Disclaimer: I do not own or claim any part of the Harry Potter characters or universe as crafted by JK Rowling. Anything recognizable in this chapter is taken from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.


Chapter 9: Intuition

The weeks passed and the weather turned darker, gloomier as winter was quickly approaching. Though the changing weather did nothing to dampen the atmosphere around the school. Most of students were rather excited about their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Lupin was much more qualified for the job than their previous few professors had been, if the rumors Kaelix had heard were to be believed. Several students went as far as to declare it their favorite class, but Kaelix wasn't prepared to agree with them. Though she was relieved that the conversation surround the class was focused on the professor and his competency rather than her rather interest boggart from the first week.

The mysterious buring boy was old news. Neville had been right, Dan or Dave or something had broken it off with his girlfriend that very weekend, and that was all it took for her peculiar boggart to be forgotten by everyone. Well, most everyone anyway. Even though Potter hadn't asked her about it in weeks, she had a feeling he was still thinking about it. Every now and again she still caught him watching her, waiting for another opportunity.

Fortunately he wasn't around much to find an opportunity. The quidditch thing had started up and he was Gryffindor's star player. They practiced several nights a week, which meant several nights that she didn't have to worry about getting pounced on in the common room or stared at during dinner. A few times she'd sat with the Slytherin's again she'd felt his eye boring into her from across the room. Sometimes she glared right back at him until he resigned, other times she ignored him altogether. But the quidditch team practiced several nights a week and practice sessions were set to increase in frequency soon, ahead of the first match of the season.

Malfoy had informed Kaelix of the tournament style competition for the Quidditch Cup and she'd listened to every detail, well mostly every detail. They'd remained casual acquaintances thus far, she hadn't agreed with what said about purebloods being better, or the nonsense attempt to get Professor Hagrid fired, but he was easy to put up with. Most of the time. Though with few classes together, him being on the Slytherin quidditch team, her extra lessons, and them being in separate houses, they didn't actually spend that much time together.

Her extra lessons with Professor Lupin weren't as bad as she had initially thought they might be. Her first impression of the professor had left her dreading them, thinking that he'd try to be her friend rather than her teacher. Especially after that nonsense about calling him by his given name. But so far he had been all business, educating her only and not trying to pry into her personal life story or force his own onto her. It might have been annoyingly spiteful if it had been anyone else but he wasn't putting her on, he was genuine. From their interactions over the past few weeks she'd gathered that he was straightforward and to the point but not in a harsh way. He didn't like to waste time or effort on frivolousness. Although, he did seem to be perpetually exhausted and occasionally she wondered if he considered sleep a frivolous activity as well.

Part way through October there was a spectacle in the Gryffindor Common Room one evening, someone's pet rabbit had died, poor thing had been eaten by a fox. Her housemate was in tears over it. The intriguing part of the event that her fellow divination classmates were saying Professor Trelawney had predicted it. On that first day of class she'd told one of the Patil girls, Kaelix could never remember which twin was in her house and which was in Ravenclaw, that the thing they were dreading would happen on the 16th of October. Now a significant portion of their class was irrevocably convinced that she was a true seer and that anything she predicted would come true. Kaelix was still firmly with the skeptical portion of the class.

As Halloween drew nearer the school began to buzz with excitement for the first Hogsmeade trip, which would be the same weekend as the first quidditch match. Her fellow third years were the most excited, this being the first year that they were allowed the opportunity to visit the village. The older students weren't quite as animated in their excitement, some of the nuance having worn off for them. Though apparently not every third year got to go, some hadn't received permission.

One day after Transfiguration class had ended, Kaelix saw Potter hang back and approach Professor McGonagall. She didn't catch their entire conversation as she slid out of the classroom, but she did hear enough to know that he would not be joining the rest of them for the weekend trip. Though she had no idea why his parents wouldn't have granted him permission for what seemed to be a perfectly normal school trip. Even she had been granted permission, although it had involved a fair amount of deceit on the Old Man's part, but her entire being here involved a fair amount of deceit.

By the time Halloween morning came around, Potter was looking quite morose at breakfast, glaring at everyone instead of just her and Malfoy for a change. Everyone else was chattering away about where they were going to go first and what they were going to buy.

"Staying here, Potter?" Malfoy taunted as his made his way across the courtyard. "Scared of passing by the dementors?"

Potter and his friends did their best to ignore him but Weasley shot a scathing glance at his back.

