Chapter Seventeen

Sirius Black

Hagrid had returned and already had company by the time Jennifer got to his hut. Sirius Black stood and smiled at her as she entered, taking her hand as she sat down.

"I'm sorry about you and Severus. Please let me know if I can do anything to make you feel any better," Sirius said immediately, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

"How did you know about that?" Jennifer asked in surprise, contemplating murdering some students.

"Severus told me," Sirius shrugged. "He was in the forest Thursday night, patrolling I think. He didn't really tell me much, but I gather from the way he said it that it wasn't his idea," he said, looking at her expectantly.

"Stop fishing," she frowned at Sirius. "Hagrid, how was the visit up north? Any interesting news?"

"Ya, some was interestin'. We went there ta find out more about a wizard they'd had up there wif em for awhile few years back. Dumbledore was thinkin' it might be important," Hagrid said, putting cups out on the table. "We were thinkin' mebbe it were sommun tryin' to hide from Voldemort. He'd been up there several years an' then he left suddenly a few years ago, they weren't too sure exactly. He didn't bother them much when he was there, so they left 'im alone. But one day, he just got a haunted look an' packed up and left, only sayin' somethin' like, 'He'll be back soon. We need t'be ready.'"

"But if he was hiding, why would he have moved back the very moment that Voldemort had begun to get more powerful again?" Jennifer asked.

"Perhaps being up there wasn't his idea in the first place. Maybe someone else put him there to get him out of the way," Sirius suggested. "Amazing the lengths someone will go to get someone out of the way," he added dryly.

"You don't suppose this wizard has something to do with the Ivory Skull, do you?" Jennifer said thoughtfully.

"Could be, but I think that it is more likely that it's someone we already know," Sirius said. "Voldemort has a lot of enemies, and I'm sure there's a lot of people out there who would be delighted to stand up and pick them off one by one if they had the power."

"Oh? Who would your guess be?" Jennifer challenged him.

"How about Severus Snape?" he challenged back. Jennifer stared at him.

"That is the most ridiculous conjecture I have ever heard. Severus would never do anything like that."

"I agree, Professor Craw. Yer just lettin' yer emotions get in the way, Sirius." Hagrid said, waving off the idea.

"Humor me for a moment, Jennifer. I know you've had some dealings with the Ivory Skull before. Have you ever seen them both in the same place together?" Sirius asked.

"He tried to kill him! Out in the woods. Severus and I got separated…" Jennifer looked thoughtful for a moment. No, that one didn't count. They never did actually find another person out there. "Okay, Halloween then. I was up on the roof of the Granger house, when the Death Eaters were looking for him. Severus was the one that pointed out that he was in the tree."

"Did you see both of them?" Sirius asked again.

"Er, no, I was getting dragged at that point," Jennifer said, looking thoughtful.

"And even if you had, I know for a fact that the school has a Time-Turner. I'm sure he'd find a way to acquire it if he had to," Sirius said.

"Look, Sirius, it's an interesting theory. But there's no way he could have possibly hid that from me, I'm a Truth Seeker, remember?"

"Remembering, that's exactly it…" Sirius said, leaning over. "How do you think it is that Snape is able to hide things about what's going on at Hogwarts from Voldemort? He throws it in the Pensieve, and when he's done, he picks them back up and switches them out. So what's to say he's not doing the same for the Ivory Skull memories to keep them away from you?" he asked. Jennifer frowned, but Hagrid chuckled at him.

"Sirius, I'm thinkin' yer startin' ta be around Harry too much. That's startin' to sound like a theory they'd come up wif." He shook his head at Sirius.

"Besides, you still retain knowledge of events even when you put them in the Pensieve." Jennifer said.

"You have to think about them before you start retrieving the memory. There are ways around that, if you do it wrong you don't remember the facts of the events either," Sirius said, sipping his tea and watching her carefully. After a moment, Jennifer shook her head.

"I don't think it's him. I don't think he'd have done a lot of the things the Ivory Skull did, and I definitely don't think he'd have taken my wand," she said.

Hagrid and Sirius both looked at her.

"The Ivory Skull took your wand?" they both asked at once.

"Yeah, well… sort of. Someone who works for him took it," Jennifer said with a sigh. "And it's a cursed wand too, so I reported it missing to the Ministry. Dumbledore's trying to get it back."

"It's cursed?" Sirius asked with surprise.

"Banshee hair," Hagrid nodded to him. "What you doin' for a wand, then, Professor?"

"Oh, Dumbledore let me borrow one of his. The point is that I don't think Severus would have taken it. He knew that wand couldn't be used by anybody else but me." As Sirius was pondering the logic of this, there was a knock on the door and Hagrid let in Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione.

"Hagrid! Welcome back!" they all said, waving at Sirius and taking a seat.

"All of the creatures behaved while you were gone," Ginny said. "But I think Fang was lonely."

"Good ol' Fang," Hagrid said, "You all did a good job, every'un's gettin' a good mark fer last week. 'Ow was practice?"

"Well, we didn't get much practice done. We were too busy watching them clean the tower," Harry said as he sat down.

"Tower?" Sirius asked.

