A/n: Here's your eagerly awaited chapter! The chapter title comes from the
movie "A Few Good Men"
Sirius: A great movie!
Whisp: Yes, and so I don't even own that!
Sirius: What do you _own_?
Whisp: Nothing really, but I'm going to see Reign of Fire tonight and
I'll have a full review in the next pulse-pounding chapter!
Sirius: In other words you'll find out how much she drooled over
Christian Bale. *rolls eyes*
Whisp: Sirius! . . . Uh oh, we got to go! Enjoy the chapter! And Sirius
it's your turn to pay for the popcorn.
Sirius: What?!
Thank you to my amazing betas that always come through for me Essence of Magic, Immia, sweets and Hound of Darkness. And special thanks to sweets for helping me RP some of this chapter and the beginning of the next! I order you to check out their stories; I promise you'll love them!
And especially thank you to my reviews! You guys ROCK!
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things. Elven itself all belongs to the master himself J. R. R. Tolkien.
Chapter 12: Oh! It Was Professor Plum in the Library with a Candlestick
Harry screamed.
Up until this very day he never quite knew what had given him the impulse to scream. He had never been a screamer, especially when facing impending doom. This most likely came from his previous experiences with it. But in all probability what gave him the reaction to scream was that this time there appeared to be no way of escaping. He could feel the wolf's hot breath on his face. Squeezing his eyes shut quickly, he waited for the pain. But it never came. Not even a twinge. He would have felt his jugular vein being ripped out, wouldn't he? He cracked an eye open at the sound of oncoming footsteps. Almost immediately he felt a light pressure on his shoulder, and a second later a strong arm went around his waist and was pulled close to someone. He looked up and saw it was Sirius.
His godfather was not looking at him though but at a point beyond him. Harry turned his head slowly. The wolf was nowhere in sight. The woman's body was still there, floating in a pool of her own blood. Her stomach was torn open, and her left arm was partially severed. Harry looked away.
"Are you all right Harry?"
Harry turned around to see Lupin at Sirius's side. "Yes sir," he said shakily as a hand went instinctively to his throat. Everything was intact.
"What happened?" Sirius asked, his voice sounded distant as though it were miles away. When Harry looked up into his eyes they held the look that he had seen on the faces of soldiers in his Muggle history books back at primary school. The same understanding look, tinged with fear like he knew exactly what was coming on, but did not need to voice it.
"I-" Harry began but he was cut off by a sharp voice.
"What is going on . . . oh dear." Professor McGonagall in her green tartan dressing grown, and cap was hurrying toward them; a look of alarm took over her face. She stopped next to Sirius looking from the body to Sirius and Lupin and back again before her eyes came to rest on Harry. Harry dared not to look up at her. He had the gut feeling that she was not surprised to find him here. "Sirius?" she questioned, looking sternly at Sirius.
"None whatsoever Professor," Sirius muttered. He let go of Harry's waist somewhat reluctantly, and knelt down next to the body. He was careful not to tread in the pool of blood. "Moony," he said after peering at some of the wounds. "Come take a look at this,"
Lupin stepped forward, and knelt next to Sirius. He leaned his head this way and that before looking at Sirius questioningly. "Looks fine to me."
"It is," Sirius said, "if the blood was still in the body."
They all looked at Sirius for an explanation, which he willingly gave.
"Look, here, here, and here." He said pointing at the appropriate regions of gash. "You know as well as I do that blood clots several seconds after being exposed. But she has no sign of it. Werewolf bites split the skin, I know it does. The skin doesn't even look like it was trying to draw together, and the only way it wouldn't have been able to is if the teeth, claws, whatever were three bladed causing two sides to be able to draw together but not the third. I mean this is or was Gladys Gudgeon wasn't it?"
Harry gasped. So that was why Gudgeon was so furious with Lupin. A werewolf had attacked his wife or sister or somebody related to him. He looked at the body once again, and held back a grimace.
"Particularly nasty wouldn't you say?"
Harry jumped and (for the second time that night) screamed. Standing beside him was the completely transparent form of Nearly-Headless Nick. Decked out in his usual plumed hat and ruff, which hid the fact that his neck was almost but not completely severed. The sliver of skin that was testament to his own botched beheading prevented Nick from participating in the annual Headless Hunt. Harry had once attended Nick's Deathday Party, something that he wasn't counting on attending again anytime soon.
"Er, yes," Harry said, wondering how long Nick had been floating there.
"Nick, could you go fetch Madam Pomfrey for us please?" said McGonagall also noticing the ghost. "I think it would be best if we moved her to the hospital wing."
"Right," Sirius and Lupin mumbled getting to their feet, brushing off their outer robes.
"Follow me, my room is the closest," McGonagall said.
Harry-not being told to go back to Gryffindor tower-figured he was included in this little powwow, and followed his Head of House.
