Chapter Three: Surprise attack

To Elronda: thank you! And I'm sorry for not updating as soon as I got your review but I had to go on a trip…. And well, I couldn't take my laptop with me, so you get the picture right? Well, here's another chapter (if you're still reading this) so enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters, or any of the plots mentioned from the book, you see that is why they call it fanFICTION

The next day, after classes were over, Mayara was sitting outside, there was still some time before curfew so the children were having a bit of fun outside. She sat supervising them, a big black dog sat at her feet. She was sitting on the pedestal of one of the gargoyles that surrounded the school. Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting talking to each other,

"Why don't you go sit with your godson?" she asked Sirius,

"Well, he seems to have enough company as it is, and besides. Everyone in the school who doesn't know my secret thinks I'm your dog-"

"Well, that isn't surprising, what do you expect when you follow me around everywhere?" he chuckled,

"You have a point, but anyway, I just thought you could use some company," she looked down at him, and a trace of a smile appeared on her face. She stroked his head,

"You should go and sit with them, I have something I must tend to," he looked up at her with curiosity,

"And what might this something be?" She didn't answer, she simply began to walk back into the school, making sure Professor Sprout was watching the children. Sirius walked over to where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting, meanwhile Mayara went into the school, she walked past the Great Hall and towards Dumbledore's office.

"Butter Beer," she whispered, the gargoyle jumped aside.

"Ah, Mayara, good. Please sit down,"

"No thank you, why have you called me here?"

"Well, there was something I wanted you to look into," Mayara raised an eyebrow. "I presume you know who Draco Malfoy is?"

"Yes,"

"And you know who his father is?" Mayara cringed,

"Lucius Malfoy," she looked down, she had an angry scowl on her face. She had met Lucius before, with the way he acted you could never guess he was married.

"I have reason to believe our friend, Mr. Draco has been transferring information to his father, I do not believe he had found out about Sirius yet but he might, I want you to make sure he does not send any letters regarding our plans,"

"I can take care of that, um, pardon me, Headmaster, but what exactly are our plans? You haven't given us any real information,"

"I will soon enough, you may leave," she turned and left, the old coot, never does talk in anything other than riddles, a smile crawled onto her face as she headed to her office. The children were already inside, she went in quietly and from there slipped into her room. She stood over the bed and just fell back. She thought about how to do this, she could threaten the boy, no that wouldn't help. She could stop him from sending any letters at all, no the headmaster wouldn't approve. If there was only a spell that could be used to block a person from sending certain types of letter, or then again. Maybe there was a spell she could cast on Malfoy's hands so he couldn't write anything to his father about the "plans", but was there even a spell that could do that? She sighed, of course there was, there was a spell for everything, she decided to ask Sirius. She wondered where he was.

Mayara put on a black, hooded cloak, and then quietly slipped out of her room, she made sure to pull the hood over her head, she walked outside, Hagrid had been around while the kids were out, perhaps he knew where Sirius had gone. She walked across the soft grass, to his hut and knocked on the door,

"Comin!" he yelled. The door opened and Hagrid stumbled backwards, she quickly removed her hood,

"It is only me Hagrid,"

"Oh, Mayara, you know, lassie, you look an awful lot like death eater, with that there hood on yer head!" she smirked and said,

"May I come in?"

"Oh, sorry bout that, course," she walked in and he closed the door behind her. "What can I do fer you?"

"You were watching while the children were playing outside, am I correct?"

"Yeah, I was,"

"Do you happen to know where Sirius went?"

"What, oh you mean ol' Black? I think I saw him headed fer the forest," she nodded,

"Thank you Hagrid, good night," and with that she slipped out. She looked over at the dispiriting trees, why is he so obsessed with wandering around in there? she sighed and started towards it. It was very beautiful out, the stars glimmered slightly and the breeze was gentle and cool. But, it didn't make her feel the same way it had twelve years ago. She closed her eyes and thought back to when she still knew how to laugh joyfully, it seemed like ages ago. She opened her eyes, shrugged the thought aside and continued on into the forest.