"Why do you do that?" she asked as he approached.

He shrugged, "It's amusing."

She scoffed and shook her head, "You have a poor sense of humor then," she said, turning to make her way into a carriage.

"What? Are you suddenly defending him now?" Malfoy asked, with perhaps a bit more bite than intended.

"No, I'm not defending him specifically. I don't understand why you treat anyone like that," she said offhandedly.

"I treat everyone like that. It was just a bit of fun. Relax, Williams, you're still my favorite Gryffindor to tease if that's what you're worried about," he said with a bit of a grin.

She rolled her eyes and climbed into the carriage. "What an honor."

The carriage ride didn't take more than a few minutes and upon exiting at their destination Kaelix realized that they were back at the train station where the Hogwarts Express had dropped them off at the start of term. It had a much different look and feel about it in the daytime. Without the lingering penetrating cold of a dementor encounter.

She and Malfoy moved with the mass of students departing the station. Crabbe and Goyle were missing this morning, she didn't ask after them. As she rounded the station and caught sight of the village for the first time she stopped short, it looked like something straight off of a holiday postcard. A quaint little village of stone buildings with thatched roofs; candle lit lanterns glowing in the windows; wooden signs swaying in the wind; and the cobbled street clopping beneath footsteps. There was a crispness in the air that hinted that snow wasn't far off.

"What's the matter, Williams?" Malfoy asked.

"What do you mean?" her gaze turning to him.

His brow furrowed, "You had this look about you."

"What look?"

"I don't know, you just looked… I don't know," he shook his head.

"It's about time you came to terms with it, I've been telling you that you don't know anything since the day we met," she said.

He smirked, "Says the girl who couldn't find the wand shop, didn't know what quidditch was and about half a dozen other things I could list."

"Where do we go first?" she asked.

"Oh, now you expect me to know things?"

"You're right, foolish of me. I'll lead the way," she said.

Despite her proclamation he made a show of walking around the little village with her, as if he were an experienced tour guide. They explored a magical instrument shop, Dervish and Banges; the post office, which was filled with hundreds of color coded owls; they spent a bit longer in Spintwitches where Malfoy insisted on explaining the basics of quidditch along with a show and tell of the latest and greatest gear. After that Kaelix insisted they explore Dominic Maestro's music shop, Malfoy had tried to skip over it which is exactly why she insisted they go in.

"That's boring, it's just a bunch of enchanted instruments making a racket," he complained.

"Not nearly as boring as listening to the pros and cons of soft leather versus hard leather finished quaffles. We'll only stay for a few minutes," she said, silently enjoying his continued protests more than she probably ought to.

Malfoy grumbled but followed her into the shop. After they spent what Kaelix deemed a sufficient amount of time as payback for all she'd endured in Spintwitches, they moved on. They spent some time in Zonko's Joke Shop next before moving onto Honeydukes.

"Oh, no. You're not taking me in there," she said.

"What, don't you like sweets?" he asked.

"I'm allergic to chocolate," she said.

"It won't kill you to be in the same room as it. And they have other things besides chocolate you know," he explained.

"Oh, I know. That much sugar in one place cannot be safe for anyone, it must be toxic in there," she argued.

"I'll bet you ten gallons that you can't last longer than 5 minutes in there?" he said.

For a moment she considered taking him up on the bet but then said with a smile, "I don't gamble, remember?"

She continued on down the street without waiting for him and he had to jog to catch up to her. They passed by a cauldron shop, a herbology shop, and even a local branch of Ollivanders wand shop. When they reached the end of the cobbled street and what appeared to be the edge of the village Kaelix made to turn around but Malfoy kept going.

"Where are you going? That's the end of the shops," she said.

"Come on, Williams, where's your sense of adventure?" he gestured for her to follow.

He led her along a worn but not well maintained path beyond the village boundary. She glanced back over her shoulder, not a single shop or village-goer in sight.

"Is this the part where you take me out into the woods to make it easier to hide my body?" she asked, only mostly joking.

"What?" he almost tripped looking back at her question.

"Nevermind," she said and shook her head.

"You say the weirdest stuff sometimes, you do know that right?" he said continuing on.

"I try to keep things interesting. Seriously though, where are we going?" she asked.

He halted and as she came up next to him he gestured beyond the fence they'd found. "That."

That was an old worn building that looked like a storm or maybe even a light breeze would bring it to the ground.

