Disclaimer: The characters that look familiar to you belong to J. K. Rowling. The ones you cannot find in any of her books are mine. I don't intend to make any money out of this. I'm just having some fun.

The Dansarine And The Werewolf

The car whirled very fast and stopped barely inches from Ginny, the driver's door just in front of her.

"DEATH EATERS, GET DOWN!" Benjamin shouted, and then Ginny looked around and saw the hooded figures running at them from every direction with their wands out.

She screamed once more and took her wand out. Benjamin stepped out of the car with his wand ready and put himself in front of her, protecting her with his body. "Into the house, run!"

She didn't need telling twice. Before she could utter the spells to put down the wards on the house, she saw the door open and Sirius stepping aside with his wand ready.

"GET INSIDE, NOW!" He roared.

She run inside, Benjamin was behind her. She was barely aware of Sirius closing the door and putting up the wards again just in time. The first spells hit the facade of the house.

"Wake the others!" Sirius ordered Ginny, and then went to the window on the left, while Benjamin moved to the window on the right.

Ginny didn't need to wake anybody. If her screams, Sirius' shouts and the sound of the Death Eeaters' hexes hitting the house hadn't awoken them already, the explosion of Benjamin's car being blasted out of the way by Voldemort's followers definitely did the trick. The corridors of the house were immediately full of people with sleepy faces and wands at the ready.

***

Harry and Ron had been still awake, chatting about girls in their room, and so they looked quite awake. Sirius, Percy, Bill, Charlie, Tonks and Mundungus had been on guard on the different floors of the house and thus they looked at least presentable, but the rest of them were quite a sight.

Everybody was wearing their pyjamas or nightdresses. Mrs. Weasley came out of her room wearing a very frayed pink night-dress and hair-curlers. The twins were wearing identical pyjamas, one lime green, the other canary yellow. Schacklebolt was wearing only black shorts, Lupin, pyjama trousers. Moody looked absolutely scary in his very long white nightgown and a nightcap, but the scariest sight inside Black Manor at that moment, without a trace of doubt, was Petunia Dursley. Ron, who had run with Harry on his wake to the rooms where the Grangers and the Dursleys were sleeping, was the first to spot her.

"Merlin! Harry, someone has cursed your aunt!" Ron shouted, not even turning. "Don't worry, Mrs. Dursley, we'll find a countercurse, I'll bring my mum, don't panic." Petunia didn't even blink.

The twins and Hermione, who had heard Ron's shouts, ran to his aid too. Hermione didn't understand what was all the noise about, but the twins looked terrorised at Mrs. Dursley. How could someone be so cruel as to disfigure her face like that!

It was lucky perhaps that Harry stopped Ron in time, because Mrs. Weasley was surely much more useful fighting Death Eaters. "Ron, wait! It's ok, she hasn't been cursed, she is wearing a muggle beauty mask!"

"WHAT?" The Weasley boys were nonplussed. "Beauty mask? A Blast-Ended Skrewt looks beautiful in comparison to her!"

Petunia Dursley didn't know what a Blast-Ended Sprew was, but she could tell by their tone that it wasn't a beautiful thing. She didn't give it a second thought anyway before running back into the room to clean her face. With all the shouting, she had completely forgotten that she was wearing her favourite dewrinkling rejuvenating cleansing relaxing revitalising mask, very effective, but with a not very agreeable smell and a slightly sick green colour.

Once over the very first shocking impression, Ron, Hermione and Harry went downstairs to join the others while the twins stayed with the Dursleys and the Grangers -all carrying heavy books and pots. Ron was relieved to see that Mrs. Granger's face looked perfectly normal and clean, for a moment he had been afraid all muggle women used those kind of masks. He cared a lot for Hermione, but he didn't think he would be able to stay in the same room as her while she had something like that on her face.

***

Harry didn't know how long they had been sending and avoiding hexes, but he felt exhausted. He chanced a look at the clock: 3 a.m. They had been fighting for a while. Tonks had received a small cut in her left cheek when the glass of a window went flying in every direction, and Percy had hurt himself in throwing himself to the floor to avoid a blue light, but apart from that, there were no injured and the Death Eaters didn't seem to be any closer to victory.

All of a sudden, there was a deadly silence and the flashes of light stopped. Benjamin and Shacklebolt chanced a look outside the windows.

"They are gone," Shacklebolt said, "there is nobody out there."

For some reason, this news, instead of making them happy, only worried them more. Why would the Death Eaters leave like that. It's true they didn't seem to be gaining anything by attacking them from the outside, but still they must knew they were all trapped inside the house, and Harry was with them. It was strange that they would give up like that.

"I don't like it," Moody growled. "They didn't fight hard enough. They didn't even try to get into the house. What is going on?"

"Maybe they are trying to distract us from something else," Lupin said.

