Warning- There will be mentions of torture to innocent animals in this chapter. Obviously, I don't condone this behaviour, I struggled to write this part of the chapter, but it is a key development in the story.

Chapter 30- Enemies May Be Closer Than They Appear

Heart pumping, legs burning, out of breath and sweat dripping off her entire body. It had been a good workout, Amy thought. It turned out Hogwarts was the perfect place for Amy to keep up with her workouts, since she couldn't go out in London alone anymore. Eventually she would continue her workouts at the new property Sirius had bought, with the forest backing on to it, she had plenty of room to run around there. For now though, Hogwarts would have to do until Sirius moved everything he wanted across to the new house.

She was going to miss her workouts here though. She had managed to design a routine that made her push her body harder than ever. This included running up and down the hill near Hagrid's Hut multiple times. Amy laughed when she remembered the first time, she had started her workout routine here. Hagrid had seen her running down the hill, and immediately thought something bad had happened. After repeatedly assuring him that everything was fine, and that she was just trying to stay in shape, he had left her to go and attend to his animals. After that day, Amy always found a glass of water and a rock cake left out for after she finished her workouts. Amy was grateful for the thoughtfulness behind the gesture and didn't have the heart to tell Hagrid that she couldn't eat the rock cakes because whenever she went to take a bite, it felt like her teeth would break. So, she drank the water, but took the rock cake back with her to the castle to dispose of discreetly. Amy's opinion was that it was the thought that counted, and she couldn't upset Hagrid not after he had been so kind to her and Carissa when they had returned to Hogwarts.

As Amy finished drinking the water Hagrid had left out for her that morning, she looked up to see Carissa racing down the hill towards her.

"Carissa, what's wrong?" Amy called out.

"We did it Amy!" Carissa yelled excitedly.

"What?" Amy asked.

"You know that special game we have been working on with someone who could pass as a relative of Dracula? The one where we save the Galaxy from being destroyed by Thanos?" Carissa answered cryptically, as she came to a stop in front of Amy.

Amy was puzzled at first, but then understood what Carissa was trying to tell her. Carissa obviously didn't want to say anything out loud in case other people happened to be spying on them, so she was talking in hidden code, the vampire's relative being Snape and Thanos being Voldemort.

"So, you know how to destroy the Infinity Stones and Gauntlet now, so we can move up to the next level?" Amy questioned, using more Marvel references.

"Yes, I'll tell you more when we go home tonight. It's still going to be difficult, because we don't know where all the stones are located but we have a breakthrough on what can be used to destroy them," Carissa replied, jumping up and down on the spot in excitement.

"That's brilliant work, congratulations to you and Dracula's cousin. That is a huge game changer! I can't wait to find out how you did it," Amy replied, grinning in relief. They may be able to win this war after all.

"Thankyou," Carissa said, playfully bowing as she spoke.

Amy laughed at Carissa's antics, but then looked past her as she saw something flying in the sky towards them.

"Amy, what's wrong?" Carissa asked.

"Is that an owl coming towards us?" Amy questioned.

"Yes, were you expecting anything?" Carissa answered.

"No, not that I recall," Amy said, shaking her head.

The large brown owl flew over to Amy and dropped a square shaped box covered in brown paper at her feet. It turned around and flew away before Amy even had the chance to thank it. The package no label or note on it, which was odd. Amy unwrapped the package quickly, interested to see who it was from. Underneath the wrapping paper was a cardboard box, again with no label on it. She opened the lid on the box and was surprised to see a small black puppy inside. Her surprise soon turned to shock and disgust, when she released that the puppy had been killed before it had been placed in the box. It looked like it had its neck snapped. Amy felt her hands tremble as bile rose up in her mouth, she dropped the box on the ground and bent over to empty the contents of her stomach.

Carissa rushed over and held Amy's hair back, as she continued to be sick. When she finally stopped, Amy stood up slowly again and asked in a shaky voice, "Who would do such as horrible thing?"

"I don't know," Carissa replied.

"Why, would anyone do something like this?" Amy repeated, tears forming in her eyes.

"Let's not worry about that now. How about we go back up to the castle and let Dumbledore know what has happened? We can talk about it later," Carissa, said slowly rubbing her hand up and down Amy's back trying to comfort her. Carissa suspected she knew who it was, and once Amy wasn't in shock she would most likely come to the same conclusion as well, but she didn't want to upset her any more than she already was.

Amy nodded with tears still in her eyes, "Can you bring the puppy with us? I can't look at it."

Carissa picked up the box, gently closing the lid on top, so neither of them had to look at it. Carissa shook her head, sometimes she could not believe how cruel some people in this world were. She wanted to do the same thing to this person and see how they liked being tortured.

As they walked slowly back up to the castle, Amy started to feel dizzy. "I really don't feel well Carissa." she said.

"Just hold on Amy, we are nearly there," Carissa said, trying to reassure Amy. She could tell Amy was in shock, but wanted to keep her as calm as possible.

Amy could hear Carissa talking but she seemed further away than what she really was. Her legs were feeling wobbly and her vision was starting to blur.

"I need to sit down Carissa."

Amy slowly started to sit down, she could tell Carissa was in front of her but she was blurry and she couldn't hear anything she was saying. Just as Amy sat on the ground, everything suddenly faded to black.

"Amy" Carissa yelled, shaking Amy trying to wake her up but there was no response from her friend.