{Disclaimer: I own only the things that you don't recognize.}
Chapter 8
Dark of Night
**This is over my head / But underneath my feet / Cause by tomorrow morning I'll have this thing beat / And everything will be back to the way that it was / I wish that it was just that easy/ Cause I'm waiting for tonight / Been waiting for tomorrow / I'm somewhere in between / What is real / Just a dream "Somewhere In Between" Lifehouse**
Flickering shadows cast from candles danced upon the dark walls. Harry peered around in the gloom. He did not recognize this place. A lone figure lay on the floor facing away from him. Harry could make out long welts dripping blood across the man's back. He was obviously in tremendous pain. The figure's head tilted back and a low scream escaped the parched lips. Harry could see the features in full now. The dark eyes and hooked nose gave everything away. It was Professor Snape.
What the Potions Master was doing locked up in a cell was something Harry did not know. Harry wasn't even sure he wanted to know.
A serpentine voice whispered across the shadows. "This is what happens to those who fail me."
Snape's back arched as he shrieked in agony. Harry watched as his professor dropped back to the cold unforgiving floor, whimpering. He had never thought of Professor Snape as a person to whimper.
The voice spoke again. "No one fails me without retaliation. The punishment for incompetence is death."
Harry awoke shivering. He had kicked off all of his blankets during his nightmare. His scar throbbed in a painful beat. Voldemort. It was the only answer. Voldemort had to be behind it. Harry supposed he would have to tell Dumbledore even though life would be much more pleasant without Professor Snape around. He climbed out of bed, groping around for his glasses. His invisibility cloak was right where he had left it: in his trunk. He pulled it out and over his shoulders. Harry snuck away into the darkness of the sleeping castle.
The candles held too much of a likeness to his dream from Harry's comfort. He felt a tremor pass through him as he walked the halls alone and afraid. He arrived at the gargoyle in front of Dumbledore's office and froze. He didn't remember the password.
"Listen, I need to talk with Professor Dumbledore. I had another nightmare. Professor Snape may be in trouble." Surprisingly the gargoyle jumped aside at his plea. Harry clamored quietly up the stair.
"What may I do for you, Harry?" Professor Dumbledore seemed to be expecting him. Harry took a seat in one of the comfy chairs.
"I had another nightmare, sir."
Dumbledore nodded. He had expected as much. "Go on."
"It was about Professor Snape. Voldemort had him locked away in a cell. He said something about retaliation for failure."
"Was there anything else that was said? We need to know everything, Harry."
Harry thought for a moment. "Voldemort is going to kill him." His voice wavered slightly.
"I was afraid something like this was going to happen. Professor Snape has been a great source of information, but it seems his high esteem has at last fallen," Dumbledore sighed. Despite him being a Death Eater, Dumbledore had rather liked Snape. Yes, personality was a turn off, but beneath the exterior was an amazingly intelligent person.
"What did he mean by failure?"
"Harry, my boy, Professor Snape was assigned to work on a special potion that would have made Lord Voldemort invincible. He must not have found the correct recipe. Or he might have done it on purpose. We may never know."
The door slammed open with a booming crash against the wall. Esperenza Lynx stalked into the office giving definition to the term mad woman. Her eyes were dark and wild, her hair sprung out in like it had been electrocuted. Her mouth wore a grim snarl. "What the hell did you do with him, Professor?"
"Calm down, Peri. Take a seat."
Peri remained standing. "I will not calm down until you explain this to me. Now where the hell did you send Severus?"
"He was originally in Siberia. We don't know where he is now," Dumbledore was not certain if he had been entirely right about this girl. She looked as if she very well could have committed the murders she thought she had.
"I do! He's locked away in a cell being damn well tortured to death!"
"That is quite enough, Esperenza. Calm yourself. Mr. Potter has just told me as much."
Peri's eyes widened as she noticed Harry sitting nearby. "You! How the hell do you know about it?"
"Harry sometimes gets sendings from Lord Voldemort," Dumbledore explained. Harry noticed that his substitute Potions Mistress did not even flinch at the name.
"Oh," that calmed Peri down slightly though she did not understand it in the least. "So what are we going to do about it?"
"Esperenza, we necessarily aren't going to do anything about it. The Ministry will not go searching for one man on account of a dream and however you happen to know about this."
"I could feel his pain," she whispered softly. Peri had made an almost complete turn around from the screaming lunatic to composed state of being.
"Fine, then. A feeling and a dream are not enough evidence to go after Severus Snape."
"If they won't go, then I will," she turned to storm back out the door.
"Esperenza, wait. You don't even know where he is."
"That's not a problem, sir. There's a connection between us. He saved my life. I owe it to him to repay the debt."