***

Penelope was in the kitchen, trying to activate the Floo network without much success, when she heard a popping noise to her right. She was kneeling in front of the grate, and the Death Eater hadn't seen her. She turned very slowly, pointed her wand at the dark figure and stunned it. "THE ANTI-APPARATING WARD IS DOWN!" She shouted right afterwards. For a moment everybody in the house panicked and nobody dared to move, listening intently, trying to hear the familiar popping noises -which was very difficult with Mrs. Black's portrait screaming at the top of her lungs- and guess from which direction would the curses be coming. Sirius and Moody were trying to repair the anti-apparating ward, but the Death Eaters had obviously managed to destroy it completely, and they didn't have time to put a whole new one up.

And then they came. One, two... ten... twenty... Death Eaters started to appear out of nowhere. Chaos ensued. The members of the Order were trapped. They could have disapparated, but the kids and the muggles in the house couldn't, and they wouldn't leave them alone.

Everybody tried to get some cover, behind the sofas, on the corner between the huge library and the wall, behind chairs, under the table... The lights had been off all of the time, save the one in the kitchen, which Penelope had extinguished immediately after the first Death Eater apparated there. Darkness would surely give them some cover, but not much, just until the Death Eaters' eyes would get used to it. And on the other hand, darkness was also a disadvantage, because they couldn't see each other very well. Harry thought it was like a sick game of hide and seek. The ones who had hidden better would live longer, the others would die sooner. He wasn't sure what would be worse, dying first or being the last and having to witness how his friends died one by one.

The Death Eaters didn't move either. They were waiting for their preys to make a wrong move, a noise. With their black cloaks, they blended perfectly with the darkness in the house. Why risk a move when panic would force their enemies to make silly mistakes?

Harry could see Ron from where he was hiding, behind a sofa. A right of light coming in through one of the windows rested on his face. Harry thought the Death Eaters would catch him very soon. Ron looked his way and smiled at him reassuringly. Harry had the feeling he knew what his friend was thinking: This was it, they were going to die, but he wasn't scared at all, just sad about all the things he would surely miss. Harry mouthed: "My Firebolt is upstairs." Ron obviously understood him, because his eyes rounded. His broom was upstairs too, and he was sure Ginny and the twins had theirs too, maybe even Percy. He thought there were probably brooms enough to carry the Dursleys, the Grangers, Hermione, Ginny, Harry and him. The rest of them could disapparate. If they could only get their brooms...

***

Upstairs, Fred and George had had the same idea. They didn't know what was going on, but they had heard Penelope's warning very clearly a few moments ago, and since then nothing, just silence. The Death Eaters probably didn't know they were upstairs. They opened the room of the door where they were hiding with the Dursleys and the Grangers and raised their wands.

"Accio broom!" They whispered. A few seconds afterwards, their brooms were there, hovering ready to be mounted. Fred went back to the muggles:

"We are going to try to get the others. When they come, be ready to mount a broom, it might be your only way out. And make no noise." He was speaking very slowly and very low. Everybody nodded slowly, although Vernon Dursley had looked for a moment as if he was going to protest at the idea of mounting a broomstick.

Meanwhile, George had had another idea and had summoned their Beater clubs. Fred's eyes went round and he gave his twin the thumbs up. Slowly, both boys mounted their respective brooms, took a club with one hand and their wand firmly in the other, and looked at each other for what might very well be the last time. Fred left first. George right behind him. They flew downstairs silently, although they had no idea what they would find there. Fred stopped in mid-air an the beginning of the stairs, hiding a little behind the wall, and took a peek at the room. He could see people standing in the middle of the room, people wearing cloaks, Death Eaters. He looked to his right and saw Ginny hurled behind a chair, the moon was falling on her red hair, it was a miracle that the Death Eaters hadn't spotted her yet. She looked at her brother, saw the broom and looked at him intently to make him understand that she had got the idea. Fred raised three fingers at her, and then put them down one by one. One, two, three! Fred threw himself at the unsuspecting Death Eaters and started moving his club around, not caring if he hit heads or furniture. George followed. Ginny took advantage of the chaos to summon her broom, and Harry and Ron did the same.

The Death Eaters, taken by surprise, didn't know what was attacking them. Was it a monster, was it human? Why could it fly?

The adults in the room didn't loose time. They threw hexes at the Death Eaters without even taking aim, the trick was to attack them from so many angles that they couldn't react in time.

A big hand shot in the air and caught Fred's left arm. He fell from his broom and fought frantically against another hand on his throat, strangling him. Another hand grabbed George's broom and made him fall too, but he scurried away in the confusion and hid as well as he could. After that, they heard a terrible voice: "Escudare!"

"DON'T SHOOT!" Professor Lupin cried from somewhere to Harry's left. Apparently, not soon enough. Before Lupin could warn them, some of them had sent some hexes flying to the Death Eaters which had hit their shield and shot in another direction. A couple of people fell to the ground, Harry couldn't see who.

"DO NOTHING!" Moody roared.

The same horrible voice said: "Lumos!" The room filled with a light so bright that blinded them all for a moment. "Incendio!" Ron, Ginny and Harry's brooms, which had been hovering at their sides, burst into flames.

