well, here it is! it's long, it's angsty in bits, it's slightly (read: very) confusing...stuff stuff stuff. don't let the second scene confuse you; assume that the foursome and Ani played some kind of wonderful trick on Snape, and you can make up the details. I had a scene describing the prank, but honestly the whole thing works better if it's left somewhat up to the imagination. as for remus's transformation-delay...er....I blame the plot contrivance monster.

reviewers: you are all Gods/Godesses. (and special note to Cassandra Claire: were you serious about offering to b-read? cos i'd love it if you would, and of course i still really really really want to b-read your MWPP fic...good good good. yus.)

curtain up.

Bryter Layter--Part V

With the Rain

Dumbledore took off his glasses, wiping them with a fastidious care born of long habit. Minerva McGonagall watched him from across the room, her magnificent mane of untamable brown hair cascading over her beautiful face. In her hands, she held two stone tablets, scratched with rough symbols, impossible to decipher. "Dumbledore, what are these?"

"They are called the Scyldinga Runes, Minerva. Ancient tablets, apparently inscribed there some three or four thousand years ago by a tribe of Celtic druids. Lovely, aren't they? Graves tells me they're what Voldemort's after."

"But why?" wondered Minerva, completely bewildered. "What's so important about them?"

"Apparently, they're a set of prophecies. Graves has been doing his best to slow the translation process, but he can only stall Voldemort's lackeys for so long." Dumbledore sighed, massaging his temples. "He's been doing his own translation for me, and sent me these copies of the runes...he's been gradually chipping away the words on the originals, so that they're near-impossible to read, much less translate."

"What does Voldemort want with the prophecies, though?" pursued Minerva, staring at the angular, jagged script of the runes. I feel like a stuttering first-year, asking all these questions...

"They're the key to...something. An enchantment of great power, apparently, or he wouldn't be interested. Graves has told me he's already been experimenting with trans-dimensional gates...managed to acquire himself a few Dementors. Soul-suckers, you know." A flash of anger came into Dumbledore's clear blue eyes. "The worst species of Daemon known to man. From what Graves has managed to decipher, the procedure described in the Runes is like a Gate-opening, but on a tremendous scale...every gate within the range of the enchantment, opening at once, and the spell-caster controls every one of them. And it requires a blood sacrifice...a particular blood sacrifice..." He shook his head, obviously bewildered. "It's unclear what makes the sacrifice special...that may be included in the part of the runes that hasn't yet been translated. In any case, it's a terrifying amount of power for one person to wield..." He shook his head, looking wearier than Minerva had ever seen him. "Well, it isn't as though we hadn't had warning. The Sidhe got wind of this through their Druids years and years ago. That's why they've been retreating into their raths...a change is coming, and they know it."

"Lovely," said Minerva with dark humor. "Abandoning us."

"It isn't as though we've been particularly kind to them, you know," Dumbledore pointed out, sighing. "Well, we'll just have to prepare for this alone. He's gathering strength, and I don't know how long Graves can..."

There was a tapping at the window. Both occupants of the office jumped, and then Dumbledore crossed quickly to it, unlatching it. An enormous buzzard swooped in, dropped something on the desk, and swooped out again, leaving behind a stench of decay.

Minerva glanced at her superior, nervously.

Dumbledore, resolute, crossed to the parchment and picked it up, unrolling it.

Something dark dripped onto the floor.

I found your spy, Dumbledore, it read.

There was a photograph. Dumbledore flinched, dropping it. "My God..."

Minerva crossed quickly to it, picked it up, and then went chalk-white and half-threw it across the room. "Who could do that to a human being? Who?"

"Voldemort could," whispered Dumbledore, staring out into the night sky. "Voldemort could."

*



"We've got to get back, though," Remus had insisted. "I'll do it, but we've got to get back in time."

James had waved a hand airily. "We'll get back in time. And it'll be worth it to see the look on Snape's face."

Remus had sighed. "As long as we get back."

