Night had fallen by the time the Storm Hawks had reached Terra Hogsmead. The village, still covered in in a thin blanket of snow owing to it's high altitude, which overlooked Hogwarts castle, in the valley below, seemed suspiciously quiet. But the peace was short lived as a second after they'd transported in, a loud and almost screeching alarm blasted out all around the village. Diving into a street just as the doorway of the village's inn burst open, spilling light out into the darkened street, the Storm Hawks heard the yells and shouts of many death eaters and snatchers. In the villages market square two death eaters were searching around the empty stalls, unaware that the Storm Hawks were hidden just meters away behind one of the stalls. Just as they neared the very stall they were hidden at the alarm mercifully resounded, causing the death eaters to look elsewhere in their rush to find them, leaving the Storm Hawks a moment to breath in relief.
Running through a narrow alleyway, trying to navigate a way either to the castle or out of the village, the Storm Hawks turned a corner, and came to a locked gate. Hearing the shouts draw closer and the gate not budging Aerrow fleetingly considered transporting out of the village and finding another route when he heard a door open right besides them.
"In here Storm Hawks" An urgent voice whispered. Trapped between the death eaters or a stranger, they chose the stranger without a second thought and ran through the door and into a dark hallway as the door was shut and locked behind them. Walking in further and past whoever had sheltered them, they found going down a flight of stairs and into a small old fashioned lounge and dinning room.
"Did you get a look at him?" Finn whispered to them, indicating the stairs they;d just come down. "For a second I thought it was..." He began.
"I know, Dumbledore" Piper agreed as they looked around the room. One object caught their eye in particular. It was a large painting, hung above a large cabinet on the other side of the room. The painting was of a young girl, no older than fourteen or fifteen, wearing an old fashioned blue dress and like the paintings in Hogwarts, she was moving although, only ever so slightly.
"You bloody fools, what were you thinking of coming here, do you know how dangerous it is?" An elderly but angry voice suddenly sounded, distracting them from the painting. Their rescuer had just walked in and, their reminder of Dumbledore hadn't been far off. The man looked the same age, had round glasses and blue eyes identical to Dumbledore's. The man even had a long beard, although his was shorter and greyer than Dumbledore's had been.
"Your Abaforth, Dumbledore's brother" Piper suddenly realised, having read about Dumbledore's family in Skeeter's book.
"Been reading Skeeter have you, blasted woman got one fact right then" Abaforth mumbled as he walked over to a doorway next to the flight of stairs.
"You can come out now" He said into the room. The sound of someone putting something down in a hurry and rush over was heard before, to the Storm Hawks surprise, Kreacher walked into the room.
"Kreacher?" Ace asked in surprise as the house elf, who'd saved them from Lucius's mansion, bowed to them with a big smile on his face.
"Wait, it was that sent Kreacher to help us" Aerrow realised as he looked back to Abaforth who made no sign to disagree. "How did you know..." Aerrow began to ask.
"My brother planned a lot of things in the event of his death, including the loyalties and locations of house elves" Abaforth said with a shrug, not explaining exactly how Dumbledore had managed to ensure that Kreacher was able to sense their need for help or where they were.
Kreacher then brought in warm drinks for everyone which were gratefully accepted after the chillness of the lake and village.
"Do you hear from the others much, from the order?" Piper asked Abaforth as she finished her drink.
"The orders finished, the dark masters won, anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves" Abaforth replied in a negative tone.
"We need to get into Hogwarts, tonight, Dumbledore gave us a job to do" Aerrow, who was stood in front of the lit fireplace, told him, knowing Abaforth wouldn't like that idea.
"Did he now, nice job, easy" Abaforth replied sarcastically.
"We've been hunting horcruexs and we think the last one is inside the castle, but we need your help getting in" Aerrow asked him.
"It's not a job my brother's given you, it's a suicide mission, do yourselves a favour all of you, go home, your live a little longer" Abaforth replied, sounding defeated but unconcerned by it.
"We can't it's our job, and Dumbledore trusted us to see it through" Aerrow responded, seeing it would be difficult to persuade the man.
"What makes you think you can trust him, what makes you think you can believe anything my brother told you, tell me in all the time you knew him, did he ever mention my name, did he ever mention hers" Abaforth replied, pointing at the painting.
"Why should he?" Aerrow asked, realising there was an element of truth in what Abaforth had said about Dumbledore not always being upfront about the truth, as he too looked at the painting.
"Keep secrets, you tell me" Abaforth inquired, though he already had his opinion on his brother set in stone.
"I trusted him" Aerrow reminded him.
"That's a boy's answer, one who started chasing horcruexs on the word of a man who won't even tell him were to start, your lying" Abaforth challenged as he walked over to Aerrow as the others watched from around the table. "Not just to me, that doesn't matter, but to yourself as well, that's what a fool does and you don't seem like a fool Aerrow, so there must be a reason" He inquired as he continued to tarnish Dumbledore's name as he stood in front of Aerrow.
"Look, I'm not interested in what happened between you and your brother, I don't care that you've given up, but, we've been battling against her and her forces long before we knew him, years before and, I trusted the man I knew to help us and, his help has got us this far but we need to get into the castle, tonight" Aerrow told him determinedly. Abaforth seemed to be defeated in persuading him otherwise, so turned to the portrait of the young girl.
"You know what to do" He told her. The girl nodded and turned, walking up a path which had been hidden from view and soon grew into a tiny dot in the painting.
"Where have you sent her?" Junko asked as the Storm Hawks all stood in front of the painting.
"You'll see, soon enough" Abaforth replied as he began to walk out of the room.
"That's your sister Ariarna isn't it?" Piper asked softly as Abaforth was about to leave the room. "She died very young, didn't she?" Piper continued to inquire, having read Skeeter's book.
"My brother sacrificed many things Storm Hawks, in his journey to power, including Ariarna, and she was devoted to him" Abaforth told them all, though looked at Aerrow in particular.
"Thank you Abaforth" Piper thanked as they watched the man leave the room.
"He did save our lives twice by sending Kreacher and sheltering us, that doesn't seen like someone whose given up" Piper responded to the looks she received for thanking Abaforth. Looking back at the painting they saw Ariarna walking back up the path towards them. And she wasn't alone.