When his eyes finally adjusted to the light, Harry didn't like what he was seeing: twelve Death Eaters or more were standing together in the centre of the room, covering each other's backs and surrounded by a misty light. Dispersed through the room there were at least thirty Death Eaters more, most of them in pairs, back to back. They were all surrounded by the misty light too.

Fred was panting on the floor, close to the inner circle of Death Eaters. Hermione's nose was bleeding. Remus sported a burn in his right arm and Ron and his mother were lying on the floor, unconscious. Harry realised he had blood running down his face too. He couldn't see the others from where he was.

Now there was light, there was really no point in hiding. The Death Eaters were all standing and could see them perfectly well. The furniture had been protection enough in the darkness, but now it wasn't any more.

The same voice who had spoken before started crying out curses, and Harry saw a tall man in the centre of the inner circle point his wand at someone. Lupin raised behind him, sent a hex to the inner circle and kneeled very fast. It was no use, his spell rebounded and hit a candelabra. The Death Eaters laughed. They had them. They couldn't escape. The Death Eater who seemed to be in charge turned his attention to Lupin and then lifted his mask. Remus stood slowly and stared at him, his wand pointed at the man.

"Lestrange, you're surrounded by aurors, surrender your wand," he said calmly.

Lestrange! So this was Bellatrix's husband! The man laughed at Remus, amused at the man's silly bravery. The other Death Eaters didn't look so happy though, they seemed to think the thin man with the ugly scar on his abdomen could be telling the truth.

"Crucio!" Lestrange said, pointing his wand at Lupin. The werewolf just moved to the side and avoided the hex.

"Hmmm, good reflexes!" Lestrange said impressed.

"Good body too!" A female voice said from Lestrange's right.

"Maybe you can have him for your own amusement when the Master finishes with him, Rebecca," Lestrange paused. "That is, if he survives his wrath. CRUCIO!"

Lupin kneeled and stood again.

Harry was wondering what was Lupin playing at, but then he realised. He was trying to distract Lestrange because he had been the one to cast the shielding spell on all the Death Eaters. If he got interested enough in catching Lupin and lost concentration, the shield would waver, and then they could hit the Death Eaters. He could see Sirius now, moving surreptitiously in his direction. Unluckily, he wasn't the only one to spot his godfather.

"Where do you think you are going?" Another Death Eater said, and pointed his wand at Sirius. The Animagus avoided the curse and then stood too, slowly, but with his wand ready.

"Where is my dear cousin Bella, enjoying herself with your Master while you endanger yourself for him?"

Sirius' question unhinged Lestrange for various reasons, first of all, because of the obvious insult of suggesting her wife was untruthful to him, and secondly because he thought Sirius Black was dead. It was only a second of hesitation, but it was enough. The shield wavered, and when it did curses went flying in every direction. Five Death Eaters in the inner circle and some more around the room fell before Lestrange recovered his concentration and strengthened the shield again.

"Enough talking I think. You are very lucky that the Master has insisted that he wanted you all alive and, if possible, able." He raised his wand, but was interrupted by the noise of someone thundering down the stairs. To everybody's astonishment, Vernon Dursley came into the room charging like a bull. He threw himself at the inner circle of Death Eaters -who didn't even blink-, and rebounded so hard that he flew backwards some feet and fell with a sick crash on Mrs. Black's portrait, destroying it completely.

The Death Eaters laughed heartily at the amusing show.

"Well," Lestrange finally said, "maybe we don't need to keep the muggles alive." There was a murmur of excitement from his companions. "Not now, though, the Master is waiting." Then he turned his attention back to his 'prisoners': "I'm going to put you all on a very deep sleep, plagued with nightmares and bad memories, and when you waken, the worst of them all will have become true, and you'll be kneeling in front of my Master, ready to serve him, to kill Dumbledore for him so that he can finally conquer the wizarding world."

So that was the plan! Harry mind's was reeling. Could it be that Voldemort didn't know he was in the house? Could it be that for once he hadn't been after Harry, but after the Order? Maybe he thought that if he could put all of them under the Imperius curse, Dumbledore wouldn't be able to escape, because these were the people he trusted the most. And now it seemed Voldemort was getting two for the price of one, Dumbledore and himself.

"Let's see... who wants to be first?" Lestrange was really enjoying his sick game. "What about this pretty little girl here?" He said menacingly, looking at Ginny. He raised his wand at her. Ginny stood and looked at him defiantly.

"No!" Bill shouted, and stepped in front of her sister.

"How touching!" Lestrange mocked him, and the other Death Eaters laughed stupidly. "The older brother wants to go first. Very well then... "Somnium Infernis!"

A white light left Lestranger's wand and hit Bill squarely in the chest, in a pendant he was wearing, a small black pearly bottle. The chain broke and the bottle fell to the floor and opened, but didn't break. Bill stood there, apparently uninjured, looking as surprised as everyone else.

Then a beautiful sound started to fill the room. Harry thought for a moment it was like the phoenix's song, but then realised it wasn't, this song was even more beautiful. The tiny bottle started to glow. A woman's voice spoke, as if from very far away, in a foreign language, but somehow they could understand what she was saying:

"Cursed be the one who defies the power of the Guardians of the Fire. Now come and face your punishment, because you cannot run from it."