McGonagall's room was very neat and orderly, but her study (where she led them) something akin to Sirius's. Tests and long essays were piled haphazardly about the floor. Most of them had comments scribbled in red ink on them. (One Harry recognized as his but thankfully he had received a high mark on it.) She indicated for them to sit in the armchairs after she had taken the several stacks of third year essays off of them.
"I don't like the look of this," McGonagall said once they were all seated. "Bodies mysteriously appearing in the middle of the night . . . there could be a werewolf running around the castle for all we know."
"Wouldn't be," Lupin said knowledgably. "We don't lurk in places like castles. It's instinct, not even a damned wolf would stay in Hogwarts for long."
McGonagall nodded. "Then what are we to assume happened to her? She died from lost of blood?"
"But the blood didn't clot! And she's been dead for a day at least!" Sirius snapped. "Even if she died instantly there would be a small sign of clotting . . . unless . . ."
"Yes Sirius?"
"The wounds were inflicted after she had died."
"No," Remus said abruptly. "Werewolves only kill their prey they don't eat it, or continue to cause harm after the prey is dead. And they certainly don't drag it."
"Then," Sirius said shakily, "it wasn't a werewolf? But they were werewolf bites, weren't they?"
Remus nodded, "No other creature can cause bites like that. At least none that I know of."
"Quite right," said Nearly-Headless Nick who came floating into the room.
"Yes?" McGonagall said testily.
"It appears that the young lady has," Nick frowned slightly, "walked off."
"Walked off?!" cried four voices in unison.
"Completely vanished, blood and all."
Sirius stood up and began to pace.
Harry faintly wondered if there was some kind of world record for pacing because he was sure that Sirius would have broken it by now.
"Where was she found again Minerva?" Sirius asked.
"In the lobby," McGonagall said, refraining from reminding him that he had been there.
"No, no, where did that bloke say he saw the attack?"
"In the woods just beyond Hogsmeade."
Sirius clapped his hands, and before anyone could blink an eye he had his cloak on and was out the door.
Harry, Lupin, and McGonagall all stared at each other for a moment before Harry and Lupin sprang to their feet in pursuit of Sirius.
They stopped when they saw one of the heavy oak doors swinging slightly on its rusty hinges. They ran forward, pulled it open, and peered out into the dark night. Harry could just make out a figure running through the Hogwart's gates.
"I'm going after him," muttered Harry decisively.
Lupin looked at him uncertainly before waving his wand once.
Harry's mouth opened slightly as his own cloak flew into Lupin's empty hand.
"Better hurry," he whispered handing it to Harry. "Keep your wits about you."
"Yes sir," and with that Harry shot off into the night after his godfather.
Harry ran as fast and as silently as he could, eager to catch up to Sirius, and not wishing to meet up with the wolf again. He could still picture the beast's eyes as clearly as if someone had burned the image in the back of his head.
He kept looking back and forth as he ran down the short path between Hogwarts and the entrance to Hogsmeade. His wand drawn and always at the ready. He had just passed Honeydukes when he heard:
"I thought I told you not to follow."
"You never said anything to me," Harry said catching up to his godfather. He was walking at such a swift pace that Harry had to jog to keep up with him.
Sirius, on the other hand, did not notice his godson's struggle to keep up with him. He knew exactly where he was going. He hadn't spent all that time in Hogsmeade last year without learning about a few new additions since his years at Hogwarts.
Crash!
Harry jumped, moving closer to his godfather, but he didn't need to. Sirius already had a hand on his shoulder, and his wand out.
"It's nothing," Sirius said, pointing his lighted wand at a squirrel as it run past. "Probably ran into a garbage can or something." But it took several seconds before he fully removed his hand from Harry's shoulder.
They walked on for a while longer before Sirius turned sharply to the left and continued up a small hill for a bit before coming to a stop in front of a squat, brown building.
"Hogsmeade's Law Enforcement Agency," Sirius explained.
Harry gave him a questioning look.
"Hey, I don't name these places," Sirius muttered. He walked up to the door and tried it. Harry figured it was locked since Sirius tapped sharply on the glass window and waved a bit.
Harry walked up beside him as a heavy set man opened the door.
"What do ye want at this time a' night?" growled the man.
Sirius shouldered his way inside. "Good evening, I'm Detective White and this is my assistant, we're here to investigate a werewolf attack that was reported this morning."
The man blinked. "Do ye have to do it _now_?"
"Why yes my good sir," Sirius said briskly. "Can't go about during the morning hours, far too many people mulling around I dare say, peering over your shoulder and the like. Besides werewolf attacks are quick nasty to look at and very complex, a lot of concentration is needed as I'm sure a man of your expertise knows." He said all of this in a very high- pitched voice as if he had one too many cups of coffee.
