Don't own anything recognisable from JK Rowling's Harry Potter books.

Chapter 11

The Attack.

After they eventually ate (!!) they, well Pat, decided to go back using the normal corridors rather than the secret passageways.

They were wandering down a staircase, not watching where they were going.

"Chicken!" He was taunting her. "And they let you become an Auror! When you won't go through a couple of passages!!!"

She looked at him. "I should take you into custody for that remark!"

"Custody?" He mused. "Handcuffs? Saucy cells? Do you have a uniform? You could do Good Cop/ Bad Cop! I wouldn't mind!"

She mock punched him on the shoulder. "Don't tempt me."

He started singing "Jailhouse Rock" to her in a lowered voice changing some of the words.

"Went to an orgy at the county jail! Lalalalalalala. Auror Cleopatra said to me you're the cutest jail bird I ever did see…."

She suddenly stopped walking. "Sirius? Aren't we going the wrong way?"

Unbeknown to either of them the staircase had switched directions.

He sighed. "Better go back then."

They turned to go up the stairs, but stopped when they heard voices.

"What's the password?" The unmistakeable voice of the fat lady echoed through the hall.

They heard a muttering, and the fat lady spoke again.

"I can't let you in without the proper password."

Pat and Sirius started running down the stairs. The fat lady controlled the door to the Gryffindor common room, and Harry.

They reached the entrance in time too see a figure in a black cloak get a knife.

"Hey!" Sirius yelled, and started to run after them. The cloak turned, there was a faint glow around them.

"Dark Magic." Pat muttered to herself and drew her wand. "Invocateo Umbra!" she yelled. It was the charm she used to see if there was any black magic affecting the subject. A large cloud of black arose from the retreating figure.

Sirius gave chase. "You see if Harry's alright!" He yelled over his shoulder.

Pat shook her head, she waved her wand again and the majority of the black cloud got caught in a jar that had appeared. She walked over to the Fat Lady, who was visibly shocked.

"Are you okay?" Pat asked her.

"First Sirius attacks me, now this!" She wailed.

"Its okay, go to one of your neighbours for a while. We'll sort someone else out for the door. First could you let me in?" She whispered the password Dumbledore had given her when she arrived so she could go anywhere. "Mashed Potatoes."

The door swung open, and a crowd of Gryffindor students stood there, wands at the ready.

"Don't shoot!" Harry got in front of them. "What happened?" He asked Pat.

"Someone tried to get in. Sirius is chasing them now, but I should be able to tell who it is from this." She waved the jar at them, then put it safely into her pocket.

"Lets go, you'll all sleep in the Ravenclaw common room tonight. I'll keep watch."

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

"I got as far as the fourth floor chasing them, but I lost them." Sirius confided the next morning, when Dumbledore had been informed of the attack.

"They were surrounded by black magic." Pat told them tiredly, she had stayed awake in the Ravenclaw common room near Harry in case the person returned. Luckily they didn't. She had woken up to find Harry asleep on the floor in front of her, his hands wrapped around hers. "I got a sample of it. I can use it to determine which spell is around the person, and with a little bit of time, who that person is."

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at her. "Really?" He exclaimed. "You must tell me how. It must be an interesting procedure! Full of complex…" Looking at Pat's face he trailed off adding. "Later, after you finish your case."

Harry looked at Pat. "Thankyou. If you two hadn't been there I would have…"

Pat gave him a swift hug. "Don't think about what if's. My parents died much like yours, and I surrounded myself in what if's for a long time. It didn't happen, you are still here and we are going to get to the bottom of this.

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

"Harry should have been dead last night. Voldemort won't be pleased." The shadow walked around the room. "I'll have to do something about the Auror and Black. If they discovered who you are…"

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

Pat was busy. She had spent most of her time since the meeting with Dumbledore in Snape's Potions classroom much to Sirius' despair.

"If he wasn't such a hook-nosed ugly git I would be jealous!" He had said, when she refused to come up to lunch with him.

She added the final ingredients.

"There!" She exclaimed and looked at the cauldron. It bubbled for a moment, but Pat was patient. Eventually it came up with what she wanted. The solution started to go rainbow coloured, until it settled on a dark green colour.

"Interesting." She mumbled to herself, and looked in the pocket book of spells she carried around.

"Oh my god." Her face went a pale shade.

"Imperius." She whispered.

The curse on the person trying to get to Harry was the Imperius curse, one of the three forbidden curses.

"It could be anyone here! Anyone could be under the spell of a more powerful wizard." She murmured to herself.

She wrote it down in her notebook, and then looked at the door.

"Should I tell someone that whoever is trying to kill Harry is under Imperius, or should I carry on." She muttered to herself.

She took one last look at the door, and started to prepare the ingredients for the next spell.

"Sirius or Severus should be back soon. I'll tell them then. It's more important that I know who is attacking Harry, so I can catch them.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

It was later in the day and Sirius had just finished teaching his last class before the weekend. He had taught the first years about the History of Hogwarts. While he was in Hogsmeade he had bought enough Chocolate Frogs for two each, and using the wizard cards he told them about Salazar Slytherin, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw.

'They won't be too bad.' He thought. 'A few of them show great potential.'