Nobody dared to move, not even blink. Lestranger's shield wavered and disappeared, but nobody cared, because they were all falling under the spell of the voices singing in their heads. Those beautiful voices.

Suddenly, a soft wind started to flow out of the bottle, and then started getting stronger and stronger, whirling around the room faster and faster. Things started to fly: books, candles, pictures; then bigger objects, like furniture; then people: Vernon Dursley's unconscious body, Mrs. Weasley and Ron, both unconscious too. It was as if a hurricane was blowing inside the house.

"Abort the mission!" Lestrange shouted panicked. The Death Eaters started to disapparate, facing Voldemort's wrath was bad, but who knew how bad could be facing this unknown force?

The aurors were trying to fight the irresistible force of the wind too. It was as if they were moving in slow motion. Sirius tried to reach Harry with the utmost effort and made him lay on the floor. Harry was trying to resist the wind, but he was so thin that he didn't stand a chance. His wand slipped from his fingers and Harry tried to grab it. That was a mistake, and he was soon floating around the room. Sirius turned into Padfoot and grabbed the edge of Harry's pyjamas with his teeth, but the cloth tore, and then the wind caught the black dog too.

After what felt like an eternity, the spiralling stopped, but the wind was still very strong. They were all floating in mid-air. Harry could see Ginny holding to Bill, Hermione holding to Moody's flesh leg, even Lestrange was floating without control, it seemed he hadn't been able to disapparate in time, and Tonks... Tonks was doing something very strange. It was as if she was trying to swim in mid-air and reach the bottle on the ground. She needn't have worried about it, because then the wind started to get back into the tiny bottle, taking everything inside it with him: books... furniture... people.

***

The sky was blue and clear. Harry was flying like a bird, feeling utterly happy. He could see a tiny house far away in the horizon. He didn't know why, but he had to get there. Suddenly a branch appeared out of nowhere and slapped him. Harry blinked and tried to cover his face. The branch hit him again, harder this time, and Harry finally opened his eyes.

"Aunt Petunia?"

Petunia Dursley was kneeling at his side and trying to waken him.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"You ask me?" Aunt Petunia said in a disbelieving tone. "How am I supposed to know! There was a hurricane or something and we started to fly around the room where we were hiding. Then everything stopped as suddenly as it had started. We couldn't hear anything, so we decided to come downstairs, and we found everybody unconscious on the floor."

He looked around and remembered everything. He was lying on the floor, exactly where he had been hiding from the Death Eaters just a moment ago, before Lestrange had hit that mysterious little bottle and everything had started to spin out of control.

Harry looked around the room. Mrs. Granger was trying to awake her daughter, and Harry could see Dudley shaking his father and Mr. Granger slapping Bill -not so hard as Aunt Petunia had slapped him, though.

He stood and went over to one of the windows. Grimmauld Place had disappeared. They were in the middle of some fields, and Harry could see a small house not very far away, the house he had seen in his dream. It was probably noon already.

He turned and helped awake the others. Little by little, his friends returned to consciousness. They looked all very tired, but relaxed at the same time. Some of them were rubbing their bodies where they had hit something. Tonks and Shacklebolt were taking care of Ron, Mrs. Weasley and Vernon Dursley.

"Anybody knows what happened?" Lupin asked, rubbing his temple.

Nobody answered.

"Whatever it was," Sirius said, "I'm glad it happened. The Death Eaters have disappeared."

There was a murmur of agreement around the room.

Benjamin went to the window and smiled. "Who gave you that bottle, Bill?" He asked.

"The fuocciri who saved my life, why?"

Benjamin smiled again. "Just as I thought. That's her house." Everybody went to the window and looked at the house Harry had seen before.

"That's her house? How...?" Mundungus asked.

"Lestrange hit a fuocciri amulet. Bad for him. If you break a fuocciri amulet is bad enough in itself, but if you have sent a curse at it, you are doomed."

"But he escaped, didn't he?" Ginny asked. "He is not here any more, so he must have disapparated."

Benjamin bit his upper lip, lost in thought for a moment. "I don't know what happened to him, but you can be sure the curse will haunt him down. He is as well as dead."

Nobody felt sorry for him.

"I'll go and see if Yamiko is at home. Anybody wants to come?"

"I do," Ginny said.

"Me too," Hermione agreed.

Harry, Sirius and Moody joined them too. From the distance, they were quite a sight, because Moody, Harry and Hermione were still wearing their pyjamas and nightgowns.

Benjamin felt quite confident, he even put away his wand. The others didn't feel so sure yet. He knocked on the door.

"I'm in the backyard!" A voice called.

They walked around the house. Yamiko Sam stood there, surrounded by paint pots and canvases. She was wearing muggle clothes: tights and an old grey T-shirt quite dirty with paint strokes of every colour and also some fingerprints. Her hair was tied in a ponytail. She smiled at them and then hugged Benjamin.

"Hello, dear! Slept well?"

"Yeah," Benjamin said, not very convinced. "How much do you know about what has happened at Grimmauld Place tonight?"