She glanced sideways at him and then back to the flimsy structure, "That is what you brought me here to see?"

He nodded.

"That ragged old shack? What's so special about it?" she asked.

"It's called the Shrieking Shack, and it's supposed to be haunted. It's meant to be the most frightening building in Britain. At least that's how the stories tell it," he said.

Kaelix looked again at the abandoned structure, her view now filtered through this new information. The small building looked like it had been there for centuries. The wood was weather worn and rotted; there were patches of missing shingles on the roof; and all of the visible doors and windows were completely boarded over. Ghosts frequented the halls of the castle, sometimes passing straight through the living without warning or having lengthy conversations with them. The idea that this small shack was frighteningly haunted seemed silly. And yet, even as it looked like it would collapse at any moment, there was something ominous about the way that the whole structure seemed to sway in the light breeze, as if the building itself were a living breathing thing.

"They say that some years ago you could hear screams coming from inside the shack at night. Rumor is they've started up again just recently," said Malfoy.

"Did anyone ever check to see if someone was trapped inside?" asked Kaelix.

"I don't think anyone wanted to find out. I think they were more comfortable believing that the place was haunted by the dead than that the sounds they heard could come from a living thing."

"Maybe it's haunted by a boggart," she suggested.

"I don't think so, boggarts tend to keep to themselves, stay out of sight as much as possible. They only react when they feel threatened."

"What about the Old Boggle of Canterbury, that boggart wholed itself up in a cave and then scared off anyone who came too close by manipulating echos within the cave?" she ventured.

"I suppose this could be similar. If no one approached the shack in years then maybe that's why they haven't heard any screams for so long. Or maybe the boggart just moved on," he shrugged.

"What would yours have been, if you'd gotten to face it?" she asked, knowing that her class had destroyed the boggart and the subsequent third years hadn't had the opportunity.

"Mine?"

"No, I'm sorry, I was talking to whatever is currently haunting the shack," she said.

He made a face at her sarcasm. "Alright, but if I tell you mine then you have to tell me about yours, deal?"

She hesitated for a moment before agreeing, "Deal."

"Alright," he took a deep breath, leaning against the fence. "My boggart would be," he paused as if to brace himself, "a flesh eating slug."

Kaelix just stared at him for a moment. "Wow, a flesh eating slug, that's-" she resisted the urge to scoff, "that's enlightening."

"Have you ever thought about the prospect of being eaten alive by hundreds of those little flesh eating things? Horrible way to go," he said shaking his head. "Now then, what's yours?"

Now she did laugh, the wind tugging some of her dark hair loose and sending it whirling across her face. She tucked the rogue strands back behind her ear and said, "No."

"What do you mean no? We had a deal, you can't go back on a deal. You have to tell me," he said, pushing off the fence to face her squarely.

"We did have a deal, but if you lie about your end of it then the deal is off." She pulled her cloak tighter in an effort to combat the chilly breeze sweeping through.

"I wasn't lying," he argued, "that's really what my boggart would be."

She shook her head, a bit of her damn hair coming loose again, she should have tied it back. "If you don't want to tell me the truth, that's fine, but I'm not an idiot. There's no way that flesh eating slugs are your biggest fear. That's a joke. You might have at least put some decent effort into your lie."

He just stared at her for a heartbeat and then, "How did you know?"

"Because," she'd been smirking but it slowly faded, "because your biggest fear isn't something that can be stepped on or swatted away. It isn't something that you can make amusing with a simple charm, not something you can laugh away. It's something that scares you so much that you might not even realize it, because that's how scary it is. So much that you don't even think about it, you can't think about it."

Her eyes had grown distant, she'd gone to another place, another time, but his voice brought her back quickly enough.

"How do you know that?" he asked.

She smirked but it didn't reach her eyes. "I know we established that you don't know anything, but I think even you can figure out the answer to that."

She felt his gaze on her and she kept hers toward the shack. She scrambled for something else to say, something to distract him, but her mind wouldn't focus on one thing. He started to say something but was interrupted.

"Malfoy, there you are," called Blaise Zabini, one of his housemates. "I told you lot I saw him headed this way," he called over his shoulder to the others that followed him.

The weight of his gaze lifted as he turned to greet his fellow Slytherins.

"You still working on your little pet project?" Zabini asked.

Pet project? How endearing. The others laughed and exchanged a few words under their breath, eliciting even more laughter.

