{Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books. I, therefore, own no parts of this except for Andy and Wyvern, who are only figments of my twisted imagination.}
Chapter 33
Crash and Burn
**When you feel all alone/ And a loyal friend is hard to find/ You're caught in a one way street with the monsters in your head/ When hopes and dreams are far away and/ You feel like you can't face the day. "Crash and Burn" Savage Garden**
Sirius rushed up the stairs, all his thoughts focused on Harry. He couldn't let the Death Eaters get him. No, not Harry. The boy was his now, there was too much to lose by letting him go. The Fat Lady was thankfully in her gilded frame. "Password?"
"Fiddlesticks," he breathed rapidly, having run the entire way. The portrait swung on invisible hinges, allowing him entrance. "Just a warning, I suggest you go visit a friend far away from here. There are Death Eaters in the castle." The Fat Lady's eyes widened. Sirius shut the door before he could see if she had listened to his rushed advice.
The Common room was lit only by the flickering of the fireplace. He could barely make out the dim shadows of students collapsed around the room. Without a second thought, he lit his wand, shining it through the darkness. Long shadows disfigured the features, casting their elongated shapes across the plush red carpet. He found the familiar, messy haired boy on a couch with Ron and Hermione. No one had gotten to him yet, but that wouldn't last for long. The Death Eaters would get there soon enough.
He hadn't thought much about what to do with his godson other than take him to some place safe. Where was safe? Hogwarts was the safest place he could think of, but now that was a false idea. The Death Eaters had managed to get in. Could he get out? What could he do? He supposed he could that a passage to Hogsmeade and leave the boy there, but there was no one he would trust to give him to. The idea hit him. Yes, it would work. He raced up to Harry's room, pulling the invisibility cloak from his godson's trunk. Levitated the boy, he placed the cloak over the inert form. He changed into his canine form taking his wand in his mouth. With a flick of his furry head, Harry's sleeping form followed him out a passage in the Gryffindor Common room…
"They're here!" Madame Hooch hissed from her hiding place behind one of the many statuaries.
"Wait until they pass us then give them everything you got." Remus watched the two columns of black robed figures march past their hiding place unknowing of what was there.
"I'm back," a gentle voice whispered in his ear. He turned his head slightly to see Andy crouching behind him.
"Good," there was no surprise at seeing her. She was called Shadow for a reason after all. "You heard the drill?"
"Yeah, I was here for that. Permission to kill, captain?"
"Go right ahead. I don't think the Ministry will care much, though they would probably like a few alive for questioning."
"I'll save a couple." The last darkly robed figure high stepped away.
"Now!" The trio leapt out from their various hiding places, shooting spells in every direction. The last two rows fell to the cold stone. By that time, the others finally realized what was going on. Curses shot back and forth, hitting some missing others.
Andy stunned a few of them before she emerged from behind a statue of Ulric the Odd. With a flick of her wrist, she sent another spell, hitting a Death Eater full force with a magic knife to the throat. He gurgled on his own blood before crumpling to the ground with his companions. "That must have hurt," she muttered to no one in particular.
Three Death Eaters circled around her, wands upraised to do major damage to their chosen prey. "Are you ready to die, bitch?"
"Never!" She held up her own wand, seeing Sirius appear behind them from a hidden passage. He blasted a hole through one of them, giving Andy time to move around and attack the others.
"Thanks, Sirius."
"No problem. It's what I'm here for."
Andy saw the Death Eater behind him. She leapt on top of Sirius, pushing him to the floor. What ever curse the Death Eater was planning on casting flew harmlessly into the brick wall.
"You didn't have to thank me that much, Andy."
"Oh, be quiet you." She rolled away behind another statue, taking choice shots at her opponents. Though they were few, all four of the Hogwarts staff were trained for defense work and proved to be a dangerous match for the Death Eaters.
"Retreat! Retreat!" Remus, who had taken control of the situation, finally realized that things were getting hopeless and that they should bail out before anyone got majorly injured. He ducked into a passage way that the others knew about. Sirius dived across the floor, following the lead. Hooch swept in a few seconds later.
"Where's Andy?" Sirius asked, panting slightly.
"I don't know. She was right behind us the last time I checked."
