7:49 pm
Carmen should have said they were crawling. Otherwise there was no sense in the speed the Death Eaters were approaching the castle in.
"He's not going anywhere anytime soon," Sanders assured Marina as the Prefects and teachers gathered around the aurors, after the latter had thrown the rat in the dungeons.
"And if he turns?"
"He can't. Anti-Animagus ward," McGonagall told her brusquely.
"What is she waiting for?" the Head Girl, Lorelei, asked nervously.
The moon, Marina answered her mentally. But Bellatrix wouldn't get her wish tonight.
"The Dementors are another issue altogether," Percy mumbled. "They won't differentiate between us and the Death Eaters."
"I'll hold them off," Carmen told the lot of them – she'd always been better at the Patronus than Marina. Still...
"You won't be able to. Not on your own – it's at least a hundred of them."
"We'll help," the seventh-year Prefects offered. "We covered the Patronus with Professor Lupin this year."
Speaking of Remus, he really needed to get gone right about now. He nodded, reluctantly, and made his way out of the Hall.
It rankled that they couldn't stay with him this month.
"Ms Nott is only fifteen-" one of the aurors protested, but David cut him off.
"And she's been trained by aurors half her life. My sister knows what she's doing," he said firmly, not allowing for argument.
"Besides, her Patronus is stronger than yours," Elias added grimly. "And she knows more combat spells too."
"Don't even start arguing about my daughter helping," her Dad stated when the aurors' looks settled on Marina instead. "You'll lose. She's been mentored by Moody – need I say more? I'd wager she's better at duelling than half of you."
Just then the moon was high enough to start the change, even though it wasn't even dark outside yet, and she could sense the pain hitting Remus.
But she didn't just sense him starting to change. Pain like his was hitting her from all sides and she couldn't help the groan that escaped.
"Marina?" Harry asked worriedly, holding her up by her elbow when she stumbled.
"Look at the Map," she ground out and breathed through the pain. Remus was going to kill her when Dad told him she could sense the change.
Carmen did as she told – and, from what she was sensing, almost fainted at what she saw. She started reading names out loud and the adults around them paled.
"What?" Susan asked, obviously not understanind anymore than Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"They're all werewolves," Marina forced out. "Bellatrix brought a bloody army of wolves."
"It's the full moon," Susan whispered, thunderstruck. "They're dangerous tonight."
Only werewolves who drunk Wolfsbane Potion for a week before the moon were harmless – like Remus. But the ones in the Forest were likely feral.
"Why would they help her?" Hermione asked, aghast. "Coming to a school..."
"I'd wager Bellatrix didn't give them much of a choice," her Dad said grimly. "And the rest are hoping she'll bring her Master back."
"What? Why?" Ron stuttered, flabbergasted and obviously confused about why anyone would want that.
"Because our society shuns them," Carmen huffed and crossed her arms. "You get bitten and you're toast. Voldemort offers them freedom and a better life – that's why they followed him last time."
"But he's lying," Harry countered rationally. "He probably hates them too."
"Of course. But you live your life without friends, a home... sometimes even food, shunned by your own family. You'd be willing to grasp at straws too."
"Not all of them," Talbot announced grimly. "Some are just Dark. But they'd follow him, wolves or no wolves, so there is that."
"Won't they attack Bellatrix too?" Ron asked. "Once the change is done?"
"There are spells to hold off werewolves," David answered calmly.
"And she'd have no hesitation using them either," Marina frowned. Those spells were effective; and very painful on the wolf in question.
She would know: Remus had insisted she practice them on him, after Mad-Eye had taught her. As much as she'd hated causing him pain, she'd obliged; if only so he'd stop worrying that she'd be defenceless, should she ever come across a feral wolf.
"Why should she?" Snape sneered at her. "Not all wolves are tamed like your godfather."
8:05pm
Deathly silence had descended on the Great Hall. Snape had spoken loud enough for everyone to hear him – and everybody knew who her godfather was, thanks to the Prophet.
