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.

Sandrine Does What She Must Do

Harry knew from experience that whenever you want time to slow down, it just flies. This time was no different. He wanted the fifteen minutes that Lupin had given them to last forever. He wanted Lupin and the rest to come back save and sound. He wanted this all to be a bad dream.

But wishes don't always come true, and it was only too soon for Harry when Padfoot turned back into a man and Sirius addressed them with a grim face:

"Well, it seems we have no other choice but to try and get out of this place. I've been here once before, but I'm not sure if the forest looks always the same or if it changes every time someone gets into the training room. I'll walk in front of you as a dog, trying to find my way out. I remember crossing a river the other day. It should be close to the exit. Keep your wands ready and follow me carefully."

Nobody spoke. Their throats seemed to have forgotten how to work properly.

Half an hour later, the group of lost teenagers were still walking behind the black dog. The forest seemed to be less thick where they were now, and they hoped that meant they were closer to the exit. They could hear the merry sound of running waters somewhere beyond the last trees. Until then they had made their way across a labyrinth of branches, but they had encountered no danger, as Yamiko had promised.

Padfoot started to run and disappeared beyond the high trees in front of them. Soon enough they heard him bark, and then Sirius' voice:

"Over hear, we've found the river."

"We?" Ron asked incredulously. "He did! We only followed."

Relieve flowed through their veins, and some people even let out a sigh or a nervous laugh. They were save. Well, that's what they thought...

When they reached the riverside, their temporary relieve disappeared.

"How are we going to cross that?" Lavender asked. "We would need a boat!"

"The waters are too fast, we would never make it to the other side in a boat," Seamus grunted.

"Ei, ei, ei... what's with you all? At least we have our wands. Last time I was here Lupin and I had to swim across the river, and it wasn't easy, believe me. I don't think I would have made it if it weren't because Padfoot is a great swimmer."

"Fine, but we can't all transform into dogs," Lee Jordan complained.

"No, but we can all think," Sirius retorted a little bit sharply. "Try to be positive and think in what you can do, not in what you can't."

"Maybe we could conjure up a bridge," Luna proposed.

"We need some knowledge of civil engineering for that," Sirius objected, "if the river wasn't so wide I would risk it, but not in this case."

"Why not a hanging bridge made of ropes or something like that?" Ginny proposed.

Sirius looked at her mesmerised. "Good point, I think that might work." He walked a little bit further up the river looking for the right place. "Here!"

They all ran to him. Sirius was pointing at some low branches to their right.

"We could tie one side of Ginny's bridge to these branches and then to the branches on the other side."

"And how are we going to do that?" Michael Corner asked.

"I can cross the river as Padfoot." Nobody seemed too enthusiastic about the idea. "Come on!" Sirius tried to encourage them, "we can at least try it!"

Harry was glad that all this mess had at least a positive side: his godfather seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. He was probably reliving his adventures of the good old times.

After much concentration and a lot more trying, Ginny, Cho, Parvati and Padma managed to thread the beginning of the rope bridge. It was a slow work, because they wanted the ropes to be thick and strong. Padfoot took the ends of the ropes in his mouth and jumped into the water. There were a couple of difficult spots were the waters run deep and fast and almost carried the dog away, but Padfoot finally managed to reach the other bank.

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally had something like a bridge. Sirius tied one end of it to a couple of thick trees, and the older boys did the same on their side of the river.

"Now, start crossing, but one at a time, the bridge might not be strong enough to support two people at once!" Sirius shouted from the other side.

Luna, as the smallest, and thus, lightest, was the first to try the bridge. She walked carefully, but her feet got tangled nevertheless a couple of times in the ropes. After much worry and hope from everybody, she finally reached Sirius, who was so happy that hugged her as if she was his own daughter.

The rest of the group followed one by one, and they soon realised the bridge wouldn't support the weight of a bigger person, so Sirius and Luna helped support the bridge with magical light coming from their wands, and little by little the group on their side became bigger.

Ginny, Cho, Parvati and Padma, as the makers of the bridge, were holding it in place now for the rest of the people to cross it. Only Harry, Dean and Ron remained, when they heard the noise of crushing leaves, someone or something was approaching them at a quick pace, and it didn't sound like human steps.

"What now?" Ron muttered, his wand ready.

"Dean, go!" Harry ordered.

"No, we stand a better chance if we stay together," Dean objected.

"No, run to the other side. We might still make it in time, then we'll only have to get rid of the bridge. I hope the creature, whatever it is, won't be able to swim."