"You know you can't actually convert a Gryffindor to a Slytherin, right?" asked Theodore Nott, "No matter how appeal a prospect it is," he added with a smirk.

"You know you aren't actually as clever as you think you are, right?" Malfoy nearly snapped back at him.

"Aren't you afraid you'll catch something?" Pansy asked, not even trying to hide her disdain. "Some incurable disease."

"Nothing worse that he could catch from you," Nott said, prompting smirks from the rest of the group.

Pansy scowled and sent a scathing glare toward Kaelix.

"Did you see the quidditch match schedule? We play Gryffindor first match of the season," said Adrian Pucey, another member of the Slytherin team.

"It doesn't matter when we play them, we're going to beat them," said Malfoy.

They carried on about quidditch for awhile and Kaelix didn't miss the occasional glances that were sent her way, most merely curious, skeptical of her presence. Except in Nott and Pansy's cases, who smirked and sent daggers respectively. She'd eaten several meals at their table in the Great Hall, preferring their company most of the time to her own house, mainly Potter. And most of them didn't seem to mind, at least not while Malfoy was around, but she couldn't help feeling a bit out of place. Perhaps it was the quidditch talk.

They delved into a rather intense discussion of their game tactics, and Kaelix withdrew from the group. She moved off quietly, no one noticing or at least no one caring enough to comment on her departure. Shivering a bit from spending so long out in the late autumn chill, she decided to warm herself up a bit before heading back to the castle. She ducked into The Three Broomsticks, the small pub attached to the inn. It was bustling with people but there was a strange sense of calm beneath the hustle. The atmosphere was warm and filled with a musky smoke that was welcoming. Kaelix wove her was between various patrons and over to the bar to get a drink.

"What will you have, dear?" a woman with a welcoming smile asked.

"Something warm?" said Kaelix.

She nodded, "One mug of fresh butterbeer coming right up."

Kaelix glanced briefly around the room, taking in the diversity of the patrons that currently occupied it. The bartender passed her a froth topped mug over the counter and she passed a few coins back, thanking her. She carried her drink to an empty table at the far end of the room and took a seat that allowed her to watch the patrons. It was strange how such a crowded space could feel so relaxed, but compared to out in the open village that's exactly what the pub felt like. There was an ease to the atmosphere that wasn't present elsewhere in the village and it had Kaelix wondered what the difference was. Maybe it was due to the imbibing of the older patrons.

There were several of her fellow students enjoying their own frothy mugs; a few teachers conversed idly while drinking something a bit stronger than butterbeer; many ordinary looking strangers and a few not so ordinary looking. At one point Kaelix saw what she could only describe as a goblin. She heard a few people whispering about Sirius Black and where the latest sighting had been; one swore he was still in the area trying to sneak into Hogwarts; while the other swore that he must have fled the country and the locally reported sightings were simply due to paranoia.

She sat for a time, people watching, observing the ever changing patrons of the pub and slowly draining her mug. A figure that stopped beside her table and she glanced up to see a man she did not recognize.

"Miss Williams, I presume?" he asked.

She remained silent, giving no confirmation or denial that she was indeed the one he was looking for.

"I thought I might find you here, I was hoping we could have a little chat," he gave a small but wicked smile.

"Am I supposed to know you?" she asked.

"No, that is part of why I came. May I?" he indicated the seat across from her.

She made no move to welcome him to her table but he took the seat anyway. Arrogant stranger, maybe he was related to Potter? No, not with that neat hair. She took another sip of her butterbeer and waited for him to begin whatever tale he had come here to tell her. She'd already listened to one random stranger tell her that magic was real and invite her to his school, why not listen to another one? She was almost looking forward to finding out if this Inn Man could possibly top the Old Man.

"Is school going well?" he asked.

She scoffed, "The last time a mysterious stranger who already knew my name sat down to have a chat with me, he turned my world upside down and spun it half way around. I'm betting you're not really here to discuss my grades."

"Direct, I like that," he said. "You're right I'm not here to discuss your grades, I'm here to offer you something."

"Well at least you're original. What is it you're offering?" she asked.

"Truth. Knowledge. Things that others would rather keep from you," he said.

Kaelix leaned back in her chair, "Truth about what exactly?"

"About who you might be, among other things," he said casually.

The bartender placed a short glass of dark amber liquid on their table as she passed by. Kaelix watched the liquid settle.