"We won't forget," Sirius had promised, grinning. "You just know that git will be sneaking around trying to find you...we'll get him good."

*

They sprinted across the grounds, Anika and Sirius periodically dissolving into hysterical laughter while Peter half-joined in, as though he were almost afraid to laugh. James and Remus just ran, grinning like fiends, until they reached the shelter of the Hogwarts cornerstone and simply rested there for a few minutes, breathing hard and wiping wet hair out of their rain-flecked faces. Sirius and Anika had to hold onto each other for support now, they were laughing so hard. James eyed them with ostensible reproach, trying to muffle his own laughter. "If you two ever decide to control your glee, you'll let me know, won't you?"

Anika waved a helpless hand at him dismissively, sobbing and choking with mirth. "S-Snape's...face...oh...and when he started running..."

"And...and..." Sirius managed, fairly crying, "when you dropped your cloak...and Wormtail tried to get it back...and Mrs. Norris..."

James swore. (Anika managed to control herself long enough to say "James!") "My invisibility cloak...I left it back where we left Snape. You all go on ahead--I'll go back and get it--"

Anika breathed in deeply, barely managing to contain herself. "'Salright, James, I'll get it--I'm a faster runner than you anyway. Remus, come with me."

"Is that an order?" gasped Sirius through a fizz of laughter, clutching his stomach. "Guess we know who's on top in this couple...It's okay, Mooniekins, I hear they sell backbones cheap at Dervish and Banges..."

Anika stuck out her tongue at him and blew a long, wet raspberry. "Yeah, well, you're just jealous, you big chicken-head poopy-face boy-cootie. C'mon, you," and she seized Remus's arm and pulled him off with her, back towards the copse.

"If you're not back in an hour, I'll leave the Pill in your bedroom," Sirius yelled after them, shortly before dissolving into another fit of cackles.

The trees loomed above them, the patter of rain on the leaves reminding Anika of soft Welsh Saturdays in bed, listening to the rain on her roof and dreaming of magic...there was the cloak, a silvery shimmer against the leaves. She picked it up, savoring the liquid feel of the material against her bare arm.

Remus was bent over, still searching through some ferns for James's cloak. She walked up behind him and stood there for a few moments until he turned around and smiled at her, that wide, sweet smile she loved...She wrapped her arms around his neck so that the cloak she held in one hand made a silver streak down his back, and rested her head against his chest. One of his hands fell to her waist; the other stroked her hair gently, reflexively, almost in the same patterns as the now-sparse raindrops. He smelled good--wild, like pine forests and fresh snow.

"I've never been so happy," she said, into his chest. "Never. I've never had friends like James, and Lily, and Sirius, and Peter...I've never known a boy like you..."

He left off stroking her hair and tilted her chin up, so that she was looking straight into his face. The rain had faded off almost entirely, and only a few errant drops pattered her head. "I know," he said softly, bending his face down to kiss her.

The moon broke, at last, through the clouds.

And suddenly Remus's eyes widened in horror and he pushed her away, cursing. "No! I forgot--I forgot about--Ani, run! Get out of here! There isn't much time--"

She stared at him, eyes narrowed in hurt and bewilderment. "Remus, what--"

But he had gone completely stiff; his limbs were beginning to shake; he threw his head back, and she realized, her mind going blank with dread, that there were fangs emerging from his mouth...

He's a werewolf, she realized in a blind panic. How come I never noticed? Every month, he wasn't going to visit his mother...he was going to transform...the way he never gave me his number--the way he wouldn't--it all makes sense--

And tonight, he forgot...

She whipped around and ran, not seeing where she was going, branches tearing at her face and neck. From behind her, she heard an awful, inhuman howling, tortured and animal; if she had been a different sort of girl, she might have screamed. As it was, she forced her limbs into an even faster gait, praying that the trees would slow the wolf down, knowing that they wouldn't...