"God damn you, Andy. Why do you always have to disappear on us?" Sirius murmured to no one but himself. He turned back the way they had come, running at full speed. He hadn't let them take Harry away from him and he wasn't about to let them have Andy either.
"Sirius, wait!" Remus caught up to him easily. "You can't just run back out there and hope to find her."
"Yes, I can."
"Andy can take care of herself."
"That's what I'm afraid of. She'll do something overly stupid and get herself killed by trying to take on a dozen Death Eaters at once."
"She wouldn't do something like that. She'd fake her death first."
"I don't care, Moony. I am going to find her whether you like it or not." Sirius shoved himself away from his friend, continuing down the dimly lit passage way.
Hooch caught up to them a few seconds later. She watched Sirius jog off down the hall. "What's he doing?"
"He is going to find Andy."
"And what are we going to do about it?"
"We are going to do nothing. We get to continue the hit and run attacks on the Death Eaters until the Aurors come."
Hooch nodded. "Let's go."
Sirius raced back to the secret entrance that came out in the north corridor. That was where he had last seen Andy. He had glanced behind him and had seen her pause at the entrance to the tunnel. Knowing that she was there, he continued his way. Some time between the few minutes that had passed and when he had seen her last, she had disappeared. He figured that there were two choices. Either she had taken a wrong turn, which was highly unlike since she knew the passageways as well as the rest of the Marauders, or the Death Eaters had captured her. He was going for the second idea. He opened the secret doorway with a tap of his wand and checked outside. There were still a few evil minions there. Some looked deader than others. He went down to the next door stepping out into any empty hall. He transformed into his dog form. It would be less noticeable than a human walking around and the enhanced sense of smell would improve his chances of finding her.
Andy's passage was easy to pick up. She had a familiar, earthy scent, mixed with an herbal undertone from the potion ingredients. Padfoot let his nose do the work, following the trail easily through the halls. The Death Eaters had most likely dragged her uncaringly and didn't mind if they harmed her in the process. It stopped in front of an unmarked door. He quickly changed back to human, testing the knob. It was securely locked. He recognized the place, knowing another route to get inside. Head down, he strode down the hall.
"Sirius?" a voice behind him whispered shakily.
He turned back around as Andy staggered into him and wrapped her arms tightly around him. He held her close out of instinct. She sobbed quietly in his arms, just needing someone to tell her it was alright. "What happened?"
Andy looked up him, dark eyes filled with pain and bruises purpling on her pale face. A few streaks of dried blood were painted darkly across her cheekbone. "They captured me."
She had heard Remus call the retreat and had backed into the passage way a few steps behind the other three. She glanced in front of her to make sure that the others were already there and accounted for. Something struck her between the shoulder blades. Andy ignored it set on getting away. Her feet felt like they had been cemented to the floor. She couldn't move a muscle.
"Hey there, gorgeous," one of the Death Eaters spoke menacingly. "You aren't going to get away, not this time. You see that copse over there?" he pointed to one of the dead bodies. Andy couldn't see which one. "That was my younger brother. He was just a young kid, graduated about two years ago from this very school. He had a full life ahead of him. You killed him. I can't let you get away with that." The Death Eater grabbed her arm and pulled her down. He dragged her into an empty classroom halfway down the hall. "Permission to torture her, sir?"
"Of course. The Master said to kill anyone who got in our way. Make it entertaining."
"Yes, sir," the Death Eater pointed his wand at her and cast a spell to remove the impediment that had been cast on her. Andy collapsed to the cold stone. She got her feet underneath her and sprung into a low crouch, wand out held. She muttered the same spell she had cast on his brother, catching the Death Eater full on in the throat. He fell with a loud thump.
One of the other Death Eaters laughed evilly. "Well, well, well. I suppose since you just took out another one of us, you do deserve to die. Crucio!"
She hit the floor shaking violently with the pain. Spasms shook her entire body with agony and suffering. Somehow she withheld the screams, the torture constricting her voice to nothing above a mere whisper. Her muscles tightened with torment. As soon as it started, the man spoke the ending words. She lay there whimpering.
"You aren't as strong you seemed to be. This may be easier than we had thought."