He headed towards the teachers' lounge thinking about Pat, and what exciting things they could get up to that night!!!

Suddenly he felt something go under his feet.

Too late to avoid it he altered his approach and tripped, falling headlong into a wall.

If he hadn't altered his approach he would have gone down the long flight of stairs into the Great Hall.

Something which could have either killed him, or created an exceptionally long stay with Madam Pomfrey.

"Stupid damn cat!" He yelled after Mrs Norris who was already disappearing down the corridor.

"I predicted that someone would be in grave danger down this passageway. I came to warn them. Obviously I am too late." Sybill Trelawney looked down on Sirius.

"Thanks, Sybill. I appreciate the help." Sirius said as he stood up and looked around the corridor.

"I saw everything as I was coming down the hallway. Mrs Norris was watching you. Waiting for you to come here." Sybill added mysteriously.

"Watching me?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. As if she wanted to trip you up." Sybill said as she floated away. "I would stay away from that cat if I were you. I have a bad feeling."

'You always have a bad feeling about something!" Sirius thought as he rubbed his butt.

"Man that hurt!" He grumbled and headed towards the staff room.

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

"Why won't he be a good man and die?" The shadow asked nobody in particular. "It was all planned there in the corridor, and then…..." The voice trailed off in frustration. "Well you know what they say!" The Silhouette laughed. "If at first you don't succeed…."

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

Pat was just adding the final touches to the spell.

"Almost there. Just a few more ingredients to go." She muttered to herself in a appreciative tone of voice. She had been disturbed constantly for the past half an hour by Mrs Norris scratching at Snape's door.

"Pardon? Did you say something to me?" Sybill Trelawney asked as she swept into the room. Mrs Norris took that opportunity to follow her in; she jumped onto the table beside the cauldron and rubbed her body against the jars and bottles.

"No. I didn't." Pat answered concentrating on the next spell, the most difficult. This would show the image of who the spell was cast on.

"I just came down her because you are in grave danger." Sybill floated around the room, circling Pat as she did so.

"That's nice." Pat said absentmindedly. She was used to Trelawney's predictions. She had been in danger since she came here.

"Yes, someone is going to kill you very soon."

"Really? Is it going to be Albus? Or maybe Snape? No don't tell me. Its Sirius isn't it, he's had it in for me ever since he arrived." The sarcasm oozed from her voice.

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

The shadow watched the scene intently.

"Yes, you should be here soon." It said darkly.
It saw Pat's face contort in horror.

"You!" She said angrily at its slave, and it could see her looking around for anything she could use as a weapon. Pat was stuck, nothing could help her now.

"Cleopatra. Scribere." She said quietly, so quietly that the Shadow missed what she said.

"Why are you doing this, someone has to help me!" It saw Pat yell at the door.

"Come here." It said quietly, and saw his slave's body snap to attention.

The Shadow muttered some words and a panel opened in the wall.

"Where does that secret door in the wall behind Snape's desk lead to?" Pat asked.

The shadow was confused at Pat's choice of words, but decided to ignore it.

"Petrificus Totalus!" It said. "You will discover that later."

It saw Pat stiffen as she fell to the floor. Her face contorted as she tried to speak, but nothing happened, she could only make a small mewling sound.

It muttered some other words, and Pat rose from the ground. She was transported through the passageway

A/N

Spark-Chick

I'm glad you like my story!!! And Pat had to forgive him!! Who wouldn't forgive Sirius!!! He's just a loveable guy!! And I agree he is the best!! (It's the puppy-dog eyes that get me!!)

We're getting closer to the identity of the shadow!! (Yay!) You have Severus clones?? Is there a catalogue of them?? And if so can you get Sirius and Remus clones too????

Jestr017

Sirius is getting booty (And plenty of it if I have my way!!) and for that he's getting an incredibly big head!!! I'm not sure whether he'd get attracted to a guy named Bubba!!! (Maybe if it was more of a girly name – who knows!! (Then again you can have guys called Pat… Whoa I really don't wanna be thinking about this!!!!)) Anyhew I'm glad you like him!!

Jelsenium

Thanks for reading the story and thanks for such a nice review. I'm glad you sympathise with Harry, next chapter should wrap up the whole "Shadow" thing!!!!!

Martha

Thanks for reading the story!!! I appreciate all reviews, even if they are bad!! I'm surprised you got as far as chapter 8 of my "naff" story!! (To all other readers, don't flame her. I do know her, so she's allowed to criticise!! (Anyone is, everyone has their own opinions.)) Thanks for continuing to read anyway!! I shall be posting Severus soon, so you can rip it to shreds to your hearts content!!

And Finally… Mrs Grim

Good luck with your exams – not that you'll need it!! I know teachers are evil, but I promise it gets better!!!  Thanks for your compliments!! They always mean so much to me!!! Harry Pat and Sirius should all get along from now on!! Okay, I know I promised to show you the identity of the shadow in this chapter, but it kinda ran away from me, and well… next chapter, okay??? A hopeless romantics club sounds good, but I think we'd have way too many applicants!!

Anyway, love to you all!!

Krusty

xxx.

P.S. Sirius parodies "Jailhouse Rock" sung by Elvis. I don't own it, but I do love Elvis!!!