The man blinked again as though he had never seen anyone quite like Sirius in the day much less the nighttime. "Well . . . I . . . er . . . o' course," he faltered.
"Wonderful!" Sirius said jovially. "Now if you would just show us to the morgue."
"What about da kid?" the man pointed at Harry. "Ain't he gonna be scared?"
"Him?" Sirius said looking at Harry, seeing the eagerness in his eyes. "Of course not! He's been in places like these loads of time. My! He could tell you such interesting stories, you wouldn't believe! There was that time in Kent . . ."
Sirius babbled as the man led them to a recessed door in the far back of the building. There he preformed several unlocking charms before pulling it open for Harry and Sirius to enter. "Da number is 173," he said.
The first thing Harry realized about the morgue was that it smelled horrid. Like three- day old fish mixed with rotten eggs. He suppressed the urge to cover his mouth with his hand and hold his breath. Sirius had said that he had been in places like this before, and he didn't want to risk the guard seeing him cringing.
The morgue itself was a long narrow room with rows of mint green drawers as far as Harry could see. It gave him the feeling of being surrounded by giant filing cabinets.
Sirius seemed to be paying more attention to the numbers than anything else. He stopped shortly at one row halfway down. "Here it is," he said pointing at number 173. "Do you want to look away?"
"I'll try not to," Harry replied, feeling a little queasy.
"It's okay if you do, you know," Sirius assured him before swiftly pulling the drawer out.
At the last second Harry's courage failed him and he squeezed his eyes shut.
"Boy, do I hate always being right," Sirius grumbled.
Harry cracked an eye open.
"It's okay, you can look."
Harry peered into the drawer to find himself staring at the sterile, silver bottom of it.
Sirius closed the drawer solemnly. "C'mon, let's go alert him," he said leading the way back upstairs. Harry was quite glad they were leaving because he had the feeling he would have been in need of some smelling salt if they stayed a minute longer.
"Find anything?" the guard said, who was selecting a doughnut from a nearby box when they emerged.
"Nothing," Sirius said in the chipper voice again.
"Eh?" the guard said confused.
"Nothing at all simply because," Sirius brought his face close to the guard's, "there was nothing there."
The guard jumped, sputtering furiously.
"And since there was nothing there, I do believe our murder has turned into a hunt for a couple of body snatchers," Sirius said making his way unobtrusively towards the door. "Thank you for your time, but we must be going before the scoundrel slips away again." With that he opened the door and they turned to leave when the guard shouted:
"Wait! I neva got yer identification!"
Sirius whirled Harry around so they were both facing the guard. He brought Harry close to him and pushed up his bangs revealing the lightning bolt scar. "That's our identification." Then they bolted from the place leaving a very shocked guard in their wake.
"Well that was fun," Sirius said in his normal voice as they walked through the town streets again.
Harry nodded. "Where are we going now?" he whispered.
"The next logical place," replied his godfather as they came to a halt at a stop a little ways past the Shrieking Shack.
Harry looked up at where they were.
"A graveyard."
Harry gulped. He felt extremely uncomfortable around graveyards, the events of last year still resurfaced in his mind every time he saw one.
Sirius took no notice of his godson's obvious trepidation; he was far too concerned with examining the iron fence. Harry watched as his godfather walked the length of it in one direction then turned around, and went the other way. Sirius found one spot where the fence was dilapidated enough that he could cross it in a small jump. "All right," he said running a distressed hand through his tangled hair. "You stay here. Don't come after me. If you hear anything I want you to run straight back to Hogwarts, okay? Don't wait for me."
"But Sir. . ."
"No "buts" Harry. I'll be back in a bit okay?"
Harry nodded, clutching his wand tightly.
Sirius gave him a reassuring smile before vaulting the gate.
Harry tried to keep Sirius in sight for as long as possible. But soon his godfather was swallowed up by the quickly descending fog.
With Sirius gone Harry suddenly noticed just how quiet the streets of Hogsmeade were at night. It was enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
His senses seemed to be heightened by this. Every breath of wind his ears seemed to pick up every leaf that blew even if it was ever so slightly.
After one or two minutes of this Harry had enough.
He pulled open the gate slowly as not to make any noise. He lit his wand and entered the dark graveyard.
If graveyards were supposed to give off the feeling of being "spooky" than this one fulfilled the requirement and then some. Headstones loomed out at Harry at every turn, and the statues did look like demons in the dark, foggy night.
He walked a little faster; his memories of the last time he was in a graveyard were coming back again. He forced himself to only think of Sirius. As soon as he found Sirius he would be safe. Nothing could hurt him as long as Sirius was with him. "Sirius, Sirius, Sirius," he took to chanting very, very softly. He kept the wand light in front of him, chanting all the while, trying to ward off the strange, unnerving quietness of the place. He walked faster, chanting.