There was an enormous crash behind her. Remus had broken through the copse--he was coming towards her, faster than she could ever hope to go--she could hear the horrible breathing behind her, and the awful pounding of paws--



Sirius took a deep breath, forcing himself to stop laughing. The rain was finally beginning to taper off; Peter gave a sigh of relief, shaking out his lank blond hair with a shiver. James, meanwhile, had stopped walking and looked back towards the copse, brow furrowed.

"What is it, Prongs?" asked Peter worriedly.

James let out a long breath and turned around, smiling. "Nothing, Wormtail. I just--d'you ever have that feeling where you know you've forgotten something, but you don't know what it is? It's probably nothing...I..."

The moon broke, at last, through the clouds.

It hit Sirius first--the full impact of what they'd done-- "Moony!" he gasped, staring at James in horror.

James nodded grimly. "We've got to get to Anika--Peter and I will take care of Remus, Sirius, you get her back to the castle--"

But Sirius was already racing towards the wood, transforming even as he ran, his brain howling with fear, echoing the sudden howl of the werewolf that echoed across the grounds--



Anika's feet slid out from under her on the wet grass and she fell heavily to the ground, throwing her hands out in front of her to break her fall. There was a sickening crack--My wrist, she realized in a haze of pain, trying to crawl forward through the mud. Her feet, entangled in the long robes, twisted, and she collapsed back into the dirt. Anika flipped onto her back, hoping against hope that the sight of her face might awaken something inside Remus--something human--

The werewolf was walking towards her now, slowly, purposefully, tongue lolling out of its fanged mouth. She could feel its hot breath on her face, and she let out the smallest whimper of fear.

Sirius had never run so fast in his entire life. His legs hurt from the strain against his canine muscles--Anika. I've got to save Anika--he couldn't stop. He had to get to Remus.

She fumbled desperately for her wand with her non-broken wrist, pointing it at Remus. "Impedimentia!" she sobbed in terror. "Stupefy--Impedimentia--"

The spells bounced harmlessly off the wolf's thick hide, unfocused with panic--it raised itself to pounce, howling triumphantly--

Something thundered into it from the side, throwing it to the earth--Anika stared at her rescuer, thinking at first It's another wolf--oh god--and then realizing that it was a dog, the biggest dog she'd ever seen.

The two animals roared at each other, slashing furiously with claws like knives, splattering one another with mud. Jaws wide and snapping, the flash of a white eyeball, a grin of angry tongue, but now there were more animals--a stag, antlers lowered, threw the wolf out of the way, and a small ripple in the grass indicated something there--A rat? wondered Anika, deciding that she was definitely going mad.

Then the dog, breathing shallowly, was rushing at her, jaws wide open. Anika closed her eyes--

She realized, after a moment, that it hadn't eaten her after all. It had seized her uninjured arm, and was racing across the grounds with her, away from wolf, stag and rat. She clutched at its fur with one hand, almost crying, and realized, oddly enough, that she recognized the dog's scent...

They reached the cornerstone. The dog opened its jaws, depositing her in the grass. She fell hard, and gave a little moan of pain, forcing air into her ravaged lungs.

The dog gave her a strange, thoughtful look, and then began to change. In a moment, she realized why she had recognized its scent--

Sirius.

--Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs--

His face was even more pale than usual, his eyes more shadowed and afraid then she had ever seen them. She imagined that she looked equally strange to him.

"Oh, God, Ani--I thought--I thought--" He grabbed her tightly, unable to speak.

Anika fought her way through the numb shock that had enveloped her ever since Remus had pushed her away. "Careful, Sirius--aaah! My wrist--I think it's broken--"

"Right," said Sirius immediately, getting to his feet. His face was still ashen, but there was a look of pale determination in his eyes that Anika had seen there before. He pulled a wand out of his robes, hand steady, eyes burning. "This might hurt a bit, but I've practiced it before--you'll be alright--"

"Practiced it?" choked Anika incredulously. "You--you know healing charms? But--that's incredibly advanced magic--you have to go to medimagic courses--they can go awfully wrong--"

Sirius looked uncomfortable. "Well, I didn't say I knew them very well."