"Severus!" Dumbledore admonished, not half as shocked as he sounded. She could only sense deep resignation – almost as if he'd seen it coming.
"You bastard," her Dad snarled and took an angry step – but Marina blocked him.
"We don't have time for this," she said, just as angry. "The change is almost over in all of them. As soon as the last is a full wolf, they'll attack. We cannot let them near the castle."
"Lupin is a werewolf?" one of the aurors questioned, disgust clear in every syllable.
"Why do you think he left?" Carmen snapped. "He drinks Wolfsbane Potion and locks himself in every full moon."
"He should not be near children!" the only female auror present said shrilly.
"He's the best teacher we ever had," Susan responded dryly, every bit as outraged on Remus' behalf as the others. "Aunt Amelia recommended him, by the way." And Madame Bones had access to the Registry so she knew Remus was infected.
"He's dangerous!"
"As opposed to a teacher possessed by Voldemort?" Hermione asked sharply. "Or a basilisk in the school? Because Professor Lupin doesn't qualify after that."
Harry was too busy trying to incinerate Snape with a glare to defend Remus.
"I have never brewed him any potion," Snape pointed out – as if it was a good thing.
"Thankfully we have our own Potions Master at hand," David said smugly, motioning at his best friend. "So you really weren't needed, Snape."
"Enough!" Marina bellowed when they would have continued to argue – in front of the whole school no less. "The change will be over in about three seconds and we'll be faced with a few dozen werewolves that actually are dangerous. How about we focus on the problem at hand?"
They could contemplate how to curse Snape later.
While the aurors started coming up with a plan, she motioned the kids to a corner.
"You four are staying in here," she told them sternly.
"But-"
"No buts," she interrupted sharply. "You four are powerul for your age and smart, all of you, but you wouldn't last ten seconds against Bellatrix and her cohorts. And you don't even know the spells against werewolves."
Acknowledging that they were fairly powerful – they had to be or they couldn't have started animgaus training so early – seemed to have smoothed some feathers.
"Now listen: your job will be to help the teachers – whichever of them will stay behind – to keep everyone in here. Especially Neville. No more Longbottoms will fall at Bellatrix' wand."
"They won't listen to us."
"Draco and Theo will help – they already offered. Ginny and Ty too. And I'm sure the Quidditch teams will pitch in when needed." In fact she'd already talked to Angelina about it.
"What if they get past you?" Ron asked, but she didn't sense fear. More like calculation. She could see how he'd gotten through the Chess Board his first year; she could all but see his brain forming strategies.
"Unlikely. But let's say that the wolves will get past all of us and the dementors, then I want you to behave very un-Gyffindor-like," she said dryly and lowered her voice to a whisper. "If so much as one wolf gets in here, you change into your animagus forms."
"But you said-"
"Keeping it secret is not as important as staying alive," she shook her head. "Just try not to kill each other if it comes to it. Animal instincts are a pain the first few times."
"Be careful," Harry said and hugged her, before the four of them made their way back to their respective tables.
Marina joined the others and noted the bemused look her father shot her.
"I gave them a job," she shrugged. "As long as they get to help they're happy."
8:19pm
"Whose bright idea was it to put Dad and Snape next to each other?" Marina grumbled once everybody who would be helping was outside and taking position.
According to the Map, the Death Eaters were moving much faster now. They would descend on the castle any minute.
"Sirius, of course," David replied as they arrived at their assigned location. "He wants to keep an eye on him."
Marina harrumphed.
"Wonderful. They'll be busy killing each other instead of Bellatrix and her friends."
Of course, she wasn't that much smarter. Elias had insisted on staying close to Carmen – the shock – and her friend had acquiesced as long as David stayed with Marina.
Except Carmen had acted out of concern for her brother, not her, and known Marina would insist on the same. Bellatrix was what David feared the most in this world – and after '81 who could blame him – but Marina worried he wasn't aware just how scared he really was. Aurors were experts in suppressing their emotions.
She just wanted to be there, in case reality hit him at the wrong moment.
"I don't know why we bother, really. Dumbledore alone could handle this," David mumbled, only half joking.