"You don't listen to me much do you?"
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden sound. He spun around to find himself staring up at Sirius's smirking face.
"Of course I don't," he said calmly although his heart was still going a mile a minute. "If I did then I wouldn't be Harry, would I?"
"Of course not," Sirius said, giving Harry's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Come on, there's a patch of freshly dug graves over there. I think we're close to finding her."
Harry nodded, grateful for the warm pressure on his shoulder.
"Let's go before she gets away again," Sirius said, jerking his head toward a row of graves.
Harry nodded, and followed his godfather.
Through row after endless row of headstones they walked. Harry remained extremely close to Sirius at all times. When they came upon a patch of freshly dug graves. He heard Sirius whisper a spell and then hold his wand over each grave for a few seconds before moving on to the next.
"I just don't get it," Sirius said after some time. "None of these graves have her body in them." But these words were lost on Harry. The only thing that Harry noticed at that moment was a dark robed figure walking two rows away from them. The figure appeared to be holding something in his hands and chanting over it in a strange language.
Harry's scar suddenly began to twinge with a slight, incessant pain as the figure drew closer. The figure stopped abruptly right in front of Harry. It turned, its giant black hood obscuring his face but not its eyes. Icy blue and bloodshot it looked like blood on water .
"Sirius!"
"What?" Sirius asked spinning around to see his godson's entire body trembling in pain. Immediately he put one arm around his godson's waist pulling him close and the other was rubbing his shoulder. "What is it Harry? What do you see?"
"There!" Harry pointed ahead, shuddering. "The man, chanting."
Sirius looked up and tightened his grip around Harry's waist. "Harry, easy. Whatever it is it must be gone. I don't see anything."
Harry swung back around, looking back and forth wildly. He could still hear the faint chanting but the cloaked man was nowhere to be found. He looked back up at Sirius earnestly.
Sirius merely shrugged. "Let's get out of here," he said, letting go of Harry's waist. "The fog is lifting."
Harry nodded thankfully. He scar stung dully as he followed Sirius out of the graveyard.
"Well, tonight was fun," Sirius said as they ambled up High Street toward Hogwarts. Both bedraggled and slumped over from exhaustion.
"Yeah, morgues and graveyard," Harry said, rubbing his eyes. "Never had more fun in my life."
"You're cynical when you're sleepy did you know that?" Sirius said, pulling something out of his pocket. "Doughnut?"
"Doughnut? Where did you get it?" Harry said astonished to see Sirius offering him a chocolate frosted doughnut.
"That wizard, I wasn't an ex-con for nothing you know."
"Very funny."
"I know. So doughnut?"
"Sirius, it's five AM, and we were just in a morgue and a graveyard. How can you eat?"
"Easily," Sirius said. "I _did_ live off rats last year."
"Ugh, don't remind me," Harry said thickly. He had never forgotten that his godfather had done that for him the previous year. He was thankful it was dark out so Sirius couldn't see his face. "Sorry. If it hadn't been for me you wouldn't have had to do that."
"Could have been worse," Sirius added logically, "much worse."
Harry nodded, kicking a small stone.
"We're almost home and this bloody wild goose chase will be over," Sirius muttered as several owls flew overhead.
Harry could only nod. Although he could not shake the feeling that the night had not just been a wild goose chase.
"You know something," he said as the red early morning sun was cresting the mountains, "I don't think that Gladys Gudgeon's body just disappeared into thin air."
"Maybe someone transfigured it?" Harry said through a yawn. "I mean Crouch did that to his father last year remember?"
"Good theory, but that would leave a mark and Pomfery would have check for that before sending Nick to alert us."
Harry shrugged his shoulders and said "Maybe she wasn't dead?"
"No, she was dead as sure as you and I are alive Harry." Sirius shook his head before taking another bite out of the doughnut.
"Okay so the facts are she's dead and her body is missing, so now what?" Harry asked tiredly taking his glasses off for a moment to rub his eyes.
"I don't know, Harry. I just don't know." Sirius's eyes looked up as they approached Hogwarts.
"Er, Sirius?"
"Yes?"
"I have to tell you something."
Sirius who up until then had been busying himself with figuring out which part of the doughnut he wanted to bite next looked up sharply at Harry. "Yes?"
Harry shrugged uneasily. "Did you hear me scream before?"
"When we found the body, yes. Why do you ask?"
"Because I didn't scream because of the body."
"You didn't? Then why did you?"
"Because of what was standing over her."
Sirius stopped dead and looked Harry in the eyes. "Which was?"
Harry's voice came out in a low raspy whisper as he said, "A werewolf."
Sirius nodded, giving Harry a once over with his eyes making sure he was still in one piece.
"It jumped at me," Harry explained. "I thought it was going to bite me . . . I could feel its breath and then right before it landed you came and it . . . it . . ."