"Well, not really much, just that someone attacked the house, probably Death Eaters, because I could feel a lot of dark magic in the air."

"You were there?" Harry asked.

"No, I was on my way. A friend of mine called me. Sandrine," she added for Benjamin's benefit, "she felt someone under her protection was in danger, but she was busy at the moment and couldn't go herself, so she asked me to go and help. And I already knew the house!" She smiled at them.

"That would be me," Sirius said.

"Pardon?" Yamiko asked.

"I mean the person under Sandrine's protection, I think it's me. She saved my life some weeks ago."

"Oooooh, so you are the infamous Sirius Black?" She asked, shaking Sirius' hand.

"The one and only," Sirius joked.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Black, I'm Yamiko Sam. Sandrine and I have been friends for... well, a lot of years now. And these are?" She asked, looking at the rest of the committee.

"Alastor Moody, Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter," Sirius introduced them. To everybody's surprise, Yamiko didn't seem to recognise Harry's name, 'Weasley' sounded familiar to her, though.

"Ah! You must be related to Mrs. Weasley from The Burrow, am I right?"

"Yes," Ginny said reddening slightly, "she is my mother."

"I thought so," Yamiko said, and then she looked a little bit sheepishly. "Well, sorry about the mess, I was working a bit, but I guess it's time for a brake anyway. Why don't you take a seat while I go to the kitchen and fetch you some drinks and food?"

"Maybe we could have some explanations first," Moody growled.

Yamiko smiled at him. "I see... I'd rather wait until the others awake, though."

"They are already awake," Ginny said, "we didn't want to come all at once."

"Oh! Well, why don't you call them then so that they can join us?"

Moody nodded, and Harry and Hermione went in search of the rest. When they came back, the canvases had become chairs and Yamiko had put on a simple muggle-style flowered dress. She was coming out of a door in the back of the house, probably leading to the kitchen, and was carrying a try with cups and dishes on it. Everybody greeted her awkwardly and then took a chair. Yamiko did too, and then took a sip of her cup before smiling around.

"Welcome to the humble house of the Sams. I think we've all met before, at that very big house you just left," she pointed vaguely in the direction where Black Manor now stood. "And this is the third time I have the pleasure of seeing some of you," she smiled at Mrs. Weasley, "although I hope next time we meet won't be so stressful for a change."

A popping noise distracted them all.

"Albus!" Moddy growled.

Dumbledore walked swiftly to them with his wand in his hand and looking not very happy. When he surveyed the scene and saw everybody sitting comfortably around Yamiko, he relaxed visibly, though.

"Mr. Dumbledore! You come just in time, I was just starting to explain everything."

The old wizard nodded and approached Yamiko, who was now standing, her arm outstretched to shake the man's hand.

"Tea?"

"Yes, please," the Headmaster said, looking at his people. He seemed to be checking if there was anyone missing.

"As I was saying, I'm sorry we haven't met in more joyful circumstances." Yamiko cleared her throat. "Let's see, where do I start? Well, a friend of mine, called Sandrine, rescued Mr. Black here from the dead some time ago. Everybody knows that?" There was a general nod of assertion.

"Ok, right. In saving him, a very strong magical bond was created between herself and Mr. Black. This bond allows my friend to feel if Mr. Black here is in danger. A couple of hours ago, she started to feel the pull of the bond, but she couldn't very well run to Grimmauld Place at that moment, so she contacted me, to see if I could do her the favour of helping Mr. Black. I obviously assured her I would do everything in my power. I was still on my way, when I felt one of my amulets working. I had never given an amulet before to anybody until I had to heal Mr. Weasley some days ago," she smiled at Bill, who smiled back. "I didn't give the bottle to him as an amulet, only because he needed the medicine inside it, but as a dark spell hit the amulet, its magic turned on and the amulet tried to come back to its original owner: me."

Yamiko paused, thinking how much she really needed to explain, and then went on talking. "There are different kinds of amulets. That one is an apparitional one, which means, it moves something or someone from one place to another. I guess there was probably a lot of magic around the house, and that increased the reaction of the amulet, so instead of moving just something small, like a cup, or a dish, or the person wearing it, it took with him everything inside the house and even the house itself, and brought you all here, where I live. And that's basically all there's to tell." She paused and looked around. There were some lost faces. "Any questions?" She asked.

Hermione raised her hand shyly, as if she was in class. "If the amulet took everyone in the house here, what happened to the Death Eaters who were attacking us?"

"There was only one of them in the house when I went inside. I'm not sure about the rest, but they probably disapparated before the amulet's magic affected them. I knew the amulet would come back here, so I hurried back, and was already here when the house appeared out of nowhere. You were all unconscious, but it's better to leave the amulet's magic dissipate by itself, so I let you sleep. I only took one person, the Death Eater who had hit the amulet."

"How did you know it had been him and not someone else?" Bill interrupted.

"Well, you just know those things. I can't explain why, but there is a kind of connection between an amulet and the person who has wielded it in the fire. It's as if the amulet could speak, and it could tell me the name of the attacker."