"He can take care of the wolves all by his lonesome, sure," she agreed. "But even Dumbledore can't be everywhere at once."
Bright light flared somewhere behind them and she knew Carmen and the others had cast their Patronuses.
Just in time too, Marina mused, as she saw wolves burst out of the Forest, howling in unison. For the first time, she was glad Remus had made her parctice the anti-werewolf curses.
She'd need them.
8:47pm
Harry POV
He was going stir crazy.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Susan, Theo, Draco and three of the four Quidditch teams had managed to gather all the students as far away from the door as possible.
McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout and Madame Pomfrey had stayed to keep everyone in line and, if need be, protect them.
For almost half an hour now, they'd been hearing the sounds of battle from outside.
It was driving Harry round the bend not to know what was going on. He'd been tempted to become a raven and look – but Hermione had reminded him that he couldn't even fly yet; this time around she was right about it.
"They're fine," Susan assured him, sounding like she needed assurance herself.
Marina had agreed when Carmen had given them the Map on her way out. It was like watching bad TV, he thought, as dots clashed with others on the grounds.
From what he could tell Sirius was fighting Crouch Jr, while Snape was duelling Rabastan Lestrange.
The aurors, Hogwarts staff and Head Boy and Girl were all busy with the wolves.
David and Marina were fighting Rudolphus Lestrange and... Bellatrix.
Elias must have seen from his higher position, because his dot looked like he was sprinting there to help his friends. As was Carmen.
"Without the two of them it's only the Prefects holding the demenors off," Hermione realised somewhat horrified, as they were well aware just how many dementors there were outside.
"We need to help them," Theo chimed in, sounding a little shaky, but with determination on his face. Draco nodded in agreement.
Harry still couldn't get over how much the latter had changed. He was still an arrogant prat, but he supposed that wasn't what Narcissa had tried to re-educate him about.
"How do we get past the teachers?" Ron asked, his eyes glued to the dot that represented his older brother.
They were still contemplating when they received an answer.
"The dungeon!" Filch wheezed as he hurried inside the Hall. "It's empty!"
"Anti-Animagus Ward, my hide," one of the twins muttered grumpily, even as Harry looked at the Map more carefully. And there Pettigrew was... near Remus' office.
"If he opens that door...," Angelina said somewhat worriedly.
"Then he'll find himself faced with a fully grown, pissed off wolf," Patricia replied. "Professor Lupin drank Wolfsbane so he's himself underneath the fur. And Pettigrew betrayed him, so..."
Meanwhile the rest of the teams informed the teachers of the new development.
"He couldn't have escaped without help!" McGonagall thundered, outraged that someone had been able to break her ward. She and Flitwick took off to investigate.
Still staring at the Map, Harry and his friends saw the Prefects' dots … tremble, and then they didn''t move at all.
"That's how it looks when someone faints," George informed them, shooting a fleeting look at Patricia – who they all knew had fainted over her O.W.L.s.
They all stared at each other, terrified, as they realised what that meant. Without the Patronuses...
The lot of them started running, ignoring Sprout and Pomfey's yells to come back, and tore out of the Great Hall, heading for the fight.
"Marina and Carmen are going to kill us," Theo remarked halfway there, sprinting along next to Harry. The brunette had taken her cousin under her cloak right around Christmas.
"So will Sirius and Benjamin," Harry agreed, but thought that then at least they'd be alive.
A wolf howled inside the castle.
"How does that rat keep outsmarting everyone?" Fred huffed, apparently still not happy that he'd never known Scabbers was a wizard.
"No one ever said he was stupid," Harry said grimly. "He fooled everyone in '81."
"Remus is not a threat," Susan said firmly and pointed ahead. "They are."
The Hogwarts grounds had turned into a war zone.
Spells were flashing everywhere, wolves were growling and howling, people were screaming warnings at each other...
… and a woman was laughing hysterically. No, not laughing, cackling.
All hair on Harry's neck stood on end – but they all kept running anyway.
