He was frightened and disheveled. His clothes were worn and mud stained, and his eyes darted everywhere at once, searching for dangers that were not there. He kept his hands held high as he edged toward them, keenly aware that the three people still holding their wands did not lower them. Harry saw no reason to do so. He thought quickly.

"Is she with you?" he demanded.

Draco looked fleetingly up at the hawk, and then back at Harry. "No," he said, and then looking around him, paranoid. "Please, Potter, can we go into the forest?"

Ron snorted and moved his wand higher, pointing directly at Draco's nose. "Do you think we're idiots?" he asked.

Turning toward Ron without even the slightest hint of the malicious arrogance that had been his calling card, Draco spoke in the trembling vibrato of the terrified. "Please, I'm not trying to trick you. I needed you to come tonight. I need to talk to you, but not here."

"Is she near here?" Harry persisted, looking suddenly in all directions at once. Draco looked at the hawk again. It stared regally down at him without moving, it's black eyes taking in everything.

"No," he repeated.

"Have you been with her then?"

"No!" Draco reacted quickly this time, offended. He chanced a step toward Harry, who did not lower his wand. "I've been…hiding from her…in Spain." The hawk gave a short sharp screech. Draco winced. Something suddenly clicked inside Harry's mind. He pointed his wand at the bird.

"No!" Draco yelled, suddenly diving for Harry's wand. Ron reacted quickly and intelligently. He stuck out one large foot and Malfoy fell face first at their feet. The bird screeched again and jumped down to perch beside its master. Harry followed it with his wand.

"What's with the bird, Malfoy?" he asked forcefully. He expected Draco's face to be an arrogant mask of humiliation as he rose. He had seen it many times in school, and he had come to expect it after every row.

But it was not arrogance that showed as his old school nemesis picked himself out of the mud. His face was clouded only with concern as he turned his back on the four of them, and focused only on the bird. All four wands pointed in unison at the target of Draco's affections. He seemed to be whispering something to it.

"Just don't hurt her, please," he said, not turning, and if Harry hadn't known him better, he could have sworn he had heard a note of true humility in Malfoy's voice. He felt Ginny's hand reach out to restrain him as he stepped foreward, curious.

"The bird could be her," she whispered in his ear. "Bellatrix could be an animagus."

"It's not her!" said Draco desperately, holding out his hand as if to shield someone from an imaginary spell. He continued to talk in a low soothing tone to the bird. When he turned around, he had the locket held at arm's length. The hawk was hiding in his shadow.

"I know you've been looking for this," he said complacently. Harry was reminded of the muggle movies where the police officer was trying to talk someone in from a ledge. "Please, you can look at it in the forest." His eyes began circling again. "Only a little further in. Everyone can see us here." He shivered, and Harry could have sworn he saw the bird shiver as well. Draco looked down sympathetically at its golden feathers.

"We need your help," he said simply, pushing the locket toward Harry. Harry took it, puzzled, and followed Draco warily into the brush until the castle was almost completely obscured by ferns. The others followed, their wands pointing in all directions, unknowingly forming a protective circle around Harry. Old habits died hard.

The bird continued to cower just behind Draco. Harry fingered the locket, and then took a long worried glance at the hawk.

"You knew she was looking for it?" he asked him.

Draco nodded. "She went to the house first," he said. "Then to the vault. When she couldn't find it, she came after me in St. Mungo's."

"Why didn't you report her?" asked Ron bluntly.

Draco's glance shifted once again toward the hawk. A relfection of his old sneer appeared momentarily on his face. "My father's in Azkaban and you're hunting my mother down like a dog. Let's just say I didn't trust the ministry."

Harry twirled the locket in his fingers, utterly unable to think what to do next.

"You went to Spain?" he said, not exactly sure where this line of questions was taking him.

"Yeah," Draco replied, eying the locket impatiently. "Are you going to open it, or what?"

Harry stared at the locket blankly. In his wildest imaginings, he could never have guessed that he would be holding the key to this newest mystery by the end of the night. He was suddenly drawing a blank as to what to do next.

"Parseltoungue," Ginny reminded him in a whisper.

With one eye on Draco, and his wand pointed poignantly at the bird, Harry tried to imagine a serpent crawling slowly toward them. It was easier than he had expected in the dark underbrush. There could have been any number of creatures just beyond their line of sight tonight.

The imaginary snake appeared for Harry, almost as if it were real. He tried to block out the rest of the distractions and to speak only to it. Open up. The words came out in a series of hisses. There was a tinny click, and the locket opened. With their wands still threatening, all four of them gathered around to finally see the secrets of Voldemort's gift to his favorite Death Eater.

It was a picture…nothing more. In it, a little girl no older than six or seven years old, was crouched, frightened in the shadow of some other figure. The picture was not big enough to see who that other figure was. Harry looked closer at the little girl, wondering how this locket could possibly be so important to Bellatrix. Then his wand hand dropped. He heard gasps from around him as Hermione, Ginny, and Ron all recognized the trademark half-lidded eyes. They were staring at another Black.

"She needs your help," repeated Draco. Harry did not acknowledge him. A cold chill had started at the base of his spine as his mind factored in the memories that they had seen and protested the calculations that were being performed there. Another Black…a child…a secret…his mind froze on Bellatrix's stony expression as she assured her sister that the necklace was a privilege bestowed upon her alone.

As they watched, the second figure moved away. The shadows in the picture shifted, and the little girl's hair glowed smooth and black in the moonlight. Harry frowned. The place she was sitting looked very familiar.

Ginny was the first to understand. She saw Malfoy move…saw the shadow shift away from the hawk, revealing its feathers, translucent and smooth as it perched, frightened and still on the ground behind him. The ferns in the background undulated in the breeze…exactly like the ferns in the picture.

"It's her!" Ginny whispered breathlessly, pointing to the locket, and subsequently to the hawk. Hermione's eyes widened as she too began to understand. Harry's breath stopped in his throat, and, after a moment, Ron let out a strangled squeak. There was a moment that was nearly comedic as all four of them were plunged into the cold pool of reality and they all took the same shocked step back at exactly the same time.

Malfoy stood motionless in between them and the bird that wasn't really a bird. He was half crouched in a defensive position, waiting to spring at the first person who moved toward him. No one did. The shock of this strange realization was too great, and after a short while, Malfoy began to gauge their expressions carefully, searching each mask of surprise for any sign of a threat. Harry imagined the same wordless calculations occurring in each of their heads. Their wands had been forgotten by their sides as they all tried to deny the inevitable conclusion.

Draco seemed to come to the decision he had been contemplating. Seeing no immediate danger from any of the four, he turned and nodded to the hawk. It hopped back closer to the ferns, but Malfoy spoke to it firmly.

"Now!" he insisted. "They're the only ones who can help us!"

Slowly, smoothly before their eyes, the contour lines of the bird of prey twisted and contorted, until they were all staring at the live version of the picture in the locket. The little girl looked out at them with questioning, terrified eyes. Harry stumbled back into a breathless Ginny. The resemblance to both of them was staggering.

Draco took the little girl's hand and led her forward, slowly…trembling. The others took an instinctive step back. They all understood now to a point, but only Harry had the entire picture. Only Harry had been inside enough memories to recognize those sharp facial features, and the jet-black hair.

"Harry, this is my cousin, Electra," Draco said cautiously. He grimaced as he anticipated the reactions to his next words...

"Electra Riddle."

A/N: I know, I know, but bear with me, please. The next chapter is where the real twisted part of the plot is revealed...Thanks for waiting so long.