/A.N./ I just wanted to mention this just so nobody thinks I blew them off. When I get reviews I reply back to the person who wrote it right? Well, I sometimes get a reply back and even have a conversation with them if we get along. Well, if you wrote back to me after I replied to a review and didn't get a response I want to apologize. The link from the site to my e-mail is screwed up at the moment so I can't send or get messages from anybody.

AND, I keep forgetting to add this, I DO NOT OWN HP. J. K. Rowling does. And she is nice enough to let us write about them.

I thought I might point this out, when I said in the last chapter that Harry doesn't want to use people he cared about in the war that didn't include Amai. He does care about her but since she is not only stronger than most wizards but she was hunting him by herself and is a powerful, trained hunter and she isn't doing this to protect him like all the others who died (his parents, Dumbledore, ect.) he trusts her to protect herself.


Next Step

Chapter Four: Superstitions, Bad Luck Omens

By Salaphina


When Amai walked into the sitting room where the Order members had retreated to she found it unusually quiet. The girl that was now sitting on the couch showed none of Amai's earlier shyness or timidity. She was intimidating if anything. She practically glared at all of them. Daring them to meet her eyes.

And she was dark. But not like Kingsley. Not in any way that was familiar. Or even exotic like Amai. Her darkness was not just skin deep nor deepened by power. She looked as if the darkness clung to her skin or came out from her pores. You could not tell where the darkness ended and where she began. She looked as if she was perpetually standing in a dark alley. The light flinched away from her skin as if to touch her would be to be tainted.

"Unico."

The girl's eyes shot over to Amai and, oddly, softened. The girl looked no older than her, but Amai knew that she had been through enough to age her twenty years. She had been treated with either great hatred or great pity in their clan. Neither of which was appreciated by any of their kind. Amai looked at Unico's neck to see the mark she had been branded with at birth. A curse mark is what it was. The mark of someone destined to either greatly help or hinder the clan. With the odds leaning towards hinder. Hence the unwelcome treatment from their clan members.

Amai had always liked and respected the girl however. She did not dread the meeting for that reason.

No, she dreaded the girl because she had been gone from the clan for years and the only thing that would bring her back was if Amai was in enough trouble that she needed her help. Desperately. And she trusted the girl's opinion; she was, after all, one of the greatest foretellers in the last century.

"You're in trouble."

Amai sighed. "So I gathered. That's the reason you're here, isn't it?"

Unico smiled. "Yes, it is." Her smile disappeared. "You made a mistake. A stupid one. You shouldn't have come. You especially shouldn't have joined him." She nodded her head in Harry's direction. His eyes narrowed.

Amai herself didn't very much like that comment. How exactly had she made a mistake? By joining the person that was as determined as she was? Or because he didn't think she was crazy? How exactly were those bad things?

But Unico didn't bother to head her angry looks. She went on, "You know that after what happened the clan, or what is left of it," she said this last part harshly, "is in no state to go to war."

Amai scowled at her, growling viciously, heedless of the gasps from several people in the room. Behind her she heard the werewolf say, "Don't. This between them." As he held back a worried Tonks. "I never said they had to fight! I can do this just as well on my own."

"Well, of course you can," her voice took on a patronizing tone, "because you are so well at controlling your power." She said, referring to the many time Amai had attempted healing in her younger years and ended up causing more damage due to her excess of power. She had an amazing store of power. That's why they couldn't kill her. Her power never ran out. Or near enough to it that her opponent tired first.

She took two steps toward Unico. Unico flinched but didn't move. Only by force of will however. Harry stood ready to make a move if need be. He didn't want to admit it and he certainly wouldn't tell anyone but he knew that if Amai started something the chances of them stopping her were slim. Not only was she physically stronger than them, but even with all of them in the room most likely the only way to stop her would be to kill her. And he didn't want that. The thought made him sick and made breathing painful.

But he knew he didn't have to worry about that, Tonks had been able to pull her off Malfoy. If she got between them again Amai would stop. She was attached to Tonks already. Amai wouldn't hurt her. And even if it came to that, hurting her would be hard. Killing her would be even harder.

"Things have changed since then Unico," she growled out.

Unico smirked, she knew the girl was stronger than she had been the twenty or so years age when she left. Her age had been shy of a hundred then and Amai under fifty. But she knew the girl would be powerful. And she knew it was foolish to try to stop her from doing what she wanted. But the omens were bad. The forces had driven her back to the girl's side, proving that bad things were being set in place. But as much as she wanted to flee, and as quickly as possible she couldn't. She loved this girl. She had been kinder to her than her own family.

But she had to stop her. If she went on like this she could end up dead. And if she decided to go on with it (as she knew she would, her eyes said it all; she was not willing to leave the boy who had given her hope of retribution) she would have to go with her.

As was her duty as Amai's older sister.


Sorry it is so short but this seemed the perfect place to end it. Do you hate me?

And Amai did say ealier on that none of her family survived but her twin brother but at the time she wasn't expecting to see her sister so she kinda, well, fibbed.

And I didn't want to ruin the surprise! (we will totally overlook the fact that it was a surprise to me too.)