Andy pulled herself back to the crouch she had been in before, finding that her wand had disappeared and was being held by yet another one of Voldemort's minions. "You're wrong," she hissed, grabbing the knife that she had stuck in her belt earlier. She leapt like her alter ego forest cat on to the Death Eater that had been torturing her, jabbing him with the sharp blade. The pain still emanated from every bone of her body, but she ignored it out of the pure need to do so. Another one grabbed her roughly, yanking her off their leader. She felt ropes bind her arms to her sides.
The Death Eater wiped the smear of blood from his cheek. The knife had only managed to nick him twice. "You little bitch!" He smacked her hard across the face. Andy squirmed, trying to hit back though she knew she could not break the bonds that held her down. He aimed a swift kick to her ribs, continuing to pummel her with fists and feet. She had given up trying to fight it and took every blow without a sound.
"Stop," a cold voice spoke. "Leave her. She's not worth our time. The Master sent us on a mission. This is not part of it." Two more had walked in half way through the torture. "We have located the Gryffindor tower. You lot come with me." He turned to the Death Eater that had followed him in. "I shall give you the pleasure of finishing her off. I believe she has some debts to repay you as well."
The second minion spoke up. "Thank you. This shall be enjoyable." He pointed his wand at her, making sure she wasn't going to move. The others left him alone with the broken Gryffindor. He saw a shadow waiting at the door and walked up to where she was curled up, weeping softly. He backhanded her hard with an open palm.
Andy struggled to a sitting position. "You fucking, masochistic bastard!"
The Death Eater noticed the shadow had left. He pointed his wand at her once more, removing the bonds that held her down. She sprung up, favoring the side that had been kicked the hardest. She grabbed the wand he had been holding plus her own, which had been passed to him.
"What now?" She stuck the other wand in the back waistband of her pants.
"McGee, calm down and give me back my wand."
Deep in her mind, Andy recognized the voice behind the mask, but ignored it. "No." She summoned a chair and shoved him into it. With a wave of her own wand she tightly bound him to it. Walking up to him, she looked into the eyes that the mask did not hide. She removed the black form from his face. "Hello, Severus. What a pleasure to see you here."
"Untie me. Now." He struggled against the bindings, finding it useless to do so but not giving it up.
"I don't think so. You're staying right where you are. I don't care what you're doing; you're not going any where." She threw his mask into a dark corner and aimed her wand once more at his chest. With a few words, his Death Eater apparel vanished. "There. Now you don't have to worry. You're just another professor bound to a chair by the Death Eaters."
"You're not a Death Eater."
"No, but they did almost the same thing to Octavia Vector, so it doesn't matter much." She laid his wand on floor a few feet from the chair. "Bye, Sev."
"McGee, wait."
Andy turned back around slowly. "What?"
"Do you have Potter?"
"Sirius got him. He's somewhere safe."
"Good. The others are heading for the Gryffindor Tower as we speak."
"I figured that much." She stumbled out of the room into a deserted corridor. To her left an unmistakable figure walked. "Sirius?"
He turned toward her, looking amazed to see her. Andy limped to him wrapping her arms around him. She needed someone familiar after what they had done to her. He returned the embrace, pleased to have found her this easily. "What happened?"
"They captured me." Everything poured out in a jumble of words.
Sirius held her tighter. They would pay for doing this to his girl. "It'll be alright. The Aurors just got here."
"Good. We need them."
One of the white cloaked Aurors approached them cautiously. "Which way did the Death Eaters go?"
"Toward the Gryffindor Tower. You know where that is?"
The Auror nodded. "Yes, thank you." The pack of Aurors left the hall in a blur of pure white, leaving Sirius and Andy alone.
"Are you alright?"
Andy shook her head, still lying against his chest. "I'll be fine."
"No, you aren't, not with bruises like that. We're getting you to the infirmary." Sirius picked her up easily in his arms.
"I'm fine," she protested weakly. The anger and adrenaline that had held her through were slowly starting to wear off. Every bone and muscle in her body ached from the curses and the beating.
The Infirmary wasn't far from the corridor where he had found her. Sirius placed her on one of the beds. He dug through the cupboards, searching for something to ease her pain.
"The white one, to the left," Andy could see the cupboards from where she lay. "That one."
Sirius took the one she had told him to get and handed it to her. "Here."