"It what?"
Harry looked up at Sirius, asking him to believe him with his eyes. His large emeralds boring into Sirius's brown eyes for the fourth time that night (or early morning.)
Sirius gave him a trusting look.
Harry swallowed hard before whispering a single word, "Vanished."
Thank you to my amazing betas that always come through for me Essence of Magic, Immia, sweets and Hound of Darkness. And special thanks to sweets for helping me RP some of this chapter and the beginning of the next! I order you to check out their stories; I promise you'll love them!
And especially thank you to my reviews! You guys ROCK!
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things. Elven itself all belongs to the master himself J. R. R. Tolkien.
Chapter 12: Oh! It Was Professor Plum in the Library with a Candlestick
Harry screamed.
Up until this very day he never quite knew what had given him the impulse to scream. He had never been a screamer, especially when facing impending doom. This most likely came from his previous experiences with it. But in all probability what gave him the reaction to scream was that this time there appeared to be no way of escaping. He could feel the wolf's hot breath on his face. Squeezing his eyes shut quickly, he waited for the pain. But it never came. Not even a twinge. He would have felt his jugular vein being ripped out, wouldn't he? He cracked an eye open at the sound of oncoming footsteps. Almost immediately he felt a light pressure on his shoulder, and a second later a strong arm went around his waist and was pulled close to someone. He looked up and saw it was Sirius.
His godfather was not looking at him though but at a point beyond him. Harry turned his head slowly. The wolf was nowhere in sight. The woman's body was still there, floating in a pool of her own blood. Her stomach was torn open, and her left arm was partially severed. Harry looked away.
"Are you all right Harry?"
Harry turned around to see Lupin at Sirius's side. "Yes sir," he said shakily as a hand went instinctively to his throat. Everything was intact.
"What happened?" Sirius asked, his voice sounded distant as though it were miles away. When Harry looked up into his eyes they held the look that he had seen on the faces of soldiers in his Muggle history books back at primary school. The same understanding look, tinged with fear like he knew exactly what was coming on, but did not need to voice it.
"I-" Harry began but he was cut off by a sharp voice.
"What is going on . . . oh dear." Professor McGonagall in her green tartan dressing grown, and cap was hurrying toward them; a look of alarm took over her face. She stopped next to Sirius looking from the body to Sirius and Lupin and back again before her eyes came to rest on Harry. Harry dared not to look up at her. He had the gut feeling that she was not surprised to find him here. "Sirius?" she questioned, looking sternly at Sirius.
"None whatsoever Professor," Sirius muttered. He let go of Harry's waist somewhat reluctantly, and knelt down next to the body. He was careful not to tread in the pool of blood. "Moony," he said after peering at some of the wounds. "Come take a look at this,"
Lupin stepped forward, and knelt next to Sirius. He leaned his head this way and that before looking at Sirius questioningly. "Looks fine to me."
"It is," Sirius said, "if the blood was still in the body."
They all looked at Sirius for an explanation, which he willingly gave.
"Look, here, here, and here." He said pointing at the appropriate regions of gash. "You know as well as I do that blood clots several seconds after being exposed. But she has no sign of it. Werewolf bites split the skin, I know it does. The skin doesn't even look like it was trying to draw together, and the only way it wouldn't have been able to is if the teeth, claws, whatever were three bladed causing two sides to be able to draw together but not the third. I mean this is or was Gladys Gudgeon wasn't it?"
Harry gasped. So that was why Gudgeon was so furious with Lupin. A werewolf had attacked his wife or sister or somebody related to him. He looked at the body once again, and held back a grimace.
"Particularly nasty wouldn't you say?"
Harry jumped and (for the second time that night) screamed. Standing beside him was the completely transparent form of Nearly-Headless Nick. Decked out in his usual plumed hat and ruff, which hid the fact that his neck was almost but not completely severed. The sliver of skin that was testament to his own botched beheading prevented Nick from participating in the annual Headless Hunt. Harry had once attended Nick's Deathday Party, something that he wasn't counting on attending again anytime soon.
"Er, yes," Harry said, wondering how long Nick had been floating there.
"Nick, could you go fetch Madam Pomfrey for us please?" said McGonagall also noticing the ghost. "I think it would be best if we moved her to the hospital wing."
"Right," Sirius and Lupin mumbled getting to their feet, brushing off their outer robes.
"Follow me, my room is the closest," McGonagall said.
Harry-not being told to go back to Gryffindor tower-figured he was included in this little powwow, and followed his Head of House.
McGonagall's room was very neat and orderly, but her study (where she led them) something akin to Sirius's. Tests and long essays were piled haphazardly about the floor. Most of them had comments scribbled in red ink on them. (One Harry recognized as his but thankfully he had received a high mark on it.) She indicated for them to sit in the armchairs after she had taken the several stacks of third year essays off of them.
