She shook her head violently and bared her teeth, startling the lion. "Let me leave!"

He shook his head. "No."

"Why not? Why are you keeping me here, Sirius? Why are you doing this to me?" Her voice rose to a sudden, pleading cry. Her fist clenched, the sausage roll forgotten and crumbled on the filthy floor.

"Because you'll die out there!" The hunter shouted back at her, leaning forward and making the girl shrink back in surprise. The lion froze, one paw in the air, watching each of them carefully.

"No I won't," she stammered. "I'll be fine in my other form. That's why you - Sirius, he taught me. So I would survive."

He raised his eyebrows. "I taught you how to be an animagus?"

She nodded.

"Why... Why would I do that?"

"I already said, survival."

The hunter didn't seem to know what she meant by that. He studied her for a moment, sized her up like she was interesting but unknown prey. The mood calmed enough for the lion to resume his grooming.

After a long moment, he spoke. "Tell me about the ritual. The one you say you did to find Hogwarts."

"Why?" She asked.

He didn't answer. He leaned back on his elbows and closed his eyes like he was settling in for a long wait.

Dark Eyes hesitated for a moment, then murmured the beginning of an incantation. The lion watched her magic begin an anemic swirl around her head in a circle. It was a pale echo of the ritual, as though it couldn't resist flexing at the memory. It settled down again as she went on. She described the lamp to find lost things; the runes; the star charts.

The hunter nodded when she told him about the day and night of fasting and about inscribing a circle in the frozen earth to set her intentions and protect herself. When she told him about the blood spell to seal the lamp to her will, his jaw tightened.

"Dark magic," he said suddenly. "That's a powerful dark spell. No wonder it went wrong." Even the lion recognised his expression as bare disgust. Dark Eyes looked at the floor, her face pale.

"You're too young to use those spells," the hunter said, his voice hard. "Far too young to control such powerful dark magic. It would never have worked the way you wanted. Hell, I'm surprised you haven't been flattened by the exchange already. That's what I mean when I said you'll die out there." He looked at her sharply. "You're having nightmares?"

She looked startled, then nodded.

"The cat said you're seeing things, too?"

She hesitated and looked up at him again, her eyes wide. "Yes."

"That's the exchange. You used dark magic and now it's taking a price. It's only going to get worse."

"What do you mean?" She whispered.

The hunter rubbed a hand over his face. "My cousins - the ones you say you know - they use dark magic. Oh, I've done my share. I'm a Black, we're taught dark spells from the cradle. But Bellatrix - she reveled in it. It was her whole life. I saw her do some things that would turn your stomach." He stared into the distance for a moment.

"The exchange doesn't care who you are or why you used the magic. It only cares about balance. Making things equal. The more you use it, the higher the price. Bella went mad. Her sanity was the price the exchange commanded from her."

Dark Eyes blinked. "What's going to happen to me? Am I going to go mad?"

The hunter shook his head. "I don't know. How did you even learn the blood spell? You're just a kid, how would you-"

"I'm thirteen," she interrupted in a chilly voice. "I'm old enough. I traded a goblin for it."

"What kind of trade?" His eyes narrowed.

She shrugged. "Some teeth."

He stared at her.

"Not my teeth," she clarified. "Someone… else's."

"Well," he said after another long silence. "Do you know what happened to the lantern? What did you call it? The lantern of-"

"The Lamp of Eos? Yeah, it's at the castle. Lupin had it."

"Lupin?" Sirius sat up and looked at her with a fevered glint in his eye. "You saw him?"

"Yes," she said, suddenly chagrined that she hadn't thought of mentioning that before. "He said he's a professor. He had the lamp with him before I took off. You two were friends, weren't you? You - er, Sirius - told me some stories about being friends at school. You called him Moony."

He went pale. "Of course you'd know that."

"Why'd you want to know about the lamp?"

He didn't seem to be answering her as he spoke. He was distracted, thinking out loud. "You could try a cleansing ritual to soften the effects of the exchange, but you need the original artefact... If you're not lying about everything - which, what the hell, let's say you're not... Or you could try a sacrifice to balance the exchange... You say Moony has it?"

"Wait. You think the lamp could... Fix it? I could stop seeing things? Stop the nightmares?" She sat a bit straighter, spoke a bit louder.

He looked thoughtful. "No. You probably can't, not by yourself."

Her face fell.

"But… We. We could try. I know some spells that might work. We'll need to get the lamp. I could help you… but it's a risk. I'm willing to do it, if you do something for me." He leaned over to gaze at her, eye to eye. "Do you want my help?"

She nodded, no hesitation. The lion thought she looked - not happy - but not unhappy for the first time since he'd met her. Her black eyes gleamed in the half-light of the room.

"All right," The hunter said and set his jaw. "Like I said, I need you to do something for me first, before we try to get the lamp. Are you willing to hear my proposition?"

She nodded again, eager.

"All right. Here's what I need you to do."

Day Six

"This is a bad idea," Dark Eyes said for what was probably the tenth time. "We'll get caught."