"Black? Are you out here?" she called as she walked with ease through the branches. She thought she head something behind her, she turned quickly, nothing. She sighed and kept walking; strange sounds filled the air, she felt very tired. She had no idea what was wrong with her, she never got this tired, except when… . She looked around her, she couldn't see anything, she pulled out her wand "Lumos," she said. She flashed the beam of light around, fire lilies. They were everywhere, one of her few weaknesses. The fact that she couldn't see them without a spell was proof that they were effecting her. She turned but then heard what sounded like a growl. She turned around just in time to see what looked like a green lion leap at her, she dodged it swiftly, and jumped to a nearby tree, it followed, she began to run through the woods, faster and faster, what is a Limelion doing in the Forbidden Forest, they're only found in Brazil! she ran faster and faster, finally the fire lilies got to her and she fell wearily to the forest ground, the Limelion landed a couple of yards away from her,

"Damnit, where is Sirius when I need him?" she grumbled as the beast walked closer. She fumbled around, and finally got a grip on her wand, her eyes were drooping, she had to be quick, the Limelion leaped, she raised her wand, "Stupefy!" she yelled, the beast fell to the ground dazed. She smirked and then everything went black. (I mean the color)

She woke a while later, her head felt as if it had been hit a million times with an iron rod, and she felt uncomfortably hot. She sat up tiredly, the sun was shining through her window. It was Friday, 8:00 a.m.. She laid back down, thankful her class wasn't until ten. Then her eyes fell to the chair next to her bed. Sirius was asleep, sitting, had he stayed there the whole night? She didn't want to wake him, but she didn't want to go to sleep with him right there so she simply propped her head up on a bunch of pillows and tried to rest her joints, her wrists and ankles felt as if she had been hung by the dungeon ceiling in shackles, she chuckled thinking about how much pleasure that would bring to Filch. As she sat there thinking about all sorts of nonsense, Sirius opened his eyes at last, groggily he rubbed them and yawned slightly.

"Well, Mar the pessimist had awoken," he said straightening up, then his expression changed, "Are you alright Mar?" she looked at him for a minute and then nodded,

"How did I get here?"

"Well, I was walking through the forest whe-"

"Why?"

"I don't know, just needed some time alone. Anyway, I was just walking when I heard you call my name. So I went towards your voice, and then I heard a loud growl. So I broke out into a run towards the sounds, when I found you, you were lying unconscious, about two yards away form a stunted Limelion, so I brought you here. What were you doing in the Forest anyway? Don't answer that," he said, realizing it was a stupid question since she was obviously looking for him.

"Black?"

"Yes?"

"How did a Limelion get into the Forbidden forest?"

"I was wondering the same thing, so I brought the Limelion back with me as well, I left him with Hagrid, and then brought you back to your room. You know, you should really be more careful,"

"Black, listen to me,"

"What?"

"I think somebody is trying to get rid of me," Sirius's expression hardened.

"Nonsense,"

"Bla-"

"Nonsense!" he stood up. "Nobody is trying to get rid of you, and if they are, do you really think they're going to succeed?" she sighed, he brushed her bangs out of her eyes, "Just get some rest, I'll come and wake you at nine so you can prepare for class.

"Thank you," she said, despite the fact that she really wished he had let her finish talking, but she was too tired right about then to complain. She would tell him later.

Later that day, after Sirius had woken her up, she trudged towards Defense class, having to deal with the children was the last thing she wanted to do. Why did that old coot have to give me this of all jobs, he was strange like that, making her teach defense against the thing she was a master at. She finally reached her classroom, where with the exception of a few Slytherins, the students seemed quite ready and looking forward to class. She decided to try the happy attitude again.