"We heard a voice," Tonks said. "It was a woman's, and she said something about the guardians of the fire, or something like that."

Yamiko thought for a moment. "Fuocciris amulets are made in a special way. I think wizards usually take a magical object and that's it, but fuocciris amulets are not common objects at first. To make one, you have to go into the depths of the Mountain of Fire, were eternal flames dance night and day. There, you speak to the spirits of dead fuocciris -that's what the flames really are, you know, dead fuocciri- and ask them for something you wish. You must promise them something else in exchange, and if you keep your promise, they grant you your wish. Then, when you get out of the mountain, you search your pockets, and there it is: the amulet. That's how I got this little bottle I gave Mr. Weasley."

"And the guardians of the fire?" Tonks insisted.

"Oh, that would be the fuocciris. We are the Guardians of the Fire, because we can control it. When we die, our spirits turn into flames on the depths of the Mountain of Fire."

Everybody was hanging on Yamiko's every word.

"What about the Death Eater then?" Dumbledore asked.

"Oh, well, he had to be punished. The penalty for trying to destroy a fuocciri amulet is death." Yamiko turned a bit in her chair and waved a hand in the air. Suddenly, to their right, they could see the most extraordinary vision: an horde of small scarlet dragons that had been invisible before were tearing at something bloody on the floor. And then they saw it: an arm still clad in a dark sleeve. The dragons were eating Lestrange. Yamiko waved again her hand and the disturbing image disappeared. "I awoke him first, of course, so that he would have a chance to fight, my dragons enjoy chasing living preys much more than eating canned food, and they don't get many chances of hunting, so it's like a big party for them."

Percy excused himself and walked a little bit away, then they heard him retching. George and Mr. Granger joined him almost immediately.

Yamiko looked worried at them, and then at the rest of them. "Anybody else is feeling ill? Have you noticed if some pastries tasted bad?" She smelled the tea, and then waved her hand and all the food and drinks disappeared. "Sorry about that. It's almost lunch time anyway, so I'd better go and cook something. Feel free to have a look around." She went to the house, but stopped before going in. "Anything I can give you? Maybe some water?" She shouted at the three people who had felt ill. They shook their heads slowly. Yamiko bit her lower lip worried, wondering what could have made them feel bad. Maybe the sesame biscuits, she had bought them a week ago, although they usually halted for quite long... It didn't occur to her that someone could be upset after seeing some dragons eating another human being, not when that person deserved the punishment.

Everybody started commenting what had happened and looking at Dumbledore as if the old man would tell them he had expected something like this to happen all of the time, but the truth was the old wizard was as lost as the rest of them. He could understand that Sandrine had sensed Sirius was in danger. But why would she help him? Ok, not personally, but at least she had contacted a friend. And why would that friend risk her life and probably her position in her community by ignoring her Princess' 'neutrality decree'? They were all trying to find a reason to these incredible and lucky events when a female voice called, panting, from the other side of the house.

"Miko? Miko, can you open the door?"

The wizards and witches in the backyard looked at each other. What kind of magical people would be unable to open a door?

It seemed Yamiko could indeed opened the front door, because after a moment the backyard door opened too and two little boys came running out of it, one must have been around ten or eleven, the other one considerably younger. They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw they had visitors. The youngest one was the first one to react.

"Dogman! Dogman!" He shouted delighted, and run to Sirius.

Sirius immediately recognised the kids. It hadn't been so long since he had been in Sandrine's flat, looking after them. He kneeled and hugged Gao, laughing. Then he went over to the older kid, Yi, and shook his hand as if he was a very important person. The boy smiled shyly at him.

"Glad to see you again, Mr. Black."

"Oh, no, no, please, call me Sirius, ok?"

The boy grinned and nodded. At Gao's request, the wizard took his animagus form and jumped playfully around. Everybody laughed, specially Gao, who approached the dog and threw himself at its neck. They were thus enjoying themselves when the backyard door opened again and out came Yamiko followed by two girls some of them already knew: her younger sister Samako and their friend Sha-adi, the mermaid.

"What's going on?" Yamiko asked amused. "Oh, for all the Princesses! Where did that huge dog come from?" She said, approaching the animal and stroking his shiny fur and scratching his ears. "Who do you belong to, eh? Do you belong to Mr. Black?"

The dog barked, and then took a couple of steps back and turned back into a man. "Yeah, I guess you could say that," he said.

Yamiko was still kneeling where the dog had stood, and looked up at Sirius with obvious admiration. "Oh, you are an animagus! Impressive!"

"Thanks," Sirius said, shrugging and grinning from ear to ear.

Everybody was still laughing at Padfoot's antiques and Yamiko's surprise. Sirius offered his hand to Yamiko to help her stand and then approached the other two girls. He greeted Sha-adi first.

"Hi! Nice to see you again," he said.

"Sirius, I'm glad you are ok." Sha-adi said. "Yamiko was just telling us what happened and why your house is now in the Sams' garden."

