Vampire Chronicles Book 2: Catharine Riddle

Part 5

By Gaz Destiny

A/N: hey I know that James, Sirius, and Peter probably weren't Animagus in their fifth year, but I'm just going to say that they are, so that this all works out.

~*~ Two weeks later ~*~

"I'm tired, Ruby. I'm tired and scared," Rena said to Ruby who was sitting on her lap on the stairs of the grand staircase.

She was talking to Ruby in the normal human language, even though Ruby was answering in the normal snake language.

"Yes, yes, I know. Fear is not an emotion I should be feeling. Emotion all together is something I should not be feeling, but I cannot help it. I am not one thing, yet still not the other," Rena said somewhat sadly. "Tonight's a full moon. I wonder if Tom's going to transform tonight. I hope not, without a soul or a conscious he'll tell my little secret to You-Know-Who. Yes, I know you don't think I should call him that, that I should call him by his name, but I don't think it's a good idea to do that seeing as there are so many people that are afraid of him."

Suddenly a rustling noise could be heard.

"Who…who's there?" Rena called placing Ruby around her neck as she stood up. Then fixing her eyes on an 'unoccupied' spot, she said almost angrily, "Sirius, is that you?"

"How'd you know?" Sirius asked slipping the invisibility cloak off.

"Invisibility cloaks such stupid things, never work against those of the assembly," Rena said shaking her head. "What did you hear? You might want to tell the truth, I can tell if you're lying."

"I-I heard everything starting with you saying you were tired," Sirius said carefully choosing his words.

"Then you must be careful. Do not ask me any questions about what I said do not tell anyone for danger will arise with that. And most importantly do not go looking for answers were you have no business being," Rena said coldly. "Now I must go and tend to some business. Do not follow me again."

"I wasn-," Sirius started to say but Rena disappeared under her invisibility cloak before he had a chance to finish.

"Do be careful," Rena's voice rang in the entrance hall.

~*~A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER~*~

"I hate these elemental charms, how do you write one of these things?" Sirius ranted in the common room.

"Why don't you ask Rena for help, she seems pretty good at these things," James said. "And it's not like any of us have that class."

"No way, she's super creepy," Sirius said shaking his head furiously.

"I've gotta go now," Remus said standing up.

"Ok, we'll see ya later," James said quietly.

"Remus, my I have a word with you?" Rena asked stepping through the portrait.

She was wearing the same midnight blue/gold lined robe that she had worn to the feast. Over it she wore a blood red cape that seemed to be lined with wolves' fur.

"This isn't really a good time for me," Remus said.

"I understand," Rena said with a soft smile. "It's not the best time for me anyways."

With that Rena walked quickly up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, coming down almost immediately with her backpack from the train in hand, her face seeming much paler than a few seconds before.

"Good night," she said almost silently to Remus before disappearing through the portrait hole.

~*~MIDNIGHT~*~

"We need to talk about what's going on," a muffled female voice could be heard from the room above the room in the Shrieking Shack where the Marauders where at in their other forms.

"What's that?" Peter asked (A/N: in their animal forms I'm going to write them talking in English seeing as I don't know how to write in animal language where you'll understand) timidly.

"It sounds like people talking," Sirius said from his place on the large bed in the room that had yet to be destroyed.

"No duh, Sherlock," James said shaking his stag head.

"No, no, it sounds like-like Rena," Sirius said annoyed with James.

 "Can we go yet, I don't happen to really care what they're doing here seeing as there's no way upstairs," Remus said impatiently.

"Fine, we'll talk about it tomorrow," Sirius said still annoyed as he left towards the Whomping Willow.

~*~THE NEXT MORNING AT BREAKFAST~*~

"Remus, may I talk to you?" Rena asked stopping behind him at the Gryffindor table. "In private."

"Sure," Remus said standing up and following Rena out of the Great Hall.

"I'm bored, we need to prank someone," Sirius said to James.

"Like who? Everyone knows it's us when there's a prank," James answered.

"How about Rena, we haven't pranked her yet," Sirius said.

"Why would we prank her? She's an ally," James asked.

"People are starting to talk, just as they are about us not pranking Lily yet this year, but everyone knows that you two have been caught kissing in empty class rooms a million times," Sirius said. "So that kind of cancels Lily out of it."

"What have you got against Rena all of a sudden?" James asked ignoring what Sirius said about him and Lily, while at the same time failing miserably at trying not to blush.

"She's strange," Sirius said. "There's something wrong with her."

"Like what that she's nice and smart, try a better explanation and then maybe I'll believe you," James said shaking his head.

"I don't know what it is, but I do know that it has something to do with 'the Assembly,'" Sirius said.

"What's that?" James asked having know idea what Sirius was talking about.

"I don't know," Sirius said taking a bite of sausage after saying, "But I was thinking of asking Remus. He probably knows."

"Yeah," James said before turning his attention to watching Lily down the table.

Sirius went back to eating his breakfast till Remus came back ten minutes later.

"What was that about?" Sirius asked Remus as he sat down across from him.

"Nothing, we were just talking. She offered to help me with a potion, if I help her research something," Remus said before taking a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"Do you know what the Assembly is?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, it's a group of really powerful witches and wizards," Remus said.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

sorry for the cliff hanger but I had to update something.

Gaz  Destiny