Anika moaned something that sounded like "Why me?"

Exasperation made Sirius short. "Look, if you want to explain to Miss Pomfrey how this happened, be my guest--"

Anika had a bizzare image of herself saying to Miss Pomfrey, Oh, yes, I was being chased by a werewolf who used to be my boyfriend, then I was rescued by a dog but he was really my other friend, and ooh look, I'm still holding the Invisibility Cloak that belongs to my other friend, you see? Oh, and Peter's a rat! The Miss Pomfrey image smiled indulgently, patted her on the head, said That's lovely, dear and promptly pulled out a straitjacket, jammed Anika into it, and locked her into the carriage straight to St. Mungo's.

"Go ahead," she mumbled. "Do what you like."

Sirius rolled up his sleeves, praying silently, and placed the tip of his wand gently against her wrist. "Here goes--Curatio!"

There was a sick, painful sort of squelchy feeling in Anika's wrist. Tears started in her eyes, and she bit her lip hard to keep from crying out. It only lasted a few moments, but they were not pleasant moments. "Oooh..."

Sirius dropped to his knees beside her, his wand falling to the ground. "Flex your fingers."

His voice was hard, frightening. Anika did what he told her to. "It's better, Sirius...honestly, it doesn't hurt anymore..." and then, sharply, "Sirius! For God's sake stop looking at me that way. I'm fine."

"This is my stupid fault," said Sirius expressionlessly. "I did this, it was my idea."

"Stop it."

"You could have been killed."

"Stop it!"

"If I hadn't suggested--"

Anika slapped him. He gasped, grabbed his cheek, and stared at her in amazement. Her face was burning with rage, her eyes bright. Sirius thought, rather stupidly, that she looked magnificent.

"Shut up! I told you to stop it! This wasn't just your fault, it was everyone's. Yours, mine, James's, Peter's, and Remus's. Even Snape's, just because he's a stupid prat and he drove us to it. You're being dead useless, just sitting there feeling bad for yourself because you, along with an awful lot of other people, screwed up!" She took a deep breath. "Thanks a lot for fixing my wrist, or I never could have done that, by the way."

Sirius opened his mouth to say something, but she stopped him. "Shh. I'm afraid you'll say something dumb again. I only wish--" a wistful look crossed her face-- "that you'd trusted me enough to tell me about being Animagi...but I understand why you didn't. That's why they all call you Padfoot, then?"

Sirius nodded.

"Hmm. You didn't look like a Padfoot, you know. You were all big and fluffy and huggable, like--like a Snuffles, or something. Yeah, some cute, fuzzy name, like Snuffles--"

"You didn't look so charmed when you thought I was going to bite your head off--"

"I never thought you were going to bite my head off! I--" Something cut her off. There was a rustling coming from the direction of Hagrid's hut.

Sirius and Anika looked at each other for a moment, panic-stricken. "It's Hagrid--I bet you anything he heard Remus howling--"

With immense relief, Anika remembered what she still had clutched in one hand. "James's cloak! I brought it back with me! Quick--get under--" She pulled him into a bush, threw the shroud over Sirius and ducked beneath it herself, tucking it carefully under their legs so that it was sure to cover every inch of their bodies. "And don't you dare start laughing for no reason," she hissed at him.

"Ow--your elbow's in my ear--and you're pulling my hair--bitch! You're doing that on purpose!"

"Hush!" She tried, unsuccessfully, to rearrange herself into a more comfortable position.

The crunching sounds of Hagrid's enormous feet on the leaves came closer, and Anika, listening carefully, realized that he wasn't alone--Fang was obviously with him, and someone else.

"--jus' makin' trouble in the forest again, Professor--I can 'andle it..."

"I do not believe that was an ordinary wolf, Hagrid," said a sharp, curt voice.

"Oh no," breathed Anika, "it's Rookwood--"

Sirius groaned, almost inaudibly.

The footsteps came to a halt, not three feet from where Anika and Sirius crouched, frozen.