Without wasting any more time, Dean jumped onto the bridge and started crossing it as fast as he could without getting tangled in the ropes. On the other side, everybody was tense, trying to discern something between the thick trees. When Dean reached the middle of the bridge, Harry looked at Ron and they reached a silent agreement. They couldn't risk staying there, they had to go to the bridge. As one, both boys turned and sprinted to the bridge. Harry went first, then Ron. Sirius and the others were biting their lips nervously as they watched the bridge lower a few inches under the weight of the three boys.

"I can't hold the bridge much longer!" Padma shrieked as her right arm started to shake. In the blink of an eye the others had all joined the four girls, and the bridge seemed to stabilise. Dean was almost there and Harry had advanced a lot, but Ron was having problems. His big feet were getting tangled every step he took, he was never going to make it.

"There!" Luna shouted, pointing at the other side. Two enormous tigers were running to the bridge. With the shock, many people lost their concentration and the bridge gave way, falling into the cold waters. One side of the bridge was still tied to a couple of thick strong trees, but the other side was being carried away by the river. The water reached Dean, Harry and Ron's heads, and they were trapped in the ropes of the bridge, which made swimming even more difficult. To make matters worse, the magic of the broken spell had pulled Ginny, Cho and Lee into the water. The tigers jumped into the water and started swimming effortlessly towards Harry and Ron.

Everybody was frantic trying to get the people from the water and everything was a chaos. Some people tried to hex the tigers or at least stun them, but the spells seemed to rebound on their thick fur, nothing affected them. Sirius had jumped at once into the water as Padfoot and was holding Lee by his robes, trying to pull him to the riverside. Cho was holding on to a big rock in the middle of the river for dear life while the people from the riverside tried to reach her with ropes from their wands, but it was difficult to catch a rope with your hand when you were trying not to drown. And Ginny... Ginny was being carried away by the fast waters, unable to hold on to anything.

Harry took off his trainers and disentangled himself as best he could. He turned to Ron and his eyes rounded with dismay. Ron was definitely trapped.

"Ron!" He said, turning to his friend and starting to pull at the robes.

"No, Harry, the tigers are coming, save yourself!" Ron shouted.

Harry looked to his right and saw the beasts approaching. They would be there in an instant.

"No, I won't leave you here!" Harry shouted back.

"Harry, don't be thick," Ron said, "the wizarding world needs you, you are all that gives them hope, you must survive."

Harry didn't even deign to answer, he just busied himself with the fastidious ropes.

For a moment everyone's attention was riveted in a voice they all knew very well, Hermione was standing on the other side, shouting for someone to help Ginny, who was starting to drown. Neville and the Weasley twins were with her.

"Hermione!" Ron said to himself, and then turned to Harry. "What is she doing here?"

Harry was too horrified to answer. One of the tigers had noticed Ginny and had started swimming in her direction, probably thinking she was an easier prey. Hermione was trying to reach Ginny with conjured up ropes, but she was too far away. Then a rope coming out of nowhere finally reached Ginny. It was from Cho, who was still holding on to the rock. Not a very clever thing to do, since now the waters would probably carry them both to death.

The last thing Harry saw before the impressive head of the tiger blocked him from view was the other tiger grabbing Ginny with its teeth. He tried to punch the beast, but a hand stopped him in mid-air and the beast was there no more.

"What...?" Said Ron startled.

Where the tiger had stood a second ago, there was now a young bald man.

"Hold still, I'm going to untie you," the tiger-boy said, and taking a knife out of his clothes, he put his head under the water and started cutting the ropes.

Harry turned immediately in Ginny's direction to see her holding on to the fur of the second tiger while the beast swam to the riverside.

Half an hour later, they were all save and sound, but still panting and definitely needing some explanations. Hermione was the one to speak first:

"These are Sakamoto and Jinichiro Sam, Yamiko and Samako's brothers. Yamiko asked them to help us find you."

"But where is she? Where is Lupin? Why didn't you come back immediately?" Sirius asked.

"We couldn't," Neville said, "when we reached the entry to the training room, we had to hide. Yamiko and Sandrine were there, talking with Death Eaters."

"What?" Many people asked at the same time.

Neville lifted his hands to make them listen. "It seems Lord Voldemort has sent a representation of his followers to try and win the ashanriis over. Yamiko and Sandrine are on our side, but they can't show it, because officially, the ashanriis are remaining neutral. It seems they came while we were inside the training room. Sandrine found them searching the house with their wands out, although they said they were only looking for the owner. Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen of Black Manor, what probably saved her life, because I doubt very much the Death Eaters would have let her alone if they had found out she was on her own. Sandrine told the Death Eaters to sit and wait and made sure they couldn't leave the room until she came back with Yamiko, that's why Yamiko didn't loose time coming back to us."

"Did the Death Eaters see you?"

