{Disclaimer:  I own nothing.  The entire Harry Potter World belongs to J.K. Rowling.}

Chapter 10

Dangerous Game

** I am losing my mind, I am losing control/ Fighting feelings I can't define/ It's a sin with no name/ No remorse and no shame/ Fire, fury, and flame/ Cause the devil's to blame/ And the angels proclaim/ It's a dangerous game… ** "Dangerous Game" from the musical "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." **

Pale winter light shone bright through the window.  Peri scrunched her eyes further shut.  She shifted her position, feeling a solid pillow beneath her head.  She didn't remember having a pillow.  Her eyes groggily opened.  Sirius…  She swore under her breath.  She had just met a nice man and already she was sleeping on him.  Great first impressions.

Sirius watched Peri's eyes slowly open and a look of surprise unfurl across her face.  "Were you comfortable?"

Peri gasped.  She hadn't realized that he was awake yet.  "Quite, actually, Thank you very much."

Sirius grinned as she untangled herself from underneath his arm.  "You used to do that a lot, you know."

"What?"

"I said that you used to do that all the time.  I think I knew you, Peri.  I think I know who you are."

"Oh," Peri realized she wasn't in much of hurry to find out who she truly was.  She had become a new person in the past few months and wasn't certain that she wanted to resort back to her old self, who ever that may be.  There were other things on her mind, like Severus…  "Just wait.  Tell me later.  The storm's gone and we have a castle to break into."

"Before breakfast?"

Men…  "Fine.  You can go find something to eat.  I'm going to get together what we need."

Sirius rooted through the cupboards, finding a loaf of bread and a pot of jam.  It would do for now.  Peri stomped back into his view, arms piled with a load of miscellaneous objects that were thrown on the floor.  She was dressed in a way that reminded him of an Oriental samurai, completely in black.  Sirius munched on his sandwich, watching her as she wrapped a thin cord around her waist.  A handful of daggers were stuck in places on her person.  A sheathed sword was attached across her back.

"What are you doing with a sword?"

"The Death Eaters will be expecting an attack by magic if anything.  Physical sharp objects will give us a slight advantage."

"Right."  Sirius was ready to seriously doubt her mental health, but if Peri was who he thought she was, she knew what she was doing.

"Here.  This pile's yours.  Do you know how to use them?"

Sirius swallowed the remains of the jelly sandwich, wiping his palms on his tattered robe.  He grabbed the proffered blade and swung it around a few time.  Peri ducked as it neared her head.

"Marvelous.  Now put it away before you remove my head.  And take off that bilious thing," she pointed to his robe.  "It won't help to hide us much."

"You want me to strip, woman?"  Sirius had the satisfaction of watching Peri's face turn a shade of bright magenta.

"Bastard," she hissed jokingly at him.  "You enjoy this, don't you?"

"Of course I do.  Would you expect anything less?"

"Probably not."

Sirius relaced his new black boots, tucking a dagger in one.  A few more blades hid themselves in other places.  "Are we ready?"

Peri patted a few pockets.  Her stomach fluttered nervously.  "No.  We need our official Death Eater cloaks."  She tossed one to him.  "Now, we're ready," she decided resolutely.  "Let us depart."

They left the tent standing.  Both held the feeling that it would be needed later when they returned, if they returned.  Wyvern had roused herself from her beauty rest, meandering outside behind them.  Without the terrible wind, it was still cold, but bearable.  Peri lead the way, feet crunching through the harden crust of snow.  Wyvern sniffed distastefully at the wetness.

"Peri, you do have a plan, right?"

"Maybe."

"May I ask what it is?"

"Sure, go right ahead."

"What's your plan?"

"We find a way into the castle, find Severus, and bring him back."

"Could you get any more complex?" questioned Sirius sarcastically.

"I probably could if I really wanted to."

The castle loomed drearily nearby, just out of the forest.  The entrance was unguarded, just as expected.

"Let me guess, you just want to walk right in?" Sirius asked.

"You're being psychic again.  I figure that if we act like we're supposed to be there, they'll ignore us.

"And if they don't ignore us?"

"We kill them."

Sirius muttered something about Peri being a cocky little bitch.  Peri chose to ignore the comment.  It was the truth, any how.  She approached the castle doors and rapped her knuckles against the hard wood.  A peek hole creaked open.  "Yes?"  The voice sounded as rickety as the wood.

"We are here to perform some special interrogation with the prisoner," Peri spoke crisply and concisely, like it was the truth.

"We were not informed of this."

"The Master asked us specifically for assistance."  She had her cloak thrown back far enough so that the sword handle could be seen easily.  "I can assure you that my partner and I are fully qualified in our arts."

The eyes in the hole bulged slightly.  The door creaked open, allowing them entrance.  Sirius was having a difficult time keeping a straight face beneath his hood.  How the hell had she managed that?

A dark guard emerged from the shadows.  "Follow me."  The torches flickered eerily, casting obscure figures on the stony façade.  They were lead down a flight of twisted stairs to a dark corner of a damp basement.  The guard produced a key and opened the solid wood door.  The dim light flooded in, outlining a hunched body in tattered rags.

"I shall leave you to your work.  Be sure he stays alive." the guard spoke to them, leaving the way that he had come.

"We shall," Peri stated blandly, throwing a shift kick into the prisoner's ribs.  A muffled groan escaped his lips.

Sirius was almost pleased with Snape's state.  He knew the bastard would have to be broken down eventually.  Beneath the cool, evil exterior, Snape was still human after all.  How surprising.  Not many people expected the Slytherin to be human.  Sirius felt no pity for him.  He had gone through similar things in Azkaban, if not worse.