"You have a good reason. I see that even if I tell you not to go, you will still go," Dumbledore looked at her over the rims of his half-moon spectacles. "Sometimes, being obstinate can be a virtue. Go then and find him. May your journey be swift and painless."
"Thank you, sir. I'll be back as soon as I can." She rushed out of the room in a flurry of black robes.
Professor Dumbledore looked back to the younger Gryffindor. "Well, Harry, that problem may be solved though by finding a solution many more conundrums appear. We shall just have to wait and see what happens."
"Thank you, sir. Good night."
"Good night, Harry."
Dumbledore watched the boy leave and shook his head. He did not know. Peri was probably being hasty, but she would prevail. He hoped Severus would live. It was a thin line of life and death that they were walking. A small step to either side and they would fall. He hoped they were able to keep their balance as precocious as it may be.
Peri nearly flew back down to the Potions Dungeons. She piled together a few necessities, such as her wand, a knife, a water canteen, random food stuffs, a few healing potions, and a few other objects that might prove themselves necessary into a small sack. Such would come in handy. Not even bothering to lock the door, she stormed out again, nearly tripping over her cat.
"You want to come too, Wyvern? I suppose so, if anything just for company. Come along. We'd better be on our way."
Before the light of the dawning day, Peri accompanied by her cat left Hogwarts. She turned to gaze at the castle illuminated only by the light of the moon and wondered if she would ever see it again.
The questioned remained. Where was she going? She took out her wand and placed it on the palm of her hand. "Locate," she whispered. A swirl of smoke curled out from the tip. It formed into a large stone building. Inside, she could see a small figure curled up in a cell. He was there. "Locate," Peri spoke again. The smoke reformed into a globe of the earth. A red dot pinpointed itself in Asia. "Well, at least he's still on this planet." Peri began to walk away from Hogwarts into the Forbidden Forest. She would need to Apparate eventually. Humming something Dvorak to herself, she began her journey.
Sirius stood at his window in the castle and watched the tiny figure depart away from the castle. "Follow her. I have a feeling that she will need some assistance." He did not have to look over his shoulder to sense Dumbledore standing behind.
"I will," Sirius replied, still watching. He turned to say something to Dumbledore but the Head Master had vanished as quickly has he had appeared. On the table sat a small box with Sirius's name written on the top. He opened it carefully, not knowing who would give him a gift. His birthday was not near and Christmas was still a few months away. He gave a small gasp of surprise. It was a wand, his old wand to be exact. Dumbledore must have found it somehow. Sirius took it in his hand. He felt whole again. Sticking his newly found treasure in his pocket, he transformed to his dog form and left Hogwarts.
Peri's footprints were easy enough for him to track, given his canine senses. He stayed a few steps behind her and hidden in the shadows of the night. He wasn't worried about being noticed. She seemed like the accepting type or at least he hoped.
The Dvorak changed to Tchaikovsky as Peri wandered deeper into the Forbidden Forest. Not that she realized what she had been humming in the first place, but she remembered something none the less. She glanced down at the calico cat stalking shadows beside her. "You know, Wyvern, we probably could have waited until morning to start this, but that's what I get for being an obstinate git, eh?" Peri chuckled grimly and shook her head. "Sometimes I just don't know, cat. I remember things bit by bit, but never the entire picture. The edges get blurred and faces are missing, yet pieces are there. It only what's on them that I don't remember." She sat down on a fallen log, placing her chin in the palms of her hands. "It's impossible, cat. Life's impossible. I don't even know who I am or who I was or what I was or where I was going in life. I have no recollection of family or friends, just pieces that don't fit together. It's like some child took the puzzle pieces of my life and mixed them up. Some pieces are still in the box, others are under the couch or chewed on by the family mutt. Some are stained and broken; others have just plain gone to who knows where." Peri looked up at the rising sun. "It's a new day, cat. A new time for new things. A new life is ahead of us if we can get to where we're going." She paused remember something and sang broken lyrics in a light contralto. "A new life, all I ever wanted was a new life." Peri looked down at the cat, who was purring contentedly at her feet. "You know what, cat? I don't even remember where those are from. Pathetic, isn't it?" She pulled herself off the log. "I supposed we ought to get going. Good-bye, world."
Sirius sat in the bushes nearby listening to Peri's monologue. He almost laughed, though that would have been almost impossible in his canine form. The voice seemed familiar to him, though he could not yet place it. Maybe he would be able to, eventually. He stood up from his crouch and resumed his tracking.
Peri went on humming something completely different now, maybe a mix of John Williams and Bizet. (Theme from Star Wars mixed with the Habanera from Carmen, anyone?) She was aware of her surroundings, yet kept her mind perfectly oblivious to what was going on. It was a technique that she had perfected in Azkaban.