Sirius passed his hand through his hair. "Yeah, it's a long story. I'm not sure I got it yet. I should probably learn something more about ashanriis. My life has been full of them lately, for good, of course." He turned then to the other girl. "And I think you are Samako, right? We've met before, but we haven't been introduced."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Black."

"Oh, please, call me Sirius. Here," he said, taking them by the arm, "let me introduce you to the rest of my friends. You too, Mrs. Sam."

"It's Miss!" Yamiko, Samako and Sha-adi shouted at the same time, and then burst out laughing.

Sirius looked a bit lost for a moment. Well, maybe Yi and Gao weren't Yamiko's children after all.

"Sorry, Miss Sam," he corrected himself.

"Yamiko or Miko will be fine. Some people call me Ya too."

Sirius smiled at her and then made the introductions. Even Percy, George and Mr. Granger seemed to have recovered enough to smile when their names where said.

After everybody had nodded or smiled in turn, there was an awkward silence, which Sha-adi finally interrupted.

"Were you having a pyjama party?" She asked, surveying the group of people and seeing most of them were wearing pyjamas or nightdresses. Embarrassment spread through their faces as fast as a rumour.

"Oh, don't worry, that's ok," Sha-adi said earnestly. The Sams tried very hard to disguise their laughter while they took a last appraising look at Lupin and Shacklebolt, who were the ones wearing less clothes and obviously with a better body -Moody's nightgown certainly didn't attract their attention much.

After that, Dumbledore agreed with Yamiko that he would go back to England, pick Mr. Weasley, who must be mad with worry, and then they would come back together. Meanwhile, everybody went back to Black Manor to shower and change themselves while the Sams and Sha-adi started preparing something to eat. The three girls were still talking animatedly about what had happened when Mrs. Weasley, Tonks, Mrs. Granger and Mrs. Dursley came back.

"We've come to help," Molly said.

"Oh, you don't need to, why don't you go and rest. We can do it." Yamiko protested.

"No, no, no way," Molly said.

"It's the least we can do," Mrs. Granger begged, "after everything you've done for us. And we are a lot too. If we have to pay something for the food..."

"Oh, no-no-no-no-no!" Yamiko cut her off. "It's really no problem. We always have plenty of food in the house. You never know when someone could turn up, and we live far away from the village. We are going to cook something simple, anyway, only a lot of quantity, so that everybody has enough to eat."

"In fact, we just came from the village market," Samako added, "so we have food now for a whole army."

"At least... let us help you, please," Petunia said, her voice wavering a bit.

The three ashanriis looked at each other, and finally Yamiko nodded. "Very well."

None of them really worked much, though. The vegetables were cutting themselves, the rice and the noodles were ready to jump into the pots at the very last minute, the pork and the chicken pieces were jumping from the salt jar straight into the pan filled with oil, and the ducks were obligingly turning in the grate from one side to the other. The kitchen was soon filled with a delicious smell. While they checked that everything was going on as expected, the women chatted amiably and drank some French wine -Sandrine's contribution.

Mrs. Weasley chatted animatedly with Yamiko about cooking and children, Tonks, Sha-adi and Samako were having a very heated conversation about hair colours, and Mrs. Granger and Mrs. Dursley were talking quietly in a corner.

"I could get used to this," Mrs. Granger was saying, eyeing the food with wonder while it prepared itself. Petunia just laughed uncompromisingly. She still didn't feel too comfortable around magic.

***

They were all seated around a very big table when Dumbledore came back, accompanied by Mr. Weasley, who looked absolutely harassed. He embraced all of his kids, but specially Ginny, since she had been the one in greatest danger. Then thanked Yamiko for everything with tears in his eyes. Yamiko started crying too, she couldn't stand seeing people cry, even though in Arthur's case it was out of happiness. It took the rest some time to comfort them.

They were enjoying their desserts when they heard a key scratching in the keyhole of the front door. After a moment, a small blonde girl came into the spacious kitchen.

"Hi! Oh, what's this, you are having a party without me?" The girl asked in mock outrage while she let fall some grocery bags on a corner of the floor.

Yi and Gao run to kiss Sandrine, and then took her by the hands to a chair that had appeared automatically out of nowhere. Before sitting, though, Sandrine kissed the other ashanriis and Benjamin. Then she went to Sirius and, to everybody's surprise, kissed his cheek too.

"Ah! How nice! Just in time for dessert!" She said, looking at their dishes.

"Don't you dare touch a thing!" Yamiko warned her. "You have to eat something else first."

"Oh, no! Some chocolate ice-cream would do lovely, thank you." Sandrine said, reaching for the chocolate ice-cream.

Yamiko slapped her hand. "What did I say? Ice-cream is for dessert, not only course."

Sandrine rolled her eyes and sighed exaggeratedly. "Oh, well..." She said resignedly.

Yamiko brought her a big dish with a little bit of everything and Sandrine started devouring it at once, not caring that everybody else was looking transfixed at her. After two or three mouthfuls, she sighed contentedly and then dared speak while eating.

"So, I see Yamiko arrived on time, right?" She asked Sirius.

"Yes," Sirius answered, "thank you Sandrine."