"I don't like the look of this," McGonagall said once they were all seated. "Bodies mysteriously appearing in the middle of the night . . . there could be a werewolf running around the castle for all we know."
"Wouldn't be," Lupin said knowledgably. "We don't lurk in places like castles. It's instinct, not even a damned wolf would stay in Hogwarts for long."
McGonagall nodded. "Then what are we to assume happened to her? She died from lost of blood?"
"But the blood didn't clot! And she's been dead for a day at least!" Sirius snapped. "Even if she died instantly there would be a small sign of clotting . . . unless . . ."
"Yes Sirius?"
"The wounds were inflicted after she had died."
"No," Remus said abruptly. "Werewolves only kill their prey they don't eat it, or continue to cause harm after the prey is dead. And they certainly don't drag it."
"Then," Sirius said shakily, "it wasn't a werewolf? But they were werewolf bites, weren't they?"
Remus nodded, "No other creature can cause bites like that. At least none that I know of."
"Quite right," said Nearly-Headless Nick who came floating into the room.
"Yes?" McGonagall said testily.
"It appears that the young lady has," Nick frowned slightly, "walked off."
"Walked off?!" cried four voices in unison.
"Completely vanished, blood and all."
Sirius stood up and began to pace.
Harry faintly wondered if there was some kind of world record for pacing because he was sure that Sirius would have broken it by now.
"Where was she found again Minerva?" Sirius asked.
"In the lobby," McGonagall said, refraining from reminding him that he had been there.
"No, no, where did that bloke say he saw the attack?"
"In the woods just beyond Hogsmeade."
Sirius clapped his hands, and before anyone could blink an eye he had his cloak on and was out the door.
Harry, Lupin, and McGonagall all stared at each other for a moment before Harry and Lupin sprang to their feet in pursuit of Sirius.
They stopped when they saw one of the heavy oak doors swinging slightly on its rusty hinges. They ran forward, pulled it open, and peered out into the dark night. Harry could just make out a figure running through the Hogwart's gates.
"I'm going after him," muttered Harry decisively.
Lupin looked at him uncertainly before waving his wand once.
Harry's mouth opened slightly as his own cloak flew into Lupin's empty hand.
"Better hurry," he whispered handing it to Harry. "Keep your wits about you."
"Yes sir," and with that Harry shot off into the night after his godfather.
Harry ran as fast and as silently as he could, eager to catch up to Sirius, and not wishing to meet up with the wolf again. He could still picture the beast's eyes as clearly as if someone had burned the image in the back of his head.
He kept looking back and forth as he ran down the short path between Hogwarts and the entrance to Hogsmeade. His wand drawn and always at the ready. He had just passed Honeydukes when he heard:
"I thought I told you not to follow."
"You never said anything to me," Harry said catching up to his godfather. He was walking at such a swift pace that Harry had to jog to keep up with him.
Sirius, on the other hand, did not notice his godson's struggle to keep up with him. He knew exactly where he was going. He hadn't spent all that time in Hogsmeade last year without learning about a few new additions since his years at Hogwarts.
Crash!
Harry jumped, moving closer to his godfather, but he didn't need to. Sirius already had a hand on his shoulder, and his wand out.
"It's nothing," Sirius said, pointing his lighted wand at a squirrel as it run past. "Probably ran into a garbage can or something." But it took several seconds before he fully removed his hand from Harry's shoulder.
They walked on for a while longer before Sirius turned sharply to the left and continued up a small hill for a bit before coming to a stop in front of a squat, brown building.
"Hogsmeade's Law Enforcement Agency," Sirius explained.
Harry gave him a questioning look.
"Hey, I don't name these places," Sirius muttered. He walked up to the door and tried it. Harry figured it was locked since Sirius tapped sharply on the glass window and waved a bit.
Harry walked up beside him as a heavy set man opened the door.
"What do ye want at this time a' night?" growled the man.
Sirius shouldered his way inside. "Good evening, I'm Detective White and this is my assistant, we're here to investigate a werewolf attack that was reported this morning."
The man blinked. "Do ye have to do it _now_?"
"Why yes my good sir," Sirius said briskly. "Can't go about during the morning hours, far too many people mulling around I dare say, peering over your shoulder and the like. Besides werewolf attacks are quick nasty to look at and very complex, a lot of concentration is needed as I'm sure a man of your expertise knows." He said all of this in a very high- pitched voice as if he had one too many cups of coffee.
The man blinked again as though he had never seen anyone quite like Sirius in the day much less the nighttime. "Well . . . I . . . er . . . o' course," he faltered.
"Wonderful!" Sirius said jovially. "Now if you would just show us to the morgue."
"What about da kid?" the man pointed at Harry. "Ain't he gonna be scared?"