Theo, Draco and the twins joined Percy in fighting the wolves – apparently the Weasleys had taught all their children after Remus had told the story of how he'd been infected. Theo and Draco had already known the spells from their fathers.
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Susan stayed back a bit, fully aware that they'd be a distraction if Sirius or Marina saw them.
Elias and Carmen had taken over duelling Rudolphus, Marina had joined David to fight Bellatrix.
"How can they stand against two?" Hermione asked, exasperated and worried.
"Dark Magic," Ron replied grimly. "Plus, our people are worried about the wolves and dementors."
As if on cue, the temperature dropped about twenty degrees.
"Oh no," Susan moaned and hugged herself. "They broke through."
Worse, Harry thought, much worse. It was the first time since Azkaban that Sirius was anywhere near the creatures.
Harry watched in horror as Sirius started trembling, even as he attempted to keep duelling his opponent.
Snape, he noted angily, noticed how it was affecting his godfather – and smiled.
To make matter worse, Marina must have sensed that Sirius was in pain.
"Dad!" she screamed, terrified, from across the field. "DAD!"
But it was no use. Bellatrix cackled louder than ever when Sirius succumbed, rocking on the ground and clutching his head.
"Stupefy!" Susan yelled next to him, shocking the daylights out of them all. But she hit her target. Rabastan Lestrange crumbled, stunned, and Crouch Jr focused on Snape instead of killing Sirius.
Unfortunately, now everyone noticed they were here.
To his surprise, his sister didn't sound all that angry when she spoke.
"Harry, Patronus, now!" she yelled, even as she blocked a curse that had been aimed at David.
Tears were streaming down Marina's face – and Harry understood. Not only were the dementors affecting her personally, she had to go through everyone else's pain as well.
"Think happy thoughts," he told the others. "Your happiest."
The three looked at him oddly, but he didn't have time to explain.
"Expecto Patronum!", he said, thinking about winning the Quidditch Cup. Nothing.
He tried again, thinking of how Sirius had been cleared. Nothing.
He could hear the others muttering the spell, but nothing but flimsy mist made it out of their wands.
"SIRIUS!" Carmen screamed suddenly and Harry turned his head to see her and Elias, after they'd beaten Rudolphus, run his godfather's way. He looked – and almost screamed himself when he saw the dozen dementors surrounding Sirius.
"NO!" Marina had finally seen it too. "NO, GET AWAY FROM HIM!" David had to block a spell aimed at her this time.
"DAD, SNAP OUT OF IT! … DAD!"
But the effect they had on him was too strong. If anything he curled into a ball even more. Carmen and Elias would never make it in time.
One of the dementors leaned down, one gnarly hand at his hood – and Marina abandoned any pretense of duelling her cousin.
"NO! DAD!" she screamed, voice breaking and fully crying now. "DADDY!"
And Harry remembered: she'd first called Sirius that on Christmas Eve, saying it almost shyly, as if a fifteen year-old was too old to use the endearment. Sirius had beamed brighter than the Christmas lights.
It had been the best Christmas of his life, at a real home and with his family.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
This time it worked, and something big burst out of his wand, just like during the Quidditch match. But now Harry could tell what it was: a big, translucent stag.
It was pulsing in the silver-blue light of a Patronus and galloping across the field – impaling the dementor trying to Kiss Sirius on his antlers.
The dementors – and the wolves – fled as the stag tore across the grounds and attacked them all.
His friends stared at him, gaping – as did everyone else, for that matter. His stag was still pulsing light, which kept pushing dementors away.
Marina's eyes were as big as saucers and she looked as gobsmacked as the others.
Then David bellowed in pain next to her and she snapped her head around to find him half on fire.
Harry watched in amazement as his sister, now not worrying about her father anymore, let lose on Bellatrix.
He didn't know a lot about duelling yet, but they looked evenly matched. Bellatrix might be insane, and didn't care about extra damage because of it – not even to herself –, but Marina was furious.
"You're not getting anyone else, you bloody lunatic," Marina snapped, and in the sudden silence everyone could hear her.