"Hello class," some of the students replied, others were a bit too scared to. "Today we will be taking a look at the history of the Forbidden forest," some students, namely Neville, Pansy, and Seamus, gave relieved sighed. She gave a sinister smile, "And to do this we will be going into the Forbidden Forest,"

"Are you mad?" Pansy said, standing up. Mayara glared at her,

"That counts on which sense your using the word in," she said frostily. "Alright then, follow me," she started out the door, obviously not caring if the class was in a line, or forming an angry mob behind her back. Harry walked next to her,

"Uh, Mayara, why are we doing this?"

"I thought the best way to teach you all would be to talk, but now I see that is going to drive me 'mad' as Miss Parkinson so nicely put it. I feel this will benefit you and I much more."

Once they had reached the edge of the forest she began to walk along it, Malfoy raised his hand,

"Uh, Professor Kcalb,"

"Yes, Mister Malfoy?" she said without turning around,

"Where are we going?"

"To another part of the Forbidden Forest. I want to teach you all, not kill you,"

"That's surprising," Malfoy grumbled under his breath, Mayara heard him, having superior hearing and all.

"Right you are, Mister Malfoy, I never thought the words, 'not kill you' would leave my mouth," she smirked as some of the students slowed down to put some distance between themselves and her. The truth was, the only reason she was going around was to avoid the fire lilies, Dumbledore would not be pleased if the students were hurt, because she had fainted leaving them unprotected in the forest. Finally she stopped and turned around to face the students. She looked them over,

"Pair up with a person, that way if one of you gets hurt the other can get help," Harry paired up with Ron, Hermione with Neville, Malfoy with Crabbe, Pansy with Goyle and so on. They began to walk into the forest and getting a bit sick of their cowardly behavior Mayara said,

"Oh calm down, nothing will happen to you. Its daylight, and I am here, you aren't to get attacked by vampire or anything!" This helped some and made others even more frightened. Mayara rolled her eyes, but then spotted when she saw a big black dog sitting next to a tree watching her, why is he always watching me like that, its as if he expects me to just break at any second, she cleared her throat, "follow me,"

They continued walking the students had all pulled together, staying close. Every now and then Mayara would point out something, an explain its history and by the time she stopped walking the students were a bit more relaxed. Now, they had reached a large tree, with stars on its trunk and on the leaves.

"Now this, class, is called The Stalker, a name which suits it quite well. It was first discovered by Cladara Sotten, about one thousand years ago. There is little about it in any book, but we are quite lucky to have one so close to the school, in fact, this was the first Stalker to ever be discovered by Mrs. Sotten herself. There are only about ten thousand, in the whole world," she looked around and then in the blink of an eye she was gone, and then in another she was standing back in her spot with something in her hand, the students gasped. "This is a leaf from the tree, which was surprisingly close, now, using a leaf from the tree, you can track a person. For instance, say I wanted to keep an eye on Mister Potter here, I could use this leaf, and it would in a way, 'stalk' Mister Potter, and I would be able to follow it, because it gives a signal to its owner. However, to use this to find a person you must know the person, or it wont work, just knowing of them isn't enough, and you must have a valid reason for using it or the Ministry of Magic will throw you in Azkaban for a week," she hesitated pondering the thought, "now, I want each of you to go with a partner and find a leaf. You, however," she raised her wand and said, "barria fire lilies," and a light went through the whole forest, "I don't want you to cross the orange lines, no matter what. We will all meet back here, any questions?" Neville's hand went up,

"What if we get lost?" she sighed,

"Then use your wand and send up sparks, I don't care which color," she said, knowing a fact as simple as that could easily stall them form getting help. "Now, off with you all!"

The students trudged carefully through the forest, but Harry and Ron were used to it by then,

"Why do you think she wants us to find Stalker leaves, I mean, doesn't this fall under Herbology?" Ron asked, despite being more relaxed than the other students he still didn't enjoy being in the Forbidden forest.

"Well, we'll see when we find them I suppose,"

"If, we find them,"