"Him?" Sirius said looking at Harry, seeing the eagerness in his eyes. "Of course not! He's been in places like these loads of time. My! He could tell you such interesting stories, you wouldn't believe! There was that time in Kent . . ."
Sirius babbled as the man led them to a recessed door in the far back of the building. There he preformed several unlocking charms before pulling it open for Harry and Sirius to enter. "Da number is 173," he said.
The first thing Harry realized about the morgue was that it smelled horrid. Like three- day old fish mixed with rotten eggs. He suppressed the urge to cover his mouth with his hand and hold his breath. Sirius had said that he had been in places like this before, and he didn't want to risk the guard seeing him cringing.
The morgue itself was a long narrow room with rows of mint green drawers as far as Harry could see. It gave him the feeling of being surrounded by giant filing cabinets.
Sirius seemed to be paying more attention to the numbers than anything else. He stopped shortly at one row halfway down. "Here it is," he said pointing at number 173. "Do you want to look away?"
"I'll try not to," Harry replied, feeling a little queasy.
"It's okay if you do, you know," Sirius assured him before swiftly pulling the drawer out.
At the last second Harry's courage failed him and he squeezed his eyes shut.
"Boy, do I hate always being right," Sirius grumbled.
Harry cracked an eye open.
"It's okay, you can look."
Harry peered into the drawer to find himself staring at the sterile, silver bottom of it.
Sirius closed the drawer solemnly. "C'mon, let's go alert him," he said leading the way back upstairs. Harry was quite glad they were leaving because he had the feeling he would have been in need of some smelling salt if they stayed a minute longer.
"Find anything?" the guard said, who was selecting a doughnut from a nearby box when they emerged.
"Nothing," Sirius said in the chipper voice again.
"Eh?" the guard said confused.
"Nothing at all simply because," Sirius brought his face close to the guard's, "there was nothing there."
The guard jumped, sputtering furiously.
"And since there was nothing there, I do believe our murder has turned into a hunt for a couple of body snatchers," Sirius said making his way unobtrusively towards the door. "Thank you for your time, but we must be going before the scoundrel slips away again." With that he opened the door and they turned to leave when the guard shouted:
"Wait! I neva got yer identification!"
Sirius whirled Harry around so they were both facing the guard. He brought Harry close to him and pushed up his bangs revealing the lightning bolt scar. "That's our identification." Then they bolted from the place leaving a very shocked guard in their wake.
"Well that was fun," Sirius said in his normal voice as they walked through the town streets again.
Harry nodded. "Where are we going now?" he whispered.
"The next logical place," replied his godfather as they came to a halt at a stop a little ways past the Shrieking Shack.
Harry looked up at where they were.
"A graveyard."
Harry gulped. He felt extremely uncomfortable around graveyards, the events of last year still resurfaced in his mind every time he saw one.
Sirius took no notice of his godson's obvious trepidation; he was far too concerned with examining the iron fence. Harry watched as his godfather walked the length of it in one direction then turned around, and went the other way. Sirius found one spot where the fence was dilapidated enough that he could cross it in a small jump. "All right," he said running a distressed hand through his tangled hair. "You stay here. Don't come after me. If you hear anything I want you to run straight back to Hogwarts, okay? Don't wait for me."
"But Sir. . ."
"No "buts" Harry. I'll be back in a bit okay?"
Harry nodded, clutching his wand tightly.
Sirius gave him a reassuring smile before vaulting the gate.
Harry tried to keep Sirius in sight for as long as possible. But soon his godfather was swallowed up by the quickly descending fog.
With Sirius gone Harry suddenly noticed just how quiet the streets of Hogsmeade were at night. It was enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
His senses seemed to be heightened by this. Every breath of wind his ears seemed to pick up every leaf that blew even if it was ever so slightly.
After one or two minutes of this Harry had enough.
He pulled open the gate slowly as not to make any noise. He lit his wand and entered the dark graveyard.
If graveyards were supposed to give off the feeling of being "spooky" than this one fulfilled the requirement and then some. Headstones loomed out at Harry at every turn, and the statues did look like demons in the dark, foggy night.
He walked a little faster; his memories of the last time he was in a graveyard were coming back again. He forced himself to only think of Sirius. As soon as he found Sirius he would be safe. Nothing could hurt him as long as Sirius was with him. "Sirius, Sirius, Sirius," he took to chanting very, very softly. He kept the wand light in front of him, chanting all the while, trying to ward off the strange, unnerving quietness of the place. He walked faster, chanting.
"You don't listen to me much do you?"
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden sound. He spun around to find himself staring up at Sirius's smirking face.
"Of course I don't," he said calmly although his heart was still going a mile a minute. "If I did then I wouldn't be Harry, would I?"