"You think you could beat me?" Bellatrix cackled and countered whatever hex Marina had sent her way.
Marina didn't answer, just sent a hex straight through the shield the other witch had cast. Bellatrix looked slightly surprised while dodging it.
"Mad-Eye sends his regards," his sister said almost smugly, and Bellatrix stopped laughing.
Harry knew the rules – you didn't interfere in a duel. It was a stupid rule as far as he was concerned. But not even David moved to help Marina, obviously having reached the conclusion that she had challenged and Bellatrix had accepted.
Duelling Champion or not, his sister was getting tired. She'd been awake for almost a week straight, for Merlin's sake, and sat through her O.W.L.s. Now she'd been fighting a witch twice her age for over an hour.
And then Sirius woke up – and Marina must have sensed it because she lost focus for a second.
One second too long. Bellatrix next spell hit her in the shoulder.
Everyone roared in terror as she arched in obvious pain and crumbled, Harry already running to her, and David stepped in front of her to take over fighting the cackling fruitcake.
But then Dumbledore, who'd covered the other side of the castle all by himself, stepped onto the battle field.
Bellatrix saw him – and disapparated. Obviously one of the spells the rat had disabled was the Anti-Apparation Ward. Crouch Jr, not interested in taking on the Headmaster either, it seemed, followed.
It was over.
8:05am, the next morning
"Should we wake her up?" Carmen wondered quietly, looking at a still sleeping Marina.
Bellatrix' curse had caused severe inner bleeding. Madame Pomfrey had fixed her in a few seconds but had forced her to drink Sleeping Potion to recover.
"Not yet," Sirius shook his head. "Give her another hour, she'll still have plenty of time before the train leaves." Like Harry, he hadn't left her side all night. He was sitting on one side of the bed, holding her hand, Harry on the other.
McGonagall had given Carmen access to the Gryffindor tower and, with Angelina's help, she'd packed Marina's stuff. Ron and Neville had packed Harry's.
"She'll be mortified when she wakes up," David said quietly – he hadn't left either.
"Losing against Bellatrix is nothing to be ashamed of," Sirius growled. "I have often enough."
"Not about that. Though she'll beat herself up about that too," David added musingly. "No. About what she called you in front of everyone. In front of Death Eaters."
"She was a wee bit scared. He was about to get Kissed," Carmen commented dryly, then sighed. "But yes, she'll never let herself live it down."
Sirius winced. He'd been beyond embarrassed when he'd regained his senses.
"I'll go update Remus before he wears a hole into his office floor," Carmen said after a few minutes.
"How is he?" Harry asked, stifling a yawn.
"Furious that the rat got away, but grateful McGonagall and Flitwick managed to lock him back in before he got far."
After the brunette had left, they sat there and watched his sister breathe. She hadn't so much as twitched all night, too exhausted to even get comfortable.
"Harry, can you give us a moment?" Sirius suddenly asked and he looked up to find the man staring at David. Harry looked at the older Nott too.
He looked awful. The dark circles under his eyes had dark circles, his hair was a mess, his robes rumpled, his eyes bloodshot and blood still all over his clothes. He'd barely allowed Madame Pomfrey to heal his burns, refusing to leave Marina's side.
Harry smiled inwardly. It had taken Sirius some time to notice.
"Nope," he replied cheerily. He'd already received the lecture about not listening to Marina about staying inside. Sirius had grounded him for a month – but seeing as he'd still be allowed to the Quidditch World Cup... well.
His godfather looked at him sharply but didn't make it an order.
Instead he focused back on the young auror, who looked intirely too exhausted for what Harry suspected Sirius wanted to discuss.
"My daughter is barely sixteen," Sirius sternly, pulling the protective-father tone off very well. And yet he had acknowledged that the week until her birthday didn't really matter.
Harry grinned at the floor and saw David stiffen from the corner of his eye.
"You thought I wouldn't notice?" Sirius asked, rather drolly, when David didn't say anything.
"Don't worry, I won't tell her," David finally said – and Harry looked up quickly.