"Professor, yeh doan think it's Remus, do yeh? He mighta gone back down the tunnel--did that las' month--"

"It may well have been the Lupin boy," said Rookwood coldly. "But I do not believe he has simply 'gone back down the tunnel', Hagrid. Those friends of his--"

"Now, then, Professor," said Hagrid sharply, "Yeh can' be saying James and Sirius would ever..."

There was a short pause, and Rookwood said finally, "Well, perhaps it is only a wolf, as you say. All the same, Hagrid..."

"I'll get rid of it, Professor," said Hagrid smartly. "Come, Fang."

But Fang would not come. He had caught Sirius and Anika's scent in the bushes and, bewildered, was trying to paw through them to his old friends, unsure why they hadn't come to greet him yet.

"Go away, Fang," Anika whispered desperately, "go away..."

"Fang! Come on, boy--No need ter worry, Professor, 's probably just a rabbit--Gerroutofit, Fang!"

Through the cloak, Sirius patted the dog on the nose, murmuring, "All right, boy...go with Hagrid..."

Fang, whimpering, allowed Hagrid to finally drag him out of the bushes. Anika let out a silent sigh of relief as the three sets of footsteps moved out of earshot.

"Do you think Remus and the rest are okay?" she asked Sirius the moment nothing more could be heard.

"James can take of himself--and Peter. As for Remus...he'll be all right. They'll probably go out to Hogsmeade for a bit...in the morning, they'll sneak back in the tunnels and get to breakfast. That's what we usually do."

"Out to Hogsmeade?!" yelped Anika. "Are you kidding? What if he gets away and bites someone?"

"Hasn't happened yet," said Sirius, shrugging airily. He seemed to have recovered somewhat from the shock of Remus's transformation.

"Do you four do this every month?"

Sirius looked straight at her, his deep black eyes holding hers. "It's the only way we could be friends to him, Ani...can't you see that?"

There was a short pause, during which Anika began to wonder how she had forgotten the full impact of those eyes, and Sirius (typically) tried to avoid the thought of how nice she looked in this lighting by wondering how they were going to get back to their separate towers.

"Come on," she managed, at length. "We should get back inside...get some sleep..."

"How are we going to get to the dorms?" wondered Sirius aloud.

"I was thinking we would go through the tunnels, just like we did getting out," Anika said, in the same slow, patient tones she might use with a young child or an extremely stupid toad.

"No, idiot," snarled Sirius. "I meant, we have to go to completely separate dorms...there's only one cloak...and the Fat Lady's been told not to let anyone in at this hour. What are we going to do about that?"

Anika raised one eyebrow thoughtfully.

"Oh, no," moaned Sirius. "I know that look..."

*

The Ravenclaw common room was far from uncomfortable, but Sirius still didn't get any sleep. Curled up under the invisibility cloak, he knew he couldn't be seen--but it didn't mean he couldn't be felt. One amorous couple had actually sat on him in the middle of the night, meaning intense embarrassment and muffled yelps for them, and a night spent under the couch for him, just in case they decided to come back. They had spent another half-hour searching for Peeves, and then had made hasty and extremely mortified exits to their separate dormitories.

Sirius lay on the sparkling silver carpet and stared at the ceiling until morning. It was decidedly more interesting than one expected a dormitory ceiling to be; the stone shifted around impatiently, then got bored of being stone and was wood for a while, then decided to relax a bit and became a white steam. Sirius rather wished the floor would do the same--as stone, it was rather discomfiting, even with the carpet as padding, and dug into his shoulder blades. At around five in the morning, he got sick of lying there, got up, and wandered (grinning inwardly) up to the girls' dormitory.

The door was partly open; he suspected Anika had been too exhausted, too confused, too overwhelmed to bother with whether or not it was shut. He slipped inside, not disturbing it at all, not making even the slightest noise on the thick dormitory rug.

Anika's was the bed by the window. He padded over to it, something drawing him to her.