"Of course not," Sirius said, giving Harry's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Come on, there's a patch of freshly dug graves over there. I think we're close to finding her."
Harry nodded, grateful for the warm pressure on his shoulder.
"Let's go before she gets away again," Sirius said, jerking his head toward a row of graves.
Harry nodded, and followed his godfather.
Through row after endless row of headstones they walked. Harry remained extremely close to Sirius at all times. When they came upon a patch of freshly dug graves. He heard Sirius whisper a spell and then hold his wand over each grave for a few seconds before moving on to the next.
"I just don't get it," Sirius said after some time. "None of these graves have her body in them." But these words were lost on Harry. The only thing that Harry noticed at that moment was a dark robed figure walking two rows away from them. The figure appeared to be holding something in his hands and chanting over it in a strange language.
Harry's scar suddenly began to twinge with a slight, incessant pain as the figure drew closer. The figure stopped abruptly right in front of Harry. It turned, its giant black hood obscuring his face but not its eyes. Icy blue and bloodshot it looked like blood on water .
"Sirius!"
"What?" Sirius asked spinning around to see his godson's entire body trembling in pain. Immediately he put one arm around his godson's waist pulling him close and the other was rubbing his shoulder. "What is it Harry? What do you see?"
"There!" Harry pointed ahead, shuddering. "The man, chanting."
Sirius looked up and tightened his grip around Harry's waist. "Harry, easy. Whatever it is it must be gone. I don't see anything."
Harry swung back around, looking back and forth wildly. He could still hear the faint chanting but the cloaked man was nowhere to be found. He looked back up at Sirius earnestly.
Sirius merely shrugged. "Let's get out of here," he said, letting go of Harry's waist. "The fog is lifting."
Harry nodded thankfully. He scar stung dully as he followed Sirius out of the graveyard.
"Well, tonight was fun," Sirius said as they ambled up High Street toward Hogwarts. Both bedraggled and slumped over from exhaustion.
"Yeah, morgues and graveyard," Harry said, rubbing his eyes. "Never had more fun in my life."
"You're cynical when you're sleepy did you know that?" Sirius said, pulling something out of his pocket. "Doughnut?"
"Doughnut? Where did you get it?" Harry said astonished to see Sirius offering him a chocolate frosted doughnut.
"That wizard, I wasn't an ex-con for nothing you know."
"Very funny."
"I know. So doughnut?"
"Sirius, it's five AM, and we were just in a morgue and a graveyard. How can you eat?"
"Easily," Sirius said. "I _did_ live off rats last year."
"Ugh, don't remind me," Harry said thickly. He had never forgotten that his godfather had done that for him the previous year. He was thankful it was dark out so Sirius couldn't see his face. "Sorry. If it hadn't been for me you wouldn't have had to do that."
"Could have been worse," Sirius added logically, "much worse."
Harry nodded, kicking a small stone.
"We're almost home and this bloody wild goose chase will be over," Sirius muttered as several owls flew overhead.
Harry could only nod. Although he could not shake the feeling that the night had not just been a wild goose chase.
"You know something," he said as the red early morning sun was cresting the mountains, "I don't think that Gladys Gudgeon's body just disappeared into thin air."
"Maybe someone transfigured it?" Harry said through a yawn. "I mean Crouch did that to his father last year remember?"
"Good theory, but that would leave a mark and Pomfery would have check for that before sending Nick to alert us."
Harry shrugged his shoulders and said "Maybe she wasn't dead?"
"No, she was dead as sure as you and I are alive Harry." Sirius shook his head before taking another bite out of the doughnut.
"Okay so the facts are she's dead and her body is missing, so now what?" Harry asked tiredly taking his glasses off for a moment to rub his eyes.
"I don't know, Harry. I just don't know." Sirius's eyes looked up as they approached Hogwarts.
"Er, Sirius?"
"Yes?"
"I have to tell you something."
Sirius who up until then had been busying himself with figuring out which part of the doughnut he wanted to bite next looked up sharply at Harry. "Yes?"
Harry shrugged uneasily. "Did you hear me scream before?"
"When we found the body, yes. Why do you ask?"
"Because I didn't scream because of the body."
"You didn't? Then why did you?"
"Because of what was standing over her."
Sirius stopped dead and looked Harry in the eyes. "Which was?"
Harry's voice came out in a low raspy whisper as he said, "A werewolf."
Sirius nodded, giving Harry a once over with his eyes making sure he was still in one piece.
"It jumped at me," Harry explained. "I thought it was going to bite me . . . I could feel its breath and then right before it landed you came and it . . . it . . ."
"It what?"
Harry looked up at Sirius, asking him to believe him with his eyes. His large emeralds boring into Sirius's brown eyes for the fourth time that night (or early morning.)
Sirius gave him a trusting look.
Harry swallowed hard before whispering a single word, "Vanished."