"And how is it that you know anything about who I might be?" she challenged.

"I know that even though you are a third year, this is the first year you've attended Hogwarts. I know that is because somehow your invitation failed to be delivered on your eleventh birthday. And I know that you're curious as to why that happened to you and no one else," he said, then took a sip of his drink.

"Are you implying that you know the answer to that?" she asked, her voice dropping slightly with an unexplainable fear of being overheard.

"I can't say for certain why your letter never arrived. But to my knowledge in the thousand or so years that the school has been open, that has never happened before. And I have a very strong theory about it," he said.

A guess. All he had was a guess as to why her letter never made it. She could come up with plenty of guesses on her own, what she was more interested in at the moment was how this seemingly random stranger knew about her letter in the first place. There were only so many people who knew that, Potter must have been blabbing his big mouth to anyone who would listen. But guesswork, she had no interest in.

"I'm not really interested in a random theory about a failed delivery. That's got nothing to do with who I am." She rose from her seat, abandoning her remaining butterbeer, and turned to leave.

"Do the names Alexandra Fuhrmann, Michael O'Conner, Katherine Holstein, or Sirius Black mean anything to you?" he asked.

She stopped short. Of course they did, but how would he know that.

"Caught your attention, have I?" he asked with a smirk.

She turned back around to meet his gaze and asked, "Who are you?"

"We have much more important things to discuss than matters as trivial as my name," he said, gesturing to her recently vacated seat.

"What, like my letter? What has that got to do with any of those names? What do you know about them?" she asked.

"Their most important connection, is in the fact that if you ask that Headmaster of yours about them he won't tell you anything. And if you ask the wrong person about them… well, I'll let you figure out the details of how that would end up on your own." He sipped again on his drink and nodded toward her seat.

She lowered herself back down, her muscles tense. "How do you know he won't tell me anything? And what do you mean by the wrong people?"

"I know he plays games with people's lives. He lies, either to get what he wants or to manipulate others into getting it for him. You know I'm right, you know that he knows more than he's letting on." His icy eyes were piercing through her.

"I suppose this is the part where you tell me that you won't lie to me the way that he has, you'll be honest with me so I should believe you, trust you?" the doubt was plain in her voice.

"No, this is the part where you ask yourself, would you rather be under the thumb of a man who doesn't care about you beyond how he can use you or would you rather stand alongside someone who truly values you and is willing to help you not only survive but to thrive?"

"What exactly will I need to be surviving?" she asked, reaching for her nearly empty mug.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, one step at a time. Do your research and then we'll have ourselves another chat," he said, downing the last bit of his drink.

She released her mug and drew her arms across her chest, "Why don't you just tell me about them? You seem to know enough about everyone else."

"The information I have regarding those individuals is… sensitive. I need to know that you're serious, and I need to know that you won't take anything I give you and run back to the Headmaster with it," he explained.

"What's to stop me from running back to him with whatever I find on my own?"

"Somehow I don't think you will, call it a hunch."

"For criticising the Old Man about his forthrightness, you're not exactly being a wealth of information yourself," she almost snapped.

He smiled, it was infuriating. He knew he'd won, knew that it was only a matter of when she looked, not if.

"Look into our mutual friends, find out where they went after school, what happened to them. I think you'll find it all very interesting,"

"What makes you so sure I'll be interested?" she asked.

A satisfied smirk, "You will." He rose from his seat and straightened his robes, "Good day, Miss Williams."

She watched him disappear through the pub door. Leaning back in her seat, she pondered the conversation that had just transpired. Another stranger coming to shake up her world with their nonsense. It was a strange comparison between this Inn Man's visit and the Old Man's back at Dr Hadley's. The Old Man had been relatively straightforward, telling her outright that magic was real and she was invited to study at his school. Yet there had been an underlying sense that he wasn't telling her everything. Something ironically dishonest lying within his honesty. Whereas this Inn Man, though he was not as straightforward as the Old Man had been with his instructions to look into those names, he had at least been honest about the fact that he wasn't telling her everything, and he'd told her what she needed to do in order to find out. Ironically honest in his dishonesty.

She shook herself from her thoughts and rose, leaving the table and the mug behind but not the conversation. Who was this man to presume that she cared about the failed letter delivery? What if she didn't want to know about the letter or the names or their connections? What if she didn't want any part in whatever grand plans either of these men had for her? Who were they to interfere in her life this way?