She was not asleep. Grey eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, blinking every once in a while. Her face was still filthy from the night before, but Sirius saw something in it that surprised him--long, clean tracks. Tears.

Poor kid, he thought, something in him reaching out for her, and before he knew what he was doing he was stroking her cheek--

She sat straight up and screamed.

Idiot! he cursed himself furiously, diving under the bed. She was awake--you knew that--

The other girls in the dormitory were slowly waking up, yawning. "Ani, what--"

"Sorry," mumbled Anika, embarrassed. "I...had a bad dream." Swinging one leg unobtrusively under the bed, knowing who would be under it, she kicked Sirius in the eye. What was he doing? Scared me out of my wits...

She swung her feet out of bed. The other girls were already fast back asleep; she could hear Erin's soft snores. Ducking under the bed, she took a swipe at where she imagined Sirius to be. "Take that stupid thing off," she hissed.

It was a very odd sight--first, Sirius's face appearing out of nowhere, then his neck and shoulders, then his chest and finally--with some difficulty--his legs. "Awfully cramped under here," he said with an attempt at an innocent grin.

Anika, however, said nothing more. She seemed oddly subdued. "I'm going to take a shower. Then I might have an early breakfast. You can come if you like."

"To the shower?" asked Sirius hopefully.

Anika didn't even rise to the bait. It worried him. She turned away and stood up, so he could only see her feet and ankles. They were devastating ankles.

Damnit, Sirius! he thought, hating himself. Stop it--she and Remus were meant for each other--stop making things worse for her.

A soft thud told him that she had entered the bathroom, and a moment later, the hiss of water through the pipes signaled the shower. Sirius rolled out from under the bed, pulling the cloak on, and tiptoed down to the statue hole. Anika would come in a moment; he would just wait.

Anika rubbed her hands fiercely through her short, tousled hair. The shampoo ran down her face and into her eyes, which stung; she didn't care. It disguised the tears that were already starting in her eyes, and distracted her from the throbbing ache in her throat. Oh, Remus... She'd read enough about werewolves to know how painful his transformations were--bones melting and fusing in strange ways, skin ripping out in new places, organs rearranging...and he had never told her. Never wanted her to pity him.

She turned off the shower quickly, shuddering in the sudden cold, and pulled a towel from the racks above the stall. Wrapped it around her body. Pulled herself in front of the mirror and stared at her own haggard reflection. I failed him. By running away, by making him face that pain all by himself--I failed him.

"You poor thing," said the mirror with unexpected gentleness. "Rough night, dear?"

Anika nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"Poor thing," said the mirror again, and was silent. Anika muttered a quick cosmeticus charm, and her hair whiffled briefly under a warm wind and went dry. Not feeling like styling it, she pulled it into a tight ponytail, scrubbed hard at her eyes, and pulled on her robes before heading downstairs, to where Sirius waited.

At first glance, the common room seemed empty. The quiet gray light of morning streamed through the enormous windows, making everything seem tranquil and clean, as though last night had never happened.

"Sirius?" whispered Anika softly.

There was a faint rustling noise, and the sound of footsteps.

"Stop it," she said abruptly, shivering.

Sirius pulled down the hood of the cloak. Anika gave a soft, involuntary scream and quickly clapped her hands over her own mouth. It was hard to tell which was worse--the disembodied footsteps, or Sirius's disembodied head. She was beginning to understand how Snape had felt last night, when Peter had accidentally trod on the hem of the cloak, revealing Anika's face. At the time, she'd been making horrible banshee wails in an attempt to frighten the living daylights out of Snape; it had worked even better than expected. School rumor said he'd spent the entire day today shaking, spilling things, and jumping at small noises.

Sirius pulled the rest of the cloak off, folding it under his arm. That was better.

"Are you going to be all right?" His almost-purple eyes were worried.

She looked away. "Let's get breakfast."

His hand closed around her wrist, and she looked up in surprise. "Ani, tell me you're going to be all right."