"Why not?" he asked with a huff – he had overheard the girls talking after Christmas. He knew Marina liked David.
Neither one of the adults, Harry mentally rolled his eyes, looked like they wanted to talk with him about it. But David answered anyway.
"We're friends and I don't want to lose her," he said very, very quietly – as if afraid she'd wake up and hear if he talked too loud.
"Why would you lose her?" Harry asked, now confused. When people liked each other, they didn't stop being friends, right?
"She doesn't lo... like me that way."
Harry looked back at Marina's matress, so he wouldn't blurt out what he thought. If his sister hadn't told David that she liked him, then there was a reason... right?
Sirius had no such qualms.
"Says who?" he asked dryly.
David's head shot up from inspecting his robes' hem and he met Sirius' eyes. Harry didn't need Marina's blasted Empathy to see the sudden hope in the man's eyes.
Neither did his godfather. He sighed wearily.
"I can't believe I'm saying this but... Look, my daughter is a brilliant and talented witch. And that cursed Empathy of hers has forced her to grow up a lot faster than others – which is why I agreed to get her the Maturity Exception.
But it's because of the Empathy that she doesn't have a lot of self-worth. Or haven't you noticed she's always taking care of everyone but herself?"
Harry had noticed. Marina had told him once that, aside from the family and close friends, it was pure self-defence. If she helped people not to be so miserable, she didn't have to go through it with them.
"She told me she really didn't like your girlfriend," Sirius continued. "And in the same sentence she said that she helped you get out of having to take her home for Christmas, so Jenna wouldn't be mad at you for it – or you at her for refusing to come."
"Ex-girlfriend," David corrected absentmindedly. "But how can she not know how I feel? She always knows."
"You're never alone," Harry chimed in hesitantly. "The way she explained it, when there is too much at once, she can't always pinpoint where the emotions come from."
"So she probably told herself it wasn't coming from you," Sirius nodded.
"But why?" David asked, aghast.
That one Harry could answer.
"Because people are thick," he huffed. "They called me a freak because I have that scar, never mind when I started speaking Parseltongue. What do you think they call her?"
Sirius and David both looked positively outraged.
"She brushes it off, at least it looks like she does, but... some of it must have registered."
Merlin knew it had when they'd looked at Harry like he was a freak.
"She told me there was gossip but never that they..." David looked crushed.
Harry started to think that maybe, possibly, he shouldn't have said anything.
"That's more than she told me," Sirius grumbled – but Harry saw the hurt.
"Because you'd just gotten out of prison. And she doesn't want you to worry," Harry explained, guilt creeping in.
He'd had more of Sirius during the Christmas Holidays than Marina. She'd fought for her father's freedom and then Harry had gone and monopolized him.
"She doesn't want anyone really taking care of her either," David noted, eyeing Sirius with concern. "Since she started school, no one really has – Andromeda and Ted tried, but... she didn't let them anymore."
"My Kitten," Sirius said quietly and stroked Marina's hair. "So she was alone all this time."
"Not quite," David was quick to disagree. "Carmen and she were inseparable since the first time they met. They were five."
"And she keeps telling me stories about all the time with Remus," Harry added quietly.
Silence reigned for a few minutes.
"Maybe I should go to the Cup with the Weasleys," Harry then suggested. "And you stay home with her. She doesn't really like Quidditch."
Sirius smiled at that.
"It was her idea to get an extra set of tickets," he told him. "She doesn't like flying – doesn't mean she doesn't like Quidditch. All she has to do is focus on you having fun and she won't even go queasy – her words, not mine."
"And she'd worry herself senseless if you went without her and Sirius," David added gently.
Which apparently reminded Sirius of the original subject of their conversation. But he didn't look all that … huffy... anymore. Just... like a father.
"If you hurt her, you'll wish for Azkaban," he told David darkly, the bear-sized dog sounding through.
"Noted," David replied – and smiled, for some reason.
Harry barely heard his next words.
"But she'd probably beat you to it."
Any thoughts?
For all those who might have thought I'd change it, sorry but the rat had to get away. You'll see...