She sighed as she pushed open the door and left the warmth of The Three Broomsticks for the chilly air of the fading afternoon. It was practically evening now and she could see each exhale disappearing in front of her. The temperature had dropped quickly after the sun and started sinking behind the mountains. Most of the students would be gathering in the Great Hall or headed there shortly. The idea of the crowded hall exhausted her, she didn't want to sit with Nosy Potter and his Gryffindor lackies, nor did she really feel up to enduring the Slytherin table either. But she made her way back to the train station regardless. The sound of her footsteps faded into her surroundings, leaving no evidence of her passing. Even in the crowded street no one saw her come and no one saw her go. That's how it had been for most of her life, people were always looking but no one ever really saw her, not anymore.

When she reached the station she climbed into a nearby carriage and even though she was the only occupant the skeletal creatures that drove it started moving almost instantly. Now, at least for a short time, she was alone, free to get lost in thoughts of the past, reminiscing old times, and dreaming old dreams. Here she was free to remember. There was a cold breeze that pressed in through a small crack in the carriage window and it sent a shiver down her spine; she pulled her cloak tighter around her body.

She remembered laughter, from what seemed like a lifetime ago, and endless hours spent at the park in air even more brisk than this. She thought of his smile and mirrored it with her own lips. He would have loved it here, she thought as the castle came into view over the trees. The spells, the books, the paintings, the ghosts, the moving staircases, the flying broomsticks; there were so many things that were just as they had imagined but there were even more that they never could have dreamt of. Her smile faded, how did she end up here without him? How could he do that to her?

By the time the carriage pulled to a stop in front of the castle she wasn't in any mood to interact with anyone so instead she just started wandering through the deserted corridors. After awhile she stopped realizing that she recognized this particular corridor, in fact she was very familiar with it. She was just outside Professor Lupin's classroom. She looked in and wondered if he was there. No light came from his office at the far end of the classroom but she crossed the room to check anyway. She wasn't sure why, she spent enough time here already, she didn't need to log even more. And yet she found herself a bit disappointed when she discovered his office empty. He was probably down at the feast with everyone else. Briefly she considered waiting for him to show up but decided against it.

She wandered the corridors a bit longer after that, contemplating whether or not she should just go down to the feast. It would be ending soon, no one would notice her absence, and she wasn't hungry anyway. She meandered her way back toward the common room, intent on enjoying the peace of the abandoned state it would be in for a bit. She was so caught up in her own head when she rounded the corner to the Fat Lady's corridor that it took her a moment to notice the other person.

The hair at the back of her neck rose, her gaze snapping up. She halted, adrenaline rushing through her, muscles tensing but the signal to run not making it to them. Several feet in front of her, just in front of the portrait was none other than Sirius Black. Her mind somehow noting that the man in pub earlier had been right, Sirius Black was still around and not only had he most certainly been planning on breaking into Hogwarts, he had succeeded.

Kaelix wasn't the only one who had frozen. Black was half turned toward her, a knife grasped in one hand, slightly raised, ready to strike. Her heart was in her throat, this man was dangerous. Though she'd never actually confirmed what he'd done, Malfoy had said something about mass murder. And a mass murderer wasn't likely to hesitate because of one thirteen year old girl. She really should be running the other way as fast as she possibly could right now but her feet were firmly rooted in place. Like the slightest movement would set him off.

He turned slowly to face her squarely, and he held her gaze but he did not move toward her. The knife still held, half raised in front of him, between the two of them. His weight was shifted back, he was leaning away from her. The thought registered in some distant corner of her brain, he wasn't poised to attack her, he was poised to defend himself, like he was frightened of her. The realization brought her adrenaline down a notch and she surveyed the rest of him.

His robes had been reduced to little more than rags, his long unkempt hair fell around his face and deepened the dark circles around his desperate eyes. His skin was pale, his cheeks shallow, he looked like he hadn't eaten a proper meal in far too long. The posters all around Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade had depicted a crazed killer, a man beyond reason, fearless in his insanity. But the man that stood before her looked like a cornered animal, fearfully poised only to defend himself if necessary, a sense of desperation clinging to every inch of him. And she wondered briefly, just what this man had gone through that brought him to this moment.