She pulled herself free, moving toward the statue passage. "I can't."

They stood there for a moment, staring at one another. Finally Anika said, trying not to cry, "What was it like for you?"

Sirius's brow creased for a moment. "What? Oh--it was--"

For a moment, the familiar, comforting expression of absolute irritation crossed Anika's face. "Not that, you dimwit. When you found out about--Remus."

Sirius took a deep breath, trying to cast his mind back. "I remember feeling betrayed...feeling untrustworthy...feeling like Moony and I could never really trust each other again. And then I felt like an idiot, for not figuring it out. Then I felt like I had to do something...had to make it better for him. Had to remember that he was still Remus, there was just a side to him I didn't know about. He's the same person." He paused. "Did that make any sense?"

"It sounded about like how I felt, so I'd say no. Nothing about this situation makes sense..." She shook her head. "I still love him, Sirius. But he's afraid...afraid that things will change--how could they not change?" She sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. I'm being awful this morning. Come with me downstairs."

*

Rain's the way you move now
Sun the way you seem
Leaves the way you wonder
Flowers the way you dream
This was our season, and we said it couldn't end
But my love left with the rain

*

The house-elves were already up and working, and were happy to see someone to give food to. Sirius and Anika grabbed buttered toast and bottles of pumpkin juice and went out to the lake. The sky was still pink-orange; a light, grey mist hovered around the tops of the trees around them. The soft wind, the occasional echoing call of a bird, and the soft rippling of the lake were the only sounds. They walked in an aimless circle, eating in companionable silence, until they reached the north shore for the third time.

Anika threw her last piece of toast into the lake, where it bobbed for a few moments before an enormous tentacle snaked lazily up out of the water and pulled it into the depths. "Where does Remus go?"

"When he transforms?" Sirius watched her for a moment. She wasn't going to be deterred, and he hated hiding the truth from her. "There's a tunnel under the Whomping Willow--it goes straight to a little house in Hogsmeade. That's where he goes."

There was an odd glint in her eyes. "How do you get in?"

"The knot on the trunk, you just poke it and--" He stopped suddenly. "You're not going to try to sneak in! After what happened last night?"

"Sirius, stop trying to be my mother. It's daylight--he'd be normal, he'd be himself, I could tell him--tell him--" Ideas seemed to be failing her. At last, half to herself, she murmured, "What would I tell him?"

Sirius watched her with miserable eyes, not knowing what to do, and--for perhaps the first time in his life--not knowing what to say.

*

Anika didn't speak much over the next few days. She still sat with James and Sirius during Arithmancy, but she rarely raised her hand to volunteer answers, and only spoke when spoken to. They understood, but it didn't make them feel any better. She left, quickly and silently, after class; Sirius was about to go after her when James put a hand on his arm, stopping him.

"Remember how important Remus is to her," James said softly. "Let her have some time." He bit his lip. "But I wish she'd let us talk to her."

Sirius stared at his friend's retreating back, fist against his teeth. "So do I."

"What's the matter with your half-blood groupie, Black?" asked a nasty, grinning voice from behind them. "Seen herself in a mirror, has she?"

Sirius turned around with slow, easy menace. "It's right under that disgusting-looking nose of yours, Snape...if you can't figure out why, I don't see why I should tell you. Go on, James. I'll catch up." James left, watching him in confusion.

"Is this about her mysteriously missing boyfriend? Bet he just had to get a breath of unpolluted air...she's the sort of girl you get tired of easily...I ought to know."

Something snapped in Sirius's mind and a growl issued from deep in his throat. He fought to keep himself under control...he'd never hated anyone like this, never...he'd make Snape pay... "You want to know what happens to Remus? Fine. Poke the big knot on the Whomping Willow with a stick tonight, and you'll find out all right...unless you're afraid..."

Sirius turned on his heel and left, leaving Snape staring openmouthed after him, and grinned to himself as he jogged down the hallway. This ought to be amusing.