They'd been arguing for what seemed to be a long time as they prepared to carry out the plan the hunter had cooked up. The lion had no sense of time inside the shack other than his own hunger or fatigue. The light outside had begun to fade, and he was hungry again. That meant it was almost time for him to meet his Clever Witch for a saucer of milk and a cuddle, and he really wanted a saucer of milk and a cuddle.

He swished his tail, bored, restless, wanting the humans to stop bickering. He considered scratching one of them to show his displeasure.

"Only if you do something suspicious." The hunter was resting on the arm of the shredded settee with his back to the girl as she toweled off.

She'd just finished washing up, if one could consider splashing with water and not even using a tongue or a flannel or anything to be 'washing up'. The shack's tiny kitchen had a pump that squeaked and screeched and expelled frigid, rust-tinged water into a large bowl. She had a small worn blanket to use for a towel, and was shivering as she stood in the tiny kitchen and dripped.

"Oh, okay then. I j-just won't l-look or act s-suspicious as I s-sneak around," She stuttered through her shivers. She took a sharp breath. "This is a d-dumb p-plan. They've already s-seen me. They'll n-notice me right away." She scrubbed at her wet, still-dirty hair and grimaced.

"No one will be looking at you. You look like any other student, and everyone will be at dinner anyway. All you have to do is not draw attention to yourself."

Her hands trembled and she was winded from the exertion of simply washing herself. The lion had watched the hunter coax a few bites of food into her the night before and again in the morning, pointing out that if she was weak from hunger she wouldn't be able to complete her task. The lion wondered how long it had been since she'd eaten regular meals. He wondered how long she'd gone without good sleep. He wondered how people could survive on only eight hours of sleep per night at all, let alone go without for days. He needed at least twice that amount of sleep every day or he would become grumpy and want to treat everyone he met like a scratching post.

Dark Eyes huffed and pulled on the wrinkled robe that the lion had procured. It was one of the Clever Witch's school robes. It had become somewhat soiled and rumpled as the lion dragged it through the castle and over the grounds. It was too short for Dark Eyes, but it was better than her filthy rags, and she did indeed look like a student when she wore it. A damp, frail, sallow-faced student. She stepped into shoes that she complained were both too big and mismatched. The lion couldn't tell a difference. They were black shoes, like all the children wore in the castle. Besides, he wasn't a bloody cobbler. She was lucky she got anything.

"All right," she sighed. "I'm dressed."

The hunter turned and gave her an appraising look. "You've still got some… Here."

He got up crossed into the kitchen. He went to the pump, filling the bowl with a bit of the freezing water and dipped the edge of the towel into it. He grasped her chin with his free hand and held her still as he scrubbed the side of her face. She squirmed and hissed at him.

"Ow! Stop it!" She pulled out of his grip and glared at him. "I'm clean enough!"

The hunter crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. He looked amused. "You look like you've been rolling in dirt. I suppose if anyone asks, you could tell them you've been working in the greenhouse."

The lion jumped up on the kitchen bench and bumped the girl with his head to hurry her along. She patted him and glared even harder at the hunter.

"You're one to talk. You look loads worse than me, you know."

"No one will see me, though. They'll just see Padfoot, and dogs are supposed to be dirty," he grinned. "Besides, my filthiness adds to my mystique as an outlaw."

"Mis-stink?"

"Mystique," he repeated. "It means 'aura of mystery'."

Dark Eyes scratched under the lion's chin and smirked, then wrinkled her nose. "I like mis-stink better. You really do stink. What even is that smell?"

"Dead squirrel, if I recall correctly. It's hard to remember," he grinned at her. "Whenever I come across a dead animal I like to have a good roll in it, get good and covered in the stench. Confuses the Dementors - throws them off the scent. And the canine part of me really enjoys it too."

She stared at him, her mouth open. "That is… foul."

The hunter reached into the inside pocket of his robe and pulled out the crumpled bit of parchment that the lion had brought to him a couple of days ago. He smoothed it with one hand before holding it out to Dark Eyes. When her fingers grasped it, he pulled back a bit and waited until she looked at him quizzically.

"Don't. Lose. It."

She took the scrap and tucked it inside her own pocket. He reached out and straightened the collar of her robes, then tried to brush some dust off her shoulder. The lion noticed her tense at his touch. If the hunter noticed too, he didn't mention it.

"Remember the plan?" At her nod, he prompted her. "Tell me. You should have memorised it by now."

She rolled her eyes but complied. "Follow you and wait for your signal."

"And then?"

"Use the passwords to get into the dorm. Find the rat, grab the rat, get out."

"And?"

She gritted her teeth. "Don't fuck up."

"Right." He turned and headed for the door, beckoning Dark Eyes and the lion to follow. At a few steps from the door, he suddenly turned.

"You're not going to start seeing those shadow-things and lose it on me, are you kid? I need you to stay in one piece until this is done."

She had a stormy expression on her face, one he'd seen his Clever Witch give the Rat's boy on more than one occasion when they fought. The hunter noticed.

"I need to know before we go in there. Are you sure you can do this? Are you up to it?" He gazed down at her, searching her face.

"I have to be up to it, don't I," she ground out. "If I want your help?"

"Yes," he nodded. "So don't cock it up."

He turned and opened the door to the tunnel. Together, the three of them headed for the castle.