His eyes slipped past her, looking down the corridor. She glanced back over her shoulder, there were faint voices echoing off the walls. Students returning from dinner. How long had they stood there in their stalemate? When she looked to Black again his solemn gaze was directly on her. His eyes full of resignation, the knife dropped to his side in defeat, he was caught and he knew it.

Something deep in her gut twisted.

The drone of student voices was growing louder with each passing moment, all of them coming up from the Great Hall. All of them. Except her. She looked back to the corridor she'd come up moments ago, the corridor that led to the North Tower. Everyone else would be coming up the main corridor. She chewed her lip over the idea she was considering, anxiety rising like a wave within her. She didn't know the details of what Black had done but she knew what they would likely do to him if they were to catch him here. That twist in her gut was strong, something didn't add up, why would he do something so absurd? Why escape Azkaban only to break into an empty Hogwarts common room? She didn't have an answer, but then that in itself gave her one.

A particularly loud bout of laughter catalyzed her. She took a few steps back, until she was beyond the threshold of the corridor leading to the North Tower. She glanced down the corridor and then back at him. His brow furrowed like he didn't understand. She took another step backward. Someone shouted, they were close. She nodded toward the escape. Still he hesitated, taking only one uncertain step forward. He looked about to say something but another shout from the approaching students made him jump slightly.

"Go," she hissed.

He was already running. She moved forward and watched him disappear down the corridor to the North Tower, immediately wondering if she'd just made the biggest mistake of her life. She stared at where his tattered robes had disappeared around the corner at the end of the corridor and she wondered again what would possess a man like that to stick around and risk getting caught. Why not just leave the country, start over somewhere else?

She continued to ponder alternate explanations as the wave of students from the Great Hall moved past her down the corridor. The animated chatter soon turned to a humming uncertainty, impatient murmurs rising up from those farther back, demanding to know what was taking so long.

"Let me through, please," Percy, the Head Boy, shouted over the throng of students as he pushed his way through. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password - excuse me, I'm Head Boy -"

And then, like a wave of icy water, the crowd fell silent. Beginning at the front and moving down the corridor to the very back. Speculative whispers trailing behind like smoke from a doused fire, weaving from student to student. Those in the front could plainly see the Fat Lady's mangled portrait and in no time at all, those in the back were straining to stand on tiptoe to catch a glimpse of it themselves, hardly believing what they're fellow Gryffindors were saying.

Percy's voice came sharply through the quiet, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

A fraction of a moment later the Old Man appeared, sweeping through the crowd of students toward the portrait. Quickly behind him were Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape. After laying eyes on the torn portrait he turned with somber eyes toward the Professors.

"We need to find her," said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."

"You'll be lucky!" came a cackling voice.

Kaelix finally turned from where she'd still been standing at the intersection of corridors. Peeves. He was bobbing up over the crowd looking quite delighted at the sight of wreckage and worry, as he always seemed to.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" Dumbledore asked calmly, and Peeves' grin faded a bit. He didn't dare taunt the Headmaster, at least not outright. Instead he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle.

"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said cheerfully. "Poor thing," he added, though it was thoroughly unconvincing.

"Did she say who did it?" asked Dumbledore.

"Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms. "He's got very, very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see. Didn't have the password," Peeves flipped over and grinned at the Old Man from between his own legs. "Though she might have still refused him even if he had had the password," he laughed and spun around again. "Such a nasty temper, that one."

This was ludicrous.

"It was Sirius Black," Kaelix said over the crowd.

Peeves spun right around and looked at her incredulously before spitting his tongue out at her and then swirling away in a huff. Upset that she'd stolen his bombshell.

The Old Man and each of the Professors had turned to her, "Miss Williams, are you certain?" he asked.

"Yes, I am, I saw him. If you don't believe me then feel free to invite the poltergeist back and ask him, but he'll tell you the same. Sirius Black was in this castle and he shredded that painting."

Professor McGonagall was stricken, she was more worried than Kaelix had ever seen her before. Professor Snape's usually sour expression was contorted with fury. And Professor Lupin was more exhausted than she'd ever seen him before.

"Thank you, Miss Williams," he said before turning back to his staff. "Professor McGonagall, inform Mr. Filch please."

She nodded and departed immediately.

"Professor Snape, please retrieve the Slytherin students and escort them to the Great Hall, have Professors Flitwick and Sprout do the same," he instructed and Professor Snape disappeared.

"Professor Lupin, if you would, help escort the Gryffindors to the Great Hall, thank you."