"One of the Quidditch box towers was filled to capacity with marshmallow cream," Ron grinned. "We got there just before Madame Hooch started cleaning it up. She did not look happy."

"Well, I'm glad it was in there even if it was a mess. I probably would have broke my neck," Jennifer grunted. "From now on, I listen to my good sense and stay on an automatic broom."

"Professor Craw, how come you weren't in the gym this morning?" Hermione asked after a moment. Jennifer looked up in realization.

"It's Saturday isn't it? I forgot all about it. I had something extremely important on my mind. I was running some tests on the ring." Jennifer said.

"The cursed ring from class? You mean how it wouldn't steal from Draco?" Ron asked.

"Yes, I think I've figured it out. And I think I might have the evidence I need to nail Lucius as a Death Eater," she said, getting everyone's attention. They listened to her recount her findings, getting as excited as she had been. "Tomorrow I'm going down to the Alley to see if I can't bribe a look at the pawn register, and also to look around to see if I can find any other Malfoy items that might have been sold there. If I can find any more evidence pointing to his involvement, it may be enough to keep him from getting off the hook this time."

"I wish we could go," Hermione said..

"No, I'm going to have to go down Knockturn for this," Jennifer said.

"You should have someone go with you," Sirius insisted. "Especially considering you don't have your own wand on you. I think I'll come along. I'd love to see someone put the book down on old Malfoy."

Bright and early Sirius and Jennifer headed to London, Apparating behind the Leaky Cauldron. Sirius led her through to Diagon Alley, the two of them stopping off at Gringotts Bank before turning down the winding path towards Knockturn. Jennifer kept glancing around nervously, not wanting to bump into Malfoy a second time while she was working on this.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on things," Sirius said in a low voice. "Let's just get to Borgin and Burkes."

Unlike Diagon, which was already bustling with activity, morning was the dead time for Knockturn Alley where the shops did most business at night. Few people were around and they were able to quickly get to the pawnshop, and Jennifer was a little relieved to find out that they were the only customers there.

"Ah, Professor Craw. Back for more items?" Borgin asked, smiling greasily.

"Perhaps, Borgin, perhaps," Jennifer smiled at him. "Those three items last time were perfect. They were exactly as labeled as well. I'm quite happy with them," she said. "I don't suppose there's any way for me to find out who the maker of one of the items that I bought is? I'd like to see if there are more pieces in the set."

"Oh?" he asked.

"Yes, the ring I bought," she said holding it out in a gloved hand. "Would you happen to have any more jewelry pieces from the same maker?" Borgin's eyes flickered, and she could tell he was already suspicious. "Or perhaps the maker's name, so that I can look for it? I'd be willing to pay quite well for it."

"I'm not quite sure on this piece. It was probably a private creation, since it apparently had a crest at one time. But take a look around; I have so many pieces here that it's quite possible I have more of this caliber, and probably even better ones. I have a nice ring of deception you might like, over there on the far table that has a very ornate look to it."

"Thank you very much," Jennifer smiled, "I'll go see it now," she said going over to the table. Borgin excused himself, walking to the back room. Sirius moved from the table he was looking at to the one she was at, glancing at her curiously.

"He was covering. He knows who he bought this from," Jennifer whispered quietly to Sirius as they glanced over the jewelry. "From what I read, Malfoy dumped a lot of stuff a few years ago before the raids, and then sold a box again this summer."

"In that case, there is probably still more of that lot in the shop. I'll start looking on this side," Sirius whispered back, glancing over more items. After a moment Borgin came back out to join Jennifer, showing off some of the jewelry.

"You were mainly looking for collection pieces, were you not?" he asked with a smile. "Here's an antique sconce that if you put it in a room and light it, it will mesmerize anyone who tries to pass it. It comes in rather handy if guarding a passage."

"Hey, that is pretty neat," she agreed. It wasn't what she was after, but she was half tempted to pick it up for her class. Sirius, noticing her interest, threw her a dirty look. "I'll have to come back and get that some other time," she sighed longingly at it.

"Professor Craw, come take a look at this," Sirius said, "I think it might peak your interest." Jennifer walked over, followed quickly by Borgin, who peered over at the table. Jennifer looked at the inkwell, which had beautiful silvered scrollwork encasing the fine crystal well. Cursed inkwells were once really common before the never-dry ink quills became popular. Some enhanced writing, some made you write other things, and others made it so that your writing were only visible to people whose blood you dripped in the bottle. This was one of the latter. Using her gloved hand, Jennifer turned the ink well around, suddenly noticing the crystal had an etched bottom. Lifting it up, she saw a tiny mark. It was without a doubt the Malfoy family crest, a serpent coiled around a goblet.

"I think I'll take this one," Jennifer said. She put it up on the counter, glancing at Sirius.

"Oh, I'd forgotten, someone asked me to hold that and was going to pick it up this evening. But perhaps if you give me a few minutes to check I can make sure they still want it." He's stalling, Jennifer thought, gazing at him. It was then she saw from his expression that he had sent an owl to Malfoy when he was in the back. She glanced at the price tag, biting her lip.

"I'll give you two hundred galleons for it if you let me have it now," Jennifer said quickly. It was, in fact, all the gold she had, but there was no way she'd pass on this.