"No," Hermione explained, "Yamiko has protected her house against intruders. The moment the Death Eaters approached it, her sister Samako and her brothers, Sakamoto and Jinichiro, knew there was something wrong at home and came immediately."

Here one of the boys, Sakamoto or Jinichiro, it was difficult to say since they both looked very much alike, went on with the story.

"When we apparated into our house, we heard voices and we knew that they didn't belong to welcomed guests, but our sisters were there already, so we waited for instructions. Samako told us to stay in the kitchen and we heard our eldest sister offer some tea to the visitors in the other room. It wasn't long until Sandrine came into the kitchen to get some cookies."

"When she saw us there," his brother went on, "she told us you were here and you needed to be warned not to leave the training room until the Death Eaters were gone. We went into the training room and found your friends waiting at the entrance, debating what to do. In the end we decided that Mr. Lupin would go to the kitchen and wait there with our sister Samako in case there was trouble, and we would come in search of you to warn you."

"And what do we do now?" Lavender asked.

"Now we wait," Hermione said. "Yamiko said she would send someone else for us when the Death Eaters are gone."

"I don't like that at all," Sirius complained. "Why wait here instead of going back to the house now and capturing them? How many of them have come anyway?"

"We heard at least seven," one of the boys said, "but we have to wait. They are not a match for my sisters in case things get nasty, and Sandrine insisted you had to stay here. I think she wanted to make sure the Death Eaters didn't see you."

"And there are the dragons," Luna commented.

"Yes," the other boy confirmed, "the dragons will attack too if they sense our sisters are in danger. And we can't harm the Death Eaters. We are supposed to remain neutral, at least officially. You would only cause trouble to my sisters if you tried to capture them."

Everybody turned gloomy for a while, each of them lost in their own thoughts, some of them happy to have escaped an encounter with Death Eaters and others regretting it.

***

Meanwhile Remus Lupin was making the most of his famous self-control and was waiting patiently in the kitchen, listening to the conversation going on in the room next to it. Molly Weasley had joined him, warned by Sandrine, and Samako, the youngest of the Sam's sisters, was there too, holding a long red whip in her right hand and looking out of the window.

The conversation in the other room had gone on for a while now. The Death Eaters were offering Yamiko the possibility of getting rid of the giants forever if she stopped protecting certain people. Yamiko's placid voice carried to them easily:

"I'm sure your Master has much to offer, but not what I'm interested in. I want peace, can he give me that?"

Another woman answered her and a chill run down Lupin's back when he heard her voice. Without making noise, he took a piece of parchment and a quill from the table in front of them and wrote two words before showing them to the two women waiting at his side. Terror filled Molly Weasley's eyes for a moment before she closed them in a silent prayer, but Samako only shrugged. Apparently the name Bellatrix Lestrange didn't mean a thing to her.

"Of course he can! That's precisely the reason why we are here. Our Master doesn't want a war, he wants peace as much as you do, we all do. He could convince the giants that they must not attack your people. He has some influence with them. You could live in peace for the rest of your days..."

"At the expense of many lives," Yamiko interrupted her, "of many innocent lives." There was silence for a moment and then Yamiko went on speaking in a no-nonsense tone: "My people have defended themselves from the giants for centuries. As much as we would love to be sure they won't attack us again, we won't pay any price just to get that assurance."

There was a clatter of china on the table followed by a tense silence.

"Another cookie? I make them myself, the recipe has been in my family for centuries," Sandrine said in a pleasant voice, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Mrs. Weasley and Lupin exchanged curious glances. Samako went on looking outside the window.

After some munching, a male voice spoke: "They are delicious, Miss Aires, as yourself."

Molly Weasley felt her stomach clench, and only the importance of making no noise was stronger than her need to throw up.

Sandrine flashed an encouraging smile at the man under Yamiko's obviously reprimanding gaze, and from then on the conversation turned to Sandrine, Sandrine's beauty, Sandrine's marital status -mercifully single-, Sandrine's cooking abilities, Sandrine's perfection... until Bellatrix Lestrange stood in a sudden motion and the conversation came to an abrupt end.

Yamiko stood likewise, and although she was smaller than the other woman, there was no doubt she was the most powerful of the two, the Death Eaters could feel the magic radiating from her body, even from the tips of her hair, and they knew they'd have to go in peace if they wanted to leave at all.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Miss Sam," Lestrange said, and then added in a cryptic tone, "you'll hear from us again soon."

Yamiko chose to ignore the implied menace and bowed her head slightly before saying, "My house is always open to those who don't mean any harm to mine."

Yamiko and Sandrine escorted the unwanted guests to the door and stood watching in the threshold until they disapparated.