Sirius kept trying the picture the younger version of Peri in his head. She had been blonde when he had first met her, so he assumed that was her natural hair color. All he could remember was a short, energetic blonde with a fetish for classical music and a bad habit of holding conversations with herself. He could picture her perfectly. She had been a Gryffindor, he was certain of that. No other house seemed to fit her. She didn't seem to have the mind set for Ravenclaw. No Hufflepuff could have ended up in Azkaban. She wasn't conniving enough to be a Slytherin. She did have the Gryffindor stubbornness and was willing to throw herself into danger, so that is where she must have been. Sirius shook his head. He should remember her. Peri couldn't be more than a few years younger or older than himself.
He had once prided himself in knowing everyone in his house. He had repeated the litany of names during his time in Azkaban. Over and over through his head to keep himself sane. They had been names of people who he had known, some better than others, but he had known them none the less. People who that he would have never betrayed James and Lily were on that list. Yet none had stepped forward to testify against his imprisonment. Why? Why had they left him alone for all those years? Sirius stopped short, noticing that Peri had halted. She gazed around the clearing where she had stopped. "I suppose that this should be far enough from the castle. Wyvern, come here!" The cat was sniffing around some of the bushes, slowly inching itself closer to where Sirius waited. "What'd you find, girl? Someone was following us, I suppose. Dumbledore just couldn't trust me, could he? Come on out. I know you're there, so there's no used hiding."
Sirius, still appearing as a large, black dog, crept out of the tangle of leaves.
"Oh, it's you," Peri looked almost as if she had expected him. "Hullo, Sirius."
Sirius peered into the gloomy depths of trees before changing back to human. He pulled a stray leaf out of his hair. "Good morning. So where exactly are we headed?"
"You never were one to beat around the bush, were you? Actually, all I know is that we're headed somewhere in Asia."
"Asia. And can you explain why we are going to Asia?"
Peri took a deep breath. Something inside her warned of a rivalry between Sirius and the missing Slytherin. "Snape," she simply decided.
"You're going all the way across continent to Asia to find that greasy slimeball of a Slytherin?!"
"Yes, and from what it looks like, you're coming, too."
"Is there any reason behind this?"
"Your slimeball of a Slytherin, quote-unquote, has been locked away by a few other Death Eaters and is being tortured to death."
"And you are going to go save him. One escaped convict verses an entire mess of Death Eaters."
"No, the odds are better now. We have two escaped convicts and a cat verses an entire mess of Death Eaters."
"Great," Sirius mumbled sarcastically. "That makes me feel much better, especially the part about having a cat with us."
"Wyvern, sic him."
Wyvern approached Sirius cautiously. She sniffed at his boots and rubbed against his ankles with a loud purr. The cat then proceeded to lie down in front of him to get her stomach rubbed. "Great attack cat. She'll purr the Death Eaters to death."
"That's the whole plan. She'll distract them while we get Snape."
"Do you even know where he is?"
Peri scrunched her eyebrows together in thought. "No, not exactly." She pulled out her wand. "I can tell you this much. He's in Asia," the map of the globe with the red dot appeared again. "And this is the building where's he's being kept." The picture changed to the large, stone building.
"Siberia," Sirius decided. "The damn git got himself trapped in Siberia." He laughed quietly to himself.
Peri determined that Sirius was probably the worst person to be sent on the rescue mission. Oh, well, she would have to deal with it. "Can you Apparate?"
"Yes, I can," he retorted, slightly miffed that she might have thought that he couldn't.
"Wonderful. We're going now. We'll probably use the building as a place marker. It's the only thing around that we can be quasi-familiar with."
"Fine, see you there." As Peri scooped up Wyvern, Sirius disappeared. A moment later and the clearing was once more devoid of life.
{Author's Note: Surprisingly, I wrote this in a time span of two days. For me that's highly impressive. All right, down to business. The lyrics from the song that Peri was singing are from "A New Life" from the musical Jekyll and Hyde. Awesome musical, by the way. Everyone should go see it. Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, John Williams, and Bizet are all classical composers for those of you non-music people. To who ever planted the ideas about Sirius being freed, I don't whether to hug you or strangle you. Somehow, Sirius has pushed himself into playing a larger role than expected in this tale. He originally was just going to be mentioned briefly. I finally know how this is going to end. Maybe. It all depends on what I want to do to Sirius and Peri at the end. Suggestions are welcome. Okie-day, that's it.
Hope R. Lee: Thanks. I don't have talent. I just comes from whatever the muses make me type.
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Peace, Love, Ice Cream, Chocolate, and Tie-Dye, Nataly Ravenlock}