Professor Lupin made his way through the students to lead them back down the staircase and Kaelix moved to intercept him.

"Professor Lupin?" she called.

"Kaelix, are you alright? You said you saw Black?" Physically, he looked exhausted but his eyes were alert and concerned.

"I only caught a glimpse of him before he ran," she said, falling into step beside him.

"Good," a bit of relief slipped into his normally even voice. "The Headmaster is sending all of you to the Great Hall for the night while we comb the castle. You should try to get some sleep," he added absentmindedly.

"What exactly did Sirius Black do?" she asked.

He glanced sideways at her before answering, "The short answer is that he killed 13 people with a single curse."

"And the long answer?" she asked.

Professor Lupin sighed, "is too long and complicated to explain right now."

"So what will they do if they catch him?" she ventured, "take him back to prison?"

They rounded the corner as he answered, "No, he's already escaped once and no one's ever escaped Azkaban before."

"So, what then?" her stomach churning with her question, "will they kill him?"

"No," he said absently, his attention split between their conversation and some internal struggle.

"No?" she asked.

His attention returned. "No, what they have planned is worse than death," he said quietly.

"Worse than death?" she wondered out loud.

"They plan to let the dementors take his soul, though I'm not entirely certain that he hasn't already lost it," said Professor Lupin.

"Take his soul?" she asked confused.

Lupin nodded, "You can still exist without a soul, Kaelix, you just become a shell of your former self."

"Dementors can do that? The same dementors that are stationed across the grounds for our protection?" asked Kaelix in disbelief.

"They're only stationed at the main gate, Dumbledore refused to let them onto the castle grounds. We can discuss this more at your next lesson if you'd like but I need to help search the castle. Try to get some sleep," he said.

He moved off to intercept Professor McGonagall who had reappeared ahead of them, leaving Kaelix to contemplate what it would be like to lose your soul.

Lupin had said it would reduce a person to a shell of their former self, but what did that mean, would they still be aware of anything? Would they feel numb or just nothingness? And what would happen to the soul once it was removed? Was it destroyed? Imprisoned somewhere?

She remembered the screaming she heard when the dementors drew near, perhaps those were the souls they'd taken? Kaelix envisioned an incorporeal form being forcibly pulled out of a person and then absorbed into the dementor that had taken it, existing only within a dark small prison, screaming for eternity. No longer bound by the limits or mortality of a physical form, the soul's only remaining awareness would be darkness. Forever alone in unending darkness.

A shiver went down her spine and she tried to shake the thought away. As perfect as they had thought this fairy tale world would be, even it had it's horrors.


Chapter 10 Teaser:

Harry made his way down the dungeon corridor toward his least favorite class with Ron and Hermione behind him bickering about the way her cat treated his rat. Just before they entered the classroom he caught sight of Williams exiting a door farther down the corridor carrying a few empty phials.

Ron saw her exiting the room as well and hissed in Harry's ear, "What's she doing in there?" his feud with Hermione momentarily forgotten.

"No idea," said Harry, wondering the same thing.

"First that secret meeting with the hooded guy in Hogsmeade and now she's hanging out in Snape's office."

"What secret meeting in Hogsmeade?" asked Harry.


Author's Note:

First of all, shout out to Firefawn for reviewing all 8 of the previous chapters at once and even recommending my story in one of her recent chapters, I've already said thank you like a dozen times but now I'm doing it publicly because you deserve it, thank you so much!

By the way, I highly recommend Firefawn's story, Eclipse of the Sky. This story is refreshingly original with a relateable and fun OC who enters the mix at the beginning of 6th year. It's been in the works since before the 6th book came out so the plot is mostly made up of original material, but the more recent chapters hint at weaving in some of the elements from the final books which I'm really looking forward to. The dynamic between Kalliandra and Harry is amazing and so fun to watch progress. And it's just really wonderfully written. So if you like novel length, original stories within the HP universe that put a different spin on the end of the series then definitely check this one out!

Also, guest reviews!

Kat - THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'm so glad you liked the interaction between Remus and Kaelix, I was worried it felt a bit off or forced. I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!

MinervaMac - Thank you! I'm so glad you're hooked! That's what I'm going for but I never know if it's effective or not, thanks for the feedback. As far as who she is and how she fits, we'll be getting around to that eventually ;)

Thank you guys so much for reading! And if you took the time to leave a review know that I love you so, so much! It really does mean the world to me :')