When they were alone, Sandrine immediately covered her ears with her hands and run to the kitchen, trying to escape Yamiko's fury, but her friend wasn't going to give up easily. Lupin, Mrs. Weasley and Samako heard her shout before Sandrine reached them.

"Sandrine, how dare you? You know how I hate it when you play with fire like that! Those men are insane! They are killers! We don't need them around courting you. What were you thinking?"

With the last words, Sandrine reached the kitchen and went to hide behind Samako's chair, still covering her ears. Yamiko came after her, her face white with anger, but Samako, as always, defended Sandrine.

"Yamiko, you can't expect a dansarine to behave like one of us, fuocciris. You know they don't have our physical strength and they must use other more uncommon weapons to fight their enemies. Flirting could very well save Sandrine's life one day."

"Yes, it could," Sandrine dared speak, and to prove her point, she winked suggestively at Yamiko, but her friend's face told her she wasn't allowed to make fun out of the situation just yet, so she excused herself and run to her room, sure that, given some time, Samako would be able to calm her sister. Yamiko knew defeat when she saw it, so she contented herself with rolling her eyes while Samako, Lupin and Molly laughed at Sandrine's antics, glad that the danger had passed.

Sandrine needed time alone anyway. She wasn't sure if she had done the right thing or not, but she wanted to believe she had. She had waited for so long... who would have guessed that she would have doubts about killing Bellatrix Lestrange when she finally met her once more?

The woman didn't even know who she was.

She didn't know that Sandrine had witnessed how she had tortured the Longbottoms years ago.

She didn't know that Sandrine had saved her cousin Sirius' life.

She didn't know that Sandrine was a very powerful ashanrii although her fragile appearance leaded to think otherwise.

She didn't know that Sandrine had given her a very poisonous potion that afternoon.

She didn't know that Sandrine had debated with herself whether she had the right to take someone's life, she, who prided herself of being a good person.

She didn't know that Sandrine had made her decision when Bellatrix had finally spoken and the hatred that that voice evoked in her was stronger than her forgiveness.

She didn't know that Sandrine had poured then into Bellatrix's cup of tea a couple of mortal drops.

She didn't know that the poison would take a couple of days to take effect, just the time to erase any suspicion that the poison had been given to her in Yamiko's house.

She didn't know that the next time she spoke with the Dark Lord would be the last.

She didn't know that with every subtle tick of the clock, she was approaching death.

Sandrine closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She looked around her room in search of some consolation, of something that would assure her she had done the right thing in poisoning Lestrange. Her eyes didn't take long to find that assurance: Alice and Frank Longbottom were smiling at her from the photograph on her dressing table, where her own sister, Carol, was holding a fat rosy baby: Neville. And when she saw their smiling faces and remembered their shrieks as they were being tortured, Sandrine started crying, because she knew she had done the right thing, she knew that the Longbottom's wouldn't haunt her dreams anymore, she knew that she was crying for them for the last time.

*****

Thanks for the reviews!

Thanks all for reading and reviewing!

Another short update, sorry about that. I'm rewriting almost every line, changing my mind on how to go on with the story. There are so many possibilities!

As you see in this chapter, looks can be deceiving. None of the Death Eaters feared Sandrine for a moment, but she was the really dangerous one all of the time. :D

Ally: I really try, I promise! :D I hope the waiting was worth it.

infernal kitsu: Thanks, I hope you enjoyed the rest too. ;-)

HarryGryffinGirl: Thanks!

Kadi Rilla Wholi: :-o Oh, there will be more 'mushy stuff' soon. :-)

hermionegreen: I agree with you, they would both feel better if they were certain they are on the same side. I might give them a hint. :D

LyssasPen: I'm glad you liked it. What about Sandrine's 'uncommon weapons'?

Piper of Locksley: As soon as I could! :-)

Annie Black: Oh, dear, your questions will be answered in later chapters. If I were to answer them now, I would spoil the fun for you. Sandrine thanks you for your suggestion, Lupin wasn't available for comment. Thanks a lot for your praise. ;-)

Makalani Astral: I think that Sirius has proofed beyond a doubt that he is not easy to kill. :D

Iniysa: Well, here it is. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Dauphin: Thanks for your comments! I hope you went on reading. Please let me know if you spot tense or spelling problems in the story, I'd love to correct them.

Lupin: Ah, here I am again. I really wanted to update sooner, but I'm at a difficult point of the story right now. I know the end, but there are so many ways of getting there that I'm finding it difficult to make up my mind. I'll try to update faster next time. And I hope you enjoyed the action in this chapter. ;-)

Mad-Eye Moody: I really hope I'll be able to update sooner again. I'll really try. ;-)

Allyrien Chantel de Montreve: Thanks a lot!