*

Dark fell early that day. This was good, Sirius thought; it meant revenge would come sooner. Sure enough, as he watched surreptitiously from across the hall, he saw Snape eating faster than he ever had before, then sneaking out the door to the Slytherin hallway. He couldn't help a grin spreading over his face.

"Wha' ishit, Pa'foo'?" asked James, mouth full of potatoes. He swallowed quickly, and tried again. "What is it, Padfoot? You're looking awfully pleased with yourself."

Sirius nodded in the direction of the Slytherin hallway door. "Can't wait to see that slimy git get what's coming to him."

James's eyes narrowed. "Padfoot...what'd you do?"

"Nothing. Nothing much, that is." Sirius's grin widened. "Just told Snape how to get in to Moony."

James sprung to his feet, nearly knocking the whole table to the floor. The other students eyed him, irritably. "Padfoot, you'll get him killed!"

"So?" Sirius hissed back. "Stinking, filthy scum--world's a better place without him. Didn't you hear what he was saying about Anika? The things he's done to Remus? All the times he's bullied Peter--and what about you, hasn't he done enough to you?"

"But Sirius, you can't--you can't want him dead?"

Sirius stared straight ahead, eyes blank, that faint, dangerous smile still on his face.

James swore and ran off towards the doors.

Peter stared, surprised. "What was that about?"

"Nothing," said Sirius casually, getting to his feet. "I'm going upstairs."

*

James was running as he'd never run before, towards the Whomping Willow. The grounds were dark and menacing in the full moonlight, the trees bent and twisted like a witch's hands. He could feel his heart pounding painfully in his chest; he might not like Snape, he might even hate him, but he couldn't let him die...not just for his sake, but for Sirius's, and Remus's...

And there was the willow, just ahead. Its branches flailed and whipped against the air, and it had obviously been disturbed just recently. There was still time, James thought with vague hope, still time.

He ducked between the thrashing branches to the knot and whacked at it with his fist. The tree froze; James leapt through the gap in the roots and dashed down the narrow tunnel, the hard-packed dirt flying out from under his feet. "Lumos!" he muttered...the faint, flickering light of the wand provided little comfort in the dark, claustrophobic space. It felt like he had been running for hours; his lungs were on fire, his muscles screaming at him to stop--and then there was a dark figure ahead of him, jogging through the twisting corridor as fast as he could.

"Snape!" howled James hoarsely. "Stop!"

The figure turned around, surprised. James had reached him now--he was grabbing the sleeve of his robes, trying to pull him back down the tunnel--"You've got to get out of here, you don't know what you're getting yourself into--"

Snape wrenched himself free, the quavering wandlight making his expression very unpleasant indeed. "Get off me, Potter--I'm going to figure this out, and you're not going to stop me--"

A howl echoed down the corridor, agonized and harsh. Both boys looked up instinctively--there, sillhouetted against the bright end of the tunnel, was the figure of--

"Shit," gasped Snape with great feeling.

But James hadn't stopped--he had taken another handful of Snape's robes, and was hauling him bodily down the shaft. Snape caught on after a moment, and started to run almost as fast as James did, the light from his wand wavering crazily over the walls.

They shot out from between the roots at top speed, James slamming his palm against the knot on the tree as they did so, and leaned against the tree trunk, panting. Snape was watching James as though he'd never seen him before. There was a very long silence.

Finally Snape said, curtly, "What'd you do that for?"

James looked at him in surprise. "Come on, Snape...we may not be best friends--hell, I don't even remotely like you--but I don't want you dead...Nox." The wandlight went out.

"Why not?" asked Snape mulishly, obviously not wanting an answer, as he extinguished his own wand.

"Don't be thick," said James tersely. "I know it's hard."

There was another long silence.

"I'm going back to the castle," James stated finally. Without another word to Snape, he set off across the grounds towards the Hogwarts building--and all of a sudden, a face loomed up at him out of the darkness.

"Well, well, well, Potter," said a silky, vicious voice. "This should be an interesting story."

It was Professor Rookwood.