There was a round of whispered thankyous around the table.

"Well, I did nothing." She said shrugging. "You know, Sirius, you are really opportune. First, you die in the middle of the night and wake me up. Then you get yourself attacked when I'm in the middle of a heart transplant and I have to run out of the operating room to warn Yamiko. I think I should give you my schedule, you know. The times marked in red will mean: 'Must keep a low profile, Sandrine is not available'." She smiled.

"Better give it to the Death Eaters," Sirius said amused.

"Hmmm," Sandrine froze for a moment with her hand mid-way to her mouth, "good idea, I could pay dear Bellatrix a visit, and while I'm there, we could talk some other things over too."

"Sandrine..." Yamiko said in a warning tone.

There was some silence afterwards, until Benjamin asked Sandrine how had gone the transplant. They talked about it for a moment while the others finished their desserts and listened.

"I'm really exhausted!" Sandrine complained, and she looked it too. There were dark circles around her eyes and she looked much thinner than Sirius remembered. "And it's not only the work at the hospital. I seem to have lost control of my senses. For the last couple of weeks, I keep sensing danger everywhere." Nobody dared comment on that, but they thought maybe Sandrine's senses were working perfectly right after all. "For all the Princesses! I'm even sensing the presence of a werewolf here since I came! Imagine that! In Yamiko's house!" She said in a disbelieving tone, and started laughing heartily.

There was an uncomfortable silence around the table. The tension in the air was so thick that you could have cut it with a knife. Sandrine noticed, of course, and stopped laughing awkwardly. She concentrated hard on her food, but instead of eating it, she just played around with some onion rings. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Right, ok." She was talking more to herself than for the others' benefit.

With a great effort, as if a big weight was keeping her head down, Sandrine straightened and looked around. When she reached Lupin, she stopped and fixed her green eyes on him, then bit her lips nervously.

Everybody else had followed her gaze, and the ones who didn't know yet Remus was a werewolf -the Grangers and the Dursleys- were looking at him mystified.

"Sandrine..." Sirius and Dumbledore started to say. None of them finished the sentence, though, because just then they heard again a key.

Edvard and Michel, Sandrine's cousin and brother respectively, walked into the kitchen, and stopped in the doorframe. First they were surprised to see so many people there. Then they were shocked at the unnatural silence.

Michel walked over to her sister and kissed her cheek. Edvard followed him, but looking around the table. So many people, and all so quiet. How strange! He went to stand next to Sandrine and said hello to everybody. Then someone caught his attention: a man with greying hair sitting next to Sirius, almost in front of Sandrine. He was looking at him too, an inquiring expression on his face.

Edvard smiled to himself. He looked from Sandrine to the man and back. Sandrine's pale face confirmed his suspicions. "You are a werewolf, right?" He asked Lupin.

"Yes, I am," Remus answered, his voice sad.

"I thought so," Edvard said. He then reached over the table to shake Remus' hand and said the two words Lupin least expected to hear:

"Me too."

*****

Thanks for the reviews!

Thanks all for reading and reviewing!

First of all, I must give once more virtual chocolate frogs, this time to Lily Skylo, for guessing Edvard was a werewolf. Bravo!

I got reviews from people who thought Benjamin was good and others thought he was evil. Well, so far, he seems to be ok. But as someone commented, Slytherins are very difficult people, so you never know...

Next chapter plans will be made to protect the Order of the Phoenix, and Remus has a very interesting conversation with Edvard -well, at least I hope you'll find it interesting. :D

hermionegreen: Thanks for your review. You were right about Benjamin. ;-) We'll see more about him next chapter.

Kadi Rilla Wholi: Aaaaaaaah! Not all Slytherins are evil, Kadi. You have to give them a chance. ;-) I'm glad you liked Ron's declaration. Let's hope now that the Order is under the protection of the Sams there will be more time for romance.

Lily Skylo: Congratulations again, both about Edvard and Benjamin. I wouldn't worry much about Dean if I were you, I'm sure he'll find another girl soon enough, he's still young. :D We'll see him soon too (maybe in a couple of chapters).

Lady Arwen of Rivendell: What an honour! Lady Arwen herself reviewing my fic! Thanks! Ginny asks me to thank you too for your kindness in thinking Harry should be hers, but regrets to say her crush on Harry belongs to the past, so she is very happy that Benjamin turned out to be ok -so far at least. Jokes apart, I really think Ginny and Harry are meant for each other too, and probably they will end up together in Rowling's books... but not in this fic. ;-)

Starfire: Thanks for the explanation. I feel much better now. :-) I hope you enjoyed this chapter too. What did you think of Sandrine?

Makalani Astral: Thanks for your review! I have some hope in Draco too, let's see how much Amanda can influence him. I don't think Benjamin would be against muggleborns, although he is definitely a pureblood himself. His sister Sha-adi is not even wholly human, remember? And he loves her dearly.

Believe: Thanks a lot for your review, I found it very funny. I'm glad you liked the chapter, and Benjamin too.

TRF-Chan: Hi! Thanks for your review. I hope you liked this chapter too.