Peri stepped around the fallen Slytherin, kneeling down in front of him, taking his head upon her lap.  Sirius felt a twinge of jealousy.  He was a territorial person and Peri had been his at one point in life.  She whispered softly so only Snape could hear.  "Severus, we are here to help you."

Out in the corridor, guarding the cell, Sirius cursed loudly.  Peri rushed out, sword drawn in one hand, wand in the other.  "What the bloody hell?"

"STUPEFY!" an Auror in the hall shouted.  Peri dodged the curse coming at her.  She swung at him with her sword.  The Auror soon lost his right arm.  Another Auror roared the same curse.  This time it made contact.  Peri flew backwards into a wall, collapsing in a silent heap on the floor.  Sirius was nearby in a similar state.  The remaining Aurors walked into the cell, dragging Snape out into the open.  They didn't bother to check left forearms.  The three that they had captured looked enough like Death Eaters to be so.  One had chopped off the arm of one of their men; the other had injured two of them with throwing knives.  They didn't know about the third, but he looked suspicious.

Peri awoke with a pounding headache.  She could tell she was on a cold floor.  An image of spurting blood from a stump of a limb entered her mind.  She swore to herself for the second time that day, though this experience was much less pleasant than waking up from sleeping on Sirius.  Peri twisted her neck to get the kinks out and looked around.  The room was a white, seamless cube.  There were no windows and no sign of any door.  Everything was completely blank.  Peri sat on the floor pulling her knees to her chest, waiting for what was yet to come.  It didn't seem like she belong there, completely in black.  She was a mar in the perfection.

A wall slide open.  Two masked guards stepped inside grabbing her by her shoulders.  Peri let herself be pulled along the corridor, not feeling much like walking, yet not wanting to cooperate until she knew where she was and who these people were.  They dragged her down a corridor into another room.  This one was darker, less pristine.  She could see Sirius seated against a far wall.  The guards threw her into a chair, binding her hands and legs so she couldn't move.  Thankfully there was no gag involved.

"Any thing you say or do can and will be held against you," a man in a dark maroon robe spoke in a clipped sharp tone.  "You have been captured on a raid of a Death Eaters Prison.  The two of you have the charges of associating with the Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort."

Peri's eyes wandered over to where Sirius was tied.  She could see the look of dread in his eyes.  Both of them were in trouble.  They had escaped and had bee caught again.  They would pay for it dearly with their lives.

"How do you plead to these charges?"

Peri immediately spoke.  "I plead not guilty!"

"On what account?"

"I can provide an alibi to the reason that I was there at the prison."

"Who do you call for your alibi?"

"I call upon Professor Albus Dumbledore."

"Very well.  We shall look into that."  The man scribbled a few notes on a piece of paper.

"I plead not guilty," Sirius spoke up soon after, less enthusiastic than his counter part.

"On what account?"

"I can also provide an alibi from Professor Dumbledore as to the reason why I was at the prison."

The man again scribbled a few illegible notes.  "We shall look into that as well.  Now I need your names, occupations, and current addresses to be put on record."

The two shared a dark, nervous look.  Here was when the problems would begin.  Trouble was brewing like an overheated cauldron ready to foam over the rim.

"I plead the fifth," Peri decided stubbornly.

The man sighed.  "This is not the United States."

"Damn," Peri began again, this time much more slowly.  "It would be easier for both of us if our names were with held."

"Why?"

"Security reasons."

"Security reasons?"

"Yes, security reasons.  We are people who you really don't want to know who we are."

"Right.  Tell me another story."  The man had dealt with lunatics before.

"No, sir, I am being completely serious.  You don't want to know who we are.  It would save all of us a lot of trouble."

"Fine.  Then what are your occupations?" he sounded quite bored.

The confined duo shared another look.

"Currently, I am unemployed," Sirius spoke softly, hoping somehow his true identity would not be revealed.

"I am an assistant Potions Mistress at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Likely story."

The door to the room crashed open.  A young lackey rushed in, dragging an older pompous looking Ministry man in a bowler hat behind him.  "See, sir, he's right there!  I told you we had him!  He's right there!  It's Sirius Black!"

"Uh-oh," Peri mouthed.  Sirius's face made stone look soft.

The interrogator turned and looked at Sirius.  "Are you Sirius Black?"

How easy it would be to just say no and give a fake name.  Yet Gryffindor morality held through.  He would have to admit to who he was.  He would have to hope that Dumbledore and the others could prove his innocence.  Yet who could?  Peter was with the Death Eaters, presumably missing.  Remus knew and Dumbledore knew, yet were there any eye witnesses?  He didn't know.  Sirius took a deep breath to still himself.  "Yes, I am."

"Then if you are Sirius Black, who might you be?" he turned toward Peri.

"Um… a fellow Azkaban escapee," she decided brightly, realizing once again how difficult life could be when you did not know who you were.

"Andromeda Josephine McGee," Sirius whispered.  The name cut straight through Peri's ears.  It was like an ax upon a rope that brought down the drawbridge holding in her memories.  She gasped, eyes rolling up into her head and the world went black.

{Author's Note:  Just to let y'all know, I got an accordion now!  I was playing parts of the songs from Harry Potter on it!  I have the piano selections for it.  Y'all can go run and hide now.  Be scared.  Be very scared.  I also have my own clarinet now, so that makes things equally fun and amusing.

Agent 99: Thanks.  I like Snape.  He's so much fun.

Will any of you just please review this???  I really want to know if anyone out there actually likes this!!! Anyone who chooses not to review shall be attacked by my Pixie cat, who shall purr you to death.  Thanks!  Carpe Carpem and Peace, Love, Ice Cream, and Chocolate, Nataly Ravenlock}