She swallowed it with one gulp. "It won't do anything, but it will help the pain. Thanks, Sirius."
"No problem," he sat on the bed next to her. For the first time in months, Andy felt the animosity that had been between them dissolve to nothing.
Remus stalked through the halls with a predatorial grace. Hooch stayed close behind, more awkward in the shadows. The Gryffindor Tower was untouched, but he figured all he would have to do was wait for the Death Eaters to show up. His idea was not too far off, as the Death Eaters appeared within a moment.
"Strike them again?" Hooch asked by his side.
"Yes," he pulled out his wand ready for another onslaught of magical destruction. He shot out curses from the shadows. Out of no where a pack of white robed Aurors appeared, casting spells that disabled all of the Death Eaters standing there. Remus stepped out of his hiding place.
The Aurors looked at him, finding no threat. One approached the two professors. "You held them off this long?"
"Four of us did."
"Impressive. Where are the other two?"
Remus shook his head. "I don't know. Andy disappeared and Sirius went after her. I don't know what happened to them."
"What do they look like?"
"Sirius is tall, long black hair and Andy's shorter with shoulder length blonde hair and dark eyes."
"We found them a few minutes ago. They were headed up to the infirmary by the looks of it."
"Thanks."
"No problem, though we should probably be thanking you for holding them off this long. Any idea where the Potter boy is?"
"I don't, but Sirius does."
"Right. I am going to send a few of my people up to debrief you on what happened after we get these guys cleared up."
"There might be a few in the fourth floor east wing."
"We'll see what we can do."
Remus walked away, Hooch close behind like a specter. All the fighting had taken a toll on her. Sirius and Andy both were in the infirmary as the Aurors had said.
"Hey, Remus," Sirius spoke. "I told you I'd find her."
He looked over at Andy, fully awake in the hospital bed. "Yeah, I know. They got you?"
"Yeah, I tried to fight them off. They beat me up a bit and I think I killed one of them. They left Snape to finish me off and I tied him to a chair in the Muggle Studies classroom."
"Is he still there?"
"Probably."
Sirius looked at her. "So there really isn't anything between the two of you, is there?"
"Why?"
"Well, if you actually did like him, you wouldn't have tied him to the chair."
Andy grinned lopsidedly. "Sirius, if it had been you, I would have tied you to the chair with out any doubts about it."
{Author's Note: There is one more chapter after this one to be posted and then this fic will be all over. Then of course, you have the sequel (Into The Flames), so do not get pissed because the ending sucks.
JediCallista: I know it should have been T.S. Elliot, instead of Andrew Lloyd Webber, but I was going off the Cats soundtrack at the time, instead of the book, so that is why it is that way. I believe they actually call Marvin the paranoid Android in the books somewhere. I could find the page reference for you, but my friend has my Guide so, I can't. What do you mean by minor bits?
Atheis Gainsborough: He could, theoretically, if he really wanted to, but not this time, maybe in the next one. I have a large obsession with Princess Bride. I watch it every time I stay home sick. It's a ritual. I stay in my pajamas, make a mug of tea in my Slytherin coffee mug, and watch Princess Bride.
VMorticia: I like cliffhangers, so there. And I am Slytherin, so there's another reason. Plus the two chapters together would make about 14 pages, which is twice as long as a normal chapter for me. I felt like splitting them to make it a bit more even.
Shasa Perino: Thanks. Take your time reading. It doesn't bother me that I have a total of 85 reviews. It's better than the first story I posted that has a total of 15 with 14 chapters. Ramble all you want. I do, hence where this story came from.
LilyPotter: Alright, let's see if I can explain this. Voldemort ordered Sev to brew him the potions, but never specified what they were to be used for. He did not let Sev in on the fact that they were planning to attack Hogwarts because he still is not certain of where his loyalties lie. Therefore, Sev did not know what was being planned until it happened and was given short notice as to when he was suppose to be there. The Evil Overlord's favorite saying is 'trust no one,' (X-Files) so he refuses to let Sev in on things pertaining to Hogwarts. That makes a total of 5 people that put me on favorite's lists! Woo-hoo! It doesn't take much to get me excited now, does it? Thanks!
Hope you enjoyed it! Peace, Love, and Oreos, Nataly Ravenlock}