"No, no, I'm sorry, although that's very generous of you," Borgin smiled weakly.

"I'll give you five hundred," Sirius said suddenly, walking up to the counter. "A thousand if you tell him it was bought before we got here."

"Malfoy's already on the way. Borgin tipped him off, and he was told to stall." Jennifer told Sirius, ignoring Borgin's wide-eyed surprise at her words.

"Then he had better decide fast," Sirius snapped, tossing a large pouch on the table. "Well? You going to take or leave it?"

Borgin glanced in the bag then nodded, and Sirius grabbed the ink well in one hand and Jennifer's hand in the other, stuffing the well in his pocket as they exited the shop.

"You'd better go ahead and Apparate back, Jennifer. It'll do you no good to be found here now," Sirius said when they got out into the Alley.

"Going so soon? But the party has just begun," said a voice behind them. They quickly turned around, not only facing the person Jennifer liked the least, but also the person Sirius liked the least. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Peter Pettigrew, his face shadowed under a large hooded robe, stood in front of them.

"Not smart to be out and about in public as a fugitive, Wormtail. I speak from experience, thanks to you," Sirius said coldly.

"No one will notice another dark figure in this alley, Black. Jennifer, you have a choice; either return my property to me or we'll take it off your corpse." Malfoy said calmly.

"Empty threats, Malfoy, you wouldn't dare kill us in public. You might as well leave us the ring than prove you're a murderer twice over," Sirius said.

"Missing the obvious, as usual. I don't need to kill her. Pettigrew will be more than happy to do it for me." Malfoy said. Pettigrew moved to raise his wand and Sirius suddenly reached up and pulled the hood down over Wormtail's face. Jennifer took out her wand and aimed it at Pettigrew as Crabbe moved toward Sirius and Malfoy unsheathed out his own wand from his cane.

"Stupefy!" she said, and blasted Pettigrew across the alley, hurling him into a shop window that shattered with a loud crash and startling a golden-haired woman walking nearby. Crabbe grabbed Sirius' wand arm as Malfoy turned towards Jennifer. Sirius took something out of his pocket and threw it at Crabbe's feet, and suddenly it broke into crystal, which quickly grew over his form, encasing him.

"Mortify!" Malfoy snarled, pointing his wand.

Jennifer felt the spell hit her as tried to turn towards Malfoy and fell to her knees. Her mind was suddenly filled with the knowledge all of her failures, her weaknesses, everything that she had hated about herself. Her head swam, and she nearly passed out before she was hit with another spell, this time by Sirius.

"Defiance!"

Her body was trembling as she pushed herself off the ground in time to see Sirius punch Malfoy in the face and sent him sprawling back. Her anger took over and forced her to stand as both she and Sirius aimed their wands at Lucius.

"You won't kill me, Craw, anymore than I would kill you. You'd be arrested immediately, and the Death Eaters will find you in your cell with no allies and nowhere to go," Lucius hissed at her.

"I'll take that risk for her," Sirius said seriously, but Jennifer bit back her anger.

"No, Sirius. We can't do that to Draco. It's bad enough he's going to have to deal with his father in jail. I'll not have Lucius killed." Sirius looked at her with surprise, but then nodded and shot a flare from his wand.

Within seconds, the place was swarming with Ministry officers, looking around in surprise. They quickly went over to the window, but found nothing but broken glass and blood, then turned to the rest of them, their wands drawn around the four, quickly binding them to keep them from Disapparating. A moment later Minister Weasley appeared, looking around with surprise.

"Mind if I ask what happened here?" he inquired, glancing at Sirius and Jennifer.

"Minister, I'd like to officially charge Lucius Malfoy for attempted murder and crimes associated with being a Death Eater," Jennifer said, straightening her robes in an attempt to calm down. Arthur's face brightened.

"You heard her, take him into custody. What about him?" he asked, pointing to Crabbe.

"I could probably get him on assault," Sirius offered.

"Done. Take him into custody too," Arthur said cheerfully.

"Pettigrew was also here," Sirius added, nodding to the window. "Unfortunately, he got away again."

Officers were already swarming over to the broken shop window, confirming that whoever had been there had gone. The Muggle-dressed woman who had been standing nearby soon found herself talking to several of the Enforcers.

"Oh, well. I suppose we can't have everything. Let's go to the Ministry for your statements, shall we? No, no, don't worry about the wands. We'll look at those there."

"What are you doing, Weasley?" Lucius snarled in anger. "Can't you see we're the victims here? They're the ones standing, not us! I want to charge Sirius for assault as well!"

"You cast a Dark spell on Jennifer, all that we cast in return was self-defense." Sirius said coolly.

"Yes, yes, let's get them out of the street, please? There will be enough talk about this incident without adding more eyes to it," Weasley said, noticing that a crowd was gathering. The enforcement officers holding Crabbe and Malfoy took out large keys and grabbed their arms, porting away. Two other officers offered theirs to Sirius and Jennifer, and they soon landed in the Ministry Building's lobby.

"You see, Jennifer? I always knew we'd make a great team," Sirius grinned with amusement.